AN AMERICAN HISTORY BY DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY, PH.D. BARNARD COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK rerum co^noscere causas GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A 8l2. 2 GIFT GINN AND COMPANY- PRO PRIETORS BOSTON U.S.A. EDITORIAL PREFACE The present volume represents the newer tendencies in his torical writing. Its aim is not to tell over once more the old story in the old way, but to give the emphasis to those factors in our national development which appeal to us as most vital from the standpoint of to-day. However various may be the ad vantages of historical study, one of them, and perhaps the most unmistakable, is to explain prevailing conditions and institutions by showing how they have come about. This is our best way of understanding the present and of placing ourselves in a posi tion to participate intelligently in the solution of the great problems of social and political betterment which it is the duty of all of us to face. Dr. Muzzey has not, therefore, tabulated a series of historical occurrences under successive presidential administrations, but has carefully selected the great phases in the development of our country and treated them in a coherent fashion. He has exhibited great skill i so ordering them that they form a continuous narrative which will secure and retain the interest of the student. There is no question at any point of the importance of the topics selected and their relation to our whole complex development. All minor, uncorrelated mat ters, such as the circumstances attending each colonial planta tion, the tactics and casualties of military campaigns, the careers of men of slight influence in high office, are boldly omitted on the ground that they make no permanent impression on the student s mind and serve only to confuse and blur the larger issues. Some special features of the book are its full discussion of the federal power in connection with the Constitution, its em phasis on the westward-moving frontier as the most constant iv Editorial Preface and potent force in our history, and its recognition of the influ ence of economic factors on our sectional rivalries and political theories. It will be noted that from one fourth to one fifth of the volume deals with the history of our country since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hitherto there has been a reluctance on the part of those who have prepared textbooks on our his tory to undertake the responsibility of treating those recent phases of our social, political, and industrial history which are really of chief concern to us. Dr. Muzzey has undertaken the arduous task of giving the great problems and preoccupations of to-day their indispensable historic setting. This I deem the very special merit of his work, and am confident that it will meet with eager approbation from many who have long been dissatisfied with the conventional textbook, which leaves a great gap between the past and the present. JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CONTENTS PART I THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH CHAPTER I. THE NEW WORLD THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 3 A CENTURY OF EXPLORATION ....*... 13 II. THE ENGLISH COLONIES THE OLD DOMINION 27 THE NEW ENGLAND SETTLEMENTS 35 THE PROPRIETARY COLONIES 52 THE COLONIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . 67 III. THE STRUGGLE WITH FRANCE FOR NORTH AMERICA THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE . . . . . . . . 81 THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 92 PART II SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM ENGLAND IV. BRITISH RULE IN AMERICA THE AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT IN THE COLONIES 107 TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION 112 THE PUNISHMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS 120 V. THE BIRTH OF THE NATION THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE . . . .127 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR . . .136 PEACE 150 vi Contents PART III THE NEW REPUBLIC CHAPTER PAGE VI. THE CONSTITUTION THE CRITICAL PERIOD 159 "A MORE PERFECT UNION" 166 THE FEDERAL POWER 173 VII. FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS LAUNCHING THE GOVERNMENT . 184 THE REIGN OF FEDERALISM 193 THE JEFFERSONIAN POLICIES 205 THE WAR OF 1812 213 PART IV NATIONAL VERSUS SECTIONAL INTERESTS VIII. THE GROWTH OF A NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS " THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING " 229 THE MONROE DOCTRINE . . . * 236 IX. SECTIONAL INTERESTS FACING WESTWARD 245 THE FAVORITE SONS 251 AN ERA OF HARD FEELINGS .... . . . 259 THE " TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS " 267 X. " THE REIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON " NULLIFICATION 277 THE WAR ON THE BANK 282 A NEW PARTY 289 Contents vii PART V SLAVERY AND THE WEST CHAPTER PAGE XI. THE GATHERING CLOUD SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES 33 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 308 THE ABOLITIONISTS 3 l6 XII. TEXAS WESTWARD EXPANSION 328 THE " REOCCUPATION " OF OREGON AND THE " REANNEXATION " OF TEXAS 336 THE MEXICAN WAR 342 XIII. THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 THE NEW TERRITORY 351 THE OMNIBUS BILL 35 8 A FOUR YEARS TRUCE 364 PART VI THE CRISIS OF DISUNION XIV. APPROACHING THE CRISIS THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 379 "BLEEDING KANSAS" 3 88 "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF" .... 395 XV. SECESSION THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN .... 405 THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY 414 THE FALL OF FORT SUMTER 421 viii Contents CHAPTER PAGE XVI. THE CIVIL WAR THE OPPOSING FORCES 430 FROM BULL RUN TO GETTYSBURG .... 436 THE TRIUMPH OF THE NORTH 452 EMANCIPATION 469 XVII. THE ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION How THE NORTH USED ITS VICTORY .... 477 THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION 489 PART VII THE POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC SINCE THE CIVIL WAR XVIII. TWENTY YEARS OF REPUBLICAN SUPREMACY THE NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE 505 THE REPUBLICAN MACHINE 510 THE PARTY REVOLUTION OF 1884 520 XIX. THE CLEVELAND DEMOCRACY A PEOPLE S PRESIDENT 533 A BILLION-DOLLAR COUNTRY 544 PROBLEMS OF CLEVELAND S SECOND TERM . .557 XX. ENTERING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THE SPANISH WAR AND THE PHILIPPINES . .574 THE ROOSEVELT POLICIES 591 PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS 609 APPENDIX I ...."... 627 APPENDIX II 632 INDEX , . . 649 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS George Washington Frontispiece Types of Indian Dwellings, the Pueblo, the Tepee, and the Long House ...... 24 Portrait of John Smith 30 Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown, Mass 36 Facsimile of Bradford MS. "History of Plimoth Plantation" 38 La Salle taking Possession of Louisiana ,,86 Franklin at the Court of France, 1778 138 Group of Famous Revolutionary Buildings 154 The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. . .180 Alexander Hamilton 192 Interview between Washington and Citizen Genet 196 Thomas Jefferson 206 John C. Calhoun 255 Henry Clay 256 Andrew Jackson 278 Webster s Reply to Hayne 280 Sherman s Army destroying the Railroads in Georgia . . . 462 Lee s Letter to Grant respecting the Surrender of the Confed erate Army of Northern Virginia 465 Abraham Lincoln 468 White House, after the Remodeling of 1902 506 Grover Cleveland 534 President Taft , . 608 ix LIST OF FULL-PAGE AND DOUBLE- PAGE MAPS PAGE Voyages of Discovery in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 10 Early Maps of America (Lenox, Finaeus, Miinster, Mercator) 18, 19 Proprietary Grants made by the Stuart Kings 54 French Explorations on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi . 88 The French and Indian Wars 99 An Old View of the Siege of Quebec 100 England s Acquisitions in America in the French Wars of 1689-1763 102 The United States in 1 783 152 The Louisiana Purchase Territory, with States subsequently made from it 210 Routes to the West, 1815-1825 248 The Acquisition of the Far West, 1845-1850 350 Canals and Railroads operated in 1850 368 The Presidential Election of 1860 412 The Chief Campaigns of the Civil War 438 Territorial Growth of the United States 548 The Greater United States and the Panama Canal Routes . . 602 Progress of the Referendum and the Initiative 612 AMERICAN HISTORY PART I. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH PART I. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENGLISH CHAPTER I THE NEW WORLD THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA HE discovery of America was an accident. 1. Trade The brave sailors of the fifteenth century Europ^and who turned the prows of their tiny vessels J h *J*L5f in the Middle into the strange waters of the Atlantic Ages were seeking a new way to " the Indies," a term vaguely used to denote not In dia alone but also China, Japan, and all the Far Eastern countries of Asia. From these lands western Europe had for cen turies been getting many of its luxuries and comforts. Ever-lengthening traders caravans brought Orien tal rugs, flowered silks, gems, spices, porcelains, damasks, dyes, drugs, perfumes, and precious woods across the plains and pla teaus of middle Asia to the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea, or crept along the hot borders of the Arabian peninsula to the headwaters of the Red Sea. At the ports of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean the fleets of Venice and Genoa were waiting to carry the Indian merchandise to the distributing centers of southern Europe, whence it was conveyed over the Alpine passes or along the Rhone valley to the busy, prosperous towns of France, Germany, England, and the Netherlands. 3 4 The Establishment of the English 2. The Turks But in the fourteenth century the Osmanli Turks an aggres- trade routes s ^ ve bigoted Mohammedan race began to block the path of the (1300-1450) Eastern traders. The Turks were determined not only to drive the Christians out of Asia, but to cross over into Europe them selves. In 1453 they captured the great city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine, or eastern Roman, Empire. In the following decade they dislodged the " Franks " (as they called all Europeans) from Syria, Asia Minor,, and the islands of the ^Egean Sea. The Venetian and Genoese trade was ruined by these wars, which practically closed the eastern end of the Medi terranean to European vessels, and made it of the utmost im portance to discover new routes to the rich treasure lands of the Indies. 3. The Under the stimulus of this practical need the study of geog- raphy and the science of navigation flourished in the fifteenth science in the century. Hundreds of portolani, or sailing charts, were drawn century by the Italian and Portuguese mariners. Six new editions of the "Geography" of Ptolemy were published between 1472 and I492. 1 The compass and the astrolabe (for measuring latitude) were perfected. Ships were designed to sail close to the wind and to stand the buffeting of the high ocean waves. Before the end of the fifteenth century Portuguese sailors had pushed nearly a thousand miles westward into the uncharted Atlantic, and were creeping mile by mile down the western coast of Africa. In 1486 Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and had not his crew refused to go farther from home, he might have stood out across the Indian Ocean and reached the Spice Islands of the East and all the cities of the Chinese Empire. 4. christo- While Dias was making his way back to Portugal an Italian seeks aia^or S mariner from Genoa, named Cristoforo Colombo, better known a westward ^y ^ s Latinized name of Columbus, who had become convinced voyage to the indies by his geographical studies that he could reach the Indies by 1 Claudius Ptolomseus, a Greek astronomer, wrote a " Geography " about the year 150 A.D.. which remained the standard work on the shape and size of Europe, Asia, and Africa (the known world of the Middle Ages) until after the great voyages of the fifteenth century. The New World 5 sailing westward across the Atlantic, was seeking aid for his project at the courts of Europe. He first applied to the king of Portugal, in whose service he had already made several voy ages down the African coast. On being repulsed he transferred his request to Ferdinand and Isabella, the sovereigns of Spain, and at the same time sent his brother Bartholomew, who had been with Dias on his famous voyage, to solicit the support of King Henry VII of England. Columbus had despaired of enlisting the interest of the Span- 5. Ferdinand ish sovereigns, and was about to start for Paris, when the influ- of Spa i n fur _ ence of some important persons at the Spanish court procured j,j n ^ s hi ^ ril him a favorable audience. He met Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 their gorgeous camp before Granada, from which city they had just driven out the last of the Moorish rulers in Spain. In the auspicious moment of victory the sovereigns were moved to grant Columbus financial aid for his project, to confer upon him a title of nobility, and to create him admiral of all the lands and islands which he might find on his voyage. This was in April, 1492. By the following August, Columbus was ready to start from Palos, with three small ships and about a hundred sailors, on what proved to be the most momentous voyage in history. Columbus was a student as well as a man of affairs. His son 6. coiumbus s Ferdinand tells us in his " Biography " that his father was influ- enced by the old Arabian and Greek astronomers. There are geographical works in existence with notes in Coiumbus s hand writing in the margin. He shared with the best scholars of his day the long-established belief in the sphericity of the earth. 1 As a guide for his voyage he had a chart made for the king of Portugal in 1474, by the Florentine astronomer Toscanelli, to 1 The popular idea that Columbus " discovered that the earth is round " is entirely false. More than eighteen hundred years before Coiumbus s day the Greek philosopher Aristotle demonstrated the sphericity of the earth from the altitude of the stars observed from various places. Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar, in 1267 even collected passages from the writers of classical antiquity to prove that the ocean separating Spain from the eastern shore of Asia was not very wide. The merit of Columbus was that he proved the truth of these theories by courageous action. 7. Tosca- nelli s map of 1474 6 The Establishment of the English demonstrate that the Indies could be reached by sailing west ward. Toscanelli had calculated the size of the earth almost exactly, but, misled by the description of travelers to the Far East, he had made the continent of Asia extend eastward almost all the way across the Pacific Ocean, so that Cipango (or Japan) on his map occupied the actual position of Mexico. Columbus therefore, although not deceived as to the length of voyage 8. Columbus crosses the Atlantic, September- October, 1492 The Toscanelli Map of 1474 The outline of the Western Continent is in red, showing its actual position necessary to reach land, was deceived to the day of his death as to the land he reached at the end of his voyage. The little. trio of vessels, favored by clear skies and a steady east wind, made the passage from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas in five weeks. No storms racked the ships, but still it was a fearsome voyage over the quiet seas. To the trembling crews each mile westward was a further venture into the great mysterious " sea of darkness," where horrible monsters might be waiting to engulf them, where the fabled mountain of load stone might draw the nails from their ships, or the dreaded The New World boring worm puncture their wooden keels. The auspicious and unvarying east wind itself was a menace. How could they ever get home again in the face of it ? And if the world was round, as their captain said, were they not daily sliding down its slope, which they could never remount? Dark faces and ominous whisperings warned Columbus of his danger. Early in October there were overt signs of mutiny, but the great pilot quelled the discontent, saying that complain as they might, he must reach the Indies, and would sail on until with God s help he found them. His courage was rewarded, for the very next night he espied a light ahead, and when day dawned (October 12, 1492) the sandy beach of an island lay spread before the eyes of his wearied crew. Surrounded by the naked awe-stricken natives, Columbus took solemn pos session of the land in the name of Ferdinand and Isa bella, and called it San Sal- Columbus s Flagship, the Santa Maria vador (" Holy Saviour "). He then continued his voyage among the small islands of the 9. He is ais- Bahamas, seeking the mainland of Cathay (China). When he notfinding in reached the apparently interminable coast of Cuba, he was sure the cities of * Cathay, and that he was at the gates of the kingdom of the Great Khan, returns to and that the cities of China with their fabulous wealth would soon hear the voice of his Arab interpreter, presenting to the monarch of the East the greetings and gifts of the sovereigns of Spain. He was doomed to disappointment. The misfortunes which dogged his steps to the end of his life now began. Martin Pinzon, pilot of the Pinta, deserted him on the coast of Cuba. His largest caravel, the Santa Maria, was wrecked on Christmas 8 The Establishment of the English Day on the coast of Hayti, which he mistook for the long-sought Cipango, and he hastened back to Spain in the remaining vessel, the tiny Nina. He was hailed with enthusiasm by the nation, and loaded with honors by his sovereigns, who had no suspicion that he had failed to reach the islands lying off the rich lands of the East, or that he had discovered still richer lands in the west. Columbus made three more voyages to the "Indies" in 1493, 1498, and 1502. On the voyage of 1498 he discovered the (1493-1502); ma i n i an d of South America, and in 1502 he sailed along the his disgrace and death coast of Central America, vainly attempting to find a strait (1506) 10. Colum bus s later voyages The Maura Medal (Spain), struck to commemorate the Four-Hundredth Anniversary of Columbus s Discovery of America which would let him through to the main coast of Cathay. All the while the clouds of misfortune were gathering about him. His costly expeditions had so far brought no wealth to Spain. While his ships were skirting the pestilential coasts of South America, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama had reached the real Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and brought back to Lisbon cargoes of spices, satins, damask, ivory, and gold (see map, p. 10). The Spanish sovereigns were jealous of the laurels of the Portuguese mariners. Mutiny, shipwreck, and fever were lighter evils for Columbus to contend with than the plots of his enemies and the envious disappointment of the grandees of The New World 9 Spain. One of the Spanish governors of Hayti sent him home in irons. His little sons, Diego and Ferdinand, who were pages in the queen s service, were jeered at as they passed through the courtyard of the Alhambra : " There go the sons of the Ad miral of the Mosquitoes, who has discovered lands of vanity and delusion as the miserable graves of Castilian gentlemen." Re turning from his fourth voyage in 1504, he found his best friend at court, Queen Isabella, on her deathbed ; and bowed with discouragement, illness, humiliation, and poverty, he followed her to the grave in 1506. So passed away in misery and ob scurity a man whose service to mankind was beyond calculation. His wonderful voyage of 1492 had linked together the two hemi spheres of our planet, and " mingled the two streams of human life which had flowed for countless ages apart " (John Fiske). 1 Had Columbus and his fellow voyagers known that a solid 11. Pope barrier of land reaching from arctic to antarctic snows, and V ps de- beyond that another ocean vaster than the one they had just crossed, lay between the islands they mistakenly called the Indies and the real Indies of the East, they would have prob ably abandoned the thought of a western route and returned to contest with Portugal the search for the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope. As it was, the Spanish sovereigns, confident that their pilots had reached the edge of Asia, asked of Pope Alexander VI a " bull " (or formal papal decree) admitting them to a share with Portugal in all lands and islands which should be discovered in the search for the Indies. The Pope, who was quite generally recognized in Europe as the arbiter of inter national disputes, acceded to the request, and in his bull of 1493 1 Columbus was by no means the first European to visit the shores of the western continent. There are records of a dozen or so pre-Columbian voyages across the Atlantic by Arabians, Japanese, Welshmen, Irishmen, and French men, besides the very detailed account in the Icelandic sagas, or stories of ad venture, of the visit of the Norsemen to the shores of the western world in the year 1000. Under Lief the Lucky the Norsemen built booths or huts and re mained for a winter on some spot along the coast of Labrador or New England. But these voyages of the Norsemen to America five hundred years before Columbus were not of importance, because they were not followed up by explo ration and permanent settlement. 10 The New World 1 1 divided the undiscovered world between Spain and Portugal by a " demarcation " line, which was determined the next year at 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. All lands discov ered to the west of this line were to belong to Spain ; those to the east, to Portugal (see map, p. 10). The Pope s bull, however, did not deter the other nations of 12. John ITT Till. Cabot reaches Europe from taking part in the search for the Indies by both the t he mainland eastern and the western routes. The honor of being the first of ^conYf- 8 *" the mariners of Columbus s time to reach the mainland of the nent, 1497 western continent belongs to John Cabot, an Italian in the serv ice of King Henry VII of England. In the summer of 1497, while the Spanish navigators were still tarrying among the West Indies, Cabot sailed with one ship from Bristol, and after plant ing the banner of England somewhere on the coast of Labrador, returned to plan a larger expedition. The voyage of 1 497 created great excitement in England for a time. " This Venetian of ours who went in search of new islands is returned," wrote an Italian in London to his brother at home ; " his name is Zuan Cabot, and they all call him the great admiral. Vast honor is paid him, and he dresses in silk. These English run after him like mad people." The more prosaic account book of Henry VII contains the entry: " To hym that found the new isle io." But interest in Cabot s voyage soon died out. The importance of the voyage for us is that it was for two centuries made the basis of England s claims to the whole mainland of North America. Cabot s name is not connected with mountain, river, state, or 13. The town in the New World, but the name of another Italian became the birth name of the continent. Amerigo Vespucci was a Florentine merchant established at Cadiz in Spain. He helped vespucius), fit out Columbus s fleet, and catching the fever for maritime ad venture, he joined the goodly company of navigators. In 1501 he made a most remarkable voyage in the service of the king of Portugal. Sailing from Lisbon, he struck the coast of South America at Cape San Roque, and running south to the thirty- fourth parallel, found the constant westward trend of the coast 12 The Establishment of the English carrying him across the Pope s line separating Portuguese from Spanish territory. So he turned south by east into the Atlantic, and reached the icebound crags of a desert island, 54 south latitude. Again heading northeast, he struck boldly across the south Atlantic and reached the coast of Sierra Leone in a straight course of four thousand miles (see map, p. 10). This voyage, which lasted over a year, showed that the land along whose northern shores the Spanish navigators had sailed was not an island off the southeastern coast of Asia, but a great continent. It led also to the naming of the western continent. 14. The Vespucci wrote to Italian friends : " We found what may be reveaieTbJ? " ca ^ d a new world . . . since most of the ancients said that there Vespucci s Nuc ;^o & hg partes funt latius Iuftrat#/8 alia quattapars per America Vefputiu(vt in fequenti bus audietur )inuenta eft/qua non video cur quis jure vetet ab Amerlco inuentore fagacis ingenij vi to Amerigenquafi Amelia terra / flue Americana dicendi: * Facsimile of Page in Waldseemiiller s Edition of Ptolemy s "Geography" (1507), suggesting the Name of America was no continent below the equator." Vespucci s "new world," then, was a new southern continent. In 1507 the faculty of the college of St. Die, in the Vosges Mountains, were preparing a new edition of Ptolemy s " Geography." Martin Waldseemiiller wrote an introduction to the edition, in which he included one of Vespucci s letters, and made the suggestion that since in addi tion to Europe, Asia, and Africa, " another fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespudus . . . I do not see what fairly hinders us from calling it Amerige or America, viz., the land of Americus" At the same time Waldseemiiller made a map of the world on which he placed the new continent and named it America. This map was lost for centuries, and scholars were almost convinced that it never existed, when in the summer of The New World 13 1901 an Austrian professor found it in the library of a castle in Wiirttemberg. It had evidently circulated enough before its dis appearance to fix the name "America" on the new southern continent, whence it spread to the land north of the Isthmus of Panama. 1 The admirers of Columbus from the sixteenth century to 15. why the ... . f , New World the twentieth have cried out against the injustice ot the name Wft6 not "America" instead of " Columbia" for the New World, "as if * a s n j^ 1 for the Sistine Madonna had been called not by Raphael s name, discoverer, Columbus but by the name of the man who first framed it." But there was no injustice done, at least with intent. " America " was a name invented for what was thought to be a new world south of the equator, whereas Columbus and his associates believed that they had only found a new way to the Old World. When it was realized that Columbus had really discovered the new world of which Vespucci wrote, it was too late to remedy the mistake in the name. So it came about that this continent was named, by an obscure German professor in a French college, after an Italian navigator in the service of the king of Portugal. A CENTURY OF EXPLORATION From the death of Columbus (1506) to the planting of the 16. The first permanent English colony on the shores of America (1607) just a century elapsed, a century filled with romantic voyages the sixteenth and thrilling tales of exploration and conquest in the New World. Nowadays men explore new countries for scientific study of the native races or the soil and its products, or to open up new markets for trade and develop the hidden resources of the land ; but in the romantic sixteenth century Spanish noblemen tramped 1 Although Waldseemiiller himself dropped the name " America " when he realized that this was, after all, the land discovered by Columbus in 1498, and in the same edition of Ptolemy for which he had written the Introduction, labeled South America " terra incognita " (" unknown land "), the name " America " soon reappeared and gradually spread to the northern continent until, in 1541, the geographer Mercator applied it to the whole mainland from Labrador to Patagonia. 1 4 The Establishment of the English through the swamps and tangles of Florida to find the fountain of perpetual youth, or toiled a thousand miles over the western desert, lured by the dazzling gold of fabled cities of splendor. The sixteenth century was furthermore a century of intense reli gious belief ; so we find a grim spirit of missionary zeal mingled with the thirst for gold. The cross was planted in the wilderness, ^ and the soldiers knelt in thanksgiving on the ground stained by the blood of their heretical neighbors. 17. Eastern Of course it was Asia with its fabulous wealth, not America object of the with i ts savage tracts and tribes, which was the real goal of search 618 European explorers. Until even far into the seventeenth century the mariners were searching the northern coast of America for a way around the continent, and hailing the broad mouth of each new river as a possible passage to the Indies. Columbus in his fourth voyage (1502) had skirted the coast of Central America to find the passage to Cathay, and Vespucci in his great voy age of 1501-1502 had followed the South American coast far enough to demonstrate that he had found a " new world," even if he had not discovered a gateway to the East. 18. Magei- With Columbus and Vespucci we must rank a third mariner, sails around Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of the king f Spain. In September, 1519, Magellan with five ships and about three hundred men started on what proved to be perhaps the most romantic voyage in history. Reaching the Brazilian coast, he made his way south, and after quelling a dangerous mutiny in his winter quarters on the bleak coast of Patagonia, entered the narrow straits (since called by his name) at the extremity of South America. A stormy passage of five weeks through the tortuous narrows brought him out on the calm waters of an ocean to which, in grateful relief, he gave the name " Pacific." 1 Magellan met worse trials than storms, how ever, when he put out into the Pacific. Week after week he 1 Magellan was not the first European to see that great ocean. Several years earlier the Spaniard Balboa, with an exploring party from Hayti, had crossed the isthmus now named Panama, and discovered the Pacific, to which he gave the name South Sea," The New World 1 5 sailed westward across the smiling but apparently interminable sea, little dreaming that he had embarked on waters which cover nearly half the globe. Hunger grew to starvation, thirst to mad ness. Twice on the voyage of ten thousand miles land appeared to the eyes of the famished sailors, only to prove a barren, rocky island. At last the inhabited islands of Australasia were reached. Magellan himself was killed in a fight with the natives of the Philippine Islands, but his sole seaworthy ship, the Vic toria, continued westward across the Indian Ocean, and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, reached Lisbon with a crew of eighteen "ghostlike men," September 6, 1522. Magellan s ship had circumnavigated the globe. His wonder- 19. signifi- ful voyage proved conclusively the sphericity of the earth, and Magellan s showed the great preponderance of water over land. It demon- strated that America was not a group of islands off the Asiatic coast (as Columbus had thought), nor even a southern conti nent reaching down in a peninsula from the corner of China (see maps, pp. 18-19), but a continent set in its own hemisphere, and separated on the west from the old world of Cathay by a far greater expanse of water than on the east from the old world of Europe. It still required generations of explorers to develop the true size and shape of the western continent ; but Magellan s wonderful voyage had located the continent at last in its relation to the known countries of the world. While Magellan s starving sailors were battling their way 20. cortez s across the Pacific, stirring scenes were being enacted in Mexico. Mexico 8 * f The Spaniards, starting from Hayti as a base, had conquered and colonized Porto Rico and Cuba (1508), and sent expedi tions west to the Isthmus of Panama (Balboa, 1513), and north to Florida (Ponce de Leon, 1513). In 1519 Hernando Cortez, a Spanish adventurer of great courage and sagacity, was sent by the governor of Cuba to conquer and plunder the rich Indian kingdom which explorers had found to the north of the isthmus. This was the Aztec confederacy of Indian tribes under an " emperor," Montezuma. The land was rich in silver and gold ; 1 6 The Establishment of the English the people were skilled in art and architecture. They had an elaborate religion with splendid temples, but practiced the cruel rite of human sacrifices. Their capital city of Mexico was situ ated on an island in the middle of a lake, and approached by four causeways from the four cardinal points of the compass. One of their religious legends told of a fair-haired god of the sky (Quetzacoatl), who had been driven out to sea, but who would return again to rule over them in peace and plenty. When the natives saw the Spaniard with his " white-winged towers " mov ing on the sea, they thought that the " fair god " had returned. Cortez was not slow to follow up this advantage. His belching cannon and armored knights increased the superstitious awe of the natives. By a rare combination of courage and intrigue, Cortez seized their ruler, Montezuma, captured their capital, and made their ancient and opulent realm a dependency of Spain (1521). It was the first sure footing of the Spaniards on the American continent, and served as an important base for further exploration and conquest. 21. Spanish The twenty years following Cortez s conquest of Mexico Fn^Ameri^a m ^rk the height of Spanish exploration in America. From 1520-1550 Kansas to Chile, and from the Carolinas to the Pacific, the flag and speech of Spain were carried. No feature of excitement and romance is absent from the vivid accounts which the heroes of these expeditions have left us. Now it is a survivor of ship wreck in the Mexican Gulf, making his way from tribe to tribe across the vast stretches of Texas and Mexico to the Gulf of California (Cabeza de Vaca, 15281536) ; now it is the ruffian captain Pizarro, repeating south of the isthmus the conquest of Cortez, and adding the untold wealth of the silver mines of Peru to the Spanish treasury (1531-1533); now it is the noble governor De Soto, with his train of six hundred knights in "doublets and cassocks of silk" and his priests in splendid vestments, with his Portuguese in shining armor, his horses, hounds, and hogs, all ready for a triumphal procession to king doms of gold and ivory but doomed to toil, with his famished The New World I/ and ambushed host, through tangle and swamp from Georgia to Arkansas, and finally to leave his fever-stricken body at the bottom of the Mississippi, beneath the waters " alwaies muddie, down which there came continually manie trees and timber" (1538-1542); now it is Coronado and his three hundred fol lowers, intent on finding the seven fabled cities of Cibola, and chasing the golden mirage of the western desert from the Pacific coast of Mexico to the present state of Kansas (1540-1542). For all this vast expenditure of blood and treasure, not a Spanish settlement existed north of the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the sixteenth century. The Spaniards were gold seekers, not colonizers. They had found a few savages living in cane houses and mud pueblos, but the fountain of perpetual youth and the cities of gold they had not found. They could not, of course, foresee the wealth which one day would be derived from the rich lands through which they had so painfully struggled ; and the survivors returned to the Mexican towns discouraged and disillusioned. South and west of the Gulf of Mexico, however, and in the 22. The islands of the West Indies the Spaniards had built up a huge gmpke in empire. The discovery of gold in Hayti, and the conquest of the America rich treasures of Mexico and Peru, brought thousands of ad venturers and tens of thousands of negro slaves to tropical America. Spain governed the American lands despotically. Commerce and justice were exclusively regulated through the " India House " at Seville. The Spanish culture was intro duced. In the year 1536 a printing press was set up, 1 and shortly after the middle of the century universities were opened in Mexico and Peru. The essential features of the Spanish gov ernment also were brought across the ocean, its absolutism in government and in religion. Trade was restricted to certain ports ; heretics and their descendants to the third generation 1 It is interesting to note that more than a century later Governor Berkeley of the English colony of Virginia " thanked God that the colony had no printing press or schools, and hoped that it would have none for a hundred years." i8 The Establishment of the English The Lenox Globe (1510) showing the New World as an Island off the Coast of Asia Finseus Map (1531) showing the New World (America) as a Peninsula attached to Asia The New World Miinster s Map (1540) showing Land North of the Isthmus attached to the New World Mercator s Map (1541) showing the Name "America" for the First Time applied to the Whole Continent 20 The Establishment of the English 23. Bartolo- meo las Casas 24. French explorers in North America ; Verrazano and Cartier were excluded from the colonies ; the natives were almost e xte r- minated by the rigors of the slave driver in the mines. The land was the property of the sovereign, and by him was granted to nobles, who, under the guise of protecting and converting the natives, made their fiefs great slave estates, and treated both Indians and negroes with frightful cruelty. On the dark background of the Spanish- American slave sys tem one figure stands out in dazzling moral brightness, the saintly bishop, Las Casas, who in an age when slavery was gen erally practiced by the most enlightened nations of the world, devoted his life to the emancipation of the negro and Indian slaves in Spanish America. Las Casas came out to the Indies in 1502. He was himself a slave owner, until, converted by the sermon of a Dominican friar, he freed his own slaves and en tered on his long crusade for emancipation. Contending against hatred, jealousy, and court intrigue, he persuaded the emperor Charles V to put an emancipation clause in the " New Laws " for the Indies (1542), and brought the document to America to enforce in person. In one of the worst regions of Central America, called the " land of war," he demonstrated the pos sibility of human brotherhood by establishing a free colony and winning the love and devotion of the natives. His " History of the Indies " is one of the mos.t valuable accounts of Spanish America in the earliest years. The Spaniards were the chief, but not the only, explorers in America in the sixteenth century. In 1524 the king of France, scorning the papal bull of 1493, and jocosely asking to see old Adam s will bequeathing the world to Spain and Portugal, sent his Italian navigator, Verrazano, to seek the Indies by the west ern route. Verrazano sailed and charted the coast of North America from Labrador to the Carolinas, but did not find a route to Asia. Ten years later Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River to the Indian village on the site of Mont real. There his way to China was blocked by the rapids which he named Lachine (the " China " rapids). But wars, foreign The New World 21 and civil, absorbed the strength of France during the last half of the sixteenth century, and, with one trifling exception, projects of colonization slept until the return of peace and the accession to the throne of the glorious King Henry of Navarre (1598). War, which was the death of French enterprise, was the very 25. TheEng- life of English colonial activity, which had languished since John Cabot s day. England and Spain became bitter rivals religious, commercial, political during Elizabeth s reign (1558- 1603). England was fighting for her very life and the life of the Protestant cause against the aggressive Catholic monarch Philip II. She had no army to attack Philip in his Spanish penin sula, but she sent troops to aid the revolting Netherlands, and struck at the very roots of Philip s power by attacking his treasure-laden fleets from the Indies. England s dauntless sea men, Hawkins, Davis, Cavendish, and above all Sir Francis Drake, performed marvels of daring against the Spaniards, scouring the coasts of America and the high seas for their treasure ships, fighting single-handed against whole fleets, cir cumnavigating the globe with their booty, and even sailing into the harbors of Spain to " singe King Philip s beard " by burn ing his ships and docks. From capturing the Spanish gold on the seas to contending 26. Attempts with Spain for the possession of the golden land was but a step ; and we find the veteran soldier, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, receiving in 1578 a patent from Queen Elizabeth to " inhabit and 1578-1591 possess all remote and heathen lands not in the actual possession of any Christian prince." Gilbert was unsuccessful in founding a colony on the bleak coast of Newfoundland, and his little ship foundered on her return voyage. His patent was handed on to his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth s favorite courtier. Raleigh s ships sought milder latitudes, and a colony was landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina (1585). The land, at Elizabeth s own suggestion, was named "Virginia," in honor of the " Virgin Queen." The colonists sought diligently for gold and explored the coasts and rivers for a passage to Cathay. 22 The Establishment of the English But misfortune overtook them, supplies failed to come from England on time, and the colony was abandoned. Again and again Raleigh tried to found an enduring settlement (1585, 1587, 1588, 1591), but the struggle with Spain absorbed the attention of the nation, and the planters preferred gold hunting to agriculture. Rateigh sank a private fortune equivalent to a million dollars in his enterprise, and finally abandoned it with the optimistic prophecy to Lord Cecil : "I shall yet live to see it an Inglishe nation." He did live to see the beginnings of an " Inglishe nation " in Virginia, but it was from his prison, where he lay under sentence of death, treacherously procured by the envy of the Stuart king who followed the " spacious times of great Elizabeth." 27. The The opening of the seventeenth century found America, north can Indian^"" of the Gulf of Mexico (except for one or two feeble Spanish settlements), still the undisputed possession of the native Indian tribes. Wherever the European visitors had struck the western continent, whether on the shores of Labrador or the tropical islands of the Caribbean Sea, on the wide plains of the south west or the slopes of the Andes, they had found a scantily clad, copper-colored race of men with high cheek bones and straight black hair. Columbus, thinking he had reached the Indies, called the curious, friendly inhabitants who came running down to his ships, Indians, and that inappropriate name has been used ever since to designate the natives of the western hemisphere. 28. civiiiza- None of the North American Indians had reached the stage Indians**! 6 f civilization characterized by an alphabet and literature, al- tnou S^ a ^ ^> ut som e Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast tribes had passed beyond the stage of the savage hunter, housed in his flimsy tepee or skin tent, and living on the quarry of his bow and arrow. In Mexico, Central America, and South America the Spanish explorers and conquerors found a higher native development in art, industry, mythology, architecture, and agriculture than was later found among the Indians of the north. Even the germ of an organized state existed in the Aztec The New World 23 confederacy of Mexico. Huge pueblos, or communal houses, made of adobe (clay), were built around a square or semicircular court in rising tiers reached by ladders. A single pueblo some times housed a thousand persons. The Aztec and Inca chiefs in Mexico and Peru lived in elaborately decorated " palaces." Still the natives of these regions were by no means so highly civilized a race as the exaggerated accounts of the Spanish con querors often imply. They had not invented such simple con trivances as stairs, chimneys, and wheeled vehicles. They could neither forge iron nor build arched bridges. Their intellectual range is shown by the knotted strings which they used for mathematical calculations, and their moral degradation appears in the shocking human sacrifices of their barbarous religion. The Indian tribes north of the Gulf of Mexico had generally 29. The reached the stage of development called " lower barbarism," a Jt stage of pottery making and rude agricultural science. Midway of Mexico between the poor tepee of the Pacific coast savage and the im posing pueblo of Mexico was the ordinary " long house " or " round house " of the village Indians from Canada to Florida. The house was built of stout saplings, covered with bark or a rough mud plaster. Along a central aisle, or radiating from a central hearth, were ranged the separate family compartments, divided by thin walls. Forty or fifty families usually lived in the house, sharing their food of corn, beans, pumpkins, wild turkey, fish, bear, and buffalo meat in common. Only their clothing, ornaments, and weapons were personal property. The women of the tribe prepared the food, tended the children, made the utensils and ornaments of beads, feathers, and skins, and strung the polished shells or " wampum " which the Indian used for money and for correspondence. The men were occupied with war, the hunt, and the council. In their leisure they repaired their bows, sharpened new arrowheads, or stretched the smooth bark of the birch tree over their canoe frames. They had a great variety of games and dances, solemn and gay ; and they loved to bask idly in the sun, too, like the Mississippi negro of to-day. The New World 2$ In character the Indian showed the most astonishing extremes, now immovable as a rock, now capricious as the April breeze. Around the council fire he was taciturn, dignified, thoughtful, but in the dance he broke into unrestrained and uncontrollable ecstasies. He bore with stoical fortitude the most horrible tor tures at the stake, but howled in his wigwam over an injured fin ger. His powers of, smell, sight, and hearing were incredibly keen on the hunt or the warpath, but at the same time he showed a stolid stupidity that no white man could match. The Indian seems to have, been generally friendly to the European on their first meeting, and it was chiefly the fault of the white man s cruelty and treachery that the friendly curiosity of the red man was turned so often into malignant hatred instead of firm alliance. There were probably never more than a few hundred thou- 30. The sand Indians in America. Their small number perhaps accounts Indians for -their lack of civilization. At any rate their development reached its highest point in the thickly settled funnel-shaped region south of the Mexican boundary, where it has been sug gested that they were crowded by the advance of a glacial ice sheet from the north. There are about 225,000 Indians living within the boundaries of the United States. Many tribes have died out; others have been almost completely exterminated or as similated by the whites. The surviving Indians, on their western reservations or in the government schools, are rapidly learning the ways of the white men. It is to be hoped that their education . will be wisely fostered, and that instead of the billion dollars spent on the forty Indian wars of the nineteenth century, a few hundred thousand dollars spent in the twentieth century on Indian schools like Hampton and Carlisle will forever divest the word " Indian " l of its associations with the tomahawk, torture, and treachery. 1 1 The Indians, though always a subject of much curiosity, have only recently been studied scientifically. Our government, yielding to the entreaties of scholars who realized how fast the manners and customs of the natives were disappearing, established in 1879 a Bureau of Ethnology, for the careful study of the surviving vestiges of Indian life. To the reports of this bureau and to the researches of scholars and explorers connected with our various museums we are indebted for a great deal of valuable and fascinating information about the Indians. 26 The Establishment of the English REFERENCES The Discovery of America : JOHN FISKE, The Discovery of America, Vol. I ; E. P. CHEYNEY, The European Background of American History (The American Nation Series), chaps, i-v ; E. G. BOURNE, Spain in America (Am. Nation), chaps, i-vii; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, chap, i ; OLSON and BOURNE, The Northmen, Columbus, and Cabot (Original Narratives of Early American History); JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. I, chap, i ; Vol. II, chaps, i-ii. A Century of Exploration : FISKE, Vol. II ; BOURNE, chaps, viii-xv ; Cambridge Modern History, chap, ii ; WINSOR, Vol. II, chaps, iv, vi, vii, ix; Vol. Ill, chaps, i-iii; HODGE and LEWIS, Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States (Orig. Narr.); H. S. BURRAGE, Early English and French Voyagers (Orig. Narr.) ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. I, Nos. 21-35; EDW. CHANNING, History of the United States, Vol. I, chaps, iii-v ; L. FARRAND, Basis of American History (Am. Nation), chaps, v-xvii. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Geographical Knowledge before Columbus : WINSOR, Vol. I, pp. 1-33; FISKE, Vol. I, pp. 256-294; CHEYNEY, pp. 41-78. 2. Columbus s First Voyage : OLSON and BOURNE (Orig. Narr.), pp. 89-258 (Columbus s journal); FISKE, Vol. I, pp. 419-446; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 29 and 33 (descriptions f voyage by Columbus and by his son). 3. De Soto s Journey to the Mississippi : HODGE and LEWIS (Orig. Narr.), pp. 129-272 ; BOURNE, pp. 162-170 ; WINSOR, Vol. II, pp. 244-254. 4. Raleigh s Attempts to found a Colony in Virginia : BURRAGE (Orig. Narr.), pp. 225-323; HART, No. 32; WINSOR, Vol. Ill, pp. 105-116; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 92, 119. 5. The American Indians: FISKE, Vol. I, pp. 38-147; FARRAND, pp. 195-271 ; HART, Nos. 21, 60, 64, 91. CHAPTER II THE ENGLISH COLONIES THE OLD DOMINION Queen Elizabeth s long and glorious reign came to an end 31. in 1603, when she was succeeded on the throne of England by James Stuart of Scotland, 1 son of her ill-fated cousin and rival, century Mary Queen of Scots. With the Age of Elizabeth there passed also the age of romance and chivalry. The gorgeous dreams of treasure and empire which filled the minds of the explorers of the sixteenth century faded into the sober realization of the hardships involved in settling the wild and distant regions of the New World. True, the search for gold and for the northwest passage to the Indies, the plans for the wholesale conversion of the Indians, and the erection of splendid kingdoms in the heart of America still lingered on into the seventeenth cen tury and died slowly. But these ideas lingered only ; they were not, as earlier, the spring and motive of the expeditions to America. To them succeeded the study of the soil and prod ucts of the New World, the charting of its coasts and rivers, the defense of the infant settlements against the Indians, the transportation from Europe of tools and animals, the patient waiting for the slow returns of agricultural investment, in a word, all that goes to make a permanent, self-sufficing com munity, a home. 1 Since all the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, with the excep tion of Georgia, were settled under the Stuart kings, whose names will occur constantly in the pages of this chapter, it will be convenient for the student to review the main facts of the rule of the Stuart dynasty in Cheyney s Short History of England, chaps, xiv-xvi, or more briefly in Robinson s History of Western Europe, chap. xxx. 27 28 The Establishment of the English 32. King London and Plymouth companies, 1606 King James I in the year 16.06 gave permis sion to "certain loving subjects to deduce and conduct two sev eral colonies or plantations of settlers to Amer ica." The Stuart king had begun his reign with a pompous an nouncement of peace with all his European neigh- bors; conse quently, though England claimed all North Amer ica by virtue of Cabot s discov ery of i497> James limited the territory of his grant so as not to encroach either on the Spanish settle ments of Florida or the French interests about the St. Lawrence. One group of WiK to 41 V < xt ru l 100 mVles inlandl) Charter of 1609 to London Co. "Land 200 miles north and south of Point Comfort, lying from the seacoast up into the land from sea to sea, west and northwest." 85 80" The Virginia Grants of 1606 and 1609 The English Colonies 29 "loving subjects," called the London Company, was to have exclusive right to settle between 34 and 38 of north latitude (see map) ; the other group, the Plymouth Company, was granted the equally broad region between 41 and 45. The neutral belt from 38 to 41 was left open to both companies, with the proviso that neither should make any settlement within one hundred miles of the other. The grants extended one hundred miles inland. The powers of government bestowed on the new companies were as complicated as the grants of territory. Each company was to have a council of thirteen in England, ap pointed by the king and subject to his control. This English council was to appoint another council of thirteen to reside in the colony, and, under the direction of a president, to manage its local affairs, subject always to the English council, which in turn was subject to the king. In May, 1607, about a hundred colonists, sent out by the 33. The London Company, reached the shores of Virginia, and sailing JJjJjSis-* some miles up a broad river, started a settlement on a low pen- town I6 7 insula. River and settlement they named James and Jamestown in honor of the king. The colony did not thrive. The charter provided that the harvests should be gathered into a common storehouse, whence they were dispensed to the settlers, thus en couraging the idle and shiftless to live at the expense of the in dustrious. Authority was hard to enforce with the clumsy form of government, and the proprietors in England were too far away to consult the needs of the colonists. Exploring the land for gold and the rivers for a passage to Cathay proved more attractive to the settlers than planting corn. The unwholesome site of the town caused fever and malaria. Had it not been for the almost superhuman efforts of one 34. j hn man, John Smith, the little colony could not have survived, Smith had come to Virginia after a romantic and world-wide time " career as a soldier of fortune. His masterful spirit at once as sumed the direction of the colony in spite of president and council. His courage and tact with the Indians got corn for the Of are the Lines ihatjfiew tkyFace t -thy Gr&CC and (floy brighter te& -FowtC " Overthrowes CivitiizcL b ity pirit;atul iff it Glory artBrafie mtiioitt,l>iit got 3 The English Colonies 31 starving settlers, and his indomitable energy inspired the good and cowed the lazy and the unjust. In his vivid narratives of early Virginia, the " Trewe Relaycion" (1608) and the " Generall Historic" (1-624), ne nas done himself and his services to the colony full credit, for he was not a modest or retiring man. But his self-praise does not lessen the value of his services. In the summer of 1609 he was wounded by an explosion of gun powder, and returned to England. The winter following his departure was the awful " starving time." Of five hundred men in the colony in October, but sixty were left in June. This feeble remnant, taking advantage of the arrival of ships from the Ber mudas, determined to abandon the settlement. With but a fortnight s provisions, which they hoped would carry them to Newfoundland, bidding final farewell to the scene of their suf fering, they dropped slowly down the broad James. But on reaching the mouth of the river they espied ships flying Eng land s colors. It was the fleet of Lord de la Warre (Delaware), the new governor, bringing men and supplies. Thus narrowly did the Jamestown colony escape the fate of Raleigh s settlements. De la Warre brought more than food and recruits. The Lon- 35. The new don Company had been reorganized in 1609, and a new charter ^ rte granted by the king, which altered both the territory and the gov ernment of Virginia (see map, p. 28). Henceforth a large and rich corporation in England was to conduct the affairs of the com pany, without the intervention of the king. Virginia was to have a governor sent out by the company. Under the new regime the colony picked up. Order was enforced under the harsh but salutary rule of Governor Dale (1611-1616). The colonists , losing the gold fever, turned to agriculture and manufacture. Tobacco became the staple product of the colony, and experiments were made in producing soap, glass, silk, and wine. A better class of emigrants came over, and in 1619 a shipload of "respectable maidens " arrived, who were auctioned off to the bachelor planters for so many pounds of tobacco apiece. At the same time the sharing of harvests in common was abandoned, and 32 The Establishment of the English the settlers were given their lands in full ownership. In the words of one of the Virginia clergy of the period, " This plan tation which the Divell hath so often troden downe is revived and daily groweth to more and hopeful successe." 36. The no- The year 1619, which brought the Virginians wives and 1619. "Negro lands, is memorable also for two events of great significance for rSresentative the later nistorv of the colonies and the nation. In that year the government nrs t cargo of negro slaves was brought to the colony, and the first representative assembly convened on American soil. On July 30 two burgesses (citizens) from each plantation " met with the governor and his six councilors in the little church at James town. This tiny legislature of twenty-seven members, after enacting various laws for the colony, adjourned on August 4, " by reason of extreme heat both past and likely to ensue." Spanish, French, and Dutch settlements existed in America at the time of this first Virginia assembly of burgesses, but none of them either then had or copied later the system of representative government. Democracy was England s gift to the New World. 37. King The man to whom Virginia owed this great boon of self- awayShe M government, and whose name should be known and honored charter of the ^y everv American, was Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Com- pany, 1624 London Company. Sandys belonged to the country party in Parliament, who were making James I s life miserable by their resistance to his arbitrary government based on " divine right," or responsibility to God alone for his royal acts. Gondomar, the Spanish minister in London, whispered in James s ear that assemblies like that in Virginia were "hotbeds -of sedition." But James had let the London Company get out of his hands by the new charter, and when he tried to interfere in their elec tion of a treasurer, they rebuked him by choosing one of the most prominent of the country party (the Earl of Southampton, a friend of Shakespeare s). Not being able to dictate to the company, James resolved to destroy it. In a moment of great depression for the colony, just after a horrible Indian massacre The English Colonies 33 (1622) and a famine, James commenced suit against the com pany, which a subservient court declared had overstepped its legal rights and forfeited its charter. James then took the colony into his own hands and sent over men to govern it who were responsible only to his Privy Council. Virginia thus became a "royal province" (1624), and remained so for one hundred fifty years, until the American Revolution. James intended to suppress the " seminary of sedition " (the 38. Virginia House of Burgesses) too, and rule the colony by a committee province, of his courtiers. But he died before he had a chance to extin- I62 4- X 775 guish the liberties of Virginia, and his son, Charles I, hoping to get the monopoly of the tobacco trade in return for the favor, allowed the House of Burgesses to continue. So Virginia fur nished the pattern which sooner or later nearly all the Ameri can colonies reproduced, namely, that of a governor (with a small council) appointed by the English king, and a legislature, or assembly, elected by the people of the colony. The people of Virginia were very loyal to the Stuarts. When 39. Virginia the quarrel between king and Parliament in England reached pid Domin- the stage of civil war (1642), and Charles I was driven from lon " his throne and beheaded (1649), many of his supporters in Eng land, who were called Cavaliers, emigrated to Virginia, giving the colony a decidedly aristocratic character. And when Charles II was restored to his father s throne in 1660, the Virginian bur gesses recognized his authority so promptly and enthusiastically that he called them " the best of his distant children." He even elevated Virginia to the proud position of a " dominion," by quar tering its arms (the old seal of the Virginia Company) on his royal shield with the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The burgesses were very proud of this distinction, and remem bering that they were the oldest as well as the most faithful of the Stuart settlements in America, adopted the name of " The Old Dominion." Though there were actually many occasions of dispute between 40. Bacon s the governors sent over by the king and the legislature elected I676 34 The Establishment of the English 41. The sig nificance of Bacon s Rebellion by the people, only one incident of prime importance occurred to disturb the peaceful history of the Old Dominion under its royal masters. In 1675 the Susquehannock Indians were harass ing the upper settlements of the colony, and Governor Berke ley, who was profiting largely by his private interest in the fur trade, refused to send a force of militia to punish them. He was supported by an " old and rotten " House of Burgesses, which he had kept in office, doing his bidding, for fourteen years. A young and popular planter named Nathaniel Bacon, who had seen one of his overseers murdered by the Indians, put himself at the head of three hundred volunteers and demanded an officer s commission of Governor Berkeley. Berkeley re fused, and Bacon marched against the Indians with out any commission, utterly routing them and saving the colony from tomahawk and firebrand. The gov ernor proclaimed Bacon a rebel and set a price upon his head. In the distress ing civil war which followed, the governor was driven from his capital and Jamestown was burned by the "rebels." But Bacon died of fever (or poison?) at the moment of his victory, and his party, being made up only of his personal following, fell to pieces. Berkeley returned and took grim vengeance on Ba con s supporters until the burgesses petitioned him to " spill no more blood." Bacon s Rebellion, despite its deplorable features, did a good work. It showed that the colonists dared to act for themselves. It forced the dissolution of the " old and rotten " assembly and In Celebration of the Three-Hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of Jamestown The English Colonies 35 the choice of a new one representing the will of the people. It led to the recall of Berkeley by Charles II, who explained indig nantly when he heard of the governor s cruel reprisals: "That old fool has taken away more lives in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father." And, finally, it showed that the people of the Old Dominion, though loyal to their king, had no intention of submitting to an arbitrary governor in col lusion with a corrupt assembly. THE NEW ENGLAND SETTLEMENTS While these things were going on in Virginia a very different 42. Activ- history was being enacted in the northern regions granted to the Ferdinando Plymouth Company. This company sent out a colony in the very Gor s es year that the London Company settled Jamestown (1607), but one winter in the little fort at the mouth of the Kennebec River, on the icebound coast of Maine, was enough to send the frozen settlers back to England. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of Plymouth, was the moving spirit of the company, and despite his losses in the expedition of 1607-1608, he showed a deter mination worthy of a Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1614 he sent John Smith, long since cured of the wound caused by the ex plosion of gunpowder, to explore the coast of " northern Vir ginia," as the Plymouth grant was called. Smith made a map of the coast from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, called the land " New England," and first set down on the map of America such famil iar names as Cambridge, the Charles River, Plymouth, and Cape Ann. In 1620 Gorges persuaded the king to make a new grant of this territory to a number of nobles and gentlemen about the court, who were designated as the Council for New England. A few weeks after the formation of this new company there 43. The landed at Plymouth, from the little vessel Mayflower at anchor (Separatists) off Cape Cod, a group of one hundred men and women, known la J at Plym " outh, Decem- to later history as the " Pilgrims." They were not sent by the ber 21, 1620 Council for New England nor by the London Company. Their The Establishment of the English object was neither to explore the country for gold nor to find a northwest passage to the Indies. They came of their own free will to found homes in the wilderness, where, unmolested, they might worship God according to their conscience. They were Independents or Separatists, people who had separated from the Church of England because it retained in its worship many fea tures, such as vestments, altars, and ceremonies, which seemed to them as " idolatrous " as the Roman Catholic rites, which England had rejected. Three centuries ago religion was an affair of the state, not alone of private choice. Rulers enforced uniformity in creed and worship, in the belief that it was necessary to the preservation of their au thority. If a subject could differ from the king in religious opinion, it was feared that it would not be long before he would presume to differ in po litical opinion, and then what would become of The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor obedience and loyalty ! For men who were too brave to conceal their convictions, and too honest to modify them at the command of the sovereign, only three courses were open, to submit to persecution and martyrdom, to rise in armed resistance, or to re tire to a place beyond the reach of the king s arm. The history of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries is full of the story of cruel persecutions, civil wars, and exiles for con science sake. James I began his reign by declaring that he would make his subjects conform in religion or " harry them out of the land." He " harried " the Separatist congregations of some little villages in the east of England, until in 1608 they took refuge in Holland the only country in Europe where complete religious toleration existed. Not content to be absorbed MONUMENT AT PROVINCETOWN, MASS., TO COMMEMORATE THE LANDING OF THE FIRST PARTY FROM THE MAYFLOWER Dedicated by President Taft, August 8, 1910 The English Colonies 37 into the Dutch nation and have their children forget the cus toms and speech of England, the Separatists determined to migrate to the new land of America. They got permission from the London Company to settle in Virginia ; but their pilot brought them to the shores of Cape Cod, where they landed December 21, 1620, although they had neither a right to the soil (a patent) nor power to establish a government (a charter). Before landing, 44. The , TVI i "Mayflower the Pilgrims gath- compact" The Pilgrim Tablet in Leyden, Holland the Mayflower and at Plymouth, 1620-1691 pledged themselves to form a govern ment and obey it. That was the first instance of complete self-government in our history, for the assembly which met at Jamestown the year before the Pilgrims landed, was called together by orders from the Vir ginia Company in England. The win ter of 1620-1621 on the " stern and rock-bound coast " of New England went hard with the Pilgrims. " It pleased God," wrote Bradford, their governor for many years and their historian, " to vissite us with death dayly, and with so generall a disease that the living were scarce able to burie the dead." Yet when the Mayflower returned to England in the spring not one of the colonists went with her. Their home was in America. They had come to conquer the wilderness or die, and their de termination was expressed in the brave words of one of their /r^fiT&tffocc^oK^KJ^&Jvtnt! tftr-wto* -Jjenti? &+#- t<iy : /y -**/<*&,#- m3r/JnWe Kt^cryrocrte^rjfi *"J We. ; Zttnptex^ * ?ttfe.^L&-*-A?* e S,s<>J-}f<>ye7y -*>&% aa coiier- ftvr$-H>vf<Ji ).>*^/ -w/crr/, <3 <*f %$* . / ii ^^~ t i . 5 By Courtesy of The Burrows Brothers Company, from Avery s " History of the United State Facsimile of Bradford MS. " History of Plimoth Plantation " 38 The English Colonies 39 leaders : "It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage." The little colony grew slowly. It was never granted a charter by the king, and consequently its government, which was carried on by the democratic institution of the town meeting, was never legal in the eyes of the English court. Yet, because of its small size and quiet demeanor, the colony of Plymouth was allowed to continue undisturbed by the Stuarts. It took its part bravely in the defense of the New England settlements against the Indians, and saw half its towns de stroyed in the terrible war set on foot by the Narragansett chief "King Philip," in I675- 1 Finally, in 1691, it was annexed to the powerful neighboring colony of Massachusetts Bay. Politi cally the little colony of Plymouth, the " old colony," was of slight importance, but its moral and religious influence on New England was great. The Pilgrims demonstrated that in dustry and courage could conquer even the inhospitable soil and climate of the Massachusetts shore, and that unflinching devotion to an ideal could make of the wilderness a home. While the settlement at Plymouth was slowly growing, sev- 45. Charles I eral attempts were made by Gorges and other members of the Council for New England to plant colonies in the New World. !, etts Bay Company , About half a hundred scattered settlers were established around March, 1629 the shores and on the islands of Boston harbor, when in 1628 a company of Puritan gentlemen secured a grant of land from the council and began the largest and most important of the English settlements in America, the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The next year they obtained from Charles I a royal charter constituting them a political body ruled by a governor, a 1 King Philip s War was only the fiercest of many Indian attacks on the westward-moving frontier of the English settlements in the seventeenth century. We have already noticed the attack of the Susquehannocks on the Virginian frontier in 1675-1676 (p. 34). King Philip s War, of the same years, in New England was crushed by a combination of troops from the Massachusetts, the Connecticut, and the Plymouth colonies, but not until half of the eighty or ninety towns of those colonies had been ravaged by fire, some hundred thousand pounds sterling of their treasure spent, and one out of every ten of their fighting men killed or captured. 40 The Establishment of the English deputy governor, and eighteen " assistants," all elected by the members of the company ; and in 1630 they sent over to Mas sachusetts seventeen ships with nearly a thousand colonists. John Endicott had established the first settlers of the company at Salem in 1628, but when the main body of emigrants came over with John Winthrop two years later, the colony was trans ferred to a narrow neck of land a few miles to the south, known St. Botolph s Church, Boston, England, where John Cotton preached and Roger Williams s Church in Salem, Massachusetts to the Indians as Shawmut. The spot was rechristened Boston, after the Puritan fishing village in the east of England, where John Cotton was pastor. Winthrop and Cotton were the lead ing spirits of the colony in its first twenty years : the former, a cultivated gentleman from the south of England, serving almost continually as governor; the latter, a scholar and preacher of great power, acting as director of the Massachusetts conscience. The Puritans, like the Separatists, protested against what they called " the idolatrous remnants of papacy " in the English The English Colonies 41 Church ; but, unlike the Separatists, they believed in reforming 46. The per- the Church from within rather than leaving its communion. t he Puritans They were for " purifying " its worship, not rejecting it ; or, in in En s land the theological language of the day, they believed that " the seamless garment of Christ (the Church) should be cleansed but not rent." However, King Charles I, coming more and more under the influence of men who thought the only ecclesiastical reform needed was the extermination of independent opinions of all sorts, and the lamblike submission of Church, courts, and parliaments to the royal will, made little distinction in his despotic mind between Separatists and Puritans. He was as glad to have the latter out of England as his father had been to get rid of the former, and lie granted the Massachusetts charter less as a favor than as a sentence of exile. He little dreamed that he was laying the foundations of a practically independent state in his distant domain of America. For when in 1629 he angrily dismissed his Parliament and 47. The Mas- entered on his eleven years course of despotism, several lead- company^ ing members of the Massachusetts Company decided to emigrate takes its to America themselves and take their charter with them. The America, 1629 king, absorbed in his quarrel with Parliament, probably knew nothing about the removal of the charter from England until, in 1634, the persecuting zeal of Archbishop Laud of Canterbury against the Puritans moved him to demand its surrender. The English representatives of the company politely informed the king that the charter was in America, and the colony in America (well out of reach of the king s officers) politely declined to send the charter back to England. Before the king could use force to recover the charter he was overtaken by a war with his Scottish subjects, and thus the Massachusetts Company escaped the fate which had overtaken the London Company s colony of Virginia ten years earlier. The object of the Massachusetts settlers was to establish a 48. Massa- -r, . , , f r r i f ChUSCttsaPu- Puntan colony, and not to open a refuge tor freedom of wor- ritan co i ony ship. To keep their community holy and undefiled, they refused 42 The Establishment of the English to admit as " freemen " (i.e. participants in the government) any but members of their own Church. Others might live in the colony so long as they did not resist the authorities, molest the ministers, or bring discredit on the Puritan system of wor ship and government ; but they had to contribute to the support of the Church, and submit to its controlling oversight of both public and private life. During the decade 1630-1640 the grow ing tyranny of King Charles and the persecutions of the zealous Archbishop Laud drove about twenty-five thousand refugees to the new colony. A large proportion of these emigrants were highly educated men of sterling moral quality. " God sifted a nation," wrote Governor Stoughton a half century later, " in order that he might send choice grain to this wilderness " ; but Archbishop Laud, when he drove out of England the great Puritan clergymen who molded the thought of the new com munity in America, had called them " swine which rooted out God s vineyard." 49. conse- The large emigration to Massachusetts brought about several the rapid* important political results. In the first place it freed the colony Puritan c f oi the from an y fear of Indian attacks. 1 Then, again, it enabled the onyofMassa- authorities easily to drive out various companies of settlers established by the agents of Gorges and other claimants to the Massachusetts lands under the grants of the Council for New England, especially the rollicking followers of one Morton, who, as the historian Bradford tells us, "did set up a schoole of athisme" at Merrymount (the site of Quincy, Massachusetts), where "his men did quaff strong waters and comport themselves as if they had anew revived . . . the beastly practises of y e madd Bacchanalians"; where they set up a maypole eighty feet high about which they frolicked with the Indians, and, worst of all, sold firearms to the redskins who "became madd after them 1 It must be added that the danger to both the Plymouth and the Massachu setts colonies in their early years from Indian attacks was much lessened by a terrible plague which had swept over eastern New England three years before the Pilgrims landed, and destroyed perhaps one half of the Indians from Maine to Rhode Island. The English Colonies 43 and would not stick to give any prise for them . . . accounting their bowes and arrowes but babies [baubles] in comparison of them." Finally, the great size of the Massachusetts colony led to a representative form of government. The freemen increased so fast that they could not meet in a body, as at Plymouth, to make their laws ; and after trying for a short time the experiment of leaving this power to the eighteen " assistants/ the towns demanded the privilege of sending their own elected representa tives to help the assistants make the laws (1633). Still only " freemen " (or members of the Puritan churches) could vote, and as the colony increased, an ever larger percentage of the inhabitants was disfranchised. The more liberal spirits of the colony protested against this narrowing of the suffrage, but the Puritan leaders were firm in their determination to keep out of the government all who were suspected of heresy in belief or laxity in morals. "A democracy" (i.e. the rule of all the people) " is no fit government either for Church or for commonwealth," declared Cotton ; and even the tolerant John Winthrop defended the exclusive Puritan system in a letter to a protesting friend by the remark : " The best part is always the least, and of that best part the wiser part is always the lesser." It was natural that this " Puritan aristocracy," which seemed 50. Reaction so harsh to many colonists, should lead to both voluntary and JStan arfs- enforced exile from the territory governed under the Massa- tocracy in chusetts charter. Radiating southward and westward, the emi- chusetts grants from Massachusetts established the colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven. Roger Williams, a gentle but uncompromising young man, 51. Roger came to the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1631, after taking his degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was forth- Island > with elected pastor of the church in Salem, and began to teach doctrines very unacceptable to the Puritan governors of the colony. He said that the land on which they had settled be longed to the Indians, in spite of the king s charter, that the state had no control over a man s conscience, and that to make 44 The Establishment of the English a man take the oath of citizenship was to encourage lying and hypocrisy. Williams was a knight-errant who refused to abandon his crusade against the civil authorities, and they drove him from the colony in 1636. Making his difficult way southward in midwinter, through the forests, from one Indian tribe to another, he arrived at the head of Narragansett Bay, and purchasing a tract of land from the Indians, began a settlement which he called, in recognition of God s guidance, Providence. Other dissenters from Massachusetts followed, and soon four towns were established on the mainland about Narragansett Bay and on Rhode Island proper. In 1643 Williams secured recognition for his colony from the English Parliament, which the year before had driven King Charles from London. The little colony of " Rhode Island and Providence Plantations " so established was remarkable for two things, democracy and religious freedom. Election " by papers " (ballots) was intro duced, and the government was " held by free and voluntary consent of all the free inhabitants." All men might " walk as their conscience persuaded them, every one in the name of his God." The scornful orthodox brethren in Massachusetts called Rhode Island s population " the Lord s debris," while the facetious said that " if a man had lost his religion, he would be sure to find it in some Rhode Island village." Massachusetts further showed her spite against the dissenting settlers by re fusing to admit Rhode Island into the confederation of New England colonies, formed in 1643 for protection against the In dians ; and it was not till the colony had received a royal charter from Charles II (1663) that it was securely established. For his heroic devotion to principles of freedom, far in advance of his age, Roger Williams deserves to be honored as one of the noblest figures in our colonial history. 52. connect!- The same year that Massachusetts drove Williams out of her jurisdiction the magistrates gave permission to " divers loving f h m tt aSSa ~6 ffri en d s > neighbors, and ffreemen of Newetown (Cambridge), Dorchester, Watertown and other places, to transport themselves The English Colonies 45 and their estates unto the Ryver of Conecticott, there to reside and inhabit." These emigrants were partly attracted by the glowing reports of the fertility of the Connecticut valley, and Actual boundaries determined , __.___- Various boundaries claimed by Massachusetts The New England Settlements partly repelled by the extreme rigor of the Massachusetts " aris tocracy of righteousness," which made impossible honest expres sion of opinion. Led by their pastor, Thomas Hooker, they tramped across the wilderness between the Charles and the Connecticut, driving their cattle before them and carrying their household goods in wagons, the first heralds of that mighty 4 6 The Establishment of th westward movement which was to continue through two centuries to the Pacific Ocean. - The Connecticut emigrants founded the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield on the " long river." In 1639 they adopted their "Fundamental Constitu tions,"- the first constitution drawn up in America, and the first in modern history composed by the free founders of a state. 1 They did not require a man to be a church member in The Emigration to the Connecticut Valley, 1636 order to vote, and their clergymen exercised far less influence over political life than those of the mother colony. Although they had trouble with Massachusetts, which still claimed that they were under her jurisdiction, and with the Dutch, who (as we shall see in the next section) had spread from the Hudson to the Connecticut, still the colonists of the river towns were strong enough to defend both their land and their government. 1 The Mayflower agreement of 1620 was hardly a constitution, as it did not provide for a form of government, but only pledged its signers to obey the government which they should establish. The English Colonies 47 After the extermination of the dangerous Pequot Indians in 53. connecti- 1637 the colony flourished in secure and uneventful prosperity, pequot^ar 6 and remained, until the American Revolution, the least vexed of l637 of all the English settlements. Until 1662 its existence was not recognized by the English government, but in that year Charles II, partly, no doubt, to raise up a powerful rival to Massachusetts, which all the Stuarts hated for its assumption of independent airs, granted a most liberal charter to Connect icut, extending its territory westward to the South Sea (the Pacific). We shall have occasion, a few pages later, to refer again to the Connecticut and Rhode Island charters of 1662-1663. A third colony, composed of men who came through rather 54. ThePuri than out of Massachusetts, was New Haven. John Davenport, ^^Haven * a stern Puritan divine, brought his congregation to Massachu- 1638-1665 setts in the summer of 1637, when the colony was in the midst of the pitiless trial of Mistress Anne Hutchinson and her asso ciates, who were accused of teaching the heresy of antinomian- ism, a thing hard for even a trained theologian to understand, and impossible to explain here. Finding the strife-charged air of Boston uncongenial, Davenport and his congregation pushed on to the shores of Long Island Sound and founded the settle ment of New Haven (1638). The colony, which soon expanded into several towns, was as strictly Puritan and " theocratic " (God-ruled) as Massachusetts. The founders hoped to add worldly prosperity to their piety by making New Haven a great commercial port ; but the proximity of the unrivaled harbor of New York (then called New Amsterdam) rendered any such hope vain from the beginning. Instead of becoming an inde pendent commercial colony, New Haven and her sister towns found themselves, to their disgust, included in the limits of Connecticut by the royal charter of 1662. They protested valiantly against the consolidation, but were forced in the end to yield. Thus the New Haven colony ceased to exist in 1665. With the process of radiation from Massachusetts of colonies to the south and west .went a contrary process of absorption by The Establishment of the English the settle- ments of Gorges and 55. Relations Massachusetts of settlements to the north and east. Ferdinando set^with" 1 " Gorges was the father of these settlements. In spite of the failure of the Kennebec Colony in 1607, which "froze his hopes and made him sit down with his losses," as he quaintly wrote, Gorges s hopes soon thawed out again, and he labored till his death, forty years later, to establish colonies on the Maine coast. The Council for New England surrendered its charter to the king in 1635, but Gorges persisted single-handed. He got a charter in 1639, which made him proprietor of Maine. He pro ceeded forthwith to establish an elaborate government for his puny province, in which almost every adult male was an office holder ; and devised for his capital " Gorgeana " the first city government in America. Gorges was a deadly enemy of Mas sachusetts. As a courtier he opposed the reforming party in Parliament, and as a stanch Church of England man he hated the whole Puritan movement. He was one of the foremost agitators for the suppression of the Massachusetts charter in 1634, and labored strenuously to have strong anti-Puritan set tlers emigrate to his province of Maine and to New Hampshire, the neighboring province of his fellow courtier and fellow church man John Mason. By the terms of the charter of 1629 the territory of the Massachusetts Bay Company extended from three miles north of the Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles, and east and west from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Now charters were granted by the Stuarts in reckless ignorance of the geography of America. Because the Merrimac flows east as it enters the sea, it was presumed that it flowed east throughout its course ; whereas it actually rises far to the north, in the lakes of New Hampshire. A line drawn to the coast, therefore, from a point three miles north of the source of the Merrimac would include all of the Maine and New Hamp shire settlements (see map, p. 44). Massachusetts, having ascer tained the true course of the river, laid claim to these settlements as lying in her territory. She annexed the New Hampshire towns in 1641-1643, and after a long quarrel over the Maine The English Colonies 49 towns, finally bought the claims of Gorges s heirs for 1250 in 1677. Charles II was furious at the transaction. In 1679 he separated New Hampshire from Massachusetts and gave it a royal governor ; but Maine remained part of the Bay Colony and then of the Bay State until 1820. The domination of Massachusetts over the other New Eng- 56. The land colonies, at least up to the time when Connecticut and fbsoiutism in Rhode Island received their charters, was complete. She far {^s^tT" surpassed them all in men and wealth. The New England Con- colony federation, formed in 1643 by Massachusetts, Plymouth, Con necticut, and New Haven, chiefly for defense against the Indians, was theoretically a league of four equal states, each having two members with equal voice in the governing council. But the opposition of Massachusetts kept Rhode Island out of the con federation, and in the question of declaring war on the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1653 the two Massachusetts coun cilors vetoed the unanimous vote of the other six. The habit of authority grows rapidly, especially when exercised by strong men who believe that they are God s instruments in keeping the faith and morals of the community unsullied. The second half of the seventeenth century exhibited the character of the colony in its most uncompromising and unlovely aspects. The large- minded, courteous Winthrop died in 1649, an< ^ was succeeded in the governorship by a harsh and bigoted Puritan " saint," John Endicott. Faithfulness to Puritan ideals reached a point of fanatic cruelty. Quakers were hanged in 1660 on Boston Common for the crime of testifying to the " inner light," or special divine revelation (which of course made Church and clergy superfluous). Again, in 1692, nineteen persons, mostly women, were hanged in Salem village for witchcraft, or secret alliance with Satan, on the most unfair evidence of excited children and hysterical women. On its political side the increasing power of the magistrates 57. signs of of Massachusetts aroused the angry suspicions of the king. Jen^encVfoi 6 " The colony banished Episcopalians, coined money, omitted the Massachusetts The Establishment of the English king s name in its legal forms, and broke his laws for the regulation of their trade. When he sent commissioners in 1664 to investigate these conditions, they were insulted by a con stable in a Boston tavern. Their chairman wrote back, " Our time is lost upon men puffed up with the spirit of independ ence." Edmond Ran dolph, sent over a few years later as a collector of revenues, complained that " the king s letters are of no more account in Massachusetts than an old number of the London Gazette"^ Fi nally, Charles II, pro voked beyond patience, had the Massachusetts charter annulled in his court (1684), and the colony became a royal province. 58. Edmund But before the great Puritan colony entered on its checkered career of the eighteenth century under royal governors, The Puritan (By Augustus St. Gaudens) it bore a conspicuous part in the overthrow of that tyranny which the last Stuart king, James II, made unendurable for freeborn Englishmen. In 1686 James united New York, New Jersey, and all New England into one great province, which should be a solid bulwark against the danger of French and Indian invasion from the north, and 1 Randolph came at just the moment when Massachusetts was elated at having led the New England colonies victoriously through the severe war with King Philip, 1676 (see note, p. 39). Js d ton The English Colonies where his governor should rule absolutely, unhampered by colo nial charters or assemblies. He sent over Sir Edmund Andros as governor of this huge province extending from Delaware Bay to Nova Scotia. Andros was a faithful servant, an upright man, without guile or trickery, but a harsh, narrow, unbending governor, determined that the instructions of his royal master should be carried out to the letter. In pursuance of these instructions he attempted to seize the charters of Con necticut and Rhode Island, but was baffled by the local patriots in both colonies. Ex asperated by resistance, An dros made his hand doubly heavy upon the Massachu setts colony, which the Stuarts rightly looked upon as the stronghold of democratic sen timent in America. He dis missed the Massachusetts Assembly, abolished the colo nial courts, dispensed justice himself, charging exorbitant fees, established a strict cen sorship of the press, intro duced the Episcopal worship in Boston, denied the colonists fair and speedy trials, and levied a land tax on them without the consent of their deputies. The patience of the colony was about exhausted when the 59. The welcome news arrived, in April, 1689, that James II had been driven from the English throne. The inhabitants of Boston l68 9 in Mas sachusetts immediately responded by a popular rising against James s odious servant. Andros tried, like his master, to flee from the vengeance of the people he had so grievously provoked, but he was seized and imprisoned, and later sent back to England. Governor Edmund Andros 52 The Establishment of the English The town meeting of Boston assumed the government, ap pointed a committee of safety, and sent envoys to London to learn the will of the new king, William of Orange. Thus the "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 in Massachusetts was truly a part of the English Revolution of 1688, and a foreshadowing of the greater Revolution begun eighty-six years later by the descendants of the men who expelled Andros in defense of the principles of the men who expelled James II. 60. The new King William granted a new charter to Massachusetts in SsTharter l6 9 J > while Connecticut and Rhode Island quietly resumed of 1691 government under their old charters, retaining them as state constitutions well into the nineteenth century. The new Mas sachusetts charter provided for the union of Plymouth with the Bay colony under a royal governor, and broke down the old Puritan regime by guaranteeing freedom of worship to all Protestant sects, and making the possession of property in stead of membership in the church the basis of political rights. Under this charter the Massachusetts colony lived until the American Revolution. THE PROPRIETARY COLONIES 61. The cor- Virginia and Massachusetts were corporate colonies, founded porate colo- , ... , . ^ 111- nies (founded by companies of men (corporations) to whom the king gave bycompames) c h ar t e rs, or the right to establish governments in certain speci fied territory of America. We have seen how the Virginia Company lost its charter quite early in its history (1624), and became the first royal province, ruled by a governor and coun cil appointed by the king. We have seen also how the Massa chusetts Company, by the emigration of its leading members with the charter to America, became a self-governing colony, much to the king s chagrin. Finally, we have seen how Mas sachusetts sent out as offshoots the self-governing colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut, which were recognized by Charles IPs charters of 1662-1663. All the rest of the thirteen The English Colonies 53 colonies, which were later to unite to form the American nation, were founded as proprietorships^ The proprietorship was a sort of middle thing between the 62. The royal province and the self-governing colony. The king let proprietary C the reins of government out of his own hands, but did not give P rovince them into the hands of the colonists. Between the king and the settlers stood the proprietor, a man or a small group of men, generally courtiers, to whom the king had granted the province. In the royal provinces the king himself, through his Privy Council, appointed governors, established courts, collected taxes, and attended to the various details of executive govern ment. In the self-governing colonies the people elected their governors and other executive officers, civil and military, and controlled them through their democratic legislatures. In the proprietary provinces the lords proprietors appointed the gov ernors, established courts, collected a land tax (quitrent) from the inhabitants, offered bonuses to settlers, and in general man aged their provinces like farms or any other business venture, subject always to the limitations imposed by the terms of their charter from the king, and the opposition of their legislatures in the colonies. 2 The only enduring proprietorship established under the early 63. Mary- Stuarts was Maryland. In 1632 George Calvert (Lord Balti- byCaivert more), a Roman Catholic nobleman high in the favor of the court, obtained from Charles I the- territory between the Poto mac River and the fortieth parallel of latitude, with a very lib eral charter. The colonists and their children were to " enjoy the rights and privileges of native-born Englishmen " ; no tax 1 The proprietorship was not only the commonest form of colonial grant, but it was also the earliest. Queen Elizabeth s patents to Gilbert and Raleigh were of this nature, and in the first half of the seventeenth century there were many attempts of proprietors, less heroically persistent than Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to found colonies on our shores. 2 All the proprietors except the Duke of York, King Charles IPs brother, granted their provinces colonial assemblies elected by the people. They could not, in fact, get settlers on any other terms. In the royal provinces, too, the popularly elected assemblies were retained. Proprietary Grants made by the Stuart Kings Showing how seven eighths of the Atlantic seaboard was granted to court favorites between 1630 and 1680 54 The English Colonies 55 or custom was to be imposed on them by the English king or Parliament ; their laws were to be made " by the proprietor and the freemen of the colony." George Calvert died before the king s great seal was affixed to the charter, but his son, Cecilius Calvert, sent a colony in 1634 to St. Marys, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. The second Lord Baltimore was a man of consummate tact, 64. Trials of broad and generous in his views, unflagging in devotion to his tors P of ^Mary- colony. He needed all his tact, nobility, and courage to meet land the difficulties with which he had to struggle. In the first place, the smiling tract of land granted to him by King Charles lay within the boundaries of the grant of King James to the Vir ginia Company (see map, p. 28). A Virginian fur trader named Claiborne was already established on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay, and refused either to retire or to give allegiance to the Catholic Lord Baltimore. It came to war with the Virginian Protestants before Claiborne was dislodged. Again, Lord Balti more interpreted the words of the charter, that laws were to be made " by the proprietor and freemen of the colony," to mean that the proprietor was to frame the laws and the freeman accept them ; but the very first assembly of Maryland took the oppo site view, insisting that the proprietor had only the right of approving or vetoing laws which they had passed. Baltimore tactfully yielded. But it was religious strife that distracted the colony most 65. The Toi- sorely and plunged it again and again into civil war. Lord Balti- i^ 100 more had founded his colony partly as an asylum for the per secuted Roman Catholics of England who were regarded as idolaters by both the New England Puritans and the Virginia Episcopalians. To have Mass celebrated at St. Marys was, in the eyes of the intolerant Protestants, to pollute the soil of America. As Baltimore tolerated all Christian sects in his prov ince, the Protestants simply flooded out the Catholics of Mary land by immigration from Virginia, New England, and old England. Eight years after the establishment of the colony 56 The Establishment of the English the Catholics formed less than 25 per cent of the inhabitants, and in 1649 the proprietor was obliged to protect his fellow religionists in Maryland by getting the assembly to pass the famous Toleration Act, providing that " no person in this prov ince professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall be in any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for his or her religion ... so that they be not unfaithful to the lord proprietary or molest or conspire against the civil government established." Although this is the first act of religious toleration on the A L A W MAR YL AND Concerning RELIGION. JOwfuuch as in awell-gomned and Chnftian Commonw ealth, Matters concerning Religion and the Honogr of God ought to be in the firft- pla e tnbetakenintoTcrious confutation, and endeavoured to be fettled. Be it therefore Ordained and Eoafted by thellight Honourable C^KC fLIUS Lord Baron of */;, abfolute Lord and Proprietary of this Province, with t!ie.Advice and Content of the Upper and Lower Houle ofthu General Aflembly, That whatfoever pcrfon or perfons within this Province and the Iflandi thereunto belonging, (hall fro.n henceforth blafpheme GOD, that iscurfe him; or (hall deny our Saviour JESUS CHR.1ST to be tho Son of God; orfhalldeny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, & Holy Ghoft; or the Godhead of any of the faidThreePerfons of the Trinity ,or the Unity of theGodhead,. or (hall ufeor utter any reproachful ipceches, words, or language, concerning the Huly Trinity, or any of the faid three Perfom thereof, (hall be pu- nithtd with death, and confifcation or forfcitute of allhisorherLandsand Goods to the Lord Proprietary and hi) Heirs. And be it alfo enaftcd by the Authority, and with the advice and aflent aforefaid.That whatloeter perfon orperfons (hall from Henceforth ufc or utter any reproachful words or fpecahes concerning the bleffed Virgin MARr,iht Mother of our Saviour, or the holy Apofllet or Eirangelifts, or any of tnem r (hall in fuch cafe for the firft Offence forfeit to the faid Lord Proprietary and hit Heirs, Urds and Proprietaries of this Province, the Turn of Five pounds Sterling.or the value thereof to be levied on the goods and chattels of every fuch pcrfon fo offending; but in cafe fuch offender or offenders fhall not then havegoodsand chattels fiifficieot for the fatisfymgoffuch forfeiture, otthat the lame be nwotherw.fcfpeedily &tis6ed,thatthenfuch offender or offcnd- (hall in fuch cafe for the firft Offence forfeit to the faid Lord Proprietary and hit Heirs, I-ordi and Proprietaries of this Province, the Turn of Five pounds Sterling.or the value thereof to be levied on the goods and chattels of every fuch perfon fo offending- but in cafe fuch offender or offenders (hall not then ha vegoodsand chattels fufficient for the fatisfymgoffuch forfeiture, orthat the fame be nototherwifcfpeedily fitisBed.thatthenfuch offender or offend ers fhall be publicklywhipt, and be impnfoncdduringtlicpieafurcof the Lord Proprietary, or the Lieutenant or Chief Governor of this Province for the time being : And that every fuch offender and,offendcrs forevery fccond offinoc (hail forfeit Ten Pounds Sterling, or the value thereof to be levied as afore- raid; or in cafe fuch offender or offenders (hall not then have goods and chattels within this Province fufficieot for that purpofe, then to be publickly an* feyerely whipt and I imprifooed as before is cxpreflcd; and that every perfon or perfons before mentioned, offending herein the third time, (hall for fuch- third offence, forfeit all his lands andgoods, and be for ever banifht and expelled out of this Province. Facsimile of the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 statute books of the American colonies, we should remember that Roger Williams, thirteen years earlier, had founded Rhode Island on principles of religious toleration more complete than those of the Maryland Act ; for by the italicized words of the latter, Jews or freethinkers would be excluded from Lord Balti more s domain. By 1658 the fierce strife between Catholic and Protestant had been allayed, and Maryland settled down to a peaceful and prosperous development. The tremendous wave of anti-Catholic sentiment that followed the overthrow of the Stuarts (1689) swept the Baltimores out of their proprietorship ; but on the conversion of the family to Protestantism in 1715, The English Colonies 57 the province of Maryland was restored to them and remained under their rule until the American Revolution. During the first five years of his reign (1660-1665) Charles II 66. interest was much occupied with the American colonies. We have already stuarts inthe seen how the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were colomes granted in 1662-1663, and we shall see in the next section how busily the king regulated colonial trade in 1660-1663. The years 1663-1665 saw the establishment of three new English colonies in America, Carolina, New York, and New Jersey. In 1663 Charles II granted to a group of eight noblemen 67. The set- about his court the huge tract of land between Virginia and history of the the Spanish settlement of Florida, extending westward to the " South Sea " (Pacific Ocean). The charter gave the proprie tors power to make laws, " with the assent, advice, and appro bation of the freemen of the colony," to grant lands, collect duties and quitrents, establish courts, appoint magistrates, erect forts, found cities, make war, and allow the settlers " such in dulgences and dispensations in religious affairs as they should think proper and reasonable," powers as ample as Lord Balti more s in Maryland. But the board of proprietors were not equal to Lord Baltimore in tact, energy, and devotion to the interests of the colony. Too many cooks spoiled the broth. The initial mistake was the attempt to enforce a ridiculously elab orate constitution, the " Grand Model," composed for the occa sion by the celebrated English philosopher John Locke, and utterly unfit for a sparse and struggling settlement. A community grew up on the Chowan River (1670), founded by some mal contents from Virginia, and another on the shore of the Ashley River, three hundred miles to the south. The latter settlement was transferred ten years later (1680) to the site of the modern city of Charleston, South Carolina. These two widely separated settlements developed gradually into North and South Carolina respectively. The names are used as early as 1691, but the colony was not officially divided and provided with separate gov ernors until 1711. There is little in the history of the Carolinas The Establishment of the English X to detain us. It is a story of inefficient government, of wrang ling and discord between people and governors, governors and proprietors, proprietors and king. North Carolina has been de scribed as " a sanctuary of runaways," where " every one did what was right in his own eyes, paying tribute neither to God nor to Ccesar." 1 The Spaniards incited the Indians to attack the colony from the south, and pirates swarmed in the harbors and creeks of the coast. Finally, the assembly of South Carolina, burdened by an enormous debt from the Spanish- Indian wars, offered the lands of the province for sale to settlers on its own terms. The proprietors vetoed this action, which invaded their chartered rights. Then the assembly renounced obedience to the proprietor s magistrates, and petitioned King George I to be taken under his protection as a royal province (1710). It was Henry Hudson s Vessel, the Half Moon, . . , in the Hudson the onl y Case m Our Col - nial history of a proprietary government overthrown by its own assembly. Ten years later (1729) the proprietors sold their rights and interests in both Carolinas to the crown for the paltry sum of ^5 0,000. So two more colonies were added to the growing list of royal provinces. While the Carolina proprietors were inviting settlers to their new domain, an English fleet sent out by Charles II s brother, the Duke of York, sailed into New York harbor and demanded 1 William Byrd, a brilliant Virginian writer, described the lawless state of North Carolina in 1720 in the following catchy Latin couplet: De tributo Caesaris nemo cogitabat, Omnes erant Caesares, nemo censum dabat. The English Colonies 59 the surrender of the feebly garrisoned Dutch fort on Manhat- 68. The tan Island (September, 1664). The fort was commanded by Peter Stuyvesant, director general of the Dutch colony of New Netheriand, Netherland. About a hundred years earlier the Dutch, driven from their peaceful pursuits of farming and cheese-making by a long and cruel war with Spain, had taken to the sea and laid the foundations of that colonial empire which is to-day the chief wealth and pride of their little kingdom. Seeking to cripple Spain at all points, they had sent their ships east and west, to seize the enemy s treasure fleets, to establish forts and trading posts, and to find the northern passage to the Indies. Thus in the early autumn of 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of Holland, sailed into the spacious harbor of New York and up the majestic river which now bears his name. About five years later the Dutch established fortified trading posts on Manhattan Island and a few miles below the present city of Albany, and in 1621 the territory on the Hudson was granted by the States-General (Parliament) of Holland to the Dutch West India Company. The company did not make a success of the colony, although 69. The ill it offered tracts of land miles deep along both sides of the river JJitch^oiony 6 to rich proprietors (" patroons "), with feudal privileges of trade onthe Hudson and government, and in 1638 abolished all monopolies, opening trade and settlement to all nations, and making liberal offers of land, stock, and implements to tempt farmers. Even the city of New Amsterdam (New York), with its magnificent situation for commerce, reached a population of only sixteen hundred dur ing the half century that it was under Dutch rule. The West India Company, intent on the profits of the fur trade with the Indians of central New York, would not spend the money neces sary for the development and defense of the colony. They sent over director generals who had little concern for the welfare of the people, and refused to allow any popular assembly. If the settlers protested that they wanted a government like New Eng land s, " where neither patroons, lords, nor princes were known, 60 The Establishment of the English but only the people," they were met with the insulting threat of being "hanged on the tallest tree in the land." Furthermore, the .Dutch magistrates were continually involved in territorial quarrels. They had settled on the land granted by James I in 1606 to the London and Plymouth companies, and had been immediately warned by them to leave it. They replied humbly at first that they " had found no English there," and " hoped they were not trespassing," but later they assumed a defiant tone. They disputed the right to the Connecticut valley with the emigrants from Massachusetts, and claimed the land along the lower banks of the South River (the Delaware), from which they had driven out some Swedish settlers by force, 1 although the land lay plainly within the boundaries of Lord Baltimore s charter. In 1653, when England was at war with Holland, New Netherland was saved from the attack of the New England colo nies only by the selfish veto of Massachusetts on the unanimous vote of the other members of the Confederation of New England, hsh seizfthe Ever Y vear tne English realized more clearly the necessity of Dutch colony, getting rid of this alien colony, which lay like a wedge between Amsterdam New England and the Southern plantations, controlling the becomes New va ] ua bi e route o f fa e Hudson and making the enforcement of the trade laws in America impossible. In 1664, therefore, Charles II, on the verge of a commercial war with Holland, granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the territory between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers as a proprietary province. The first the astonished burghers of New Amsterdam knew of this transaction was the appearance of the duke s fleet in the harbor, with the curt summons to surrender the -fort. Director General Stuyvesant, the " valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leather-sided, lion-hearted old governor," as Diedrich 1 Although without the shadow of a claim by discovery and exploration, the Swedish court imitated those of England, France, and Holland by giving to its subjects charters to establish settlements on the shores of the New World. Be tween 1638 and 1647 five or six Swedish trading posts were set up along the banks of the Delaware River, near its mouth, but the home government made no provision for their defense and they were easily captured by the Dutch in 1655. The English Colonies 6 1 Knickerbocker calls him, fumed and stormed, declaring that he would never surrender. But resistance was hopeless. The burgh ers persuaded the irate governor to yield, although his gunners had their fuses lighted. New Netherland fell without a blow, and the English flag waved over an unbroken coast from Canada to Carolina. There are still many traces in New York of its fifty years 71. what the occupancy by the Dutch. The names of the old Knickerbocker queathea to families remind us of the patroons estates ; and from the car New York windows one gets glimpses of the high Dutch stoops and quaint market places in the villages along the Hudson, or sees a group of men at sundown still rolling the favorite old Dutch game of bowls, which Rip van Winkle found the dwarfs playing in the Catskills. But a far more significant bequest of New Nether- land to New York was the spirit of absolute government. Under the Dutch rule the people were without charter or popular as sembly, and the new English proprietor was content to keep things as they were, publishing his own code of laws for the province (the "Duke s Laws"). It was not till 1683 that he yielded to pressure from his own colony and the neighbors in New England and Pennsylvania, and granted an assembly. Two years later, on coming to the throne as James II, he revoked this grant and made New York the pattern of absolute govern ment to which he tried to make all the English colonies north of Maryland conform. What success his viceroy Andros had in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut we have already seen (p. 51). In New York the deputy-governor, Nicholson, deserted his post and sailed back to England. 1 When the new 1 The " revolution " in New York was headed by a fanatical demagogue, a German merchant named Jacob Leisler, who appropriated to himself the author ity laid down by Nicholson, and refused to surrender the fort on the Battery to King William s accredited agent before the arrival of the new governor. For this obstinate conduct Leisler was hanged as a traitor, although he protested that his only purpose in holding the reins of power was to prevent the Catholics in the colony from getting control of the government and betraying it to the French in Canada. He had done nothing more " treasonable " than had the leaders of the " glorious Revolution " in Massachusetts. 62 The Establishment of the English governor sent by King William III arrived in 1691, he brought orders to restore the popular assembly which James II had sup pressed, and from that time on the colony enjoyed the privilege of self-government. New York grew slowly. At the time of the foundation of our national government it was only one of the " small states " as compared with Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The Battery, New York, at the End of the Seventeenth Century The immense Empire State of to-day, with its nine million inhabitants, is the growth of the last three generations. It be gan when the Erie Canal, and later the New York Central Rail road, made the Hudson and Mohawk valleys the main highway to the Great Lakes and the growing West. 72. The set- Even before the Duke of York had ousted the Dutch magis- tlement and < i i history of the trates from his new province, he granted the lower part of it, jerseys from the Hudson to the Delaware, to two of his friends, who were also members of the Carolina board of proprietors, Lord Berkeley, brother of the irritable governor of Virginia, and Sir The English Colonies 6 George Carteret, formerly governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel. In honor of Carteret the region was named New Jersey (June, 1664). The proprietors of New Jersey im mediately published " concessions " for their colony, a liberal constitution granting full religious liberty and a popular assem bly with control of taxation. In 1674 the proprietors divided their province into East and West Jersey, and from that date to the end of the century the Jerseys had a turbulent history, de spite the fact that both parts of the colony, after various trans fers of proprietorship, came under the control of the peace-loving sect of Friends, or Quakers. 1 There were constant quarrels be tween proprietors and governors, between governors and legis latures, until New Jersey revolted, with the rest of the American colonies, from the rule of Great Britain. One of the Quaker proprietors of West Jersey in the early 73. William days was William Penn, a young man high in the favor of the p en nsyi- Duke of York and his royal brother Charles, on account of the vania I68x services of his father, Admiral Penn, to the Stuart cause. When the old admiral died he left a claim for some sixteen thousand pounds against King Charles II, and William Penn, attracted by the idea of a Quaker settlement in the New World, asked the king for a tract of land in payment of the debt. He was granted an immense region west of the Delaware River, which he named "Sylvania" (woodland), but which the king, in honor, he said, of the admiral, insisted on calling Pennsylvania (i68i). 2 1 The Friends, or Quakers, were a religious sect founded in England by George Fox in the middle of the seventeenth century. They believed that the " inner light," or the illumination of the Divine Spirit in each man s conscience, was a sufficient guide for conduct and worship. They were extreme M democrats," refusing to remove their hats in the presence of any magistrate. The Quakers had begun to come to America as early as 1653 to preach their doctrines of reli gious and political independence. We have already seen how cruelly they were persecuted by the Puritan authorities of Massachusetts (p. 49). In every colony except Rhode Island they were oppressed, until William Penn realized the dream of their founder and established a Quaker colony in the New World. 2 According to the charter Penn s grant was bounded on the south " by a circle drawne at twelve miles distant from Newcastle, Northward and Westward unto the beginning of the 4oth degree of Northern latitude." This confusing language is made all the more unintelligible by the fact that a circle drawn at a radius distance 64 The Establishment of the English Charles II was in the midst of his quarrel with the stiff-necked colony of Massachusetts, and was no longer willing to grant pro prietors the almost unlimited powers which he had granted to Lord Baltimore and the Duke of York. The Penn charter con tained provisions that the colony must always keep an agent in London, that the Church of England must be tolerated, that the king might veto any act of the assembly within five years after its passage, and that the English Parliament should have the right to tax the colony. 74. The pros- Penn offered attractive terms to settlers. Land was sold at Penn^scoiony ten dollars the hundred acres, complete religious freedom was allowed, a democratic assembly was summoned, and the Indians (Delawares), already humbled by their northern foes, the Iro- quois, were rendered still less dangerous by Penn s fair dealing with them. Emigrants came in great numbers, especially the Protestants from the north of Ireland, who were annoyed by cruel landlords and oppressive trade laws ; and the German Protestants of the Rhine country, 1 against whom Louis XIV of France was waging a crusade. In the first half of the eighteenth century the population of Pennsylvania grew from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand. Philadelphia, the " city of brotherly love," which Penn had planned in 1683 " to resemble a green and open country town," soon outstripped New York in population, wealth, and culture, and remained throughout the eighteenth century the leading city in the American colonies. Its neat brick houses, its paved and lighted streets, its printing presses, schools, hospital and asylum, its library (1731), philo sophical society (1743), and university (1749) all testified to the enlightenment and humanity of Penn s colony, and especially of twelve miles from Newcastle does not touch the fortieth degree of latitude. Lord Baltimore s charter of 1632 gave him all the land "which lyeth under the 4oth degree." The heirs of Penn and Baltimore quarreled over the boundary line for two full generations. Finally, in 1764-1767, two English surveyors, Mason and Dixon, ran the present boundary line (at 39 43 26"), which was accepted by both proprietors. For the disputed territory see map, p. 54. 1 The ancestors of the " Pennsylvania Dutch." The English Colonies to the genius and industry of its leading citizen, the celebrated Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). William Penn was the greatest of the founders of the Ameri- 75. character can colonies. He had all the liberality of Roger Williams with- Penn out his impetuousness, all the fervor of John Winthrop without a trace of intolerance, all the tact of Lord Baltimore with still greater industry and zeal. He was far in advance of his age in humanity. At a time when scores of offenses were punishable by death in England, he made murder the only capital crime in his colony. Prisons gen erally were filthy dun geons, but Penn made his prisons workhouses for the education and cor rection of malefactors. His province was the first to raise its voice against slavery (in the German- town protest of 1688), and his humane treat ment of the Indians has passed into the legend of the spreading elm and the wampum belts familiar to every American school child. When Penn s firm hand was removed from the province (1712), disputes and wranglings arose between governor and assembly over taxes, land transfers, trade, and defense ; but the colony remained in the possession of the Penn family throughout the American colonial period. Disappointed that his charter of 1681 gave him no coast line, 76. pennse- Penn persuaded the Duke of York in 1682 to release to him "Three Lower the land which Stuyvesant had wrested from the Swedes on the Delaware in 1655, and which, in spite of Baltimore s pro tests, had been held as a part of New York ever since the English " conquest " of 1664. This territory, called the " Three Penn treating with the Indians From an old woodcut 66 The Establishment of the English Lower Counties," Penn governed by a deputy. The Lower Counties were separated from Pennsylvania in 1702, and, under the name of the colony of Delaware, were given their own legislature ; but they remained a part of the proprietary domain of the Penn family till the American Revolution. 77. The col- For the sake of completeness we must mention among these proprietorships the colony of Georgia, although it was founded long after the Stuart dynasty had given place to the House of Hanover on the English throne. In the year that George Washington was born (1732), James Oglethorpe obtained from Parliament a charter granting to a body of trustees for twenty- one years the government of the unsettled part of the old Caro lina territory south of the Savannah River. It was a combined charitable, business, and political venture. Oglethorpe, who, as chairman of a parliamentary committee of investigation, had been horrified by the condition of English prisons, wished to provide an opportunity for poor debtors and criminals to work out their salvation in the New World. The Church was anx ious for the conversion of the Indians on the Carolina bor ders. Capitalists saw in the projected silk and wine cultivation a promise of large profits. And the government, drifting already toward the war with Spain which was declared in 1739, was glad to have the English frontier extended southward toward the Spanish settlement of Florida. So Parliament, the society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, the Bank of England, and many private citizens contributed toward the new colony, which was established on the banks of the Savannah in 1733, and named Georgia after the reigning king, George II. Slavery was forbidden in the new colony, also the traffic in rum, which was a disgrace to the New England colonies of Massa chusetts and Rhode Island. But the colony did not prosper. The convicts were poor workers. The industries started were unsuited to the land. Not wine and silk, but rice and cotton, were destined to be the foundation of Georgia s prosperity. Oglethorpe battled manfully for his failing colony, and defeated The English Colonies 67 the Spaniards on land and sea ; but the trustees had to sur render the government to the king in 1752. The founder of the last American colony lived to see the United States acknowl edged by Great Britain and the other powers of Europe as an independent nation. THE COLONIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY We have now traced the history of the establishment of the 78. Tendency English colonies in America. It remains to devote a few pages Jo become" 1 * to the economic and social condition of the colonies in their royal prov inces maturity in the eighteenth century. A glance at the accompanying table and map (pp. 68 and 69) will show how steady the tendency was for the colonies, especially those founded by proprietors, to become royal prov inces. Only Connecticut and Rhode Island escaped at least a short period of the king s control ; and repeated proposals were made in Parliament in the early years of the eighteenth century to suppress the few remaining colonial charters and unite all the colonies into one large province of the English crown, to be governed by the king s officers and provided with a provincial assembly. The causes for this tightening of royal control lay partly in the incompetency and selfishness of the proprietors, partly in the European politics, 1 partly in the need for protection against the French in Canada and their Indian allies. But the chief cause of the king s interference in colonial affairs was his desire to control their trade and manufactures for his own profit. The political economists of the seventeenth and eighteenth 79. The mer- centuries quite commonly believed that a nation s wealth was measured not by the amount of desirable goods which it could produce and exchange, but by the quantity of gold and silver 1 With the accession of William of Orange, in 1689, England was involved in a long period of war with France, and needed to concentrate all her resources. See Cheyney s Short History of England, chap. xvii. 68 The Establishment of tJie English which it could amass, the miser s ideal. In accordance with this "mercantile" theory of commerce, as it was called, every nation tried to buy as little from others and sell as much to others as possible, so that the " favorable balance " of cash 1682 1752 Map illustrating the Growth in the Number of Royal Provinces from 1682 to 1752 The royal provinces are colored red might come into its coffers. Naturally the European countries would look on their colonies, then, as places in which to sell goods. The colonies should furnish the raw materials iron, wool, furs, hides to the mother country, and then should buy back the finished products steel, clothing, hats, shoes - from the mother country, paying the difference in coin. Where 1 2 \ &, 8 |-|: T T oo 1 o K s ^ \O vO i 3 REMARKS Merged with Massachusetts in 1691 Only royal colony to have its charter (1691) A royal province, 1690-1715 Q 2 s, ^ % c < 1 rt a fa \^ o u 1 r^ Merged with Connecticut, 1662 t-> o" 1 i 1 % 1 f Informally separated, 1691; form \ arated with different governors, Dutch colony of New Netherland, j Towns absorbed by Massachusetts, Under the governor of New York ti A royal province, 1692-1694 T Conquered by Dutch, 1655 ; by Eng 4. Merged with Pennsylvania, 1682 a c (B 1 1 / z b | V h ?- STATUS i J775 J 1 a, 1 Self-govern Self-govern o o !! o Proprietai Proprietai 1 0- W iJ (M *4 o < **" * n si !zi w o ^S " - s S n M VO VD 8 vO | | T g 1 | K U) s H 8 s H r J f *> 1 1 I" Jr eg X \O "H "- m M M M. w M ^H M M u vV H s- s <s * a 00 M ^ - 00 N .0 vO vO xC \D o sC xD ^O \O r>, w FOUNDED BY London Com pany Separatists Puritans of the Mass. Bay Co. Lord Baltimore Roger Williams Emigrants from Massachusetts Emigrants from Massachusetts CO a I w Duke of York John Mason Berkeley and Carteret William Penn Swedes 1 o n a . . .s_ . NAME (the thirteen orig states in italic Virginia Plymouth . . Massachusetts Maryland . Rhode Island 1 J New Haven y c North Carolina* South Carolina , New York . New Hampshire 1 1 Pennsylvania . Delaware . Georgia . 69 The Establishment of the English 80. The i 660-1663 the money was to come from, when the colonies were forbidden either to manufacture goods themselves or to sell raw material to the other nations, does not seem greatly to have concerned the Eu ropean statesmen. They believed that colonies existed for the ad vantage of the mother country, and that if they could not increase the flow of gold and silver into her treasury, they were useless. So Charles II s ministers were neither more nor less at fault than those of the European countries generally, when in 1660-1663 they fastened on the American colonies the Navigation Acts, or laws of trade. No goods could be carried into or out of the colonies except in ships built in the English domains and manned by crews of which two thirds at least were Eng lish subjects. No foreign goods could be brought into the colonies without first stopping in England to pay duties or be inspected. Certain "enumerated articles," in cluding tobacco, cotton, furs, sugar, rice, could not be exported from the colonies to any port outside the British domain ; and all colo nial manufactures which competed with English industry were forbidden. To be sure, England softened the effect of the Navigation Acts by giving the enu merated colonial goods the preference, or even a monopoly, in her markets, and, by a system of " drawbacks " or re bates, reduced the duties which the colonies had to pay on goods shipped through English ports. But nevertheless it was a great hindrance to the commercial prosperity of the colonies to forbid them to buy and sell directly in the markets of Europe, AN ACT FOR Increafe of Shipping> And hncouragemcnt of the NAVIGATION OF THIS NATION. fl>* tilt Ifncrcafe oE the Shipping auD tlic encouragement of tlje jBftMgfttioa of tins Ration, iDljicl) unDcr Ujc goob pzoluDcnrc anb protection of Got* , is fo great a in tans of tl)CB9clfareai!o>afe= __ tp of ttjls Commons Sc itenactebbp trrts pzcfent parlia ent, anb tl)e 3utrjoj<tp thereof , ^Lrjatfrom anb after tl)t $ (rft bap of December, )ne tljou* fana fit IjuuD: CD fifty one, anb from tOcuccfoz- IDaros , jTo Ooobs or Cotnmobittes u>iv.tfo- euet, of the CjoibtD, pjobuctton oj fi)9anufa= ttnte Of Afia , Affrici OJ America , 0? Of an? Ptt thereof, o? of anp31flanbs belonging to ttjcm, o* an? of trjem , of ttfticl) are befcrtbeb oj lap noton tn tl)c ufual 4i0aps cj Carbs of tljofc places, asxbellof trjeCngUOi plantattons as , (rjallbejmpojteb o? b?oosl;Hto ttjis Facsimile of the Navigation Act of 1651 The English Colonies 71 and a severe blow to their industrial life to prohibit their rising manufactures. It was like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. For only by their trade with the French and Spanish Indies, which wanted their timber and furs, .could the colonies get that coin which England demanded to maintain her " favorable bal ance." The fact that five sixths of the laws passed by Parlia ment from 1689 to 1760, touching the colonies, were for the regulation of trade and manufactures shows how serious was this policy of restricting the commerce and industry of America. But for all the laws of Parliament, illicit trade flourished, and was the foundation of many a considerable colonial fortune. Probably 90 per cent of the tea, wine, fruit, sugar, and molasses consumed in the colonies was smuggled. " If the king of Eng land," said James Otis, " were encamped on Boston Common with twenty thousand men, and had all his navy on our coast, he could not execute these laws." Fortunately for the economic life of the colonies, the king s 81. why the ministers did not devote their serious attention to the enforce- Actswere not ment of the Navigation Acts until the eighteenth century was enforced some sixty years old. War with Louis XIV of France began when William of Orange ascended the English throne in 1689, and lasted almost uninterruptedly to the treaty of Utrecht (1713). Then for twenty years England s great peace minister, Robert Walpole, directed the government, wisely overlooking the irreg ularities of colonial commerce so long as its prosperity contrib uted to England s wealth and quiet. Toward the middle of the century the war with France was renewed, and the decade 1750- 1760 witnessed the culmination of the mighty struggle for the New World between France and England, which will be the subject of our next chapter. We shall see how the removal of the French from America affected the colonial policy of Eng land. Our interest at present is in noting that the long period of England s " salutary neglect " permitted the colonies to de velop their trade and manufactures to a considerable degree, in spite of the oppressive Navigation Acts. 72 The Establishment of the English 82. The The American colonists numbered about 1,300,000 in the middle of the eighteenth century. They were mostly of English m the eight- s tock, though the Dutch were still numerous on the Hudson eenth century and the Delaware. French Huguenots had come in considerable numbers to the middle and lower colonies, Germans from the Rhine country had settled in Pennsylvania, and the Scotch-Irish, that sterling, hardy race of men which has given us some of the most distinguished names in our history, had come in great num bers to Pennsylvania, and thence passed up the Shenandoah valley into Virginia and the Carolinas. Immigration practically ceased about 1730, not to be renewed on a large scale until the age of steamships a century later. There were between two and three hundred thousand negro slaves distributed through the colonies, a few house servants and men of all work in the New England States, a greater number in the Middle States and Virginia, while farther south they even outnumbered the whites in some districts of South Carolina and Georgia. 83. Types of There were well-defined types of colonial society, due to cir- colonial so- . . . ,. ,. . . , ciety. The cumstances of emigration from Europe, conditions of the soil, En land P^^ ca ^ institutions, and religious beliefs. These types were the more marked, as there were no adequate means of communica tion or routes of travel between the colonies. New England was inhabited by pure English stock, and retained for many generations its Puritan character. The early immigrants had come in congregations and settled in compact groups, making little self-governing towns clustered about the church, the school, and the village green. Learning was more carefully nurtured and widely diffused in New England than anywhere else in the colonies. 1 Before 1650 public-school instruction had been made 1 The Puritan leaders of the New England settlements were highly educated men, who prized learning for the support it furnished to their independent re ligious ideas. Where the interpretation of Scripture depended, as it did in the Puritan system, on one s own enlightened mind, universal education was a neces sity. The Massachusetts legislature, which voted ^"400 in 1636 " to found a col lege at Newtowne " (Cambridge), was "the first body in which the people by their representatives ever gave their own money to found a place of education " (Quincy, History of Harvard University, Vol. II, p. 654). The English Colonies 73 compulsory in all New England except Rhode Island, in order " that learning," in the noble words of the Massachusetts stat ute, " might not be buried in the graves of the fathers." Har vard College was established six years after Winthrop s landing, and " before the nightly howl of the wolf had ceased from the outskirts of their villages " the Massachusetts settlers had made provision whereby their young men might study the master minds of the world. The excellent Earl of Bellomont, coming Harvard College in 1726 as royal governor to Massachusetts in 1700, wondered how so much learning could exist in the province side by side with so much fanaticism. The stony soil and rigorous climate of New England made 84. The New the farmer s life a fit preparation for enduring the rough march or toiling on the rude fortifications against the Indians, whose war whoop so often interrupted his plowing and planting. The schools of bluefish, mackerel, and cod off the coast devel oped a race of hardy fishermen in the seaport towns ; while the fleet sloops and cutters of the aristocratic merchants slipped by the customs patrol with the smuggled goods of the Indies. Until the rise of a class of brilliant young lawyers like Otis and 74 The Establishment of the English the Adamses, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, the clergy were the undisputed leaders of society. Education was entirely in their hands, and the magistrates were controlled by a public opinion largely inspired from the pulpits of the Puritan divines. With the virtues of soberness, industry, scrupulous conscien tiousness, and a high standard of private and public morality, Puritanism also unfortunately developed narrowness, self-right eousness, and unwholesome cultivation of the austere and joy less sides of life. The first play that ventured to invite the applause of a New England audience, " The Orphan," enacted in a Boston coffeehouse in 1750, was prohibited as "tending to discourage industry and frugality and greatly to increase im piety." At the same time New York, Baltimore, and cities to the south were centers of gayety. 85. con- No greater contrast could be imagined than that of the hardy sented b*y dif- ld Puritan divine, Samuel Emery, preaching interminable ser- mons m the arctic c ld of a Maine meetinghouse without seats, windows, or plaster, on a salary of ^45 a year, payable one half in farm truck and firewood, prepared every moment to seize his musket at the sound of the Indian war whoop, and fortified by inward grace against the still more redoubtable attacks of the tart tongues of " frightfully turbulent women " in his congrega tion ; and the rich Carolina planter, wintering among the fashion able throng at Charleston, sipping costly wines at gay suppers, handing richly gowned women to their chariots with the grace of King Louis s courtiers, gaming, dueling, drinking, and re mitting generous sums of his plantation profits to the son estab lished in gentleman s quarters at Tory Oxford. Of course such a picture is not fair to the average life in the colonies, north and south. There were wealthy aristocrats among the Puritans of New England, as " Tory Row " in Cambridge testified ; and there were numerous settlers of hardy Huguenot and Scotch" Irish stock in Virginia and the Carolinas. Nevertheless, the contrast between New England and the colonies south of the Potomac was marked. The English Colonies 75 The rich soil of the South, with its staple crops of tobacco 86. Thepian- and rice, favored the plantation system and slave labor. Broad S navigable rivers, reaching well up into the level lands, gave every planter his private wharf, and made the huge plantations re semble feudal estates, with their stately manor houses domi nating the stables, the storage sheds, and the clustering huts of the slave quarters. In Virginia, and perhaps to some extent in the Carolinas, these estates, by the laws of "primogeniture" and A Colonial Mansion in the South " entail," descended undivided to the eldest son of the family, while the younger sons either entered the ranks of the clergy and the professions of physicians and lawyers, or sometimes became shiftless dependents and rovers. A public-school system was impossible when the white popu- 87. culture lation was so scattered that a planter needed a field glass to see in the South his neighbor s house. The slaves might be taught the elements of religion by a conscientious mistress, but "book learning" was no part of their equipment for the rice swamps, the kitchen, or the hunting stables. On court days the squires and rustics gathered at the county center, making a holiday with racing 76 The Establishment of the English and speech making ; but the tense and steady political interest of the New England town meeting was unknown. 1 88. The mid- The settlements between the Hudson and the Potomac were " middle colonies " in character as well as in situation, between the puritanical, democratic type of New England, and the urbane, aristocratic, hospitable society of the South, so tenacious of rank and tradition. Politically these middle colonies combined some features of both the township government of the North and the county government of the South. They were (as they still are) cosmopolitan in population, and the region was most attractive to foreign immigration. A Jesuit missionary of Canada passing through New Amsterdam in 1643 found eighteen languages spoken among its four hundred inhabitants, and noted an in tense devotion to money making, which precluded much inter est in education or religion. There were but two churches in the city when it was surrendered to the English in 1664. 89. why In lands so recently reclaimed from the virgin forest and the deveioped n savage Indian as were the American colonies, the progress of slowly in the civilization was naturally slow. As late as the outbreak of the colonies Revolutionary War, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania could write, " Some few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the soil from Nova Scotia to West Florida." Still Benjamin Franklin, already high in the estimation of Europeans for his scientific discoveries, when founding the first American Philosophical Society (1743), wrote : " The first drudgery of settling new colonies is pretty well over, and there were many in every colony in circumstances which set them at ease to cultivate the finer arts and improve the common stock of knowledge." 90. Estab- An enterprising governor of New York, toward the end of the postafsystem seventeenth century, started a monthly postal service between in the colonies New York and Boston, over the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield route now followed by the railroad. In 1710 Parliament extended 1 In Virginia there was a sort of county government by the parish vestries, but in South Carolina every magistrate was appointed in Charleston and every court held there. Of county or township government there was no trace until after the Civil War. The English Colonies 77 the British post office to America, with headquarters at New York, and routes reaching from the Maine border on the north to Wil- liamsburg, the capital of Virginia, on the south. Later Benjamin Franklin was for many years postmaster-general of the colonies, and administered the office with great skill. Public schools existed from the first in New England, as we 91. Educa- have seen, but were not established in the middle and southern colonies colonies until the eighteenth century. For over half a century Harvard was the only college in America; then followed William and Mary in Virginia (1693), Yale in Connecticut (1701), Prince ton in New Jersey (1746), Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) (1749), King s (now Columbia) in New York (1754), Rhode Island (now Brown University) (1764). The first medical treatise in America was published by Thomas Thacher in Boston in 1678, " to guide the common people of New Eng land how to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pocks or Measels." But it was a full century before the first medical school was opened in Philadelphia, with lectures in anatomy, botany, and Lavoisier s discoveries in chemistry. Even then the science of medicine was crude and clumsy beyond belief. George Washington s life was sacrificed to medical ignorance in 1799. He was " bled " three times by the leeches, and then, after the loss of two quarts of blood, was " dosed to nausea and blis tered to rawness." Even his stout constitution could not stand the heroic treatment. His secretary wrote sadly : " Every medical assistance was offered, but without the desired result." In 1638 the first font of type was brought from England, 92. Printing and in 1640 the Book of Psalms in meter (the old " Bay Psalm Book ") was printed in Boston, the first book printed in America north of the city of Mexico. On September 26, 1690, the first newspaper in America, Publick Occurrences both For eign and Domestic, appeared in Boston ; but it was promptly suppressed by the government " under high resentment." How ever, in 1704 the Boston News-Letter had a kinder reception by the authorities, and became the first permanent newspaper. 78 The Establishment of the English Within the next half century all the colonies except New Jersey, Delaware, and Georgia had Gazettes or Chronicles., and there were three or four respectable periodicals. But few books were produced in the colonies. The educated depended on England for their scientific works, and read with avidity the ponderous novels of the eighteenth century. The colonial presses were chiefly devoted to sermons and political " broadsides." The Boftoti News-Letter. by From flOnDa^ April 17. to fl^OnDa? April 24. 1704. 170;. Etters from Scotland bring us the Copy of From all this he infers, That they have hopes of Afliftance from France, otherw ife they would never be fo impudent , and he gives Reafons for his Ap- Lt . . , . a Sheet lately Printed there, Intituled , A I prehcnfions that the Fnnlj King may {end Troops feafonablt Alarm for Scotland. Inn Letter thither this Winter, i. Becaufethe Engtljb &Dutch from aGentleman in the Citato bit Friend in- will not then be at Sea to oppofe them. z. He can the Cfteiny, concerning the pfeftnt Danger then beft fpare them, the Seafon of Action beyond t) the Kingdom mid cf tlx Proteftant Religion. Sea being over. 3. The Expedition given him of a This Letter takes Notice, ThatPapifts fwarm in confiderable number to joyn.them, may incourage that Nation, that they traffiek more avowedly than him to the undertaking witli fewer Men,if he cart formerly, and that of late many Scores of Pnefts & but fend over a fufficient number of Officers with Jcfuires arc come thither from France, and gone to Arms and Ammunition. the North, to the Highlands & other places of the He endeavours in the reft of his Letters to an- Country. That the Minifter* of the Highlands and fwcr the fooltfli Pretences of the Preten der s being North gave in large Lifts of them to the Commit- a Prottftant and that he will govern Us according tee of the General Aflcmbly, to be laid before the to Law. He fays, that being brrd up in the Reli- Privj CoUnctl. gion and Politicks of France, he is by Education a Facsimile of the Earliest Successful Newspaper in America 93. The free- In 1734 a poor New York printer named Peter Zenger was pressvindi- tried for " seditious libel " in speaking freely of the government, cated, 1734 He was defended by the aged Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, the ablest lawyer in the colonies, who came to offer his services gratis in a cause which he rightly deemed of the utmost impor tance. " It is not the case of a poor printer nor of New York alone," he said in his fine plea. " No ! it may in its consequences affect every freeman that lives under a British government in the main [land] of America, securing to ourselves and our posterity the liberty both of exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth." Hamilton won his case, and the freedom of the press was thus early vindicated in our history. The English Colonies 79 The observant Swedish traveler Kalm, visiting America in 94. Lack of 1750, was astonished at the isolation of the colonies from one J^intance i] another, and it is said that the delegates who met from nine of the colonies them in a congress at New York fifteen years later regarded each other " like ambassadors from foreign nations, strange in face and action." It is not to be wondered at that the colonies knew little of one another in days when travel by stage, sloop, or saddle was laborious and expensive ; nor that little love was lost between them when boundaries were constantly in dispute on account of the reckless grants of the Stuart charters, and when jealousies were rife over the appropriations of men and money for Indian defense. Yet, for all the diversity of type and disunion of sentiment 95. Factors in the colonies, there were some very fundamental bonds of f 0r un ity of union between them. They were all predominantly of English blood, with the inheritance of the English traditions of self- government. Popular assemblies insisted on the control of the public purse in every colony from New Hampshire to Georgia. The common law of England was universal. Trial by jury, lib erty of speech and of the press, freedom from standing armies, absence of oppressive land taxes, in short, the rights and privileges for which free-born Englishmen had contended from the days of Magna Carta to the overthrow of the Stuarts, were possessed and prized by all the colonies. And when these guarantees of liberty were invaded by a headstrong king and a heedless Parliament, the people of the colonies forgot that they were Virginians or New Englanders, Episcopalians or Puritans, planters, traders, farmers, or fishermen, in the prouder, deeper consciousness that they were freemen. REFERENCES The Old Dominion : L. G. TYLER, Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606- 1625 (Original Narratives of Early American History) ; JOHN FISKE, Old Virginia and her Neighbors ; JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Crit ical History of America, Vol. Ill, chap, v \ C. M, ANDREWS, Colonial 8o The Establishment of the English Self- Government (American Nation Series), chaps, xiii, xiv; L. G. TYLER, England in America (American Nation Series), chaps, iii-vi ; EDW. CHANNING, History of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 143-236 ; J. A. DOYLE, English Colonies in America, Vol. I, chaps, vi ix. The New England Settlements : CHANNING, Vol. I, chaps, x-xv ; Vol. II, chaps, vi, vii; FISKE, The Beginnings of A r ew England; DOYLE, Vols. II and III ; WINSOR, Vol. Ill, chaps, viii, ix ; TYLER (Am. Nation), chaps, ix-xix ; ANDREWS, chaps, iii, iv, xvi, xvii ; W. T. DAVIS, Brad ford s History of Plymouth (Orig. Narr.) ; J. K. HOSMER, Winthrop s Journal (Orig. Narr.) ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contem poraries, Vol. I, Nos. 90-149. The Proprietary Colonies : DOYLE, Vol. I, chaps, x-xii ; Vol. IV, chaps, i-vii ; J. F. JAMESON, Narratives of New Netherland (Orig. Narr.) ; FISKE, Old Virginia and her Neighbors, chaps, viii, ix, xiii, xiv ; The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America; CHANNING, Vol. I, chaps, xvi-xviii ; Vol. II, chaps, ii, iv, xi, xii ; TYLER (Am. Nation), chaps, vii, viii ; ANDREWS, chaps, v-xii, xv-xix ; H. L. OSGOOD, The American Colonies in the Sev enteenth Century, Vol. II; HART, Vol. I, Nos. 153-172; WINSOR, Vol. III, chaps, x-xiii; Vol. V, chaps, iii-vi. The Colonies in the Eighteenth Century : DOYLE, Vol. V ; E. B. GREENE, Provincial America (Am. Nation), chaps, i-vi, xi xviii ; R. G. THWAITES, The Colonies, pp. 265 ff. ; HART, Vol. II, Nos. 1-108 ; CHANNING, Vol. II, chaps, xiii-xvii ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, chap, ii ; G. L. BEER, The Commercial Policy of England toward the American Colonies. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Bacon s Rebellion : FISKE, Old Virginia, Vol. II, pp. 58-107 ; HART, Vol. I, No. 70 ; ANDREWS, pp. 215-231 ; OSGOOD, Vol. Ill, pp. 258-278. 2. The Pilgrims in England and Holland : M. DEXTER, The Story of the .Pilgrims, pp. 1-150; CHANNING, Vol. I, pp. 293-304; HART, Vol. I, Nos. 49, 55, 97-104 ; W. E. GRIFFIS, The Pilgrims in their Three Homes. 3. Dutch New York: WINSOR, Vol. IV, pp. 395-409; CHANNING, Vol. I, pp. 438-483; HART, Vol. I, Nos. 150-155; FISKE, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. I, pp. 158-188. 4. William Penn : FISKE, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. II, pp. 109-139 ; WINSOR, Vol. Ill, pp. 469-495 ; CHANNING, Vol. II, pp. 94- 126; DOYLE, Vol. IV, pp. 379-403 ; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 75, 171. 5. Religion in New England: WINSOR, Vol. II, pp. 219-244; DOYLE, Vol. II, pp. 85-120 ; Vol. V, pp. 166-193 ; OSGOOD, Vol. I, pp. 200-221 ; Old South Leaflets, No. 55. CHAPTER III THE STRUGGLE WITH FRANCE FOR NORTH AMERICA THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE Three centuries ago the kings of Europe regarded as their 96. European own private property any distant lands or islands that mariners America in in their service might discover ; and they granted these lands to settlers and trading companies with little regard for each other s claims. We have mentioned how immense tracts of land in America, extending from sea to sea, were given away by the Stuart kings, on the ground that John Cabot s discovery of the mainland of America in 1497 gave the New World to England. The States-General (parliament) of the Netherlands in 1621 granted to the Dutch West India Company exclusive privileges of trade " on the east coast of America from Newfoundland to the Strait of Magellan." Seven years later Richelieu, the pow erful cardinal-minister who ruled the ruler of France, granted to the " Hundred Associates of Canada territory and trading rights, extending along the Atlantic coast from Florida to the Arctic circle." Even Sweden entered the ranks of the world- colonizing powers in 1632, with a charter to a company "for trade and settlement on the coasts of America, Africa, and Asia." The actual results of these ambitious plans were meager enough. The Swedes maintained their tiny posts on the Delaware Riv^er for less than twenty years, and the Dutch held the banks of the Hudson for about fifty years. Besides the English, only the French came anywhere near making good, by settlement or ex ploration, their vast claims to territory in North America. With .the French the English had to fight for the possession of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, and the Mississippi valleys. 81 82 The Establishment of the English 97. The early French ex plorers 98. Cartier on the St. Law rence, 1534- 1535 The French were early in the field of American exploration. Their traditions tell of the discovery of distant western shores by sailors of Dieppe more than a century before Columbus s birth. At any rate, the fishing vessels of the Norman and Breton sea dogs were looming through the Newfoundland fogs soon after Columbus s death ; and Verrazano had sailed the Atlantic coast from Florida to Nova Scotia for the French king sixty JOUSTS EARLIESTWP 1673-4 Joliet s Map (from Winsor s " Cartier to Frontenac ") years before Sir Walter Raleigh opened the epoch of English settlement in Virginia. A long list of French names represent settlements attempted in Brazil, Carolina, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia (Acadia) during the sixteenth century ; but the only real discoverer among these French adventurers was Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo in Brittany. In 1534 Cartier sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on his. next voyage (1535) discovered the broad mouth of the river. He made his way up the St. Lawrence, stopping to barter The Struggle with France for North America 83 (for furs at Indian villages on the magnificent sites where the i cities of Quebec and Montreal now stand. Just beyond Mon treal the way to the China Sea (the hope held out by every ( westward-reaching river or creek) was barred by the rapids whose name, Lachine (" China "), still tells of Cartier s disap pointment in not reaching the East Indies. For several years Cartier labored in vain to establish a colony on the St. Lawrence, and one year his men actually wintered there. But the noble river of Canada was destined, like the lowlands of Virginia, to wait until the opening of a new century before its savage tribes were disturbed by the permanent presence of Euro peans. The man who founded the 99. cham- -r-i i . . , , , plain founds French empire in Canada, the Quebec (1608) " Father of New France," was Samuel de Champlain. Trained the iroquois navigator, scientific student, 1 intrepid explorer, earnest mis sionary, unwearied advocate of French expansion in the New Champlain s Astrolabe World, Champlain established a trading post on the mighty rock of Quebec in 1608. The little colony, like the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth twelve years later, barely survived its first winter. But an unfortunate cir cumstance in the summer of 1609 proved more disastrous to the French rule in America than many starving winters. Cham- plain was induced by the Algonquin Indians along the river 1 About 1870 a farmer turned up a brass astrolabe near the Ottawa River bearing the mark " Paris, 1603." There can be no doubt that it was Champlain s. In 1600, while on a visit to the Spanish West Indies, Champlain had suggested the great advantage to commerce which would result from digging a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. 84 The Establishment of the English to join them in an attack on their old enemies, the Iroquois, whose confederation of five powerful tribes stretched from the upper Hudson to Lake Erie. The expedition led Cham- plain s canoes into the sapphire waters of the Lake of the Iro quois, which now bears his name. A single volley from the French guns put to flight the astounded Indians gathered on the shore of the lake ; but Cham plain little dreamed of the far- reaching effect of those few shots that startled the virgin forest of the Lake of the Iroquois. On that very July day of 1609 Henry Hudson was off the New England coast on his way to discover the river which was to take him up to within a few miles of the Lake. The defeat of the Iroquois by Champlain made that powerful league of tribes the allies of the Dutch (and later of the English) on the Hudson, and not of the French on the St. Law rence. They massacred the French missionaries and exterminated the tribes Champlain Tercentenary that ii sten ed to their preaching. Their Medal . , - enmity iorced the k rench explorers and traders to seek the interior of America by the northern shores of the Great Lakes ; and the terror which their name spread westward even to the Mississippi kept the Ohio valley from ever being a safe highway of commerce between the French posses sions in Canada and in Louisiana (the Mississippi Valley). loo. French Had the French controlled the Ohio valley and the southern nization " shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, as they would undoubtedly have done with the Iroquois as allies, it is extremely likely that they would have succeeded in their long struggle to confine the English within the narrow strip of land between the Alle gheny Mountains and the Atlantic. Then the vast continent of America above the Gulf of Mexico would have developed under French instead of English institutions. What the French ideas of colonization were we see in the regulations made by Richelieu The Struggle with France for North America 85 in 1627 to 1628 for the Hundred Associates of New France, and by the ministers of Louis XIV, when the colony became a prov ince of the crown in 1663. None but Frenchmen and Roman Catholics were allowed in the colony. The land was all in the hands of great proprietors, who rented strips for cultivation along the river banks, in exchange for labor on their big estates or payment in produce. The government was administered by the officers of the company or the crown, without the direction or even the advice of any representative assembly. There was no local government. Justice was dispensed by the magistrates without trial by jury. The self-rule which was practically enjoyed by every English 101. The colony on the Atlantic seaboard was unknown in Canada. In its place there prevailed the system known as " paternalism," French in which treated the inhabitants of the colony like irresponsible children under the firm, paternal hand of its governors. They were directed by the government not only what taxes to pay, with what ports to trade, what laws to obey, what worship to perform, but what tools to use, what seeds to plant, at what age to marry, and how large families to bring up. This absolute and paternal rule, while it promoted military efficiency, did not at tract colonists. In spite of lavish expenditures by the king, the colony did not flourish. During the seventeenth century the Eng lish population along the Atlantic coast grew to four hundred thousand, while the French in Canada barely reached eighteen thousand. The three chief posts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were strung along the St. Lawrence at intervals of ninety miles. The sparseness of population permitted agricul ture to be carried on only in the neighborhood of the ports which served to protect the settlers from the Indians. Westward through the St. Lawrence valley and along the 102. The shores of the Great Lakes roamed the hunters and trappers and fur traders, the wood-rangers (coureurs de bois) who defied the trading laws of the king s governor at Quebec. These wild Frenchmen often sacrificed their native tongue, their religion, 86 The Establishment of the English even their very civilization itself, and joined the aboriginal Ameri can tribes, marrying Indian squaws, eating boiled dog and mush, daubing their naked bodies with greasy war paint, and leading the hideous dance or the murderous raid. 103. The The Catholic priests played a part in New France quite as sionarieTin important as that of the Puritan ministers in New England. New France The Jesuits, a strict religious order inflamed with unquenchable missionary zeal for the conversion of the Indians, came to the An Early French Fort in Canada colony in its earliest years. In 1634 they were the pioneers to the savage lands of the Hurons about Georgian Bay, and during the whole of the seventeenth century they kept side by side with the explorer and the trader in their march westward. They have left us an account of their triumphs and martyrdoms in a series of annual reports sent home to the superior of their order in France during the years 1632 to 1675. These "Jesuit Rela tions " have recently been edited in over seventy volumes by a distinguished American scholar. They form one of the most valuable sources for the study of the French in America. Champlain had advocated westward expansion. He himself discovered Lakes Ontario and Huron and explored the Ottawa LA SALLE TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA The Struggle with France for North America 87 valley. He sent Jean Nicolet as far as the outlet of Lake 104. French Superior in 1634. A generation of explorers and traders fol- the Great n lowed in Nicolet s footsteps, penetrating the western wildernesses L 6 akes to the upper waters of the Mississippi, and even reaching the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. In 1671 St. Lusson, standing at Sault Ste. Marie, where the emerald flood of Lake Superior rushes to join the darker waters of Lake Huron, took posses sion, with great pomp and pageant, of the vast Northwest for his sovereign king, Louis XIV. Already Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de la Salle, who was to 105. LaSaiie repeat St. Lusson s ceremony eleven years later at the mouth g?eaf Missis- of the Mississippi, and so complete the dominion of France sippivaiiey from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, was pushing his way 1670-1683 down the Ohio valley to reach the " Big Water " (Mich sipt) which the Indians said flowed southward for innumerable days. La Salle was a French nobleman, cultured, aristocratic, domi neering ; yet he sacrificed wealth and ease, bore with marvelous patience repeated and overwhelming misfortunes, endured physi cal hardship and forest travel which exhausted even his Indian guides, that he might accomplish his single purpose of extending the name and power of France in the New World. He labored twelve years in the face of jealousy and detraction at home, treachery in his own ranks, bankruptcy, shipwreck, and mas sacre, before he actually guided his canoes out of the Illinois into the long-desired stream of the Mississippi (February 6, 1682). The Jesuit priest Marquette and the trader Joliet had anticipated him by nine years, sailing down the great river as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, but returning when they had satisfied themselves that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico instead of the western sea. La Salle, however, was stimulated by a greater purpose than the discovery of a passage to China. He was adding a continent to the dominion of France. He planted the lilies of France on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico (April 9, 1682), naming the huge valley of the Mississippi " Louisiana " in honor of his sovereign, Louis XIV. 1 Marquette 1673 .La Salle 1679-168G 3 Hennepin 1680 4 La Salle 1681-1682 French Explorations on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi The Struggle with France for North America 89 La Salle himself did not live to develop and govern the new 106. cham- domain of Louisiana. 1 But the line of posts down the Illinois lane and and the Mississippi, which united the French possessions in Frontenacthe . . builders of Canada and Louisiana ; the fortification of Detroit (1701), with New France its control of Lake Erie and the portages to the Ohio tributaries ; the prosperous colony of seven thousand inhabitants in the lower Mississippi Valley, which grew up with New Orleans (founded 1718) as its capital, all were the outcome of La Salle s vast labors. If Champlain was the father of New France, La Salle was its elder brother. These two, together with the energetic, far- seeing governor of Canada, the Count Frontenac (1672-1682, reappointed 1689-1698), form the trio who created the French power in the New World, and whose plan of empire building, had it not been thwarted by the narrow and bigoted policy of the court of Versailles, might have made not only the St. Law rence and Mississippi valleys but all of America above the tropics an enduring colony of France. The English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, occupied with 107. The their own problems of developing their agricultural resources, coStindiifer- building up their commerce, defending their precious rights of self-government against king and proprietor, were slow to realize explorations , . in the West the serious meaning of the French power which was gradually surrounding them in a long chain of posts from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi. Though by their charters several of the colonies extended to the Pacific, the Allegheny Mountains, only a few score miles from the Atlantic coast, actually formed a western boundary which the colonists were over a century in reaching, and another half century in crossing. When the Virginians were still defending their tide- swept peninsulas against the Susquehannock Indians, and the Carolinians were laying the foundations of their first city, what the French fur traders, missionaries, and explorers were doing 1 Returning to the New World from a visit to France, La Salle missed the mouth of the Mississippi and landed, perilously near being shipwrecked, on the Texan coast by Matagorda. He was treacherously assassinated by some of his own party while trying to reach Louisiana through swamp and jungle, 1684. 90 The Establishment of the English at the head of the Great Lakes or along the Mississippi seemed too remote for notice. 108. Rivalry There were only three exceptions to this general indifference sTy region 11 of the English colonies to the progress of the French in America andAcadia j n ^ seven teenth century. In 1670 Charles II granted to a number of courtiers and merchants the region about Hudson Bay, whose harbors made fine depots for the Far Western fur trade. The French had already established fortified posts on the bay, and for forty years contested the region with the English. Again, Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia), the oldest permanent French settlement in the New World (1604), was repeatedly attacked by the English, on the ground that it lay within the bounds of the Virginia and New England charters. From 1613 to 1710 no less than seven expeditions were sent against this Acadian stronghold. The fighting around Hudson Bay and the Acadian peninsula, however, was of slight importance for the possession of America when compared with the mighty struggle for the region between the upper Hudson and the St. Lawrence. 109. critical New York differed from the other English colonies in several New York important respects. It was not settled by the English, but was conquered by them from the Dutch. Its character as a despoti cally governed trading colony was already formed. It was the only English colony that lacked a popular assembly under the Stuart dynasty. 1 It was the only one not protected in the rear by the wall of the Alleghenies, and hence the only one that had direct and easy communication with the Iroquois south of the Great Lakes, and with the French on the St. Lawrence. Further more, only the year before the Duke of York s fleet took New Netherland from the Dutch, Louis XIV, just come of age, had taken the colony of New France into his own hands (1663). His able minister, Colbert, reorganized the government, secur ing bounties for trade and large loans and gifts of money and stores from the king for the French colonies in Canada, the West 1 Except for the years 1683 to 1685, when the Duke of York allowed his gov ernor, Dongan, to convene an assembly. The Struggle with France for North America 91 Indies, South America, and Africa. A royal governor was sent to Canada, together with a military commander and a regiment of twelve hundred veterans of the European wars. The French frontier was pushed down to Lake Champlain, and the new governor was on his way south with five hundred men to chas tise the Iroquois, when he heard that the English had seized the Hudson. He " returned in great sylence and dilligence toward Canada, declaring that the king of England did grasp at all America." Still the commander wrote home to Colbert that it was necessary for the French to have New York. It would give them an ice-free entrance to Canada by the Hudson valley, would break up the English alliance with the Iroquois, and would divide the English colonies in America into a northern and a southern group. Under these circumstances it was not strange that New York should be the colony most concerned about the growth of the French power, and that it should be Dongan, the Duke of York s governor, who first urged upon his countrymen that to have the French " running all along from our lakes by the back of Virginia and Carolina to the Bay of Mexico " might be " very inconvenient to the English" (1683). So long as the Stuarts occupied the English throne, however, 110. The ac- their governors in New York or in any other American colony iSof Orange received little support against the French. The royal brothers, J^| e n war Charles II and James II, who basely accepted millions of pounds France and from their cousin Louis XIV of France to combat their own parliaments in England, could not with very good grace attack King Louis s governors in America. But with the expulsion of the Stuarts and the accession of William of Orange to the English throne, in 1689, a great change came,, William had for years been the deadly enemy of Louis XIV on account of the latter s shameful attack on the Netherlands in i6j2. 1 More over, William, as the leading Protestant prince of Europe, was 1 William of Orange, when he was invited to the English throne in 1688, was serving his seventeenth year as Stadtholder (or President) of the Dutch Repub lic (the northern provinces of the Netherlands). 92 The Establishment of the English the champion of the reformed religion, which Louis was strain ing every nerve to overthrow. England, in a wave of national enthusiasm, rallied to William s support against the absolute power of France. A mighty struggle began between the two countries for the colonial and commercial supremacy of the world. In the century and a quarter that intervened between William s accession and the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo (1815), Eng land and France fought seven wars, filling sixty years and cover ing lands and oceans from the forests of western Pennsylvania to the jungles of India, and from the Caribbean Sea to the mouth of the Nile. THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE ill. Indian Louis XIV s governor in Canada, the wily old Count Fron- attacksonthe A , ..__., English fron- tenac, was only waiting for an excuse to attack the English tiers, 1689- settlements in New England and New York. On learning of the outbreak of war between France and England (1689) he sent his bands of Indian allies against the frontier towns to pil lage, burn, and massacre. Dover, in the present state of New Hampshire, and Schenectady, in the Mohawk valley, New York, were the scenes of frightful Indian atrocities. Even the conclusion of peace between the courts of London and Paris in 1698, and the death of Frontenac in the same year, brought only a lull in these savage raids. 112. The In 1701 a new war broke out between the two great rival Treaty of Utrecht, 1713 powers. Louis XIV, in defiance of all Europe, set his grandson on the vacant throne of Madrid, thinking by the combined strength of France and Spain to crush out Protestantism entirely, to control the wealth of the New World, to destroy England s colonial empire and sweep her fleets from the ocean. The French king failed in his ambitious plans. After repeated defeats at the hands of Queen Anne s great general, the Duke of Marlborough, 1 1 King William III died in 1702, and was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne, a Protestant daughter of James II. With England in this War of the Spanish Succession were allied Holland, Spain, and the German Empire (Austria). The Struggle with France for North America 93 he was forced to conclude the humiliating treaty of Utrecht (1713), which made England the foremost maritime power of the world. 1 By the clauses of the treaty that referred to the New World, France surrendered to England the territories of Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay. States men in America urged that England should demand the whole St. Lawrence valley and free the colonies once for all from the danger of the French and Indians on the north. But the mother country was content for the moment to get a clear title to re gions which had been in dispute for a hundred years, and to secure the undisputed control of the Iroquois tribes in western New York. The French were destined to hold the great rivers of Canada for half a century more. The treaty of Utrecht was only a truce, after all, as far as 113. The America was concerned, for it decided nothing as to the pos- session of the vast territory west of the Alleghenies. But the Fleuri > truce was kept for many years, on account of the death of the ambitious Louis XIV (1715) and the rise to power of the peace fully disposed ministers, Robert Walpole in England and Cardi nal Fleuri in France. Till the middle of the eighteenth century, though Indian raids on the frontiers, promoted by the French, - occurred at frequent intervals, only one real French war (King George s War, 1744-1748) disturbed the colonies. 2 A glorious exploit of the colonial troops in this war was the capture in 1745 of the imposing fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island, guarding the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Colonel Wil liam Pepperell of New Hampshire was in command of the ex pedition, and his army consisted almost wholly of troops voted by the New England legislatures. The restoration of the fortress 1 For the full terms of the treaty of Utrecht, with map, see Robinson and Beard, Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, pp. 42-44. 2 The names and dates of the actual French wars from the accession of Wil liam III to the middle of the eighteenth century were King William s War (1689-1697), Queen Anne s War (1702-1713), and King George s War (1744 1748). They were all parts of general European conflicts (see Robinson and Beard, Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, pp. 28-33, 4 2 ~44> 60-68). 94 The Establishment of the English to France in the peace of 1748 created bitter feeling in the breasts of the New England yeomen, who thought that the mother country underrated their sacrifices and courage. 114. The During the first half of the eighteenth century the English niefwakfto colonies grew more and more alive to the serious menace of the the danger French occupation of the land beyond the mountains. The from the French, 1700- danger, which in the seventeenth century had seemed to threaten only the New England and the New York frontiers, extended to the far south when the French governors of Louisiana warned English sailors away from the mouth of the Mississippi (1699) and the Spaniards instigated the Cherokee and Yamassee Indi ans against the Carolinas (1702). From Acadia to Florida came voices of entreaty to the English court. Governor Bellomont of New York urged the establishment of a line of posts along the northern frontier, since " to pursue the Indians again and again to the forests was as useless as chasing birds." From Governor Keith of Pennsylvania came the request (1721) "to fortify the passes on the back of Virginia," and build forts on the Lakes " to interrupt the French." Governor Burnet of New York actually fortified Oswego on Lake Ontario at his own expense .(1727). A few years earlier Spotswood, the gallant governor of Virginia, had led a party of riders to the crest of the Blue Ridge, where, overlooking the beautiful Shenandoah valley, they drank the healths of the king and the royal household in costly wines and " fired a volley " after each bumper. From the Carolinas came anxious complaints about the new and grow ing colony of " Luciana [Louisiana] in Mississippi." And soon afterwards Oglethorpe s colony of Georgia was planted as a buffer state against the Spaniards in Florida and the French in the West Indies. 115. French The French too were active. They built forts at Crown Point the*ight- n ancl Niagara, put armed vessels on Lake Champlain, occupied eenth century Detroit for the control of Lake Erie and the portages to the Ohio streams, increased their posts along the Mississippi, and pushed forward the settlement of Louisiana. The Struggle with France for North America 95 Both sides were waiting for the event which was to strike the spark of war. That event came when the French and the Eng lish at the same moment moved to seize the Ohio valley, the French hoping to pen up the English colonies in the narrow strip of land east of the Alleghenies ; the English to get elbow- room beyond the mountains and control the routes to the Mississippi. As Ce loron de Bienville dropped down the Ohio (1749), nailing signs to the trees and burying lead plates by the river banks, pro claiming the land to be the do main of Louis XV of France, and Christopher Gist followed in his track (1750), selecting sites for the settlements of the Ohio Company of Virginia, they were the advance heralds of the struggle between France and England, not only for the valley of the Ohio but for the possession of the continent of North America. The two powers brought thus face to face to contend One of Celoron de Bienville s Lead for the mastery of America Plates, found on the Banks of the differed from each other in Ohio _,, every respect. The one was Roman Catholic in religion, absolute in government, a peo ple of magnificent but impracticable colonial enterprises; the other a Protestant, self-governing people, strongly attached to their homes, steadily developing compact communities. There was not a printing press or a public school in Canada, and plow and harrow were rarer than canoe and musket. The 80,000 116. The Ohio valley the scene of the crisis 117. Com parison of the French and English colo nies at the outbreak of the great war, 1754 96 The Establishment of the English inhabitants of New France were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the 1,300,000 English colonists. But two facts compensated the French for their inferiority in numbers : first, by their forti fied positions along the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes and at the head of the Ohio valley, they compelled the English, if they wished to pass the Alleghenies, to fight on French ground ; secondly, the unified absolute government of New France en abled her to move all her forces quickly under a single com mand, whereas the English colonies, acting," as Governor Shirley of Massachusetts complained, "like discordant semirepublics," either insisted on dictating the disposition and command of the troops which they furnished, or long refused, like New Jersey and the colonies south of Virginia, to furnish any troops at all. To make matters worse, the generals sent over from England, with few exceptions, despised the colonial troops and snubbed their officers. 118. The Farseeing men like Governors Dinwiddie of Virginia and of colonial* 11 Shirley of Massachusetts tried to effect some sort of union of union, 1754 fa e colonies in the face of the imminent danger from the French. The very summer that the first shpts of the war were fired (1754) a congress was sitting at Albany for the discussion of better intercolonial relations and the cementing of the Iroquois alli ance. At that congress Benjamin Franklin, the foremost man in the colonies, proposed the scheme of union known as the Albany Plan. A grand council consisting of representatives from each colony was to meet annually, to regulate Indian affairs, maintain a colonial army, control public lands, pass laws affect ing the general good of the colonies, and levy taxes for the expenses of common undertakings. A president general chosen by the king was to have the executive powers of appointing high officials and of nominating the military commanders. He might also veto the acts of the council. Franklin s wise plan, however, found favor neither with the colonial legislatures nor with the royal governors. To each of them it seemed a sacrifice of their rightful authority ; so the colonies were left without a The Struggle with France for North America 97 central directing power, to cooperate or not with the king s officers, as selfish interests prompted. The opening act of the contest for the Ohio valley is of 119. George special interest as introducing George Washington on the stage embassy to* $ of American history. When the French began to construct a ^nd the battle chain of forts to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River, Gov- of Great ernor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Washington, who was then a 1753-1754 stalwart young surveyor, thoroughly familiar with the hardships of forest travel, to warn the French off of territory " so notori ously known to be the property of the crown of Great Britain." Washington faithfully delivered his message to the French commanders at Venango and Fort Le Bceuf in the wilds of north western Pennsylvania, and was sent again the next year (1754) to anticipate the French in seizing the important position where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join to form the Ohio. He clashed with a detachment of French and Indians at Great Meadows, and there the first shot was fired in the great war which was to disturb three continents. 1 The French had secured the " forks of the Ohio " with a strong fort (Duquesne), but Washington erected Fort Necessity near by, to assert the claims of England to the region. His garrison was not strong enough, however, to hold the fort, and he was forced to surrender on the Fourth of July, a day which through his own devotion and courage, a quarter of a century later, was to become forever glorious in our history. The war that opened with the skirmish at Great Meadows 120. Brad- in 1754 went badly for the English in the early years. 2 The dock sdefeat 1 This war, called in Europe the Seven Years War, and in America the French and Indian War, was the most tremendous conflict of the eighteenth century. In Europe it assumed the form of a huge coalition of France, Austria, Spain, Russia, and minor countries against Frederick the Great of Prussia. England was Frederick s ally, and the war brought her into conflict with France for colonial supremacy in India and America (see Robinson and Beard, Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, pp. 68, 71). 2 An incident of these years, which the poet Longfellow in his " Evangeline " has invested with a pathos far beyond its real importance, was the forcible removal of seven thousand French inhabitants from Acadia. Ever since the Peace of Utrecht, which transferred _Acadia to the English, the French inhabitants had 1755 The Struggle with France for North America 99 first regular British troops sent over, under the command of the brave but rash General Braddock, to take Fort Duquesne, were surprised and almost annihilated in the Pennsylvania for ests (July, 1755). Their French and Indian opponents fought behind rocks, trees, and bushes, in a kind of warfare utterly strange to the European veterans, who were used to beaten roads and wide fields of battle. In the awful confusion Brad- dock fell with nearly a thousand of his soldiers. It was only the gallant conduct of the young Washington, whose horse was shot under him twice and whose uniform was pierced with bullets, that saved the retreat from utter rout and panic. Braddock s defeat exposed the whole line of frontier settle- 121. William ments from Pennsylvania to South Carolina to the savage raids t urn of the 6 of the Indians ; while his papers, falling into the hands of the war I ?57-i759 French, revealed and frustrated the whole plan of the English attacks on Niagara and the forts of Lake Champlain. A fright ful massacre of English prisoners at Fort William Henry on Lake George, by the Indian allies of the French, added to the miseries of the year 1757. That same year, however, William Pitt, the greatest English statesman of the eighteenth century and the greatest war minister in all England s history, came into power. "England has been long in labor," said Frederick^ the Great of Prussia, " and at last has brought forth a man." Pitt was incorruptible and indefatigable, full of confidence in Eng land s destiny as the supreme world power. He immediately infused new life into the British armies, and fleets spread over half the globe. Incompetent commanders were removed, disci pline was stiffened, official thieving was stopped. An army of 22,000 Britishers was raised for the war in America, where the colonies, catching the infection of Pitt s tremendous energy, been in a semirebellious state, refusing, under the encouragement of their priests, to take the oath of allegiance to the " heretical " king of England. British author ity in the province extended scarcely beyond the walls of the forts. On the out break of the great war it was deemed necessary to remove the French from Acadia, and they were dispersed (not without cruelty) among the English colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia (September-October, 1755). A PLAN oflh^ -with the Operations oflhe, SIEGE of QUEBEC 4 Squirrel, S- T-rcaw/ior&f nt th Trpv/M ready fo landing, after thettrJBafaJk< C.^Botyj tkatrdeceived t&e Enemy and "to wAicA- tfieJB An O\d View of the Siege of Quebec 100 The Struggle with France for North America 101 voted money and troops with lavish generosity. In all, about 50,000 troops were ready for the fourfold campaign of 1758 against the forts of Louisburg, Ticonderoga, Duquesne, and Niagara. Everywhere, except for a momentary check at Ticon deroga, the British and colonial troops were successful ; the lake forts fell, Louisburg was recaptured, and Fort Duquesne was rechristened Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) in honor of the incom parable war minister. Next year came the crisis. Generals Wolfe and Amherst, the 122. woife heroes of Louisburg, closed in upon the heart of New France, ^es Quebec, Wolfe leading a fleet up the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec, and Amherst approaching Montreal by the Hudson valley. After a summer of excruciating physical pain and apparent military failure, Wolfe conceived and executed a brilliant strate gic movement. On September 12, 1759, under cover of a black midnight, he embarked about 3500 picked men in small boats, and with muffled oars dropped down the river past the French sentries to a deserted spot on the bank a little above the city. Before dawn his men, in single file, were clambering up the wooded path of a ravine in the precipitous bank to the heights above the river, where they easily overpowered the feeble guard. When morning broke the astonished French com mander, Marquis Montcalm, saw the red coats of the British soldiers moving on the Plains of Abraham in front of the city, and hastened to the attack. Few battles in history have had more important results than the British victory on the Plains of Abraham ; none has been invested with deeper pathos. The fall of Quebec was the doom of the French empire in America. But thoughts of victory and defeat are both lost in the common sacrifice of victor and vanquished on that day: Wolfe, young, brave, accomplished, tender, dropping his head in the moment of victory on the breast where he wore the miniature of his ladylove in far-away England ; and the courteous, valorous Montcalm, turning a heart wrung with mortal pain and the anguish of defeat from the last longing for the chestnut groves 102 The Establishment of the English 123. The of his beloved chateau in France, to beg the new master of Canada to be the protector of its people, as he had been their father. 1 Amherst took Mont- real in 1760, and in the next two years English fleets completed the downfall of France and her ally Spain by seizing the rich sugar islands of the West Indies and cap turing Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philip pines. Peace was signed at Paris in 1763. By its terms France ceded to England all of Canada and the region east of the Mississippi, retaining only the two insignificant islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon (never to be fortified) on the coast of Newfoundland for dry ing their fish. To her ally Spain, France ceded New Orleans and the country west of the Mississippi. England gave back to France most of the islands of the West Indies ; 1 In the governor s garden in Quebec stands the monument dedicated to these two noble commanders. The inscription which it bears is perhaps the most beau tiful expression of commemorative sentiment in the world : MORTEM VIRTUS COMMUNEM FAMAM HISTORIA MONUMENTUM POSTERITAS DEDIT. WOLFE MONTCALM ("Valor .gave them a common death, history a common fame, and posterity a common monument.") The Wolfe-Montcalm Monument The Struggle with France for North America 103 and, while retaining Florida, restored Havana and Manila to Spain, under whose authority they were destined to remain until the Spanish- American War of 1898. The Peace of Paris was of immense importance to France, 124. signif- England, and America. For France it meant (except for a brief revival in Napoleon s day) the abandonment of the idea of a land, France, J and America colonial empire in North America. For England it marked the acme of colonial power, and gave the promise of undisturbed empire in the New Worlu For Canada it meant the breaking of the unnatural alliance with savages, and the eventual sub stitution of free institutions, trial by jury, religious toleration, and individual enterprise in place of the narrow, paternal abso lutism of the Bourbons. Finally, for the American colonies it furnished the conditions for future greatness by removing the danger from organized Indian attack along the frontiers, and opening the great territory west of the Alleghenies to the hardy pioneers and woodsmen who, from the crests of the mountains, were already gazing into the promised land. REFERENCES The Rise of New France : W. L. GRANT, The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (Original Narratives of Early American History) ; FRANCIS PARKMAN, The Pioneers of France in the New World, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, The Old Regime in Canada; JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. IV, chaps, iii-vii ; Cartier to Frontenac; R. G. THWAITES, France in America (American Nation Series), chaps, i-v; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, chap. iii. The Fall of New France : PARKMAN, A Half Century of Conflict, Mont- calm and Wolfe; THWAITES, chaps, vi-xvii ; EDW. CHANNING, History of the United States, Vol. II, chaps, xvii-xix ; WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. V, chaps, vii, viii; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, chap, iv ; A. B. HART, American History told by Con temporaries, Vol. II, Nos. 117-129; JOHN FISKE, Essays Historical and Literary, Vol. II, chap, iii ; J. A. DOYLE, English Colonies in America, Vol. V, chap. ix. IO4 The Establishment of the English TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS i The Development of Louisiana: WINSOR, Vol. V, pp. 13-51 5 PARK- MAN, A Half Century of Conflict, pp. 288-315 5 CHANNING, Vol. II, pp. 532 2 ~ S The Albany Plan of Union: Old South Leaflets, No. 9 ; THWAITES, pp. ^68-172 ; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. II> PP- 34 2 ~35^- 7 George Washington s Embassy to the French Forts: PARKMAN, Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I, pp. 128-161; WINSOR, Vol. V pp. 490- 494; THWAITES, pp. 157-165; Old South Leaflets, No. 187 ; A. B. HURLBERT, Washington s Road (Historic Highways Series), pp. 85-119- 4 The Removal of the Acadians: PARKMAN, A Half Century of Con flict, Vol. I, pp. 183-203; Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I, pp. 234-285; HART Vol. II, No. 126; WINSOR, Vol. V, pp. 415-418, 45 2 ~463- c The French Explorers on the Great Lakes: THWAITES, pp. 34-48 ; WINSOR, Vol. IV, pp. 163-196; PARKMAN, La Salic and the Discovery of the Great West, pp. 1-47- 6 Paternal Government in Canada: PARKMAN, The Old Regime t n Canada, pp. 257-281 ; THWAITES, pp. 124-143 5 Cambridge Modern His tory, Vol. VII, pp. 79~ 8 7> 102-109. PART II. SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM ENGLAND PART II. SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM ENGLAND CHAPTER IV BRITISH RULE IN AMERICA THE AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT IN THE COLONIES The curtain had hardly fallen on the first act of American 125. conflict- history, the establishment and triumph of the English race in the New World, when it rose on a second act, short but intense, can Revoiu- tion namely the American Revolution, which severed the colonies from England and admitted to the family of nations the new republic of the United States. This great event has too often been rep resented as the unanimous uprising of a downtrodden people to repel the deliberate, unprovoked attack of a tyrant upon their liberties ; but when thousands of people in the colonies could agree with a noted lawyer of Massachusetts, that the Revolution was a " causeless, wanton, wicked rebellion," and thousands of people in England could applaud Pitt s denunciation of the war against America as " barbarous, unjust, and diabolical," it is evident that, at the time at least, there were two opinions as to colonial rights and British oppression. We can rightly under stand the American Revolution only by a study of British rule in the colonies. The first English emigrants to these shores brought with them, 126. The by the terms of their charters, for themselves and their posterity, ri^JS^o"* "all the liberties ... of free-born Englishmen and native sub- Englishmen jects of the king, just as if they had been born or had remained 107 IO8 Separation of the Colonies from England in England itself." Those liberties, for which their ancestors had been struggling for five hundred years, consisted in the right to protection of life and property, a fair trial and judgment by one s peers, participation in local self-government, freedom of movement, occupation, and trade, and, above all, the privilege, through the representatives of the kingdom in Parliament, to grant the king the moneys needed for foreign war and the sup port of the state. In many a contest for those rights with head strong kings and cruel or worthless ministers of state, the English nobles and commoners had won the victory. The American colonists cherished these " immemorial rights of Englishmen " with what Edmund Burke called a " fierce spirit of liberty." A goodly number of the colonists had come to these shores for the express purpose of enjoying political and religious liberty. They had created democratic governments in the New World, and the three thousand miles of ocean that rolled between them and the mother country necessarily increased their spirit of self- reliance. While acknowledging allegiance to the king of Eng land, their actual connection with the English government was very slight. The attempt on the part of English ministers to make that connection closer revealed how far the colonies were separated from the mother country in spirit, and led inevitably to their separation in fact. 127. causes At the bottom of the misunderstanding between the colonies of conflict be tween Eng- and the mother country were two developments in English his- tor y wn i cn to k P lace mainly in the eighteenth century. The first was the growth of the mercantile theory of trade. We have already noted (p. 67) how this theory caused the European nations to regard their colonies as mere sources of profit, and how the English Navigation Acts crippled the trade and manu facture of America. A striking example of the mischief done to colonial trade by this selfish, mistaken policy is the famous Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733. Barbados, Jamaica, San Do mingo, and other islands of the West Indies, belonging to Eng land, France, Holland, and Spain, produced immense quantities British Rule in America 109 of sugar. The entire acreage of these islands was given over to sugar plantations, while all the necessities of life were imported. The American colonies, being near at hand, sent large supplies of fish, corn, wheat, flour, oil, soap, and lumber to the islands, and from this trade realized most of the gold needed to pay for their imported garments, hats, shoes, iron, and other manufac tured goods, which England forbade them to make for them selves. In order to " starve out " the French and Spanish colonists of the West Indies, the English sugar planters of Barbados and Jamaica, who sold great quantities of molasses to the New England colonies, asked the home government to forbid the colonies of the American mainland to trade with any foreign power on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Parlia ment yielded to their demands, and so forced the colonies to buy their molasses of the British planters, who, freed from com petition, could levy as high an export duty as they pleased. The colonies were naturally aggrieved at such treatment. 128. The They resented being burdened and restrained in their trade in J^ts a^n- order to make another part of the British Empire prosperous, stant menace to the colonies Their sentiment was that expressed by a brave governor of Massachusetts in Charles II s time, when he was reproved for not enforcing the Navigation Acts : " The king can in reason do no less than let us enjoy our liberties and trade, for we have made this large plantation [colony] of our own charge, without any contribution from the crown." That a prosper ous illicit trade flourished, and that English ministers like Wai- pole winked at the infringement of the Navigation Acts, was small comfort to the colonies. There the ugly laws stood on the statute book, and at any moment a minister might come into power who would think it good policy or his bounden duty to enforce them. The second disturbing element in the relation of England to 129. The re- the colonies was the question of the supremacy of Parliament. Joi^es to The colonies (except Georgia) had been settled under grants Parliament not from Parliament but from the Stuart kings. The colonial 1 10 Separation of the Colonies from England assemblies passed laws, levied taxes, voted supplies, and raised troops for their own defense, just like the Parliament of Eng land. Their affairs, in so far as they concerned the mother country, were in the hands of a committee of the king s privy councilors. But with the overthrow of the Stuarts in 1688 the position of king and Parliament was reversed. The king himself became practically a subject of Parliament, whose authority and sovereignty grew continually stronger as the eighteenth century advanced. The first kings of the Hanoverian dynasty, which succeeded the Stuarts on the English throne, recognized this change. For example, in 1624 the Stuart James I had snubbed Parliament when it attempted to interfere in the affairs of Vir ginia, telling the House of Commons to attend to its own busi ness and keep its hands off his domains ; a century later (1720) the Hanoverian George I instructed his governor in Massachu setts to warn the inhabitants that in case of misbehavior their conduct would be brought to the notice of Parliament. Further more, Parliament actually assumed many powers of sovereignty in America in the eighteenth century. It granted the charter of Georgia, it regulated the colonial currency, it made naturaliza tion laws, it established a colonial post office. When the Stuart kings yielded to the power of Parliament, it was useless for the colonies to plead the authority of their Stuart charters in oppo sition to Parliament. Clearly, unless the colonies were aiming at independence a charge which they indignantly denied up to the very outbreak of the Revolutionary War they were subject to the sovereign power of England, namely the Parliament. 130. causes During the first half of the eighteenth century many colonial between the governors and high officials wished to see the authority of Par- themothTr d liament established beyond question in the American colonies. country, Such measures as the abolition of the New England charters, 1700-1750 the union of the colonies under a single governor, the im position of a direct tax by Parliament, and even the creation of an American nobility were recommended. But so long as the practical, peace-loving Walpole and the ardent patriot Pitt British Rule in America III held the reins of government in England, no such irritation of the colonial spirit of independence was attempted. There were enough causes of friction, as it was, between the colonies and the mother country. Incompetent and arbitrary governors were often appointed, who quarreled continually with the colonial assemblies over salaries, fees, and appointments. The crown, although it had ceased at the beginning of the eighteenth cen tury to veto acts of Parliament, continued to veto acts of the colonial legislatures. These vetoes were sometimes prompted by the most selfish and unworthy motives, as when statutes of Vir ginia in restraint of the slave trade were annulled by the crown because of the heavy profits which the English courtiers were reaping from that infamous business. The scornful treatment of colonial officers and troops by the British regulars, in the French wars ; the increasing severity of the Navigation Acts ; the persistent efforts of a group of high churchmen to establish the Anglican Church and an Anglican bishop in America ; the neglect of the home government to interest itself at all in the colonies except for the purpose of restraint or punishment, all contributed to a spirit of wary self-defense and proud self-suffi ciency, which observant men on both sides of the water said was developing into a desire for independence. Samuel Adams in his commencement oration of 1743 at 131. Rumors Harvard College, in the presence of the royal governor of Mas- revolt 01 "* 1 sachusetts .and his retinue, dared to discuss the question of " whether it was lawful to resist rulers in time of oppression." The Swedish traveler Peter Kalm, who visited this country in 1748-1750, thought that the presence of the French in Canada was " the chief power that urged the colonies to submission." Many French statesmen comforted themselves for the loss of Canada by the thought that England " would repent having re moved the only check on her colonies," which would " shake off dependence the moment Canada was ceded." There were even British statesmen who urged that England should keep Guade loupe, in the West Indies, at the peace of 1763, and leave the 112 Separation of the Colonies from England French undisturbed in Canada, " in order to secure the depend ence of the colonies on the mother c ountry." 132. The The existence of such sentiment before the enactment of a British roio- single oppressive measure by the British Parliament, or any niai policy in spec ifi c ac t o f rebellion on the part of the American colonies, the eight" eenth century shows what a wretched failure England had made of her colonial government in the eighteenth century, and amply justifies the re mark of Theodore Roosevelt, that the American Revolution was " a revolt against the whole mental attitude of Britain in regard to America, rather than against any one special act or set of acts." TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION 133. The " Special acts and sets of acts," however, came in abundance Em$re after the P eace of Z 7 6 3- Great Britain by her victories over the French in both hemispheres had become a great empire. But the cost had been great, too. The national debt had increased from ^70,000,000 to ^140,000,000. The British statesmen therefore began to devise plans for bringing the parts of the empire more closely together and making each contribute its fair share toward carrying the increased burden of the imperial debt. 134. Gren- Early in 1764 George Grenville, prime minister of England/ theVaviga- gt through Parliament the first of a series of measures for the tion Acts, 1764 c i oser control of the American colonies. The Navigation Acts, especially the odious Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733, were to be strictly enforced, and all commanders of British frigates in American waters were to have the right of acting as customs officers, employing the hated Writs of Assistance, or general warrants to search a man s private premises for smuggled goods. 1 The merchants of New England saw ruin staring them in the face if the Navigation Acts were enforced. Massachusetts alone had imported 15,000 hogsheads of molasses 2 from the French 1 Against these writs the Boston lawyer James Otis had pleaded so vehe mently three years earlier that John Adams called his speech the opening act of the American Revolution. 2 Destined for the most part, unfortunately, to be made into rum for the African negro. British Rule in America 113 West Indies in 1763, and the hundreds of ships launched every year from the colonial yards were earning by their illegal foreign trade the millions which had to be paid yearly for imported British manufactured goods. At the same time that the Navigation Acts were renewed 135. The Grenville gave notice that he intended to lay a tax on the colo- proposed nies to help defray the expense of a small standing army in Grenville America. The proposal seemed reasonable and necessary, for at that very moment English troops west of the Alleghenies were engaged in the serious business of quelling an Indian up rising, headed by the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who, not accepting the peace of 1763, had united all the tribes from the Illini to the Senecas in a last determined effort to keep the English out of the Ohio valley. Eveiy cent of the money which the ministry proposed to raise in America was to be spent in America, and the colonies were to be asked to contribute only about a third of the sum necessary. Furthermore, Grenville, who had abso lutely no wish to oppress or offend the colonies, was willing to assess the tax in the way most acceptable to the Americans. He himself proposed a stamp tax, which required that all official and public documents, such as wills, deeds, mortgages, notes, newspapers, pamphlets, should be written on stamped paper or provided with stamps sold by the distributing agents of the British government; but at the same time he invited the colonial agents in London and influential men in the colonies to suggest any other form of taxation which appeared to them more suitable, and postponed definite action in the matter for a year. No other plan was proposed, and in March, 1765, the Stamp 136. passage Act was passed with very little discussion, in a half-filled Parlia- Jctf ment, by a vote of 205 to 49. Distributors of stamped paper were appointed for the colonies, Benjamin Franklin even solicit ing the position in Pennsylvania for one of his friends. The British ministry anticipated no resistance to the act, which was to go into effect the first of November. 114 Separation of the Colonies from England 137. Patrick However, the Stamp Act met with furious opposition in the lutions r colonies. A young lawyer named Patrick Henry had just been elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a reward for his brave speech in the " Parsons Cause " (a law case in which he denied the right of King George to veto the statutes passed by the Virginia legislature). On receipt of the news of the passage of the Stamp Act, Henry waited impatiently in his seat for the older and more influential members of the House to protest. Then toward the end of the session he rose, and in an impas sioned speech which drew from some members of the House the cry of " treason ! " he presented and carried through the Assembly resolutions to the effect that " the General Assembly of this colony . . . have in their representa tive capacity the only exclusive right and power to lay taxes and imposts upon the inhabitants of this colony ; and that A British Stamp" ^ attem P t tO rCSt SUch P ower on an Y other person or persons ... is illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust, and has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American liberty." 138. violent Henry s speech and resolutions stirred up great excitement the stamp Act in the colonies. James Otis of Massachusetts suggested a general meeting of committees from all the colonies to protest against this new and dangerous assault on colonial liberties. A writer in the New York Gazette, under the name of " Freeman," went so far as to suggest separation from the British Empire. When the stamp distributors were appointed late in the summer, they became the immediate objects of obloquy and persecution throughout the colonies; and before the first of November every one of them had been persuaded or forced to resign. There was rioting in every New England colony as well as in New York and Pennsylvania. In Boston the mob hanged the distributor, Oliver, in effigy, destroyed the building which he British Ride in America 1 1 5 intended to use for his office, and shamefully wrecked the mag nificent house of Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, 1 who, as chief justice of the province, had given the decision in favor of the employment of Writs of Assistance in 1761. The congress suggested by Otis met at New York in October, 139. The with twenty-seven members from nine colonies. It published a con gress^ 1765 " Declaration of Grievances," denied the legality of any taxes but those levied by their representative assemblies, and sent separate addresses to the king and both Houses of Parliament. These first state papers of the assembled colonies were dignified, able, cogent remonstrances against the disturbance of sacred and long-enjoyed rights. The British Parliament had, by the Stamp Act, undoubtedly 140. why usurped the most precious right of the colonists, that of voting s ^e^the~ their own taxes. By one stroke of the pen it had reduced their stam P Act assemblies to impotent bodies and made their charters void. The chief safeguard of their liberties, the control of the purse strings of the province, was gone. It was all right for Parliament to regulate their foreign commerce, they said ; but taxes to men of English descent meant the free grant of money to the king by the representatives of the people in Parliament assembled. Their own colonial legislatures stood in the place of Parliament, since they had no part in the parliament convened at Westminster. When the British statesmen argued that the colonies were " vir tually represented " in Parliament, because all members of the House of Commons represented all the British subjects except the nobles and the clergy, the colonists failed to follow the reasoning. They knew they had no voice in the elections to the House of Commons, and a " representative " to them meant a man whom they knew and had voted for. As well tell a Vir ginian that he was " represented " in the assembly of New York as that he was represented in the British Parliament ! 1 Hutchinson s fine library sacked and the books scattered in the gutters. The manuscript of his invaluable work on the history of the Massachusetts Bay colony was rescued from the mud of the street. It is now in the historical museum in the Statehouse at Boston, the mud stains still visible on its rumpled edges. Ii6 Separation of the Colonies from England 141. The re- The violent and unexpected resistance to the Stamp Act in stamp let, America woke the British government to the seriousness of the colonial problem. Grenville had been superseded (July, 1765) as prime minister by the Marquis of Rockingham, a liberal Whig statesman, opposed to the coercion of the American colonies. The Rockingham ministry moved the repeal of the Stamp Act early in 1766, and on the fourth of March, after the fiercest battle of the century in the halls of Parliament, the motion was carried. The hated Stamp Act had been on the British statute The Funeral Procession of the Stamp Act From an old print book less than a year, and had not been enforced in a single American town ; yet its repeal was hailed in the colonies by as joyful a demonstration as could have greeted the deliverance from ages of cruel oppression. The British ministers might have learned from both the passionate protests of 1765 and the pro fuse gratitude of 1766 what a sensitive spirit of liberty they had to deal with in America. But less than a year after the repeal of the Stamp Act they began to set new mischief afoot In July, 1766, the Rockingham ministry fell. William Pitt, the creator of England s colonial empire, the stanch friend of British Rule in America 117 America and the idol of the American people, should have taken 142. The re- the reins of government and guided the state to peace. But a personal difference of opinion with another Whig statesman un- J ? 66 fortunately kept Pitt from accepting the direction of the govern ment at this critical moment. At the same time Pitt accepted a peerage and entered the House of Lords as the Earl of Chat ham, a step which weakened his influence with the great mass of English commoners. And to crown the misfortune for the cause of America, failing health removed the great statesman from the activities of the cabinet almost entirely. In the absence of Chatham and owing to the incapacity of 143. The the prime minister, the direction of the policy of the British gov- Active ernment was assumed by the abnormally gifted but vain and flighty Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, or min ister of finance. Without the consent or even the knowledge of his fellow ministers, Townshend had the audacity, early in 1767, to introduce into Parliament new measures for raising revenue in America. Chatham was not there to protest, and the meas ures were carried. They provided that revenue cases in Amer ica should be tried in courts without a jury, declared Writs of Assistance valid, released colonial judges and governors from dependence on their assemblies for their salaries, provided for commissioners of customs to reside in the American ports, and, for the maintenance of this " American establishment," levied considerable duties on tea, glass, wine, oil, paper, and painter s colors imported into the colonies. Again the response of the colonies was quick and clear : Eng- 144. Re- land must not destroy the chartered privileges of the colonies or invade the immemorial rights of British freemen. The town colonies, 1768-1770 meeting of Boston declared against importing any English goods under the new duties. The ardent Samuel Adams, after pre paring an address to the British ministry, to Chatham, and to Rockingham, drew up a circular letter to the other colonies, which elicited expressions of sympathy from New Hampshire, Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and South Carolina. The n8 Separation of the Colonies from England British minister for the colonies ordered the Massachusetts leg islature to rescind the circular letter, as being of a " dangerous and factious tendency," but the legislature flatly refused by a vote of ninety-two to seventeen. Whereupon two regiments of British troops were sent from Halifax to Boston, and landed under the protection of the guns of the warships which had brought them (September 28, 1768). Virginia stood side by side with Massachusetts in resisting the Townshend Acts. George Washington and Patrick Henry were prominent in the adoption of resolutions by the Burgesses condemning the taxes and main taining the right of the colonies to unite in petition to the crown. The boycott of English goods was effective, colonial importations falling off from ,2,378,000 in 1768 to ,1,634,000 in 1769. The Townshend duties, instead of yielding the ,40,000 a year that their author boasted to Parliament they would, produced only some ;i 6,000 during the three years they were in opera tion, a sum which it cost the government ,200,000 to collect. 145. The But the total failure of the Townshend legislation to produce " Boston Mas- , . ,.-. ,, , . .. , . , sacre," 1770 a revenue was not its worst effect. Ihe bitter feelings which the repeal of the Stamp Act had allayed were roused again in the colonies. The presence of the British regiments in Boston was a constant source of chagrin to the inhabitants. It seemed to fix the stigma of rebellion on the province. The soldiers were insulted and baited by street crowds, who followed them with jeering cries of " ruffians ! " and " lobster backs ! " On the fifth of March, 1770, an affray occurred in King Street (now State Street) in which the irritated soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five citizens and wounding several others. This " Boston Massacre " was the signal for the wildest excitement. A town meeting was called at once in Faneuil Hall, and Samuel Adams, proceeding as its delegate to the town house, demanded of act ing Governor Hutchinson the immediate removal of both the regiments from the town. Hutchinson hesitated; but Adams, rising to his full height and extending a threatening arm toward the governor, cried : " There are three thousand people yonder British Rule in America 1 19 in the town meeting, and the country is rising ; night is coming on, and we must have our answer." The governor yielded. Meanwhile the storm of protests from the colonies and the 146. The fervent petitions of English merchants, who were being ruined pa by the American boycott, led Parliament to repeal the Towns- ber *773 hend duties as it had the Stamp Act. In January, 1770, Lord The Boston Massacre From Paul Revere s engraving North became prime minister, and on the very day of the Boston Massacre moved to repeal all the duties except a trifling tax of threepence a pound on tea. King George III, in whose hands Lord North was a man of clay, insisted that the tax on tea be kept for the sake of asserting the right of Parliament to control the colonies. The king thought that by a smart trick he could I2O Separation of the Colonies from England ensnare the colonies into buying the tea and paying the tax. He got his compliant Parliament to allow the East India Com pany to sell its tea in America without paying the heavy English duty. Thus relieved of duties, the Company offered its tea to the colonists at a lower price, including the tax of threepence a pound, than they were paying for the same article smuggled from Holland. But the colonies were not to be bribed to pay a tax which they had refused to be forced to pay. The cargoes of tea which the East India Company s ships brought over to American ports were rudely received. Philadelphia and New York refused to let the ships land. The authorities at Charles ton stored the tea in damp cellars where it spoiled. And in Boston, after vainly petitioning the governor to send the tea back to England, a committee of prominent citizens, disguised as American Indians, boarded the merchantmen on the evening of December 16, 1773, ripped open the chests of tea with their tomahawks, and dumped the costly contents into Boston harbor. THE PUNISHMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS 147. The op- The " Boston Tea Party " was the last straw. The colonies Massachu- had added insult to disobedience. The outraged king called isifcontroi nt ~ u P on P ar l iamen t for severe measures of punishment. Massa- 1646-1773 chusetts, and especially Boston, must be made an example of the king s vengeance to the rest of the colonies. The province was an old offender. As far back as 1646 the general court had assembled for the " discussion of the usurpation of Parlia ment," and a spirited member had declared that " if England should impose laws upon us we should lose the liberties of Englishmen indeed"; its attitude toward the Navigation Acts of Charles II has already been noticed (p. 109). A governor of New York had written the Duke of Newcastle (in 1732) : " The example and spirit of the Boston people begins to spread abroad among the colonies in a most marvelous manner." Since the very first attempt of the British government after the French war to tighten its control of colonial commerce and raise a revenue British Ride in America 12 1 in America, Massachusetts had taken the leading part in defi ance. John Hancock, Joseph Warren, John Adams, James Otis, and, above all, Samuel Adams had labored indefatigably to rouse not only their own colony of Massachusetts but the whole group of American colonies to assert and defend their ancient privi leges of self-government. Samuel Adams had published his circular letter to the colonies in 1768 (see above, p. 117), arid four years later he organized Committees of Correspondence throughout the colonies, to keep alive their common interests in resistance to Parliament s interference. Letters, pamphlets, petitions, defiances, had come in an uninterrupted stream from the Massachusetts " patriots." It was in Boston that the chief resistance to the Stamp Act had been offered (1765) ; it was there also that the king had stationed his first regulars in America (1768), and there that occurred the unfortunate " massacre " of the fifth of March (1770). "To George Ill s eyes the capital of Massachusetts was a center of vulgar sedition, strewn with brickbats and broken glass, where his enemies went about clothed in homespun and his friends in tar and feathers." When Parliament met in March, 1774, it proceeded immedi- 148. Massa- ately to the passage of a number of acts to punish the province \^, b y JiT of Massachusetts. The port of Boston was closed to trade until ^j ?, 1 f a J )le the tea destroyed was paid for. Town meetings, those hotbeds of discussion and disobedience, were forbidden to convene with out the governor s permission, except for the regular elections of officers. The public buildings designated by the governor were to be used as barracks for the troops. Colonials accused of certain capital crimes, such as treason, might be sent to Eng land for trial. Up to this time the British government had not passed any measure of punishment or revenge. The Grenville legislation and the Townshend Acts, however unwelcome to the colonies, had not been designed for their chastisement, but only for their better coordination with the other parts of the British Empire. Parliament had blundered into legislation and backed out of it, pursuing a policy of alternate encroachment and 122 Separation of the Colonies from England concession, as Edmund Burke said, " seeking fresh principles of action with every fresh mail from America," and " sneaking out of the difficulties into which they had so proudly strutted." But with the passage of the so-called Intolerable Acts of 1774 this shifting policy was at an end. There were no more repeals by Parliament. King George s " patience " was exhausted. 149. sym- Expressions of sympathy now came to Massachusetts from Massachu- all over the colonies. The Virginia Burgesses appointed the day colonies th<5 on wn i n tne Intolerable Acts were to go into force as a day of fasting and prayer ; and when they were dismissed by their royal governor for showing sympathy with " rebels," they promptly met again in the Raleigh tavern and proposed an annual congress of committees from all the colonies. 150. The The Virginia suggestion met with favor, and on September 5, nen*aicon~- 1774, the first Continental Congress met in Carpenter s Hall, gress, 1774 Philadelphia, " to consult on the present state of the colonies . . . and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures . . . for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties . . . and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, most ardently desired by all good men." All the colonies except Georgia were repre sented, and among that remarkable group of about half a hun dred men were the leaders of the ten years struggle against the British Parliament, John and Samuel Adams of Massachu setts, Patrick Henry of Virginia, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Con necticut, John Rutledge of South Carolina. They respectfully petitioned the king to put an end to their grievances, specifying thirteen acts of Parliament which they deemed " infringements and violations " of their rights. They urged on all the colonies the adoption of the " American Association " for the boycott of British trade, both import and export, and after a six weeks session adjourned, calling a new congress for the tenth of the following May, unless the obnoxious legislation of Parliament were repealed before that day. British Rule in America 12 Commemorative of the Battle on Lexington Green 1. Statue of a minuteman, by H. H. Kitson 2. Bowlder marking the line of Captain Parker s troops 3. Major Pitcairn s pistols 4. The oldest Revolutionary monument in America, 1799 But before the second Continental Congress convened the 151. Armed British regulars and the rustic militia of Massachusetts had met on the field of battle. General Gage, who succeeded Hutchinson setts as governor of Massachusetts in the summer of 1774, tried to prevent the colonial legislature from meeting. But in spite of his 124 Separation of the Colonies from England 152. The battle of Lex ington, April 19, 1775 prohibition they assembled at Salem and later at Cambridge and Concord. They appointed a Committee of Safety, began to col lect powder and military stores, and assumed the government of the province outside the limits of Boston, where Gage had his regiments intrenched. Early in 1775 came news that Parliament, in spite of the pleadings of Chatham, Burke, and Fox, had re jected the petition sent by the first Continental Congress, and had declared that " rebellion existed in the American colonies." . On the night of the eighteenth of April Gage sent troops to seize the powder which the provincials had collected at Concord, and at the same time to arrest the Paul Revere s Route, April 19, 1775 "traitors, "John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who had taken refuge with par son Jonas Clark of Lexington. But the ardent Boston patriot, Paul Revere, had learned of the expedition, and galloping ahead of the British troops, he roused the farmers on the way and warned the refugees. When the van of the British column reached Lexington, they found a little company of " minutemen " (militia ready to fight at a minute s notice) drawn up on the village green under Captain Parker. The British major Pitcairn ordered "the rebels" to disperse. Then came a volley of musket shots, apparently without the major s orders, and the British marched on, leaving eight minute- men dead or dying on the green. Reaching Concord, Pitcairn s troops were turned back at " the rude bridge which arched the flood," and commenced the long retreat toward Boston, harassed by a deadly fire from behind stone walls and apple trees. Lord British Ride in America 125 Percy, with the main column, met the exhausted troops just below Lexington Green and conducted them safely within the British lines. The colonial militia, aroused for miles around, closed in upon Boston 16,000 strong and held Gage besieged in his capital. The Battle of Lexington From a drawing by an eyewitness REFERENCES The Authority of Parliament in the Colonies : G. E. HOWARD, The Pre liminaries of the Revolution (American Nation Series), chaps, i-v; W. M. SLOANE, The P^rench War and the Revolution, chap, x; J. A. WOOD- BURN, Caitses of the American Revolution (John Hopkins Studies, Series X, No. 12) ; Lecky s American Revolution, chap, i, pp. 1-49; WM. MAC- DONALD, Select Charters of American History idod-iyj^, Nos. 53-56. Taxation without Representation : JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Crit ical History of America, Vol. VI, chap, i ; JOHN FISKE, The American Revolution, Vol. I, chaps, i, ii ; M. C. TYLER, Literary History of the American Revolution, Vol. I ; G. OTTO TREVELYAN, The American Revo lution, Vol. I ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. II, Nos. 138-152; HOWARD, chaps, vi-xv; MACDONALD, Nos. 57-67. The Punishment of Massachusetts : FISKE, chap, iii ; TREVELYAN, chap, iii; HOWARD, chaps, xv-xvii; WINSOR, chap, ii; SLOANE, chaps. 126 Separation of the Colonies from England TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. English Opinions of the American Cause: (Dr. Samuel Johnson s) HART, Vol. II, No. 156; (Wm. Pitt s) HART, Vol. II, No. 142; Old South Leaflets, No. 199; (Edmund Burke s) Old South Leaflets, No. 200; WOODBURN, Lecky s American Revolution, pp. 154-165; TREVEL- YAN, Vol. I, pp. 28-44. 2. The Navigation Acts : HART, Vol. II, Nos. 45, 46, 67, 85, 87, 131 ; WlNSOR, Vol. VI, pp. 5-12 ; G. L. BEER, The Commercial Policy of Eng land towards the American Colonies, pp. 3565. 3. The Conspiracy of Pontiac : SLOANE, pp. 99-103 ; WINSOR, Vol. VI, pp. 688-701 ; PARKMAN, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, Vol. I, pp. 172-321 ; Vol. II, pp. 299-313 ; CHANNING and LANSING, The Story of the Great Lakes, pp. 113-134. 4. The Boston Tea Party: JOHN FISKE, Essays Historical and Literary, Vol. II, pp. 163-195 ; A. P. PEABODY, Boston Mobs before the Revolution (Atlantic Monthly, September, 1888); MACDONALD, Nos. 64-70; HART, Vol. II, No. 152; TYLER, Vol. I, pp. 246-266; TREVELYAN, Vol. I, pp. 135-139, 175-192 ; Old South Leaflets, No. 68. 5. Thomas Hutchinson, the Last Royal Governor of Massachusetts : SLOANE, pp. 163-170; HART, Vol.11, Nos. 139-148; FISKE, Essays, Vol. I, pp. 1-51 ; WINSOR, Vol. VI, pp. 49-58 ; J. H. STARK, The Loyal ists of Massachusetts, pp. 145-174. f CHAPTER V THE BIRTH OF THE NATION THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE "The war has actually begun. The next gale that sweeps 153. Thecri- from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding gpr/nVof 1775 arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle ? . . . Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! " These prophetic words were spoken by Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses less than a month before the " clash of arms " at Lexington and Concord. Less than a month after that event the second Continental 154. The Congress met at Philadelphia (May 10, 1775). Events had }?*" moved rapidly since the adjournment of the previous October. gress The petition to the king had been answered by a proclamation that rebellion existed in the American colonies ; blood had been shed on both sides, not by irresponsible mobs or taunted soldiery, but by troops marshaled in regular battle ; eastern Massachu setts had risen in arms, and held its royal governor besieged in his capital of Boston ; and on the very day Congress assembled Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys surprised the British garrison in Fort Ticonderoga and turned them out " in the name of Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." To meet the crisis the second Continental Congress, with the 155. Formal tacit consent of all the colonies, assumed the powers of a regu- ^rbythe f lar government. It utilized the rude colonial militia gathered Congress, July 6, 1775 around Boston as the nucleus of a continental army, and ap pointed George Washington to the supreme command. It issued 127 128 Separation of the Colonies from England paper money, made trade regulations, sent agents abroad to win the favor of foreign courts, advised the colonies to set up gov ernments for themselves, regardless of the king s officers, and made formal declaration of war (July 6, 1775) in these words: " We have taken up arms against violence, and we shall lay them down when hostilities cease on the part of our aggressors. Our cause is just ; our union is perfect." In spite of the fact, however, that the appeal to arms had already been made, there was enough conservative sentiment in the Congress to support the wary John Dickinson in his motion to send a final appeal to the king to restore peace and harmony with his colonies in America. 156. George But King George III was the last man in England to appeal for th^Ameri- to for the restoration of peace and harmony. There are differ- ences of opinion as to who was responsible on the American side for the outbreak of war, some scholars holding that the Rev olution was " the work of an unscrupulous and desperate minor ity " headed by firebrands like Patrick Henry and the Adamses ; others that it was the result of a slowly maturing conviction among the majority of the people in almost all the colonies that every peaceful means of preserving the priceless treasure of lib erty had been exhausted. But there is no difference of opinion as to the author of the war on the English side. King George III alone was to blame for the violent rupture of his empire. He had come to the throne in 1760 with a firm determination, inculcated by his mother and his tutors, to be the ruler of Great Britain as well as its king. He had stubbornly refused his con fidence to ministers of the nation s choice, like Pitt, and retained only those who would be his partners in the game of political intrigue. By a lavish use of bribes ("golden pills"), govern ment places, and pensions he had built up a powerful party of the " King s Friends " in Parliament, who for fifteen years .(1768-1783) thwarted every plan of broad and liberal states manship at Westminster, and ran the great British Empire as if it were the private estate of King George and his lackeys. The Birth of the Nation 129 The counsels of the wisest statesmen of the empire of a 157. The de- Burke, a Chatham, a Fox were hooted down in Parliament or fhe British received with silent contempt by George Ill s ministers. A few g vernm ent, independent spirits pleaded in vain with Parliament for a few moments of attention while they discussed the most vital ques tion of the day and of the century. We have the unanimous testimony of the foremost English historians of the nineteenth century that George III was the evil genius of the British Em pire. " He had rooted out courage, frankness, and independence from the councils of state, and put puppets in the place of men " (Trevelyan) ; "his tactics were fraught with danger to the liber ties of the people " (May) ; " his acts were as criminal as any which led Charles I to the scaffold " (Lecky) ; and " the shame of the darkest hour of England s history lies wholly at his door" (Green). It was to such a king that the American people a people described by a French visitor, the Count of Segur, as " men of quiet pride who have no master, who see nothing above them but the law, and who are free from the vanity, the servility, the prejudices of our European societies" sent their last vain petition for justice in the summer of 1775. It need not sur prise us that the king and his ministers did not deign even to receive and read it. Until the second petition of Congress had been spurned, the 158. Ameri- leaders of the colonial resistance to parliamentary taxation al- most to a man protested their loyalty to King George III and the British Empire. " I have never heard from any person fore 1776 drunk or sober," said Benjamin Franklin to Lord Chatham in 1774, " the least expression of a wish for separation." Washing ton declared that even when he went to Cambridge to take com mand of the colonial army, the thought of independence was " abhorrent " to him. And John Adams said that he was avoided in the streets of Philadelphia in 1775 " like a man infected with leprosy" for his leanings toward " independency." To be sure, there were skeptical and ironical Tories in the colonies, who 130 Separation of the Colonies from England 159. The events of the year 1775 widen the breach be tween Eng land and the colonies declared that the protestations of loyalty in the petitions of Con gress and in the mouths of the " patriots " were only " the gold leaf to conceal the treason beneath " ; but it is hard to believe that men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Jay were insincere in their public utterances. However, by the end of 1775 the doctrine of the allegiance of the colonies to King George was so flatly contradicted by the facts of the situation that it became ridiculous. From month to month the breach between the colonies and the mother country had widened. In March, 1775, Benjamin Franklin, who for ten years had been the agent for several of the colonies in London, returned to America, thereby confessing that nothing more was to be accomplished by diplomacy. In April occurred the battle of Lexington. In May came the bold capture of Fort Ticonderoga. In June Gage s army stormed the American breastworks on Bunker Hill in three desperate and bloody assaults, and burned the ad jacent town of Charlestown. In July Massachusetts set up a new government independent of the king, and George Washington took command of the colonial army which was besieging Gage in Boston. In August King George issued a proclamation call ing on all loyal subjects to suppress the rebellion and sedition in North America. In September he hired 20,000 German soldiers from the princes of Hesse, Anhalt, and Brunswick, to reduce the colonies to submission. In October a British captain, without provocation, sailed into Falmouth harbor (Portland, Maine) and burned the town, rendering 1000 people homeless on the eve of a severe New England winter. In November two small Amer ican armies under Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold were invading Canada with the sanction of the Continental Con gress. And on the last day of December, 1775, Quebec barely escaped capture by the colonial troops in a furious attack, in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold severely wounded. The news of the burning of Falmouth and the king s contract for German mercenaries reached Congress on the same day. The indignation of the assembly was extreme. " I am ready The Birth of the Nation By" his EXCELLENCY WILLIAM TR YON, Esquire, Captain General, and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New.Tork, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the fame. A PROCLAMATION. \ TTHEREAS f have received His Majefty s Koyaf ProcfarriaUOl, given at tnc Court at St. Jamti s, the Twenty. V third Day ofs4uu/l laft, in the Words following : | BY THE KING, A Proclamation, For fupprefsing RTBELLIjON and SEDITION. GEORGE R. HERE AS many of our SubjeAs in divers [parts of our Colonies and Plantations in Mrtb-Aamta, milled by W Mined them, after various diforderly Ails Committed tn difturbancc of the public Peace, to the dbftrua.on of lairful Commc.-x, sn,i to , fc OffxISon of. Ml loyal SubjecTi carrying on the fame, have at length proceeded to an open and avowed Rebellion, by arraying thjemfelves in hoftile Manner, to withftand the Execution of the La*, and trairoroufly preparing, ordering and levying War againft us : And whereas there ifi Reafon to apprehend that fuch Rebellion hath been much promoted and encdurageci by the traitorous Correfpondence, Counfcls, and Comfort of divers wicked and defperate Pcrfont within tfiis Realm : To the End therefore that none of our S.ubjeds may cglcft or violate their Duty through Ignorance thereof, or through any Doubt bf the Proteflion which the Law will afford to their Loyally and Zeal ; e have thought fit, by and with the Advice of our Privy Council, to illue thi our Royal Proclamation, hereby declaring, that not only all our Officers Ml and Military, are obliged to exert ihcir utmoft Endeavours to fupprcfs fuch Rebellion, and to bring the Traitors to Jultice ; but that all our ubjecb of this Realm and the Dominions thereunt J 10 difclofc and nuke known all traitorous Confpi nd command all our Officers, as well Civil as Military, and : pprcfs fuch Rebellion, and to difclofe and make known all Treafons and traitorous Confpiracies which they (hall know to be againft us, our Crown d Dienityj and for that Purpofe, (hat they tranfmit to one of our principal Secretaries of State, or other proper Officer, due and full Information of PeriSo. who ball be found carrying on Correfpondence with, or in any Mpntr i - ebelhon aeainft our Government wuhlo " linions thereunto belonging, arc bound bj- Law to be aiding and aflifting in the Suppceflion of fuch Rebellion, raitorous Confpiracies and Attempts againft us, our Crown and Dignity : And we do accordingly ftrclly charge Civil as Military, and all other our obedkfht and loyal Subjects, to ufe their utmoft Endeavours to withftand and Confpiracies which they Dull know to be againft us, our Crown ws of State, or other proper Officer, due and full Information of *r Degree aiding or abetting the Perfoni now in open Arms and iMwniw, in order to bring to condign Pumflunent the Authors, a againd our Government wuhin any of ou Cqjonies and Plantatior* >J AatAyAimw, ijrojtors, and Aletton of filch traitorous DeOgni. J J Gm at air Court a St Jaau i ibe Tatnty-tbird Dy / Auguft, 0* Ti-jM &wr HuJrtJ nJStc.niy.fat, i, ibt Fiftaat Tar of our St!gtt. In Obedience therefore to his Majefty s Commands to me gjvenJ Ido hereby publifti and make known his Majefty s oft gracious Proclamation above recited ; eameftly exhorting and requiring all his Majefty s loyal and iaithfiil Sub- ^s within this Province, as they value their Allegiance due otMbeft of Sovereigns, their Dependance on and Pro ton from their Parent State, and the Bleffings of a mild, free, and happy Conftiturion; and as they would fhun e fatal Calamities which are the inevitable Confluences ol Sedition and Rebellion, to pay all due Obedience to e Laws of their Country, ferioufly to attend to his Majefty s did Proclamation, and govern themfelves accordingly. ~ . *r 07 HaJaJ &a/ a Arm, atttCUjtf New-York, tk Fca tort* Da, cf November, OK fbctftnd Snx* HnJral ,rt Snatffct, - irr^/&*>/rSK^ZWCEO*CB/&7ii^fr*t w< ./(^ WM. TRYOjN. GOD SAVE^TH^AT/^a King George Ill s Proclamation of Rebellion now, brother rebel," said a Southern member to Ward of Rhode Island, " to declare ourselves independent ; we have had suffi cient answer to our petition." On the tenth of January, 1776, there came from a press in 160. Thomas Philadelphia a pamphlet entitled "Common Sense " which made Paine s work 132 Separation of the Colonies from England tens of thousands throughout the colonies ready also to declare themselves independent. The author was Thomas Paine, an Englishman of scanty fortune but liberal ideas, who had won Franklin s friendship in London and had come to the colonies in 1774 with what he later called " an aversion to monarchy, as debauching to the dignity of man." For generations the odium attaching to Thomas Paine s name for his bold assault on ortho dox theology in "The Age of Reason" has obscured the merit of his great services to the cause of American free dom. In "Common Sense" he argued with convincing clearness that the position of the colonies was thoroughly inconsistent, in full rebel lion against England, yet pro testing loyalty to the king. He urged them to lay aside sen timental scruples, to realize that they were the nucleus of a great American nation des tined to cover the continent and to be an example to the world of a people free from the servile traditions of mon archy and the low public morals of the Old World. It is doubtful whether any other printed work in all American history has had a greater influence than Paine s " Common Sense." Over 1 00,000 copies were sold,. the equivalent of a circulation of 25,000,000 in our present population. Washington spoke enthusiastically of the "sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning" of the pam phlet ; and Edmund Randolph, the first attorney-general of the United States, said that the declaration of the independence of America was due, next to George III, to Thomas Paine. COMMON SENSE: ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS or AMERICA. On the followrag interring SUBJECTS. I. Of (W Oripn B na DcAgn of GonmoKnt in jmral, wiU. rancH. Ktiflvkton <b< SnjIKh Co-.ftll.ttan. II. Of Mowely an* HrcJiUry Sutccffion. III. Th.gM on th. p(Vnt 5iau ,( Anxrkan Affb. Written by an E N Gil S H M A N. jftyJ&HUM _JL^X PHILADELPHIA, Pri.i.4 AW SMIy R. BELL, (n TbMSwct, |,;6. Title-page of Thomas Paine s Pam phlet, " Common Sense " The Birth of the Nation 133 When, therefore, the legislature of North Carolina ordered 161. Lee of its representatives in Congress to advocate independence, 1 Vir- poseslnde- ginia and all the New England colonies fell quickly into line. P endence The Virginia delegation took the lead, its chairman, Richard Henry Lee, moving, on the seventh of June, 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. The vote on this momentous motion was postponed until the 162. Thomas first of July, and a committee composed of Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Sherman, and Livingston was appointed to frame P eclaratlon of Independence a fitting declaration of independence in case the motion was carried. Jefferson wrote the document in the fervor of sponta neous patriotism, " without reference to book or pamphlet," as he later declared. His draft was somewhat modified by the other members of the committee, especially Adams and Franklin. The wonderful Declaration of Independence, engrossed on parchment and signed by fifty-six members of the Congress, is still preserved in the State Department at Washington. 2 On the first day of July, Lee s motion was taken from the 163. The table for-debate, and on the next day was passed by the vote of adopted? all the colonies except New York. Two days later (July 4) J ul y <> 1776 Jefferson s Declaration was adopted. We celebrate the latter event in our national holiday, but the motion declaring our inde pendence was carried the second of July. 3 1 The taxpayers of North Carolina had already resisted the king s troops in arms, in 1771, at Alamance, near the source of the Cape Fear River. They had been beaten and a number of them had been hanged as traitors. In May, 1775, other North Carolina patriots, of the county of Mecklenburg, had voted that " the king s civil and military commissions were all annulled and vacated." This vote was practically a declaration of independence by the patriots of Mecklenburg County, but no formal declaration was drawn up, and the North Carolina dele gates failed to report the resolution to the Continental Congress. 2 Until 1894 this most famous document in our archives was on view to the public, but in that year, owing to the rapid fading and cracking of the parchment, the document was withdrawn from contact with the light and air. 3 John Adams declared that the second of July would be forever celebrated as the most glorious day in our history. 1 34 Separation of the Colonies from England 164. Anaiy- The Declaration of Independence was issued out of " a decent Decoration of respect for the opinion of mankind." It asserted in the opening independence p ara g ra ph that all men are created equal and endowed with " certain inalienable rights," such as " life, liberty, and the pur suit of happiness," which it is the purpose of all governments to secure ; and that "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or Facsimile of the Opening Lines of the Declaration of Independence to abolish it." The king of Great Britain, it declared, had violated those rights by a long train of abuses, and in proof there was submitted to a candid world a list of twenty-seven arbitrary and tyrannical acts aimed at the liberty of his American subjects. He had proved himself unfit to be the ruler of a free people. "We, therefore," concludes the Declaration, " the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, . . . solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States. . . . The Birth of the Nation 1 3 5 And for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." The effect of the Declaration of Independence was momen- 165. Effect tous. It put an end to the inconsistency of the colonial position. ra ti n It made the troops of Washington, poor and meager as they were, a national army. It changed the struggle on the part of America from one of armed resistance to the unlawful acts of a sovereign still acknowledged, to a war against a foreign king and state ; and on the part of England, from a quarrel with rebel lious subjects to the invasion of an independent country. Until the Declaration was published the Tories or Loyalists, of whom there were hundreds of thousands in the American colonies, were champions of one side of the debatable question, namely, whether the abuses of the king s ministers justified armed resistance; but after the Declaration loyalty to the king of Great Britain became treason to their country. As traitors they were accordingly treated their property confiscated, their utter ances controlled, and their conduct regulated by severe laws in every one of the new states. The issue was now clearly defined. The new nation of the 166. Wash- United States was fighting for its very existence. In a general mfnds the 1 " order of July 9, 1776, Washington communicated the Declaration cause to his to his army in New York, whither he had moved after compel ling Gage to evacuate Boston (May 17, 1776). "The General hopes," read the order, " that this important event will serve as an incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depend (under God) solely on the success of our arms ; and that he is in the service of a state possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance him to the highest honors of a free country." 1 1 The troops and the citizens of New York celebrated this announcement by throwing down the leaden statue of George III, which stood on Bowling Green, and melting it into bullets for the colonial rifles. 136 Separation of the Colonies from England THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR A detailed description of battles and campaigns is profitable only to experts in military science, whereas the causes that lead a country into war, especially into a war for independence, are most important stages in the evolution of a people s political and moral life. Therefore, after our rather full study of the preliminaries of the American Revolution, we shall dwell but briefly on the actual conflict. 167. wash- Shortly after Washington had compelled General Gage to ington s dis astrous re- evacuate Boston three British major generals Howe, Clinton an< ^ Burgoyne arrived to conduct the war against the rebel- 1776 lious colonies (May, 1776). Washington tried to defend New York, but Howe s superior force of veterans drove his militia from Brooklyn Heights, Long Island, and compelled him to retreat step by step through the city of New York and up the Hudson, then across the river into New Jersey, and then across the state of New Jersey to a safe position on the western bank of the Delaware. With 3000 men left in the hands of the British as prisoners, and 7000 more under the command of the insubordinate and treacherous Charles Lee refusing to come to his aid, Washington wrote to his brother in December : " If every nerve is not strained to recruit a new army with all pos sible expedition, I think the game is pretty nearly up." A determined move by Howe from New York to the Delaware might easily have overwhelmed the remnants of Washington s army, some 2000 troops, and put an end then and there to the American Revolution. But fortunately for the patriot cause Howe was a lukewarm enemy. Surrounded by Tory flatterers, he believed that in chasing Washington from New York and New Jersey he had already given the American rebellion its death blow, and that he had only to wait a few weeks before the peni tent Congress at Philadelphia would be suing for the pardon George III had authorized him to grant when resistance to the royal will should cease. The Birth of the Nation 1 37 But Washington with magnificent audacity recrossed the 168. His ,, . . . r .. -11 recovery of Delaware on Christmas night of 1776, surprised and over- New jersey, whelmed a post of 1000 Hessians at Trenton, and a few days later defeated the British column of Lord Cornwallis at Prince- 1777 ton and drove it back to the neighborhood of New York. The courage and skill of Washington had saved the patriot cause. Frederick the Great of Prussia, the best judge of gen eralship in Europe, called Washington s recovery of New Jersey " the most brilliant campaign of the eighteenth century." Corn wallis himself, when complimenting Washington five years later on the skill with which the latter had forced him to the final surrender at Yorktown, added : " But after all, your Excel lency s achievements in New Jersey were such that nothing could surpass them." 1 Disappointed in their hopes that the patriot cause would col- 169. The lapse of itself, the British ministry prepared an elaborate plan of attack for the campaign of 1777. Three armies w r ere to invade control of the Hudson, 1777 New York. Burgoyne, descending from Montreal via Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson ; St. Leger, marching east ward from Lake Ontario through the Mohawk valley ; and- Howe, ascending the Hudson from New York City, were to converge at Albany and so, by controlling the Hudson, were to shut New England off from the southern colonies. This ambi tious scheme, with its total disregard of the conditions of travel in northern and western New York, showed how little the British W T ar Department had learned from Braddock s defeat twenty years earlier. St. Leger, toiling through the western wilderness, was effectu- 170. Bur- ally stopped by the brave old German Indian fighter, General SndeV at* 1 " Herkimer, long before he had got halfway to Albany ; Howe s Saratoga, instructions to move up the river were tucked into a pigeon- 1777 hole by the war minister, Lord George Germaine, who was anxious to get off to the country to shoot pheasants, and left there to 1 A vivid account of this wonderful campaign is given in John Fiske s Amer ican Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 239-247. 138 Separation of the Colonies from England gather the dust of years ; while Burgoyne, fighting his way step by step against the dead resistance of the tangled and cluttered forests of northern New York and the live resistance of New England riflemen who gathered in swarms to harass his fatigued columns, was brought to bay near Saratoga, and by the dash ing charges of Arnold, Morgan, and Schuyler was obliged to surrender his total force of 6000 men and officers to General Horatio Gates, commander of the continental army on the Hudson (October 17, 1777). 171. The Sir Edward Creasy has included Burgoyne s defeat at Saratoga oftheia? int among his "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." It was the turning point of the Revolution. The total failure of the Hudson River campaign left the British without a plan of war. To be sure, General Howe had sailed down from New York to the head of Chesapeake Bay, while he ought to have been marching up the Hudson to join Burgoyne, and had seized the " rebel capital," Philadelphia, in spite of Washington s plucky opposition at Ger- mantown and Brandywine Creek. But though the British officers with their Tory friends in Philadelphia were spending a gay winter at fetes and balls while Washington s destitute fragment of an army was shivering and starving at Valley Forge near by, never theless the advantage of the winter of 1777-1778 was with the Americans. 172. Great The attempts of the British both to crush Washington s army terms of and to sever the northern and southern colonies had failed. The peace, March, j m p OSS ibility of occupying the country back of the few seaport towns, such as New York, Newport, and Philadelphia, began to be apparent to the British ministry, as it had from the first been apparent to many British merchants, who had advised making the war a purely naval one, for the blockade of the American ports and the destruction of their commerce. The amiable Lord North, distressed as much by the prolongation of the war as by the disaster to Burgoyne, was allowed to send an embassy to the American Congress early in 1778, con ceding to the colonies every right they had contended for since The Birth of the Nation 139 the days of the Stamp Act, if they would only lay down their arms and return to British allegiance. But Lord North s offer came too late. The victory at Sara- 173. The 11 r i r French alli- toga had opened the eyes or another court and sovereign. Ine a nce, Febru- French ministry, which ary> I778 /O r dw& ^ry x" i f or ver a year had been \^Sir -J^fe^;:^ 23 *77&-^ . . . refusing the repeated re quests of the colonies for aid, uncertain whether the American rebellion were a weapon strong enough to use in taking revenge on England for the humiliat ing defeat of twenty years before, decided in the af firmative after Saratoga. In February, 1778, treaties of commerce and alliance were signed by the French and American diplomats. The treaty of alliance (the only one ever made by the United States) pledged each nation to continue the war with England until the other was ready to make peace. The French alliance 174. The war was a great gain for the **l* Americans. By it the in- character dependence of the United States was recognized by the strong est power of continental Europe. Men and money, both sorely needed, were furnished to the struggling states, and, above all, a fleet was sent over to deliver the American seaports from the British. John Paul Jones, the intrepid sea fighter, was fitted Letter of Franklin to the Count of Ver- gennes, the Earliest Diplomatic Corre spondence of the American Congress 140 Separation of the Colonies from England out with five vessels in France, and flying the new American flag from the masthead of the Bonhomme Richard, attacked the British frigates in their own waters. As the war assumed a Euro pean aspect, Spain joined England s enemies (1779) with the hope of regaining the stronghold of Gibraltar ; and the next year Holland, England s old commercial rival, came into the league for the destruction of Britain s naval power and the overthrow of her colonial empire. Thus the American Revolution, after the victory at Saratoga, developed into a coalition of four powers against Great Britain; and the American continent became again, for the fifth time within a century, the ground on which France and England fought out their mighty duel. 175. Lee and Not caring to defend the forts on the Delaware against a at^oiTmouth, French fleet, the British evacuated Philadelphia in the early sum- August, 1778 mer O f jyyg, and fell back upon New York, escaping defeat at the hands of the American army on the way only by the treach ery of General Charles Lee, who basely ordered a retreat at the battle of Monmouth. Washington arrived on the scene of action in time to save the day for the American cause, and sent Lee into long-merited disgrace. 176. Thewar At the close of 1778 the British transferred the seat of war to the South, with a view of detaching the states below the Po tomac from the patriot cause. There was much British senti ment in Georgia and the Carolinas, where Sir Henry Clinton enrolled some 2000 Loyalist troops in his army. The war in the Carolinas assumed a civil character, therefore, marked by bitter partisan fighting and guerrilla raids. The British had no systematic plan of campaign, but marched and countermarched in an irregular line from coast to interior and interior to coast, wherever the resistance was least and the hope of attract ing soldiers to their banners greatest. Their capture of Savan nah in December, 1778, enabled them to reestablish the royal government in Georgia, and in 1780 they took Charleston, the other great southern port. In the interior of the Carolinas they were generally successful, until General Nathanael Greene, The Birth of the Nation 141 next to Washington the ablest commander on the American side, was sent to replace Gates, the " hero of Saratoga," who had ignominiously fled from the field on his defeat at Camden, South Carolina (August, lySo). 1 By the victories at Cowpens (January, 1781) and Guilford (March, 1781) Morgan and Greene retrieved the defeat of Gates and recovered the interior of the Carolinas. The most remarkable battle and the turning point of the war south of the Potomac River was the engagement at Kings . Mountain, on the border between North and South Carolina, where about 1000 sturdy frontiersmen from the Carolinas and Georgia, untrained and poorly equipped, put to rout a body of 1200 British regulars under Ferguson, who had been sent by General Cornwallis to clear the guerrillas out of the upland regions and make his march through the Carolinas easy. Meanwhile the most distressing incident of the war was tak- 177. The ing place on the Hudson. Benedict Arnold, who had so signally genedfc? f distinguished himself for bravery at Quebec and Saratoga, had Arnold not been advanced so rapidly in the American army as he thought he deserved to be. Encouraged by his friends among the British officers, and by his wife, who had been a belle in the Tory circles of Philadelphia, he nursed his injured pride to a point where he determined to betray his country. He easily obtained from Washington the command of the important fortress of West Point on the Hudson, and forthwith opened negotiations with Sir Henry Clinton to hand the post over to the British. Major Andre, the British agent in the transaction, was caught inside the American lines at Tarrytown and the incriminating papers were found in his boots. He was hanged as a spy. Warned of Andre s capture in the nick of time, Arnold fled hastily from his breakfast table and reached a British war vessel lying in 1 Baron De Kalb, who, with Lafayette, had joined Washington s army during the famous campaign of 1776, was killed in this battle. Other distinguished foreigners who gave their services to the American cause were Baron Steuben, a veteran Prussian officer, and the Polish generals, Kosciusko and Pulaski. The latter was killed in the engagement at Charleston, in May, 1780. 142 Separation of the Colonies from England 178. The the Hudson. He was rewarded with a brigadier generalship in Clinton s army, and assumed command of the British troops in Virginia. 1 Paper found in Andre s Possession Arnold was joined by Lord Cornwallis (to whom Clinton had turned over his command in the South) in the summer of 1781. Their combined forces fortified a position at Yorktown, to await 1 After the war Arnold went to England to live, where he had to endure at times insolent reminders of his treachery. He died, an old man, in London, June 14, 1801, dressed, by his own pathetic request, in his old colonial uniform with the epaulets and sword knot presented to him by Washington after the victory of Saratoga. In the great monument erected on the battlefield of Saratoga (1883) the niche which should contain Arnold s statue is left empty, while statues of Gates, Morgan, and Schuyler adorn the other three sides of the monument. The Birth of the Nation Washington s Campaigns Coniwallis March 1780- 17.SI - The War on the Atlantic Seaboard a British fleet bringing reenf orce- ments from New York. Corn- wallis s object was to conquer the state of Virginia, which was protected only by a meager force under the gallant young Mar quis de Lafayette, Washington s trusted friend, and the most de voted of the eleven foreign major generals who served in the American army. But the tables were turned on 179. corn- Cornwallis. While he was wait- ^ders at" ing in Yorktown, a French fleet Jorktown, October 19, under De Grasse, arriving off 1781 the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, defeated the British squadron which was bringing the ree n- forcements from New York, and landed 3000 French troops on the peninsula in their stead. At the same moment Washington, always on the right spot at the right moment, conducted a bril liant march of three hundred miles from the Hudson to the York River, with 2000 Ameri cans and 4000 Frenchmen, and effecting a junction with Lafa yette, penned Cornwallis up in the narrow peninsula between the York and the James. Cornwallis made a brave but vain effort to break the besieging lines. On the nineteenth of October, 1781, four 144 Separation of the Colonies from England 180. The war in the West 181. The Proclamation Line of 1763 years, almost to the day, after Burgoyne s surrender at Sara toga, Cornwallis delivered his sword to Washington, surrender ing his army of 7000 men and officers as prisoners of war. The British attempt to conquer the revolting colonies was over. North and south their armies had met with disaster. They abandoned the posts which they still held, with the exception of New York, and withdrew to the West Indies to triumph over France in a great naval battle and still preserve their ascend ancy in that rich region of the western world. While the American army on the Atlantic seaboard was suc cessfully repelling the British in vasion with the aid of the French fleet, a bold campaign was being conducted by the hardy fron tiersmen of the west for the over throw of England s authority beyond the Alleghenies. In the very year that the British took possession of the vast territory between the eastern mountains and the Mississippi, King George had issued a proclamation forbidding his governors in the American colonies to extend their authority or to permit settlement west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains. The ostensible reason for drawing this " Proclama tion Line " was to secure the allegiance and trade of the Indians so lately devoted to France, by giving them assurance that their hunting grounds would not be invaded by the white settlers from across the mountains ; but the real reason was to curtail the power of the colonies, discredit their old " sea-to-sea " char ters, and confine them to the narrow region along the Atlantic coast, where they could be within easier reach of the British authority. X* "* && . ^ S Lafcyptfe*- .- X The Siege of Yorktown The Birth of the Nation 145 It was a bitter disappointment to the ambitious frontiersmen, 182. The after having defeated the French attempt to shut them in be- march of the hind the mountains, to have the British king adopt the same P loneers policy. They felt that they were being kept out of a region destined for them by nature, and they resented being left exposed to danger from the fierce Indians that swept up and down the frontier in their intertribal raids and wars. Therefore the sturdy A Pioneer Kentucky Settlement woodsmen and pioneers from the back counties of Pennsyl vania, Virginia, and the Carolina? had pushed across the moun tains into the densely wooded land of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee valleys. In 1 769 Daniel Boone, the most cele brated of these pioneers, set out from his home in North Car olina to seek " Kentucke " (the " dark and bloody ground "), which was stained by centuries of Indian feuds. In the next three years Virginia pioneers, led by James Robertson and John Sevier, had founded settlements on the Watauga River in the 146 Separation of the Colonies from England western mountains of North Carolina ; and, like the early emi grants to the shores of New England, were devising a govern ment even while they were clearing the soil and defending their rude homes against the attack of the savages. The Revolutionary War in the West 183. The vie- Though Pontiac s great conspiracy (p. 113) to keep the Kanawhaana English out of the forts of the Northwest had been crushed (*7 6 5) and the Iroquois had abandoned their claims to the region between the Ohio and Lake Ontario (1768), still the savage tribes of Mingos, Shawnees, and Cherokees disputed with the white men every mile of the territory west of the Alle- ghenies. In October, 1774 (while the first Continental Congress was discussing methods of resistance to English taxation), a great The Birth of the Nation 147 victory of the Virginia backwoodsmen over Cornstalk, the Shawnee chieftain, at the mouth of the Kanawha River, had forced the Indians to abandon the rich lands of the present state of Kentucky. And in November, 1776 (while Washington s dwindling army was fleeing across the state of New Jersey), the decisive repulse of the Cherokees from the Watauga settlements opened to the pioneers the equally rich lands of Tennessee. The victories on the Kanawha and the Watauga, fought against 184. The the Indian foe, by men in the fringed hunting shirt of deer- o^thesTvic- skin and by the rude tactics of Indian warfare, have often gone tories unmentioned, while unimportant skirmishes on the seaboard, be tween uniformed soldiers, commanded by officers in gold braid, have been described in detail. But in their effects on our country s history these Indian fights, with the later victories north of the Ohio to which they opened the way, deserve to rank with Saratoga and Yorktown. For if the latter victories decided that America should take her place among the nations of the world, the former proclaimed that the new nation would not be content to be shut up in a little strip of seacoast, but had set its face westward to possess the whole continent. The settlers in Kentucky and Tennessee numbered only a iss. The few hundred at the outbreak of the American Revolution, but JJe^tera they were intensely democratic and patriotic. In May, 1775, settlements delegates from four " stations " in Kentucky " met in a wide field of white clover, under the shade of a monstrous elm," and made wise laws for their infant colony. When a party of campers in the heart of Kentucky heard the news of the first battle of the Revolution, they enthusiastically christened their camp " Lexington." In the Watauga settlement the Tories were drummed out of camp several months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Soon after that event Kentucky, through its self-constituted legislature, petitioned Congress to be received as the fourteenth state of the Union, and sent a dele gation to Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, to offer that state the services of " a respectable body of prime riflemen." 148 Separation of the Colonies from England 186. George One of these delegates was George Rogers Clark, a young Rogers ciark yj r gj n i an scarcely past twenty, with a dash of Cavalier blood in his veins, tall, straight, and stanchly built, " with unquailing blue eyes that looked out from under heavy brows." As a sur veyor on the upper Ohio Clark had cast in his lot with the Kentucky settlers, where he soon became a leader, like that other young Virginia surveyor of gentle blood, tall, sturdy, and blue-eyed, who twenty years before had led the first ex pedition to make good English claims to the region beyond the Alleghenies. On his return to Kentucky, Clark conceived and executed a plan of campaign which entitles him to be called the Washington of the West. Sending spies across the Ohio to the Illinois country, he learned that the Indians and French there were only lukewarm in their allegiance to their new English masters. He therefore determined to seize this huge territory for the patriot cause, and in the autumn of 1777 again traveled over the Wilderness Road to lay his plans before Governor Patrick Henry. 187. ciark Henry, Jefferson, Wyeth, Mason, and other prominent Virgin- northwestern ians approved Clark s bold scheme, but the utmost that the 1778-1779 state coul d do for him was to authorize him to raise 350 men and advance him $1200 in depreciated currency. It was a poor start for the conquest of a region as large as New England, New York, and Pennsylvania combined, but Clark belonged to the men of genius who persist in accomplish ing tasks which men of judgment pronounce impossible. The story of his exploits reads more like one of James Fenimore Cooper s fanciful Indian tales than like sober history ; how he surprised the post at Kaskaskia without a blow, and, by in trepid assurance and skillful diplomacy, induced the French and Indians of the Mississippi Valley to transfer their allegiance from the British Empire to the new American republic ; how, when he learned that Colonel Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, had seized the fort of Vincennes on the Wabash, he immediately marched his men in mid-winter over two hundred The Birth of the Nation 149 miles across the " drowned lands " of Illinois, sometimes wading through icy water up to their chins, sometimes shivering supper- less on some .bleak knoll, but always courageous and confident, until he appeared before the post of Vincennes and summoned the wonderstricken Hamilton to an immediate and unconditional surrender (February, 1779). The capture of Vincennes was the deathblow of the British power north of the Ohio. Clark s Virginians crossing the " Drowned Lands " of Illinois It would be difficult to overestimate the services of Boone, of Robertson, of Sevier, and, above all, of George Rogers Clark, in winning the western region just at the moment when the colo nies on the seaboard were establishing and defending their inde pendence. When the negotiations for peace with Great Britain were opened, it was the achievement of these pioneer conquer ors that emboldened the new American republic to insist on the Mississippi instead of the Alleghenies as its boundary on the west, and the Great Lakes instead of the Ohio as its boundary on the north. 150 Separation of the Colonies from England PEACE 188. Effect of When the news of Cornwallis s surrender at Yorktown reached sunenderon Lord North, he threw up his hands and exclaimed, " My God ! the British ^ j a j| over _ The stubborn king was not so ready to read in government J Yorktown the doom of his tenacious policy of coercion. Always mistaking the satisfaction of his royal will for the salvation of the British Empire, he stormed against the rising sentiment for peace with America, and wrote letters of petulant bombast to his prime minister, threatening to resign the British crown and retire to his ancestral domains in Germany. But threats and entreaties were of no avail. The nation was sick of the rule of the "King s Friends," and the early months of 1782 saw George III compelled to part with Lord North, and receive into his service, if not into his confidence, the Whig statesmen (Pitt, Fox, Burke) whose sympathy for America had been con stant and outspoken. Diplomatic agents were sent to Paris to discuss terms of peace with the American commissioners, Jay, Franklin, and John Adams. 189. compii- The situation was- a very complicated one. The United States, by the alii- by the treaty of alliance with France in 1778, had pledged itself tea* France*" not to ma ^ e a separate peace with England. Then the French and Spain had drawn Spain into the war, with the promise of recovering for her the island of Jamaica in the West Indies (taken by Oliver Cromwell s fleet in 1655) and the rock fortress of Gib raltar (captured by the English in 1704). The Franco- American alliance had been successful, as we have seen, in defeating the British invasion of the Atlantic seaboard, thus assuring the inde pendence of the United States. But the bolder Franco-Spanish design of destroying the naval supremacy of Great Britain and dividing up her colonial empire had entirely failed. It soon became evident to the American diplomats at Paris that France was scheming to find consolation for her defeated ally, Spain, at the expense of her victorious ally, America. In fact, Vergennes, the French minister, had prepared a map on which the United The Birth of the Nation 1 5 1 States figured as the same old colonial strip between the Al- leghenies and the sea, while the western region north of the Ohio was to be restored to England, and that south of the Ohio to the Indians, partly under American and partly under Spanish protection (see map). Thus the new republic was to be robbed of the fruits of the labors of Boone, Sevier, Robertson, and Clark, and the Mississippi was to be a Spanish stream. " This court is interested in separating us from Great Britain," wrote Jay from Paris, "but it is not their interest that we should become a great and formidable people." Yet we were greatly beholden to France. Her aid in men, 190. our ships, and money had been so timely and generous that it is almost certain that without it the American cause would have been lost. The Continental Congress, resorting to every possible device, requisitions on the states, confiscation of Tory estates, domestic loans, even a national lottery, could raise only a small fraction of the money needed to carry on the war. By 1778 it had issued $100,000,000 of paper money, which was rapidly coming to be worth hardly more than the paper on which it was printed. The bracing effect on our languishing finances of the arrival of $6,000,000 in hard French gold can easily be imagined. Our commissioners in Paris, there fore, were instructed by Congress not to proceed in the peace negotiations without the consent and concurrence of the French ministry. The critical question before Jay, Adams, and Franklin was 191. The whether or not they should obey their instructions from Con- gress and refuse to conclude a favorable peace with the willing Whig ministry of England, merely because France was anxious land, 1783 to rob the new republic of her western conquests and recompense Spain in the Mississippi Valley for what she had failed to get in the West Indies and in the Mediterranean. The commis sioners, following Jay s advice, disobeyed Congress, violated the treaty of alliance with France, and concluded the peace with f England alone, thereby securing the unbroken continent from 152 Separation of the Colonies from England the Atlantic to the Mississippi. But it took all the tact and shrewd suavity of Benjamin Franklin to make the French ministry accept the terms of the treaty with even tolerable good grace. 192. Terms There were difficult points in the negotiations with England of i783 Pe< too, despite the desire of both sides to come to terms. The British ministry readily acknowledged the independence of the United States, and made but slight protest against its extension west ward to the Mississippi. England also conceded to the United States the valuable privilege of sharing the Newfoundland fish eries. But the questions of debts due to English merchants from the colonists before the war, and the treatment of the American Loyalists, or Tories, were very troublesome. The American Con gress had no money of its own, and had no authority to dispose of the funds of the states. It could not, therefore, give the British ministry any sufficient guarantee that the debts would be paid. John Adams might assure William Pitt with some asperity and indignation that the Americans had " no idea of cheating any body," but the declaration looked to Pitt remarkably like Mr. Adams s private opinion merely. This matter of the debts might have frustrated the peace negotiations entirely, had not the British supplemented the American assurances of good will by the secret plan to hold on to the valuable fur-trading posts along the Great Lakes from Oswego to Mackinaw until the debts were paid. 193. The Still more delicate was the question of the treatment of the Loyalists, or Loyalists. Tens of thousands of the American colonists had been opposed to the war with the mother country, some out of prudent anxiety lest the war would entail business ruin and the general disorder, others from an optimistic belief that in spite of " Grenville s well-meant blunder and Townshend s ma licious challenge," the situation could be " rectified without the disruption of the Empire." The more ardent of these Loyalists denounced the Congress in unmeasured terms as a collection of quarrelsome, pettifogging lawyers and mechanics; and when THE UNITED STATES in 1783 Showing Western Land Claims of States and the Boundaries fixed by Treaty of 1783 Also the boundaries proposed by the French Court, Sept. 6, 1782 The Birth of the Nation 1 5 3 the Declaration of Independence put them in the position of traitors, thousands of them entered the British armies. To abandon these allies, who, at the sacrifice of their property and reputation in America, had obeyed King George s call to all loyal citizens to aid in putting down rebellion, seemed to the British ministry an unpardonable piece of ingratitude and in justice. It thought that the American Congress should restore to these Loyalists their confiscated estates (valued at some $20,000,000) or reimburse them with the territory north of the Ohio, which Clark had conquered. But in the breasts of the American patriots the thought of the 194. The Tories roused bitter memories. It was not alone their jibes and view" 5 * insults, their vilification of the character of Washington and his associates, their steady encouragement of desertion and mutiny in the American army, or their own appearance in the uniform of the king s troops. Congress remembered how, in the dark winter of 1776, when Washington was vainly imploring the farmers of New Jersey for food for his destitute soldiers, the Tory squires of the state were selling Lord Howe their rich harvests at good prices, to feed the British invaders ; and how in the still darker winter that followed, while Washington s starving and shivering army at Valley Forge was losing more men by desertion daily than it was gaining by recruiting, the Tory drawing-rooms of Philadelphia were gay with festivities in honor of the British officers. It was a hard thing to ask the new country, already burdened with a war debt of $135,000,- ooo, with its political life to establish on a firm basis and its industries and commerce to organize anew, to recompense the men who had done their utmost to wreck the patriot cause, men whom even the careful tongue of Washington called " detestable parricides ! " The British ministry finally gave way on this important ques- 195. The tion, accepting the assurance of the American commissioners that Congress would do nothing to hinder such Loyalists as had terms not borne arms against the United States from recovering their Group of Famous Revolutionary Buildings Faneuil Hall, Boston ; Old South Church, Boston ; Independence Hall, Philadelphia ; Old State House, Boston 154 The Birth of the Nation 1 5 5 property through the courts of each state. The British govern ment itself came to the aid of the " active " Loyalists, granting them liberal pensions and land in Canada. Europe was amazed at England s generosity. " The English buy the peace rather than make it," wrote Vergennes ; " their concessions as to boundaries, the fisheries, the Loyalists, exceed everything I had thought possible." It was a complete if a tardy triumph of that feeling of sympathy for men of common blood, common language, traditions, and institutions, across the seas, which had been so long struggling to find a voice in the corrupt councils of the English court. On the eighteenth of April, 1783, the eighth anniversary of 196. The re- the night when Paul Revere roused the minutemen of Lexing- Washington ton to meet the British regulars on the village green, Washington December, proclaimed hostilities at an end ; and, by the splendid example of his single-minded patriotism, persuaded men and officers to go to their homes " without a farthing in their pockets," confi dent in the power and good will of their new government to reward them according to their deserts. The final articles of peace were signed September 3, 1783. On November 23 the last British soldiers in America sailed out of New York harbor, and a few days later Washington bade his officers an affection ate farewell in the long hall of Fraunces Tavern, and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, there, as he hoped, " to glide gently down the stream of time until he rested with his fathers." REFERENCES The Declaration of Independence : C. H. VAN TYNE, The American Revolution (American Nation Series), chaps, iv-vi ; JOHN FISKE, The American Revolution, Vol. I, chap, iv; JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. VI, chap, iii ; Cambridge Modern His tory, Vol. VII, chap, vi ; G. OTTO TREVELYAN, The American Revolution, Vol. II, Part I, pp. 105-158 ; A. B. HART, American History told by Con temporaries, Vol. II, Nos. 184-188. The Revolutionary War : VAN TYNE, chaps, vii-xvii ; TREVELYAN, Vols. I-III (to 1777) ; FISKE, Vols. I, II ; W. M. SLOANE, The French 156 Separation of the Colonies from England War and the Revolution, chaps, xx-xxviii ; THEODORE ROOSEVELT, The Winning of the West, Vols. II, III ; H. C. LODGE, The Story of the Revo lution ; WILLIAM H. ENGLISH, The Conquest of the Country Northwest of the Ohio ; W. H. LECKY, History of England in the Eighteenth Century (ed. Woodburn), chap. ii. Peace: JOHN FISKE, The Critical Period of American History, chap, i; A. C. MCLAUGHLIN, The Confederation and the Constitution (Am. Nation), chaps, i-iii; HART, Vol. II, Nos. 215-220; LECKY (ed. Woodburn), chap, iv; WINSOR, Vol. VII, chap, ii ; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, No. 3 (for text of treaty). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1 . Thomas Paine s Contribution to American Independence : TREVELYAN, Vol. II, Part I, pp. 147-155 ; HART, Vol. II, Nos. 159, 186; VAN TYNE, pp. 61-65, I2 9 M. C. TYLER, Literary History of the American Revolu tion, Vol. I, pp. 452-471 ; M. D. CONWAY, Life of Thomas Paine (use index). 2. Lafayette in the American Revolution : Old South Leaflets, Nos. 97, 98 ; FISKE, The American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 206208, 234, 240 243, 280-295 ; SLOANE, pp. 264, 292, 324-344. 3. The Tories: TYLER, Vol. I, pp. 293-313; TREVELYAN, Vol. II, Part II, pp. 226-240; HART, Vol. II, Nos. 166-169 ; VAN TYNE, The Loyalists in the American Revolution, pp. 1-59; TYLER, The Party of the Loyalists (American Historical Review, Vol. I, pp. 24 ff.). 4. Daniel Boone, a Pioneer to the West: A. B. HURLBURT, Boone s Wilderness Road, pp. 1-47 ; H. A. BRUCE, The Romance of American Expansion, pp. 1-24 ; ROOSEVELT, Vol.1, pp. 134-136; J. R. SPEARS, The History of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 183-208 ; R. G. THWAITES, Life of Daniel Boone. 5. Washington s Trials with the Army and Congress: FISKE, The American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 24-46, 62-72; The Critical Period of American History, pp. 101-119; HART, Vol. II, Nos. 174, 195, 198, 206; SLOANE, pp. 370-378 ; VAN TYNE, The American Revolution, pp. 236- 247 ; Old South Leaflets, No. 47. PART III. THE NEW REPUBLIC PART III. THE NEW REPUBLIC CHAPTER VI THE CONSTITUTION THE CRITICAL PERIOD With the Revolutionary War the first great epoch of Ameri- 197. End of can history, the colonial period, came to an end. The English colonies became an independent nation, and the political con nections with the great British Empire were severed. Royal governors, councilors, judges, customs officers, and agents dis appeared, and their places were taken by men chosen by the people of the new states, public servants instead of public masters. Fortunately the break with Great Britain had not come before the serious and aggressive French rivals of the English in the New World had been subdued, and the country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi had been won for men of English speech, blood, tradition, and law. The two great facts of the separation of the colonies from 198. Tasks England, and the possession of a vast western territory to be settled and organized, determined the chief activities of the new republic. First of all, the United States, unless that name were to be a mere mockery, must devise a form of government to in sure a national union; and, in the second place, the national government must be extended westward as the new domain beyond the mountains developed. We have studied the winning of American independence. We turn now to a study of the American Union. i6o The New Republic 199. The nature and authority of Congress, 1776-1789 200. The Articles of Confedera tion, 1777-1781 Thirteen years elapsed between the Declaration of Independ ence (1776) and the inauguration of George Washington as first President of the United States (1789). During those years our country was governed by a Congress, a body which must be carefully distinguished from our present national Congress. To-day Congress means a group of about 500 men, elected by the people and the legislatures of the various states, to meet in annual session at the Capitol at Washington and make laws for our country. The authority of Congress extends over every citizen of the United States ; its sphere includes such important powers as levying taxes, regulating commerce, making war and peace, coining money, and admitting new states to the Union. But the Congress of 1775-1788 was a far different thing. It con sisted of a group of delegations of from two to seven members apiece, sent by each state to a general meeting at Philadelphia. Until a few months before the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town this Congress was without legal authority, or any written constitution defining its powers. Its members, acting on instruc tions from their states, or relying on the indorsement of their states, assumed very important functions of government. They raised and officered an army, assessed the states for its support, declared the colonies independent of England, borrowed money abroad on the credit of the new United States, rejected the British offer of reconciliation in 1778, and concluded treaties of com merce and alliance with France. But the Continental Congress could assume these vast powers of government without express authority only because the pressure of war united the colonies for the moment and made a central directing body an immediate necessity. For the Union to endure after the pressure of war was over, a regular national government had to be established. About a year before the colonies declared their independence Benjamin Franklin, a lifelong advocate of colonial union, sub mitted to this Congress a draft of " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" (July 21, 1775). But too many of the members of Congress still hoped for a peaceful settlement with The Constitution 161 England to make this plan acceptable. When independence was declared, however, the necessity of forming a government be came obvious. In response to a clause in Lee s famous motion of independence a committee of one from each of the thirteen colonies, with John Dickinson of Pennsylvania as chairman, was appointed " to prepare a plan of confederation and transmit it to the respective colonies for their consideration and approba tion." The Articles of Confederation were duly composed, and, being approved by Congress in November, 1777, were sent to the various states for ratification. But more than three years elapsed before the last of the states, Maryland, assented to the Articles and so made them the law of the land (March i, 1781). The delay of Maryland in accepting the Articles of Confedera- 201. The tion was due to an important cause and resulted in a great benefit westerniands to the nation. The states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Jj^J^J 1 of North and South Carolina, and Georgia claimed land between the states Alleghenies and the Mississippi by virtue of their old colonial charters, which gave them indefinite westward extension. Vir ginia s claim, which overlapped that of both Massachusetts and Connecticut, was strengthened by the fact that George Rogers Clark had actually conquered the vast territory north of the Ohio under commission from the governor of Virginia. New York also maintained a. claim to part of the same disputed territory on ac count of a treaty with the Iroquois Indians, which had put those tribes under her protection (1768). The states whose western boundaries were fixed by their charters, like Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, were at a disadvantage, since they had no western lands with which to reward their veterans of the Revolution. Maryland, therefore, insisted, before accepting the Articles of Confederation, that the states with western claims should surrender them to the United States, and that all the land between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi should be national domain. After some parleying, New York, in 1780, led the way in surrendering its claims. Virginia, with noble generosity, gave up her far better founded claims to the whole region north of 1 62 The New Republic the Ohio, in 1784. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Car- olinas quickly followed suit, though Georgia, partly on account of complications with Spain, maintained her claims as far west as the Mississippi until 1802. By these cessions the United States acquired an immense national domain, the sale of which could be applied to the payment of the Revolutionary War debt, and from whose territory new states could be formed. It was the beginning of a truly national power, and honor is due to the state of Maryland for insisting on this fair and wise policy. 202. criti- The Articles of Confederation, though announcing a " perpet- Articies of ual union " and a " firm league of friendship " of the thirteen states, remained in force only eight years, and failed utterly to bring strength or harmony into the Union. They were but an experiment in government. The defects of the Articles may be summed up in a single clause : they failed to give the Congress of the United States enough authority to run the government. At the very outset they declared that " each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," and all through them the unwillingness to force the states to part with any of their power is evident. For example, Congress pledged the faith of the United States to pay the war debt, yet it had neither the power to demand, nor the machinery to collect, a single penny from any citizen or state of the Union. It could only make " requisitions " on the states, and its repeated requests for money met with meager response. Gouverneur Morris called it a "government by supplication." The budget for 1781-1782 was $9,000,000. Of this Congress negotiated for $4,000,000 by a foreign loan, and assessed the states for the other $5,000,000. After a year s delay some $450,000 of the $5,000,000 asked for was paid in, and not a dollar came from Georgia, South Carolina, or Dela ware. So, from year to year, the "government by supplica tion " worried along, asking millions and getting a few hundred thousands, in imminent danger of going bankrupt by failing to pay the interest on its debt, with scarcely enough revenue, as one statesman said with pardonable exaggeration, " to buy The Constitution 163 stationery for its clerks or pay the salary of a doorkeeper." The impotence of Congress in financial matters was only one example of the general inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation. They put on the central government certain grave responsibilities, such as defending the land from its foes, maintaining its credit, preserving order at home, and securing friendships abroad ; and yet they gave the central government no means of enforcing obedience to its will. Congress had no executive power, no national courts of justice in which to condemn offenders against its laws, no control of commerce, no machinery of taxation, no check on the indiscriminate issue by the states of money of differing values, no efficient army or navy. It is no wonder that so weak a government failed to inspire 203. our respect abroad or obedience at home. England, in defiance of the treaty of 1783, still held the fur-trading posts of the North- the European powers west, and, taking advantage of the commercial confusion of thirteen separate tariff codes in the United States, refused to admit us on fair terms to a share in her maritime trade. The French ministers told Jefferson plainly in Paris that it was impossible to recognize the Congress as a government. The Spanish governor at New Orleans offered the western fron tiersmen the use of the Mississippi if they would renounce their allegiance to the United States and come under the flag of Spain. The thrifty merchants of Amsterdam were on tenter hooks for fear that the interest on their loans to the new re public would not be paid. And finally even the Mohammedan pirates of the Barbary States in northern Africa levied black mail on our vessels which ventured into the Mediterranean. The government under the Articles of Confederation " had touched that lowest point of ignominy where it confessed its inability to protect the lives and property of its citizens." At home anarchy was imminent. The glowing sentences in 204. The which patriots on the eve of the Revolution had declared them- selves no longer Virginians or Carolinians, but henceforth home Americans, were forgotten when peace was made. The states, 164 The New Republic with their conflicting commercial and agricultural interests, their diverse social and religious inheritances from early colonial days, their strong sense of local independence, nurtured by long de fense against British officials and strengthened by the meager- ness of intercolonial trade and travel, were jealous to preserve their individuality unimpaired. They indulged in petty tariff wars against one another, the defeated party often seeking a spiteful consolation in refusing to pay its contribution to Con gress. Boundary disputes were frequent and fierce. The farmers of New York and Connecticut fought over the region of Ver mont like bands of Indians on the warpath, " with all the horrors of ambuscade and arson " ; Pennsylvania allowed the Indians of the Wyoming valley to scalp New Englanders as "intruders." Congress was powerless to prevent states from plunging into the folly of issuing large sums of paper money to ease the debtor class. It looked on in distressed impotence while thriving towns like Newport were brought to the edge of ruin by wild financial legislation, 1 and the ancient and digni fied commonwealth of Massachusetts had to subdue an armed mob of 1500 rebels of the debtor class, led by a captain of the Revolution named Daniel Shays, who closed the courts at Worcester and attacked the United States arsenal at Springfield (1786-1787). 205. The As the weakness of Congress became more evident its dig- Congress nity declined. The foremost statesmen preferred to serve their own states rather than to sit in a national assembly without power. Each state was entitled to seven representatives in Con gress by the terms of the Articles, making a house of ninety-one members. But there were seldom more than a quarter of that number in attendance. Some states went unrepresented for 1 A French visitor to America during this distressing period saw in Newport " groups of idle men standing with folded arms at the corners of the streets, houses falling to ruin, miserable shops with nothing but a few coarse stuffs, grass growing in. the public square in front of the court of justice, and rags stuffed in the windows or hung on hideous women " (Brissot de Warville, Travels in America, ed. of 1791,?. HS)- The Constitution 165 months at a time. Only twenty members were in session to re ceive George Washington and to express to him the country s gratitude for his invaluable services on the most solemn occa- , sion of his surrender of the command of the American army in December, 1783. Only twenty-three assembled the next month to ratify the treaty of peace with England. Finally, the attend ance dwindled away to a few scattering representatives, until from October, 1788, to April, 1789, not enough members assem bled to make a quorum, and there was absolutely no United States government. It is a relief to be able to point to one piece of statesmanlike 206. The and constructive work done by the poor tottering government ordinance, of the Confederation in these dismal years, fitly called " the crit- July I3 I787 ical period of American history." The large domain between the Great Lakes and the Ohio, which had become the property of the United States by the abandonment of the claims of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia, was organized by Congress into the Northwest Territory, July 13, 1787. The act of organization, called the Northwest Ordi nance, provided for three judges to govern the territory until the population was large enough for a regular democratic, represent ative government. It also provided that the citizens of the ter ritory should enjoy complete political and religious liberty, that a system of free public education should be introduced, that eventually from three to five new states should be carved out of the territory, and that slavery should forever be excluded from the domain. 1 Within a year colonists from Massachusetts, sent out by the Ohio Company, founded the town of Marietta in what is now southern Ohio, and, with the establishment of county government and courts, the Northwest Ordinance was put into operation (April, 1788). 1 This territory was essentially the same as that reserved in Vergennes plan of 1782 for further negotiations between England and the United States (see map, opposite p. 152). Out of it were formed later the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with a small piece of Minnesota. 1 66 The New Republic 207. Great significance of the Ordi nance 208. Propo sals to remedy the defects of the Articles of Confederation 209. The Mt Vernon and Annapolis Conventions, 1785-1786 As the first law for the government of national territory, this ordinance declared that the extension of the power of the United States into the western wilderness was to be at the same time the extension of the blessings of enlightenment, tolerance, and freedom. Daniel Webster, in a speech in the United States Sen ate forty years later, said, " I doubt whether any single law of any lawgiver ancient or modern has produced effects of more distinct and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787." "A MORE PERFECT UNION" The inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation was recog nized from the beginning by some of the wisest of our states men. These Articles had been in operation (if one can speak of their " operating " at all) little more than a month when James Madison of Virginia proposed (April, 1781) that they should be amended so as to give the United States " full authority to em ploy force by sea as well as by land to compel any delinquent state to fulfill its federal obligations," or, in other words, to pay its share of the federal assessment. After the peace with Eng land, two years later, Washington wrote in a circular letter to the governors of the states, " There should be lodged some where a supreme power to regulate the general concerns of the Confederated Republic, without which this Union cannot be of long duration." Again in 1784, he wrote, " I predict the worst consequences for a half-starved limping government, always moving on crutches, and tottering at every step." Finally, Con gress itself officially proclaimed its inability to conduct the gov ernment under its meager powers, by supporting a proposal for a convention of delegates from all the states to revise the Articles of Confederation. The proposal had arisen out of an economic difficulty. Mary land and Virginia disputed the control of the Potomac River, and commissioners from these two states met as guests of Washington at Mount Vernon, in 1785, to settle the matter. In the course of the discussion it developed that the commercial The Constitution 167 interests of Pennsylvania and Delaware were also concerned, and the Virginia commissioners suggested that all the states be invited to send delegates to a convention at Annapolis, Maryland, the next year, to consider the commercial interests of the United States as a whole. But no sooner had the delegates of five states met at Annapolis in 1786 than they took a further im portant step. The New Jersey delegation had brought instruc tions to discuss the commercial question and other important matters. Alexander Hamilton of New York, impressed by this phrase, proposed that still another convention of all the states be called at Philadelphia the next year for the general revision of the Articles of Confederation. Even before Congress sanctioned this proposal six of the states had appointed delegates, and after the approval of Congress was given six more states fell into line. Only little Rhode Island, fearing that her commerce would be ruined by national control and her representation over shadowed by the larger states in Congress, refused to send delegates to the convention. It was an extraordinary array of political talent that was 210. person- brought together in the convention which met in Independence constitu- Hall at Philadelphia in May, 1787, to devise a worthy govern- ment for the United. States. John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- Philadelphia, son were in Europe, as ministers to the courts of England and y> ] France respectively. John Jay was foreign secretary in Con gress, and Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, the foremost agitators of the American Revolution, were both opposed to strengthening the central government. But with these five ex ceptions the greatest men of the country were at the Philadel phia convention : Washington, Madison, Randolph, and Mason from Virginia ; Franklin, Wilson, Robert and Gouverneur Morris from Pennsylvania ; Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut ; Elbridge Gerry and Rufus King from Massachu setts ; John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney from South Caro lina ; John Dickinson from Delaware ; and Alexander Hamilton from New York. Washington was chosen president of the 1 68 The New Republic convention. The sessions, which lasted from May 25 to Septem ber 17, were secret; but the methodical Madison took full notes of the debates, writing them out carefully every evening in the form of a journal. When he died fifty years later, the last survivor of that remarkable gathering of men, his widow sold the manuscript of this valuable journal, with other impor tant Madison papers, to Congress for $30,000, and the journal was published at Washington in 1840. 211. The The convention proceeded to give a very liberal interpreta- pian^for a tion to * ts instructions to " amend " the Articles of Confedera- nationai gov- t j on The Virginia delegation brought in a plan for the entire ernment remodeling of the government. There were to be three inde pendent departments, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The legislature was to consist of a House of Represent atives- elected by the people and a Senate elected by the House. The government therefore was to be national, deriving its power directly from the people of the nation at large, rather than a confederation, depending for its existence on the will of the various state legislatures. 212. The The small states, fearing that they would lose their individu- Pian^fora^ a ^ty entirely in a national legislature elected in proportion to federation 11 " the P o P ulation ? supported a counterplan introduced by Gov ernor Paterson of New Jersey. The New Jersey plan proposed to amend the Articles of Confederation, as did the Virginia plan, by the creation of executive and judicial departments and by giving Congress control of commerce and power to raise taxes. But the representatives in Congress were still to be repre sentatives of the states and not of the people of the nation, and each state, large or small, was to be equal in representation to all the others. In short, the existing confederation was to be perpetuated, with increased powers to be sure, but still without the strength of a true national federation. 213. The Then there were extremists on both sides. To some the extremists on -.7-. . . both sides v irgima plan appeared too conservative, and to others the New Jersey plan seemed too radical. The latter, interpreting their The Constitution 169 instructions to "amend" the Articles very literally, left the convention and went home when they saw that it was the in tention of the delegations to change the nature of the govern ment. On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton advocated a government in which the chief executive and the senators should hold office for life (like the English king and lords), and in which the former should have power not only of veto ing state laws, as suggested in the Virginia plan, but also of appointing and removing the governors of the states, thus reducing the states to mere administrative departments of the national government, like the shires in England or the depart ments in France. The extremists found little following, however, in the conven- 214. A com- tion. The great struggle was between the Virginia and the reached on New Tersev plans ; that is, between a national federation and a the form * J J r government mere confederacy of states. 1 And on this question the conven tion threatened to go to pieces, the federalists declaring that they would never consent to a government in which their states should be swallowed up, and the nationalists with equal fervor declaring that they would not support a government in which the will of a large majority of the people of the United States could be thwarted by the selfish action of one or two small states, as it had been under the Articles of Confederation. Only the tact, patience, and persuasion of a few veteran states men like Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, and Roger Sher man, and the incomparable political wisdom and diligence in debate of James Madison, " the Father of the Constitution," finally succeeded in bringing about a series of compromises on the most important questions at issue. The states, large and small, were to preserve their equality of representation in the 1 Unfortunately we have no single terms in our language to define this very important difference in the idea of government, like the German Bundesstaat (a leagued state) and Staatenbund (a league of states). From the very beginning of our government till to-day the question of the relative power of the nation (the Bund} and the states (the Staaten) has been warmly debated by the cham pions of the two systems. 170 The New Republic upper House of Congress (the Senate), while the members of the lower House (the House of Representatives) were to be elected by the people of the states, each state having a number of representatives in proportion to its population. As repre sentatives of the people, the members of the lower House were to have control of the public purse, with the sole right to raise a revenue or levy taxes. 215. Further When the great question of the general character of our compromises between the government was settled by this first compromise, the other P^ nts f difference, most of which concerned the conflicting inter- states es t s o f the North and the South, were easily adjusted. The Southern states demanded that their slaves (though they were not citizens) should be counted as population in the apportion ment of representatives in Congress, that Congress should not interfere with the slave trade, and that a two-thirds vote of the House of Representatives should be necessary for passing tariff laws. Compromises were arrived at on all these questions. A slave was to be counted as three fifths of a person in making up the apportionment for Congress, so that a state with 100,- ooo white inhabitants and 50,000 slaves would be reckoned as having a population of 130,000. Congress was not to disturb the slave trade for twenty years, though it might levy a tax not exceeding ten dollars a head on slaves imported into the states. Finally, tariff laws were to be passed by a simple majority vote in the House, but no duties were to be levied on exports. 216. The The convention, after voting that the new Constitution should ratification of . the constitu- go into effect as soon as nine states had accepted it, sent the document to Congress, and Congress transmitted it to the sev eral states for ratification. Delaware was the first to ratify the new Constitution, by a unanimous vote, December 7, 1787. By the twenty-first of the following June eight other states had ratified in the following order: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire ; and the Constitution thereupon became the supreme law for those states. Virginia and New York followed The Constitution 171 soon, ratifying by very narrow margins after bitter struggles in their conventions. North Carolina did not come under " the federal roof" until November, 1789, after Washington had been President for over six months. Rhode Island did not even send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and did not call any convention in the state to consider ratifying the Constitution, until the new Congress threatened to treat the state as a foreign nation and levy tariff duties on her commerce with the other states. Then she came to terms and entered the Union, May 29, 1790. The Ninth PILL4R erected ! "The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, fhall befuffitient fortheUabJifii ment of this Conftitution, between the States lo ratifying the fame." Art. w. INCIPIENT M4GNI PROCEDERE MENSES. The Attraction muft The Progress of Ratification From an Old Chronicle Some of the states (Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia) rati- 217. Hard fied the Constitution unanimously, but in others (Massachu- ratification setts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York) there was a severe struggle. A change of 10 votes in the Massachusetts conven tion of 355 members, or of 6 votes in the Virginia conven tion of 1 68, or of 2 votes in the New York convention of 57 would have defeated the Constitution in these states. In Pennsylvania it seemed as though the days of the Stamp Act had returned. There was rioting and burning in effigy, and a war of brickbats as well as of pamphlets. The narrow victory in New York was won only through the tireless advo cacy of Alexander Hamilton, who loyally supported the Consti tution, although, as we have seen, it did not satisfy him in The New Republic Court of the United States, and gave Congress power to estab lish inferior national (or federal) courts throughout the Union. 220. The The creation of these three independent departments of leg- ments of P gov- islative, executive, and judicial power, reaching every citizen in emment every part of the land, was the fundamental achievement of the framers of the Constitution. The idea of the threefold division of power was not a new one, for the governments of the colonies had all consisted of lawmaking assemblies elected by the people, an executive appointed (except in Connecticut and Rhode Island) by king or proprietary, and courts of jus tice from which there was final appeal to the Privy Council of the king. But the task of adopting this triple plan of govern ment on a national scale, while still preserving the individuality and even to a large extent the independence of the states, was a very difficult and delicate one. 221. The The legislative department of our government is described in department Article I of the Constitution, where the qualifications, length of (Congress) term, method of election, duties and powers of the members of both Houses of Congress, are prescribed. The number of sena tors in every Congress is just twice the number of states in the Union, but the size of the House of Representatives is altered every ten years when a new census of the United States is taken. Congress then makes a new ratio of representation and a new apportionment of congressional districts for each state, according to its population. The present House (1911) con tains 391 members, one for about every 220,000 of population. If the original ratio of i to 30,000 had been kept, the House would now contain about 2800 members. So rapid has been the growth of the Western country that from some of the original seaboard states the number of representatives to Con gress has actually decreased since the beginning of the nine teenth century. By the apportionment of the census of 1800 Connecticut was entitled to 7 congressmen, 1 Massachusetts to 1 Although Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representa tives, the term congressman " is always used for a member of the House, and w senator " for a member of the Senate. The Constitution 17$ 17, North Carolina to 12, Virginia to 22 ; by the apportion ment of the census of 1900 these states were given a represen tation respectively of 5, 14, 10, and 10. On the other hand, New York, with the magnificent development of its highway of commerce from Lake Erie to Manhattan, jumped from a repre sentation of 17 in 1800 to 37 in 1900; and Pennsylvania, with its rich coal and iron industries, enjoyed a growth in population entitling it to 32 congressmen in 1900 as against 18 in 1800. In order to become laws of the United States all bills intro- 222. The duced into Congress have to pass both Houses and receive the congress President s signature. If the President vetoes a bill, it still be comes a law if, on reconsideration, both Houses pass it by a two- thirds majority. If Congress passes a law which is not within its authority as granted by the Constitution (Art. I, Sect. 8), the Supreme Court of the United States, when appealed to in any case to test that law, has the right and duty to declare the law void. The subjects on which Congress may legislate natu rally include all those which concern the dignity and credit of the nation in the eyes of foreign powers, and its peace and security at home, namely : the regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between the states ; the declaration of war and the direction of the military and naval forces of the country ; the regulation of the currency and coinage ; the control of territories and public lands ; the care of the Indians, of rivers and harbors, lighthouses, coast survey, and all that pertains to shipping and defense. Moreover, the states are forbidden to exercise certain powers of sovereignty delegated to the national Congress. No state can make alliances, go to war, coin money, lay taxes on the commerce of another state, or make anything but gold and silver legal tender (lawful money) for the payment of debts. However, after deducting the powers delegated to Congress 223. The or expressly denied to the states, the latter have an immense field thTstates* * for legislation. All those things which especially interest the average citizen are affairs of the state government, namely : the protection of life and property ; laws of marriage and inheritance ; The New Republic the chartering and control of business corporations, banks, in surance and trust companies ; the definition and punishment of crimes ; the establishment of systems of public education ; the creation of city, county, and town governments ; and a host of other powers, political, moral, and social. Sometimes the field of jurisdiction between the national and the state power is hard 224. The executive de partment (the Presi dent and his assistants) The Capitol at Washington Meeting place of the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court to distinguish, but the decision of the Supreme Court is final in determining both the limits of the federal authority and the interpretation of the Constitution. The duty of putting into effect the laws of Congress is in trusted to the executive department of our government. Theo retically, the whole of this immense task falls on the President alone, who " shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Actually no man could do a hundredth part of the work of executing the thousands of laws which Congress passes every session. To collect the duties and excises which Congress lays ; to coin the money which it authorizes ; to print and sell the bonds The Constitution 177 it issues ; to command the armies it raises ; to build and man the warships it votes; to appoint judges for the courts it erects; to handle the business of the post office ; to carry into effect its agreements, political and economic, with the nations of the world ; to govern its territories and dependencies in America, the West Indies, and the Pacific all this calls for the labors of tens of thousands of secretaries, undersecretaries, and clerks in the various executive departments at Washington, and a host of federal officials in our seaports, our dockyards, our forts and arsenals, our islands and territories, and the capitals and chief commercial centers of foreign countries. Nine great executive departments have been created by Con- 225. The gress to perform these varied duties. The departments of State (Foreign Affairs), Treasury, War, and the Post Office are as old as our government itself. The following departments have been added as the business of government required : the Department of the Navy in 1798 ; of the Interior in 1849 ; of Justice (the Attorney-General s department 1 ) in 1870; of Agriculture in 1889 ; of Commerce and Labor in 1903. Every President on coming into office chooses the heads of these departments, and these nine secretaries form the President s " official family " or cabinet. They are lieutenants of the President only, responsible to him alone, and removable by him at his pleasure. He con sults them in regular cabinet meetings as to the affairs of their departments, and, acting on their knowledge and advice, he communicates with Congress by an elaborate annual message when the Houses assemble on the first Monday of each Decem ber, and by as many special messages during the session as he sees fit to send. Congress does not recognize the cabinet, but only the President. Laws on every subject go to him, not to the heads of departments, for signature. Appointments to 1 The Attorney-General, or legal adviser of the President and prosecutor of suits brought by the United States, was a member of the President s cabinet from the inauguration of the government. On the other hand, though the Post-Office Department was organized in the colonial days, its head (the Postmaster-General) was not made a member of the cabinet until 1829. 178 The New Republic executive and judicial offices, needing the consent of the Senate, are sent to that body not by the secretaries but by the President. He is the only executive officer recognized by the Constitution. 226. The It was the intention of the framers of the Constitution to have President * the President, the most important servant of the government of the United States, chosen by a selected body of judicious men called " electors." Every state should choose, in the manner pre scribed by its legislature, a number of men equal to that state s representation in Congress. The men so chosen were to as semble and vote for President and Vice President. 1 Thus our chief executive was to be actually selected and elected by a small, carefully chosen body of men in each state. But the statesmen who planned this calm, judicious method of selecting a President did not foresee the intense party feeling that was to develop in the United States even before George Washington was out of the presidential chair. The party leaders began at once to select the candidates for President and Vice President, and have done so ever since. 2 227. The The voters in each state still continue to cast their votes for thTeiectorai presidential electors, but the electors no longer choose the Presi dent. They simply register the vote of their state. Each party ticket in each state has a list of electors (equal in number to the presidential votes to which the state is entitled). It is under stood that each of the electors on the victorious ticket will cast his vote for the candidate of his party, who has been regularly nominated by the national convention some months before. In 1 At first the electors did not vote for President and Vice President separately, but simply marked two names on their ballots. The man who received the highest number of votes (if a majority of the whole number) became President, and the man with the next highest number Vice President. Since this method of choice resulted in an embarrassing tie in the election of 1800, the Constitu tion was amended (Amendment XII) in 1804, so as to have each elector vote specifically for President and Vice President. 2 In the early years of the republic the candidates were selected by party caucuses in Congress or by the indorsement of the various state legislatures. About 1830 the national party "machines" were organized, and from that time great national conventions, engineered by these party machines, have met several months before each presidential election to nominate the candidates. The Constitution 179 ther words, each state, in choosing Republican or Democratic lectors, simply instructs those electors to vote for the Republican r Democratic candidate for the presidency. As soon, therefore, s the electors are voted for, in November, it is known which andidate has been elected President, without waiting for those lectors to meet and cast their ballots the following January. The judicial department of our government is the hardest to 228. The nderstand, because of the variety of courts and the double payment 6 " irisdiction of national and state tribunals. Every citizen of the ( the courts ) Inited States lives under two systems of law, national and state, or violation of national laws (the laws of Congress) he is tried i the federal (or national) courts ; for violation of state laws he \ tried in the state courts. The highest court in our judicial system is the United States 229. The upreme Court, sitting at Washington, composed of a chief supreme^ istice and eight associate justices, all appointed for life by the Court resident, with the consent of the Senate. This most dignified ody in our government is invested with enormous power. Its ecision is final in all cases brought to it by appeal from state r federal courts throughout the land. 1 It is the official inter- reter and guardian of the Constitution. It has sole jurisdic- on in cases affecting foreign ambassadors or ministers, and i cases between two states or between a state and the United itates. But any case between corporations or individuals in- olving the interpretation of a clause of the Constitution may be ppealed from the lower courts to its jurisdiction, and in the deci- ion of such a case it has the right to nullify or declare void any iw of Congress or of a state that it finds violating the Consti- ation. Radical reformers, especially in the last generation, in- ignant that a mere handful of men appointed by the President, nd holding office for life, should have power so to control the 1 Congress has established federal courts in every state of the Union ; and all ic federal judges (now nearly 100 in number) are appointed for life by the Presi- ent, with the consent of the Senate. The judges of the state courts are either ppointed by the governor (in a few of the older states) or elected by the people r the legislature for a term varying from 2 to 21 years. 178 The New Republic executive and judicial offices, needing the consent of the Senate, are sent to that body not by the secretaries but by the President. He is the only executive officer recognized by the Constitution. 226. The It was the intention of the framers of the Constitution to have President^ tne President, the most important servant of the government of the United States, chosen by a selected body of judicious men called " electors." Every state should choose, in the manner pre scribed by its legislature, a number of men equal to that state s representation in Congress. The men so chosen were to as semble and vote for President and Vice President. 1 Thus our chief executive was to be actually selected and elected by a small, carefully chosen body of men in each state. But the statesmen who planned this calm, judicious method of selecting a President did not foresee the intense party feeling that was to develop in the United States even before George Washington was out of the presidential chair. The party leaders began at once to select the candidates for President and Vice President, and have done so ever since. 2 227. The The voters in each state still continue to cast their votes for the electoral presidential electors, but the electors no longer choose the Presi dent. They simply register the vote of their state. Each party ticket in each state has a list of electors (equal in number to the presidential votes to which the state is entitled). It is under stood that each of the electors on the victorious ticket will cast his vote for the candidate of his party, who has been regularly nominated by the national convention some months before. In 1 At first the electors did not vote for President and Vice President separately, but simply marked two names on their ballots. The man who received the highest number of votes (if a majority of the whole number) became President, and the man with the next highest number Vice President. Since this method of choice resulted in an embarrassing tie in the election of 1800, the Constitu tion was amended (Amendment XII) in 1804, so as to have each elector vote specifically for President and Vice President. 2 In the early years of the republic the candidates were selected by party caucuses in Congress or by the indorsement of the various state legislatures. About 1830 the national party "machines" were organized, and from that time great national conventions, engineered by these party machines, have met several months before each presidential election to nominate the candidates. The Constitution 179 other words, each state, in choosing Republican or Democratic electors, simply instructs those electors to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate for the presidency. As soon, therefore, as the electors are voted for, in November, it is known which candidate has been elected President, without waiting for those electors to meet and cast their ballots the following January. The judicial department of our government is the hardest to 228. The understand, because of the variety of courts and the double pitmen? 6 " urisdiction of national and state tribunals. Every citizen of the ( the courts ) United States lives under two systems of law, national and state. For violation of national laws (the laws of Congress) he is tried n the federal (or national) courts ; for violation of state laws he s tried in the state courts. The highest court in our judicial system is the United States 229. The Supreme Court, sitting at Washington, composed of a chief ustice and eight associate justices, all appointed for life by the Coilrt ^resident, with the consent of the Senate. This most dignified ody in our government is invested with enormous power. Its lecision is final in all cases brought to it by appeal from state r federal courts throughout the land. 1 It is the official inter- reter and guardian of the Constitution. It has sole jurisdic- lon in cases affecting foreign ambassadors or ministers, and i cases between two states or between a state and the United tates. But any case between corporations or individuals in- giving the interpretation of a clause of the Constitution may be ppealed from the lower courts to its jurisdiction, and in the deci- ion of such a case it has the right to nullify or declare void any iw of Congress or of a state that it finds violating the Consti- ution. Radical reformers, especially in the last generation, in- ignant that a mere handful of men appointed by the President, nd holding office for life, should have power so to control the 1 Congress has established federal courts in every state of the Union ; and all ic federal judges (now nearly 100 in number) are appointed for life by the Presi- ent, with the consent of the Senate. The judges of the state courts are either >pointed by the governor (in a few of the older states) or elected by the people r the legislature for a term varying from 2 to 21 years. 180 The New Republic legislation of the forty-odd states of the Union, have attacked the Supreme Court and even demanded its abolition. But the vast majority of Americans look upon the highest tribunal of the nation with pride for the moderation of its decisions and with respect for the integrity and ability of its members. 230. The There are many important features in the actual conduct of iaws^oTthe tne government of the United States which are not mentioned Constitution - n - t ^ e constitution at all. The President s cabinet, the national nominating conventions, and the instruction of electors to vote for the party s nominee for President, are examples that we have already noticed. Other customs which amount almost to " un written laws " of the Constitution are (i) the limitation of the President s office to two terms, an example set by Washingtor and never yet departed from ; (2) " senatorial courtesy," which expects the President to follow the recommendation of the Unitec States senators of his party in making federal appointment* (judges, marshals, collectors of customs, postmasters) in their re spective states ; (3) the great power of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who, by his selection of members of the com mittees and by " recognizing" on the floor of the House only suet debaters as he chooses to, can do more to influence the legislatior of Congress than any other man in the country; (4) the transactor of practically all the business of Congress in committee rooms As a consequence of the last two points mentioned, Congress has largely ceased to be a hall of debate in which national issues are threshed out by the greatest orators of the nation, and has become scarcely more than a great voting machine, run by the party in power. Only occasionally is its influence felt in shaping the political or moral thought of the nation, through some sei speech which has been voted " permission to print." Few Ameri cans follow the daily business of Congress as Englishmen follow the debates of Parliament. Bill oni? hts Several of tne states, notably Massachusetts, accepted the (Amendments Constitution only on condition that amendments be added guar anteeing certain immemorial rights, such as liberty of speech The Constitution 181 and press, immunity from arbitrary arrest and cruel punish ments, freedom of peaceable assembly, and the right to be tried by a jury of one s peers after a public hearing of witnesses on both sides. Ten amendments, constituting a Bill of Rights, were accordingly adopted by Congress and ratified by the states soon after the inauguration of the new government (November, 1791). The demand for these amendments shows that the states still regarded the central government with something of that jealous and cautious distrust with which they had viewed the officers of the British crown. Only five amendments have been added to the Constitution 232. Amend- since the passage of the Bill of Rights. Of these, two were only conStutfon slight revisions of clauses in the original articles, and the last three were occasioned by slavery and the Civil War. If the process of amending the Constitution were less complicated (see Art. V), we should probably have had many more than fifteen amendments, for proposals are constantly being agitated for the alteration of the Constitution l ; for example, that the United States senators shall be elected by the vote of the people (see Art. I, sect. 3, clause i); that Congress be given power to regulate certain business corporations ; that the people be allowed . to " initiate " legislation, or instruct Congress to introduce certain bills. In the absence of specific amendments Congress is able to 233. The extend its authority pretty widely by stretching the so-called clause "\)f the " elastic clause " of the Constitution, which, after the enumera- Constitution tion of the powers of Congress, adds, "And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers" (Art. I, sect. 8, clause 18). From the very earliest days of our government there have been parties with opposite views on the interpretation of this clause of the Constitution. The " strict constructionists " have held that the 1 A proposed Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress the right to tax incomes, is now (1911) before the state legislatures for rati fication. 1 82 The New Republic letter of the Constitution must be observed, and that Congress and the President must exercise only the powers explicitly granted to them in Articles I and II. On the other hand, the " loose constructionists," professing themselves equally devoted to the Constitution, have contended that the true interpretation of its spirit involves the assumption by the President and Con gress of powers not explicitly granted, but evidently intended and implied. 234. The The recent industrial and commercial development of our extent of the r i r i federal power country has made the question of the extent and power of the federal government a very vital one. For example, when the Constitution gives Congress the right to " regulate commerce among the several states " (Art. I, sect. 8, clause 3), does that power necessarily carry with it the regulation of the rates which railroads shall charge to carry goods from state to state, the reg ulation of the corporations which do a large business in and be tween many states, and even the regulation of the factories whose products go into all the states of the Union ? Our rapid economic development has carried our great industries beyond the limits and control of the states. Can we respect the power of the states and still maintain the efficiency of our national government? That is the great question which to-day divides the advocates of federal extension and the critics of " federal usurpation." REFERENCES The Critical Period : JOHN FISKE, The Critical Period of American History, chaps, ii-v ; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 2 (The Articles of Con federation), 13, 127 (The Northwest Ordinance); A. C. MCLAUGHLIN, The Confederation and the Constitution (American Nation Series), chaps, iv-xi; JUSTIN WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of Amer ica, Vol. VII, chap, iii ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contem poraries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 37-41, 46, 47, 52; THEODORE ROOSEVELT, The Winning of the West, Vol. III. A More Perfect Union : FISKE, chaps, v-viii ; MCLAUGHLIN, chaps, xii-xviii; WINSOR, Vol. VII, chap, iv; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, chap, viii ; C. A. BEARD, Readings in American Government and The Constitution 183 Politics, Nos. 14-21 ; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 70, 99, 186, 197 ; The Federalist, ed. PAUL LEICESTER FORD, Introduction, pp. vii-xxix, Nos. 2, 10, 15, 27, 85; HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 60-75. The Federal Power : B. MOSES, The Government of the United States, chaps, iv-vii ; JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth (abridged edition), chaps, iii-xxvi; R. L. ASHLEY, The American Government, pp. 204-355 > S. E. FORMAN, Advanced Civics, pp. 115-161 ; The Feder alist, Nos. 41-44, 52-82; BEARD, Nos. 55-158. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Northwest Ordinance : WILLIAM ^A^^Go^K^Q, Select Documents of American History, 1775-1861, No. 4 (for text) ; FISKE, pp. 187-207 ; ROOSEVELT, Vol. Ill, pp. 231-276; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 13, 42; HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 36, 42, 46; MCLAUGHLIN, pp. 108-122; B. A. HINSDALE, The Old Northwest, chap, xv ; W. F. POOLE, in The North American Review, Vol. CXXII, pp. 229-265. 2. The Opposition to the Constitution : [in New York] The Federalist, Introduction, pp. xix-xxix ; [in Massachusetts] S. B. HARDING, Contest over Ratification in Massachusetts (Harvard Historical Studies, 1896); [in general] HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 70, 71, 73-75; MCLAUGHLIN, pp. 2 77~3 T 7; FISKE, pp. 306-345; WINSOR, Vol. VII, pp. 246-251. 3. The Powers of the Speaker of the House : BEARD, Nos. 101-105 ; BRYCE, pp. 104-107 ; ANNA DAWES, How we are Governed, pp. 120-145 ; MARY FOLLETT, The Speaker of the House; A. B. HART, Practical Essays in American Government, No. i ; FRANKLIN PIERCE, Federal Usurpation, pp. 162-169. 4. Our Foreign Relations under the Confederation : MCLAUGHLIN, pp. 89-107 ; also Western Posts and British Debts (American Historical Asso ciation Report, 1894), pp. 413-444 ; J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol.1, chaps, iii-iv; F. A. OGG, The Opening of the Mississippi, pp. 400-460; FISKE, pp. 131-144, 154-162. CHAPTER VII 235. The United States in 1789 236. Indus tries, travel, and inter course FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS LAUNCHING THE GOVERNMENT The United States which Washington was called upon to preside over in 1789, by the unanimous vote of the presidential electors, was a far different country from the United States of to-day. A free white population of 3,200,000, with 700,000 slaves, considerably less altogether than the present population of New York City, was scattered along the Atlantic seaboard from the rockbound coast of New England to the rice lands of Georgia. Philadelphia, the gay capital of the Confederation, had a population of 42,000. New York had about 32,000; and Boston, Charleston, Baltimore, and Salem were the only other cities whose census reached the 10,000 mark. Virginia, the oldest and largest of the commonwealths of the Union, had not a single city worthy of the name. A small but steady immi gration, chiefly of Scotch-Irish stock from Virginia and North Carolina, had followed Daniel Boone and John Sevier across the Alleghenies to found the states of Kentucky and Tennes see. The census of 1790 estimated that 109,000 of these hardy frontiersmen were scattered through the rich valleys of the Ohio and the Cumberland rivers. What is now a land of factories and cities was then a land of forests and farms. Over 90 per cent of the inhabitants were tillers of the soil. Shipping and fishing were the only industries of importance. Of manufactures there was scarcely a trace. Travel was infrequent, roads were scarce and poor, and the inns had to make up in hospitality what they lacked in comforts and conveniences. The lumbering, springless stagecoach, with its 184 Federalists and Republicans 185 stifling leathern curtains for protection against wind and rain, was the only means of transportation for those whose business prevented them from traveling by water, or whose health or cir cumstances made impossible the journey by horseback. In any case, the means of transportation at the end of the eighteenth century showed no essential improvement in comfort or speed over those of two thousand years earlier, the horse, the sail boat, and the stage. The journey of a Roman official from Asia Minor to Italy in fourteen days, over the splendid roads of the Roman Empire, could not have been duplicated anywhere in America, or even in Europe, in the year 1800. ^ _ .. _ Express Service in Washington s Day The immediate economic needs of the country, such as the 237. ECO- clearing and settling of new lands, the provision for a reliable C and uniform currency, the nurture of manufactures and com merce, were so pressing that the American in 1789 devoted even a smaller fraction of his time than he does to-day to the cultivation of intellectual and artistic interests. Society in the American cities jealously guarded the distinc- 238. social tions of high birth and good breeding. Powdered wigs, silver buckles, liveried footmen, stately courtesy of speech and man ners were the marks of the social aristocracy. But for all its brave show it was a harmless aristocracy. The wide gulf which to-day separates fabulous wealth from sordid poverty did conditions 1 86 The New Republic not exist in the United States of 1789. Our visitors from Europe, especially the Frenchmen, were impressed with the general diffusion of moderate prosperity in America, and were filled with prophetic hopes that this land would be forever a model of democracy to the " caste-ridden " countries of Europe. 239. The The first Wednesday in March (March 4), 1789, had been of thfg?vern- appointed by the old Congress of the Confederation as the day ment f or fa e assembling of the new Congress of the United States. On the third of March the guns of New York fired a parting salute to the old government, and on the next morning a wel coming salute to the new. But both salutes stirred only empty echoes ; for the old Congress had ceased to meet some months before, and the new Congress was not ready to organize for nearly a month to come. Poor roads, uncertain conveyances, and the lateness of the elections had prevented more than half of the twenty-two senators 1 and three fourths of the fifty-nine congressmen from reaching New York City, the temporary capi tal, on the appointed day. It took the entire month of April for the Houses to organize, to count the electoral vote, notify Washington formally of his election, and witness the ceremony of his inauguration as first President of the United States (April 30). 240. The Washington s journey from his fine estate of Mount Vernon, new President J . . on the Potomac, to the city of New York was one long ovation. The streets were strewn with flowers. Triumphal arches, din ners, speeches, cheers, and songs gave him the grateful assurance that his inestimable services in war and peace were appreciated by his countrymen. His characteristic response showed no ela tion of pride, but only a deepened sense of responsibility in his new office. " I walk on untrodden ground," he wrote ; " there is scarcely any action the motive of which may not be subjected to a double interpretation ; there is scarcely any part of my conduct that may not hereafter be drawn into precedent." All 1 North Carolina and Rhode Island did not come into the Union until some months after Washington s inauguration. Federalists and Republicans 187 eyes were upon him. His task was immense. He had to create the democratic dignity of the President s office, to choose wise counselors, to appoint upright and able judges, to hold factions in check, to deal wisely with the representatives of foreign powers, to set a precedent for the relations of the executive to Con gress, to preserve the due forms of official ceremony without offending republican principles ; and it needed every particle of his wisdom, his tact, his patience, his zeal, to accomplish the task. After some entreaty Washington prevailed on Thomas Jeff er- 241. Thomas son to give up his diplomatic position as minister to France and secretary of become Secretary of State in the first cabinet. Jefferson was a state great statesman and scholar, with an intense faith in the sound common sense of the people, and an equally strong distrust of a powerful executive government. He said that as between newspapers without a government or a government without newspapers, he preferred the former. His enthusiasm for the democratic ideal had been strengthened by a wide and sympa thetic reading of the great French political philosophers who were helping to prepare the way for the French Revolution. Sometimes this enthusiasm led him to extreme statements, as, for example, that a revolution every twenty years or so was good for a nation ; but his practice was more moderate than his theory, and he never actually encouraged or supported any revo lution except the great one which made us an independent nation. He differed widely from Washington in his interpretation of the Constitution and in his foreign policy, but nevertheless, during the four years which he served in the cabinet, he was a loyal and efficient officer, and his resignation was accepted in 1793 with expressions of sincere regret and eulogy by his chief. For Secretary of the Treasury Washington chose Alexander 242. Alex- Hamilton. Hamilton was born in 1757, of Scotch and French t blood, in the British island of Nevis in the West Indies. On ofthe Treasury account of his precocious gifts of intellect he was sent to New York in his early teens to be educated at Kings (Columbia) Col lege. He plunged immediately into the stirring political battle 1 88 The New Republic raised by the Stamp Act and the Townshend duties, embracing the patriot cause. He served as Washington s aid-de-camp during the Revolution, sat in the convention that framed the Constitu tion, and, by his brilliant essays in " The Federalist " and debates in the New York convention, secured almost single-handed the ratification of the Constitution by his state. He differed abso lutely from Jefferson on every question of the interpretation of the Constitution and the policy of the government. The two men, each convinced of the justice and necessity of his own view, glared at each other across the cabinet table, and even on occasions rose trembling with rage, ready to lay violent hands on each other. Each begged the President to choose between them and let the other resign. But Washington, partly to keep in his cabinet representatives of opposite views in public policy, partly because he did not want to spare the valu able services of either of them, prevailed on them both to remain in the cabinet during his first administration. 243. The An immense and varied mass of business confronted the first fore congress Congress of the United States. The executive departments (State, Treasury, War) had to be created, salaries fixed, and appropriations made for running the government. Federal courts and post offices had to be established. The Indians on the northern and western borders had to be subdued, and provision made for governing the territories. The seventy- eight amendments which the various states had suggested on accepting the Constitution had to be debated and reduced to suitable form and number to submit to the people of each state for ratification. Twelve amendments were actually sub mitted, and ten adopted. The first census of the United States had to be taken, and a site selected for the permanent capital of the Union. 244. The But the most urgent business before Congress was the settle- financial situ- .. . ation rnent of the country s finances. Alexander Hamilton occupies the center of the stage in Washington s first administration. The brilliant young Secretary of the Treasury had two great Federalists and Republicans 1 89 problems to handle, namely, the establishment of the credit of the United States, and the providing of an adequate income to meet the expenses of the government. How well he solved these problems we may learn from the ornate eulogy bestowed on him forty years later by Daniel Webster : " He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprang upon its feet." The debt of the United States in 1789 was $54,000,000. 245. The About $12,000,000 of this was owed to France and Holland, united states who had been our allies in the Revolutionary War ; and the re mainder was a domestic debt, mostly in the form of certificates of the government promising to pay the holder the amount named on the paper. Now everybody agreed that the good faith of the United States demanded that every dollar of the foreign debt should be paid. But Hamilton s proposal to pay the do mestic debt as well, at its full face value, was strenuously resisted. During the weak administration of the Confederation the certifi cates, or the government s promises to pay, had fallen far below the value named on their face. Honest debtors had been forced to part with these government certificates at only a fraction of their value, and shrewd money changers had bought them up as a speculation. It was even hinted by Hamilton s enemies that he had given his friends and political supporters advance information that he was going to pay the full value of the cer tificates, and so enabled them to buy up the paper and make enormous profits out of the government. In spite of the fact that it enriched some rascals at the expense of the community at large, Hamilton insisted that the full faith of the United States be kept, and that the certificates be redeemed at their face value. It would be the only way, he argued, to prevent future holders from selling at a discount our government s pledges to pay. He was right. Since his day the credit of the United States has been so sound that its- bonds, or promises to pay at a future date, have been as good as gold. 190 The New Republic 246. The Hamilton went even a step further in his policy of making tio" ofthe the United States a power entitled to respect and confidence in debts of the ^ e o f fa Q wor }d t r p he various states of the Union had con states j tracted debts during the Revolutionary War to the amount of some $20,000,000. On the ground that debts incurred for the common defense of the country should be paid out of the com mon treasury of the country, Hamilton proposed to Congress that the United States should assume this $20,000,000 of state debts. This policy of " assumption " was a very shrewd one, for, by making the national government instead of the thirteen state governments responsible for the country s debt, it taught creditors both at home and abroad to regard the United States as a single political power, greater than the sum of its parts, the states. It made possible a uniform rate of interest and standard of security for all the public debt ; and, as men are always interested in the prosperity of those who owe them money, it rallied the rich investing classes to the support of the national government. 247. A pro- To meet the interest on the $75,000,000 made by adding the levied state debts to the full face value and unpaid interest of the old national debt under the Confederation, an annual revenue of over $4,500,000 was needed. Hamilton proposed to raise this money by a tariff, or customs duties levied on imported goods. 1 As our foreign trade was large, a tariff averaging less than 10 per cent was sufficient to meet the demand. Besides providing a revenue for running the government, the duties levied on im ported goods would encourage native manufactures by " pro tecting" them against European competition. Our country would thus cease to be an almost purely agricultural community, with the limited outlook and interests of a farming people ; cities would grow up, and the various fields of enterprise opened by 1 Tariff is an Arabic word meaning, literally, a " list" or " schedule." We use the word for duties levied on imported goods, while the duty on domestic goods is called internal revenue. The theory of the tariff is discussed at length further on in this book (Chapter IX). Federalists and Republicans 191 manufacture and commerce would give employment to people of varied talents, would attract immigrants from foreign countries, and would promote inventiveness and alertness in our population. The crowning feature of Hamilton s financial system was the 248. A Na- establishment of a National Bank, chartered by Congress to act chartered" 1 * as the government s agent and medium in its money transac tions. The Bank was to have the privilege of holding on deposit all the funds of the United States collected from customs duties, the sale of public lands, or other sources; $2,000,000 of the $10,000,000 of the Bank s capital was to be subscribed by the United States, and its notes were to be accepted in payment of all debts owed the United States. In return for these favors the Bank was to manage all the government loans, was to be ready in time of financial stress to furnish aid to the Treasury of the United States, and was to be subject to the general supervision of the national government through reports on its condition sub mitted not oftener than weekly to the Secretary of the Treasury. The whole financial program of Hamilton, which we have 249. opposi- ,v i i r . , , . . rr ,, . tiontoHamil- outlmed in brief, met with bitter antagonism. The assumption ton > s fi nan . of state debts was opposed by states like Virginia and North cial P lic y Carolina, which, through the sale of their western lands had nearly paid off their debts, and objected to sharing in the taxa tion for the payment of the debts of the less fortunate or less thrifty states. The tariff was opposed by the purely agricultural states of the South, which contended that the government had no business to encourage one form of industry (manufactures) in preference to another (farming). The Bank was opposed on the ground that Congress was nowhere in the Constitution given the power to create a corporation and to favor it with a monop oly of the government s financial business. In his famous re ports and recommendations to Congress in the years 1790 and 1791 Hamilton argued his cause with such force and brilliancy that he overcame opposition and put his whole program through ; although in some instances, as in the case of " assumption," only by the narrowest majorities. 192 The New Republic 250. The first parties: Democratic- Republicans (Jefferson) and Federal ists (Hamil ton) 251. Antag onism be tween the political ideas of Hamilton and Jefferson The result of Hamilton s policy was the division of the cab inet, Congress, and the country at large into two well-defined parties, one led by himself (to which both Washington and the Vice President, John Adams, inclined), the other led by Jefferson. Hamilton s followers were called Federalists, because they ad vocated a strong federal (central) government as opposed to the state governments. The Jeffersonian party took the name Democratic-Republican, from which they very soon dropped the " Democratic " part, as the word was brought into disrepute by extreme revolutionists in France. 1 The Republican party of Jefferson s day (to be carefully distinguished from the present Republican party, which was organized in 1854 in opposition to the extension of negro slavery) had its chief following in the Southern states. It favored agriculture as against manufactur ing industries. It advocated the " strict construction " of the Constitution. Finally, the Republicans had confidence in the people at large to conduct the greater part of the business of government in their local institutions of state, county, and town ; whereas the Federalists believed that a part of the people, " the rich, the well-born, and the able," as John Adams wrote, should govern the rest. Hamilton even went so far, in a political argument with Jefferson, as to bring his fist down on the table and shout, " Your/<?0//<?, sir, is nothing but a great beast ! " Jefferson s ideal, in a word, was a government for the people and by the people, while Hamilton s ideal was a government for the people by the trained statesmen allied with the great property holders. The former is the democratic ideal, the latter the aristocratic or paternal ideal. In varying degrees of inten sity these two conceptions of government have been arrayed against each other through the entire history of our country. Party names have changed ; men have called themselves Fed eralists, Republicans, Democrats, Whigs, Populists, Socialists ; parties have emphasized scores of " paramount issues," such as 1 See Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. 264, The Reign of Terror." ALEXANDER HAMILTON Federalists and Republicans 193 a national bank, the tariff, state rights, the acquisition of new territory, curbing the trusts, the free coinage of silver, and the government ownership of the railroads. But underneath all Washington s Home at Mount Vernon these party issues lies the fundamental antagonism of the Jeffer- sonian and the Hamiltonian principles, democracy or paternal ism, jealous limitation of the powers granted to the national government or deliberate extension and confirmation of them. THE REIGN OF FEDERALISM As the election of 1792 approached, Washington wished to 252. There- exchange the cares of the presidency for his beloved acres of Washington, Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac. But he yielded I792 to Hamilton s entreaty and became a candidate for a second term. The financial policy of the Secretary of the Treasury had aroused bitter antagonism, and was rapidly consolidating the opposition party of Republicans, headed by Thomas Jeffer son. If the strong hand of Washington should be withdrawn from the government at this critical moment, the work of three years might be ruined by the strife of parties before it had had time to prove its worth. Washington was the only man above the party discord. His election was again unanimous, but the 194 The New Republic Republican party proved its strength throughout the country by electing a majority to the House of Representatives of the third Congress (1793-1795). 253. The Washington had scarcely taken the oath of office a second Stlon 1 * " ti me when news came of events in France which were to plunge Europe into twenty years of incessant warfare, to color the politics of the United States during the whole period, and even to involve us in actual wars with both France and England. The French people accomplished a wonderful revolution in the years 1789-1791. They reformed State and Church by sweep ing away many oppressive privileges and age-long abuses by the nobles and the clergy. But the enthusiasm for reform de generated into a passion for destruction. Paris and the French government fell into the hands of a small group of ardent radi cals, who overthrew the ancient monarchy, guillotined their king and queen, and inaugurated a " reign of terror " through the land by the execution of all those who were suspected of the slightest leanings toward aristocracy. The revolutionary French republic undertook a defiant crusade against all the thrones of Europe, to spread the gospel of "liberty, equality, and fraternity." In the summer of 1793 it was at war with Prussia, Austria, Eng land, and several minor kingdoms of western Europe. 1 254. wash- Now France was our ally. Her government had been the proclamation nrst m Europe to recognize the independence of the United ity^Apdi w States b y the treaties of commerce and alliance of 1778. Her 1793 king had lent us large sums of money, and sent us men and ships, in the hope that he was contributing to the downfall of the British Empire. The treaty of alliance of 1778 pledged us to aid France in the defense of her possessions in the West Indies if they were attacked by a foreign foe, and to allow her the use of our ports for the ships she captured in war. But did the treaty with Louis XVI s government, made for mutual de fense against England, pledge us, after both parties had made 1 For the course of the French Revolution, see Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, chap. xiii. Federalists and Republicans 195 peace with England (1783), to support the French republic which had overthrown Louis XVFs government? The Presi dent thought .not. Accordingly, with the unanimous assent of his cabinet, Washington issued on April 22, 1793, a proclama tion of neutrality, which declared that it was the policy of the United States to keep entirely aloof from the complicated hos tilities of Europe. It was a second declaration of independence. The proclamation of neutrality was prompted by the state of 255. Reasons our own country as well as by that of Europe. On our north- t ?aiity n western frontier the British were still in possession of a line of valuable fur posts extending along our side of the Great Lakes from Oswego to Mackinaw ; and were secretly encour aging the Indians to dispute the occupation of the Ohio valley with the emigrants from the Atlantic seaboard. To the south and southwest the Spaniards were inciting the Creeks and Chero- kees of Florida against the inhabitants of Georgia, and, by clos ing the mouth of the Mississippi to our western shipping, were tempting the pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee from their allegiance to the United States. To have joined France in her war against England and Spain, therefore, would have been to let loose the horrors of Indian massacre on our borders, to risk the permanent loss of our trading posts on the Great Lakes, and perhaps to throw the pioneer communities of the southwest into the arms of Spain, who offered them free use of the great river for the transportation of their hogs and grain. Neutrality was an absolute necessity for the maintenance of our territory and the amicable settlement of disputes then pending with our neighbors England and Spain. A few days before the proclamation of neutrality was issued 256. citi- " Citizen Genet " arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, as min- "^ 1 ister of the French republic to the United States. Genet had no idea that America could remain neutral. He was coming quite frankly in order to use our ports as the base of naval war against the British West Indies, and to instruct this government in its proper conduct as the ally of the " sister republic " of ig6 The New Republic France. His journey from Charleston to Philadelphia was a continuous ovation of feasting, oratory, and singing of the " Marseillaise " by the Republicans, who hated England as the source of the " aristocratic " ideas of Hamilton and the other Federalists. Genet was vain and rash. His head was turned by Republican adulation. His conduct became outrageous for a diplomat. He issued his orders to the French consuls in America as if they were his paid agents and spies. He used the columns of the Republican press for frenzied appeals to faction. He scolded our President and secretaries for not learn ing from him the true meaning of democracy. He defied the proclamation of neutrality by openly bringing captured British ships into our ports and fitting them out as privateers to prey on English commerce in the West Indies. He even addressed his petulant letters to Washington, and when reminded by the Secretary of State that the President did not communicate directly with ministers of foreign countries, he threatened to appeal to the people of the United States to judge between George Washington and himself. Such conduct was too im pertinent for even the warmest Republican sympathizers with France to stand. At the request of the administration Genet was recalled. His behavior had brought discredit on the extreme Republicans and strengthened the hands of the Federalists. 257. strained A more serious problem for the administration of Washing- wit^Great ton tnan tne maintenance of neutrality was the preservation of Britain, peace with England. We have already seen how British gar risons still held fortified posts on our shores of the Great Lakes. The value of the fur trade at the posts was over $1,500,000 annually, and the excuse Great Britain gave for not surrendering them was that American merchants owed large debts in England at the time of the treaty of 1783, which our government had not compelled them to pay. We, on our side, complained that the British, on the evacuation of our seaports at the close of the Revolution, had carried off a number of our slaves in their ships; had closed the West Indian ports INTERVIEW BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND CITIZEN GENET Federalists and Republicans 197 to our trade ; had refused to send a minister to our country ; and, at the outbreak of the war with France in 1793, had be gun to stop our merchantmen on the high seas to search them for deserters from the British navy, and had actually " impressed" into British service many genuine American citizens. The ex asperated merchants of New England joined with the Republican friends of France in demanding war with England. A bill to stop all trade with Great Britain (a " Nonintercourse Act ") was defeated in the Senate only by the casting vote of Vice President Adams, who wrote that many in the country were "in a panic lest peace should continue." At a hint from Washington, Congress would have declared war on Great Britain. But Washington was deter- 258. The jay mined to have peace. He Treaty I795 nominated John Jay, chief jus tice of the Supreme Court, as special envoy to Great Britain to negotiate a new treaty. Jay sailed in May, 1794, and re turned just a year later with the best terms he could obtain John Jay from the British ministry. England agreed to evacuate the fur posts by the first of June, 1796, and to submit to arbitration the questions of disputed boundaries, damages to American shipping, and the debts due British merchants; but she re fused to make any compensation for the stolen slaves, and made such slight concessions to our trade in the West Indies that the Senate threw out that clause of the treaty entirely. On the most important point of all, the forcible arrest and search of our vessels for the impressment of seamen, the treaty was silent. 198 The New Republic 259. opposi- A storm of opposition greeted the treaty in America. Those treaty in he who wanted Jay to fail in order that the war with England America might be renewed, and those who wanted him to succeed in T~~* / - -/ v- <^2^*^ -^^^c/T^i- x/CL <Z&z&c^cCtv~ fSUc^L. By Courtesy of The Burrows Brothers C , from Avery s "History of the United States " Facsimile of the First Page of Washington s Farewell Address securing advantageous terms from England, were both disap pointed. Jay, who was one of the purest statesmen in American history, was accused of selling his country for British gold, and was burned in effigy from Massachusetts to Georgia. Hamilton Federalists and Republicans 199 was stoned in the streets of New York for speaking in favor of the treaty. Even Washington did not escape censure, abuse, and vilification. However, the President was persuaded that the terms of the treaty were the best that could be obtained, and his influence barely secured the necessary two-thirds vote of the Senate to ratify it (June 24, 1795). The same year that war with England was averted Thomas 260. The Pinckney was sent as special envoy to the court of Spain, and xreaty^with there negotiated a treaty opening the mouth of the Mississippi Spaiit, 1795 to our vessels and giving us the right of unloading and reship- ping our goods at New Orleans. Thus Washington closed the critical years of his second ad- 261. wash- ministration at peace with the world. In a farewell address to the people of America, published six months before his re- tration as a Federalist tirement from office, he warned the country against entangling alliances with foreign nations, and the spirit of faction at home. He had attempted himself to give the country a nonpartisan administration, but during his second term he had inclined more and more to Federalist principles. Jefferson and Randolph, the two Republican members of his cabinet, had resigned, and their places had been taken by Federalists. Determined that the laws of Congress should be obeyed in every part of every state of the Union, the administration had summoned the militia of Pennsyl vania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, fifteen thousand strong, to march against certain riotous counties in western Pennsylvania, where the taxes on whisky distilleries were re sisted and the United States excise officers attacked. 1 The Republicans opposed the administration at every step. 262. Bitter The press on both sides became coarse and abusive. Washing- JJ^h^cain- 8 ton was reviled in language fit to characterize a Nero. " Tyrant," P ai n of J 796 1 The "Whisky Rebellion " (1794) collapsed in the face of this prompt ac tion by the government, and Washington, who had marched in person part of the way with the army, returned in relief to the capital. The Republicans alter nately ridiculed the administration for its elaborate military preparations against a " few irate farmers," and censured it for being willing to shed the blood of American citizens over a few barrels of stolen whisky. 200 The New Republic 263. Presi dent Adams inherits a quarrel with France, 1797 264. The French Direc tory insults Adams s em bassy (the "X Y Z Affair " ) " dictator," and " despot " were some of the epithets hurled at him. He was called the " stepfather of his country," and the day was hailed with joy by the Republican press when this impostor should be " hurled from his throne." The election of 1796 was a bitter party struggle, in which the Federalist candi date, John Adams, won over Thomas Jefferson by only three electoral votes (7 1 to 68). Our quarrel with France was the all-absorbing feature of Adams s administration. Chagrined as the French Republicans were by the refusal of Washington s government to join them in the war against England, they were furious when they learned of the Jay Treaty. Was their ally thus to make terms, and such servile terms, with their enemy ? Was the " sister republic " of America to join with aristocratic Britain against the liberty of mankind ? Our minister in Paris, James Monroe, letting his republican enthusiasm get the better of his diplomatic judgment, had overstepped his powers in assuring the leaders of the French republic that the United States would make no treaty with England. When, therefore, the Jay Treaty was signed and ratified, it became necessary for Washington to send a new min ister to Paris. Charles C. Pinckney was appointed in June, 1796, but when he presented his credentials in December, the French government not only refused to accept them, but even ordered the new minister to leave the borders of France. This was outrageous conduct on the part of the Directory, as the executive board of five men at the head of the French re public during the years 1795-1799 was called. Adams, just entering his term of office, acted with admirable decision and courage. He addressed a special session of Congress in a mes sage which declared that such conduct " ought to be repelled with a decision which should convince France and the world that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear." Still Adams desired peace, and, on a hint from Talleyrand, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, that an em bassy would be received to discuss the political and commercial Federalists and Republicans 201 disputes between the two countries, he appointed John Marshall of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts to join Pinck- ney in negotiating a settlement with France. But the embassy was treated even worse than the minister had been. The Direc tory showed itself not only arrogant but corrupt. Refusing to treat directly with the ambassadors, Talleyrand sent three private citizens to them as agents, demanding that before any negoti ations were opened Adams should apologize to France for the language of his message to Congress, and that a large sum of money should be paid into the private purses of the directors. The American commissioners indignantly repelled this unblush ing attempt to extort a bribe, and quitted Paris in disgust. 1 When Adams submitted to Congress, and Congress published 265. A state to the nation, this second insult of the French Directory, a wave F ra ^ of indignation swept over our land. Adams sent a strong mes- 1798-1800 sage to Congress, declaring that he had done everything in his power to preserve the peace. " I will never send another min ister to France," he said, " without assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation." The great ma jority of Americans heartily applauded the language of the Pres ident and joined in the new patriotic song " Hail Columbia," with huzzas for " Adams and liberty." Preparations for war were begun. Eighty thousand militia were held in readiness for service and George Washington was called to the chief command, with Hamilton and Knox as his major generals. The Navy Depart ment was created and ships of war were laid down. Congress did not actually declare war on the French republic, but it abro gated the treaties of 1778 and authorized our ships to prey upon French commerce. From midsummer of 1798 to the close of the following year a state of war with France existed, and several battles were fought at sea. 1 This insulting attempt to bribe the American commissioners is called the "X Y Z Affair," because the three French agents were designated by those letters, instead of by name, in the published dispatches. 202 The New Republic 266. Adams Then Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the weak and corrupt vrittNapo- 6 government of the Directory and made himself master of France icon, 1801 under the title of First Consul. Napoleon desired peace with America ; he had enemies enough in Europe. He signified his willingness to receive a minister from the United States, and President Adams, to the great disappointment of the Feder alists, who were bent on war, but to his own lasting honor as a patriot, accepted Napoleon s overtures and concluded a fair con vention with France in February, 1801. At the beginning of the new century we were again at peace with the world. 267. Alien But the government had already passed from the Federalists, acts, i798 10n I n the heyday of their power, in the exciting summer of 1798, they had carried through Congress a set of laws designed to silence opposition to the administration. A Naturalization Act increased from five to fourteen years the term of residence in the United States necessary to make a foreigner a citizen. An Alien Act gave the President power for a term of two years " to order all such aliens as he should judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States ... to depart out of the territory of the United States." A Sedition Act, to be valid till the close of Adams s administration, provided that any one writ ing or publishing " any false, scandalous, and malicious writings" against the government, either house of Congress, or the Presi dent, " or exciting against them the hatred of the good people of the United States, to stir up sedition," should be punished by a fine not exceeding $2000 and by imprisonment not exceeding two years. These Alien and Sedition acts were opposed by Patrick Henry, Marshall, Hamilton, and other clearsighted Federalists; but in the hysterical war fever of 1798 any legis lation directed against French immigrants and the unbridled insolence of the Republican press was sure to pass. 268. The The Republicans immediately took up the challenge of the Kentucky Alien and Sedition acts. The legislatures of Kentucky and resoiut ms, Virginia passed resolutions in November and December, 1798, prepared by Jefferson and Madison respectively. The former Federalists and Republicans 203 declared the Sedition Act "altogether void and of no effect"; and the latter characterized the acts as " alarming infractions of the Constitution," which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press (First Amendment). Kentucky and Virginia invited the other states to join with them in denouncing the acts and demanding their repeal at the next session of Congress. These resolutions are of great importance as the first assertion of the power of the states, through their legislatures, to judge whether the laws passed by Congress are valid (constitutional) or not. The Alien and Sedition acts furnished fine campaign mate- 269. Defeat rial for the Republicans, who could now change their poor role aiists i? the" of champions of France for the popular cause of the defense of e i ection of the Constitution and the dignity of the states. Aided by dissen sions in the Federalist party between the followers of Hamilton and those of Adams, the Republicans carried the presidential elec tion of 1800 for Jefferson and Burr, and secured a majority in the new Congress. The Federalists had bent the bow of authority too far, and it snapped. They never regained control of the gov ernment, although they continued to put a presidential candidate in the field and to poll a few votes until the election of 1816. The last acts of the Federalists before their retirement on the 270. The fourth of March, 1801, showed a somewhat petty and tricky atte^t^o party spirit. As the Constitution then stood, the President and keep Jefferson out of the Vice President were not voted for separately, but each elector presidency wrote down two names on his ballot. The candidate getting the highest number of votes was President, and the man with the next highest, Vice President. In the close election of 1796 the Republican Jefferson had been elected Vice President because not all the Federalist electors had written the name of Pinckney for second place on the ticket with John Adams. In the elec tion of 1800, because all the Republican electors did write the name of Aaron Burr on the ballot with Jefferson, these two candidates received the same number of votes. Of course every Republican elector meant to vote for Jefferson for President and Burr for Vice President. But Burr was an ambitious politician, 204 The New Republic and when he found he had as many votes as Jefferson he was willing to contest the presidency with him. The House of Repre sentatives, with whom the choice lay (Constitution, Art. II, sect, i, clause 2), was the Federalist House elected in the exciting year 1798. After a sharp contest it chose Jefferson. - The next Con gress passed the twelfth amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified by the states in 1804, providing for the election of President and Vice President as a " team " on separate party ballots (see note, p. 178). The City of Washington in 1800 271. Adams The Federalists, having lost control of the executive and leg- appoints the . , . & midnight islative branches of the government by the elections of 1800, Mark s" xsoi made a desperate attempt to hold the judicial branch at least. In its closing days the Federalist Congress created several new United States judgeships, many more than the judicial business of the country demanded, and the President filled the offices with stanch Federalists. These new officers were nicknamed the " midnight judges," because Adams was occupied until far into the evening of his last day of office (March 3, 1801) in signing their commissions. Federalists and Republicans 205 Early the next morning, without waiting to shake hands with the new President, Adams left the White House for his home in Massachusetts, where he lived long enough to see his illus trious son, John Quincy Adams, elected to the presidency (1824) by the party of this .same Jefferson whom he had so rudely re fused to congratulate. The ungracious exit of the Federalists in 1801 and the bitter 272. services sectional opposition of the New England group to the Republi- aiist states-" can administration for the fifteen years following must not ob- men scure the great merits of the party during its years of power ( 1 789-1 80 1 ). On the day of Jefferson s inauguration the Colum bian Centinel of Boston, the leading Federalist paper in New England, published a long and true list of the benefits which that party had bestowed on the nation : peace secured with Eng land, France, and Spain ; credit restored abroad and the finances set in order at home ; a navy created, domestic manufactures encouraged, and foreign trade stimulated. It pointed with just pride to the constructive statesmanship of Hamilton and Gou- verneur Morris ; the diplomatic skill of Jay, Marshall, and the Pinckneys ; the honest, able, courageous administrations of Washington and Adams. The services of these men to the country were great and lasting. It would be difficult to prove that our government has been better administered in any sub sequent decade of our history than it was in that first decade of Federalism. THE JEFFERSONIAN POLICIES The White House, which John Adams left so unceremoniously 273. The on the morning of the day Thomas Jefferson entered it, was a big, square, unfinished building, more like the quarters of a cavalry regiment than the residence of the chief executive of a nation. Thrifty Abigail Adams wrote to a friend that a retinue of thirty servants would be needed to run the house when it was finished ; and meanwhile she dried the presidential washing in the unplastered East Room during stormy weather. The city 206 The New Republic of Washington, to which the seat of government had been moved from Philadelphia in the summer of iSoo, 1 was itself as crude and unfinished as the President s mansion. A couple of executive buildings stood near the White House, and more than a mile to the eastward the masons were at work on the wings of the Capitol. Instead of the stately Pennsylvania Avenue which now connects the Capitol and the White House, there was a miry road running across a sluggish creek. The residential part of the city consisted of a few cheerless boarding houses for the accommodation of the members of Congress, exiled to these wastes from the gay city of Philadelphia. " We need nothing here," wrote Gouverneur Morris, " but houses, men, women, and other little trifles of the kind to make our city perfect." 274. jeffer- The new President, with his large, loose figure, his careless views P l carriage, his ill-fitting and snuff-stained apparel, his profuse and informal hospitality, presented as great a contrast to the stately poise and ceremony of Washington and Adams as the crude city on the Potomac did to the settled colonial dignity of Phila delphia. Jefferson hated every appearance of " aristocracy." The French Revolution had estranged him from the manners of Europe as well as from its politics. His confidence was in the plain people of America. He wanted to see them continue a plain agricultural people, governing themselves in their local as semblies. The national government at Washington should con fine itself, he thought, to managing our dealings with foreign nations, a comparatively small task which could be performed by a few public servants. Army and navy were to be reduced, the public revenue was to be applied to paying the debt which the wicked war scares of the Federalists had rolled up, and the government was no longer, as Jefferson phrased it, to "waste the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." 1 The states of Maryland and Virginia presented the government a tract of land ten miles square on the Potomac. Congress named the tract the District of Columbia. The city of Washington was built on the northern side of the river on the Maryland cession, and the land to the south of the Potomac was retroceded to Virginia in 1846. THOMAS JEFFERSON From the original portrait by Stuart in the Walker Art Building, Kowdoin College Federalists and Republicans 207 Still Jefferson showed no desire to revolutionize the govern- 275. His ment, as some of the New England Federalists thought he sn i p would. In his inaugural address, which was couched in a digni fied and conciliatory tone, he declared that Federalists and Republicans were one in common devotion to their country. He praised our government as a " successful experiment," and himself built on the foundations which the Federalists had laid. The Alien and Sedition laws expired with Adams s ad ministration, and when the new Republican Congress had turned out the " midnight judges " by the repeal of the Judici ary Act, and restored the five-year period for naturalization, there was little to distinguish it from the Congresses of Wash ington s administration. The tariff was retained, and the Bank was not disturbed. But strict economy was introduced in the expenditures of the government by the new Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, a naturalized Swiss, who is rated second only to Alexander Hamilton in the admin istration of the finances of our country. Gallatin introduced the modern form of budget with its specific appropriations for each item of national expense. Army and navy appropriations were more than cut in two, and about 70 per cent of the revenue, or over $7,000,000 a year, was devoted to paying off the national debt. However, a piece of European diplomacy led President 276. Napo- Jefferson, whose twin political doctrines were strict adherence pa^te acquires to the letter of the Constitution and severe economy in the ex- Louisiana from Spain, penditures of the public moneys, himself to stretch the Con- 1800 stitution further than any Federalist had ever done, and to expend at a stroke $15,000,000 of the national revenue. It will be remembered that the Peace of Paris of 1763, which closed the long struggle between France and England for the possession of the St. Lawrence and Ohio valleys, left the French without a foot of land on the continent of North America. The territory east of the Mississippi belonged to England, that west of it to Spain. In the year 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte, the new 208 The New Republic master of France, conceived the idea of establishing a colonial empire in the New World, in the valley of the great river which had been opened over a century before by the heroic labors of the French explorers Marquette, Hennepin, and La Salle. He induced Spain, by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, to cede to him an immense tract of land in America, extending north and south from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian borders, and east and west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The whole province was called " Louisiana," the name which La Salle had given the valley of the Mississippi, in honor of Louis XIV, when he planted the cross at the mouth of the great river in 1682. 277. impor- When in the spring of the year 1802 Jefferson finally heard control of of this treaty of San Ildefonso, he was much disturbed by the forTheuSted P ros P ect f having the control of the west bank and the mouth states of the Mississippi pass from the feeble administration of Spain to the powerful and aggressive government of Napoleon. The settlers in the Northwest Territory, in Kentucky, and in Ten nessee were completely isolated from the seaports of the East by the mountains. Their lumber, wheat, hogs, and tobacco had to seek a market by way of the Mississippi, with its tributaries, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee rivers. Three eighths of the commerce of the United States in 1800 passed through the mouth of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. It was therefore absolutely necessary to the life of our nation that the important city of New Orleans, which controlled the mouth of the river, should not be converted from a port of deposit for the commerce of the western states and territories into an armed base of war in the great duel between France and England. Much as he disliked the latter country, Jefferson wrote to Robert R. Livingston, our minister in Paris, that " every eye in the United States was now turned to the affair of Louisi ana," and that the moment Napoleon took possession of New Orleans we " must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." Federalists and Republicans 209 The President s worst fears were realized when, in October, 278. jeffer 1802, the Spanish government, probably at the bidding of Napoleon, to whom Louisiana was just about to be handed over, closed the mouth of the Mississippi by withdrawing the 1803 right of unloading and reshipping secured by Pinckney s treaty of 1795 (see p. 199). Jefferson, knowing that it would be impos sible to force Napoleon to open the river to our trade, secured an appropriation of $2,000,000 from Congress for the purpose of buying New Orleans and West Florida outright, and sent James Monroe to Paris to aid Livingston in the negotiation. At first Napoleon rejected any offer for New Orleans, but sud denly changed his mind and authorized his foreign minister, Talleyrand, to offer the American commissioners the whole province of Louisiana. For reasons fully known only to his own capricious and arbitrary will, he had decided to abandon his colonial enterprise in the New World and confine his struggle with Great Britain to the Eastern Hemisphere. After much bargaining he accepted Livingston s offer of $15,000,000 for Louisiana, nearly $3,000,000 of which was to be paid back to our own citizens in the West for damage to their trade. The terms were agreed to April 30, 1803. The purchase of Louisiana was the most important event of 279. The American history in the first half of the nineteenth century, It doubled the area of the United States and brought under Louisiana Purchase our rule one of the most valuable tracts of land in the world. Fourteen states, including the latest addition to the Union, Oklahoma (1908), have been created wholly or in part out of the Louisiana territory. The population has grown from 50,000 in 1804, of whom half were slaves, to over 18,000,000 in 1910. The cattle and timber of Montana, the wheat of Minnesota and the Dakotas, the corn of Kansas, and the sugar and cotton of Louisiana have been the source of rapidly in creasing wealth to our country. By the census of 1900 the value of the farm property alone in these fourteen states was $6,724,855,132, or four hundred and fifty times what we paid 2io The New Republic for the whole territory. At the imposing exposition held in St. Louis, the metropolis of the region, in 1904, to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the purchase, the abounding popu lation and prosperity of the states of the Louisiana Purchase were the admiration of millions of visitors. 280. The Furthermore, the acquisition of Louisiana stimulated the in- ciark 8 expe- terest of the government in the vast territory to the west of dition, fa Q Mississippi River. Less than two months after the cession 1804-1806 of Louisiana to the United States, Jefferson commissioned Captain Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary, to head a scientific exploring party to the Far Northwest. Lewis associated with him William Clark, younger brother of George Rogers Clark of Revolutionary fame. After wintering at the mouth of the Missouri River, the Lewis and Clark expedition started west ward in the spring of 1804 with a company of forty-five men. They ascended the Missouri to its source, crossed the Rockies, and descended the Columbia River to the sea, making impor tant studies, in their two and a half years journey, of the natu ral features of the country and the habits of the Indian tribes. Their remarkable expedition was an important factor in our claim to the Oregon country in our dispute with England forty years later. 281. The The political consequences of the Louisiana Purchase were constitu- . . i-i TVT tionai aspect not less important than its geographical consequences. No isianaPur- clause f tne Constitution of the United States could be found chase giving the President the right to purchase foreign territory by a treaty which promised (as the third article of the Louisiana treaty promised) that " the inhabitants of the ceded territory should be incorporated into the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible ... to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages, and immunities of the United States." Jef ferson, who for twelve years had been protesting almost daily against the assumption by the executive of powers not granted by the Constitution, was much disturbed at finding himself fol lowing the same path in the purchase of Louisiana. He at first L.L.PQATE8ENG. CO., N.Y. The Louisiana Purchase Territory with States subsequently made from it Route of Lewis and Clark, 1808-1806 ** + Western Boundary agreed on by Treaty with Spain, 1810 Federalists and Republicans 211 insisted on having an amendment to the Constitution passed, giving the people s sanction to the purchase. But his friends in Congress persuaded him that it was both unnecessary and unwise, unnecessary because the Constitution gives the Presi dent and Senate the right to conclude treaties, and unwise because during the long delay necessary to secure such an amend ment Napoleon might again change his mind and deprive us of our fine bargain ; or because Spain, hearing that Napoleon had broken the treaty of San Ildefonso by the sale of the province to another power, might enter her protest at Washington. Jef ferson acquiesced in the judgment of his friends, and said noth ing about the necessity for an amendment in his message to the new Congress which assembled in December, iSc^. 1 That the vast province of Louisiana would ever be incorpo- 282. jeffer- rated into the United States seemed questionable to Jefferson, strengthens He wrote in 1804, "Whether we remain one confederacy or the central authority fall into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies I believe not very important to the happiness of either part." Meanwhile, however, by bringing within the jurisdiction of Congress a new territory which doubled the size of the United States, Jefferson enormously increased the authority of the central government, an authority which in theory he combated. Aside from the opposition of the New England Federalists, 283. jeffer- who might be counted upon to oppose any policy of the Jeffer- height son administration, the country enthusiastically indorsed the pur- popularity, chase of Louisiana. President Jefferson was at the height of his popularity. In 1804 he was reflected by 162 electoral votes to 14 for his Federalist opponent, C. C. Pinckney. At the same time with the election returns came the news of the success of 1 Congress established the extreme southern part of the Louisiana province as the territory of Orleans, and provided for its administration by a governor, a secretary, and judges appointed by the President of the United States. For over a year there was no elected assembly in Orleans ; there was not even the ancient civil right of trial by jury. The inhabitants of the territory were made subjects, not citizens, of the United States, and it was not until eight years later that they were admitted (as the state of Louisiana, 1812) to the " rights, advan tages, and immunities " promised them in the treaty of 1803. 212 The New Republic 284. The conspiracy of Aaron Burr, 1805-1807 285. The trials of Jef ferson s second ad ministration, 1805-1809 the small American fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, under the brave commanders Preble, Bainbridge, and Decatur, in the war against the insolent pasha of Tripoli, who was attacking our com merce and levying blackmail on our government. Our diplomacy and arms successful abroad ; our territory doubled at home ; our debt reduced, in spite of the purchase of Louisiana ; our people united, save for a few malcontents in New England and Dela ware, such was the record of the years 1801-1805. But Jefferson s second term was filled with disappointment and chagrin. The country was distressed by the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. That brilliant but unprincipled politician, while still Vice President, had offered himself as a candidate for gov ernor of New York, and being defeated through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton, had challenged Hamilton to a duel and killed him at the first shot (July 1 1, 1804). Made a political and social outcast by this act, Burr conceived a desperate plan for retrieving his fortunes and reputation. Just what he intended to do is uncertain, whether to establish an independent state in the Mississippi valley, or to seize the city of New Orleans and carve an " empire for the Burr dynasty " out of Spanish territory to the southwest of the United States. At any rate, he threw the whole western country into commotion for two years, until he was abandoned and betrayed by his treacherous accom plice, General James "Wilkinson. In 1807 Burr was seized in Spanish Florida and brought to Richmond for trial. John Mar shall, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, a Federalist ap pointed by President Adams, presided over the trial. Jefferson was extremely anxious to have Burr convicted ; but the jury, under Marshall s charge, found no " overt act of treason " to justify a verdict of " guilty," and Burr was discharged, to spend the rest of his long life in obscurity and misery. But the Burr trial was of small account among Jefferson s troubles, when compared with the failure of his " peace policy." European diplomacy favored the reduction of our army and navy in Jefferson s first term; but in his second term the Federalists and Republicans 2 1 3 fortunes of European war broke down this peace policy, and, in spite of his desperate efforts to meet French and English violence by diplomacy, entreaties, proclamations, and embargoes, the war approached, which was to find us shockingly unprepared in men and ships and discipline. THE WAR OF 1812 The unholy ambition of one man kept the civilized world in 286. Napo- a turmoil during the first fifteen years of the nineteenth cen- tury, and stirred war from the shores of Lake Erie to the t y rant of Europe, steppes of Russia. Napoleon Bonaparte, made master of France 1805-1815 by his sword at the age of thirty (1799), found France too small a theater for his genius, and aimed at nothing less than the domination of the continent of Europe and the destruc tion of the British colonial empire. The latter object was frus trated when Admiral Nelson shattered the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. But a few weeks later, by his victory over the armies of Russia and Austria in the tremendous battle of Austerlitz (the " battle of the three emperors "), Napoleon began to realize his am bition of dominating the continent. Henceforth the British were masters of the ocean, but for ten years Napoleon was master of the land. Failing to destroy Great Britain s fleet, Napoleon sought to 287. The kill her commerce. By decrees issued from Berlin and Milan in 1806 and 1807 he declared the continent closed to British goods, Napoleon and Great Britain and ordered the seizure of any vessel that had touched at a British port. Great Britain replied by Orders in Council, for bidding neutral vessels to trade with any countries under Napo leon s control (which meant all of Europe but Scandinavia and Turkey), unless such vessels had touched at a British port. These decrees and orders meant the utter ruin of neutral trade, for the English seized all merchant vessels that did not touch at British ports, and the French seized all that did. 214 The New Republic 288. The It was the American trade that suffered especially. During the nine years war between France and England (1793-1802) the United States had built up an immense volume of shipping. Her stanch, swift vessels, manned by alert tars, were the favorite carriers of the merchandise of South America, the Indies, and the Far East to all the ports of Europe. Our own exports too the fish and lumber of New England, the cotton and rice of the South, the wheat and live stock of the trans- Allegheny country had increased threefold (from $20,000,000 to $60,000,000) since the inauguration of Washington. Our shipments of cotton alone, thanks to the invention in 1793 of the cotton " gin " (engine) for separating the seed, grew from 200,000 pounds in 1791 to over 50,000,000 pounds in 1805. In the latter year some 70,000 tons were added to our merchant marine, requiring the addition of 4200 seamen. Sailors wages rose from $8 to $24 a month. Himdreds of foreigners became naturalized in order to enjoy the huge profits of American ship owners. Some idea of the volume of our foreign trade in pro portion to the size and wealth of our country at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as compared with that at the close of the century, can be realized from the following figures : in 1900, when our population was almost 80,000,000 and our wealth $100,000,000,000, less than 10 per cent of our foreign trade (only 816,000 tons) was carried in American ships ; in 1810 our population was less than 8,000,000 and our estimated wealth $2,000,000,000, but 91 per cent of our foreign trade (980,000 tons) was carried in our own vessels. 1 1 The decay of our merchant marine since the Civil War has been deplor able. Most of our merchant ships were captured by Confederate cruisers or turned into war vessels during the war ; and our merchant marine was not rebuilt when peace came, because the high duties on iron, steel, copper, lumber, and cordage made shipbuilding unprofitable. Senator Frye of Maine in 1891 pro posed a national subsidy (" help ") for American vessels carrying our mail, but it was not enough to encourage shipbuilding. Again, ten years later (1901), Senator Frye labored to get Congress to appropriate $9,000,000 a year for thirty years for the subsidizing of American shipping, but the agricultural and manu facturing interests defeated his bill. Federalists and Republicans 21$ It was this immense foreign trade, the chief source of our 289. Great country s wealth, that was threatened with ruin by Napoleon s decrees and the British Orders in Council. Jefferson s reduction of the navy far below the point necessary to protect American our merchant commerce left diplomacy as his only weapon. He sent William Pinckney to London to cooperate there with our minister, James Monroe, in making a treaty to replace the Jay Treaty, which expired in 1806. But the British court showed its contempt for our naval weakness by negotiating with Monroe a treaty so in sulting to our commercial independence that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate for consideration. Furthermore, many Brit ish frigates cruised along our shores from New England to Georgia, stopping our ships at will, boarding them, and taking off scores of sail ors on the ground that they were English de serters. To be sure, the provocation of England was great. At a time when she needed every man and gun in her desperate struggle with Napoleon, British seamen were leaving her ships by hundreds to take advantage of the high wages, good food, and humane treatment which they found aboard the American vessels. If the British lieu tenant conducted his examination of an American crew in a summary fashion, and " impressed " a good many real Ameri cans among the suspected deserters to serve the guns of the British frigates, he thought he was only erring on the right side. After all, Englishmen and Americans were not so easy to tell apart. Impressing American Seamen 2 1 6 The New Republic 290. The 1^x807 291. con- ber 22, 1807 292. presi- dent Madi son s 1809-1810 The climax was reached when the British ship Leopard opened fi re on tne American frigate Chesapeake off the Virginia coast, June 22, 1807, because the American refused to stop to be searched for deserters. Three of the Chesapeake^ men were killed and eighteen wounded before she surrendered. It was an act of war. The country was stirred as it had not been since the news of the battle of Lexington. Resolutions poured in upon the President pledging the signers to support the most rigorous measures of resistance. But Jefferson had no more rigorous measures of resistance to propose, in the absence of a navy, than an embargo on foreign commerce - By an act of Congress of December 22, 1807, all ships were forbidden to leave our harbors for foreign ports. The double purpose of the embargo was to starve Europe into showing a proper respect for our commerce and to prevent our ships from capture. The latter object the embargo certainly accomplished, for if the ships did not sail, they could hardly be taken. But the remedy was worse than the disease. The merchants of New England preferred risking the loss of a few men and vessels to seeing their ships tied idly to the wharves and their merchandise spoiling in warehouses. They even ac cused Jefferson of being willing to ruin their shipping in order to be avenged on the Federalists and to further his pet industry of agriculture. A perfect storm of protest arose from the commer cial classes of the country. It was evident that the continuance of the embargo would mean the overthrow of the Republican party, if not civil war ; and the hated act, which cost New Eng land merchants alone a loss of $8,000,000 in fifteen months, was repealed March i, 1809, and a Nonintercourse Act with Great Britain and France passed in its stead. Three days later Jefferson turned over the government to his successor, James Madison. Madison had rendered the country magnificent services a quarter of a century earlier in the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, but he seemed to have lost all power of initiative. He neither prepared for war nor developed Federalists and Republicans 217 any effective policy of peace. He was singularly lacking in dip lomatic judgment, allowing himself, in his anxiety for peace, to believe too readily the word of any one who brought a welcome report. When the new British minister, Erskine, announced in 1809 that his country would withdraw the Orders in Council, Madison hastily reopened commerce with England, without waiting to see whether the British ministry would sanction Erskine s promise or not. To Madison s chagrin the promise was disavowed and the minister recalled. The next move of the administration was an attempt to bribe England and France to bid against each other for our trade. Congress repealed the Nonintercourse Act in 1810 and substituted for it Macon s bill, which provided that as soon as either France or England withdrew its decrees against our shipping, the Nonintercourse Act should be revived against the other country. This was too good a chance for the wily Napoleon to let 293. Napo- slip. He announced (August 5, 1810) that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were repealed, and called upon the American President to redeem his promise by prohibiting intercourse with Great Britain. Again Madison jumped at the chance of bringing Great Britain to terms by diplomacy. In spite of the British ministry s warning that Napoleon would not keep his word (a judgment amply proved by the facts), Madison issued a proclamation reviving the Nonintercourse Act against Great Britain if she should not have repealed her Orders in Council before Feb ruary 2, 181 1. The day passed without any word from the Brit ish ministry, and again Congress forbade all trade with Great Britain and her colonies. The year 1811 brought other fuel to feed the fires of anti- 294. New British sentiment. In May our frigate President, chasing a by Great 10n British cruiser which had impressed a citizen of Massachusetts, Bntain > l8 " was fired upon by the British sloop of war Little Belt, which was forced by the American ship to strike her colors. The exploit was hailed as a fitting revenge for the Chesapeake out rage four years earlier. In November, William Henry Harrison, 218 The New Republic governor of the Northwest, defeated the Indians under the great chief Tecumseh at Tippecanoe Creek in the Indiana territory, and wrote home, " The Indians had an ample supply of the best British glazed powder, and some of their guns had been sent them so short a time before the action that they were not yet divested of the list coverings in which they are imported." The suspicions of our government, therefore, that the British had been inciting the Indians on our northwestern frontier since St. Glair s disastrous defeat twenty years before, seemed to be confirmed. 295. con- The new Congress which met in the early winter of 1811 Henry clay s contained a group of energetic men, the " war hawks " as John ~ Ran ^olph called them, who were determined that the independ- Great Britain, e nce and dignity of the United States should be respected. They were of the new generation that had grown up since the Revolutionary War, and their confidence in the present great ness and future promise of the United States was unbounded. They demanded that the impotent diplomacy which had humili ated our government since the end of the first administration of Jefferson the so-called " peaceful war" of embargo and non- intercourse should be abandoned. The leader of the " war hawks " was Henry Clay, a Virginian born, who had moved out to the new state of Kentucky as a young law student, and had rapidly raised himself, by his great gifts of intellect and oratory, to be the first citizen of the state. Clay was elected Speaker of the House in the new Congress, and as he made up his com mittees it became evident that the war party was to direct the legislative policy of the session. " The period has arrived," re ported the Committee on Foreign Affairs, " when it is the sacred duty of Congress to call upon the patriotism and resources of the country." Cheves of South Carolina called for an appro priation of more than half the income of the government for the building of thirty-two warships, and lost his motion by only three votes out of a House of 141 members. Clay descended from the chair and urged the war in such strains of oratory as Federalists and Republicans 219 had not been heard in Congress for twenty years. President Madison was swept off his feet by the war current. His message of June i, 1812, reviewed the outrages of the British in stopping our ships, seizing our seamen, inciting the Indians against our borders, blockading our ports, and refusing to repeal the obnoxious Orders in Council. On June 18 Congress, by a vote of almost two to one, declared war on Great Britain. The War of 1812 was the work of Henry Clay. He mar- 296. Henry shaled the war party in Congress, and solidified that war senti- sp onsibiiity ment in the South and West which made Madison believe that f r the War of 1812 the success of the Republicans and his own reelection in the autumn of 1812 depended on the substitution of arms for diplomacy. Clay held before the farmers of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys the vision of an easy conquest of Canada, and killed in the House the proposal of the moderates to make one more effort for peace by the dispatch of James Bayard of Delaware as special envoy to the court of Great Britain. Had Bayard gone, the war would probably have been averted ; for just at the moment when Madison signed the declaration of war, Great Britain, sincerely anxious to preserve peace with the United States, repealed the offensive Orders in Council. But there was no cable to bring the instantaneous news of the British ministry s surrender, so the unfortunate war between the sister nations of the English tongue began just when Napo leon Bonaparte led his army of half a million men across the Russian frontier, hoping to crush the last great power of the European continent that dared to resist his despotic will. The United States was woefully unprepared for war. Our 297. our regular army numbered less than 7000 soldiers, many of them { raw recruits under untrained commanders. Our navy consisted frontier of 15 ships to England s 1000. The New England States pro tested against "Mr. Madison s war" (which they would better have called " Mr. Clay s war"), and Vermont and Connecticut refused point-blank to furnish a man of their militia to invade Canada. The year 1812 saw our commander at Detroit, W 7 illiam 220 The New Republic 298. Vic- Perry and 1813-1814 299. The recapture of Detroit, 1813 Hull, court-martialed and sentenced to death for the timid aban donment of his post, and our generals at the other end of Lake Erie fighting duels over the mutual charge of cowardice instead of advancing together against the enemy. The conquest of Canada, which Clay had boasted could be ac- complished by the militia of Kentucky alone, showed little pros- P ect of fulfillment in the campaign of 1812-1813. But for the victory of Oliver H. Perry s little fleet on Lake Erie (Septem ber 10, 1813) and Thomas MacDonough s deliverance of Lake Champlain (September n, 1814), we could hardly have been The War of 1812 on the Canadian Border saved from a British invasion from Canada, which would have cost us the Northwest Territory and the valley of the Hudson. Cheered by Perry s famous dispatch from Lake Erie, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," William Henry Harri son, who had succeeded Hull, was able to recapture Detroit and drive the British across the river, inflicting a severe defeat on them in Canadian territory (October 5, 1813). This was the nearest we came to a " conquest of Canada " ; for at the eastern end of Lake Erie our last attempt at invasion, under General Jacob Brown, resulted only in the drawn battle of Lundy s Lane (July 25, 1814). Federalists and Republicans 221 In August, 1814, a British force of less than 5000 men sailed 300. The up the Potomac and raided the city of Washington, after put- Washington, ting to disgraceful flight the 7500 raw militia troops hastily August, 1814 gathered at Bladensburg to defend the national capital. The British burned the White House, the Capitol, and some depart ment buildings, and inflicted about $1,500,000 worth of wanton damage on the property of the city. They then departed for Baltimore, where a similar raid was frustrated by the alertness of the Maryland militia and the spirited defense of Fort McHenry before the city (September 12, 1814). It was the sight of our flag still waving on the ramparts of Fort McHenry, after a night s bombardment, that inspired Francis Key s patriotic song, "The Star-Spangled Banner." In sharp contrast with our disasters on land, the war on the 301. The ... . f . . r . . , war on the ocean, despite the great inferiority of our navy in point or sea numbers, was a series of surprising triumphs for the American ships. The exploits of our frigates President, United States, and Constitution (" Old Ironsides ") kept the country in a fever of rejoicing. On all the lines of world commerce in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian oceans, off the coast of New Eng land, among the Indies, in the English waters, and beyond the Cape of Good Hope the privateers and merchantmen of both countries played the game of hide and seek. In the first seven months of the war over 500 British merchantmen were taken by the swift Yankee privateers, and before the war was over some 2000 prizes were captured. The British had boasted at the beginning of the war that they would not let an American craft cross from New York to Staten Island, but before the war was over they were themselves paying 1 5 per cent insurance on vessels crossing the English Channel. However, the Americans were the worst sufferers by the war, their exports falling from $110,000,000 in 1807 to $7,000,000 in 1814; while the retreat of Napoleon from Moscow in 1812 and his overwhelm ing defeat in the three days battle of Leipzig the next year again opened the continent of Europe to British trade. 222 The New Republic 302. The With the cessation of the long and severe commercial war Ghent, De- between Napoleon and Great Britain, the causes of the war cember 24, between Great Britain and the United States impressments, right of search, blockades, embargoes, nonintercourse acts were all removed. Peace was signed by the American and British commissioners, at the city of Ghent in the Netherlands, on Christmas Eve, 1814. The peace restored the conditions before the war, and referred to commissioners the settlement of boundary disputes between the United States and Canada. 303. Andrew Before the news of the treaty of Ghent reached New York, victory* at however (February n, 1815), two events of importance took place in America. The British, failing in their attack on Balti- l8i s more, had sailed for the West Indies and there joined several thousand veteran troops under General Pakenham, just freed from service against Napoleon s armies in the Spanish peninsula. Their purpose was to seize New Orleans, paralyze the trade of the Mississippi Valley, and perhaps hold Louisiana for exchange at the close of the war for territory in the Northwest. But Andrew Jackson, a Tennessee frontiersman and Indian fighter of Scotch- Irish stock, who was in command of our small army in the Mississippi territory, was a man of different caliber from the generals on the northern frontier. Pressing every man and mule in the city of New Orleans into service, he constructed a hasty but effective line of fortifications below the city, and when the British veterans attacked with confidence, he drove them back with terrible slaughter, laying 2000 of their number on the field in a battle of twenty minutes duration (January 8, 1815). Jack son, henceforth the " hero of New Orleans," was rewarded in the following years by the command against the Indians of Florida (1817), the governorship of the Florida territory (1821), a seat in the United States Senate (1823), and the presidency of the United States (1828). If the Atlantic cable or the swift modern steamship had existed in 1814, it would have brought the news of the treaty of peace in time to turn Pakenham s expedition back from the Mississippi, to prevent one of the bloodiest battles Federalists and Republicans 223 ever fought on American soil, and perhaps to keep from the pages of American history the record of the administration of the most masterful of our Presidents between Washington and Lincoln. While Jackson was bringing the war to a victorious close for 304. opposi- the American side in the far South, the discontent of the New Engiand^to^ England States with " Mr. Madison s war " was ripening into the war serious opposition to the administration. Every state north of Maryland with a seacoast had voted against Madison (that is, against the war) in the election of 1812 ; and had not the west ern counties of Pennsylvania been strong enough to carry the twenty-five electoral -votes of that state to Madison s column, his rival, De Witt Clinton (fusion candidate of the Federalists and the " peace Republicans "), would have been elected. The sec tional character of the war is strikingly shown by the fact that of the $11,000,000 loan authorized by Congress in 1812, New England, which was the richest section of the country, sub scribed for less than $1,000,000. There were even those in New England who let their disgust with the policy of the admin istration carry them into treason, and recouped the losses that Madison and Clay brought to their commerce, by selling beef to the British army in Canada. Ever since the defeat of the Federalist party in 1800 and the 305. The . , , r . i i T /v MIT Hartford Con- adoption of many of its principles by Jefferson, an irreconcilable ven ti 0n , De- branch of the party in New England had maintained its bitter ^g^ ber I5> opposition to the Jeffersonian administrations, to the predomi nance of the agricultural interests, and to the perpetuation of the so-called " Virginia dynasty " in our government. The declara tion of the war with England by the votes of the Southern and Western states was to these Federalist representatives of the New England commercial classes the climax of a long list of injuries. " We are in no better relation to the Southern states," cried one of these extreme Federalists, " than a conquered people." By the end of 1813 about 250 vessels were lying idle at the docks of Boston alone. Petitions began to come in to the Massachu setts legislature from many towns, praying the state to take 224 The New Republic steps toward getting the Constitution of the United States amended in such a way as to " secure them from further evils." At the suggestion of Massachusetts the five New England States sent delegates to meet in a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, December 15, 1814. These delegates, twenty-six in number, represented the remnant of the Federalist party. They denounced the " ruinous war " and proposed a number of amendments to the Constitution, designed to lessen the power of the slaveholding agricultural South, to secure the interests of commerce, to prevent the hasty admission of new Western states, and to check the succession of Virginia Presidents. After a month s session they adjourned to the following June, and their messengers carried their demands to Washington. 306. The The messengers arrived only to find themselves in the midst downfall of . .... . T , , , , the Federalist of general rejoicing over the news of Jackson s victory at New party, 1816 Orleans and the tidings of the peace from Ghent, which reached Washington on the same day. The triumph of the Republicans was complete, and the crestfallen Hartford envoys returned to New England bearing the doom of the Federalist party. In the presidential election of the following year (1816) the Federalists for the last time put a candidate into the field, Rufus King of New York. But King got only 34 electoral votes to 182 for his Republican rival, James Monroe, Madison s Secretary of State, who continued for another eight years the " dynasty " of Virginia Republicans inaugurated by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. REFERENCES Launching the Government : J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, chap, vi ; HENRY ADAMS, History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, Vol. I, chaps, i-vi; J. S. BASSETT, The Federalist System (American Nation Series), chaps, i-xiii; F. A. WALKER, The Making of the Nation, chaps, v-vii ; DAVIS R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, chaps, iii, iv ; JUSTIN WiNSOR, Narrative and Critical His tory of America, Vol. VII, chap, vi; biographies of George Washington Federalists and Republicans 225 by PAUL LEICESTER FORD, WOODROW WILSON, and HENRY CABOT LODGE; biographies of Alexander Hamilton by WILLIAM G. SUMNER, HENRY CABOT LODGE, and J. T. MORSE, JR. The Reign of Federalism : BASSETT, chaps, xiv-xix ; MACMASTER, Vol. II, chaps, x, xi ; WALKER, chap, viii ; J. W. FOSTER, A Century of Diplomacy, chap, v ; JOHN B. MOORE, American Diplomacy, chaps, ii, iii; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chaps, iv, v; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 83-105 ; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. I, chaps, iii, iv. The Jeffersonian Policies : EDWARD CHANNING, The Jeffersonian Sys tem (Am. Nation), chaps, i-xvii ; R. G. THWAITES (ed.), Original Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition ; MACMASTER, Vols. II, III ; ADAMS, Vols. I-IV; HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 106, 109, 115 ; F. A. OGG, The Open ing of the Mississippi, chaps, x-xiv ; W. F. McCALEB, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy^; biographies of Jefferson by PAUL LEICESTER FORD, J. T. MORSE, Jr., and H. C. MERWIN. The War of 1812: CHANNING, chaps, xviii-xx; K. C. BABCOCK, The Rise of American Nationality (Am. Nation), chaps, i-xi ; WINSOR, Vol. VII, chaps, v-vii ; HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 116-129; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, chap, x ; A. T. MAHAN, The War of 1812; THEO DORE ROOSEVELT, The Naval War of 1812 ; CARL SCHURZ, Henry Clay (American Statesmen Series). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1 . The Condition of the Country at the Inauguration of Washington : WALKER, pp. 63-72 ; HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 10-36 ; MACMASTER, Vol. I, pp. i-ioi ; Vol. II, pp. 1-24; BASSETT, pp. 163-177; WINSOR, The Westward Movement, pp. 398-414. 2. The Jay Treaty : WINSOR, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. VII, pp. 463-471 ; The Westward Movement, pp. 462-484 ; GEORGE PELLEW, John Jay (Am. Statesmen), chaps, x, xi; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 97; BASSETT, pp. 125-135; MOORE, pp. 201-208; WILLIAM MC DONALD, Select Documents, No. 14 (for text). 3. The French War of 1798-1799 : MACMASTER, Vol. II, pp. 370-388, 428-434; WALKER, pp. 137-143 ; WINSOR, Narrative and Critical His tory of America, Vol. VII, pp. 361-368 ; A. J. WOODBURN, American Political History, Vol. I, pp. 162-179. 4. The Lewis and Clark Expedition: ROOSEVELT, The Winning of the West, Vol. IV, pp. 308-328; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 115; CHANNING, pp. 86-99; THWAITES, Rocky Mountain Exploration, pp. 92-187. 226 The New Republic 5. The War Hawks in the Twelfth Congress : MACMASTER, Vol. Ill, pp. 426-458; WALKER, pp. 220-227; BABCOCK, pp. 50-63; ADAMS, Vol. VII, pp. 113-175 ; SCHURZ, Vol. I, chap, v; SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 334-356. 6. The Louisiana Purchase : MACMASTER, Vol. II, pp. 620-63 5 ; CHAN- NING, pp. 47-72; ADAMS, Vol. II, pp. 116-134; WILLIAM M. SLOANE, in the American Historical Review, Vol. IV, pp. 439 ff. ; ROOSEVELT, Vol. IV, pp. 258-282; HART, Foundations of American Foreign Policy, pp. 185-209; MACDONALD, No. 24 (for text of treaty). PART IV. NATIONAL VERSUS SECTIONAL INTERESTS PART IV. NATIONAL VERSUS SECTIONAL INTERESTS CHAPTER VIII THE GROWTH OF A NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS " THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING " The close of the second war with England (1815) marks an 307. The epoch in American history. During the quarter of a century ^npietes our which elapsed between the inauguration of George Washington independence and the conclusion of the treaty at Ghent, the United States was very largely influenced by European politics. Our independ ence was acknowledged but not respected. Neither the French republic nor the English monarchy accorded us the courtesies due to a sister power ; neither Napoleon nor the ministers of George III heeded our protests against the violation of a neu tral nation s rights. The parties which called themselves Repub lican and Federalist might just as well have been called the French and the English party. Foreign wars and rumors of war, treaties, protests, embassies, absorbed the energies of the administration at Washington. Many of our greatest statesmen were serving their country in foreign capitals. The eyes of our people were turned toward the Atlantic to welcome our swift packets bringing news from Paris, London, and Madrid. But with the "universal peace" of 1815 all this was changed. We turned our back on Europe, and faced the problems of our own growing land. The group of young statesmen, led by Henry Clay, who had precipitated the War of 1812 to free us from 229 230 National versus Sectional Interests humiliating dependence on the orders of European cabinets, were imbued with one idea, the boundless resources of the United States of America. A common devotion of all sections of our country seemed to be the only condition necessary for the development of those resources. 308. A wave When James Monroe was inaugurated on the fourth of enthusiasm March, 1817, the country was already at the full tide of the fonowsthe en thusiasm for expansion which followed the favorable treaty of Ghent. Our regular army had been thoroughly reorganized and raised. to a peace footing of 10,000 men. The immense sum of $8,000,000 had been appropriated for a new navy. The tariff rates, which had been doubled in 1812 to provide a revenue for carrying on the war, were still kept up, and even slightly increased, by the tariff bill of 1816, whose object was to encourage and protect the rising manufactures which both North and South hoped would in a few years make us independent of Europe industrially, as the War of 1812 had made us independent of Europe politically. Confident pride in the growing West had led Congress to vote such lavish dona tions of public money for the construction of roads and canals that President Madison himself, who in his message invited the " particular attention of Congress " to this subject, felt obliged to check its generosity by his veto. 309. The Any manifestation of sectional spirit was condemned as nar- sectional spirit rebuked row, niggardly, and unpatriotic. The arrival in Washington of the delegates of the Hartford Convention, to complain of the mismanagement of the war and demand the restitution of the commercial privileges of New England, just at the moment when the country was rejoicing over the victory of Jackson at New Orleans and the vindication of the independence of our ships and sailors, was an object lesson to political grumblers. These New England Federalists, if they had not meditated treason in their convention at Hartford in 1814, had nevertheless gone to the verge of treason in refusing to send their militia to the northern frontier in 1812 at Madison s command, in winking at The Growth of a National Consciousness 231 the forbidden but prosperous business of supplying the British armies in Canada with beef and grain, and in refusing to sub scribe for 10 per cent of our national war loan, when they had almost 50 per cent of the money of the country in their banks. They were now justly rebuked in the hour of the victory they had done so little to secure. Their party was wrecked ; section alism was branded with a stigma, and for years the fall of the Federalists served as a text for exhortations to national unity. A few weeks after his inauguration Monroe made an extended 310. Mon- tour through the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, for the ostensible purpose of inspecting the national defenses. The real object of the journey was quite as much to strengthen the growing Republicanism of New England. No better proof of the accomplishment of this latter object could be found than the view which the old Federalist press took of the journey. That same Columbian Centinel of Boston, which on the day of the inauguration of the first Re publican President, Thomas Jefferson, had published a bitter lament over the defeat of the glorious Federalist administration (p. 204), now hailed the inauguration of Jefferson s bosom friend and political follower, James Monroe, as the promise of " an era of good feeling." The phrase took the popular fancy and pleased President Monroe, who spread it during his journey, and repeated it on the tour of the Southern states which he made in the autumn of the same year (1817). It has remained ever since as the catchword to designate the period of Monroe s presidency, when the Republican party had no rival, and when the issues which were to split this apparently united party into Whigs and Democrats had not yet taken definite enough form to lead to a division. We shall study some of those issues in the next chapter. 31 1. The Here we must dwell a little further on the signs of national unity which characterized the decade following the War of 1812. second Na - Perhaps no act of Congress during that decade shows more 1816 clearly how thoroughly the war had nationalized the Republican 232 National versus Sectional Interests party than the establishment of a second National Bank in 1816. When Alexander Hamilton, in 1791, got Congress to charter a banking corporation with a capital of $10,000,000 to handle the financial business of the government, hold all the public moneys on deposit, and negotiate the national loans, there was a great outcry against this alliance of the government with the money power of the country. The capitalists would get the President and Congress into their control, it was said, and by bribery or threat of commercial panic would force through legislation favorable to their own interests. The Republican party "had maintained a steady opposition to the Bank during the twenty years of its existence, and had refused to recharter it when its term expired in 181 1. " The state banks," they said, " are the pillars of the nation." But during the War of 1812 the state banks had all failed. There was no confidence in financial circles because there was no standard of currency. Notes of New York banks were at a discount in Boston, and notes of Baltimore banks at a discount in New York ; while the paper of the " wildcat " banks of the West was practically worthless in the commercial centers of the Atlantic seaboard. The state banks, which had been " the pil lars of the nation," had now become, said one senator, " the caterpillars of the nation." The same men who had denounced the National Bank in 1811 and refused to renew its charter now pleaded in favor of it. The same Republican press which had assailed Hamilton in 1791 now reprinted his arguments in favor of the Bank. And the same party which had feared the sinister influence on politics of a bank with $10,000,000 capital in 1811 five years later chartered a new National Bank with a capital stock of $35,000,000, of which the government was to hold $7,000,000. The effect of this was the instantaneous re turn of confidence to the merchants and bankers of the country. The state banks were forced to keep their paper up to the standard set by the National Bank or retire from business. Secretary of the Treasury Dallas, who found the United States The Growth of a National Consciousness 233 Treasury empty in the autumn of 1814, left a surplus of $20,000,000 to his successor, Crawford, three years later. Another important sign of the growing national consciousness 312. impor- was the strengthening of the national government by several important decisions of the Supreme Court. John Marshall of Virginia, a moderate Federalist, who had served with distinction John Marshall as an officer in the Revolution, and had later been special envoy to France, member of Congress, and for a brief period Secretary of State, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by John Adams in the spring of 1 80 1. Marshall held this highest judicial office in the country for thirty-four years, and, by his famous decisions interpreting the Constitution, made for himself the greatest name in the history of the American bench. When the peace of 1815 turned the at tention of the country from foreign negotiations to the de velopment of the national do main, many questions arose as to the exact limits of the powers of the national government and of the various states. The people of the United States had given the national Congress certain powers enumerated in the Consti tution, such as the power to lay taxes, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to regulate commerce, to coin money, and to make all laws which were " necessary and proper for carrying into execution " the powers granted. Marshall and his associates on the Supreme bench, in a number of important cases which came before them to test these powers, rendered verdicts in support of the national authority against that of the states. John Marshall Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1801-1835 234 National versus Sectional Interests 313. Martin For example, in 1816 the court of appeals of the state of Lesife^Sie 8 Virginia refused to allow a case to be taken from it to the Su preme Court at Washington, on the ground that the state courts were independent of the national (federal) courts. But the Supreme Court upheld the Judiciary Act of 1789, which allowed every case involving the Constitution of the United States to come to Washington on final appeal. 314. McCui- Three years later the state of Maryland laid a tax on the Maryland, business of the branch of the National Bank established in that 1819 state, claiming that the Constitution did not give Congress any right to establish a bank. Marshall wrote the decision of the Supreme Court in this case, justifying the right of Congress to establish a bank as a measure necessary and proper for carry ing into execution the laws for raising a revenue and regulating the currency. The state was forbidden to tax the bank except for the ground and building it occupied. 315. The In the same year, in the famous Dartmouth College case, Coueecase, the Supreme Court annulled a law of the legislature of New 1819 Hampshire, which altered the charter of the college against the will of the trustees. The charter, the court held, was a con tract between the legislature and the trustees; and since the Constitution of the United States forbids any state to pass a law impairing the obligation of contracts (Art. I, sect. 10), the law of the New Hampshire legislature was null and void. 316. Ogden Again, five years later, the Supreme Court annulled a law of 1824 the state of New York. The legislature of New York had granted to Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton, the great steamboat promoters, a monopoly of steam navigation in all the waters belonging to the state, thus excluding from New York harbor the steam craft of New Jersey or New England. Marshall, invoking the clause of the national Constitution which gives Congress the right " to regulate commerce among the several states " (Art. I, sect. 8), argued that navigation forms an indis pensable part of commerce, and hence no state could exclude the vessels of other states from its waters. The Growth of a National Consciousness 235 These decisions, with several others of like character, show how the judicial branch of our government contributed to the national feeling which we have already seen dominating the legislative branch (Congress) in the passage of the army and navy bills, the Bank bill, and the tariff bill (1816). Still further indications of a new national consciousness in the 317. Changes decade which followed the war that " completed our independ- economic con- ence " may be seen in manv facts of our social and economic ditions > 1816-1820 life. The movement and mingling of population in immigration from Europe and emigration to the West was rapidly breaking down the social privileges and prejudices of sections of our country. In New England, for example, the old Puritan domin ion was yielding to democratic tendencies in politics and religion. Connecticut in her constitution of 1818 (the first new one since her colonial charter of 1662) did away with religious qualifica tions for office. New Hampshire followed in 1819, and the next year the Massachusetts convention for framing a constitution was torn with dissensions between the new Unitarians and the old Orthodox believers. The Episcopal Church in the Southern states also lost its predominance with the increase of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian immigrants and the growth of Methodism in the frontier communities. Distinctly popular movements looking toward the improvement of labor conditions, the establishment of public schools, the health and cleanliness of cities, began to be agitated in these years. Further westward emigration was encouraged by the reduction of the price of public lands from $2 to $1.25 an acre, and the sale of So-acre lots instead of the customary sections of 160 acres. In spite of the caution of Madison and Monroe, Congress passed ten acts before 1820, appropriating in all over $1,500,000 for roads and canals. Finally, the beginnings of a truly national literature fell within sis. The be- these years. The North American Review, our first creditable f^f n magazine, appeared in 1815. Two years later William Cullen literature Bryant published his " Thanatopsis," and the next year appeared Washington Irving s " Sketch Book." James Fenimore Cooper 236 National versus Sectional Interests began shortly afterward his famous series of novels dealing with Indian life. Hitherto the work of American writers, in all but political and religious subjects, had been but a feeble copy of the contemporary English models. In Bryant, Irving, and Cooper, America produced her first distinctively native talent, which drew its inspiration from the natural beauties, the historical traditions, and the novel life of the western world. 319. The When the election of 1820 approached there was no rival rSctLoiTof candidate to Monroe in the field. The Federalist party, with Monroe, t ^ e exception of a few irreconcilables and immovables, who, in the witty language of one of their number, reminded themselves of the " melancholy state of a man who has remained sober when all his companions have become intoxicated," had been entirely merged with the nationalized Republicans in the " era of good feeling." Monroe received the vote of every elector but one, who cast his ballot for John Quincy Adams for the purely sentimental reason that he did not wish to see any Presi dent after George Washington elected by the unanimous voice of the American people. THE MONROE DOCTRINE It was not alone in the development of our western domain and the reinforcement of the federal power by acts of Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court that the spirit of the new Americanism manifested itself in the decade following the treaty of Ghent. That generous glow of national enthusiasm cast its reflection over the whole Western Hemisphere. 320. our It must be borne in mind that the United States in 181 s oc- neighbors in . , ,. , I8l5 cupied much less of the North American continent than it does to-day. Alaska, with its valuable furs and fisheries, belonged to the Russian Empire. Besides her present Dominion ef Canada, Great Britain claimed the Oregon country, a huge region lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, extending from the northern boundary of the present state of California The Growth of a National Consciousness 237 indefinitely toward the Alaskan shore. The possessions of Spain reached in an unbroken line from Cape Horn to a point four hundred miles north of San Francisco. They comprised not only all of South America (except Brazil and Guiana), Central America, Mexico, and the choicest islands of the West Indies, but also the immense region west of the Mississippi valley, which now includes California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Spain also owned what is now the state of Florida (then called East Florida), and claimed a strip of land (called West Florida) extending along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to the mouth of the Mississippi. This gave her practical control of the whole shore of the Gulf. We disputed the claim of Spain to West Florida, however. 321. we dis- According to the interpretation of our State Department at ^oridT^ith Washington, this -territory formed part of the original French s P ain tract of Louisiana (1682-1763), and hence was included in the transfer from Spain to Napoleon in 1800, and in Napoleon s sale of Louisiana to the United States three years later. Spain, with better reason, maintained that the boundaries of the old French Louisiana had nothing to do with the transactions between Napoleon and the United States at the opening of the nineteenth century ; that she had received West Florida by the treaty of 1783, and that she had not parted with it since. We wanted the Florida strip along the Gulf of Mexico for 322. we many reasons. It was the refuge of Indians, runaway slaves, ^^liorida fugitives from justice, pirates, and robbers, who terrorized the October, i8 IO South and prevented the development of Georgia and the Mis sissippi territory. It offered in the fine harbors of Mobile and Pensacola an outlet for the commerce of the new cotton region. Besides, the Gulf of Mexico was the " natural boundary " of the United States on the south. President Madison, therefore, in October, 1810, ordered Governor Claiborne of the Orleans territory to take possession of West Florida as far as the Perdido River. Early the next year Congress by a secret act authorized 238 National versus Sectional Interests 323. Jack son s "con quest " of East Florida, 1817-1818 the President to occupy East Florida also. If the occupation of West Florida by the United States was of very doubtful legality, the attempted seizure of East Florida was downright robbery. Great Britain protested so strongly that Madison prudently dis avowed the acts of his agents in the latter province and with drew the American troops in 1813. But the Floridas continued to be a source of annoyance to the United States. They even furnished a base for England in the War of 1812. Spain was too weak to maintain her authority there and miserably failed to redeem her pledge in the treaty of SOUTH CAROLINA GULF OF Jackson in Florida 1795, to prevent the Indians of Florida from attacking citizens of the United States. Finally, the Seminole Indians grew so dangerous that President Monroe ordered General Andrew Jackson, the " hero of New Orleans," to pursue them even into Spanish territory (December, 1817). Jackson was a man who needed no second invitation for an Indian hunt. " Let it be signified to me through any channel," he wrote Monroe, " that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United- States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished." Jackson did not even wait for a reply to his letter. He swept across East Florida, reducing the Spanish strongholds of Gadsden, St. Marks, The Growth of a National Consciousness 239 and Pensacola, executed by court-martial two British subjects who were inciting the negroes and Indians to murder and pillage, and by the end of May, 1818, was on his way back to Tennessee, leaving Florida a conquered province. Jackson s campaign brought the Florida question to a crisis. 324. The administration at Washington was in a dilemma. If it indorsed his course, it would have to go further, and put the responsibility for war in Florida on the shoulders of Spain. On the other hand, if it should repudiate Jackson s course, it would strengthen the position of Spain in Florida and make it more difficult to acquire that desirable province. John C. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, was for censuring Jackson for exceeding his instructions ; but John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, persuaded the President to put on a bold front and make Jackson s campaign the basis for a final demand on Spain either to fulfill her promise to keep order in Florida or to turn the province over to the United States. " The President will neither inflict punishment nor pass censure on General Jackson for his conduct," he wrote to Minister Erving at Madrid in November, 1818. " We shall hear no apologies from Spanish governors of their inability to perform the solemn contracts of their country. The duty of the government to protect the persons and prop erty of our fellow citizens on the borders of the United States is imperative it must be discharged." But Spain was in no condition in 1818 to perform her " sol- 32"5. Spain emn contracts." Ten years earlier Napoleon Bonaparte had Sou th Amer- invaded her borders, overthrown her dynasty, and seated his ican co }~ J nies, 1807 brother Joseph on the throne of Madrid. This upheaval in the 1825 mother country had been the signal for the revolt of the Spanish colonies in South America, oppressed as they were by crushing taxes, commercial restrictions, and grasping governors. The res toration of the absolute Spanish king after Napoleon s down fall (1814) had only increased the fires of revolt in the colonies. The great patriot generals, San Martin and Simon Bolivar, wrested province after province Chile, Argentina, 240 National versus Sectional Interests Peru, Venezuela, New Granada (now Colombia) from the Spanish crown, and established those South American repub lics which for a century have maintained a troubled life of revolution and mutual warfare. 326. Spain Involved in all these difficulties, the Spanish court decided to Florida to abandon Florida to the United States. The treaty was signed states "reb- at Washington, February 22, 1819. The United States assumed ruaryaz, 1819 about $5,000,000 of claims of its citizens against Spain, for damages to our commerce in the Napoleonic wars, and in return received the whole of Florida. At the same time the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase territory was fixed by a line running from the Sabine River in a stairlike formation north and west to the forty-second parallel of latitude, and thence west to the Pacific Ocean. 1 327. our Meanwhile we were watching with great interest the progress south Ameri- of the revolution in the Spanish colonies of South America. As can affairs early as 1811 President Madison had called the attention of Congress to " the scenes developing among the great commu nities which occupy the southern portion of our hemisphere." During the years 1811-1817 tne United States maintained " consuls," who were really government spies, at Buenos Aires, Caracas, and other centers of the revolt. Henry Clay, the Speaker and leader of the House, tried to force President Mon roe into a hasty recognition of the South American republics. But the Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was more cau tious. He had little confidence that the new republics would be able to maintain their independence, and he furthermore feared that interference by the United States in the affairs of the " re bellious colonies " of South America would offend the Spanish court and so endanger the success of the negotiations for the acquisition of Florida. 1 The line ran from the mouth of the Sabine River north to the Red River ; thence west along the Red River to the one-hundredth meridian of west longi tude ; thence north to the Arkansas River ; thence west along the Arkansas to its source ; thence north to the forty-second parallel of latitude ; thence due west to the Pacific Ocean (see map, opposite p. 210). The Growth of a National Consciousness 241 However, in the year 1821 there occurred four events which 328. our determined the administration to change its policy in regard to the recognition of the South American republics. First, the final ratifications of the treaty of 1819 were signed, and Florida was May, 1822 ours ; secondly, the House, by a vote of 86 to 68, resolved to support the President as soon as he saw fit to recognize the independence of the South American states ; thirdly, the Czar of Russia issued a ukase (decree) forbidding the vessels of any other nation to approach within one hundred miles of the western coast of North America, above the fifty-first parallel of latitude, claimed by Russia as the southern boundary of her colony of Alaska ; and fourthly, the allied powers of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France, having pledged themselves by the " Holy Alliance " to the restoration of the power and the possessions of all the " legitimate thrones " which the Napoleonic wars had overthrown, began to listen to Spain s re quest to subdue revolts in Madrid and restore the rebellious colonies in South America. On May 4, 1822, President Monroe took the first step in the protection of the South American republics, by recognizing their independence ; and Congress immediately made provision for the dispatch of ministers to their capitals. Neither Great Britain nor the United States could view with 329. Great indifference the intervention of the allied powers of Europe to reduce the South American republics to submission to Spain. J in in warn ing the Holy These republics had naturally thrown off the commercial re- Alliance not strictions of Spain with her political authority. They had the new already, by 1822, built up a trade of $3,000,000 a year with re P ubllcs Great Britain, and their market was too valuable a one to lose. Our own government was distressed by the rumors that France would take Mexico, and Russia would seize California, with perhaps Chile and Peru to boot, as a reward for their part in crushing the rebellious governments. Accordingly the English premier, George Canning, suggested to Richard Rush, our minister in London, that the United States join Great Britain 242 National versus Sectional Interests 330. The United States acts alone 331. Analy sis of the Monroe Doctrine, December 2, 1823 in making a declaration to the allied powers to keep their hands off the new South American states. Monroe was anxious to act on Canning s suggestion, and the two ex-Presidents, Madison and the aged Jefferson, replied to his request for advice by letters of hearty approval. Secretary Adams declared we ought not to follow England s lead, trailing " like a cockboat to a British man-of-war," but rather assume full and sole responsibility ourselves for the protection of the republics on the American continent. He therefore wrote, and handed to Monroe to incorporate in his annual message to Congress of December 2, 1823, the famous statement of the policy of the United States toward the territory and govern ment of the rest of the American continent, which has ever since been celebrated as the Monroe Doctrine. The message declared that the continents of the Western Hemisphere were " henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers," this to pre vent the encroachments of Russia on the Pacific coast, and the designs of France on Mexico. Further, it announced the de termination of the United States neither to meddle with the European systems of government nor to disturb the existing possessions of European powers in the New World. " But," it continued, " we owe it to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend the principles of the Holy Alliance to any portion of this hemi sphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." In other words, the South American republics, whose independence we had, " on great considerations and on just principles, acknowledged," were no longer " existing possessions of Spain " ; and any at tempt to impose upon them the absolutism of the Spanish court by the powers of continental Europe would be " viewed as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." From the acknowledgment of the South American republics, then, in 1822, the United States advanced in 1823 to The Growth of a National Consciousness 243 the defense of their territory and of their republican form of government against European interference. The Monroe Doctrine has been one of the most popular 332. inter- political principles in our history. It goes back for its basal idea to George Washington s warning against " entangling alliances J with foreign nations," in his Farewell Address of 1796; and it history is upheld rigorously on the political platform and in the press whenever there is a question of settling a boundary or collect ing a debt in the Spanish-American states. Our statesmen have gradually stretched the doctrine far beyond its original declara tion of the protection of the territory and the government of the republics of Central and South America. It has even been invoked as a reason for annexing territory to the United States in order to prevent the seizure of the same territory by some European power. Some of our political experts believe that the logical result of the Monroe Doctrine will be the federation of the Latin states of Central and South America under the leader ship of the great republic of the north. REFERENCES The Era of Good Feeling : J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. IV, chaps, xxxiii, xxxvi ; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. Ill, chap, iv ; HENRY ADAMS, His tory of the United States in the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, Vol. IX; K. C. BABCOCK, The Rise of American Nationality (American Nation Series), chaps, xii-xv; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chap, i ; D. C. OILMAN, James Monroe (American Statesmen Series) ; W. W. WILLOUGHBY, The Siipreme Court of the United States (Johns Hopkins University Studies, Baltimore, 1890). The Monroe Doctrine : MACMASTER, Vol. V, chap, xli ; BURGESS, chaps, ii, v; BABCOCK, chap, xvii ; F. J. TURNER, The Rise of the New West (Am. Nation), chap, xii ; F. L. PAXSON, The Independence of the South American Republics; J. H. LATANE, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Spanish America; W. C. ox.Y),John Quincy Adams; his Connection with the Monroe Doctrine (American Historical Review, Vol. VII, pp. 676-696; Vol. VIII, pp. 28-52); W. F. REDDAWAY, The Monroe Doctrine, 244 National versus Sectional Interests TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Development of Canals and Roads : KATHERINE COM AN, In dustrial History of the United States, pp. 202-211 ; TURNER, pp. 67-95, 224-235; BABCOCK, pp. 243-258; MACMASTER, Vol. IV, pp. 381-429; E. E. SPARKS, The Expansion of the American People, pp. 264-269; R. T. STEVENSON, The Growth of the Nation, 1809-1837, pp. 145-174. 2. John Marshall and the Supreme Court : A. B. HART, The Formation of the Union, pp. 234-236; II. C. LODGE, Daniel Webster (American Statesmen Series), chap, iii ; A. B. MAGRUDER, John Marshall (Am. Statesmen), chap, x; BABCOCK, pp. 290-308; C. A. BEARD, Readings in American Government and Politics, Nos. 27, 112114, 118. 3. The Holy Alliance : A. B. HART, American History told by Contem poraries, Vol. Ill, No. 142; BURGESS, pp. 123-126; MACMASTER, Vol. V, pp. 30-41 ; C. A. FYFFE, History of Modern Europe, Vol. II, chap, i; M. E. G. DUFF, Studies in European Politics, chap. ii. 4. Modern Interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine : J. B. MOORE, Ameri can Diplomacy, pp. 152-167 ; also in Harper s Magazine, Vol. CIX, pp. 857 ff. ; A. B. HART, Fotindations of American Diplomacy, pp. 211-240; A. C. COOLIDGE, The United States as a World Power, pp. 95-110 ; J. H. LATANE, America as a World Power (American Nation Series), pp. 255-268. 5. American Literature a Century Ago : MACMASTER, Vol. V, pp. 268-306; ADAMS, Vol. IX, pp. 198-214; W. E. SIMONDS, Student His tory of American Literature, pp. 94146. CHAPTER IX SECTIONAL INTERESTS FACING WESTWARD Although many thousand pioneers had crossed the Alleghe- 333. nin nies to the rich valleys of the Ohio and the Tennessee before western de- the War of 1812, the supply of both men and capital was too meager to develop the resources of the whole eastern basin of the war of i8ia Mississippi. The Indians, instigated by England on the north and by Spain on the south, were a constant source of danger. Lack of roads was so serious a handicap that it was not profita ble to raise wheat far from the banks of navigable rivers. The barrier of the Alleghenies made transportation between the Ohio valley and the seaboard so expensive that the wagon driver got the lion s share both of the money for which the Western farmer sold his wheat in Virginia and of the money which he paid for his plow in Ohio. If the pioneer floated his cargo of wheat, pork, or tobacco down the Mississippi to New Orleans in a flatboat, it was more profitable to sell boat and all there and return home on horseback than to spend three months battling his way up against the current. But during the decade 1810-1820 these difficulties in the 334. Their , removal in way of the development of the West were rapidly removed, the decade William Henry Harrison by his victories over Tecumseh s l8ic> - 1820 braves at Tippecanoe Creek in Indiana territory (1811), and Andrew Jackson by his pacification of the Creeks and Seminoles in Florida (1813-1818), put an end to the danger from the Indians on our frontiers. In 1 8 1 1 the steamboat (which many years of experiment by Fitch and Fulton, on the Delaware, the Seine, and the Hudson, had brought to efficiency) made its first 245 National versus Sectional Interests ippearance on the Ohio River. Henceforth the journey from Louisville to New Orleans and back could be made inside of a month, and the products of the Gulf region could be brought to the Northwest by the return voyage. 335. Re- The interruption of our foreign commerce by embargo, non- ward d emfgra- intercourse, and war had sent thousands of families westward tion across the mountains, where better farm land could be bought from the government at two dollars an acre, with liberal credit, than could be had for ten times that price in cash on the Canal Boats crossing the Mountains seaboard. Moreover, a stream of immigrants of the hardy northern stocks of Europe began to pour into our country after the War of 1812, to swell the westward march to the farm lands of the Ohio valley. In the single year 1817, 22,000 Irish and Germans came over. A ceaseless procession passed along the Mohawk valley and over the mountain roads of Pennsylvania and Virginia. " The old America seems to be breaking up and moving westward," wrote an Englishman who migrated to Illinois in 1817. A gatekeeper on a Pennsylvania turnpike counted over 500 wagons with 3000 emigrants passing in a single month. Sectional Interests 247 At the same time the cotton planters of the South were mov- 336. Exten- ing from the Carolinas and Georgia into the fertile Mississippi ^ton fields territory which the campaigns of Andrew Jackson had freed totheMissis- from the terror of the savage. The invention of machinery in England for the spinning and weaving of cotton had increased the demand for that article beyond the power of the planters to satisfy, even with the hundredfold increase of production effected by Eli Whitney s invention of the cotton gin. How eagerly the planters turned to the virgin soil along the Gulf Picking and loading Cotton of Mexico may be seen from the following figures. In 1810 less than 5,000,000 pounds of cotton were grown west of the Alleghenies, out of a total crop of 80,000,000 pounds ; ten years later the new Western states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala bama) produced 60,000,000 pounds out of a total crop of 175,000,000 pounds ; and five years later still, these same states raised over 160,000,000 pounds, or about one half the entire crop of the country. With the attractions of cheap and fertile farm lands in the 337. Rapid Northwest and virgin cotton soil in the Southwest, the trans- fhe^newwest Allegheny country far outstripped the seaboard states in growth 248 Sectional Interests 249 of population. While the census of 1820 showed an increase of only 35 per cent in the New England States, and 92 per cent in the Middle Atlantic States, over the population at the begin ning of the nineteenth century, the western commonwealths of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee increased 320 per cent in the same period. Six new Western states were added to the Union in the decade following the outbreak of the second war with England: Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Missouri (1821), more than had been admitted since the formation of our government, and more than were to be admitted until the eve of the Civil War. The new West was rapidly coming to be a power to be reckoned with in national politics. By the apportionment of 1820, 47 of the 213 congressmen and 18 of the 48 senators came from beyond the Alleghenies, the land which a generation before was, in the language of Daniel Webster, " a fresh, untouched, unbounded, magnificent wilderness." The settlers of the new West had abundant courage but little 338. it calls capital. In order to connect their rapidly developing region id for rts* 1 with the Atlantic coast, that they might exchange their farm development products for the manufactures of the eastern factories and the imports from the Old World, great outlays of money for roads and canals were needed. The national government was asked to contribute to these improvements, which meant not the building up of one section of the country only, but the general diffusion of prosperity, the strengthening of a national senti ment, and the promise of a united people to resist foreign attack or domestic treachery. President Madison in his last annual message to Congress (December, 1816) urged that body to turn its particular attention to " effectuating a system of roads and canals such as would have the effect of drawing more closely together every part of our country." A few days later John C. Calhoun, an enthusiastic " expan- 339. cai- sionist " member from South Carolina, pushed a bill through Congress devoting to internal improvements the $1,500,000 2sO National versus Sectional Interests which the government was to receive as a bonus for the estab lishment of the second National Bank, as well as all the divi dends accruing to the government on its stock in the bank. Calhoun urged the need of good roads for transportation of our army and the movement of our commerce. " We are great, and rapidly (I was about to say, fearfully) growing," he cried ; " the extent of our country exposes us to the greatest of all calamities next to the loss of liberty, disunion. . . . Let us View of Cincinnati in 1825 bind the republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. . . . Let us conquer space." 340. Failure Calhoun s Bonus Bill was vetoed by President Madison on tionai policy, his last day of office (March 3, 1817). Not that Madison was 1825 opposed to spending the nation s money for improving the means of communication with the West (as his message of the previous December shows), but because he thought that the Constitution needed amending in order to give Congress this power. Madison s successor, Monroe (1817-1825), was also of the old generation of Virginia statesmen who had done so much Sectional Interests 251 of the work of framing our Constitution, and he too cautiously advocated an amendment empowering Congress to make the desired improvements. By the time a man of the new genera tion, and a champion of the " nationalized " Republican party, came to the presidential chair, in the person of John Quincy Adams (1825), the favorable moment for the public encourage ment of the development of the West was past. In vain did Adams seek to rouse Congress to the policy which Clay and Calhoun had advocated so heartily a decade before. The manufacturing North, the cotton-raising South, and the farm ing and wool-growing West had discovered that their interests were mutually antagonistic ; and each section was striving (as we shall see in the following pages) to secure legislation by Congress to safeguard its own interests. The " era of good feeling " was changing into an epoch of bitter sectional strife. THE FAVORITE SONS If we contrast the decade which preceded the announcement 341. con- of the Monroe Doctrine with the decade which followed it, this Decades remarkable fact stands out, that every single act and policy of the earlier period in support of nationalism the increase of the army and navy, the recharter of the Bank, the sale of public lands on liberal terms, the expenditure of money from the public treasury for internal improvements, the increased authority of the Supreme Court, the high tariff, and even the Monroe Doc trine itself became the subject of violent sectional contro versies in the later period. The rivalry of the sections first showed itself in the fight for 342. The the presidency in 1824. It was not a contest of parties ; for since oTth^East 1 the fall of the Federalists in 1816 the nationalized Republican South, and inr 6St party had stood without a rival in the field. Monroe s reelection in 1820 was practically unanimous. But in 1824 there was no single candidate acceptable to East, West, and South. Instead, there was a group of remarkably able statesmen who, in spite 252 National versus Sectional Interests of their own desire to cherish the broad national spirit of the second decade of the century, found themselves drawn year by year into the more exclusive service of their sections. 343. John New England was represented in this group by John Quincy Adams , Adams and Daniel Webster. The former was one of the best 1767-1848 trained statesmen in all our history. He was the son of the distinguished patriot and Federalist President, John Adams. As a boy of eleven he had accompanied his father on a diplo matic mission to Paris (1778), and during the next forty years had served his country in the capacity of secretary, minister, or special envoy at the courts of Russia, Prussia, the Nether lands, Sweden, France, and England. He had served as United States senator from Massachusetts for ten years, when President Monroe called him, in 1817, to the first place in his cabinet, a position which yv he filled with great success during the eight years of Monroe s administration. For John Quincy Adams all his cosmopolitan experi ence, Adams remained a New England Puritan, and preserved to the end of his career the noble austerities and repelling virtues of the Puritan, unswerving conscientiousness, unsparing self- judgment, unflagging industry, unbending dignity, unyielding devotion to duty. He rose before daylight, read his Bible with the regularity of an orthodox clergyman, and in his closely written diary of a dozen volumes recorded the affairs of his soul as faithfully as the affairs of state. webste? niel Daniel Webster, fifteen years Adams s junior, had by no 1782-1852 means reached the latter s level as a statesman at the close of Monroe s administration. He had neither been a member of the Sectional Interests 253 cabinet nor filled a diplomatic post. The son of a sturdy New Hampshire farmer, he had secured a college education at Dart mouth, at some sacrifice to his family, and had amply justified their faith in his promise by a brilliant legal career. In 1813 he had been sent to Washington as congressman from a New Hampshire district. A few years later he moved his law office to Boston, and from 1823 to the middle of the century con tinued almost uninterruptedly to represent the people of Mas sachusetts in the national House and Senate. By his famous plea in the Dartmouth College case, his Plymouth oration on the two-hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims (1820), and his speeches in Congress, he had already won a national reputation as an orator before the close of Monroe s administration. When it was known that Webster was to speak, the gallery and floor of the Senate chamber would be crowded with a throng eager to sit or stand for hours under the spell of his sonorous and majestic voice. Like Adams, Webster inher ited and appreciated New England s traditions of learning, and took just pride in the contribution of its Puritan stock to the mental and moral standards of our country ; but he was not a Puritan in temper and habits, like Adams, who wrote himself down in his diary as " a man of cold, austere, and forbidding manners." When Webster erred it was rather on the side of conviviality than of austerity. The Middle Atlantic region had two or three statesmen of 345. Albert first rank, besides scores of politicians who were contending f^f^ for political influence. Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, a Swiss by birth, had been Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison (1801-1813), had been with Adams and Clay on the commission which negotiated the peace with England in 1814, and was serving as minister to France when he was per suaded to come home to take part in the campaign of 1824. Rufus King, senator from New York, had, in his younger 346. Rufus days, been one of the Massachusetts delegates to the Constitu- ^ g> I755 ~ tional Convention of 1787. Three times since 1800 he had 254 National versus Sectional Interests been candidate for President or Vice President on the Federalist ticket. At the time of Monroe s presidency he was one of the most eloquent antislavery orators in Congress. 347. Dewitt De Witt Clinton had been governor of New York for nine xtfchSaB terms, and in 1812, as candidate of the Federalist party, he had seriously contested Madison s reelection. His monument is the great Erie Canal (opened in 1825), which runs through the Mohawk valley and, connecting with the Hudson, unites the waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Atlantic Ocean. But none of these men was an " available " candidate in 1824. Gallatin was a nationalized foreigner, King had been standard bearer of the Federalists in their humiliating defeat of 1816, and Clinton, besides the handicap of his old Federalist connec tions, was too much engrossed in the strife of factions in New York state to emerge as a national figure. 348. William Among the brilliant group of orators and statesmen from the i77a-z834 Or< South, William H. Crawford of Georgia and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina stood preeminent. Crawford had a powerful mind in a powerful body. He entered the United States Sen ate in 1807, at the age of thirty-five, was made minister to France in 1813, and was in the cabinet continuously as Secre tary of War and of the Treasury from 1815 to 1825. A most accomplished politician, he came very near defeating Monroe for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1816, despite the latter s hearty support by Madison. Crawford was retained by Monroe as the head of the Treasury Department, where he won from so high an authority as Gallatin the praise of having " a most correct judgment and inflexible integrity." 349. john c. John C. Calhoun probably has even to-day but one rival in 1782-1850 the hearts of Southern patriots, the gallant warrior-gentleman, Robert E. Lee. Calhoun, just past thirty, was one of the bril liant group of "new men" in the Twelfth Congress, who in their national enthusiasm forced Madison to declare war on Eng land in 1812, and followed the successful conclusion of the war with the liberal legislation on army, bank, tariff, and internal John C. Calhoun 2 55 256 National versiis Sectional Interests improvements which we have studied in the preceding chapter. Monroe offered Calhoun the War portfolio in 1817, and, like Adams and Crawford, the South Carolinian remained in the cabinet during both of Monroe s terms. Some of Calhoun s contemporaries feared that " the lightning glances of his mind " and his passion for national expansion sometimes disturbed his solid judgment in these early years ; but Adams, who sat for eight years at the same council board with him, described Calhoun in his diary as " fair and candid, of clear and quick understanding, cool self-possession, enlarged philosophical views, and ardent patriotism." 350. Thomas The West boasted of three men of national reputation in i783-i858 n> Benton, Clay, and Jackson, all of whom had emigrated from the South Atlantic States. Thomas Hart Benton, born in North Carolina in 1782, had gone west in early life to help build up the commonwealth of Tennessee ; and, following the impulse of the pioneer, had continued farther to the trans-Mississippi frontier. In 1821 he was sent by the new state of Missouri to the Senate, where he continued for thirty years to plead the cause of westward expansion with an almost savage enthusi asm. He denounced the " surrender of Texas " 1 to Spain in the treaty of 1819 with all the zeal of an ancient prophet, and foretold the day when the valley of the Columbia River should be the granary of China and Japan. 351. Henry The name of Henry Clay has already appeared frequently 1852 on these pages, for no account of the War of 1812 and the sys tem of national development which followed could be written without giving Clay the most conspicuous place. He was a born leader of men, adapting his genial personality to the humblest and roughest frontiersman without a sign of conde scension, and meeting the lofty demeanor of an Adams with an easy charm of manner. When still a young law student of 1 When the boundary treaty of 1819 was concluded (see p. 240) some of our statesmen claimed, but without right, that Texas, being a part of the Louisiana Purchase territory, was " sacrificed " or surrendered " to Spain. HENRY CLAY Courtesy of the Long Island Historical Society Sectional Interests 257 nineteen Clay had migrated from Virginia, in 1796, to the new state of Kentucky, where his great gifts of leadership and mar velous oratory won for him an election to the United States Senate before the legal age of thirty years. In 1 8 1 1 he entered the House, and as Speaker of the Twelfth Congress began a career of leadership in American politics which was to extend over four decades to his death in 1852. If Webster s voice was the most convincing that ever sounded in the halls of Congress, Henry Clay s was the most winning. He spoke to the hearts of men. He was not merely the " choice " of his supporters ; he was their idol. And when he was defeated for the high office of President, it is said men wept like children. Finally, in Andrew Jackson of Tennessee the Southwest had 352. Andrew a hero of the Simon-pure American democracy. Jackson was 1757-1845 born of Scotch-Irish parentage in the western uplands on the border of the Carolinas in 1767. He joined the tide of emi gration to Tennessee, where his energy, pluck, and hard sense gained for him a foremost place in local politics, while his prowess as an Indian fighter won him a generalship in the War of 1812. The victory of New Orleans (1815) made Jackson the most conspicuous soldier of the republic, and the " conquest of Florida " in the Seminole War, three years later, brought him before the cabinet at Washington and the court of Madrid as the decisive factor in the long negotiations over the Florida territory. Jackson was a man of action, not words. His bitter rival, Henry Clay, never tired of calling him a mere " military chieftain." Away back in Washington s administra tion Jackson had entered Congress from the new state of Tennessee (1796) in his backwoodsman s dress, "a tall, lank, uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of hair hanging over his face, and a cue down his back tied in an eelskin." Jefferson, who was president of the Senate when Jackson was a member of that body, in 1797-1798, said that he had often seen this violent member from Tennessee struggling in vain to speak on the floor, his voice completely choked by rage. But 258 National versus Sectional Interests Jackson left the halls of Congress in 1798, not to return for a full quarter of a century, and then crowned with the laurels of his great victories and already the choice of the legislature of his state for President 353. Rivalry Four of these " favorite sons " of the various sections of voritesons" the country were rivals for the presidency in 1824, General a" J ackson > Henry Clay, and Monroe s cabinet officers Adams and Crawford. During the whole of Monroe s second term these men w r ere laying their plans to gain the coveted honor. In those days the great national nominating conventions which now meet in the early summer of each presidential year, to select the standard bearers of the party, were unknown. The custom since John Adams s day had been for the members of each party in Congress to assemble in a caucus (or conference) and pick out their candidates for President and Vice President. But the increasing democratic sentiment of the country, influ enced largely by the rise of the new West, had made this ex clusive method of choosing presidential candidates unpopular. The people at large felt that they should have a voice in the selection as well as in the election of a President. Therefore, although Crawford secured the support of the congressional caucus, the candidates of the other sections were enthusiasti cally nominated by state legislatures and mass meetings. 354. NO pop- It was the first popular presidential campaign in our history, ular choice for President abounding in personalities, cartoons, emblems, banners, songs, speeches, and dinners. " Old Hickory " clubs were formed for Jackson, and men wore black silk vests with his portrait stamped upon them. The support of the New England States was pledged to Adams ; Tennessee, Alabama, and Pennsylvania declared for Jackson; and Clay secured the legislatures of Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Louisiana. In New York there was a battle royal, resulting in the distribution of the 36 elec toral votes of the state among the four candidates. When the vote was formally counted it was found that Jackson had 99 votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. Sectional In terests 259 As no candidate had received the majority (more than half) 355. Adams of the electoral votes required by the Constitution for the choice House* by th of a President, the House of Representatives had to select from the three highest names on the list (Twelfth Amendment). Clay, being out of the race, decided quite naturally to throw his influ ence on the side of Adams, who was not, like Jackson, his rival in the West, and whose political views were much closer to his own on such questions as internal improvements, the tariff, the Bank, and other points of the " American System," than were those of the " military chieftain " Jackson. Adams was chosen by the House, and immediately offered Clay the first place in his cabinet. The Jackson supporters were furious. The " will of the peo- 356. Jackson pie " had been defeated, they said. The House was morally S^ 8 ^, bound, they claimed, to choose the man who had the greatest campaign" number of electoral and popular votes. They declared that the aristocratic Adams and Henry Clay, " the Judas of the West," had entered into a " corrupt bargain " to keep the old hero of New Orleans out of the honors which the nation had clearly voted him. Jackson appealed from Congress to the people. He resigned his seat in the Senate, and with an able corps of managers in every section of the country began a four years campaign against Adams, Clay, and the whole " dynasty of sec retaries," to restore the government of the American republic to the ideals of its founders and to servants of the people s choice. AN ERA OF HARD FEELINGS " Less possessed of your confidence than any of my prede- 357. Thedif- cessors, I am deeply conscious that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence." So wrote John Quincy Adams Adams in his first annual message to Congress, in December, 1825. But in spite of this gracious invitation to Congress to meet him halfway in the harmonious conduct of the govern ment, Adams was, destined to a term of bitter strife and cha grin. The charge that he had won the presidency by means of 260 National versus Sectional Interests a " corrupt bargain " with Henry Clay was repeated by Jackson, and used by shrewd Jackson managers in every state to culti vate opposition to the administration. More than a third of the senators voted against the confirmation of Clay as Secretary of State ; and John C. Calhoun (who had been overwhelm ingly elected Vice President), in his capacity of president of the Senate, appointed committees hostile to Adams s policy, and refused to call to order members who raved against the Presi dent in almost scurrilous language. The administration party elected its Speaker of the House by a margin of only five votes. 358. The The reason why one of the most upright and patriotic of sectional sen- our Presidents found himself antagonized and thwarted at every turn in his administration was simply this : Adams attempted to preserve the broad national idea at a time when the sections were growing keenly conscious of their conflicting interests. With our present rapid means of transportation and communi cation by the railroad, the telegraph, and the telephone ; with our tremendous interstate commerce binding section to section ; with our network of banks and brokerage houses maintaining financial equilibrium between the different parts of our country, we find it hard to realize the isolation and the consequent an tagonism of the various geographical sections in the early and middle years of the nineteenth century. The wonder really is that our country held together as well as it did, and not that it tended to separate into sections. For in spite of the temporary unifying effect of the second war with Great Britain, it was not until the crisis of the great Civil War that the United States became an assured Union. 359. The in- We shall better appreciate the United States of 1821; if we fluence of New England think of it as a huge geographical framework containing several distinct communities with widely differing social and industrial interests. New England, with its two full centuries of Puritan history behind it, though at last outgrowing its religious bigotry, was still a very conservative region socially and politically. It had been the last stronghold of Federalism, which stood, in Sectional Interests 261 John Adams s phrase, for government by " the rich, the well born, and the able." It had never made the ballot common or office cheap. As its farming population was attracted westward to the rich lands of the Ohio valley, 1 power was even more con solidated in the hands of the rich merchant and manufacturing classes on the seaboard. New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania, without sharing the religious prejudices of New England, wefe generally allied with that region in their industrial and mercantile interests. To New England s aristocracy of merchants the South opposed 360. The an aristocracy of planters. The cultivation of cotton, increasing aristocracy as we have seen at a marvelous rate in the early years of the in the South nineteenth century, was rapidly fixing on the South an institu tion which was fraught with the gravest consequences for our country s history, the institution of negro slavery. We shall discuss the political and ethical consequences of slavery in later chapters. Here we note simply the economic fact that the in crease of negro slave labor in the South made free white labor impracticable, and with it shut out the possibility of the develop ment of manufactures, which, since the second war with Eng land, had been thriving in the Northern states. A third distinct section of our country, growing every year 361. The more conscious of its peculiar temper and its peculiar needs, was munity of The the West. To the merchant aristocracy of the East and the West planter aristocracy of the South, the West opposed the rugged democracy of a pioneer community. Men were scarce in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Mississippi territory in the early days, and every man counted. The artificial distinc tions of name and education weighed but little compared with the natural distinctions of brawn and wit. The pioneer was rough and elemental, hardy and self-reliant. He made his way with knife and gun. He usually drank hard and talked loudly. 1 The influence of New England on the West may be seen in the fact that in 1830 thirty-one members of Congress were natives of Connecticut, though the state itself sent but five members. 262 National versus Sectional Interests A convention at Knoxville for framing the constitution of Ten nessee adopted the rule that any man who digressed from the discussion " in order to fall upon the person of another mem ber " should be suppressed by the chair. Justice was summary. The feud and the duel often replaced the tedious processes of the courts. The test of a man was what he could do, not how much he knew. If he could manage a wild horse, drive an ax deep, and repel an Indian raid, he was the right kind of Ameri can ; and his vote and opinion were worth as much in this democratic country as those of any merchant in Boston. 362. The The people of the Atlantic seaboard had all inherited Euro- racy pean ideas of rank. They had, to be sure, developed a political democracy, but not a social one. They believed in a govern ment for the people and perhaps 0/"the people but not by the people. In Washington s day only some 120,000 out of a popu lation of nearly 4,000,000 had the right to vote, and religious or property qualifications were attached to the offices of gov ernment in almost all the states. But the new states of the . West were all for manhood suffrage, without regard to birth, profession, or wealth. The time had now come when these states, with their immense growth in population, were conscious of their influence over the national government. By 1825 the states west of the Alleghenies sent 47 members to a House of 213, and elected 18 out of 48 United States senators. "It is true," cried Benton in one of his powerful pleas for the inter ests of the Mississippi Valley, " that Western men had some share in the destinies of this republic." 363. The in- The events of the period which we are studying can be evitable con flict between understood only in the light of this sectional rivalry. The up- 8ect?onai an< ri g nt Adams was subjected to petty opposition all through his term because he was unable to see or unwilling to encourage such rivalry. While his opponents were busy building up their party machine, Adams steadily refused to use his high position for such a purpose. He would not remove a man from office for voting against the administration ; he would not appoint a Sectional Interests 263 man to office as a reward for services to the party. He declined to exchange the responsibilities of the statesman for the in trigues of the politician. He held to the policy of a strong national government controlling the interests of all parts of the country, just at the moment when these various parts were becoming convinced that in order to secure their interests they must take the direction of affairs into their own hands, or at least have some effective check on the central government. The affair of the Panama Congress is an excellent illustration 364. The of the frustration of the national ideas of Adams and Clay by ^sTJiSas) 11 a sectional interest. The newly liberated republics of Mexico, reveals sec- tional jeal- Colombia, and Central America, whose independence the United ousy States had guaranteed in the Monroe Doctrine, decided to hold a congress on the Isthmus of Panama for the purpose of forming a league to oppose the aggressions of Spain or any other European nation. A courteous invitation was sent to the United States in the autumn of 1825 to participate in this con gress, and Adams and Clay, both ardent nationalists and expan sionists, were in favor of accepting. But the slaveholding states of the South saw in the congress a grave danger. The revolt of the Spanish colonies had been accompanied by a movement in favor of slave emancipation. If Cuba and Porto Rico were added to the new group of republics, it would mean the libera tion of the slaves of those islands. If Haiti, already a free negro republic, were admitted to the congress, it would sanction the liberation of the slave, and we should be logically forced to welcome the ministers of the negro republic to our country. The Southern orators in Congress were grimly determined 365. Fear of that no such thing should happen. " The peace of eleven states f of this Union," said one, "will not permit black consuls and Soutl1 ambassadors to establish themselves in our cities and parade through our country, and give their fellow blacks in the United States proof in hand of the honors which await them for a like successful insurrection on their part." After a long and bitter debate the names of the two envoys whom Adams had 26 4 National versus Sectional Interests 366. Failure of the" Amer ican policy " of internal improvements at national expense 367. The state of Georgia suc cessfully defies the ad ministration appointed to represent us at the Panama Congress were con firmed in the Senate by the close vote of 24 to 19. But it was a fruitless victory for Adams and Clay. One of the envoys died on the way to Panama, and the other reached his destination only to find the congress adjourned. The Adams-Clay policy in regard to internal improvements at national expense met the same sectional opposition. The President praised the spirit of New York state in complet ing the Erie Canal (1825), and tried to stimulate Congress by this example to the " accomplishment of works important to the whole country, to which neither the au thority nor the resources of any one state could be adequate." But the tide of opinion was run ning strongly against him. The West replied, Let the government give us the lands which are now being bought up by Eastern speculators, and we will take care of our The Cession of Indian Lands in Georgia own development. And the South said, Let the government re duce the tariff duties which are enriching the Northern merchants at our expense, and it will not have so much money to spend " in charity " on roads and canals. Even a single state defied the national policy of the adminis tration. Georgia had for several years been hindered in its de velopment by the presence of the large and powerful nations of Creek and Cherokee Indians on its fertile soil. The United States had promised to remove these Indians as early as 1802, but they were still there when Adams became President in 1825. Clay negotiated a treaty with the Indians, giving them the occu pancy of the land till 1827. But Governor Troup of Georgia Sectional Interests 265 had already begun to survey the lands as state property. Adams warned the governor against interfering with " the faith of the nation" toward the Indians; but Troup replied that Georgia was " sovereign on her own soil," and warned the Secretary of War that he would " resist by force the first act of hostility on the part of the United States, the unblushing ally of the savages." The national government had been petitioned, reprimanded, and denounced before. There had been threats on the part of the states to nullify its laws and even to secede from its jurisdiction. But never till now had a state dared to defy the government at Washington as a " public enemy." To Adams s chagrin the Senate refused to support him in forcing Georgia to obedience, and Governor Troup proceeded with his surveys. These examples of the Panama fiasco, the failure of the 368. The policy of internal improvements, and the successful defiance of the government by the state of Georgia show how rapidly sec- ara tes into two wings tional interests were replacing the national enthusiasm of the two previous administrations. There was as yet no new party formed, but the two wings of the Republican party drew so far apart that new names became necessary to denote them. The supporters of the policy of Adams and Clay were called Na tional-Republicans ; and the opposition forces, led by Jackson, Calhoun, and Crawford, revived the original party name of Democratic-Republicans. In the next chapter we shall see how these two factions of the Republican party developed into the two new parties of Whigs and Democrats, the former still sup porting the national ideas of Adams, Clay, and Webster ; the latter inclining more and more to the theory of " states rights " and the strict limitation of the national government to the pow ers specified in the Constitution. The failure of the National-Republican policy of government 369. Signifl aid for improvements in transportation is seen in its true signifi- cance when we remember that it was iust at this epoch that the national policy great railway systems of our country were begun. The Mo hawk and Hudson Railway (parent of the New York Central) 266 National versus Sectional Interests was started in 1825, the Boston and Albany and the Pennsyl vania in 1827, and the Baltimore and Ohio in 1828. These rail ways soon superseded the canals as routes of transportation, and have now grown into several vast systems of trunk lines and branches, with nearly 250,000 miles of track, enough to circle the earth ten times. They are owned and managed by private corporations, chartered by the state governments. The Pennsylvania system, for example, has between thirty and forty charters granted by a dozen states. Who can calculate the effect on the economic and political history of our country if the construction and management of railways had been adopted as part of the national government s business in John Quincy Adams s administration, and if Congress now had the same control over the steel lines of land transportation that it has over the rivers and harbors of the United States ! 370. The A newspaper editor called on Adams one day to expostulate Andrew jack- w ^ tn hi m ^ or allowing men to continue to serve in the customs son, 1828 anc j p OS t-office departments who were hostile to the administra tion. When he heard the President s final reiteration of his principle not to turn out of office any efficient servant on the ground of his political opinions, he bowed politely and assured the President that the result of his policy would be that he himself would be turned out of office as soon as his term was over. The editor s prophecy proved correct. Adams was beaten by Jackson in 1828 by the decisive majority of 178 votes to 83 in the electoral college, carrying only New England and a part of the Middle Atlantic States. Jackson s victory was hailed as the triumph of democratic principles and an assertion of " the people s right to govern themselves." In place of the trained statesman and diplomat the people called to the highest office in the land a frontiersman and soldier, a man uncontrolled in his passions, inflexible in his prejudices, hasty and erratic in his opinions, tenacious of his authority ; a man who often be lieved that he was right with such intensity that he thought all who differed from him must be either fools or knaves. Sectional Interests 267 Adams retired willingly from the office in which he had been 371. Presi- continually harassed for four years. He afterwards entered the i e e g acy House of Representatives, where he served his country nobly for almost a quarter of a century, winning such reputation by his antislavery speeches that he was called " the old man elo quent " of the House In leaving the presidency he bequeathed to Jackson, as a result of the " era of hard feelings," a most dif ficult problem and a most dangerous situation. The state of South Carolina was on the verge of revolt against the national government over the question of the tariff. To the explanation of this situation we must now turn. THE " TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS " The tariff is a list of taxes levied by Congress on goods im- 372. The ported into this country. The money thus collected is called revenue 1 customs duties. Foreign goods can be lawfully landed only at those ports, called " ports of entry," where customs officers of the United States are stationed to collect the duties according to the tariff rates. From the very beginning of its existence the United States has employed this method of raising a large part of the revenue necessary to pay its expenses. In the year 1908, for example, our imports amounted to the immense sum of $1,180,000,000. Over half this amount was in dutiable goods ($657,000,000), and, as the tariff rates averaged over 45 per cent, some $290,000,000 were collected by the government from this source. But besides providing an income for the government, the 373. The tariff has another function quite as important. When levied upon imported goods which compete with those raised or manu factured in our own country, it enables the American producer to charge a higher price .for his commodity. For example, a high rate of duty is levied on woolens imported from England. The American manufacturer of woolens, then, can fix his price at the level of the English price, plus the cost of transportation from 268 National versus Sectional Interests England, plus the duty. In fact, some industries in our country, like the iron and steel manufactures, are so highly "pro tected " by the tariff that they can and do sell their products to foreign nations at a lower price than they sell them at home. 374. con- No subject has been of more constant interest to our legisla- flicting views -11 i on the tariff tors than the tariff. Scarcely a ten-year period has passed since the foundation of our national government without the introduc tion of a new tariff bill into Congress. One party has main tained that a tariff should be laid for the sake of a revenue only, and largely on goods (like silks, coffee, rubber, spices) which are not produced in America, and hence cannot enrich the Ameri can manufacturer by enabling him to charge high prices. The other party has stood for a " protective tariff " levied on im ports (like cottons, woolens, glass, iron, leather) which do come into competition with American manufactures. The revenue-tariff men claim that the Constitution nowhere gives Congress the right to show favor to certain industries in this country by taxing their foreign competitors ; while the protective-tariff men argue that as guardian of the general welfare of the country Congress has the duty of helping to build up our " infant industries " and of protecting the American workingman from the competition of the poorly paid labor of Europe. The arguments on both sides are many and varied. The revenue theory appeals more gen erally to the trained economic student, but the protective theory has always been more popular because it has been made to appear more patriotic. " American goods for Americans," " the encouragement of our infant industries," " the protection of American labor," " the full dinner pail," are phrases which have commended the protective tariff to the voters of this country. 375. Econom- We have already noticed (p. 190) the arguments of Alexan- due to foreign der Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury, for establish- in S the moderate tariff of less than 10 per cent in 1791. The United States was then a country of farmers and merchants, and our shipping increased tremendously when the long war between England and the French Republic (1793-1802) threw Sectional Interests 269 the ocean trade into the hands of neutrals. But when we our selves were drawn into the struggle between Napoleon and Great Britain, and our shipping was destroyed by embargoes, nonintercourse, and war (1807-1815), the merchants of the country began to put their capital into manufactures. Cotton, woolen, and paper mills, tanneries, furniture factories, iron forges, glass and pottery works sprang up. At the close of the war with England (1815) there was close to $100,000,000 invested in manufacturing industries in this country, giving employment to 200,000 workers. Just at the same moment the return of universal peace in 376. British Europe found Great Britain with an immense amount of manu- in^anufac 1 - factured goods on her hands, which had accumulated while the tures ports of the Continent were closed to her commerce by Napo leon s decrees (p. 213). These goods Great Britain proceeded to " dump " on the United States at low prices, to glut our markets, and, as Lord Brougham put it, " to stifle in the cra dle those rising manufactures in the United States which the war had forced into existence." In the single year of 1816, $18,000,000 worth of goods were sent over to this country. Hatred of England and patriotic pride in our own new indus- 377. The tries, confidence in our destiny as a great manufacturing people, tanff of lSl6 the self-interest of the manufacturers, and the conviction that " to be independent for the comforts of life," as Thomas Jeffer son said, " we must fabricate them ourselves, putting manufac tures by the side of agriculture," all combined to cause the passage in 1816 of a tariff bill which not only continued the high duties levied for the extraordinary war expenses in 1812, but even added certain protective duties, raising the general tariff average from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. All sections of our country contributed to the passage of this bill (see map, p. 272), for, although less than 5 per cent of the manufactures of the country were in the states south of Virginia in 1816, nevertheless those states hoped to build up mills and factories like those in the North. 2/o National versus Sectional Interests 378. The But the tariff of 1816 did not stop the flood of importations tariffof V i e 8 34 from England, and the manufacturers in the Northern states begged Congress to save them from ruin by laying still higher protective duties. Tariff bills increasing the rates were intro duced into the House in 1820, 1821, and 1823, but it was not till 1824 that a new tariff passed the House by the narrow majority of 107 to 102 votes, and the Senate by almost as slim a margin. The tariff of 1824 raised the average duty from 20 per cent to 36 per cent. Since our revenues from the tariff of 1816 were more than ample for running the government, and a large surplus was piling up in the treasury, this additional tariff of 1824 was purely " protective." And more than that, it was purely sectional, only three votes being cast for it south of the Potomac and Cumberland rivers. 379. Anti- For the South had discovered in the years since 1816 that it ment develops was not destined to become a manufacturing region and thus to m the south s ] iare m t h e benefits of a protective tariff. The extension of the cotton area to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and the im mense leap in cotton exportation from 60,000,000 pounds in 1816 to 200,000,000 pounds in 1824, made it certain that the South would continue to devote itself to the production of this agricultural staple by slave labor. Without manufac tures, then, or hope of manufactures, the South saw itself taxed by the tariff to support the mills and factories of the North. The price of raw cotton was constantly falling, owing to the great increase of the crop, and the cost of manufac tured goods for which the South exchanged its cotton was constantly rising, owing to the increasing tariff. That the tariff made wages high was no comfort for the Southern planter, because he did not pay wages. He had to buy food and clothing for his slaves, and the tariff raised the price of these necessities so high that John Randolph wittily said that unless the rates were lowered in a short time, instead of the masters advertising for fugitive slaves, the South would see the slaves searching for their fugitive masters. Sectional Interests 271 Under this economic pressure the South, in spite of its votes 380. The for the tariff of 1816, now challenged the right of Congress to tests against levy a protective tariff at all. The Constitution gave Congress Jj | tarifl of the right to raise a revenue, the objectors said, but not to levy a tax on the industries of one part of the country to protect the industries of another part. The North, with its system of free labor and small farms, inviting industry at home and immigration from abroad, was rapidly outgrowing the South in population. Hence its majority was constantly increasing in the House of Representatives. If the Northern majority in Congress were to be allowed to pass measure after measure for the benefit of their own section, the South would be " reduced to the condi tion of a subject province." The contest entered an acute stage when a still higher pro- 381. Higher tective tariff was demanded by the Northern woolen and iron manufacturers in 1827, and the demand was supported by a mandedby the North, protectionist congress held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the 1827 following summer. The South was violent in protest. " Have you calculated," said a memorial to Congress for the Charles ton Chamber of Commerce, " how far the patience of the South exceeds their indignation, and at what precise point resistance may begin and submission end ? " " Let New Eng land beware how she imitates the Old England ! " was the ominous toast given by C. C. Pinckney at a Southern banquet ; while Thomas Cooper, president of South Carolina College, de clared in a fiery speech that when the " Massachusetts lords of the spinning jenny and peers of the loom " presumed by virtue of their majority in Congress to tax the South, it was " high time to calculate the value of the Union." The Southerners were not strong enough to keep a new high 332. The tariff bill out of Congress in 1828, but they resorted to a shrewd ^mina* trick to defeat it. Instead of seeking to lower the tariff rates tions," 1828 proposed, they joined with the Western farmers in greatly in creasing them. A presidential election was approaching, and the South appealed to the large anti-Adams sentiment to frame 2/2 National versus Sectional Interests a tariff bill so preposterous that New England would reject it, and so bring dishonor and defeat upon Adams s cause. For example, New England wanted a high duty on manufactured woolens to exclude English goods, but at the same time it wanted cheap raw wool for its factories. It wanted a high duty on cordage to protect its shipbuilding industries, but it wanted cheap raw hemp for its ropewalks. It wanted a high duty on iron manufactures, but cheap pig iron for its forges. All New 1816 1828 The Vote on the Tariff Bills of 1816 and 1828 England s demands for protection to manufactures were granted in the bill, but their benefits were largely neutralized by the addition of high duties on raw wool to please the sheep raisers of Ohio, on hemp to satisfy the farmers of Kentucky, and on pig iron to conciliate the miners of Pennsylvania. In spite of this shrewd plan of the South to match the West against New Eng land, and thus to please nobody by pleasing everybody, the fan tastic bill passed the House by a vote of 105 to 94, the Senate by a vote of 26 to 21, and became a law by President Adams s signature (May 19, 1828). Sectional Interests 273 The " Tariff of Abominations," as this bill was called, was 383. Ex- one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation ever passed by JatToVfn tie Congress. It was South a low political job, which, as Randolph said, " had to do with no manufac tures except the manufacture of a President." It was not even (like the bill of 1824) the honest expression of a section of the country. The South was furious at the failure to defeat high tariff. Flags were flown at half-mast in Charleston. Ora tors advised boy cotting all trade with the protected states, and even ad vocated the resig nation of the Southern members from Congress. Senator Hayne of South Carolina wrote to Jackson that nineteen twentieths of the men of his state were convinced that the protective tariff would ruin the South and destroy the Union. " We are insulted, proscribed, and put to the ban," EXPOSITION REPORTED BY THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE or THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ON THE TARIFF; READ AND ORDERED TO BE PRINTED, Dec. 19fA, 1828. COLUMBIA, 9. C. t>. 1. (IMS, STATt PRUTER. Facsimile of the Title-page of Calhoun s " Exposition and Protest " 274 National versus Sectional Interests cried Randolph ; if "we do not act, we are bastard sons of the fathers who achieved the Revolution ! " North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi joined in the protest. 384. cai- Vice President Calhoun, on his return from Washington to poStion" ^i8a8 Charleston, wrote and presented to the legislature of his state the famous attack on the " Tariff of Abominations," called the " Exposition and Protest." Calhoun maintained, first, that the tariff act of 1828 was unconstitutional, since Congress had the power to lay taxes only for a revenue ; secondly, that the act was sectional, since by it the South, which had but one third of the votes in the House (76 out of 213), paid over two thirds of the customs duties ; and thirdly, that, as our government was an agreement or compact between the states, the national government created by that compact could not be superior to the states in sovereignty, and could not be itself the judge of what its proper powers were. The states, which had bestowed on Congress its powers, were the ultimate judges of whether or not Congress was overstepping those powers. And hence, at any time, a state might challenge an act of Congress and appeal to its sister states for the verdict. If three fourths of the states of the Union sided with the protesting state, the act of Con gress in question should be null and void ; for, as the vote of three fourths of the states had put the Constitution into force, so the same authority should defend the Constitution from the encroachment of Congress and the Supreme Court. 385. Armed The presidential election of 1828 had taken place a few tariff ques- weeks before Calhoun presented his " Exposition," and Andrew tion, 1829 Jackson had been overwhelmingly chosen to succeed Adams. Hoping that the election of a Southerner and slaveholder, an ardent champion of " the people s rights," and a bitter enemy of the Adams-Clay policy, would bring relief on the tariff ques tion, Calhoun advised South Carolina to wait, before taking any radical step, to see what Jackson s first Congress would do. So the commercial North and the agricultural South stood facing each other in hostile truce, while " the people " invaded Sectional Interests 275 the 9 White House on inauguration day, standing with muddy cowhide boots on the damask-covered chairs, spilling orange punch on the carpets, and almost suffocating the old " Hero of New Orleans " in the press to shake his hand and declare that his inauguration was the inauguration of the rule of American democracy pure and undefiled, REFERENCES Facing Westward : J. B. MACM ASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. IV, chap, xxxiii ; E. E. SPARKS, Expansion of the American People, chaps, xii, xiii, xx, xxii, xxiii ; F. J. TURNER, Rise of the New West (American Nation Series), chaps, vi, vii, xvii; ELLEN SEMPLE, American History and its Geographical Conditions, chaps, ix, xiii ; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. Ill, chap, iv; HIGGINSON and MACDONALD, History of the United States, chap, xvii ; E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, chaps, xiii, xiv. The Favorite Sons : MACMASTER, Vol. V, chap, xiii ; E. E. SPARKS, The Men who made the Nation, chaps, viii-x ; TURNER, chaps, xi, xv ; also The Frontier in American History (in American Historical Associa tion Reports, Vol. Ill, pp. 197-227) ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chap, xi ; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chap, vi; biographies of John Quincy Adams (by Morse), Benton (by Roose velt), Webster (by Lodge), Gallatin (by Stevens), Clay (by Schurz), Jackson (by Sumner), and Calhoun (by Von Hoist), in the American Statesmen Series. An Era of Hard Feelings : MACMASTER, Vol. V, chaps, li-liii; TURNER, Rise of the New West, chap, xviii ; BURGESS, chaps, vii, viii ; WOODROW WILSON, Division and Reunion, chap, i ; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. I, chap, xi ; R. T. STEVENSON, The Growth of the Nation from 1809 to 1837, chap. ix. The "Tariff of Abominations": MACMASTER, Vol. V, chap, xlvi; TURNER, chap, xix ; D. R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, chap, viii ; F. W. TAUSSIG, Tariff History of the United States, chap, ii ; EDWARD STANWOOD, American Tariff Controversies, chap, viii; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1830, Vol. I, pp. 40-53 ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, pp. 374-380; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, Nos. 44, 45 (for text of protests). 276 National versus Sectional Interests TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Thomas H. Benton s Prophecies of Western Growth: MAcM ASTER, Vol. V, pp. 24-27 ; W. M. MEIGS, Life of Thomas Hart Benton, pp. 90- 103 ; THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Thomas Hart Benton, pp. 50-58 ; THOMAS H. BENTON, Thirty Years View, Vol. I, pp. 13, 14; H. A. BRUCE, Ro mance of American Expansion, pp. 106-122. 2. Robert Fulton and Steam Navigation: Old South Leaflets, No. 108; R. H. THURSTON, Life of Robert Fulton (Makers of America) ; GEORGE H. PREBLE, History of Steam Navigation, chaps, i-iii ; MACMASTER, Vol. Ill, pp. 486-494; A. B. HART, American History told by Contem poraries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 1 66, 167. 3. The Selection of a Presidential Candidate : F. W. DALLINGER, Nomi nations for Elective Office, pp. 13-48; MACMASTER, Vol. V, pp. 55-67 ; M. I. OSTROGORSKI, Democracy and the Party System in the United States, pp. 3-16; EDWARD STAN WOOD, History of the Presidency, pp. 125-132 ; J. A. WOODBURN, Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States,^. 165-196; JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth (abridged edition), pp. 465-485; C. A. BEARD, Readings in American Government and Politics, Nos. 46-50. 4. The Panama Congress: STEVENSON, pp. 215-218; BURGESS, pp. 147-155; VON HOLST, Vol. I, pp. 409-433; J. D. RICHARDSON, Mes sages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. II, pp. 318-329; MACMASTER, Vol. V, pp. 433-459; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 150; BENTON, Vol. I, pp. 65-69. 5. The Arguments for a Protective Tariff : DEWEY, pp. 191-196 ; TAUS- SIG, pp. 1-67 ; W. M. GROSVENOR, Does Protection protect ? pp. 176-201 ; HENRY GEORGE, Protection or Free Trade, pp. 88-120, 154-230 ; EDWARD TAYLOR, Is Protection a Benefit? pp. 96-173, 206-232; A. MAURICE Low, Protection in the United States, pp. 40-59, 94-119 ; H. R. SEAGER, Introduction to Economics, pp. 371-383 ; also article " Protection," in the New International Encyclopaedia. CHAPTER X "THE REIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON" NULLIFICATION The fathers of the American Revolution in their long contest 386. jeai- against the royal governors in the colonies had learned to regard executive 16 a strong executive as the greatest menace to freedom. There- JJJJ^ca 1 fore in the first form of government that they devised (the Articles of Confederation) they made no provision at all for an executive department, and in the improved Constitution of 1787 they gave the President only very moderate and carefully guarded powers in the administration of domestic affairs. During the first forty years of our national history our Presidents had re spected the spirit of the framers of the Constitution, regarding themselves as the agents appointed by the people to execute the will of the people s representatives in Congress. But with Andrew Jackson a new type of President appeared. 387. jack- Jackson considered himself in no way bound to refer to Con- t^o gress. He thought of himself rather as the champion of the Presidency great mass of the American people. Congress and the courts, he feared, had become corrupted by association with the moneyed men of the country, and by too long a tenure of. power. The favorite historical analogy of Jackson and his supporters was the Roman tribune, an officer chosen by the common folk of Rome to protect them from oppressive legislation by the rich and high-born patricians. Jackson interpreted his election in 1828 as a rebuke to the 388. His " corrupt " manipulation of Congress, which had seated Adams * f character in the presidential chair in 1824. He came into the office with the vindictive elation of a man who had been kept out of his 277 278 National versus Sectional Interests rightful inheritance for four years. His strong will, doubly steeled by long years of military command, refused to bend to entreaty or threat. From his own intense devotion to his country he drew the hasty and unwarranted conclusion that all who were opposed to him were enemies of that country. He was seldom without a personal quarrel, and, like all combative natures, he lacked the judgment -to know what causes were worth a con troversy and what were not. His partisan temperament acted like a strong reagent in chemistry, bringing out the political color of every mind with which it came into contact. Every body had to take sides for or against Andrew Jackson. Least of all our Presidents less even than Lincoln or Roosevelt did he sink his personality in his office. He dominated the office and even scouted its traditions. He made it Jacksonian. With all his rancor against the " effete dynasties " and " pampered minions " of Europe, he often conducted himself more like a monarch than like the sworn defender of a democratic constitu tion. So that Professor von Hoist, our German historian, called his presidency " the reign of Andrew Jackson." 389. The in- A will so absolute as Jackson s could have little regard for of *his con? consistency. In 1816 he had written to President-elect Monroe dent wifiThis ^^ P artv S P^ was a nionstrous thing, unworthy of a great and earlier pro- free nation; yet when he himself came into office in 1829 he showed himself the most partisan President our country has ever had. Between his inauguration in March and the meeting of his first Congress in December he removed over a thousand government officials in order to make places for men who had supported his campaign, whereas all the previous Presidents had together made less than a hundred political removals. He had protested vigorously against allowing any member of Con gress to be appointed to an executive office, yet he himself chose four out of the six members of his first cabinet from Congress. In each of his annual messages he advised against a second term, yet he allowed himself, after his first year of office, to be announced through the administrative newspapers " The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 279 at Washington and elsewhere as a candidate for reelection in 1832. He had three times accepted the nomination for the presidency by the Tennessee legislature, yet toward the close of his second term he called Judge Hugh L. White " a traitor " for accepting the same compliment from the same legislature, because his own candidate was Van Buren. He poured out his wrath on the leaders of the preceding administration for " crooked politics," " corrupt bargains," jobbery, and underhand methods ; yet he himself carried on his government almost ex clusively with the help of shrewd newspaper editors and devoted partisans in minor public offices. Even the official cabinet, with the exception of Van Buren, was ignored in favor of a group of political wirepullers, called, on account of its backstair methods, the " kitchen cabinet." As for the anti-tariff men of the South, they got small comfort 390. He re- from Jackson. In his first message he scarcely mentioned the courage the tariff, and in his next one (December, 1830), while admitting prot - est t s th that the tariff was " too high on some of the comforts of life," tariff he nevertheless declared both that Congress had the right to levy a protective tariff, and that the policy of protection was desirable. Meanwhile an event had occurred in the United States Senate which greatly inflamed the hostile feelings of North and South, and hastened South Carolina into a policy of defiance. The sale of public lands in the West was an important source 391. senator of income to the national government. The low price of these lands tempted speculators to buy them up and hold them for sale of P ublic lands, Decem- a rise in price. Accordingly Senator Foote of Connecticut, ber, 1829 in December, 1829, proposed a resolution to the effect that no more public land should be put on the market for a time. The Southern and Western members of Congress seized on this motion as another proof of the determination of the merchants of the Eastern states to enrich themselves at the expense of the country s growth. These merchants, they said, wanted to stop migration to the West, in order to keep a mass of cheap 280 National versus Sectional Interests laborers for their factories in the East, just as they wanted high duties to protect the output of those factories. 392. senator During the debate Robert Hayne of South Carolina left the 393. Daniel reply to specific subject under discussion, namely the land sales, to enter theNortiT nd on a general tirade against the North, and against Massachusetts in particular. He accused the Bay State of having shown a narrow, selfish, sectional spirit from the earliest days of the republic. He declared that the only way to preserve the Union of free republics, which the " fathers " wished this country to be, was to resist the economic tyranny of the manufacturing states, which had got control of Congress. The proper method of resistance had already been set forth by Calhoun in his " Exposition." Daniel Webster replied to Hayne in an oration which is con- sidered the greatest speech ever delivered in the halls of Con- S ress (J anuar Y 26-27, l8 3)- After defending Massachusetts against the charge of sectionalism, Webster went on to develop the theory of the national government as opposed to the mere league of states which the Southern orators advocated. Not the states, he claimed, but the people of the nation had made the Union. " It is, sir, the people s Constitution, the people s gov ernment, made for the people, made by the people, answerable to the people." If Congress exceeded its powers, there was an arbiter appointed by the Constitution itself, namely the Supreme Court, which had the authority to declare laws null and void. This authority could not be vested in a state or a group of states. Pennsylvania would annul one law, Alabama another, Virginia a third, and so on. Our national legislature would then become a mockery, and our Constitution, instead of a strong instrument of government, would be a mere collection of topics for endless dispute between the sections of our country. The Union would fall apart. The states would re turn to the frightful condition of anarchy which followed the Revolutionary War, and our flag, " stained with the^ blood of fratricidal war," would float over " the dismembered fragments of our once glorious empire." * * The Reign of A ndrew Jackson " 281 The echoes of Webster s great speech were still ringing 394. jack- through the land when President Jackson gave a public and the unmistakable expression of his view of nullification. At a din- birthday din ner, April 13, ner in celebration of Jefferson s birthday (April 13), Jackson 1830 responded to a call for a toast with the sentiment, " Our federal Union it must be preserved ! " The Vice President, Calhoun, immediately responded with the toast, " Liberty dearer than Union ! " Feeling was intense. For the party of Hayne and Calhoun the Union was a menace to liberty ; for the party of Jackson and Webster it was the only condition and guarantee of liberty. When the advocates of nullification in South Carolina were warned by the Union men that their course might bring war, they contemptuously asked these " submission men " whether the " descendants of the heroes of 1776 should be afraid of war! " In the summer of 1832 a new tariff bill was passed by Con- 395. south gress. Its rates were somewhat lower than those of the "Tariff nuisthet^iff of Abominations," but still it was highly protective. The South- acts of l828 and 1832, No- ern members of Congress wrote home from Washington that vember, 1832 no help was to be expected from that quarter. Then the legis lature of South Carolina sent out the call for a state convention to consider what action should be taken on the oppressive tariff acts. The convention met at Columbia in November, 1832, and by the decisive vote of 136 to 26 declared that the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were "null, void, and no law." The people of the state were ordered to pay no duties under these laws after February i, 1833. At the same time the convention declared that any attempt by Congress to enforce the tariff law in South Carolina, to close her ports or destroy her commerce, would be a just cause for the secession of the state from the Union. Governor Hamilton called for 10,000 volunteer troops to defend the state. Jackson answered in a strong proclamation. " I consider the 396. jack- power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, ... in consistent with every principle on which the Constitution was 282 National versus Sectional Interests 397. Henry Clay secures a compro mise tariff, March, 1833 founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." To Poinsett, collector of the port of Charleston, he wrote, " In forty days I will have 40,000 men in the state of South Carolina to enforce the law." Calhoun, who had resigned the vice presidency to enter the Senate, now called on Clay to help in reconciling South Caro lina s claims with the preservation of the Union. Clay, who had little desire to see the " military chieftain " in the White House directing 40,000 men against South Carolina, worked out a compromise tariff, according to which the duties were to be re duced gradually, until in 1842 they should reach the level of the tariff act of 1816. Clay s compromise tariff passed both Houses of Congress and was signed by Jackson, March 2, 1833, at the same moment with a " Force Bill," which gave the President the right to employ the army and navy of the United States to col lect the duties in South Carolina. 398. The The protesting state accepted the compromise tariff, and by a strife averted vote of 153 to 4 the convention rescinded the ordinance of nullifi cation (March 15, 1833). Each side claimed the victory, South Carolina for having compelled Congress to lower the tariff, and the United States for having forced South Carolina to retract the ordinance of nullification. The crisis of disunion was over, but the seeds of discontent remained. Jackson s strong hand had pre served the Union, but his words had not restored unity between the warring sections. The language of nullification was not for gotten in South Carolina. Twenty-eight years later it was revived and intensified in a struggle far more serious than that over tariff rates, the great slavery controversy which precipitated the Civil War. THE WAR ON THE BANK Two days after signing the compromise tariff of 1833 Jackson was inaugurated President a second time. He had defeated Clay, the National-Republican candidate, in a campaign turning on the recharter of the National Bank. * The Reign of A ndrew Jackson " 283 We have seen in an earlier chapter how Alexander Ham- 399. The ilton, in 1791, got Congress to charter for a term of twenty National* 1 years a banking corporation which was to do all the govern- Bank ment s financial business ; to enjoy the use, without interest, of the money which the Treasury Department collected from duties, land sales, and other sources of the national income ; and, in re turn for this favor, to arrange the government s loans, pay the interest on the public debt, and negotiate money exchanges with foreign countries. We have seen also how five years after the expiration of this charter Congress established a second National Bank (1816), with all the powers of the earlier bank and three and a half times its capital. This second Bank of the United States was very prosperous 400. The at the beginning of Jackson s administration. In addition to ^second f $8,000,000 of the public money, it held some $6,000,000 in de- National posits of private persons. It made a profit of $3,000,000 a year, from which it paid handsome dividends to its stockholders. Its shares of $100 par value sold frequently as high as $140 each. " Besides the parent bank at Philadelphia, with its mar ble palace and hundreds of clerks," says Parton in his ". Life of Andrew Jackson," " there were twenty-five branches in the towns and cities of the Union, each of which had its president, cashier, and board of directors. The employees of the Bank were more than five hundred in number, all men of standing and influence, and liberally salaried. In every county of the Union, in every nation on the globe, were stockholders of the Bank of the United States. . . . One fourth of its stock was held by women, or phans, and trustees of charity funds so high and unquestioned was its credit." Its notes passed as gold not only in every part of the Union, but in the distant cities of London, St. Peters burg, Cairo, and Calcutta as well. The opponents of the Bank saw how great a hold such an in- 401. Opposi- stitution could get on the government by showing it financial Bank favors in time of stress, and what an influence it could wield in politics by contributions from its vast wealth to the election of 284 National versus Sectional Interests 402. Jack son s hostil ity to the Bank 403. He vetoes the bill for the renewal of the charter, 1832 404. The language of the veto candidates favorable to its interests. 1 That the government should charter such an institution was contrary to the principles of democracy. It was encouraging corruption in public life by favoring the rich, instead of standing for equal rights and equal protection for all. Jackson was naturally a bitter opponent of the Bank. In his first message to Congress (December, 1829), although the char ter of the Bank had still seven years to run, he spoke disparag ingly of it. " Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this Bank," he wrote, " are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow citizens." Jackson s suspicions of the political corruption exercised by the Bank were much strengthened by the fact that most of the officers of that institu tion were his political opponents. The hostility of President Jackson injured the credit of the Bank. Its stocks fell in price, and its managers began to fear that its business would be ruined. Therefore its president, Nicholas Biddle, acting on the advice of Clay, Webster, and other friends, applied to Congress early in 1832 for a renewal of the charter. The bill passed the House by a vote of 107 to 86. It was the year of the presidential election. Clay, who was Jackson s opponent, urged the application for a recharter of the Bank in order to make campaign material. He thought that Jackson would not dare to veto the bill, for fear of losing his support in the Northern states, where the Bank was in favor. But Clay was mistaken in thinking that Jackson would not dare to do what he had determined to do, whether he gained the presidency or not. Jackson promptly sent back the bill with a veto message which, as Clay wrote to Biddle, had " all the fury, of a chained panther biting the bars of his cage." In his veto Jackson denounced the Bank as a dangerous mo nopoly, managed by a " favored class of opulent citizens," inter fering with the free exercise of the people s will and bending 1 The managers of the Bank actually confessed that they spent $58,000 of its funds on campaign material (speeches, pamphlets, etc.) to secure the election of Henry Clay in 1832. " The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 285 the government to its selfish purposes. Furthermore, the Bank was keeping the West poor, by concentrating the money of the country in the Eastern cities. The Supreme Court had declared, in the case of McCulloch vs. Maryland (p. 234), that Con gress had the right to charter the Bank. Jackson made short work of this argument by the astonishing statement that the President s opinion of what was constitutional was as good as the Supreme Court s. " Each officer," he wrote, " takes the oath to support the Constitution as he understands it, not as another understands it. ... The opinion of the judges has no more au thority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the President is independent of both." Clay was never more mistaken than when he appealed to the 405. Jackson people to defeat Andrew Jackson on the issue of the National Bank. Jackson was overwhelmingly elected in November, 1832, with 219 electoral votes to Clay s 49, Even Pennsylvania gave her 30 electoral votes to Jackson, though only one of the Pennsylvania congressmen had voted against the bill for re- chartering the Bank. Interpreting his reelection as the man date of the American people for the destruction of the Bank, Jackson entered on a financial policy which formed the chief feature of his second term, and resulted in as complete a revo lution in the method of handling the government s funds as if a man were to draw all his money out of his bank and place it in a strong vault built in his own garden. Jackson began his attack on the Bank by ordering a special 406. He investigation of its condition ; but, to his disappointment, the government examiner found it perfectly sound. Both Houses of Congress de .po sits to *> e withdrawn voted confidence in the Bank as a receptacle for the government s from the deposits. Then Jackson fell back on a clause in the charter, ber i, 1833 which gave the Secretary of the Treasury the right to discontinue using the Bank for the government s deposits if he gave his reasons to Congress for so doing. Jackson promoted one Sec retary of the Treasury to the State Department, and curtly dis missed another, before he found in Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, 286 National verstts Sectional Interests an officer who approved his policy. Taney issued the famous order that after October i, 1833, the government should no longer use the Bank of the United States for its deposits, but would place its revenues in certain state banks (called from this order the " pet banks ") in various parts of the country. 407. He is All this happened during the recess of Congress. When the Congress ^ Senate met, it voted that the reasons given by Taney for re moving the deposits from the Bank of the United States were " unsatisfactory and insufficient," and refused to confirm the appointment of Taney as Secretary of the Treasury. Further more, by a vote of 26 to 20 it spread upon its journal a formal censure of Andrew Jackson, to the effect that " the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue [had] assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and the laws, but in derogation of both." The censure was unmerited, for the President had not exceeded his power in dismissing a cabinet officer, neither had the Sec retary of the Treasury, in ceasing to make government deposits in the Bank. The censure was also illegal, for the only way the Senate can condemn the President is to convict him in a regular trial after he has been impeached by the House of Represent atives. Jackson with perfect right protested against the censure ; but it was only after a hard fight of three years that his cham pion in the Senate, Thomas H. Ben ton, succeeded in getting the offensive vote expunged from the journal. 408. jackson Jackson s overthrow of the Bank of the United States was destroys the , , .... Bank at a undoubtedly approved by the majority of American citizens, as the removal of a dangerous influence in our political life. The act would probably have had little effect on the business of the country, had it not come at a critical moment in our industrial development. The period just following Jackson s second elec tion was one of overconfidence in our country s growth. Our foreign trade was large. The country was out of debt, and the customs duties were bringing a large surplus into the Treasury every year. The recent introduction of the steam engine running * * The Reign of A ndrew Jackson " 2 87 on iron rails promised to revolutionize the whole system of slow transportation by river, cart, and canal. Individuals, stock com panies, and state governments were anxious to borrow large sums of money to invest in land, labor, and building and trans portation supplies, believing that we were on the eve of a marvelous " boom " in real estate and commerce. The new Western states vied with each other in patriotic pro]- 409. The ects of extension. For example, Indiana, whose population in 1836 was only about c 00,000, undertook to build 1200 miles western lands and the undue of railroad through her forests and farm lands, thereby contract- extension of ing a debt of $20 a head for every man, woman, and child in the JJJg 1 x 33 ~ state. Banks multiplied in the West, facilitating rash investments by lending on easy terms. 1 These " wildcat " banks, as they were called, issued notes far beyond the legitimate business needs of the country, and far beyond their real capital in gold and silver. This great increase of the amount of currency put into circula tion was mistaken for an increase in the country s wealth. The fever of speculation reached its height in the purchase of Western lands. In 1834 about $3,000,000 worth of land was sold by the United States government. Next year the sales jumped to $14,000,000, and the following year to $24,000,000. The purchasers paid for their lands in the paper money of the 410. The unreliable Western banks, and the United States Treasury was cuiar f i^e" soon overflowing with this depreciating currency. In the summer of 1836 Jackson issued his famous Specie Circular, forbidding the officers of the Treasury of the United States to accept any money but gold and silver (specie) in payment for further sales of public land. The Specie Circular was the needle that pricked the bubble 411. The of speculation. The " wildcat " banks did not have the gold and silver to pay for the notes they had issued. Speculators could "boom." The panic of 1837 not borrow " hard money " on such easy terms as they had 1 In 1829 there were 329 of these state banks in the West, and by 1837 the number had reached 788. The hope of getting a share of the United States funds denied to the National Bank was a great stimulus to the state banking business. .288 National versus Sectional Interests borrowed paper ; and the " boom " of the West collapsed. 1 Land sales dropped to less than $900,000 for the year 1837. Building operations ceased. Long lines of rails were left to rust in the Western forests. Thousands of laborers were thrown out of employment. The New York Era reported nine tenths of the factories in the Eastern states closed by September, 1837. The distress of industrial depression following this . financial panic was increased by the general failure of the crops in the summers of 1835 an d J ^3^- The Hessian fly ravaged the wheat fields of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and the price of flour rose to $12 a barrel. The starving populace of New York and Philadelphia rioted. Mobs broke into the warehouses where the flour was stored, and threw the precious barrels into the street. Over 600 banks went down in failure, including the 50 or more " pet banks " that held the government s deposits. Our credit abroad was almost ruined. Foreign trade languished. At the close of the period of depression the Treasury showed a deficit of over $10,000,000. - 412. The Five or six years passed before the country fully recovered Independent- r o /- i Treasury irom the panic of 1837, and confidence returned to merchants, system, 1840 b an k ers> an( j investors. The government did not again intrust its funds to either a National Bank or " pet banks " of the states. The former had been condemned as politically corrupt; the latter had proved themselves financially unsound. A system of govern ment deposit was adopted under Jackson s successor, Van Buren (1840), which completely separated the public funds from the banking business in any form. This was called the Independent- Treasury or the Subtreasury system. The government con structed vaults in several of the larger cities of the country New York, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Charleston, New Orleans and stored its revenues in these vaults. It was not 1 The citizens of Louisville, Kentucky, presented a memorial to the Senate in which they said : " Had a large invading army passed triumphantly through our country it could not have so completely marred our prosperity. The countenances of our citizens are more gloomy and desponding than when the dread cholera was amongst us." The Reign of A ndrew Jackson " 289 until the Civil War that our government, under the stress of enormous expenses, was again obliged to appeal to the financial institutions of the country. It then devised the present system of national banks, to which we shall refer in a later chapter. A NEW PARTY Although the contest with South Carolina over nullification 413. impor- and the war on the United States Bank were the two most im- of "he^ja^k- portant events in Jackson s administration, both illustrating sonian era vividly the domineering character of the man, they were by no means the only matters of importance in his administrations. We shall have occasion later to revert to this period when deal ing with the abolition of slavery, the acquisition of Texas, and the extension of our settlements into the great region beyond the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. The decade 1830-1840 was, in fine, a new era in our history. It was a period of epoch- making inventions and discoveries in the industrial world, of far-reaching innovations in politics, of ardent social reforms and humanitarian projects. We are accustomed to think of battles and treaties as the 414. New exciting events which have brought the changes in a nation s life and it is true that some few "decisive battles" have ies in the de cade 1830- altered the course of history. But the steady, silent work of the 1840 head and hands of a people engaged in invention and industry has done more to shape the course of history than all the array of armies with bugle and sword. The invention in 1831 of the McCormick reaper was the prophecy that our great wheat and corn fields of the West would some day produce enough to feed half the world. The utilization of the immense anthracite-coal deposits of Pennsylvania in the process of iron smelting in 1836 foreshadowed this mighty age of steel which has superseded our fathers age of wood. The appliance of the screw propeller to ocean steamers in 1838 opened the way for the Mauretania. And, chief of all, the appearance in 1830 of a steam locomotive 290 National versus Sectional Interests 415. Effect of the railroads on economic development on the new twenty-three-mile track of the Baltimore and Ohio railway gave promise of the network of nearly 250,000 miles of railroad track which covers our country to-day, bringing the Pacific coast within four days of New York City. It is an inter esting coincidence that while the steam locomotive was being tested and its advocates were laboring to overcome the foolish prejudices against its adoption, 1 statesmen in Congress were ridiculing the idea of our taking any interest in the Oregon region beyond the Rockies, on the ground that it would take a representative from that country a year to make the journey to Washington and back. A Railroad Train of 1830 compared with a Modern Locomotive By the end of the decade the twenty-three miles of railroad had increased almost a hundredfold, and steam trains were running in all the Atlantic States from New York to Georgia. This improvement in transportation over wagon and canal stimulated business in every direction. The demand for the products of American farms and factories increased with the extension of the means of transportation. As the volume of freight traffic grew, cities began to develop rapidly at certain distributing or terminal points. Large sums of money were concentrated in these cities in business schemes, or invested in the stocks and bonds of the new railroads. With the gathering 1 The locomotive, it was said, would spoil the farms by its soot, and ignite barns and dwellings by its sparks. Its noise would frighten the animals so that hens would not lay and cows would refuse to give their milk. " The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 291 of population and capital in the cities, and the enlargement of the small local business concerns into joint-stock companies employing hundreds of workmen, the conditions of the laboring class and the relations of labor to capital began to claim serious attention. In 1833 a Labor party held its first national convention at 416. Labor Philadelphia, and formulated demands for higher wages, shorter JJJ decade 11 hours of work, and more sanitary conditions in shops and fac- 1830-1840 tories. Trade-unions began to be formed the workers banding together both to keep unskilled laborers out of the trades and to enforce their demands for higher wages and shorter hours of labor. There were strikes in various cities because the employers refused the workmen s demands. The laborers also sought relief from the state legislatures. They asked to have " me chanics lien laws " passed, giving them a claim upon the buildings which they constructed, and thus assuring them of pay for their labor in case the contractors failed. They pro tested against the competition of goods made in prisons by convict labor, demanded free schools for their children, and denounced the laws which every year sent 75,000 men to jail for debt. 1 Besides these social and industrial reforms, far-reaching polit- 417. The ical changes were in progress in the decade 1830-1 840. 2 It is ^volution in hardly an exaggeration to say that America became a democ- Jackson s day racy in that decade, which was the first to see all classes of her people participating actively in the government. In Washington s day only some 120,000 persons in a population of 4,000,000 had a right to vote about one in seven of the adult male population. The other six sevenths were excluded from the 1 It is hard to imagine a more stupid form of punishment than sending a man to jail for debt, forcing him into idleness for a fault which only diligence and industry can cure. Yet this custom prevailed on both sides of the Atlan tic well into the nineteenth century. Charles Dickens portrays its evil effects in " Little Dorrit." 2 For the contemporary reforms in England of the poor laws, the penal laws, the factory laws, and the labor laws, see Cheyney s Short History of England, chap, xix. 2Q2 National versus Sectional Interests 418. The political machine and the "spoils system " 419. The national nom inating con ventions, 1831-1832 franchise by high property qualifications or religious tests in herited from colonial days. As late as the election of 1828 Rhode Island, with a population of 97,000, cast only 3575 votes. But in the Jacksonian period the democratic ideal of manhood suffrage was transforming the political aspect of the whole country. States which had not altered their constitutions since their establishment (Tennessee, Mississippi), or even since colonial days (Rhode Island, North Carolina), now undertook extensive revisions. They extended the right of suffrage, short ened the terms of officers, and transferred the choice of many executive officials and judges from the governor to the people. This democratic revolution had its evil side. Clever political managers, or " bosses," began to build up party machines- in every state, by organizing the great masses of voters and using the victory of their party for the strengthening of the machine. Appointments to public offices in the gift of the successful can didates were made as rewards to the men who had done most to win the elections, quite irrespective often of their fitness for the office. Faithful and able officials and clerks of many years service were removed simply to make room for men of the vic torious party, who were clamoring for their places. This use of government offices, from the cabinet portfolios down to the humblest clerkships, as prizes of war to be fought for at the polls, was vindicated in classic language by a New York politi cian named Marcy, who declared that " to the victor belong the spoils." We have seen how Jackson, by his wholesale re movals from office, extended the " spoils system " to the national government. Another important feature of the democratic revolution of the decade 1830-1840 was the development of the national conventions for nominating the candidates of each party for President and Vice President, and for publishing a declaration, or "platform," of the principles of the party. In 1831 and 1832 three such conventions were held, all at Baltimore. The Antimasons (a small party formed to combat the secret order The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 293 of the Masons) l were first in the field (September, 1831), with William Wirt of Maryland as candidate for President. The National Republicans followed in December, nominating Henry Clay of Kentucky ; and the Jackson men, now calling them selves Democrats, 2 met in May, 1832, and indorsed the ticket, Jackson and Van Buren. At first each state had one vote in the selection of the candidates, irrespective of the number of dele gates it sent to the convention ; but soon the plan was adopted, which still prevails, of having each state represented by a number of delegates twice as large as its representation in Congress. 8 1 Since the foundation of our government two great parties have generally been opposed to each other (Federalists and Republicans, 1790-1816 ; Whigs and Democrats, 1834-1852 ; Republicans and Democrats, 1854 to the present). How ever, many minor parties (or " third parties ") , formed on various issues, have appeared in our politics since 1830. The third parties have seldom had enough strength to carry a state and so to appear in the electoral column. In the election of 1908, for example, seven tickets were in the field, but only Taft and Bryan carried states. 2 The political parties are rather difficult to keep clearly distinguished, owing to the various use of the names Republican and Democrat at different times in our history. The following chart will aid the student : Date FEDERALISTS vs. (for strong national govern ment) 1791-1792 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS (for strictly limited national government) 192 J 793 dropped the name Demo cratic and became simply the Republicans. 224 1816 dr. died out, leaving only the 1820 dr. REPUBLICANS 230 (" era of good feeling ") who split on the question of " internal improvements," such as national aid for the construction of canals and roads, and the charter of the National Bank, into two wings : 265 1825-1830 NATIONAL REPUBLICANS vs. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS the nucleus of a new party who dropped the name Re- which, in opposition to publican and became simply 294 Jackson, took the name of 1834 WHIGS -vs. (Jacksonian) DEMOCRATS On the great question of slavery the Whig party went to pieces soon after 1850, and the present Republican party was organized. 385 3 At present the Democrats require a two-thirds vote of their convention to nominate a candidate, while a simple majority vote nominates the Republican candidate. See page 294 National versus Sectional Interests 420. The anti-Jackson men form a new party, 1834 421. The composition of the new Whig party >ORN TO COMMAND All our Presidents and Vice Presidents since 1832 have been nominated by national conventions. Jackson had not been in office many months before his auto cratic conduct made him many public opponents and private enemies. When he issued his famous proclamation against the milliners in South Carolina, in December, 1832, the Charleston Mercury came out with a flamboyant article against him, in which it declared: "An in furiated administration has been driven to the use of brute force. ... If this Re public has found a master, let us not live his subjects ! " Recalling the Revolutionary days, when our forefathers fought against the " tyrant King George the Third," it suggested that the opponents of " King Andrew " revive the old name of Whigs, which in the eighteenth century stood for the foes of execu tive tyranny. As the war on the United States Bank and the removal of the govern ment s deposits in 1833 made the President enemies in the North as well as in the South, the anti-Jackson men became sufficiently numerous to form a new party. In 1834 they took the name of Whigs, which the Charleston editor had suggested. The nucleus of the Whig party was the faithful group of National Republicans, led by Henry Clay, with their devotion to a high tariff, the National Bank, and internal improvements at the cost of the government the so-called " American System." To these were added now the Southerners, whom KING ANDREW THE FIRST. Cartoon used in the Campaign of 1832 The Reign of A ndrew Jackson " 295 Jackson had offended by his attack on the rights of the states, and people from all sections of the country who were opposed to his financial policy, his u personal" conduct of the govern ment through a group of favorites, and his adoption of the odious spoils system. It was essentially an anti-Jackson party. The Whigs were not quite strong enough in 1836 to defeat 422. Election Jackson s chief henchman and personal choice for the presidency, ?836 anBuren Martin Van Buren of New York. Van Buren had been Vice President during Jackson s second term, and it was a great triumph for the old hero of New Orleans over the Senate, which had passed a vote of censure on him, when he saw Van Buren, whom the Senate had formerly rejected as minister to England, sworn into the presidency by Chief Justice Taney, whom it had likewise formerly refused to confirm as Secretary of the Treasury. Van Buren, although he was one of the most adroit and able 423. van politicians in our history, and had come into office pledged to " tread in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," failed to hold the Democratic party together and to lead it to victory in 1840. Both public and private causes conspired to his defeat. The financial panic of 1837, which followed Jackson s issue of the Specie Circular, came in Van Buren s administration, and quite naturally he was blamed for it by the unthinking majority. Moreover, Van Buren was an aristocratic New Yorker, a rich bachelor, who, according to campaign orators, lived in solitary splendor at the White House, eating off golden plates and drinking costly wines from silver coolers. The reputation for such conduct, however exaggerated the details, was little likely to win for Van Buren the support which the " unspoiled West " had given to the rough old hero, Andrew Jackson. And it is not strange that when the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison of Ohio like Jackson a frontiersman and Indian fighter, a hero of the War of 1812, and a plain, rugged, honest man of the people the West flocked to his banner and car ried him triumphantly into the presidency in a second " demo cratic revolution." 296 National versus Sectional Interests 424. why n " 425. The famous "hard- cider cam paign " of 1840, and the triumph of Harrison The presidential campaign of 1840 was most exciting and spectacular. Henry Clay, the towering genius of the Whig P ar ty should nave been the candidate, and confidently expected the nomination. But Clay s very prominence was against him. He had been badly beaten in the election of 1832 for his mis take in forcing the Bank charter into politics to defeat Jackson. Many old Jackson men, disgusted with Van Buren, could be counted on to vote for any other Whig nominee than Jackson s The Eagle of Liberty, the Serpent OJV. Tru American Ticltet. For President. WM. HENRY HARRISON. Campaign Emblems, 1840 lifelong enemy, Clay. And finally the growing antislavery senti ment of the North made it desirable for the Whigs to oppose to Van Buren (himself an antislavery man from a free state) not the slaveholder Henry Clay, but a representative of the free North who could also appeal to the frontier enthusiasm of the new West. A Democratic paper in Baltimore made the sneering comment on the choice of Harrison : " Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle $2000 a year on him, and ... he will sit the re mainder of his days in his Log Cabin ... by the side of his fire studying moral philosophy." The Whigs immediately took up " The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 297 the challenge, and made the homely virtues and simple tastes of the old hero, who had spent his nearly seventy years in the defense and service of his country, the chief issue of the cam paign. " Yes, he has lived long enough in the Log Cabin," they said, " and we intend to give him rent-free after March 4, 1841, the great White House at Washington." Hard cider was the beverage on tap at the Whig rallies all over the country. The feature of every Whig procession was its Log Cabin, with the latchstring out and the coonskin nailed to the door, wheeled along to the uproar ious shouts of " Tippecanoe 1 and Tyler too," and " Van, Van is a used-up man ! " The Whig ticket swept the country. Harrison got 234 electoral votes to 90 for Van Buren. The Whigs secured both branches of Congress too, with a majority of seven in the Senate and forty-four in the House. Harrison s decisive victory 435. Condi- in 1840 marks the end of the ? ** " reign of Andrew Jackson." Jacksonian The Whig Victory of 1840 The electoral vote The date also marks the moment when the different sections of our country had become fully conscious of their conflicting interests. Two irreconcilable forms of civilization had been developing during the quarter of a century which followed the War of 1812. In the North the democratic, diversified life of manufacture and commerce was attended by rapid growth of population through natural increase and immigration from Europe. In the South a more stationary 1 In reference to Harrison s victory over Tecumseh at Tippecanoe Creek, in 1811 (see above, p. 245). epoch 1840 298 National versus Sectional Interests and aristocratic civilization was founded on the wealth of the cot ton fields, which were cultivated by an army of 2,000,000 negro slaves. The conflict of these two forms of civilization, with their utterly opposite economic needs, their diverging political views of the relative rights of the states and the Union, their jealousy of each other s extension into the West, and their deepening dis agreement as to the moral right of one man to hold another man in bondage, began about 1840 to overshadow all the other questions of the period which we have been studying, the Bank, the tariff, the public lands, and internal improvements. Not a national election was held from 1840 to the Civil War that did not turn chiefly or wholly on the slavery issue. At the close of his term of office Jackson had written to Congress, " Unless agitation on this point [slavery] cease, it will divide the Union." And in fact the systems of North and South were becoming " too unlike to exist in the same nation." What would the outcome be ? Should the Union be divided, or should the institution of slavery be abolished ? REFERENCES Nullification : J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 148-177; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Jacksonian De mocracy (American Nation Series), chaps, iv-vi; Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, Nos. 53, 55, 56 ; D. F. HOUSTON, A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. Ill) ; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chap, x ; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. I, chap, xii ; EDWARD STAN WOOD, American Tariff Controversies of the Nineteenth Century, chap, ix; C. H. PECK, The Jacksonian Epoch, chap, v; J. S. BASSETT, Andrew Jackson, chap. xxvi. The War on the Bank : MACMASTER, Vol. VI, chap, lix ; MACDONALD, Jacksonian Democracy, chaps, vii, xiii ; Select Documents, Nos. 46, 50, 51, 52, 54, 57-62 ; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. IV, chap, ii ; RALPH H. CATTERALL, The Second Bank of the United States ; BURGESS, chaps, ix, xii ; D. R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, chap. ix. ; BASSETT, chaps, xxvii, xxviii. A New Party : MACDONALD, Jacksonian Democracy, chaps, xi, xiv, xvii; J. A. WOODBURN, Political Parties and Party Problems in the " The Reign of Andrew Jackson " 299 United States, chap, iv ; MACMASTER, Vol. VI, chap. Ixix ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chaps, xv, xvi ; E. E. SPARKS, The Men who made the Nation, chap, ix ; PECK, chap, xi ; biographies of Jackson by W. G. BROWN (very brief), WILLIAM G. SUMNER (American Statesmen Series), A. C. BUELL (2 vols.), and J. S. BASSETT (2 VOls.). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Foreign Affairs in Jackson s Administration: J. D. RICHARDSON, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. II, pp. 437 ff. ; VON HOLST, Vol. II, pp. 553-570 ; MACMASTER, Vol. VI, pp. 236-242, 299-303, 421-446; J. W. FOSTER, A Century of American Diplomacy, pp. 273- 281 ; BASSETT, pp. 656-683 ; MACDONALD, Jacksonian Democracy, pp. 200-218. 2. The Webster-Hayne Debate : EDWARD EVERETT, in North Ameri can Review, Vol. XXXI, pp. 462-546; J. B. MACMASTER, in Century Magazine, Vol. LXII, pp. 228-246; MACDONALD, Select Documents, Nos. 47-49; ALEXANDER JOHNSTON (ed. Woodburn), American Ora tions, Vol. I, pp. 231-302. 3. Coercing South Carolina: BASSETT, pp. 552-583; T. H. BENTON, Thirty Years View, Vol. I, chaps. Ixxx-lxxxvi ; E. P. POWELL, Nulli fication and Secession in the United States, pp. 262-288, and Appendix, pp. 298-324 ; MACDONALD, Select Documents, No. 56 ; HOUSTON, pp. 106-133 ; T. D. JERVEY, Robert Y. Hayne and his Times, pp. 297-356. 4. Jackson the Autocrat : A. B. HART, American History told by Con temporaries. Vol. Ill, Nos. 158, 160 ; MACDONALD, Select Documents, Nos. 64, 68; CARL R. FISH, The Civil Service and the Patronage, pp. 105-133; VON HOLST, Vol. II, pp. 1-39; BUELL, Vol. II, pp. 383- 412 ; C. A. DAVIS, Major Jack Dowling s Letters (a satire on Jackson) ; HIGGINSON and MACDONALD, History of the United States, pp. 411-428. 5. Travel and Transportation in Jackson s Day : A. B. HART, Slavery and Abolition (American Nation Series), pp. 33-48; American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 165-168 ; JOSIAH QuiNCY, Figures of the Past, pp. 188-208 ; MACMASTER, Vol. VI, pp. 77-95 ; MACDONALD, Jacksonian Democracy, pp. 136-147 ; CHARLES DICKENS, American Notes (ed. of 1842). PART V. SLAVERY AND THE WEST PART V. SLAVERY AND THE WEST CHAPTER XI THE GATHERING CLOUD SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES Up to this point we have mentioned only incidentally and oc casionally the institution which has played the most important part in the history of our country, negro slavery. We must turn back now to trace briefly the development of that institu tion from the earliest colonial days down to the middle decades of the nineteenth century, when it absorbed and superseded all other national issues, and led directly to the Civil War for the preservation of the Union. Before Peter Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from 427. The in- the Indians, even before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, a Dutch trading vessel brought twenty negro slaves from the JJ* c lonies . West Indies to the Virginia colony at Jamestown. This was in 1619, the very year in which the Virginia House of Burgesses first met. So by a strange coincidence, at the same moment of history the English settlements in America saw the introduction of the African bondsman and of the elected representative the beginning of slavery and of democracy. Slavery grew but slowly in the colonies. During the whole of 428. Growth the seventeenth century probably not more than 25,000 negroes were brought to our shores to work in the tobacco and rice fields of the South, or to serve as butlers, maids, and coachmen 303 304 Slavery and the West in the wealthier families of the middle and northern colonies. The eighteenth century, however, saw a great increase in the im portation of slaves into the colonies. Great Britain, victorious in a long war with France and Spain at the beginning of the century (1701-1713), demanded as one of the terms of peace the monopoly of the sorry business of carrying negroes from the African coast to the colonies of the New World. Freed from French and Spanish competition, this slave traffic proved profitable to the English companies that were engaged in it. Reputable business firms, high nobles, even Queen Anne herself and her courtiers, had large sums of money invested in the slave trade, from which the dividends sometimes mounted to fortunes. 429. The The slave hunters kidnaped the negroes in Africa, chained middle them together in gangs, and packed them closely into the stifling passage " holds of their narrow wooden ships, to suffer torments on the tropical voyage from the African coast to the West Indies. When the hatches were battened down in bad weather a dozen of the poor wretches often suffocated, and their bodies were un ceremoniously flung overboard. The brutal ship captains even threw sick negroes overboard deliberately, because they were insured against the loss of their " cargo " by drowning, but not by death from disease. This awful voyage was called the " middle passage," because it was the second leg of a triangular voyage from which the British and colonial captains derived large profits. They took rum from the New England distilleries to Africa, to debauch the innocent natives, whom they seized and brought to the West Indies to exchange for sugar and for molasses to make more rum. So rum, negroes, and molasses made the endless chain of traffic which enslaved the unoffending African, and put thousands of pounds into the pockets of the " enlightened " merchants and courtiers of the eighteenth century. 430. The The horrors of the middle passage moved the colonists at British crown . vetoes coio- times to protest against the slave trade. The burgesses of Vir- aga\ns?ttie S S mia > for example, passed several bills forbidding the further slave trade importation of negro slaves into the colony ; but the British The Gathering Cloud 305 crown, which exercised the right to veto acts of the colonial legislatures, though it had ceased to veto acts of Parliament, refused to allow these laws to stand. 1 We must remember in all our study and judgment of the problems which the presence of the negro in the South has forced upon our country, that it was not so much the colonists as the British merchants and capitalists who were responsible for the slave traffic in the eighteenth cen tury ; and that among the colonists themselves it was not the men of the South alone who were at fault, since the New Eng land rum distillers were responsible for bringing thousands of negroes from Africa to sell as slaves in the West Indies. We find it hard to realize the inhumanity of earlier genera- 431. slavery tions. That our colonial forefathers could have been so jealous Jhe^ionies for the protection of their own rights and freedom and for the proper forms of the worship of God, and still hold human beings in bondage, seems to us utterly inconsistent. Yet it is true that there was almost no sentiment against negro slavery in the col onies. All the colonial legislatures recognized slavery as legal. Only a few individuals protested against it. Even some of the Friends (or Quakers), generally recognized as the most brotherly of all the Christian sects, kept slaves down to the time of the American Revolution. 2 As the different types of colonial industry developed, ship- 432. The ping, fishing, farming in the North, and the cultivation of the large tobacco, cotton, and rice plantations in the South, it South became evident that the home of the negro was to be that part of our land whose climate fitted his physique and whose labor fitted his intellect. As early as 1715 the negroes comprised 25 per cent of the population of the colonies south of the 1 One of the charges brought against George III by Thomas Jefferson in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence was that he had encouraged the slave trade, " violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people [the Africans] who never offended him, captivating and carry ing them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither." 2 The Friends of Germantown, Pennsylvania, protested against the practice of slavery as early as 1688. 306 Slavery and the West Potomac River, in comparison with 9 per cent in the middle colonies and less than 3 per cent in New England. South Caro lina already had, as she has had ever since, a larger negro than white population. Before the close of the eighteenth century every state north of Maryland except New Jersey had pro vided for the immediate or gradual abolition of slavery, while Whitney s invention of the cotton gin in 1794 had fixed the institution firmly on the South. The English colonies in America, therefore, were not a free land which was gradually encroached upon by slavery, but a land in all of whose extent slavery was at first recognized by law, and only later ex cluded from those portions where it was economically unprofitable. A small number of plantation own- 433. Hu manitarian views of sners ers > like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and The Cotton Gin Randolph, in fluenced no doubt by the spirit of humanity and philanthropy which was abroad in the later years of the eighteenth century, had misgivings as to the justice of holding slaves. The considerable number of free negroes in the South at the time of the Civil War shows how many slaves were allowed to purchase their liberty or received it as a gift from their masters. Still, the economic argument was stronger than the moral one. No planter could afford to pay wages to free negroes when his neighbor employed slaves. However much the enlightened men of the South deplored the existence of slavery from the point of view of ethics and humanity, they found themselves part of an industrial system which seemed to demand the negro slave for its very existence. The Gathering Cloud 307 Naturally the spirit of liberty aroused at the time of the Amer- 434. Anti- ican Revolution touched the question of negro slavery. The Continental Congress in 1774 and again in 1776 forbade the further importation of slaves into the colonies. The first anti- slavery society was formed at Philadelphia in the very year of the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill (1775). Benjamin Franklin was its president the last few years of his life. In his " Notes on Virginia," published just after the close of the war (1784), Thomas Jefferson, one of the most pronounced of the antislavery slaveholders, suggested that the negroes might be purchased by the state and colonized, an idea which was cher ished by many antislavery statesmen, including Abraham Lincoln, up to the beginning of the Civil War. The one splendid accom plishment of the antislavery spirit of the Revolutionary epoch was the dedication to perpetual freedom of the vast territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes, by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (p. I65). 1 The Constitution of the LTnited States was being framed during 435. slavery the very same days that the Northwest Ordinance was debated. theconsti- Y Although there were men in the Convention at Philadelphia tution who would gladly have seen slavery abolished in the United States, that subject was not discussed, because nobody seri ously thought that the abolition of slavery lay within the powers of the Convention. The only questions considered were : first, Whether the national government, which was to have control of foreign commerce and immigration, should allow any more negro slaves to be brought to the United States ; and second, What was the political status of those negroes who were already in thq country. We have already seen in our study of the Constitution (p. 170) how the Convention arrived at compromises on both these points by prohibiting Congress from interfering with the slave trade for a period of twenty years (until 1808), and by counting three fifths of the negro population in making up the 1 A bill introduced into the Congress by Jefferson in 1784, to make all the territory west of the Alleghenies free soil, was lost by only one vote. 308 Slavery and the West census of the states for representation in Congress. The im portant point for us here is not the exact form of compromise adopted, but rather the fact that the men who made the Con stitution of the United States not only did not contemplate the abolition of slavery, but even agreed that the importation of slaves from Africa and the West Indies should not be inter fered with for a score of years, a period long enough to supply the South with sufficient slaves to insure the indefinite continuance of the institution. 1 436. sum- Thus the history of slavery during our colonial period presents Savery f situa- a sad picture of violence, greed, and stunted moral sense. Our tion in the forefathers endured the evils of the slave system for the sake of colonial days * the profits it yielded. A few large slaveholders, like Jefferson and Washington, knew that slavery was a violation of the moral law, 2 but they could not foresee the enormity of the evil which slavery was to entail upon a future generation in the South. And so, with mingled feelings of dismay at the growing num bers of slaves and a vague hope that " somehow good might be the final goal of ill," the men who freed our country from politi cal oppression by a tyrannical king in England, left it exposed to a social curse within its own border more serious than unjust taxation or harsh laws of trade. abohsh siav- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 437. con- A little group of antislavery people in the North had from tne ^ rst been dissatisfied with the tolerant attitude of the Con- s titution toward slavery. In Washington s first administration (1790) they began a series of petitions to Congress for the 1 It must in fairness be said that the members of the Convention could not foresee the invention of the cotton gin (1794) and the immense increase in the demand for slaves which that invention would cause. 2 Jefferson, in discussing slavery, said, " I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." Washington wrote to his secretary, Tobias Lear, that he was anxious to " dispose of a certain kind of property [negro slaves] as soon as possible." John Randolph (who liberated his slaves) declared that " all other misfortunes of life were small compared with being born -a master of slaves." The Gathering Cloud 309 abolition of slavery in the United States, which were continued for three quarters of a century, to the close of the Civil War. Congress returned to the first petition of 1790 the same answer that it gave to all the later ones, namely, that slavery, being a " domestic institution," was subject to the laws of the states, not of the national government. Even the repeated attempts to get Congress to impose a tax of $10 a head on imported slaves, which was authorized by the Constitution, all failed. To be sure Congress did, at the expiration of the twenty-year period pre scribed by the Constitution, forbid the further importation of African slaves (from January i, 1808); but that was the only piece of legislation hostile to Cay of .to/lalt,. >0 og slavery passed by Congress the thirt ears from longed <o Capt. Hugh H<*t. the inauguration of George whoever brings the laid fioy TT , ,. (be Subfctibcr at w#* orro Washington to the Missouri the Work Hoofe in Charles <tov,e. ftall ^ ~f Q have 3 / reward On thccahfrar; who- Compromise of 1820. ever harbour, the faid Boy, may depend Qn the Other hand, the fa- 438. Legisla- Bfon-btingfcverdyprofccorcd, by tion favorable Sknuu Cbijlam. vors which slavery received at to slavery, WALTER LUNBM> Ter- the hands of Congress during 1790-18x9 Advertisement for a Run- this period were so m and away Slave so great that the slaveholders came generally to regard their institution as sanctioned by the will of the nation. In 1 792 Kentucky was admitted to the Union with a constitution which sanctioned slavery. In 1793 Congress passed a fugitive-slave law, allowing a slave owner to reclaim a runaway negro in any state in the Union by a mere decision of the local judge, without jury trial. In 1796 Congress accepted North Carolina s cession of land west of the Alleghenies, promis ing not to prohibit slavery therein ; and immediately Tennessee, which lay within this territory, was admitted as a slaveholding state. In 1798 the territory of Mississippi was organized, and only twelve votes were cast in Congress in favor of excluding slavery from its borders. In 1803 the immense territory of Louisiana was purchased from Napoleon under terms which 3 io Slavery and the West 439. The Missouri bill and the Tallmadge amendment, 1819 440. Popular excitement over the Missouri bill protected slavery wherever it already existed in the territory. In 1805 Congress, by a vote of 77 to 31, defeated a bill to emanci pate the slaves in the national domain of the District of Colum bia. In 1812 the lower end of the Louisiana territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Louisiana, with slavery the third slave state to be admitted since the organization of the government, as against the two free states of Vermont (1791) and Ohio (1803). It is no wonder, in view of such generous recognition of the slavery interests, that the Southerners were taken by surprise at the serious opposition aroused in Congress when the slave- holding territory of Missouri * applied for admission to the Union as a state in the autumn of 1818. The bill for the admission of Missouri was laid before the House of Representatives for debate on February 13, 1819. The same day James Tallmadge of New York moved as an amendment to the bill, " That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be pro hibited . . . and that all children born within the said state after admission thereof into the Union shall be free at the age of 25 years." The amendment passed the House by a narrow margin, but was promptly and decisively rejected by the Senate (31 to 7); and the Congressional session of 1818-1819 came to an end with Missouri s application for statehood still pending. During the summer of 1819 excitement over the Missouri question was aroused throughout the country. Mass meetings were held in the Northern states condemning the extension of slavery, and in the Southern states demanding the rights of the slave owners under the Constitution. The legislatures of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and even slave- holding Delaware passed resolutions against the admission of Missouri to the Union with slavery. When Congress met in December, 1819, it was overwhelmed with petitions for and against the Tallmadge amendment. 1 When the state of Louisiana was formed in 1811, the name of the Louisiana territory above 33 was changed to the " Territory of Missouri." The Gathering Cloud 311 There were several important points involved in the admission 441. impor- of Missouri. In the first place, there was an equal number of free and slave states (eleven each) in the Union at the close of the year 1819, which made an even balance between the two sections in the Senate. Secondly, Missouri was to be the first state wholly west of the Mississippi River created out of terri tory acquired since the formation of the Union ; and it was felt that if the first state formed from this territory were opened to slavery, a precedent would thereby be established for admitting all future states on the same basis. When Rufus King of New York declared that we must have " free citizens to defend our western borders," he drew down upon him the wrath of the advocates of slavery in Congress. "They gnawed their lips and clenched their fists as they heard him," wrote John Quincy Adams in his diary. A third point to consider in the Missouri question was the treaty of purchase by which the territory was acquired from Napoleon. By the third article of that treaty the inhabitants of the territory were guaranteed " protection of their liberty, property, and religion." Many planters had taken their slaves into the Missouri territory, relying on this guarantee. Could Congress now fairly deprive them of their " property " by emancipating all negroes born in the new state ? But the most serious question involved touched the power of 443. Has Congress under the Constitution to pass the Tallmadge amend- ment. Congress had the express power to " admit new states P se c<m<ii- . TT . .t.-n TI tions on new to this U nion. But did it have the right to impose restrictions states for on new states as a condition of admission ? The Tallmadge men argued that the power to admit necessarily implied the power to refuse to admit, and hence the power to make conditions on which it would admit new states to the Union. They cited the case of the admission of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which had been re quired to frame antislavery constitutions. On the other hand, the opponents of the amendment declared that Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois might legally have insisted, when they became states, on determining for themselves the nature of their " domestic 312 Slavery and the West institutions," which had been prescribed for them by Congress so long as they were a part of the Northwest Territory. For Con gress to determine on what terms a state should come into the Union, they argued, would be to substitute for our federal Union of equal states a centralized despotism ; for could not Congress, with such power, reduce a state to the most abject position of dependence ! The " Union " then would be a union between a giant Congress and pigmy states, between absolutism and impo tence. The states which Congress should admit to the Union must have the same powers and privileges as the states which originally united to form the Union. 443. south- Confident that their constitutional arguments for slavery for thtPSten- were sound, the Southern orators proceeded to show not only s j on of that the institution was legal but that its extension into the slavery new West was desirable. Granted that slavery was a moral evil, would it not be better, they said, to diminish the evil by spreading it ? Would not the black cloud be lightened by diffusion ? Since not another negro slave was to be brought to America, would not the evils arising from those already here be lessened the more widely the slaves were scattered ? 444. A com- Early in the session of 1819-1820 an event occurred which en- promise meas- , , , \ ure intro- abled the proslavery Senate and the antislavery House to come to an a g reement on the Missouri question. The province of Maine, which since 1677 had been a part of Massachusetts (see p. 48), got the consent of Massachusetts to separate from it and apply to Congress for statehood. Accordingly, in Decem ber, 1819, Mafne, with an antislavery constitution already pre pared, asked for admission into the Union. By way of com promise, to end the debate, the Senate combined the Maine and Missouri bills, and added to them, in the place of the Tallmadge amendment, one by Senator Thomas of Illinois, which prohibited slavery in all the Louisiana Purchase territory lying above 36 30 north latitude, except the proposed state of Missouri. The Maine-Missouri-Thomas compromise bill was then sent to the House. The Gatherin Cloud In return for the admission of the free state of Maine, 445. Maine and for the exclusion of slavery from the greater part of the Louisiana Purchase territory, the House by a vote of go to 87 ( slave ) ad - mitted as dropped the Tallmadge amendment, and to keep the balance in states the Senate, let Missouri enter the Union as a slave state. President Monroe signed the bills for the admission of Maine and Missouri on the third and sixth of March, 1820, after being assured by every member of his cabinet except John Quincy Adams that the prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana tract north of 3 6 30 applied to the region only so long as it was under territorial government. 1 The Missouri Compromise was greatly to the advantage of 446. The the antislavery advocates of the North. They surrendered, to compromise be sure, the constitutional claim of the Tallmadge amendment that Congress had a right to impose restrictions on a new state as a condition of entering the Union ; and they allowed the first state formed out of the great Missouri territory to come into the Union with a proslavery constitution. But in return they secured the exclusion of the slaveholder from nine tenths of the remainder of the vast region extending from Louisiana to the Canadian boundary and from the Mississippi to the Rockies. Arkansas and Florida were the only territories of the United States open to slavery after the passage of the Missouri Com promise bill. It is hard to understand why the South, after its valiant fight against the Tallmadge amendment, and with its insistence on the need of new territory for the extension of slavery, should have accepted this Compromise. It saw its mistake later, and secured the repeal of the Compromise. But, for the present, harmony seemed to be established. The " era 1 As a matter of fact, Missouri, owing to her incorporation of a clause in the new constitution, prohibiting free negroes from entering the state, was not ad mitted until August, 1821, while Maine, whose constitution was already framed when she applied for statehood, was admitted in 1820. It is important to note here, in view of a later controversy, that Congress, by this Compromise Bill, ex cluded slavery from territory of the United States, and that all of the seventy- five votes in the House from the states south of Pennsylvania were cast in favor of the bill. 314 Slavery and the West 447. Signifi cance of the Missouri Compromise of good feeling," though threatened, was undisturbed, and Monroe was reflected to the presidency in the autumn follow ing the Compromise by the unanimous voice of the nation. The Missouri Compromise was one of the most important measures ever passed in our history. First of all, it connected the question of slavery with westward expansion, and revealed to farsighted men like Adams and King in the North, and Jefferson and Calhoun in the South, the fact that the develop ment of our national domain was to be a struggle between the L* R T S H TERRITOR i mmm^,, ^JSk. ^ FREE SOIL By State Action By Ordinance of 1787 By Missouri Comprom SLAVE SOIL States 1H Territories Status of Slavery by the Missouri Compromise advocates of freedom and slavery. Furthermore, the South saw for the first time, in the Missouri debates, how determined anti- slavery sentiment was growing in the North, and resented the insinuations of Rufus King and other Northern orators that the slaveholders were seeking undue power in the government or fostering an undemocratic civilization. Then again, the Missouri debates were an important factor in that change from the na tional to the sectional point of view, on the part of Calhoun and other Southern leaders, which we have already studied in The Gathering Cloud 3 1 5 connection with the tariff agitation (pp. 270-274). These men saw how dangerous such powers as those which the Tallmadge amendment attributed to Congress would be to slavery, and consequently they grew more insistent on the doctrine of the sovereignty of the states. Finally, and perhaps most significant of all, the Missouri 443. slavery debates emphasized the ethical side of the slavery question as moraHssue it had not been emphasized before. The Northern orators could not help seeing that their Southern opponents had the stronger legal argument, but in return they appealed to the moral sense of Congress and the country at large, insisting that a slave population was an enfeebled population, and that the ex istence of human bondage in our country was an outrage to the sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence. To meet the moral objections of the North the Southerners now began to defend as a blessing to the negro the system which they had earlier been inclined to deplore as a necessary evil. Hard feeling began to develop between the two sections. The North accused the South of the sin of willfully maintaining an inhuman and barbarous institution, and the South charged the North with overlooking all the social and economic arguments for slavery, and only encouraging discontented negroes to rise and massacre their masters. The aged Jefferson wrote of the Missouri Compromise : 449. it " This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awak- othe^oitticai ened me and filled me with horror. I considered it at once as questions the knell of the Union." The echoes of this alarm bell rang through North and South, growing louder and louder each decade, till they drowned all other issues of the century in their clamor, the Bank, the tariff, public lands, the currency, internal improvements, foreign negotiations, and domestic ex pansion. The slavery question invaded our pulpits and pervaded our literature. It seized on press and platform. It disturbed our industries and commerce. And finally it precipitated the mighty strife of the Civil War. 316 Slavery and the West THE ABOLITIONISTS 450. The In the year in which Missouri was finally admitted to the abolitionist Union, Benjamin Lundy, a New Jersey Quaker, began to sentiment publish in Ohio the Genius of Universal Emancipation, a weekly periodical devoted to the cause of the abolition of slavery. To Lundy belongs the credit of organizing into a strong united movement the antislavery sentiment in our country. He was the first American to embrace the cause of negro emancipation as a life mission, advocating the establishment of colonies of liberated slaves on the island of Hayti. He traveled thousands of miles, often on foot, through nearly every state of the Union, addressing meetings, appealing to churches and colleges, and forming antislavery societies wherever he went. 451. Plans Previous to the bitter Missouri debates the slaveholding nizationof" states were as promising a field for emancipation activity as the negroes ^g f ree North Antislavery societies existed in Kentucky, Delaware, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia before a single one was formed in New England. The plan to get rid of the curse of slavery by purchasing the negroes and establishing them in a colony on the African coast was almost exclusively a Southern measure. It was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1784. In 1816 a society was formed for the colonization of free negroes, and a few years later the set tlement of Liberia (" free land ") was actually established on the western coast of Africa. A nephew of George Washington was the society s first president, and he was followed by Henry Clay. Hundreds of influential slaveholders, like Jefferson and Randolph, were members of the society. The governor of Virginia even proposed to the legislature as late as 1820 that the state devote a third of its revenue to the purchase and colonization of negroes. But the colonization scheme utterly failed. In spite of an appropriation of $100,000 by Congress, the new society was able to carry only about a thousand negroes to the distant African coast during the decade 1820-1830, The Gathering Cloud 317 and most of those died soon after landing, from the ravages of malarial fever and the attacks of savage neighboring tribes. 1 The rapid extension of cotton cultivation after the second 452. change war with England, the ill success of the colonizing movement, tude of the " and the bitterness aroused by the Missouri debates produced a great change in the attitude of the South towards slavery, emancipa- After the Missouri Compromise was passed, free discussion of ^20 the evils of slavery began to die out in the South, being branded by the political and social leaders as treason to the interests of their section of the country. On the other hand, the little group of Northern abolitionists began to redouble their efforts to rid the country of the disgrace and curse of human bondage. On a visit to Boston in 1828, Benjamin Lundy met a young 453. man of twenty-two, named William Lloyd Garrison, who was earning a bare living by doing compositor s work in various The Liberator, 1831 printing offices. Young Garrison was immediately won to the cause of abolition, and a year later joined Lundy at Baltimore in the editorship of the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Garrison announced in his first article that all slaves were " entitled to immediate and complete emancipation." This position was too radical for Lundy, who, with some regard for the property of the slaveholders, advocated a gradual eman cipation. So the partnership was promptly dissolved, and Garrison set up his own press in Boston, from which on New Year s Day, 1831, he issued the first number of The Liberator. He had neither capital nor influence. His office was " an obscure hole," which the police had difficulty in finding. He had but one man and a negro boy to help him in compo sition and presswork. He himself was editor, typesetter, proof reader, printer, and distributor of The Liberator, and the very paper on which the first number was printed was bought on credit. 1 Between 1820 and 1860 the Society spent $1,806,000 and colonized but 10,500 negroes fewer than the increase by births in one month. Obviously, trying to remove the negroes from the South by colonization was like trying to bail out the sea with a dipper. 318 Slavery and the West 454. Garri son s anti- slavery manifesto 455. Nat Turner s in surrection, 1831 In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, Toiled o er his types one poor, unlearned young man. The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean, Yet there the freedom of a race began. 1 Garrison was of the stern, unyielding, undaunted race of the ancient Hebrew prophets. He saw, and wished to see, only one truth, namely, that slavery was sin. " On this subject," he wrote in his first announcement in The Liberator, " I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No ! no ! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm, . . . tell the mother to gradually extricate the babe from the fire into Reduced Facsimile of the Heading of The Liberator which it has fallen but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. ... I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. ... I am in earnest I will not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE HEARD ! The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead." A horrible massacre, by negroes, of over sixty white people (mostly women and children) occurred in Southampton County, Virginia, in the late summer of the same year that The Liber ator was started. Nat Turner, the slave who led the insur rection, was a fanatical lay preacher who could read and write. 1 James Russell Lowell, To William Lloyd Garrison. The Gathering Cloud 319 The Southerners laid the dreadful deed to the influence of The Liberator and other abolitionist literature that was being sent into the slave states. Their rage against Northern abolitionists, especially Garrison, knew no bounds. They demanded that the legislatures of the free states should silence all antislavery agitation by a strict censorship of the press and of the public platform. They increased the severity of their own laws in restraint of negroes, both slave and free. In Delaware the assembling of more than six negroes was forbidden. In Virginia thirty-nine lashes were given a slave who was found with a gun in his possession. A law of Tennessee provided that no slave " dying under moderate correction " (i.e. the slave driver s lash) could be held by the courts to have been "murdered." A wave of apprehension ran through the South lest the South ampton horror should be repeated. The majority of the business and professional men of the 456. North- North were scarcely less hostile to the abolitionists of the tcrthe^bo- 7 Garrison type than were the slaveholders themselves. In fact, litionists Garrison declared that he found " contempt more bitter, opposi tion more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stub born," in New England than in the South. It was not in Charleston or Richmond, but in Boston that he was dragged through the streets, with a rope around his neck, by a " mob of respectable citizens," to be tarred and feathered on the Com mon, and was with difficulty rescued by the police and lodged in the city jail for his safety. As a rebuke to the abolitionists the free negroes in many cities of the North were treated with contemptuous discrimination ; they were ejected from cars and coaches, assigned to corners in the churches, and excluded from the schools. Daniel Webster assured an anxious Southern cor respondent in 1833 that "the North entertained no hostile designs toward slavery " ; and Charles Sumner (who twenty-five years later nearly paid with his life for his advocacy of abolition) declared that " an omnibus load of Boston abolitionists had done more to harm the antislavery cause than all its enemies." 320 Slavery and the West 457. Con trast between antislavery men and abo litionists 458. The South drives moderate Northerners into the abo litionists ranks We must distinguish carefully between the antislavery men, like Webster and Sumner, on the one hand, and the Garrison abolitionists on the other. The former recognized that the slavery question was exceedingly complicated, involving considerations of property, of social rank, of the rights of the states, and of the established industrial system of the South, as well as the moral issue. But the Garrison abolitionists saw only that slavery was sin, the violation of the Christian principle of the brotherhood of man. When therefore the moderate emancipators said that slavery was " the calamity of the South and not its crime," the abolitionist replied that it was a calamity because it was a crime. When the moderates suggested that the nation should assume the burden of emancipation by appropriating to it the revenues from the sale of the public lands, the abolitionists declared for immediate, unconditional, and uncompensated emancipation. The antislavery men were willing to proceed according to the methods recognized by the Constitution ; that is, to confine their demands to emancipation in the District of Columbia (which was national territory), or to petition for an amendment to the Consti tution giving Congress the power to abolish slavery in the states. But Garrison denounced the Constitution as " a covenant with death and an agreement with hell," and burned a copy of it publicly to show his horror of its recognition of slavery. He proclaimed as his motto, " No union with slaveholders ! " and forbade his followers to vote or hold office or even take the oath of allegiance to a Constitution which supported slavery. 1 As the abolitionists were very active in organizing societies in every town and flooding the South with literature, while the more moderate antislavery men refrained from speaking their mind for the sake of preserving as much harmony as possible between the two sections of the country, it was only natural < 1 Garrison s refusal to take any part in politics, joined with other doctrines which were extreme for his day, such as the recognition of woman s rights, a free and rational interpretation of the Bible, and the condemnation of all resist ance by force, prevented his becoming the generally recognized leader of the antislavery or even the abolitionist movement. He was always the leader of an extremist sect. The Gathering Cloud 321 that the South should believe the extreme abolitionist senti ment to be much more widespread in the North than it really was. In fact, the abolitionists might have long remained a small sect of extremists, had not the Southerners themselves driven hundreds into their ranks by trying to muzzle the liberty of petition and debate in Congress, thus identifying the cause of slavery with the denial of free speech. The introduction of abolitionism into Congress marks an 459. The important epoch in the slavery question. During the early C years of Garrison s activity (1829-1833) Congress was busy enters con- with the agitation over the " Tariff of Abominations," the re newal of the Bank charter, the great Webster-Hayne debates on sectionalism, and the crisis of nullification. The slavery issue was kept in the political background, being confined to the lecture hall and the abolitionist journals. But from the session of 1834-1835 on, numerous petitions for the restriction or abolition of slavery were presented in both Houses of Con gress. 1 The attitude of the Southern members toward such petitions was shown when Wise of Virginia declared in the House (February, 1835) : " Sir, slavery is interwoven with our very political existence and guaranteed by our Constitution. You cannot attack the institution of slavery without attacking the institutions of our country." And Calhoun in the Senate called a mild petition from the Pennsylvania Friends for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia (1836) " a foul slander on nearly one half the states of the Union." The first amendment to the Constitution forbids Congress to 460. John make any law abridging " the right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievances." Up to the days of the "gag-resolu tions in the abolitionist excitement Congress had respected this amendment House, 1836- and received all petitions. But in May, 1836, the enemies of x 44 abolition, North and South, united in the following resolution 1 The American Antislavery Society had been organized by the abolitionists at Philadelphia in 1833, and had added 200 branch societies by 1835. Before this epoch only the Friends had taken an interest in petitioning Congress for the destruction of slavery. 322 Slavery and the West 461. Calhoun formulates the slave holders de mands in the Senate, 1836 462. Attempt to exclude abolitionist matter from the mails, 1835-1836 in the House : " That all petitions . . . relating in any way to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred [to a committee], be laid upon the table, and that no further action shall be held thereon." This " gag resolution," as it was called by reason of its intent to throttle free discussion, furthered the abolitionist cause more than all the published numbers of The Liberator. John Quincy Adams, no friend of abolition before, 1 answered, when his name was called on the vote, " I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, of the rules of this House, and of the rights of my constituents." The gag resolution passed, however, by a vote of 1 1 7 to 68, and, in spite of Adams s valiant opposition, was renewed in succeeding sessions, and in 1840 was made a " standing " or permanent rule of the House. 2 Meanwhile the Senate, although it did not pass any similar resolution, rejected the abolitionist petitions so curtly that the effect on the public was the same as that of the conduct of the House. In the course of the debates the Southern members, led by Calhoun, formulated the full demands of the slave in terests, namely, that the government should protect slavery in the Southern states, that the people of the North should cease to attack or even discuss the institution, and that there should be no agitation for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia or the territory of Florida. 3 Furthermore, the executive department of the government had been drawn into the abolitionist struggle. The people of the South resented the distribution of abolitionist literature through their mails. One night in the summer of 1835 a number of 1 In 1807 he had voted in the Senate against the law to prohibit the slave trade, and in 1814, as peace commissioner at Ghent, he had insisted that the British pay for the slaves they had stolen in the United States. 2 It was not till December, 1844, that Adams, after an eight years fight, during which an attempt was made to censure him publicly, was able to get the gag resolution repealed by a vote of 108 to 80. 3 Arkansas, the only territory of the Louisiana Purchase tract left open to slavery after the Missouri Compromise, was admitted as a slave state in 1836. This left Florida the only territory in which slavery legally existed. The Gathering Cloud 3 2 3 leading citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, broke into the post office, seized a mail sack full of abolitionist documents, and publicly burned them. Appeal was made to the Postmaster- General, Amos Kendall, himself a slaveholder, to refuse the abolitionists the use of the United States mails. Kendall re plied that he had no authority to exclude abolitionist matter from the mails, but added that he would force neither the Northern postmasters to forward such matter nor the Southern postmasters to deliver it. In other words, he signified his will ingness to have his subordinates exclude the documents which he himself had no authority to exclude. Kendall probably was encouraged to take this cowardly and inconsistent position by his knowledge that President Jackson sympathized with the South in this matter, and was already preparing to insert in his message of 1835 to Congress a recommendation to pass a law forbidding " under severe penalties the circulation in the Southern states, through the mails, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." Congress, however, refused to interfere, in the interests of slavery, with the regular business of the Post-Office Department of the United States. By a law of July 2, 1836, it punished with dismissal, fine, and imprison ment any postmaster who intentionally detained mail matter from reaching the person to whom it was addressed. These events of the years 1835-1837 in Congress woke the 463. impor- people of the land to realization of the tremendous problem J^s 18 s- they had on their hands. 1 The antislavery men of the North l8 37 for the slavery drew closer to the abolitionist position when they saw how little question chance there was of friendly cooperation with the South for the removal of slavery. Deeds of mob violence still further inflamed the antislavery spirit. In 1836 the office of The 1 Our foremost constitutional historian, Professor Burgess, goes so far as to write : " It would not be extravagant to say that the whole course of the internal history of the United States from 1836 to 1861 was more largely determined by the struggle in Congress over the Abolition petitions and the use of the mails for the distribution of the Abolition literature than by anything else." Middle Period, p. 274. 324 Slavery and the West Philanthropist, an abolitionist paper published in Cincinnati by James G. Birney, a former Alabama planter who had come North and been converted to the abolitionist cause, was sacked by a mob, and Birney was obliged to flee for his life. The next year Elijah Lovejoy, after his printing press had been wrecked three times, was deliberately shot by a mob in Alton, Illinois, for insisting on publishing an abolitionist paper. 464. The Although Garrison and his New England followers con- demned any participation in politics under a Constitution which party, 1837- recognized slavery, the more practical abolitionists of the Middle 1838 and Western border states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, formed a political party. In 1838 they elected Joshua R. Giddings to Congress, and in the presidential campaign of 1840 they cast over 7000 votes for James G. Birney. 1 We shall see in the next chapter what a great influence this Liberty party exercised in the decade 1840-1850. In spite of Garrison s op position to the party, it was nevertheless the natural and logical outcome of the abolitionist movement, and the true foundation of the new Republican party which twenty years later triumphed in the election of Abraham Lincoln, the man who gave negro slavery its death blow. 465. Re- The failure of the South to get rid of slavery in the early of theVouth- decades of the nineteenth century must be set down to the aristocrat 8 domination of a class of rich, aristocratic planters, who found for the con- slavery both economically profitable and the basis of a social tinuation of slavery order in which they enjoyed a comfortable and commanding position. Their slaves excluded the competition of free labor and kept the poorer whites from attaining the industrial devel opment which would have given them a share in the commercial wealth and the political power of the South. Calhoun, in a con versation with Horace Binney, a Northern friend, in 1834, 1 The socialists of to-day offer an analogy to the abolitionists of the middle of the century, some of them wishing to keep their ideal " pure " by refraining from participation in a government corrupted by capitalism, others seeing the only hope of success in entering the political arena and struggling with the other parties there. The Gathering Cloud 325 boasted of the superiority of slave labor over free labor in a democracy. Of the Northern laborers he said : " The poor and uneducated are increasing. There is no power in representative government to suppress them. Their numbers and disorderly tempers will make them in the end the enemies of the men of property. They have the right to vote, and will finally control your elections, invade your houses, and drive you out of doors. . . . They will increase till they overturn your institutions. Slavery cuts off this evil at its roots. . . . There cannot be a durable republic without slavery." 3 The moral argument of the abolitionists had less and less 466. The moral argu- weight as this caste system hardened. By what moral sua- men tpower- sion," asked an apologist for slavery in the South, "do you Jaceofeco- imagine you can prevail on us to give up a thousand millions nomic inter- of dollars in the value of our slaves and a thousand millions more in the depreciation of our lands ? " Had the states of the South been willing to cooperate with the national government, there is little doubt that a plan of gradual emancipation could have been found. Other nations, even the states of Spanish America, had got rid of slavery without revolution or blood shed, and the example of England, which purchased for 20,- 000,000 and set free the slaves in her West Indian colonies in 1833, was before the eyes of the South and of the world. But the humane and moderate sentiment surrendered completely in our country to the slaveholders financial interests. Under the provocation of the abolitionists attacks the legislatures of the Southern states, instead of devising plans of emancipation, passed harsher and harsher laws for the coercion of the negroes, muzzled all expression of opinion, forbade any assembling of the blacks for instruction, and made death the penalty for exciting or sup porting any conspiracy for freedom. 1 This gloomy prediction of Calhoun s was reported in a letter from Mr. Binney to Dr. Francis Lieber, January 5, 1861. See C. C. Binney, The Life of Horace Binney, p. 313. 326 Slavery and the West REFERENCES Slavery in the Colonies: J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 514-528; Vol. IV, pp. 556-569; E. B. GREENE, Provincial America (American Nation Series), chap, xiv; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. I, Nos. 86-87; Vo1 - H, Nos - 4 2 > 102-108; J. A. DOYLE, English Colonies in America, Vol. V, chap, vi ; W. E. B. DuBois, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, chaps, i-iii ; W. B. WEEDEN, Economic and Social History of New England, Vol. II, chap, xii ; MARY S. LOCKE, Anti- slavery in America, 1619-1808 (Radcliffe College Monographs, No. n). The Missouri Compromise : H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. I, chap, ix ; F. J. TURNER, Rise of the A r ew West (Am. Nation), chap, x; JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Memoirs, Vols. IV, V; J. A. WOODBURN, Historical Significance of the Missouri Compromise, in American History Association Report, 1893, pp. 249-298 ; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chap, iv ; MACMASTER, Vol. IV, chap, xxxix ; CARL SCHURZ, Henry Clay, Vol. I, chap. viii. The Abolitionists: HART, Contemporaries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 174-181, 186; W. P. and F. J. GARRISON, Life of William Lloyd Garrison; MAC- MASTER, Vol. VI, chap. Ixi ; HiGGiNSON and MACDONALD, History of the United States, chap, xix ; J. G. WHITTIER, in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 166-172; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 17 76-1861, Nos. 63-69 ; T. C. SMITH, The Liberty and Free-Soil Parties in the Northwest, chaps, ii, iii ; BURGESS, chap, xi ; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. I, pp. 53-75; BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, The Story of the Negro, chap, xiv (negro abolitionists). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Antislavery Sentiment in the Eighteenth Century : HENRY WILSON, The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. I, pp. 1-30 ; THOMAS JEFFER SON, Notes on Virginia; WILLIAM RIRNEY, James G. Birney, His Life and Times, Appendix C ; JOHN WOOLMAN, Considerations on the Keep ing of A T egroes ; HART, Contemporaries, Vol. II, Nos. 102, 103, 106; GAILLARD HUNT, Life of James Madison, pp. 70-76. 2. Slavery in the Constitution of the United States : WILSON, Vol. I, pp. 39-56 ; DuBois, pp. 53-69 ; JONATHAN ELLIOT, Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. V ; J. R. BRACKETT, The Status of Slavery, I j j^-jjSg (in J. F. Jameson s Essays in Constitutional History], pp. 263-311 ; H. V. AMES, Slavery and the Constitution. The Gathering Cloud 327 3. The " Gag " Resolutions : ADAMS, Vol. VIII, pp. 434-481; Vol. IX, pp. 267-286; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 184 ; C. H. PECK, The Jacks onian Epoch, pp. 273-279, 373-392; J. T. MORSE, JR., John Quincy Adams, pp. 243-262 ; JosiAH QuiNCY, Memoir of John Quincy Adams, pp. 251-262 ; HART, Slavery and Abolition (Am. Nation), pp. 256-275. 4. Abolitionist Literature in the United States Mail : HART, Vol. Ill, No. 180; Slavery and Abolition, pp. 286-288; J. D. RICHARDSON, Mes sages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. Ill, pp. 175 ff. ; AMOS KENDALL, Autobiography, pp. 645 ff. 5. James G. Birney : WILLIAM BIRNEY, James G. Birney, His Life and Times; SAMUEL). MAY, Recollections of the Anti slavery Conflict, pp. 203-211 ; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 177 ; WILSON, Vol. I (use index). CHAPTER XII TEXAS WESTWARD EXPANSION One of the chief traits of the American people has been their restless activity. The settlers who came to our shores in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries came in search of an ampler life than they found in the v Old World. They wanted elbow room. They demanded freedom freedom from religious persecution, social oppression, and commercial restriction. For the sake of living untrammeled lives and working out their own destinies, they accepted the privations and hardships of the New World. Their descendants, increased by new thousands of ad venturous immigrants, tended constantly westward, making the extension of our frontier to the Pacific probably the most important influence in American history. 467. The The Westward movement is characterized by successive waves pioneers to r . , ~ the west, 01 migration. I he first great wave, fascinatingly described in 1763-1783 ex-President Roosevelt s " Winning of the West," followed the ex pulsion of the French from North America in 1 763. Through the passes of the Alleghenies, " the arteries of the West," a stream of pioneers led by Boone, Sevier, Robertson, Harrod, and our other early " empire builders," l poured into the forest lands of the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland valleys ; while George Rogers Clark, during the American Revolution, won for Virginia and the Union the magnificent territory between the Ohio and the Great Lakes, extending westward to the Mississippi. 1 " A roughened race, embrowned in the sun, loving the rude woods and the crack of the rifle, delicate in nothing but the touch of the trigger, leaving cities in their track as if by accident rather than by design. . . . Settled life and wild life side by side; civilization frayed at the edges; Europe frontiered ! " Woodrow Wilson, in The Forum, Vol. XIX, p. 544. 328 Texas 329 A second wave of Westward migration followed the War of 468. succes- 1812, filling the Indiana and Illinois territories on the north and westward 8 the Mississippi and Missouri territories to the south, and bring- migration ing five new Western states (Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Ala bama, Missouri) into the Union in as many years (1816-1821). The third and most wonderful era of Westward expansion (1835-1848) carried our boundary across the Rockies and the Sierras to the Pacific Ocean. It is this third period which we are to study in the present chapter. The chapter is entitled " Texas," because the annexation of that great commonwealth An Emigrant Train on the Way to the West to the Union, and the disposition of the land that was acquired in the war with Mexico which followed the annexation, deter mined the whole policy of our government toward the West during the decade 1840-1850. . The path, of Westward expansion was never smooth. Besides 469. Eastern the distresses and dangers of the wilderness, the pioneer com- JJ^deveiop*? munities had to contend with opposition from the older states. men * of tne Up to the time of the Missouri Compromise this opposition arose from the apprehension of the original states that the f| ,,, burden of the defense and the development of the new commu nities would fall upon their shoulders, and from the jealousy of the political power which the new communities would wrest from them. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, at the time of 330 Slavery and the West the formation of the Constitution, wanted some provision in serted to prevent the future commonwealths created out of the trans- Allegheny country from enjoying equal power in Congress with the thirteen original states. And when the bill to admit Louisiana to the Union was proposed in 1 8 1 1 , Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts declared on the floor of Congress : " If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dis solution of the Union. . . . Do you suppose the people of the Northern and Atlantic states will, or ought to, look on with patience and see representatives and senators from the Red River and the Missouri pouring themselves on this floor, man aging the concerns of a seaboard 1500 miles, t least, from their residence ? " 470. slavery This narrow and selfish opposition of the East to the expan sion of the West was broken down by the democratic revolution of the third decade of the nineteenth century, which put Andrew Jackson into the presidential chair. But a still more serious complication arose with the debates over the Missouri Compro mise and the abolitionist agitation. Then the question of the growth of the West became connected with the question of the extension of slavery. After the bitter struggle of the years 1835-1837 in Congress over the antislavery petitions and the use of the United States mails for antislavery propaganda, no movement for the acquisition of new territory or the admission of new states could arise without immediately starting the strife between the friends and the foes of slavery. Senator Benton of Missouri likened the slavery question to the plague of frogs sent on the Egyptians. "We can see nothing, touch nothing, have no measures proposed," he said, " without having this pestilence thrust before us." 471. The It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of crisis of the . . . , TT . .. . T siavery ques- this connection between Westward expansion and slavery. In wit-lowest- ^ act fr was m conn ection with the Westward movement that the ward expan- struggle over slavery grew fiercer and fiercer until it ended in secession and civil war. In other words, the slavery issue came Texas 331 to a crisis not as a struggle between North and South, but as a struggle of North and South for the West. If there had been no trans-Mississippi territory to spread into, slavery might have continued in the Southern states as an accepted institution, pro tected by the Constitution of the United States, and established by long usage, in spite of the agitation of a relatively small group of abolitionists in the North. Or if that group had had their way, the North and the South might have separated peace ably into a free and a slave republic. -But the sentiment of ex pansion, so deeply implanted in the breasts of Northerners and Southerners alike, and the glory of carrying the American flag to the Pacific Ocean, impelled our fathers to take possession of the Western land and trust to future compromises to settle the question of freedom or slavery within its borders. The history of those compromises we shall trace in a later chapter. First we must see how the Western land was won. It will be remembered that the treaty of 1819 with Spain 472. claims fixed our western boundary as far north as the forty-second Jggion parallel. We had just concluded (1818) a treaty with Great **** Britain by which we agreed to share with that power for ten years the great Oregon region lying west of the Rocky Mountains between 42 and 54 40 north latitude. The agree ment was fair, for both countries had claims on Oregon, based upon exploration and settlement. For the Americans, a Boston sea captain named Grey had sailed into the mouth of the Columbia River in 1792 ; the famous Lewis and Clark expedi tion had traversed the region to the Pacific in 1804-1806; and John Jacob Astor had established the fur post of Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia in 1811. For the English, the Hudson Bay Company had established several trading posts and ports north of the Columbia River. In 1828, on the expiration of the ten years agreement, some of our Western patriots, led by Senator Thomas H. Benton, who realized the importance of our extension to the Pacific, urged a settlement of the Oregon question which should give the United States full 332 Slavery and the West title to the land at least as far north as the forty-ninth parallel (our northern boundary east of the Rockies). But public opinion was not yet sufficiently aroused to the value of the region across the Rockies. Oregon seemed too far away to bother over in the excit ing days of the Jackson campaign for the presidency ; and the agreement of 1818 was renewed for an indefinite period in 1829. 473. Marcus During the Jacksonian epoch several American travelers and laborsfor * explorers made the long overland journey to Oregon, but the Oregon, 1835- i nterest o f the people at Jarge in the possession of that distant region was due chiefly to the splendid energy and enthusiasm of one man, Dr. Marcus Whitman of New York. Whitman was sent out by the American Board of Missions to labor for the conversion of the Pacific-coast Indians in 1835. Tne next vear he returned to the East and took back to Oregon with him a little company of helpers, including two women, his newly married wife and the bride of one of his colleagues, the first white women to make the toilsome and dangerous wagon trip across the Western prairies and the Rockies. A few years later (1842), when there was danger that the American Board would discontinue its station in southern Oregon, Whitman made a winter s journey of nearly 4000 miles back to the headquarters of the Board in Boston to urge the continuance of the work. On his return trip to Oregon he was of inestimable service in helping conduct a company of several hundred emigrants from the Middle West to the Columbia valley. The actual settlement of this colony in Oregon constituted the most powerful argu ment in our claim to the region from that time on. While Oregon was thus being opened for American settle ment, a most exciting incident in the great drama of expansion was being enacted on our southern borders, in Texas. We must again revert to the famous treaty of 1819 with Spain, which fixed our southwestern boundary at the Sabine River. Two years after the treaty of 1819 Mexico joined the long list of Spanish-American colonies which had established their in dependence of the mother country. The government of the new Texas 333 " Republic of Mexico " was very weak, however, especially in the provinces lying at a distance from the capital. Texas (joined with Coahuila) formed one of these provinces, and for several reasons chafed under the weak but imperious control of Mexico. In the first place, since the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 474. Ameri- tury Americans l had been crossing the Sabine into Texas, un- in^he Mexi- til by 1830 there were nearly 20,000 of them in the province. The Txas! Americans at first had been welcomed and given large tracts of land by the Mexicans, partly in return for the aid they furnished the latter in their revolt from Spain. But when the number of Americans increased to the point where they threatened to rule the province, the Mexican president Bustamante issued an edict (1830) forbidding all further immigration from the United States into Texas. 2 At the same time the Mexican government sub jected the province of Texas, with its predominating Protestant religion, its traditions of representative government, and its free dom of speech and press, to the Roman Catholic Spanish officials of the smaller province of Coahuila. Evidently the intent of the Mexican government was to put an end to American in fluence in Texas. After petitioning Mexico for a separation from Coahuila 475. Texas (1833), and in reply having a detachment of Mexican troops sent into their province to maintain order, and a Mexican fleet sent to Mexico, April, 1836 their coast to blockade their ports, the Texans, on the second 1 The term " American," of course, in its literal sense means an inhabitant or citizen of America North, South, or Central. But, as we have no single word to denote an inhabitant or citizen of the United States, we quite commonly use the term " American " for that purpose, calling the other " Americans " Cana dians, Mexicans, Brazilians, etc. 2 Alexis de Tocqueville, our most distinguished foreign critic in the first half of the nineteenth century, wrote shortly after 1830: "In the course of the last few years, the Anglo-Americans have penetrated into this province [Texas], which is still thinly peopled. They purchase land, they produce the commodities of the country, and supplant the original population. It may be easily foreseen that if Mexico takes no step to check this change, the province of Texas will soon cease to belong to her" (Democracy in America, Vol. I, p. 448). In a hundred years Spain had brought less than 3000 white colonists to Texas, while in the single decade 1817-1827, about 12,000 Americans crossed the borders into the province. 334 Slavery and the West of March, 1836, declared their independence, and drove the Mexican troops across their border. Santa Anna, the new Mexican president, a man of perfidious and cruel character, led an army of 6000 troops in person to punish the rebellious prov ince of Texas. His march was marked with horrible atrocities. At the Alamo, a mission building near San Antonio, a garrison of 1 66 Texans was absolutely exterminated, even to the sick in the hospital ward; and a little further on, at La Bahia, the defenders were massacred in cold blood after their surrender. Santa Anna with some 1500 troops was met at the San Jacinto 476. The republic of Texas The Convent and Grounds of the Alamo River (April 21, 1836) by a force of about 750 Texan volun teers under General Sam Houston, a veteran of the War of 1812, and an ex-governor of Tennessee. The Mexican army was utterly routed and Santa Anna himself fell into Houston s hands as a prisoner of war. The independence of Texas was won. A republic was immedi ately set up with Houston as president, and a constitution was adopted patterned after those of the American commonwealths. Slavery was legitimized in the new republic, but the importation of slaves from any place except the United States was forbid den. Some 50,000 out of the 68,000 inhabitants of Texas were Americans, and the sentiment of President Houston, the Texas 335 legislature, and the people at large was overwhelmingly in favor of annexation to the United States. The administration at Washington was also in favor of the annexation of Texas, and had been ever since Mexico had secured its independence from Spain. In 1827 President John Quincy Adams had offered Mexico $1,000,000 for Texas; and Presi dent Jackson had twice tried to purchase the province (1829, 1835), raising Adams s offer to $5,000,000. In fact, some of Jackson s opponents asserted that when Mexico, in 1835, refused his last offer of $5,000,000 he secretly urged his old friend Houston to precipitate the revolution of the follawing year, by which Texas won its independence. However, there is little probability that this charge was true, for Jackson refused to conclude a treaty of annex ation with Texas, even after both Houses of Congress had recognized the independence 477. Attempts of the United States to an nex Texas by purchase, 1827-1835 478. Jackson refuses to anger Mexico by the an nexation of Texas, 1836 Sam Houston, First President of the Republic of Texas of the province by large ma jorities. We were at peace with Mexico, though on bad terms with her on account of claims of damages to American property in Texas and to American commerce in the Gulf. Mexico still claimed Texas as a dependency, and although there was apparently little chance of her recovering the province, the revolt was still too recent to make the Texan republic an assured fact. Under these circumstances, for the United States to take Texas without the consent of Mexico would have been a breach of the law of nations, and would probably have brought on war between the two countries. 336 Slavery and the West 479. van When Van Buren entered the White House in March, 1837, Sannexa- Sed whatever hope there was of the speedy annexation of Texas tion, 1837-1841 vanished. The abolitionist struggle in Congress was at its height. The moment was most inauspicious for the attempt to add the immense slave area of Texas to the Union. Besides, Van Buren was a New Yorker, and had little desire for extending the do main of slavery. He refused to consider any proposition for the annexation of Texas, and even came to an agreement with Mexico (which that country promptly broke) for the settlement of the American claims. So the whole matter slumbered through Van Buren s administration, and played no part at all in the turbulent election of 1840, in which the new Whig party over threw the Jackson machine and took revenge on Van Buren for the official corruption and financial demoralization for which they believed his patron and predecessor was responsible. THE " REOCCUPATION " OF OREGON AND THE " REANNEXATION " OF TEXAS 480. presi- The triumph of the Whigs in 1840 was short-lived. Presi- dent Harrison, the old hero of Tippecanoe, died a month after his inauguration, and Vice President Tyler succeeded to his place. Tyler was a Virginian and a Democrat. He had been put on the Whig ticket with Harrison in order to win votes in the South. The only bond of union between him and men like Adams, Clay, Harrison, and Webster was his enmity for Andrew Jackson, which had been strong enough to drive him into the Whig party. On the great questions of public policy, such as a strong central government, internal improvements, the tariff, and the Bank of the United States, he was opposed to the Whig leaders ; and being a man of independent judgment and strong will, he had no intention of submitting to the dictation of Henry Clay. 1 1 We have already seen (p. 296) why Clay was not an available candidate for the presidency in 1840. Still, as the acknowledged leader of the Whig party, he expected to control the administration and had already quarreled with Harrison. Texas 337 When the Whig Congress passed a bill for the rechartering 481. Tyler of the National Bank in the summer of 1841, Tyler vetoed it; and even after Congress had modified the bill in a way that, the leaders thought would meet the President s views, Tyler still re- whig party fused his consent. As the Whigs did not have the necessary two-thirds majority in Congress to override the President s veto, the bill was lost, and with it the dearest project of the Whig leaders. For this "insubordination" Tyler was read out of the Whig party, and every member of his cabinet resigned except Daniel Webster, who was in the midst of delicate negotiations with Lord Ashburton over the boundary between Maine and Canada. With the cabinet reorganized, and the Whigs of Harrison s 482. Daniel choice replaced by men of Tyler s views, the Southern members ^esSomthe of Congress began to revive the question of the annexation of Cabinet, 1842; Texas, making no effort to conceal the fact that they wanted tion policy is more territory for the extension of slavery. But while Daniel Webster was Secretary of State, there was little hope of push ing the annexation policy. Webster was a strong antislavery Whig, who had put himself on record against the acquisition of Texas in a great speech made in New York City, on his way home from the Congressional session of 1836-1837. "Texas is likely to be a slaveholding country," he said, "and I frankly avow my entire unwillingness to do anything that shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent, or add other slaveholding states to the Union. When I say I regard slavery as a great moral, social, and political evil, I only use language which has been adopted by distinguished men, themselves citi zens of slaveholding states. 1 ... I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its further extension." But a few months after the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842 was concluded, Webster was replaced by a Secretary of State (Upshur, of Vir ginia) whose views were favorable to the annexation policy. 1 Unfortunately, as we have seen (pp. 321-325), such language was rapidly becoming discredited in the South at the very time when Webster was speaking. 338 Slavery and the West 483. The an- It was just at this time that Marcus Whitman made his famous horseback journey across the continent to save the mis- Oregon and s i on stations in Oregon. The popular interest in that distant TGXclS region, which followed the publication of Whitman s pamphlets and his successful colonization of the Columbia valley, furnished the annexationists with fine political capital. By combining the demand for Oregon with the demand for Texas they could appeal to the people of the United States on a platform which emphasized the expansion of American territory rather than the extension of the area of slavery. With Oregon they might win the Northern expansionists who were opposed to annexing Texas on account of slavery. Thus Oregon was used as a makeweight for Texas. 484. Growth As the year 1843 passed, the policy of both Great Britain sioiSst^nS- an d Mexico strengthened the expansionist sentiment in the ment, 1843 United States. The British ministry curtly rejected the offer of our government to divide Oregon by running the boundary line of 49 north latitude to the Pacific ; and Mexico, besides break ing the agreement made with Van Buren for the adjustment of American claims, notified our State Department that any move to annex Texas would be regarded as an act of war. Although we were a strong nation and Mexico a weak one, there were many Americans who felt that we had borne long enough with the violence and perfidy of our Southern neighbor. 485. Danger Moreover, there were unmistakable signs that Great Britain terventfon^n" was using her influence to keep us out of Texas. She built and even officered Mexican war steamers, which ravaged the Texan coast. Her ships were hovering off the coast of California (which was part of Mexico), ready to aid the establishment there of English colonies authorized by Mexico, "to keep out the Americans." Moreover, Mexico owed about $50,000,000 to British capitalists, for which her lands to the north and west of the Rio Grande were mortgaged. An independent state of Texas under British protection would furnish England a market for her cotton manufactures, unhampered by the tariff of the Texas 339 United States. Our minister to Paris wrote to the Secretary of State in 1845, "There is scarcely any sacrifice England would not make to prevent Texas from coming into our possession." When, therefore, the cabinet office of Secretary of State was 486. cai- again made vacant, by the tragic death of Mr. Upshur 1 (February, 1844), President Tyler appointed John C. Calhoun, who was an ardent annexationist, for the express purpose of negotiating a treaty securing Texas. Calhoun speedily concluded the treaty, and the President sent it to the Senate, April 22, 1844. But the Senate, on June 8, refused by a large majority to ratify it. Besides the strong antislavery men of the North, many Southern ers voted against the treaty for various reasons : because Calhoun had overstepped his powers in sending men and ships to pro tect Texas from Mexican interference while the treaty was under discussion ; because they saw in it a bid on his part for the presidency ; because they thought that he deliberately misrepre sented Great Britain s attitude in order to hasten annexation ; because there were many speculators in Texan lands trying to influence senators in the lobbies of Congress to vote for the treaty ; because they were not ready to invite war with Mexico ; because they doubted the power of the President and Senate to annex an independent foreign state by treaty. While Calhoun s treaty was being discussed in the Senate, 487. The na- the Whig and Democratic conventions met to select their candi- ventions*f dates for the presidential campaign. The Whigs, rejoicing that l844 the day of Tyler s retirement was at hand, unanimously nominated Henry Clay. On the subject of expansion their plat form was silent. They relied entirely on the record and the popularity of their candidate. In the Democratic convention the friends of annexation carried the day after a hard battle. Van Buren was rejected, and James K. Polk of Tennessee was nominated on the eighth ballot. 1 He was killed by the explosion of a gun on the United States warship Princeton, which a party of government officials were visiting as she lay at anchor in the Potomac, a little below Washington. 340 Slavery and the West 488. James K. Polk, the first dark horse " in the presidential race 489. The Democratic platform of 1844 490. Henry Clay s letters on Texas Polk was an ardent annexationist. He had been a member of Congress from 1825 to 1839, and Speaker of the House during the stormy days of the abolitionist debates. In 1839 he was elected governor of Tennessee. Although by no means an obscure man, Polk had not been regarded as a presidential possibility before the convention met. He is the first example of the " dark horse " x in the national convention ; and it is a significant fact that from this time to the choice of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the men of first rank (like Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Douglas) were passed over for a more " available," that is, a compromise, candidate. It is the most striking proof of the influence of the slavery question on our politics ; for no other issue since the establishment of our government had been strong enough to keep from the highest offices the statesmen of conspicuous genius. The Democrats went into the campaign of 1844 with a frank appeal to the expansionist sentiment of the country. Their plat form was the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas. The prefix re in this confident declaration implied that Oregon was already ours by discovery, settlement, and treaty ; and that Texas had been really purchased with Louisiana in 1803 but had been weakly surrendered to Spain in the treaty of 1819. Three days before the Whig convention met, Henry Clay had made public a letter declaring against the annexation of Texas as likely to bring on war with Mexico and to reopen the painful subject of slavery. After his nomination, however, he tried to win the support of the South and at the same time hold the support of the antislavery men of the North. In a second letter, published in August, he said he should like to see Texas annexed if it could be accomplished " without dis honor, without war, with the common consent of the nation, and on just and fair terms," adding that " the subject of slavery 1 A term borrowed from the language of the race track to denote a horse of whose qualities and speed nothing is known ; then used in politics of an obscure candidate who " comes up from behind " and wins the race. Texas 341 ought not to affect the question one way or the other." Dis satisfied with Clay s " straddle " on the slavery issue in Texas, enough Whigs in New York and Michigan cast their votes for the abolitionist James C. Birney (who was again the candidate of the Liberty party) to give those two states, and therewith the election, to Polk. Tyler interpreted the election of Polk as the indorsement by 491. Texas the American people of the policy of the immediate annexation of Texas and Oregon. He therefore, at the opening of his last Congress (December, 1844), sent all the papers relative to the i, 1845 Calhoun treaty to the House of Representatives, and suggested that Congress might admit Texas without any treaty, under the clause of the Constitution which gives it the right to " admit new states into this Union." In February, 1845, both branches of Congress, acting on Tyler s recommendation, passed resolu tions in favor of annexing Texas, the House by a vote of 132 to 76, the Senate by the close vote of 27 to 25. President Tyler signed the bill om the first of March, three days before his retirement from office. The people of Texas welcomed the resolutions of Congress 492. The with a rejoicing almost as tumultuous as that which had greeted the news of the victory of San Jacinto. Late in the year 1845 the republic of Texas became a state of the Union on gener ous terms. She left to the United States government the adjust ment of her boundaries with Mexico ; handed over to the United States her public lands and buildings, her ports, harbors, forts, and arsenals ; agreed to consider the proposition of the division of her territory into five states if Congress so wished ; and agreed to the prohibition of slavery north of the Missouri Com promise line of 36 30 . Texas being safely in the Union, the new President began to 493. "Fifty- redeem his campaign pledge for the " reoccupation " of Oregon, * 3 In his first message to Congress (December, 1845) he asserted the claims of the United States to the whole of the Oregon region from the Spanish-Mexican boundary on the south (42) 342 Slavery and the West to the Russian boundary on the north (54 40 ). Great Britain must retire from the whole of Oregon, back to the Hudson Bay territory. " Fifty-four forty or fight " was the popular war- cry in which the victorious Democrats voiced their preposterous claims to the whole of Oregon. 494. settle- However, as Mexico began to make preparations for carry- oregonbound- m g out ner threats of war, the administration at Washington ary, June, grew more moderate in its claims to Oregon. Neither Polk nor Congress had any intention, at such a crisis, of going to war with England over a difference of five degrees of latitude on our northwestern boundary. So, after a rather amusing cam paign of correspondence, in which the President and the Senate each tried to throw on the other the responsibility of deserting the blustering platform of " Fifty-four forty or fight," a treaty was made with Great Britain (June, 1846) continuing the par allel of 49, from the Rockies to the Pacific, as the northern boundary of the United States. THE MEXICAN WAR 495. The The annexation of Texas was a perfectly fair transaction, legality of the . . . .. _, T . . rt .. annexation of For nine years, since the victory of San Jacmto in 1836, Texas had been an independent republic, whose reconquest Mexico had not the slightest chance of effecting. In fact, at the very moment of annexation, the Mexican government, under the guidance of England, had agreed to recognize the independence of Texas, on condition that the republic should not join itself to the United States. We were not taking Mexican territory, then, in annexing Texas ; and the Mexican government was violating the law of nations when it threatened the United States with war, and actually massed its troops on the Texan border. 496. Polk Texas had come into the Union claiming the Rio Grande as attempts to negotiate her southern and western boundary. By the terms of annexa- with Mexico tion all b ounc i ar y disputes with Mexico were referred by Texas Texas 343 to the government of the United States. President Polk, accord ingly, sent John Slidell of Louisiana to Mexico in the autumn of 1845 to adjust any differences over the Texan claims. But though Slidell labored for months to get a hearing, two succes sive presidents of revolution-torn Mexico refused to recognize him, and he was dismissed from the country in August, 1846. The massing of Mexican troops on the south bank of the Rio Grande, coupled with the refusal of the Mexican government to re ceive Slidell, led President Polk to order General Zachary Taylor, the commander of our troops in Texas, to move to the borders. Taylor marched to the Rio Grande and fortified a position on the northern bank. Taylor s march 1846-184? . Scott s march 1847 ...... Kearney s march 1846 ....... Doniphan s march 1846- 1847 ,+H+H* Fr6mont s route 1846 497. General Taylor at tacked on the Rio Grande, April, 1846 The Campaigns of the Mexican War The Mexican and the American troops were thus facing each other across the river. When Taylor refused to retreat to the Nueces, the Mexican commander crossed the Rio Grande, am bushed a scouting force of 63 Americans, and killed or wounded 1 6 of them (April 24, 1846). When the news of this attack reached Washington early in May, Polk sent a special message to Congress, concluding with these words : " We have tried every effort at reconciliation. . . . 498. The United States accepts war with Mexico 344 Slavery and the West 499. Taylor Mexico 500. commo- seizes Caii- 501. Kearny occupy 1 But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States [the Rio Grande], has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are at war. A war exists, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself. We are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriot ism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interests of our country." The House and the Senate, by very large majorities (174 to 14, and 40 to 2), voted 50,000 men and $10,000,000 for the prosecution of the war. Meanwhile, General Taylor had driven the Mexicans back to the south bank of the Rio Grande in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Six days after the vote of Congress sanctioning the war, he crossed the Rio Grande and occupied the Mexican frontier town of Matamoros, whence he proceeded during the summer and autumn of 1846 to capture the capitals of three of the Mexican provinces. As soon as hostilities began, Commodore Sloat, in command f our squadron in the Pacific, was ordered to seize California, and General Kearny, who was at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas), was sent to invade New Mexico. The occupation of California was practically undisputed. Mexico had only the faintest shadow of authority in the province, and the 6000 white in habitants made no objection to seeing the flag of the United States raised over their forts. Kearny started with 1800 men from Fort Leavenworth in June, and on the eighteenth of August defeated the force of 4000 Mexicans and Indians which disputed his occupation of Santa Fe. After garrisoning this important post he detached Colonel Doniphan with 850 men to march through the northern provinces of Mexico and effect a juncture with General Taylor at Monterey, while he himself with only 100 men continued his long journey of 1500 miles to San Diego, California, where he joined Sloat s successor, Stockton. Texas 345 After these decided victories and uninterrupted marches of 502. Mexico Taylor, Kearny, Sloat, Stockton, and Doniphan, the Mexican makepeace, government was offered a fair chance to treat for peace, which l8 4 6 it refused. Then President Polk decided, with the unanimous consent of his cabinet, to strike at the heart of Mexico. General Winfield Scott, a hero of the War of 1812, was put in command of an army of about 12,000 men, to land at Vera Cruz and fight his way up the mountains to the capital city of Mexico. Santa Anna, who, by the rapid shift of revolutions, was again 503. Taylor s dictator in Mexico, heard of this plan to attack the capital, and BuenZvista hastened north with 20,000 troops to surprise and destroy Taylor s army before Scott should have time to take Vera Cruz. But Taylor, with an army one fourth the size of Santa Anna s, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mexicans at Buena Vista (February 23, 1847), securing the Californian and New Mexican conquests, and driving Santa Anna back to defend the city of Mexico. Scott took Vera Cruz in March, and worked his way slowly 504. General but surely, against forces always superior to his own, up to the very gates of Mexico (August, 1847). Here he paused, by the Mexico, sep- President s orders, to allow the Mexicans another chance to 1847 accept the terms of peace which the United States offered, the cession by Mexico of New Mexico and California in return for a large payment of money. The Mexican commissioners, however, insisted on having both banks of the Rio Grande and all of California up to the neighborhood of San Francisco, besides receiving damages for injuries inflicted by the American troops in their invasions. These claims were preposterous, coming from a conquered country, and there was nothing left for Scott to do but to resume military operations. Santa Anna defended the capital with a force of 30,000 men, but the Mexicans were no match for the American soldiers. Scott stormed the heights of Chapultepec and carried the gates of the city on the thirteenth of September, and on the next day entered the Mexican capital in triumph. Resistance was at an end. 346 Slavery and the West 505. Folk s From the beginning of the war Polk had been negotiating fortTto secure f r peace. He had kept Slidell in Mexico long after the opening 1846- o f hostilities, and had sent Nicholas Trist as special peace com missioner to join Scott s army at Vera Cruz and to offer Mexico terms of peace at the earliest possible moment. He had allowed Santa Anna to return to Mexico from his exile in Cuba in the summer of 1846, because that wily and treacherous dictator held out false promises of effecting a reconciliation between Winfield Scott Zachary Taylor The Heroes of the Mexican War Mexico and the United States. He had asked Congress for an appropriation of $2,000,000 for peace negotiations when General Taylor was still near the Rio Grande, ten days before General Kearny had taken Santa Fe r and the province of New Mexico, and before General Scott s campaign had been thought of. Folk s political opponents found it easy to attribute his desire to end the war or to "conquer a peace," as he himself phrased it to jealousy of too complete a victory of Generals Taylor and Scott, both of whom were Whigs. But the perusal Texas 347 of the careful diary which Polk has left us gives the impression of a sincere desire on the part of the administration to deal justly and even kindly with Mexico. When the Mexican commissioners made advances for peace 506. The at the beginning of the year 1848, they were given terms Guadaiupe- almost as liberal as those offered them before Scott had stormed Hldal and occupied their capital. By the treaty concluded at Guada- lupe-Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, Mexico was required to cede California and New Mexico to the United States and to recog nize the Rio Grande as the southern and western boundary of Texas. In return, the United States paid Mexico $15,000,000 cash, and assumed some $3,500,000 more in claims of Amer ican citizens, which Mexico had agreed by the convention of 1840 to pay, but had later repudiated. Considering the facts that California was scarcely under Mexican control at all, and might have been taken at any moment by Great Britain, France, or Russia ; that New Mexico was still the almost undisturbed home of Indian tribes ; that the land from the Nueces to the Rio Grande was almost a desert l ; and that the American troops were in possession of the Mexican capital, the terms offered Mexico were very generous. Polk was urged by many to annex the whole country of Mexico to the United States, but he refused to consider such a proposal. The Mexican War has generally been condemned by Amer- 507. The jus- ican historians as "the foulest blot on our national honor," a Mexican war war forced upon Mexico by slaveholders greedy for new ter ritory, a perfect illustration of La Fontaine s fable of the wolf picking a quarrel with the lamb solely for an excuse to devour him. War is a horrid thing at best, and must some day be relegated by civilized nations to the limbo of barbarism along with human slavery, the torture chamber, and the stake. 1 Ulysses S. Grant, later the greatest Union general in the Civil War, was in Taylor s army on its march to the Rio Grande in 1846. Describing this march in his " Memoirs," he says (Vol. I, p. 48) : " No inhabitants were found until about thirty miles from San Antonio ; some were living underground for fear of the Indians." 34 8 Slavery and the West But so far as war can be the just means of settling any differ ences between nations, the war of 1846-1848 with Mexico was .eminently just. That nation had insulted our flag, plundered our commerce, imprisoned our citizens, lied to our represent atives, and spurned our envoys. As early as 1837 President Jackson said that Mexico s offenses " would justify in the eyes of all nations immediate war." To be sure we were a strong nation and Mexico a weak one. But weakness should not give immunity to continued and open insolence. We had a right to annex Texas after that republic had maintained its inde pendence for nine years ; yet Mexico made annexation a cause of war. We were willing to discuss the boundaries of Texas with Mexico ; but our accredited envoy was rejected by two successive Mexican presidents, who were afraid to oppose the war spirit of their country. We even refrained from taking Texas into the Union until Great Britain had interfered so far as to persuade Mexico to offer Texas her independence if she would refuse to join the United States. 508. The If there was anything disgraceful in the expansionist pro- ofthe annex- gram of the decade 1840-1850, it was not the Mexican War but ation of Texas the annexat i on o f Texas. The position of the abolitionists on this question was clear and logical. They condemned the an nexation of Texas as a wicked extension of the slavery area, notwithstanding all arguments about " fulfilling our manifest destiny " or " attaining our natural boundaries." To annex Texas might be legally right, they said, but it was morally wrong. Daniel Webster expressed the sound view of the ques tion in his speech of 1837 in New York City, which we have noticed on a preceding page (see p. 337); and James Russell Lowell, in his magnificent poem " The Present Crisis " (1844), warned the annexationists that " They enslave their chil dren s children who make compromise with sin." We certainly assumed a great moral responsibility when we annexed Texas. However, it was not to Mexico that we were answerable, but to the enlightened conscience of the nation. Texas 349 With our acquisition of the Oregon territory to the forty-ninth 509. Compie- parallel by the treaty of 1846 with Great Britain, and the program of cession of California and New Mexico by the treaty of Guada- ex P ansion lupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the boundaries of the United States reached practically their present limits. 1 The work of westward extension was done. Expansion, the watchword of the decade 1840-1850, was dropped from our vocabulary for fifty years, and the immense energies o! the nation were directed toward finding a plan on which the new territory could be organized in harmony with the conflicting interests of the free and slave sections of our country. REFERENCES Westward Expansion : G. P. GARRISON, Westward Extension (Ameri can Nation Series), chaps, i, ii, vi, vii; F. J. TURNER, Rise of the New West (Am. Nation), chaps, v-viii ; E. E. SPARKS, The Expansion of the American People, chap, xxv ; ELLEN SEMPLE, American History and its Geographical Conditions, chaps, x-xii ; FRANCIS PARKMAN, The Oregon Trail, chaps, xix-xxi ; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chaps, xiii, xiv ; J. B. MACMASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. V, chap, liii ; Vol. VI, chap. Ix ; G. P. GARRISON, The First Stage of the Movement for the Annexation of Texas (American Historical Review, Vol. X, pp. 72-96). The " Reoccupation " of Oregon and the " Reannexation " of Texas: SPARKS, chaps, xxv-xxvii; BURGESS, chap, xv ; L. G. TYLER, Letters and Times of the Tylers, Vol. II, chaps, ix-xii, xv ; WILLIAM MAC- DONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, No. 71 ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. Ill, Nos. 185-189; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. II, chaps, vi, vii; Vol. Ill, chaps, iii-viii, xiii; John C. Calkotin, chap, viii ; HORACE GREELEY, The American Conflict, Vol. I, chap, xii ; G. P. GARRISON, Texas, chaps, x-xx ; Westward Extension, chaps, viii- xi ; J. W. FOSTER, A Century of American Diplomacy, chap. viii. The Mexican War: HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 8-14; MACDONALD, Nos. 72-74, 76; BURGESS, chap, xvi; GREELEY, Vol. I, chap, xiv; VON 1 A small strip south of the Gila River (southern Arizona) was bought from Mexico, through Mr. Gadsden, in 1853, for $10,000,000. The large sum paid for the Gadsden Purchase has been called by the critics of the Mexican War " conscience money " paid to Mexico for the provinces of which we " robbed " her. 35O Slavery and the West HOLST, Calhoun, chap, ix ; Constitutional History, Vol. Ill, chaps, viii- xii ; GARRISON, Westward Extension, chaps, xiii-xv ; Texas, chaps, xxi- xxii ; JAMES SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. V, chap, xviii ; President Folk s Administration (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXVI, pp. 371-380) ; U. S. GRANT, Personal Memoirs, Vol. I, chaps, iii-xiii ; CHARLES H. OWEN, The Justice of the Mexican War; E. G. BOURNE, The United States and Mexico, 1847-1848 (American His torical Review, Vol. V, pp. 491-502) ; J. S. REEVES, The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (American Historical Review, Vol. X, pp. 309-324). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Legend of Marcus Whitman: E. G. BOURNE, The Legend of Marcus Whitman (American Historical Review, Vol. VI, pp. 276-300) ; WILLIAM BARROWS, Oregon, pp. 160-254; SCHOULER, Vol. IV, pp. 504-514. 2. American Pioneers in Texas : H. ADDINGTON BRUCE, The Romance of American Expansion, pp. 78-105; GARRISON, Texas, pp. 137-169; HART, Vol. Ill, No. 185; MACMASTER, Vol. VI, pp. 251-266; HENRY BRUCE, Samuel Houston, pp. 64-156; SARAH B. ELLIOTT, Samuel Houston, pp. 31-72. 3. The Conquest of California: SPARKS, pp. 324-335; JOSIAH ROYCE, California, pp. 48-150; GARRISON, Westward Extension, pp. 230-243; JOHN BIDWELL, Fremont and the Conquest of California (The Century, Vol. XIX, pp. 518-525). 4. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty : MACDONALD, No. 70 (for text) ; G. T. CURTIS, Life of Daniel Webster, Vol. II, pp. 94-107, 130-172; H. C. LODGE, Daniel Webster, pp. 241-263; TYLER, Vol. II, pp. 216- 243; T. H. BENTON, Thirty Years View, Vol. II, pp. 420-452; SCHOULER, Vol. IV, pp. 403-406; JARED SPARKS, The Webster- Ashburton Treaty (The North American Review, Vol. LVI, pp. 452 ff.); FOSTER, pp. 281-286. 5. Henry Clay s Letter of 1844 on the Admission of Texas: HART, Vol. Ill, No. 187 ; CARL SCHURZ, Henry Clay, Vol. II, pp. 242-268 ; GARRISON, Westward Extension, pp. 135-140; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, pp. 209-225. vrc ; : x A jj?p e - - - c - - C - R - F * v THE ACQUISITION OF THE FAR WEST 1S45-1S50 Texas (1845) Oregon (1840) Mexican Cession (1848) Gadsden Purchase (18.53) Original Area of U.S. 82" ,844 " Area of Louisiana Purchase 875,025 " CHAPTER XIII THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 THE NEW TERRITORY An area larger than the original territory ceded to the United 510. The new States by Great Britain at the close of the War of Independence ^st* in ^ in 1783, and larger than the vast Louisiana region purchased from Napoleon in 1803, was added to the United States be tween 1845 and 1848 by the annexation of Texas, the Oregon treaty, and the Mexican cession of California and New Mexico. 1 The land varied in value. Between the rich cotton areas of Texas and the smiling valleys of California were the arid plateaus and majestic canons of the Rockies. In Oregon fine timber and farm lands were awaiting the settler. The sudden acqui sition of the Pacific coast, in an unbroken line of more than a thousand miles from Puget Sound to San Diego, opened our view upon the great western ocean and made us neighbors of China and Japan. The new region, although sparsely populated by white men, 511. John c. was still not entirely unknown. Ever since the days of the ^t Lewis and Clark expedition there had been adventurous ex- finder " plorers beating into wagon roads the Indian trails to Oregon, California, and Santa FC", and reporting to the government at Washington what rivers and mountains, what rocks and soils and plants and peoples they found on their journeys. The most 1 Area of U. S. before 1845 Additions, 1845-1848 Sq. miles Sq. miles Original area, 1 783 . (about) 830,000 Texas, 1845 (about) 390,000 Louisiana Purchase, 1803 " 875,000 Oregon, 1846 .... " 290,000 Florida Purchase, 1819 " 65,000 Mexican Cession, 1848 " 520,000 1,770,000 35 1 1,200,000 352 Slavery and the West noted of these Western explorers was John C. Fremont, "the Pathfinder," who made four wonderful expeditions to Oregon and California in the years 1842-1848, and even disobeyed the restraining orders of the government in his enthusiasm for plant ing the American flag on the shores of the Pacific (see map, opp. p. 3 So). 1 He was in California in 1846, and his little "army" cooperated with Sloat and Stockton in occupying the country. 512. The Even before the Mexican War was over, it was evident that viso, 1846 " the United States would demand the cession of California and New Mexico in its terms of peace. It was evident also that the great question in the acquisition and organization of the new territory would be the status of slavery in it. On the very day the bill asking for an appropriation to meet the expenses of the peace negotiations was introduced into the House, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania offered an amendment providing that " neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . should ever exist in any part" of any territory acquired from the republic of Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso was carried in the House, but defeated in the Senate, where, since the admission of Florida and Texas in 1845, the slave states were in the majority. But the Wilmot Proviso was not dropped. It was passed again and again by the House, and was before the country as the official demand of the antislavery men in the organization of the new territory. It must be noted particularly that the Wilmot Proviso advocated the abandonment of the principle of th@ Mis souri Compromise of i82o, 2 since about half of the territory of New Mexico and California lay south of the parallel of 36 30 . 1 The account of Fremont s journey over the Sierra Nevada mountains to the valley of San Joaquin, in 1844, reads like the romantic adventures of an explorer of the sixteenth century. For eleven months his difficult path lay alternately over the icy crests of the mountains and through valleys parched with tropical heat. Orders had been sent from Washington to hold him at St. Louis, for fear his proposed expedition would give offense to Mexico. But his wife (Senator Benton s daughter) held the message until he was fairly started on his way. 2 It was only the principle of the Missouri Compromise that was abandoned, for of course the Wilmot Proviso did not affect that Compromise itself, which applied to the Louisiana Purchase territory only. The United States in 1820 could make no law touching the Spanish territory west of the Rockies. The Compromise of 1830 353 The Oregon region was naturally the first to be organized, 513. The or- being acquired nearly two years before the Mexican lands. As oregonf and* there was no chance for the cultivation of cotton, sugar, or rice in the D f vis amendment, this region, the controversy over slavery need not have entered 1846-1848 into the Oregon bill at all. But the radical leaders of the South were not willing to let Wilmot s challenge go unanswered. So Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, a disciple of Calhoun, and destined in a few years to become his successor as the cham pion of the interests of the slave states, introduced an amend ment into the Oregon bill to the effect that " nothing should authorize the prohibition of slavery in Oregon so long as it was a territory of the United States." Davis s amendment, like Wilmot s, was defeated ; and Oregon was admitted as a terri tory without slavery in August, 1848. But the significant thing in the debates of 1846-1848 was that both the antislavery and the proslavery leaders were dissatisfied with the Missouri Com promise made a quarter of a century earlier. The one side now demanded the exclusion of slavery from New Mexico in the South, the other its admission to Oregon in the North. When therefore Polk, in his special message of July, 1848, 514. The urged Congress to proceed to the immediate organization of California and New Mexico, which had been under military Mexican y cession regime since their conquest in 1846, there were three ways of dealing with the question of slavery in the territories under discussion. The Wilmot Proviso might be adopted, excluding slavery from the whole region ; the Calhoun-Davis theory 1 might be accepted, opening the whole region to slavery; or the principle of the Missouri Compromise might be applied, dividing California and New Mexico into free and slave sec tions by a parallel of latitude running to the Pacific coast. 1 That theory was, briefly, as follows : slaves were private property ; private property was subject to state laws, not national law; the territories were the common property of the states, held in trust by the nation; hence Congress could not pass any law excluding from the territories property whose possession was legal in the states. This theory made the Missouri Compromise uncon stitutional. 354 Slavery and the West 515. The campaign of 1848 516. Lewis Cass and the doctrine of " squatter sovereignty " 517. General Taylor, the Whig nominee The presidential campaign of 1848 had little effect on the settlement of the problem before the country. It only showed that both of the political parties were still trying to keep in favor with both sections of the country in order to avoid being split on the slavery issue. The Democrats nominated a Northern man who was opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, while the Whigs nominated a Southerner who repudiated the extreme proslavery doctrine of Calhoun and Davis. Lewis Cass, the Democratic nominee, had been an excellent governor of Michigan territory during the War of 1 8 1 2 , Secre tary of War under Jackson, and minister to France under Van Buren. He advocated allowing each territory, when the time came for it to apply for admission to the Union, to decide for itself whether it should come in as a free or a slave state. The question would be determined by the character of the im migration into the territory. Those territories which were suit able for slave labor would naturally attract slaveholders, and would apply for admission to the Union as slave states ; while the others would naturally be filled up with a free population, and come in with state constitutions prohibiting slavery. This doctrine of Cass was called " popular sovereignty," or more familiarly "squatter sovereignty," because it left to the "people" or the " squatters " in the territory the determination of the slavery question for themselves. The Whigs nominated a candidate even less pronounced than Cass in his views on the slavery question, General Zachary Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista. Taylor was a Louisiana sugar planter, and the owner of several hundred slaves. But he had not manifested any interest in the extension of slavery. He had had no experience in political affairs whatever, and had never even voted. The Whigs nominated him for his brilliant record in the Mexican War, hoping that he would repeat the sweeping victory of General Harrison in 1840. " Old Rough and Ready " was the campaign cry, recalling the " Tippecanoe and Tyler too " of eight years before. The Compromise of 1850 355 In striking contrast to the evasive attitude of both Whigs and 518. The _ , , ^p new Free-Soil Democrats on the slavery question, was the platform 01 a new par ty, 1848 party, the Free-Soilers. This party was made up of the friends of Van Buren (who had been " shelved " in 1844 to make room for a candidate in favor of annexing Texas), of " Conscience Whigs," who were disgusted with the nomination by their party of a Louisiana slaveholder for president, and of the Liberty party of 1844. The Free-Soilers declared in their platform that it was " the settled policy of the nation not to extend, nationalize, or encourage slavery, but to limit, localize, and dis courage it." They inscribed on their banner, " Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men." The new party differed from the Garrison abolitionists in 519. The that it prized the Union and accepted the Constitution with nJ all its compromises on slavery. It even differed in a most impor- tlonists tant respect from the Liberty party, which it largely absorbed. For the Liberty party of 1844 wished to abolish slavery in the Southern states, where it was protected by the Constitution, whereas the Free-Soilers demanded only its exclusion from the territories of the United States. The Liberty men denounced the existence of slavery in any part of the Union ; the Free- Soilers opposed the extension of slavery to the trans-Mississippi territories of the Union. This distinction is of great importance, because it was the Free-Soil doctrine and not the abolitionist doctrine that was made the basis a few years later of the new Republican party, which finally overthrew slavery. The Free-Soilers nominated Van Buren, who had become 520. The a pronounced antislavery man after leaving the White House. Baylor 11 Although they did not carry any states, they elected enough congressmen to hold the balance between Whigs and Demo crats in the sessions of 1849 -1851, and took enough votes from Cass in New York to give that state, and consequently the election, to Taylor, by an electoral vote of 163 to 12 7.* 1 The similar defeat of Clay, in 1844, by the votes given Birney, the Liberty candidate, in New York, will be recalled (see pp. 340-341). 356 Slavery and the West 521. The organization of the Mexi can cession hangs fire, 1848-1849 522. The discovery of gold in Cali fornia, Janu ary, 1848 The last Congress under President Polk adjourned March 4, 1849, without having taken any steps toward the organiza tion of New Mexico and California. Slavery had been actually excluded from the whole region by a Mexican law of 1837, but Calhoun contended that the transfer of the land to the United States extinguished the Mexican law in it. He and Davis de manded that Congress should introduce slavery into the terri tory and legalize it there by a definite statute. Their opponents declared, in the words of Henry Clay, that " no power in the world could make them vote to establish slavery where it did not exist." And even President Taylor, himself a slave owner, went so far as to say, in an address in Pennsylvania (August, 1849), "The people of the North need have no apprehension of the further extension of slavery." With these divergent views, there seemed to be as little prospect of a speedy or peaceful organization of New Mexico and California under Taylor as under Polk. But the years 1848-1849 brought a change on the Pacific coast itself which gave a new aspect to the question. Just as the final negotiations for peace with Mexico were begun (January, 1848), gold was discovered in the Sacramento valley in California. As the news of the richness of the deposits spread, a wild rush into the gold fields began. Merchants, farmers, physicians, lawyers, artisans, shopkeepers, and serv ants abandoned their business to stake out claims in the gold valleys, from which thousands took their fortunes in a few weeks. 1 The fever extended even to the Atlantic coast. Men started on the nine months sail around Cape Horn, or, cross ing the pestilence-laden Isthmus of Panama, fought like wild animals for a passage on the infrequent ships sailing up to the Californian coast. Others went " overland," making their way slowly across the Western deserts and mountains in their unwieldy " prairie schooners," the monotonous dread of famine 1 The product of the California mines and washings was fabulous. The country was hailed as a modern El Dorado. Five years after the discovery, the gold yield was $65,000,000 in a single year. In fifty years over $2,000,000,000 was taken from the mines. The Compromise of 1850 357 and thirst varied only by the excitement of Indian attacks. The immigration by sea and land in the single year 1849 raised the population of California from 6000 to over 85,000 souls. The " Forty-niners," as these gold seekers were called, came almost wholly from the free states of the North. Migration across thousands of miles of desert country did not tempt the plantation owner with his slaves. Consequently, when dele gates from the new Californian immigrants met at Monterey, in September, 1849, at the call of the military governor, Riley, to devise a government, they drew up a constitution ex cluding slavery by a unani mous vote. When Congress met in December, 1849, therefore, California was no longer waiting to be organ ized as a territory, but was ready for admission to the Union as a state, and a state with a free constitution. It was, therefore, evident that the Congress of 1849- 1851 would have to deal in earnest with the organization of the new territory. With the example of California before them, the people of New Mexico were already planning a government for themselves. A bitter boundary quarrel was developing between New Mexico and Texas. Finally, the abolitionists, roused by the acquisition of new territory in the southwest suitable for slavery, were re doubling their petitions to Congress to prove its control over the territories of the United States, by abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. In spite of Taylor s message to the assembled Congress, advising them to " abstain from the in troduction of those exciting topics of sectional character which 523. Cali fornia draws up a free constitution, September, 1849 The Discovery of Gold at Sutler s Mill, California 524. The crisis faced by Congress, December, 1849 358 Slavery and the West have hitherto produced painful apprehension in the public mind," in plain words, not to quarrel about slavery, the Congress and the country at large believed that the acquisition of the new Western lands had brought a crisis which must now be faced. THE OMNIBUS BILL 525. The 3 ist Congress, 1849-1851 Probably no other gathering of public men in our history, except the convention which met at Philadelphia in 1787 to frame the Constitution of the United States, contained so many orators and political geniuses of the first rank as the Senate which assembled in December, 1849. There met, for the last time, the great triumvirate of American statesmen, Clay, Web ster, and Calhoun, all three born during the Revolutionary War, and all so identified with every public question for a gen eration that to write the biography of any one of them would be to write the history of our country during that period. With them came a number of brilliant men whose names appear often on these pages, Benton, Cass, Bell, Douglas, Davis, Seward, Chase, and Hale, the last three being the first pronounced antislavery delegation in the Senate. In the House, Democrats and Whigs were so evenly matched (112 to 105) that the thir teen Free-Soilers held the balance of power. The temper of Congress was shown at the very beginning of the session, when in a fierce struggle for the speakership, a fiery proslavery mem ber from Georgia, Robert Toombs, declared amid hisses and applause that if the North sought to drive the slaveholder from New Mexico and California land " purchased by the common blood and treasure of the nation" and thereby "to fix a national degradation on half the states of the Confederacy," he was ready for disunion. In this critical situation the aged Henry Clay, whose voice had been raised for moderation and conciliation ever since the 1 days of the Missouri Compromise thirty years before, again came forward with measures calculated to reconcile the opposing sections (January 29, 1850). Clay proposed that (i) California 526. Henry Clay intro duces the The Compromise of 1850 359 should be admitted as a free state ; (2) the rest of the Mexican cession should be divided by the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude into the territories of Utah on the north and New Mexico on the south, both organized on the " squatter-sovereignty " principle 1 ; (3) the boundaries of the slaveholding state of Texas should be cut down from 379,000 to 264,000 square miles, but in return Texas should receive $10,000,000 from the government to pay her war debt contracted before 1845 ; (4) the slave trade (but not slavery) should be prohibited in the District of Columbia ; (5) a new fugitive-slave law should be enacted, making the recovery of runaway negroes much easier than under the old law of 1793. This measure of Clay s was called the " Omnibus Bill," on account of the number of provisions which it included. 2 We can see what a difficult task Clay had undertaken when 527. conflict, we compare the demands of the radical leaders, North and South, on these questions. On the South Question of (1) California (2) New Mexico (3) Texas (4) District of Columbia (5) Fugitive slaves The South demanded organization as a terri tory, admitting slavery legalization of slavery by Congress (at least be low 36 30 ) the same boundaries as the Texan republic claimed in 1836 no interference with slav ery by Congress a strict law enforced by national authority, with no jury trial for negroes The North demanded immediate admission as a free state the application of the Wilmot Proviso a reduction in the size of Texas without any money compensation abolition of slavery jury trial for every negro claimed as a fugitive slave 1 This division of New Mexico was in reality the extension of the Missouri- Compromise to the new territory. It was expected that slavery would enter New Mexico, but not the northern territory of Utah. 2 Strictly speaking, only the clauses referring to California, New Mexico, and Texas were called the Omnibus Bill. But the other two propositions (4 and 5) were so intimately connected with them, both in time and purpose, that the whole legislation may be considered together. 360 Slavery and the West 528. Debates The debates on the compromise measures called forth some compromise of the finest speeches ever made in the Senate. Clay s fervid bil1 plea for harmony, in introducing his bills, was enhanced by the fact that the venerable statesman, now in his seventy-third year, had left the quiet of his well-earned retirement to make this supreme effort for the preservation of the Union, whose welfare and glory had been his chief pride since his boyhood s recollection of the inauguration of his great Virginia neighbor, George Washington. 529. John c. Calhoun was to speak on the fourth of March. But he was speech^March to enfeebled by the ravages of consumption to deliver his care- 4, 1850 f u }iy prepared speech. He was borne to his place in the Senate chamber, where he sat, alive only in the great deep eyes which still flashed beneath his heavy brows, while his colleague, Senator Mason, read his speech. It was a message of despair. The en croachments of the North on the constitutional rights of the slaveholders had already proceeded so far, he said, that the great Kentuckian s plan of compromise was futile. The North was the aggressor. Her institutions were not attacked, her property was not threatened, her rights were not invaded. She must cease all agitation against slavery, return the fugitive slaves willingly, and restore to the South her equal rights in all parts of the Union and all acquired territory. Otherwise, the cords which had bound the states together for two generations would every one be broken, and our Republic would be dis solved into warring sections. It was Calhoun s last word. Before the month closed, he had passed beyond all earthly strife. 530. web- Daniel Webster spoke on the seventh of March. Webster seventh-of- na d put himself squarely on record against the extension of March speech s i averv j nto new territory. Besides his New York speech of 1837, already quoted (p. 337), he had said in the Oregon de bates that his objections to slavery were " irrespective of lines and latitudes, taking in the whole country and the whole ques tion." The antislavery men of the North, therefore, to many of whom Webster was almost an idol, were bitterly disappointed The Compromise of 1830 361 when he spoke in favor of Clay s compromise measures. His love of the Union, and his desire to see peace reestablished be tween the two sections, proved stronger than his hatred of slavery. He maintained that there was no danger that New Mexico would become slave territory, because the physical geography of the region forever excluded the cotton planter from its deserts and high plateaus. " I would not take pains," he said, " uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of nature or to reenact the will of God. I would put in no Wilmot Proviso for the mere purpose of a taunt or a reproach." He spoke in be half of the fugitive-slave law, because such a law had always been on the statute books of the country. He denounced the abolitionists as men who had no right to set up their conscience in opposition to the law. In a fine peroration he implored his countrymen of the South to dismiss the awful thought of seces sion and cherish the Union forever. The Free-Soilers said that the great man s ambition to be the next president tempted him to forsake his principles in the seventh-of-March speech. But his sincere, though mistaken, belief that the Union could be saved by compromise is sufficient to account for his support of Clay s measures, without attributing base motives to him. Webster was answered a few days later by William H. Seward, 531. seward the new Whig senator from New York. Seward raised the S^er law 6 w question from the political to the moral level. He thought the March compromise vicious because it surrendered principles. The law might stand on the statute books, but the conscience of the people would condemn it and repudiate it. The Constitution might tolerate slavery, but there was " a higher law than the Constitution," namely the moral law. " The simple, bold, and even awful question which presents itself to us," he said, " is this : Shall we, who are founding institutions social and political for countless millions shall we who are free to choose the wise and just and to reject the erroneous and injuri ous shall we establish human bondage or permit it in our sufferance to be established? Sir, our forefathers would not 362 Slavery and the West have hesitated one hour ! They found slavery existing here, and they left it only because they could not remove it. But there is no state, free or slave, which, if it had had the alterna tive as we now have, would have founded slavery." Seward s appeal to the " higher law " was in line with the abolitionists doctrine that the moral evil of slavery far outweighed all polit ical, legal, or economic considerations. The phrase " the higher law " spread through the North, greatly strengthening the anti- slavery sentiment. 532. chase s Another powerful speech against the compromise was de- **"* Hvered on the twenty-sixth of March by Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, like Seward newly elected to the Senate. Chase was a man of splendid stature, a powerful orator, and a wise and courageous statesman. He had been a Democrat, but Birney s abolitionist paper in his home city of Cincinnati, together with his own observation of the contrast between the civilization on the right bank and that on the left bank of the Ohio, had con verted him to the Free-Soil party. He denounced the com promise as a weak surrender to the slaveholders interests. In answer to Calhoun he declared that not the North but the South had been the aggressor ever since the days when threats and intimidation had forced upon the framers of the Constitu tion concessions to slavery. He derided the Southerners talk of secession as " stale." 533. The The great debate on the compromise seemed no nearer its end passes^under i n J u ty tnan ^ nac ^ been in January. It was known that President iS Taylor (who was much under the influence of Seward) would veto any measure favorable to the extension of slavery, and the Clay-Webster forces could not hope for the necessary two-thirds majority in Congress to pass the bill over Taylor s veto. But the whole aspect of the question changed when Taylor died, after a four days illness, July 9, 1850. Vice President Fillmore, who succeeded him, was in favor of the compromise, and with the help of the administration the bills were passed through the Senate and the House by fair majorities, and signed by The Compromise of 363 President Fillmore in August and September. The eventful nine months session of Congress closed in October. The Compromise Measures of 1850 were as decidedly in 534. Analysis favor of the South as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had p rom i se olr been in favor of the North. California was admitted as a free Measures of 1850 state, to be sure ; * but the advantage to the antislavery inter ests ended there. The prohibition of the slave trade in the tiny District of Columbia relieved antislavery congressmen of the *, o. 1 K LJL iim^iiiim | > 1 1 ^ililiW -" "(- VM>*> .- - rt-^^^^-feA^-^i i;^^:-:-^^^- Free States Free Territoi Slave States .FRONTIER LINE The Status of Slavery by the Compromise of 1850 pain of seeing shackled gangs of slaves driven to the boats on the Potomac, under the very shadow of the dome of the Capitol, to be sold to the cotton and rice plantations of the lower South ; but it had no practical effect on the domestic slave trade, which was amply supplied by Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. On the other hand, the concessions to the South were gen- 535. conces- erous. Both the extension of the Missouri-Compromise line to the Pacific and the agitation for the enactment of the Wilmot the 1 Since there were fifteen free and fifteen slave states at the beginning of 1850, the admission of California gave the Senate a majority for the North. After 1850 no new slave states were admitted. 364 Slavery and the West Proviso were given up. The whole of the Mexican cession east of California was opened to slavery. The reduction of the boundaries of Texas was no disadvantage to the slave cause, since slavery was not forbidden in the territory transferred from Texas to New Mexico, while the payment of $10,000,000 to Texas set that state on the path to prosperity, which made it a powerful aid to the Confederate cause in the great struggle of the Civil War ten years later. 536. The new Finally, the new fugitive-slave law brought the whole ma- siave law chinery of the United States into play, if necessary, to recover a runaway negro. The fugitive was not allowed a trial, either in the state where he was seized or in the state from which he had fled. The magistrate s fee was twice as large when he handed the negro over to the claimant as when he declared the negro free. The alleged fugitive was not allowed to testify in his own behalf. The United States marshals were heavily fined if they let the reclaimed fugitive escape. At the call of the marshals all good citizens of any state must aid in the seizure of the runaway negro, and persons willfully preventing his arrest or helping his escape were subject to a fine of $1000, or six months imprisonment, in addition to damages to the owner, up to $1000, for the value of the slave. Thus, this new law commanded the recognition of slavery and the protection of slave property in every part of the United States, and made every man and woman of a free state a partner in the gruesome business of restoring to a revengeful master the fugitive who had followed the Northern Star to the " land of freedom." 537. The Compromise of 1850 thought to be a final adjust ment of the slavery ques tion A FOUR YEARS TRUCE The Compromise Measures of 1850 were regarded by the vast majority of the people of the United States as a final settlement of the sectional disputes over slavery. The status of slavery was now fixed in every square mile of our domain from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Henry Clay was hailed as " the great Pacificator," and the foremost statesmen of both parties devoted The Compromise 0/1850 365 their best talents to proving that the Compromise of 1850 was the just and sole basis on which the Union could be pre served. The agitation over slavery in the new western territory had caused much talk of disunion in the South. A convention was assembled at Nashville, Tennessee, in the early summer of 1850, to decide on what terms the cotton states would still remain in the Union. But the passage of the Compromise Measures quieted the disunion movement. The Unionists were overwhelmingly triumphant in the elections of 1851 in every Southern state but South Carolina. In the Northern states it was harder to make the people 538. North- accept the Compromise of 1850. In spite of the efforts of such against the persuasive advocates as Webster and Choate in the East and Douglas and Cass in the West, the pulpit, press, and platform would not cease in their condemnation of the new fugitive-slave law. On the other points of the compromise the antislavery senti ment of the North would have yielded, in view of Webster s assurance that the soil and climate of New Mexico would never attract the slaveholder. But to have every man and woman in the free-soil states enlisted as a helper in the business of return ing the fugitive slave to his owner was more than the North could bear. A public meeting in Indiana declared its " absolute refusal to obey the inhuman and diabolical provisions " of the fugitive-slave law, and the declaration was indorsed by hun dreds of mass meetings from Boston to Chicago. For several years there had been in operation in New York, 539. The Pennsylvania, and all along the northern bank of the Ohio River a system called the " underground railroad," whose ob ject was to give food, shelter, and pecuniary aid to the negro escaping across the line into the free states. Prominent citizens were engaged in this work, offering their barns and sheds, and even their houses, as " stations " on the " underground." The fugitive was passed on from station to station with remark able secrecy and dispatch until he reached the shores of Lake Erie and took ship for Canada. The actual number of slaves 366 Slavery and the West escaping by the " underground " was comparatively small ; but so long as they helped even a few slaves over the border, the abolitionists felt that they were doing something to hamper and defeat the horrible system of bondage. The people of the free states felt fairly secure in breaking the old fugitive-slave law of 1793, because that law depended on the state authorities for its execution, and in a notable case (Prigg vs. Pennsylvania), in 540. The Democratic victory of 1852 1 Chief Routes of the Underground Railroad 1842, the Supreme Court of the United States had decided that the Constitution did not compel the officers of a state to assist in restoring fugitive slaves. The new law of 1850, however, closed every station on the " underground," and made the soil of Ohio and Indiana as danger ous for the escaping negro as the canebrakes of Louisiana or the swamps of Virginia. But after a few instances of resistance and violence, the fugitive-slave law was generally enforced throughout the North; and by the end of the year 1851 the success of the Compromise Measures seemed assured. The presidential campaign of the next year (1852) contrib uted to the strength of the Compromise of 1850. There were no important issues before the people. The great Whig leader, The Compromise of 1850 367 Henry Clay, died in June, carrying his party to the grave with him, as he had brought it into existence twenty years before. 1 The Whigs made a desperate attempt to win the presidency by the nomination of their third military candidate, General Win- field Scott, the " hero of Lundys Lane and Chapultepec " ; but Scott carried only four of the thirty-one states of the Union. The Democrats, after a long contest between Douglas, Marcy, Cass, and Buchanan for the nomination, had been obliged to unite on a " dark horse." On the forty-ninth ballot their con vention nominated General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, a young man of fine presence and winning personality, who had a creditable but not brilliant record as a legislator and soldier. Pierce s sweeping victory of 254 electoral votes to 32 for Scott was a vote of confidence in the fidelity of the Democratic party to the Compromise of 1850. Pierce announced in his inaugural address that a " sense of repose and security had been restored throughout the country," and expressed the " fervent hope that no sectional or fanatical excitement might again threaten the dura bility of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity." When Pierce mentioned " the light of our prosperity," he 541. The struck the real note of the truce of 1850-1854. It was a busi- ness man s peace. The commercial and industrial classes were tired of the agitation over slavery. They were glad to have Con gress stop discussing the Missouri Compromise and the Wilmot Proviso, and attend to the business interests of the country. An era of great prosperity was opening. The discovery of immense deposits of gold and silver in California ; the extension of the wheat fields into Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota ; the great increase in the products of the Northern mills and facto ries ; and the growing fleet of our merchant marine, were all signs of rapidly increasing wealth. The railroad mileage of the country up to the year 1848 was less than 6000, but during 1 It was in 1832 that Clay, by forcing through Congress the bill for the re- charter of the National Bank, set up the standard around which the opponents of President Jackson rallied to form the Whig party. Canals and Railroads operated in 1850 368 The Compromise of 1850 369 the next ten years over 16,500 miles of new track were laid. Between 1850 and 1855 the important railroads of the Atlantic coast (the New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio) were all connected with the Great Lakes or the Ohio River. 1 Thus the immense northern basin of the Mississippi, which, as part of the Louisiana Purchase, had been connected with the Gulf of Mexico, through the highway of the great river, now began to be joined with the Eastern states and to send its growing trade through the Great Lakes and over the Atlantic-seaboard railroads. The wealth of the South seemed even more firm in its foun- 542. The dations and more rapid in its increase. An apparently limitless e Rtag cot- demand for cotton by the mills of America and Europe en- e 0n t h in the couraged the cultivation of that staple to the neglect of every other form of industry. By 1850 the value of the cotton crop was over $100,000,000 annually, while the rice and sugar crops combined yielded less than $16,000,000. In the same year, of the total of $137,000,000 of exports from the United States, $72,000,000 (or 53 per cent) was in cotton, as against $26,000,000 (or 19 per cent) in grain and provisions. Such a trade naturally led the Southerners to believe that slavery was the basis of the prosperity of the country. " Cotton is king ! " they said. " In the 3,000,000 bags of cotton that slave labor annually throws upon the world, we are doing more to advance civilization than all the canting philanthropists of New and Old England will do in a century." 2 1 An interesting result of this new connection was shown in the immense growth of the Lake cities, Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee, in the decade 1850-1860. 2 The Southern writers were guilty of two serious errors in their economics : first, in mistaking the great wealth of a few planters for general prosperity; secondly, in thinking that free negro labor was impossible. There were about 75.000 large planters in the South in 1850, out of a population of about 5,000,000 whites. Their prosperity was that of " a dominant minority," and was not diffused through all classes as in the North. Again, while the value of the cotton crop in 1850 with slave labor was $105,000,000, in 1880 under free negro labor it was $275,000,000, and in 1910 over $700,000,000. Slave labor produced 2,200,000 bales of cotton in 1850 ; free labor produced nearly 15,000,000 bales in 1910. 3/O Slavery and the West 543. ECO- The immense domestic and foreign trade stimulated by our Xs^eforV prosperity in the middle of the nineteenth century demanded congress ^g attention of Congress. Western railroads (like the canals and turnpikes of a quarter of a century earlier) were clamoring for national aid. Our rivers needed deepening and our harbors dredging. Our coasts were inadequately charted and lighted. The tariff needed revision. 544. Foreign Foreign questions of delicacy and importance also arose in tne P er id of the slavery debates of the mid-century. The year mann Letter, I g 4 s was marked by revolution in almost all the countries of 1850 J western Europe. The people were striving for more liberal constitutions or the overthrow of oppressive monarchies. Hungary, under the leadership of the patriot Kossuth, made a valiant effort to throw off the oppressive yoke of Austria and establish an independent republic. But the revolt was crushed by the help of Russian arms. 1 Our government showed its sympathy with Hungary by sending an agent in 1849 to recog nize the new republic as soon as there seemed a chance of its success. When Hiilsemann, the Austrian representative at Washington, protested against this as an " unfriendly act," Daniel Webster (who became Fillmore s Secretary of State in 1850) replied in a famous letter, in which, so far from apolo gizing to Austria, he boasted of the power, wealth, and happi ness of our nation under its democratic institutions, and maintained " the right of the American people to sympathize with the efforts of any nation to acquire liberty." 545. KOS- The next year Kossuth came to America as the nation s to America guest. His speeches roused intense enthusiasm for the Hun- 1852 garian cause, but our political leaders were careful to let him know that he could not expect more from our government than expressions of sympathy. He left in the summer of 1852, after a six months visit, flattered by the lavishness with which the nation had entertained him, but disappointed with the nig gardly contributions which the people had made to his cause. 1 See Robinson and Beard, Development of Modern Europe, Vol. 1 1, pp. 72-84. The Compromise of 1850 371 It seemed as though no decade of our history could pass 546. British without some new cause for ill feeling toward Great Britain. To the perpetual quarrel over the rights of our fishermen off the nal Canadian coast, and the disputes over our northern boundaries, of Panama there was added in the middle of the nineteenth century an important controversy in Central America. We had looked forward for years to building a canal cutting the isthmus which connects the two great continents of the Western Hemisphere, and had even made a treaty in 1846 with the Spanish- American republic of New Granada (now Colombia), in which we agreed to keep open to all nations, on the same terms, any canal or railroad built across the Isthmus of Panama. The discovery of gold in California shortly afterwards (1848) set American capitalists, headed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, actively to planning transportation routes across the Isthmus. Here they came into collision with the British, who had a colony in Central America, and were attempting to extend their " protectorate " over miles of the coast. A British warship even bombarded the port which the American transportation company was making its terminus on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus. After long negotiations Clayton, our Secretary of State under 547. The President Taylor, came to an agreement with the British minister, Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, in 1850. The Clayton- l8 5 Bulwer Treaty, which remained in force until the end of the nineteenth century, provided that the United States and Great Britain should jointly guarantee the neutrality of any canal built across the Isthmus. Each government pledged itself not to seek exclusive control over the canal, never to erect any fortifications upon it, or to acquire any colonies in Central America. Each promised that it would extend its protection to any company that should undertake the work of building a canal, and would use its influence with the governments of Central America to give their aid and consent to such a project. We shall trace in a later chapter the fortunes of the Clayton- Bulwer Treaty. 372 Slavery and the West 548. our in- The most critical incident in our mid-century diplomacy, Cuba* Isig- however, concerned Cuba. That rich island possession of Spain, l8 s lying just off our coast, had been regarded with especial interest by our statesmen ever since the transfer of Florida to the United States in 1819. As the antislavery sentiment of the North developed, restricting the area of slavery in the trans- Mississippi region (by the Missouri Compromise), and seeking to make the exclusion of slavery the condition of annexing more western territory (by the Wilmot Proviso), Cuba became increasingly desirable in the eyes of the Southerners. The magnificent island, " the Pearl of the Antilles," would make three populous slave states. The ever-threatening danger that Cuba might revolt from Spain and set up a black republic almost within sight of the Florida coast would be forever removed by its annexation to the United States. 549. At- Spain steadily refused all our offers for Cuba, even when orse?ze they rose to the generous sum of $120,000,000, or eight times the price paid for the great Louisiana territory. The ministry at Madrid replied to President Polk in 1848 that they "had rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean than transferred to any power." Still, Spanish government was oppressive in Cuba, and the island was in a chronic state of revolt. The disturbed con dition of Cuba and the intense desire of the Gulf States to annex the island led to frequent filibustering expeditions, in spite of prohibitions from Washington. In 1851 about fifty American citizens, some of them young men belonging to the best families of New Orleans, joined a noted filibusterer, named Lopez, in a desperate attempt to seize Cuba. When the men were captured on the Cuban coast and promptly shot, a mob at New Orleans sacked the Spanish consulate, tore down the ensign of Castile, and defaced the portrait of Queen Isabella. Daniel Webster apologized for this insult to Spain, but a little later Webster s successor in the State Department, William L. Marcy, was asking the ministry at Madrid to apologize to the United States for the unjust seizure and condemnation The Compromise 0/1850 373 of the American steamer Black Warrior by the authorities at Havana. Relations between the United States and Spain were severely strained. Meanwhile, Pierce had succeeded Fillmore, and the new 550. The President, friendly to the South, was in favor of the annexation fe s st( ^54 of Cuba by any fair means. He sent as minister to Spain Pierre Soule" of Louisiana, the most ardent annexationist in the country. Marcy instructed Soule to consult with Mason, our minister to France, and Buchanan, our minister to England, on the best policy for the United States to assume toward Cuba after the seizure of the Black Warrior. The three ministers met atOstend (in Belgium) in the late summer of 1854, and, under the dictation of the imperious Soule, issued the famous Ostend Manifesto, which declared that the possession of Cuba was necessary to the peace of the United States, and that Spain ought to accept the overgenerous price we offered for it; but if, "actuated by stubborn pride and a false sense of honor," Spain should refuse to sell Cuba, then we were " justi fied by every law, human and divine," in wresting the island from her by force. There was, as a matter of fact, no law, human or divine, that 551. war could justify the language of the Ostend Manifesto or the deed of pure robbery which it proposed. 1 Still, the desire for Cuba was keen, and it is impossible to say to what lengths the ad ministration, under Southern influence, would have gone to secure the island, had not another great controversy arisen in the year 1854, which absorbed the attention of Congress and aroused such indignation in the North as had not been seen since the days of the Stamp Act. The cautious Marcy dis owned the Ostend Manifesto, and a few months later accepted Spain s tardy apology for the Black Warrior affair. It was reserved for a far greater disaster to another American vessel 1 The proceeding was all the more shameful because France and England, which had been seeking to guarantee Spain s possession of Cuba, were both at the moment (1854) engaged in the Crimean War in the East. 374 Slavery and the West forty-four years later the destruction of the Maine in Havana harbor to precipitate the war which cost Spain " the Pearl of the Antilles." REFERENCES The New Territory: J. B. MAcM ASTER, History of the People of the United States, Vol. VII, chap. Ixxxiii ; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. Ill, chaps, xiii, xiv ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 15-18 ; Salmon P. Chase, chap, v ; G. P. GARRISON, Westward Extension (American Nation Series), chaps, xvi, xvii, xix ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chap, xviii ; NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. I, chaps, xv-xviii; T. C. SMITH, The Liberty and Free- Soil Parties in the Northwest (Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. VI) ; J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers (First Series). The Omnibus Bill : HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 19-22 ; GARRISON, chap, xx; VON HOLST, Vol. Ill, chaps, xv, xvi; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, Nos. 78-83; G. T. CURTIS, Life of Daniel Webster, Vol. II, chaps, xxxvi, xxxvii; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. I, chap, ii; CARL SCHURZ, Henry Clay, Vol. II, chap, xxvi; HORACE GREELEY, The American Conflict, Vol. I, chap, xv ; HENRY WILSON, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. II, chaps, xxi xxiv ; JEFFERSON DAVIS, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. I, chaps, ii, iii. A Four Years Truce: T. C. SMITH, Parties and Slavery (Am. Nation), chaps, i-vi ; STANWOOD, chap, xix; RHODES, Vol. I, chap, iii; MACDONALD, No. 77; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period, chap, xviii; Old South Leaflets, No. in; A. T. HADLEY, Railroad Trans portation, its History and its Laws, chaps, i, ii ; D. R. DEWEY, Finan cial History of the United States, chaps, x, xi ; GARRISON, chap, xviii ; I. D. TRAVIS, The History of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (Michigan Political Science Publications, Vol. II, No. 8) ; J. H. LATANE, The Diplomacy of the United States in Regard to Cuba (American Historical Association Report, 1897, pp. 217-277); JAMES SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. V, chaps, xx, xxi. The Compromise of 1850 375 TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. John C. Fr&nont s Explorations : Old South Leaflets, No. 45 ; R. G. THWAITES, Rocky Mountain Exploration, pp. 228-243 ; J. C. FREMONT, Report of Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in. the Years 1843-1844; JESSIE B. FREMONT, Souvenirs of my Time, pp. 189-209; Century Magazine, Vol. XIX, pp. 759-780 (with interesting illustrations). 2. Daniel Webster and the Slavery Question : J. B. MACMASTER, Life of Webster, pp. 241-254, 303-324; RHODES, Vol. I, pp. 137-161; ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, American Orations, Vol. II, pp. 161-201 ; H. C. LODGE, Daniel Webster, pp. 301-332 ; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 20, 21 ; J. G. WHITTIER, Ichabod ; W. C. WILKINSON, Daniel Webster and the Compromise of 1850 (Scribner s, Vol. XII, pp. 411-425). 3. The Underground Railway: HART, Vol. Ill, Nos. 172, 183; Vol. IV, Nos. 29-32; W. H. SIEBERT, The Underground Rail-way, pp. 18-76; B. T. WASHINGTON, The Story of the Negro, Vol. I, pp. 215-250; MAC- MASTER, Vol. VII, pp. 240-257 ; A. B. HART, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 28-53 5 ALEXANDER JOHNSTON (ed. J. A. Woodburn), American Political History, 1763-1876, Vol. II, pp. 127-140. 4. Gold and Politics in California, 1849-1850: JOSIAH ROYCE, Cali fornia, pp. 220-246, 278-356; E. E. SPARKS, The Expansion of the American People, pp. 336-350 ; RHODES, Vol. I, pp. 111-116; SCHOULER, Vol. V, pp. 130-146; J. S. HITTELL, The Discovery of Gold in Cali fornia (Century Magazine, Vol. XIX, pp. 525-536) ; MACMASTER, Vol. VII, pp. 585-614; BAYARD TAYLOR, El Dorado. 5. Mid-Century Plans for a Canal across the Isthmus : MACMASTER, Vol. VII, pp. 552-577 ; J. H. LATANE, Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Spanish America, pp. 176-195; T. J. LAWRENCE, Disputed Questions in Modern International Law, pp. 89142 ; W. F. JOHNSON, Four Centuries of the Panama Canal, pp. 51-77 ; HENRY HUBERICH, The Trans-Isthmian Canal, pp. 6-15. PART VI. THE CRISIS OF DISUNION PART VI. THE CRISIS OF DISUNION CHAPTER XIV APPROACHING THE CRISIS THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY By the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 all the 552. status Louisiana Purchase territory north of the line 36 30 , except ana Purchase" the state of Missouri itself, was closed to slavery. It was an territory in 1850 immense region of over half a million square miles, larger than all the free states east of the Missouri River combined. While the attention of the country had been fixed on the annexation of Texas, the acquisition of the territory of Oregon in the Far West, the Mexican War, and the organization of the vast Mexi can cession of California and New Mexico, this Louisiana terri tory had remained almost unnoticed. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, only the single state of Iowa (1846) and the single territory of Minnesota (1848) had been formed out of it. The rest of the region, extending from the Missouri River to the Rockies, was unorganized Indian territory in 1850, with less than 1000 white inhabitants. The addition to our domain, however, of the land west of the Rockies at once made the organization of the middle part of the Louisiana region (then known as Nebraska) important as a link between the Missis sippi Valley and the Pacific. Thousands of emigrants were passing through the country on their way to the gold fields of 379 The Crisis of Disunion 553. Stephen A. Douglas introduces California, and the settlers of Missouri and Iowa, with the irrepressible American frontier spirit, were eager to drive the Indians from their borders and to press westward into the rich valleys of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. Accordingly, soon after the assembling of President Pierce s first Congress, in December, 1853, on a motion of Senator Dodge Biii N jaiuary of Iowa > a bil1 was brought up in the Senate, by the committee 4, 1854 on territories, for the organization of Nebraska. The chairman of this committee was Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, a self- made man of tremendous energy, a masterful politician, and an un rivaled debater, who had come from a Vermont farm to the new Western country as a very young man, and had risen rapidly through minor offices to a judgeship in the supreme court of Illinois. He was sent to the House of Representa tives in 1843, an d to the Senate in 1846. Although then but thirty- three years of age, Douglas im mediately assumed an important place in the Senate, through his brilliant powers of debate. He was soon recognized as the leader of the Democratic party in the North, and after the death of Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, he became the foremost figure in American public life. The Nebraska Bill, prepared by Douglas and submitted to the Senate, January 4, 1854, provided that the territory of Nebraska should be organized on the principle of popular sovereignty (or " squatter sovereignty ") as set forth in the Compromise of 1850. "All questions pertaining to slavery in the territories and the new states formed therefrom," it read, " are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate representatives." Stephen A. Douglas Approaching the Crisis 381 This bill was in direct contradiction to the Missouri Compro- 554. The mise, which had forever excluded slavery from all the Louisiana territory north of ^6 ^o . Douglas did not mention the Missouri Bill > Janu ary 23, 1854 Compromise in his bill, but when Southern Senators urged an amendment explicitly repealing the Compromise, Douglas yielded. After getting the consent of President Pierce to this measure through a private audience arranged by the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, Douglas on the twenty-third of January substituted the Kansas-Nebraska Bill for the original Nebraska Bill. This new bill declared that the Missouri Com promise was " superseded by the principle of the legislation of 1850 " ; and it divided the territory into two"parts by the parallel of 37 north latitude, Kansas to the south (into which it was expected slavery would enter), and Nebraska to the north (which would probably be free soil). The indignation of the North over the proposed annulment 555. "The of the Missouri Compromise was instantaneous and strong, ^f^pendlnt 6 The day after the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was reported, the Democrats" Free-Soil men in Congress, led by Senator Chase of Ohio, issued a spirited protest entitled " The Appeal of the Independent Democrats." They denounced the bill as " a gross violation of a sacred pledge," an " atrocious plot " to convert the western territory " into a dreary region of despotism inhabited by masters and slaves." The Missouri Compromise, they said, had been for more than half the period of our national existence " uni versally regarded and acted upon as inviolable American law." They called upon all good citizens to protest by every means possible against " the enormous crime " of its annulment. The appeal was promptly heeded. Hundreds of mass meet- 555. indig- ings were held in the North to denounce the bill. The legisla- ^rth over he tures of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and Douglas s bill Wisconsin sent their protests to Congress. Senator Seward of New York wrote : " A storm is rising, and such a one as our country has never yet seen." Douglas was denounced as a turn coat, a traitor, a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, who had sold himself 382 The Crisis of Disunion to the South for the presidential nomination. He was burned in effigy so frequently that he himself said he could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of the fires. 557. why Just what Douglas s motives were in advocating the repeal advocated the of the Missouri Compromise will never be known. He certainly Missouri t] kad P ut hi mse lf squarely on record as a champion of that meas- Compromise ure , voting in the House for the 36 30 line at the time of the annexation of Texas in 1845, an< ^ declaring in a speech in the Senate four years later that the Missouri Compromise was " canonized in the hearts of the American people as a thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to dis turb." Yet he now maintained that by the Compromise of 1850 the American people had substituted for the principle of a line dividing free territory from slave territory the new principle of the choice of the people of the territory themselves, and that he acquiesced gladly in that change of principle. There was noth ing illegal about abrogating the Missouri Compromise. It was simply a law of Congress, even with the word " forever " in it and a law of Congress may be repealed by any subse quent Congress. It is true that Douglas could not hope to win the Democratic nomination for President without the favor of the South, and perhaps this fact is sufficient to account for his willingness to open the Kansas-Nebraska territory to slavery. For the men who in all probability would be his rivals for the nomination in 1856 were all, in one way or another, courting the favor of the South in I854. 1 But this does not prove that Douglas, with his hearty Western confidence in the ability of the people of a locality to manage their own affairs, was not perfectly honest in preferring the "popular-sovereignty" prin ciple of 1850 to the Missouri-Compromise principle of 1820. His position was much like that of Daniel Webster in the seventh of March speech four years earlier (p. 360). 1 These men were President Pierce, who was almost slavishly following the guidance of his Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis ; Secretary of State Marcy, who advocated the annexation of Cuba; and our Minister to England, Buchanan, who signed the Ostend Manifesto. Approaching the Crisis 383 In the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Douglas proved 558. The himself the master of all his opponents. Alone he faced the fire of Wade, Chase, Seward, Sumner, and Everett, all mas- aw terly speakers, meeting their attacks at every point with a 3, 1854 vigor and tact which won even from his adversaries expressions of admiration. On March 2, 1854, after a continuous session Our Western Territories, 1854 of thirty-seven hours, which he closed with a speech lasting from midnight to dawn, Douglas carried the bill through the Senate by a vote of 37 to 14. It passed the House a few days later by the close vote of 1 13 to 100, and was signed by Pierce. Thus the Missouri Compromise, for thirty-four years " canonized in the hearts of the American people," was repealed, and 485,000 square miles of territory that had been "forever" dedicated to freedom were opened to the slaveholder. 384 The Crisis of Disunion Mr. James Ford Rhodes, the foremost historian of this period, says that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was " the most momentous measure that passed Congress from the day the Senators and Representatives first met until the outbreak of the Civil War." 1 It was the end of compromise on the slavery question. It was the declaration on the part of the South that no more lines of latitude or acts of Congress could debar slavery from the territories of the United States. It suddenly woke the North to the realization that no concession would satisfy the slaveholder short of the recognition of slavery as a national institution. 559. Growth The first effect of the bill was a great accession to the anti- ist sentiment slavery ranks in the North. Horace Greeley, editor of the New m the North Tribune, the most influential newspaper in the country at this period, wrote, " Pierce and Douglas have made more abolitionists in three months than Garrison and Phillips could have done in half a century." Deprived of their free territory in the West, the abolitionists determined that henceforth there should be no quarter given to slavery in the free states of the North. They began again to resist the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, now not a "band of fanatics," but a great company of men of culture, rank, and wealth. 560. "uncle The acquiescence of the "Christian and humane people of cabin, "1852 the North" in the law of 1850 had stirred Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe to write " Uncle Tom s Cabin," an exaggerated but powerful portrayal of the moral degradation to which slave- holding can reduce a man. She had implored the " kind and estimable people of the North " no longer " to defend, sym pathize with, or pass over in silence " this horrible institution. 2 1 Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. I, p. 490. 2 Uncle Tom s Cabin, chap, xlv, " Concluding Remarks." This novel had a wonderful sale, and was translated into nearly all the languages of Europe. No other novel has had the effect on the public affairs of the nation that this story of " Life among the Lowly " had. It is said that when Mrs. Stowe was presented to President Lincoln in the White House a few years later, he said, on shaking her hand, " So this i s the woman who brought on the Civil War." Approaching the Crisis 385 The work of Douglas gave point to the appeal of Mrs. Stowe. 561. The Ten states of the North passed Personal-Liberty acts, forbidding Liberty acts their officers to aid in the seizure of fugitive slaves, denying the use of their jails for the detention or imprisonment of fugitives, ordering their courts to provide jury trials for all negroes seized in the state, and generally annulling the provisions of the Fugi tive-Slave Law of 1850. When the fugitive Anthony Burns was arrested in Boston in 1854, a " mob," in which were some of the most prominent authors, preachers, and philanthropists of the city, attempted to rescue him by battering down the doors of the jail. He had to be escorted to the wharf by battalions of United States artillery and marines, through streets cleared by the cavalry and lined with 50,000 hooting, hissing, jeering, groaning men, under windows draped in mourning and hung with the American flag bordered with black. It cost the United States government $40,000 to return Anthony Burns to his Virginia master. The political effect of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 552. The was no less remarkable than the moral effect, for it led directly J^WM* f to the formation of a new and powerful party. The Whigs, party although badly beaten by Pierce in the election of 1852, had nevertheless sent over 60 members to Congress. A majority of the Southern Whigs voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, while every single one of the 45 Northern Whigs voted against it. This vote showed that the old Whig party was hopelessly split by the slavery issue into a Northern and a Southern wing. The proslavery Whigs of the South gradually went over to the Democratic party, until by the end of 1855 there were only the mere remnants of the once powerful Whig party south of the Potomac. 1 The South then became (and has remained till now) a " solid " Democratic South. At the North the Whigs were stronger, but the Northern Whigs alone could not hope either to 1 The process of the dissolution of the Whig party in the South began when thousands deserted Scott for Pierce in the presidential election of 1852, fearing that Scott was " tinged with Free-Soil principles." The vote on the Kansas- Nebraska Bill completed the process. 386 The Crisis of Disunion control Congress or to elect a President. They were overwhelm ingly opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, as we have seen, and hoped that the other Anti-Nebraska men of the North the Free-Soilers, the Know-Nothings, 1 and the Anti-Nebraska Demo crats 2 would join them in making a great* new Whig-Unionist party. But they were mistaken. Most of the Northern Demo crats were skillfully rallied to the party standards by the incom parable activity of Douglas ; while the Free-Soil men had no intention of subordinating the one great issue of slavery to the questions of high tariff, internal improvements, a national bank, or any other doctrine of the Whig platform. If the Anti- Nebraska Whigs wished to see a united North, they them selves would be forced to come into the new party which was already gathering the determined antislavery men out of every political camp. 563. Forma- This new party was formed at Jackson, Michigan, a few new Repub- weeks after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, in re- s P onse to a cal1 f r a state mass meeting of all men opposed to the extension of slavery (July 6, 1854). No hall was large enough to hold the immense gathering, which adjourned to a grove of oaks on the outskirts of the town. Amid great enthusiasm the meeting declared that slavery was a great " moral, social, and political evil," demanded the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and of the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, and resolved that " postponing all differences with regard to political economy or administrative policy," they would "act cordially and faithfully in unison " until the contest with slavery 1 The Know-Nothing party was the most curious development in our politi cal life. It originated in 1852 as a protest against foreign (especially Roman Catholic) influence in our politics. It was more like a lodge, or secret order, than a political party. The chaos in the old Whig and Democratic parties pro duced by the Kansas-Nebraska agitation drove thousands into the ranks of the Know-Nothings simply because they had no other place to go to. Thus that queer secret society actually carried several states in the elections of 1854 and 1855, and gained a momentary political significance far beyond its real importance. 2 The 86 Northern Democrats in the House had been almost evenly divided on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 44 for it, 42 against it. Approaching the Crisis 387 was ended. They adopted the name " Republican," 1 nominated an entire state ticket, and invited other states to follow them. State after state responded, organizing the Anti-Nebraska forces into the Republican party, until at the close of 1855 the chair men of the Republican committees in Ohio, Massachusetts, Ver mont, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin issued a call for a national Republican convention to be held at Pittsburg on February 22, 1856, for the purpose of organizing a national Republican party and appointing a time and place for nominating a presi dential candidate. From this convention the Republican party issued full-grown. The formation of the Republican party was a direct result of 564. Mistake the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The party was really rousing the" 1 called into existence by Stephen A. Douglas, who, as we shall see later, had cause bitterly to regret his blunder in conjuring North up the antislavery spirit of the North. There was no good rea son in the year 1854 for disturbing the compromise agreed on in 1850. On the basis of that compromise the Democratic party had achieved an overwhelming success at the polls in 1852, the Southern states had declared their continued adherence to the Union, and commercial and industrial prosperity was general. One might confidently have prophesied, at the opening of the year 1854, a long and undisturbed tenure of power for the Democratic party. At the end of that year the country was in a ferment. The Democratic majority of 84 in the House had been changed to a minority of 7 5. A new party had been formed which in a few years was to defeat the Democrats both of the North and of the South and give the death blow to the insti tution of slavery, to which the Kansas-Nebraska Act had seemed to open new and promising territory. 1 The organization and the name had both been suggested by an antislavery meeting at Ripon, Wisconsin, before the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had passed. 388 The Crisis of Disunion " BLEEDING KANSAS " 565. The When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill became law, Douglas boasted Aid society that " the struggle over slavery was forever banished from the halls of Congress to the Western plains." He was mistaken about its being banished from the halls of Congress, but right about its reaching the Western plains. While the bill was still pending, a group of determined Free-Soilers in Massachusetts resolved that if the question of slavery was to be left to the settlers of Kansas, then Kansas should be settled by antislavery men. Accordingly, at the suggestion of Eli Thayer of Worces ter, they formed the New England Emigrant Aid Society, whose object was to conduct companies of emigrants to the new territories, and help them with loans for the erection of houses and the cultivation of farms. The first colony, some thirty men and women, arrived in Kansas in the summer of 1854. By March, 1855, several hundred emigrants had come, and were busy building the town of Lawrence, 1 on the Kansas River. In less than three months over fifty dwellings w r ere built, a hotel and public buildings were started, and Lawrence had taken on the aspect of a thriving New England town. 566. The This attempt to " abolitionize Kansas " infuriated the South, "invade" and above all the neighboring state of Missouri. It was from Missouri especially that the demand had come for the organi zation of the new territory. The Missourians confidently ex pected to make it eventually a slaveholding state. But this inrush of Free-Soil emigrants from New England was spoiling the plan. The Missourians called the emigrants " an army of hirelings," " reckless and desperate fanatics," who " had none of the purpose of the real pioneers," but were clothed and fed, as 1 The town was named after A. A. Lawrence, a noted merchant and philan thropist of Boston, who was one of the chief supporters of the Emigrant Aid Society. John Greenleaf Whittier, the abolitionist poet, gave the colonists their marching song : We cross the prairie as of old the pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, the homestead of the free ! Approaching the Crisis 389 they were transported, by abolitionist " meddlers " of the North, who wanted to prevent a fair and natural settlement of Kansas. Accordingly large bands of armed men were organized in the border counties of Missouri for the purpose of crossing into Kansas and terrorizing the Free-Soil settlers. These " border ruffians " from Missouri swarmed into the 567. They Kansas territory whenever elections were held. Their thou- slavery P iegis- sands of fraudulent votes elected a proslavery delegate to territory, 1 * 6 Congress in the autumn of 1854, and the next spring, on the March 3 o , day set by the governor for the election of a territorial legisla ture (March 30, 1855), " an unkempt, sundried, blatant, pictur esque mob" of 5000 Missourians marched to the polls. Over three fourths of the votes were cast by these Missourian " invaders," and the legislature which they elected was decid edly proslavery. It ignored Governor Reeder s remonstrances, removed its meeting place to a point near the Missouri border, and proceeded to enact a code of laws for the territory, by which the severest penalties were decreed against any one who attempted to aid slaves to escape or even spoke or wrote of slavery as illegal in the territory. This high-handed conduct of the Missourians was applauded by the South generally, and companies of volunteers from Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia marched to Kansas to join the Missourians in the battle " for slavery and the South." A wave of indignation ran through the North. " It has 568. The lately been maintained by the sharp logic of the revolver and government the bowie knife that the people of Missouri are the people of *J J opeka> Kansas," cried Edward Everett of Massachusetts in a stirring oration on the Fourth of July, 1855. The Free-Soil emigrants in Kansas, who now numbered over 3000, refused to recognize the legislature elected by the " border ruffians " from Missouri. Their delegates met at Topeka, organized an antislavery govern ment, and, following the example of California, six years earlier, applied to Congress for immediate admission to the Union as a free state. 390 The Crisis of Disunion 569. civil In the spring of 1856, then, there were two hostile govern- sas, 1855-1856 merits facing each other in Kansas, each charging the other with fraud and violence. The Free-Soil party was determined that Kansas should not be sacrificed to the slave interests of Missouri. " If slavery in Missouri is impossible with freedom in Kansas," said their leader, Robinson, " then slavery in Missouri must die that freedom in Kansas may live." The proslavery men, on the other hand, declared that they would win Kansas, though they had to wade in blood to their knees. 570. The sack of Law rence, May 21, 1856 Civil War in Kansas, 1855-1857 It was inevitable that deeds of violence should occur under such circumstances. The Missourian invaders were always armed to the teeth, and quantities of Sharpe s rifles had been sent out from the North for the defense of freedom in Kansas. The Free-Soilers fortified their capital, Lawrence, by earthworks, and planted a cannon in the town. It needed only the spark to start the conflagration. That was furnished by the attempt of a sheriff to serve a warrant for arrest on a citizen in Law rence. An assassin shot the sheriff in the back, severely wounding him. The Free-Soil authorities (who were making every effort to avert deeds of violence) denounced the act and Approaching the Crisis 39 * offered a reward for the capture of the assassin. But the deed was done. The Missourians gathered " to wipe out Lawrence." They attacked the town on the twenty-first of May, 1856, destroyed the public buildings, the Free State Hotel, and the printing offices of the abolitionist papers, sacked and burned private dwellings, and retired, leaving the citizens destitute and desperate. The sack of Lawrence was frightfully avenged three days 571. John later. John Brown, an old man of the stock of the Puritans, with the Puritan idea that he was appointed by God to smite the Potta- J watomie, His enemies, led a small band of men (including his four sons) May 24, 1856 to a proslavery settlement on the banks of Pottawatomie Creek, and there dragging five men from their beds at dead of night, massacred them in cold blood. Thenceforward there was war in Kansas when Free-Soilers met proslavery men. The dis tracted territory was given over to feud and violence. " Bitter remembrances filled each man s mind," wrote an Englishman who traveled through Kansas at this time, " and impelled to daily acts of hostility and not unfrequent bloodshed." " Bleed- ing Kansas " became the topic of the hour throughout the North. It was folly in the administration at Washington to think that 572. HOW it could still hold to the doctrine of nonintervention in the ter- pi erce dealt ritories when civil war was going on in Kansas. President Pierce ignored the situation as long as he could, declaring in his situation message of December, 1855 (when a force of 1500 Missourians was already encamped on the Wakarusa River, waiting to attack Lawrence), that there had been disorderly acts in Kansas but that nothing had occurred as yet " to justify the interposition of the federal executive." The next month, however, Pierce sent a special message to Congress, in which he took sides squarely with the proslavery party in Kansas. He did not deny that there might have been " irregularities " in the election of the territorial legislature, but he recognized that legislature as the lawful one and declared his intention of supporting it with all the authority of the United States. The message plainly shows 392 The Crisis of Disunion 573. The gress 574. Brooks s assault on Sumner, May 22, 1856 the hand of the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis of Missis sippi, who controlled the administration of President Pierce. It was folly also in Douglas to think that the slavery ques- tion could be "banished from the halls of Congress" by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The very passage of that act, as we have seen, had caused the election of enough Anti-Nebraska men to Congress in 1854 to change a large Democratic majority into a minority. After a contest of two months the House elected an Anti-Nebraska man, N. P. Banks of Massachusetts, as Speaker, and " Bleeding Kansas " became the issue of the session. Banks appointed a committee of three to proceed to Kansas and investigate the condition of the territory. Every new report of violence furnished the text for stirring orations. On the twentieth of May Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a speech in the Senate on " The Crime against Kansas," which was the most unsparing philippic ever pro nounced in Congress. Sumner lashed the slaveholders with a tongue of venom. He spared neither coarse abuse nor scathing sarcasm. He attacked by name the instigators of the " mur derous robbers from Missouri," the " hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of civilization." He poured out his vials of scornful insult upon the heads of the slave-driving " aristocrats " of the South, until even the masters of invective on the floor of the Senate stared aghast at his furious courage. Among the senators especially singled out for Sumner s shafts was A. P. Butler of South Carolina, who was ill and absent from Washington at the time of the speech. Two days later Preston Brooks, a representative from South Carolina and a relative of Senator Butler, entered the Senate chamber late in the afternoon, when Sumner was bending over his desk at work, and beat him almost to death with a heavy gutta-percha cane. 1 1 Sumner, when he had sufficiently recovered from the shock of this terrible beating, went to Europe for treatment at the hands of the most distinguished specialists. He was able to resume his seat in the Senate (which had been kept vacant for him) in 1859, but he never recovered his old-time brilliancy. His death, in 1875, was due to the effects of the injuries administered by Brooks. Approaching the Crisis 393 Sumner s speech had been outrageous, but Brooks s attack was unspeakably base and cowardly. The motion to expel Brooks from Congress failed of the necessary two-thirds vote, owing to the support given him by the Southern members, and when he resigned shortly afterwards, he was immediately reflected by the almost unanimous voice of his district in South Carolina. Sumner s speech, the attack of Brooks, the sack of Lawrence, 575. The Re- and the massacre on the Pottawatomie all occurred within Button at** the five days, May 19-24, 1856. These events were a sad j commentary on " popular sovereignty " in Kansas, and a sinister omen for the approaching presidential campaign. The Repub lican nominating convention arranged for at Pittsburg met at Philadelphia, June 17, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. The platform adopted declared that it was " both the right and the duty of Congress " to prohibit slavery in the territories. It condemned the policy of the administration in Kansas, denounced the Ostend Manifesto, and demanded the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. Chase and Seward, the leading men of the party, were both passed over on account of their former prominence in the Democratic and the Whig party respectively ; and John C. Fremont, of California, " the Pathfinder," renowned for his explorations and his military services in the Far West (see p. 352), was nominated for President, with Dayton of New Jersey for Vice President. The selection of both of the candidates from free states 575. Threats was in the eyes of the South a proof of the sectional character of the Republican party the "Black Republicans," as the South Southerners called them on account of their interest in the negro. From all over the South came threats that Fremont s election would mean the end of the Union. " The Southern states," wrote Governor Wise of Virginia, " will not submit to a sectional election of a Free-Soiler or Black Republican. ... If Fremont is elected this Union will not last one year from November next. . . . The country was never in such danger." 394 The Crisis of Disunion 577. The pacification of Kansas and November, 1856 The Democrats too passed over their great leader, Stephen A. Douglas, and nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, a dignified, formal, mediocre gentleman, who was especially " available " because he had been absent in England as minister during the Kansas struggle. The Democrats realized that the pacification of Kansas was the most important element of their success in the approaching election. Every fresh deed of vio lence reported from the terri tory was mak ing thousands of Republican converts. Dem ocratic party leaders vainly tried to get Congress to pass the Toombs bill in midsummer, providing for a new census in Kansas and the election of a territorial con vention under supervision of five commis- 6 The Election of 1856 The first Republican campaign sioners appointed by the President. But the Republicans had had their experience of Pierce and were not willing to let him choose the umpires for the Kansas elections. 1 Failing in Con gress, the Democrats appealed to the executive to interpose in 1 Douglas angrily accused the Republicans of wanting to keep the civil war alive in Kansas, for the sake of winning votes. " An angel from heaven," he declared, " could not write a bill to restore peace in Kansas that would be acceptable to the abolition Republican party previous to the next presidential election." Approaching the Crisis 395 Kansas, and Pierce sent out a new governor (the third in two years), Geary of Pennsylvania, with authority to use the United States troops to restore order. Geary drove the Missourian in vaders out and stanched the wounds of bleeding Kansas (Sep tember, 1856). The election was saved for the Democrats. Buchanan carried all the slave states (except Maryland), besides New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and California. His electoral vote was 174 to 114 for Fremont. The whole conservative element of the country was relieved 578. signifi- by the result of the election. Buchanan was deemed a " safe " election o?* man, while the erratic, popular Fremont, backed by the l8 5 6 abolitionists of the North, might have precipitated a crisis, even if the Southern states repented of their threats of disunion in case of his election. Still the new Republican party, in its first presidential campaign, with a comparatively weak candidate at that, had made a remarkable fight. It had carried eleven states and polled 1,341,264 votes to 1,838,169 for Buchanan. With an enthusiasm as great as that with which, in the summer s campaign, they had shouted, " Free speech, free press, free soil, J<re-mont and Victory 1 " the Republicans now closed their ranks, and entered on the next four years campaign with the battle song of Whittier, the bard of freedom, ringing in their ears: Then sound again the bugles, Call the muster-roll anew ; If months have well-nigh won the field, What may not four years do ? "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF " Buchanan s election gave promise of peace. Order had been 579. The restored in Kansas by the intervention of the United States SSnS^J. 1 ^ > u&tion. in 1050 troops, and the danger of an " abolitionist " president averted. The country was on a flood tide of material prosperity (see p. 367). The national debt, which stood at $68,000,000 in 1850, had been reduced to less than $30,000,000. The Walker tariff of 396 The Crisis of Disunion 1846, though moderate, was bringing into the Treasury so large a surplus that a new tariff bill was passed without opposition in the last month of Pierce s term (February, 1857), reducing the rates by from 20 to 50 per cent. If only the persistent slavery agitation could have been put to rest, the land and the people of America would have been the happiest on the face of the earth. 580. Buchan- Buchanan was sincerely anxious for harmony. He selected tion three Northern and four Southern men for his cabinet, with the veteran author of the popular-sovereignty doctrine, Lewis Cass, for the leading position of Secretary of State. He declared in his inaugural address that he owed his election " to the inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the American people," and expressed the hope that the long agitation on slavery was now " approaching its end." But beforethe echoes of the inaugural speech had died away, an event occurred which again roused the indignation of the antislavery men of the North, and won thousands more to the conviction that the sections of our country could not dwell together in har mony until slavery was either banished from our soil or ex tended to every part of the Union. This event was the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, delivered March 6, 1857. 581. The Dred Scott, a negro slave belonging to a man in Missouri, decision, na d been taken by his master into free territory in the North- March 6, west and brought back again to Missouri. Some years later he sued his master s widow for his freedom, on the ground that residence in a free territory had emancipated him. The case reached the highest court of Missouri, which pronounced against Scott s claim. Meanwhile he had come into the possession of a New Yorker named Sandford, and again sued for his freedom in the United States circuit court of Missouri. 1 The federal court rendered the same decision as the state court, and Dred s 1 When a citizen of one state sues a citizen of another state, the case is tried in a federal, or United States, court. Of course, the negro slave, Dred Scott, did not initiate this case himself. It was managed by antislavery men in Missouri who wished to test the position of the courts on the subject of slavery. Approaching the Crisis 397 patrons appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the United States. The only question before the Supreme Court was whether it should sustain the decision of the federal court in Missouri or reverse it. But after the decision was made, sus taining the Missouri court in denying Dred Scott his liberty, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney of Maryland, who had been appointed by President Jackson on the death of John Marshall in 1835, went on to deliver a long opinion l on the status of the negro. The negro was not a citi zen, he declared, in the eyes of the Constitution of the United States. That Constitution was made for white men only. The blacks, at the time of its adoption, were regarded as "so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Not being a citizen, the negro could not sue in a court of the United States, and no law of Congress was constitutional which pretended to confirm or protect him in legal rights. In a word, the national government had no more juris diction over slaves than over any other property of the citizens of the various states of the Union. The Southerners were jubilant. At last the extreme pro- 582. impor- slavery doctrine of Calhoun and Davis (note, p. 353) was JgciSon " recognized by the federal power at Washington, and by the most august branch of that power, the Supreme Court of the United States. " The nation has achieved a triumph ; sectional ism has been rebuked and abolitionism has been staggered and stunned," said a Richmond paper. But the Northern press spoke of " sullied ermine " and " judicial robes polluted in the filth of proslavery politics." " The people of the United States," cried Seward, " never can and never will accept principles so abhorrent." Flushed with their victory in the Dred Scott case, the ex- 533. The Le- treme proslavery men made still further demands on the national stitution COn government. Buchanan had sent a fair and able governor to Dec. ax, 1857 1 An opinion expressed by a judge beyond what is called for in the actual case is called obiter dictum, a Latin phrase meaning literally " spoken by the way." 398 The Crisis of Disunion succeed Geary in Kansas, in the person of Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, ex-Secretary of the Treasury. Under Walker s call a convention met at Lecompton, Kansas, in September, 1857, to frame a constitution for the territory. The Free-Soil men refused to attend the convention, remembering the frauds of the earlier elections, but they were persuaded by Walker s good faith to take part in the elections for a territorial legislature in October, and succeeded in returning a majority of Free-Soil members. When the proslavery convention in session at Lecompton saw that the Free-Soil men would control the legislature of the terri tory, they determined to force a proslavery constitution on Kansas by fraud. They drew up a constitution in which the protection of all the existing slave property in Kansas was guaranteed, and then submitted it to the vote of the people to be adopted with slavery or without slavery. Whichever way the people voted, there would be slavery in Kansas ; for a vote for " the constitution with slavery " meant that more slaveholders would be admitted, while a vote for " the constitution without slavery " meant that no more slaveholders would be admitted, but that those who were already there would be protected in their property. The Free-Soil men denounced the fraud, and de manded that the vote should be simply Yes or No on the whole Lecompton Constitution. They stayed away from the polls, and the proslavery people adopted the " constitution with slavery," casting in all 6700 votes (December 21, 1857). Two weeks later, the Free-Soil legislature put the Lecompton Con stitution as a whole before the people, and the free-soil citizens rejected it by a vote of over 10,000. It was clear enough that the majority of the inhabitants of Kansas did not want slavery. 584. The When the news of the affair of the Lecompton Constitution Lecompton Constitution came to Buchanan s first Congress, assembled in December, he l8 57> Douglas immediately protested against the fraud as a D P ou S ias n f violation f tne principle of popular sovereignty, on which the territory was organized. The people of Kansas, he insisted, must be allowed to vote fairly on the question of slavery or no Approaching the Crisis 399 slavery in the territory. A new convention must be called, and a new constitution submitted. But the Southerners were bound to have the Lecompton Constitution stand. They won the President to their side, and in February, 1858, in spite of the 10,000 majority against the constitution in Kansas a month before, Buchanan sent the Lecompton Constitution to the Senate with the recommendation that Kansas be admitted as a state under its provisions. Douglas was firm. He defied the admin istration, rebuked President Buchanan to his face, and labored with might and main to defeat the bill. The South assailed him as a " traitor " and a " renegade " and a " Judas," the very epithets with which he had been branded in the North four" years earlier. In spite of his efforts, the bill was passed by the Senate (33 to 2 5), Douglas voting in the negative with the Repub licans Sumner, Chase, Wade, Hale, and Seward, whom he had so unmercifully handled in the debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The House defeated the bill to admit Kansas, and after a conference the Senate agreed to submit the Lecompton Consti tution again to the people of the territory, who again rejected it by the decisive vote of 11,000 to 2000. 1 Douglas s second term in the United States Senate was about 585. Douglas to expire, and he returned to Illinois in the summer of 1858 to rivals* make the canvass for his reelection, in disgrace with the admin- istration and in some private embarrassment. 2 His Republican rival for the senatorship was Abraham Lincoln. The two men had known each other for twenty years. They were both alike in being poor farmers sons, who had come into the growing state of Illinois as young men and engaged there in the practice of law. They were alike, too, in their intense ambition to make a name for themselves in politics. But here the resemblance ceased. While Douglas had been phenomenally successful, a 1 In 1861 Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state. 2 A great part of Douglas s fortune had been swept away by a severe financial panic which came upon the country in 1857, as the result of overconfidence in the prosperity of the early fifties and too sanguine investments in Western farms and railways. 400 The Crisis of Disunion national figure in the. United States Senate for over a decade, and twice a serious competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination, Lincoln s national honors had been limited to one inconspicuous term as a Whig member of Congress and no votes for the vice-presidential nomination in the Republican convention of 1856. In appearance, temper, and character the two men were exact opposites : Lincoln ludicrously tall and lanky, awkward, reflective, and slow in speech and motion ; Douglas scarcely five feet in height, thickset, agile, volcanic in utterance, impetuous in gesture ; Lincoln undeviatingly honest in thought, making his speech always the servant of his reason ; Douglas, in his brilliancy of rhetoric, often confusing the moral principle for the sake of making the legal point. 586. Lin- Somewhat disheartened by his lack of success, Lincoln was tion on P SI losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Corn- slavery promise again roused him. In a speech at Peoria, Illinois, in October, 185 4, he warned Douglas that his doctrine would " bring Yankees and Missourians into clash over slavery in Kansas," and with prophetic vision asked, " Will not the first drop of blood so shed be the knell of the Union ? " He joined the new Republi can party, and soon rose to be its recognized leader in Illinois. When the Republican state convention nominated him for the senatorship in June, 1858, he addressed the delegates in a mem orable speech: "In my opinion it [the slavery agitation] will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it ... or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states." 587. The Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates before the Douglas de- people of Illinois on the respective merits of the Democratic bates, 1858 doctrine of popular sovereignty in the territories and the Approaching the Crisis 401 Republican doctrine of the control of slavery in the territories by Congress. The seven remarkable debates which followed in various parts of the state were the feature of the campaign. In them the prediction of Douglas that the battle of slavery would be fought out on the Western plains was fulfilled in a way he little suspected when he made it. The contest was not merely over a seat in the Senate. It was a great struggle, watched with interest by the whole country, between two moral and political issues of immense importance : first, whether one man might dare say another man is not his equal in the right to earn his bread in labor as he sees fit ; and second, __,,_ rr-^T^, wnetner the government u " of the United States was the servant of the slave power or its master. In the debate at Free- 588. The port, Lincoln s merciless logic brought Douglas straight to the point of the campaign. The Dred Scott decision, which Tablet marking the Site of the First Lincoln-Douglas Debate Douglas accepted and defended, declared it un- [ constitutional for the national government to exclude slavery from the territories ; while by the doctrine of popular sovereignty Congress conferred on a territory the right to decide the ques tion of slavery for itself. But, asked Lincoln, how could a terri tory forbid slavery when Congress itself could not ? The territory was the creation of Congress. Did it have more power than the Congress which created it ? Could water rise above its source ? The question brought the answer Lincoln wanted. Douglas still defended popular sovereignty, maintaining that legislation hostile to slavery by the people of the territory would make the territory free soil in spite of the Dred Scott decision. The latter was only negative, prohibiting Congress to forbid slavery ; 4O2 The Crisis of Disunion the legislation of the people of the territory was positive, estab lishing or prohibiting slavery as they saw fit. 1 589. The Douglas won the senatorship by the narrow margin of eight radicals re- votes. But his " Freeport doctrine " of the power of the people of Douglas a territory to exclude slavery by " hostile legislation " cost him the presidency two years later. The Southern radicals, already in censed by the defeat of the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, now rejected Douglas completely. They demanded that Con gress should interfere positively to protect slavery in the territories, even against the hostile legislation of the territory itself. " Would you have Congress protect slaves any more than any other property in the territories ? " asked Douglas of Jefferson Davis. " Yes," replied Davis, " because slaves are the only property the North will try to take from us in the territories." " You will not carry a state north of the Ohio River on such a platform," cried Douglas. " And you could not get the vote of Mississippi on yours," answered Davis. The Democratic party was hopelessly divided. Douglas had railed at the " abolitionist" Republican party as " sectional." Now he and his followers were accused of the same fault by the administration of Buchanan and i the radical Southern leaders. He woke finally to the realization that his efforts to hold the Northern and Southern wings of the Democratic party together on the compromise doctrine of pop ular sovereignty were vain. Every concession to the slaveholders was only the basis of a new demand. Lincoln was right. The house was divided against itself. REFERENCES The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Formation of the Repub lican Party: T. C. SMITH, Parties and Slavery (American Nation Series), chaps, vii, viii; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1830, Vol. I, chap, v ; Vol. II, chap, vii ; J. G. NICOLAY, Life of Lincoln, chap, vii; HENRY WILSON, Rise and Fall of 1 Lincoln neatly paraphrased this " Freeport doctrine " of Douglas in a speech at Columbus a year later : " Then a thing may be legally driven away from a place where it has a legal right to be." Approaching the Crisis 4 3 the Slave Power, Vol. II, chaps, xxx, xxxi ; J. W. BURGESS, The Middle Period chap, xix ; A. B. HART, American History told by, Contemforanes, Vol IV Nos 34, 35; H. VON HOLST, Constitutional History of the United States, Vol. V, chaps, i, ii ; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Docu ments of United States History, 1776-1861, Nos. 85-88; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chap, xx ; ALLEN JOHNSON, Stephen Arnold Douglas, chaps, xi-xiv. Bleeding Kansas : SMITH, chaps, ix, xi, xii ; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. ,6-39; RHODES, Vol. II, pp. 98-107, 150-168; BURGESS, chap, xx; WHSON Vol. II, chaps, xxxv-xxxvii ; VON HOLST, Vol. V, chaps, m, vi vii- JAMES SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. V, chap, xxi- J D RICHARDSON, Papers and Messages of the Presidents, Vol. V, PP. 352-36. 390-391, 401-407, 449-454, 471-481 ; W. E. B. DuBois, John Brown, chaps, vi-viii ; CHARLES ROBINSON, The Kansas Conflict, chaps, v-xiii; L. W. SPRING, Kansas, chaps, ii-ix ; also The Career of a Kansas Politician (American Historical Review, Vol. IV, pp. 80-104). A House divided against Itself : SMITH, chaps, xiv-xvh ; BURGESS, chaps, xxi, xxii ; JOHNSON, chaps, xv-xvii; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 40-45 ; WILSON, Vol. II, chaps, xxxix-xliii; RHODES, Vol.11, chap, ix; NICOLAY, chaps, viii, ix; J. T. MORSE, JR., Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I, chap, v ; A ROTHSCHILD, Lincoln, Master of Men, chap, iii ; Old South Leaf lets, No. 85; C. E. MERRIAM, American Political Theories, chap, vi; MACDONALD, Nos. 91, 9 3 5 ROBINSON, chaps, xiv-xvii ; VON HOLST, Vol VI, chaps, i-vii; SAMUEL TYLER, Memoir of Robert B. Taney, chap, v; HORACE GREELEY, The American Conflict, Vol. I, chaps, xvii-xix. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Birth of the Republican Party : G. W. JULIAN, Personal Recol lections, pp. 134-150; STANWOOD, pp. 258-278; T. K. LOTHROP, William //. Seward, pp. 142-161 ; RHODES, Vol. II, pp. 45~5O, i?7~ 185; SCHOULER, Vol. V, pp. 301-308, 349~357; A. C. MCLAUGHLIN, Lewis Cass, pp. 293-32 1 ; FRANCIS CURTIS, The Republican Party, Vol. I, pp. 172-234; JOHNSON, pp. 260-280. 2. Industrial Prosperity in the Fifties: SMITH, pp. 59~745 E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, pp. 206-215, 222-226, 238-249 ; D. R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, pp. 248-274; C. D. WRIGHT, Industrial Evolution of the United States, pp. 133-142; EDWARD INGLE, Southern Sidelights, pp. 55-66, 88-94; W. G. BROWN, The Lower South in American History, pp. 32-49; RHODES, Vol. Ill, pp. 1-56; G. S. CALLENDER, Readings in the Eco- History of the United States, pp. 73 8 ~793- nomic 404 Thv Crisis of Disunion 3. The Personal-Liberty Laws: HART, Vol. IV, No. 33; WILSON, Vol. II, pp. 50-60 ; VON HOLST, Vol. V, pp. 65-70 ; MARION G. MAC- DOUGALL, Fugitive Slaves (Fay House Monographs); T. W. HIGGIN- SON, Cheerful Yesterdays, pp. 132-166; NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. Ill, pp. 17-34; J- J- LALOR, Cyclopedia of Political Science, Vol. Ill, pp. 162-163. 4. Criticisms of the Bred Scott Decision : HART, Vol. IV, No. 43 ; TYLER, pp. 373-400; RHODES, Vol. II, pp. 257-270; G. T. CURTIS, Memoir of B. R. Curtis, Vol. I, pp. 211-251; J. G. ELAINE, Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I, pp. 131-137; GREELEY, pp. 255-264; LALOR, Vol. I, pp. 838-841. 5. Antislavery Poems : LUCY LARCOM, Call to Kanzas (HART, Vol. IV, No. 37); WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, The Prairies, The Call to Arms; JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, The Present Crisis, The Biglow Papers ; JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, Expostiilation, The Farewell, Massachusetts to Virginia, The Kansas Emigrants, Burial of Barber, The Panorama, Brown of Ossawatomie. CHAPTER XV SECESSION THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN When the presidential year 1860 opened, the antislavery 590. The cause seemed to be defeated at every point. There was hardly a claim of the South in the contest of forty years since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that had not been yielded by the North for the sake of securing peace and preserving the Union. Congress, which in 1820 had excluded slavery from the larger part of the Western territory of the United States by the Missouri Compromise, had by the Compromise of 1850 substituted the principle of noninterference with slavery in the territories, and by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise outright. All the territories of the United States except Oregon were thenceforth open to slavery. A stringent fugitive-slave law had been enacted by Congress (1850). The judicial branch of the government had, by the Dred Scott decision, joined the legislative branch in sanctioning the "peculiar institution " of the South, declaring that Congress had no power to interfere with the property (i.e. the slaves) of the citizens of any of the states in any part of the Union (1857). And finally, the executive branch of the government had been inclined, like the legislative and judicial branches, to a favorable attitude toward slavery. Not one of the five Northern Presidents since Jackson s day (Van Buren, Harrison, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan) had shown the slightest hostility toward slavery while in the White House, and the last two had been completely dominated by Jefferson Davis and the other radical proslavery statesmen. 405 406 The Crisis of Disunion 591. slavery In the Southern states the institution of slavery seemed fixed on the South beyond any power to disturb it. The slaves had increased from 2,000,000 in 1820 to nearly 4,000,000 in 1860; yet the con stantly increasing demand for cotton in the mills of England and the North made the supply of slaves inadequate. The same quality of negro that sold for $400 in 1820 brought $1200 to $1500 in 1860. Why pay $1500 apiece in Virginia for slaves that could be bought for $600 in Cuba, and for less than $100 in Africa? said the Mississippi planter. A conven tion of the cotton-raising states at Vicksburg in May, 1859, carried by a vote of 40 to 19 the resolution that "all laws, state or federal, prohibiting the African slave trade ought to be repealed." Cargoes of slaves were landed at Southern ports in almost open defiance of the law of 1807 prohibiting the foreign slave trade. 1 592. John The slight opposition to slavery and to the strict laws for at Harpers the coercion of the negro that still existed in the South was t0 ~ killed by an unfortunate event in the autumn of 1859. John Brown, whose fanatical deed of murder in Kansas we have , already described (p. 391), felt that he was commissioned by God to free the slaves in the South. He conceived the wild plan of posting in the fastnesses of the Appalachian Mountains small bodies of armed men, who should make descents into the. plains, seize negroes, and conduct them back to his " camps of freedom." He made a beginning at the little Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, at the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where with only eighteen men he seized the United 1 In 1859 the yacht Wanderer landed 300 slaves, brought direct from the African coast, at Brunswick, Georgia. They were distributed as far as Memphis, Tennessee. The owner and the captain of the vessel were indicted on a charge of breaking the federal law of 1807, but no Southern jury could be found to convict them, and they went free. Douglas said that 15,000 slaves were imported in the last years of the decade 1850-1860. What a contrast to the attitude of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in his presidential message of December, 1806, " I con gratulate you, fellow citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may [prohibit] all further violations of human rights, which have so long been con tinued on the unoffending inhabitant of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe." Secession 407 States armory, and, raiding the houses of a few of the neigh boring planters, forcibly freed about thirty of their slaves. There was no response on the part of the negroes to John Brown s raid in their behalf. They were huddled together with his men in the armory, rather bewildered, and more like captives than newly baptized freemen, when a detachment of United United States Marines storming the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry States marines from Washington arrived on the scene and cap tured Brown s band after a short, sharp struggle (October 17, 1859). Brown, severely wounded, was tried for treason by the laws of Virginia. He pleaded only his divine commission for his defense, and was speedily condemned and hanged. The South was persuaded that John Brown s attempt to in- 593. Effect cite the negroes to revolt was backed by influential men at the ontheSouth North, especially when Brown was hailed as a martyr by thou sands of antislavery men who were jubilant to see a blow 408 The Crisis of Disunion struck for freedom, even if it were a murderous blow. 1 From the day of John Brown s raid many thousands in the South were persuaded that the " Black Republicans " were deter mined to let loose upon their wives and children the horrors of negro massacre. 594. The Early in February, 1860, Jefferson Davis brought into the Davis reso- lutions, Feb- Senate a set of resolutions containing the demands of the South. ruary 2, 18 Douglas s doctrine of popular sovereignty was entirely repu diated. Congress must protect slavery in every part of the terri tory of the United States ; for the territories were the common possession of the states of the Union, open to the citizens of all the states with all their property. The Northern states must repeal their Personal-Liberty laws, and cease to interfere with the thoroughgoing execution of the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850. The Dred Scott decision must be respected, and no attempt be made by Congress to trespass on the exclusive right of the states to regulate slavery for themselves. These extreme pro- slavery resolutions, which demanded everything but the actual introduction of slavery into the free states of the North, were intended as a platform for the Democratic party in the approach ing convention for the choice of a presidential candidate. 595. Lin- At the close of the same month of February, 1860, Abraham coin s speech T . , .... ., . _. in the Cooper Lincoln, at the invitation of the Republicans of the Eastern states > delivered a notable speech in the hall of the Cooper Union, New York City. Since the debates with Douglas in 1858, Lincoln had been recognized in the West as the leading man of the Republican party, but before the Cooper Union speech the East did not accord him a place beside Seward and 1 The tense feeling in the North led many men of note to indorse John Brown s deed in words of extravagant praise. Theodore Parker declared that his chances for earthly immortality were double those of any other man of the century ; and Ralph Waldo Emerson even compared the hanging of John Brown with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The funds and firearms for Brown s expe dition of course came from the North, but the men who contributed them (with perhaps one or two exceptions) thought they were to be used in Kansas and not for a raid in the state of Virginia. John Brown s deed at Harpers Ferry, like his deed at the Pottawatomie, deserves only condemnation. Secession 49 Sumner. His clothes were ill-fitting, his voice was high and thin, his gestures were awkward as he stood before the cultured audience of New York ; but all these things were forgotten as he proceeded with accurate historical knowledge, keen argu ment, lucid exposition, and great charity to expound the posi tion of the Republican party on the issue of slavery. He showed that a majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had voted for the restriction of slavery; that Congress had repeatedly legislated to control slavery in the territories of the United States, and that the South had accepted and even voted for the laws ; that no particle of proof could be adduced to show that the Republican party or any member of it had anything to do with John Brown s raid at Harpers Ferry; that the talk of the Southerners about the disasters which the election of a Republican president would bring upon them was the product of their own imagination ; and that the threats of the South to break up the Union in case of such an election were simply the argument of the highway robber. He concluded by a ringing appeal to the men of the North to stand by their principles in the belief that right makes might. The speech was not a formal reply to Davis s resolutions, but it served as such. It was a clear statement of the Republican doctrine that, in spite of the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, Congress had full power to prohibit slavery in the territories. The speech made Lincoln a serious candidate for the Repub lican nomination for President. The great conventions of 1860, which were to nominate 595. The candidates for the most important presidential election in our Democratk; history, began with the meeting of the Democratic delegates at convention at Pti3.rlGston Charleston, South Carolina, April 23. It was evident that the April, 1860 struggle in the Democratic convention would be between the Douglas men and the supporters of the Davis resolutions. The Douglas platform won by a margin of about thirty votes, where upon the Alabama delegation, led by William L. Yancey, for ten years an ardent advocate of secession, marched out of the hall. 410 The Crisis of Disunion The Alabama delegates were followed by those of five other cotton states, the chairmen of these delegations bidding their fellow Democrats farewell " in valedictories which seemed ad dressed less to the convention than to the Union." Glenn of Mississippi, pale with suppressed emotion, declared, " In sixty days you will see a united South standing shoulder to shoulder ! " In refusing to abide by the vote of the regular Democratic convention supporting Douglas s doctrine of popular sovereignty (which of course meant the nomination of Douglas for President), the extreme proslavery men of the South deliberately split the Democratic party and thereby made probable the election of the Republican candidate. It was the reckless deed of men who were determined to listen to no further discussion of their demands for the recognition of slavery as a right, a moral, social, and political right. Alexander Stephens of Georgia, per haps the ablest statesman of the South, said that within a twelvemonth of the disruption of the Democratic convention at Charleston the nation would be engaged in a bloody civil war. And so it was. The two wings of the Democratic party reassembled in June at Baltimore. The "regulars "nominated Douglas, and the rad ical proslavery " bolters " nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, Vice President during Buchanan s term. 597. The Re- Meanwhile the Republican convention had met in Chicago vention n at n ~ (May 16) in a huge structure called the "Wigwam." Ten ChlC g g0)May thousand people packed the building, while outside tens of thousands more were breathlessly waiting in hopes to hear that the favorite son of the West, " honest Abe " Lincoln, the " rail- splitter," had been chosen to lead the party to victory. The delegates adopted a platform asserting the right and duty of Congress to prohibit the further spread of slavery into the territories of the United States. They condemned Buchanan s administration for its encouragement of the Lecompton fraud, demanded the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state, and denounced the opinion of Taney in the Dred Scott case. Secession 4 1 1 When the convention met, Senator Seward of New York 598. The was considered the leading candidate for the Republican nomi- Abraham nation, which he himself confidently expected. Other aspirants Lincoln for the honor were Chase of Ohio, Bates of Missouri, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Smith of Indiana, and Lincoln of Illinois. Seward led on the first ballot, but he could not command the 233 votes necessary for nomination. He was suspected in some states of being intimately allied with the abolitionists, and in others of being too closely connected with the political machine in New York state. His vote remained nearly sta tionary, while delegation after delegation went over to Lincoln. On the third ballot Lincoln was nominated and the convention went wild. Pandemonium reigned within the hall, while cannon boomed without. Men shouted and danced and marched and sang. They hugged and kissed each other, they wept, they fainted for joy. Seward, although his friends were stunned with disappointment, showed his nobility of character and his devotion to the Republican cause by an instant and hearty support of Abraham Lincoln. 1 There was a fourth ticket in the field, headed by John Bell 599. The of Tennessee and supported by the old Whigs and Union men tiona/ union in the South, especially in the border states. Their platform party was silent on the subject of slavery, simply declaring " for the maintenance of the Union and the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws." In the election on the sixth of November Lincoln carried all 600. Lin- the Northern states except New Jersey, receiving 180 electoral tion ,Novem- votes. Douglas got only 12 electoral votes, from Missouri and ber6 l86 New Jersey. Bell carried Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, with 39 votes. And Breckinridge got the 72 votes of the rest 1 Seward s disappointment is expressed in a letter to his wife, written May 30, 1860 : " I am a leader deposed by my own party in the hour of organization for decisive battle." Lincoln recognized Seward s valuable support and great gifts when he bestowed on him the office of Secretary of State. The other aspirants for the nomination, Chase, Smith, Bates, and Cameron, also received places in Lincoln s first cabinet. 412 The Crisis of Disunion of the Southern states. But the electoral vote does not tell the story of the election. Douglas polled a very large popular vote in all the states of the North (see map). He received 1,370,- ooo votes to Lincoln s 1,860,000, and would have easily won with the support of the united CHARLESTON Democratic party. He was repudiated by the adminis tration of Buchanan and by the radical slavery leaders of MERCURY EXTRA: the South, yet he received nearly twice as many votes (1,370,000 to 840,000) as their candidate, Breckinridge. It was a wonderful testimony to his personal and political hold on his countrymen. Again, although Lincoln re ceived 1 80 electoral votes to 123 for Douglas, Bell, and Breckinridge combined, his popular vote was only 1,860,- ooo to 2,810,000 cast against him. 1 He was the choice of less than half the voters of the country, a fact which goes far to explain his cau tious, conciliatory conduct in office. Finally, the election showed that the South as a whole was not in favor of secession in 1860. For Douglas and Bell, both stanch Union men, polled 135,000 votes more than Breckinridge in the slave states. 1 The electoral system of choice of President may fail to show the popular choice. The candidate who receives most votes (a plurality) in any state gets all the electoral votes of that state, though his opponents combined may poll more than double his vote, as Lincoln s opponents did in California and Oregon. AH ORDIXt AC E To dltiolrt lltt (Man bttutm the Stall if SouiA Carolina other State, uulted vUh lor uiuttr Iht compact mtUled " Cumulation If the Inttxl Statci of JnuHoa." Wr. Ox Papx o/O, SU^fS^U Onfe* Ctwab* u^mtM. to dxlm /,** *Mr*M*Ml4 AUIIU OrdiaK doom! bj M In Co<Uon,.o Ih. lwentj.lhlid <Uj of JU 7 , ,, t ra Lord on. Ihomut.. hmdrxl Ml.lgkt^gkl, rtr.b, U>. ComWulio. . Calm 8l>M of Aaetiu ru ttia=d, ud !, >Q Acu ud puti if leu of <h 0, AneuMr of ILil Bute. nUf;mg uaendmeiu of the id CuniUliitui, >ra o.ttb, npe Ud Hit lh loici dow inUuling Ixlinn Soldi dnliu ud olliu Suw, uJer t! u Tk. Doited Sttei o( Aaeiiot,* U benb; diuoivtt UNION DISSOLVED! Facsimile of the Ordinance of Secession Popular Electoral Vote Vote Lincoln 1,866,452 180 Breckenridge 849,781 72 Hl Bell 588,879 39 Douglas 1,376,957 12 L.L. POATES ENS. CO., N.Y. The Presid* [7 ^ 7C109 // \S/... - U l\\ I 1 V n0."2ti> !l!>i >- >v , \ \ .iS>01 ion of 1860 Secession 413 *> t The legislature of South Carolina was in session when the 601. The election of Lincoln was announced. It had met to choose the Sout hcaro- presidential electors for the state, 1 and after choosing Breckin- ridge electors it had voted to remain in session until the result of the election was knowji, threatening to advise the secession of the state in case the " Black Republican " candidate were successful. It now im mediately called a con vention of the state to meet the next month to carry out its threat of se cession. On the twentieth of December the con vention met at Charles ton and carried, by the unanimous vote of its 169 members, the reso lution that " the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." The ordi BUILT _.fROM THE RUIN, Secession Banner displayed in the South Carolina Convention nance of secession was met with demonstrations of joy by the people of South Carolina. The city of Charleston was decked with the palmetto flag of the state. Salvos of artillery were fired, houses were draped with blue bunting, and the bells were rung in a hundred churches. The ancient commonwealth of South Carolina, after many threats and warnings, had at last " resumed " its position as a free and independent state. 1 South Carolina was the only state in 1860 that continued the custom, common in the early days of our history to most of the states, of choosing presidential electors by vote of the legislature. In all the other states they had come to be chosen by vote of the people. 414 The Crisis of Disunion THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY 602. The for- Within six weeks after the secession of South Carolina the mation of the . . . Southern states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and February^ Texas had severed their connection with the Union. Delegates 1861 from these seven " sovereign states " met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 4, 1861, and organized a new Con federacy. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was chosen president, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, vice president. A constitution was drawn up and submitted to the people of the Con federate States for ratifica tion. This constitution was very similar to the Constitu tion of the United States, except that slavery was ex pressly sanctioned, Congress was forbidden to levy pro tective duties, the President was elected for a term of six years without eligibility for reelection, and the mem bers of the cabinet were given the right to speak on the floor of Congress. 1 A Confederate flag, the " stars and bars," was adopted. A tax of one eighth of a cent a pound on exported cotton was levied. President Davis was authorized to raise an army of 100,000 men and secure a loan of $15,000,000, and !The Confederate constitution is printed in parallel columns with the Constitution of the United States in Wilson s History of the American People, Vol. IV, Appendix. Of course, the Confederate constitution never had a chance to go into fair operation, as the Southern Confederacy was overthrown in the great Civil War, which followed immediately upon its adoption. Facsimile of the Confederate Constitution Secession 415 a committee of three, with the impetuous Yancey of Alabama as chairman, was sent abroad to secure the friendship and alliance of European courts. Both Davis and Stephens believed that the South would have to fight " a long and bloody war " to establish their independence. The Southern leaders spoke much of the " tyranny " of the 603. Lin- North, and compared themselves to the Revolutionary fathers t j on no j us j. of 1776, who wrested their independence from Great Britain. But the simple facts of the case warranted no such language. A perfectly fair election in November had resulted in the choice of a Republican for President. Abraham Lincoln, although he believed that slavery must ultimately disappear from the United States, had given repeated assurances to the men of the South that he would not disturb the institution in their states, and that he was even in favor of the execution of the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, the violation of which by the Personal-Liberty acts of the Northern states was the one real grievance of the South. Southern statesmen all knew that Abraham Lincoln s plighted word was good. 1 To call the elec tion of such a man with such a program an invasion of the rights of the South, a violation of the Constitution, or " an insult that branded the people of the South as sinners and criminals " was absurd. Besides, as Stephens pointed out in the speech by which he endeavored to restrain Georgia from secession, the Republicans were in the minority in both branches of Congress, and the President, even if inclined to " invade the rights of the South," could do nothing without the support of Congress. In 1 Lincoln asked the senators from the cotton states to advise their people to wait before seceding until " some act deemed violative of their rights was done by the incoming administration." To his friend, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, he wrote (December 22, 1860) : " Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with their slaves . . . ? If they do, I wish to assure you . . . that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington." It was a grave mistake of Stephens that he did not publish this letter until after Lincoln s assassination, though even this assurance would probably not have held the Southern states back from secession. 4 1 6 The Crisis of Disunion 1856 the Republicans, defeated at the polls, had peacefully acquiesced in the election of a President who favored the ex tension of slavery in the territories. In 1860, victorious in the election of a President who opposed such extension, had they not the right to expect the same chivalrous acquiescence from their opponents ? 604. Buchan- The conduct of President Buchanan certainly was anything ness in the but " tyrannical." In his annual message of December 4, 1860, sion f seces " when it was almost certain that South Carolina would secede, he declared that no state had a right to leave the Union. Yet at the same time he gave the secessionists comfort by adding that the government of the United States had no legal means of compelling a state to remain in the Union. He made no attempt to restrain South Carolina when that state seceded and seized property of the United States (public buildings, arsenal, forts) within her borders. He allowed her to fire the guns of a battery seized from the United States at a ship bearing the flag of the United States, and made no protest. He saw the other six cotton states secede and turn over the forts and arsenals, the troops and money 1 of the United States to the Southern Confederacy, without raising a finger to prevent it. He was so anxious to avert war, or at least to ward it off until he should have surrendered the reins of government into the hands of Abraham Lincoln on the fourth of March, 1861, that he lost even the respect of the secessionists. They called him an imbecile and boasted of " tying his hands." He did not even have the force to dismiss from his cabinet Secretaries Floyd and Thomp son, who were working openly for the cause of secession. Had it not been for the presence in the cabinet of a trio of stanch Unionists (Black, Holt, and Stanton), President Buchanan would have probably yielded to the demands of South Carolina, recog nized her as an independent " sovereign state," abandoned to 1 The state of Louisiana received a special vote of thanks from the Confed erate government at Montgomery for turning over to it $536,000 in coin seized at the United States mint and customhouse in New Orleans. Secession 4*7 her the forts in Charleston harbor, and left her in peaceful possession of the property of the United States. 1 The acts of the Congress which sat in the winter of 1860- 605. The 1 86 1 gave the South as little provocation for secession as did amendments the words of Lincoln or the deeds of Buchanan. Instead of raising armies to punish South Carolina, or expelling the mem- 1860 bers of the seceding states from its halls, Congress bent its whole effort to devising a plan of compromise which should keep the Union intact. The venerable Senator J. J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the successor of Henry Clay, proposed a series of "unamendable amendments" to the Constitution (December 18, 1860), restoring the Missouri-Compromise line of 36 30 as the boundary between slave territory and free territory, pledging the United States government to pay Southern owners for all runaway slaves they lost through nonenforcement of the Fugitive-Slave Law in the free states, and forbidding Congress ever to interfere with the domestic slave trade or with slavery in the states where it was established by law. A select com mittee of thirteen in the Senate, including the leaders of public opinion in the North and the South (Seward, Douglas, and Davis), was appointed to consider the Crittenden amendments. At the same time a committee of thirty-three in the House was chosen to work also at the problem of reconciliation. But the committees failed to agree. The Republican mem- 606. The bers refused to accept the line 36 30 or any other line dividing slaveholding territories from free territories. Their platform amendments called for the prohibition by Congress of slavery in all the territories of the United States; and their position was sup ported by President-elect Lincoln, who wrote to Mr. Kellogg, the Illinois member of the House committee, " Entertain no proposition for the extension of slavery." Douglas asserted later 1 What a contrast to President Jackson s determined course when South Carolina annulled the tariff acts in 1832 ! It was a coincidence that it was to Buchanan himself (then at the embassy at St. Petersburg) that Jackson wrote, " I have met nullification at the threshold." No wonder men of the North in the closing days of 1860 cried, " O for one hour of Andrew Jackson ! " 41 8 The Crisis of Disunion that both of the extreme proslavery men on the Senate com mittee (Davis of Mississippi and Toombs of Georgia) were ready to accept the Crittenden amendments, and laid on the Repub lican members, led by Seward, the responsibility for the defeat of this final attempt of Congress to arrive at a compromise on the slavery question. 1 But even if Davis and Toombs had accepted the Crittenden amendments, there is little to encourage the belief that they could have made their states agree to a meas ure which, by excluding slavery from territory north of 36 30 , annulled the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 185 4 and the Dred Scott decision of 1857. It was precisely the unrestricted extension of slavery and its unqualified recognition by the government for which the South was contending. The " tyranny " which drove the seven cotton states into secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln on a platform which declared that the spread of slavery must stop, that slavery was sectional and freedom national. 607. why the Considering the fact that only very small portions of the terri- tocompro U - Sed tories of the United States in 1860 (namely, certain districts mise in 1860 j n Kansas and New Mexico) were at all adaptable to slave labor, it may seem strange that the South should have seceded from the Union rather than endure a Republican administration. But the matter had passed beyond the stage of calm reflection and compromise. The fiery orations of men like Yancey and Toombs, who heaped sarcasm and invective on everything per taining to the " Yankee," had conjured up a spirit in the South which the more moderate leaders like Alexander Stephens, and even Jefferson Davis, could not control. The very name " Republican " had become a hateful provocation to the South erners. On the " Black Republicans " they laid all the blame 1 A great " Peace Conference," attended by delegates from twenty-one states, met at Washington the same day the Confederate government was organized at Montgomery (February 4, 1861). A little later Congress, by the bare two-thirds majorities needed (133 to 65 in the House, 24 to 12 in the Senate), passed an amendment to the Constitution, making slavery inviolable in the states where it was established by law (February 28, 1861). But it was too late for compromise. The amendment was ratified by only two of the states. Secession 419 for the abolitionist agitation and insults of a generation past, For the Personal-Liberty acts which aided the escape of their negro slaves, for the emigrants and rifles which prevented them Tom making a slave state out of Kansas, and for the diabolical attempt at Harpers Ferry to let loose upon their wives and children the horrors of a negro insurrection. Under no terms would they continue to live in a Union ruled by such a party. " No, sir," cried Senator Wigfall of Texas, " not if you were to land us blank paper and ask us to write a constitution, would we ever again be confederated with you." James Russell Lowell summed the whole matter up in a single sentence, when he wrote in the January ( 1 86 1 ) number of the Atlantic Monthly, "The crime of the North is the census of 1860," Steadily and rapidly the free population of the North had been growing during the decades 1840-1860, until it contained enough liberty men to elect a President who declared that the spread of slavery must stop. 1 Both Davis and Stephens in their accounts of the Southern 608. slavery Confederacy, written after the Civil War, asserted that not ^ce^on* 6 slavery but the denial to the South of her rights under the and the civil War Constitution was the cause of secession and the war which followed. But the only "right" for which the South was con tending in 1860 was the right to have the institution of slavery recognized and protected in all the territory of the United States. Whether or not the Constitution gave the South this right was exactly the point of dispute. It was not a case of the North s refusing to give the South its constitutional right, but of the North s denying that such was the constitutional right of the South. It was a conflict in the interpretation of the Con stitution ; and slavery, and slavery alone, was the cause of that 1 The following table shows the increase of the Liberty, Free-Soil, and Re publican vote between the years 1840 and 1860 : 1840 James G. Birney received 7000 votes 1844 James G. Birney received 62.000 votes 1848 Martin Van Buren received 290,000 votes 1852 John P. Hale received 156,000 votes 1856 John C. Fremont received 1,340,000 votes 1860 Abraham Lincoln received 1,860,000 votes 42O The Crisis of Disunion conflict. To say that secession and the Civil War were not caused by slavery, therefore, is to say that the thing for which a man is fighting is not the cause of the fight. 609. The Whether or not the Southern states had a right to secede the S south to from the Union and form a new Confederacy, for the cause of slavery or anything else, is another question. A people must always be its own judge of whether its grievances at any mo ment are sufficient to justify revolt from the government which it has heretofore acknowledged. Our Revolutionary forefathers exercised that right of judgment when they revolted from the British crown. Until a revolt is successful it is " rebellion " against constituted authorities, and the authors of it and partici pants in it are, in the eyes of the law, traitors. If it is success ful, it is called a " revolution," and marks the birth of a new civil society or " state." There is no written law that can for bid the " sacred right of revolution," because revolution comes from the people who are the rightful makers of the law. We may believe, as many men of the South do believe to-day, that the causes of the revolt of the Southern states in 1861 were not sufficient to justify secession and war ; but the right to revolt, if the South thought it had just cause, is beyond argument. 610. conduct Many of the leading men of the South remained at Wash- em leaders at m gton, m Congress or in executive positions, long after they Washington, h a( j \ os ^ their sympathy for the government which they had taken their oath to support. Two members of the cabinet, Floyd of Virginia and Thompson of Mississippi, used their high positions rather to encourage than to prevent disunion. The senators from the cotton states were in constant com munication with the governors and public men of their states, keeping them informed on events in Washington and directing the course of secession. 1 " By remaining in 1 The senators from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkan sas, and Texas met in a caucus in a committee room of the Senate, January 5, 1861, and advised their states to secede immediately. Even then these senators did not resign their seats, but waited until they heard that their states had actually passed secession ordinances. Secession 421 our places," wrote Senator Yulee of Florida, " we can keep the hands of Mr. Buchanan tied and disable the Republicans from effecting any legislation that will strengthen the hands of the incoming administration." This conduct of the Southern states men was resented in the North as a violation of their oath to support the Constitution of the United States. THE FALL OF FORT SUMTER It was a serious condition of affairs that confronted Abraham 611. crisis Lincoln when he was sworn into the office of President on March 4, 1861. A rival government in the South had been in operation for a full month. All the military property, except 1861 one or two forts, in the seven states which composed the Southern Confederacy had been seized by the secessionist government. 1 From Congress and the executive departments at Washington, from federal offices all through the North, and from army and navy posts, Southern men were departing daily in order to join the fortunes of their states. Many voices in the North were bidding them farewell and godspeed. And, most serious of all, brave Major Robert Anderson, with a little garrison of 83 men in Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, was writing to the War Department that his stores of flour and bacon were almost exhausted. Lincoln s inaugural address was a reassertion of his kindly 612. The in- feeling toward the South and a plea for calm deliberation be- fore any acts of violence. The new President declared his purpose of holding the forts and property belonging to the gov ernment of the United States and of collecting the duties and imposts. But beyond what was necessary to execute the laws according to his oath of office, he disclaimed any intention of using force or of " invading " the South. He appealed to the common memories of the North and the South, which, like 1 It was estimated that one half the military property of the nation, valued at $30,000,000, was in the hands of the Confederate government. 422 The Crisis of Disunion 613. The situation in - Charleston alter harbor " mystic cords, stretched from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart . . . over this broad land." Turn ing to the South he said : " \i\yonr hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while / shall have the most solemn one to preserve, pro tect, and de fend it." 1 A few days his inau guration Presi dent Lincoln called the mem bers of his cabi net 2 together, and laid before them the criti cal situation at Charleston. In the previous De cember Buchanan had heard the demands of commissioners from the " sovereign state of South Carolina," who had come to treat with the government of the United States for the sur render of the forts in Charleston harbor, and had weakly prom ised not to make any move to provision or reenforce the forts so 1 The entire inaugural address should be read by every student. It is the finest state paper in our history. It can be found in full in Nicolay and Hay s Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. Ill, p. 327. 2 The cabinet was composed of the following men : State, William H. Seward ; Treasury, Salmon P. Chase ; War, Simon Cameron ; Navy, Gideon Welles ; Interior, Caleb Smith ; Attorney-General, Edwin Bates ; Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair. Edwin M. Stanton succeeded Cameron in the War Depart ment early in 1862, Charleston Harbor Showing Fort Sumter and the battery which fired on the Star of the West Secession 423 long as South Carolina refrained from attacking them. Early in January, however, Buchanan had been spurred by the Unionist sentiment in his cabinet to send the transport Star of the West with provisions for Major Anderson s garrison in Fort Sumter. In the early morning of January 9, 1861, as the Star of the West was approaching Fort Sumter with the American flag at her masthead, she was struck by shots from the battery on Morris Island and forced to turn back. Public sentiment in the North was outraged by this attack upon the flag, but still Buchanan parleyed and excused, praying for the arrival of the day which should release him from the responsibilities of his high office. That day had now arrived. But meanwhile the South Carolinians had strengthened the batteries that bore upon Fort Sumter, until Major Anderson reported that reinforcements of 20,000 men would be necessary to maintain his position. It was a critical moment. To send reinforcements to Major 614. Lincoln Anderson would probably precipitate war. There was a wide- spread feeling in the North that if the Southern states wished Fort Sumter, to secede in peace, they should be allowed to do so. Winfield Scott, the old hero of two wars and the highest general in the army, advised letting the " wayward sisters depart in peace " ; and Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, next to Lincoln and Seward the most influential man in the Republican party, wrote : " If the cotton states shall decide that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. . . . We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets." Lincoln him self hated the thought of war, but disunion seemed a still worse evil. His oath of office left him no choice, he thought, of par leying with secession. On the first of April, therefore, with the consent of all his cabinet except Seward and Smith, he notified Governor Pickens of South Carolina that an attempt would be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions, but that no men or ammunition would be thrown into the fort except in case of resistance on the part of the state. 424 The Crisis of Disunion 615. The When the Confederate government at Montgomery heard of bombardment T ..,. . . , , ^, i ^> of Fort Sum- -Lincoln s intentions, it ordered General Beauregard, who was X3 r x86? nl "" m command of some 7000 troops at Charleston, to demand the immediate surrender of the fort. Major Anderson refused to abandon his post, and General Beauregard, following orders from Montgomery, made ready to reduce Fort Sumter by cannon. Just before dawn, on the twelfth of April, 1861, a shell rose from the mortars of Fort Johnson and, screaming over the harbor, burst just above the fort. It was the signal for a general bombardment. In a few minutes, from the bat teries of Sullivan s, Morris, and James islands, east and south and west, fifty cannons were pouring shot and shell upon Fort Sumter. Anderson stood the terrific bombardment for two whole days, while Northern gunboats lay rolling in the heavy weather outside the bar, unable to come to his relief. Finally, when the fort had been battered to ruins and was afire from red-hot shot, Anderson surrendered, saluting the tattered flag as he marched his half-suffocated garrison to the boats. 616. Lin- The bombardment of Fort Sumter opened the Civil War. troops, April 1 The day after the surrender of the fort (April 15) Lincoln 15, 1861 issued a proclamation declaring that the laws of the United States were opposed in the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas " by com binations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceeding," and called on the states of the Union for 75,000 troops of their militia "to suppress the said combina tions." At the same time he ordered all persons concerned in this uprising against the government to disperse within twenty days, and summoned Congress to assemble in extra session on the fourth of July. 617. The The effect of the fall of Fort Sumter and of the President s North of the proclamation was the instantaneous crystallization of feeling both Sumter FOrt Nortn and South. In the North men forgot party lines and political animosities. Douglas, the leader of a million and a half Democrats, hastened to the White House to grasp Lincoln s Secession 4 2 5 hand and pledge him his utmost support in defending the Union. Ex-Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, hitherto ruled by Southern sympathies, came over to the Union cause. Editors like Horace Greeley, preachers like Henry Ward Beecher, statesmen like Edward Everett, who had lately found the idea of forcing the Southern states to remain in the Union abhorrent, now joined in the call to arms. One thing only filled men s thoughts, the American flag had been fired on by order of the secessionist government at Montgomery. The South was jubilant over the fall of Fort Sumter. Walker, 618. The ef- the Confederate secretary of war, predicted that by the first S e c ut n of May the Confederate flag would float over the dome of the Capitol at Washington. Lincoln s call for troops, which to the North meant the preservation of the Union, was looked on by the South as a wicked threat to invade the sacred soil of sover eign states and subjugate a peaceful people who asked only " to be let alone," to live under their own institutions. 1 The Confederate Congress met what (in spite of the firing on Fort Sumter) they called " Mr. Lincoln s declaration of war on the South" by raising an army of 100,000 men and securing a loan of $50,000,000. There were eight states south of Mason and Dixon s line 619. Four which had not joined the Southern Confederacy before the JJ attack on Fort Sumter, although they were all slaveholding federac y states and there was strong secessionist sentiment in all of them but Delaware. 2 Lincoln s call for troops drove four of these states (Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee) into the Confederacy ; while Kentucky and Missouri, whose governors had refused with equal indignation to furnish their 1 Jefferson Davis wrote in his message to the Confederate Congress (April 29) : " We feel that our cause is just and holy. ... In independence we seek no con quest ... no cession from the states with which we have lately confederated. . . . All we ask is to be let alone, that those who have never held any power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, we must, resist to the direst extremity." 2 They were Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas. 426 The Crisis of Disunion militia for the purpose of " subjugating their sister states of the South," were kept in the Union only with great difficulty. 1 States seceding before the fall of Fort Suinter | ; . -| Slave states remaining loyal Free states (with California and Oregon) | How the Southern Confederacy was enlarged after the Fall of Fort Sumter 620. Virginia The secession of Virginia two days after Lincoln s call for furnishes r , ~ , General Lee troops was an event of prime importance. It gave the South federacy 0n " - her g reatest general, Robert E. Lee. General Lee was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary general, belonging to one of the first families of Virginia, and was himself a gentleman of 1 In Missouri it actually came to civil war. Governor Jackson was a secessionist, while the Union cause was championed by Francis P. Blair, Jr., one of Missouri s first citizens, and brother of the Postmaster-General in Lincoln s cabinet. Captain Lyon, commanding the Home Guards (Unionist troops), took Camp Jackson, which the secessionists had fortified on the outskirts of St. Louis ; then sailed up the Missouri River and drove the Jackson government out of the capital, Secession 4 2 7 spotless purity of character, noble, generous, sincere, brave, and gifted. He had already been selected by President Lincoln to command the Union army, but he felt that he could not draw his sword against his native state. After an agonizing mental struggle he resigned his commission in the United States army and offered his services to his state. He became commander of the Virginia troops, and, in May, 1862, general of the Con federate army in Virginia, which he led with wonderful skill and devotion through the remainder of the Civil War. 1 The secession of Virginia also brought the boundaries of the 621. united Confederacy up to the Potomac River, and planted the " stars and bars " where they could be seen from the windows of the Baltimore, April 19, 1861 Capitol at Washington. The city was almost defenseless. There were rumors that Beauregard s troops were coming from Charles ton to attack it. The troops of the North, in responding to Lin coln s call, had to cross the state of Maryland to reach the capital. Maryland was a slave state, and her sympathy with the " sister states of the South " was strong. Baltimore was full of seces sionists. While the Sixth Massachusetts regiment was crossing the city it was attacked by a mob, and had to fight its way to the Washington station in a bloody street battle (April 19). The first blood of the Civil War was shed on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington. President Lincoln was in great distress for the safety of the 622. The capital. 2 Men were leaving Washington by hundreds in a panic, i^ved from fleeing as from a doomed city. Governor Hicks of Maryland, dan s", A ? ril swept along by the secessionist sentiment at Baltimore, had Jefferson City. Kentucky was kept faithful largely through the tactful and patient nursing of Unionist feeling by President Lincoln, who was especially anxious that his native state should not join the ranks of the seceders. 1 It was not till near the close of the war (1865) that President Davis, who never very cordially recognized Lee s greatness, was forced by public opinion to make him general in chief of the Confederate forces in the field. 2 Nicolay and Hay (Vol. IV, p. 152) tell how President Lincoln paced the floor of his office in the White House for hours on the twenty-third of April, gaz ing out of the windows that looked down the Potomac, where he expected any moment to see the Confederate gunboats appear, and calling out audibly, in his anxiety, for the Union troops to hasten to the relief of the city. 428 The Crisis of Disunion forbidden any more troops to cross the soil of the state (April 22), and infuriated mobs had torn up railroads and destroyed bridges. But plucky regiments from Massachusetts and New York (" the dandy Seventh ") reached Annapolis by the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and relaying the track and rebuilding the bridges as they marched, came into the city of Washington on the twenty-fifth of April. As they marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, with colors flying and bands playing, the anxious gloom which had lain on the city since the fall of Fort Sumter was changed to rejoicing. The national capital was safe. REFERENCES The Election of Abraham Lincoln: J. W. DRAPER, The Civil War in America, Vol. I, chaps, xxvi-xxxi ; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise 0/1850, Vol. II, chaps, x, xi ; Vol. Ill, chap, xiii; NICOLAY and HAY, Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI; ALLEN JOHNSON, Stephen Arnold Douglas, chap, xviii ; H. VON HOLST, Con stitutional History of the United States, Vol. VII, chaps, i, iii-vii ; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1776-1861, No. 94 ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contem poraries, Vol. IV, Nos. 49-61 ; J. W. BURGESS, The Civil War and the Constitution, Vol. I, chaps, iii, iv ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chap, xxi ; F. E. CHADWICK, Causes of the Civil War (American Nation Series), chaps, i-ix. The Southern Confederacy : DRAPER, Vol. I, chaps, xxxii, xxxiii ; Vol. II, chaps, xxxiv, xxxv ; RHODES, Vol. Ill, chap, xiv ; VON HOLST, Vol. VII, chaps, viii-xi ; MACDONALD, Nos. 95-97 ; HART, Nos. 62-69 ; BURGESS, Vol. I, chaps, iv-vi ; CHADWICK, chaps, ix-xi ; HORACE GREELEY, The American Conflict, Vol. I, chaps, xxvi, xxvii ; J. S. WISE, The End of an Era, chaps, x, xi ; NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. Ill, chap, i ; JEFFERSON DAVIS, Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, Vol. I, part iii ; G. T. CURTIS, James Buchanan, Vol. II, chap. xv. The Fall of Fort Sumter : DRAPER, Vol. II, chaps, xxxvi-xl ; RHODES, Vol. Ill, chap, xiv; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 70-74; BURGESS, Vol. I, chap, vii; GREELEY, Vol. I, chaps, xxviii, xxix ; CHADWICK, chaps. xii-xix; S. W. CRAWFORD, The Genesis of the Civil War; ABNER DOUBLED AY, Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie ; C. E. Secession 4 2 9 MERRIAM, American Political Theories, chap, vi ; J. G. NICOLAY, The Outbreak of the War, chaps, ii, iii ; DAVIS, Vol. I, part iv ; J. B. MOORE, Works of James Buchanan, Vol. XI (use complete Table of Contents). TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Republican Convention of 1860 at Chicago : RHODES, Vol. II, pp. 456-473 ; BURGESS, Vol. I, pp. 58-67 ; VON HOLST, Vol. VII, pp. 140- 186 ; HART, Vol. IV, No. 50 ; STAN WOOD, pp. 290-297 ; JAMES SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. V, pp. 457-461 ; NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. II, pp. 255-278. 2. Alexander H. Stephens, a Southern Antisecessionist : NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. Ill, pp. 266-275; JOHNSTON and BROWNE, Alexander H. Stephens, pp. 357-387 ; Louis PENDLETON, Alexander H. Stephens, pp. 153-170; HART, Vol. IV, No. 53; HENRY CLEVELAND, Letters and Speeches of Alexander H. Stephens, pp. 694-713; A. H. STEPHENS, A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, Vol. II, pp. 299 ff. 3. Efforts at Compromise, 1860-1861 : CHADWICK, pp. 166-183 ; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 63, 65, 68, 69 ; VON HOLST, Vol. VII, pp. 393-457 ; NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. Ill, pp. 214-238; GREELEY, Vol. I, pp. 351- 406 ; W. G. BROWN, The Lower South in American History, pp. 83-1 12 ; MACDONALD, NOS. 93, 95, 96; CURTIS, Vol. II, pp. 439-444; MRS. CHAPMAN COLEMAN, Life of John J. Crittenden, Vol. II, pp. 224-260. 4. The Struggle to keep Missouri in the Union : BURGESS, Vol. I, pp. 186-191 ; LUCIEN CARR, Missouri, pp. 267-341 ; GREELEY, Vol. I, pp. 488-492 ; S. B. HARDING, Missouri Party Struggles in the Civil War (American Historical Association Reports, Vol. VII, pp. 85-103); SCHOULER, Vol. VI, pp. 186-192 ; NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. IV, pp. 206-226; T. L. SNEAD, The Fight for Missouri. 5. John Brown, Apostle : T. W. HIGGINSON, Cheerful Yesterdays, pp. 199-234, 258-262; O. P. ANDERSON, A Voice from Harpers Ferry; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 47, 48 ; CHADWICK, pp. 67-89 ; RHODES, Vol. II, pp. 401-416; J. G. WHITTIER, Brown of Ossawatomie ; M. J. WRIGHT, The Trial and Execution of John Brown (American Historical Associa tion Reports, Vol. IV, pp. 111-126); O. G. VILLARD,_/<?^?Z Brown, Fifty Years After, pp. 558-589. CHAPTER XVI THE CIVIL WAR THE OPPOSING FORCES 623. The So the men of the North and the sons of Dixie l were mus- South tering to arms in the spring of 1861. Each side doubted whether the other really meant to fight ; each believed that, if they fought, its own victory would be short and decisive. Each was abso lutely convinced of the righteousness of its own cause. " War has been forced upon us by the folly and fanaticism of the Northern abolitionists," said an Atlanta paper ; " we fight for our liberties, our altars, our firesides. . . . Surely 8,000,000 people armed in the holy cause of liberty . . . are invincible by any force the North can send against them." On the other side of Mason and Dixon s line Northern mass meetings re solved that " this infamous, hell-born rebellion against the mild est, the most beneficent government ever vouchsafed to men " should be speedily put down, and " our glorious Constitution restored in every part of our country." Thirty years of gather ing bitterness had made it absolutely impossible for the men of the North and of the South to understand each other. As early even as 1832 our distinguished French visitor and critic De Tocqueville had prophesied the " inevitable separation " of the two sections. 2 1 The boundary line which was run in 1764-1767 between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, by the surveyors Mason and Dixon (p. 63, note 2), be came the dividing line between free and slave soil. The Southerners called their side of Mason and Dixon s line " Dixie land " or " Dixie." 2 It was apparently the honest conviction of Northerners that every man south of Mason and Dixon s line was a Preston Brooks, and of Southerners that every man north of the line was a John Brown. Mr. Russell, the correspondent of the London Times, found that on one side of the Ohio River he was among 43 The Civil War 431 North and South were unequally matched for the great 624. The re- struggle that was before them. Although the seceding and the two^ct/ons! loyal states were about equal in territory, the resources of the population North far exceeded those of the South. Of the 31,000,000 in habitants of the United States by the census of 1860, there were 19,000,000 in the eighteen free states of the North, 3,000,- ooo in the four loyal slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and 9,000,000 in the eleven states of the Southern Confederacy. But of the last 9,000,000, nearly one half (3,600,000) were negro slaves. For military service the North could furnish 5,000,000 men between the ages of 18 and 60, to about 1,500,000 in the South. Furthermore the population of the North was increasing very rapidly (41 per cent in the decade 1850-1860), whereas in most of the states of the South it was almost stationary. During the decade 1850- 1860 immigrants (mostly Irish and Germans) had come into the United States in numbers equal to the entire slave popula tion of the seceding states, and had all gone into the free North to increase the wealth produced by the mills, the forges, and the wheat fields. 1 Because cotton formed two thirds of the exports of the 625. Indus- United States in 1860 ($125,000,000 out of $197,000,000), tnes the South was deceived into thinking that it was the most pros perous part of the country, and that its slave labor was mak ing New England rich. But the South overlooked the fact that " abolitionists, cutthroats, Lincolnite mercenaries, invaders, assassins," and on the other side among " rebels, robbers, conspirators, wretches bent on destroying the most perfect government on the face of the earth." He testified that there was " certainly less vehemence and bitterness among the Northerners," but no less determination. 1 There was no result of the Compromise of 1850 more favorable to the North than its postponement of the great Civil War for ten years. During that decade the states of the Northwest were filled up with a hardy, loyal population, who fur nished immense strength to the Northern side during the war. Wisconsin, for example, gained 475,000 inhabitants, and Michigan over 650,000, in the decade. Discerning Southerners since Calhoun s day had seen the necessity of fighting soon if they fought at all. The anxiety of " fire eaters " like Rhett and Yancey to hasten the crisis in 1850 finds its explanation partly in this rapid growth of the North. 432 The Crisis of Disunion 626. Social progress a country s wealth consists not in the amount of its exports, but in its ability to distribute the necessities and comforts and luxuries of life to a growing population. Measured by this standard of wealth, the South was poor in 1860, in spite of its $235,000,000 crop of cotton. For while a few thousand rich planters were selling this crop, and investing their profits in more negroes and more land, a majority of the white inhabitants of j,^._"CouMn t pedlars would leave A Group of War Envelopes the South were in comparative poverty and idleness, seeing the land absorbed by the cotton plantations and the labor market filled with negro slaves. Manufactures, railroad mileage, the growth of cities, the dif fusion of knowledge, progress in art and letters, are all sighs of a country s prosperity. The South had hardly any manufactures in i860. 1 She spun and wove but two and one-half per cent 1 The North turned out manufactures in 1860 valued at $1,730,330,000, com pared with an output valued at $155,000,000 for the South, a ratio of 12 to i. Governor Wise of Virginia said to the people of his state in 1859 : " Commerce has long since spread her sails and sailed away from you. . . . You have not as yet dug more than enough coal to warm yourselves at your own hearths . . . you have not yet spun coarse cotton enough to clothe your own slaves." As against a cotton crop worth $235,000,000 raised by the South, the North pro duced wheat and corn valued at $845,000,000. The Civil War 433 of the cotton she raised, and only one fourth of the 31,000 miles of railroad track in the United States was laid on her soil. While the free states of the North abounded in thriving cities, equipped with gas and water systems, tramways, public schools and libraries, hospitals, banks, and churches, the census of 1860 found only six "cities" in Alabama with a population of i ooo or over, four in Louisiana, and none in Arkansas. 1 Not a single Southern state had a free public-school system before the war. Fifteen per cent of the adult male white population of Virginia (in addition of course to practically all the negroes) were unable to read or write, according to the census of 1850, while only two fifths of one per cent of the adult males of Massachusetts were illiterate. The cause of this sad social and industrial condition in the 627. slavery South was the plantation system founded on negro slavery, th j! which developed a " caste " of some 380,000 aristocratic plant ers at the expense of over 5,000,000 " poor whites." Whatever relieving touches there are in the picture of the slave planta tion, the sweet, devoted Southern woman nursing her sick negroes with her own hands, and the strong and tender attach ment of the children of the household to the old black " mammy " in whose arms they had been sung to sleep since infancy, the system of slavery, besides being a blight on the industry of the South, was a constant menace to the morals and temper of the planters and their families. The growing generations of the slaveholding South had always before their eyes three ugly features of the system : the mulattoes, whose presence in large numbers was a witness to the immorality encouraged by slave- holding ; the slave trader and slave driver, whose very existence testified to the cruelty of the system ; and the constant domi neering vigilance of the slaveholder against any signs of negro uprising or self-assertion. It seems almost incredible to us 1 Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, while on a Northern visit as President-elect, in 1848-1849, looked from a height near Springfield, Massachusetts, on a group of thriving towns and remarked, " You cannot see any such sight as that in a Southern state ! " 434 The Crisis of Disunion 628. Helper " Impending Crisis " 629. Advan tages of the Southerners ; their defensive position to-day that the men of the South, fighting for the support of such an institution, could inscribe on their banners " liberty and equality." 1 We may wonder, too, why the millions of " poor whites " in the South, who had no slaves and no interest in slavery, should have fought through four years with desperate gallantry for the maintenance of a system which meant for them only wretched ness. One of their number, Hinton R. Helper of North Carolina, had published a book in 1857, entitled " The Impending Crisis," in which he showed with a merciless array of figures the economic burden which slavery entailed upon the South. Helper called the slaveholding aristocracy no better than the basest " ruffians, outlaws, and criminals," and advised " no cooperation with them in. religion, no affiliation with them in society." Had the " poor whites" been able to read and understand the figures and arguments of Helper s book, it is probable that they would not have fought the war for the slaveholders, and slavery might have been abolished by peaceful means. But the " poor whites " of the South were not educated to think. They were awed by the rich planters. They believed that the " Black Republicans " of the North meant to subjugate them and turn their land over to the negro. They rose in mass to defend a civilization which was the worst enemy of their interests. The leaders of the South knew, of course, that the North was superior in resources, but they counted on several real advantages and several anticipated developments to give them the victory. First, and most important of all, they would be fighting on their own soil, whereas the North, in order " to repossess the forts and other seized property of the United 1 In a fiery secessionist speech in the Senate, January 7, 1861, Robert Toombs of Georgia closed with the words : " You present us war. We accept it ; and in scribing on our banners the glorious words < liberty and equality, we will trust to the blood of the brave and the God of battles for security and tranquillity." Another Georgian, Louis Pendleton, in his biography of Alexander H. Stephens, writes . (1904) : Reflecting Southern men to-day are filled with sadness as they read their grandfathers eulogies of an institution which wrought the ruin of the fairest portion of the United States." The Civil War 435 States," and to put down the rebellious " combinations," would have to " invade " Southern territory. The men who fight on the defensive are always at an advantage. They know the lay of the land ; they have their base of supplies close at hand ; they are inspired by the thought that they are defending their homes. Then, too, the Southerners, by nature and training, were 630. Their better fitted for war than the mechanics, clerks, and farmers of ^J?" ng the North. The Southern temper was more ardent. The men of the South commonly carried firearms. They were accustomed from boyhood to the saddle. In the Mexican War many more Southern officers than Northern ones had been trained for the great civil contest. Besides these actual advantages the South counted on help 631. The in three directions. She expected that foreign nations, espe- p^tecfiifit daily Great Britain and France, dependent on her for their expectations supply of raw cotton, would lend their aid to establish an inde pendent cotton-raising South, which would levy no duties on their manufactures. She thought, too, that the first move in behalf of a new republic whose corner stone was slavery 1 would bring all the other slaveholding states into the Confederacy. And she looked to the Democrats of the North, who had cast 1,370,000 votes against Abraham Lincoln, and whose leaders had re peatedly shown signs of Southern leanings, to defeat any at tempt of the Republicans to " subjugate the South." We have seen how completely deceived the South was in the last expectation, when the shot fired on Fort Sumter roused the North as one man to pledge President Lincoln its aid in defending the Union. 2 We have seen also how only four of the 1 Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, in a famous speech at Savannah, Georgia, in the spring of 1861, declared that the new Con federacy was founded upon slavery as a " corner stone." 2 The Southern press was very bitter over the " desertion " of the Democrats of the North : " Where are Messrs. Gushing, Van Buren, Pierce, Buchanan, Douglas et id omne genus, where are they in the bloody crusade proposed by President Lincoln against the South? . . . Hounding on the fanatic war fare ! . . . The Northern politicians have all left us. Let them fly all, false thanes I " 436 The Crisis of Disunion eight slaveholding states north of the cotton states joined the Confederacy on Lincoln s call for troops (p. 425). The South was equally disappointed in the hope of foreign intervention and aid. Queen Victoria issued a proclamation of strict neu trality a month after the fall of Fort Sumter (May 12); and Emperor Napoleon III, although expressing to Mr. Slidell, the Confederate envoy to France, his personal sympathy for the South, was careful to avoid any official breach with the government at Washington. 632. The for- Moreover, large portions even of some of the seceding states west vir- remained faithful to the Union, especially the mountain districts ginia j n western Virginia and North Carolina, and in eastern Ten nessee. Forty-eight counties in western Virginia broke away from the state and formed a loyal government, which was rec ognized by President Lincoln, and later received into the Union (1863) as the state of West Virginia. A striking proof of the divergent views of loyalty in North and South is the fact that the wise and moderate Robert E. Lee called the people of West Virginia " traitors " for leaving their state to adhere to the Union. So the men of the North and the sons of Dixie were arrayed against each other, in the spring of 1861, for a contest which none dreamed would be the most prolonged and bloody since Napoleon s rash attempt, at the beginning of the century, to subjugate the continent of Europe. FROM BULL RUN TO GETTYSBURG 633. The im- The work entitled " The Official Records of the Union and the civil war Confederate Armies and Navies in the War of the Rebellion," published by the government at Washington, fills more than 130 bulky volumes, and chronicles over 2000 engagements, of which about 150 are important enough to be called " battles." A mere list of the titles of historic biographies and memoirs relating to the Civil War would fill hundreds of pages. Such a list pre pared only a year after the close of the war (Bartlett s " Literature ^ The Civil War 437 of the Rebellion," 1866) contains 6073 such titles. This im mense mass of literature pertaining to the Civil War is a proof of the significance of that event in our country s history. Except for the critical years 1775-1789, in which our nation was formed, no other period in our history can compare in importance with the great Civil War of 1861-1865, which determined that the nation which the fathers had founded should endure one and undivided, and removed from it the ugly institution of negro slavery, which for decades had cursed its soil, embroiled its politics, and outraged the conscience of half its people. We need not go into the military details of the Civil War in 634. HOW we order to appreciate its importance. Military history is useful only for the special student of the science of war. The marching and countermarching of the 2,5oo,ooo 1 men who fought the battles of the Civil War, the disposition of artillery, cavalry, and infantry by thousands of officers in hundreds of impor tant engagements, the countless deeds of heroism on both sides, on land and sea, we must pass over, only to sketch in outline the few great campaigns on which the fortunes of the republic hung. Two things we must constantly bear in mind : first, the superior resources of the North in men and wealth, which told with increasing emphasis as the war progressed ; and secondly, the advantage that the South had in fighting on her own soil against the invading armies of the North. 2 Had the South pos sessed the resources of the North, she could never have been beaten ; had she attempted to invade the North, her armies would have been repulsed at the borders. 1 Livermore, in his Numbers and Losses in the Civil War (1901), our best authority, gives the total numbers on each side, on the basis of an enlistment for three years, Union, 1,556,678; Confederate, 1,082,119. 2 Strictly speaking, it was not a " civil war." That term refers to a struggle between two opposing factions or parties (religious or political) living on the same soil. In the war of 1861-1865 a united South, claiming to be an inde pendent country, was invaded by the armies of a (less) united North. Com pare the actual "civil war" in Kansas in 1855-1856, where free-state men and slave-state men were fighting for control of their common territory. Alexander H. Stephens more accurately calls the war of 1861-1865 the War between the States. A still better title would be the War of Secession. 438 The Civil War 439 We turn now to the field of battle. When Virginia seceded, 635. on to the capital of the Confederacy was changed from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, and the Confederate Congress was called to meet at the new capital, July 20, 1861. The North, in the first flush of its enthusiastic response to Lincoln s call for troops, was determined that the Confederate Congress should not meet. " On to Richmond ! " was the cry that rang through the North. The raw troops were not properly organ ized or drilled, and the quartermaster s and commissariat de partments T were not prepared for a campaign. But President Lincoln and General Scott yielded to the popular demand for a move on Richmond, especially as the three months term of the militia called for in April was about to expire. General Beauregard, with 22,000 troops, was at Manassas 636. The bat- Junction, a town near the little stream called Bull Run, about Run (Manas- thirty-five miles southwest of Washington. In the Shenandoah sas )> J ul y 2I > valley, across the Blue Ridge, were 9000 more men under General Joseph E. Johnston, who was to become, next to Lee, the greatest commander of the South. 2 General Patterson, a veteran of the War of 1812, was to hold Johnston in the valley, while General McDowell, with an army of 30,000, attacked General Beauregard at Manassas. McDowell s " grand army " set out in high spirits, July 16, accompanied by many of the congressmen 3 and officials in Washington, who went to see the " rebellion crushed by a single blow." The battle (on 1 The quartermaster s department has charge of the transportation of all the baggage, food, clothing, and blankets of the army, and the provision of all sup plies except food and ordnance materials. The commissariat department s busi ness is to provide the supplies of food for the soldiers. 2 Johnston, like Lee, was a gift of Virginia to the Confederacy. He was a graduate of West Point, and at the opening of the war he resigned a higher position in the United States army than any other officer that joined the Confederacy. 3 It will be recalled that Lincoln, in his proclamation of April 15, had sum moned Congress to meet in extra session on July 4, 1861. This Congress rati fied Lincoln s acts in calling out the militia, blockading the Southern ports, and using his extraordinary authority in time of war to interfere with the regular procedure of the courts. Lincoln asked Congress for $400,000,000 and 400,000 men. It voted him 500,000 men. 440 The Crisis of Disunion 637. McClel- lan in com mand of the Union army 638. The Peninsular campaign , March- July, 1862 the twenty-first) was well planned and bravely fought. Up to early afternoon the advantage was with the Union troops, 1 but 1 at the critical moment Johnston s army, which had eluded Pat terson and hastened eastward at the sound of the firing, ap peared on the field and turned the Union victory into a rout. The undisciplined soldiers of McDowell, wearied with the day s fighting, threw down their muskets and fled to the Potomac. For two days they straggled into Washington, and the capital was in a panic for fear Beauregard and Johnston would come on their heels. The disaster at Bull Run (or Manassas, as the Confederates called the battle) sobered the overconfident enthusiasm of the Northerners, but did not destroy their determination. They set to work in earnest to prepare for the long, severe struggle that was before them. George B. McClellan, a young general who had done brilliant work in holding West Virginia for -the Union in May and June, was now put in command of the army on the Potomac. McClellan was a magnificent organizer and drillmaster, and by the autumn of 1861 he had the 180,000 men who poured into his camp in response to Lincoln s call, organized into a splendid army, nearly three times the size off the opposing forces under Lee and Johnston. The aged Gen eral Scott resigned on the last day of October, and McClellan was made general in chief of the forces of the United States. McClellan could and should have taken Richmond in the autumn of 1861, but he was cautious to the point of timidity. Personally brave, he feared for the magnificent army under his^ command. He magnified the enemy s forces to three times their actual number, and looked on the loss of a brigade from his own army as a great calamity. He berated Lincoln and Stanton for not sending him more reinforcements. 2 It was not 1 Jefferson Davis, who came in person from Richmond to the battlefield in the afternoon, was met by fleeing Confederate soldiers, who told him that the battle was lost. 2 McClellan took it upon himself to criticize the administration at Washing ton unsparingly, spoke of the " insane folly " of Stanton and Chase, and constantly The Civil War 441 until well into the spring of 1862 that McClellan, after repeated orders from Washington to advance, began to move up the peninsula between the York and James rivers toward Rich mond. Even then the Peninsular campaign, which should have been a steady triumphal march to the Confederate capital, like Scott s march from Vera Cruz up to the city of Mexico in 1847, was a slow, guarded approach of many weeks duration, as if against an enemy vastly superior in forces. Once, within four miles of Richmond, and already, within sight of its church spires, McClellan retreated because Lincoln detained McDow ell s division of 40,000 men to protect Washington. 1 Lee and Johnston were quick to seize the moment of the deliverance of Richmond to turn in pursuit of the Army of the Potomac. Mc Clellan, always masterly on the defensive, won several engage ments from his pursuers, finally routing them decisively at Malvern Hill (July i, 1862) in one of the severest battles of the war. Richmond again lay within his grasp, but instead of ad vancing, he led his victorious army back to Harrisons Landing on the James River within reach of the Union gunboats. The famous Peninsular campaign was ended. Richmond was still undisturbed. President Lincoln removed McClellan from the command of the armies of the United States, July n, 1862. prated about " saving the country." To Stanton, who had assumed the War port folio in January, 1862, displacing Cameron, he wrote : " You must send me large reinforcements, and send them at once. ... If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington [President Lincoln], You have done your best to sacrifice this army." Remark able language for a commander with an army already more than double the strength of his adversaries to use to his superiors in Washington ! 1 The cause of the detention of McDowell s troops was the campaign of Gen eral Thomas J. Jackson in the Shenandoah valley. This wonderful commander (a third great Virginian, with Lee and Johnston) with an army of 17,000 men had defeated and outwitted 50,000 Union troops in the valley, and threatened the capital so effectively that the eyes of the administration were drawn off the army of the Potomac. It was Jackson who saved Richmond. Jackson was a rare com bination of fighter and religious fanatic, not unlike Oliver Cromwell. At the battle of Bull Run one of his fellow generals said to his troops, " Look at Jackson standing there firm as a stone wall ! " From this remark the general got the name " Stonewall " Jackson. 44 2 The Crisis of Disunion 639. The A year had passed since the battle of Bull Run, yet the blockade and Union arms had made no progress in Virginia. But the United affair^*"* States navy, under the efficient management of Secretary Welles, November- nac j accomplished important results. First, it had established so 1861 effective a blockade along the 3000 miles of the Confederate coast that the exports of cotton dropped in value from $202,- 000,000 in 1860 to $4,000,000 in 1862. The Southerners, especially after their victory at Bull Run, could not believe that Great Britain would stand by quietly and allow the North to shut off her cotton supply by a blockade. Their expectations of British intervention were heightened almost to a certainty when, in November, 1861, Captain Wilkes of the Union war sloop San Jacinto stopped the British mail steamer Trent as she was sailing from Havana, forcibly removed from her deck the Confederate commissioners to Great Britain and France, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and took them as prisoners to Fort Warren in Boston harbor. The deed was hailed with rejoicing in the North. The Navy Department congratulated Wilkes, and the House of Representatives gave him a formal vote of thanks. The South was in high hopes that this insult to the British flag would involve the administration at Washington in a war with England, and the Queen s government began, in fact, to send troops to Canada. But the sober sense of Lin coln, Seward, and Sumner l realized that Wilkes s act, however gratifying to public sentiment in the North, was a high-handed outrage of the principle of the inviolability of vessels of neutral nations, for the defense of which we had gone to war with Great Britain in 1812. Consequently, Seward informed the British minister, Lord Lyons, on December 26, that the prisoners in Fort Warren would be " cheerfully liberated." Mason and Slidell were given up, the British government was satisfied, and the blockade of the Southern ports continued undisturbed. 1 Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was the chairman of the Senate commit tee on foreign relations. He did a great deal to win the reluctant sympathy of the English people for the Northern cause. The Civil War 443 The Northern navy won a notable victory in a strange kind 640. The of battle that took place in Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 9, th^Montor, 1862. The Confederates had raised the sunken hull of the March 9 , 1862 Merrimac at the Norfolk navy yards, and, covering her with a sloping roof of iron rails smeared with plumbago and tallow, had made of her the first " ironclad " in the history of naval warfare. This formidable craft, rechristened the Virginia, easily destroyed two of the finest ships of our wooden navy in Hampton Roads, on March 8, and waited only for the morrow to destroy the rest of the fleet and then sail up the Potomac to shell the city of Wash ington. But that same --^fH night there arrived at Hampton Roads from New York a stranger war vessel even than the Virginia. This was the Monitor (invented by Captain Ericsson), a small iron craft shaped like a torpedo boat, her decks flush with the water, and having amidships a revolving gun turret rising only a few feet. A witty observer called the boat " a cheese box on a raft." The Moni tor placed herself between the Virgi?iia and the wooden ships of our navy, and after an all-day fight drove the dreaded Con federate ram back to the Virginia shore. The wooden ships were saved, but at the same time they were made forever obso lete. This first battle in history between ironclads announced that henceforth the world s navies were to be ships of steel. While the wearisome and futile Peninsular campaign was dragging through the spring months of 1862, relieved only by the victory of the Monitor, the Union arms were making splendid progress in the West. The Virginia destroying the Cumberland in Hampton Roads 444 The Crisis of Disunion 641. The campaign on the Missis sippi 642. Grant s victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, and at Shi- loh, Febru ary-April, 1862 Of equal importance to the Union cause with the blockade of the Southern ports and the hoped-for capture of Richmond, was the opening of the Mississippi River, which the Confed erates held from its junction with the Ohio down to its mouth. The possession of the river would bring the Unionists the double advantage of freeing an outlet for the commerce of the North western states, and cutting off the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. The credit for accomplishing this great work belongs, more than to all others, to General Ulysses S. Grant and Captain David G. Farragut. Grant (born in Ohio in 1822) was a graduate of West Point. He had served creditably in the Mexican War, but since its close had led a thriftless and rather intemperate life. The out break of the Civil War found him, at the age of thirty-nine, working in a leather and hardware store in Galena, Illinois, and dependent on his father for the support of wife and family. But the call to war transformed the poor business man into a military genius of the highest order. In February, 1862, with the con sent of General H. W. Halleck, who commanded the Union armies of the West, Grant seized the very important forts, Henry and Donelson, 1 near the mouths of the Tennessee and Cum berland rivers, and carried his victorious army up the Tennes see River, a hundred miles across the state of Tennessee, to Pittsburg Landing. While waiting here for the arrival of General BuelPs army, which Halleck had ordered to join him from Nashville, Grant was attacked by a superior force under General Albert S. Johnston, the best Confederate general in the West. The terrific battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburg Landing) lasted two days (April 1 These forts, built at points where the two great rivers were but twelve miles apart, both secured the navigation of the rivers and strengthened the Confederate line of defense, which extended from Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi, eastward across the state (see map, p. 438). Grant captured 17,000 troops, with large quantities of supplies, at Donelson. To the request of the Con federate general as to the terms of capitulation, Grant replied, " Unconditional surrender." The phrase stuck to him, and U. S. Grant became in popular lan guage " Unconditional Surrender " Grant. The Civil War 445 6-7, 1862). At nightfall of the first day the Union troops had been driven back to the bluffs along the river ; but before morn ing BuelPs army arrived, and the second day s fighting was General Ulysses S. Grant a triumph for the Union side. The Confederates fell back to Corinth, Mississippi. They had lost 10,000 men, but could better have spared 10,000 more than lose their gallant commander, General Johnston, who was killed on the field. The capture of 446 The Crisis of Disunion Forts Henry and Donelson and the victory of Shiloh cleared western Tennessee of Confederate troops, 1 while General John Pope and Commodore Foote in a parallel campaign brought their gunboats down the Mississippi and secured the river as far south as the high bluffs of Vicksburg, Mississippi. 643. Farra- Meanwhile the great river was being opened from the south- Ses on V the" ern en ^- New Orleans, which lies some one hundred and twenty- A ^n S " ^ ve m ^ es U P tne rrver > was protected by the strong forts, Jack- 1862 son and St. Philip, and by a heavy " boom " of chained and anchored hulks stretching a quarter of a mile across the cur rent between the forts. On the night of the twenty-third of April, 1862, Captain David G. Farragut, in a most spectacular battle, broke the boom and ran the gantlet of the fire of the forts. New Orleans was left defenseless. The small Confederate army withdrew, and General B. F. Butler entered the city, which he ruled for over six months under military regime. The capture of New Orleans opened the river as far north as Port Hudson. Thus, by midsummer of 1862, only the high bluffs of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, with the two hundred and fifty defenseless miles of river bank between, were left to the Confederacy. 2 644. Ten These successes in the West contrasted strikingly with the failure in the delays and disappointments of the army in the East ; and when Potomac thC McClellan was relieved of his command in July, it was natural August, 1862- that a Western general should succeed him. Halleck, under June, 1863 whose command the brilliant operations in Tennessee had been conducted, was called to Washington, July n, 1862, as general in chief of the armies of the United States, to advise the Pres ident and the Secretary of War; while General Pope 8 was 1 President Lincoln immediately began the " reconstruction " of Tennessee by appointing Andrew Johnson of that state as military governor. Johnson was a man of great energy and ambition, who had worked his way up from a tailor s bench to the United States Senate. He belonged to the "poor white" class of the South, and was an intensely loyal Union man. 2 These two hundred and fifty miles, however, were very important as a " bridge," over which came immense stores of Louisiana sugar and Texas beef and grain for the armies of the Confederacy. 8 Grant, who should have been the choice, was unpopular with Halleck, and besides, his generalship at Shiloh had not been brilliant. The Civil War 447 given command of a new "Army of Virginia," independent of McClellan s diminished Army of the Potomac. The ten months that followed, from August, 1862, to June, 1863, present a dreary record of defeat for the Union cause in Virginia. General Lee, with his magnificent corps of lieuten ants, " Stonewall" Jackson, Longstreet, Ewell, the Hills, and From the " Photographic History of the Civil War." Copyright by Patriot Publishing Company The Army of the Potomac in Camp Stuart, outwitted and outfought the Union commanders at every turn. Pope was beaten at a second battle of Bull Run (August, 1862), and his entire army forced to retreat on Washington. 1 McClellan was restored to command, 2 and hailed with joy by his old soldiers. He stopped Lee s invasion of 1 An especially humiliating feature of Pope s defeat was the capture of all his stores and his own headquarters by a brilliant move of " Stonewall " Jackson. The stores, rilling a train of cars two miles long, were burned after the Confederates had taken all the plunder they could carry ; and the light of the costly bonfire could be seen even from Washington. 2 Lincoln, against the determined protest of Stanton, Halleck, and others in high authority, declared that McClellan was the only man available. 448 The Crisis of Disunion Maryland 1 in the bloodiest single day s battle of the war, at Sharpsburg on the Antietam Creek (September 16, 1862); but with his old reluctance to follow up a victory by crushing the foe, he let the shattered Confederate army get back across the Potomac to Virginia soil. He was removed again by the distressed administration at Washington, and General Burnside was put in his place, only to suffer an awful repulse in his reck less assault on the heights of Fredericksburg (December 12, 1862). Then General Joseph Hooker, " Fighting Joe," who succeeded Burnside, was routed in the three days fight at Chancellorsville (May 1-4, i863). 2 645. The The early months of 1863 mark the lowest ebb of the lowest point in the Union fortunes of the Union cause. For nearly two years the superior Federal forces in Virginia had been trying to take Richmond, but they had not been able even to hold their own position south of the Rappahannock. General Lee was planning another invasion of the North. Union soldiers were deserting at the rate of a thousand a week, 3 and hundreds of officers were finding excuses to leave the army for " vacations." The attempts to draft new recruits into the army were met with serious resist ance in many states. In New York City the draft riots of July, 1863, resulted in the destruction of $1,500,000 worth of property and the loss of 1000 lives. The cost of the war was enormous; the debt was increasing at the rate of $2,500,000 1 Lee invaded Maryland for the double purpose of foraging and capturing Washington. When asked after the war why he did not move directly on Washington after the defeat of Pope, he answered convincingly in a single phrase, " Because my men had nothing to eat." 2 After a day s fighting at Chancellorsville, " Stonewall " Jackson, riding back in the twilight with his staff from a reconnoissance, was mistaken by Con federate sharpshooters for a Union officer and fatally shot. His loss was the severest blow the Confederate cause suffered during the war. Many in the South believe to this day that, had the life of " Stonewall " Jackson been spared, they would have been successful in the war. 3 Hooker, in his testimony to Congress explaining his defeat at Chancellors ville, said : " At the time the army was turned over to me desertions were at the rate of two hundred a day. So anxious were parents, wives, brothers, and sisters of volunteers to relieve their kindred, that they filled the trains to the ^rmy with packages of citizens clothing to assist them in escaping from the service." The Civil War 449 a day. The Secretary of the Treasury was having difficulty in borrowing enough money to keep the army in the field. A wide spread conviction that Lincoln s administration was a failure was shown by the triumph of the Democrats in the elections of 1862 in such important states as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Clement Vallandigham, of Ohio, declared in a speech in the House early in the year 1863 : " You have not conquered the South. You never will. . . . Money you have expended without limit, and blood poured out like water. . . . Defeat, debt, taxation, and sepulchers, these are your only trophies." ] But the darkest hour is the hour before the dawn. In June, 1863, the Southern hopes were high. In the West the great fortress of Vicksburg, which Grant and Sherman had been manoeuvering against for months, still blockaded the lower Mississippi to the Union fleets ; and in the East, General Lee, at the height of his power and popularity, was crossing the Potomac northward with a magnificent army of 75,000 veterans. But on the fourth of July, Lee was leading his defeated army back to the Potomac after the tremendous fight at Gettysburg, while General Grant was entering Vicksburg in triumph. The battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the most im- 646.Thebat- portant battle of the war, and the only one fought on the free b u r g soil of the North. 2 Knowing the widespread discouragement in the Northern states and the dissatisfaction in many quarters with Lincoln s conduct of the war, Lee hoped that a brilliant stroke as near New York as he could get might terrify the 1 Vallandigham was afterwards arrested by General Burnside and court- martialed for treason. Lincoln, as a grim sort of joke, made his punish ment exile into the lines of the Confederacy. Edward Everett H ale s famous story " The Man without a Country," appearing in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1863, was written to show the sad failure of such unpatriotic con duct as Vallandigham s. 2 There were several " raids " into Northern territory in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania by the renowned "irregular" cavalry rangers of Morgan, Mosby, and Stuart. But--these raids succeeded only in terrorizing a few villages and plundering such booty as the flying horsemen could take with them. They were a foolish, unproductive kind of warfare. 450 The Crisis of Disunion Northern bankers, and lead them to compel the administra tion to stop the war for lack of funds and recognize the South ern Confederacy. General George G. Meade, who had just 111 General Robert E. Lee succeeded Hooker (June 27) in the .command of the Army of the Potomac, met Lee s attack with his fine army of over 80,000 men securely posted on the heights of Round Top and Ceme tery Ridge, south of the town of Gettysburg. The Civil War 451 The first and second days fighting (July i, 2) were favorable to the Confederates, but reinforcements kept pouring in for the Army of the Potomac, and, in spite of heavy losses, the Federal position was being strengthened from hour to hour. At the beginning of the third day of the fight General Meade had over 90,000 men posted on the heights above and around Gettysburg. Lee, fagged with his immense labors, and desperate in his 647. pick- demand for victory, now failed for once in generalship. Disre garding the almost tearful remonstrances of General Longstreet, he sent General Pickett with 15,000 men, the flower of the Confederate infantry, to carry by storm the impregnable posi tion- of the Union troops, under General W. S. Hancock, on Cemetery Ridge. It was the most dramatic moment of the war, as Pickett s splendid column, in perfect order, swept across the wide plain which separated the two armies and dashed up the opposite hill in the face of the withering fire of the Union guns. The men went down like grain before a hailstorm, but still there was no pause. A hundred led by Armistead pierced the Union line and planted the flag of the Confederacy on the ridge, the "high-water mark of the Rebellion." But no human bravery could stand against the blasting wall of fire that closed in upon Pickett s gallant men. The line wavered, then stopped, then bent slowly backward, and broke. The day, the battle, and the Southern cause were lost ! The next day, the " glorious fourth " of July, at evening, 648. The fail while the North was celebrating the great victory of Gettys- burg, General Lee began his slow retreat to the Potomac through a heavy, dismal storm of rain. Lee s grief and chagrin would have been doubled had he known that, on that same dismal fourth of July, General Pemberton, after a valiant defense of six months against the superior strategy and num bers of Grant and Sherman, had surrendered the stronghold of Vicksburg, with 170 cannon and 50,000 rifles, and had de livered over his starving garrison of 30,000 men as prisoners of 452 The Crisis of Disunion war. 1 Five days after the fall of Vicksburg, Port Hudson yielded, and the Mississippi was again a Union stream from source to mouth. " The Father of Waters," wrote Lincoln exultantly, " goes again un vexed to the sea." THE TRIUMPH OF THE NORTH 649. The The victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg were the turning of the war point of the war. Not that the South as yet acknowledged defeat or even distress. On the contrary, the tone of her press and the utterances of her public men were more confident than ever. Newspapers in Richmond and Charleston actually hailed Gettysburg as a Confederate victory, presumably because Lee had been allowed to withdraw his shattered army across the Potomac without molestation. 2 But to men who did not let their zeal blind them to facts, the disasters which overtook the Confederacy at Gettysburg and Vicksburg appeared to be almost beyond repair. It was not alone the loss of 60,000 soldiers from armies in which every man was sorely needed that made those midsummer days of 1863 so calamitous to the South. It was even more the change which they brought in the public senti ment of the North, in the attitude of Great Britain toward the Confederacy, and in the plan of campaign of the Union commanders. 1 The siege of Vicksburg was the only protracted siege of the war. The shelling of the city by Grant s mortars was so severe that many of the people lived in underground caves, and the inhabitants and garrison were compelled to eat mules, rats, and even shoe leather to keep from starvation. Pemberton held out as long as he did in the constant hope that Johnston might break through Grant s lines and come to his relief. 2 Lincoln was much distressed that Meade did not follow Lee up after Gettysburg, and crush his army before it could get back over the Potomac. " We had them in our grasp," he said ; " we had only to stretch forth our hands and they were ours." To Meade he wrote a kindly letter of censure : " I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee s escape. . . . Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurably because of it." Still Meade was not relieved of his command. His army slowly followed Lee into Virginia and, after some unimportant skirmishing, went into winter quarters at Culpeper, about seventy-five miles northwest of Richmond. The Civil War 453 In the North the bankers, whose cash vaults Lee hoped to 650. Finan close tightly by his invasion of Pennsylvania, now lent to the government freely; and private individuals bought millions of dollars worth of the " coupon bonds " issued to support the war. Secretary Chase had been obliged to pay 7.3 per cent interest on money loaned the government in 1861, when the public debt was less than $100,000,000; now, however, he could borrow all he wanted at 6 per cent, although the debt had risen to over $1,000,000,000. The rate of interest at which a country can borrow money is always an index of the confi dence the people have in the stability of the government. Presi dent Lincoln, in his annual message to Congress, December, 1863, could say : " All the demands on the Treasury, including the pay of the army and navy, have been promptly met and fully satisfied. ... By no people were the burdens incident to a great war ever more cheerfully borne." x 1 The financial operations of a government are very difficult to make plain to the general reader. Therefore, although the problems of the Treasury were fully as critical a feature of the war as the campaigns of the generals, little is said about them in the text. It may be stated in. general that the government incurred a debt of over $3,000,000,000 in prosecuting the Civil War. It raised its funds chiefly by issues of interest-bearing bonds, promises to pay back the money borrowed at the end of twenty or thirty years. Secretary Chase, early in 1863, devised a very effective method of selling these bonds, by the creation of the national-bank system. Any group of five men, furnishing a capital of $300,000, might be granted a charter by the national government to organize a banking business. If they purchased United States bonds and deposited them at Washington, they were allowed to issue notes (" bank bills ") up to the value of 90 per cent (since 1900, up to the full value) of the bonds, and the government as sumed the responsibility for paying these notes if the bank failed. The bankers^ of course, besides receiving the interest from their bonds on deposit, made a profit by lending their notes (or credit) to their customers at a fair rate of interest. The national-bank system was a benefit to all parties concerned. It enabled the government to sell its bonds readily ; it gave the capitalists of the country a chance to make a profit on their bank notes ; and it gave the borrowing public a currency which was " protected " by the government, whether the bank issuing it succeeded or failed. There were in 1910 some 7000 national banks in the United States, with an aggregate capital of over $6,000,000,000. These national banks are not to be confused with the National Bank of 1791-1811, 1816-1836. They are private institutions, and enjoy none of the government s favors such as are described on page 191. They are called "national" simply because they are chartered and inspected by the national government. 454 The Crisis of Disunion 651. Effect of In England, though the Trent affair had been satisfactorily of Gettysburg adjusted, the sympathy of the higher classes of society and of h D ? Vl n 1 n most f the government officials was decidedly in favor of the land South. The long series of Federal reverses in 1862 had strengthened their belief that President Lincoln s government would fail to restore the Union. Men in high positions in the British government openly expressed their confidence in the Southern cause. 1 British capitalists bought $10,000,000 worth of Confederate bonds offered them at the beginning of 1863, when the Southern cause looked brightest. The fall of Vicksburg sent the bonds down 20 per cent in value. The British people woke with a shock from their dream of an " invincible South," and all hope of aid from Great Britain, as President Davis sorrowfully acknowledged in his next message to the Con federate Congress, was- lost. 2 652. The The effect of the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg on campaign 11 the conduct of the war was also important. Up to the middle J uly of the year 1863 there had been no cooperation between the Union armies. The Army of the Potomac, in Virginia, had been battling in vain to break through Lee s defense of Richmond. The army on the Mississippi had been slowly accomplishing its great task of opening the river. Meanwhile a third army under Buell, and later under Rosecrans, had with difficulty been defending central Kentucky and Tennessee from the advance of the Confederate general Braxton Bragg, and had at last forced 1 Mr. Gladstone, then a cabinet minister, said in a speech at Newcastle, Octo ber 7, 1862: "There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army ; they are making, it appears, a navy ; and they have made what is more than either, a nation. . . . We may anticipate with certainty the success of the Southern states so far as their separation from the North is concerned." 2 While Mason was trying to get help in England for the Confederacy, Slidell was busy on the same errand in France. At a meeting with Emperor Napoleon III, in July, 1862, Slidell made the offer of 100,000 bales of cotton (worth $12, 500,000) if Napoleon would send a fleet to break the blockade of the Southern ports. Napoleon made efforts to get Great Britain and Russia to join him in demanding from the administration at Washington the inde pendence of the South, but with no success. After Gettysburg all such efforts were stopped. The Civil War 455 him to retire to Chattanooga in the southeastern corner of Tennessee. 1 The fall of Vicksburg left the troops of Grant and Sherman free to move eastward across Mississippi and Ala bama, driving Johnston s inferior forces before them, and to From the " Photographic History of the Civil War." Copyright by Patriot Publishing Company Waiting for Letters from Home join with Rosecrans at Chattanooga and push the Confederate armies across the lower end of the Appalachian range into Georgia. While this great flanking movement was going on 1 Simultaneously with Lee s invasion of Maryland in September, 1862, Bragg had invaded Kentucky, appealing .to the proslavery and states-rights sentiment in the state with the pompous manifesto, " Kentuckians, I offer you the oppor tunity to free yourselves from the tyranny of a despotic ruler." Bragg brought 15,000 stands of arms for the Kentuckians, but they did not join his army. Buell turned him back from Kentucky in the battle of Perryville (October 8, 1862), and Rosecrans, after a tremendous three days fight at Murfreesboro, Tennessee (December 3i-January 2), compelled Bragg to retire to Chattanooga. The acquisition of eastern Tennessee was especially desired by Lincoln, on account of the great number of Union men in that part of the state. We have already seen how, after Grant s victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Lincoln had appointed Andrew Joknson as military governor of Tennessee (p. 446, note i). 456 Crisis of Disunion 19-20, 1863 from the West, the Army of the Potomac was to press down on Lee from northern Virginia. So the forces of the Confederacy would be crushed between the two great Union armies in Virginia and Georgia. This plan of wrapping the Union armies about the Confederacy and squeezing the life out of it was called the " anaconda policy." It was in view of this coopera tion of all the Union forces in 1863 that General Sherman later wrote, " The war did not begin professionally until after Gettysburg and Vicksburg." 653. The Next to Richmond and Vicksburg, the most important mili- Chickamauga, tary position in the Confederacy was Chattanooga. This city, protected by the deep and wide Tennessee River on the north, and the high ridges of the Appalachian Mountains on the south, guarded the passes into the rich state of Georgia, the " keystone of the Confederacy." Rosecrans, as we have seen, confronted Bragg at Chattanooga in the autumn of 1863. Bragg retired before his opponent across the Tennessee River into the moun tains of the northeastern corner of Georgia, then suddenly turned on him at Chickamauga Creek, while Rosecrans s army was scattered in the mountain passes. The battle of Chickamauga, which followed Rosecrans s frantic effort to get his army together (September 19-20, 1863), would have been as complete a disaster for the Union cause as Bull Run, had it not been for the intrepid conduct of one man, General George H. Thomas. Rosecrans had given a blundering order which left a wide gap in the Union lines. Into this gap the Confederate regiments poured, driving the entire right wing of Rosecrans s army off the field in a panic, and sweeping Rosecrans with his men back to Chattanooga, where he telegraphed Halleck that his army was " overwhelmed by the enemy." But General Thomas on the left, with only 25,000 men, refused to leave the field. Forming his men into a convex front like a horseshoe, he stood firm against the furious onslaught of 60,000 Confederate troops, from half past three in the afternoon till the deep twilight four hours later. The Civil War 457 It was the most magnificent defensive fighting of the war. It almost turned defeat into victory. It earned for General Thomas the proud title of the " Rock of Chickamauga," and justified his promotion by Grant to the command of the Army of the Cumberland in place of Rosecrans. After his dearly bought victory at Chickamauga, General Bragg proceeded to lay siege to Chattanooga. General Grant, who had been put in command of the armies 654. The bat- of the West as a reward for his capture of Vicksburg, now Chattanooga, dispatched the Army of the November 23-25, 1863 Tennessee (as the Vicksburg army was henceforth called), under General Sherman, to join Rosecrans at Chatta nooga, and, following soon himself, was ready by the mid dle of November to begin operations against Bragg and Johnston. The three days battle around Chattanooga (November 23-25) was a fit ting climax to Grant s splen did achievements of the year 1863. The enthusiasm his presence inspired in the Union army was unbounded. On the twenty-fourth of November Hooker seized the top of Look out Mountain in the " Battle above the Clouds." On the twenty-fifth General Thomas s troops were ordered to seize the Confederate rifle pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge. They seized the pits, and then, without waiting for further orders, stormed up the steep and crumbling sides of the mountain in the face of a deadly fire from thirty cannon trained on every path, and drove the astounded Bragg, with his staff and his choicest infantry, from the crest of the General Philip H. Sheridan 458 The Crisis of Disztnion 655. Grant raised to the command of the army, March 9, 1864 656. Plans of Grant and Sherman, 1864 hill. 1 The Confederate general fled southward into Georgia, burning his depots and bridges behind him. On the first day of the session of Congress, which assem bled a fortnight after the battle of Chattanooga, Representa tive Washburn of Illinois introduced a bill to revive the rank of lieutenant general, which had not been held by any general in the field since George Washington. Everybody knew that the new honor was intended for General Grant. The bill was passed February 29, 1864, and immediately Grant was sum moned to Washington by the President, and in the presence of the cabinet and a few invited guests was formally invested with the rank of lieutenant general and the command, under the President, of all the armies of the United States (March 9, 1864). Grant made his dear friend and companion in arms, General William T. Sherman, his successor in the command of the armies of the West, while he established his own headquarters with the Army of the Potomac. The plan of campaign was now very simple. Sherman, with the armies of the Ohio (General Schofield), the Cumberland (General Thomas), and the Tennessee (General McPherson), 100,000 strong, was to advance from Chattanooga to Atlanta against Joseph E. Johnston, who had succeeded Bragg. Grant, with the Army of the Potomac (General Meade still nominally in command), was to resume the campaign against Richmond, in which McClellan, Pope, Burnside, and Hooker had all failed. Both Grant and Sherman outnumbered their opponents, Lee and Johnston, two to one ; but the advantage was not so great as the size of their armies would indicate, for Sherman was to move through a hostile country, with his base of supplies at 1 This impetuous charge of 20,000 Union troops up the sides of Missionary- Ridge was as dramatic and courageous as the famous charge of Pickett s brigade at Gettysburg. The leader of the charge was " Phil " Sheridan, a young Irish gen eral, who had distinguished himself for bravery in the battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro, and who later became the most famous cavalry commander in the Union army. The battle of Chattanooga was the only one of the war in which the four greatest Union generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas took part. The Civil War 459 Louisville, Kentucky, hundreds of miles away, and leaving an ever-lengthening line of posts to be guarded in his rear ; while Grant was assuming the offensive on soil which he had never trodden before, but every inch of which was familiar to Lee s veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia. On the fourth of May, 1864, Grant s army crossed the Rapi- 657. The dan, and began to fight its way through the Wilderness, where campa ign, Hooker had been defeated in the battle of Chancellorsville just a ^" June> year earlier. Though his losses were heavy (17,500 men in the Wilderness rights), Grant turned his face steadily toward Rich mond. " I propose to fight it out on this line," he wrote Halleck, " if it takes all summer." x At Cold Harbor (June 3) he attacked Lee s strongly fortified position in front, and lost 7000 men in an hour, in an assault almost as rash as Burnside s at Fredericks- burg. 2 After this awful battle, Grant led the Army of the Poto mac down to the James River to renew the attack on Richmond from the south. In the Wilderness campaign of forty days, from the Rapidan to the James, Grant had lost 55,000 men (almost as many as Lee had in his entire army), but he had at least shown Lee the novel sight of a Union commander who did not retreat when he was repulsed or rest when he was victorious. 1 His men were with him, too, keyed to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The writer has heard from the lips of one of the three surviving members of Company A of the Twelfth Massachusetts regiment the thrilling story of the resumption of the march southward after the terrible losses in the Wilderness. The orders to move came one stormy evening, just as the heavy clouds were parting, and the sol diers were uncertain whether the column was headed northward in retreat or south ward for Richmond. As they came out upon an open road and were greeted by the stars, the shout came from the head of the column, " Boys, we are leaving the North Star behind us ! " "I have heard the army cheer after victory," said the vet eran, " but I have never heard cheering like that which swept down the march ing column then." 2 Horace Porter, an aid-de-camp of General Grant, tells in the Century Mag azine for March, 1897, how the brave Union soldiers were seen the night before the terrible assault at Cold Harbor quietly pinning on the backs of their coats slips of paper with their name and address, so that their bodies might be taken back to their families in the North. Grant himself confesses in his " Memoirs," written nearly twenty years after the battle, that " no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss which we sustained." The attack at Cold Har bor was a serious mistake on Grant s part. 460 The Crisis of Disunion 658. Sher man takes Atlanta, September 3, 1864 659. The presidential campaign of 1864 Sherman left Chattanooga two days after Grant crossed the Rapidan (May 6). Mile by mile he forced Johnston back, until by the middle of July he was in sight of Atlanta. Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston by Hood, but it was of no avail. Sherman beat Hood in several engagements before Atlanta, and entered the city on the third of September, 1864. From the "Photographic History of the Civil War." Copyright by Patriot Publishing Company The Confederate Trenches before Atlanta While Grant was fighting his way through the Wilderness, and Sherman was slowly advancing on Atlanta, the national conven tions met to nominate candidates for the presidential election of 1864. Secretary Chase was ambitious for the Republican nomination, and when one of his friends in Congress published a circular in his behalf, he confessed his ambition to Lincoln, who generously refused to consider it a reason for removing Chase from the head of the Treasury Department. Chase was a very able man, " about one and a half times bigger than any other The Civil War 461 man I Ve known," Lincoln said once, but he was also very pompous and conceited, and needed little persuasion to believe that he was indispensable to the country s salvation. His sur prise and chagrin were, therefore, great v/hen his canvass fell flat and Lincoln was nominated by the almost unanimous vote of the convention at Baltimore (June y). 1 The Democrats met at Chicago (August 29) and nominated General McClellan, rec ommending in their platform that " after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war . . . immediate efforts be made for the cessation of hostilities . . . and peace be made on the basis of the federal union of the states." 2 All through the summer of 1864 there was doubt and dis- 660. The couragement in the Republican ranks. Grant s Wilderness campaign brought no comfort to the administration. Lincoln himself at one period had no hope of being reflected. But the autumn brought changes in the Unionist fortunes. In August, Admiral Farragut sailed into the harbor of Mobile, Alabama, by an exploit as daring as the running of the New Orleans forts, and deprived the Confederacy of its last stronghold on the Gulf of Mexico. In September, Sherman entered Atlanta after a four months campaign against Johnston and Hood. And in October, Sheridan, by his wonderful ride up the Shenandoah valley, " from Winchester twenty miles away," literally turned defeat into victory and saved Washington from the raid of General Early s cavalry. These L^nion victories were the most powerful campaign arguments for the Republican cause. " Sherman and Farragut," cried Seward, " have knocked the bottom out of the 1 Chase harbored some ill will toward the administration, and on June 29 resigned his secretaryship rather petulantly. Lincoln accepted the resignation, but showed his utter magnanimity by nominating Chase to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (December 6, 1864), made vacant by the death of the aged Roger B. Taney. This gracious act drew from Chase a beautiful letter of gratitude. 2 It is only fair to say that McClellan did not consent to the platform which declared the war a " failure." Nevertheless it is little credit to him, who was once in command of the United States armies and supported by Lincoln to the utmost of the President s ability, to be now associated with a party that was try ing to discredit the war and push Lincoln from his throne." 462 The Crisis of Disunion 661. Sher man s march to the sea, September- December, 1864 Chicago platform." Lincoln was reelected in November by an electoral vote of 212 to 21, and a popular majority of nearly 500,000. The election meant the indorsement by the people of the North of Lincoln s policy of continuing the war until the South recognized the supremacy of the national government at Washington throughout the United States. Admiral Farragut attacking the Forts in Mobile Harbor Before the year 1864 ended, more good news came from the seat of war. When Atlanta fell, Hood, thinking to draw Sher man back from further invasion of Georgia, and at the same time to regain Tennessee, made a dash northward against Thomas, who had been left to protect Nashville and Chatta nooga. Sherman trusted the reliable Thomas to take care of Tennessee, and, boldly severing all connection with his base of supplies, started on his famous march " from Atlanta to the sea," 300 miles across the state of Georgia. He met with no resistance. The march through Georgia was more like a con tinuous picnic of three months for his 60,000 troops than like The Civil War 463 a campaign. They lived on the fat of the land. the newly gathered harvests of corn and grain, abundance of chickens, tur keys, ducks, pigs, and sweet potatoes. Sherman entered on the march with a grim determination to make the state of Georgia " an example to rebels," and he carried out his threat. Railroads were torn up, public buildings, depots, and machine shops burned, stores of cotton destroyed, 10,000 mules and horses taken, and the military resources of the state damaged beyond repair. 1 Reaching the coast in December, Sherman easily broke through the weak defenses of Savannah, and on Christmas eve President Lincoln read a tele gram from him announcing " as a Christmas gift the city of Savan nah, with 150 heavy guns, plenty of ammunition, and about 25.000 bales of cotton. The success of Sherman s dar- 662. xhom- General Sherman Z mar - Ch de P ended On the defeat at ia^SSTe , of Hood s army. For had Hood December 15, retaken Tennessee and driven Thomas back into Kentucky, he could have turned eastward rapidly and. summoning the Caro- linas to his banners, could have confronted Sherman (severed from his base of supplies, and in a hostile country) with a most formidable army. But Thomas was equal to the occasion. On the fifteenth of December, before Nashville, he almost annihilated 1 Sherman has been execrated by Southern writers for the " barbarity " of his soldiers during this march through Georgia : and it is certain that much irregular plundering and thievery were done, such as taking jewelry from women, burning private houses, and wantonly insulting the feelings of the inhabitants. Sherman s chief of cavalry, Kilpatrick. was a coarse and brutal man, who was responsible for much of the damage. Then a crowd of " bummers " followed the army, out of the reach of Sherman s officers. Although Sherman was severe in this march, it must be said to his credit that he gave orders to have private property respected, and there is no complaint of his soldiers treating defenseless women as the armies of European conquerors were accustomed to do. 464 The Crisis of Disunion 663. The Hampton Roads confer ence, Febru ary 3, 1865 664. The fall of Richmond, April 3 , 1865 665. Lee s surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865 Hood s army, and drove the remnants out of Tennessee. The battle of Nashville was the deathblow of the Confederacy west of the Alleghenies. Virginia and the Carolinas alone were left to subdue. Before the campaign of 1865 opened, there was an attempt to close the war by diplomacy. On February 3, 1865, Vice President Stephens of the Confederacy, with two other com missioners, met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on board a United States vessel, at Hampton Roads, to discuss terms of peace. But as Lincoln would listen to no terms what ever except on the basis of a reunited country, the conference came to naught. The Southern commissioners were pleased to interpret Lincoln s terms as nothing less than " unconditional submission to the mercy of the conquerors." 1 The next month the Array of the Potomac renewed its operations against Richmond. The stronghold of Petersburg, to the south, fell on Sunday, April 2. Jefferson Davis was at worship in St. Paul s church in Richmond, when news was brought that the city could no longer be held. Hastily collect ing his papers, he fled with his cabinet southward. On the third of April the Union troops entered the city, followed the next day by President Lincoln, who spoke only words of conciliation and kindness in " the enemy s capital." Lee, with his dwindling army, moved westward toward the mountains, but Grant fol lowed him hard, while Sheridan s cavalry encircled his forces. Brought to a standstill, Lee consented to listen to Grant s terms for surrender. The two great generals met in a farmhouse at Appomattox, on the ninth of April, 1865, Lee, the vanquished, in full uniform, with a jeweled sword at his side ; Grant, the victor, in the dusty 1 Jefferson Davis, in a speech at Richmond on February 6, said of this conference : "Mr. Lincoln spoke of a common country. I can have no common country with the Yankees. . . . With the Confederacy I will live or die. . . . Thank God, I represent a people too proud to ... bow the neck to mortal man." It is pleasing to think that Mr. Davis repented of this melodramatic bluster after the war and advised the new generation at the South to aid in up building the prosperity and good feeling of our common country. ui </e>u/ tfl (}l. ^^^ ij AnL<nr<L-- / JL tb, Lee s Letter to Grant respecting the Surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia 465 466 The Crisis of Disunion fatigue coat of a common soldier, with only the lieutenant general s stars on his shoulders. After a few minutes of courteous conversation recalling the days of their old com radeship in arms in the Mexican War, Grant wrote out the terms of surrender. They were generous, as befitted the recon ciliation of brother Americans. The Army of Northern Vir ginia was to lay down its arms, but the officers were to retain their horses and side arms, and even the cavalrymen and artil lerymen were to be allowed to keep their horses. " They will need them for the spring plowing," said Grant, with his won derful simplicity. Lee accepted the terms with sorrowing gratitude, and surrendered his army of 26,765 men. 1 When the Union soldiers heard the good news they began to fire salutes, but Grant stopped them, saying, " The war is over ; the rebels are our countrymen again." Lee had hinted that his men were hungry, and Grant immediately ordered the distribution of 25,000 rations to the Confederate army. 666. The With the fall of Richmond and the surrender of Lee s army the^nfed- the Confederacy collapsed. 2 It is a marvel that it fought through eracy ^ Q j ast vear o f t j ie wan p or ^ g out h was brought to the point of actual destitution. The paper money which the Confed eracy issued had depreciated so much that it took $1000 to buy a barrel of flour and $30 to buy a pound of tea. Its credit was dead in Europe and its bonds were worthless. When the blockade of their ports stopped the export of cotton, the Southerners 1 As Lee rode back to his army after the conference with Grant, the soldiers crowded around him, blessing him. Tears came to his eyes as he made his fare well address of three brief sentences : " We have fought through the war together. I have done the best 1 could for you. My heart is too full to say more." At the close of the war this noble and heroic man accepted the presi-- dency of Washington College in Virginia, which he served with devotion for the five years of life that remained to him. 2 Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his army of 37,000 men to Sherman near Durham, North Carolina, on April 26 ; Generals Taylor in Alabama and Kirby Smith in Arkansas turned over the armies under their command to the Union officers in the South and Southwest. In all 174,000 Confederate soldiers laid down their arms at the close of the war. Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10 at Irwinville, Georgia, and imprisoned two years at Fortress Monroe. After his release he lived quietly at the South till his death, December 6, 1889. The Civil War 467 planted their fields with corn and grain. But the lack of means of transportation made it almost impossible to distribute the products of the farms to the soldiers at the front. While Sherman s army was reveling in the abundance of the farms and harvests of central Georgia, the knapsacks found on the poor fellows who fell in the defense of Richmond contained only scanty rations of corn bread and bacon. The women of the South, accustomed to handsome dress and dainty fare, wore homespun gowns and cheap rough boots, and cheerfully ate porridge and drank " coffee " made of roasted sweet potatoes. They knew no hardships but the failure of fathers and brothers and sons in battle ; they were visited by no calamities except the presence of the hated " Yankee " soldier. It is impossible for the student of history to-day to feel otherwise than that the cause for which the South fought the war of 1861-1865 was an unworthy cause, and that the victory of the South would have been a calamity for every section of our country. But the indomitable valor and utter self-sacrifice with which the South defended that cause both at home and in the field must always arouse our admiration. Friday, the fourteenth of April, 1865, was a memorable day in our history. It was the fourth anniversary of the surrender of Fort Sumter. A great celebration was held at Charleston, and General Robert Anderson raised above the fort the selfsame tat tered flag which he had hauled down after Beauregard s bombard ment in 1 86 1. William Lloyd Garrison was present. Flowers were strewn in his path by the liberated slaves. He spoke at the banquet held that evening in Charleston, and the echoes of his voice reached a grave over which stood a marble stone engraved with the single word " Calhoun. " On the evening of the same day President Lincoln, seeking 667. The relief from the crushing responsibilities of his office, was sitting of S president n in a box at Ford s theater in Washington, with his wife and Lincoln, two guests, when a miserable, half-crazy actor named Booth stepped into the box and shot the President in the back of the 468 The Crisis of Disunion head. 1 Lincoln was carried unconscious to a private house across the street and medical aid was summoned. But the pre cious life, the most pre cious of the land and of the century, was ebbing fast. Early in the morning of the fifteenth of April, sur rounded by his prostrated family and official friends, Abraham Lincoln died. He had brought the storm- tossed ship of state safely into port. The exultant shores were ringing with the people s shouts of praise and rejoicing. But in the hour of victory the great Captain lay upon the deck " fallen cold and dead." 2 Words have no power to tell the worth of Abraham Lincoln. His name, linked with the immortal Washing ton s, is forever enshrined in the hearts of the American people, for he was the savior of our country as Washington was its founder and father. 1 The assassination of Lincoln was part of a deep-laid plot to kill several of the high officers of the Union. Secretary Seward, who was abed suffering from injuries received in a runaway accident, was stabbed severely the same night, and his son Frederick was injured while defending his father s life. Both men recovered. Grant was proscribed also, but the assassin lost courage apparently after gazing into the general s carriage window. The wretch Booth fell to the stage in trying to escape, and broke his leg. He was soon caught in a barn in Virginia, and was shot after the barn had been set on fire. 2 Every student should learn by heart Walt Whitman s superb elegy on Lincoln, " O Captain ! my Captain 1 " The House in which Abraham Lincoln died Now used as a Lincoln Museum The Civil War 469 Our children shall behold his fame, The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American. 1 Stanton, the great Secretary of War, pronounced Abraham Lincoln s best eulogy, when he stood with streaming eyes by the bedside of the martyred President and murmured with choking voice, " Now he belongs to the ages." EMANCIPATION Although slavery was the cause of the Civil War, both the 668. Purpose North and the South insisted that the war was not begun on account of slavery. The South declared that it was fighting for its constitutional rights, denied by a hostile majority in Congress and destroyed by the election of a purely sectional President ; while the North, with equal emphasis, insisted that it took up arms not to free the slaves but to preserve the Union. Lincoln thought slavery a great moral, social, and political evil, and never hesitated to say so ; but he repeatedly declared that neither the President nor Congress had any right to interfere with slavery in those states where it was established by law, and assured the South that he would not attack their institution so long as it was confined to those states. The day after the dis aster at Bull Run (July 21, 1861), both branches of Congress passed a resolution to the effect that " this war is not waged . . . in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those [seceding] states, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution." But it soon became evident that the slaves were a valuable 669. slaves war asset to the South, and Congress began to treat them as ontrabana " property " which could be confiscated. In a series of acts 1 James Russell Lowell, " Commemoration Ode," read at the memorial services for Harvard men who fell in the war (July 21, 1865). The Crisis of Disunion beginning in August, 1861, Congress declared that all negroes employed in a military capacity by the South, as workers on forts or trenches or in the transportation of stores or ammuni tion, should be seized ; that slaves escaping to the Union lines should not be returned ; and that all slaves in places conquered and held by the Union armies should be free. Two generals in the field went even further than Congress. Fremont in Missouri and Hunter in South Carolina, on their own responsibility, issued military proclamations emancipating all the slaves in the districts subject to their authority. 670. Lin- President Lincoln signed the Confiscation Acts of Congress on emanci- with reluctance, and immediately disavowed and annulled the I86l ~ proclamations of Fre mont and Hunter, to the great disappoint ment of thousands of radical antislavery men of the North. To preserve and cherish the Union sentiment in the loyal slave- holding states of Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, seemed to him the most immediate duty of his administration. If he could get these border states to lead the way in the peaceful emanci pation of their slaves, he was in hopes that their example would prevail with the states in secession further south. At any rate, he was sure that any hasty measures for negro emancipation, either by Congress or by the military authorities, would drive these border slave states into the Confederacy and make more difficult the task of preserving the Union. Accordingly the President, in a special message to Congress, March 6, 1862, recommended that a law be passed pledging the United States government to cooperate with any state in the emancipation of its slaves, by compensating the owners of the slaves for their loss. He invited the congressmen of the border states to a conference, and urged them to contribute their valu able aid toward preserving the Union by the acceptance of this plan of " compensated emancipation." But they hung back, doubting the power or the will of the government to deal fairly with them. Lincoln could get no support, either from his cabinet or from Congress, in spite of repeated efforts, The Civil War 4/1 and he sorrowfully gave up the realization of this wise and humane policy of emancipation (July, I862). 1 Meanwhile Congress had passed an act in April abolishing 671. slavery slavery in the District of Columbia, with a compensation to the the terri _ owner of $300 for each slave liberated; and two months later fulfilled the pledges of the platform on which Lincoln was elected, by prohibiting slavery in all the territories of the United States and in all territory which might be acquired by the United States in the future (July 19, 1862). After the failure of the border states to accept the compen- 672. Pressure sated-emancipation scheme, the President grew more favorable to Lincoln to the idea of military emancipation. The pressure brought to bear on him to liberate the slaves was enormous. The radical anti- slavery men of the North wanted to know how long the evil which had brought on the war was to be tolerated, 2 and our ministers abroad were writing home that the sympathy of Europe could not be expected by the North until it was clear that the war was for the extermination of slavery and not for the subjugation of the South. At the cabinet meeting of July 21, 1862, therefore, President Lincoln read a paper announcing his intention of declaring free, on the first of the following January, the slaves of all people then in rebellion against the authority of the United States. The members of the cabinet approved the paper, but Seward 1 It is doubtful in the extreme if the adoption of Lincoln s plan by the border states would have had any effect on the seceding states or shortened the war a day. The failure of the plan, however, was about the keenest political disap pointment in Lincoln s life. The slaves in the four border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri numbered 430,000, and at $400 apiece their emancipation would have cost the government about $175,000,000, or the cost of 87 days of war. . Lincoln had no doubt that the emancipation of these slaves would shorten the war by more than 87 days, but one sees no ground for such confidence. 2 Horace Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, wrote an editorial in August, 1862, which he called the " Prayer of Twenty Millions," taking the Presi dent severely to task for his " mistaken deference to rebel slavery," and calling on him to execute the Confiscation Acts immediately. Lincoln replied in a famous letter, in which he declared that he was acting as seemed best to him for the pres ervation of the Union. That was his " paramount object." " If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; if I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. ... Whatever I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps save the Union." 472 The Crisis of Disunion suggested that the moment was inopportune for its publication. McClellan had just been removed from his command after the futile Peninsular campaign, and the new generals, Halleck and Pope, were as yet untried in the East. Would it not be better to wait for a Union victory before publishing the proclamation ? Lincoln agreed with Seward, and put the paper in his desk. Facsimile of the Closing Words of the Emancipation Proclamation 673. The The dark days of the second Bull Run and Pope s retreat ProcSunationJ followed (August, 1862); but when McClellan repulsed Lee s Jg 3 uary l > invasion of Maryland at Antietam Creek (September 16), Lin coln thought that the favorable moment had come. Accord ingly he published the warning announcement, September 22, 1862, and on New Year s Day, 1863, issued the famous Emanci pation Proclamation, designating the states and parts of states The Civil War 473 in which rebellion against the authority and government of the United States then existed, and declaring, by virtue of the power vested in him as commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, that " all persons held as slaves within such designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free." This immortal proclamation is one of the landmarks of uni versal history. It announced the liberation of three and a half By Lincoln s Proclamation Jan. 1, By Action of the States 1863-1865 Dy Thirteenth Amendment 1865 Map showing how the Slaves were emancipated million slaves. It changed the status of nearly one eighth of the inhabitants of this country, from that of chattels bought and sold like live stock in the auction market to that of men and women endowed with the right to labor, like other human beings, for employers whom they chose and under terms to which they agreed. But splendid as this proclamation was, it was nevertheless 674. The only a war measure. While the President as commander in chief of the army could confiscate the " property " of men in measure rebellion against the government, by declaring their slaves free, 474 The Crisis of Disunion neither he nor Congress could permanently alter the constitu tions of the states. Slavery was legally established in the states south of Mason an4 Dixon s line, and the only way it could be permanently abolished in those states was either by the action of the states themselves or by an amendment to the Constitu tion of the United States. Lincoln s proclamation did not free a single slave in the loyal slaveholding states of Kentucky, Mis souri, Maryland, and Delaware. And when the seceded states should cease to be " in rebellion against the authority of the United States," there was nothing to hinder their legislatures from passing laws to reenslave the negroes. In order to have emancipation permanent, then, the Constitution must be amended so as to prohibit slavery in the whole of the United States. 675. The Such an amendment was passed through Congress on January Amendment 3 T > I ^ ^ 5 ^Y ^ e necessary two-thirds vote, amid great enthusiasm, l86 s and the House adjourned " in honor of the immortal and sub lime event." The amendment provides that " neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." * The amendment was duly ratified by three fourths of the states, including eight of the states of the late Confederacy, and on December 18, 1865, was proclaimed part of the Constitution of i the United States, the supreme law of the land. Whether the curse of slavery could have been removed with out war is a question no one can answer. Certain it is that be fore the war, in spite of political compromises of forty years, in spite of the labors of the greatest statesmen and orators to preserve concord between the North and the South, in spite of: the mobs that assaulted the abolitionists in Boston and the voices that rebuked the " fire eaters " in Charleston, the argument! 1 Of course the exception in the middle of the amendment refers to the labor < of convicts in prisons or workhouses. The amendment has been violated since, our acquisition of the Philippine Islands in 1898, for slavery exists on some of those islands, though they are " under the jurisdiction " of the United States. But it is a condition which we inherited with the islands, and which we hope to remedy as soon as possible. The Civil War 475 over slavery grew more and more bitter and the hold of slavery on the country firmer and firmer each year. When we consider that the thirteenth amendment to our Constitution might have been the prohibition of Congress ever to disturb slavery in the Southern states, 1 instead of the eternal banishment of slavery from our land, we may say that the awful sacrifices of the Civil War were not made in vain. 2 REFERENCES The Opposing Forces : JAMES SCHOULER, History of the United States, Vol. VI, chap, i, section 3 ; chap, ii, sections I, 2 ; J. C. ROPES, Story of the Civil War, Vol. I, chaps, vii, viii ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 75-83;). W. DRAPER, The Civ-il War in America, Vol. II, chaps, xxxvii-xxxix ; JEFFERSON DAV.IS, Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, Vol. I, part iv, chaps, i-iv ; J. K. HOSMER, The Appeal to Arms (American Nation Series), chaps, i-iii ; T. A. DODGE, A Bird s-eye View of the Civil War, chaps, ii, xxv. From Bull Run to Gettysburg : HOSMER, chaps, iv-xiii, xv-xix ; DODGE, chaps, iv-xxvi; ROPES, Vol. I, chaps, ix-xii ; Vol. II, chaps. i-vii ; DRAPER, Vol. II, chaps, xlix-lix ; SCHOULER, Vol. VI, chap, i, sections 4-14; chap, ii, sections 1-4; U. S. GRANT, Personal Memoirs, Vol. I, chaps, xx-xxxix; J. W. BURGESS, The Civil War and the Con- stitiition, Vol. I, chaps, viii-xi ; Vol. II, chaps, xii-xxv ; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. Ill, chap, xvi ; Vol. IV, chaps, xvii-xx ; NlCOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vols. III-VII. The Triumph of the North : NICOLAY and HAY, Vols. VIII-X ; J. K. HOSMER, The Outcome of the Civil War (Am. Nation), chaps, i-xiii, xvii ; SCHOULER, Vol. VI, chaps, ii, iii ; RHODES, Vol. IV, chaps, xxi- xxiii; Vol. V, chaps, xxiv, xxv; BURGESS, Vol. II, chaps, xxvi-xxxii; DODGE, chaps, xxvii-xl ; DRAPER, Vol. Ill ; GRANT, Vol. II. 1 The student will remember that Congress, in the last hope of preventing the war, actually passed an amendment, February 28, 1861, to the effect that Con gress should never have " the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state" (see p. 418, note). Before the amendment had a fair chance to secure ratification by the states the war had broken out. 2 Besides the enormous debt of some $2,800,000,000 entailed on the country, and the utter ruin of the wealth of the South, the war cost over a million lives, not counting the maimed and diseased who lived on for a few years or more of suffering. There died in hospitals or prisons or on the field of battle an average of 700 men a day for four full years. 476 The Crisis of Distmion Emancipation : NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. IV, chaps, xxii, xxiv ; Vol. VI, chaps, v, vi, viii, xix ; Vol. X, chap, iv ; HOSMER, The Appeal to Arms, chap, xiv; DAVIS, Vol. II, part iv, chaps, xxv, xxvi ; A. B. HART, Salmon P. Chase, chap, x; Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 124-131; BURGESS, Vol. II, chaps, xvi, xviii, xx; DRAPER, Vol. II, chap. Ixiv ; J. G. BLAINE, Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I, chap, xx ; HORACE GREELEY, The American Conflict, Vol. II, chaps, xi, xii. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Blockade of the Southern Coast: NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. V, pp. 1-20 ; RHODES, Vol. V, pp. 396-420 ; HART, Contemporaries, Vol. IV, No. 116; GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON, History of the Confederate War, Vol. I, pp. 261-267 ; E. S. MACLAY, History of the United States Navy, Vol. II, pp. 225-281 ; J. R. SOLEY, The Blockade and the Cruisers ; H. L. WAIT, The Blockade of the Confederacy ( Century Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 914-928). 2. Great Britain s Attitude during the War: RHODES, Vol. IV, pp. 76-95> 337-3951 T. K. LOTHROP, William H. Seward, pp. 271-287, 320-336; C. F. ADAMS, Charles Francis Adams, pp. 147-344; HART, Contemporaries, Vol. IV, No. 98 ; HOSMER, The Appeal to Arms, pp. 306-319; NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. VI, pp. 49-68; Vol. VIII, pp. 254- 266; MONTAGUE BERNARD, The Neutrality of Great Britain. 3. Vicksburg during the Siege : HART, Vol. IV, No. 119 ; SCHOULER, Vol. VI, pp. 375-398; NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. VIII, pp. 282-310; RHODES, Vol. IV, pp. 312-318; My Cave Life in Vicksburg, by a Lady (New York, 1864). 4. The Draft Riots in New York : NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. VII, pp. 1-27 ; RHODES, Vol. IV, pp. 320-332 ; GREELEY, Vol. II, pp. 500-508 ; HART, Vol. IV, No. 121 ; Harper s Magazine, Vol. XXVII, pp. 559-560 ; J. B. FRY, New York and the Conscription of 1863. 5. The Economic and Social Condition of the South during the War: HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 141-144; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, pp. 603-621 ; DRAPER, Vol. Ill, pp. 480-496; SCHOULER, Vol. VI, pp. 568-575; HOSMER, The Outcome of the War, pp. 269-289; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. IV, pp. 290-312 ; DAVIS, Vol. I, pp. 471-504; DAVID DODGE, The Cave Dwellers of the Con federacy (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LVIII, pp. 514-521). 6. Prisons, North and South: SCHOULER, Vol. VI, pp. 407-414; NICOLAY and HAY, Vol. VII, pp. 444-472 ; RHODES, Vol. V, pp. 483- 515; DRAPER, Vol. Ill, pp. 498-520; HOSMER, The Outcome of the War, pp. 240-248 ; A. B. ISHAM, Prisoners of War and Military Prisons ; J. V. HADLEY, Seven Months a Prisoner. CHAPTER XVII THE ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION How THE NORTH USED ITS VICTORY A few hours after Lincoln s death, Andrew Johnson of Ten- 676. Andrew nessee took the oath of office as President of the United States l^t^tii (April 15, 1865). Mr. Johnson had been given the second x s l86 5 place on the Republican ticket in 1864 not by reason of any fitness to occupy high office, but partly to reward him for his fidelity to the Union cause in the seceding state of Tennessee (p. 446, note i), and partly to save the Republican party from the reproach of being called " sectional " in again choosing both its candidates from Northern states, as it had done in 1856 and 1860. But the selection of Johnson was most unfortunate. He was coarse, violent, egotistical, obstinate, and vindictive. Of Lincoln s splendid array of statesmanlike virtues he possessed only two, honesty and patriotism. Tact, wisdom, magnanimity, deference to the opinion of others, patience, kindness, humor all these qualities he lacked ; and he lacked them at a crisis in our history when they were sorely needed. Armed resistance in the South was at an end. But the great 677. The question remained of how the North should use its victory, reconstruc- Except for a momentary wave of desire to avenge Lincoln s tion murder by the execution of prominent " rebels," there was no thought of inflicting on the Southern leaders the extreme punish ment of traitors ; 1 but there was the difficult problem of restor ing the states of the secession to their proper place in the Union. 1 The single exception to this policy of mercy was the treatment of Jefferson Davis. The Confederate president was brought from his prison at Fortress Monroe to the federal court at Richmond to answer the charge of treason. But he was released on bail, and the case was never pressed. 477 478 The Crisis of Disunion f t } What was their condition ? Were they still states of the Union, in spite of their four years struggle to break away from it ? Or ,-? had they lost the rights of states, and become territories of the United States, subject to such governments as might be pro vided for them by the authorities at Washington ? Or was the South merely a " conquered province," which had forfeited by its rebellion even the right of protection by the national govern ment, and which might be made to submit to such terms as the conquering North saw fit to impose ? 678. Lin- Long before the close of the war President Lincoln had cent plan 1 * 61 answered these questions according to. the theory he had held consistently from the day of the assault on Fort Sumter, namely, that not the states themselves, but combinations of individuals in the states, too powerful to be dealt with by the ordinary process of the courts, had resisted the authority of the United States. He had therefore welcomed and nursed every manifestation of loyalty in the Southern states. He had recog nized the representatives of the small Unionist population of Virginia, assembled at Alexandria within the Federal lines, as the true government of the state. He had immediately estab lished a military government in Tennessee on the success of the Union arms there in the spring of 1862. He had declared by a proclamation in December, 1863, that as soon as 10 per cent of the voters of 1860 in any of the seceded states should form a loyal government and accept the legislation of Congress on the subject of slavery, he would recognize that government as legal. And such governments had actually been set up in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. True, Lincoln had not come to an agreement with Congress as to the final method of restoring the Southern states to their place in the Union. 1 That 1 Congress did not receive any senators or representatives from these " Lin coln governments," and in 1864 passed the Wade-Davis bill prescribing condi tions on which the seceding states should be readmitted to the Union. Lincoln, unwilling to have so weighty a question decided hastily, allowed the Congress of 1864 to expire without giving the bill his signature. Wade and Davis pro tested against this " usurpation of authority " by the executive ; and there is no doubt that, if Lincoln had been spared to serve his second term, he would have The Era of Reconstruction 479 question waited till the close of the war; and the awful pity is that when it came Abraham Lincoln was no longer alive. 1 During the summer and autumn of 1865, when Congress 679. The was not in session, President Johnson proceeded to apply govern 8 - " Lincoln s plan to the states of the South, just as if it had been ments,"i86 5 definitely settled that Congress was to have no part in their reconstruction. He appointed military governors in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. He ordered conventions to be held in those states, which repealed the ordinances of secession and framed new constitutions. State officers were elected. Legislatures were chosen, which repudiated the debts incurred during the war (except in South Carolina) and ratified the Thirteenth Amend ment abolishing slavery (except in Mississippi). When Congress met in December, 1865, senators and representatives from the Southern states, which but a few months before had been in rebellion against the authority of the United States, were wait ing at the doors of the Capitol for admission to their seats. 2 But Congress had good reasons for not permitting these men forthwith to participate in making laws for the Union, which they had so lately fought to destroy. In the first place, the President had arrogated to himself, during the recess of Congress, the sole right to determine on what terms the seceded states should be restored to the Union. The President had had to use all his tact and patience in finding a fair ground of agreement between the President and Congress in the reconstruction of the Southern states. 1 On April u, three days before his assassination, Lincoln was called to the balcony of the White House to make a speech in response to the congratu lations of the citizens of Washington on the surrender of Lee s army (April 9). In this last public utterance Lincoln said, " I am considering a new announce ment to the people of the South." No record of this intended announcement was found among Lincoln s papers, but we may be sure that it would have been an appeal to the defeated states of the secession to come back into the Union on liberal terms and without rancor. 2 The Johnson government in Texas did not get organized until 1866, and the Florida legislature had not met to choose the senators from that state. But with the exception of Texas and Florida all the states of the secession sent up their regular quota of representatives and senators, 480 The Crisis of Disunion the power of pardon, which he could extend to individuals as widely as he pleased. But the pardoning power did not give him the right to determine the political condition of the states which had made war against the Union. 680. Legis- Furthermore, the conduct of the Johnson governments in the these 1 govern- autumn of 1865 was offensive to the North. Although they accepted the Thirteenth Amendment, they passed very harsh laws against the negroes, which in some cases came very near reducing them to the condition of slavery again. For example, " vagrancy " laws imposed a fine on negroes who were wander ing about without a domicile, and allowed the man who paid the fine to take the negro and compel him to work out his debt. " Apprentice " laws assigned young negroes to " guardians " (often their former owners), for whom they should work with out wages in return for their board and clothing. To the Southerners these laws seemed to be only the necessary pro tection of the white population against the deeds of crime and vio lence to which a large, wandering, unemployed body of negroes might be tempted. Nearly 4,000,000 slaves had been suddenly liberated. Very few of them had any sense of responsibility or any capacity or capital for beginning a life of industrial freedom. Their emotional nature led them to believe that miraculous pros perity was to be bestowed upon them without their effort ; that the plantations of their late masters were to be divided up among them as Christmas and New Year s gifts, and that " every nigger was to have forty acres and a mule." They were unfortunately encouraged in these ideas by many low- minded adventurers and rascally, broken-down politicians, who came from the North and posed as the guides and protectors of the colored race, 1 poisoning the minds of the negroes against 1 These men were called < carpetbaggers," because they were popularly said to have brought all their property with them in the cheap kind of valise which in those days was made of carpet material ; and the Southerners who acted with them in their attempt to raise the negro above his former master in society and politics were called " scalawags." The carpetbaggers and scalawags were of course working for their own profit and political advancement. They must not The Era of Reconstruction 481 the only people who could really help them begin their new life of freedom well, their old masters. The people of the North, who had little or no realization of 681. Northern the tremendous social problem which the liberation of 4,000,- ?4\ack ooo negro slaves brought upon the South, regarded the " black codes " codes " of the Johnson governments of 1865, which forbade the negroes such freedom of speech, employment, assembly, and migration as they themselves had, as a proof of the defiant pur pose of the South to thrust the negro back into his old position of slavery. Therefore the North determined that the Southern states should not be restored to their place in the Union until they gave better proof of an honest purpose to carry out the Thirteenth Amendment. The war for the abolition of the curse which had divided the Union had been too costly in men and money to allow its results to be jeopardized by the legisla tion of the Southern states. A further offense in the eyes of the North was the sort of 682. The (S men whom the Southern states sent up to Washington in the ^leaders S winter of 1865 to take their places in Congress. They were mostly prominent secessionists. Some had served as members 1865 of the Confederate Congress at Richmond ; some as brigadier generals in the Confederate army. Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, was sent by the legislature of Georgia to serve in the United States Senate. To the Southern ers it seemed perfectly natural to send their best talent to Congress. They would have searched in vain to find statesmen who had not been active in the Confederate cause. But to the North the appearance of these men in Washington seemed a piece of defiance and bravado on the part of the South ; a boast be confused with the many good men and women who went South to work solely for the education, protection, and uplift of the negro. Before the close of the war Congress had established a Freedman s Bureau in the War Department (February 3, 1865), whose duty it was to look after the interests of the emanci pated blacks, securing them labor contracts, settling their disputes, aiding them to build cottages, etc. The carpetbaggers tempted the negroes away from industrial pursuits into politics. 482 The Crisis of Disunion 683. They are refused admission 684. Congress takes the work of re construction into its own hands, Jan uary, 1866 that they had nothing to repent of, and that they had forfeited no privilege of leadership. It was rather too severe a strain on human* charity to welcome Alexander H. Stepnens to a seat beside Charles Sumner in the Senate of the United States. 1 Then, finally, there was a political reason why the Republi can Congress which assembled in December, 1865, should not admit the men sent to it by the Johnson governments in the South. These men were almost all Democrats, and as hostile to the " Black Republican " party as they had been in 1856 and 1860. Combined with the Democrats and " copperheads " of the North, who had opposed the war, they might prove numer ous enough to oust the Republicans from power. The party which had saved the country must rule it, said the Republican orators. Moved by these reasons, Congress, instead of admitting the Southern members, appointed a committee of fifteen to investi gate the condition of the late seceded states and recommend on what terms they should be restored to their full privileges in the Union. Naturally, Johnson was offended that Congress should ignore or undo his work ; and he immediately assumed a tone of hostility to the leaders of Congress. He had the coarseness, when making a speech from the balcony of the White House on Washington s birthday, 1866, to attack Sumner, Phillips, and Stevens 2 by name, accusing them of seeking to destroy the rights of the Southern states and to rob the President of his legal powers under the Constitution, and even to encourage his assassination. When Congress, in the early months of 1866, 1 Of course there is no instance in the history of the world of a conquered people being allowed immediately to participate, on equal terms with their conquerors, in making laws. A committee of Congress appointed to consider the condition of the states " lately in rebellion " reported (June, 1866) that it would be " folly and madness " to admit the representatives of these states forthwith to Congress. 2 Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania (not to be confused with Stephens of Georgia) , who was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in Congress, a bitter enemy of the South, and leader of the " radical " Republicans, who were determined to punish the " rebels " severely. Stevens ruled Congress as no other politician in our history had done. The Era of Reconstruction 483 passed bills l to protect the negroes against the hostile legisla tion of the Southern states, Johnson vetoed the bills. But Con gress was strong enough to pass them over his veto. The battle was then fairly joined between the President and Con gress, and it boded ill for the prospects of peace and order in the South. On April 30, 1866, the committee of fifteen reported. It 685. The recommended a new amendment to the Constitution (the four- Amendment, teenth) which should guarantee the civil rights 2 of the negro citizen of the South, reduce the representation in Congress of any state which refused to let the negro vote, and disqualify the leaders of the Confederacy from holding federal or state office. 3 This last provision, which deprived the Southern leaders of their political rights, was harsh and unkind, assuming as it did that these men were not reconciled to the Union. But the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment was a fair basis for the reconstruc- tjon of the Southern states. Congress passed the amendment June 13, 1866, and Secretary Seward sent it to the states for ratification. While Congress did not explicitly promise that it would admit the representatives and senators of the states which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, it doubtless would have done so. For when Tennessee ratified in July, 1866, that state was promptly restored to its full privileges in the Union. The other states of the secession might well have followed the lead of Tennessee ; but every one of them, indignant at the disqualifying clause, overwhelmingly rejected the amendment. It thus failed to secure the votes of three fourths of the states of the Union, necessary for its ratification. 1 To wit, the Freedman s Bureau Bill, continuing and enlarging the power of that bureau of the War Department (p. 480, note), and the Civil Rights Bill, pro tecting the negro in his life, property, and freedom of movement and occupation. 2 Civil rights (see note i) are distinguished from political rights. The former are the rights that every citizen (ch is) has ; the latter are the privileges of voting and holding office. Women and children, for example, have full civil rights, i.e. the protection of the government ; but (with few exceptions) they have no political rights, i.e. of taking part in the government. 3 The Fourteenth Amendment must be carefully studied and mastered. It is printed in full in Appendix II. The disqualifying clause is Section 3. 4 8 4 The Crisis of Disunion 686. The election of 1866 687. The Reconstruc tion Act, March 2, 1867 Congress, angered by this conduct on the part of the South, decided to take the reconstruction of the states of the secession entirely into its own hands. The elections of 1866, which had taken place while the Fourteenth Amendment was before the people, had resulted in an overwhelming victory for the con gressional party of Stevens and Sumner over the President s supporters. Johnson himself had contributed to the defeat of his policies by encouraging the Southern states to reject the Fourteenth Amendment, and by making a series of outrageous speeches in the West during the autumn of 1866, vilifying the congressional leaders and exalting his own patriotism and sagacity. Early in 1867, then, Congress, under the leadership of Ste vens of Pennsylvania in the House and of Sumner and Wilson of Massachusetts in the Senate, devised a thoroughgoing plan for reconstructing the South. By the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, the whole area occupied by the ten states which had rejected the Fourteenth Amendment was divided up into five military districts, and a major general of the Union army was put in command of each district. The Johnson governments of 1865 were swept away, and in their place new governments were established under the supervision of the major generals and their detachments of United States troops. 1 The Reconstruc tion Act provided that negroes should be allowed to participate both in framing the new constitutions and in running the new governments, while at the same time their former masters were in large numbers disqualified by the third section of the Fourteenth Amendment. The act further provided that, when the new state governments should have ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and that amendment should have become part of the Constitution of the United States, these states should be restored to their place in the Union. 1 In October, 1867, there were 19,320 United States soldiers distributed at 134 posts in the South. At Richmond and New Orleans there were over 1000 troops; at other posts less than 500. They had charge of the registering of voters and supervised the polling. The Era of Reconstruction 485 Thus by the Reconstruction Acts 1 of 1867 Congress de- 688. Negro liberately forced negro suffrage on the South at the point of forced S on the the bayonet. It was a violent measure for Congress to adopt, South even though the conduct of the states of the secession in reject ing the Fourteenth Amendment was sorely provoking. The negroes outnumbered the whites in the states of South Caro lina, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. They were, with few exceptions, utterly unfit for the exercise of political West Virginia made out of the 40 loyal counties of Virginia ; V" admitted to the Union as a state. tates in which reconstruction was begun by Lincoln Dates represent restoration to the Union. The Military Districts of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 rights. Even the colored men of the North, far in advance of their Southern brothers who labored in the cotton fields, were allowed the suffrage in only six states, where they counted as the tiniest fraction of the population. Ohio, in the very year Congress was forcing negro suffrage on the South (1867), rejected by over 50,000 votes the proposition to give the ballot to the few negroes of that state. Conceding that Congress had the right to impose negro suffrage on the South as a conqueror s 1 Two acts supplementary to the one of March 2 prescribed the method for conducting elections in the South (March 23), and made the military authorities m control of the districts of the South responsible to the general of the army (Grant) and not to the President (July 19). 486 TJie Crisis of Disunion privilege, it was nevertheless a most unwise thing to do. To reverse the relative position of the races in the South, to " stand the social pyramid on its apex," to set the ignorant, supersti tious, gullible slave in power over his former master, was no way to insure either the protection of the negro s right or the stability and peace of the Southern governments. 1 689. char- The governments of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Reconstruc- Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, tion govern- formed under the military domination of the Reconstruction ments, 1868- 1874 Acts, were sorry affairs. The negroes, who did not ask for political rights, were suddenly thrust into positions of high political office which they had no idea how to fill. Prompted by their unscrupulous carpetbagger friends and scalawag backers they could be counted on to vote the Republican ticket, and to send to Congress men of the party which had saved the country. That was enough for most of the advocates of Re construction. But for the exhausted Southern states, already amply " punished " by the desolation of war, the rule of these negro governments of 1868 was an indescribable orgy of ex travagance, fraud, and disgusting incompetence, a travesty on government. Instead of wise, conservative legislatures, which would encourage industry, keep down expenditures, and build up the shattered resources of the South, there were ignorant groups of men in the state capitals, dominated by unprincipled politicians, who plunged the states further and further into debt by voting themselves enormous salaries, and by spending lavish sums of money on railroads, canals, and public buildings and works, for which they reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in " graft." 2 1 Lincoln had suggested to the military governor of Louisiana during the war that the most capable negroes and those who had shown their devotion to the Union by fighting in the Federal armies might be given the right to vote. But he had no idea of forcing the South to give a single former slave political rights. Johnson also had earnestly advised the Mississippi convention of 1865 to give a vote to negroes who possessed $250 worth of property. 2 The economic evils and social humiliation brought on the South by the Reconstruction governments are almost beyond description. South Carolina, for The Era of Reconstruction 487 ^^ " """ """"J A KS, TH OK MARCH, itn. Such governments could not of course last, unless supported 690. The KU- by Northern bayonets ; and the Republican carpetbag politi cians in the South were not slow to call upon the Republican administration at Washington for detachments of troops when ever their supremacy was threatened. Deprived by force of any legal means of defense against this iniquitous kind of govern ment, the South resorted to intimidation and persecution of the negro. Secret organizations, called the Ku-Klux Klans, made up mostly of young men, took advantage of the black man s supersti tious nature to force him back into the humble social position which he held before the war. The members of the Ku- Klux on horseback, with man and horse robed in ghostly white sheets, spread terror at night A Ku-Klux Warning through the negro quarters, and posted on trees and fences horrible warnings to the carpetbaggers and scalawags to leave the country soon if they wished to live. Inevitably there was violence done in this reign of terror inaugurated by the Ku-Klux riders. Negroes were beaten; scalawags were shot. Of course these deeds of violence were greatly exaggerated by the carpetbag officials, who reported them to Washington and asked more troops for their protec tion. It came to actual fighting in the streets of New Orleans, example, had a legislature in which 88 of the 155 members were negroes. Ninety of the members paid no taxes ; yet this legislature spent the people s money by millions. The debt of the state was $5,000,000 in 1868; by 1872 it had been increased to $30,000,000 ; in one year $200,000 were spent in furnishing the state capitol with costly plate-glass mirrors, lounges, desks, armchairs, and other luxurious appointments, including a free bar, for the use of the negro and scalawag legislators. It took the Southern states from two to nine years to get rid of these governments. 488 The Crisis of Distmion and the trenches outside Vicksburg, which were used in 1863 by the Union sharpshooters, were the scene, ten years later, of a disgraceful race conflict between blacks and whites. Thus long after the war was over, the prostrate South, which should have been well on the way to industrial and commercial recovery, under the leadership of its own best genius, still pre sented in many parts a spectacle of anarchy, violence, and fraud, its legislatures and offices in the grasp of low political adven turers, its resources squandered or stolen, its people divided into two bitterly hostile races. 691. The Why did the Republican Congress of 1867 put upon the Reconstruc- South the unbearable burden of negro rule supported by the bayonet ? For various reasons. Some misguided humanitarians, like Sumner, let their sympathy for the oppressed slave con fuse their judgment of the negro s intellectual capacity. 1 Others, desiring justice above all things, believed that the only way to secure the negro in his civil rights was to put the ballot into his hands. The partisan politicians welcomed negro suffrage as a means of assuring Republican majorities in the Southern states. 2 And finally, there were thousands of men in the North who wished to punish the South for the defiant attitude of the Johnson governments in passing the " black codes," in sending Confederate brigadier generals up to Congress, and in rejecting the Fourteenth Amendment. The conduct of these state govern ments was exasperating, to be sure ; but Congress might have simply kept a firm military hand upon them and waited patiently for them to come to their better senses and comply with the terms 1 General Pope, for example, who was in command of the third military dis trict under the Reconstruction Act (comprising Georgia, Florida, and Alabama), wrote to General Grant in July, 1867, " Five years will have transferred the intellect and education, so far as the masses are concerned, to the colored people of this district." 2 In the presidential election of 1868, for example, six of the eight states of the secession which took part in the election voted for the Republican candi date, General Grant ! Such a result could have been accomplished only by the enfranchisement of the negroes and the disfranchisement of the whites. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas did not comply with the terms of Congress and gain restoration to their places in the Union until 1870, The Era of Reconstruction 489 offered in the Fourteenth Amendment for their restitution to their political privileges. By hastening to reconstruct them on the basis of negro suffrage, Congress did them an unpardonable injury. The South would never have cherished resentment against the North for the defeat of 1861-1865 on the fair field of battle; but the half century that has passed since the fall of Fort Sumter has hardly seen the extinction of the bitter passion roused in the hearts of the men, women, and children of the South against their fellow countrymen of the North, for the " crime of Reconstruction." THE RECOVERY OF THE NATION Although the restitution of the Southern states to their place 692. Effect of in the Union was the most pressing business of Congress in the na ti on years immediately following the Civil War, it was by no means the only problem in the reconstruction of the nation. War is a dreadful thing, especially a long and severe civil war. It not only destroys life and property, desolating the region over which it sweeps, but it dislocates the government, demoralizes standards of business, disturbs relations with foreign countries, and piles up an enormous debt to be paid from the taxation of the people. Abraham Lincoln had exercised a greater power than any 693. Disturb- other President in our history. As commander in chief of the relations^ army and navy he had had the appointment of officers and the general direction of campaigns. Through his Secretaries of War and of the Treasury he had superintended the raising of men and money for the prosecution of the war. As measures of safety and military policy he had suspended the clauses of the Constitution (Amendments V and VI) which guard citizens of the United States against arbitrary arrest and punishment without a jury trial, and had emancipated all the slaves of men in rebellion against the authority of the United States. Con gress had generously ratified his acts, but toward the close of the war it had begun to reassert its power, as was shown by 49 The Crisis of Disunion its resistance to Lincoln in the Wade-Davis bill (p. 478, note). Under his successor, Johnson, the pendulum swung to the other extreme, and Congress developed quite as absolute a control over the government as the President had exercised during the war. Congress not only overrode Johnson s vetoes with mock ing haste, but it passed acts depriving him of his constitutional powers as commander of the army, and forbidding him to dis miss a member of his cabinet. Finally, it impeached him on the charge of high crimes and misdemeanors. 1 694. The On the same day with the Reconstruction Act (March 2, OfficeJet, J 867), Congress passed a law called the Tenure of Office Act, March 2, 1867 w hi cn forbade the President to remove officers of the govern ment without the consent of the Senate, and made the tenure of cabinet officers extend through the presidential term for which they were appointed. This was an invasion of the privi lege which the President had always enjoyed of removing his cabinet officers at will. The purpose of the act was to keep Stanton, who was in thorough sympathy with the radical leaders of Congress, at the head of the Department of War. 695. Theim- President Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act, which and trial of he believed to be unconstitutional, and removed Stanton. The Johnson, 1868 House impeached him, February 24, 1868, and the Senate as sembled the next month under the presidency of Chief Justice Chase to try the case (Constitution, Article I, sect. 3, clause 6). To the chagrin of the radical Republicans the Senate failed by one vote of the two- thirds majority necessary to convict the President, seven Republicans voting with the Democrats for 1 The President of the United States is elected for four years, and the only way he can be removed is by impeachment proceedings (Constitution, Article II, sect. 4 ; Article I, sect. 2, clause 5 ; Article I, sect. 3, clause 6). In many European countries the executive power is virtually in the hands of a committee of the legislature, or a " ministry," which can be overthrown at any time by an adverse vote of the legislature. This is called " responsible government," and in coun tries where it exists (England, France, Italy, Spain, for example), a prolonged quarrel between the executive and the legislative branches of government, like that between Jackson and Congress (p. 286) or between Johnson and Congress (p. 482), is impossible. The Era of Reconstruction 49 1 his acquittal (May 16, I868). 1 Johnson finished out his term, openly despised and flouted by the Republican leaders, and was succeeded on March 4, 1869, by General U. S. Grant. As a soldier Grant had been superb ; as a statesman he was 696. Presi- pitiable. He knew nothing about the administration of a political office. He had simply been rewarded for his services in the war by the presidency of the United States, as a hero might be rewarded by a gold medal or a gift of money. He was so simple, direct, and innocent himself that he failed to understand the duplicity and fraud that were practiced under his very nose. Like all untrained men in public positions, he made his personal likes and dislikes the test of his political judgments, 2 and it was only necessary to win his friendship to have his official support through thick and thin. Unfortunately his early struggle with poverty and his own failure in business had led him to set too high a valuation on mere pecuniary success, making him unduly susceptible to the influence of men who had made millions. 8 He was easily managed by the astute Republican politicians in Congress, who could, by their plausible arguments, make the worse cause appear to him to be the better. 4 1 The condemnation of President Johnson would have been a gross injustice. The Tenure of Office Act was passed only to set a trap for him. His veto of acts of Congress in 1866-1867 had been entirely within his rights by the Con stitution, and his abuse of the congressional leaders in public speeches, while a personal insult, could not be called a political crime. In a desperate attempt, therefore, to find grounds (" high crimes or misdemeanors ") on which they could impeach the President, the radical congressmen passed a most unfair law which they were pretty sure Johnson would violate. 2 Like our other military President, Andrew Jackson. But Jackson had far more administrative ability and political wisdom than Grant. 3 For example, Grant selected two men for places in his first cabinet whose only possible recommendation was their wealth. He himself unwisely accepted presents and social attentions from men whose money was made dishonestly and, sometimes, even at the expense of the government. His unsuspecting nature made him the victim of clever political and financial -rascals. 4 The contemporary criticism of Grant by men of the highest political wisdom was one of pity rather than censure. George William Curtis wrote to a friend in 1870, " I think the warmest friends of Grant feel that he has failed terribly as a President, but not from want of honesty." James Russell Lowell wrote, " I liked Grant, and was struck by the pathos of his face ; a puzzled pathos as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms." 49 2 The Crisis of Disunion In his treatment of the South, for example, Grant was changed by his radical Republican associates, like Benjamin F. Butler, from a generous conqueror into a narrow, partisan dictator. " He dwindled from the leader of the people," says Dunning, " to the figurehead of a party." At Appomattox he had been noble. In a visit to the Southern states, a few months after the close of the war, he had become convinced, as he wrote, that " the mass of thinking men at the South accepted in good faith " the outcome of the struggle. Yet as President he upheld the disgraceful negro governments of the Reconstruc tion Act, and constantly furnished troops to keep the carpetbag and scalawag officials in power in the South, in order to provide Republican votes for congressmen and presidential electors. 1 697. LOW Probably the tone of public morality was never so low in all tone of public 11- t r i r morality in our country s history, before or since, as it was in the years of mSistratfon Grant s administration (1869-1877), although a more honest 1869-1877 President never sat in the White House. The unsettled con dition of the country during the Civil War and the era of Reconstruction furnished a great opportunity for dishonesty. Large contracts for supplies of food, clothing, ammunition, and equipment had to be filled on short notice. Men grew rich on fraudulent deeds. Our state legislatures and municipal govern ments fell into the hands of corrupt " rings." The notorious , " Boss " Tweed robbed the city of New York of millions of dollars before he closed his career in the Ludlow Street jail in 1878. Corruption reached the highest offices of state. Secre tary of War Belknap resigned in order to escape impeachment for sharing the graft from the dishonest management of army posts in the West. The President s private secretary, Babcock, was implicated in frauds which robbed the government of its 1 Congress, by the "Force Bill" of February, 1871, established federal supervision over elections for the House of Representatives. From 1870 to 1878 the United States spent from $60,000 to $100,000 on each congressional election. In the presidential contest of 1876, which cost the government $275,000, the polling places in the Southern states were supervised by 7000 deputy marshals of the United States. The Era of Reconstruction 493 revenue tax on whisky. Western stagecoach lines, in league with corrupt post-office officials, made false returns of the amount of business done along their routes, and secured large appropria tions from Congress for carrying the mails. Some of these " pet routes," or " star routes, " % cost the government thousands of dollars annually and carried less than a dozen letters a week. Members of Congress so far lost their sense of official propriety as to accept large amounts of railroad stock as " a present " from men who wanted legislative favors for their roads. Before Grant s first term was over, a reform movement was 698. The re started in the Republican party to protest against corruption in me^ national, state, and municipal government. The chief policies l8?2 advocated by the new party were, first, civil service reform, by which appointments to office should be made on the basis of the merit and not of the political " pull " of the candidates ; second, tariff reform, by which the highly protective war duties, which were enriching a few manufacturers at the cost of the mass of the people, should be reduced ; third, the complete cessation of Federal military intervention to support the carpet bag governments of the South. Had the reform party shown the same wisdom in the choice 699. Defeat of a candidate and the management of their campaign as they did in the making of their platform, they might have defeated l872 Grant in 1872 and put an end to the corrupt and bigoted par tisan government which he was powerless to control. But dissensions in their own camp (always the curse of reform movements in politics) prevented the delegates to the new party s convention in Cincinnati, May, 1872, from nominating their strongest candidate, Charles Francis Adams of Massa chusetts. 1 They finally united on Horace Greeley, editor of the 1 Adams was our admirable minister to England during the Civil War. Both his father (John Quincy Adams) and his grandfather (John Adams) had been Presidents of the United States. The leader of the reform movement was Carl Schurz, a German refugee who had come to this country during the troublous days following the revolutions of 1848 in western Europe. He attained the rank of major general in our Civil War, and was Secretary of the Interior in President Hayes s cabinet. His foreign birth disqualified him for the presidency. 494 The Crisis of Disunion 700. Im proved politi- cal conditions Grant New York Tribune, a vehement, irritable man, who had no qualifications for the high office of President, and whose only real point of agreement with the reformers was a desire to see the Southern states delivered from the radical Reconstruction governments. Greeley s defeat at the polls in November, 1872, was overwhelming. He carried only six states, with 66 electoral votes, while thirty-one states, with 286 votes, went for Grant. 1 The second administration of (1873-1877) saw the secon^term gradual recovery of the nation from the political and commer cial corruption of the years im mediately following the war. A severe financial panic which broke in 1873 sobered the busi ness men of the country and checked the wild speculation in lands and railroads which had characterized the five-year period immediately preceding. 2 By 1874 the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas, which were all either under military government or cursed by the carpet bag negro governments of Reconstruction at the beginning of i Grant s term of office, had regained " home rule " under their 1 Greeley died, overwhelmed with domestic sorrow and political disappoint ment, three weeks after the election. The unfortunate end of his career must not blind us to his great services before the war in the antislavery cause. 2 During the years 1865-1868 about 8000 miles of railroad were laid down; during the years 1869-1873 nearly 24,000 miles were built. Business was humming in 1872. Credit was widely extended, and we were importing about $75,000,000 worth more of goods annually than we were exporting. The panic was started with the failure of the great banking house of Jay Cooke, which had rendered the government inestimable services in floating its loans during the war. Finan cial panics are very difficult things to explain. They seem to occur about every twenty years (1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, 1907). An ingenious theory is that each generation of business men needs to go through a panic to learn to exchange the youthful idea of getting rich in a hurry for the more sobered and matured view of a conservative and steady progress in material wealth. Horace Greeley The Era of Reconstntction 495 native white leaders, and were of course solidly Democratic. The Republicans had lost all chance of building up an endur ing party in the states of the secession by forcing the rule of the negro on the South. The congressional election of 1874 was a landslide. The Democrats, for the first time since Buchanan s election in 1856, got a majority of the House of Representatives. The election meant that the country was turning to other duties more important than keeping fresh the memory of the " crime of rebellion." Questions of the cur rency, of transportation, of the tariff, of immigration, of civil service reform, of monopolies, of capital and labor, were coming to the fore. In 1872 a national labor party was in the field with demands for an eight-hour working day and free public education at the nation s expense. In 1876 the farmers of the West were demanding national regulation of the railroads, and money issued directly by the government instead of a currency based on the Eastern bankers gold and silver. In the national convention of 1876 the Republicans rejected 701. The the brilliant but somewhat discredited Speaker of the House, campaign, C James G. Elaine of Maine, 1 and nominated a man of sterling l876 honesty and conciliatory views on the Southern question, Gen eral Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio. The Democrats nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York, who had won a national reputation for his good work in the exposure of the rascality of the Tweed Ring. The result of the Hayes- Tilden campaign was of little importance, for the choice of either man meant the inauguration of a new era in our politics, the end of the carpetbag rule in the South, and of the tyranny of the radical Republican Congress, which disgraced the country during the administrations of Johnson and Grant. But the 1 Elaine was one of the most brilliant men in the history of American politics. In his personal charm, his splendid oratory, his keenness in debate, his hold on the affections of his followers, he resembled his great predecessor in the chair of the House, Henry Clay. But Elaine was far inferior to Clay in moral stature. He was involved in dealings with Western railroads which even his highly dramatic speech of self-defense in the House could not make seem regular and honest to his countrymen. We shall meet his name later in these pages. 496 The Crisis of Disunion election itself was the most exciting in our history. Late in the evening of election day (November 7, 1876) it was known that Tilden had carried enough states to give him 184 electoral votes. Only 185 votes were necessary for a choice. A double set of returns came from the four states of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon. 1 A single vote from any of these states, therefore, would give Tilden the election. The Hayes managers claimed all the disputed votes ; but there was no provision made in the Constitution or in any law of Congress to decide which set of returns was legal. The Constitution says in regard to the electoral vote merely that " the president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted " (Amendment XII). Counted by whom ? If by the House, Til den would be elected, since the House was Democratic and would choose to count the Democratic certificates ; if by the Senate, which was Republican, Hayes would of course be elected. 702. The Excitement ran high as the winter of 1876-1877 passed, and Commission, tne possibility presented itself of the country s being without a 1877 President on March 4, 1877. As a compromise an Electoral Commission of fifteen members was created by act of Congress, to consist of five senators (3 Republicans, 2 Democrats), five con gressmen (3 Democrats, 2 Republicans), and five justices of the Supreme Court (2 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and one to be elected by these four). The fifteenth member, Justice Bradley, voted with the Republicans on every question. By a vote of 8 to 7 the Republican certificates were accepted from all the states in dispute, and Hayes was declared President by an electoral vote of 185 to 1 8 4. The decision was reached on the eve of inaugura tion day, and the new President took the oath of office in perfect 1 The double set of returns from the three Southern states was due to the fact that the carpetbag governments which were still in control there rejected the votes of some districts on the ground that there had been fraud and intimidation at the polls. In Oregon one of the Republican electors chosen was disqualified by the fact that he held a federal office in the state, and the Democrats insisted that the man with the next highest vote on the list (a Democrat) should replace him. The Era of Reconstruction 497 security and tranquillity. That the inauguration of a man whom more than half the country believed to have been fairly defeated on election day could take place without a sign of civil com motion is perhaps the most striking proof in our history of the moderate and law-abiding character of the American people. 1 Meanwhile the administrations of Johnson and Grant had 703. Foreign witnessed important negotiations with foreign countries. We have already noticed how both England and France favored the South in our Civil War, and how eager the agents of the Con federacy were to get substantial aid from these countries, until the disasters at Vicksburg and Gettysburg made the Southern cause seem hopeless to Europe (p. 454). Emperor Napoleon III thought the moment of civil strife in America favorable for the expansion of French interests in the Western Hemisphere. He prevailed upon Archduke Maximilian, brother of the em peror of Austria, to accept the " throne of Mexico," and sent an army of 50,000 Frenchmen to uphold his dynasty. Maxi milian, with his French army, easily made himself master of Mexico ; but when our Civil War was over, Secretary Seward politely informed the Emperor of the French that the United States could not allow the Monroe Doctrine to be thus infringed, and that no part of this Western Hemisphere was open to the encroachment of European powers. At the same time, General Grant, acting on the President s orders, sent General Sher man with an army to the Mexican border (1865). Napoleon, realizing that his position was untenable, withdrew his troops from Mexico, treacherously abandoning Maximilian to his fate. The unfortunate archduke was taken by the Mexicans, court- martialed, and shot (June, 1867). 1 Great credit is due Tilden for his honorable and patriotic refusal to listen to any proposal of a resort to force in behalf of his claims. Whether or not Hayes was fairly elected it is impossible to know. The votes of South Caro lina and Florida in all probability were rightly his, but Louisiana was more doubtful. On the one hand, intimidation kept the negroes from casting their Re publican votes, and, on the other hand, the Republican returning board was charged with fraud in the counting. Which of these wrongs outbalanced the other is im possible to say. Tilden had a large majority of the popular vote of the country. 498 The Crisis of Disunion 704. The The British government entertained no such wild scheme as claims Napoleon s of setting up an empire in the Western Hemisphere, but its offense against the United States was more direct and serious. In spite of warnings from our minister, Charles Francis Adams, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Russell, allowed war ships built for the Confederacy to leave the ports of England to prey on the commerce of the United States. The Florida sailed in March, 1862, and the famous Alabama slipped away from Liverpool in July. The next summer two ironclad rams were ready to leave Laird s shipyards, when they were stopped by Lord Russell, to whom Adams wrote curtly, " It would be super fluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war." The damage done to the commerce of the United States by the Alabama and the other cruisers built in England for the Confederacy was immense. 1 Not only did they destroy some $20,000,000 worth of our merchant ships and cargoes on the high seas, but their encouragement of the Confederate cause prolonged the war perhaps for many months. 705. The Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Senate committee on Geneva tri bunal, 1872 foreign relations, made the extravagant demand that the British government should pay $200,000,000 damages and give up all its colonies on the mainland of America (Canada, Honduras, Guiana). On May 8, 1871, British and American commissioners signed a treaty at Washington adjusting some points of dispute in the perennial boundary and fishery questions, and agreeing that the claims of the United States for damage done her commerce by the Alabama and the other offending cruisers should be set tled by an international arbitration tribunal to meet at Geneva in Switzerland. Besides the British representative (Lord Cock- burn) and the American (Charles Francis Adams), the tribunal 1 After destroying about sixty Northern merchant vessels, the Alabama was sunk by the Union warship Kearsarge, Captain Winslow, in a spectacular battle off the coast of Cherbourg, France, June 19, 1864. The SJienandoah, another swift commerce destroyer furnished the Confederates by England, was still cruising in the Pacific when the news reached her, several weeks after the surrender of Lee and Johnston, that the Civil War was over. The Era of Reconstruction 499 contained a distinguished statesman from each of the countries of Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil. The tribunal decided that Great Britain had been guilty of a breach of the neutrality laws in allowing the cruisers to sail from her ports, and awarded the United States damages to the amount of $15,500,000 in gold (September, I872). 1 In striking contrast to the attitude of France and Great Britain 706. Thepur- toward the United States in its struggle with the Southern Con- Alaska , federacy was the friendly bearing of Russia, where, by a strange ^g rch 3 coincidence, Czar Alexander II freed the serfs (March 3, 1861) Map of Alaska superimposed on the United States less than two years before Lincoln published his Emancipation Proclamation. Therefore, when Russia, at the close of the war, asked us to buy Alaska of her, we were favorably disposed toward the negotiations. The distant arctic region had appar ently little value except for its seal fisheries, but Secretary Seward closed the bargain for its purchase, March 30, 1867. The price paid Russia for 577,390 square miles of frozen terri tory was $7,200,000, or about two cents an acre. It has proved 1 At the same time, the United States was condemned to pay Great Britain about $5,500,000 for violating the fisheries treaty of 1818. 500 The Crisis of Disunion an exceptionally good purchase, the gold taken in the last dec ade from the Yukon valley alone being worth far more than the $7,200,000 paid for the territory. 707. secre- It was fortunate for the country that we had two such able taries Seward . . n . . and Fish, and judicious men as beward and Hamilton Fish at the head 1866-1875 Q the g tate D e p ar t m ent during the troubled administrations of Johnson and Grant. Fish, who was one of the few good ap pointments of President Grant, rendered the country great serv ices besides his negotiations with Great Britain in the treaty of Washington and the Alabama claims. He kept the President from hastily recognizing the Cubans as belligerents in their re volt against Spanish authority in the island in the summer of 1869 ; and four years later brought the Spanish government to terms for the rash execution of eight American citizens captured on board the vessel Virginius, which was carrying arms to the Cuban rebels. He restrained the President in his mad desire to purchase and annex the republic of Santo Domingo through a treaty negotiated by his private secretary. Had our congres sional leaders been men of the stamp of Seward and Fish dur ing this period, instead of the violent, vindictive Stevens, the unspeakable demagogue Butler, the visionary Sumner, and the proud, uncompromising partisan Conkling, American history would have been spared many humiliating pages. 708. The The closing year of Grant s presidency (1876) was the cen- Exposition at tennial of American independence. The event was celebrated f 8 h 7 6 ladelphia by a great world s fair at Philadelphia, the birthplace of the republic. Ten million visitors to the exposition grounds caught the inspiration of the wonderful achievements in science and invention which the years of peace were bringing forth. The Centennial Exposition was a pledge of the recovery of our nation from the political, industrial, and financial difficulties brought on by the awful Civil War. Already the rule of the stranger was passing in the Southern states, and a Mississippi congressman had pronounced a eulogy over the body of Charles Sumner, exhorting his fellow countrymen to know one another that they The Era of Reconstruction 501 might love one another (1874). Already the United States had passed a law pledging the payment of every dollar of its war debt in the precious metals of gold and silver (1875). Already a national convention had declared in its platform that " the United States is a nation and not a mere league of states" (1876). It had taken a full hundred years, and cost a long and bloody war to decide that point. The century had seen the rounding out of our national domain. The railroad ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and all the area between had been organized into states or territories. The country was ready for new tasks, and the belted wheels, the giant shafts, the electric lights, the splendid specimen products of the farms, gardens, and wheat fields of the land; the improved models in machinery, and the wonderful inventions in transportation, which were dis played at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, were all a witness and a prophecy of the new era of industrial expansion on which we were entering. REFERENCES How the North used its Victory : W. A. DUNNING, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (American Nation Series), chaps, i-v ; also Military Government during Reconstruction and The Process of Recon struction (Essays en the Civil War and Reconstruction) ; W. L. FLEMING, Documentary History of Reconstruction, Vol. I, chaps, ii-v ; J. W. BUR GESS, Reconstruction and the Constitution, chaps, i viii ; J. G. BLAINE, Twenty Years of Congress, ~Vo[. II, chaps, i-xii ; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1861-1898, Nos. 42-44, 50-52, 56-62 ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 145-153; HUGH McCuLLOCH, Men and Measures of Half a Cen tury, chaps, xxv-xxvii ; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. V, chap, xxx ; Vol. VI, chaps, xxxi, xxxii; series of articles on Reconstruction in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXXVII, pp. 1-15, 145-157, 354-3 6 5. 473-484- The Recovery of the Nation: DUNNING (Am. Nation) chaps, v-xxi; also The Impeachment and Trial of President Johnson (Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction}; FLEMING, Vol. I, chap, vi; Vol. II, chaps, vii-xiii ; BURGESS, chaps, ix-xiv ; BLAINE, Vol. II, chaps, xiii- xxv ; E. B. ANDREWS, The United States in our own Time, chaps, i-viii; 5O2 The Crisis of Disunion EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chaps, xxiii-xxv; P. L. HAWORTH, The Hayes-Tilden Election; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 159, 174- 176; MACDONALD, Nos. 66-ioi ; McCuLLOCH, chaps, xxiii, xxvii; RHODES, Vol. VI, chaps, xxxiii-xxxix ; Vol. VII, chaps, xl-xliv ; FRED ERICK BANCROFT, William H. Seward, Vol. II, chaps, xl-xliii ; HAMLIN GARLAND, Ulysses S. Grant, chaps, xxxix-1 ; T. N. PAGE, The People of the South during Reconstruction (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXXVIII, pp. 289-304) ; MOORFIELD STORY, Charles Sumner, chaps, xix-xxiv. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS j. The KuKluxKlans: HART, Vol. IV, No. 156; RHODES, Vol. VI, pp. 180-191, 306-320; FLEMING, Vol. II, pp. 327-377 ; W. G. BROWN, The Lower South in American History, pp. 191-225 ; J. W. GARNER, Reconstruction in Mississippi, pp. 338-353 ; D. L. WILSON, The Kii-Klux Klans (Century Magazine, Vol. VI, pp. 398-410) ; MRS. M. L. AVARY, Dixie after the War, pp. 268-278. 2. Thaddeus Stevens, Radical : ELAINE, Vol. II, pp. 128-133 ; RHODES, Vol. V, pp. 541544; Vol. VI, pp. 1334 ; Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 214-217 ; S. W. McCALL, Thaddeus Stevens, pp. 256-308; E. B. CALLENDER, Thaddeus Stevens, Commoner; A. K. McCLURE, Lincoln and Men of War Times, pp. 263-272. 3. The Treaty of Washington: C.F. ADAMS, Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers, pp. 31-198 ; RHODES, Vol. VI, pp. 335-341, 360-376 ; ANDREWS, pp. 87-92 ; W. II. SEWARD, Diplomatic History of the War for the Union, pp. 446-481; BANCROFT,VO!. II, pp. 382-399, 492-500; STORY, pp. 340-3 50. 4. The Reconstruction of Louisiana : RHODES, Vol. V, pp. 52-57, 135- 137; Vol. VII, pp. 104-127 ; MACDONALD, No. 69; ANDREWS, pp. 80- 85, 152-167 ; ALBERT PHELPS, New Orleans and Reconstruction (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXXVIII, pp. 121-131) ; C. H. MCCARTHY, Lincoln s Plan of Reconstruction, pp. 36-76, 314-383; Why the Solid South (essays on Reconstruction by noted Southerners), pp. 383-429 ; E. B. SCOTT, Reconstruction during the Civil War, pp. 325-373. 5. The Purchase of Alaska: HART, Vol. IV, No. 174; ELAINE, Vol. II, pp. 333-340 ; MACDONALD, No. 63 ; F. BANCROFT, William H. Seward,Vo\. II, pp. 474-479; H. H. BANCROFT, History of Alaska (Works, Vol. XXXIII, ed. of 1886), pp. 590-629. 6. The Quarrel between Johnson and Stanton : RHODES, Vol. VI, pp. 65-68, 99-115; MCCULLOCH, pp. 390-398; ELAINE, Vol. II, pp. 348- 355; HART, Vol. IV, No. 154; G. C. GORHAM, Edwin M. Stanton, Vol. II, pp. 393-445 ; D. M. DEWiTT, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, pp. 239-287, 314-338; GARLAND, pp. 365-372. PART VII. THE POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF THE RE PUBLIC SINCE THE CIVIL WAR PART VII. THE POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC SINCE THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XVIII TWENTY YEARS OF REPUBLICAN SUPREMACY THE NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE The Civil War marks a turning point in our history. While 709. The it settled political and moral questions which had been vexing ^turning the American people for nearly half a century, it opened other P int . in questions, industrial and economic, which have been increasingly history absorbing the attention of our statesmen for a generation. It cleared the way for the development of the great free West through the renewed migration of the farmer, the miner, and the ranchman, a migration which was promoted by the liberal distribution of public lands to Western settlers and the comple tion of the railway to the Pacific coast. It changed the scene and the setting of our national stage, bringing on the railroad magnate, the corporation promoter, the capitalist legislator, the socialist agitator, in place of the old champion of " free speech, free soil, free men," and the old defender of the Constitution and the Union. It will help us to understand the nature of this new economic 710. it de- age if we notice briefly at the outset some of the more impor- supremacy of tant results which sprang directly from the Civil War. In the first place, the war decided the supremacy of the nation over the states 55 506 History of the Republic since the Civil War states. From the days of the ratification of the Constitution down to the secession of South Carolina, there had been widely divergent opinions among our statesmen as to the amount of power the states had " delegated " or resigned to the national government. The states, both North and South, had been very, jealous of any encroachment upon their powers and privileges by the authorities at Washington. They had frequently claimed the right to suspend or annul an act of Congress which they judged to be a violation of the Constitution ; and in some in stances they had even threatened to secede from the Union unless such offensive acts were repealed. 1 711. in- But the appeal to arms in 1861-1865 na( ^ n t on ty P u t to traordinary*" rest the idea of a separate Southern Confederacy ; it had stimu- the ^ atec * ^ e nat i na ^ government to the exercise of great and un- President and usual powers. The President had suspended the regular process by Congress during the of the courts in the arrest and trial of men for treason ; he had recognized loyal minorities in some of the Southern states as the true state governments ; he had, by proclamation, emanci pated the slaves of all men in rebellion against the United States. Congress had imposed direct taxes, had created a na tional banking system, had borrowed huge sums of money, had put into circulation paper currency, had admitted the loyal : counties of Virginia to the Union as the new state of West Vir ginia, and finally proposed an amendment to the Constitution (the thirteenth) abolishing slavery in every part of the country. When the war was over, therefore, national supremacy was firmly established ; and it has grown stronger rather than weaker in \ the years that have followed. 712. The war Another, and a still more important, result of the war was the dom through- decision that this reunited country should be free soil from sea out the whole to sea> w es t wa rd expansion has been the most influential and American domain continuous factor in our national development. From the days 1 The student will recall the protest of Virginia and Kentucky against the Alien and Sedition laws in 1798, of the Hartford Convention against the War of 1812, and of South Carolina against the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 (pp. 202, 223, 273). a in ^ D O O bo w -5 Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 507 when the colonial pioneers first pushed across the ridges of the Alleghenies, almost all our great political problems have been intimately connected with the growth of our country and the development of its vast natural resources. The great outburst of national enthusiasm which followed the War of 1812 and which was encouraged by the invention of the reaper, the steam railway, and the electric telegraph would have led un doubtedly to the rapid extension of our population and our industry to the Far West, had not the awful slavery question cast its sinister shadow across the path of the pioneer. The broad fields of Kansas, which now produce a hundred million bushels of corn, were destined first to be fertilized by the blood of civil strife. The triumph of the cause of freedom brought the assurance that our immense Western domain was to be filled not by hostile factions wrangling over the constitutional and moral right of the white man to hold the negro in slavery, but by fellow Americans competing in the generous rivalry of developing a common heritage and building a new empire of industry. These two great principles of Union and Liberty, vindicated by the Civil War, are the most precious possession of the American people, and the sole guarantee of the third ideal in our political trinity, Democracy. But in the very settlement of the questions of disunion and 713. New slavery the war opened up other problems, some of which have openeTbythe become as serious a menace as disunion or slavery to our Cmiwar national welfare. Aside from the immediate political problem of restoring the seceded states to their proper position in the Union, there were economic questions of the gravest impor tance to face. The enormous expenses of the war had been met in three ways, by increased taxation, by borrowing, and by issuing " bills of credit." These latter consisted of several hundred million dollars worth of paper notes on which was stamped the government s promise to pay the holder when it should have the money. They were not, like our present paper "bills," the "certificates" or assurance that the government 508 History of the Republic since the Civil War actually had in its vaults the gold and silver to pay them. A certain amount of gold the government was obliged to have, o: course, to pay the interest on its bonds for neither foreign no] native purchasers of those bonds would accept as interest simply the government s promise to pay, printed on pieces of paper To get the gold necessary to pay its obligations to the bond holders and so keep its credit in the eyes of the world, th( government was obliged to look to the wealthy bankers of th( Eastern cities, who alone had the cash available. 714. The Now the result of such dependence of the government on th( sinister power . ....... of money in moneyed men was highly injurious to our democratic ideals. A clique of Wall Street bankers practically managed the countr) during Grant s presidency ; and ever since that time the grea capitalists who have financed our railroads, our mines, our oi fields, our steel mills, and our packing houses have expectec and received from Congress favors and immunities which havt made them fabulously rich and bred in many of them the beliel that the government exists primarily for the purpose of protect ing and increasing their private wealth. Corruption, bribery, anc graft are the inevitable results of the undue influence of mone) in politics. Men are put into office for the favors they can pro cure for the business interests that pay their election expenses and not for the services they can render to their city, state, 01 nation. And every attempt to take the bestowal of public office out of the hands of the professional politician and restore it tc the people is met by the solid opposition of the party " machine, 1 backed by its accumulated funds of corruption and bribery. 715. various Along with the problem of cleansing our politics from the lems^poiiticai corrupting influence of unscrupulous or " tainted " wealth have and economic g 0ne fa e g rea t problems of devising a tariff which shall provide adequate revenues for the government and insure American workmen against the lower wages paid in foreign countries, without at the same time putting millions of dollars into the 1 The student will remember that it was for this reason that Jackson engaged in his bitter struggle with the United States Bank. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 509 already swollen pockets of a few trust magnates ; of controlling the great transportation lines and other industries indispensable to the public welfare ; of conserving our forests, coal deposits, oil fields, water sites, and phosphate beds ; of furnishing a cur rency which shall be abundant enough to meet the needs of our rapidly developing business, and yet not so plentiful as to be cheap in the eyes of the Vorld ; of preserving the peace and protecting property threatened by violent strikes or labor wars ; of encouraging the prosperity of our Western farms ; of increas ing the fertility of our arid plains ; and of regulating the flood of foreign immigration to our shores. The constant occupation of our government in the last genera- 716. The tion with these industrial and economic problems has given to absorbing American history an entirely different character from that which ec n <> mic problems on it had in the middle years of the nineteenth century. In the the character first place, it has made our recent history much more difficult to grasp. Almost everybody can understand William Lloyd Garrison s impassioned pleas for the abolition of slavery, or Thomas H. Benton s extravagant prophecies of the future of the Pacific coast, or Daniel Webster s eloquent defense of the Union " one and. inseparable," or Abraham Lincoln s homely, honest arguments for the laws of the country and of humanity in the famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas. But only ex perts can follow intelligently the arguments for and against an increase in the amount of money issued by the banks and the Treasury, or judge wisely the numerous schedules of a tariff bill, or grasp the complex problems involved in fixing a fair rate which a railroad may charge for freight. Then, too, these economic questions which concern our gov- 717. The lack eminent so exclusively to-day seem to have a far less romantic character than the great moral and political questions of half a an economic century ago. "Union "and" liberty" are words which make a pow erful appeal to the people at large, and their defense invites the best efforts of the orator and the statesman. But the everyday drudgery of our political housekeeping necessary to preserve 5IO History of the Republic since the Civil War us as a clean and orderly nation has little glamour to attract the attention and applause of the multitude. It is only in the last few years, with the unprecedented development of our great monopolies beyond the restraints of law, that the regulation of private wealth, the " curbing of the trusts," the protection of the public health, the conservation of our natural resources, the purging of our cities, all have assumed the nature of a moral crusade, comparable to the antislavery movement and the rising for the Union. 718. The In the pages which follow, the student will find two main in- ences at work fluences at work, the rapid economic development of a free, in ent hTTr un ^ ec ^ people ; and the efforts of popular government to con trol that development by the due forms of law. Our military history, except for the episode of the Spanish War of 1898 and the Philippine insurrection, has been insignificant in the last generation. Our diplomatic relations are meager when com pared with those of European states. Our political questions are mainly those raised, not by differences of opinion on the meaning of phrases of the Constitution, but by the conflicting interests of producer and consumer, of freight shipper and freight carrier, of capitalist and wage earner. We are living in an industrial age. THE REPUBLICAN MACHINE 719. change For a full score of years after Lee handed his sword to lican^ar?^" Grant at Appomattox, Republican Presidents occupied the after 1865 White House, and during more than half that period Repub lican majorities sat in both Houses of Congress. 1 But the Re publican party of Johnson and Grant was a very different thing from the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln. The original 1 The Presidents between 1865 and 1884 were Johnson (1865-1869), Grant (1869-1877), Hayes (1877-1881), Garfield (1881), Arthur (1881-1885). The Senate was Republican except for the last two years of Hayes s administration (1879-1881), while the House went Democratic in the elections of 1874, 1876, 1878, 1882. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 511 party was formed of progressive men, " come-outers " from the Whigs and Democrats. It inscribed on its banners the pres ervation of the Union and the exclusion of slavery from the territories of the United States. Both these purposes were ful filled in 1865, when the armies of the Confederacy surrendered and the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. With its high aims accomplished, and with its great leader mur dered, the Republican party underwent a striking change during the second decade of its existence. It fell under the domination of a group of uncompromising men in Congress, who quarreled with President Johnson, inflicted the severe penalty of Recon struction on the South, maintained the high tariffs of war days, and bent every effort to securing a permanent hold on the machinery of the government. The merits of the Republican party had been great ; its prestige in 1865 was fully deserved ; but when it sought to justify its blind partisan creed that the worst Republican was better than the best Democrat, on the ground that " the party which had saved the Union must rule it," it was passing beyond the limits of good sense. We have seen how the Republican majorities in Congress 720. The flouted President Johnson, and how the Senate, in the exciting Jff JJJJJ2 1 f impeachment trial, came within a single vote of ejecting him Republican congressmen from the highest office of the Republic. We have seen how these 1866-1876 same majorities managed the simple, guileless Grant, forcing him " for party s sake " into a policy of ungenerous coercion toward the South ; imploring him " for party s sake " to cover up rev elations of fraud and misgovernment ; encouraging him " for party s sake " to form a close alliance between the government and the great financiers, whose wealth, protected and fostered by high-tariff legislation, was so convenient a factor in the winning of political campaigns. We have seen how corrupt rings and cliques plundered the public treasury, defrauding the honest taxpayer of millions of dollars. 1 1 See pages 490-493 for the impeachment of President Johnson and the account of the state of the country during Grant s term of office. 512 History of the Republic since the Civil War 721. The public do main seized by land sharks " 722. The generosity of Congress toward the Pacific rail roads 723. The Union Pacific and the Credit Mobilier scandal Not only the public treasury but the public domain also was plundered. Our government, always generous in its encourage ment of Western migration, had outdone itself in the Home stead Act of 1862, which gave a tract of 160 acres free of charge to any head of a family who would cultivate it for five years. In a little over ten years after the passage of the act 40,000,000 acres of our public land (an area equal to more than one fourth the surface of France) were given away, osten sibly as "homesteads," but actually often to "land grabbers" or "land sharks." These men, by submitting fraudulent lists of " settlers " to the land office, accumulated immense estates, which contained invaluable resources of timber, minerals, and water power. Their spirit was expressed in the words of one of the Montana land sharks, " We who are on the ground in tend to get whatever land there is lying around." The discovery of copper, silver, and gold in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Dakota, Wyoming, and Nevada enhanced the value of these public lands a hundredfold, and put into private purses wealth that would have been sufficient to maintain our government. In the same year that it passed the Homestead Act (1862) Congress chartered five Pacific Railroad companies, and in the years immediately following granted these companies over 100,- 000,000 acres of public lands and loans in government bonds amounting to $60,000,000. The 47,000,000 acres granted to the Northern Pacific alone were estimated by a high official in the railroad business to be valuable enough " to build the entire railroad to Puget Sound, to fit out a fleet of sailing vessels and steamers for the China and India trade, and leave a surplus that would roll up into the millions." In spite of the generosity of Congress, private capital was very wary, and only about ten miles of the Union Pacific Rail road had been built by 1865, when a company called the " Credit Mobilier of America " signed a contract with the Union Pacific Company to finish the work. With the help of further liberal grants from the government the immense task of running a T^venty Years of Republican Supremacy 5 1 3 railroad 1800 miles from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, over yawning chasms and precipitous ledges, through long deserts where the only signs of life were the black herds of buffaloes or the hostile bands of Sioux and Cheyennes, was finally accomplished. On the tenth of May, 1869, the last spike, completing rail connections from New York to San Francisco, was driven at Ogden, Utah. But even this greatest feat of American engineering (with the exception of the construction of the Panama Canal) was performed under the shadow of our Driving the Last Spike in the Union Pacific Railroad widespread corruption. Members of Congress were guilty of accepting shares of the Cre dit Mobilier stock in return for their votes granting legislative favors to the road. The protest against the corrupt rule of the Republican ma- 724. The chine in President Grant s day came chiefly from the agricul- t e Grangers tural West. A secret organization, called the Grangers, or Jj^jj^j}^ Patrons of Husbandry, founded by the farmers in 1867, had seventies grown by 1875 to number over 1,500,000 members, living mostly in the South and West. The main purpose of the Grangers was to get favorable transportation rates for the prod ucts of their farms. The railroad mileage of the country had 514 History of the Republic, since the Civil War increased from 30,000 miles in 1860 to 50,000 in 1870, and was growing at the rate of 3000 miles a year. Between 1869 and 1873 the New York Central, the Hudson River, and the Lake Shore roads were joined to make through connections between New York and Chicago under a single management. By 1875 there were five trunk lines from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard. The high rates of freight charged by these roads to repay the cost of their construction and maintenance, their greediness for public-land grants and state subsidies, their rate discriminations in favor of big shippers or chosen localities, all turned popular feeling in the West decidedly against the rail roads after 1870. 725. DC- The financial panic which came upon the country in 1873, Sboring* class sen ding up the price of living and causing great misery among the working classes, still further widened the gap between the privileged rich and the struggling poor, between capital and labor, monopoly and destitution. Strikes occurred, especially on the railroads and in the mines. Labor congresses, held in our largest cities, made public the demands of the working classes for an eight-hour day, for the exclusion of Chinese laborers from the country, for the government inspection of mines and factories, for the direct issue of money by the gov ernment instead of by the banks, for the cessation of land grants to railroads or corporations, for the regulation of rail road rates, a tax on incomes, and the establishment of a national Department of Labor at Washington. 726. The The agitation for the relief of the debtor class and the reform Greenback- f la b r conditions resulted in the formation of the National party Greenback-Labor party, which entered the presidential contest of 1876 with the New York philanthropist Peter Cooper as its candidate, and with a platform demanding that the government suppress the bank issues of currency and make its own unlimited issue of greenbacks legal tender for the payment of all debts. Cooper received only 82,000 votes, but in the next congressional election (1878) the Greenback party polled over 1,000,000 votes. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 5 ! 5 It was, therefore, a critical situation that faced Mr. Hayes when the Electoral Commission voted him into the presidential chair on the second of March, 1877, only two days before his inauguration (p. 496). Half the country believed that Tilden had been elected. Hayes appeared in cartoons with the word " fraud " written across his brow. For more than a year after his inauguration Congress dallied with the proposal to reopen the question of his title to the presidency. Moreover, Hayes was not the choice of the leading men of his own party. The most influential senators and con gressmen and the high executive officers were still " machine poli ticians," in league with the pro tected corporations and financial monopolies of the country. They were sore that the reform spirit, stirred by the protest of the West, had forced them to accept for their candidate the honest, plodding, pro saic governor of Ohio in place of the brilliant, but unstable, party leader, James G. Elaine. The Re publican Senate no less than the Democratic House 1 hampered Hayes in every way possible, refusing to confirm his excellent appointments, upbraiding him for his conciliatory policy toward the South, and sneering at him as a Puritan and an ungrateful hypocrite for his desire to reform the party machine, to which, after all, he owed his high office. In spite of personal unpopularity, and in the face of political and economic turmoil, Mr. Hayes gave the country one of the cleanest and most courageous administrations in its history. He immediately withdrew the Federal troops that were still up holding the negro Republican governments in Louisiana and 727. Presi dent Hayes antagonized by the ma chine politi cians Rutherford B. Hayes 728. His excellent administra tion, 1877- 1881 1 The Democrats had a majority of 20 in the House, while the Republicans held the Senate by a single vote (38 to 37). 5 1 6 History of the Republic since the Civil War South Carolina, letting these states revert to the Democratic column. 1 He still further incurred the wrath of the Republican machine by dismissing from their important offices Chester A. Arthur (collector of the port of New York), and Alonzo B. Cornell (naval officer), who with Thomas Platt and Roscoe Conkling made up the "big four" who ruled the politics of New York state. Soon after his inauguration severe strikes, attended by rioting and the destruction of property, broke out among the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Pennsyl vania, and the Erie railroads, which he quelled by the prompt dispatch of United States troops. He sent a commission to China to prepare the way for the negotiation of a treaty which would protecjt the workers of our Pacific coast against the inva sion of cheap Mongolian labor. 2 He strove earnestly to repair the faith of the nation in the eyes of the Indian tribes of the Far West, who had been fed on rotten rations, deceived by false promises, robbed by unscrupulous agents, and goaded into uprisings that had cost our government over $22,000,000 and 1 Hayes was bitterly attacked and shamefully insulted by the men who were unwilling, twelve years after the war had ceased, to be reconciled with their Southern brethren, whom they still called " disloyal." They accused the Presi dent of having made a " corrupt bargain " to withdraw the troops in return for Southern votes ; they denounced him as climbing into office over the bodies of tens of thousands of loyal Union soldiers ; they chided him for appointing a Southerner to a cabinet position. " To keep out of power the Democratic party and its semirebellious adherents both North and South," said a senator from Massachusetts, " has become a matter of supreme importance to the nation and the cause of humanity itself." 2 Between 1850 and 1860 the Chinese immigrants to our shores had increased from 10,000 to 40,000. The work on the western end of the Union Pacific Rail road attracted tens of thousands more in the next decade. As these Chinese laborers lived on a few cents a day and were content with dirty quarters and poor food, they were a menace to the American laborer of the Pacific coast, who de manded " four dollars a day and roast beef." Mobs in California and Oregon organized, to " run out of town " the Chinese coolies, in spite of the fact that our government, by the Burlingame Treaty of 1868, had guaranteed the Chinese visiting our shores protection in trade, religion, and free travel. In 1879 Con gress repealed the Burlingame Treaty, but Hayes vetoed the bill. Finally, through the efforts of the Hayes commission, an arrangement was made with China by which that country agreed to our regulation of labor immigration from her shores. Under President Arthur a bill was passed (1882), entirely excluding Chinese laborers for a period of ten years. The Chinese Exclusion Bill was renewed in 1892 and 1902. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 5 * 7 the lives of nearly 600 men since the Civil War. 1 The machine politicians sneered at Hayes as a " weak President " and a " goody-goody," and called his administration " a bread poul-* tice." But fair-minded judges who had no political favors to ask and no fraudulent deals to cover up found the Hayes ad ministration no mere soothing bread poultice, but rather a strong mustard plaster, which was effective in bringing out the poisons of political corruption. Two financial measures of importance were carried in Hayes s mid-term, the Bland- Allison Act for the coinage of silver, and the bill for resumption of specie payments. From Washington s administration till long after the close of 729 - The his - tory of silver the Civil War comparatively little silver was coined into money coinage until at the United States mints. The business of the country was not x 7 large enough to demand more currency for its transactions than the supply of gold could furnish. The government stood ready to receive silver bullion at its mints for coinage at the estab lished rate of fifteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold be fore 1834, and approximately sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold after that date. But such was the comparative scarcity of silver in the middle years of the century that the mine owners could sell it to the jewelers and artisans at a higher price than the government paid. Between 1850 and 1873, therefore, almost no silver was brought to the mints, and in the latter year Congress quietly passed a law stopping the coinage of silver dollars. 2 Just at that moment enormous 1 The most disastrous of these Indian uprisings was the resistance of the Sioux, under their chief Sitting Bull, to the orders of the government bidding them leave their hunting grounds in southern Montana and move further west. The gallant Colonel George A. Custer, with a force of 262 men, was caught by Sitting Bull in ambush, at the Little Big Horn River, and massacred with every soul of his little army, June 25, 1876. 2 This law simply recognized the state of affairs which existed. Since the amount of silver which went into a silver dollar could be sold to the silversmiths for $1.02 in 1873, the mine owners naturally disposed of their product in the market where it brought the highest price. It was they, and not the government, that discontinued silver coinage. In later years the advocates of the free coinage of silver spoke of this act as the "crime of 1873," as if the government had repudiated silver and cheapened it by refusing to coin it. 5 1 8 History of the Republic since the Civil War deposits of silver were discovered in our Western states. One mine, whose product in 1873 was worth but $645,000, increased its output to $16,000,000 in two years. The famous Comstock lode in Nevada yielded $42,000,000 in three years. Our total production of silver, which was $1,000,000 annually in 1861, rose to $30,000,000 in 1875. The market was flooded. The price of silver fell, and the mine owners were anxious again to sell their product to the government at the old rate. In 1874, for the first time in a generation, the silver in a dollar was worth more than the same weight of silver in a napkin ring or an um brella handle. The mine owners, therefore, clamored for the repeal of the law of 1873 and the resumption of silver coinage. They were joined in their demand by the large class of Western farmers, who, being obliged to borrow money for the develop ment of their farms and the transportation of their crops, found themselves obliged to pay high rates of interest to the bankers of the East, who controlled the nation s gold. 730. The So Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri introduced Act of 1878 i nto Hayes s first Congress a bill for the unlimited, or " free, " coinage of silver at the old rate of approximately 16 to i. The bill was modified in the Senate by Allison of Iowa. Instead of accepting unlimited amounts of silver presented at its mints for coinage, the government was to agree, by the Allison Amend ment, to purchase not less than $2,000,000 worth nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver a month. In this form the bill passed both Houses of Congress in February, 1878, and, although wisely vetoed by President Hayes, commanded the necessary two-thirds vote to override his veto. By the Bland-Allison Act, then, our gov ernment pledged itself to take from the mine owners at least $24,000,000 worth of silver every year to coin into "dollars" which were worth, in 1878, less than ninety cents apiece. We shall see in a later chapter some of the results of this policy of trying, simply by stamping the United States eagle upon coins, to make them more valuable than the worth of the metal they contain. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 519 The other financial measure of the Hayes administration was 731. There- the resumption of specie payments, which means the decision and specie ^ay ^ promise of the United States to pay all its obligations in " specie/ ments, 1879 or coin. The " greenbacks," or legal-tender notes issued to the amount of about $450,000,000 during the Civil War, were simply pieces of paper on which were printed the government s prom- " ise to pay the bearer the amount specified when the United States should have the money. The intention of the govern ment was to "redeem" (or "retire," or "cancel") these green backs by cash payment, just as we should cancel our " private note" handed to a friend for a loan of money made us when we were in financial straits. The government had actually redeemed about $100,000,000 worth of the greenbacks, when the Western farmers, from that same need of a currency uncontrolled by Eastern bankers which impelled them to demand the renewal of silver coinage, demanded that the government should not only stop redeeming the greenbacks but that it should actually issue many millions more. Congress refused to heed this demand, and passed a law in 1875, fixing January i, 1879, as the date when the Treasury of the United States would redeem in coin * all the outstanding greenbacks. During the years 1877-1878, John Sherman, Hayes s able Secretary of the Treasury, accumulated some $140,000,000 worth of gold by the sale of bonds at home and abroad ; and when resumption day came, so perfect was the faith of the people in the credit of the government that greenbacks to the amount of only about $135,000 were presented at the Treasury to be exchanged for gold. From that day to the present all the paper notes of the United States have circulated on a par with silver and gold. There was still to come a struggle (to be traced in a later chapter) as to whether gold or silver should be the metal in which the government s debts were to be paid. But 1 Since the government practically recognized gold as the standard " coin " in 1875, by demanding gold in payment of customs dues and paying in gold the interest on its bonds, specie payment was taken to mean gold payment. 520 History of the Republic since the Civil War the danger of a flood of cheap paper currency, which had nearly swamped the government in the critical years following the American Revolution, was past. History shows no parallel of a nation so rapidly and easily recovering from a war debt of billions of dollars. THE PARTY REVOLUTION OF 1884 732. The ma- The success of the resumption policy and the rapid recovery 1 * 1 " f our P ub ^ c credit were due primarily neither to the wisdom of tne President nor to the skill of Secretary Sherman, but to the the Civil war wonderful material prosperity of the North and West during the twenty years following the fall of Fort Sumter. For the South the war meant prostration and exhaustion. Her money was gone, her industries destroyed ; her fields were trampled by the hoofs of war chargers, and her strong men were lying on a thou sand battlefields. But for the North the war was a stimulus. The demands of the army for men were not large enough to be a drain on the industrial population, while the demands for sup plies at the high prices the country was forced in its extremity to pay were sufficient to create great manufacturing activity. The high protective tariffs which Congress passed during the war also contributed largely to the industrial boom in home manufactures ; and the disbanding of over a million soldiers in 1865, which in any European country would have caused hard times by glutting the labor market, only furnished the hands needed to harvest our immense crops and turn the wheels of our expanding industries. 733. census Whatever chapter of the census reports we open for the dec- ?n g g U the Sh W ~ ade following the war, we read the same story. Our coal out growth of our p u t increased fivefold and our steel output a hundredfold in the productions, manufacture, period from 1865 to 1875. The wheat crop in Dakota alone in creased from 1000 bushels in 1860 to 3,000,000 in 1880, and the corn crop in Kansas from 6,000,000 to over 100,000,000 bushels. When the Civil War opened we were producing about $1,000,000 worth of precious metals annually; twenty years Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy later the single state of Colorado was taking from its miiu $1,000,000 worth of gold, lead, and silver per month. Ne\ which was a mining camp of less than 7000 inhabitants in i8t had grown by 1870 into a state of the Union with a population of 42,000. In the decade preceding the war our manufactures increased 1 4 per cent ; in the decade following they increased 79 per cent. The year of Hayes s election marks the permanent change in favor of the United States in the statistics of foreign trade. Before 1876 our exports had exceeded our imports in but three years (1857, 1862, 1874) ; since 1876 there have been but three years (1888, 1889, 1898) in which our imports have exceeded our exports. The wealth of the country grew from $16,000,000,000 to 734. our $43,000,000,000 between 1860 and 1880; and the deposits in ^puiatioii 4 our savings banks (the best index of a nation s prosperity) in creased 600 per cent. During the same period our population grew from 30, 000,000 to 50, 000,000, while the liberal homestead laws and the development of the Western railroads attracted an unprecedented number of Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants to the fertile farm lands beyond the Mississippi. Between 1860 and 1870 Arizona, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming were organized as territories, and Kansas, Nebraska, and Nevada were admitted as states of the Union. Edmund Burke, in his famous " Speech on Conciliation with America," delivered in Parliament in 1775, had exclaimed, " Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part of the world that, state the numbers as high as we will, while the dispute continues the exaggeration ends." It seemed in 1875 as though the orator s enthusiastic language of a century earlier were fulfilled in sober fact. Now the natural tendency of parties in power during periods 735. The sit- of prosperity is to attribute that prosperity entirely to their own Republican 116 wise management of the country s politics ; and they have little P art y> l88 difficulty in persuading large numbers of their fellow country men of the truth of their claims. It was with confidence, then, 522 History of the Republic since the Civil War that the Republican party, in the midst of an era of wonderful national prosperity, entered on the presidential campaign of 1880. No President ever deserved a second term more than Hayes. But the shadow cast on his title in 1876, combined with his uncompromising independence of the leaders of the party, and his failure, through a certain aloofness of manner, to appeal to the popular imagination, made his nomination in 1880 out of the question. General Grant had just returned from a world-circling tour in which he had been received with royal honors by the sovereigns of Europe and Asia. A branch of the Republican party, called the " stalwarts," l led by Senator Ros- coe Conkling of New York, boomed Grant for a third term, chiefly with the hope of reestablishing under the cover of his popularity the rule of the Republican machine, which had been somewhat damaged by President Hayes. Grant s chief rivals in the convention were Senator James G. Elaine of Maine and Hayes s able Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman of Ohio. 736. james After the convention had balloted thirty-five times without victorious giving the necessary majority vote to either Grant or Elaine, ocrattc^Sd the Wisconsin delegation led a " stampede " to General James south " in the A. Garfield 2 of Ohio, who had been sent to the convention to 1880 work in the interests of Sherman. Chester A. Arthur of New York, a " stalwart," was nominated for Vice President to ap pease the Conkling faction. The Democrats nominated General Winfield S. Hancock, the hero of the battle of Gettysburg. Garfield was elected by 214 votes to 155, and at the same time the Republicans regained the majority in the House of 1 The " stalwarts," in opposition to the reforming " half-breeds," stood for uncompromising partisan rule, for a high protective tariff, for distribution of offices as spoils of political victory, for the assessment of officeholders for party contributions, and for the continued use of federal troops to coerce the Southern states and of federal inspectors to guard the polling places. 2 Garfield was one of the best examples of our self-made men of the West. He had worked his way up from the towpath to a college presidency, and then to a seat in the state senate of Ohio. He had distinguished himself for gallant conduct in the famous division of General Thomas at Chickamauga. In the winter of 1863 he had entered Congress, where he served, first in the House and then in the Senate, until his election to the presidency in 1880. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 523 Representatives, which they had lost in 1874. It was the first presidential election since 1860 in which all the states of the Union took part, with the opportunity of expressing freely their choice ; for even after the Civil War was over and the states of the secession were nominally restored to their places in the Union, the presence of federal troops at the polls in the recon structed states made a fair election impossible (see p. 496, note). The South, embittered against the Republican party for its harsh policy of Reconstruction, cast a solid Democratic vote, even though the candidate of that party was the victor of Gettysburg ; and for a quarter of a century thereafter the "solid South" was found in the Democratic column at every presidential election. 1 The choice of Garfield was a 737. Garfield bitter disappointment to the ma- chine politicians. Though a strict warts "led by Republican, the new President elect belonged to that reform wjng of the party which the " stalwarts " con temptuously called " half-breeds." Even before his inauguration he James A. Garfield . showed such independence of the "stalwart" leaders in his selections for cabinet positions and high federal offices that the party was hopelessly split. At the ear nest request of Grant, Conkling had taken the stump in the campaign and contributed not a little to Garfield s election. Yet Garfield utterly ignored him in his appointments to office. He made Elaine, Conkling s dearest enemy, Secretary of State ; he assigned only a minor cabinet office to the state of New York ; and for the important post of collector of the port of New York he named an uncompromising enemy of Conkling and the ma chine. Stung by this " ingratitude," Conkling and his colleague 1 In 1904 and 1908 Roosevelt and Taft both received electoral votes and carried states south of Mason and Dixon s line. The Republicans hail this as the breaking up of the " solid South." 524 History of the Reprtblic since the Civil Wat from New York, Thomas C. Platt, resigned their seats in the United States Senate. 1 738. The Factional spirit ran high and culminated in a dastardly crime, assassination J of Garfieid, A few weeks after the resignation of the New York senators, President Garfieid, accompanied by Secretary Elaine, entered the Baltimore and Ohio station at Washington to take a train to visit his family on the New Jersey shore. Charles Guiteau, a " stalwart " fanatic, crept up to the President and fired a bullet into his back. He did it, he said, to rid the country of a "traitor" and seat the "stalwart" Arthur in the presidential chair. After lingering through the hot weeks of summer in dreadful agony, President Garfieid died at Elberon, New Jersey, September 19, 1881. 739. Dis- Guiteau s pistol shot roused the whole country to the dis- of the civil graceful state of the public service. Political offices were the prize of intriguing politicians and wirepullers. Crowds of anxious placemen thronged the capital for weeks after the in auguration, pestering the President for appointments in post offices, pustomhouses, and federal courts. Republicans and Democrats brought against each other the charge of " insatiable lust for office," and both were right. One politician, when taken to task for not working in his office, cynically replied, " Work ! why, I worked to get here ! " " Voluntary contribu tions," or assessments, equal to 2 per cent of their salary, were levied on officeholders for campaign expenses, and the funds so raised were used shamelessly to buy votes. 2 1 The quarrel between Conkling and Garfieid led to a most dramatic scene. Conkling, accompanied by Platt and Arthur, called on Garfieid at his room in the Riggs House shortly after his arrival in Washington, and for two hours stormed up and down the floor, pouring out the vials of his sarcastic wrath upon the President elect, who sat unmoved on the edge of his bed. Neither Platt nor Conkling was returned to the Senate by the legislature of New York. The latter retired from politics, and a few years later lost his life through exposure in the great blizzard which swept New York City in 1888. Platt returned to the Senate in 1897, where he served two terms, being replaced by Elihu Root in 1909. 2 Even Vice President Arthur, after the election of 1880, referred in a joking way to the large expenditure of the Republican campaign committee. The elec tion had been won, he said, by a " liberal use of soap." Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 5 2 5 At the very close of the Civil War thoughtful men had 740. The .. .. v i i i i -i j Civil Service attacked this corrupt spoils system," which had prevailed commission, since Jackson s day. For seven years in succession Congress- l8 7i-*875 man Jenckes of Rhode Island introduced a bill into the House " for the regulation of the civil service/ 1 until in March, 1871, a law was passed authorizing the President to appoint a com mission to ascertain the fitness of candidates for office in the federal civil service and prescribe rules for their conduct. The commission advocated what was later called by Theodore Roose velt " the merit system," that is, the selection of candidates by competitive examination rather than their appointment for party services, on the sound principle that a man s political opinions have little to do with his capacity for a clerkship. The low tone of public morality prevailing during Grant s adminis tration discouraged reform of the civil service, and in 1875 Congress discontinued the commission by failing to make any appropriation for its labors. President Hayes encouraged the merit system wherever he could. During his administration civil service leagues were formed in over thirty states of the Union, and the movement resulted in the establishment of the National Civil Service League at Newport in 1880. Under pressure from this national league a bill was intro- 741. The duced into the Senate by George Pendleton of Ohio in 1882, 3 i j tonAct which was passed in both Houses of Congress by large majori ties and signed by President Arthur in January, 1883. The Pendleton Act provided for the reestablishment of the Civil Serv ice Commission, and for the extension of the " merit system " as far as the President saw fit. It forbade the assessment of federal servants for campaign purposes, or the discharge of a competent clerk on account of his political opinions. Under its wise provisions about 14,000 officials in the post office and customs departments were immediately protected against the partisan revenge of victorious political bosses. 1 By the civil service is meant the great number of clerks and assistants in the executive department of the government. 526 History of the Republic since the Civil War tion 743. The ^ Republicans 742. The The influence of politicians who have been so corrupt as to p re- progress of civil service fer the triumph of their party to the good of the country, or so bigoted as to believe that the good of the country depended on the triumph of their party, has been from the first exerted against the extension of civil service reform. In Hayes s day they called it the " snivel service," and ridiculed its champions as " goody-goodies " who thought themselves holier than their political neighbors. " Noisy, not numerous ; pharisaical, not practical; pretentious, not powerful," was James G. Elaine s rhetorical condemnation of the reformers. Still, the cause has progressed in the last generation, until now some 85,000 offices, or about three fourths of the minor places in the federal civil service, are classified under the rules of the commission, to be filled on the test of merit and held on tenure secure against the jealousies and animosities of political bosses. The passage of the Pendleton Act was a tardy and rather desperate concession to the reform idea on the part of the thei^uprem- " stalwart " Republicans. For ten years they had seen a reform acy, 1882-1883 movement going on in their ranks, and had met that move ment with indifference or scorn. Their policy of keeping the negro vote in the Southern states by means of armed forces at the polling places had failed ; their corrupt administration of high offices had been exposed ; their complicity in fraudulent land companies and railroad transactions had been detected ; their high tariff was enriching the few protected manufactures at the expense of the many consumers, and was piling up in the Treasury of the United States a surplus of money which ought to have been circulating in business among the people. The boom in trade which had followed the panic of 1873 was begin ning to slacken in 1881, and "hard times" came on. In the congressional elections of 1882 the Republican majority of 19 in the House was changed to a Democratic majority of 82, and the Republican party, thoroughly alarmed, began to consider how it should save its supremacy of a quarter of a century in the approaching presidential election of 1884. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy $27 By far the most prominent man in the Republican party was James G. Elaine, whom we have already met as candidate for the presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880. As Secretary of State for a few months in Garfield s cabinet Elaine had height ened his immense popularity with that large portion of our population which loves a spectacular display of energy in its public servants. He had intervened in a quarrel between Peru and Chile with language which implied the right of the United States to settle the disputes of her weaker sister republics of South and Central America. He had negotiated (but failed to persuade the Senate to ratify) a number of commercial treaties with these re publics on the principle of " reci procity," or the admission into each country, free of duty, of goods which were not produced in that country. He had assumed a lofty tone toward Great Britain in a controversy over the control of a canal to be cut through the Isthmus of Panama. His foreign dispatches were written in the nervous, confident, assertive style of the editorial page of a popular journal rather than in the guarded, deliberative language of diplomacy. But in spite of his impetuous assertions of patriotism and his great personal " magnetism," the reproach of shady dealings with Western railroads and land schemes, which had prevented his nomination in 1876, still clung to his name. And as the time for the national convention of 1884 drew near, those same reformers whom he had sarcastically dubbed " the unco guid," 1 "pharisaical, not practical," began the movement to prevent his nomination at Chicago. They were ridiculed in the 1 A Scotch phrase meaning " goody-goody." 744. James G. Elaine: his record as Secretary of State in 1881 James G. Elaine 745. The Mugwump opposition to Elaine, 1884 528 History of the Republic since the Civil War New York Sun as " Mugwumps " an Indian name meaning " big chief " because they affected superiority to the rest of their party. When Elaine s great popularity secured him the nomination over his rivals, President Arthur and Senator Ed munds of Vermont (the candidate of the New England reform ers), the Mugwumps, or Independent Republicans, organized a league at New York under the leadership of George William Curtis, the chairman of the original Civil Service Commission of 1871. They protested against the nomination of a man " wholly disqualified for the high office of President of the United States " by his alliance with the most unscrupulous men of the party and his stubborn opposition to all reform ; and they called upon the Democrats to nominate an honest, inde pendent candidate for whom truly public-spirited citizens could conscientiously vote. 1 746. Grover The Democrats responded to this invitation by nominating Cleveland, the i j r XT ^r i ^ Democratic Grover Cleveland, governor of New York. Cleveland was the son of a poor Presbyterian minister. He had grown up in western New York, supporting himself as best he could by tending a country store, teaching in an asylum for the blind, and acting as clerk in a lawyer s office in Buffalo. Here he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, entering local politics, served as assistant district attorney, then as sheriff of Erie County, and in 1881, in his forty-fifth year, was elected mayor of Buffalo on an independent ticket. His administration of the office was so honest, able, and courageous that it brought him the Democratic nomination for the governorship of New York the next year. He carried the state by the unprecedented plu rality of 192,000 votes. In the governor s chair he showed the same fearless independence which had won him the name of the " veto mayor " in Buffalo. He was, like Lincoln and Garfield, a " self-made man." 1 Several influential Republican newspapers, like the New York Times and the Springfield Republican, advised voting for Cleveland. " The defeat of Elaine," wrote one, " will be the salvation of the Republican party." Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 529 By nature and training he was the direct antithesis of his 747. cieve- rival for the presidential election. Elaine was brilliant, genial, Biaine Dd daring, and unreliable ; Cleveland was deliberate, patient, plod- contra sted ding, but firm as a rock when he had once reached his decision. Elaine, after a college training and ten years experience as teacher and journalist, had entered the Maine legislature, and from there had gone to the national Congress, where he served fourteen years in the House of Representatives (as its Speaker from 1869 to 1875) and four years in the Senate, whence he was called by Garfield in 1881 to the first place in the cabinet. Cleveland had had absolutely no experience in national affairs, had never been a member of a legislative body of any sort, and had only the political training obtained in the executive offices of sheriff, mayor, and governor. The platform on which Cleveland ran is perhaps the most 748. The scathing political document in our history. "The Republican jSj?^*^ party," it reads, " is an organization for enriching those who l884 > and 3 . Cleveland s control its machinery. ... It has steadily decayed in moral char- election acter and political capacity. ... Its platform promises are now only a list of its past failures. . . . Honeycombed with corrup tion, outbreaking exposures no longer shock its moral sense. . . . The frauds and jobbery which have been brought to light in every department of the government are sufficient to have called for a reform within the Republican party ; yet those in authority . . . have placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent portion of the party are in open revolt." The campaign was the most bitterly fought in all our history, and the most disgraceful. Being unable to revive the issues of the Civil War for a generation of voters who had grown up since the surrender at Appomattox, and having no ground for criticism of Cleveland s public record in the state of New York, the Republican campaign orators attacked the private life of the Democratic candidate, ransacking every page of it for occasion of slander or traces of scandal. The Democrats in turn revived the whole miserable story of Elaine s railroad bonds and the 5 30 History of the Repiiblic since the Civil War famous Mulligan letters. 1 Cleveland was called a coward be cause he did not go to the war ; Elaine was called " un- American " because his mother was a Roman Catholic. The entire campaign, as the Nation remarked, was conducted in a spirit and a language " worthy of the stairways of a tenement house." It was clear on election night that the result hung on the state of New York, but several days of intense excitement passed before it was definitely known that Cleveland had carried the state by the slim majority of 1149 votes out of i, 167, 169. 2 749. signifi- Cleveland s election was the first Democratic victory since theparty the campaign of 1856. For the quarter of a century since the Confederate mortars had opened their fire on Fort Sumter the Republicans had held control of the executive branch of our government, with the tens of thousands of offices in its patron age. For only one term of Congress during that period had the Republicans lost control of the Senate, and they had a majority in the House in all but four terms. This long tenure of power was the reward the country paid the Republican party for its services in preserving the Union and abolishing the curse of slavery. Those services were great, but the uses to which the reward was put were unworthy. Considerations of public welfare, even of common honesty, were set aside for party ends. 1 These were letters which Elaine had written to the railroad manipulators, and which he himself thought so damaging to his chances for nomination that he had "borrowed" them from Mulligan and refused to return them though he later in a very dramatic scene read them to the House, " inviting the confi dence of 44,000,000 of his fellow citizens." The sharp-tongued Conkling, being invited to take the stump for Blaine in 1884, replied, " Thank you, I don t engage in criminal practice." 2 The vote throughout the country (except in the " solid South ") was very close, Cleveland receiving 4,874,986 to 4,851,981 for Blaine. Many people believe that Blaine lost New York, and consequently the election, on account of a remark made near the end of the campaign by a certain Dr. Burchard at a meeting of the ministers of New York, which had been called to congratulate Blaine and wish him success. On that occasion Dr. Burchard referred to the Democratic party as the party of " Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." The insulting phrase, which implied that Roman Catholics were in a class with drunkards, and that both were in sympathy with " rebels," was taken up as a campaign cry all over the land, and doubtless cost Blaine thousands of votes. Twenty Years of Republican Supremacy 531 Confident in their majorities, the Republican leaders defied the growing demand for reform in the conduct of the government offices. They sneered at the civil service rules. They tried, by waving the " bloody shirt," to keep alive the savage desire to coerce the South. They hampered and hectored their " reform President," Hayes. They cynically reduced the tariff 3 per cent (by an act of 1883), when their own expert commission recommended a reduction of 20 per cent. They refused to take warning by the gathering of the reform forces in 1872. In the opinion of half the country they had " stolen " the election of 1876, and were generally accused of having "bought" the election of 1880. Consequently, in 1884, they were deposed from their long supremacy by the votes of the reformers in their own party, to whose entreaties and remonstrances they had turned a deaf ear for more than a decade. REFERENCES The New Industrial Age : CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Industrial Evolution of the United States, chaps, xiii, xiv, xxii, xxiii ; E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, chaps, xx, xxii, xxv ; N. S. SHALER (ed.), The United States, Vol. I, chap, vii ; Vol. II, chaps, i, ii, xii; E. E. SPARKS, National Development (American Nation Series), chaps, i-v, xviii ; HUGH McCuLLOCH, Men and Measures of a Half Century, chap, xxxiii; D. A. WELLS, Recent Economic Changes, chap, ii; KATHARINE COMAN, Industrial History of the United States, chap. viii. The Republican Machine : WRIGHT, chaps, xxiv-xxvi ; BOGART, chaps, xxiv, xxvii, xxviii ; SPARKS, chaps, vii-ix ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 162, 163, 165, 168, 169; E. B. ANDREWS, The United States in our own Time, chaps, ix-xiv ; JOHN SHERMAN, Recollections of Forty Years, chaps, xxii-xxvii, xxix-xxxvii ; ALBERT SHAW, Political Problems of American Development, chaps, vi- viii; D. R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, chaps, xiv- xvii ; A. D. NOYES, Forty Years of American Finance, chaps, ii, iii ; JOHN MITCHELL, Organized Labor, chap, viii ; WOODROW WILSON, History of the American People, Vol. V, chap. ii. The Party Revolution of 1884 : HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 160, 161 ; SPARKS, chaps, x-xii, xvi-xix ; DEWEY, chap, xviii ; SHERMAN, chaps, xl-xlvii ; ANDREWS, chap, xvi ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, 532 History of the Republic since the Civil War chaps, xxvi, xxvii ; GEORGE W. CURTIS, Orations and Addresses, Vol. II ; CARL R. FISH, The Civil Service and the Patronage ; JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth, Vol. II, chap. Ixv ; Lives of Grant by HAMLIN GARLAND, W. C. CHURCH, and ADAM BADEAU ; of Elaine, by " GAIL HAMILTON " and EDWARD STANWOOD ; of Garfield, by J. A. GILMORE. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Homestead Acts : J. N. LARNED, History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading, Vol. V, pp. 3463-3464; S. SATO, The Land Ques tion in the United States (Johns Hopkins University Studies, N\. IV, pp. 411-427) ; THOMAS DONALDSON, The Public Domain, pp. 332-356; J. B. SANBORN, Some Political Aspects of Homestea^ Legislation (American Historical Review, Vol. VI, pp. 19-37) ; A. B. HART, The Land Policy of the United States (in Essays on Practical Government}. 2. The " Crime of 1873" : J. L. LAUGHLIN, History of Bimetallism in the United States, pp. 92-105 ; D. K. WATSON, History of American Coin age, pp. 135-160; HORACE WHITE, Money and Banking, pp. 213-223; J. T. CLEARY, The Crime of 1873 (Sound Currency, Vol. Ill, No. 13); SHERMAN, pp. 459-470 ; DEWEY, pp. 403-410. 3. The Custer Massacre: ANDREWS, pp. 169-193; F. WHITTAKER, Complete Life of George A. Custer, Book VIII, chaps, iv-v; ELIZABETH B. CUSTER, General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. 4. The Granger Movement: ANDREWS, pp. 281-284; A. T. HADLEY, Railroad Transportation, its History and Laws, pp. 129139; E. W. MARTIN, History of the Grange Movement ; C. F. ADAMS, JR., The Granger Movement (North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-410); C. W. PREISEN, Outcome of the Granger Movement (Popiilar Science Monthly, Vol. XXXII, pp. 201-214). 5. Civil Service Reform : FISH, pp. 209-245 ; ANDREWS, pp. 230-235, 336-342 ; E. BIE K. FOLTZ, The Federal Civil Service, pp. 38-82 ; SPARKS, pp. 182-201 ; HART, Vol. IV, No. 199 ; DORMAN B. EATON (articles in J. J. LALOR S Cyclopedia of Political Science, Vol. I, pp. 153, 472, 478 ; Vol. II, p. 640 ; Vol. Ill, pp. 19, 139, 565, 782, 895). 6. The Movement for a Third Term for Grant : SPARKS, pp. 165-172 ; STANWOOD, James G. Blaine, pp. 225-231; ANDREWS, pp. 307-312; SHERMAN, pp. 766-774 ; BADEAU, Grant in Peace, pp. 319 ff. ; series of articles for and against a third term, by G. S. BOUTWELL, J. S. BLACK, E. W. SLAUGHTER, and TIMOTHY HOWE (North American Review, Vol. CXXX, pp. 116, 197, 224, 370). CHAPTER XIX THE CLEVELAND DEMOCRACY A PEOPLE S PRESIDENT In a book of essays called " Presidential Problems," written 750. cieve- r i f i v vr -nr land s idea in 1904, some years after his retirement trom public lite, Mr. O f the Cleveland spoke of the presidency as " preeminently the people s e ft ilve office." His administration of that office during the two terms 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 proved the sincerity of his re mark, for he acted always as the head of the nation, even when such action threatened to cost him the leadership of his -party. He did not believe that the people, in choosing a President, sim ply designated a man to sit at his desk in the White House and sign the bills which Congress passed up to him, and make the appointments to office which the managers of the party dic tated to him. He belonged to the class of Presidents who have interpreted " leading " their party to mean educating their j party. Cleveland s exalted view of the independence and re- i sponsibility of the President was partly a result of his direct- \ ness and decision of character, and partly due to the fact that his political career had been confined entirely to the executive branch of service. It was inevitable that President Cleveland should come into 751. cieve- j conflict with Congress. The Democratic House which had been ^ chosen in the election of 1884 expected him to sweep the Re- Con s ress publicans out of all the offices which they had held for a quarter of a century ; while the Republican Senate, whose consent was necessary for all the President s appointments, reminded him that the Mugwump vote, which had elected him, had been cast by Republicans who believed him an unpartisan reformer of 533 534 History of the Republic since the Civil War the tariff and the civil service. When the President chose two cabinet members 1 from states of the lower South, and divided the chief foreign missions and consulships between the North and the South, as a pledge of the cessation of sectional bitter ness, he was assailed for intrusting the offices of government to " ex-Confederate brigadier generals." When his sense of justice led him to remove several federal officers, especially postmasters, who had used their office unblushingly for cam paign purposes, he was accused of going back on his public profession of devotion to the principles of civil service reform. 2 752. The The Senate made a direct issue with the President early in Office Act l88 6 over the removal of District Attorney Dustin of Alabama. Invoking the Tenure of Office Act of 1867 (p. 490), the Senate refused to confirm the nomination of Dustin s successor, and called on the President, through Attorney-General Garland, for the papers relating to the dismissal. Cleveland, believing that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional, replied that his power of removal was absolute, refused to furnish the papers, and added that " no threat of the Senate was sufficient to dis courage or deter " him from following the course which he believed led to " government for the people." A bitter fight followed in the Senate, during which Cleveland was roundly abused and his Attorney-General formally censured. But the President won, and had the satisfaction before the year closed of seeing the unjust Tenure of Office Act repealed by Congress (December 17, 1886). 1 These were L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior, and Augustus H. Garland of Arkansas, Attorney-General. Thomas F. Bayard, Cleve land s first Secretary of State, also came from south of Mason and Dixon s line, from the loyal slave state of Delaware. 2 These pledges are contained in Cleveland s letter of acceptance of the Dem ocratic nomination for the presidency (August, 1884) ; also in a private letter to George William Curtis a few months later. The party pressure brought to bear on Cleveland was evidently greater than he could resist, for within two years all the Republican federal surveyors, naval officers, and territorial governors had been removed, and about 90 per cent of the collectors of customs, the internal revenue collectors, the district attorneys, and the territorial judges. Practically all the foreign ministers were changed also. GROVER CLEVELAND The Cleveland Democracy 535 The independent position of the executive was still further 753. The , nn ^\ i i r j.i Presidential strengthened in the same year (1886) by the passage or the succession Presidential Succession Act. According to the law hitherto ex- Act of l886 isting, in the event of the death or disability of both the Presi dent and the Vice President the succession went to the Speaker of the House and then to the president//*? tempore of the Senate. But it frequently happened that one, or even both, of these men belonged to the opposite party from the President s. - It seemed unjust that the office of President should not, in spite of all ac cidents, remain in the hands of the party successful at the polls. Vice President Hendricks had died in November, 1885, and the Senate had chosen John Sherman as president pro tempore, thus putting an ardent Republican in line for the presidency in case of Cleveland s death or disability. The Presidential Succession Act remedied this injustice by making the cabinet officers (who were all, of course, of the President s own party) the heirs to the presidency in the order of the creation of their departments, beginning with the Secretary of State. Important as Cleveland regarded his contest for the restora- 754. The tion of the independence and dignity of the executive office, the surplus so completely overshadowed by Congress since the Civil War, he felt that his chief duty was the protection of the public purse by the strictest administration of the government s finances. The unexampled prosperity of our country after the panic of 1873 had created so much wealth at home, and stimulated such a vol ume of foreign trade, that the tariff duties and revenue taxes brought into the Treasury every year far more than enough money to run the government. From $10,000,000 in 1870 the surplus grew to $145,000,000 in 1882, and in the three years following the government rolled up the huge balance of $446,- 000,000. This large surplus was an evil in itself because it withdrew millions of dollars from the channels of business to lie idle in the vaults of the Treasury ; and it was also the proof of a greater evil still, the excessive taxation of the people. Now the accumulation of a surplus could be remedied in either of two 5 3 6 History of the Republic since the Civil War 755. why ment^ not the national debt 756. various reducing the surplus ways, the government might increase its expenses or it might decrease its revenues. Obviously, only the latter way would lessen the burden of taxation. It would seem as if the most natural thing for the govern -merit to do with its surplus would be to pay off its debts, as an nonest man would do. But the matter was not so simple as an individual transaction would be. The government s debt was largely in the shape of bonds, which were held as safe invest- ,ments by people at home and abroad, and which, on account of our general prosperity, were selling at a high figure. For the government to step into the market and buy back its own bonds from the public at a premium, would not only mean considerable loss to the Treasury, but would deprive the public of one of its best forms of investment as well. Besides, as the bonds were the security on which the notes of the national .banks were issued (p. 453, note), to call in and cancel the bonds would mean to reduce the circulation of bank notes, just at a time, too, when more currency was needed for the volume of the country s trade. 1 Besides extinguishing the national debt there were other ways in which the surplus might be spent. Congress might appropri- ate j ar g e sums f or the improvement of rivers and harbors, for coast defenses and a new navy, for education in the South, or increased pensions to veterans of the Civil War. But this idea of the public Treasury as a bountiful source of wealth for en- -couraging the development of our country the old " Ameri can system " of Henry Clay and the Whigs was opposed to all the tradition and practice of the Democratic party. Cleveland .phrased the matter neatly in one of his epigrams, " The people must support the government, but the government must not support the people." 1 In spite of these considerations the government bought bonds to the value of $50,000,000 in 1886, $125,000,000 in 1887, and $130,000,000 in 1888. The bank note circulation was reduced $126,000,000 between 1886 and 1890. This lack of notes, however, was largely remedied in 1886 by the issue of silver certificates by the Treasury in denominations of $i, $2, and $5. The Cleveland Democracy 537 The logical and only remedy, then, for the disposal of the sur- 757. Reduc- plus, the remedy which would both relieve the people of undue tariff the* taxation and remove from Congress the temptation to squander best remed y the people s money, was the reduction of the tariff. To this end Cleveland devoted the chief energies of his administration. He began the attack on the protective tariff in his first annual mes sage to Congress (December, 1885), but the House refused by a vote of 154 to 149 to consider any bill for revision. In De cember, 1886, the President returned to the attack, calling the tariff a " ruthless extortion " of the people s money ; and the next year he so far departed from precedent as to devote his entire annual message (December, 1887) to the tariff situation. He declared that it was not a time for the nice discussion of theories of free trade and protection. It might, or might not, be true that a protective tariff made American wages higher, kept our money in our own country, built up a market for American manufactures, and made us independent of foreign nations for the necessities of life. He did not advocate free trade. He only insisted that the people were being overtaxed by a tariff that was " vicious, illegal, and inequitable," and that the surplus must be reduced at once. "It is a condition that confronts us, and not a theory/ he wrote. By dint of much persuasion Cleveland got the House to 753. The pass a tariff bill, framed by Roger Q. Mills of Texas, reducing the duties by some 7 or 8 per cent. But the Republican Sen- P lic y of tariff reduc- iate retused to agree, and the rates remained as they were tion i under President Arthur. Cleveland had spent his entire term j fighting for a reduction of the tariff, and lost. His daring mes- isage of 1887, written in spite of the protests of the manufac turing interests in the Democratic party, was taken up by the Republican campaign orators and pamphleteers and attacked as a free-trade document which showed hostility to the prosperity of American industry and indifference to the welfare of the American wage earner. The presidential campaign of 1888 was waged entirely on the issue of the tariff, in the very days 538 History of the Republic since the Civil War when the Mills Bill was before Congress. The issue of that campaign in the defeat of Cleveland seemed to fix the policy of protection as an unalterable principle of American politics. 1 In the four revisions of the tariff which have been made since that day (the McKinley Bill of 1890, the Wilson-Gorman Bill of 1894, the Dingley Bill of 1898, and the Payne-Aldrich Bill of 1909) the duties have been kept at figures averaging about 50 per cent, the highest duties in our history. 759. The Had Cleveland s fight for the reduction of the tariff come encouraged ten years earlier, it would have had a better chance for success, by the trusts g ut j n t h e decade which had followed the financial panic of 1873 a process had been going on which gave great strength to the protectionist policy. This was the consolidation of busi ness interests into large corporations, or " trusts." 2 By the end of Cleveland s first administration the great " coal roads " of Pennsylvania (the Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the Pennsylvania, the Lackawanna), had got control of practically all the anthracite- coal beds in the country. The lumber men, the whisky distil lers, the oil, lead, and sugar refiners, the rope makers, the iron smelters, with many other " captains of industry," were consoli dated into great trusts. Their wealth gave them immense influ ence in Congress, and this influence was exerted steadily against the reduction of tariff duties, which shielded them from foreign competition. 760. The The consolidation of capital in great corporations was attended i Lai>o?and f m tne same epoch by combinations of laborers for the secur- their demands m g o f adequate wages, a fair working day, humane treatment in 1 The Republican platform of 1888 says, "We favor the entire repeal of; internal taxes [i.e. revenue on tobacco, liquors, patent medicines, etc.] rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system." 2 The " trust " (or board of trustees) was originally a body of men holding in trust the certificates of stock of various companies included in a combine. This form of consolidation was forbidden by the Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1890, but the combinations still continue. They either absorb the majority of the stock of the various companies by direct purchase, or manage the various companies by identical boards of directors. The name " trust " is now commonly applied to any combination large and wealthy enough to tend to monopolize the production and distribution of any commodity. The Cleveland Democracy 53 case of sickness or disability, and protection against unmerited discharge. The Knights of Labor, organized by the garment^ cutters of Philadelphia in 1869, had grown by 1886 to a national organization with over 700,000 members. The object of the organization was to unite the workers of America into a great brotherhood whose motto was, " The injury of one is the con cern of all." It declared in its preamble that " the alarming development and aggression of great capitalists and corpora tions, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses." It demanded for the workers " full enjoyment of the wealth they create and sufficient leisure to develop their intellectual, moral, and social faculties, to share in the gains and honors of advancing civiliza tion." For the accomplishment of these ends the order made demands on state and national governments for laws guaran teeing the health and safety of workers in mines and factories, prohibiting the employment of children, enforcing arbitration of disputes between capital and labor, laying a graduated tax on incomes, forbidding the importation of foreign labor or the employment of convict labor, and securing the " nationalizing " (i.e. the purchase by the government) of the telegraphs, the telephones, and the railroads. 1 The strife between capital and labor was very bitter in Cleve- 761. Cleve land s first term. Over 500 labor disputes, chiefly over wages ^tempts to and hours of work, were reported in the early months of 1886 ; remed y the labor troubles and the number of strikes for that year was double the number of any previous year. 2 President Cleveland was greatly con cerned over these labor troubles. In the spring of 1886 he 1 The labor movement became prominent in politics and literature in the year 1886, when Henry George, the author of " Progress and Poverty " and an advocate of the "single tax" (a tax on land only and not on industry or commerce), ran for mayor of New York on the labor platform. A widely read novel of Edward Bellamy, entitled " Looking Backward," pictured the Utopian state of society in the year 2000, when complete cooperation should have taken the place of com petition and wage struggles. 2 The number of strikes tabulated by Adams and Sumner, " Labor Problems " (p. 180), is as follows: 1884,485 ; 1885,695 ; 1886, 1572 ; 1887, 1505 ; 1888,946. The most serious of the strikes of 1886 culminated in a deed of horror. An open-air 540 History of the Republic since the Civil War sent to Congress a special message on the subject, the first presidential message on labor in our history. The House had already appointed a standing committee on labor and created (1884) a national Bureau of Labor in the Department of the In terior for collecting statistics on the condition of wage earners. Cleveland now recommended the creation of a national commis sion of labor, to consist of three persons who should have power to hear and settle controversies between capital and labor. Con gress failed to adopt this important recommendation, but several of the states (including Massachusetts and New York) passed laws providing for the settlement of labor disputes by arbitration. 762. The The most serious trouble was with the railroads. We have abuses of the , , . , railroads already seen in the Granger movement the hostility of the Western farmers to the railroads in the early seventies (p. 513). As the great wheat and corn fields, the ranches, and the mines west of the Mississippi were developed, and the cities of the Middle West grew into busy manufacturing and distributing centers, the problem of freight transportation became of in creasing importance. The railways, except for some slight com petition on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, had a monopoly of this transportation, and their charges were virtually a tax on the producer and the manufacturer, a tax which the roads could regulate at their own good pleasure. Now in matters of taxation the public objects both to excessive rates and to a differ ence in rates for different persons, to extortion and to discrim ination. It felt that the railroads were guilty of the former offense, and knew that they were guilty of the latter. It saw their power and wealth increasing with fabulous rapidity. 1 It saw meeting in Haymarket Square, Chicago, called by anarchists to protest against the forcible repression of the strike in the McCormick Reaper Works, and to de mand an eight-hour day, was ordered by the police to disperse. When the police charged, a dynamite bomb was thrown into the midst of the squad, instantly kill ing seven men and wounding sixty more. With intrepid step the police closed their ranks and dispersed the meeting. The ringleaders of the anarchists were arrested, and the next year four of them were hanged. 1 The railroad mileage doubled in the decade 1870-1880, growing from 53,000 to 100,000 miles. During the years 1879-1884 the mileage increased four times as fast as the population of the United States. The Cleveland Democracy 541 their influence extending into state legislatures and the national Congress. It saw them allying themselves with trusts, like the - : f Standard Oil Company, to crush out competition and ruin the small producer. It saw them disturbing the natural spread of industry by offering low rates to one locality and charging high rates to another. It saw them cutting their rates on through hauls from Chicago or St. Louis to New York, where there was competition with other trunk lines, and making up the loss by charging high freights to shippers who depended on one road alone for getting their products to the markets. In all this the public judged the railroads to be guilty of gross injustice and ingratitude. They had been granted charters by the states as public benefactors ; they had been the recipients of large grants of public lands ; they had been accorded privileges of tax exemption ; they had been allowed to take private prop erty when necessary for the construction of their lines; they had had their bonds guaranteed by the state legislatures. Their obvious duty in return for these favors was to give the public the best possible service consistent with a fair interest on the actual capital invested in their construction and operation. These great railroad corporations, or " transportation trusts," 763. The like the oil and lumber and whisky trusts, were chartered by Lavvf and the state legislatures. The national government had no specific power given it by the Constitution to deal with the business interests of the country, although it had, during its period of great authority at the time of the Civil War, created a system of national banks. Some of the state legislatures, responding to the outcry against the railroads, passed so-called Granger Laws, holding the roads to fair and equitable freight charges. But when a decision in the United States court (Wabash Railroad vs. the State of Illinois) ruled in 1886 that no state law could apply to commerce carried on between two or more states, the Granger Laws were seen to be ridiculously ineffec tive, for no railroad of any importance had its traffic confined to a single state. the Wabash case 54 2 History of the Republic since the Civil War 764. The Now the Constitution (Article I, Sect. 8, clause 3) gives Con- interstate .. . . . . commerce gress power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and Act, 1887 among the several states. " By virtue of this power Congress passed the famous Interstate Commerce Act (or Cullom Act) in Feb ruary, 1887. The act provided for a commission of five men, with power to investigate the books of railroads doing inter state business and to call the managers of the roads to hearings. It forbade any discrimination in rates, and required the roads to file their tariffs for public inspection. It prohibited the " pooling" of traffic * and the charging of a higher rate on a short haul than on a long haul. The commission had no power of jurisdiction, but only of investigation ; that is, each case against a railroad had to be tried in a federal court. The influence of the railroads with the courts and the skill of shrewd corporation lawyers in " interpreting " the rather vague language of the statute reduced the Interstate Commerce Act to a " useless piece of legislation " in the opinion of Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court. 765. Effect Yet, for all its failure to control the railroads adequately, the on future act was of great importance. It taught the people that our legislation g Overnmen t could and would exert its power in the sphere of private industries. It made the railroads open their books and publish their rates ; 2 and this wholesome prescription of pub licity sobered many a reckless board of directors. Most impor tant of all, it created a precedent for the government regulation of railroads and other corporations, and made the more effective legislation that has followed (in the Elkins Bill of 1903, the Hepburn Bill of 1906,* and the Taft administration measures 1 By " pooling " is meant dividing the traffic by amicable agreement among the various roads which would naturally compete for it. The total profits are then put into a common treasury and divided according to the business assigned to each road. It is a device to kill competition between the roads. 2 During 1887 and 1888 about 270,000 freight tariffs were filed. At one time they were received by the commission at the rate of 500 a day. 3 Prohibiting the giving of rebates from the rates of the published tariffs, and punishing shippers for accepting rebates as well as the railroads for giving them. 4 Giving the commission certain powers of control over the railroads in making rates. The Cleveland Democracy 543 of 19 1 o 1 ), seem like the natural extension of a policy already firmly established by the government. President Cleveland came out of the trying circumstances 766. cieve- of his first administration indisputably the leading man of the riwm^iaS? 1 " Democratic party. Even his enemies in the party were obliged to concede his " unflinching integrity and robust common sense." He had shown a generation which had grown up with out seeing a Democrat in the presidential chair that the word was not a synonym for " rebel," " free trader," " demagogue," or " horse thief." He was renominated by acclamation in the Democratic national convention held at St. Louis in June, 1888. Elaine, his rival in 1884, was absent in Europe on an extended trip. He would undoubtedly have been the choice of the Republican convention at Chicago had he not written from Florence, and again cabled from Paris, his unconditional refusal to take the nomination. The convention, passing over the more prominent candidate, John Sherman, selected, at Elaine s suggestion, 2 General Benjamin Harrison, United States senator from Indiana, an able lawyer and an honored veteran of the Civil War, the grandson of the old Whig hero and Presi dent, William Henry Harrison. The campaign was waged almost entirely on the tariff issue. 767. why It had none of the slanderous, vituperative character of the campaign of 1884, although money was freely spent to win the doubtful states of Indiana, Illinois, and New York. Cleveland s 1 Enlarging the commission s powers in rate making, requiring careful classi fications of freight, prohibiting the roads from changing rates approved by the commission, including telegraphs, telephones, and cable service under the com mission s jurisdiction, allowing it to suspend a freight rate for ten months even without complaint by a shipper, and creating a special court of commerce to hear appeals from the decision of the commission. This thorough bill of 1910 con tained originally provisions to let the commission supervise the issues of rail road stocks and bonds, and to make a valuation of the railroad as a basis for the determination of fair freight rates ; but these provisions failed of adoption. 2 After the fifth ballot had been cast a cable message was sent by the conven tion leaders to Elaine, who was visiting Andrew Carnegie at his country seat, Skibo Castle, in Scotland, asking him to change his mind and accept the nomination. The answer came : "Too late. Elaine immovable. Take Harrison and Phelps." The convention took Harrison and Morton. 544 History of the Republic since the Civil War famous tariff message of 1887 was denounced as a free-trade document by Republican orators, and the benefits of a pro tective tariff were lauded in a long cablegram from Elaine, con gratulating the American workman on his advantages over his European brother. Cleveland lost the support of the veterans of the Civil War by his veto of a great number of pension bills, 1 and by his executive order directing that the Confederate flags stored in the War Building at Washington be restored to the Southern states from whose regiments they had been captured. 2 And, finally, in the pivotal state of New York, David B. Hill, an unscrupulous politician and a bitter enemy of the President, arranged a " deal " with the Republicans by which the anti-Cleveland men should give Harrison presidential votes in return for gubernatorial votes for Hill. The " Harrison and Hill ticket" won. The state went Republican by 13,000 in a total of 1,300,000 votes, giving Harrison the presidency. Cleveland s popular vote throughout the country, however, ex ceeded Harrison s by over 100,000 more than double the popular plurality of any successful presidential candidate since 1872. Mr. Cleveland retired to private life with this splendid indorsement of his policies by his fellow citizens. A BlLLION-DOLLAR COUNTRY 768. The Re- Although the election of 1888 gave the Republicans only a acS^iSSg- narrow majority in Congress, and actually registered a popular 1890 triumph for Cleveland, the Republicans proceeded as though 1 In 1885 nearly three times as many- persons were receiving pensions from the government as at the close of the Civil War. In 1866 our pension charge was $15,000,000 ; by 1885 it had grown to $65,000,000. Pensions were obtained by swindling agents on absurd claims. Hundreds of pension bills were passed at a single sitting of the Senate. Cleveland insisted on investigating each case thor oughly, and vetoed some 100 out of the 747 pension bills passed in his first term. Only one was passed over his veto. 2 This so-called " Rebel Flag Order " was a blunder on the part of the Presi dent. He had no authority to restore the flags, which were national property ; and he revoked the order when he saw his mistake. In 1905 a Republican Congress passed a bill restoring the " rebel flags " to their states, and the bill was signed by a Republican President. The Cleveland Democracy 545 they had been swept into office by a tidal wave like Jackson s victory of 1828 or the Whig revolution of 1840. They reversed the entire policy of the Cleveland administration, advo cating lavish expenditures in the place of public economy, re newed coercion of the South instead of conciliation, increase in tariff rates rather than reduction, a bold, aggressive foreign policy to replace the cautious diplomacy carried on by Cleveland s State Department. The new President was a complete contrast to his prede- 769. Presi- .. . ^ ,, dent Harrison cessor. He was a party man, willing to receive and respect the and the Re _ warning sent him just after his election by the leader of the Sen ate, John Sherman : " The Presi dent should have no policy distinct from that of his party, and this is better represented in Congress than in the executive." Courtesy required that Harrison should offer the highest position in his patronage to the man who had made him the choice of the party. Elaine accepted the portfolio of State, and throughout the admin istration completely overshadowed his nominal chief in the White House. The Speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed of Maine, was also a masterful, conspicuous figure in the administration. He ran the House in such dictatorial fashion that he was nick named " Czar Reed." The Republican majority was slim, and the Democrats could prevent a quorum and the transaction of business by refusing to answer to the roll call. Speaker Reed put through a set of rules which authorized him to count as " present " all members on the floor of the House ; and he extended his authority even to the corridors, the cloakroom, and the barber s shop. He refused to recognize speakers or put Benjamin Harrison 546 History of the Republic since the Civil War motions whose evident intent was to delay the business of the House. In a word, he made Congress a perfect machine for the dispatch of the Republican program, and elevated the Speaker to a position of autocratic power which he held unim paired up to the year 19 ic. 1 Thus in both branches of Congress and in the cabinet the President was dwarfed by men whose talents, force, and popularity far exceeded his own. 770. Expend- The Republican Congress of 1880-1801, approving the re- ituresofCon- v B , . . gress on mark or General Grant s son that a surplus is easier to handle and U penSons than a deficit," began immediately to reduce the surplus by generous appropriations. It increased the number of steel ves sels in the navy from three vessels in 1889 to twenty-two in 1893, putting the United States among the half-dozen greatest naval powers of the world. It spent large sums on coast de fenses, lighthouses, and harbors. It repaid the state treasuries some $15,000,000 of the direct taxes levied at the beginning of the Civil War. But its chief extravagance was in the matter of pensions. During the campaign, Harrison, referring to Cleve land s careful examination of all applications for pensions, re marked that it was " no time to be weighing the claims of the old soldiers with an apothecary s scales." Congress now pro ceeded to grant them pensions without weighing their claims at all. The raid on the Treasury was uninterrupted. The dis bursements for pensions rose during Harrison s term from $88,000,000 to $159,000,000 annually, a sum greater than the cost of the army and navy of the United States in any year of peace during the nineteenth century. 2 1 The immense power of the Speaker consisted in the fact that he appointed all the committees of the House, that as presiding officer he could recognize, or not, as he pleased, the member who rose to speak, and that he was c x officio on the Rules Committee, which arranges the whole calendar of the House, and can keep any bill from "coming up" as long as it chooses to. In the spring of 1910 a body of Republican insurgents, with the help of Democratic votes, passed a resolution depriving the Speaker (Joseph G. Cannon) of some of his power. For example, he was " deposed " from the Rules Committee, which is hereafter to be elected by the House. 2 "Corporal" Tanner, commissioner of pensions appointed by President Harrison, is said to have remarked on taking office, " God help the surplus I " The Cleveland Democracy 547 Altogether the appropriations of Harrison s first Congress 771. our reached the $1,000,000,000 mark. When the Democrats cried country* 01 out at the extravagance of a billion-dollar Congress, Speaker Th Reed quietly replied that it was " a billion-dollar country." In fact the eleventh census (1890), compiled in 25 volumes, re vealed the astonishing prosperity of the United States at the end of the first century of its existence under the Constitution. 1 Our population was 62,500,000 and our wealth $65,000,000,- ooo. Especially noticeable was the concentration of our people in cities. The number of cities of over 8000 inhabitants doubled in the decade 1880-1890, and by the latter year such cities contained fully one half the population of New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Advance in civilization tends to encourage greater centralization of government, and with the extension of the government s activities brings an increasing ratio of the expense of government to population. In Washington s day our country of 5,000,000 inhabitants, largely of the farming class, could be run for $11,000,000 a year, a little over two dollars a head. The estimated expenses for the year 1910 (exclusive of the Post Office Department) were $735,000,000, or about eight dollars a head for a popula tion of over 90,000,000. A billion dollars, therefore, for the two years 1889-1891, when our population was 62,500,000, meant almost exactly the/^r capita expense of our country at the present day certainly an extravagance for twenty years ago. The census showed also that the South was recovering from 772. Progress the ravages of the Civil War and the Reconstruction period, of the South and was beginning that marvelous career of industrial pros perity which has been the feature of our growth in the present Six months of his extravagance was all the Republican Congress could stand. Although twenty-five years had passed since the close of the war a Dependent Pension Bill gave from $6 to $12 a month to all men who had served 90 days in the war, whether or not their inability to earn their support was due to injuries received in the service. 1 A few weeks after his inauguration Mr. Harrison had been the central figure in an imposing pageant in New York City in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington (April 30, 1789). 773. New states in the Northwest, 1889-1890 548 History of the Republic since the Civil War generation. Encouraged by Northern capital, the South was building mills for spinning her own cotton, improving her transportation lines by land and water, exploiting the splendid forests of the Carolinas and Georgia, and opening the rich deposits of coal and iron which stretched in an unbroken line of 300 miles through the highlands from West Virginia to Alabama. By 1890 the latter state ranked third in the Union The Locks in the " Soo " The Sault Sainte Marie Canal at the outlet of Lake Superior, through which over $40,000,000 worth of merchandise passes annually in the production of iron,_and the South as a whole was produc ing more coal and iron than the whole country had mined twenty years earlier. In the Far Northwest the tier of territories extending from Minnesota to Oregon were filling rapidly with farmers, ranch men, lumbermen, and miners. The Indian frontier had largely disappeared. The reservations were an obstacle to the Pacific railroads, and had to go. The government tried to break up the tribal organization of the Indians by the Dawes Bill of 1887, TERRITORIAL, GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT 1776 to the present time &aff B ^ 1/8 A. A &4~% 100 200 3QO 400 SCALE OF MILES 500 J5 30 Vest from 92 Greenwich 87 The Cleveland Democracy 549 which granted each head of an Indian family 160 acres of land and American citizenship. The next year some 15,000 Indian youths were in government schools, where it was hoped that they would be weaned by the industry and science of the white man from the shiftless, roaming, cruel life of the tribe. With the stubborn but vain resistance of the Sioux of Dakota, in 1890, to the advancing tide of civilization our great Indian wars were at an end. By that date the territories of the Northwest had already become states of the Union. On November 2, 1889, President Harrison proclaimed the admission of North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, and the next year Idaho and Wyoming were added. For the first time in our history an unbroken tier of states reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 1 Politics figured in the admission to statehood of the six great territories of the Northwest. The Republicans counted on a majority in all of them except Montana, as they had been largely settled by pioneers from the stanch Republican states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. As states they were expected to contribute ten senators and five or six repre sentatives to the slim Republican majority in Congress, besides adding about fifteen electoral votes to the Republican column in the next presidential year. The Republicans also renewed the attempt, apparently aban- 774. The doned during the Haves administration, to retain the colored J ede ^ alEleC J tion Law of vote of the South. There was no doubt that the Southern states 1890 1 The government purchased from the Indians the district of Oklahoma (" the beautiful land ") in Indian Territory and opened it for settlement at noon, April 22, 1889. A horde of pioneers, who had been waiting anxiously on the borders, swarmed into the coveted territory, and before night several " cities " were staked out. In 1890 the only territories that remained within the limits of the United States were Utah, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Arizona, and New Mexico. Utah was entitled to statehood by its population, but the existence of the Mormon in stitution of polygamy prevented its admission until the Mormon Church prom ised to abolish polygamy (1895). Oklahoma and Indian Territory were combined and admitted as the state of Oklahoma in 1908. Bills passed Congress in 1910 enabling Arizona and New Mexico to frame state constitutions. With the ad mission of Arizona and New Mexico we shall have a solid band of forty-eight states from ocean to ocean, and our only territories (Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico) will be rather of the nature of foreign colonies. 55 History of the Republic since the Civil War were violating both the Fifteenth and the Fourteenth Amend ments. They were depriving the negro of his vote by fraud, force, or intimidation ; and they were still enjoying a representa tion in Congress based on their total population, black and white. At the time of Harrison s election they had over twenty congress men and presidential electors more than the strict enforcement of the second section of the Fourteenth Amendment would entitle them to. Accordingly the Republican House of 1890 passed the Federal Election Law (called by the Democrats the " Force Bill"), providing that, on the petition of 500 voters, federal agents should supervise the national elections in any district. In the more conservative Senate the bill was fortunately defeated ; for tunately, for, in spite of the fact that the South enjoys a larger representation in Congress than its voting population entitles it to, the reintroduction of federal supervision and federal arms in the Southern elections would have only fanned into flame the embers of sectional bitterness. The failure of the Federal Elec tion Bill of 1890 marks the end of political interference by the North in Southern elections, although there is still a strong and widespread feeling in the North that the government ought to take steps to protect the negro against lynching and to guarantee him his constitutional right to the ballot. 1 775. The Me- The Republican platform of 1888 pledged the party to a high protective tariff. In the spring of 1890, therefore, William Mc- Kinley of Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, 1 On the whole, public opinion in the North seems to favor letting the South handle the negro problem in its own way. Most of the Southern states have framed constitutions since 1890 containing clauses which practically disqualify the negro, for a while at least. For example, in the Louisiana Constitution of 1898 the famous " grandfather clause " restricts the suffrage to those whose grandfathers voted. Under this clause the negro registration was reduced in Louisiana from 127,000 in 1896 to 5300 in 1900. The Supreme Court has refused to pronounce on the constitutionality of such proceedings, in other words, has "let the South alone," which is all that it asks. The cause for this complacency on the part of the North is probably chiefly the large investments of Northern capital in Southern industries, and the consequent desire to have business un disturbed by political wranglings. It may be that the idea of a tardy reparation for the injuries done the South in the Reconstruction days also influences the Northern attitude. The Cleveland Democracy 551 introduced into the House the tariff bill which bears his name. Duties were increased on almost all articles of household con sumption, food, carpets, clothing, tools, coal, wood, tinware, linen, thread. Prices rose immediately. Wage earners felt the pinch throughout the country. The opponents of protection claimed that the tariff benefited the trusts alone ; that the in creased American capital due to the tariff went into the pockets of the manufacturers as profits, not to the workers as wages. So perfect was the Republican House machine under the 776. The Reed rules that the important McKinley Bill was passed in less ver Act? 1890 than two weeks. In the Senate, however, it was held up for four months. Seventeen of the forty-seven Republican Senators came from farming and mining states west of the Mississippi. They were not much interested in high protection, but some of them were very much interested in silver mining. They thought Congress ought to " protect " silver as an American product just as much as wool or iron. This could not be done by any kind of tariff legislation, but the government might purchase enough silver to keep the price of the metal from falling in the general market. Although by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 (p. 518) the government had for twelve years been purchasing silver at the rate of $2,000,000 a month, the price of the metal declined steadily. The silver miners clamored for the government to buy still more, even to take all the silver that should be brought to the mints. In order to win the Western votes for the tariff and also to "do something for silver " as an American product, Con gress in 1890 passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, by which it pledged the government to buy 4,500,000 ounces of silver every month at the market price (at that time about a dollar an ounce), and issue certificates to the full amount of the silver purchased. The government stored the silver in its vaults, and, as the price kept declining in spite of its large purchases, it saw its accumulating stock constantly shrinking in value. The next administration reaped the full curse of this foolish act to bribe the " silver senators." 552 History of the Republic since the Civil War 777. The " tidal wave of 1890 778. Our foreign pol icy, 1891- 1893 779. Pan- Americanism and reci procity When the congressional election of 1890 approached, the Republicans had been in power for twenty months. Their record was not an encouraging one on which to go before the voters of the country. They had almost emptied the Treasury by expenditures, especially in the pension department, which seemed reckless. They had tried to revive the discarded policy of controlling the elections in the South by federal force. They had managed Congress with a high hand, and sought to increase their narrow majorities by admitting states whose population was far below the federal ratio of representation. 1 They had committed the government to the purchase of 54,000,000 ounces of silver per annum at a constant loss. And, finally, they had passed a tariff act which increased the price of living for every household in the land. The verdict of the country at the polls was what is popularly known as a " landslide," - a crushing condemnation of the policy of the party in power. The election returned to Congress 235 Democrats and 88 Republicans. For the remaining two years of Harrison s term nothing in the way of legislation could be accomplished. The large Demo cratic majority in the House frustrated the administration s plans, while the Senate, with its Republican majority of six, kept the House from repealing the high tariff legislation. All interest in these years centers in the foreign policy of the coun try, where the executive and the Senate could act unhampered by the House. It will be remembered that Elaine, during his few months of vigorous service as Secretary of State in Garfield s cabinet (1881), had tried to increase our influence in Central and South America by securing control of the Isthmian Canal route and by negotiating reciprocity treaties of commerce between the United States and the Latin- American republics (p. 527). In 1 In 1889 the ratio was one congressman to every 151,000 of the population. The population of Montana was 132,000, of Idaho 84,000, and of Wyoming only 60,000 at the time of their admission. The Cleveland Democracy 553 Harrison s cabinet Elaine resumed his active policy. A Pan- American Congress (already proposed in 1881) met at Wash ington in October, 1889. It was composed of delegates from nineteen countries of Latin America. The subjects discussed were mutual trade regulations, a uniform standard of weights and measures, a common currency, and a code for the arbitra tion of the frequent quarrels among the Latin republics. A Bureau of the American Republics was founded at Washing ton to keep us informed of the fortunes of our sister states in the tropics. Elaine labored hard to get his reciprocity doctrine incorporated into the McKinley tariff in 1890, but was able only to get a partial recognition of reciprocity from the Senate. 1 Diplomatic quarrels with Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and 780. The Chile brought us at times to the verge of war during Harrison s islands administration. The Samoan Islands in the Pacific Ocean were occupied on a " tripartite " agreement between Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Prince Bismarck, the German chancellor, was anxious to build up a large colonial empire to rival Great Britain s. Acting under his orders the German con sul in Samoa schemed to oust the British and Americans. He raised the German flag over Apia, the chief town of the islands, set up his own " king," declared war on the rightful king in the name of his Majesty the German Emperor, and prepared to shell the villages which resisted him. American warships 1 It was a sort of "backhanded" reciprocity that Mr. Aldrich, the Senate leader, got into the bill. Instead of removing certain duties in case the southern republics opened their markets to our products, the President was authorized to ncrease the duties in case those republics increased the tax on our exports to them. Elaine would have paid with our pork, beef, lumber, flour, shoes, ron, furniture, for the coffee, rubber, hides, drugs, and other imports from the jsouthern republics which did not compete with our own production, thereby stimulating our trade and reviving our shipping. But Congress feared that it would be an entering wedge for free trade. Ten years later, when he was Presi dent of the United States, McKinley himself advocated Elaine s policy of reciprocity. It was the topic of the speech he made at the Pan-American Expo sition at Buffalo on the eve of his assassination (September 5, 1901). But Congress steadily refused to let down the bars of protection at any point until, under President Taft s urgent advocacy, it passed, in extra session in the summer of 1911, a bill providing for reciprocity with Canada. 781. The seal fisheries in Bering Sea 554 History of the Republic since the Civil War were hurried to Apia, and the decks were cleared for action, when a terrific typhoon struck the harbor (March 16, 1889), capsizing the German and American ships or dashing them on the beach and the coral reefs. A conference followed at Berlin the next month, in which the chancellor, in spite of much blustering, was forced by Blame s firm dispatches to recognize the neutrality of the islands and the full rights of England and Our Fleet leaving Hampton Roads on its Voyage round the World the United States in the protectorate over the native king. It was the first conspicuous participation of our country in " world politics," and it was also a spur to the construction of an ade quate navy. By the end of the following year Congress had appropriated $40,000,000 for the building of new warships, and before the end of Harrison s administration we had risen from the twelfth to the fifth place among the naval powers. Blaine had inherited from the Cleveland administration a dis pute with Great Britain over the seal fisheries in Bering Sea. He contended that Bering Sea was a mare clausum (" closed The Cleveland Democracy 555 sea"), appertaining entirely to Alaska, and hence within the sole jurisdiction of the United States. The British claimed that it was the " high sea," and that our jurisdiction extended only to the ordinary three-mile limit from shore. Under executive orders our revenue cutters seized eight British sealing vessels during the summer of 1889, all outside the three-mile limit, and Blaine addressed the British premier, Lord Salisbury, in language which drew in reply a virtual threat of war (June, 1890). On sober reflection our government receded from its dictatorial position and agreed to submit the whole matter to arbitration. The tribunal, which met at Paris in 1893, decided every point against us. Bering Sea was declared open, and we were forced to pay damages for the seizure of the British vessels. Serious quarrels with Italy and Chile also disturbed the Harrison administration. In the former case the Italian gov ernment, not understanding that our federal administration has no concern with the criminal jurisdiction of any state, demanded that our State Department investigate the murder of some Italians in New Orleans and bring to punishment the guilty men ; while in Chile a revolutionary party which had over turned the government objected to our minister s offering an asylum to the leaders of the defeated faction. It looked like certain war with Chile when, in the autumn of 1891, American sailors from the cruiser Baltimore were killed in the streets of Valparaiso, and the Chilean foreign minister publicly character ized President Harrison s protest to Congress as an " errone ous or deliberately incorrect " statement. But the firm attitude of our government, coupled with patience and considerateness in the negotiations, brought Italy to accept, and Chile to offer, the apologies which closed the incidents. Blame s popularity was enhanced by his vigorous administra- 732. The tion of the Department of State. In 1891 there were rumors of his nomination for the presidency the next year. Blaine him- Elaine self gave no support to the movement, and even declared early 556 History of the Republic since the Civil War in 1892 that he was not a candidate. However, three days be fore the Republican convention met at Minneapolis (June 4, 1892), Elaine suddenly resigned his cabinet position in a curt note. His motives, like the motives of his conduct in 1888, have never been fully known. Illness, tedium of the cares of office, lack of sympathy with his chief, desire for an eleventh- hour nomination for the presidency, have all been advanced as the causes for his resignation. At any rate, he received only 182 votes in the convention to 535 for Harrison, and retired, much broken in health, to his Maine home, where he died the following January. Elaine s character is one of the hardest to estimate in all our history. He was brilliant, able, genial, and brave ; but there persistently appears in his character and deeds a mysterious spot of moral suspicion that will not "out" with all the washings of friendly biographers. He could be mercilessly clear in his exposure of other men ; but in his revelation of self there was always a suggestion of fog. On the whole, he was our most prominent political leader between Lincoln and Roosevelt. 783. The As the presidential campaign of 1892 approached, it was evi- party 1St dent that a new factor of great importance had entered our national politics. We have already noticed the activity of the Grangers and the Knights of Labor in the seventies and the eighties. About 1890 these organizations (expanded already into the Farmers Alliance and the American Federation of Labor) united to make a compact political party. They held a national convention at Cincinnati in May, 1891, with over 1400 dele gates from 32 states. They adopted the title of People s party (familiarly " Populists "), and drew up a radical platform de manding, among other reforms, the free coinage of silver, the abolition of the national banks, a graduated income tax, the government ownership of railroads, steamship lines, telegraph and telephone service, and the election of United States sena tors by popular vote. The next year they assembled at Denver and nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa for president. TJie Cleveland Democracy 557 Meanwhile the Democrats were in a quandary. Cleveland 784. cieve- , . , ^ , , , , .^ . ,_, land reflected was their strongest man, but he had bitter enemies among the in l892 machine politicians of the East, like Governor David B. Hill of New York, while his fearless condemnation of free silver made him an impossible candidate in the eyes of the Democratic managers in the West. But the very qualities which disquali fied Cleveland in the eyes of the politicians commended him to the people. He had been a people s President in 1885 ; he be came the people s nominee in 1892. In spite of the efforts of the Democratic machine politicians to secure anti-Cleveland delegates to the convention, the tide of popular feeling set stronger and stronger toward the ex-President as the day of the convention approached. He was nominated on the first ballot, and the following November was elected over Harrison by 277 votes to 145, with a popular plurality of about 400,000. A Dem ocratic House was reflected, and the Republicans lost their long hold in the Senate. For the first time since Buchanan s day a Democratic administration had a majority in both branches of Congress. For the first time also since the election of 1860 a third party figured in the electoral column. Weaver, the Populist candidate, carried the four states of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Nevada, receiving 22 electoral votes and polling over 1,000,000 popular votes. The significance for the Democratic party of this radical movement in the West will appear when we study the presi dential campaign of 1896. PROBLEMS OF CLEVELAND S SECOND TERM It is doubtful if any other American president in times of 785. Diffl- peace has had to contend with such harassing problems as con- fronted Grover Cleveland when he was inaugurated for a second President Cleveland time, March 4, 1893. The Treasury, which he had turned over in 1893 to President Harrison s secretary four years earlier with a bal ance of about $100,000,000, was empty. The gold reserve, 5 5 8 History of the Republic since the Civil War maintained by the government to protect its paper money in cir culation, had sunk to the danger limit. Throughout the country there was serious industrial depression, due to uncertainty as to how a solid Democratic Congress would treat the tariff, and to apprehension lest the radical Populists of the West should cap ture the Democratic party. Thousands of laborers were thrown out of employment just at the time when the high prices fol lowing the McKinley tariff made their living most precarious ; and agitators were ready to organize the discontented into a cru sade against the great capitalist interests, the railroads, and the protected trusts. 786. The The most immediate problem that confronted the President state of the J _ 1 . Treasury was the condition of the 1 reasury. Ever since the resumption of specie payments, in 1879, it had been the policy of the govern ment to keep a reserve of at least $100,000,000 in gold for the redemption of any of the $346,000,000 in greenbacks still in circulation. By the Sherman Silver Act of 1890 the government was steadily increasing the volume of its paper money by issuing certificates to the value of the silver purchased. The green backs and silver certificates in circulation in 1893 amounted to nearly $500,000,000, all of which the Treasury considered itself bound to redeem in gold if the demand were made. 787. The Now it is a well-known economic law that when currency of different grades of value exists in a country, the cheaper kind drives the other out of circulation. This means simply that if a man has his choice between paying a bill with dollars that he knows will always and everywhere be worth 100 cents and dol lars which he suspects may sometime or somewhere be worth only 50 cents, he will part with the latter and save the former. In spite of our government s efforts to maintain a "parity," or a constant ratio, between silver and gold, silver steadily declined in price, and the value of the silver dollar consequently shrank. Banks and individuals then began to hoard their gold. The yellow metal threatened to disappear from circulation. Just before the passage of the Sherman Act the government was The Cleveland Democracy 559 receiving 85 per cent of its customs duties in gold ; two years later less than 20 per cent of these payments were made in gold. To make matters worse, the uncertainty and depression in busi ness made foreigners unwilling to invest in our securities, and we had to ship large quantities of gold abroad to pay unfavorable trade balances. Two immediate duties were before President Cleveland, to 788. The stop the further purchase of silver, and to replenish the Treasury Sherman Act, with gold. The first of these l893 duties was accomplished by the repeal of the Sherman Act, in an extra session of Congress called in the late summer of 1893. l The replenishment of the gold 789. The supply, however, proved a more actions witfc difficult task, which occupied the J * p< Mor an entire administration. Twice dur ing the year 1894 the Secretary of the Treasury sold $50,000,000 worth of bonds for gold, without helping matters much. For the buyers of the bonds simply pre sented greenbacks at the Treas ury for redemption, to get the gold to pay for the bonds. They thus took out of the Treasury with one hand the gold they put in with the other. Determined to stop this " endless-chain " process of the withdrawal and the restoration of the same millions continually, Cleveland early in 1895 summoned to the White House Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, the most powerful financial figure in America. Mr. Morgan arranged with the President to furnish the Treasury some $65,000,000 in gold in return for the government s 4 per cent 1 This repeal passed the House readily, but was fought bitterly for two months in the Senate, where one sixth of the members came from the seven " silver states " of the West, which contained less than 2 per cent of the population of the country. Copyright, Pach Brothers J. Pierpont Morgan 5 60 History of the Republic since the Civil War bonds. The price Mr. Morgan charged for the gold secured him the bonds at a considerably lower figure than the public were paying for them at the time, and a cry went up from the Western Democrats and Populists that Cleveland had entered into an unholy alliance with the money lenders, and was squandering the country s resources to enrich the bankers of New York and London. If Mr. Morgan did drive a hard bargain with the government, he at least secured an actual supply of gold for the Treasury (one half the amount being obtained from foreign bankers) and went to considerable expense to prevent the ship ment of gold abroad. The President defended himself for enter ing into this private bargaining for gold on the ground that the state of the Treasury was desperate and that the people had twice within a year given proof of their unwillingness to part with their gold hoardings to strengthen the credit of the govern ment. 1 Altogether during Cleveland s administration the govern ment issued bonds to the amount of $262,000,000 in order to attract enough gold to keep the reserve up to the $100,000,000 mark. The election of 1896, which was fought on the currency issue, resulted in the defeat of silver, and gold came out of hiding. 790. Thewn- Although Cleveland was elected in 1892 chiefly on the tariff Tariff ^Ti^ issue, his efforts to get from Congress a purely revenue tariff of 1894 were no more successful than they had been in 1888 (p. 537). William L. Wilson of West Virginia introduced a bill in Decem ber, 1893, providing for the removal of duties on all raw mate rials (wool, iron ore, coal, lumber, sugar) and a considerable reduction in the duties on manufactured articles (china, glass, silk, cotton and woolen goods). The bill promptly passed the House by 204 votes to no, but when it reached the Senate 1 Opinion will always be divided on the wisdom of Cleveland s action. It cost him the bitter hostility of the West, but it satisfied his own conscience. He con cludes the chapter on The Bond Issues in his " Presidential Problems" (1904) with the words, " Though Mr. Morgan and Mr. Belmont and scores of others who were accessories in these transactions may be steeped in destructive propen sities and may be constantly busy in sinful schemes, I shall always recall with sat isfaction and self-congratulation my association with them at a time when our country sorely needed their aid." The Cleveland Democracy 561 it was "held up." It made no difference that the Senate was Democratic. The " coal senators " of West Virginia, the " iron senators " of Alabama, the " sugar senators " of Louisiana, the " lumber senators " of Montana, all fought for the protection of their " interests." Under the lead of the Democratic Senator Gorman of Maryland (heavily interested in the sugar trust) the Wilson Bill was " mutilated " beyond recognition by over 600 amendments. Only wool and copper were left as free raw ma terials, and the average of the duties was as high as under the Republican bill of 1883. It was still a " protective " tariff. The House reluctantly yielded, to save a deadlock, but President Cleveland refused to sign the bill, which he called a piece of "party perfidy and dishonor." It became a law (July, 1894) without his signature. The history of the Wilson-Gorman Bill showed that the trusts were firmly intrenched in the United States Senate, and increased the clamor of the radicals that the senators be elected by a popular vote. To make up for an anticipated loss of some $50,000,000 in 791. The tariff duties, the Wilson Bill contained a provision for a tax of 1- 2 per cent on incomes exceeding $4000. An income tax rang ing from 3 per cent to 10 per cent had been imposed by the federal government during the years 1861 to 1872, to help meet the tremendous cost of the Civil War ; but the income tax in time of peace was resisted as unconstitutional and inquisitorial by the wealthy classes, on whom its burden would fall. 1 In May, 1895, the Supreme Court decided, by a vote of five to four (re versing its decision of 1880), that the income tax was a direct tax and hence could be levied only by apportionment among the states according to population (Constitution, Art. I, sect. 2, clause 3). Such apportionment would be impossible, as the wealth of the states bore no fair ratio to their population. This decision exempted the wealth obtained from rents, stocks, and bonds 1 When we think how small a percentage of the people of our land even to-day enjoy an income of $4000 a year, we realize that the income tax was dis tinctly a piece of " class legislation." 562 History of the Republic since the Civil War from contributing to the support of the government, while al most every article of consumption of the poor laborer was taxed by the tariff. It still further stirred the radical temper of the West. The Supreme Court was decried as the rich man s ally, and the revocation of its power to pronounce laws of Congress unconstitutional was demanded. 1 792. coxey s With the financial and tariff policy of the country at sixes and sevens, the administration was still further harassed by serious labor troubles. The industrial depression of 1893 brought fail ures, strikes, and lockouts in its train. The winter was attended with great suffering throughout the country, and tramps and vagrants swarmed over the land. An " army " of the unemployed, led by one Jacob Coxey, marched from Ohio to Washington to demand that Congress issue $500, 000,000 in irredeemable paper currency, to be spent in furnishing work for the idle by improv ing the highways all over the Union. The " invasion " of Wash ington by " Coxey s army " ended in a farce. As the men marched across the lawn of the Capitol on May-day morning their leaders were arrested for " walking on the grass," and the men straggled away to be lost in the motley city crowd. 793. The There was nothing farcical, however, in the conflict between s capital and labor which broke out in Chicago that same month of May. The Pullman Palace Car Company discharged a number of employees, and cut the wages of the rest, on the ground that it was suffering from " hard times." But in view of the fact that the company was paying 7 per cent dividends, that it had accu mulated a surplus of $25,000,000 on a capital of $36,000,000-, and that none of the officers salaries had been decreased, the workers could not see that the company was suffering, and a committee of the docked men waited on Mr. Pullman to remon strate. For this " impertinence " three men on the committee were discharged. Then nearly all the employees struck. 1 There is now (1911) before the country a proposed amendment to the Con stitution, giving Congress the right to levy a tax on incomes " from whatever source derived." Its ratification is being opposed chiefly in the Eastern states, whose wealth would have to bear the chief burden of the tax. The Cleveland Democracy 563 About 4000 of the Pullman employees were members of the 794. The fed- powerful American Railway Union, an organization founded in !^ a d the PS 1893 under the presidency of Eugene V. Debs. The union injunction took up the matter at its June meeting in 1894, and demanded that the company submit the question of wages to arbitration. This Mr. Pullman curtly refused to do. The union then for bade its men to " handle " the Pullman cars. The boycott extended to twenty-seven states and territories, affecting the railroads from Ohio to California. But the dire conflict came in Chicago. Early in July only six of the twenty- three railroads entering the city were unob structed. United States mail trains carrying Pullman cars were not allowed to move. Presi dent Cleveland ordered troops to the lake front in Chicago, and an in junction was issued ,_, r i i Entrance to the German Building at the by the federal court World s Fair ordering the strikers to cease obstructing the United States mails. The reading of the injunction was received with hoots and jeers. Debs had appealed to the strikers to refrain from violence and the destruction of property, but they could not be restrained. 1 Trains were ditched, freight cars destroyed, buildings burned and looted/ At one or two points it became necessary for the federal troops to fire on the mob to protect their own lives. 1 Especially as their number was swelled by thousands of vagrant ruffians and "bums," who had been attracted to Chicago by the great Columbian Exposition of the preceding summer. This so-called " World s Fair" of 1893, in celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, was a veritable fairyland of dazzling white buildings, softened by fountains and lagoons. The Exposition cost about $35,000,000, and was visited by over 20,000,000 people. 564 History of the Republic since the Civil War 795. Conse quences of the strike 796. The discontent of the radical Democrats Debs and his chief associates were arrested and imprisoned for contempt of court in not obeying the injunction. The strike was broken by the prompt action of the govern ment, but it left ugly consequences. For the first time in our history federal troops had fired upon American citizens to preserve order, and American citizens had been imprisoned in time of peace, by order of a judge, without jury trial or even court-martial. Both these acts seemed harsh and tyrannical to many persons. Governor Altgeld of Illinois took the President severely to task for sending troops into the state, declaring that " Illinois was able to take care of herself "; and he was gener ally supported by the Populist element of the West, while even among the conservatives of the East there was grave complaint of the injustice and danger of "government by injunction." 1 The discontent of the radicals with the administration was still further increased when the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision upholding the sentence of the Chicago fed eral judge against Debs, just one week after its condemnation of the income tax as unconstitutional (May 27, 1895). On March 4, 1895, a call went out from some "insurgent" congressmen, addressed to the Democrats of the nation, declar ing that the policy of the administration was not that of the majority of the party, and urging the radicals of the West to organize and take control of the Democratic party. The crusa ders were ready, radical Democrats, Populists, National Silver- ites ; it needed only a leader to unite them into a compact army against the money lords of Wall Street, who, they believed, had loaded their farms with mortgages and purchased legis latures and courts to thwart the people s will. But before we 1 By an " injunction " a judge " enjoins " certain persons not to commit an act which he has defined in advance as punishable. If the person disobeys the judge s order, he is fined or even committed to prison for " contempt of court," instead of being duly tried and sentenced for the act itself. The judge by this procedure becomes both the accuser and the punisher. It is evident how tyrannous such a weapon as the injunction might become in the hands of a corrupt or cruel judge. The Cleveland Democracy 565 describe the great battle between the East and the West in the election of 1896, we must turn for a moment to foreign affairs in Cleveland s second administration. The little kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands in the mid- 797. Foreign Pacific had for many years harbored American residents, who intervention came first as missionaries, then as planters and merchants to jj Hawaii, exploit the coffee and sugar farms. The American residents enjoyed rights of citizenship in Hawaii, with the franchise, and occupied high offices. Our government had a coaling station in the Islands, and a reciprocity tariff treaty, negotiated in 1875, admitted some grades of Hawaiian sugar to the United States without duty. Ever since 1854 there had been talk of annexa tion. Early in 1893 the new Queen Liliuokalani, a bitter enemy of the whites in the Islands, was deposed for attempting to overthrow the Constitution. A provisional government was set up by the white inhabitants, and the United States minister, John L. Stevens, protected the new government by a detachment of troops landed from the cruiser Boston. The Islands were declared a " protectorate " of the United States, and the Ameri can flag was raised over the government buildings. A few days later a treaty of annexation was sent by President Harrison to the Senate for ratification (February 15, 1893). The United States was to assume the Hawaiian debt of $2,000,000 and pay the deposed queen a pension of $20,000 a year. But before the treaty was ratified Congress expired and Cleveland succeeded Harrison in the White House (March 4, 1893). Cleveland withdrew the treaty from the Senate, and after satisfying himself through a special commissioner to Hawaii that Stevens had acted too zealously in the January revo lution, he ordered the flag to be lowered from the state build ings, and offered to restore Queen Liliuokalani to her throne on condition that she should pardon all the Americans concerned in the revolution. When the queen refused to abandon her cherished plans of vengeance, President Cleveland dropped the whole matter. He was abused roundly for " hauling down 566 History of the Republic since the Civil War the American flag " in Hawaii, but he had followed the century- old tradition of our Republic in refusing to seize by force the distant possessions of weaker nations on the plea of " civilizing " them. 1 798. The That the President lacked neither force nor courage in deal- Venezuelan . .,, r . i boundary dis- m g wltfl foreign nations, however, was amply proved in a sen- pute ous controversy with Great Britain over the validity of the Monroe Doctrine. The South American republic of Venezuela borders on the British colony of Guiana (see map, p. 574). A chronic boundary dispute between the two nations assumed acute form in 1886, when Great Britain maintained that the line of her frontier included some 23,000 square miles of territory, containing rich mineral deposits. Venezuela com plained of the rapacity of her powerful neighbor, and diplomatic relations between the countries were broken off (February, 1887). The United States, by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, had guaranteed the integrity of the Latin-American republics by declaring that the western continent was closed to any further extension of the European colonial system. Our State Department offered its friendly offices to Great Britain in arbitrating the disputed boundary line, but the British govern ment rejected the offer. Lord Salisbury regarded the Monroe Doctrine as an antiquated piece of American bravado, and declined to view the United States as an interested party in the dispute. Importuned by Venezuela, our State Department again and again begged England to arbitrate her claims. In February, 1895, Congress took up the matter, and by a joint resolution urged the same policy. Still Lord Salisbury remained obdurate ; and when Secretary Olney in a rather sharp dispatch (July 20, 1895) declared that the United States was " practically sovereign on this continent," and that it would " resent and 1 The provisional government maintained itself without much difficulty until the Republican administration which followed Cleveland annexed the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, by a joint resolution of Congress (July, 1898), and later made them a fully organized territory with United States citizenship (April, 1900). The Cleveland Democracy $67 resist any sequestration of Venezuelan soil by Great Britain," the English prime minister again replied in polite terms that the dispute was none of our business. But the American people believed that the maintenance of 799. The the Monroe Doctrine was their business. In December, 1895, trine upheld President Cleveland sent a message to Congress recommending that we take the decision of the boundary between Guiana and Venezuela into our own hands, " fully alive to the responsibility incurred and keenly realizing all the consequences that may follow,"- in other words, even at the risk of war with Great Britain. Both Houses of Congress immediately adopted the recommendation by a unanimous vote, appropriating $100,000 for the expenses of a boundary commission. The President s message and the action of Congress took the British people by storm. A wave of protest against war with their American kindred swept over the country. Three hundred and fifty mem bers of Parliament rebuked Lord Salisbury s stubborn attitude by sending a petition to the President and Congress of the United States that all disputes between the two nations be settled by arbitration. The prime minister gave way, and con sented courteously to furnish the American boundary commis sion with all the papers it needed. In February, 1897, a treaty was signed at Washington, by which Great Britain agreed to submit her entire claim to arbitration ; and on October 3, 1899, a tribunal at Paris gave the verdict (favorable on the whole to Great Britain), fixing the line which had been in dispute for nearly sixty years. The defense of the Monroe Doctrine in the Venezuela con- 800. Dissen- troversy was the only official action of President Cleveland s Democratic second administration (with the exception of the opening of the ranks World s Fair at Chicago) that had the general approbation of the country. Denounced by the capitalists and corporations of the East for his attempt to lower the tariff, and by the Populist farmers of the West for his determination to maintain the gold reserve, berated by the labor unions for his prompt preservation 568 History of the Republic since the Civil War 801. The Democratic convention at Chicago, July, 1896 \ of law and order at Chicago, and threatened with impeach ment for hauling down the flag which he believed was unjustly raised in the islands of the Pacific, Mr. Cleveland must have felt relieved as the time of his deliverance from the cares of office drew near. The convention of the Democratic party, which met at Chicago July 7, 1896, proved to be entirely in the hands of the radicals of the West. They rejected by a majority of 150 votes the resolution of the Eastern " moderates " commending the administration of Grover Cleveland. They wrote a platform demanding the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio to gold of 1 6 to i " without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." They con demned the issue of bonds in time of peace, denounced government by injunction, and demanded enlarged pow ers of the federal govern ment in dealing with the trusts. The choice of a promi- minent Eastern candidate for nomination, like Senator Hill of! New York, or ex-Governor Russell of Massachusetts, was im possible from the first. Among the free silverites Richard P. Bland of Missouri, author of the Silver Law of 1878, seemed to be the most promising candidate until William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska swept the convention off its feet by an oration filled with the enthusiasm of a crusader in a holy cause. The silverites made him the man of the hour, " the savior of De mocracy," " the new Lincoln." He was nominated on the fifth ballot amid scenes of the wildest enthusiasm. William Jennings Bryan The Cleveland Democracy 569 Mr. Bryan, born in 1860, had hardly more than reached the 802. Bryan legal age of eligibility for the presidency. He was a self-made a man, of Spartan simplicity of tastes and unimpeachable personal habits. As a rising young lawyer in Nebraska he had made a remarkable campaign for a seat in Congress, turning a Repub lican majority of 3000 in his district in 1888 into a Democratic majority of nearly 7000 in 1890. He served two terms in Con gress, then returned to the West to devote himself to writing and speaking in the cause of free silver. His opponent in the presidential race of 1896 was Major William McKinley of Ohio, one of the most admirable and amiable characters in our history. McKinley could oppose to Bryan s four short years of public service a well-rounded career, including meritorious serv ice in the Civil War, fourteen years in Congress, and two terms as Governor of Ohio. McKinley s nomination was secured and his campaign man- 803. "Mark" aged by " Mark " Hanna, who was the very incarnation of that ^ance" ^ spirit of commercial enterprise which we have seen creating a s en t of the great trusts of the last years of the nineteenth century. Business was everything for Hanna. " You have been in politics long enough," he wrote to a state official of Ohio in 1890, " to know that no man in public life owes the public anything." If Major McKinley s finer moral sensibilities were hurt by such cynical doctrines, his conviction that he was fighting a campaign for the preservation of our national credit and honor, was enough to "make him pardon the use of the millions of dollars which Hanna, " the advance agent of prosperity," raised to " grease the wheels " of the Republican machine. 1 The campaign was fought on the issue of free silver. The 804. Argu- radical" Democrats demanded that the government should take ments for the free coinage all the silver presented at its mints, and coin it into legal cur- of silver at rency at the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of 1 It was estimated that from August i to election day in November the ex penses of the Republican campaign were $25,000 a day. Money was sent by the central committee into every doubtful county of the Union. History of the Republic since the Civil War gold. As sixteen ounces of silver were worth in the open market only about $11 in 1896, while one ounce of gold was uni formly worth $20.87, tne silverites demanded that our govern ment should maintain in circulation dollars that were worth intrinsically only about fifty cents. 1 Their arguments for this apparent folly were that the United States was strong and in dependent and rich enough to use whatever metal it pleased for money, without regard to what England, France, or Germany did ; that the supply of gold did not furnish sufficient currency for the business of the country anyway, and that what there was of it was in the hands of bankers, who hoarded it to in crease its value; that the farmers and small traders conse quently were forced to pay an ever-increasing tax in the fruits of their labor to meet the interest (reckoned in gold values") on their mortgaged farms and shops ; that the Eastern bank ers, who alone had the gold to buy government bonds, could control the volume of currency, which (since the repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893) was based almost entirely on the na tional bonds. The unlimited coinage of silver and its direct issue to the people by the government would, they thought, break up this monopoly of the nation s money held by a feu- rich bankers on the Atlantic seaboard. 805. Bimet- The Republicans and the " sound-money " Democrats were willing to admit that we needed more currency, and favored " international bimetallism/ or the use of both gold and silver by agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world. The Republican platform pledged the party to work for such an agreement. 2 But for the United States alone to adopt the 1 The value of the silver "dollar of 371^ grains sank as follows: 18/3, 1.004 I l8 75> -9 6 l88 5> - 82 l8 93 - 6 l8 9*> ^"*9 ( due to the sus P ension of silver coinage in India in 1893). a Even this concession could not keep the ranks of the Republicans intact. Several silver delegates from Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming, including four United States senators and two congressmen, seceded from the convention under the leadership of Senator Teller of Colorado, who had been at the birth of the Republican party," and voted for every one of its candidates from Fremont to Harrison. The Cleveland Democracy double gold and silver standard would he to make us the dumping ground for the silver of the world, and so ruin our credit that we should not be able to sell a dollar s worth of our securities abroad. It was a bitter battle between the Western plowholder and 806. The the Eastern bondholder. Bryan made a whirlwind campaign, campaign of traveling 18,000 miles in fourteen weeks, making 600 speeches, which it is estimated were heard by 5,000,000 Americans. He won thousands of con verts to the doctrine of free silver, but was not able to carry the country in November. In the largest presidential vote ever cast (13,600,000) McKinley won by a plurality of about 600,000. Even in McKinley s home state Bryan polled 477,000 votes to his opponent s 525,000. The electoral vote (hardly ever a fair index of the sentiment of the country at large) was 271 to 176. The election of 1896 was of tremendous importance in our his- 807. signifi- tory. It split the Democratic party into two irreconcilable camps. 1 campaign^ It signaled the complete victory in the Republican party of the l896 business " power behind the throne " of government. Thou sands of Americans were ready in 1896 to vote for a party which represented a sane opposition to the growing power of the trusts, the monopoly of coal, oil, and lumber lands, the nurture of highly prosperous industries by a protective tariff which taxed 1 Late in the summer the gold Democrats " held a convention and nominated General John M. Palmer for President. He polled only 134,645 votes. William McKinley 572 History of the Republic since the Civil War the poor man s food and clothing, and the shameless influence of railroads, express companies, and other corporations with our legislatures. But the true " people s party," which should have solidified to combat these economic evils, was led astray by the glittering oratory of the silver champions. It rallied to a plat form that was bitterly sectional, to a doctrine that was economi cally unsound, and to a leader who was immature and untried. " Lunacy dictated the platform," said a Democratic paper in New York, " and hysteria evolved the candidate." Of two evils the majority of Americans believed they were choosing the less in voting for McKinley on Hanna s " business platform." But the election strengthened the hold upon our country of the great trusts, whose enormous political power the American people have come fully to realize and are to-day taking courage to attack. REFERENCES A People s President : D. R. DEWEY, National Problems (American Nation Series), chaps, ii viii ; E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, chaps, xxvii, xxix ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 164, 165; H. T. PECK, Twenty Years of the Republic, chaps, i, ii, iv ; GROVER CLEVELAND, Presidential Problems, chap, i; E. B. ANDREWS, The United States in our Own Time, chaps, xvii, xviii; J. W. JENKS, The Trust Problem, chaps, x-xii ; ADAMS and SUMNER, Labor Problems, chaps, vi-viii ; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chaps, xxvii, xxviii ; C. D. WRIGHT, Industrial Evolu tion of the United States, chaps, xxiv, xxvi ; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Statutes of United States History, 1861-1898, Nos. in, 115. A Billion-Dollar Country : DEWEY, chaps, i, ix-xv ; BOGART, chap, xxvi; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 166, 170, 178; PECK, chap, v; ANDREWS chaps, xix, xx; STANWOOD, chap, xxix; JAMES G. ELAINE, chaps, x-xi American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century, chap, xvi MACDONALD, Nos. i2o, 1 29; J. D. LONG, The New American Navy Vol. I, chap, i ; FRANCIS CURTIS, The Republican Party, chaps, ix-x R. T. ELY, Monopolies and Trusts, chap, vi ; JAMES BRYCE, The Ameri can Commonwealth (enlarged edition of 1911), Vol. II, chap, xciii. Problems of Cleveland s Second Term : DEWEY, chaps, xvi-xx ; Finan cial History of the United States, chap, xix; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 171, The Cleveland Democracy 573 179, 194; PECK, chaps, vii-xi; ANDREWS, chaps, xxi-xxvi ; CLEVELAND, chaps, ii-iv ; STANWOOD, Presidency, chaps, xxx, xxxi ; Tariff Contro versies, chap, xvii; MACDONALD, Nos. 98, 100, 102, 103, 117, 125, 126, 130; F. W. TAUSSIG, The Silver Situation in the United States (Publi cations of the American Economic Association, Vol. VII, pp. i-uS)> J. W. FOSTER, American Diplomacy in the Orient, chap, xi; W. J. BRYAN, The First Battle, chaps, ix-xi, xlix-1; F. J. STIMSON, The Modern Use of Injunctions (Political Science Quarterly, Vol. X, pp. 189-202) ; W. H. HARVEY, Coin s Financial School. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. The Formation of the Trusts : R. T. ELY, Labor Movement in America, pp. 138 ; H. D. LLOYD, Wealth against Commonwealth, pp. 373-388; HENRY SEAGER, Introduction to Economics, pp. 476-509; BOGART, pp. 400-416; DEWEY, National Problems, pp. 188-202. 2. "Czar" Reed: DEWEY, pp. 152-156; PECK, pp. 198-201; ANDREWS, pp. 562-564; M. P. FOLLETT, The Speaker of the House of Representatives, pp. 185-214; artbles for and against Reed s methods, in the North American Review, Vol. CLI, pp. 90-111, 237250; T. B REED, A Deliberative Body (a defense in the North American Review, Vol. CLII, pp. 148-156). 3. The New South: ANDREWS, pp. 745-764; BRYCE (ed. of 1911), pp. 491-511 ; E. S. MURPHY, Problems of the Present South, pp. 1-27, 97-103; A. B. HART, The Southern Soiith, pp. 218-277; editorials in the Outlook, Vol. LXXXVIII, pp. 760-761 ; Vol. XCII, pp. 626-629; the Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 177-190; series of articles, with interesting illustrations, in the World" 1 * Work, Vol. XIV (the Southern number, June, 1907). 4. The Knights of Labor : ELY, Labor Movement, pp. 75-88 ; WRIGHT, pp. 245263 ; Reports of the United States Industrial Commission, Vol. XVII, pp. 3-24; T. V. POWDERLY, Thirty Years of Labor, pp. 186-196; The Organization of Labor (North American Review, Vol. CXXXV, pp. 118-126). 5. The Venezuelan Controversy: J. B. HENDERSON, American Diplo matic Questions, pp. 411-442; CLEVELAND, pp. 173-281; PECK, 412- 436; MACDONALD, No. 126; HART, Contemporaries^ Q\. IV, No. 179; A. D. WHITE, Autobiography, Vol. II, pp. 117-126. CHAPTER XX ENTERING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THE SPANISH WAR AND THE PHILIPPINES 808. The Thrusting its western end between the two great peninsulas Cuba of Florida and Yucatan, which guard the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, lies the island of Cuba, " the pearl of the Antilles." ATLANTIC & The West Indies and Neighboring Spanish-American Republics From the time of its discovery by Columbus down to the very close of the nineteenth century Cuba belonged to the crown of Spain. It had remained faithful when the Spanish colonies in Central and South America had taken advantage of the Napole onic upheaval to revolt (p. 239), but the mother country had poorly requited the fidelity of the island colony. Corrupt officials 574 Entering the Twentieth Century 575 squandered the revenues of Cuba, raised by heavy taxation, and the least movement of resistance was ruthlessly quelled by the trained soldiery of Spain. The fate of Cuba was always a matter of great concern to the 809. our United States. When the acquisition of Florida and Texas gave Cuba us control of over 1000 miles of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and the discovery of gold in California made neces sary the protection of a route across the Isthmus of Panama, it was important that Cuba, which controlled the entrance to the Gulf, should not be in the hands of a powerful or hostile nation. Again, when the westward extension of slavery was checked by the plateaus of the Rockies, it had been necessary to curb the zeal of the Southern " expansionists," who were reaching out toward Cuba for new plantation lands. 1 The Civil War put an end to the menace of a new Cuban 810. Agita slave state, and the completion of the Pacific railroads made it unnecessary to guard the Isthmus for the protection of the route to the Far West. But still our interest in Cuba continued. Large amounts of American capital were invested in the sugar and tobacco plantations of the island during the prosperous decades which followed the Civil War. Many Cubans were naturalized in the United States, where they established centers of agitation for Cuban liberty. And many others, after natural ization, returned to the island under the protection of their American citizenship, to aid their brother Cubans in throwing off the Spanish yoke. An especially severe insurrection broke out in 1895. The 811. The insurgents quickly overran nearly all the open country, and the Spanish leader, General Weyler, unable to bring them to face his 150,000 troops in regular battle, resorted to the cruel method of the " reconcentration camps." He gathered the non- combatants old men, women, and children from the country 1 The student will recall the Ostend Manifesto of 1854, in which three Ameri can ministers, with as little regard for international courtesy as for legal authority, announced the " right " of the United States to seize Cuba if Spain would not sell it (p. 373). 576 History of the Republic since the Civil War into certain fortified towns, and herded them in wretched prison pens under cruel officers, where tens of thousands died of hun ger and disease. The cries of the Cuban sufferers reached our shores. Scores of American citizens in the island were also being thrust into prison, and millions of American capital were being destroyed. 812. our in- Prudence and humanity alike forbade the continuance of these horrible conditions at our very doors. The platforms of both the great parties in 1896 expressed sympathy for the Cuban insurgents, and both Houses of Congress passed resolu tions for the recognition of Cuban independence. President McKinley labored hard to get Spain to grant the island some degree of self-government, and spoke in a hopeful tone in his message to Congress of December, 1897. But in the early weeks of 1898 events occurred which roused public indignation to a pitch where it drowned the voices of diplomacy. On Feb ruary 9 a New York paper published the facsimile of a letter which had been stolen from the private correspondence of the - Spanish minister at Washington, Senor de Lome. The letter characterized President McKinley as a " cheap politician who truckled to the masses." The country was still nursing its in dignation over this insult to its chief executive, when it was horrified by the news that on the evening of February 15 the battleship Maine, on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, had been sunk by a terrific explosion, carrying two officers and 266 men to the bottom. The Spanish government immediately accepted the resignation of Senor de Lome and expressed its sorrow over the " accident " to the American warship. But the conviction (later confirmed through the examination of her sunken hull by a board of experts) that the Maine had been blown up by a Spanish mine seized on our people with uncontrollable force. Flags, pins, buttons, with the motto " Remember the Maine!" appeared all over the land. The spirit of revenge was nurtured by the " yellow journals." Congress was waiting eagerly to declare war. Entering the Twentieth Century 577 After a last appeal to the Spanish government had been met 813. The war with the evasive reply that the Cubans would be granted " all Aprii^ 1 ^ the liberty they could expect," McKinley transferred the re sponsibility of the Cuban situation to Congress in his message of April ii. 1 Eight days later, on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington and of the first bloodshed of the Civil War, Congress adopted a resolution recognizing the independence of Cuba, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Spain from the island, and authorizing the President to use the military and naval forces of the United States, if necessary, to carry out the resolution. Congress further pledged the United States, by the Teller Resolution, " to leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to its own people " when its pacification should be accomplished. The resolutions of April 19, 1898, were a virtual declaration of war against Spain. Our Navy Department, under the vigorous administration 8l4.Dewey s of Secretary Long and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, was Manila,^ thoroughly prepared for the crisis. The Far Eastern fleet had Ma y x l *& been gathered, under Commodore George Dewey, at the British station of Hong-Kong on the Chinese coast. Scarcely a week after the war resolutions had been passed, Dewey s ships in their drab war paint were on their way across the 600 miles of the China Sea that separate Hong-Kong from the Spanish co lonial group of the Philippine Islands. The last night of April, with a bravery like that of his old commander, Farragut, at New Orleans, Dewey ran his fleet of armored cruisers and gunboats, under fire, through the fortified passage of Boca Grande into Manila Bay ; and early on May-day morning he opened fire on the Spanish fleet anchored off Cavite. Five times Dewey led his squadron up and down the line of Spanish ships, 1 There has been a diversity of opinion on the extent and the sincerity of the concessions offered by Spain in April, 1898. Only recently (May, 1910) Senator Depew of New York has revived the criticism of McKinley s "weak ness" in yielding to the popular clamor for war. and asserted that the terms offered by Spain were a sufficient basis for a peaceful settlement of the whole Cuban question. But such a view has found little or no support among American statesmen and historians. History of the Republic since the Civil War 815. Cer- vera s fleet pouring into them an accurate and deadly fire, then drew out of range to give his grimed and hungry gunners their breakfast. He returned a few hours later to complete the work of destruction. By noon the entire Spanish fleet of ten ships was sunk or in flames, the land bat teries of Cavite were silenced, and the city of Manila lay at the mercy of Dewey s guns. The Spanish had lost 634 men and offi cers. On the American side, in spite of the constant fire of the Spaniards, not a ship was hurt nor a life lost. It was the most com plete naval victory in our history. Eastern Asia and the Philippine Islands While the victorious fleet lay in the harbor of Manila, waiting for troops from the United States to complete the conquest of the Philippines, the Atlantic squadron, acting under Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, was blockading the coast of Cuba. A strong Spanish fleet of four huge armored cruisers and three torpedo Entering the Twentieth Century 579 destroyers, commanded by Admiral Cervera, had sailed westward from the Cape Verde Islands on April 29. There were wild stories that Cervera s fleet would shell the unfortified cities along our coast, and some timorous families even abandoned their custom ary summer outing at the seashore for fear of the Spanish guns. But experts knew that the fleet would put into some Spanish West Indian port for coal and provisions after its journey across the Atlantic. In spite of Admiral Sampson s diligent patrol, Cervera s fleet slipped by him and came to anchor in Santiago The Dewey Medal harbor, where it was discovered by the American lookouts, the last of May, and immediately " bottled up " by Sampson s blockading squadron. 1 Meanwhile about 16,000 troops had been sent from the 816. The American camps in Florida to invade Cuba, under the command of Major General Shafter. The most picturesque division of this army was the volunteer cavalry regiment, popularly known as " Roosevelt s Rough Riders," made up of Western cow boys, ranchmen, hunters, and Indians, with a sprinkling of Harvard and Yale graduates. Theodore Roosevelt resigned t 1 The fleet included Commodore Schley s " flying squadron " (the cruiser Brooklyn and the battleships Massachusetts, Texas, and Iowa) with Admiral Sampson s own squadron (the cruiser New York, which was his flagship, and the battleships Indiana and Oregon). The Oregon had just completed a mar velous voyage of 14,000 miles in 66 days, from San Francisco to Florida, around Cape Horn. She arrived and joined the blockading squadron as fresh as if she were just from the docks, " not a bolt nor a rivet out of place." 5 So History of the Republic since the Civil War 817. The his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to become the lieutenant colonel of the Rough Riders. In a spirited attack, through tangled jungles and over rough fields strung with wire fences, the American troops charged up the heights of San Juan and El Caney in the face of a galling fire from the Spanish Mauser rifles, and intrenched themselves on the hills to the east of Santiago (July i, 2). But General Shafter found the defenses of the city too strong, and notified Washing ton that he should need re- enforcements to drive Gen eral Toral from Santiago. It was a critical position in which the little American army found itself Sunday morning, July 3, on the hills above Santiago. Reinforce ments would be weeks in reaching them. Their sup plies were inadequate and The Blockhouse at El Caney, riddled with bullets bad. 1 The dreaded fever had already broken out among them. And Cervera s powerful fleet in the harbor below could easily drive them from the heights by a well-directed fire. But fortune favored our cause. That same Sunday morning the Spanish ships steamed out of the harbor and started to run July 3, 1898 westward along the southern shore of Cuba, the flagship Maria Theresa leading, and the Vizcaya, the Colon, the Oquendo, and the destroyers following. Admiral Sampson, with his flag ship, the New York, was absent for the moment conferring with General Shafter on the critical situation of the American army. Commodore Schley, on the Brooklyn, was left as ranking officer. 1 The inadequacy of the War Department, under Secretary Alger, was a strik ing contrast to the efficiency of the Navy Department. The soldiers were supplied with heavy clothing for the hot Cuban campaign, and with inferior canned meats, which General Miles called " embalmed beef." Entering the Twentieth Century 5& 1 Following Sampson s orders, the American ships closed in on the Spaniards, and followed them in a wild chase along the coast, pouring a deadly fire into them all the while. The Spaniards replied, as at Manila, with a rapid but ineffectual dis charge. One by one the Spanish cruisers, disabled or in flames, turned and headed for the breakers, until the last of them, the Cristobal Colbn, bearing the proud name of the man who four centuries earlier had discovered for Spain the hemisphere whose last remnant was now slipping from her grasp, was beached by the relentless fire of the Brooklyn and the Oregon, forty-five miles west of the harbor of Santiago. Only one man was killed and one seriously wounded in the American fleet, while less than $10,000 repaired all the damage done by the Spanish guns. But the enemy s fleet was completely destroyed, over 500 officers and men were killed, wounded, or drowned, and 1700 taken prisoners. The Spanish loss would have been far greater had not the American sailors rescued hundreds of their foemen, including the brave Admiral Cervera himself, from the burning decks and the wreck-strewn waters. A few days later General Toral surrendered the city of Santiago, now at the mercy of Sampson s guns, and turned over his army as prisoners of war to General Shafter (July 17). The total loss of two fleets and an army brought Spain to 818. The sue for terms. The preliminaries for the treaty of peace were Manila, signed in Washington and hostilities were suspended August 12. ^ 8 u f ust I3 News of the peace reached Porto Rico just in time to stop General Miles s advance against the Spanish forces, and the governor of Porto Rico immediately surrendered the island to the American army. But before the news of peace reached the distant Philippines an event of great importance had occurred there. Three "relief expeditions," comprising over 10,000 troops, had reached the Philippines from San Francisco by the end of July, and on August 13 these troops, supported by Dewey s squadron, took the city of Manila and raised the American flag over the governor s palace. 582 History of the Republic since the Civil War 819. Emiiio Then the situation began to grow complicated. The Filipinos had been in revolt against Spain at the same time as the Cubans. In 1897 the Spaniards had bought off the leaders of the revolt, including one Emiiio Aguinaldo, with a promise of $1,000,000. Aguinaldo had retired to Singapore. While at Hongkong, Dewey had welcomed Aguinaldo as an ally, and later had him conveyed back to the Philippines on an American ship, and furnished him with arms from the arsenal at Cavite. The Filipino troops had entered Manila with the Americans on August 13. Aguinaldo now claimed that Dewey had promised to turn the Philippines over to him when the power of Spain was crushed, but there is no evidence that Dewey ever made such a promise. He was too discreet a man to think of putting the American fleet at the disposal of a tropical insurgent. Aguinaldo refused to be con sidered merely as the ally of the American troops, and although he yielded under superior force to the American general s order to withdraw from the city of Manila (September 15), he still conducted himself as the ruler of the Islands. He organized a Filipino republic, had himself proclaimed dictator, and pre pared to maintain his position by force of arms. 820. Peace So the American and the Filipino troops were facing each December^, other in ill-concealed hostility near Manila, when the terms of 1898 peace between Spain and the United States were* signed at Paris, December 10, 1898. Spain agreed to withdraw from Cuba and to cede Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands to the United States. As the war had been begun for the liberation of Cuba, and as the city of Manila had not been taken until the day after the peace preliminaries were signed and hostilities suspended, the Spanish commissioners at Paris were unwilling to have the Philippines included in the peace negotiations at all. But President McKinley and his advisers saw good reasons why we should remain in the Islands, 1 and iTo hand back the Philippines to Spain, so argued the administration, would mean to give the Filipinos over to the very misrule and vengeance from which we were saving the Cubans ; to withdraw our troops would mean to leave the Islands a prey to internal dissensions or to some strong European Entering the Twentieth Century Spain consented finally to give them up for an indemnity of $20,000,000. Before the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate 821. The or the Spanish Cortes, President McKinley ordered General Ssurrectfon, Otis, commanding at Manila, to extend the authority of the l8 99-i92 United States over all the island of Luzon, and the Filipino Congress replied by authorizing Aguinaldo to make war on the American troops. It came to a battle before Manila on February 4, 1899. The superior quality and training of the American army made victory over the Filipinos in the open field of battle very easy ; but when the Filipinos took to a guerrilla warfare among their native swamps and jungles, the wearying task of subjugating them dragged on for more than two years. Even the tricky seizure of Aguinaldo himself in his mountain retreat by a party of American scouts disguised as insurgents (February, 1901), and his proclamation two months later acknowledging American sovereignty in the Islands, did not end the insurrection. It was not until April, 1902, that the last insurgent leader surrendered and the Philippines were officially declared " pacified." The two years war in the Philippines was carried on against 822. The the vigorous protest of a number of the recognized leaders of political and ethical thought in America. These men were called " anti-imperialists," because they saw in the acquisition of tropical colonies, which could never become states of the Union, and in the war to subjugate the native inhabitants of those colonies, the abandonment of the principles of freedom and self-government on which our republic was founded. President McKinley was invested by Congress (March 2, 1901) with " all the military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the Philippine Islands," an authority like that of a Roman Emperor rather than of the President of a free republic. Our army was rapidly increased fivefold in the power. Besides, our trade interests in China and Japan called us to take a strong position in the Orient. 5 84 History of the Republic since the Civil War "Islands (from 10,000 troops in August, 1898, to 54,000 in May, 1900), and during the severest period of the insurrection (May, i9oo-June, 1901) there were 1026 "contacts," or petty battles, with a loss to the Americans of about 1000 men killed, wounded, and missing. Moreover, the exasperating method of guerrilla fighting practiced by the Filipinos, with its barbarous details of ambush, murder, treachery, and torture, tempted the American soldiers to resort at times to undue cruelty. The whole business was sickening, even to those who believed that it had to be done with all the unrelenting firmness that our generals displayed ; while the anti-imperialists taunted the administration with having converted the war, which was begun as a noble crusade for the liberation of the Cuban, into a diabolical campaign for the enslavement of the Filipino. 823. The ad- For all that, the country at large supported the policy of the indorsed Tn U McKinley administration. The election of 1900, held during the election ^g insurrection, was fought chiefly on the issue of "imper ialism," 1 and McKinley defeated Bryan by 292 electoral votes to 155, with a popular majority of nearly 1,000,000. The vote was the verdict of the American people that the situation in the Philippines must be accepted as our " manifest destiny," or, in the words of Senator Spooner, as " one of the bitter fruits of war." 824. ourgov- President McKinley used his extraordinary powers of govern- the^Miip- ment in the Philippines with admirable moderation and wisdom, pines ^ s SO on as the force of the insurrection was broken, he appointed Judge William H. Taft as civil governor (July 4, 1901), with a commission of four other experts, to administer the depart ments of commerce, public works, justice, finance, and education in the Islands. Native Filipinos were given a share in the local government of the provinces, and three Filipino members were soon added to the commission. Under Governor Taft s strong *At the Democratic national convention at Kansas City, large placards were displayed with the inscription : " Lincoln abolished slavery. McKinley has restored it." A huge American flag was floated from the roof girders of the convention hall, edged with the motto, t( The flag of the republic forever, of an empire never." Entering the Twentieth Century 535 and sympathetic administration the Islands recovered rapidly from the effects of the war. Roads and bridges were built, harbors and rivers improved, modern methods of agriculture introduced, commerce and industry stimulated. The American government purchased of the friars some 400,000 acres of Church lands for $7,200,000, which it sold to the natives on easy terms ; and sent hundreds of teachers to the Philippines to organize a system of modern education. A census of the Islands was completed in 1905, showing a population of 7,635,426, of whom 647,740 belonged to savage, or " head-hunting," tribes. Two years after the census was taken, an election was held for a Philippine National As sembly, to share, as a lower House, with the commission appointed by the President in the government of the Islands. The Assembly con vened in October, 1907, ex- Governor Taft (then Secre tary of War) visiting the Orient to assist at the in- A Filipino Girl weaving augural ceremonies. The professed policy of the Republican party, which has been in power ever since the Spanish War, is to give the Filipinos self-government and independence " when they are fit for it "; but there is little likelihood that having once learned the difficult and expensive art of colonial government l we shall part with so rich and populous a domain as the Philippine Islands, or that, having entered with the 1 Secretary of War Root estimated that the cost of the acquisition of the Philippines (1898-1902) was $169,853,512, exclusive of the $20,000,000 purchase money. Mr. Edward Atkinson, a distinguished authority on economics and the leader of the anti-imperialists, claimed that $1,000,000,000 is not too high an estimate of the cost of the Islands to the United States up to 1904. 586 History of the Republic since the Civil War 825. The organization of the Cuban republic, 1900-1901 826. Porto Rico a colo nial territory European nations into the game of world politics we shall abandon one of the finest strategic posts in the Far East. The reorganization of Cuba proceeded more smoothly. On January i, 1899, Spain withdrew her civil and military authority from the island, leaving it under a military governor appointed by President McKinley. In November, 1900, a convention of Cubans drew up a constitution for a republic, closely patterned on that of the United States. Congress established a mild sort of " protectorate " over Cuba by compelling the convention to incorporate in the constitution certain clauses known as the "Platt Amendment." They provided (i) that Cuba should never permit any foreign power to colonize or control any part of the island, or impair in any way its independence; (2) that Cuba should not incur any debt which the ordinary revenues of the island could not carry; (3) that Cuba should sell or lease certain coaling stations to the United States ; and (4) that we might intervene in Cuba, if necessary, to maintain a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty. When the Platt Amendment was duly adopted, the Cubans were allowed to proceed with their elections. On May 20, 1902, General Wood turned the gov ernment of the island over to its first president, Estrada Palma, and Cuba took her place among the republics of the world. * Porto Rico was organized (April, 1900) as a sort of com promise between a colony and a territory of the United States. A governor and a council of eleven (including five Porto Ricans) are appointed by the President, and a legislature of 35 members is elected by the natives. The council has full charge of the administration of the island, and sitting as an upper 1 Under the Platt Amendment we were obliged to take temporary charge of the government of Cuba from 1906 to 1909 on account of factional strife in the island and the resignation of President Palma. We have rendered ines timable services to Cuba in the way of education and sanitation. Yellow fever, formerly the scourge of the island, has been stamped out, and Havana has been converted from one of the filthiest and deadliest cities of the Western Hemi sphere to one of the cleanest and most sanitary. We spent over $10,000,000 in the sanitation of Cuba. Entering the Twentieth Century House can veto the acts of the native legislature. The island, while under the protection of our laws and forming a customs district of the United States, does not enjoy complete self- government or have the prospect of becoming a state in the Union. Its million inhabitants of mixed Spanish, Indian, and negro blood are not qualified for the responsibilities of an American commonwealth. Thus while our flag was raised in the West Indies and in the 827. The distant islands of the Pacific, our Constitution was not extended does 8 not foi- in full force to the new possessions. Congress, as we have seen, low the fla & " turned the administration of the Philippines over absolutely to President McKinley, and devised a new form of government for Porto Rico. Furthermore, by the famous " Insular Cases " of May, 1901, the Supreme Court decided that Congress might im pose a tariff duty on the products coming from those posses sions, thus treating them as foreign countries. 1 The Spanish War, with the resultant acquisition of colonial 828. The possessions in the tropics, marks a momentous epoch in our anTpochTn 1 history. During the twenty-five years preceding the McKinley our histor y administration our State Department played but a minor role. The question of the seal fisheries in Bering Sea, or of the control of a half-civilized king in the Samoan Islands, on which Elaine exercised his vigorous ability, seem rather petty now ; and even the serious Venezuelan boundary dispute with Great Britain was only an episode in the great absorbing questions of finance, the tariff, and labor agitation, which filled the second administra tion of Grover Cleveland. But with the closing years of the 1 The refusal of Congress, at the dictation of the sugar and tobacco trusts, to admit the Cuban and Philippine products free of duty has retarded the develop ment of those islands considerably and counterbalanced much of the good work done by our administrators, engineers, and educators there. In 1903 President Roosevelt induced Congress to make a 20 per cent reduction in the Cuban sugar tariff ; and, as a result, our trade with Cuba grew from $60,000,000 in 1902 to $124,000,000 in 1905. Under President Taft s insistent efforts Congress has finally (by the Payne-Aldrich Bill of 1909) granted the Philippines free trade in all products except rice, sugar, and tobacco, and has allowed even consider able amounts of the last two commodities to come in free of duty. 588 History of tJie Republic since the Civil War century the nation turned to new fields. Our army and navy became conspicuous, and began to absorb appropriations reach ing into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Our atten tion was drawn to the interests of colonizing nations, the trade of distant lands, and the fate of the old empires of the East. Our new possessions in the Pacific and our concern in the "For PAST WARS and PREPARATION FOR, WAR, $45o,ooo,ooo1 for all other purposes $195,000,000 The Cost of War i How our national income of #643,000,000 was spent in 1910 Orient gave great impetus to the development of our west ern coast, and made imperative the immediate construction of the long-planned canal through the Isthmus of Panama. England had been our traditional enemy since the days of the Revolutionary War, but her cordial support of our cause in the war with Spain, when all the other nations of western 1 The cost of armed peace in the eight years 1902-1910 increased by more than #1,000,000,000 over the cost in the eight years preceding the Spanish War. This eight-year increase exceeds the national debt by over #150,000,000; exceeds the entire budget of the United States for the year 1910-1911 ; is over double the estimated cost of replanting the 56,000,000 acres of denuded forest lands in the United States ; is nearly three times the estimated cost of the Panama Canal. What we spend in a single year on the engines of war would go far toward crushing out the " white plague " of consumption, which destroys a hundred thousand lives in our land every year. Entering the Twentieth Century Europe desired and predicted a Spanish victory, 1 won our hearty friendship, and roused in the breasts of statesmen of both countries the prophetic hope that the two great Anglo- Saxon nations together, through their colonies and their fleets, may control the destinies of the world. 2 Only a few months after the ratification of the treaty with 829. our in- Spain there came a striking proof of our new position in the 11 * affairs of the world. An association of men in China known as The Boxer rising, 1900 the " Boxers," resenting the growth of foreign influence in their country, gained control of the territory about Peking in the sum mer of 1900, and, with the secret sympathy of the Empress Dow ager of China and many of the high officials, inaugurated a reign of terror. The foreign legations were cut off, and the German minister was murdered in broad daylight in the street. The rest of the foreign diplomats, with their staffs and their families, to the number of four hundred, took refuge in the British legation, where they were besieged for two months by a force of several thousand armed men, including troops from the imperial army. Sixty-five of the besieged party were killed and 135 wounded before the relief army, composed of American, British, French, German, Italian, and Japanese troops, fought its way up from the coast and captured the city of Peking. We were in a posi tion, by virtue of our occupation of the Philippines, to furnish 5000 troops promptly and to take a leading part in the rescue of the legations at Peking ; and when our able Secretary of State, John Hay, took the initiative in dealing with the question of 1 The friendly spirit of England was especially shown in the conduct of the fleets in Manila bay. The German admiral, Von Diederich, hectored Dewey by unfriendly demonstrations, and would have effected a combination of the Euro pean warships to attempt to drive Dewey from the bay or to frustrate his bombard ment of Manila, had not the British admiral openly declared his sympathy for the American cause. When the news of Dewey s victory reached London, American flags were hung in the streets and The Star Spangled Banner " was played in the theaters and music halls. 2 The cordial relations of the two great sister nations were still further strengthened by the signature at Washington, August 3, 1911, of an arbitration treaty, pledging Great Britain and the United States to submit all controversies to the Hague tribunal for peaceful settlement. 590 History of the Reptcblic since the Civil War the adjustment of the outrage and the punishment of China, he won the respectful cooperation of the courts of Europe. 1 830. Anew At the same time that they opened these new vistas of our adjustment of . . . domestic national destiny the closing years of the century seemed to settle many of the domestic problems which had vexed us since the Civil War. The Dingley tariff bill of 1897 quickly and quietly restored even the slight reduction made by the Wilson-Gorman Act of 1894, and fixed our tariff for a dozen years. The dis covery of large deposits of gold in the Klondike region of Alaska in August, 1896 (at the very moment when Mr. Bryan was mak ing his whirlwind campaign for free silver), together with the opening of new gold mines in South Africa, expanded the volume of the world s currency sufficiently to make silver coinage a dead issue. A marvelous burst of industrial activity following the Spanish War, combined with abundant corn and wheat crops, gave employment to thousands who were out of work, and enabled the farmers of the West in many cases to pay off their mortgages and have a balance left with which to buy automobiles. Finally, the Spanish War healed the last traces of ill feeling be tween North and South, when the men from Dixie and the men from Yankee land fought shoulder to shoulder under Colonel Roosevelt of New York or " little Joe " Wheeler of Alabama. 831. The For better or worse we had begun a new policy of expansion among the* an d entered into the race for colonial supremacy and world trade, world powers ^fter warning the nations of Europe away from the Western Hemisphere for nearly a century, we had now ourselves seized on possessions in the Eastern Hemisphere. We had inaugurated gov ernments strange to the letter and the spirit of our Constitution. 1 The aged senator, John Sherman, was made Secretary of State by McKinley to make a place in the Senate for " Mark " Hanna. Sherman was unable to man age the trying negotiations with Spain and gave way to Judge Day, who in turn resigned, to head the Peace Commission in Paris, December, 1898. John Hay, our ambassador to England, succeeded him, and proved to be one of the ablest, if not the ablest, of our Secretaries of State. His wisdom and tact preserved the integrity of the Chinese Empire, with the principle of the " open door," or equal trade privileges for all nations, at a time when the European powers were ready in anger and revenge to break up the empire and unchain war in the East. Entering the Twentieth Century 59 l We had voted down by large majorities the counsel of the men who urged us to return to the old order, and had accepted as the call of our " manifest destiny " the summons to " enlarge the place of our habitation." We had no longer the choice whether or not we should play a great part in the events of the world. The only question was, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, " whether we should play that part well or ill." THE ROOSEVELT POLICIES When President McKinley was inaugurated a second time, 832. our on March 4, 1901, the country was at the flood tide of pros- perity. Capital, which was timidly hoarded during the uncertain years of Cleveland s administration, had come out of hiding at the call of Hanna and the other " advance agents of prosperity." The alliance between politics and business was cemented. Trusts were organized with amazing rapidity and on an enormous scale. Up to the Spanish War there existed only about 60 of these great business combinations with a capital ranging from $1,000,- ooo to $5,000,000, but the years 1899-1901 saw the formation of 183 new trusts with a total capitalization of $4,000,000,000, an amount of money equal to one twentieth of the total wealth of the United States, and four times the combined capital of all the corporations organized between the Civil War and Cleveland s second administration. The statistics published from year to year by our Census and Treasury Bureaus revealed such gains in population, production, and commerce that the imagination was taxed to grasp the figures, and even the most sanguine prophecies of prosperity were in a few months surpassed by the facts. From the in auguration of Washington to the inauguration of McKinley the excess of our exports over our imports was $356,000,000, but in a single year of McKinley s administration the excess reached $664,000,000. By the end of the nineteenth century we were mining 230,000,000 of the 720,000,000 tons of the 59 2 History of the Republic since the Civil War 833. The" assassination of McKinley, September 6, 1901 Jiflj-sttaife (it^ai A % Siata of ^mrira; &1 tit Sami. *reimi. world s coal, 25,000,000 of its 79,000,000 tons of iron, and 257,000 of its 470,000 tons of copper, and were steadily increasing our lead over all other countries in the production and export of wheat, corn, and cotton. During the whole of the nineteenth century we had been a debtor nation, inviting the capital of Europe to aid in the development of our great domain, and paying our ob ligations abroad from the yield of our Western fields ; but now our land was occu pied, our resources exploited, and our industrial position assured. We began to ex port great quantities of man ufactured goods and to seek new markets in the far corners of the earth. We bought the bonds of China and Japan.. We sold millions of dollars worth of our in dustrial stocks to Europe. The king of England re ceived more money annually in interest from his private investments in American se- Facsimile of the Title-page of an Act of Congress curities at the beginning of the twentieth century than George the Third had been able to wring from the thirteen colonies by taxation. The progress of the United States and her sister republics of Central and South America was celebrated by a Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo in the summer of 1901. President McKinley attended the exposition, and in a noble speech, on the fifth of September, outlined the policy of friendly trade and reciprocal good will which we should cultivate with the nations of the world. It was his last public utterance. The next day, Entering the Twentieth Century 593 as he was holding a reception, he was shot by a miserable anarchist named Czolgosz, whose brain had been inflamed by reading the tirades of the " yellow press " against " Czar McKinley." After a week of patient suffering the President died, the third victim of the assassin s bullet since the Civil War. The lamented McKin- 834. Theo- ley was succeeded in the *J t e Roose " presidency by a man who, for the last decade, has filled the stage of our public life more completely and conspicuously than any other American, and who to-day is probably the best known man of the civilized world. Theodore Roose velt was born in New York City, October 2 7, 1858, of sturdy Dutch stock. After graduating at Harvard in the class of 1880, he entered the legislature of his state. He was a dele gate to the famous Re publican national conven tion of 1884, where he opposed the nomination of James G. Elaine, but he did not " bolt " the ticket with the Mugwumps to vote for Cleveland. The next two years he spent on a ranch in North Dakota, strengthening his rather feeble health, satis fying his longing for the free, vigorous life of the plains and his intense love of nature, and at the same time gaining that appreciation of the value of our great Western domain which has so conspicuously influenced his public administration. He Copyright by Harris and Ewing Theodore Roosevelt 594 History of the Republic since the Civil War was appointed to the Civil Service Commission by President Harrison in 1889, where he showed his devotion to clean and honest politics by greatly enlarging the " merit system " of ap pointment to office. 1 We have already seen how he resigned his assistant secretaryship of the navy in 1898 to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Rough Riders in the Spanish War. Returning to New York as a military hero he was elected gov ernor of the Empire State in the autumn of 1898 by a large majority. As governor Mr. Roosevelt set too high a standard of official morality to please the leaders of the Republican ma chine, and they craftily planned to " shelve " him by " promot ing " him to the vice presidency, an office of considerable dignity, but of practically no influence or responsibility. Against his determined and even tearful protest the Philadelphia conven tion of 1900, by a unanimous vote, placed his name on the pres idential ticket with McKinley s. The politicians of New York considered Governor Roosevelt " laid in his political grave." But his resurrection was speedy. Less than a year after his election to the vice presidency he was called on to take the oath as President of the United States (September 14, 1901). 835. Roose- On the day of his inauguration President Roosevelt an- tion oithe eP ~ nounced his intention of carrying out the policies of his pred- presidency ecessor, and gave an earnest of his statement by requesting the cabinet officers to retain their portfolios. But the seasoned old politicians at Washington and the shrewd bankers in Wall Street were apprehensive lest " this young man " of forty-two, with his self-assurance, his independence, his dauntless courage, and his unquenchable idealism, should disturb the well-oiled ma chinery of the " business man s government " and play havoc with the stock market. They soon discovered that they had in 1 During Roosevelt s six years on the commission (1889-1895) the offices under the classified civil service were increased from 14,000 to 40,000. A great part of the voluminous annual reports of the commission (VI to XI) was written by Mr. Roosevelt, besides numerous magazine articles in support of the merit system. When he resigned his office in 1895 to become president of the New York police board, President Cleveland congratulated him on " the extent and permanence of the reform methods " he had brought about in the civil service. Entering the Twentieth Century 595 Roosevelt a President who, like Grover Cleveland, interpreted his oath to " preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States " to mean not waiting docilely in the White House for bills to come from the Capitol, but initiating, direct ing, and restraining the legislation of Congress, in the name and interest of the great American people, whose representative he was. In his first message to Congress, December 3, 1901, a very 836. Roose- long and very able state paper, Roosevelt demanded more nuai message" than a dozen important " reform " measures, and sounded the December 3, keynote of his entire administration. He recommended that the federal government assume power of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing an interstate busi ness ; that a new Department of Commerce be created, with a Secretary in the President s cabinet ; that the Interstate Com merce Act be amended so as to prevent shippers from receiv ing special rates from the railroads; that the Cuban tariff be lowered ; that the President be given power to transfer public lands to the Department of Agriculture, to be held as forest reserves ; that the navy be strengthened by several new battle ships and heavy-armored cruisers; that the civil service be extended to all offices in the District of Columbia; and that the federal government inaugurate, at the public expense, a huge system of reservoirs % and canals for the irrigation of our arid lands in the West. Besides making these specific recom mendations, President Roosevelt discussed " anarchy," the trusts, the labor question, immigration, the tariff, our merchant marine, the Monroe Doctrine, civil service reform, and our duty toward our new possessions. The energetic President traveled through the various states, 837. Roose- emphasizing his policies in many public speeches, and winning P PU " immense popularity in every section of the country. He spoke in plain, vigorous language on all subjects in which he himself, as a virile, courageous, democratic American citizen, was interested, from the government of our foreign colonies and the control of 596 History of the Republic since the Civil War our domestic industries to the choice of an occupation and the training of a family. He popularized the expressions " the criminal rich," " the square deal," " clean as a hound s tooth," and made the rare adjective " strenuous " one of the commonest in our vocabulary. He showed little regard for precedent or the staid decorum of official propriety when it was a question of performing what he regarded as a fair or useful act. In spite of the hostile criticism of almost the entire South, he appointed an efficient colored man collector of the port of Charleston. When a severe strike in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania brought on a coal famine in the summer of 1902, and threatened to cause un told suffering during the follow ing winter, the President called to gether representatives of the miners and of the owners of the coal fields, in a conference at the White House, and prevailed upon them to submit their dispute to the arbitration of a commission which he appointed. There isjno phrase in the Constitu tion of the United States, in the definition of the President s powers and duties, that could be interpreted as giving him the right to intervene in a dispute between capital and labor. But he did intervene for the relief of millions of his anxious fellow countrymen ; and no public act ever brought him a greater or more deserved reward of praise. Recognizing that great combinations of capital were inevitable, and that the corporation, or trust, was a necessary instrument of corporations mo dern industry, he repeatedly declared that no honest business had anything to fear from his administration. At the same time he John Mitchell President of the United Mine Workers of America 838. His atti tude toward the great Entering the Twentieth Century 597 insisted that those corporations which practically monopolized such necessities of life as coal, oil, beef, and sugar, or, like the railroads, had received invaluable public franchises in return for services to be rendered to the public, should not be allowed to reap fabulous profits by charging exorbitant prices or by securing illegal privileges through the bribery of legislatures, but should be subject to proper regulation by the government. Therefore he directed his attorney-general to commence over forty suits against railroads or industrial corporations during his adminis tration. The government won but few of these actions, but the indirect effect of what was popularly called " busting the trusts " was highly beneficial. It aroused public sentiment on the most important economic problem confronting our nation. Toward labor President Roosevelt was sympathetic. As a 839. Hisatti- worker himself, he had great respect for the men who go down Jabo r toward into the mines, or drive the locomotive across the plains of the West. He believed in the right of labor to organize in unions for the sake of preserving the quality of its output and of making its demands on the capitalist employer more effective by collective bargaining. He recognized the justice of the strike when no other form of action was able to secure a " square deal" for the worker. He declared that the injunction without notice was an unjust restraint against organized labor. 1 But violence or wanton destruction of property or interference with the liberty of any man to work where and when he chose, he condemned as a violation of the law ; and lawlessness he con sidered just as intolerable in the strikers who burned freight cars as in the directors who doctored freight rates. In his first message to Congress President Roosevelt spoke 840. Hiscon- with the eloquence of a true lover of nature of the need "of pre- serving our forest domain. It was, in his opinion, " the most vital internal question of the United States." We have seen (p. 512) how lavishly our government disposed of its unoccupied lands in the days when they were believed to be inexhaustible. Andrew 1 See note, p. 564. 598 History of the Republic since the Civil War Johnson soberly calculated that it would take six hundred years for our great West to " fill in " ; but twenty-two years after he left the presidential chair (1891) the menace of the exhaustion of our forest domains from reckless and wasteful cutting was so great that Congress authorized the President, at his discretion, to withdraw timber lands from entry for public sale. Roosevelt got Congress to extend the same authorization to mineral lands, and withdrew from sale over 100,000 acres of coal fields in Alaska. Altogether Roosevelt s proclamation brought the area of our reserved forest and mineral lands up to more than 150,- 000,000 acres, a tract larger than France and the Nether lands combined. Had our government adopted this wise policy a generation earlier, it would have been able to-day to draw from its sales of timber and water power, its leases of coal and oil lands, a revenue sufficient to run the federal government with out the imposition of a tariff, which hampers foreign trade, taxes the laboring man on almost every necessity of life, and by its protective clauses still further enriches the corporations which have seized on the natural resources of our opulent country. 1 President Roosevelt put the crowning stone on his splendid work for the conservation of our natural resources when he invited the governors of all the states to a conference at the White House, in May, 1908, to outline a uniform policy of preservation. 841. The For his irrigation policy the President secured, in June, 1902, the arid west the passage of a Reclamation Act, by which the proceeds from the sale of public lands in sixteen mining and grazing states and territories of the West (the so-called " cowboy states ") should go into a special irrigation fund instead of into the public treasury. 1 The iron deposits of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota alone, including the famous Vermilion, Menominee, and Mesabi ranges, which furnish 88 per cent of the ore of the country, are estimated by the United States Steel Corpo ration, whose property they are, to be worth over $1,000,000,000. By the census of 1900, 200,000,000 of the 800,000,000 cultivable acres of the United States are owned by 47,000 people, the population of a fourth-rate Eastern city. The mineral output of the country is worth over $2,000,000,000 a year. A government royalty of 15 per cent on this sum would yield a revenue equal to that collected from our high tariff. Entering the Twentieth Century 599 The irrigated lands were to be sold to settlers at moderate prices, on a ten-year installment plan, the proceeds going con stantly to renew the fund. Under the beneficial operation of this law large tracts of land, formerly worth only a cent or two an acre for cattle grazing, have already become worth several hundred dollars an acre for agriculture ; and one may see in the The Roosevelt Dam, Arizona A monument of the conservation policy Eastern markets apples, four or five inches in diameter, grown on Arizona farms which, ten years ago, were sandy wastes covered with coarse, scrubby grass or "sagebrush." It is not unlikely that future generations, looking back on Theodore Roosevelt s work, will rank his part in the conservation and redemption of our Western lands as his greatest service to the American republic. 600 History of the Republic since the Civil War 842. The Panama Canal Under the Roosevelt administration work was begun on the greatest piece of engineering ever undertaken in America, the Panama Canal. Since the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, the piercing of the Isthmus of Panama had been contemplated ; and after a French company, organized by the successful builder of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps, had begun work at Panama (1881), various American companies began to make estimates for a route across Nicaragua. The Spanish War, with its serious lesson of the i4,ooo-mile voyage that had to be taken B E N SEA Length of Canal 49.8 mllea The Canal 2one"+-+-+- The Republic of Panama by the Oregon to get from one side of our country to the other, and with the new responsibilities which it brought by the acqui sition of colonies in the Pacific Ocean and the West Indies, showed the necessity of the immediate construction of the canal. As a preliminary, Secretary Hay, in December, 1901, secured the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty from the friendly British government, thereby allowing the United States to build and control an Isthmian canal alone. At the same time a com mission which had been appointed to investigate the relative advantages of routes through Nicaragua and Panama reported Entering the Twentieth Century 60 1 Route of the Panama Canal in favor of the former. The French Panama Company, however, had failed as a re sult of scandalous misman agement and thieving, and was anxious to sell its rights and apparatus at Panama to the United States. After a warm fight over the two routes Congress voted, in June, 1902, that the canal should go through Panama if the President could secure the route " within a reason able time"; if not, it should go through Nicaragua. President Roosevelt had 843. The rev- no difficulty in buying out ^nima 11 the French Panama Com- Novembers, pany for $40,000,000. But when he tried to negotiate with Colombia (of which Panama was a province) for the right to build the canal, offering Colombia $10,000,- ooo down and a rental of $250,000 a year for the con trol of a strip of land ten miles wide across the Isthmus (the Hay-Herran Treaty), the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty (August 12, 1903). Both the United States and 1903 the province of Panama were exasperated by this attempt of Colombia to hold back the world s progress by barring the 602 History of the Repiiblic since the Civil War route across the Isthmus. Some rather high-handed diplomacy was conducted at Washington by secret agents from Panama, and when the Colombian Senate adjourned at the end of Octo ber without having reconsidered its refusal, United States gun boats were already hovering about the Isthmus with orders to let no armed force land on its soil. On the evening of November 3, a " quiet uprising " took place in Panama, under the protec tion of our marines, and the Colombian authorities were politely shown from the province. Within a week the new republic of Panama had its accredited representative, Bunau-Varilla, in Washington, who resumed immediately the negotiations for the construction of the canal. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, of November 18, 1903, with Panama was essentially the old Hay- Herran Treaty rejected by Colombia the preceding August, except that we bought the ten-mile strip outright from Panama. 1 844. Prob- The route decided on and the treaty secured, the work of exca- co^struction vation began in May, 1904. But there have been many difficult of the canal p ro blems to meet at Panama, the sanitation of the Isthmus, the importation of efficient laborers who could dig in the tropical climate, dissensions in the Canal Commission, the decision be tween a lock or a sea-level canal, the testing of the soil for the locks and the big dam at Gatun, and the*question of letting out the work by private contract or intrusting it to government en gineers. In June, 1906, Congress determined on the high-level lock canal, and the next spring, after securing the bids of several 1 The encouragement of the secession of Panama from Colombia has been called an "ineffaceable blot of dishonor" on the Roosevelt administration. It is certainly proved that the government at Washington was privy to the revolt in Panama, not only by the presence of our gunboats near the Isthmus, but also by a dispatch to Panama from acting Secretary of State Loomis, inquiring how the revolt was proceeding, several hours before it had broken out. It was or" course necessary to have the canal, but we played the part of the wolf to the lamb toward Colombia. As Professor Coolidge says, we had as little regard for Colombia as a railroad company has for the claims of an Indian squatter along its line. Congress had consented only reluctantly to the Panama route, and President Roosevelt feared that if Congress met again (in December, 1903) before the Panama route was secured, it might vote that the " reasonable time" allowed for the acquisition of the route had expired, and go back to the Nica- raguan plan. Entering the Twentieth Century 603 contractors, the President decided for government construction. Since 1907 the engineers have " made the dirt fly" at Panama. The tremendous advantages that will result from the open- 845. Benefits ing of the canal to the world s traffic may be judged from the following table of distances : l of the canal From To Distance at present (via Cape Horn or Suez) Distance via Pan ama Canal Miles saved New York San Francisco 13,000 5,200 7,800 New York Yokohama 13,000 9,700 3.300 New York Panama 10,800 2,OOO 8,800 New York Manila 13,000 9,000 4,OOO Havana San Francisco 1 1 ,000 5,000 6,OOO San Francisco London l6,OOO 9,000 7,OOO The influence upon the republics of Central and South 846. our re America of our presence at Panama and in the West Indies will be increasingly felt. Till very recent years our attitude American republics toward those republics has been generally that of cold and distant friendship. Because we have been essentially a food- producing country like Brazil and Argentina and Chile, we have let England, France, and Germany have their trade. 2 Of the $500,000,000 worth of goods that the South American repub lics imported in 1900, the United States, their nearest and richest neighbor, sold them but $41,000,000 worth. But now that we have become a great manufacturing country, with ex ports double our imports, we need the growing markets of 1 The Suez Canal, which was completed in 1869, was entirely paid for by the fees of vessels passing through in the first seven years. In 1869, 10 vessels passed through the canal paying $10,000 in fees ; in 1904, over 4000 vessels paid fees of $20,000,000. The shares which the British government bought in 1875 for $20,000,000 are now worth over $150,000,000. The Panama Canal will be very expensive, costing probably $400,000,000, but the fees will pay for it in less time than it takes to build it. 2 Elihu Root, when Secretary of State, returning from a Pan-American Con gress at Rio Janeiro in the autumn of 1906, reported that the previous year there were seen in the harbor of that great Brazilian seaport 1785 ships flying the flag of Great Britain, 657 with the German flag, 349 with the French, 142 with the Norwegian, and seven sailing vessels (two of which were in distress) flying the Stars and Stripes. Our merchant marine is so scanty that such goods as we send to South America go via the European ports in European ships. 604 History of the Republic since the Civil War these southern republics for our agricultural implements, our electrical machinery, our steel rails and locomotives, our cotton, woolen, and leather goods. We have revived Elaine s fertile idea of the Pan-American congresses, 1 and a Bureau of Ameri can Republics has been organized at Washington to facilitate our cordial relations with the other American republics. A Steam Shovel at Work on the Canal 847. Roose- Coincident with this revival of interest in the Latin repub- sion of the " ^ cs ^ America came a very significant extension of the Monroe Dctr n Doctrine by President Roosevelt, when, in order to satisfy the European creditors of Santo Domingo, he appointed a receiver 1 Such conferences were held in Mexico in 1901, in Rio Janeiro in 1906, and in Buenos Aires in 1910. Of this last congress Professor Shepard of Columbia, its secretary, said : " The Conference will attempt to standardize certain customs and sanitary regulations, and to agree on uniform patent, trade-mark, and copy right laws. It will do all it can to cement friendly relations, and perhaps arrange for exchanges of professorships and scholarships similar to the Roosevelt exchange professorship with Germany." Entering the Twentieth Century 605 to manage its bankrupt treasury. Heretofore we had only for bidden Europe to step into the republics of the New World ; now, at the request of Europe, we stepped in ourselves. If this principle is followed out, it must mean a virtual protectorate of the United States over all the weaker republics of the South, a move which many " expansionists " have long regarded as the logical and desirable outcome of the Monroe Doctrine. President Roosevelt s independence of sanctioned forms, his 848. Roose- ,. , ..... , velt and the attack on the evils of the corporations, his insistence on larger senate powers for the regulation of the railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission, roused a good deal of opposition in Congress, and especially in the Senate. The Senate had been " scolded " by Roosevelt for not ratifying some reciprocity tariff treaties which he had negotiated in accord with the policy of McKinley, and as the presidential year of 1904 approached, a movement was started to supplant him by Senator Hanna. But with the death of Hanna in February, 1904, the opposition collapsed, and Roosevelt was unanimously nominated for what was practically a second term. The Democratic convention at St. Louis came again into the 849. The hands of the conservatives, who had been beaten at Chicago eight years before. It nominated Alton B. Parker, chief judge of the New York Court of Appeal, who immediately made it clear by a telegram to St. Louis that he was inalterably pledged to the gold standard. His views were accepted by the conven tion, in spite of Bryan s protest. Judge Parker was a man of the highest character and unquestioned ability, but he proved a veritable man of straw against Theodore Roosevelt. The Re publicans won by the largest majority, both in the electoral vote (336 to 140) and in the popular vote (7,624,489 to 5,082,754), ever recorded in our history. Roosevelt carried every state north of Mason and Dixon s line, and even invaded the " solid South " by winning Missouri and Maryland. He announced on the evening of his victory that he would not be a candidate for renomination in 1908. 606 History of the Republic since the Civil War After the popular indorsement of 1904 President Roosevelt intensified rather than relaxed his strenuous program. He se cured the passage of the Hepburn Rate Bill, enlarging the con trol of the Interstate Commerce Commission over the railroads, started suits against several trusts which were guilty of law- breaking, set on foot a thorough investigation of the meat packing houses in Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City, 1 secured the passage of a pure food and drugs bill through Congress, The Peace Palace at The Hague Given by Andrew Carnegie greatly improved the consular service, pushed the work on the Panama Canal, urged the admission to statehood of the terri tories of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico, and waged a continual fight for the conservation of our forests and the redemption of our waste plains. 1 Prompted by startling revelations of the horrible condition prevailing in the packing houses, which had been portrayed by Upton Sinclair in a novel called " The Jungle." Entering the Twentieth Century 607 His prestige was acknowledged abroad as well as at home. 851. Roose At his suggestion a dispute over the right of European nations ^fluence" 51 to collect their debts by force from the South American repub lics was referred to the Hague Court. 1 On his initiative Russia and Japan, who were engaged in a bloody war for the posses sion of the ports of Manchuria and Korea, were tendered the friendly offices of the United States and brought to conclude peace at Portsmouth, New Hampshire (August, 1905). In the summer of 1906 President Roosevelt received the Nobel prize 2 for his services in the cause of international peace. Roosevelt had declared immediately after his election in 1904 852. Taft that he would not be a candidate for reelection. His recom- mendation of his Secretary of War, William H. Taft, as his successor was equivalent to a nomination as Jackson s recom mendation of Van Buren had been, seventy years before. Taft was nominated on the first ballot in the Republican convention at Chicago, June 18, 1908, and easily defeated his opponent, Bryan, by 323 electoral votes to 163, in a campaign devoid of any special interest. The old issues of silver and imperialism, on which Bryan had run in 1896 and 1900, were dead. Both parties in 1908 pledged themselves to tariff revision, and Roosevelt had given his administration so democratic a charac ter by his prosecution of the trusts that he had stolen most of 1 On the motion of the emperor of Russia all the nations in diplomatic re lations with the Russian court were invited to attend a conference at The Hague, Holland, in 1899, for the purpose of discussing the reduction of armaments, the humanizing of warfare, and the settlement of international disputes by arbitration. As a result, although armaments were not decreased, more humane methods of warfare were adopted, and a permanent Court of Arbitration was established, to which many cases of international dispute have been referred for settlement. In 1904 President Roosevelt suggested a second Hague conference, but it was postponed on account of the Russo-Japanese War until the summer of 1907, when it met in a splendid new hall built by Andrew Carnegie, an ardent apostle of universal peace. 2 Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist who died in 1896, left a large fortune, the income of which was to be devoted to prizes to be awarded annually to men who had made conspicuous contributions to science, letters, and the cause of inter national peace. President Roosevelt devoted his prize of $40,000 to establishing a commission to work for industrial peace in our country. 853. Ex- President Roosevelt 608 History of the Republic since the Civil War Bryan s thunder. The Republicans maintained their invasion of the solid South by again carrying the state of Missouri, together with all the Northern and Western states except Nebraska, Colorado, and Nevada. Immediately after the close of his term of office, Colonel Roosevelt went to East Africa on a long hunting trip to pro cure specimens of rare game for the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. When he " emerged from the jungle," in the The Election of 1908 spring of 1910, he at once became the center of observation of the whole Western world. His trip from Egypt through Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Holland, and England was a con tinuous ovation, such as no private citizen had ever received. Emperors, kings, princes, presidents, and ministers all received him with the highest marks of honor. He delivered addresses at the University of Cairo, at the Sorbonne, at the University of Berlin, and at Oxford University. He represented the United States at the funeral of King Edward VII in London. Whether he seeks high public office again or not, Theodore Roosevelt WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT Entering the Twentieth Century 609 will probably long remain, in the estimation of millions of his fellow countrymen, a very influential factor in our politics and the most popular citizen of the American republic. PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS More than a hundred years ago Fisher Ames of Massachu- 854. our setts declared on the floor of Congress that our nation had s tman a ex grown " too big for union and too sordid for patriotism." The P enment 5,000,000 Americans of Fisher Ames s time have increased eighteenfold, and to-day one man in Wall Street, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, controls railroads, steamship lines, industries, insurance companies, and banks capitalized at nearly $10,000,000,000, double the total wealth of the thirteen colonies which Fisher Ames, as a youth, rejoiced to see shake off the yoke of George III. Yet our union is more firmly cemented than ever before, and our devotion to the republic is unshaken. We are attempting to maintain a democracy, or government by the people, on a scale never before witnessed in the world. The failure of our great experiment has been freely predicted both by pessimists at home and by incredulous visitors from abroad ; but these voices are only a stimulus to that " eternal vigilance " which Daniel Webster declared to be the " price of liberty." Our republican government is always on trial, and its prob lems at the present day are serious and menacing. The greatest danger to our republic to-day is the corruption 855. The of the government by the money power. The State is society organized for mutual protection and for various advantages in social intercourse, commerce, the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and interchange of products and ideas with the nations of the earth. The government, in a democratic state like ours, is simply a committee chosen by society to make and carry out the laws for the general benefit of society. Whenever the instru ments of government the legislatures, the courts, the execu tive offices are dominated by interests which make them serve only a small part of society, then the government ceases to be 6 1 o History of the Republic since the Civil War 856. The menace of privilege " representative " and democratic. And unless the people con stantly regain and preserve their control of the government, they must live in slavery. Now ever since the triumph of the " business interests " in the campaign of 1896 and the rapid organization of trusts follow ing the Spanish War, material prosperity has become the most ab sorbing concern of our country. The protection and encouragement of business has apparently outweighed even the safe guarding of liberty. Not only do the great trusts control the economic in terests of our country, the output of products, the wages of laborers, the prices of the necessities Cartoon representing the Immunity of the Trusts from Legal Punishment of life, 1 but they invade the realm of politics and influence our lawmakers and our judges. Their enormous wealth makes it possible for them to secure from state legislatures the election to the United States Senate of men who are devoted to their interests, railroad senators, sugar senators, oil senators, lum ber senators, silver senators, and these men can very often 1 It is estimated that the huge United States Steel trust, with its capital of $1,400,000,000, controls over 80 per cent of the output of steel and iron in our country, that the Standard Oil trust controls 85 per cent of the petroleum prod ucts, the Sugar trust 90 per cent of the sugar output, the coal-carrying railroads of Pennsylvania 95 per cent of the anthracite coal of the country. By throwing their products on the market or by withholding them, these giant corporations can create a glut or a famine in these necessities and so regulate their prices at will. By shutting down or opening up their mills, refineries, and mines in one district or another, they can absorb or reject great numbers of laborers, thereby disturbing the conditions of honest competition in the labor market. By the enormous size of their shipments they have been able to secure, even against drastic laws, favors from transportation companies, enabling them to undersell Entering the Twentieth Century 6 1 1 dissuade Congress from passing laws hostile to the business interests which they represent. Moreover, since the senators virtually choose all the federal judges, 1 the interpretation of the law in the courts of the United States has been very widely suspected of leaning unduly in favor of the great corporations. The past ten years, however, have seen a wonderful awakening 857. The in the American people to the evils of trust-controlled govern- J^purifica*- 01 ment. A wave of reform sentiment is sweeping over our country, tion of politics gaining force each year. This crusade for the " square deal " in business and the purification of politics has the support of influ- - ential men of all parties. Since the daily press, often owned and muzzled by the trusts, has ceased to lead public opinion in this reform movement, a number of popular magazines (Collier s Weekly, the Outlook, the American Magazine, Me duress, Every body s, the Cosmopolitan} have taken up the work of exposing the crooked methods of the trusts in business and politics, the work of " muck-raking," as it has been called. In the Western states especially the reform movement has grown rapidly. In Wisconsin, for example, the people, after a ten years fight led by Robert M. La Follette (now United States senator), wrested their legislature from the control of the rail roads, overthrew the old boss-ridden nominating convention, selected their own candidates for office by popular vote, and bound their legislature to elect to the United States Senate the men of the people s choice. Now two thirds of the states of the Union are nominating their lawmakers and officers by popular vote, and one half the states are designating the men and crush out their rivals. Anthracite coal costs less than $2 a ton to mine at present. The railroad companies that own the mines sell the coal to the public at $6 a ton and upwards. Their immense profits of 200,000,000 a year go to pay dividends on the stock of the railroads. The president of the Ontario and Western Railroad has declared publicly that if competition were free, "stove coal would be a drug on the market at $2 a ton." Imagine what that would mean for the comfort of millions of American homes ! 1 According to the Constitution, the President appoints the federal judges ; but actually, by virtue of the custom of " senatorial courtesy," most of the federal officers " appointed by the President " are recommended to him by the senators of the states in which they are appointed. 612 Entering the Twentieth Century whom their legislatures shall send to the federal Senate. Following the lead of Oregon, a number of states (Michigan, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma, Montana) have adopted the " initiative " and the " referendum." 1 In a word," the people are beginning to control their representatives, to make government a service to the community at large instead of a protection to the interests of a few enormously wealthy 1 - - n * ,, (O - oo A S fl 2 K 1 s s 1 c 8 Date i 1 i ? b -^ I i 1 1 5 Vote , ^ 2j ^ a s ^ - M .> | ; K as >? << E ? o ^ - ^ - y HJ Mar. 15, 1909 i -.. Old Rules Mar. 1 >, 1909 ii . :, S) Fitzgerald Resolution Jul. 31, 1909 in : .- 1 * Payne Tariff Bill Jan. 7, 1910 IV 1 - JJallingor Committee Mar. 19, 1910 _vj | j 1 ;; Norris Resolution Jun. 7, 1910 VI ;> Lenroot Railroad Motion Jun.7, 1910 VII Postal Gag Rule L^J D: HH "Progressive" tIM"Standpat" L^jDemoerat | | No-Vote. How Wisconsin keeps a. Watch on its Congressmen Published record of votes of each representative on important bills men. The people are determined to drive business out of politics. Twenty years ago Senator Ingalls of Kansas de clared cynically that the purification of politics was " an irides cent dream." To-day there is a great company of Americans resolved that the dream shall become true. 1 By the < initiative " is meant the right of the people to initiate legislation. On the petition of a certain small percentage of the voters of the state, a subject is presented to the legislature and the legislature is obliged to take action upon it. The " referendum " provides that laws passed by the legislature must, upon petition of a percentage of the voters of the state, be " referred " to the peo ple for indorsement or rejection. Thus, by these two popular provisions, there is no subject on which the legislature can permanently refuse to take action if the people desire it, and no law that it can permanently register on the records of the 6 1 4 History of the Republic since the Civil War 858. The in- A little group of men in Congress, consisting of about a dozen the g stand nd senators and a score of representatives, have set themselves patters" resolutely to the task of reforming the Republican party. They are called the " insurgents." They have opposed the administra tion of President Taft for its failure to redeem the preelection pledge to lower the tariff, 1 for dropping the clauses in the Taft Administration Railroad Bill which would give the government the power to determine the true value of the railroads and to control their issue of stocks and bonds (p. 543, note i), for retaining in the cabinet a Secretary of the Interior who was strongly suspected of having been connected with scandals in the sale of the public lands of the Northwest, and for general in difference to reforms for which the country is ready and anxious. They have forced the Speaker of the House, " Uncle Joe " Cannon, off the Rules Committee, where he practically domi nated Congress, and have intrusted the formulation of the rules of procedure of the House to a committee of fifteen elected by the members themselves. 2 They have accused Presi dent Taft of weakly surrendering to Cannon, Aldrich, and the " standpatters " 3 generally, in order to preserve harmony in the Republican ranks. The standpatters regard the insurgents as a group of hot-headed agitators, traitors to the Republican party, demagogues who will soon tire of the thankless job of state if the people oppose it. The " recall," or the dismissal of a legislator from his seat, is a still more effective measure of popularcontrol now being demanded by the radicals in many states. It is practiced in a number of city governments. 1 The Payne-Aldrich Bill of 1909 reduced 654 rates, increased 220, and left 1150 unchanged. That it was not a fulfillment of the platform promise of 1908 to " revise the tariff downward " was practically admitted by President Taft when he wrote, in a memorandum accompanying his signature of the bill, August 5, 1909, "The bill is not a perfect tariff bill or a complete compliance with the promises made, strictly interpreted." 2 See above, p. 546, note i. 3 The word " standpatter " is borrowed from the slang of the game of poker, where " to stand pat " means to be satisfied with the cards one holds. The Republican standpatters are willing to rely for their support by the voters on what the party has accomplished (the successful war against Spain, the organi zation of our foreign colonies, the return of business prosperity), instead of making promises for the future. Entering the Twentieth Century 615 kicking against the organization. But many judicious critics see in them the nucleus of a new progressive party, whose mission shall be the deliverance of our government from the domination of the trusts as the mission of the new Republican party of a half century ago was the deliverance of the government from the domination of the encroaching slave power. Nowhere is the movement for the purification of politics 859. "The more marked than in the government of our cities. A genera- cities" tion ago our most sympathetic foreign critic, the distinguished English statesman and author James Bryce, declared in his famous work " The American Commonwealth " that municipal government was the one conspicuous failure of democracy in America. Our own public men were obliged sadly to echo his words. For our cities were in the hands of rings and bosses, who robbed their treasuries, squandered their taxes, sold their offices, and woefully neglected their health, cleanliness, education, and reputation. Every now and then a city would rise in a spasm of indignation and " turn the rascals out " for a year or two. But the forces of reform were unorganized and intermittent, while the forces of corruption were thoroughly organized and unrelaxing. And the latter won. " The shame of the cities " * continued to be the reproach of the country. But a decided change came at the beginning of the new 860. com- century. A flood devastated Galveston, Texas, in September, nment 8 V ~ 1900, and the people intrusted the management of their city during its rebuilding to a committee of experts. The economies in the city treasury and the efficacy of the administration were so astonishing that other cities began to study Galveston as a pattern for municipal organization. Des Moines, Iowa, took the lead, and carefully developed a plan of " commission govern ment" which scores of cities in our country have followed. The people govern, according to the Des Moines plan, and not 1 The title of a book by Lincoln Steffens (1904) revealing the unspeakable corruption of the government of several of our largest cities (Minneapolis, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco). 6 1 6 History of the Republic since the Civil War the corrupt ring. The boss is dethroned. No franchise can be granted by the city council without the people s consent. Every ordinance requiring the expenditure of the city s money must be publicly posted for a week before action is taken on it, and a petition signed by a certain percentage of the voters can compel its reference to a public vote. The commissioners, aldermen, and councilmen are selected directly by the people, without the intervention of any caucus or party machine or con vention. Each of the commissioners, usually five in number, is responsible for some department of the city government (public affairs, finance, public safety, streets and improvements, parks and public works). No city officer can be interested in any con tract with the city or any corporation serving the city (as water works, street-car lines, telephones, lighting plants). All officers are subject to removal at any time by the vote of the people. By midsummer, 1911, over one hundred American cities, mostly west of the Mississippi River, had adopted the commission plan of city government ; and the unanimous testimony is that im mense improvements have resulted from it. Debts are wiped out, streets are cleaned, new schools and parks are opened, taxes are reduced, and the people s money, instead of going into the pockets of the " boodler " and the " grafter," is being spent for the purposes for which the people voted to have it spent. 1 861. The Besides the reformers who look to a vigilant enforcement of sociaLm tne ^ aw to " cur b the trusts " and purify our politics, there is a small but increasing body of men who believe that our entire 1 The immense and constantly growing importance of good government for our cities may be realized from a few statistics. While the population of our coun try at large increased 1 8-fold during the last century, the population of our cities increased n8-fold. In Washington s day only one thirtieth of our population lived in cities ; now over one third of our 90,000,000 are inhabitants of cities, and the six largest cities of our country contain about 10,000,000 people. The total indebtedness of our cities is $1,400,000,000, a sum greater than the debt of the United States. New York City alone (rated by the census of 1910 at 4,766,000) has a population as large, and wealth twenty times as great, as all the thirteen colonies combined had in 1775. Its property valuation ($6,800,000,000) is greater than that of all the states west of the Missouri River. Its subway, surface, and elevated lines carry more passengers annually than all the steam railroads in America. Entering the Twentieth Century 617 industrial and political system must be changed if we are not to become a nation of slaves, controlled by a few multimillionaires. This party bears the name of " Socialist," because it believes that our national wealth should be " socialized " ; that is, owned by society at large and operated solely for the benefit of the people. To expect to check the power of the trusts over our politics, our courts of justice, and the lives of our twenty millions of wage earners, while leaving these same trusts in possession of the means and instruments of the country s wealth (its land, its transportation systems, its coal, oil, and lumber fields, its fac tories and machinery), is as foolish, say the Socialists, as to ex pect to stop a river fed from a thousand springs, by building a dam across the middle of its course. We must socialize these means of the production and distribution of our wealth. They must be owned or managed by the government for the benefit of the whole people rather than by a few men for the reaping of enormous profits. Socialism cannot be explained in a paragraph. It is as diffi- 862. sociai- cult to define as religion, for, like religion, it means widely different things to different people, and is very largely an stood in its aspiration. It has, however, been commonly and unjustly con- and aims I fused in the popular mind with anarchism, which seeks to abolish government, and communism, which seeks to abolish private property. It has also been unjustly associated in the popular mind with violence, revolution, and a hateful war of the poor against the rich largely, perhaps, because many of the foreigners who have been prominent in the Socialist party have come from lands where the torch, the bomb, and the dagger seem the only weapons against despotism. But in this country the ballot, freely put into the hands of practically every man, is the weapon for peaceful revolution ; and on the ballot the Socialist party depends. Its vote when it first entered the presidential contest, in 1892, was 21,164. In 1908 it cast 423,969 votes. The common objections to Socialism that it would discourage all incentive to progress, destroy all initiative 6 1 8 History of the Republic since the Civil War 863. Evils against which Socialism protests 864. Race problems. Our foreign wards in business, reduce all men to a common humdrum level of inferiority, break up the home, and, in the words of President Butler of Columbia University, " wreck the world s efficiency for the purpose of redistributing the world s discontent " have been fully discussed in the writings of the modern advocates of Socialism. 1 The late Mark Hanna, whose ideas on business and politics we have already noticed (p. 569), declared that the old party lines between Democrats and Republicans were being obliterated, and that the struggle in this country was soon to come between Socialism and capitalism ; and, in fact, the present insurgent movement actually has in its program many of the demands of the Socialist party. Individualism was the watchword of the nineteenth century ; cooperation will be the motto of the twentieth. It is inconceivable that the great body of American citizens, with their high average of intelligence, their native alertness, and splendid standards of industry, will long allow one tenth of their number to stagnate in abject poverty, 2 their workers to produce in abundance the food and clothing of which they get a miserably meager share, and their little chil dren (the hope of the next generation) to be maimed and stunted in labor night and day in factories, mills, and mines, in order that a few more hundred million dollars may be distributed in dividends to the few fortunate people who own such a large part of the wealth of our land. Besides these serious political and industrial questions that face our country at the beginning of the new century, there are other problems growing out of our relations to inferior races. We have assumed the government of about 8,000,000 oriental and 1 See H. G. Wells, New Worlds for Old (1907) ; John Spargo, Socialism (1906) ; W. J. Ghent, Mass and Class (1904) ; Morris Hillquit, Socialism in Theory and Practice (1909) ; and especially Edmond Kelly, Twentieth Century Socialism (1910). 2 Mr. Robert Hunter in his work entitled " Poverty " (1904) shows that there are 10,000,000 people in the United States actually without the food, shelter, and clothing necessary to make them efficient workers and respectable members pf our great social republic. Entering the Twentieth Century 619 Latin-American people in the Philippines and Porto Rico, with the responsibility for the orderly conduct of 2,000,000 more in Cuba. What we have done for these people has already been briefly described, but how great demands they are going to make on our purse and our patience we do not yet know. It is clear that their education in democracy, their defense and develop ment, must be very important concerns for us, influencing our politics considerably. Within our borders we have a race problem more serious 865. The than that of any other nation in the world. The negroes form {jf^ 10 pro about one half the population of our Southern states. Since their emancipation fifty years ago they have made considerable progress l ; but still they are, as a race, far, perhaps centuries, behind the whites in civilization. How these two races are to live together in our Southland is a great problem. Some Southern leaders unfortunately still advocate the stern repression and even the terrorization of the negro. Not only would they keep the colored race entirely out of politics, 2 but they would force it to remain uneducated and inefficient. " Money spent for public schools for the negro," said Governor Vardaman of Mississippi in 1908, "is robbery of the white man and a waste upon the negro." The same spirit encourages, or at least regards with complacent indifference, the denial of civic justice to the negro, and permits the South to be disgraced by lynchings and race riots. On the other side are a group of noble Southern gentle men who realize that neither cruelty nor repression is going to make a good citizen of the negro ; that the health and peace 1 Illiteracy among the negroes decreased from 70 per cent in 1880 to 44 per cent in 1900. The wealth of the negroes to-day is estimated at over $300,000,000. They owned or rented 746,717 farms in 1905, containing altogether some 38,000,- ooo acres, or double the area of Scotland. They have over 30 banks, besides building-loan companies, insurance companies, and mutual aid societies. There are nearly 2000 negro physicians and surgeons in the United States, and 1,600,000 negroes (about one half those of school age) are enrolled in the public schools. 2 We have already discussed the Reconstruction program of the North, which put the ballot into the hands of the utterly unfit negro just emancipated from bondage (p. 485), and have noticed the ways in which the South has nullified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments (p. 550, note i). 620 History of the Republic since the Civil War and progress of the South depend upon the education to their greatest efficiency of both the races within its borders; and that, while the races must always be kept distinct socially, the dominance of the white man can and must be the dominance of the elder and stronger brother who educates, protects, and encourages the weaker. The industrial and commercial progress of the South in the last generation is one of the most remarkable facts in our history. Since 1880 its railroad mileage has increased from A Group of Immigrants 20,000 to 70,000 miles, the capital in its cotton mills from $21,000,000 to $281,000,000, the value of its manufactures from $457,000,000 to $2,675,000,000, of its food products from $660,000,000 to $2,550,000,000, and of its exports from $264,000,000 to $619,000,000. And still its reserves of timber, coal, and iron ore are enormous. The South needs the labor of the negro. The prolongation of race hatred can bring her only detriment and sorrow. 866. immi- Finally, a third phase of the race problem which confronts race problem the United States at the opening of the new century is immi gration. It is only within recent years that immigration has Entering the Twentieth Century 621 been a race problem. Before 1880 over four fifths of all the immigrants to the United States were from Canada and the northern countries of Europe, which were allied to us in blood, language, customs, religion, and political ideas. They were a most welcome addition to our population, especially in the development of the great farm lands of the West. They assimi lated rapidly with our people, cherished our free institutions, arid in the second generation became the most American of Americans. But since 1880 a steady change has been going on in the character of our immigration. The Germans, Irish, Swedes, and English are being replaced by the Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Italians, and other peoples of southern and eastern Europe. 1 Each year brings a million of them more than the total number of colonists that came to this country between the settlement at Jamestown and the American Revo lution. Moreover, they no longer come impelled by the desire to build up new homes in the new land, but are brought over by the agents of steamship companies and large corporations and set to work in great gangs under " padrones," or bosses. Their low standards of living tend to reduce wages, and their con gestion in the slums of the great cities makes breeding places for disease and offers the unscrupulous politician cheap votes with which to debauch the city government. 2 1 The following table, adapted from Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, p. 73, shows the change in the character of our immigration. COUNTRIES 1870-1880 1880-1890 1890-1900 1907 Germany, Scandinavia, Great Britain 82.8% 75-6% 41.8% 16.7% Italy, Austria, Russia, Poland . . 6-4% 17-6% 5o.i% 75-8% All other countries 10 8% 68% 8 i% 7 fi 2 In 1900 the foreign born constituted 26.1 per cent of the total of our city population, and only 9.4 per cent of our country and town population. In New York 76.9 per cent of the inhabitants were of foreign parentage ; in Chicago, 77.4 per cent; in Boston, 72.2 per cent. In the Hancock School in Boston there were over 1000 Hebrew and Italian children and only 80 Americans. 622 History of the Republic since the Civil War 867. The restriction of immigration 868. Amer ica not " the land of the Almighty Dollar " alone We are alive to-day to the dangers of unrestricted immigra tion. Our laws are framed both to protect American labor against the cheap contract gang labor of the imported immi grants, and to insure sound citizenship in our republic. The convict, the pauper, the anarchist, the lunatic, the diseased, and the destitute are no longer allowed to enter our ports. A head tax of $4 on each immigrant (included by the steamship com pany in his passage money) goes to make up a fund to pay the expenses of deporting the unfit ; while a fine of $100 against the steamship line that brings in a diseased immigrant makes the health inspectors on the ocean liners more painstaking in the discharge of their duty. The whole question of immigration is summed up in this : Can we assimilate and mold into citizenship the millions who are coming to our shores, or will they remain an ever-increasing body of aliens, an undigested and indigestible element in our body politic, and a constant menace to our free institutions ? The constant criticism directed against us by foreign nations is that America is the land of dollars, and that we care little for the encouragement of letters, art, science, and scholarship. This criticism is in a measure true, and in a measure false and due to a misconception. It is true that the development of our almost fabulous resources of mineral and agricultural wealth, as we have advanced to the shores of the Pacific, has occupied the lion s share of our energies ; and that the great " captains of industry " have received more notice than great scholars or artists. But it is equally true that our foreign critics have failed to realize how much encouragement education has re ceived in this country, because our government does not, like most of the European governments, concern itself directly with the schooling of the nation. That is left to state and local authorities. So that while our national government spends less, our people actually spend more per capita for education than any other nation in the world. The public school is a revered institution in America, on which is spent from 25 to 50 per cent Entering the Twentieth Century 623 of the revenues of some of our New England and Middle Western communities. 1 From the foundation of our nation there have been diver- 869. Pater- gent opinions as to the scope of government in the affairs of the Amer i ca people, whether it should simply confine itself to the protec tion of life, liberty, and property, or should actively engage in the promotion of industry, the encouragement of morals, and the education of the people. Fourteen European governments protect women and children from night work and excessive hours of day work. Germany, through its institution of state in surance, cares for 100,000 children a year by pensioning widowed mothers. This kind of legislation is called " paternalism," for it puts the state in a paternal, or fatherly, relation to the citizen. Our own government has always had some elements of pa ternalism. The protective tariff, for example, has encouraged American industries. The national Pure Food and Drugs Law of 1906 was passed to safeguard the health of our people. President Taft has recently suggested the creation of "a national bureau of health." Such an institution would doubtless secure national laws prohibiting the stupid inhumanity of child labor, 2 safeguarding the lives of workers in our mines and on 1 The public-school bill of the American people, paid entirely out of local taxation, amounts to some $500,000,000 a year. We have 500,000 teachers instructing 18,000,000 children. Private contributions to colleges and higher institutions of research are liberal in America. Between 1890 and 1900, $100,- ooo,ooc were donated by John D. Rockefeller, Senator Leland Stanford, Andrew Carnegie, A. J. Drexel, Seth Low, and others to the cause of higher education. 2 According to the census of 1900 there were over 700,000 children under sixteen years working in the mines, mills, factories, and sweatshops of the United States. John Spargo, in his " Bitter Cry of the Children," tells of cigar factories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania nicknamed " kindergartens " because of the great number of little children employed in them. He found children of six and seven working at 2 A.M. canning vegetables in the factories of New York state. Most of the states have child-labor laws, but they are not enforced. In the South, where conditions are the worst, only one state (North Carolina) has a labor commission, and frequently there is no inspection of the factories whatever, to see whether the laws are being violated or not. An investigator in Augusta, Georgia, found 556 children under twelve years of age working in eight mills in June, 1900. One physician testified to amputating the fingers of over 100 children, whose little hands had been caught in the rapid machinery of the cotton mills. 624 History of the Republic since the Civil War 870. The force of pub lic opinion our railroads, 1 and prescribing conditions under which many dangerous or exhausting industries should be conducted. Public opinion constantly acts on the government, draw ing into the field of legislation new subjects. The slave power fought for years against the introduction into Congress of any measure restricting its extension. The railroads and corpora tions opposed, as " unheard of," the meddling of the govern ment with their " business." So when the sentiment in favor of checking the waste of our nation s manhood by strong drink, and of our nation s substance by the construction of battleships costing $12,000,000 or more shall have grown to its full strength, we may see the sa loon follow the slave block into oblivion and the millions now spent on engines of de struction devoted to the erad ication of disease and the enlightenment of the mind. The problems of a democ- Sctl Vet U1U11 Ul 1 our democracy racy are ever changing to meet the developing needs and the unfolding ideals of the people. Our problem in America at the opening of the twentieth century is no longer that of George Washington s day, to establish the forms and powers of a republican government ; nor that of Andrew Jackson s day, to admit to a full share in that govern ment the sturdy manhood of the nation ; nor that of Abraham Lincoln s day, to save the life of the Union while cutting from it the cancer of slavery ; nor that of William McKinley s day, to introduce the United States among the nations which are to 1 In 1907 over 6800 workers were killed in mines, and each year about 80,000 employees are killed or injured on our railroads, chiefly through lack of safety appliances. 871. The salvation of Breaker Boys at Work in the Penn sylvania Mines Entering the Twentieth Century 625 control the destinies of the undeveloped races of the world. To-day we are rich, united, powerful. But the very material prosperity which is our boast menaces the life of our democracy. The power of money threatens to choke the power of law. The spirit of gain is sacrificing to its insatiable greed the spirit of brotherhood and the very life of the toilers of the land even the joyous years of tender childhood. Unless we are to sink into ignoble slavery or fall a prey to horrid revolution, the manhood of the nation must rise in its moral strength to restore our democratic institutions to the real control of the people, to assert the superiority of men over machines, and the value of a brotherhood of social cooperation and mutual goodwill above the highest statistics of commercial gain. Our noble mis sion is still to realize the promise of the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, that " government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." REFERENCES The Spanish War and the Philippines : J. H. LATANE, America as a World Power (American Nation Series), chaps, i-x; A. C. COOLIDGE, The United States as a World Power, chaps, v-viii; J. W. FOSTER, American Diplomacy in the Orient, chap, xiii ; J. G. ScHURMAN, Philippine Affairs; H. P. WILLIS, Our Philippine Problem; E. E. SPARKS, The Expansion of the American People, chap, xxxvi ; J. D. LONG, The New American Navy, chaps, v-xii; H. T. PECK, Twenty Years of the Republic, chaps, xii-xiv ; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV,, Nos. 180-196; The Obvious Orient, chaps, xxiv-xxvi ; E. B. ANDREWS, The United States in o^tr Own Time, chaps, xxvii, xxviii ; JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth (en larged edition of 1911), Vol. II, chap, xcvii ; histories of the Spanish War by H. C. LODGE, R. A. ALGER, and HENRY WATTERSON. The Roosevelt Policies: LATANE, chaps, xii-xvi; PECK, chap, xv ; COOLIDGE, chaps, xv-xix; J. W. FOSTER, A Century of American Diplo macy, chap, xii; E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, chap, xxx ; H. C. LODGE (z&.}, Addresses and Presidential Messages of Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1904; FRANCIS CURTIS, The Republican Party, chaps, xvi-xviii ; F. W. HOLLS, The Peace Conference at The Hague, chaps. 626 History of the Republic since the Civil War i, ii, viii ; W. F. JOHNSON, Four Centuries of the Panama Canal, chaps, viii-xii ; JOHN MITCHELL, Organized Labor, chaps, xvii, xviii; biogra phies of Roosevelt by F. E. LEUPP, J. A. Rns, and W. M. CLEMENS. Present-Day Problems : LATANE, chaps, xvii, xviii ; PECK, chap, xvi ; BRYCE, Vol. II, chaps, xcii-xciii, c-ciii, cxxii ; COOLIDGE, chaps, ii, iii, xvii-xix ; R. MAYO-SMITH, Emigration and Immigration, chaps, i, iii, vii, viii, xii ; P. LEROY-BEAULIEU, The United States in the Twen tieth Century, Part I ; J. L. LAUGHLIN, Industrial America, chaps, ii-v, vii ; A. B. HART, National Ideas Historically Traced (Am. Nation), chaps, iii-ix, xix ; ADAMS and SUMNER, Labor Problems, Books II-V ; J. G. BROOKS, The Social Unrest, chaps, vii-xii ; JOHN SPARGO, Socialism ; MORRIS HILLQUIT, Socialism in Theory and Practice ; GIFFORD PINCHOT, The Fight for Conservation. TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS 1. Child Labor: ADAMS and SUMNER, pp. 19-64, 551-554; JOHN SPARGO, The Bitter Cry of the Children, pp. 125-217; FELIX ADLER, Child Labor in the United States (American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XXV, pp. 415-562); also series of articles in American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XXVII ; E. S. MURPHY, Problems of the Present South, pp. 127-149, and Appendix B. 2. The Hague Peace Conference of 1899: HOLLS, pp. 1-35, 365-372; LATANE, pp. 242-254; A. D. WHITE, Autobiography, Vol. II, pp. 250- 354 ; J. W. FOSTER, Arbitration and the Hague Court. 3. Should Immigration be restricted? ADAMS and SUMNER, pp. 80- iii ; P. F. HALL, Immigration, pp. 309-323; MAYO-SMITH, pp. 266-- 302 ; HART, pp. 42-46 ; BRYCE, Vol. II, pp. 469-490 ; FRANCIS WALKER, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417 45 1 - 4. Anti-Imperialism: COOLIDGE, pp. 148-171; PECK, pp. 610-612; ANDREWS, pp. 853-858 ; WILLIS, pp. 23-28 ; G. F. HOAR, Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. II, pp. 304-329 ; EDWARD ATKINSON, The Cost of War and Warfare from 1898 to 1904 ; MOORFIELD STOREY, What shall we do with our Dependencies ? APPENDIX I DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind re quires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident : That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- able rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov erned ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be dhanged for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experi ence hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, 627 628 Appendix I to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colo nies ; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa tions, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and neces sary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom fortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measure. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and rais ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. Declaration of Independence 629 He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and supe rior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states ; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses ; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit in strument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ; For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already be gun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has en deavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 630 Appendix I In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British breth ren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our con nections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of Amer ica, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly pub lish and declare, 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 be tween them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com merce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm re liance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Declaration of Independence 631 The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed and signed by the following members : NEW HAMPSHIRE JOSIAH BARTLETT WILLIAM WHIPPLE MATTHEW THORNTON MASSACHUSETTS BAY SAMUEL ADAMS JOHN ADAMS ROBERT TREAT PAINE ELBRIDGE GERRY RHODE ISLAND STEPHEN HOPKINS WILLIAM ELLERY CONNECTICUT ROGER SHERMAN SAMUEL HUNTINGTON WILLIAM WILLIAMS OLIVER WOLCOTT NEW YORK WILLIAM FLOYD PHILIP LIVINGSTON FRANCIS LEWIS LEWIS MORRIS JOHN HANCOCK NEW JERSEY RICHARD STOCKTON JOHN WITHERSPOON FRANCIS HOPKINSON JOHN HART ABRAHAM CLARK PENNSYLVANIA ROBERT MORRIS BENJAMIN RUSH BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHN MORTON GEORGE CLYMER JAMES SMITH GEORGE TAYLOR JAMES WILSON GEORGE Ross DELAWARE CAESAR RODNEY GEORGE READ THOMAS M KEAN MARYLAND SAMUEL CHASE WILLIAM PACA THOMAS STONE CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton VIRGINIA GEORGE WYTHE RICHARD HENRY LEE THOMAS JEFFERSON BENJAMIN HARRISON THOMAS NELSON, JR. FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEK CARTER BRAXTON NORTH CAROLINA WILLIAM HOOPER JOSEPH HEWES JOHN PENN SOUTH CAROLINA EDWARD RUTLEDGE THOMAS HEYWARD, JR. THOMAS LYNCH, JR. ARTHUR MIDDLETON GEORGIA BUTTON GWINNETT LYMAN HALL GEORGE WALTON Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions, and committees, or councils of safety and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops ; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, at the head of the army APPENDIX II CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA We the people of the United States, in order to form a more per fect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America. ARTICLE I SECTION I. All legislative, powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. SECT. II. i. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, accord ing to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to serv ice for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such man ner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have 632 Constitution of the United States of America 633 at least one representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massa chusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Con necticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. SECT. III. i. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second -year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expira tion of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legisla ture, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi dent pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside : and no person shall be convicted without the concur rence of two thirds of the members present. 634 Appendix II 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States : but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. SECT. IV. i. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof ; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SECT. V. i. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, re turns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the at tendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such pen alties, as each house may provide. 2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. SECT. VI. i. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any : other place. Constitution of the United States of America 635 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emolu ments whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. SECT. VII. i. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representa tives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsidera tion two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the jour nal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. SECT. VIII. The Congress shall have power i. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 636 Appendix II 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ; 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uni form laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ; 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States ; 7. To establish post offices and post roads ; 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by secur ing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ; 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offences against the law of nations ; 1 1 . To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water ; 1 2. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; 1 6. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 1 7. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State, in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings ; and Constitution of the United States of America 637 1 8. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof. SECT. IX. i. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1 808 ; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding $10 for each person. 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus pended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in pro portion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another : nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub lished from time to time. 8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolu ment, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. SECT. X. i . No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be 638 Appendix II absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws : and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such im minent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II SECTION I. i. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole num ber of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. [The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab itant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner Constitution of the United States of America 639 choose the President. But in choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] 3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same throughout the United States. 4. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty- five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 5. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resig nation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, de claring what officer shall then act as President, arid such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." SECT. II. i. The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 640 Appendix II States, when called into the actual service of the United States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law : but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commis sions which shall expire at the end of their next session. SECT. III. He shall from time to time give to the Congress in formation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their con sideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. SECT. IV. The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III SECTION I. i. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Con gress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during Constitution of the United States of America 641 good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. SECT. II. i. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and con suls ; to all cases of admiralty jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more States ; between a State and citizens of another State ; between citizens of different States ; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. SECT. III. i. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV SECTION I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in 642 Appendix II which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. SECT. II. i. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SECT. III. i. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junc tion of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. SECT. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. ARTICLE V The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Consti tution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the sev eral States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or Constitution of the United States of America 643 the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; provided that no amendments which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judi cial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII The ratification of the conventions of nine States, shall be suffi cient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven and of the Independ ence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. [Signed by] G WASHINGTON Presidt and Depitty from Virginia- 644 Appendix II NEW HAMPSHIRE JOHN LANGDON NICHOLAS OILMAN MASSACHUSETTS NATHANIEL GORHAM RUFUS KING CONNECTICUT WM. SAML. JOHNSON ROGER SHERMAN NEW YORK ALEXANDER HAMILTON NEW JERSEY WIL: LIVINGSTON DAVID BREARLEY WM : PATERSON JONA: DAYTON PENNSYLVANIA B FRANKLIN THOMAS MIFFLIN ROBT. MORRIS GEO. CLYMER THO. FITZ SIMONS JARED INGERSOLL JAMES WILSON Gouv MORRIS DELAWARE GEO: READ GUNNING BEDFORD, JUN. JOHN DICKINSON RICHARD BASSETT JACO : BROOM VIRGINIA JOHN BLAIR JAMES MADISON, JR. NORTH CAROLINA WM. BLOUNT RICHD. DOBBS SPAIGHT Hu WILLIAMSON SOUTH CAROLINA J. RUTLEDGE CHARLES COTESWORTH PlNCKNEY CHARLES PINCKNEY PIERCE BUTLER MARYLAND GEORGIA JAMES MCHENRY WILLIAM FEN DAN OF ST. THOS. JENIFER ABR BALDWIN DANL CARROLL Attest : WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO AND AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITU TION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PROPOSED BY CON GRESS, AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLATURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establish ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridg ing the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the se curity of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. ARTICLE III. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their per sons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly Constitution of the United States of America 645 describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. ARTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which dis trict shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law, where the value in contro versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-exam ined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. ARTICLE XII. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, 646 Appendix II at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them selves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-Pres- ident, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate ; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Repre sentatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three [on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice- President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of elec tors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-Presi dent ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. ARTICLE XIII. Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Constitution of the United States of America 647 Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV. Section i. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State de prive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec tion of the laws. Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male in habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legis lature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insur rection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of t^fo thirds of each house, remove such disability. Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of 648 Appendix II insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obliga tions, and claims shall be held illegal and void. Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appro priate legislation the provisions of this article. ARTICLE XV. Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. INDEX Abolitionists, 3 1 6-3 2 5 ; societies of, 320, 321 ftn. i ; in Congress, 321; petitions of, 322 ; contest over mails, 323, 327 ; on annexation of Texas, 348 ; strengthened in 1854, 384 Acadia, 90, 93, 97 ftn. 2 Adams, Charles Francis, 493 ftn. i, 498, 499 Adams, John, leader in Massachu setts, 121 ; loyalty to England, 1 29 ; mission to Paris, 1 50 ; treats with Pitt, 152 ; defeats noninter- course, 197 ; elected President, 200 ; quarrel with France, 200- 201 ; peace with Napoleon, 202 ; defeated by Jefferson, 203 ; re tires, 205 Adams, John Quincy, Secretary of State, 239 ; Monroe Doctrine, 242 ; on internal improvements, 251 ; career, 252 ; presidential candidate in 1824, 258; elected by the House, 259; difficulties as President, 259-266; defeated by Jackson, 266 ; member of House, 267 ; on Missouri, 311 ; fights gag resolutions, 322 ; on Texas, 335 Adams, Samuel, oration at Harvard College, TII; circular letter, 117; on Boston Massacre, 118; Committees of Correspondence, 121 ; flight to Lexington, 124 Age of Reason, 132 Aguinaldo, Emilio, 582, 583 Alabama claims, 498 Alamance, battle of, 133 ftn. i Alamo, massacre of, 334 Alaska, Russian, 236 ; boundary claim, 241 ; purchase of, 499, 502 Albany, Dutch post, 59 ; Congress of, 96 ; plan of union, 96 Aldrich, Nelson M., 614 Alexander VI, bull of, 9 Alger, Richard A., 580 ftn. i Alien and Sedition Acts, 202 Allen, Ethan, 127 Allison, William B., 518 Altgelt, J. P., 564 Amendments : XII, 178 ftn. i, 204 ; I-XV, 180, 181; XII, 259; I, 321 ; proposed on slavery, 418 ftn. ; XIII, 474 ; XIV, 483, 484 ; V-VI, 489 America, discovery, 3-9 ; naming, 11-13 American Association, 122 American System, 294, 536 Ames, Fisher, 609 Amherst, Jeffrey, 101, 102 Anaconda policy, 456 Anderson, Major Robert, 421-424 Andre, Major John, 141, 142 Andros, Sir Edmund, 51 Annapolis Convention, 167 Anne, Queen, 304 Annexation of Texas, 335-348 Antietam, battle of, 448 Anti-imperialists, 583, 585 ftn. i, 626 Antimasons, 292, 293 Antislavery societies, 307, 316 Antislavery sentiment in eight eenth century, 326 Antislavery poems, 404 A P ia > 553 554 Appeal of the Independent Demo crats, 381 Appomattox, 464 Apprentice laws, 480 Arbitration, over Venezuela, 567 ; treaty with England, 589 ftn. 2 ; Hague Court of, 607 Arbitration treaty with England, 589 ftn. 2 649 650 Index Arkansas admitted to Union, 322 ftn. 3 Armistead, General, 451 Arnold, Benedict, 130, 138, 141,142 Arthur, Chester A., dismissed by Hayes, 516; Vice President, 522; President, 524 ; on corruption, 524 ftn. 2 Articlesof Confederation, 160, 161, 162, 166, 173 Ashburton, Lord, 337 Assumption, 190 Astor, John Jacob, 331 Atkinson, Edward, 585 ftn. i Atlanta, capture of, 460 Aztec civilization, 15, 1 6 Babcock, Secretary, 492 Bacon, Nathaniel, 34 Bacon, Roger, 5 ftn. i Balboa, 14 ftn. i Baltimore, in War of 1812, 221 ; in Civil War, 427 Baltimore, Lord, 53-56 Bank, National, first, 191 ; second, 232, 282-286, 298, 337 Banks, N. P., 392 Banks, state, 232; "pet," 286; "wildcat," 287; national, 453 ftn. i Barbary States, 163 Bayard, Thomas F., 534 ftn. i Beauregard, General, 424, 439 Belknap, Secretary, 492 Bell, John, 411 Bellomont, Earl of, 73, 94 Benton, Thomas H., 256, 262, 276, 286, 330, 331 Bering Sea, 554, 555 Berkeley, Governor William, 62 Biddle, Nicholas, 284 Bienville, Celoron de, 95 Bimetallism, 570 Binney, Horace, 324 Birney, J. G., 324, 327, 341 Bishops, in America, in Black codes, 481 Black Republicans, 408 Black Warrior affair, 373 Bladensburg, 221 Blaine, James G., rejected in 1876, 495 ftn. i ; Secretary of State, 5 2 3> 5 2 7> 545> 553-555.5 on civil service, 526; opposition to, in 1884, 527, 528; contrasted with Cleveland, 529 ; defeat in 1884, 530; resignation and death, 556 Blaire, F. P., Jr., 426 Bland, Richard P., 518, 568 Bland- Allison Act, 518 Blockade of South, 442 Bolivar, Simon, 239 Bonhomme Richard, 140 Bonus Bill, 249, 250 Boone, Daniel, 145, 149 Border ruffians, 389 Boston, spirit of, 120; punished by England, 127 ; hostility of, to Garrison, 319; commission gov ernment of, 616 Boston Massacre, 118, 119 Boston News Letter, 77, 78 Boston Tea Party, 120 Boxers, 589 Braddock, General, 99 Bradford, Governor, 37, 38, 42 Bradley, Justice, 496 Bragg, General, 454, 455 ftn. i, Brandywine Creek, battle of, 138 Breckinridge, John C., 410 Brooks, Preston, 392, 393 Brougham, Lord, 269 Brown, Jacob, 220 Brown, John, 390, 406, 407, 408 ftn. i, 429 Bryan, William J., nominated in 1896, 568; career, 569; defeat, 571; defeat in 1900, 584; de feat in 1908, 607 Bryant, William C., 235 Bryce, James, 615 Buchanan, James, minister to Eng land, 373 ; President, 395 ; and Kansas, 396-399; weakness in 1860-1861, 416, 422, 423 Buell, General, 454, 455 ftn. i Buena Vista, battle of, 345 Buffalo Exposition of 1901, 592 Bull Run, first battle, 439 ; second battle, 447 Bunau-Varilla Treaty, 602 Bunker Hill, battle of, 130 Burgess, J. W., 323 ftn. I Index 6 5 1 Burgesses, House of, Virginia, 32, 114, 118, 122 Burke, Edmund, 108, 122, 521 Burlingame Treaty, 516 ftn. 2 Burnet, Governor, 94 Burns, Anthony, 385 Burnside, General, 448 Burr, Aaron, 203, 212 Bustamante, President, 333 Butler, A. P., 392 Butler, Benjamin F., 446 Byrd, William, 58 ftn. i Cabeza de Vaca, 16 Cabot, John, n Calhoun, John C., censures Jack son, 239 ; expansionist, 249, 250; career, 254, 256; Vice President, 260 ; " Exposition and Protest," 273, 274; senator, 282 ; on abolitionists, 321 ; opinions on slavery, 322-325 ; Secretary of State, 339 ; on Compromise of 1850, 360; death, 360 California, 344, 350, 356, 357, 375 Calvert, Cecilius, 55 Calvert, George, 53 Canada, 84, 85, 91, 95, 102, in, 220, 231 Canal, Panama, 371, 375, 600-603 Canal, Suez, 603 ftn. i Canning, George, 241 Cannon, Joseph G., 614 Cape Verde Islands, n, 579 Captains of industry, 538 Carnegie, Andrew, 543 ftn. 2, 607 ftn. i Carolinas, founded, 57 ; condition, ^8 ; in Revolutionary War, 140 Carpetbaggers, 480 ftn. i, 487 Carteret, George, 63 Cartier, Jacques, 20, 82, 83 Cass, Lewis, 354, 355, 396 Caucus, 178 ftn. 2, 258 Cavaliers, 33 Cavite, 577 Centennial Exposition, 500, 501 Cervera, Admiral, 579 Champlain, Lake, 84 ; battle on, 220 Champlain, Samuel de, 83, 84, 86 Chancellorsville, battle of, 448 Chapultepec, battle of, 345 Charles I, 33 Charles II, 33, 35, 47, 49 5 6o 63, 90, 91, 120 Charleston, founded, 57 ; in Revo lutionary War, 140 ; secession, 413; celebration, 467 Charlestown, 130 Chase, Salmon P., 362, 381, 452, 453 ftn. i, 460, 460 ftn. i Chatham, Earl of, 117 Chattanooga, battle of, 455, 456, 457 Cherokees, 146 Chesapeake affair, 216 Cheves, 218 Chicago, 563 Chickamauga, battle of, 456 Child labor, 623 ftn. 2, 626 Chile, 555 China, 589, 590 Chinese Exclusion Act, 5i6ftn. 2 Chowan River, 57 Cibola, 17 Cipango, 6 Cities, American, 615, 6i6ftn. i Civil Rights Bill, 483 ftn. i Civil service, 524, 525, 526, 532, 533 594 ftn. i Civil W T ar, 436-467, 475, 475 ftn. 2, 5 5> 57 Claiborne, Governor, 237 Claiborne, William, 85 Clark, Jonas, 124 Clark, George Rogers, 148, 149 Clay, Henry, in Congress, 218; and War of 1812, 219, 220; career, 256, 257 ; presidential candidate in 1824, 258; Secre tary of State, 259 ; Compromise of 1833, 282; and Bank, 284; defeated by Jackson, 285 ; Mis souri Compromise, 312; rela tions with Tyler, 336 ftn. i ; nominated in 1844, 339; on Texas, 340, 350 ; defeat in 1844, 341 ; Compromise of 1850, 358 ; death, 367 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 371, 600 Cleveland, Grover, career, 528, 529 ; President, 530 ; policy, 533 5345 n civil service, 6 5 2 Index 534 ftn. i, 594 ftn. i; financial measures, 535-538 ; attitude toward labor, 539, 540; defeat in 1888, 544 ; reelection in 1892, 557; difficult problems, 558; gold supply, 559, 560; tariff policy, 560, 561 ; Pullman strike, 563 ; on Hawaii, 565 ; rejected in 1896, 578 Clinton, De Witt, 254 Clinton, George, 136, 140, 141, 223 Coahuila, 333 Colbert, 90 Cold Harbor, battle of, 459, 459 ftn. 2 Colombia, 60 1 Colonies, table of, 69 ; in eight eenth century, 72 ; characteris tics, 79 Columbia, S.C., 281 Columbus, 4-9 "Common Sense," 131, 132 Compromise of 1850, 358, 359, 363, 43 1 ftn. i Confederacy, Southern, formation, 414; enlargement, 425, 426; resources, 431 ; collapse, 466 Congress, Continental, 122, 123, 127, 160; of the Confederation, 164, 165 ; of United States, 174- 188 Conkling, Roscoe, 516, 522, 523, 530 ftn. i Connecticut, settled, 44 ; charter, 47 ; claimed by Dutch, 60 Conservation, 597, 599 Constitution, 173-182; slavery in, 307 ; denounced by Garrison, 320 Constitutional Convention, 167- 182 Constitutional Union Party, 411 " Contraband," 469 Conventions, national nominating, 292, 293 Cooke, Jay, 494 ftn. 2 Cooper, James Fenimore, 235 Cooper, Peter, 514 Cooper, Thomas, 271 Corinth, 445 Cornell, Alonzo B., 516 Cornwallis, Lord, 137, 141, 142; M3 5 Coronado, 17 "Corrupt Bargain" of 1824, 259, 260 Cortez, Hernando, 15, 16 Cotton, 247, 270, 369, 431, 442 Cotton gin, 306, 308 ftn. i Cotton, John, 40 Coupon bonds, 452 Coureurs de bois, 85 Court, see Supreme Court Cowpens, 141 Coxey, Jacob, 562 Crawford, William H., 232, 254, 258 Credit Mobilier, 512, 513 Crime of 1873, 5 : 7 ftn. 2, 532 Crittenden, J. J., 417 Crown Point, 94 Cuba, 7, 15, 372, 373, 500, 574, 575, 576, 578, 582, 586 Cullom Act, 542 Curtis, George W., 491 ftn. 4, 528 Custer, George A., 517 ftn. i, 532 Czolgosz, 593 Dale, Governor Thomas, 31 Dallas, Secretary, 232 Dark horse, 340, 367 Dartmouth College Case, 234 Davenport, John, 47 Davis, Jefferson, on Oregon, 353; on Kansas, 392 ; and Douglas, 402 ; resolutions, 408 ; Presi dent of Confederacy, 414; message, 425 ftn. i ; escape from Richmond, 464 ; impris oned, 466 ftn. 2, 477 ftn. i Dawes Bill, 548 Day, Judge William R., 590 ftn. i Debs, Eugene V., 563 Declaration of Independence, 133- J 35 Delaware, 66, 170 De la Warre, Lord, 31 Demarcation line, 1 1 Democracy, -609 Democratic party, under Jackson, 291, 292 ; and Civil War, 409, 435 ftn. 2 ; victory in 1874, 495 ; in 1884, 529, 530; in 1892, 557; Index 653 radicals, 564, 567 ; in 1896, 568 ; split, 571 Democratic-Republican Party, 192, 265 Des Moines, 615 De Soto, 1 6, 17 Detroit, 89, 220 Dewey, George, 577, 581, 582, 589 ftn. i Diaz, Bartholomew, 4 Dickenson, John, 128, 161 Dingley Bill, 590 Dinwiddie, Governor, 96, 97 Directory, French, 200 District of Columbia, 206 ftn. i, 359, 363 Dixie, 430 Dongan, Thomas, 91 Douglas, Stephen A., on Kansas- Nebraska Act, 380-383, 387 ; on Lecompton fraud, 398, 399 ; de bates with Lincoln, 399-402 ; nominated in 1860, 410; vote for, 412; supports Lincoln, 424 Draft riots, 448, 476 Drake, Sir Francis, 21 Dred Scott decision, 396, 397 Duke s Laws, 61 Duquesne, Fort, 97, 89, 101 Dutch in America, 59, 61, 81 East India Company, 120 Education, in colonies, 77 ; in United States, 622, 623 ftn. i Elastic clause, 181 El Caney, 580 Election, of 1800, 203 ; of 1824, 258, 259; of 1840, 296, 297; of 1860,411,412; of 1876, 496; of 1884, 530; of 1896, 571 Electoral commission of 1877, 496 Electors, presidential, 178 Elkins Bill, 542 Emancipation Proclamation, 472, 474 Embargo, 216 Emerson, R. W., 408 ftn. i Emigrant Aid Society, 388 Endicott, John, 40 Endless chain, 559 England, see Great Britain Enumerated articles, 70 Era of good feeling, 231, 251 Ericsson, John, 443 Erie Canal, 254, 264 Erie, Lake, battle of, 220 " Evangeline," 97 ftn. 3 Everett, Edward, 389 " Exposition and Protest " of Cal- houn, 273 Faneuil Hall, 118 Farmers Alliance, 556 Farragut, David A., 446, 461 Federal Election Law, see Force Bill "Federalist, The," 172 Federalists, 192, 203, 205, 211, 223, 224 Federation of Labor, American, 556 " Fifty-four Forty or Fight," 342 Filipinos, 582, 583 Fillmore, Millard, 362 Finaeus, map of, 18 Fish, Hamilton, 500 Fisheries, treaty, 1 52 Florida, 15, 103, 237-340, 322 ftn. 3 Floyd, Secretary, 416, 420 Foote Resolution, 279 Force Bill, of 1833, 282; of 1871, 492 ftn. i ; of 1890, 550 Fort Donelson, 444 Fort Henry, 444 Fort Jackson, 446 Fort Leavenworth, 344 Fort Le Bceuf, 97 Fort McHenry, 221 Fort Necessity, 97 Fort Pitt, 101 Fort St. Philip, 446 Fort Sumter, 421, 423-425 Fort Ticonderoga, 127 Fort Venango, 97 Fort William Henry, 99 Forty-niners, 357 France, early explorations, 20, 82 ; rule in Canada, 85 ; alliance of 1778, 139, 150; aid in Revolu tionary War, 151 ; quarrel with United States, 200-202 Franklin, Benjamin, 65 ; on colo nies, 76; postmaster-general, 77 ; Albany Congress, 96 ; on Stamp 654 Index Act, 113; on Revolution, 129, 132; Declaration of Independence, 133 ; to Vergennes, 139 ; minister to France, 1 50, 1 52 ; Articles of Confederation, 160; president antislavery society, 307 Fredericksburg, battle of, 448 Freedman s Bureau, 481 ftn. i, 483 ftn. i Freeport Doctrine, 401 Free-Soil party, 355, 358 Fremont, J. C, 352, 375, 393, 395, 470 French and Indian wars, 93 ftn. i, 98 French Revolution, 194 Friends (Quakers), 63, 63 ftn. i, 305, 305 ftn. 2 Frontenac, Count, 89, 92 Frye, William B., 214 ftn. i Fulton, Robert, 234, 276 Fundamental Constitutions, 46 Fugitive Slave Law, 309, 364, 365, 385 Gadsden Purchase, 349 ftn. i Gag resolutions, 324, 327 Gage, Governor, 123-125 Gallatin, Albert, 207, 253 Galveston, 615 Garfield, James A., 522-524 Garland, William H., 543 ftn. i Garrison, William Lloyd, 317-320, 467 Gates, General, 138, 141 Geary, Governor, 395 Genet, Citizen, 195, 196 Geneva tribunal, 498, 499 George, Henry, 593 ftn. i George, King, I, 58 George, King, II, 66 George, King, III, 119, 121, 128, 13 T 3 r Georgia, founded, 66, 67 ; western claims, 162; Indian troubles, 264, 265 ; Sherman s march, 462, 463 Germaine, Lord George, 137 Germantown, 65, 138, 305 Germany, quarrel with, 553, 554 Gerry, Elbridge, 201 Gettysburg, battle of, 449-451, 454 ^n. 2 Ghent, Treaty of, 222 Giddings, Joshua, 324 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 21 Gist, Christopher, 95 Gold, discovery, 356; supply in 1893. 55? Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 35, 39, 48 Gorman, A. P., 561 Grand Model, the, 57 Grangers, 513, 532, 541 Grant, Ulysses S., in the West, 444 ff . ; takes Vicksburg, 451; lieutenant general, 458 ; Rich mond campaign, 459-466; as President, 491, 492 ; reelection, 494 ; influenced by radicals, 511 ; third-term movement, 522, S3 2 Great Britain, holds fur posts, 163, 195 ; strained relations 1783-1794, 196, 197 ; Orders in Council, 213, 218, 219; War of 1812, 219 ff . ; interests in South America, 241 ; commer cial rivalry, 269 ; slave trade, 304 ; emancipation in colonies, 325; Oregon boundary, 338, 342; Texas question, 338 ; Trent affair, 442 ; opinion on Civil War, 454 ; Alabama claims, 498, 499; seal fisheries, 554; Venezuela, 566 ; friendship since 1898, 589, 589 ftn. i Great Lakes, 152, 163 Great Meadows, battle of, 97 Greeley,Horace,384,423,47iftn.2, 493, 494 Greenback party, 514 Greene, General Nathanael, 140 Grenville, George, 112 Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Treaty of, 347 Guiteau, Charles, 524 Hague Court, 607 ftn. i, 626 Half-breeds, 52 2 ftn. i Halifax, 118 Halleck, General H. W., 444/446 Hamilton, Alexander, proposes convention, 167 ; ideas of gov ernment, 169; efforts for ratifi cation, 171 ; Secretary of the Index 655 Treasury, 187; on debt, 189; on tariff, 190; on Bank, 191; leader of Federalists, 192 ; on Jay Treaty, 199 ; killed by Burr, 212 Hamilton, Andrew, 78 Hamilton, Colonel, 148, 149 Hampton Roads, battle, 443; con ference, 464 Hancock, General W. S., 451, 522 Hancock, John, 121, 124 Hanna, Marcus A., 569, 590 ftn. i, 605 Harpers Ferry, 406 Harrisburg Convention, 271 Harrison, Benjamin, 543, 544, 556, 565 Harrison, William H-, 218, 220, 245, 295, 296, 297, 336 Hartford, 46 Hartford Convention, 223, 224 Harvard College, 72 ftn. i, 75, in Havana, 102, 586 ftn. i Hawaiian Islands, 565, 566, 566 ftn. i Hawkins, Sir John, 21 Hay, John, 589, 590 ftn. i, 600 Hay-Herran Treaty, 60 1 Hayes, R. B., 495, 496, 515, 516 ftn. i, 518, 522 Haymarket Square riot, 539 ftn. 2 Hayne, Robert Y., 273, 280 Hayti, 8 Helper, Hilton R., 234 Henry, Patrick, 114, 118, 127, 147, 148, 202 Hepburn Bill, 542, 606 Herkimer, General, 137 Hessians, 137 Hill, David B., 544, 557 Holy Alliance, 241, 242 Homestead Act, 512, 532 Hong-Kong, 577 Hood, General, 460, 462, 463 Hooker, General Joseph, 448, 457 Hooker, Thomas, 45 Houston, Sam, 334, 335 Howe, General William, 136, 137, 138 Hudson, Henry, 59 Hudson Bay Company, 87, 90, 331 Hudson River, 60, 137 Huguenots, 72 Hull, William, 220 Hiilsemann letter, 370 Huron, Lake, 86 Hutchinson, Anne, 47 Hutchinson, Governor Thomas, 115, 118, 123 Immigration, 72, 246, 431, 521, 620, 622, 626 Impressment, 197, 215 Income tax, 561, 562 ftn. i Independent Treasury, 288 India House, 17 Indians, 22-25, 42, 47, 59, 65, 83, 92, 102, 113, 146, 195, 218, 236, 237, 245, 264, 516, 517 ftn. i, 548, 549 Indies, East, 3, 8 Indies, West, 20, 71, 108, 109, 113, 144 Infant industries, 268 Ingalls, J. J., 613 Initiative, 612, 613 Injunction, 564 ftn. i Insular cases, 587 Insurgents, 614 Internal improvements, 264 Interstate Commerce Act, 542 Intolerable Acts, 122 Iowa admitted, 379 Iroquois, 84, 91, 93 Irrigation policy, 598 Irving, Washington, 235 Italy, quarrel with, 555 Jackson, Andrew, victory at New Orleans, 222 ; campaign in Florida, 238, 239; career, 257, 258 ; defeated in House, 259 ; elected President, 266 ; inaugura tion, 274, 275; reign of, 277- 298; character, 278; on tariff, 279; on nullification, 281, 282; on Bank, 284-286 ; censured by Senate, 286 ; specie circular, 287 ; spoils system, 292 ; oppo sition to, 294 ; opinion on slavery, 298, 323; on Texas, 335; on Mexico, 348 656 Index Jackson, General T. J. ("Stone wall"), 441 ftn. 2, 447 ftn. i, 448 ftn. 2 Jamaica, 150 James, King, I, 28, 36 James, King, II, 50, 51, 61, 62 Jamestown, 29 Jay, John, 150, 151, 197 Jay Treaty, 197, 200 Jefferson, Thomas, Declaration of Independence, 133; Secretary of State, 187 ; defeated by Adams, 200 ; Kentucky resolu tions, 202 ; elected President, 203, 204 ; Louisiana Purchase, 208-211; reflected, 211; em bargo, 216 ; opinion of Jackson, 257; on home industries, 269; opinions on slavery, 305 ftn. i, 307, 308 ftn. 2 ; on Missouri Compromise, 315 Jenckes, 525 Jesuits, 86 Johnson, Andrew, 446 ftn. I, 477, 479, 484,^490, 598 Johnston, General A. S., 444, 445 Johnston, General J. E., 439 ftn. 2, 458, 459, 466 ftn. 2 Joliet, 82 Jones, John Paul, 139 Judicial department of United States, 179 Kalm, Peter, in Kanawha River, victory on, 146 Kansas, 338-395, 437 ftn. 2 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 381, 383, 384, 387 Kaskaskia, 148 Kearny, General, 344 Kendall, Amos, 323 Kent Island, 55 Kentucky, 145, 147, 202, 203, 309 Key, F. S., 221 King, Rufus, 253, 254, 311 King Philip s War, 39 King s Friends, 128, 129, 150 Kings Mountain, 141 Klondike, 590 Knights of Labor, 538, 539, 573 Know-Nothing party, 386 ftn. i Kosiusko, 141 ftn. i Kossuth, 370 Ku-Klux Klans, 487, 502 La Bahia, 334 Labor, 514, 539, 540, 597 ; Bureau of, 540 Labor party, 291, 495 Lachine, 20, 83 Lafayette, 141 ftn. i, 143 La Follette, Robert M., 6n Lamar, L. Q. C., 534 ftn. 2 Land sharks, 512 La Salle, 87, 89 ftn. i Las Casas, 20 Lawrence, Kansas, 388, 390, 391 Lecompton Constitution, 398, 402 Lee, Charles, 136, 140 Lee, Richard II., 133 Lee, Robert E., joins Confederacy, 426 ; invades Maryland, 448 ; invades Pennsylvania, 449 ; re pulsed at Gettysburg, 450, 451 ; surrender, 464-466 Leisler, Jacob, 61 ftn. i Lenox globe, 18 Leopard affair, 2 1 6 Lewis and Clark expedition, 210 Lexington, Ky., 147 Lexington, Mass., 123, 124, 125 Liberator, The, 317, 318 Liberia, 316 Liberty party, 324, 355 Liliuokalani, Queen, 565 Lincoln, Abraham, character, 400 ; position on slavery, 400, 415; debates with Douglas, 400,401 ; at Cooper Union, 408, 409 ; nomination in 1860, 411 ; elec tion, 412; inauguration, 421; danger in Washington, 427 ftn. 2 ; relation to Congress, 439, 439 ftn. 3 ; reconstruction plans, 446 ftn. i, 478 ; message of 1863, 453; reelection, 461 ; at Hamp ton Roads, 464 ; in Richmond, 464 ; assassination, 467 ; on emancipation, 470, 471; reply to Greeley, 471 ftn. 2 ; issues Emancipation Proclamation, 47 2, 473 ; on negro suffrage, 486 ftn. I Little Big Horn, massacre, 517 ftn. 2 Index 657 Livingstone, Robert R., 208, 209, 234 London Company, 29, 33 Long, John D., 577 Longstreet, General, 451 Lopez, 372 Louisburg, 93, 101 Louisiana, 87, 94, 211 ftn. i, 310 Louisiana Purchase, 208-211, 240, 256 ftn. i, 379 Lovejoy, Elijah, 324 Lowell, James Russell, 318 ftn. i, 348, 419, 469, 491 ftn. 4 Lower Counties, the Three, 65 Loyalists, see Tories Lundy, Benjamin, 316 Lundy s Lane, battle of, 220 Lyon, Captain Nathaniel, 426 ftn. i McClellan, General George B., 440, 441, 447, 461 McCulloch vs. Maryland, 234 McDonough, Thomas, 220 McDowell, General Irving, 439, 440 McKinley, William, 550, 553 ftn. I, 5 6 9> 57i, 5?6, 583> 592 McKinley Bill, the, 550, 551 Macon s bill, 217 Madison, James, 168, 169, 202, 216, 217, 219, 223, 230,237,238,249, 250 Magellan, Ferdinand, 14, 15 Maine, 35, 48, 312, 313, 337 Maine, the, 576 Malvern Hill, battle of, 441 Manassas, battle of, 439 Manhattan, cjg Manila, 102, 581 Manila Bay, battle of, 577, 578 Marcy, William L., 292, 372, 373 Marietta, 165 Marquette, 87 Marshall, John, 201, 212, 233, 397 Maryland, 53, 55, 161, 427, 428 Mason, James M., 442, 454 ftn. 2 Mason, John, 48 Mason and Dixon s line, 64 ftn. i Massachusetts, 39, 41-43, 49, 50, 51, 60, 112, 118, 120-123 Matamoras, 344 Maximilian, of Austria, 497 Mayflower compact, 37, 46 ftn. I Meade, General George, 450, 451, 452 ftn. 2, 458 Mecklenburg Declaration, 133 ftn. i Mercantile theory, 70 Mercator, 13, 19 Merit system, 525 Mexican War, 342-345, 347, 348 Mexico, 1 6, 332, 335, 338, 342, 345, 347, 497, 604 ftn. i Midnight judges, 204 Miles, General Nelson A., 581 Mills Bill, 537, 538 Miquelon, 102 Mississippi River, 17, 87, 94, 245, 444- 446 Mississippi territory, 247, 309 Missouri, 310, 311, 313, 388, 389, 426 ftn. i, 429 Missouri Compromise, 312-315, 3 52 ftn. 2, 353, 381, 383 Mitchell, John, 596 Mobile, 461 Monitor, the, 443 Monmouth, battle of, 140 Monroe, James, 200, 209, 215, 224, 230, 231, 236, 238, 241, 242 Monroe Doctrine, 242, 243, 497, 566, 567, 604, 605 Montcalm, Marquis, 101 Monterey, 344, 357 Montgomery, Ala., 414 Montgomery, Richard, 130 Montreal, 20, 83, 102 Morgan, J. P., 559, 560, 609 Morris, Gouverneur, 162, 206, 329 Mount Vernon, 155, 166, 193 Muck-raking, 611 Mugwumps, 526 Mulligan letters, 530, 530 ftn. i Miinster, 19 Murfreesboro, battle of, 455 ftn. i Napoleon Bonaparte, 202, 208, 209, 2I 3 , 2I 7 , 2I 9 , 221, 239 Napoleon III, 436, 454 ftn. 2, 497 Nashville, 365, 463 National-Republican party, 265 Naturalization Act, 202 Navigation Acts, 70, 71, 108, 112, 120 658 Index Navy of United States, 201, 219, 221, 230, 546, 554, 577 Nebraska, 380 Negro suffrage, 48 5, 486 ftn. 1,489, 550 ftn. i Negroes, 7 2, 306, 480, 488, 619 ftr>. i New Amsterdam, 59, 76 New England, 35, 39, 72, 73, 94, 216, 219, 223, 230, 235, 260, 272, 34 New England, Confederation of, 49, 60 t New England, Council for, 48 New Hampshire, 48, 49 New Haven, 47 New Jersey, 63, 137, 168 New Mexico, 344, 359 New Netherland, 49, 59, 61 New Orleans, 89, 208, 222, 446 New York, 58, 59, 61, 62, 90, 136, 137, 155. l61 Newfoundland, 93 Niagara, 94 Nicaragua, 600, 60 1 Nicolet, Jean, 87 Nobel prize, 607 ftn. 2 Nonintercourse Act, 216, 217 Norsemen, 9 ftn. i North, Lord, 119, 138, 150 Northwest Ordinance, 165, 166, 37 Nueces River, 343 Nullification, 281, 298 Oglethorpe, James, 66 Ohio, 310 Ohio Company, of Virginia, 95 ; of Massachusetts, 165 Ohio valley, 95, 97 Oklahoma, 549 ftn. i Old Dominion, 33 Old Hickory, 258 Old Rough and Ready, 354 Olney, Richard, 566 Omnibus Bill, see Compromise of 1850 Ontario, Lake, 86 Orders in Council, 217, 219 Oregon, 210, 331, 332, 338, 341, 342, 353 Oregon, the, 579 ftn. I Ostend Manifesto, 373 Oswego, 152 Otis, James, 71, 112 ftn. i, 114, 121 Pacific Ocean, 14, 14 ftn. i Packenham, General, 222 Paine, Thomas, 132 Palma, Estrada, 586 Palmer, J. M., 571 ftn. i Palo Alto, battle of, 344 Palos, 5 Panama, 15, 262, 264, 276, 371, 602 Pan- American Congress, 553, 603 ftn. 2 Pan-American Exposition, 592 Panic, of 1837, 288; of 1873, 494 ftn. 2 Paris, Treaty of 1763, 102 ; of 1783, 152-155; of 1898, 582 Parker, Alton B., 605 Parker, Captain John, 124 Parker, Theodore, 408 ftn. i Parliament, 107, 108, no, 115, 121, 124 Parsons Cause, 114 Parties, political, 293 ftn. i Paternalism, 85, 623 Pathfinder, see Fremont Patrons of husbandry, see Gran gers Patroons, 59 Payne-Aldrich Bill, 614 ftn. i Peace Conference of 1861, 418 ftn. i Peking, 589 Pemberton, General, 451 Pendleton Act, 525, 526 Peninsular campaign, 440, 441 Penn, William, 63, 64, 65 Pennsylvania, 6366 Pension bills, 544, 544 ftn. I, 546 Pepperell, Colonel William, 93 Percy, Lord, 125 Perdido River, 237 Perry, Oliver H., 220 Perry ville, battle of, 45 5 ftn. i Personal- Liberty acts, 385, 404 Peru, 1 6 Petersburg, 464 Philadelphia, 64, 122, 140, 500 Philippines, i 5, 474 ftn. i, 577, 578, 581, 582, 584, 585 Pickett s charge, 451 Index 659 Pierce, Franklin, 367, 381, 391, 392 Pilgrims, 35, 253 Pinckney, C. C, 200, 211, 271 Pinckney, Thomas, 199 Pinckney, William, 215 Pitcairn, Major, 124 Pitt, William, 99, 107, no, 1 16, 117, J 5 2 Pizarro, 16 Platt, Thomas, 516, 524 Platt Amendment, 586 Plymouth colony, 35-39, 52 Plymouth Company, 29, 35 Ptolemy, 4, 12 Polk, James K., 339, 340, 341, 343, 346 Pontiac, 113, 146 Pooling, 542 ftn. I Pope, General John, 446, 447 Popular Sovereignty, see Squatter sovereignty Populist party, 556 Port Hudson, 446, 452 Port Royal, 90 Porter, Horace, 459 ftn. 2 Porto Rico, 15, 581, 582, 586, 587 Portolani, 4 Portsmouth, Treaty of, 607 Post Office Department, 76,77, 177 ftn. i Pottawatomie Creek, 391 President, 176, 177, 178, 204 Presidential Succession Act, 535 Prisons, in Civil War, 476 Privy Council, 53 Proclamation line, 144 Proclamation of neutrality, 194, 195 Proprietary colonies, 52 ff. Protection, 267, 268, 271, 276, 550, 551 Providence, 44 Public lands, 235, 246, 279, 287, 288, 512 Pueblos, 23, 24 Pullman strike, 562 Pure Food and Drugs Law, 623 Puritans, 40, 42, 72, 74 Quakers, see Friends Quebec, 83, 85, 100, 101, 102, 130 Quincy, Josiah, 330 Quitrents, 53, 57 Railroads, 265, 266, 291, 368, 369, 512, 514, 540, 606 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 21, 22 Randolph, Edmund, 50, 132 Randolph, John, 270, 273, 308 ftn. 2 Reciprocity, 553, 553 ftn. i, 605 Reclamation Act, 598 Reconcentration camps, 575 Reconstruction, 478-489, 494 Reed, Thomas B., 545, 547, 573 Referendum, 612, 613 Republican party, 265, 386, 387, 393-395 4*0, 429, 493, 5 IO 5 IJ > 521, 529, 530, 552 Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 344 Resumption of specie payments, 5*9 Revere, Paul, 124 Revolution, American, 112, 136- 55 Rhode Island, 44, 167, 171 Richelieu, Cardinal, 81 Richmond, 439, 464 Rio Grande River, 342, 343 Rio Janeiro, 603 ftn. 2 Roanoke Island, 21 Robertson, James, 145, 149 Robinson, Charles, 390 Rock of Chickamauga, 457 Rockingham, Marquis of, 116 Roman Catholics, 55, 56 Roosevelt, Theodore, on Revolu tion, 112 ; on civil service, 525; Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 577; lieutenant colonel, 580; career, 593, 594 ; policy as President, 595 ; on corpora tions, 596, 606 ; on labor, 597 ; on conservation, 597-599 ; on Panama, 600 ftn. i, 60 1 ; on Monroe Doctrine, 604 ; reelec tion, 605 ; receives Nobel prize, 607 ; trip abroad, 608 ; crusade for reform, 610 Root, Elihu, 603 ftn. 2 Rosecrans, General, 454, 455, 4 55 ftn. i Rough Riders, 579 Royal provinces, 67, 68 Rush, Richard, 241 Russell, Lord John, 498 Russia, 241, 499, 607 66o Index Sabine River, 240, 333 St. Lawrence River, 20, 82, 100 St. Leger, General, 137 St. Lusson, 87 St. Marks, 238 St. Marys, 55 St. Pierre, 102 Salem, 40, 49, 124 Salisbury, Lord, 555, 566, 567 Samoan Islands, 553 Sampson, William T., 578 San Ildefonso, Treaty of, 208 San Jacinto River, 334 San Martin, General, 239 San Salvador, 7 Sandys, Sir Edwin, 32 Santa Anna, 334, 345 Santa Fe, 344 Santiago, 579, 580, 581 Santo Domingo, 500, 604 Saratoga, battle of, 138 Sault Sainte Marie, 87 Savannah, 66, 140, 463 Scalawags, 480 ftn. i, 487 Schenectady, 92 Schley, Winfield S., 579 ftn. i, 58o Schofield, General, 458 Schurz, Carl, 493 ftn. i Scott, Winfield, 345, 367, 423, 440 Secession, 413, 420 Senatorial courtesy, 180 Separatists, 36, 41 Seven Years War, 97 ftn. i Seventh-of-March speech, 360 Sevier, John, 145, 149 Seward, William H., on Compro mise of 1850, 361 ; on Dred Scott case, 397 ; rejected at Chicago, 1860, 411 ; Secretary of State, 41 1 ftn. i ; on Trent affair, 442 ; purchases Alaska, 499 Shafter, General, 579, 581 Sharpsburg, battle of, 448 Shawmut, 40 Shays s Rebellion, 164 Shenandoah valley, 441 ftn. i Sheridan, General P. H., 458 ftn. i, 461, 464 Sherman, General W T . T., 456, 458, 460, 462, 463, 466 ftn. 2, 497 Sherman, John, 519, 535, 543, 590 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 538 ftn. 2 Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 55 T 559 Shiloh, battle of, 444, 445 Shipping, American, 214, 214 ftn. i, 603 ftn. 2 Shirley, Governor, 96 Silver, coinage of, 517. 518, 551, 569 Sitting Bull, 517 ftn. I Sixteen to one, 570 Slave trade, 17, 32, in, 170, 304, 307, 309, 359, 406 ftn. i Slaves and slavery, 17, 32, 66, 170, 298, 312-319, 325, 330, 334, 353, 35 6 > 363, 402, 405, 418 ftn. i, 419, 433, 469, 471, 474 Slidell, John, 343, 442, 454 ftn. 2 Sloat, Commodore, 344 Smith, John, 29, 31, 35 Smuggling, 71 Socialism, 324 ftn. i, 616, 617, 618, 6i8ftn. i Soule, Pierre, 373 South, colonial, 75, 76 ; aristocracy in, 261 ; condition in 1860, 431- 435; solid, 523; new, 547, 548, 573, 620 South Carolina, 281, 282, 413, 486 ftn. 2 South River, 60 Spain, explorations and colonies, 13-17, 21, 58, 59, 66; relations to West, 102, 163, 195; in American Revolution, 140, 150; Pinckney Treaty, 199, 209; sells Florida to the United States, 237-240 ; boundary treaty of 1819, 331 ; in Texas, 333 ftn. 2; in Cuba, 372, 574, 576) 577 ; war with United States, 574-583 ; results, 588 Speaker of the House, 180, 546 Specie circular, 287 Spoils system, 292 Spotswood, Alexander, 94 Squatter sovereignty, 354, 359, 380, 401 Stalwarts, 522, 522 ftn. i Stamp Act, 113-116 Standpatters, 614 Index 66 1 Stanton, Edwin M., 440 ftn. 2, 469, 490, 502 Star of the West, the, 423 Star routes, 493 Stephens, Alexander H., 410, 414, 415, 429, 435, 464, 481 Steuben, Baron, 141 ftn. i Stevens, John L., 565 Stevens, Thaddeus, 484 ftn. 2, 502 Stowe, Harriet B., 384 Strikes, 539 ftn. 2, 562, 563, 596 Stuyvesant, Peter, 59, 60 Subtreasury Act, 288 Sugar and Molasses Act, 108, 112 Sumner, Charles, 319, 392, 393? 442 ftn. i, 498 Superior, Lake, 87 Supreme Court, 179, 233, 234, 561, 564, 587 Susquehannocks, 34 Sweden, 60 ftn. i, 81 Taft, William H., 584, 585, 607, 614, 623 Talleyrand, 200, 209 Tallmadge amendment, 310, 311 Taney, Roger B., 285, 286, 397 Tanner, Corporal, 546 ftn. 2 Tariff, 190, 190 ftn. i; of 1816, 230, 269 ; theory of, 267, 268, 269; of 1824, 270; opposed by the South, 270, 271, 273, 274; of 1828, 271-273; of 1832, 281 ; of 1833, 282 ; of 1846, 396 ; after Civil War, 520 ; under Cleve land, 537; McKinley Bill, 550; Wilson-Gorman Bill, 560 ; with Philippines, 587 ftn. I ; Dingley Bill, 590; Payne- Aldrich Bill, 614 ftn. i Tarry town, 141 Taylor, Zachary, 343, 344, 345, 354, 355 35 6 > 3^2, 433 ftn - T Tecumseh, 218 Teller, Senator, 570 ftn. 2, 577 Tennessee, 146, 309, 446 ftn. i, 478, 483 Tenure of Office Act, 490, 534 Texas, 256, 256 ftn. i, 329, 333, 334, 335, 338, 340, 34i, 348 Thayer, Eli, 388 Thomas, General G. H., 456, 463 Thomas amendment, 312 Thompson, Secretary, 416, 420 Ticonderoga, 101, 127 Tilden, Samuel, 495, 496 Tippecanoe, 218, 297 Toleration Act, Maryland, 56 Toombs, Robert, 358, 394, 434 ftn. i Topeka, 389 Toqueville, Alexis de, 172, 333 ftn. 2, 430 Toral, General, 580 Tories (Loyalists), 129, 135-138, 147, 152, 153, 156 Toscanelli, 5, 6 Townshend Acts, 117, 118, 119 Trent affair, 442 Trenton, battle of, 137 Trist, Nicholas, 346 Trusts, 538, 538 ftn. 2, 541, 573, 596, 610, 6ioftn. i Tryon, Governor, 131 Turks, 4 Turner, Nat, 318 Tweed ring, 492, 495 Tyler, John, 336, 337, 341 " Uncle Tom s Cabin," 384, 384 ftn. 2 Underground railroad, 365, 366, 375 Union Pacific Railroad, 512, 513 United States, conditions in 1789, 184, 186; in 1815, 236, 237 ; in 1825, 260, 261 ; in 1830, 367- 370, 395; in 1861, 431, 432; after the war, 520, 521 ; in 1890, 547 ; in 1900, 591, 592 Upshur, Secretary, 337, 339 Utah, 359, 549 ftn. i Utrecht, Treaty of, 71, 93, 93 ftn. i Vagrancy laws, 480 Vallandigham, C. L., 449,449 ftn. I Valley Forge, 138 Valparaiso, 555 Van Buren, 279, 288, 295, 297, 336, 355 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 371 Vardaman, 619 Venezuela, 566, 567, 573 Vera Cruz, 345 662 Index Vergennes, 139, 150 Vermont, 164, 310 Verrazano, 20, 82 Vespucius, 11,12 Vicksburg, 446, 449, 451, 452 ftn. i Victoria, Queen, 436 Vincennes, 148, 149 Virginia, 21, 28, 31, 32, 33, 114, 118, 161, 168, 202, 203,304, 426 Virginius affair, 500 Von Hoist, H. E., 278 Wabash case, 541 Wade-Davis bill, 478 ftn. i Wakarusa River, 391 Waldseemiiller, 12, 13 Walker, R. J., 396, 398 Walpole, Robert, 71, 93, 109, no War, cost of, 588 War hawks, 218 Warren, Joseph, 121 Washington, Booker T., 596 Washington, city of, 221, 428, 440 Washington, George, in colonial wars, 97,99; in Revolution, 127, 129, 132, 135 ff., 155; on Con stitution, 1 66, 167; President, 187, 192, 193, 195; farewell ad dress, 199, 243 ; command of French war, 201 ; opinion on slavery, 308 ftn. 2 Washington, Treaty of, 498, 502 Watauga River, 145-147 Weaver, J. B., 556, 557 Webster, Daniel, on Northwest Ordinance, 166; on Alexander Hamilton, 189; on growth of West, 249; career, 252, 253; reply to Hayne, 280 ; on aboli tion, 319; on slavery, 337, 375 ; Ashburton Treaty, 337, 350 ; on Compromise of 1850, 360, 361 ; Secretary of State, 370, 372 Welles, Secretary, 442 West, growth and influence, 245, 246, 249, 261, 262, 287, 328-330, 349 35 1 43 ! f t n - West Point, 141 West Virginia, 436 Weyler, General, 575 Wheeler, General Joseph, 590 Whigs, 294-297, 337, 385 Whisky Rebellion, 199 ftn. i White, Hugh L., 279 Whitman, Marcus, 332, 350 Whitman, Walt, 468 ftn.^2 Whittier, J. G., 388, 395 Wigfall, Senator, 419 Wilderness campaign, 459 Wilderness Road, 148 Wilkes, Captain, 442 Wilkinson, James, 212 William III, 52, 62, 67 ftn. i, 71,91 Williams, Roger, 44, 56 Wilmot Proviso, 352 Wilson-Gorman Bill, 560 Winchester, battle of, 461 Winthrop, John, 40 Wirt, William, 293 Wisconsin, 6n, 613 Wise, Henry A., 321,393, 43 2 ftn. i Witchcraft, 49 Wolfe, General James, 101, 102 Wood, General Leonard, 586 World s Fair at Chicago, 563 ftn. i W T rits of Assistance, 112, 117 Wyoming valley, 164 X Y Z Affair, 200, 201 ftn. i Yancey, William, 409, 415 York, Duke of, 53 ftn. 2, 58 Yorktown, 142, 143, 144 Yulee, Senator, 421 Zenger, Peter, 78 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. 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