t-NRLF B 3 335 M03 . EX LIjBRIS JOSEPH M GEEASQN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS For Reference Not to be taken from this room ^ 2b( V m s VALOR & VICTORY THE AGE OF VINDICATION 1783-1824 Cl)e &eal America in Romance VALOR AND VICTORY THE AGE OF VINDICATION 1783-1824 EDITED BY EDWIN MARKHAM AUTHOR OF "THK MAN WITH THK HOE, AND OTHER POEMS-, "LINCOLN, AND OTHER POEMS," "VIRGILIA, AND OTHER POEMS," "THE POETRY OF JESUS," ETC. VOLUME X l&fcftfon NEW YORK CHICAGO WILLIAM H. WISE & COMPANY MCMXII LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS 20353 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK. tentagrapli Jrintingani >tstionen|<5 VALOR & VICTORY THE AGE OF VINDICATION "HT^HE times that try men's souls are over," declared JL Tom Paine when he heard of the Treaty of Paris and immediately discontinued his publication of The Crisis. Such, indeed, was the general belief. History, slow to fulfill and slower to prophesy, shows us in this volume that dangers far more subtle and menacing than those of war were still hanging over the infant republic. In the eyes of Europe the entire principle underlying popular government was on trial and to an extent still is. It was regarded as a mischievous experiment from the point of view of monarchists; a dangerous one in the opin ion of many lovers of liberty. The new nation was not yet nationalized. It was a dissociated group of republics rather than itself a republic. The very feeling of its people had not become American. Even after the fine learning of the Fathers of the Constitution had evolved popular govern ment from a profound knowledge of the failures of all former republican systems, the two political parties which sprang into being were, respectively, British and French, not American. The outbreak of mob violence, as shown in Shays's and the Whiskey Rebellions, the tariff wars that sprang up be tween the States, the lack of sufficient unification to make the government of the Confederation obeyed at home or re spected abroad, made their appeal to the statesmen of the Revolutionary period, who not only brought their great influence to bear upon the people at large in framing a per manent Constitution, but lived to rule the destinies of the 5 6 VALOR & VICTORY nation under it until the election of Jackson and the rise of a true democracy. Two wars tested the capacities of the United States during this generation, both of them truly wars of inde pendence, one necessary to avoid American endorsement of the atrocities of the French Revolution and to rid the Republican party from what threatened to be an over powering prepossession ; the other with Great Britain to free our commerce upon the seas, and, not less, to free the Federalist party and its sympathizers from a humble sub servience to the mother country. In none of the volumes of the series could the method of romantic presentation of history adopted for "The Real America in Romance" be submitted to a closer test. The details of the adoption of the Constitution are not light or easy reading; the facts of the War of 1812 scatter them selves over the high seas of the world. Yet it is submitted that these and much more have been so linked with the romantic feeling which pervades the book that they will im press themselves upon the reader's mind in a manner impossi ble to those who confine their reading to the ordinarily accepted histories. One learns of the advancement of our frontiers, of the beginnings of that control of the Great Lakes and the great rivers which has given us an internal commerce unsurpassed in the world's annals, of the opening of the Great West, not merely to the Mississippi but as far as the Oregon country, which the explorations of Lewis and Clark secured to us forever. Side by side with these mighty facts are all the entertainment, all the suspense of a complicated love story, of rivalry and plot, of questions of identity solved at last ; yet above and beyond them still the march of events which led through American valor and victory into vindica tion of that republican form of government to which these United States are pledged eternally. CONTENTS BOOK I THE CRITICAL PERIOD CHAPTER PAGE I TAMING THE BEAST . 19 II LOVE AND A TORY ... -37 III THE FIRST LINK . 52 IV CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 66 V LOVE AND A LETTER ... -87 VI MORE LOVERS THAN ONE . . . ,107 VII MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE . 118 VIII MORE LOVES THAN ONE . 132 BOOK II REMINISCENCES OF A RETIRED NAVAL OFFICER I MATTERS OF STATE 145 II THE WOMAN, AND JEALOUSY . . .161 III ALEXANDER HAMILTON . 180 IV HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE . . -194 V To SEA ON A QUEST . . .210 VI IN THE BARBARY STATES . . . -225 VII DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE . . 242 BOOK III THE SECOND WAR I THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS , . . 256 II THE TRAVELER . . . . .274 III SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD . . 289 IV RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC . . -307 7 8 VALOR & VICTORY V RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS . . . -321 VI RUTH SETS A TASK . , . 333 VII LETTERS FROM A HERO . 348 VIII RETALIATION . . . . . -367 IX RUTH REACHES A DECISION . . . 379 X A MESSAGE ...... 394 XI SIMON THWAITE LEAVES TOWN . .411 XII THE MESSAGE DELIVERED . 423 BOOK IV ON MANY SEAS I UNDER THE ENEMY'S FLAG . . -437 II THE ENEMY is OURS . 454 III THE END OF MY QUEST .... 464 IV AN OLD HATE, AND A NEW . . .482 V AN OLD LOVE, AND A NEW . . '. 490 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE (From the painting by Powell in the Senate Chamber, Washington] ..... Frontispiece 4 JAMES MADISON (After the Stuart portrait) .... 19 HOUDON'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON IN THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND . 20 WASHINGTON (After the Houdon bust) . . . . . . .21 THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSION (After the unfinished painting by Benjamin West) .... .22 HORATIO GATES (From the contemporary portrait) .... 23 MONUMENT AT LIVINGSTON MANOR, DOBBS' FERRY, NEW YORK . . 26 LIVINGSTON MANOR, DOBBS' FERRY, NEW YORK . . . . -27 THE OLD HASBROUCK MANSION, NEWBURGH, WASHINGTON'S HEAD QUARTERS IN 1782-83 ...... . Full Page 29 INTERIOR OF WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH . . .32 LOOKING ACROSS THE HUDSON RIVER AT NEWBURGH . . -33 MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF THE CAMP AT NEWBURGH ... 34 THE DELAVAN PLOT IN SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY. TARRYTOWN . . 35 GREENOUGH'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON AT WASHINGTON . 36 THE DECORATION OF THE CINCINNATI 37 WASHINGTON (From the portrait by Trumbull, in the City Hall, New York) 38 THE BLESSING OF PEACE (From the bronze doors of the Capitol at Wash ington, by Rogers) . . . . . . . . . .39 JOHN DICKINSON (From the portrait in the Capitol at Harrisburg) . . 40 THE HEADQUARTERS AT ROCKY HILL, NEAR PRINCETON, WHERE WASH INGTON WROTE HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE ARMY IN 1783 . 41 NASSAU HALL, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS SAT HERE IN 1783, AND HERE WASHINGTON RECEIVED THE NATIONAL THANKS FOR THE SUCCESSFUL CONDUCT OF THE REVOLUTION . .41 ENTRANCE OF THE AMERICAN ARMY INTO NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25, 1783 (From the engraving by Chapin) ..... -43 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO HIS OFFICERS AT FRAUNCES'S TAVERN . 45 WASHINGTON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, 1783 (From the painting by Trumbull in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington) ......... Full Page 47 THE OLD CITY HOTEL AT ANNAPOLIS, WHERE WASHINGTON WAS ENTER TAINED ........... 49 THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, WHERE WASH INGTON RESIGNED HIS COMMISSION 50 THE OLD STATE HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND . . . 51 TABLET ON FRAUNCES'S TAVERN . . . . . . . .52 FRAUNCES'S TAVERN AS RESTORED BY THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION . 53 THE LONG ROOM IN FRAUNCES'S TAVERN . ... . Full Page 55 FRAUNCES'S TAVERN (From an old print) ...... 58 THE OLD CITY HALL, NEW YORK (From an early print) ... 59 9 io VALOR & VICTORY WASHINGTON'S ARCH, NEW YORK . . . . . . .61 ALEXANDER HAMILTON (From the Houdon bust} 63 THE GRANGE: ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S NEW YORK HOME ... 64 THE THREE SURVIVORS OF THE ORIGINAL THIRTEEN TREES PLANTED NEAR THE GRANGE BY ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO COMMEMORATE THE THIRTEEN STATES ..... .... 65 GEORGE CLINTON (From an engraving by Williams) .... 66 GOVERNOR CLINTON'S HOUSE AT POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK . . 67 JOHN ADAMS (From the Copley portrait in Memorial Hall, Harvard Uni versity, Cambridge, Massachusetts) ..... Full Page 69 COLONEL JOHN SEVIER (From Peale y s portrait in the Historical Society's collection at Nashville) . . . . . . . . 71 HOUSE IN WHICH SHAYS WAS CAPTURED, NEAR PETERSHAM . . .72 JAMES MADISON (From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, at Bowdoin College) 73 JOHN TYLER, THE ELDER (From the portrait by James Worrell in the Vir ginia State Library at Richmond) . . . . . .74 WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON (From the painting by Rossiter) . . 75 THE PARLOR AT GREEN WAY TO-DAY 76 GREENWAY, THE HOME or JOHN TYLER, THE ELDER . . Full Page 77 THE OLD CAPITOL AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND (From an old print) . 80 THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER, ANNAPOLIS STATE HOUSE, AS RESTORED . 81 THE GRAVE OF JOHN HANCOCK IN THE OLD GRANARY BURYING GROUND 83 ABRAHAM YATES . . . . . . . . . . 84 JOHN LANSING (From an etching by Albert Rosenthal) .... 85 AARON BURR ........ 87 BURR'S BIRTHPLACE AT NEWARK, NEW JERSEY ..... 88 RICHMOND HILL 89 ST. PAUL'S, EAST CHESTER, NEW YORK ... . . 89 THE OLD COURT-HOUSE AT POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, WHERE THE CON VENTION WAS HELD THAT ADOPTED THE CONSTITUTION . Full Page 91 JOHN JAY (From- the Stuart portrait in Bedford House, Katonah, New York) 94 PATRICK HENRY (After the portrait by J. B. Longacre) .... 96 RED TOP: AT ONE TIME THE HOME OF PATRICK HENRY ... 97 THE GRAVE OF SAMUEL ADAMS, OLD GRANARY BURYING GROUND . 98 DANIEL BOONE (After the portrait by C. Harding) . . . 100 THE BOONE MONUMENT AT BOONESBOROUGH, KENTUCKY . . .100 THE SPRING NEAR BOONESBOROUGH, KENTUCKY, USED BY DANIEL BOONE 101 AN OLD FERRY ON THE KENTUCKY RIVER, SHOWING THE SPOT WHERE THE BOONE AND GALLOWAY GIRLS WERE CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS 102 HARRODSBURG, KENTUCKY, SEVENTY- FIVE YEARS AGO: THE EAST SIDE OF MAIN STREET . . . . . . ,.104 THE WEST SIDE OF MAIN STREET 105 WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION IN NEW YORK CITY 107 BOUDINOT MANSION, ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY . . . ... 109 VIEW OF THE OLD CITY HALL IN WALL STREET IN 1789 . Full Page in THE SUB-TREASURY AT WALL AND NASSAU STREETS, NEW YORK . .114 THE OLD VAN CORTLAND MANSION, NEW YORK, WHERE WASHINGTON WAS FREQUENTLY ENTERTAINED (From an old print) . . . 115 ILLUSTRATIONS n THE VAN CORTLAND MANSION, NEW YORK, TO-DAY . . . .116 NEW YORK, FROM BEDLOE'S ISLAND (From the painting by Chapman) . 117 THE OLD FEDERAL HALL IN NEW YORK WHERE WASHINGTON WAS INAU GURATED (From the original drawing owned by the New York Historical Society} .... ...... 118 CHANCELLOR ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON (From Vanderlyn's portrait} . .119 THE DESK ON WHICH WASHINGTON WROTE HIS FIRST MESSAGE TO CONGRESS 1 20 WASHINGTON'S PEW IN SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK . . .121 JEFFERSON'S DESK WHILE SECRETARY OF STATE 122 SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK CITY .... Full Page 123 THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MANSION, No. i CHERRY STREET, NEW YORK 126 WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE (From the painting by Chap- pell} 127 THE FIRST CABINET (From the painting by Chappell} . . . . 1 28 STEUBEN'S RUSTIC HOUSE AT ORISKANY, NEW YORK (From an old print} 130 BARON VON STEUBEN'S GRAVE, NEAR ORISKANY, NEW YORK . -131 NEW YORK (From the drawing by J '. Dupree} . . . . -132 THE OLD CAPITOL AT FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY 135 DANIEL BOONE WHEN HE FIRST BEHELD KENTUCKY . . . -137 THE KENTUCKY RIVER AT FRANKFORT .... Full Page 139 THE OLD MONUMENT TO DANIEL BOONE 142 THE BOONE MONUMENT AFTER REMODELING . . . . -143 BOONE'S CAVE, FOUR MILES EAST OF HARRODSBURG, KENTUCKY . . 144 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 145 INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA (From an old print} . . .147 INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA . . Full Page 149 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (After the Sully portrait) 152 EDMUND RANDOLPH 153 FRANKLIN'S TOMB, PHILADELPHIA ..... Full Page 155 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AT EIGHTY-FOUR (From the portrait by C. W. Peale} 158 THE HOME OF ELBRIDGE GERRY AT MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS . 159 ELBRIDGE GERRY (From the portrait in Independence Hall, Philadelphia} 160 THOMAS JEFFERSON (From the crayon portait by Saint-Memin} . . 161 "LIGHT HORSE HARRY" LEE (From the Stuart portrait) . . . 162 "LIGHT HORSE HARRY" LEE'S GRAVE, DUNGENESS, GEORGIA . .164 EDGE HILL, THE HOME OF EDMUND RANDOLPH 166 THE OLD HOUSE IN HIGH STREET, NOW MARKET STREET, PHILADELPHIA, OCCUPIED BY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON ...... 167 THE ROOM IN WHICH THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CONGRESS MET IN PHILADELPHIA ........ Full Page 169 CHARLES PINCKNEY 172 THE PULPIT AND CHANCEL OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA . *73 CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA 174 INTERIOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA . . . . 175 SIDE VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA . . . .176 WASHINGTON'S PEW IN CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA . . . 179 MARTHA WASHINGTON (From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart) . . .180 MAJOR-GENERAL ARTHUR SAINT CLAIR (After the portrait by C. W. Peale) 181 12 VALOR & VICTORY ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA . . . .183 WASHINGTON'S PROFILE (Photographed from the original silhouette) . 184 MARTHA WASHINGTON'S PROFILE (From the original silhouette} . .185 Louis XVI OF FRANCE ......... 187 MARIE ANTOINETEE GOING TO HER EXECUTION (From the painting by Flameng} Full Page 189 CITIZEN EDMOND CHARLES GENET . . . . . . .192 THE SITE OF OLD FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, TO-DAY .... 194 THE STATUE OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE AT NEWBURGH, NEW YORK 195 RUINS OF THE NATHANAEL GREENE MANSION, NEAR SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 197 THE BIRTHPLACE OF ELI WHITNEY, WESTBORO', MASSACHUSETTS . .198 ELI WHITNEY 199 FISHER AMES (From the portrait by I. Rogers} ..... 200 THE TOMB OF GENERAL NATHANAEL GREENE, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA . 201 TALLEYRAND 202 THE VASSAL HOUSE AT QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS . . . Full Page 205 ABIGAIL ADAMS, WIFE OF JOHN ADAMS ...... 208 THE OLD HOUSE OF WASHINGTON GREENE, THE COLORED BODY SERVANT OF GENERAL GREENE, ON GREENE'S ESTATE NEAR SAVANNAH . . 209 THOMAS MIFFLIN (After the Stuart portrait} 210 THE OLD MIFFLIN MANSION, PHILADELPHIA . . . . .211 THE "CONSTELLATION" CAPTURING THE FRENCH FRIGATE "INSURGENTE" (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) . . . . . .213 THE "ENTERPRISE" CAPTURING A TRIPOLITAN CORSAIR (From the draw- in g by Captain H oft} ....... Full Page 215 THE CAPTURE OF A FRIGATE BY THE "EXPERIMENT" (From the draw ing by Captain Hoff) . . . . . . . . .218 THE OLD TOMB OF GENERAL WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON . . 220 THE RESTING PLACE OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VER NON 221 MARTHA WASHINGTON (After the Smart portrait) 222 GEORGE WASHINGTON (After the Stuart portrait} . . . . -223 WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE (From the painting by J. W. Jarvis} . . . 225 BIRTHPLACE OF STEPHEN DECATUR THE YOUNGER, AT BERLIN, MARYLAND 227 STEPHEN DECATUR THE YOUNGER (After the Sully portrait} . . .228 THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI 231 THE Loss OF THE "PHILADELPHIA" (From an etching by J. F. Sab in, made after the drawing by Captain Hoff} . . . . . -232 DECATUR TAKING THE "PHILADELPHIA" IN THE BAY OF TRIPOLI (From the drawing by Freeland A. Carter} ..... Full Page 235 DAVID PORTER (From the etching by H. B. Hall) . . . . -237 LIEUTENANT DAVID PORTER'S ATTACK ON THE CORSAIRS IN THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI (From the drawing by Captain Hoff} . . . . 238 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ......... 240 THE BIRTHPLACE OF NAPOLEON AT CORSICA . . . . .241 HORATIO, ADMIRAL LORD NELSON (From the Hoppner portrait} . . 242 EDWARD PREBLE (From the portrait in Faneuil Hall, Boston} . . . 243 THE "CONSTITUTION" "OLD IRONSIDES" IN THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD, (From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge} . . Full Page 245 ILLUSTRATIONS 13 ALGIERS, FROM THE SEA ......... 248 A TROPICAL GARDEN IN ALGIERS. . . . . . . . 252 THE PORT or ALGIERS . . . . 254 MISTRESS DOLLY MADISON (From the portrait by Alonzo ChappelT) Full Page 257 THE INTERIOR or MONTICELLO 260 MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON 261 THE SPOT WHERE HAMILTON FELL AT WEEHAWKEN . . -263 THE DUEL BETWEEN BURR AND HAMILTON ..... 263 ALEXANDER HAMILTON (From the portrait by Tntmbull in the N^ew York Chamber of Commerce) ......... 266 ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S TOMB IN TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK . 267 NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH ....... 269 BAS-RELIEF FROM THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE MONUMENT AT SAINT Louis EXPOSITION, SHOWING MONROE, LIVINGSTON, AND MARBOIS SIGNING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY 270 DESK IN THE CABILDO AT NEW ORLEANS ON WHICH THE LOUISIANA PUR CHASE TREATY WAS SIGNED 270 CELEBRATING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE, DECEMBER 20, 1803 (From the painting by Thulstrup} . . . . . . . .272 THE ENTRANCE TO MONTICELLO . . . . . . . -273 THE CITY OF WASHINGTON ABOUT 1830 274 THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE IN SAINT Louis COUNTY, MISSOURI . . 276 THE EMIGRANT (From the drawing by Freeland A. Carter} . . -277 WILLIAM CLARK, MERIWETHER LEWIS, THE TRAIL-MAKERS TO THE FAR NORTHWEST (From the portraits by Charles Wilson Peale) . . 278 A MOUNTAIN ROAD THROUGH OREGON . . . . . .279 THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION AT PORTLAND, OREGON Full Page 281 GRAND VIEW CANON, WASHINGTON 284 A LOG RAFT ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER ...... 285 SACAJAWEA, THE BIRD WOMAN 286 PIERWEE FALLS, WASHINGTON ........ 287 MOUNT RAINIER, FROM SEATTLE ... .... 288 THE JUMEL MANSION, WEST 1620 STREET, NEW YORK . . . 290 JOHN MARSHALL'S HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA ..... 291 ANDREW JACKSON (From the portrait by Jaruis) 292 EARLY NEW ORLEANS ......... 293 CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL (From an old miniature) . . . 294 LUTHER MARTIN 295 THE "CLERMONT" AT ALBANY, FROM THE REPLICA MADE FOR THE CEN TENNIAL CELEBRATION IN igog . ... Full Page 297 BURR'S PRISON IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA .... . 300 DANNER'S HOTEL, NEW YORK, IN WHICH BURR DIED .... 301 THE TOMB OF AARON BURR, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY . . . 302 ROBERT FULTON (From the portrait by Benjamin West} .... 303 ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON . . . . . . . . . 304 THE TOMB OF ROBERT FULTON IN TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK . 305 THE OLDEST STEAMBOAT IN THE WORLD IN COMMISSION . . . 360 IMPRESSING AMERICAN SEAMEN FROM THE "CHESAPEAKE" . . . 308 i 4 VALOR & VICTORY THE BIRTHPLACE OF HENRY CLAY, HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA . . 309 JOHN C. CALHOUN (From the drawing by J. B. Longacre) . . .310 HENRY CLAY .... 311 CHICAGO IN 1830: OLD FORT DEARBORN .... Full Page 313 GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK 316 GENERAL WILLIAM HULL . . 317 HULL'S SURRENDER TO BROCK AT DETROIT (From the drawing by H. L. Stephens) . . . 318 DETROIT AT AN EARLY DAY (From an engraving) . . . . .319 MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY DEARBORN 321 FORT DEARBORN, CHICAGO . . . . . . . . .322 BAS-RELIEF FROM THE TABLET MARKING THE SITE OF OLD FORT DEAR BORN, CHICAGO . . . . . . . . . -323 THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS . . . . . . .324 THE "ESSEX" CAPTURING THE BRITISH SHIP "ALERT" (From the drawing by Captain H off) ........ Full Page 325 GENERAL STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER (From a miniature by C. Fraser) 327 SITE OF THE REDAN BATTERY AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS . . -328 THE SPOT WHERE BROCK FELL AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS . . -328 SIR ISAAC BROCK'S MONUMENT AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS . . .329 THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE . . . . . . -331 BLACK PARTRIDGE SAVING MRS. HELM IN THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE 332 JACOB JONES (From Peale's portrait) . . . . . . . 333 DAVID PORTER (From Wood's portrait) ...... 334 THE BIRTHPLACE OF COOPER, BURLINGTON, NE\V JERSEY . . . 335 THE BIRTHPLACE OF JAMES LAWRENCE 335 JAMES LAWRENCE (From Stuart's portrait) ...... 336 THE "CHESAPEAKE" AND "SHANNON" (From an old print) . . . 336 THE DEATH OF JAMES LAWRENCE (From the painting by Chap pell) . 337 THE TOMB OF LAWRENCE, TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK . . 338 ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF TIPPECANOE .... Full Page 339 THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, BERKELEY, VIRGINIA . 342 GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON . . . . . . -343 THE ROCK ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF TIPPECANOE FROM WHICH THE PROPHET SANG OF AMERICAN DEFEAT ...... 344 TECUMSEH'S TRAIL ALONG THE WABASH RIVER 345 BURIAL PLACE OF THE SOLDIERS WHO FELL AT THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE 346 THE DEATH OF TECUMSEH AT THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES, ONTARIO . 347 NAPOLEON IN 1814 .......... 348 JOSEPHINE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH 349 BIRTHPLACE OF JOSEPHINE, ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE .... 349 NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE, 1809 ...... 350 NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL AT FONTAINEBLEAU . . . . -352 NAPOLEON SIGNING HIS ABDICATION, AUGUST n, 1814 .... 353 THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE (From the painting by Chappell) Full Page 355 MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT (From the portrait by Charles Ingham) 358 JACOB BROWN (From the portrait by J. W. Jarvis) . . . -361 WILLIAM EUSTIS, SECRETARY OF WAR (From the portrait by J. N. Daniels) 362 ILLUSTRATIONS 15 SOLDIERS' MONUMENT ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF LUNDY'S LANE, ONTARIO 365 JAMES MONROE (From Vanderlyn's portrait) ...... 367 RELICS OF THE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHING TON, BURNED BY THE BRITISH ....... 368 THE BATTLEFIELD AT BLADENSBURG, MARYLAND . . . -369 THE BRITISH IN THE STREETS OF WASHINGTON (From an old print) . 370 SMOOT HOUSE, WHERE DOLLY MADISON RESTED OVERNIGHT . . 371 RUTHVEN LODGE, WHERE DOLLY MADISON is BELIEVED TO HAVE STAYED DURING THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF WASHINGTON . Full Page 373 THE OLD CANNON IN BALTIMORE TO-DAY 376 THE BATTLE MONUMENT AT BALTIMORE, ERECTED IN 1815 . . . 377 THE RUINED CAPITOL IN 1815 378 THE OLD PATENT OFFICE AT WASHINGTON (From a pen drawing) . 379 THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR GEORGE COCKBURN (From the portrait by Jean Jacques Halls) ....... .380 THE DEATH OF GENERAL Ross (From the painting by Chap pell) . 381 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY . . . 382 FORT MCHENRY, BALTIMORE . . . 382 THOMAS MACDONOUGH (From the portrait by J. W. Jarvis) . . . 383 MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, FOUGHT IN PLATTSBURG BAY, SEPTEMB-ER n, 1814 (From the painting by J. O. Davidson) . 384-385 PLATTSBURG BY MOONLIGHT IN WINTER, FROM CUMBERLAND BAY . . 386 CUMBERLAND BAY, THE SCENE OF THE FIGHTING AT PLATTSBURG . .387 THE "OCTAGON" HOUSE, OCCUPIED BY PRESIDENT MADISON AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WHITE HOUSE IN 1814 . . Full Page 389 RESTING-PLACE ON THE ISLE SAINT MICHEL OF THE SOLDIERS AND MA RINES KILLED AT PLATTSBURG BAY . . . . . 392 THE BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG BAY (From the painting by Chap pell) . 393 NEW ORLEANS . 394 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON (From Vanderlyn's portrait) . . 395 JACKSON AT PENSACOLA ... . 396 MONUMENT ON THE SPOT OF JACKSON'S BIRTH . . 397 COUNCIL OAK: WEATHERFORD'S HEADQUARTERS 398 VIEW NEAR THE TOE OF HORSE-SHOE BEND ON THE TALLAPOO3A . 399 THE HICKORY GROUND . 400 THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMMS (From the painting by Chap pell) . .401 PLANTATION SCENE NEAR THE HICKORY GROUND .... 402 THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS (From the painting by O. M. Carter) Full Page 405 GENERAL ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE 408 SUNRISE FROM THE SUMMIT OF PIKE'S PEAK. . . . . .410 JAMES MADISON (From a drawing by James Longacre) . . . . . 411 THE OLD CAPITOL BUILDING, HARTFORD .... Full Page 413 MAJOR-GENERAL SIR EDWARD PAKENHAM 416 UNFINISHED MONUMENT TO GENERAL JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS . 418 THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS (From the painting by 17. Momberger) . 419 THE LIVE OAK TREES UNDER WHICH PAKENHAM DIED . . . 420 THE SPOT WHERE JACKSON AND HIS STAFF STOOD AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, NOW IN THE CHALMETTE NATIONAL CEMETERY . 422 16 VALOR & VICTORY GHENT (From the painting by F. Nash) . . ... 423 THE CAIRN AT QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS 424 NAPOLEON IN 1815 .......... 425 NAPOLEON AT WATERLOO ....... Full Page 427 NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE BRITISH FRIGATE " BELLEROPHON" Full Page 431 NAPOLEON'S PRISON AT SAINT HELENA 434 NAPOLEON'S BURIAL PLACE AT SAINT HELENA ..... 436 COMMODORE ISAAC HULL (From the portrait by Stuart) .... 438 THE "CONSTITUTION" AT THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD . . . 440 THE CAPTURE OF THE "GUERRIERE" BY THE "CONSTITUTION" Full Page 443 THE HARBOR AT VALPARAISO IN OLDEN DAYS (From an eicJiing) . . 446 IN THE HARBOR or VALPARAISO TO-DAY 447 CAPTAIN STEPHEN DECATUR (From the painting by Chappell) . . . 448 THE FRIGATE "UNITED STATES" 450 A PICTURESQUE STREET IN OLD VALPARAISO . . . . -451 THE STATUE TO PERRY AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND . . . -454 MANSION AND STATUE OF PERRY AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND . . 455 OLIVER HAZARD PERRY (From the portrait by J. W. Jarvis) . . . 456 THE SECOND VIEW OF PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE . . -457 BATTLE BETWEEN THE "UNITED STATES" AND THE "MACEDONIAN" (From the painting by Chappell) . . ' . . . Full Page 459 ISAAC CHAUNCEY (From the portrait by J. Wood) . . . . .461 SACKETT'S HARBOR, NEW YORK . . . . . . ... 462 CAPTAIN DAVID PORTER (From the painting by Chappell) . . . 464 THE OLD "CONSTELLATION" AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND . . . 465 THE "ESSEX" AND HER PRIZES SAILING OUT OF THE BAY OF TUMBEZ (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) ........ 466 THE "ESSEX" AND HER PRIZES AT NOOKAHEEVAH, WASHINGTON IS LANDS (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) . . . , -467 THE "ESSEX" OFFERING BATTLE TO THE "PHCEBE" IN THE HARBOR OF VALPARAISO (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) . . . . 468 THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE "ESSEX" AND THE "PHCEBE" AND "CHERUB" (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) ...... 469 CAPTAIN CHARLES STEWART 470 ADMIRAL SIR GEORGE COLLIER 47 ! DECATUR AND THE DEY OF ALGIERS, JUNE, 1815 . . . . . 463 PANORAMA OF ALGIERS Full Page 475 IN THE OLD TOWN OF ALGIERS 478 A COURTYARD IN ALGIERS ......... 479 A STREET IN TUNIS, AFRICA .... , . . 482 THE AMERICAN SQUADRON IN 1824 . . . . Full Page 485 THE HOUSE IN WHICH DECATUR DIED IN WASHINGTON . . 488 THE HOUSE AT SECOND AND B STREETS, WASHINGTON, WHERE THE ONLY ARMED RESISTANCE WAS MADE TO BRITISH INVASION . . . 489 DOLLY MADISON ........... 490 AN INTERIOR VIEW OF MONTPELIER 492 MONTPELIER, VIRGINIA, THE HOME OF MADISON . . . Full Page 493 THE BURIAL PLACE OF JAMES MADISON ...... 495 IN THE GROUNDS AT MONTPELIER , 49 6 VALOR & VICTORY VALOR & VICTORY BOOK I CHAPTER I TAMING THE BEAST THERE is nothing in human experience more terrifying than the anger of a mob. Storm by sea or land, fire, flood, volcanic eruption, or an earth quake may make the strong man tremble;, but before the awful phenomena of nature he is soothed by a sublime sensa tion that he is in the presence of the Mas ter that directs. He is consoled and pre pared by emotion for the final catastrophe. The heavens and the earth declare his own small share in the scheme of things. He has no part in what he beholds; he is merely a spectator in whom the ele ments have no con cern. He can neither , 19 JAMES MADISON (Alter the Stuart portrait} 20 VALOR & VICTORY divert nor avert the event; he is released \ from the responsibility of his strength. He ^ is subdued, he submits, and is reconciled 1 to the inevitable. Upheld at the last by that faith which is the first and final instinct of the soul, he says, "Thy will be done," and waits. It is not so when mob angei threatens. In the angry \ spirit of massed men is humanity distorted; there is loss of reason, , madness, a cataclysm I of passion, a touch of the beast. But be- I cause this manifesta- f tion is still human, the strong man, being also human, is in- volved in a respon- f sibility he cannot shirk. He is sensible of the morality involved. Con tributory guilt is implied, because he is one of them. There is a call of conscience to combat the spirit of the beast con jured up in his fellows. However helpless and hopeless the fight may seem to be, he cannot let it go unf ought. The last sacrifice is TAMING THE BEAST 21 demanded. With a known and measured fear, he confronts his duty, having a courage beyond knowledge and beyond measurement. George Washington, our greatest hero, was brought face to face with the spirit of the beast, in the camp at Newburgh, in March, 1783. Cornwallis had surrendered; Wayne had driven the British from the Carolinas; Carleton lay idle in New York; a few English troops held western outposts. Hostil ities had ceased ; Franklin, Jay, Laurens, and John Adams had concluded a treaty of peace at Paris, though the news of it had not yet reached America. Soldiers who had fought the fight and won it were encamped at Newburgh on the Hudson. They had not only risked their lives for the cause of indepen dence, but had impover ished themselves. Many had been with the troops for seven years on a pit tance, leaving farms and their other affairs to thrive as best they might. When now they had finished their work, and the need of their services had passed, they could not get their pay from Congress. It is not in the nature of men feeling themselves aggrieved WASHINGTON (After the Houdon Bust): SAID BY GILBERT STUART TO BE A BETTER LIKENESS THAN His OWN CANVAS 22 VALOR & VICTORY to inquire into the causes of injustice. The fact was ob vious to the thoughtful that Congress could not pay, but this offered inadequate palliation of the failure to reim burse the army. The soldiers at Newburgh, officers and men alike, did not stop to reflect that Congress was without funds, and without prospect of raising them. Under the JAY, ADAMS, FRANKLIN, LAURENS, AND FRANKLIN'S GRANDSON, WILLIAM FRANKLIN: THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSION (A/ter the unfinished painting by Benjamin West) Articles of Confederation that body had no power to levy taxes or collect imposts. In 1781 Congress petitioned the several States for authority to collect five per cent duties; but this, after much delay and debate, was denied them. Taxes that had been imposed upon the several States from time to time, were not paid; debts on which interest, could not be met were accumulating. Continental money was valueless, foreign credit was dead, and Congress was in a state of honest despair. Nevertheless, the army was angry because pay was not forthcoming. Men muttered and threatened. Already, in TAMING THE BEAST the years of the war, there had been mutinies, suppressed with difficulty and at great risk of dismembering the entire army. To the dissatisfaction of the soldiers was now added agitation from other creditors, who believed that if Con gress were suf ficiently threat ened it would find a way to raise more funds. It needed only an act of leadership to focus and direct this dangerous disaffection. That act came into being on March 1 1. Gen eral Gates, lately returned to the army from the obscurity into which his defeat at Camden had thrust him HORATIO GATES (From the contemporary portrait} found conditions ripe for intrigue, and immediately he set about his favorite occupation. Major Armstrong, of his staff, wrote an inflammatory appeal to the passions of the men, which Colonel Barber, also of the staff, caused to be distributed among them. History has absolved Arm strong from any evil intentions. He acted under a mistaken belief that a bold display of spirit on the part of the army would procure the end desired by all. He came to see and confess his error. But Gates cannot be similarly cleared. 24 VALOR & VICTORY The circular, well written, stirred the troops to instant fury. When distributed, they gathered in excited groups, reading it to one another and declaiming over it. Mutiny, growing fast, showed its head. Reason disappeared, supplanted by the spirit of the beast. One such group surrounded Nicholas Snell on the day when the address to the troops was circulated in camp. Snell had only recently joined the army, coming from the neighborhood of New York. He was a round, bland young man, with a sleek head settled well back upon his neck, and with a something in his speech, gesture, and gait sug gestive of a machine well oiled. Taking part from the first in the petty politics of the camp, he was now hailed as a leader in the new movement. As he stood among the surrounding soldiers he waved in his hand a copy of the address, from which he read, while interjecting comments to encourage opinion in others. "'My friends," he cried, "' after seven long years your suffering courage has conducted the United States of America through a doubtful and bloody war; and peace returns to bless whom?" He paused to give the words better effect. There was a clatter of comment from his hearers, which he suppressed with a deprecatory gesture. '"A country willing to redress your wrongs, cherish your worth, and reward your services ?'" he went on, reading. "'Or is it rather a country that tramples on your rights, disdains your cries, and insults your distresses?" He was interrupted by an uproar. "That's right!" "They treat us like cattle!" "Congress seems to forget that we are men!" "By God, we '11 show them we are men!" "My wife has been plowing the field at home these three years while I have been to the war, and now I cannot get enough money for my time to take me home to the spring planting." TAMING THE BEAST 25 "But wait until you hear the rest of this before you go wild!" cried the one who was reading it, slowly reducing the others to silence. "Listen to this. We must not be too hasty; we must pause to reflect, and to work in unison. 'If such be your treatment while the swords you wear are necessary for the defense of America, what have you to expect when those very swords, the instruments and com panions of your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no mark of military distinction left but your wants, infirm ities, and scars! " "By Heaven, we'll not submit to it!" "We'll shake our swords under the noses of Congress itself." "We'll turn them into the gutter!" "If they don't give us our money, we '11 help ourselves." In the midst of the clamor a young man who had taken no part until now thrust himself through the crowd to the side of the one with the circular. He was a tall, slender lad, with blue eyes and fair hair. His face was at once the face of a dreamer and of a strong man. "How will you help yourselves to what they have not got?" he cried, with angry disgust. "You talk like a pack of fools!" A storm of resentment burst about the speaker. "We shall be fools if we listen to your talk, Sylvester Stevens!" cried one. "They have gold enough to live in fine houses and ride in coaches," growled another. "They could pay us if they chose." "That they cannot," retorted Sylvester Stevens. "I '11 tell you where the fault is for your not getting your money. It is not with Congress, but with the people; with your old neighbors at home, who will neither permit Congress to collect imposts nor pay the taxes Congress requests them to pay. If Congress had the power to enforce the collection of taxes, you would get your money fast enough; for your old neighbors are well able to pay it. They believe that the 26 VALOR & VICTORY war you have fought has abolished taxes and government forever. And now you would add your anarchy to theirs, at the risk of undoing all you have done." " Leave our neighbors out of your talk, young Stevens," snarled a soldier, thrusting a burly fist under his nose. "If they do not choose to pay their taxes, it is because they do not believe Congress is fit to receive them." "Let this answer our friend Stevens," interposed Snell, suppressing fur- ^^" 'jjBj^fife^ther wrangling with a ges-^^j| ^^^ |^^^t ure f tne hand ^1 ; ^ that held lVTr>VrTTMT?VTT AT T .TVTXmCTnXT TVT A FlTRTJV 'M'FW TAMING THE BEAST 27 the address. "'If you have sense enough to discover and spirit enough to oppose tyranny, whatever garb it may assume, awake to your situation. If the present, moment be lost, your threats hereafter will be as empty as your entreaties are now. Appeal from justice to the fears of government, and suspect the man who would advise longer forbearance. ' ' Washington was the man aimed at in the last sentence, but as the speaker concluded he cast a sig nificant look upon Stevens, and shrugged his shoulders. "Suspect me, then," cried Stevens, "for I still assert that you will gain more by forbearance than by rashness. You know what jealous fear the country has of the army. What will the people think when you rise in sedition at the call of an unsigned incendiary paper like this one? How will they regard your scheme to wield your swords against Congress and in your own selfish behalf? You speak of tyranny. ^ -^^^ If you have sense enough to o-x^ \ pose tyranny in whatever LIVINGSTON MANOR, DOBBS' FERRY, NEW YORK 28 VALOR & VICTORY garb it may assume, oppose it in its present garb; for how can you know you are not being made dupes in a plot to set up a ruler over the land which you have just ridded of one?" Silence fell for a moment on the group. It was broken by a soldier of more serious mind than his comrades, who had taken little part in what had gone on before. " Stevens has the right of it," he said. "We all know that this is not the first time that there has been agitation to bring George Washington to a throne in the United States, for no one denies that Colonel Louis Nicola of the Pennsylvania line, being a foreigner, came forward with a proposal to that end, making it directly to Washington himself - " Washington !" interjected Stevens, angrily. "It is not Washington we have to fear in this matter, for we all know how odious the proposal was to him. There is another whose plots have already done mischief enough in the army and out of it, who has lately come back to us out of an ob scurity he well earned at Camden. " "Have a care of your words, Stevens!" said Snell, softly. "Your insinuations will not pass with us for arguments, and are like to get you into mischief." "I make no insinuations, for I was about to speak frankly of the matter, and in a way that may not be to your liking, Snell," rejoined Sylvester. "Do you know who it was that circulated this address about camp, comrades? It was Colonel Barber. And do you know who it was that wrote it ? It was Major Armstrong. Does it mean nothing to you that these two men are members of the staff of General Gates, second in command of the army, who has lately come back to it, after the fighting is done, to see what he can accomplish by intriguing, an occupation upon which he has been busily engaged these seven years ?" There was an instant storm of protest and indignation. TAMING THE BEAST 31 " You would do well to speak of your superiors with respect, " said Snell. "It sounds ill enough for a soldier to make charges against the general who captured a British army." "As for the general who captured Burgoyne, " returned Sylvester, hotly, "I speak not of him; for he was in fact General Schuyler, the victim of this same Gates, who came upon the scene to gather the fruits of the other's patient preparation and skill and would have let them slip at the last, if it had not been for others under him. And as for you, Snell," he went on, "it is well known to me, at least, that you are one of those who would seek benefit in any outcome there might be to this intrigue, and that you are close to Gates himself, having a facility in underhand work that is much to his liking. " "Have a care of your language, young Stevens, or, by the Eternal, I will hale you to judgment for it. " Snell spoke softly, but with an ugly glitter in his eyes. "Have me before any judgment you see fit, and I shall tell what I have told here, either about yourself, your fellow- conspirators, or this plot to ruin the country," retorted the impetuous young man. "Come, young Stevens," soothed the quiet man who had recently supported Sylvester's contention, and to whom the others somewhat deferred. "Let not your hot Southern blood get the better of your head, for you gain nothing by anger, and are like to lose much. There has been much talk here," he went on, turning to the others; "but for my part, I cannot see whither it leads, or what the remedy may be for the ills we are all conscious of." "This paper proposes the remedy, or, at least, proposes steps leading toward it," said Snell, fluttering the address again, evidently willing to divert the attention of the group from Sylvester Stevens. "We are called by this to meet to-morrow to discuss our grievances, and hit upon some 32 VALOR & VICTORY plans of relieving them. We have only to gather and stand together, I take it, in order to bring Congress to some terms.' ' "I am ready for whatever may be proposed," cried the soldier who had complained that his wife was obliged to plow the fields at home. "I care not what comes of this, so long as I get money to take back with me." INTERIOR OF WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH "Was it for money, then, that you came to the war?" sneered Sylvester Stevens, losing his just judgment in the heat of his anger. "Man," retorted the soldier-farmer, bristling, "have you a wife at home, and children coming on?" "Friend, I spoke too hotly, and am sorry for it," said Stevens, making instant amends. "Of course, Sylvester Stevens asks no money for what he has done for his country," said Snell, with fine sarcasm. "I make no virtue of it, if I have taken no pay, " returned Sylvester. "What I said to this man I am sorry for, as I have told him." TAMING THE BEAST 33 "You tell us you have taken no gold?" cried Snell, lifting an eyebrow. "I have taken nothing." "No American gold, perhaps," with an insinuating leer. The imputation that he was in the pay of the British, clearly intended by Snell, was more than Sylvester could endure. Without replying by word of mouth, he leapt upon LOOKING ACROSS THE HUDSON RIVER AT NEWBURGH Snell like a panther, bearing him to the ground with fingers clasped about his throat. In an instant the others were upon his back, beating him, striving to tear him loose from the grip in which he held his prostrate foe. Strike and pull as they would, he still held fast. What the outcome might have been cannot be told, for the face of Snell was fast turning purple when an officer, attracted by the outcry, broke in upon the fight and put an end to it. They bore Sylvester to the guard-house, bleeding and half-conscious, but struggling still to get back to his enemy; and the group scattered. 34 VALOR & VICTORY This was the spirit of the beast that Washington con fronted in the camp at Newburgh in March, 1783. He met it boldly, but with the tact which never failed him. Learning of the address, when excitement about the camp was at its height and all manner of mischief was brewing, he issued general orders, calling a meeting of officers and men for a future day, with General Gates to preside. The strategy was masterful. Thus invited by their commanding officer to meet for discussion of the situation, the men would not come together in response to the irregular and incendiary pamphlet that had been distributed among them. More over, whatever sting might have remained in the fangs of Gates was eliminated by his appointment as presiding officer. Before the day of the meeting arrived, feeling had sub sided, though there was still bitterness against Congress and ^fe*. the taxpayers, and a willingness on the part of the men to take some extreme steps to obtain their deserts at the hands of those whom they so long had served. There was still left enough feeling to make the situation tense and to test the nerves of those responsible, when the men had assembled on the day appointed, prepared for a discussion of the problems before them. Suddenly, when the men stood about, expec tant, restless, and ready for any thing, Washing ton appeared. Amid the most TTTT C* ATVTT> AT TAMING THE BEAST 35 profound silence, he walked to the front of the meeting; and in the tensest silence spoke to the assembly. He sym pathized with them ; he appreciated the justice of their claims, and grieved for their sufferings. At the same time, he pointed out the tremendous difficulties under which Congress labored, and extolled forbearance in the circumstances as the greatest victory over themselves that would be possible. With superb diplomacy, he ascribed the anonymous appeal to British emissaries, eager to disgrace an army which they could not defeat in a fair field. So he spoke, in tones full of feeling, appealing to their better natures, arousing their patriotism, their sense of honor, their manliness. His majestic presence edge that he had served his country added weight to every word. And then, fixed upon him, with every ear straining what he had still to say, he took from pocket a letter from a member of Congress to to the soldiers the good faith of Congress. Finding his unaided sight insufficient, he stopped, and took from his pocket a pair of spectacles, which he put and the knowl- without pay with each eye to hear his on. I have grown grey in your service," he said, in his THE DELAVAN PLOT IN SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY, TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK: HERE REST EIGHT BROTHERS WHO FOUGHT AND DIED UNDER WASHINGTON 36 VALOR & VICTORY simple manner, while looking upon them all with a sad smile; "now I find myself growing blind." The thing was done. Once more that great soul con ducted his fellow-countrymen through dangers that had been thick about them from the beginning. Wonderfully patient, wonderfully wise, he had led them to the light. An instant and complete revulsion of feeling ensued. When he had finished reading the letter he withdrew from the meeting; but those left behind did not hesitate, or debate on what they should do. With one voice, they passed resolutions expressing " unshaken confidence in the justice of Congress," and, it was added, "the officers of the American army view with abhorrence and reject with disdain the infamous proposals contained in a late anonymous address to them." These resolutions the crestfallen and angry Gates had perforce to put and declare unanimously ^ carried, Thus was the spirit of the beast tamed by him who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. " Thus was the new country saved from mutiny and anarchy on the very threshhold of its career. GREENOUGH'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON, Now THE SMITHSONIAN BUILDING AT WASHINGTON* CHAPTER II LOVE AND A TORY A MAID and a man stood in the half-light beside the hearth in a cottage kitchen. Without, the Novem ber sky scowled, and wind rattled among the uplifted twigs of the trees. To the south stood the town of New York ; scattered cottages were close at hand ; beyond them lay the mansions of the rich; in the distance, the business build ings. The cottage in which they were was on the outskirts. The man was dark of skin, with curling hair and a frank, boyish face. His eyes were a shade too open, the chin was deficient, the lips some times failed to meet ; but for all that he had a beauty of the kind women like. The maid was of the softly pretty type; trans lucent, iridescent skin, with a play of color beneath; hair fairer than gold; round hands; a neck of milk, and> perhaps, honey. There was sorrow between the two the sweet sorrow that comes to the young who love , for their love had its bitterness. The man spoke first. "God knows when I shall see you again, Alargaret," he whispered. "You cannot come again 37 THE DECORATION OF THE CINCINNATI GIVEN BY THE OFFICERS OF THE FRENCH NAVY TO WASHINGTON, AND STILL WORN BY THE PRESI DENT GENERAL OF THE ORDER VALOR & VICTORY to-morrow?" Tears were in her blue eyes. One hand trembled along his sleeve. He wrinkled his brow. " Why do you make it hard for me ? You know I cannot safely come again. By to-mor row, the last of our troops will be out of the city." "Do not say our troops, Trumbull," she expostulated. "The British troops, then," the young man amended. "If you would have me stay, Margaret, you have only to say the word, though I could not answer for what might happen to me. You know how I was hated and persecuted before the war began, for no other reason than that my father was loyal to his King. And now that the rebels have won - She placed a round hand upon his full lips, looking up at him, and shak- ing her head. "Trumbull," she said, "have we not yet learned to keep such terms out of our speech ? Is it not enough that I should love a Tory, without being always re minded of it by him?" "And is it not enough that I should risk loving a " "A patriot" she interpolated. "A patriot WASHINGTON (From the portrait by Trumbull, in the City Hall, New York} LOVE AND A TORY 39 BLESSING OF PEACE (From the bronze doors of the Capitol at Wash ington, by Rogers) without having to repress every expression of my own convictions and loyalty?" She smiled at that, per haps a trifle whimsically. "Do you forget that I have already given up much? Do you fail to remember that your own uncle Waddington has been in my mother's house these five years, and you with him, while my mother and THE I have barely found shelter in this little cottage?" "Why do you flaunt this at me?" cried the young man, in the passion of one whose ground of defense is weak. "I could not prevent my uncle from occupying your mother's house, could I?" She laid her two hands upon his shoulders, and pressed more closely to him. "Trumbull," she murmured, "let us not quarrel on our last day. I confess that I was piqued when you told me you must go, for I could not at once see the need of it. You know that the treaty of peace says that the States shall not persecute the Tories, and I did not realize you would be in danger if you remained in New York." Trumbull Erskine was mollified at once. "If it were not for that scoundrel, Nicholas Snell, I might find it well enough to stay," he said, making himself out an abused hero. "But he is so wholly evil and malicious, and so cunning, that he would certainly work us mischief." "I am not afraid of Nicholas Snell," said Margaret Rutgers, lifting her head. "But if we do not provoke him with the constant sight VALOR & VICTORY of our happiness and love for each other, he will be less apt to try his evil hand against us. for you can keep him tender until I return to take you away with me." After this fash ion argued the young lover with the little chin. "It will not be long, Margaret," he said, fondling her. "I shall return for you soon, and so strong that we shall have nothing to fear. Be strong; be brave; be true!" These, all things considered, were rather amusing injunc tions for this youth to lay upon her. She did not consider them so, being duly tearful when he opened the door at last, and slipped cautiously out in the November evening. How much cause Trumbull Erskine had to fear the return of the Americans to the City of New York is a matter open to discussion. It is not likely that he had need to be anxious for his life, but JOHN DICKINSON (From the portrait in the there Were many COnSlder- Capitol at Harrisburg) ations short of a question of life and death that made an agitating appeal to his ego. Whatever his exigency was, Trumbull Erskine was not alone in considering it well to leave New York when the British army was withdrawn after the treaty of peace. Between Yorktown and the final evacuation, more than 12,000 Tories, many of them most worthy and useful citi zens of the community, packed what they could and de- LOVE AND A TORY parted for Nova Scotia, Canada, the West Indies, England, - or whatever place appealed to their interests or fancies. This, despite the fact that in the treaty of peace, nego tiated and signed at Paris, Congress agreed to urge the States to pass laws making the lives and property of Tories safe within their borders, and extending to them a equality before the law. Time demonstrated the endeavors of Congress to be futile, that body having only advisory control over the several States, without the power to insist upon the desired legislation, or to make laws covering the issue. Instead of complying with the expressed wishes of THE HEADQUARTERS AT ROCKY HILL, NEAR PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, WHERE WASHINGTON WROTE His FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE ARMY IN 1783 Congress and the terms of the several legislatures, in the bills concerning those who had given comfort or assist ance to the Brit ish in the late war, suited the humor of the people, which was evil enough. The restric- treaty, tne Y the NASSAU HALL, PRTNCETON UNIVERSITY: THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS SAT HERE IN 1783, AND HERE WASHINGTON RECEIVED THE NATIONAL THANKS FOR THE SUC CESSFUL CONDUCT OF THE REVOLUTION 42 VALOR & VICTORY tions were especially severe in New York, where a bill was passed prohibiting the return of any Tory who had left the State, which, it will be observed, fitted the case of Trumbull Erskine. Another, called the trespass act, ordained that any Whig whose property had been used or held by a Tory, at any time during the occupation of New York, could recover damages from that Tory. This fitted the case of Margaret Rutgers's widowed mother. Although incipient anarchy at Newburgh had been nipped in the bud, mischief had come from it. News going abroad, the country became deadly afraid of the army. A standing army was then considered one of the detested institutions of monarchy, of which the States had had evil experience. The American army, now that its work was done, became, in the minds of the more tim orous and unstable, a sign and symbol of monarchy. Two things happened to augment this fear and sink the States further into the maelstrom of misunderstanding, jealousy, fear, and anarchy, whither events were already whirling them, and out of which they were dragged in a way with which this story will have somewhat to do. One of the two things that set the fears of the people on feather edge occurred in Philadelphia, in June. A drunken rab ble of Pennsylvania soldiery, arming themselves, marched into Philadelphia and drove the Congress across the river to Princeton. Governor Dickinson considered it the part of discretion to refrain from calling upon the local militia to repel the regulars. Congress was not in favor with the people, being, in polite terms, effete; but it represented the idea of popular government. So when the drunken soldiers assailed it, and pricked it off to Princeton, that part of the people which did not laugh took refuge behind fright, and scolded roundly about the evils of a standing army. The other circumstance that added to fear and stirred LOVE AND A TORY 43 the whirlpool was an innocent and sentimental conception of General Knox's. He thought it would be pleasant and appropriate to organize the army's officers into a society for the promotion of tender memories. It appealed to him as a worthy idea to maintain and continue the close bond that had grown up between them in the years of the war. ENTRANCE OF THE AMERICAN ARMY INTO NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25, 1783 (From the engraving by Chaphi) The thought made a similar appeal to other officers, which led to the formation of the Order of the Cincinnati, with Washington as its first president. The Cincinnati had a golden decoration, which Louis XVI recognized, and swords of distinction; they organized State departments to meet every Fourth of July; they ordained that the French officers should be members of the order; they laid down a rule that the eldest son should inherit from his father the honor of having fought in the war. The order was bitterly inveighed against, in pamphlet and from the platform, as a revival of the old idea of an hereditary aristocracy, which Americans had been seven 44 VALOR & VICTORY years combating. The country was stirred immoderately. The commotion we can laugh at now as comical, unless we stop to consider that it was only a sign of half-wild quick ness due to the popular prejudices of the time; the rabid fury of the mob against anything that harked back to the old order; the fanatical worship of the idea of individual liberty and the equality of man; a sign, in short, of an archy. With these reflections we do not smile, but rather grow serious with wonder that the States ever came safely through the turmoil following the Revolution. The treaty of peace, negotiated by Franklin, Adams, and Jay, was a triumph of diplomacy. The representatives of the States, knowing their ground, bullied England into terms more favorable than the most sanguine had hoped for. Our independence was recognized fully and forthwith. England gave up the western country south of the Great Lakes and as far as the Mississippi, beyond which lay Spanish territory. Franklin had begun by asking for Canada and Nova Scotia, to allow for leeway. It is a great soul that can introduce humor into negotiations for a treaty of peace, and a treaty with England, at that. American fishermen were accorded the privileges of the Banks. We got nothing in commercial concessions, al though Jay tried for them. There was discussion over the payment of private debts due from Americans to English men, incurred before the war. Perhaps there was some American humor in introducing that into the transactions. There was at least American shrewdness; for it is conceded to be shrewd to ask for more than one is entitled, to, or expects to get. The Americans were not absolved from their debts by the treaty. Further, there were the articles concerning the freedom from further persecution that the Tories were to enjoy, and the amendment or repeal of laws hostile to their prop- LOVE AND A TORY 45 News of signing of erty interests, the American envoys undertaking to have Congress suggest such measures and changes to the several States. At the same time, they gave England to under stand that Con gress could only bring these mat ters to the atten tion of the several legislatures. How far the sugges tions went has already been told. the the final articles came to America late in March, a few days after anarchy had been smoothed away at Newburgh. On April 19, General Wash ington, under in structions from Congress, pro claimed to the troops a cessation of hostilities; and old soldiers, placed upon furloughs, straggled home, penniless and ragged, with wounds and muskets to show for their services. On November 25, 1783, the British army, under Sir Guy Carleton, evacuated New York. One day before, Trumbull Erskine took ship for Halifax. WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO His OFFICERS AT FRAUNCES'S TAVERN, NEW YORK 46 VALOR & VICTORY Four days later Nicholas Snell paid a visit to Margaret. Old friends from childhood, Snell, proclaiming himself lover, had found opportunities to see her at intervals since she and her mother had been living in the outskirts of the city. Margaret did not like Snell. She could have given as little reason for the aversion as for loving Trumbull. She only knew that she had never cared much for him, and that she almost disliked him since he had begun to show too warm a regard for her. Nevertheless, she was not sorry to see him, the meeting taking its complexion from the universal joy at the home-coming of the long exiled patriots of New York. Nicholas stormed at great length because she and her mother had been driven out by the British, and their estate seized by the rich Tory, Waddington. He abused all Tories, and especially this one and his nephew, Trumbull Erskine. Margaret suffered him to inveigh against them, deeming it prudent to let her relations with the absent young man be unknown to this more virile rival. The winter dragged by. Washington, on his way to resign his commission as commander-in-chief to the Con gress, then sitting at Annapolis, took formal leave of the leading officers of the Continental army at Fraunces's Tavern in New York. Washington was the last of the dis tinguished company to arrive, and the strong emotion he manifested on entering the room kept the assembly almost silent through the little repast that followed. The general arose, his glass of wine in hand, and proposed the following health: " With a heart full of love and gratitude I must now take my leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." The toast was drunk in silence, and Washington added: LOVE AND A TORY 49 "I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will come and take me by the hand." General Knox, standing nearest, extended his hand. Washington grasped it, weeping and unable to speak. They embraced without a word. The other officers, also weeping, followed, embracing and kissing and parting from their THE OLD CITY HOTEL AT ANNAPOLIS, WHERE WASHINGTON WAS ENTERTAINED chief in a profound silence, broken only by their sobs. Thus the beloved hero retired from the field of arms to private life once more. The country was in disorder. It was like a household that has been turned out at night to fight fire. The house had been saved, but no one knew how much was left, or where to begin the work of restoring it. New York City was ruined. For seven years it had been occupied by the British and their Tory sympathizers. When they withdrew, business and all the functions of the community were para lyzed. There was deadly rancor between the few Tories who remained, and the patriots who returned. 50 VALOR & VICTORY Nicholas Snell visited Margaret and her mother during the winter with more or less regularity, making himself as agreeable as he could, and helpful. He brought dainties from New York; he saw that they had wood, and that it was prepared for the hearth ; he tinkered the doors of their rickety cottage. Margaret was not pleased with him, THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, WHERE WASHINGTON RESIGNED His COMMISSION but she did not refuse gratitude for his little acts of con sideration. The Widow Rutgers, who had no such fine reason as her daughter for discrediting him, warmed toward him. Meanwhile, there came scarcely a word from Trum- bull, who was scrambling for a foothold in Halifax. One summer day after the passage of the trespass act, Snell came to the little cottage in high feather. "Pack up your things, Maggie," he said to her, "for you are going back to your house." Thereupon he told her of the tres- LOVE AND A TORY pass act, and pointed out how her mother could dispossess old Waddington of her house and lands in New York, for the uncle had remained in the city. When he volunteered to find counsel and help the Widow Rutgers in her suit against the Tory, she pinned her whole hope in him. The case created a popular furore. There had been many trials under the new statute, but the circumstances of this cause made it peculiarly adaptable to popularity; it was the story of the poor widow and the hard rich man over again. The people, the court, the country, were all in accord; the verdict was as good as rendered. Then something happened something that led to many other things, as will become apparent on a perusal of subsequent chapters of this A story. Alexander Hamilton was asked to take the defense, act, contravening interna- he said, had no right to exist On these broad grounds court and brought off ant, against the tears of outcries of the people, him in indignation scolded and told tales boys hooted him in the Rutgers was frantic; for murder, ret said and took it. The trespass tional law and the treaty, on the statute books. Hamilton went into verdict for the defend- the widow and the Men howled about . meetings; women m about him; small streets. The Widow Snell was fit But Marga- not a word. THE OLD STATE HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND CHAPTER III THE FIRST LINK NICHOLAS SNELL was at his best when in his cups. Drink removed from his conduct a certain cautious constraint, leaving him more or less honestly unscrupulous. Villainy is often more atrocious because it sneaks; it is some times not so ^^u*. much what the rogue does as his manner of doing it that incenses the virtuous. This is a fact well and profitably known to thieves of large designs. Being a little in drink on the occasion, Nicho las was in high favor with a com pany of afternoon topers, who gath er e d in the coffee-room of Fraunces's tav ern, soon after the decision in the case of Rut gers against Waddington. Since that time a popular diver sion had been abuse of Hamilton for the part he had taken. This abuse stopped short of no accusation or innuendo. 52 TABLET ON FRAUNCES'S TAVERN THE FIRST LINK 53 In reply to the attack, Hamilton had written a letter to the public press, over the pseudonym of Phocion, following a classical fashion of the hour. Hamilton was one of the greatest writers of pamphlets and letters this country has seen. In addition to this, having the right in this discussion, FRAUNCES'S TAVERN AS RESTORED BY THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION IN 1905 his letter had a depressing effect on partisans of the widow, moved entirely by prejudice. In New York there was a pot-house politician named Isaac Ledyard. In an evil moment, Ledyard took up his pen and made reply to Phocion, behind the name Mentor. A battle of pamphlets followed, in which Phocion was over whelmingly victorious. When the last pamphlet had fluttered into the waste-basket, the people had come to see the matter as Hamilton saw it. 54 VALOR & VICTORY It was these affairs that Nicholas Snell, in his cups, discussed with his bibulous friends; the more loudly and rancorously for the reason that the company was a club in which Ledyard was a member and leader. "He has a silken, plausible pen that brings dundering fools to his way of thinking, while an honest man stands helpless," shouted Nicholas Snell, frowning prodigiously and jabbing the table with the broken stem of a wineglass. "If the scoundrel were to come out to-morrow and preach to make Washington king, and turn the Order of the Cin cinnati into a house of lords, as he is like to do, he would have the rabble with him.' 7 "But there seems much truth in what he says," ventured another. "Here is an example of the mischief he has wrought; one of our own number comes flaunting him here as one who tells the truth against Isaac Ledyard," cried Snell. "Hamilton says that we should suffer the Tories to enjoy the same rights that we do. Any man who would suffer the fawning spaniels to come licking our hand now is a traitor, and ought to be treated as a traitor. Every man One of the company, who had been poring over a news paper, broke in at this juncture, in order to read aloud something he had found. "Here is what the Massachu setts Chronicle says, and it is well said," he cried. " 'As Hannibal swore never to be at peace with the Romans, so let every Whig swear by his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, by the shades of departed friends who have fallen in battle, by the ghosts of those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board prison ships and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace with those fiends of the refugees, whose thefts, murders, and treason have filled the cup of woe.' Was ever anything better said?" THE FIRST LINK 57 The sentiment was much applauded; it was some time before Snell could again command attention, though he did not forego efforts to speak, during the tumult. "This man Hamilton says we should not drive them out of the country, because Congress asks us not to," he went on. "A great deal we care for Congress, we who have been through the war and got our trouble for our pains. Why should not these wretches be driven from the country? They cannot desire to live under a free government which they have been at such pains to destroy. Let them go to his Majesty's kingdom, and there live under a government they like. It would never do to let them stay here, to plot and plan at their leisure, and turn us over to England again when the time is ripe. Neither will it do to let this vicious traitor stay, whose tongue has poisoned the minds of our people. Why, six months ago we were running up and down the streets with the name of the Widow Rutgers on our lips, and cursing the old scoundrel Waddington with a whole heart, and now we sit about saying the minions of Great Britain are honest and honorable men, who should be permitted to enjoy the fruits of the widow's soil, filched from her by the King's soldiers!" "The man that says that should be driven after the heels of the Tories themselves," cried another. "Nay," said Snell, lowering his voice and leaning for ward, "we must do better than that. This man Hamil ton, this infamous rogue, must be silenced, and he must be punished. There is only one way, and that way I pro pose to take." "And what way is that?" A hush fell among them. "He must die." A little murmur ran about the company ; the suggestion was over-bold. "Nay, do not mistake me," Snell went on, leering at them. "I mean it shall be fair. It shall be in fair field, I warrant you." VALOR & VICTORY "You will fight him, then?" "With great joy I would fight him. But it is well known that, while I am not lacking in valor, I am deficient in skill with sword and pistol alike ; but there be among us many before whom he could not last a minute." They listened in hushed expectancy. "What I have to propose, then, is, that we choose amongst us, from our best, one to bring about a quarrel with this rogue, and lay him low." "But if the luck is on the other side ? " suggested one of the number, with a wry face. "Are there not many of us, and only one of him? The luck cannot last for ever. There must be a turn in it, and one of us must cut FRAUNCES'S TAVERN (From an old print) himdown!" It was an idea that came to him out of his cups, devel oping in his mind as he talked, and it found favor with the company. Seizing it, they fell upon it in discussion, bring ing it to some form amid many potations, and proceeding to the edge of acting upon it where they stopped, for the time. Pot-valiant though they were, they were not ready to put the scheme into immediate execution, it being too momentous to be set afoot after such short consideration. THE FIRST LINK 59 Another time they would settle by lot, or election, who should be the first to take the field against the man they could not refute. For the present they solaced themselves in contemplation of their plans. Among them all Nicholas Snell was most pleased with the notion, but not entirely because it was his own. It had THE OLD CITY HALL, NEW YORK (From an early print} a significance in his case quite apart from the good it prom ised to the community in getting rid of Hamilton. By it, he thought, he would surely find favor in Margaret's eyes, She had suffered most directly from Hamilton's champion ship of the Tory cause; his punishment, according to the lights that illuminated Nicholas, would be peculiarly pleas ing to her; his own connection with it would redound to his advantage. The next day he went to see Margaret. He was feeling in high feather when he approached the new little home, provided by sympathizers. He found her alone. He came to the tale bluntly, only pausing to make 60 VALOR & VICTORY clear to her his own part in the plan, and to show her how his affection had inspired him to it. He soon learned how far he had misguessed in think ing she would be pleased and grateful. "You come to tell me you have plotted a murder, in order that I may be avenged?" she said, recoiling from him. For a space he was taken aback. "Why, yes," he stammered. "That is, it is by no means a murder, for it will all be fair. The scoundrel deserves to be shot." "It must be stopped!" she cried. "I abhor the deed you contemplate! I despise you for your part in it! Go back to your fellow-conspirators and undo what you have done, or never let me see your face again. " In vain did he argue and expostulate, explain and plead. She would listen to nothing, he found, and still demanded that he spoil the plot he had made. In the end, much crestfallen and not a little angry, he agreed to make the attempt. Not feeling secure in his promise, she was not satisfied to do nothing more to prevent the scheme from coming to mischief. She felt implicated in the plot, wickedly guilty of having a part in it; she must do something more than she had done to block it. Impelled by emotions which knowledge had stirred within her, she placed her bonnet on her head, soon after Snell disappeared, and went into the street. Her steps led toward Hamilton's office. He was already one of the leading lawyers in the city, dividing the honors with Aaron Burr. She arrived unobserved and inconspicuous - "Is Mr. Hamilton engaged?" she asked of a clerk. "Will madam have a seat? Who shall I have the honor to tell him wishes to see him?" "Tell him, please, that Miss Rutgers would like a few words with him on a matter of grave importance THE FIRST LINK 61 Miss Margaret Rutgers, daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Rutgers, if you please," she added, seeing the clerk's brow go up. Presently she was ushered into his chambers. He arose to greet her, tactfully avoiding any appearance of surprise at her visit. "Permit me, madam. Pray be seated," he said, pleas antly, handing her a chair. "I am deeply sensible of the honor of your visit. I only regret that I am not better equipped for your reception; but you will ' pardon, I know, the appear ance and condition of a practitioner's office." She sank into the chair, suddenly over come by a realization 1 of the situation which 1 she had not before stopped ^ to contemplate. Her eyelids fluttered, and a short sigh escaped her. "You seem distressed and fatigued," said Hamilton, perceiving her agitation. "Will you permit me to fetch you a glass of wine?" "No," she said, faintly; "I shall do very well, I thank you." "At least, allow me - He poured and handed her a glass of water from a pitcher that stood on the mantel-shelf. She thanked him, recovering her composure by degrees as she sipped at the water. "I it was nothing," she said, passing the glass back to him. "I came here in too great haste, and and under some agitation of feeling." "I trust that it is nothing that causes you distress or un- happiness," he ventured. "I most profoundly hope it is nothing to which I have been a contributing cause." WASHINGTON'S ARCH, NEW YORK 62 VALOR & VICTORY Raising her eyes to look at him for the first time, she was surprised to find him so small. When she had seen him in the court, during the trial of the cause, he had seemed much larger, more imposing. But that was in a moment of oratory. There was still the same look of high intelli gence, of a noble spirit; the same suggestion of delicacy about his finely chiseled features; and in his eyes, as he gazed upon her, there was an expression of compassion, of kindly sympathy, that set her more at her ease. "In a sense you are involved in my present distress, and my errand here can be traced back to the the - He helped her over the awkward point with an inclination of his head. "But not in a way that you think, sir." There was a pause. He waited for her to resume. "You must be aware, Mr. Hamilton, that you have many bitter enemies," she said. "It would be vain and foolish of me to decline to recog nize that as a fact, Miss Rutgers, and I am not sure that I ought to regret having enemies, provided you are not num bered among them. A man who contends for a truth that is not a popular truth must be honored by enemies," he added, hastily. "I believe I am among those who are willing to give you credit for being a man of honor, integrity, and courage, and to believe that what you consider your duty may some times be as painful to yourself as it is to others," she said. "But even if I were an enemy," she went on, "the in terest of humanity and justice would demand my coming to you this afternoon. I have come to warn you." "And you think it will be well for you to do this, Miss Rutgers?" "Why not, pray?" "You can answer that better than I. If you choose to be so magnanimous I can only accept your kindness with THE FIRST LINK 63 the deepest gratitude; but I would not have you indulge your lofty sentiments at any risk or cost to yourself." "That is considerate of you, sir. I can assure you that I shall not be placed in a false position. Mr. Hamilton," she arose from her chair; "I beg that you will accept no challenges to combat; that you will fight no duels!" "That is a broad request, madam. While it is one that both from sentiment and inclination I would gladly promise to fulfil, and while I am deeply sensible of the obliga tions you have placed me un der, I would not consider it compatible with my quasi public position as a man of honor to agree to let my name go without my de fense because of a request which you will pardon my characterizing as somewhat vague. Would it be imperti nent to request you to be more specific?" ALEXANDER HAMILTON (From the Houdon Bust} 64 VALOR & VICTORY "It would not, sir. I warn you specifically against the club of men who gather about the leadership of Isaac Led- yard. I have learned this very afternoon that they plan to call you upon the field of honor, one after another, until one of them succeeds in killing you, for they hold that to be the only way in which they can hope to silence you." THE GRANGE: ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S NEW YORK HOME "That is quite the prettiest and most sincere compli ment I have had for my recent pamphlets," rejoined Ham ilton, with a smile. "I hope you take the matter seriously?" urged Mar garet. "Most seriously, I assure you, Miss Rutgers." "And you will guard yourself against these men, , if they attempt to carry out their plan? I should tell you, also, that I have endeavored to prevent them from doing so, through one of their number who told me of the conspiracy." "I most sincerely assure you, Miss Rutgers, that I shall adopt all the precautions consistent with honor. I can THE FIRST LINK scarcely do less to show my appreciation of your solicita tion. I would do very much more. I hope, if the occasion should ever arise when I may be of service to you, that you will permit me to do something further toward paying the debt of gratitude under which you place me." "You are not so heavily obliged to me, sir," returned Margaret, going toward the door; "for I could do nothing else, in the interests of humanity." "Although you choose to place your action upon such a basis, I shall continue to consider myself your grateful and obedient ser- her through the It is neces- Margaret Rut- Hamilton that not in all prob- part he an d m vant," he rejoined, as he showed outer chambers and to the street. >. sary to tell all of this, because if gers had not gone to warn , afternoon, Hamilton would ability have played the afterward did in her life, many things that remain to be told would never have happened. THE THREE SURVIVORS OF THE ORIGINAL THIRTEEN TREES PLANTED NEAR THE GRANGE BY ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO COMMEMORATE THE THIRTEEN STATES CHAPTER IV CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS MARGARET'S visit to Hamilton, as events proved, was unnecessary, unless it might be construed as necessary to the out workings of her own fate. There followed from the meeting many things. The plot as planted by Nicholas Snell was broken up. When the details be gan to move beyond his control and a tragedy seemed inevitable, he whis pered the secret to Isaac Ledyard, from whom the conspirators had kept it, lest he, being of a quicker sense of honor than them selves, should prevent them from accomplishing their purpose. Their doubts concerning his cooperation proved well founded; he no sooner learned of the con spiracy against Hamilton than GEORGE CLINTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW r ^ / 6 YORK (From an engraving by Williams) he ISSUed Strict injunctions against it, and it came to nothing. From his personal experience and connection with the episode, Nicholas Snell learned cunning. He did not get wisdom; if he had, much of this story could not be written. 66 CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 67 erated believing But in learning cunning, he mended his outward bearing toward Margaret, and wooed her humbly, cultivating an appearance of staid respectability; and if he plotted at all with tavern companions, he plotted from far beneath the sur face. Neither did he make further boast to women of his plots. Margaret tol- Nicholas, such a course the wiser in the face of his insistence. She gave him short shift when he approached the realm of romance, holding him firmly in the posi tion of a family friend; a function which he had grown cunning enough to accept with apparent willingness. And so time went on. Of Hamilton she saw little or nothing. During the three years that followed her first meeting with him, between them remained only a casual acquaintance. When her mother died, in 1786, he called to extend his condolence and offer assistance, and once afterward he sent to learn whether he might help her in any way. After that she saw nothing of him beyond a formal bow and courtsey in the streets, until those events took place which were to bring him into her life as a dominating factor. GOVERNOR CLINTON'S HOUSE AT POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK 68 VALOR & VICTORY The years that passed immediately after the close of the Revolution were teeming and terrible. The war left thir teen struggling commonwealths, that did not know whether they were sovereign republics or coordinated states. They were half bound together, and half held apart, by the Arti cles of Confederation. The Articles, adopted by the last of the colonies as late as 1781, established the Continental Congress on a constitutional basis. Previous to that time, it had acted under a tacit concession of authority from the several States that was only partial at best. It had waged war, raised armies, built navies, entered into an alliance, contracted debts, and otherwise borne itself as a body having sovereign powers, whereas it had only such authority as no one intervened to prevent. Congress was made up of delegates appointed yearly by the States. No State had less than two nor more than seven delegates. Votes were taken by States, each State having one, without regard to population or relative impor tance. Money could not be appropriated for national purposes without the consenting vote of nine States in Congress; the same number was required for much trivial but needful legislation. The powers of this representative body were strictly circumscribed. The several States had strict ideas concern ing their sovereign rights, and a horror of any strong cen tralization of authority. The idea of independence had been exaggerated and distorted in the public mind until it was leading to anarchy. The Confederation was nothing more than a bond of friendship between the contracting commonwealths, insuring to citizens of the respective States equal rights in all States, and combining certain functions of government in Congress. Congress could declare war, make treaties, send and receive ambassadors, adjudicate disputes between States, JOHN ADAMS (From the Copley portrait in Memorial Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 7 1 and attend to Indian affairs. The States themselves could do none of these things. Congress controlled the army, but was provided with no means of raising troops, except through requisitions on the States, so great was the fear of a standing army. But vital and necessary powers were not accorded to Congress. It could neither im pose taxes nor control commerce. It could do nothing more than ask the States for money, and suggest local legislation in many matters of national conse quence. The States themselves could establish such imposts as they saw fit, with no other restriction than that they must not contravene any treaties entered into by Congress. The States shared with Congress the right to coin money. Chaos was inevitable. The affairs' of the United States, as soon as the cessation of war had removed an impel ling necessity to work in accord, fell into confusion. If the States had worked in better harmony, the war might have been terminated several years sooner. There Collection at Nashville} was jealousy between them; there were bitter local pre judices; the people could not communicate and become acquainted because of geographical isolation due to the difficulties of travel. Many of them wrangled over terri tory that had been in dispute since the early and conflicting royal grants. New York and New Hampshire quarreled for the Green Mountains; Pennsylvania and Connecticut squabbled for the valley of Wyoming. Others were in bitter commercial rivalry. They imposed commercial re strictions on each other, through local imposts. They VALOR & VICTORY would neither establish the tariffs that Congress requested, not contribute the funds asked for. Congress, frantic for money, became bankrupt. Adams was in Holland much of the time, begging for loans from Dutch usurers. Congress frequently drew on him for sums he had still to gather in Amsterdam, the draft being in the hands of the bankers. Going to England to negotiate a commercial treaty, he found England at a loss to know whether she was dealing with one republic or thirteen, and she stood aloof. Inci dentally, England's great men snubbed John Adams. Secession began to be threatened. A dispute arose concerning the navigation of the Mississippi River. At the time when England made the treaty of peace with the United States she was at war with Spain. A secret clause had been introduced in the treaty stipulating that in case England, through her war with Spain, should acquire the Spanish possessions in America, the southern boundary of the United States would be a line running from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chatahoochee. When Spain learned of this she closed the Mississippi River to American boats. American settlers in Kentucky and Tennessee, distressed by this state of affairs, for it shut them off from their principal means of transportation, made complaint to Con gress. At this time John Jay was negotiating a treaty with Spain, in which he was endeavoring to ob tain certain com- mercial conces sions. Spain was willing to surrender either the nav igation of the Mississippi % or the commercial HOUSE IN WHICH SHAYS WAS CAPTURED, NEAR PETERSHAM, MASSACHUSETTS CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 73 advantages sought, but not both. Kentucky and Tennessee threatened to revolt if the Mississippi were closed. New England, which had lately commenced to make cotton and woolen goods, threatened to secede if the commercial treaty were not consum mated. At the same time, a free State, calling itself the State of Franklin, was established in the mountains of North Carolina, with John Sevier as its presi dent. Credit, state and national, was dead. There was little coin in circulation; what there was had vary ing values in the sev eral States. Foreign creditors were clam oring; Congress was beseeching the States j^ MES MADrsoN ^ From ffte p ortra it by Gilbert for money; Citizens Stuart, at Bowdoin College) were shouting refusals to be taxed. In the midst of this dark period there burst a shower of paper money. States began to issue script and currency, based on nothing more tangible than hope and a promise. Merchants refusing to accept the money, laws were passed in some States com pelling them to do so. Panic came; nothing was stable. Anarchy overhung the country. Strong men despaired. The necessity for closer union was obvious to thoughtful men; but those, in much greater numbers, whose opinions 74 VALOR & VICTORY were arrived at through feelings and prejudices, feared a bond more closely knit. Then fate took a hand fate, which in 1781 had begun to work her way with the States, when the confederation was before the several commonwealths for adoption. All JOHN TYLER, THE ELDER (From the portrait by James Worrell in the Virginia State Library at Richmond) had accepted it except Maryland. Maryland was reluc tant because small, and fearful of her larger neighbors. Most of the States had possessions in the West remnants of old royal grants and charters. Maryland would consent to the Articles of Confederation if these States would turn over to Congress their holdings in the West. The States agreed; Connecticut only withholding a certain strip in CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 75 what is now Ohio, called the Western Reserve. That gave the States something tangible in common. Fate next intervened through a man named Daniel Shays, of Massachusetts. In Massachusetts there had been a bitter contest between merchants and farmers and their allied interests over paper money. The farmers wanted it; the merchants and moneyed men did not. The WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON (From the painting by Rossiter) measure was defeated. Riots followed; the farmers in veighed against the rich men and men of influence. They were especially bitter against lawyers. After several mobs formed and dispersed, Daniel Shays, who had been a cap tain in the Continental army, gathered about him a band more threatening than any others had been, and started making a great noise throughout the land. In his force were many of the veterans whom Gates would have incited to mutiny at Newburgh. Governor Bowdoin raised a mili tia force and sent General Lincoln to stop the uprising. There was a skirmish and a chase, and Shays's insurrection was no more. Shays and 1 50 of his followers were captured at breakfast on Sunday, at a farm-house near Petersham. 76 VALOR & VICTORY But the insurrection had done immense good. It sobered the people. They did not want governments to be repudiated. They traced the outbreak to its source in federal weakness, and knew that, if the country was to sur vive, it must have more unified virility. We here may observe again the hand of chance, weaving a web to hold the States together. In 1785 Virginia and THE PARLOR AT GREENWAY TO-DAY Maryland, through delegates, met at Washington's home in Mount Vernon to arrange commercial affairs. It was found necessary to invite Pennsylvania to join them. There was a man in the Virginia legislature who went further; a quiet, slight, timid little man, a man who would get up on the floor of the assembly like a schoolboy when he found it necessary to talk he never made speeches - but who would have every member listening and learning. This was James Madison. Madison, in the autumn of 1785, prepared a motion calling for a commercial conference to be held by delegates from all the States, to devise a uniform commercial system. CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 79 He did not present the motion, but induced John Tyler, father of the President of that name, to stand sponsor for it. Tyler was a fierce zealot for States rights; he could intro duce such a motion without stampeding the States rights men. For the time being the motion aroused little interest. Presently there came from Maryland a proposal to the same effect. It was taken up and carried. Commissioners from all the States were invited to meet the first Monday of September, 1786, at Annapolis. On September u, 1786, commissioners from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York gathered in the State House at Annapolis. Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Carolina appointed commissioners who did not see fit to come. Georgia, Connecticut, and South Carolina paid no heed to Virginia's invitation. The commissioners did not think it worth while to attempt anything, with only five States present. But before they adjourned, they adopted an address, drawn up by Alexander Hamilton, and sent it to all the States. The address urged them to send commissioners to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday of the following May "to devise such further provision as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the federal govern ment adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report to Congress such an act as, when agreed to by them, and confirmed by the legislature of every State, would effec tually provide for the same." The suggestion was brought forward for the approval of Congress in October. Rufus King of Massachusetts maintained that the proceedings of a convention, which was an irregular gathering without authority, could not properly be brought before Congress, and that the States 8o VALOR & VICTORY should pay no attention to the address. This was flattering Congress, and that body refused to sanction the plan. But fate was still active. With that grim satisfaction with which fate amuses herself and others who can be amused with it, the agency chosen to bring the convention to pass comprised some of the strongest enemies of cen tralized government. It happened after this manner. Congess, in financial despair, begged to amend the Articles, per mitting that body to set up imposts, uniform and general, through the States. After years of wrangling, all the States acceded to this, except New York. New York, under Governor George Clinton, was well satisfied with the trend trade was then taking. She was growing strong and rich again, after having been com pletely ruined by the war. Her prosperity was being built up by impost laws, made to suit the situation; she did not desire Congress to meddle. So, in spite of Hamilton's efforts, the impost amendment to the Articles of Confedera tion was defeated in the New York Assembly. Up to that time the convention proposal had not at tracted much attention. But when the amendment was known to have failed, people realized that there was no hope for Congress and the Union unless Congress should be vested with more certain and absolute power. More over, there was the tremendous moral effect of Shays's rebellion, and the disorderly behavior of little Rhode Island, which went on issuing worthless paper money and passing laws obliging people to accept it as legal tender. THE OLD CAPITOL AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND (From an old print) CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 81 If any impulse had been lacking, it was furnished now by Virginia. That commonwealth did not wait for an official endorsement of the convention plan by Congress, but went ahead and named its own delegates. First of them was George Washington. At once there was interest in the proposed gathering, if not enthusiasm. Men were reassured; they felt that the movement had substan- THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER, ANNAPOLIS HOUSE AS RESTORED STATE tial and worthy of attention. Other States followed. Rufus King told Congress that it could not possibly recognize the call issued by the An napolis meeting; but suggested the desirability of calling a meeting of commissioners from the several States in Phila delphia on the second Monday in May to deliberate on a more efficient form of union. With such twistings, dear to a lawyer's heart, did he reconcile Congress to an endorse ment of that plan. Spring came and the time approached when the dele gates were to meet in Philadelphia. Fontaine Stevens, formerly of Virginia, and a soldier of the war, on his way from Massachusetts to revisit scenes of his youth, sojourned 82 VALOR & VICTORY for a few days in New York City. On the eve of his de parture he betook himself to pay his respects to Hamilton, with whom he had had some acquaintance, and with whom his cousin John Stevens had been in close friendship. He found Hamilton alone, busily engaged with a mul titude of papers and surrounded by volumes and pam phlets. "I am merely arranging in comprehensive form my views of the federation that we should inaugurate among the States to insure the perpetuity and greatest effi ciency of the union between them," he explained, when he had saluted Fontaine and bidden him to a seat. "We are on the eve of a great work, General Hamilton, and a work in which you have already played a part that will fasten your name more securely on the tablets of his tory," observed Fontaine. The general acknowledged the compliment with an inclination of the head. "I am not as sanguine as yourself that we are really about to accomplish something, Mr. Stevens," he replied, thoughtfully. "I cannot see how we shall fail, sir. The people of the States seem more than ready to take the step. Speaking for my part of the country I can be certain, and we have encouraging reports from elsewhere." "The people, perhaps, have a vague idea that they desire something in the way of change, Mr. Stevens," rejoined Hamilton. "Indeed, I am willing to concede that they want a change. The people frequently do. But I am doubtful, I must confess, whether they will be able to hit upon anything that will meet with approval sufficiently general to be of any value." "You do not credit them with great discretion and wisdom, general," laughed Fontaine. "I credit them, I believe, with all that they have dem onstrated themselves as entitled to," returned Hamilton. CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS 83 "It is not conducive to a hearty respect of the people at large to reflect upon what has happened in this country within the last few years. For seven years they fought for principles which, to my mind, they did not fully understand and somewhat overrated. Having won their struggle, they immediately fell to quarrel ing among themselves over trivialities; they were con tent to be consumed by petty jealousies, rather than to permit general benefits at some possible slight sacri fice of their local interests. States have opposed such salutary measures as an unfortunate Congress could devise. It is not reassuring to me, I promise you, Mr. Stevens." "The States, it is true, have been guilty of jealousies and controversies, but these Seem nOW tO be forgotten in THE GRAVE OF JOHN HANCOCK IN THE (. , OLD GRANARY BURYING GROUND, a present sense of the ne- BOSTON cessity for forming a closer union," argued Fontaine. "A present sense. You have pointed it well. That is their present sense. What will be their sense to-morrow ? How soon after we shall have formed a union shall we have another Shays's rebellion ? How can we look forward to dwelling in harmonious security with such a member of the family as irascible and erratic Rhode Island, for instance, or greedy, grasping New York ? For my part, Mr. Stevens, and I am frank to say it, I would have these State lines, these petty prejudices that are built upon nothing but 8 4 VALOR & VICTORY geography, and this clutching for a little local power and prestige I would have all this wiped out." "You cannot remove from men's minds the traditions of centuries, General Hamilton. The men of Massa chusetts, of Virginia, even those of New York, have come from long lines of ancestors who wrested what they now enjoy from savage Indians and more savage nature. We cannot wonder that they hold dear what has cost so dear." " Nevertheless, I would do away with it all. And I would weaken the power of the people themselves to do mischief. We have at hand, in England, an example of the highest form of representative government yet devised. There they have a body that places a restraint on the un intelligent and prejudiced masses, a counterbalance. I would have such a body in our own government. I will grant you a representative legislature, one branch to be chosen directly by the whole people. But for the other branch, and for the chief executive, I would require that the electors have a property and educational qualification. I would insure a higher order of intelligence for that body, and give it restrain- I ing power over the lower. Further more, I would break down State lines by having the chief executive appoint the governors of the several States, and I would vest them with au thority to interfere with any pernicious local legislation," thus argued Hamilton. ABRAHAM YATES CONCERNING DIVERS MATTERS "Then you would never unite the States into one gov ernment," asserted Fontaine, ready to take issue with Hamilton. "I do not expect to have my plan adopted. I shall go no further than to outline it before the convention, as a suggestion of what I think would promote our common welfare and insure us permanent prosperity and strength as a nation. But I shall not urge it, knowing as well as any can know that it has not the elements of popularity; which rather encourages me to greater faith in it," he added, with a smile. "You say there is some enthusiasm in your own State for the union, Mr. Stevens?" he resumed, closing the discussion of the elements of the problem before the States. "A marked and lively interest, to say the least, Gen eral Hamilton. The people at large, so far as I can gather from observation, are generally favorable, and our oppo nents are not bitter. Samuel Adams is, I believe, rather dubious and inclined to be doubtful of the wisdom of further consolidation. John Hancock is apparently with him." "Here is another illustration of the untrustworthy character of popular gov ernment, Mr. Stevens," inter posed General Hamilton. "Two months after your Governor Bowdoin had suppressed Shays 's re bellion, his constituents turned about and elected Hancock gov ernor." "lam not willing to concede that that is more than a coincidence," said JOHN LANSING (From an etching by Alben Rosenthat) 86 VALOR & VICTORY Fontaine. "For the rest of our leaders, there are many who will hesitate to deprive Massachusetts of any of her prerogatives; but it is a State where your despised public opinion finds quick expression through town meetings, and I believe that the will of the people, which I regard as favorable, will have its way." " I could wish the same were true in New York," Ham ilton remarked, shaking his head dubiously. "The State is in an era of prosperity, and a strong faction, headed by George Clinton, is opposed to any change which is an other point in favor of my argument to curtail the powers of the States to do mischief and to block measures that do not look to the benefit of all. Governor Clinton is the strongest man politically that we have, and holds the State. It was only by great exertion that we were able to send delegates to the convention at all, and the two who were chosen as my colleagues, John Lansing and Robert Yates, were frankly and avowedly selected for the purpose of interfering with and preventing, if possible, any satisfac tory outcome. But we shall struggle and hope. Down in Virginia there is a quiet little man with a strong head, and he has taken up this problem. He has already brought this convention to pass, which is much. Perhaps he may do more." "You mean Mr. Madison?" "Yes, Mr. Madison." CHAPTER V LOVE AND A LETTER IT was midsummer in the year 1788. Margaret Rut gers sat by an open window in the home of Aaron Burr in Richmond Hill. Since the death of her mother, leaving her alone and dependent, she had ^f^' been here, largely through the influence of Nicholas Snell, which was a strange turn of fate. She cared nothing at all for Snell, but his passion, for her did not seem to abate in the least. He seemed, how ever, to have made of himself the only friend to whom she could turn in the time of her trouble . and bereavement. AARON BURR At that time a close friendship had been formed between Burr and Snell. It would be more accurate to describe the connection as a form of hero worship on Snell's part, or of idolatry, a form of devotion of which Burr received more than is given to most men. He had already won to 87 88 VALOR & VICTORY himself a coterie of young men, attracted by the brilliancy of the man, and held to him by his personal magnetism. Through Snell, it came about that Margaret was re ceived into the household of Burr on Richmond Hill, an adjustment of her affairs that she was somewhat more ready to permit because of a slight acquaintance between her mother and Mrs. Burr in the days when the latter was Mistress Prevost. That she might accept the hospi tality of the Burrs more freely, she was indulged in the title of governess and humored in a little tradition that she cared for the younger chil dren, of whom Mrs. Prevost had several when married to the young lawyer. Burr at this time was, BURR'S BIRTHPLACE AT NEWARK, NEW JERSEY next to Hamilton, the most prominent and successful lawyer in New York. Grandson of Jonathan Edwards and son of Aaron Burr, president of the College of New Jersey, or Princeton, he enjoyed an advantage of birth to which was added a striking fascination of address and person. He was a perfect type of the elegant gentleman of the last century. Of superior intellect and undoubted ability, his success was immediate and pronounced; the number and importance of his cases was such as to bring him renown and abundance of income. He had only one rival. That rival was Hamilton; already their lives had begun to run athwart each other. Margaret, one day while seated by the window in this man's house, gave no heed to the beautiful prospect of lawn LOVE AND A LETTER 89 and grove and field and river that lay before her; neither did she see or hear the children playing there. She was bent above a letter. It was mottled with her tears, and her hands trembled as she read it. "My Precious Little Love," it ran, it will already have been sur mised that the letter was from Trumbull Erskine; "you must not by any means infer from my long silence that my ardor for you has cooled, for such is by RICHMOND HILL no means the truth. I have deferred writing to you, from day to day and from month to month, in the continual hope that in another day, or another month, I might have some better news for you. "I seem to have had nothing but misfortune since the close of the war, which drove me from my home in America, where my prospects were so bright, and from you, by whose side I was so happy. First, there was the flux of refugees to Halifax and the consequent overcrowd ing of all lines of operation there, so ST. PAUL'S, EAST CHES TER, NEW YORK: HERE BURR PLEADED SOME OF His IMPORTANT CASES WHILE THE CHURCH WAS USED AS A COURT OF JUSTICE I 90 VALOR & VICTORY that I was forced to go to Quebec. You know how one disaster after another overtook me in that wild place, and how finally I was forced to leave. "Here in England I have done little better as yet. The cost of living is so much greater that what little store of money I had from my uncle has been all but dissipated. I do not mean that I have been dissipated, for my life has been such as it should be on the part of one betrothed, and in meager circumstances. I am sometimes constrained to believe that there is a conspiracy on foot here against me. I fancy I find traces of it at every turn. I can hardly account for it, unless it is because of my attachment to an American girl, knowledge of which I have inadvertently permitted to get abroad. But you need have no fears; I shall fight through the odium of it and live to bring you back here in triumph. "I have purposely written this much in gloom, because I have a glimmer of hope to impart. I have lately made the acquaintance of one who is master of a ship, who has kindly offered to take me aboard his vessel in the capacity of an apprentice, or something of that sort, so that I may learn seafaring. There is no immediate remuneration in it; in fact, I am under some pecuniary obligations to the man, which he hopes I shall become proficient enough to dis charge before the end of our cruise; but in the end there promises much, for the sea is ever lucrative to those who follow it. I am sure I shall enjoy the life, for I was always fond of the sea. And when we have a vessel of my own, my beloved, we shall fly to the ends of the earth on .our wings of white. Shall we not? "But the best I have left for the last. Our voyage will perhaps take us to New York; in fact, I am quite certain it will. And when we sail into the harbor, I shall come to see you, despite the risk I shall run in coming ashore in that LOVE AND A LETTER 93 hostile port. But do not be alarmed for my safety when I land, for I shall exercise every precaution, and avoid being known by some manner of disguise. I presume your patron Burr will do nothing to embarrass me, should he ascertain who it is that comes to see you. "You cannot write me in reply to this, for before your letter could come I shall be far at sea, speeding to the Medi terranean, in the good ship Marble Halls, whence I shall come to you. Ever your loving swain and Jack Salt, "TRUMBULL ERSKINE." Feeble as the letter was, and deficient in the quality that indicates strength in a man, it was nevertheless a source of great comfort and consolation to Margaret. It meant that her lover still loved and would come to her. It fed her hope; it saved her from a dull despair into which she had felt herself sinking. It was four years since Trumbull had gone. In those four years she had received letters, cata loguing the failures that had been imposed upon him by a world coldly indifferent to the interesting circum stance that he was the beloved of Margaret Rutgers. In that time, too, another, to whom had fallen opportunities of being her friend, had besought her heart with a per sistency that hemmed her in and a subtlety that baffled refusal. Of late she had felt herself slipping into a union with Nicholas Snell; now she was strengthened again, for another period at least. If Trumbull would only take her with him when he came, and let her share his hardships and help him above his poverty, she would be happy a.t last, and safe. Thinking of her lover, she turned her dimmed eyes toward the river wistfully, with a sigh. As she gazed ab stractedly across the lawn that lay before her, she saw two men crossing it toward the house. One of them, by his dress, small stature, and elegance of gait, she recognized 94 VALOR & VICTORY as Burr. The other was a stranger, tall, straight, lithe, with a grace equal to that of his companion, but of a different character. It was rather the smooth flowing grace of nature than the cultivated elegance of the man of exquisite art. As they approached, Burr, glancing up at the window, waved his hand in salute, and whispered to his companion, slyly, and in a manner that had a subtle effect of flat tery, even at the distance. The other, looking up at the words, checked his gait and gazed, as one looking upon a picture. In a moment he withdrew his eyes in con fusion, as though sud- JOHN JAY (From the Stuart portrait in Bedford House, demy aware Katonah, New York) {hat he Was staring, and continued his way toward the house. Burr, casting a furtive glance at the girl, smiled and nodded his head wisely. Margaret, rising from her chair by the win dow, covered with blushes, was making haste to leave the room, when something held her. Perhaps it was a strange halo of fascination and romance about the slender face of the stranger; in the depth of light in his hazel eyes; in the LOVE AND A LETTER 95 color that played in his hair, which he wore long and curling, after the fashion of frontiersmen. Perhaps it was a supersensitive misgiving lest her departure might fall under some misinterpretation. Perhaps it was sheer femi ninity. Whatever it was that restrained her, she turned about and went back to her chair, pausing for a moment to set her hair to rights, and to see that there were no traces of tears in the corners of her eyes. By way of absolution, she kissed the letter from Trumbull, and thrust it into her dress at the moment when Aaron Burr entered, followed by the stranger. " Mistress Margaret," said Burr, in a tone that was the acme of cultivated art, and with a bow that was a symphony of motion, "I have at great pains prevailed upon this most delightfully interesting young man to come to my home with, me, for which you stand under great obligations, I assure you. He can tell you tales of our Western Indians and the brave fellows who go out there with the seeds of civilization that will make your little heart beat faster than ever it beat in our late war, I warrant you. Mistress Rut gers, Mr. Sylvester Stevens, of Kentucky, companion of Daniel Boone, James Harrod, and that enterprising host of brave fellows on the Western frontier." Sylvester knew intimately Harrod, the resolute back woodsman who built the first log cabin in Kentucky, and loved him for his gentle nature and fatherly protection of those about him. He had lived with Daniel Boone and his devoted wife, and revered that simple-hearted frontiersman, who never wronged a human being, not even a red man. Knowing them, and the wonder and admiration their deeds had inspired, Stevens was always ready to talk of the pioneers who had blazed the trail of civilization through Ohio, Ken tucky, and Tennessee, of their readiness to defend the weak 9 6 VALOR & VICTORY and risk their lives freely to recover women and children carried away by the savages. As he spoke Margaret looked closely at the young man. She beheld in him a poet, a dreamer, a hero of romance. He was dressed in homespun, which sat ill upon him; his cheeks were brown, his hands roughened. It was clear that he was unaccustomed to the amenities of civiliza tion; yet he spoke with an air of native dignity, of unstudied grace and unconscious composure that heightened the lively effect he had already made upon Margaret's imagination. "Are you from the West then?" she asked, with gen uine interest. "Yes, Miss Rutgers, From Kentucky, and Ten- (After the portrait by nessee > and Ohio, and there- abouts. It would be hard to say where I do come from; the 'West* embraces them all." "You must find it strange enough in such a place as New York, Mr. Stevens," ventured the girl, intending to please him by making talk about his manner of life. "Perchance I seem more strange to New York than it does to me. I had not thought of that ; I had only thought that it is all very entertaining and instructive." "Aha, Mistress Margaret," laughed Burr, looking mer rily on her with his brilliant black eyes, "our wild man from the forest is not so much at a loss with us as we should be with him." PATRICK HENRY J. B. Longacre) LOVE AND A LETTER 97 Margaret, disconcerted, hung her head and murmured something that she desired should be an apology. "I meant no rebuke," returned Sylvester, with a faint smile. "Mr. Stevens has come this distance on business with me," Burr remarked, tactfully leading the talk away; "and I have given him the opportunity to see your good friend in action, Mistress Margaret." "My good friend, Mr. Burr?" "Ay. Your good friend, General Hamilton. It is astonishing, Master Stevens, how this innocent little creature lays military men by the heels." He turned toward Syl vester, inclining his head toward Margaret at the same time with delicate grace. "Men who have come safe through charges and assaults, fall before one volley from those eyes, sir, I promise you. I could, perhaps, name half a dozen who have gone down so." "Mr. Burr, your flattery is most distressing and most ridiculous, sir," pleaded Margaret, genuinely embarrassed. "I can easily believe that it is not flattery, Miss Rut gers," observed Sylvester. "I am a military man myself." He said it solemnly, seri ously, RED TOP: AT ONE TIME THE HOME OF PATRICK HENRY 9 8 VALOR & VICTORY in a manner that sent a cold shiver through the girl, and a warm thrill. u On my life, Mr. Stevens, you are misplaced in the wilderness," laughed Burr, laying his hand on his shoulder. "Did you feel repaid for your journey to Poughkeepsie to see my good friend in action?" asked Margaret, hasten ing out of danger. "I consider it one of the sights of my life, Miss Rut gers," returned Sylvester, in a glow of enthusiasm. "I THE GRAVE OF SAMUEL ADAMS, OLD GRANARY BURYING GROUND, BOSTON was too late for the best of it, but I saw the man stand there, so tiny that I could almost have twirled him about my wrist, but with fire flashing from his eyes and his head raised above the heights of Parnassus; and from his lips there poured such a current of words of wisdom as would bear before him a universe. It was not eloquence; it was not rhetorical display, but living words of truth and conviction that made him a giant, standing there on the floor of the Assembly. I shall not soon forget it!" LOVE AND A LETTER 99 "To which I might add, that New York this day rati fied the Constitution; so that now there remain outside the bond only North Carolina and Rogue's Island." "Is it true?" asked Margaret, eagerly. "As true as the sun. Melancthon Smith melted long ago, and the rest of Clinton's henchmen have crumbled away, one by one, until there were barely enough left to make a close contest, when it went to a vote." "I am glad," said the girl, simply. Burr smiled complaisantly. "You have a beautiful, fresh enthusiasm, Miss Rutgers, that does you credit, and I hope you may be a prophetess of good omen. For my part, I will give the country fifty years under the Constitu tion, at the outside, but no more." Sylvester Stevens flew to arms at once in defense of the Constitution, and there fell out a long discussion of its merits and demerits. There had been many such since the federal convention at Philadelphia closed its task and sub mitted the document to the approval of the States. It was at best a compromise; some called it a makeshift. There perhaps was not one of the delegates who was wholly satis fied with it. Madison was not; Hamilton was far from it. But both knew that it was greatly better than the loose Articles of Confederation, and went into the fight defending the document. When the Constitution went before the people for their approval three States were considered the crucial points, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York. Massachusetts was the first of these three to ratify it. Samuel Adams, chairman of the ratification convention, was doubtful until public opinion declared itself. Being a believer in public opinion, he went over, the State going with him. In Virginia the contest was more prolonged and bitter. There able men were arrayed against the Constitution. 100 VALOR & VICTORY Patrick Henry opposed it; Edmund Randolph, one of the delegates to the convention, fought against its adoption. It was Madison who won the fight in Vir ginia with his steady, plodding tactics; always ready with a convincing argu ment, melting objections, explain ing away doubts, until there were enough convinced to give the rati- fiers a majority. The situation in Virginia was rendered more dramatic by the circumstance that, up to the time the State con vention began its deliberations, only eight commonwealths had accepted the document, whereas nine were necessary to make it effective. As it happened, Virginia was not the ninth, New Hampshire having anticipated her action by four days; but the struggle went on there under the stress and impetus of a critical situation. New York was won by Hamilton against the over whelming majority of Governor Clinton's followers. The final struggle was over the ques tion whether New York could come into the fed eral union condition ally, reserving the privilege of seceding in case she failed to secure certain amend ments to the Constitu tion. In settling this question Hamilton DANIEL BOONE (After the portrait by C. Harding) THE BOONE MONUMENT AT BOONESBOROUGH, KENTUCKY LOVE AND A LETTER 101 secured the advice of Madison. Could a State adopt the Constitution and later withdraw if dissatisfied? From Virginia's representative, who had done more, perhaps, to frame the Constitution than any other individual, came the decisive answer: No, such a thing was impossible. A State once within the federal union was within the fed eral bond forever. There could be no such thing as constitutional right of secession. The opposition could not be silenced nor won through political manipulation. They had to be converted by Hamilton, and so they were. Much of the success throughout the country was due to the " Federalist" papers, letters written by him, assisted by Madison, and by Jay to a less extent, and printed in the public press. The "Federalist" is an analysis of the Constitution and an exposition of the theory of government that has never been surpassed. It is one of the greatest achievements of Hamilton and the friends of the Constitution. THE SPRING NEAR BOONESBOROUGH, KENTUCKY, USED BY DANIEL BOONE IO2 VALOR & VICTORY "Come, sir, we tire Mistress Margaret, who, I perceive, has a letter to read," laughed Burr, when the discussion had run to great length and some heat. With that, making some pretty farewells to Margaret, he left her, leading Syl vester with him. Surprised at learning that Burr had seen her with, the letter, and strangely perturbed by the look with which the stranger regarded her as he left, Margaret was at a loss for words, and watched them depart in silence, save for a formal phrase or two. Presently, still oddly affected by the meet ing, she went out into the arbor that led away from the grounds of Richmond Hill, to dismiss from her mind the impression the man had left upon it, and to read her letter again. There, at sundown, Burr found her, walking among the shadows. "Aha, Mistress Margaret," he laughed, looking slyly aslant at her, "surely, it is dark for the read ing of letters. I am compelled to conclude that it is the handsome face of the Tennesseean you are dreaming about in this solitary place at this romantic hour. Ah, little girl, you are fickle, to bewitch a new lover, with a letter from the old thrust in the bosom of your dress." AN OLD FERRY ON THE KENTUCKY RIVER SHOWING THE SPOT WHERE THE BOONE AND GALLOWAY GlRLS WERE CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS LOVE AND A LETTER 103 "You go far in your rallying, Mr. Burr," she retorted, with a toss of her head. "But you are well punished this time, little rogue," the other went on, lightly. "The man has gone, Margaret, and you are likely never to see him again. So I would advise you to make the most of your letter." "You seem to be making much of it, sir," she rejoined. He only laughed again. "Have you come to tell me that the man has gone?" she went on. "Do you think I am so interested in the arrival and departure of your clients?" "Not all of them, Miss Margaret. I have come to tell you he has gone because he begged me to make his excuses to you, and to bid you a farewell for him. "The fellow fled as though in a deadly fear, Margaret," said Burr, when they had walked a few paces in silence. She tossed her head, by way of answer. "Ah, Margaret, you little rogue, who would have thought, when I brought you to this house, that you would go about breaking the hearts of all my friends! Each day you add another to your victims." His voice fell low, soft, insin uating. Feeling his hand lightly on her arm, she turned in alarm, fearing a purpose in his words that was abhorrent to her. "I do not understand you, Mr. Burr," she said. "There is one who loves me, and whom I shall wed in good time, if that is what you mean." She deemed it best to give up her secret now to this man, hoping it would establish a defense against him, if he intened more than compliment. "There are many who love you, Margaret." She shrank from him, afraid of the soft, sweet caress of his voice; afraid of the note of sadness in it; afraid because his words sent a thrill of pleasure and gladness through her, though she knew she should loathe him. Burr, perceiving their effect upon her, with consummate IO4 VALOR & VICTORY strategy forebore from his subtle advances for the time, abandoning pursuit so skilfully, with such an inappreciable change in his manner that Margaret, feeling the danger slip past, fell soon to wondering whether she might not have misinterpreted him and so done him an injustice. "Is it a letter from him you weep over, then?" Burr went on. "He is far away? I am sorry for that, having hoped one of our own people might be the lucky man; (The East Side of Main Street) HARRODSBURG, KENTUCKY though I have heard many tales of affairs that went for ward when our loyal sons were away at the war. Tell me, Margaret, does he wear a red coat? And what is his rank? A colonel, at least, I am sure." "He is not a British soldier, Mr. Burr," returned Mar garet, more at her ease. "Not a soldier? Surely, he cannot be a Tory refugee?" Margaret made no answer by word, but his piercing black eyes told him that he had hit upon the truth. "In Heaven's name, Margaret," he cried, "it is not that Tory, that Trumbull Erskine, of whom we used to hear tales?" LOVE AND A LETTER 105 She turned upon him with the wrath of a woman who hears her lover attacked. "And what if it were Trumbull Erskine? Is there aught that you can say against him, except that he did not believe as you believed in the recent affair between the King and some of his subjects?" "Nay, Margaret," returned Burr, "I would say nothing detrimental of the man whom any woman loves, even though he be a traitor; but I am grieved and shocked to SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO (The West Side of Main Street} find it is indeed he of whom we speak, for there are pro scriptions and processes out against him which, by a strange whim of fate, have been placed in my hands for execution if he should return to New York." There was no element of threat in his manner of telling this, but rither a note of sympathy, an implied proffer of help. "You could not find it possible to avoid the execution of them?" she asked. "I can think of but one thing that could obscure my sense of duty in the matter," he purred, touching her hand, permitting her to understand beyond all doubt. She turned and fled from the man, and the thought. 106 VALOR & VICTORY She would have stayed to face them both down, but she was afraid. She feared his insidious fascination, his black eyes, his beautiful mouth, his exquisite speech, his caress ing voice. To oppose the fear, she had nothing beyond the courage of her own soul, which she felt was not enough. As she hurried toward the house she saw a small skiff on the Hudson, floating softly through the dusk. In the stern sheets was a young man, tall, straight, dressed in the garb of a frontiersman, who stood up and looked back toward Richmond Hill. It was the young stranger who had come there that day. Unconsciously, she paused to watch him as the skiff neared a point beyond which it would shortly disappear. Without thinking, she raised her hand and waved her hand kerchief. He returned the salute gracefully, sweeping his coonskin cap above his head. In a moment the skiff passed around the point, and was seen no more. With a fluttering heart, Margaret made her way into the house filled with a new courage, the source of which she dared not contemplate. CHAPTER VI MORE LOVERS THAN ONE ALL New York City was afloat with bunting; flags and pennants fluttered from every building; banners bearing legends and mottoes were stretched across the street. Up and down the way loitered citizens, happy and expectant, in holiday dress. Knots of soldiers strolled among them, members of the crack companies of the city, dragoons, grenadiers, militia-men. Down near the foot of Wall Street the crowd was densest. Here elegant equipages lined the way. Ladies, magnificent in silks and satins, made pretty poses at one another and for the benefit of commoner folk who passed up and down. Small boys ran in among the coaches, examining them with frank and outspoken criticism. Old men waited at corners. WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION IN NEW YORK CITY 107 io8 VALOR & VICTORY Murray's Wharf was decorated beyond precedent. The stairs leading to the water were carpeted; the railings were bound in crimson. Between the wharf and Wall Street, in a coffee-house, were Governor Clinton and staff, with other dignitaries, arrayed in their finest, heavy in the atmosphere of a momentous occasion. A rumor rustled up from the water through the waiting people. A gun roared across the harbor; a puff of smoke hung about the ports of the Galveston, a Spanish packet lying in the stream. At the same moment she burst into a mass of bunting, displaying the flags of every nation. The crowd, pressing down toward the water, beheld seven barges rounding the packet and drawing slowly toward Murray's Wharf from Elizabethtown Point. One, the fore most, was rowed by twelve master pilots in white, a thir teenth acting as coxswain. In the stern sheets stood a group of distinguished passengers, upon whom all eyes were turned. Now the battery boomed a salute of thirteen guns. Through the crowd ran shouts of gladness not a tumul tuous huzzaing, for the occasion had a sentiment of solem nity. Margaret Rutgers, standing with Aaron Burr, his wife, and Nicholas Snell at an upper window of the tavern watching the barges draw near, saw another craft upon the water, making ashore from a vessel that had clearly just arrived, for her sails hung in the buntlines, drying, and there were signs of activity about her decks and near her. The sight of the new arrival set thoughts running through her mind, thoughts of the lover who was coming overseas on such a ship, of the danger he ran, of the love she bore him; thoughts, too, though she would have denied this, of that tall and slender man from the frontier, whom she had last seen in those same waters passing out of her sight and knowledge in a skiff, but not out of her memory. MORE LOVERS THAN ONE 109 The skiff from the strange ship did not make for Mur ray's Wharf, but for another landing. She watched it with a curious interest, trying to make out the faces of those on board. Others, standing on the ground beneath the window, were watching also, two seafaring men, to judge by their talk. "Much joy the Britishers will take from this sight, eh, Jack, my hearty ?"cried one of them, clapping his mate on the shoulder. "Be they B r i t i s h , then?" "Ay, that they are, and that is the Marble Halls just come in, if ever I seen the sea. I know her rig well. Ye will see how little she rakes, and how squat her topgallants are. And by the shortness of her yards I would know her, to say nothing of the devil's own way they have of leaving them all akimbo when they come to anchor." Mrs. Burr, standing close of Margaret, felt her waver. "My dear child, how pale you have grown!" she whispered. "Hush, it is nothing. I will wait until he lands, and then I will go home, for I am tired." BOUDINOT MANSION, ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY, WHERE WASHINGTON WAS ELABORATELY ENTERTAINED BY A COMMITTEE FROM CONGRESS ON His WAY TO THE FIRST INAUGURATION no VALOR & VICTORY Mrs. Burr looked skeptically at her, but said no more, for at that moment the attention of every one was brought to the wharf by a great cry of joy. Looking, they saw General Washington come from the barge of state and pro ceed toward the tavern, amid the shouts of the people. He had come to take office as first President of the United States, having been elected by acclamation under the newly adopted Constitution. From Mount Vernon his progress had been a triumph. The whole country-side turned out to give loving tribute to their hero. He rode through Philadelphia with a crown of laurels on his head. At the Assunpink River near Tren ton, where once he had turned the tide of fate and made history for his country and himself, he crossed a bridge beneath thirteen columns intertwined with flowers, laurels, and evergreens, and bearing the motto, "The Defender of the Mothers will be the Protector of the Daughters." As he passed beneath it, maidens dressed in white strewed his way with flowers, and sang an ode to him. Now, reach ing New York, the capital for the time, he was received with all the honor that could be shown him. Margaret barely waited until he was escorted to the tavern and formally saluted by the governor and his staff. In the midst of the confusion, whispering to Mrs. Burr that she was going, she slipped away, and threaded her way through the throngs and along the road toward Richmond Hill, two miles distant. Anxiety and gladness contended in her breast with a subtle feeling of misgiving, a nameless dread, as she hastened on. He was there before her, awaiting her. His face was hidden in a beard; his clothing was rough; his hands showed signs of work. "You have come, then?" she said, stopping in the doorway to look at him, uncertain what to do, anxious for his safety if he were found in that house. MORE LOVERS THAN ONE 113 " Would it not seem that I have come?" he retorted, uncivilly. Clearly, he had looked forward to another kind of reception. She still stood near the doorway, her fingers at her lips. "Are you certain you did well to come? Is there not great danger? Could I not have come to you?" "Of course there is danger," he returned, a little molli fied. "But what does a sailor care for danger! And what danger could keep me from you ? As for coming to me, you would find smart welcome in the forecastle of the Marble Halls, I make no doubt." He said it with a bitter significance, which she inquired the meaning of. "Why, I am but a common sailor, a man before the mast!" he complained, indignantly. "This scoundrel took me away with him to make me work out some scant obliga tions I had toward him, and thrust me into the forecastle with the scurvy scum of London and the seaports of Eng land. How would you fancy being wife to a sailor?" He laughed sardonically. "Trumbull!" Her voice was full of sympathy. She stepped toward him and placed her hands in his. "So you don't mind a common sailor, then?" Trum bull Erskine was in a mood to sneer, even if the sneer in cluded his sweetheart. "No, no. Whatever you are, you will be Trumbull." Which was perfectly true, but not quite in the compli mentary sense that Margaret intended. "But what can we do? What can we do?" she went on. "You you are not progressing at sea?" She asked the question timor ously, as though fearful of hurting his feelingSo "What do you mean by that?" "You said that you would soon be master of a vessel, and take me with you. Will you be a captain soon, Trum bull?" VALOR & VICTORY He laughed outright at that. "Soon!" he ejaculated. "In forty years, more likely." "What what are we going to do, Trumbull?" "Do ? I '11 tell you what I am going to do. I am going to desert that hell-ship; that is what I am going to do. Then we shall see what follows after." THE SUB-TREASURY AT WALL AND NASSAU STREETS, NEW YORK, BUILT ON THE SlTE OF THE OLD FEDERAL HALL "But you cannot stay here, in New York, Trumbull! There is a proscription against you here. The risk is too great. Listen! Aaron Burr, the man under whose roof I am staying, has a proscription against you, which he will execute if he learns you are here. He has threatened you." "And still you stay under his roof?" Trumbull was enraged at once. "You let him threaten me, and stay under his roof?" he repeated. "Why does he threaten me? What have I done to him?" She turned her face from him; his anger hurt her. "I know, if you will not tell me," Trumbull went on, casting her hands from his. "It is because he loves you!" She would have cried out against that, in very shame, MORE LOVERS THAN ONE but the sound of a third voice in the room made her speech less. It was the voice of Aaron Burr. "And if I must plead guilty to the soft impeachment, surely you cannot find it a fault in me, Trumbull Erskine," said Burr. They turned simultaneously to see him entering, the embodiment of all easy grace, handsome, alluring. "Is this a trap?" cried Erskine to the girl, as he rushed into the hall to make good his escape. Comprehending at last what was taking place before her eyes, Margaret took steps to follow him, crying out after him, "Trumbull, Trumbull, you will not leave me like this?" Burr restrained her, placing a hand firmly upon her arm. "Do not detain him here," he said. "If you do, you leave me but one course." "You will not harm him, Mr. Burr? You will not let harm come to him?" He leaned close to her; a liquid light flooded his eyes. "Will you?" he whispered. That was all at the time. He left her immediately, sending a servant with wine and cake to refresh her. But from that moment there began an insidious siege on his part. lie spoke to her with a double tongue, in phrases with one meaning for her, and another behind which he could take shelter if she turned upon him with re proach. At the same time, he treated her with tender deference THE OLD VAN CORTLANDT MANSION, NEW YORK, WHERE WASHINGTON WAS FREQUENTLY ENTERTAINED (From an old print] n6 VALOR & VICTORY and respectful consideration that almost restored her faith in the man, despite herself. Her uncertainty concerning Trumbull and her fear of Burr were not all that came to trouble her in the week following her lover's appearance and disappearance. Nicholas Snell, abruptly changing his attitude toward her, once more began to press his suit, frankly declaring himself as a lover who would not be turned aside. Feeling her- s e 1 f s u r- rounded by intrigue, be lieving more and more that Trumbull had either gone away in dudgeon through a mis- THE VAN CORTLANDT MANSION, NEW YORK, TO-DAY Understanding or was at present being duped by the intriguers, having no hope except in her lover, and confident that her way would be made clear if she could communicate with him, Mar garet determined upon finding him. The execution of her intention was more difficult than its conception. What time Nicholas was not with her, Burr hovered about, making it impossible for her to absent herself for a sufficient time without being missed and in quired after, a development which she wished to avoid. The opportunity, as she thought, came to her on the day of Washington's inauguration, April 30, 1789. Every member of the Burr family was included in the plans MORE LOVERS THAN ONE 117 for the day. Snell, having a clerical position with the State, was obliged to be in attendance at Federal Hall. There would be no one to watch her, if she could succeed in detaching herself from the Burr party. This she easily accomplished, pretending to be too ill to attend. Waiting until the family had left Richmond Hill, and were well on their way to the inauguration cere mony, Margaret, dressed in a discarded gown which she rummaged out of a closet, and with an old bonnet on her head, set forth on her adventure, with many misgivings. NEW YORK, FROM BEDLOE'S ISLAND (From the painting by John G. Chapman) CHAPTER VII MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE NEVER before had there been such a crowd in New York as on the morning of April 30, 1789, the day of Washington's first inauguration. All the city had turned out the week before to welcome him, but to-day more than the people of the city were in the streets. Taverns and inns were crowded; for days throngs had been coming in from neighboring States; throughout the morning they poured across King's Bridge on the north, joining the flood of hu manity that was already setting toward Federal Hall, at Wall and Broad Streets. The day had dawned cloudily, but the sun, breaking through early in the morning, dispelled all gloom, and lent i 1 -L^ i &n THE OLD FEDERAL HALL IN NEW YORK WHERE WASHINGTON WAS INAUGU RATED (From the original drawing owned by the New York Historical Society) 118 MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE no an added note of cheer to the scene. During the forenoon prayers were offered at all the churches. At noon Wash ington, accompanied by a military escort, proceeded through the crowds of people from his house to Federal Hall, ac claimed on all sides. Both houses of Congress were assem bled in the senate chamber, on the second floor, whither the President-elect made his way, modest, dignified, im pressive, and impressed. Presently those waiting below, in the windows oppo site, and on the roofs, beheld the man emerge upon the senate balcony, fronting on Broad Street, followed by a distinguished group. It was an appropriate place for the ceremony, being long and ample, with Tuscan pillars supporting the roof, and looking down Upon a broad CHANCELLOR ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON space, dense with spectators. A long and prolonged shout greeted him. As he looked down upon the multitude of his fellow-citizens, Washing ton trembled and became pale with emotion. Placing his hand over his heart in an unaffected gesture, he bowed again and again to the populace saluting him. He wore a suit of dark brown of native manufacture. At his side was a dress sword. His powdered hair was gathered in a bag. White silk stockings and shoes with simple silver buckles completed his attire. On one side of him stood Chan cellor Livingston, arrayed in full black; at the other, John Adams, vice-president, dressed more showily, but also in a suit of home manufacture. About the conspicuous group I2O VALOR & VICTORY were gathered prominent men, in and out of Congress, - Hamilton, Knox, Steuben, and others who had had a hand in bringing the affairs of the nation to this pass. Chancellor Livingston, coming forward, gestured to the crowd, which became silent. Washington joined him, and then Otis, the newly chosen secretary of the senate, bearing a Bible on a rich cushion of crimson. In a hush that held the vast assemblage, Chancellor Livingston administered the oath of office, Washington repeating the words after him solemnly, with full sense of their significance. !rar-^ 9 "I swear," he said, at the last ; adding, in a whis per, with closed eyes, " So help me, God!" Turning again to the people, Chancellor Living ston proclaimed him. "Long live George Wash ington, President of the United States!" he said; whereat a long, loud huzza, burst from the throats of the crowd, fol lowed by cheer on cheer, which gave way only when the guns at the Battery spoke in the first presidential salute. Returning to the senate chamber, the new President ad dressed Congress, reading from a manuscript. Speaking first of his anxiety and diffidence in assuming his new duties, and referring to his desire to retire to private life, which he had abandoned for the call of duty expressed through the wishes of the people and Congress, he proceeded in all modesty to express a hope that he might prove worthy of the trust imposed in him, and to bespeak the indulgence of those who had raised him to his responsibility. He THE DESK ON WHICH WASHINGTON WROTE His FIRST MESSAGE TO CONGRESS MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE 121 dwelt briefly on measures of administration, expressing a desire to leave them to the wisdom of Congress; only throw ing out suggestions for popular amendments to the Consti tution and indicating a desire for such a course of concilia tion as would firmly knit all the elements of the nation. For the prosperity of the new government he invoked the WASHINGTON'S PEW IN SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK blessings of the Almighty, whose wisdom had led them thus far along the way of nationality. The noble bearing of the man, and his deep seriousness, emphasized the gravity of the occasion, impressing upon all who witnessed the scene the solemn significance of what they did. When he had spoken, the party repaired on foot to Saint Paul's chapel, in Broadway, where Bishop Provoost, who had been elected one of the chaplains of Congress, offered prayers, after which Washington was conducted to his house. In the midst of this scene, a formal but inconspicuous figure, was Nicholas Snell. Of all who were present, per- 122 VALOR & VICTORY haps he was least impressed, having other matters on his mind of more consequence to himself. Margaret's absence from the Burr party had aroused his suspicions. At the end of the ceremony, while the inaugural party was pro ceeding to the chapel, Snell left the hall, and wound his way, through the crowd of people, toward the Battery. Meanwhile, Margaret Rut gers, half disguised in the worn garments she had found in the closet at Richmond Hill, was passing through the deserted streets of the town, toward the water-front. As she was hasten ing along, the sound of huzzas that proclaimed the new Presi dent reached her ears, increasing her agitation, as events of an intense character, however irrelevant, JEFFERSON'S DESK WHILE SECRE- will stir one already excited by his TARY OF STATE . 01 , r own emotions. She paused for a startled moment to listen, femininely frightened by the noise of the crowd, so suggestive of force and the vitality of human passion. She did not pause long, but hastened on her way, intent on the errand that had brought her. The hope that had buoyed her was fast sinking. She was not certain that she would know the Marble Halls; she was less certain that Trumbull was still on board. And if he were, what could she accomplish in coming to him? She might not even be able to see him; at best she doubted whether he could help her, half slave as he was in service as a common sailor. Nevertheless, there was no other hope, and she hurried on. Her first fear that she would not be able to find the boat COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK CITY MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE 125 was dispelled when she reached the water-front; for there, lying at a wharf above the Battery, so close that she could make out the name on the vessel's bows, was the Marble Halls. With a fluttering heart she approached, searching the decks for sight of her lover. There was great bustle aboard, and what seemed to her confusion. Men were hurrying to and fro; bales of goods were being lifted at the yardarms with rope and tackle, and lowered into the hold. If she had been better versed in the ways of men of the sea, she would have recognized in the stir afloat and ashore signs of impending departure; but she was spared that by her ignorance. Standing at the break of the poop was one whom she judged by his uniform and his manner of giving orders to be an officer. Mastering her timidity with a brave effort she went nearer the ship, intent on speaking to this man, hoping by her very innocence and helplessness to accom plish more than a strong man might. Reaching the dock, she stood among boxes and bales, irresolute, with fainting courage, searching among the sail ors for the one she had come to find. He was not of them. As she stood, she caught the notice of some of the sailors, who leered at her, after the irresponsible fashion of sailors. She was aware of their attentions, and was the more confused and disconcerted by them, feeling herself out of place, and utterly helpless. Presently the officer, following the glances of the sailors, turned toward her to stare, and it became necessary that she should speak. "Pray, sir," she said, coming as close to the ship's side as she could, "have you one aboard named Trumbull Erskine?" "Named who?" returned the man, who was mate of the Marble Halls. "Erskine, sir. Trumbull Erskine." 126 VALOR & VICTORY Catching the name, the man grinned sardonically. "What do you wish with him?" he asked, gruffly. ""He is an old friend of my mother's and I would speak with him," she replied. "Better send your mother on the errand, then," he re torted, half laughing, "for your mother's old friend is in the brig." "I thought he was aboard the Marble Halls" Margaret ventured, thinking the mate meant by the word another sort of vessel, one of brig rig- The mate perceived her error, and proceeded to set her right. "A brig, my THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MANSION, No. i, CHERRY STREET P re "tty miSS, NEW YoRK besides being a two-masted square-rigger, is a prison aboard ship," he expounded with a leer. "Your mother's friend, ' with a fine irony on the characterization, "having exhibited a desire to mutiny and desert, is lying in the brig aboard this ship in chains, and is like to stay there until we are well at sea." Stunned by the information, brutally imparted, Mar garet would have cried aloud had not her pride held her to a show of calmness ; but at best she could scarcely keep from reeling, so swiftly had the last fragment of her world tum bled about her shoulders. With great restraint, she turned to go, hearing in her ears the rough laughter of the spectators of her mortification and unhappiness, when a hand was laid on her arm, and a familiar voice sounded in her ears. MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE 127 "Come, Margaret," said the voice. "This is no place for you. What are you doing here, anyway? Come with me." Raising her glance, she looked into the face of Nicholas Snell. He was smiling upon her; but in his eyes was a cold gaze that did not share the smile on his lips. She shrank from him, angry to think that he had intruded upon such a moment. "Let me alone!" she cried. "Leave me. I want nothing from you." "Come, now," returned Nicholas, laying his hand once more upon her arm. "No airs, miss. You ought to thank me for getting you out of this pretty mess, instead of abusing me. I suspected what you were up to, sneaking away from the family this morning the way you did, and I am going to stop it, for your sake. I don't care how you treat me. It 's a self imposed duty, but I am going to take care of you, whether you will or no. Come with me." The attention of those on board ship was directed toward this new develop ment ; she could hear coarse jests among the sailors. She was beside herself with anger and mortifica tion. "Leave me!" she cried, again. "Don't touch me!" "I '11 take you home, if I have to drag you, and you '11 live to thank me for it," Snell returned angrily. WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE (From the painting by Chap pell) 128 VALOR & VICTORY He was moving as though he intended to put his threat into execution, when a hand was clapped on his shoulder, and he was thrust away with such force that he staggered back. " Perhaps it will be as well if you permit Miss Rutgers to do as she chooses in this matter," said the man who had inter fered. It was a voice which he had not heard since the day of the threatened mutiny at New- burgh, when his antagonist had been carried off to the guard- house. It was Sylvester Stevens, who, after a court- martial, had been discharged from custody with a perfunctory rep rimand, the cir- THE FIRST CABINET (From the painting by Chappell) cumstanCCS of the quarrel being well known to the members of the court. A thrill of gladness, of excitement, passed through Margaret. "What business is it of yours?" snarled Snell, recover ing, and approaching the man again in hostile attitude. "Whatever business Miss Rutgers may see fit to make it," returned Sylvester, calmly. "Miss Rutgers, can I be of any help to you?" For the first time, as she thankfully accepted his chivalry, MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE 129 she had the courage to look into his face. Beholding him, her thoughts flew to the one close at hand, lying in chains in the ship, and she lowered her gaze, with a sense of inex plicable guilt crowding in upon her. "Take me away," she whispered, " please take me away from here." Whether it was a deficiency in courage or faith that his cunning could subsequently unravel the unique situation into which he was thrust by the appearance of the Tennes- seean that controlled SnelPs conduct at the moment, need not be determined. It is sufficient to record that he stood by with a good show of complaisance and suffered Mar garet to depart with Sylvester Stevens. There are men to whom certain women in distress reveal their souls. Such a man was Sylvester now to this woman. They had not gone far before she proceeded to tell him the entire chain of events that brought her to the vessel and the dilemma from which he had so opportunely extricated her. He listened with deep sympathy and attention, pressing her for nothing, but tacitly inviting her to complete her confidence. When she had finished, he related to her, by way of being unobtrusive, the strange chance that had led him to the water-side at the critical moment when she had stood in need of succor. He had come to New York, he said, on business with Hamilton. Being in the city, he had attended the ceremony of inauguration as a spectator, after which he had wandered to the river-front, impelled by a curious interest in men of the sea as inhabitants of a world as romantic and dangerous as his own, but utterly different. She penetrated this purpose in leading the talk away from herself, feeling a gratitude that she did not express; but at mention of Hamilton, her thoughts ran back to her own situation. Desperate as she was, she believed that Hamilton might assist her now, being a man of influence 130 VALOR & VICTORY and power. She expressed this new hope to her companion, tentatively, questioning him whether he thought any good could come through his intervention with the captain of the ship. Sylvester, gently indulging the hope, fell in with the suggestion, and led her at once to Hamilton's house, where he would have left her, wishing not further to intrude, if she had not begged him to stay, assuring him that she placed great reliance in him. Hamilton had not re turned from the inaugu ration. In the interval of waiting, Sylvester fell to telling her of the West ern country; how it was rapidly settling up; how the Indians were a source of continual danger, but were being gradually pushed back into the wilderness, and many other things that absorbed her interest and diverted her mind. It was late in the afternoon before Hamilton returned. Margaret, whose distress and impatience had been soothed by Sylvester more than she was willing to acknowledge, proceeded with few introductions to lay her case before Hamilton, soliciting his offices in an attempt to obtain the release of Trumbull from the Marble Halls. Hamilton listened with peculiarly lively interest, which was explained to Sylvester presently, when the statesman drew him aside. "There has been a blunder here," he said. " Perhaps we can set it right. I know the fellow, having been counsel STEUBEN'S RUSTIC HOUSE AT ORISKANY, NEW YORK (From an old print) MORE FRIENDS THAN ONE for his uncle in a suit against this girl's mother. I shall address a note to the captain, which you can take to him." Without more delay, Hamilton sat at his desk and wrote a formal note to the master, presuming upon his prospec tive office as secretary of the treasury to make it semi official. Sylves ter, bearing it to the captain, set out at once for the water-side, prom ising to make all haste. It was dark before he came back. Margaret, awaiting with grim courage, arose when she heard his step at the door, and advanced to meet him with a candle in her hand. Lifting the light above her head, she searched his countenance for the news he brought. In his eyes was a look of commiseration, of compassion, that struck down her last hopes. She had little need to hear the words he spoke. The Marble Halls had put to sea. BARON VON STEXJBEN'S GRAVE, NEAR ORISKANY, NEW YORK CHAPTER VIII MORE LOVES THAN ONE THE first shock of the news that Trumbull had gone was followed in the mind of Margaret Rutgers by a sense of desolation and helplessness. She felt that she had lost the privilege of shelter under Burr's roof, and, even though he might be willing to receive her again, as NEW YORK (From the drawing by J. Dupree) he probably would be, she could no longer accept his hospitality. There were other considerations against going back to his house. If she had had cause to fear him before, how much more reason was there to dread him, now that he knew how helpless and dependent she was. Moreover, there was Nicholas Snell to think of. In Burr's house she could not avoid him, and would be defenseless against his machinations. These reflections, passing swiftly through her brain, left 132 MORE LOVES THAN ONE 133 her in a state of despair. For, impossible as it seemed to go back to her former home, it was still more impossible that she should go anywhere else. She had no friends or kin in the city with whom she could find refuge. Neither were there any in the States whom she could reach. There was a distant cousin in Ohio, but he was no closer to her than a stranger. For a moment she thought of engaging in service in the city, being qualified to care for children or act as house keeper. In the next moment she realized her position and condition must necessarily become known to Nicholas, and put her in a worse plight, perhaps, than the one she would be in at Burr's home. To remain with the Hamilton family, even for another hour, was not to be thought of. She had already imposed too heavily upon Hamilton, she felt. Despairing of seeing any way but the way she dreaded, Margaret arose at last and crept to the door, putting on her bonnet as she went. They had left her alone with her grief, Sylvester and Hamilton. She would slip away without seeing them, taking some future occasion to thank them. She had not the courage to speak to them now. She opened the door and was gliding through the dark hall to the street door when a hand was laid on her arm, and Hamilton spoke to her. "Where are you going, Miss Rutgers?" he asked. "Do not think me ungrateful, sir," she replied. "I am very thankful to you and to Mr. Stevens for what you have done, but I did not want to stay longer." Her voice fell into a half-sob ; she was unstrung. "I believe I can perfectly understand your frame of mind, Miss Rutgers," returned Hamilton, gently, "and I above all things desire to avoid intruding upon it. But do you not think it would be well for us to discuss your plans before you leave? We may be able to devise means to 134 VALOR & VICTORY succor you further. Surely, this thing will right itself in time." "Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" cried the girl, breaking down. Hamilton fell to thinking. "You would be very unhappy if you lived away from New York?" he asked her, presently. Her face brightened at once. "I should be very happy to leave, if - "If?" he repeated. "If I could be certain that Mr. Erskine would not fail to find me, should I go elsewhere." "You are willing to leave that to me?" "Indeed, Mr. Hamilton, you have already done so much for me that I do not feel I ought to let you take further care upon yourself," she replied. "I can assure you it will be only a pleasure. Is that your sole objection?" "That is all that would deter me." "Good. I have, then, a plan that I will submit. I have a friend living in Philadelphia; a woman of remark able character and attainments, who feels herself under obligations to me for something I was once able to do for her which she chooses to consider a favor. She lives simply in a little cottage, having no one with her but a child, a waif of the sea whom she took from some sailors who rescued him from a deserted ship. If you are willing, I shall arrange to send you to her." Margaret was at first reluctant to accept the offer, but finally acquiesced, first exacting a promise from her bene factor that he would not suffer himself to be put to any further inconvenience than writing a letter to the woman, which she might carry with her. Having brought matters to this pass, Hamilton left her for a space, returning pres ently with Sylvester Stevens. MORE LOVES THAN ONE 135 "Our friend Stevens, about to return to Kentucky, wishes to escort you to your destination/' he said. "You will not be afraid to travel alone with him?" Margaret's gaze fell to the floor. For a moment she felt the delicious thrill of fear that a woman experiences who toys with a known danger. In the next moment, the thought of Trumbull came to rebuke her, and she raised her eyes to meet those of the young frontiersman. "I should be ungrateful indeed if I felt any misgivings," she said, smiling upon them both. "I do not wish to alarm you, Miss Rutgers," said Syl vester, "but I consider it best that we start at once. You do not mind a night ride?" "I should take pleasure in the ad venture," she answered. "But why do you think it best to start at once ?" Sylvester exhibiting some reluc tance to explain, Hamilton took up the reply. "Mr. Stevens suspects that his steps have been dogged to-night, and thinks that you may be watched by those whom you seek to avoid," he said. "Are you quite ready to leave New THE LD CAPITOL AT FRANKFORT > KENTUCKY York?" asked Margaret, turning to Sylvester. "If you are not, I cannot consent to taking you away." "I wish that I might claim more of a sacrifice in what I do," he returned, with a deeper feeling than gallantry in the reply. 136 VALOR & VICTORY Within an hour a small boat put out from the stairs at Murray's Wharf and headed toward Elizabethtown Point. Two men were at the oars. In the stern sheets was a young woman, carrying a small bundle. Beside her sat a man, with a larger one. At his side was a sword; in his belt were pistols. As the boat glided across the water, the man searched the river unceasingly, but furtively, as though he would conceal his watchfulness from his companion. In this he failed, for the young woman, watching him, and observing his gaze become fixed on the water behind them, disclosed that she knew what was passing through his thoughts. "We are being followed?" she said, calmly. He looked at her quickly to see whether she was in fear. "I am not certain," he said, perceiving her cool courage. "A boat put off after us, but whether to follow or by acci dent I cannot tell." "Was it Snell who dogged your tracks to-night?" she went on. "Yes," he answered. "You are not afraid?" "I am not afraid," she replied. "I hope it will not be necesssary to kill," she went on, with a little shudder. "I do not think our friend will come to that," Sylvester returned, with a laugh. They were half across before Margaret spoke again. "Does the boat still follow?" she asked. "I think so," returned Sylvester. "They seem to have drawn within a certain distance, and to be holding it. Shall I have the men row faster?" "They would still follow, if that is the purpose of, those in the boat," returned the girl. "There would be nothing gained, and I would not have them think that we fled." "You are a brave girl." "If I am without fear, it is because you have taught me courage," made answer Margaret; and as she spoke, she MORE LOVES THAN ONE felt the same delicious thrill of danger she had first ex perienced. By the time their craft reached the opposite shore, no doubt remained that the other boat was indeed following them; for it not only made for the same landing, but drew rapidly closer as they them selves were nearing the landing. Once ashore, the two passengers made haste across the water-front to a tavern not far distant. ' i M y own horse is here, and I make no doubt we shall find one for you," he said. "It might be bet ter if you came with me to the stables; for if we are indeed being followed, it would not be well for you to be found alone." She agreed to that, but still without a trace of anxiety; a circumstance that set her to wondering at her own forti tude, for it was beyond all experience. There were horses in plenty in the stable. Sylvester, looking them over swiftly, selected one which he believed would have both speed and endurance. DANIEL BOONE WHEN HE FIRST BEHELD KENTUCKY (From a painting -in theCapitol at Frankfort ) 138 VALOR & VICTORY As the mounts were preparing, a fellow came skulking from the tavern to whisper with the master of the stable. Perceiving it, Sylvester made haste, carefully examining the girth and bridle of Margaret's mount before he lifted her into the saddle. That done, he vaulted upon his own steed, and the two rode out of the yard. They had not proceeded far when Sylvester, looking back, saw three horsemen emerge from the yard, and turn in the same direction. "They are following," he said, casually, not to inspire fear in his companion. They rode through the town at even pace, making no haste. Once beyond the scattering houses, their way led across a flat that was little better than a swamp. The road, indifferent at its best, was muggy and slippery from the spring rains, making the going slow. The night, which was clouding over, was growing darker every minute. As they floundered through the mire, Sylvester, who led the way by half a length, looked over his shoulder from time to time, but could see nothing because of the gloom. They had not gone far when they heard the splashing of horses behind, which, by the noise they made, seemed to be on a gallop. " Shall we fly?" asked Sylvester, perceiving by the expression on his companion's face, of which he caught a glimpse, that she heard also. "If it seems best to you," replied the girl, stoutly. They continued at their present gait. After a space, the sound of the following horses growing louder, Sylves ter fell back a pace, looking to his pistols as he did so, and loosening his sword in its sheath. For the first time, Mar garet glanced back. She saw the three horsemen looming through the night a dozen rods behind. "Do not kill, unless it is needful," she whispered. Sylvester made no answer. They rode on through the night. As they rode, they heard the heavy breathing of the MORE LOVES THAN ONE 141 pursuing horses, and their plashing in the road, coming momentarily nearer. The girl looked once again. As she looked, the three reined up not two lengths behind, and fell into an even pace with them. "Who goes there?" cried the voice of Nicholas Snell. "Honest travelers," returned Sylvester. "Do you wish to pass us? You seem to be in some haste." "Ay, we would pass," said Snell, ever ready for a trick. "Nay, but I would not have you," rejoined Sylvester. With the words, he spurred his horse against that ridden by Snell, sending both animal and rider into the mud. Turning in a flash, he aimed a stroke of his sword at one of Snell' s companions, whose horse, frightened by the sudden encounter, turned about and would have bolted had not the man held him with firm rein. The third, recovering from his surprise, wheeled and was about to deal a blow at Sylvester, when his hand was stayed by a groan from Snell, still groveling in the mud. "For the love of God!" he cried, "lend me a hand here. The horse has broke my leg." Relieved by this good fortune of the necessity for further resistance, Sylvester turned and came up with Margaret, who waited and watched at a little distance. "Come," he said, "I think we can now retreat with honor." "Did you kill?" cried the girl, showing the first sign of terror that had escaped her. "Nay, it is nothing worse than a broken leg, if it is as much as that," returned her companion. With that they set spurs to their horses, and fled. They had not gone more than a mile or two at speed, before Sylvester laid hand on Margaret's bridle, and slack ened. "I think they will not follow," he said, "for one of the three, as you guessed, was Snell." He was correct in his conjecture. Although they were 142 VALOR & VICTORY obliged before an hour was passed to let their mounts walk, because of the condition of the road, they neither heard nor saw anything more of their pursuers. They rode through out the night, tarrying for a few hours in the morning at a tavern by the side of the way. On the following afternoon they made another stage; and so, riding by day thereafter, came at last to Philadelphia. If Margaret had found a pleasurable terror in playing with the danger of traveling with Sylvester, she paid the penalty, as women must. His unfailing courage and good humor, his delicacy of feeling, his consideration of her com fort, his tactful forbearance from any reference to her un- happiness and misfortune, his chiv alry and generosity, wore into her heart. Battle loyally as she did to preserve the im age of Trumbull Erskine intact, she felt herself growing faithless already to his memory, and chid \ herself for it. She did not love Sylvester; she must not ; she would not. But in the few short days they were together, he grew to mean much more to . her than any man should mean to one whose heart and troth are given to another. She was glad, therefore, when OLD MONUMENT TO DANIEL BOONE MORE LOVES THAN ONE 143 he left her at her destination, to journey to the frontier. Glad, and sorry. Sylvester took up his journey along the path that Daniel Boone had trod so many years before. Boone himself was still in Kentucky. But, losing his property there through want of formal title, when Kentucky became a State in 1792, six years later, he retired in disgust to the wilderness of Missouri, then a Spanish possession. In 1812 his public services were recognized by a substantial land grant. When death stilled his restless spirit in 1820, Ken tucky reclaimed his bones, and they now rest beside those of his devoted wife above the cliffs of the Kentucky River, overlooking the beautiful valley of the capital of the commonwealth toward which Sylvester was bound. His farewell to Mar garet was simple, and formal. He would take no thanks for what he had done. He rather thanked her, saying that she had given him an inspiration which he should cher ish to the last hour of his lonely and adven turous life in the wilderness. What the in spiration was, and how well it was cher ished by this THE BOONE MONUMENT AFTER REMODELING 144 VALOR & VICTORY simple-hearted frontiersman Margaret Rutgers was to learn after many, many years. It sometimes seems as if the drowsy gods awaken only to la.ugh at the havoc they play with faithful hearts, moving them in spirals, as it were, now interlacing and now a world apart. BOONE'S CAVE, FOUR MILES EAST OF HARRODSBURG, KENTUCKY, WHERE DANIEL BOONE SPENT THE WINTER or 1769-70 BOOK II REMINISCENCES OF A RETIRED NAVAL OFFICER CHAPTER I MATTERS OF STATE I PRESUME it is considered proper to preface an auto biographical sketch with some few words concerning the writer's parentage and pedigree, wherefore I presume it will be in some quarters held unpardon able in me not to tell in the beginning who my father was, when his name is rather a matter of pride than of shame. But if such is the convention, I propose to set it at de fiance. My reasons for doing so may not be good, but they seem sufficient to me/ and I hope the reader will indulge the whim of a man now grown old. The obscurity that in my early life surrounded my identity and parentage was a mystery to me through SO great a part of the BENJAMIN FRANKLIN events I shall narrate, and formed, I may say, such a vital factor in determining my career, that I consider it 145 i 4 6 VALOR & VICTORY best for the purpose of my story to reveal the secret from time to time, in fragments, as it was disclosed to me by what befell. To this end, I shall use the name by which I was known as a child and through my youth that of Richard Morris. With one brief exception which lives vividly in my mem ory, my earliest recollection goes back to the year 1786 or 1787. I cannot be clear about the precise date. Probably the fragment which lingers in my mind is a composite of a period embracing both those years. I must at that time have been three or four years of age, having been born some time in 1783. I was then living in a small cottage on a back street in Philadelphia, with a woman who taught me to call her aunt. She was a tall, dark, stately woman, possessed with an air of mystery that aroused my awe of her. Never theless, I regarded her with a tender affection and trust which, I thank God, abides with me to this day, and will ever linger. How she came to have me by her, and why she lavished upon me an affection that was unique in her lonely life, will appear in due time. The one exception to this period of my memory which I mention goes behind this time about a year, I should think. Perhaps it may be held remarkable that a child of two can retain anything in mind from such an early age until life has run its threescore and ten. But that the events I am about to narrate as a part of my experience at that early age are to be accounted for by tales told me afterward I can firmly deny. I remember that I was aboard a sailing vessel. I have no recollection of any guardian being with me, although I have since learned that my father accompanied me. Of the voyage I remember only the climax; and that is distinct and vivid before my mind. We were at sea; there was no land in sight. There was another boat which came toward MATTERS OF STATE 147 us, causing some confusion and excitement on our decks which did not greatly impress me, I being far too young to appreciate its significance at the time. I next remember that I was confined in some dark cuddy, where I was bidden to lie quiet. I had scarcely been closed out of sight when I heard a tumult above me on the decks. INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA (From an old print) There was much shouting and firing of cannon, which caused me mortal terror, so that I could not have cried out if I would. The tumult grew louder; the cries more horrible. The firing of cannon ceased, to be succeeded by the firing of small-arms for a space, and the noise of a great struggle on the planks overhead. I understood nothing of the meaning of it, but I was still in deadly fear. By degrees the sound of conflict died away. In the end there was comparative quiet; only the sound of men rummaging about between decks, and talking in a tongue that had no familiar sound. Soon I heard men leaving the boat, and all was still. 1 remember then that T cried with a terrible loneliness. The 148 VALOR & VICTORY next I knew was a light at the cuddy door where I was hid den, and some men whom I had never seen before dragged me forth with many kind and pitying words. From that time all is a blank until I pick up the thread again in the cottage in Philadelphia, presided over by my aunt; thenceforward it is unbroken, though perhaps frayed and spun thin here and there, so to speak. My aunt at that time did not explain to me the circum stances of my having come to where I was. Perhaps she thought I had no memory of anything that had gone before, and so bided her time. For my part, I was so young that I suppose I took the episode at sea as a matter of course and but a part of life that might befall any one, and so was not prompted to ask questions. However it was, I did not learn the intervening circumstances for many years; and when she at last told them to me, they had only a partial significance, which I was many years in completing. We lived alone in the cottage, seeing few, though my aunt was not what you could term a recluse. She had friends, though they were not many and seemed to be closely chosen. For that reason I presume they had a quality of character that you would not expect in the circle of a lonely woman whose position in life was mysterious to the point of being anomalous. I account for the small circle of select friends which she bound so closely about her by her excellence of character and superior strength of mind, which was un common in a woman at that time. I have spoken of these friends here partly by way of showing our mode of life, and partly to introduce into my narrative one who was destined to play an important part in the history of the country during the time of which I write, and who also directed in a measure the destinies of some in whom my own interests and affections were bound up after- ward. This man was Alexander Hamilton. MATTERS OF STATE 151 I think I should remember him for himself even if he had not later assumed such prominence in my mind and the public attention. He impressed me greatly at first sight. He was small; he even seemed small to me, child that I was. But there was a fire in his great dark eyes and a bearing about him that captured my fancies completely. Though I after ward did not wholly coincide with all his political views, I never outgrew the sentiment of hero worship he inspired in me as a child of three or four when I first saw him. The circumstances of his coming are worthy of note, though I must not claim to have understood them or cared what they were at the time. It was during the meeting of the convention that drew up the Constitution of the United States that Hamilton came to visit with my aunt, whom he had met before under circumstances that aroused his interest in her and regard for her mental and moral qualities. They talked long and seriously of affairs which were far beyond my depth, though I sat in a corner and listened wonderingly until my aunt, perceiving me, packed me off to bed. I remember that Hamilton was vastly amused at my stubborn objections to being so disposed of. This is hardly the place for a dissertation on the Con stitution of our country. Indeed, it is a matter that I have never felt qualified to discuss with understanding, for my life was a life of action at sea, and my mind is not one that readily grasps such problems. But I do remember the tense strain of expectancy under which the city labored through out the proceedings of the convention, from May until October of the year 1787. Probably much of my feeling was absorbed from my aunt, who took a lively interest. We would often go down to Independence Hall, where the meetings were held, to see the great men as they came and went. The deliberations were carried on in the strictest secrecy. Indeed, they have 152 VALOR & VICTORY never been fully told. Perhaps the most complete record of them is contained in the notes made at the time by James Madison, but not published until after his death, fifty years later, when the last survivor of those who sat in the conven tion had passed from earth. The reason for the secrecy, as I have been informed since, was to prevent the reaction of public ^^f opinion, which was in a delicate bal ance, against the members of the convention. I shall not forget my first glimpse of Washington, who presided at the convention, nor how I hid my head in my aunt's skirts, only peeping at him with one eye. My aunt told me that he saw me at the time, and smiled ; though I was too engrossed in the spectacle to note the circum stance. Had I seen his eye fixed on mine I should doubtless never have survived. This reminds me of an GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (After the Sully portrait} adventure I had with the great man later, when he was President, and our town was the temporary capital. Seeing him pass along the street, I followed at his heels in most devout worship, when he sud denly turned upon me, delivered a most elaborate bow, and walked on, without so much as breaking into a smile. 1 stood for some minutes petrified with awe. When I could, MATTERS OF STATE 153 I ran home and concealed myself beneath a bed, whence my aunt had great ado to drag me forth. She would not believe that I told her the truth when I narrated the circumstance, the action being foreign to the man's deportment; but I was afterward verified in the account by eye-witnesses, who restored me to a reputation for truthfulness. Benjamin Franklin did not so ^^^^^^ impress me; for him I was somewhat ,^| B^ accus tomed to seeing about the streets of Philadelphia. Of the others who were there I recall none; not even James Madison, who was a figure of great impor tance during the convention, and to whom is largely due the success of the gathering; so much so in fact that he has often been called the " Father of the Con stitution." It is EDMUND RANDOLPH perhaps the more remarkable that I do not recall him, for he afterward entered into my life. But he was a mild man nered man, small of stature and slight in frame like Hamilton, but without Hamilton's personal magnetism. Though not lacking in dignity, he was not one to gather the eyes of a staring boy. The crux of the matter that brought them together- 154 VALOR & VICTORY this is hearsay and after-knowledge was to form a bond that would more firmly unite the discordant States, which at that time, as is well known, were falling into anarchy. I have heard since how the great Washington, perceiving signs of timidity on the part of the delegates, held them to their task with an impassioned speech, filled with a show of emotion rarely to be seen in that deep-flowing soul. There had been suggestions of half-measures that might for the time compound and compromise the difficulties existing between the States and obtain public approval without incur ring resistance. At that Washington arose and in unwont- edly solemn tones said: "It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God." Several plans for the document were proposed. The first, and the one about which the Constitution was chiefly built, was the Virginia plan, submitted by Edmund Ran dolph, though its chief author was James Madison. It provided for a legislature in two branches, the members of the lower house to be elected directly by the people, the members of the upper house to be chosen by the lower house from candidates nominated by the several States. Repre sentation was to be distributed according to wealth, or free population. The vote on matters of legislation was to be by individual members, and not by States ; which did away with the strength of State division, an element of discord under the Confederation. Madison was led to this stand by the necessity, so often impressed upon the people of the country of late, of negativing the will of individual States where it contravened the common good. To carry out the laws an executive was provided, whether to be one or several FRANKLIN'S TOMB, PHILADELPHIA MATTERS OF STATE 157 in number was not specified. Also, a national judiciary was suggested. There was much outcry against this scheme, which was considered revolutionary in its audacity, and impossible of fulfilment against the prejudices for states rights. The larger States, which would thus gain a preponderance of power in the federal government, were eager enough for it, but the small, some of which would be reduced to one repre sentative, as in the case of Georgia, were wholly displeased. As against this, William Patterson of New Jersey sub mitted what is known as the New Jersey plan. This pro vided for one house representing States and not individu als. It was only a step farther than the old Articles that had been proved so worthless and dangerous. It did not place the foundation of the government upon the people as citizens of the federal nation. It was opposed by Hamilton and Madison and others. Hamilton at this juncture intro duced a third plan, not with the hope that it would be adopted, but to balance the others. He suggested that in addition to Madison's lower house, the upper house and executive should hold office during life or good behavior. In the end, as is well known, the Constitution provided for a lower house elected by the people of the several States according to population, and an upper house that was to contain two senators from each State; all members of Con gress to vote individually. In order that a measure should become a law, it must pass both houses and be signed by the executive, who was to be one individual. But distribution of representation by population gave rise to a wrangle. How were the slaves held in the Southern States to be counted? As chattels or men? In the end it was agreed, by way of compromise, that five slaves should be counted as three men, and representation was apportioned on that basis. VALOR & VICTORY Now another difficulty beset the rugged path of the con vention. South Carolina and Georgia insisted that the trade in African slaves should be continued; the New Eng land States as flatly refused to permit it. On the other hand, the New England States demanded that Congress have power to regulate com merce, a con- cession the Southern States declined to make for fear they would fall into the hands of New England mer chants and ship pers. The South needed slaves ; the North needed navigation laws. Here were the ele ments of a bar gain, which was consummated. In exchange for the right of Congress to pass trade laws, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts consented to prolong trade in foreign slaves for twenty years, or until 1808. In the same compromise was incorporated a prohibition of export duties. And so the convention was brought to a close. The great document was finally drafted by Gouverneur Morris. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AT EIGHTY- FOUR (From the por trait by C. W. Peale in the Pennsylvania Historical Society's Collection} MATTERS OF STATE It did not wholly satisfy any one man engaged in composing it, perhaps, but was held to be as nearly perfect as might be and was ready for signature. Franklin and Hamilton in an earnest plea urged the members to sacrifice personal opinions for the sake of unanimity. In a paper prepared by the aged Franklin and read before the convention, on account of his feeble voice, he expressed the hope that those who still had objections would doubt a little of their own infallibility and attach their names to the document. There were three dele gates, however, who would not sign. They were Mason and Randolph of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massa chusetts. Yates and Lansing of New York, and Luther Martin of Maryland had left in disgust earlier in the pro ceedings. All seemed impressed by the solemnity of the occasion. When it was all over Washington sat with his head bowed in meditation. Franklin in a characteristic speech reminded the conven- tion of his Albany plan to unite fcu, the colonies in a fed- ^flr JBI Hi** eral union THE HOME OF ELBRIDGE GERRY AT MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS i6o VALOR & VICTORY three years before. It was in the days of George II, while Washington, still in the employ of Lord Fairfax, was surveying the Shenandoah Valley, while Madison was playing in the nursery, and Hamilton yet unborn. It was the first complete outline of a federal constitution for the American colonies. In this very room he had signed the Declaration of Independence eleven years before, at the age of threescore and ten; and now he was present to see the aim of his life fulfilled. Pointing to the emblazoned half-sun on the back of the president's quaint arm chair, he made it the subject of a prophecy. "As I have been sitting here all these weeks I have often wondered," said he, " whether yonder sun is rising or setting. But now I know it is a rising sun ! " ELBRIDGE GERRY (From the portrait in Of COUTSC, all this Was a rid- Independence Hall, Philadelphia} J} e J-Q me j^n . \y^ J believe that I imbibed the spirit of the times. I know that I was as full of rejoicing as any one when the result was announced, and added my tiny yelps of glee to the acclamations of the populace, my aunt permitting me to remain up long after my usual hour to witness the display of fireworks and listen to the din of the celebration. CHAPTER II THE WOMAN, AND JEALOUSY MY aunt cared for me during my childhood with a tender and thoughtful affection, as I have told. She in structed me in the rudiments of education as I grew ready to receive instruction, and endeavored to inculcate in me prin ciples of courage and fidelity. She was a brave, stout soul herself, and if I have displayed similar virtues in my life it is because of her influence, added to an inheritance from my father, than whom no one was more brave or noble. And if there was any omission in her code of ethics, I was not aware of it at the time, and never suspected it until I learned more about what was behind her. She did not, certainly, instruct me in the same disregard of certain obligations in life which she seems to have indulged ear lier in her own ex perience. I was not without companions of my own age during this time. My aunt was careful that I should have playmates, and good ones. How well she chose I can testify with my life. There were three THOMAS JEFFERSON (From the crayon portrait by Saint-Memin) 161 1 62 VALOR & VICTORY with whom I used to romp about the dooryard of our little cottage, or join in little innocent expeditions into the outskirts of the town. One of them, a sweet little girl with a smile that must always have been linked to Heaven, died while she was yet a child. A second, a lad my senior by a year or two, drifted out of my life in early youth. I think he went into the far West. I heard re ports from there in after years con cerning one of his name; I believe the hero of them was my old friend. Of the third of the group I shall have much to LEE (Prom the Stuart portrait) She was an impudent minx, younger than I in years, "LIGHT HORSE HARRY tell. but ages older in wisdom. She ruled me completely with her black eyes and saucy tongue, and, though I jnust confess to an original preference for the other little girl, who was much more gentle with me, it was not long until I was the devoted slave of little Ruth Gardner. I mention Ruth here not because there was at that time anything in our little love affair that can be supposed to in- THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 163 terest the reader, but because it was through her association with something that happened in our quiet life that I am able to recall it; although the event itself was of lasting importance to many who were afterward dear to me. It was some two years after the federal convention met in our town, when there came to live with us a beautiful and charming young woman, Margaret Rutgers, of New York. The circumstances of her coming I did not know until later. I only know that she was brought to my aunt's house by a Sylvester Stevens ; that she was sent by Mr. Hamilton ; that there was some secret talk from which I was excluded, and that in the end Mr. Stevens went away and left her with us. She seemed very unhappy and disconsolate at first. In time, however, growing fond of my aunt, who obtained her confidence entirely, and seeming to find a lively interest in me, she grew contented, and in the end quite happy. For myself, I must confess that I loved her dearly. It was this that brought about the little climax that has impressed the details so closely upon my mind ; for what did my lady love Ruth do but conceive a violent jealousy of her rival in my affections from which resulted our first breach of size, and one which was not mended without the application of many sugar plums and the intervention of the lady herself who was inno cently at the bottom of the contention. I appreciate now why there was so much sly mirth between my aunt and Margaret over the affair, but at the time it was no light matter with me, I assure you. Not long after this my aunt was honored by a visit from Alexander Hamilton, during which an incident occurred that set my little head to puzzling over the riddle of my existence; for by this time I was brought to a conscious ness of my anomalous condition in life by my little com panions, who, with the cruelty of childhood, did not spare me from all manner of taunts when we fell to quarreling. 1 6 4 VALOR & VICTORY I remember now that on the first occasion when Ham ilton visited us he gave me two or three quick, curious glances, as though I suggested, perhaps, some dim associa tion in his mind with some one whom he knew, or had known. On his subsequent visit, the one of which I speak, I observed the same interest in my features on his part. I suppose I had become sensitive to curiosity, for I marked his expression well and wondered at it. But it was a conversation between him and my aunt that lingered in my mind for many years, distressing me sorely until the mystery was raveled out by time. They thought I was not attending to what they said, for I was playing on the floor with some lead soldiers he had brought me, and apparently absorbed in my game. But I heard. "Do I know that lad's father?" he asked my aunt, in a low voice. There was a pause. I felt that she was searching him with those strong black eyes which I remember so well. "If you do, you know more than I know," she replied pres ently, with a significant stress on the last word. "But do you guess?" he pursued. "Do you?" she asked in turn. "He recalls some one to my mind," replied Hamilton. There the dialogue was halted, I presume by a gesture from my aunt, who may have detected me in an attempt to hear what they said further. I know now that the conversa tion was continued at another time, and that, in a way, it had much to do with my future. If Alexander Hamilton was a factor in the destiny of my self, and of Margaret, whom I learned to call cousin and to love more dearly every year, how much more was he an ele ment in the life of this great country of ours! I think I do not fall a victim to my admiration for the man when I say that but for him the fabric woven of the States by the Con- THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 165 stitution would have fallen asunder in the early days of trial that followed its adoption and application to the Union. I have omitted to tell of the ratification of the Constitution by the several States. Our State, I am proud to say, was the second to adopt the document, ratifying on December 12, 1787, be ing preceded only by Del aware, which ratified six days earlier. New Jersey fell into line six days later; Georgia on the second of the following January, and Connecticut " LIGHT HORSE HARRY " LEE'S GRAVE, DUNGENESS, GEORGIA on January 9. In Massachusetts, which was next in order, and the most important up to that time to consider the question, excepting Pennsylvania, there was somewhat of a struggle ; but on February 6 she, too, accepted the plan. Massachusetts was followed by Maryland, April 28, 1788, and South Carolina, May 23. New Hampshire was in point of time the ninth; but in point of moral importance, so to speak, Virginia was the deciding State. It must be under stood that it was necessary for nine States to ratify in order to carry the day. Up to this time eight had conformed. Now Virginia was discussing the question with bitter con tention. Patrick Henry, George Mason, who had been a delegate, Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler, each of whom has had a son rise to the presidency, James Monroe, a future President, Richard Henry Lee, and some others of conse- 1 66 VALOR & VICTORY quence, opposed the Constitution. Madison was the chief champion of the Union in the Virginia convention. With him were Governor Randolph, whom he had won from an original opposition, " Light Horse Harry" Lee, and John Marshall, destined to become chief justice of the United States and by his masterly decisions win a place second only EDGE HILL, THE HOME OF EDMUND RANDOLPH to Madison and Hamilton among the founders of the national government. The convention met on June 2, and on June 25 ratified the Constitution. The result was magical, for at that time Virginia was not only believed to be the ninth and deciding State, but was also one of the greatest consequence and one without which the Union could scarcely stand. The discussion lasted four days too long, however, for Vir ginia to win that distinction. That honor was reserved for New Hampshire, whose convention ratified the Constitution on June 21 by a vote of 57 against 46. There remained of the important States only New York. New York was won by Hamilton by means of the "Federalist" THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 167 papers, in which he was assisted by Madison, and, I am told, by John Jay; and through Hamilton's eloquence on the floor of the convention. New York State joined the ma jority on July 26, and the fight was considered won. North Carolina came in on November 21 of the following year, and Rhode Island, always refractory and intractable, capitu lated on May 29, 1790. All this, of course, and what I shall now proceed to tell about Hamilton's part in the construction of the govern- ment, are matter of re port with me, and common knowledge. Yet I feel they have a place in these reminiscences, for narration of the events here may give them a reality and vividness through the personal element that they might not otherwise enjoy. But I do remember of my own experience the magnificent pageant that our city saw on Independence Day, when all the States had ratified except New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Five thousand citizens were in the parade, in which gorgeous floats represented a variety of sentiments dear to the hearts of Americans at that time. The celebration was beyond anything that had been known before in America. Another scene of that period which is ineffaceable from my memory was the occasion of Washington's passing THE OLD HOUSE ON HIGH STREET, NOW MARKET STREET, PHILADELPHIA, OCCUPIED BY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON 1 68 VALOR & VICTORY through the city on the way to his inauguration in New York, in 1789. He rode a prancing milk-white charger, and was accompanied by troops. I stood at the side of the street with my aunt and little Ruth, overwhelmed by the sight, and resolving unto myself mighty deeds for the future. Washington selected for his advisers Hamilton, as secretary of the treasury; Thomas Jefferson, then minister to France, as secretary of state; Henry Knox, the revolutionary general, as secretary of war; and Edmund Randolph as attorney general. But the work of construction fell upon Hamilton. He introduced into national affairs a financial system that knit the fabric together closely. He brought it to pass, not without great opposition, that the new govern ment should assume the debts of the old Congress to foreign and domestic creditors, and also the debts that had been incurred by the several States in the War of Independence. This did more to unify the government than anything that could have been devised by the wisest statesman. It took from the States their private burdens, and it interested the men of wealth and power in the perpetuity of the govern ment; for now they saw hope of recovering the funds they had loaned, if only they could keep the Union intact. At the same time, the promise of the new government to pay its foreign debtors dollar for dollar raised our foreign credit beyond hope. But the assumption of the State debts developed a con flict in Congress that threatened for a time the very ends for which, in part, Hamilton had proposed it. Old State jeal ousies were strong; States that had heavy debts favored it, while those that had settled most of their obligations were hostile. In the end, a bargain was made between Hamilton and Jefferson a circumstance that is strange enough when viewed in the light of their subsequent careers. In exchange for the support of Virginia in the assumption programme. THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 171 Hamilton and his followers promised to award the proposed federal city, the location of which was another point of con tention, to the Potomac district. Another device by which Hamilton enlisted the support of the strong interests of the country for the government, was the formation of a national bank. This was done after the temporary seat of government had been moved to Phila delphia in 1791. I shall never forget the scene about the doors of the building where the bank stock was opened for subscriptions. From early morning men of business crowded about, eager to invest. In an hour the stock was all gone. All these measures created dissensions from which developed two parties, the Federalists, led by Hamilton, and the Republicans, organized and led by Jefferson. Madison, at first a Federalist, left the party on the issue of assumption, and it was not long before he was working with the Republicans. It was in December, 1791, that Congress first met in our town, and the seat of government was transferred there. It was the occasion of much bitterness and contention in the news journals of the day. These, by the way, became very scurrilous and brutal and developed a class of writers who, I think, would scarcely be tolerated now. We had the honor of receiving in our town the first min ister from England, August George Hammond, who arrived in August, 1791. Charles Pinckney was sent by Washington to London to represent the United States. Our foreign relations at this time were none too good. Indeed, they did not become sound until after our second war with England. England had declined to surrender certain outposts along the frontier which were awarded to us in the treaty of Paris, asserting that we had not carried out the terms of the treaty with regard to Tories. After she gave them up she con- 172 VALOR & VICTORY tinned to abuse us in the matter of trade rights. France was not far behind, while Spain, which still held possessions along our southern and southwestern borders, mistreated our citizens and made trouble along the Mississippi. Both England and Spain, it is generally believed, incited the Indians to attack our settlers, which led to "" ~^"^&B^ much fij^ bloodshed and tribulation for those hardy men who went as pioneers into the new country. The Northwest Ter ritory, which had been turned over to the government by Eastern States whose claim to the country : was founded on their charters and royal land grants, and which was gov erned under an or dinance passed in 1787 by the old Con tinental Congress, had been rapidly settled by old soldiers after the close of the war, under the auspices of the Ohio company, which bought the land from Congress. Kentucky and Tennessee had been .settled earlier, largely by emigrants from the Carolinas and Vir ginia. So at this time we had a considerable population on the wild frontier who hunted, trapped, and farmed. A rough, strong, vigorous lot they were; men of infinite courage and daring, and indomitable persistence. CHARLES PINCKNEY THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY All this time we had been living happily enough under my aunt's roof, my aunt, Margaret, and I. Margaret seemed to find much happiness in loving me. I am sure that it must have been loneliness and a strong mother instinct that made her, for I clearly remember that I was a lad full of my pranks, and of myself not wholly lovable, although I hope THE PULPIT AND CHANCEL OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA I may say with truth that I was not mean, arid I certainly was not deceitful beyond the measure of every boy who makes innocent mischief, for deceit is a thing that I do now and always have abhorred. And whatever my faults, I returned Margaret's affection for me with my whole heart. By degrees she took from my aunt the care of my in struction, having a taste for teaching, and some experience in it before she came to us. Little Ruth Gardner, my sweet heart, was also in her care, which brought us much together in the pleasantest relations. Ab pleasant, that is, as the condition of a small boy can be when he is being taught. 174 VALOR & VICTORY Soon after the coming of the government to Philadelphia I noted, with the quick observation of my years, a change in Margaret, to which I attached no particular importance or significance. Indeed, at the time I thought nothing of it. Margaret, at the time of which I speak, had lost some of her buoyancy. She fell into occasional moods of un easiness, at odds with her peace of mind. She seemed in f fear that something might happen to her. I know that now, when I consider her deportment in the light of my later experience with the world. I remember when the change began. It arose from a circum stance that aroused my curiosity at the time. We were walking through the streets of Philadelphia, having returned from a ramble along the Schuylkill. As we passed Ruth was with us Margaret suddenly took each of us by an arm and led us into a by street which was out of our way. I looked inquiring with my eyes " >r it. I could see that her counte nance was pale and that she was dis tressed in mind. Later, when events grew, I remembered that ( a s we were walking along nn a man, I I had 8^- never seen be fore and whom I CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 175 wished to God I had never seen again, turned into our street and proceeded ahead of us in the same direction that we took. He arrested my attention because of a certain peculiarity of person and gait, being a stout, roundish man with a limp in one leg, that gave him a bouncing walk, like a soft rubber ball tossed across the ground. INTERIOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA It was not until afterward that I connected him with the behavior of our companion on that occasion. But I was soon to learn how much the one had to do with the other; and during my life I learned so much more of the fellow that I have often regretted that a thunderbolt did not come down out of the sky and strike him that first day I saw him. That, as I have said, was the beginning of Margaret's uneasiness. Whether she told my aunt the story or not, I am not certain; but certain I am that my aunt arrived at a knowledge of it, either by word of mouth or by intuition, a source of information quite as active and much more trust worthy in many women. This occurred some time after the 7 6 VALOR & VICTORY first episode before the climax came of which I am to speak, To be accurate, it was in December, in the year 1791. I can place the date with precision, because it was associated with another event which, though important, had no imme diate bearing on it, and of which I shall speak subsequently. We had been skating on the Schuylkill that day; at least, we had been to watch the sport. It was a pleasant day, and many people were out to enjoy the ice. We tarried longer than our wont, so that when we started for our home it was already falling dusk. I wondered over it at the time. Now I know that we were so late in going home because Margaret had warning of what was to happen, and sought to avoid it under shelter of the \ darkness. We t were tripping along merrily enough, as I thought, I making an excuse of the cold to cuddle Ruth's little hand in my own. When we were still, as I judge, about a furlong from our cottage, Margaret reached down and grasped me by the shoul- SIDE VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 177 der with a twitch that set me to gritting my teeth in order to keep from crying out. I looked to see the cause of it, and there stood the man we had nearly encountered on that other day when she led us home by the back ways. This time he saw Margaret as well, for he approached directly with a grin on his fat face that was half a laugh and half a scowl, being strangely mixed with pleasure and malice. I should not be able to describe the grin so well, having seen it then only in the half-light and as a lad, but I have so often seen it since that it is the expression which I habit ually put upon the man's face when I recall him to memory. ''I thought you were here," he said, in low voice, when he came up to us. "I had heard stories about you that made me think so. I am glad I have found you." Margaret, who had recovered herself so quickly that there was no sign of the consternation by the time the man was close enough to read her face, answered him plainly, ''I am not glad you have found me," she said; "neither am I sorry," she added, as an afterthought. "It is kind of you to say that much," said the man. "Why did you come here, then, if you are not sorry to see me?" "You flatter yourself to think you could have so much effect upon the order of my life," she replied. "Let me pass." For the fellow stood blocking our way. Perhaps it was prophetic that I should loathe him already; but I surely did despise him, in that first moment. The grin left his face. "Do you think I shall let you pass so easily, now that I have found you again?" he growled. "You have done me an injury, Margaret, but I am willing to overlook that," he added, as if to make him self appear in pleasanter frame of mind with a quick change. "Come, what you have done is no reason why we should not be friends." 1 78 VALOR & VICTORY "What you have done is no reason why we should be so," she returned. "What I will do shall be a reason then/ 7 he went on, in a tone that I thought threatening. "Let me pass. It is late, and I must be getting back," "I shall let you pass, but I will go with you," said the man. "You shall not!" she answered, emphatically. "If I stand till I perish in the cold, you shall not know where I live." "That will be rather cruel to the children," he sneered. But the children, at least one of them, was about to enter into the situation in quite a different manner. I had been in deadly fear from the first, and should have wept and howled in the dilemma, I make no doubt, if I had been left any discretion in the matter. But I was not. I considered that I was the only man in the defense of these two helpless women; and the presence of my loved one made me bold. I had often lain awake of nights dreaming of some such adventure in which I might prove my love by sacrificing myself against mighty odds in the behalf of Ruth. Now the opportunity was come. Thrusting her aside, for she was weeping in my arms, I flung my puny weight straight against the man's legs and struck manfully at his thighs with my doubled fists. The spectacle must have been ludicrous. Indeed, after the lapse of years, I can smile at it myself, although at the time it had a deadly earnestness for me that deprived it of all appearance of humor. Whether it was the surprise of my impetuous assault, or the icy pavement that contributed to the result, or his being crippled by a leg once broken, I cannot say; but I do know that the man, struggling for a moment to disengage me from his knees, fell heavily to the walk. From that moment I THE WOMAN AND JEALOUSY 179 knew no more until the affair was over; for either in falling, or with a deliberate purpose, he struck me with his heel, rendering me quite unconscious for the time. When I recovered my senses we were in my aunt's house, with Margaret and herself weeping over me it was the WASHINGTON'S PEW IN CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA first time I ever saw her in tears and the last and Ruth was sobbing in the corner. But there was another in the room, a tall, handsome young man with long, curling hair and the dress of a frontiers man. In his eye, too, was a tear, and on his face a faint smile of amusement, and, I fancy, approval. For the mo ment when I first looked into his blue eyes he burst upon my life in the full effulgence of heroic manhood. And in the many things that have come and gone between that time and this he has never lost the least jot of the worship with which my quick boyish fancy hedged him about that night in December, 1791. CHAPTER III ALEXANDER HAMILTON THE man whom I beheld in my aunt's cottage when I came out of my unconsciousness was Sylvester Stevens, frontiersman, pioneer, and Indian fighter; the same who had brought Margaret to us. He had been a soldier of ^-~ ---\ the Revolution from first to last. After the close of the war, love of adventure had led him into Kentucky and Tennessee, where he drifted about more like a knight- errant than any other man I have known in my whole life, rushing always to any danger point and bringing with him the succor of his rifle and knife. What his errand was in Philadelphia I shall presently tell. But first I must explain his pres ence in my aunt's house, as it was explained to me by degrees. It appears that when the man whom I had attacked had rid himself of this trifling impediment, he was, for a moment, very angry, and so far lost control of his judgment as to lay a hand on Margaret, as though he would drag her away. I may 1 80 MARTHA WASHINGTON (From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart] ALEXANDER HAMILTON 181 observe here that I have found the fellow capable of any thing from which he was not deterred by a sense of personal fear or policy. At that juncture, which, I am convinced, was not as critical as it seemed, Sylvester Stevens chanced to appear. Without delaying for any explana tion, he fell upon the scoundrel, and would undoubtedly have killed him with his naked fists if Margaret had not inter vened. Having relieved her of danger, the rescuer discovered that it was Margaret whom he' had aided. The meeting betwee^ them, naturally, I cannot describe" as an eye- wit ness, but Ruth, who still had her eyes, told me some thing of it. The man was SO MAJOR-GENERAL ARTHUR SAINT- PC iii i r r CLAIR (After the portrait affected that he was bereft of by c. w. speech at learning who it was whom he had rescued, while Margaret betrayed more emotion than in the moment when the stranger accosted her. These circumstances I now believe I understand, but at that time they furnished only mystery for my imagination to play upon. I should not have spoken of Margaret's assailant as a stranger to her. It was obvious from the first that they were known to each other. I learned later that he was one Nicholas Snell of New York, a politician and hench man of the nefarious Burr, and that Margaret had come to Philadelphia to escape both from him and from Burr. Now let me return along the way I have come in order to tell something more of Sylvester Stevens, and how he came to be in Philadelphia at this time. As I have said, he was a 182 VALOR & VICTORY modern knight- errant. In the year 1790, shortly after the organization of the Northwest Territory, of which Genera] Arthur Saint- Clair was made governor, the Indians along the Ohio, incited by the English commandant at Detroit, went on marauding expeditions against the settlers. In the autumn of that year General Harmar went out from Fort Washington with a force of 1500 militia and regulars to punish the redskins. After burning some villages and de stroying some crops, he would have returned, but Colonel Hardin, the junior officer, insisted upon going farther in pursuit of the savages, and he fell into an ambuscade in which the militia behaved badly and the regulars were nearly all killed. Returning, he prevailed upon Harmar to permit him to turn back with another force. The result was renewed disaster at the head of the Maumee River, accompanied by great slaughter of Americans. When Harmar heard of this, he despaired of doing anything with the militia, for it had been the fault of the raw troops that misfortune attended our arms. In this campaign Sylvester Stevens acted as guide. It was due to his cool bravery that those few who finally found their way back to the main force escaped from the head of the Maumee. In the spring of the next year Saint- Clair himself took the field against the Indians. Our President, with his great wisdom in such affairs, earnestly advised him to use caution against Indian surprise, which had been the ruin of Harmar's expedition, as well as many other well-laid military plans. Saint- Clair was not ready to start until late in September. He had with him 3000 troops, 2000 of whom were regulars. General Butler was in command. The plan of the cam paign was to build roads and establish forts along the fron tier, thus penetrating the West. On November 3, after an arduous march, the army was on the banks of a stream flowing into the upper Wabash. By ALEXANDER HAMILTON 183 this time, what with leaving garrisons behind and with de sertions on the part of the militia, the active force was reduced to 1400. The militia spent the night on the farther side of the stream; the regulars, with cannon, rested on the other side. The next morning, after roll-call, when the soldiers were preparing their breakfast, the Indians attacked them, and the thing happened against which ^ Saint-Clair had been so urgently w ' M g\ Ji warned by Washington. ^ ~ **Z^H Hill The fight between ^ the regulars and the Indians must have been a terrific strug gle. I have "iMte^M often heard : mj^ LiJ Sylvester de scribe it; for he was present and T am rer- ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA tain did much to hold the savages at bay for the brief space of time that the Americans were able to repulse them. The Indians fought with their usual tactics, leaping from covert to covert, all the while giving vent to their horrid shrieks. The cannon had little effect, since the enemy was not massed; and while the guns were being loaded the Indians rushed in and tomahawked the gunners. Saint-Clair, who was an old man, and infirm, did his utmost to retrieve a victory, rushing up and down the field with his white hair streaming; but the thing was beyond hope. General Butler was tomahawked and scalped as his wounds were being dressed. Eight bullets passed through the clothing of the commander; it would have been better for him if one of the bullets had ended his career then and there, for the poor man came to a dishonored old age, brought 1 84 VALOR & VICTORY on more by misfortune than by lack of honest effort. His management of the expedition was investigated by Congress, and he was relieved from blame ; but more because the Con gress could thereby throw odium upon Hamilton and Knox through putting the blame upon them for faulty arrange ments. And now comes the link that connects that affair with our little circle in my aunt's cottage. After the disaster Saint- Clair, retreating to Fort Washington, leaving his dead and wounded to savage devices, sent forward Sylvester Stevens to make the report in Philadelphia. He had just done so, and was passing through the streets from that errand to visit Margaret when he encountered our adventure, with the immediate results that I have narrated. But before I pass, I must narrate an inci dent that happened when Sylvester brought the news to Washington. The President was at dinner with a company when Saint- Clair's message was handed to him. He preserved command of himself until he WASHINGTON'S PROPILE (Photographed g ained a P riva te TOOm, where he burst into from the original silhouette) such a torrent of grief, anger, and invection against Saint-Clair as is seldom seen in man. I had the story in after years from Tobias Lear, his secretary at the time. "Here," cried the great man, wringing his hands as he stalked the floor, "yes, here, on this very spot, I took leave of him. I wished him success and honor. ' You have your instructions,' I said, ' from the secretary of war. I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word beware of a sur prise! I repeat it: Beware of a surprise 1 You know how the Indians fight us.' He went off with that, as my last ALEXANDER HAMILTON 185 solemn warning, thrown into his ears. And yet, to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, toma hawked by a surpise, the very thing I warned him against ! O God! O God! He is worse than a murderer! How can he answer for it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon him; the curses of widows and orphans the curse of Heaven!" It may grieve some who are prone to elevate our great President into an idolatry to learn that he gave way to such human passions; for my part, I am glad to know that he had human frailties to that extent, I am glad of this evidence of flesh and blood; for within my time the memory of the man has been so crystallized into a cloak of diamonds, so to speak, that the man himself is only too. likely to be lost beneath the unnatural luster, which is a pity, for he was great and magnificent enough to stand above all other men without false aids. It fell out that that very night Alexander Hamilton came to spend an hour with my ^j^^ MARTHA WASHINGTON'S P . . ^^ FILE (Photographed fron aunt. It may seem strange that a man or the original silhouette) his importance in national affairs, and one with his great mind and large interests, should pursue an acquaintance with such a one as my aunt. I have found myself wonder ing at his visits not a little as I look back upon them from later life. But I long ago determined in my mind that there was only one main purpose in them, and that was purely in the way of intellectual friendship; for it must be understood that the woman by whom I was reared was of no mediocre mind. Hamilton, then, came to our cottage on this night, finding Margaret in a state of perturbation, and myself a hero with 1 86 VALOR & VICTORY his head done up. My aunt took him into the confidence of the adventure, he having played a part in what went be fore. He was visibly aroused. Indeed, I had never seen him so affected in private, even when his governmental policies were most seriously threatened and opposed. He listened to the story and advised with them. It seems that Snell was an employee of the government, having obtained a sinecure of some sort through his connection with New York politics, in which Burr was beginning to mingle with a coterie of young fellows who had nothing to lose and much to gain. In the end it was settled that Mar garet should pay a visit to a family in Virginia. What was our surprise the next day to learn that the family she was going to see was the family of Sylvester Stevens, and that he was to accompany them there. Mar garet herself was more astonished than any one else, and exhibited some reluctance about going when she ascertained the truth. But my aunt persuaded her, and she went, at last, quite happy. When she returned two months later she was quite changed. I did not understand then the cause of her trans formation. I have since concluded that it was the alchemy of love ; that she came back filled with thoughts of Sylvester, who tarried with her a month at his home before he went again to the frontier. I believe that no word of love passed between the two, for Sylvester was not one to speak readily of such matters; but subsequent developments convinced me that each had a subtle understanding of the attitude of the other. After her return, as I have intimated, she was quite happy. The rogue Snell discovered presently where she lived, and annoyed her to some extent, but at last desisted, finding more than a match in her and my aunt. So for the present he passed out of our lives. ALEXANDER HAMILTON 187 Meanwhile, the government was becoming more and more secure. Hamilton's policies of centralization were triumphant. It is true that they had many enemies; that certain papers bitterly assailed the party in power, and an other was beginning to grow. But for the time Federal ism, as it was termed, was in the ascen dancy. There was at this time much wild speculation in scrip and bank stock, and an unsettled con dition of finan cial affairs, due to the dishon orable greed of rich men. This was turned against Hamilton, who was even ac cused of profit ing through it. But that was a lie; he never had a desire to grow rich, and never so much as took up those honest opportunities to do so which came to him then or afterward. Another element was introduced about this time into national affairs and it had much effect upon them. This was the French Revolution. France had beheaded her king, and the widowed queen, Marie Antoinette, was guillotined. Louis XVI OF FRANCE 1 88 VALOR & VICTORY A reign of blood and terror followed. The French republic found frenzied partisans in our own country. Americans con fused their own ideas of liberty with the French doctrines, which were nothing in the last analysis but license and an archy. I remember the jubilee in Philadelphia when news came of the declaration of war against England by the new republic. French fashions came into general vogue; the white cockade was almost universal for a time; all titles gave way in common address to that of Citizen, as used by the French. Thomas Jefferson, ever ready and able to ride forward on the crest of a popular wave, launched the Re publican party upon the fervid tide of French sentiment and secured much gain to the party from it. But the furore wore itself out ; the zeal was too great to be maintained by the American temperament. From the first, there were those who mistrusted the French Revolution, and feared it. Among them was Hamilton. By degrees a reaction set in in their direction. It was a Frenchman who finally cured Americans of the fever, and reduced the craze to a harmless state. This was the Citizen Edmond Charles Genet, who had been sent by the Directory to prevail upon the United States to fight for France against England. Washington declared for neutrality when war broke out between France and George III. Against this stand there was an outcry, many contending that we should lend a help ing hand to our sister republic in her hour of need, as she had helped us. I must confess that, at the time, the cry had its effect upon my youthful imagination and I inveighed against the government with the best of them, according to my abilities. Later, when I became satisfied that Ver- gennes lent the aid of France to the rebellious colonies not for any love of liberty in America but because of his hatred of England, and that he had been willing to pare the new nation to the core at the time of the negotiations for peace MARIE ANTOINETTE GOING TO HER EXECUTION (From the painting by Flameng) ALEXANDER HAMILTON 191 in Paris, I grew ashamed of my fervor. I must say for my aunt that she at all times good-naturedly laughed at me, and had a view of the situation which time justified as perfectly sane and sound. Genet landed at Charleston, South Carolina. His coming added fuel to the popular flame. My countrymen overlooked the point that an accredited envoy should first report to the government to which he was sent. Genet's blunder in that matter was only an index to his whole mis taken career as the agent of France. He not only made that initial mistake, but followed it immediately with the more grave error of permitting the French ship that had brought him to make seizures of British vessels in our own waters and bring prizes into our own ports. The ship, VInsurgente y sailed from Charleston to Philadelphia with prizes, while he made the journey overland, being received along the way with triumphant acclaim. He was received coldly enough by Washington, though Jefferson's attitude toward him was cordial. Jefferson for some time had been out of tune with the administration. He had fallen into a quarrel with Hamilton. It was carried into the press and finally brought to an issue before Washing ton himself. Genet was feasted in Philadelphia, and later in New York, but he brought about his downfall eventually by an attempt to discredit Washington, who maintained a position of neutrality despite his pleas and protests. The hot-headed Gaul threatened to go behind him and appeal to the people. He also acted in bad faith in the matter of outfitting vessels as privateers and commissioning American citizens as French officers. His final act was a flagrant violation of amity in permitting a vessel to be fitted out in Philadelphia and go to sea, in which matter he disregarded his own promises. The sentiments of Americans turned from him at last, and his own government recalled him. 192 VALOR & VICTORY He did not return to France, however, being in fear of his life, but settled in New York, becoming an American citizen and marrying a daughter of Governor George Clinton. In this year Philadelphia was visited by the yellow fever, as it is now called. I shall never forget the terrible scenes in our city during that time; the death that stalked swiftly through our streets, and the terror of death that sent our citizens flying into the country. My aunt would not listen to those who advised her to flee with the others who sought safety away from the stricken place. She stayed behind, heroically doing what she could to allay the suffering of the sick and tending to the last wants of the dying. At last the sickness entered our cottage, laying hold of Margaret, who had not been behind my aunt in works of mercy. For a long time she hovered between life and death, but when cold weather came she mended. Indeed, under the effects of frost the epidemic died away until nothing remained of it but the desolation of so many homes. Now occurred one of those scenes which have lingered in memory through my life. We were seated about the bed where Margaret lay recuperating her strength. .We were very happy, for she was making much headway toward health. Ruth was with us, having come to partake of our joy, and sat by my side, with her timid little hand unquestioningly in mine. There was a knock at the door. My aunt opened it to a young man with dark hair, frank CITIZEN EDMOND CHARLES GENET ALEXANDER HAMILTON 193 eyes, and a chin that slanted away too much from his mouth. But for all that he was not unpleasant to look at. When Margaret saw him, she gave a little cry. As I recall it, there was principally surprise in her tone. I am sure there was little joy; there was rather a note of dismay. The man came toward her, stretching out his hands and calling her by name. "Margaret! Margaret! I have been waiting at Baltimore until it was safe to come." "Why," she answered, "are they still pursuing you?" "No, but the plague kept me away." I thought at the time that it was a strange thing for a lover to be withheld from his sweetheart by fear of plague, or any other danger; for by this time we had all divined that this man was her lover. We soon learned the rest, however. The man was one Trumbull Erskine. The two had been betrothed in New York at the end of the war, but he, being a Tory, had fled before the return of the American troops. During the years that had intervened since their last meeting there had been a misunderstanding between them, he believing her faith less. In that belief, after many vicissitudes, he had joined the English army, in which he was now a lieutenant. He had come to Philadelphia in response to a letter from a friend who knew the story, and who had sought him out after the episode between Margaret and Nicholas Snell. Margaret, after the first shock of meeting, treated him kindly and with growing joy; though now I believe her affection was a display that her loyal heart forced upon her. It was settled that they should be wed as soon as she should be well enough; and wedded they were. I remember well that she seemed to shrink from him, almost imperceptibly, as the time approached; and when they were married at last, I considered her countenance and bearing quite out of keeping with the event. CHAPTER IV HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE IT was at about this time of my life that I first began seriously to ponder the mystery of my parentage, and to become sensitive to it. Perhaps I was forced to a con templation of it by the attitude of some of my little play fellows, who, with the unfailing divination of children, learned that there was some mystery about me, and twitted me with it. But not so Ruth. If anything, she loved me the more for it, and was often my champion, to my shame, against those who teased me. My own distress of mind and the taunts of my com panions led me at last to go to my aunt and ask her openly to tell me what she knew of my progenitors. I shall never forget the look of compassion she turned upon me. "My boy," she said, "do you think I would keep from you any secret of yours? Do you think I would not tell you, if I knew?" But you know something, surely, that will help me to ravel the mystery," I returned, emboldened by her kind tones. "'What little I know I will tell you when you are older and more able to understand," she answered. "It is little enough, and would do you no good now." THE SITE OF OLD FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, TO-DAY 194 HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE I told her that my playmates abused and scorned me. " There is but one protection against that," she said. " Whoever your father and mother were, be sure that you may safely resent any hints against them or your honor. It is impossible that you are other than the child of good and worthy parents. Remember that always. I lay no prohibition against your defending your honor in any way open to a gentleman." From that time I took courage to maintain myself against my tormentors. Many were the fights I fought thereafter for my good name, until at last fear of my prowess protected me against open abuse. To this more than to any natural aptitude I attribute the belligerent disposition I developed, which was to have a marked influence on my later career. I shall not attempt to describe how bitterly we missed Margaret, or what a wide she left in our THE STATUE OF " MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE AT NEWBURGH, NEW YORK 196 VALOR & VICTORY little home circle. But I will tell of the surprise, disappoint ment, and grief her going caused another. She had been away something more than a year when Sylvester Stevens paid a visit to Philadelphia. He had just returned from a campaign against the Indians led by General u Mad Anthony" Wayne in 1794. It was the same "Mad An thony" whose adventures in the Revolutionary War are dear to the hearts of every American youth. His reputation did not suffer in this later exploit; for he defeated the savages at the battle of Fallen Timber, founded the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and made a treaty with the Indians by which the United States acquired a large addi tion of territory. What Sylvester had in his heart when he came to Phila delphia we could only conjecture. He received the knowl edge of Margaret's marriage and departure with a stoicism to which he had been trained by the hardships and sacrifices of his adventurous life ; but we could see how heavily it bore upon him. He did not remain long in the capital before he returned to the frontier. It was many, many years before I saw him again; years full of events for all concerned. It is fitting that I should here speak of the tribulations through which our nation passed in these early years. I cannot look back upon this period without wonder that the United States continued to exist as such, or without a faith that a higher hand than man's guided our destinies. It may seem strange that a lad of ten should have philosophized concerning such a problem; but it would have been im possible for any one of even ordinary faculties to grow up beside my aunt without an understanding of the significance of events, and an interest in their relation to the history of our country. We were beset on all hands by dangers. England, resentful still of our liberty and independence, oppressed us. HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 197 She refused to give up the Western posts, maintaining that we had not fulfilled our part of the treaty of Paris. She bul lied us at sea in the matter of trade, and insolently en forced upon us a recognition of her contention that she had the right to take British subjects from our ships whenever she found them. Spain, meanwhile, acted a double part along our southwestern frontier, inciting the Indians against us and doing what damage she could to the settlers through tampering with the navigation of the Mississippi. Indeed, we were without friends in the whole world. The little hope we had that France, becoming a republic, would league with us was dashed when the extravagances following the French Revolution separated her from us by as wide a chasm as lay between us and any European mon archy. To weaken us as a nation, to batter down our nationality, was the underlying purpose of European policies as they affected us. That we survived the powerful enmity of the whole world at this time is, as I have said, an evidence of a divine intention that the principles of liberty were to survive through us. RUINS OF THE NATHANAEL GREENE MANSION, NEAR SAVANNAH, GEORGIA VALOR & VICTORY Nor were these our only dangers. At home there were no unified interests and a lack of patriotism for the nation as a nation. Our people had not overcome the first local pre judices that sprang from colonial conditions; personal and immediate interests outweighed considerations of broader moment. This was shown in the vicious contention be tween the representatives of the two great parties in the nation, which found expression in private action and in the public press. It was demonstrated more forcefully in the year 1794 by an open revolt in western Pennsylvania against an excise placed upon the manufacture of whiskey, the prin cipal industry of the mountain regions of that State; in fact, whiskey was the money, the circulating medium of the country. Only a strong display of force on the part of the government sufficed to put down the revolt, which has come down in history as the Whiskey Rebellion. But good came of this episode, for it brought home to the people the danger of too great an indulgence in local prejudices. At this time there came out of the South an invention destined to add still another THE BIRTHPLACE OF ELI WHITNEY, WESTBORO', MASSACHUSETTS: THE STONE IN THE FOREGROUND MARKS THE SITE OF THE OLD HOUSE HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 199 many causes of misunderstanding which were constantly springing up among the various sections of the country. It was as if seed for future discord were being sown while the young nation was still grappling with problems demand- ing immediate solution. I refer to the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, a Yale graduate, in 1793. Going to Georgia as a teacher, Whitney had resided on the estate of the late General Na- thanael Greene, under the gener ous patronage of whose widow he perfected a ma chine to separate the cotton from the seed. Whit ney himself was robbed of the l ELI WHITNEY fruits of his invention by lawless people who broke into his workshop, stole his machine, and had others made before he could secure his patent. But his invention has com pletely changed the industrial conditions of the South. From a petty yield of 2,000,000 pounds the crop has grown until it has become the ruling industry of seven States and made slave labor so profitable and necessary that it has fastened slavery on the South. 2OO VALOR & VICTORY The reception accorded to John Jay's treaty with Eng land was further proof of the intractable character of our citizens at that time. Jay had been sent to London to arrange with the British for more equitable rights in the matter of^commerce, and to adjust certain differences that still held over from the revolutionary period. He obtained little beyond triv ial concessions in the matter of carrying privileges, and a promise on the part of England to give up the western posts still held by British soldiers. The right of search, insisted upon by England, was not touched upon. I believe I have never witnessed a more emphatic ex pression of popular feeling, either of ap proval or disapproval, than greeted the re sults of his efforts. The people were so incensed against England and the treaty that they went FISHER AMES (From the portrait by beyond all bounds. Jay Was ar- /. Rogers) raigned before the bar of public opinion and charged with gross treason. "British gold" was a term bandied from mouth to mouth. He was burned in effigy a dozen times. Washington himself, who did not approve the treaty, but was wise emough to know that it was the best obtainable, and better than none, came in for a large share of the abuse. Indeed, none but Washington could have made the treaty prevail against the universal clamor. He succeeded in having it ratified by the senate; HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 201 merce. each. but even then it was in danger of being lost, for the house of representatives, though possessed under the Constitution of no direct voice in the making of treaties, sought to destroy it by refusing to pass a bill appropriating money for carrying out its provisions. It was Fisher Ames who saved it in a speech which I heard. The effect of this speech I have never forgotten. He was a sick man, and spoke against the orders of his physician; but the heights of oratory to which he ascended have rarely been equaled in our deliberative assemblages. At the same time, we were in difficulties with France, due largely to matters of corn- France and England were at war, and was jealous of the other's commerce with the United States. English cruisers seized our ships under orders in council, because they carried goods to France, and French cruisers seized our vessels when they were laden with goods for England. James Monroe was in Paris en deavoring to negotiate a treaty with the French when news reached Paris of Jay's treaty. Monroe had been well received, but the French resented our new relations with England, wishing rather that we had joined them in a war against their enemy. Monroe himself was still wel come among them, but this came largely from personal feeling, since he had fallen into pleasant relations with the revolutionary forces. From all this followed a chain of diplomatic passages which I shall not narrate in detail, they being available in histories of the time, and, to my notion, somewhat tedious. , THE TOMB or GENERAL NATHAN AEL GREENE, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 202 VALOR & VICTORY It is sufficient to say that the negotiations were honeycombed with the double-dealing of Talleyrand, the minister, whom, by the way, I saw in Philadelphia when he was there as an exile from his own country during one of the upheavals which followed fast after the revolution had broken out. In the end Talleyrand endeavored to bully the ambassadors from the United States into giving a bribe to himself and his henchmen, and pay ing tribute to France, in return for which our com merce was to be treated more favorably. The correspondence concerning these overtures from the Frenchman was sent to John Adams, who had become President in 1797. Adams caused the correspondence to be made known to the people by publishing it, but he sub stituted the initials X Y Z for the names of the principals involved. The result was a wave of indignation as fierce and pop ular as that friendly furore which had originally acclaimed the revolution in France. The whole country was instantly for war. An army was raised under Washington, with Hamilton as his lieutenant, and the navy, which President Adams had consistently fostered, was placed on a war footing. The publication of the X Y Z dispatches restored the Federalist party and the administration to a power in the land that had been dwindling under the course of events TALLEYRAND HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 203 and before the steady attacks made by the Republican party and the press. In fact, that party was stronger than it had been since Jefferson first began to undermine it. Power proved fatal to them; for in their arrogance and pride they passed two laws which so directly assailed the rights of the people that its sponsors were doomed. These are known as the alien and sedition laws. The first was directed against foreigners, and gave the President power to deport any one whom he considered dangerous to the government. Its excuse was a belief that emissaries of France were working in the midst of us to discredit the administration and the government. The second was an effort to muzzle the press, which had grown more and more vicious and virulent in its attacks on the Federalist party. Republican editors had made themselves insufferable with their calumnies and lies. The law, itself harsh, was harshly administered by Justice Chase, before whom several delin quents were brought to trial. I myself, lad that I was, felt an indignation beyond any effect the laws might have upon me, and whereas up to that time I had rather favored the principles of the Federalist party, I thenceforth was at least reconciled to their defeat, if I did not actually wish for it. The laws called forth much protest. Among other ex pressions of disapproval were resolutions passed by Ken tucky and Virginia. The first, delaring that the States forming the Union had the right to judge of the constitu tionality of acts passed by Congress, pronounced these acts of themselves null and void and called on the sister States to unite in suppressing them. The resolutions of Virginia were milder, but based on those of Kentucky. It is be lieved that Jefferson inspired the former, and Madison the latter. They were the source of much subsequent mischief. Now I approach an event in my own life of great magni tude, being the first step in the unraveling of the mystery 204 VALOR & VICTORY that surrounded my birth and parentage. In the year 1798 Philadelphia was again visited by a plague of fever similar to that of five years before, though not so virulent. Again my aunt remained in the city, doing what she could to alle viate the suffering. But this time her sacrifice demanded the highest penalty; for she fell sick, and we soon saw that she could not live. Against our protests, Ruth helped me in caring for her, staying constantly by her side, and nursing her with a tender ness the memory of which still softens my heart to tears. It was not until her own mother was stricken that she con sented to leave us. The evening after she had gone I was seated by the side of my aunt in the last extremity of distress. In all the world there were only two to whom I was bound by ties of affec tion. One of these lay before me dying, and the other had just left to solace a house of grief. And who knew that she, too, might not be among the victims of this terrible scourge ? Sitting with my head in my hands, a prey to my melan choly reflections, I was aroused by the voice of my aunt. She spoke more firmly than she had done of late, and I looked quickly at her, inspired with a wild hope. I saw at once that what I had believed to be a mending in her con dition was only the last strong flicker of life; that the end was coming swiftly. " Richard," she said, "I promised that before I went I would tell you what I knew about your parentage. The time has now come when I must speak." "No, no!" I cried, falling on my knees at the side of the bed and folding her in my arms. "Do not speak so." "Nay, lad, 't is true, and do not force me to make many words over it, but listen to the story. When you were two years old," she went on at once, as though in haste to be done, HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 207 "you went on a voyage; I presume you were with your father. Of that I cannot be certain. The ship on which you were sailing was attacked by corsairs of the Barbary Coast, and captured. When the pirates were looting the vessel, an American cruiser came up and drove them away. But they had time to take with them all of the passengers and crew who were left alive; for when the men of the cruiser went aboard there was no one left but you. They found you crying in a cuddy, where you had been hidden for safety." "Yes; that much I remember," I whispered. She looked at me in some surprise that I should recall an incident from my infancy. "They brought you with them to Philadelphia. There was no sign about you by which they could know who you were. I heard the story from an officer of the ship, and later I saw you at his mother's house. When I saw you I begged that I might take you and give you a home." "Oh, aunt," cried I, distracted, "what a home you have given me! What love and tender care!" I could go no further, but bowed my head again in my hands. When I looked at her, her eyes were fixed upon me in a flood of affection. "I begged for you because you looked like a man whom I once loved," she said solemnly. "I liked to think that you were his child, and loved you from the first." "Who was this man? Tell me who it is, aunt!" "Would it not be better if I did not tell you that?" she replied. "I am not certain. Would it be well if I told you, and it should prove that I were wrong?" "Could I not find out whether you were right before I built too great hopes?" I asked, catching her meaning. "Could I not write to the man?" "Do you think I have not tried?" she returned. "The .208 VALOR & VICTORY man whom I believed was your father was not to be found, nor any trace of him." "But tell me, that I may search for him," I pleaded. "You may search for him, child, as it is, and find him, if he still lives. For if he lives, he will be in Algiers." I shuddered at this, for I well knew the practice of those infamous Moors of making slaves of the captives they took from vessels at sea. "But how shall I find him?" I asked, stifling a moan. "How shall I know it is he?" "By this," she said, drawing from beneath the pillow a locket and handing it to me. "This was about your neck when you were found. Your father will know you by it." I took it from her hands, and opened it. Within was a picture of a babe; myself, I made no doubt. "Is it I?" I asked her. "He will know when you have found him." Her eyes closed. In my stress of emotion I knew not what to do, but clung with one hand to her arm, clutching the locket in the other. "And when you find him," she said, reviving for a last moment, "tell him that I cared for you and loved you for his sake, and for your own, and that I made such a man ABIGAIL ADAMS, WIFE OF JOHN ADAMS HISTORY, AND A DISCLOSURE 209 of you as I would have made of my own son, had I been so blessed. Tell him I died with you both in my heart, happy at last that I could have done this last thing for you. Tell him this, if his name should be - It was too late. With the words on her lips life de parted from her, leaving derelict at the very outset of voyage of life. THE OLD HOUSE or WASHINGTON GREENE, THE COLORED BODY SERVANT OF GENERAL GREENE, ON GREENE'S ESTATE NEAR SAVANNAH CHAPTER V TO SEA ON A QUEST IT was some days before I was sufficiently restored to possession of my faculties to make any plans for the future. I was aroused from my torpor at last by an affliction, greater than my own, which befell Ruth. By that time the plague had become so virulent that the entire city, officials and citizens alike, were in a panic. Governor Mifflin is sued emergency orders for the extir pation of the fever that only added to its victims, by fright ening people the more. Streets where cases were most numerous were bar ricaded; yellow flags were hung from every house where a patient lay; and soon inspec tors began to go through the city, THOMAS MIFFLIN (After the Stuart portrait} sending every One suspected of having the fever to the Wigwam, which was turned into a pest-house. They dragged Ruth's mother to this loathsome place, and there she shortly died. In my sweetheart's grief, my own was forgotten; but 2IO TO SEA ON A QUEST 211 not my purpose to seek my father over the face of the earth, and to find him, if God spared him and me long enough. I spoke of my secret, and my intent' on, to Ruth as soon as I thought she had mastered her sorrow enough to think of other things. Indeed, I told her of my affairs partly with the intention of diverting her. For that I have never ceased to reproach my self. The prospect of losing me, too, was more than she could bear at that time. Until then, although we were childish lovers, I had never comprehended to what degree our lives had intertwined. She was brave, as she was brave in all things, and upheld me in my plans, although with a poignant pang that was more bitter to me than my grief. For a time I could hit upon no way of further ing my search. Nothing COUld be gained by moving THE OLD MIFFLIN MANSION, PHILADELPHIA through the state department, HoME OF PE SYLVA N IA ' S FIRST GOVERNOR for our government was impotent in dealing with the Moors, to whom we paid enforced tribute for the protection of our commerce. Furthermore, not knowing the name of the man I sought, or his present circumstances, there could not have been much point to any application I might make for his relief through the government. Nor could I, a mere stripling of a boy, expect to accomplish anything but my 2i2 VALOR & VICTORY own destruction by going to Algiers, even if it had been possible for me to get there. In this dilemma a course was suggested to me which, while it gave little immediate promise, at least held out some hope to a lad's sanguine temperament. At this time our country and France were virtually at war on the sea, by reason of the differences that had sprung up between them; our navy was engaged in protecting American commerce from French privateers. The frigate Constellation, return ing from a cruise on that business, in the West Indies, out fitted in Philadelphia for another cruise. To my mind there was the chance that sooner or later she would be sent to the Mediterranean; or, if she were not, some other vessel of the navy, to which I might obtain a transfer, would cer tainly make the voyage. With this slender hope before me, I enlisted in the Constellation's crew as powder boy, and set sail on her August 10, 1798, being then fifteen years of age. My parting from Ruth affected us both deeply. Little did we know what would intervene before we were to see each other again! But if I had known, and had also fore seen what other consequences were to follow from what I did, I believe I should not have altered my course. For the first time in our lives we spoke of our love for each other at parting, and made many brave promises. And so, with her kiss upon my lips, I went out to search for the heart of my mystery through that greater mystery, the world. Somewhere in my ancestry there must have been a strain of sea blood; for I was a born sailor, loving the sea and at home on it, though I had never embarked but the one time when I was an infant. We sailed in company with the Baltimore, laying a course for the West Indies. The salt air and the swing of the sea cured my aching heart of its more poignant pangs, and I was happier than I ever believed I should be. I endeavored at all times to be brave and TO SEA ON A QUEST 213 faithful, obedient to my superiors and friendly with the crew. In this way I soon found myself in as much favor as a powder monkey could expect to gain on board a frigate, where the discipline was severely strict and a man, not to mention a boy, was nothing more than an animated part of a highly organized machine. THE "CONSTELLATION" CAPTURING THE FRENCH FRIGATE (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) INSURGENTS Our work, as I have said, was to protect American ship ping in the West Indies. For a space my life was without adventure worthy of narration here, we merely falling in with and taking some French privateers, many of them with out the exchange of a single shot. But I was soon to see an action of consequence. I have been through many since, in comparison with which this first was insignificant, but the sensations accompanying my initiation into naval war fare were never afterward equaled. It was in the month of February, 1799; the ninth day, I believe. We were bowling along near Saint Kitts, under a spread of canvas before a spanking breeze, which kept 2i 4 VALOR & VICTORY our captain's weather eye aloft and alow; for there was prospect that it would blow up a gale. I was standing near the forecastle, watching the green seas breaking all about us, when there was a cry of "Sail, ho!" Used as I was by this time to the call, there was something about the tone in which it was given, or some subtle sugges tion between the coming event and my mind, which sent me all a-quiver to the forecastle to have a look for myself. There on our bow, well away, holding a course not greatly variant from ours, was a craft of about our size, which, by her rig and build, could be nothing else but a vessel of war. Whether she was French or English or American could not be determined at that distance. Cap tain Truxtun put at once the frigate before the wind so as to cross the stranger's bows ; and as we swung into a new stride, my heart came into my throat with excitement, and I leaned against a gun to watch the chase. In the midst of it, a squall struck us, causing us to shorten sail. When it passed, we found that the stranger had lost her maintopmast, not being so quick to make all snug as we were. As we drew closer, she hoisted an Amer ican flag, to which our captain replied in kind, adding to it the private signal of the day, known only to American and British captains. To this the other did not respond, making it certain that we had fallen in with an enemy. In this be lief we were presently confirmed by her hoisting a French flag, and firing a gun to leeward. Our ship being the better sailor, we rapidly overhauled the other, coming up to her port quarter. I had long ago left my place on the forecastle, the men having been called to quarters, and was at my station. It was my duty to carry the powder from the magazine below to the guns of the forward battery. The powder was in cartridges, long cylinders of paper, or sometimes cloth, of the caliber of the TO SEA ON A QUEST 217 guns, so that it could be easily handled and thrust into the muzzles. As soon as the call to quarters sounded, I brought up all the powder it was safe to store on deck, and waited near the guns for the beginning of the fight, which I knew would not be far off. As I waited, the quartermaster went about placing buckets of sand here and there, to be scattered on the decks for the purpose of making them less slippery when the blood began to flow. I had seen him do it before, but this time, as he went plodding fore and aft, cool, un concerned, indifferent, the gruesome suggestive ness of his actions struck at my heart, and I fell a prey to melancholy reflections, wondering if I should be one of those whose blood would make the sand necessary, and thinking what Ruth and my father would do if I should be struck down; for I had already come to look upon myself as the savior of the unknown whom I sought. From this I was suddenly recalled by the mighty roar of our broadside, which deafened me, and shook the ship so that I was lurched to my knees. I was struggling to my feet, choked by the stifling smoke of burnt powder and dizzy with the terrific detonation, when the lieutenant in com mand of the forward battery, who had always treated me with consideration, struck me with his toe and vented upon me a volley of curses the like of which I had never before heard, even at sea. "Come, you several kinds of a driveling coward of a powder monkey," he shouted, "what are you doing on your prayer bones? Get up and fetch powder, you cursed whelp, or I '11 give you something to pray for, by God!" I thought nothing of it at the time, but ran to bring more powder. I mention it here to show what changes the lust of fighting will make in the breast of a man at other times humane. I make no doubt I have been guilty of similar exhibitions of savagery myself. 2l8 VALOR & VICTORY When I returned to deck with powder we were in the midst of another broadside, with the enemy responding. The din was deafening; the roar of guns, the crashing of shot about us, the whine of them through the air, the cries of our men; but above all was a noise that rings horridly in my ears to the present day the sound of shrieking an guish on board the enemy. Strangely enough, at the time THE CAPTURE OF A FRIGATE BY THE " EXPERIMENT : Captain Hoff) (From the drawing by I exulted in it, and cried out that we were giving it to them good, adding, I fear, an oath. It did not last long. Twice we passed the Frenchman's bow, and raked. A third time we fell astern, and were ready to rake, when she struck. The vessel was the In- surgente, of thirty-six guns, Captain Barreaut. She was terribly cut to pieces alow and aloft, and her decks were covered with dead and dying. On our part the loss .was trifling, we having only two killed and three wounded. It was a year before we had another action of equal proportions. In the meanwhile we had cruised out of Saint Kitts, taking prizes and protecting Yankee merchant men. Early on the morning of February 2, 1800, while TO SEA ON A QUEST 219 cruising fifteen miles west of Basse Terre, we gave chase to a sail that appeared to the south, standing to the west, which proved to be a heavy French frigate. Orders were at once given to sling the yards in chains, and clear for action. The chase lasted for twenty- four hours in a light wind. About noon on the following day the wind freshened, and we began to overhaul the enemy. The men being called to quarters, Captain Truxtun went up and down the divisions, cautioning the gunners not to fire until the order was given, and to aim at the enemy's hull. We were also ordered to load as fast as we could, but not to fire unless we were certain of making a hit; for Captain Truxtun wanted no powder or shot wasted. Coming closer, the enemy opened fire with her stern chasers. Their shot went through our rigging and a few of the balls crashed upon the decks, making our men impatient to return the fire. But our captain sent his officers forward again to restrain the men, and we endured the fire for some time without answering. At last, when we had reached a position off her port quarter, the order was given, and the entire starboard broadside of our ship leapt into flames. There was a terrific roar, and the craft shook from truck to keelson beneath the recoil. The scene was weird and picturesque, for by this time night had come on, and we fought by the light of the battle lanterns. From the shrieks that came from the enemy, we judged that we had hit her hard. Encouraged by this, our men worked their guns with a ferocity that soon turned some of the pieces so hot that we had to dash buckets of water on them before the charges could be placed in the muzzles. The Frenchman seemed desirous of getting away, for most of his shots were directed against our rigging, which was soon so cut to pieces that we were obliged to lie to for repairs. But not until the enemy's fire had slackened and stopped. 22O VALOR & VICTORY Overhauling them again after midnight, we renewed our onslaught with the same results; we damaging them heavily in the hull, and they so crippling us aloft that we had to stop again for repairs. This time it was found that all the mainstays and shrouds had been cut, leaving the THE OLD TOMB OF GENERAL WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON mainmast unsupported. Before the mast could be stayed it went by the board, carrying with it Midshipman James C. Jarvis and the topmen, Jarvis having refused to desert his post, although apprised of the danger. It seemed to me a foolhardy sacrifice; but I presume that there was not a man aboard that would not have done the same in like circumstances, so quick was the sense of honor among the American seamen. TO SEA ON A QUEST 221 By morning the enemy was nowhere to be seen, having made good her opportunity to escape. We learned after ward that our antagonist was the Vengeance, of fifty-two guns, and that we had killed fifty and wounded no of her crew. Our handling of her that night so impressed her THE RESTING-PLACE OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON commander, Captain Pitot, that he reported he had fallen in with an American frigate of sixty guns. There was but one other frigate action in the short war with France. On October 12 of the same year the frigate Boston, thirty-six guns, Captain George Little, fell in with and captured the French corvette Berceau, of twenty-four guns. It was not equal to other fights I had seen, nevertheless it demonstrated that our vessels had a superi- 222 VALOR & VICTORY ority over the French that was greater than the difference in armament; this was due to the superior courage and in telligence of officers and men. Among other vessels that acquired a well-earned fame in the war were the Enterprise and Experiment, schooners of twelve guns each, which cap- tured many prizes among privateers and small war vessels . I should not omit to mention the sloop Sally, which went into the harbor of Puerto Plata, under command of First Lieuten ant Isaac Hull, and cut out the French letter of marque Sand wich from be neath the guns of a battery, which were spiked by MARTHA WASHINGTON (After the Stuart portrait} a party from the American vessel. By the time the prow of the Constellation was turned homeward I had been at sea nearly two years, not without advantage to myself. During that time I had matured in years and experience, so that I was no longer powder monkey, but commander of a gun in the forward port bat tery. I was wedded to the life, and would have chosen it for my own even if it had not offered me promise of success in the one great purpose that swayed me. TO SEA ON A QUEST 223 When we arrived at Philadelphia I was brought face to face with a bitter disappointment, and a great sorrow. As you may imagine, Ruth had in no wise departed from my thoughts in the stirring time I had been away. I had sent letters to her, and received _^- _ some replies; and during the entire homeward voyage I looked forward with a single mind to seeing her again. But when I came to Philadel phia she was not there. I cannot say even now which was the greater, my disap pointment in not find ing Ruth, or my sorrow in realizing that during my absence .death had called to his reward the Father of Our Country. The knowledge that the young republic was forever deprived of his guiding hand was in every sense a feel ing of personal loss to me. I am not one to revere him as the most saintly of his race, frailties and honor him as the deliverer of our country, and to this day I am stirred with resentment when I con sider the ingratitude shown him by many of his fellow- countrymen. How this man, who would rather have been on his farm than be emperor of the world, could have been charged with wanting to be a king is beyond me. The virulence of the time cannot be pleaded as an excuse GEORGE WASHINGTON (After the Stuart portrait) I love him for his human 224 VALOR & VICTORY for the personal abuse heaped upon him. No man ever served his country with purer and more unselfish motives; and yet such slanders had been daily heaped upon him that he was driven to such desperation as to say, "I had rather be in my grave than in my present situation." I was not long in learning that Ruth had gone into Virginia for a visit with kinsfolk, and that she would not return for two or three months. I was making my arrange ments to follow, when my immediate plans were broken by an opportunity to pursue my quest in the very way for which I had so long hoped and prayed. The frigate George Washington, Captain William Bainbridge, of forty-four guns, was making ready to sail for Algiers with tribute for the Bey, and I found that I could be taken along as gunner. Thinking only of what might be before me on such a voyage, I enlisted without a second thought, writing a letter to Ruth to tell her of my great good fortune, and to bid her farewell for the time. In the month of May I sailed into the east, toward the land where lay the mystery of my life) and one of the great hopes of my future. If I had known for how many years my search was to extend I should not have felt the radiant joy that buoyed me up as we sailed through the Capes of the Delaware; but I did not know and I was happy, for all that I had left Ruth behind. CHAPTER VI IN THE BARBARY STATES THE Barbary States, on the north coast of Africa, were then pirate states. The corsairs who sailed from them to loot vessels on the high seas were encouraged and protected by their several governments. In Tripoli, at least, piracy was a recog nized part of the national policy. All carrying countries were their prey, whose only safety lay in paying tribute to their rulers. This condition of affairs was largely encouraged by England, whose statesmen considered -it wise to permit corsairs to rob on the high seas that the mari time strength of the nations with which she was in competition might be weakened. Concerning the morality of England in this matter, I will say nothing, con tenting myself to present the facts. The United States, although pros pering among nations, had not yet WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE rr . , ., (From the painting grown sufficiently strong to strike into by j. w. Jaruis) that nest of vipers, but was obliged on the contrary to con tribute to the barbarians. The shame of it wore hard on the sailors and officers of the ships that bore tribute ; they were eager to make a stand for honor and honesty, but the time was not yet. 225 226 VALOR & VICTORY I was not the only man aboard the George Washington to whom the practices of the corsairs had come close home. There were several in our crew who had been captives among the Barbary pirates, or who had friends or kin at that time in such melancholy state. I heard many tales about the decks of the frigate that set my blood boiling, but I held my peace concerning my own interest in the matter, confiding only in Captain Bainbridge, who I hoped might be of service in assisting me in my search. Although he listened to my story with sympathetic interest, he could give me little encouragement, especially since I did not know the name of the man I sought, nor the circumstances of his captivity. Indeed, he made my quest seem more hopeless than ever. Nevertheless, I continued to hope, and it was with a throbbing heart that I at last saw, from the decks of the ship, the towers and minarets of Algiers. This was in September, 1800. Anchoring under the guns of the battery, we transferred the tribute to Mr. O'Brien, our consul at Algiers, to whom Captain Bainbridge told my story, re questing him to ascertain, if he could, whether any Ameri can now a prisoner in that country might be the one whom I wished to find. What steps he took I cannot say, for other matters came forward to crowd the private griefs of a common sailor from his attention. I doubt if he regarded the matter seriously, having heard many such tales and having experiences of the Dey which were of a nature to make any attempts to rescue my father seem futile and indiscreet. The events of which I speak arose from the state of affairs then existing between the Dey and the Grand Porte at Constantinople. Algiers, like the other Barbary States, was a conquered province and under tribute to the Porte, and the Dey had lately offended his master by making a treaty IN THE BARBARY STATES 227 of peace with France, at a time when Turkey and England were at war with Napoleon in Egypt. Anxious to appease the wrath of the Turk, the Dey demanded of Bainbridge that he go with the George Washington to Constantinople to carry presents from him to the Sultan, an errand which Captain Bainbridge at first indignantly refused to undertake, but which was forced upon him at last by the circumstance that our vessel lay under the guns of the battery and was threatened with destruction if the commander did not comply with the Dey's request. In this way it fell out that my private affairs were oblit erated by more weighty ones, and we set sail for Constanti nople before much at best could have been done. You may imagine my bitter disappointment, though I had already fallen into an attitude of mind toward my quest that took much of the bitterness out of the present miscarriage of my plans. We were well received in the oriental capital, although the Grand Porte was in a towering rage with the man who sent us, and returned a message that he must at once pro claim war against France or suffer punishment. This visit to Constantinople was one of the events of my life. When we re- sought to wreak his bringing message turned to Algiers f^ the Dey us for such a from BIRTHPLACE OF STEPHEN DECATUR THE YOUNGER, AT BERLIN, MARYLAND 228 VALOR & VICTORY the Sultan, but Captain Bainbridgc having anchored this time out of range of the batteries, his resentment was vain. He succeeded in enticing our captain ashore with many promises, and it would undoubtedly have gone hard with him had he not been pre sented by the Sultan at Constanti nople with a nrmin which he now dis played, bring ing the Dey to a friendly frame of mind with an alacrity that had in it something of the comical. Early in the year we set sail for Amer- STEPHEN DECATUR THE YOUNGER (After the Sully portrait) ICa, arriving when the summer was new. I found that a squadron had lately been dispatched for the Mediterranean, in the expecta tion that there would be trouble, and that the Essex would shortly follow under command of our present captain. Hearing this, although I had so recently come from the scene without accomplishing the least success in my pur pose, I was revived in hope, and forthwith enlisted in that frigate of war. So great was my haste to make sure of being taken back IN THE BARBARY STATES 229 that I attended to my enlistment before I made an effort to find Ruth. That was one of the most unhappy errors of my life; for there had lately been so much desertion from the vessel that a rule was in effect, which I did not know at the time, prohibiting shore leave for the crew. We sailed in a few days, without my having opportunity to do more than send my sweetheart a message, telling her what I had done. We had on board as first lieutenant Stephen Decatur the younger, a man with whom I had sailed before, and whom I had greatly admired because of his undaunted courage and coolness in every emergency. I may take this occasion to say that I do not believe there was ever in the history of all time a company of young men more brave, resourceful, and capable in the duties of marine warfare than the officers of our infant navy. There was not one of those who sailed to the Mediterranean in those years, or in the later years of our war with England, who was found wanting when the time came for his trial. Their deeds of daring and adven ture must always light the heart of an American with just pride. Being a gunner's mate in the first division, I was for tunate enough to attract the attention of this young lieutenant by the order and discipline that my experience enabled me to establish in my gun's crew, so that we came to as close a friendship as the etiquette of the navy permitted. To show the quality of the man, I must narrate an inci dent that befell us in Barcelona, where we landed in August. It illustrates those qualities that endeared him to all who ever served with him. While the Spanish officers of the town received us with much friendliness, there was in the harbor a Spanish xebec whose captain assumed quite a different attitude. One night, as Captain Bainbridge was returning from shore, this captain, in a most offensive man- 230 VALOR & VICTORY ner, ordered the gig to come alongside, and, when our captain refused, fired several musket shots at him. On the following evening Lieutenant Decatur, with whom I happened to be at the time, had a like experience. In the morning Decatur went aboard the xebec, and inquired for the officer who had been guilty of the insult. He was informed that the officer was not aboard. "Then tell him that Lieutenant Decatur, of the frigate Essex, pronounces him a cowardly scoundrel, and that when they meet on shore he will cut his ears off." The captain- general of the town was much disturbed when he heard of the challenge, for the officer of the xebec was a man of influential connections; but in the end the fellow was severely reprimanded and made ample apology. There after the officers of the Essex were treated with especial courtesy. Little of importance occurred during the summer, and I seemed as far from my goal as ever. The Dey of Algiers was brought to terms by the frigate President, and the Enterprise, Captain Sterett, with whom I had sailed in the Constellation, inflicted a blow on Tripoli by capturing a polacre of fourteen guns ; but the Essex did little more than cruise up and down, making a display for moral effect - if one can so characterize any effect made upon so wholly immoral a people. In the fall the President and the Enter prise sailed for the United States, leaving the Essex and the Philadelphia on the station. Captain Richard Valentine Morris came out the next spring in charge of a squadron which comprised eventually the Chesapeake, thirty-six guns, Lieutenant Isaac Chauncey; the Constellation, thirty-six guns, Captain Alexander Mur ray; the New York, thirty-six guns, Captain James Barren, two corvettes, commanded by Captains Hugh George Campbell and John Rodgers, respectively; and the IN THE BARBARY STATES 231 schooner Enterprise, twelve guns, Master-Commandant Andrew Sterett. My term of enlistment on the Essex soon expiring, I reenlisted on the Enterprise, choosing that vessel because its lighter draught made it more useful in the work we had on hand, it being the only vessel in the fleet that could run in close to shore; from which I argued THE HARBOR OF TRIPOLI that my chance to pursue my search would be better on her than on another. Of this I was heartily glad later, for in December Lieutenant Stephen Decatur was placed in com mand of her, succeeding Lieutenant Isaac Hull, who fol lowed Master-Commandant Sterett. Captain Morris was retired from command of the fleet by Congress in September, the reason assigned being that he was not qualified to carry on the conduct of the war; but for my part I have always thought there was some manner of politics behind his removal. He was succeeded by Captain Edward Preble, who was disliked and suspected 232 VALOR & VICTORY at first. He was from New Hampshire, while most of the officers were from the Middle and Southern States. He was a man of high temper and strict discipline, from which circumstances he got the soubriquet of "Old Pepper." But the men soon found that they had made a mistake in judging him, and he became deservedly popular. On October 29 the Philadelphia, Captain William Bain- bridge, following a chase too close inshore near the harbor THE Loss OF THE " PHILADELPHIA " (From an etching by J. F. Sabin, made after the drawing by Captain Hoff) of Tripoli, where she had been left to blockade the port, ran on a reef and was captured by the enemy. Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, were taken captive, the officers being confined in the Bashaw's castle, while the men were set to work on the ships and fortifications of the Tri poli tans. Among the officers were many who later achieved fame in our war with England, -Lieutenant David Porter, whose career in the Essex in Pacific waters continues to be a marvel among naval men; Jacob Jones, afterward captain of the Frolic in her fight with the Wasp; James Biddle, commander of the Hornet in her fight with the Penguin: and Daniel Tod Patterson, who commanded the naval IN THE BARBARY STATES 233 force in the fight before New Orleans. The unlucky frigate was subsequently floated by the Tripolitans and brought into the harbor, where she was anchored, forming a strong reinforcement to the defenses of the place. The loss of the frigate and her officers and men was a serious blow to the fleet, both morally and physically. Many plans were made to rescue the prisoners, who managed to communicate with Captain Preble, and to retrieve the loss of the vessel. A scheme was at last hit upon to accomplish the latter object. In the December following the loss of the frigate the Enterprise captured a Tripolitan ketch, the Mastico. Early in the winter of 1804 Captain Preble and some of the lieu tenants of the fleet conceived the idea that this vessel could be used to steal into the harbor of Tripoli and destroy the frigate. Accordingly, the ketch was prepared and sent out from Syracuse, where we lay, on the hazardous errand. Lieutenant Decatur was given command of her, with Lieu tenant James Lawrence second in command. The crew was taken from the men of the Enterprise, through which circumstance I became one of the number. We sailed from Syracuse accompanied by the brig Siren, Lieutenant Stewart, to back up the expedition and cover the retreat of the ketch. We were laden with combustibles, the plan being to steal on the frigate under pretence of being a merchant craft, take it by boarding, fire it, and retreat to sea, depending for our safety upon surprise in the attack. Arriving off Tripoli early in February, 1804, we explored and made soundings preparatory to the adventure, but a storm coming up drove us to sea, where we tossed for a week* in great discomfort and some danger, there being a numerous crew aboard, and the vessel not having been built for a heavy sea. On the ninth of the month we were again at the harbor 234 VALOR & VICTORY entrance, which we passed by the east channel in the early evening. Decatur and six of the crew were dressed as Maltese for the purpose of concealing our identity. The rest of the crew hid below, or along the gunwales, where the shadows would conceal them. I was one of those dressed in disguise who remained about the decks. It was evening and quite dusk when we drew into the harbor, Lieutenant Decatur having set drags astern to retard our progress without shortening sail. I shall not readily forget my sensations as we approached the frigate, sur rounded by gunboats and brigs-of-war, and lying under the guns of the castle batteries. It seemed like going into the jaws of death, and I confess that if it had not been for the undaunted courage of Decatur I should have lost heart over the outcome. As it was, I was filled with many somber reflections, thinking much of Ruth, and of my father. As we approached close to the vessel, with the wind slackening and a deep hush over the water, there came a hail of shot from the frigate and a demand to know who we were. The pilot, Salvatore Catalano, a Maltese, in structed by Decatur, answered that we were a Maltese fruit vessel, explaining that we had lost our anchors, and desired to make fast to the frigate's chains until morning. The request was grumblingly granted, and we drew near. Our situation, dangerous at best, soon grew critical; for the wind, which had been dying away, fell almost entirely, so that we merely crept through the water. Nevertheless, taking our cue from Decatur, who lounged by the wheel in his Maltese dress, we kept up a brave pretence of being 'fruit carriers of the Mediterranean. But I shall never for get the anxiety of those who lay concealed along the bul warks as we crept closer and closer with the dying wind; for they could neither see what was happening nor be in formed by us. DECATUR TAKING THE "PHILADELPHIA" IN THE BAY OF TRIPOLI: LORD NEL SON CHARACTERIZED THIS EXPLOIT AS THE MOST DARING ACT OF THE AGE (From the drawing by Freeland A. Carter) IN THE BARBARY STATES 237 Coming closer still, and beginning to drift under the guns of the frigate, which were double-shotted and could have blown us into the air with one broadside, Lieutenant Decatur ordered me and another, a sailor, to take a line to the frigate's bow. We got the boat over, stowed the line, and made it fast to the ring bolt in the frigate, well forward. As we were returning, a new danger threatened; for the Tripolitan officer in command, desiring us to come astern, sent out a small boat toward our vessel with a line, which, if it should reach us, would discover our real characters. With rare presence of mind, Decatur ordered us to intercept the boat and relieve the men in her of the line; which we did, thanking them pro fusely in the Lingua Franca and assuring them that they need trouble themselves no further. Meanwhile the men on the deck were hauling in on the forward line, assisted by those hidden behind the J DAVID PORTER (From the gunwales, who reached up and over- etching by H. B. Hail) handed the rope from their concealment. We were pro ceeding well, when there was an excitement on the frigate, some one having seen the anchors on our forecastle, which we had just said we had lost. In the next moment there was a cry of " Americanos, Americanos!" and a great scurrying and bustle among the Turks. The ketch swarmed instantly with men, those who had been hidden leaping to their feet and running aft with the 23 8 VALOR & VICTORY line, dragging the little craft through the water at a lively gait. In a trice we were abreast the main chains, and about to grapple, when a sailor on the frigate, perceiving our line to the bow, leapt upon the martingale and cut it with three strokes of his scimitar. The act would have been fatal to our plans and ourselves if the ketch had not already gath- LlEUTENANT DAVID PORTER'S ATTACK ON THE CORSAIRS IN THE HARBOR Oi TRIPOLI (From the drawing by Captain Hoff) ered such way that she continued to bear in upon the frigate until we could grapple and make fast. "Boarders, away!" shouted Decatur, leaping into the main chains, cutlass in hand, followed by Lieutenants Morris and Laws and by the entire crew, save those left behind to watch the ketch, and pass up the combustibles. Laws was first on deck, and Decatur, who had slipped his footing, followed him. But there was little difference in the time of arrival between the first and the last. ,In a moment we were swarming aboard, cutlasses drawn, driving the Turks ahead of us. There was no firing, the order being to use only cutlass and boarding pike, so that there would be no unnecessary alarm ashore. Forming in a line, we swept forward, striking down those IN THE BARBARY STATES 239 who opposed, silent, resistless, awful to our foes. We heard them leaping overboard, where they were intercepted in large numbers by two small boats from the Mastico. Many ran below to hide in the hold; some who came from below leapt through the gun ports into the water to avoid us. Ten minutes after we were first discovered to be Ameri canos, we were in control of the ship. Decatur would have made the attempt to cut her out and bring her back to the fleet, if he had not been peremp torily forbidden to do so by Captain Preble. As it was, there was nothing to be done but to destroy her, at least to the point of preventing her from being of further service to the enemy. The combustibles were handed up and placed about the ship, the word given to put them afire, and soon smoke was pouring from hatch and port. Ordering the men back into the ketch, Decatur waited until certain that the fire was well started, when he too started to follow. When he came to the side of the frigate, the ketch, which had already been cast off forward, was drifting away. Running along the Philadelphia's quarter deck until he was abreast the rigging, he leapt into it and so came down to the deck. By this time the flames were whirling through the gun ports and lapping up the rigging. There was momentary danger that she would blow up, or that her guns, double- shotted, would be discharged by the heat and would damage us. The guns of the batteries ashore, meanwhile, were be ginning to fire, the alarm having been given, either through some of the enemy's sailors who had escaped, or through observation of the unusual commotion on board the frigate, easily visible from the batteries. We were making ready to put off, the men were at the sweeps and Catalano at the tiller, when it was discovered that something held us against the side of the burning 240 VALOR & VICTORY frigate. Every moment brought the inevitable blowing up of the vessel nearer; the harbor was stirring into action under the alarm, which spread rapidly; flames were already curling out of the after ports, against which the sails of the nttin ketch were slatting. One tongue of flame shot past me and into the cabin window, where it lapped about the tar paulin that covered all our ammunition. I did not cry out; I did not stir. That much control was still left me. But I shut my eyes, in momentary expec tation of the end, thinking of my two loved ones. When I opened them, I saw Lieu tenant Decatur and some others engaged at the stern of the ketch; and in a moment she swung free. With that cool calm NAPOLEON BONAPARTE which never deserted him in any extremity, Decatur had observed that the line brought to us from the frigate and made fast at our stern had been forgotten, and still held us. He and some others severed it with cutlasses, freeing our craft from the flaming monster. Released from that imminent disaster, we all breathed more freely as we swept out into the harbor, neglecting in large measure the risk we still ran ; for the harbor was now alight with the flames from the vessel, making us a fair mark for the guns of the batteries. Whether it was excess of rage IN THE BARBARY STATES 241 "jfe*Mb against us, or some degree of superstitious awe in which the gunners held us, I cannot say, but in all the cannonade only one shot came near. Rowing with vigor, we gained a position beyond the zone of fire, where the men rested on their oars to watch the last act of the drama we had set afoot. Flames were bursting now from port and hatch, curling into the night. Above the beautiful frig ate spouted a torrent of ruddy smoke, interspersed with sparks and embers. The double- THE BIRTHPLACE OF NAPOLEON AT CORSICA shotted guns were discharging now at frequent intervals, loosening swarms of sparks with each detonation. The rigging was a vivid fretwork of fire, twisting and sputtering along the tarred ropes and cordage. As we looked, the whole ship lifted out of the water in a mass of red flames, swift and streaked ; a mighty roar deafened us ; a whiff of hot air passed our cheeks. The Philadelphia had blown up. Fluttering in the night, the light died away. Silently, but in triumph, we rowed through the northern entrance of the harbor, where we were joined by the Siren and con voyed back to the fleet; heroes, it would seem, forevermore. CHAPTER VII DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE A DMIRAL NELSON of the British navy pronounced JL\. our exploit "the most bold and daring act of the age," and the news of it caused prodigious rejoicing in the fleet. Until this time our fleet could accomplish little against the port of Tripoli, because of shallow waters in front of the place and the numerous gunboats of the enemy. But now there joined us six gunboats and two bomb vessels, which had been lent us by the King of the Two Sicilies. With this reinforcement, Commodore Preble attempted a series of direct attacks upon the town. Five times the gun boats of the squadron en gaged those of the enemy with varying degrees of success, the Constitution coming up each time to bombard the batteries and the town. In each affair the Tripoli tans were HORATIO, ADMIRAL. LORD NELSON portrait) (From the Hoppner 242 DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 243 driven from their guns with heavy loss; but as they num bered 25,000 men our blows could make little permanent impression on them. These operations lasted through the month of August. Early in September an expedient was resorted to for damag ing the enemy's fleet, the execution of which was accompa nied with so much more danger than the one we had engaged in, and which was so much more daring, that I blush when those who fired the Philadelphia receive more praises from their countrymen. I speak of the plan to make a fire- ship of the Mastico, rechristened the In trepid since our ad venture in her, and to blow Up the fleet of EDWARD PREBLE gunboats inside the harbor. She was prepared by pouring a hundred barrels of gunpowder into a room forward, from which a fuse was led to a room aft, where a quantity of combustibles was stored. On the deck above the powder was placed upward of a hundred shells, and a quantity of old iron and such kentledge. The intention was to run her into the harbor with a picked crew, under guise of being a merchant craft slipping past the blockade then come among the fleet, and (From the portrait in Faneuil Hall, Boston] 244 VALOR & VICTORY fire the after compartment, the crew escaping by means of two cutters. Lieutenant Richard Somers received the honor of com manding the expedition. Second in command was Henry Wads worth, whose nephew and namesake, Longfellow, is now one of our most promising young poets, and Joseph Isaacs, who concealed himself aboard. They took with them a crew of ten men, each of whom understood fully that they would never be taken alive. I, having been on the previous expedition, was not privileged to go. Their departure marked a moment of solemnity and sad ness in the crews from which they were taken. Each man before leaving divided his belongings among his friends and left final messages. Somers, parting from Decatur and Stewart, with whom he was on terms of the dearest friend ship, broke in three pieces a ring he wore, giving to each a piece and retaining the third for himself. What courage is more affecting than that which enables men to go freely to a foreknown doom? The Intrepid sailed in a night full of mist; and the mist into which she disappeared through the entrance of the har bor of Tripoli still envelops the fate that befell her crew. We who had waited outside for the return of the cutters only know that after she had been lost to sight for a space we heard the sound of firing, and presently saw a light, appar ently borne along the deck of a vessel, which vanished in a twinkling. In the next moment the heavens burst with a mighty roar, and the sky streamed fire. We knew then that the ketch had blown up. From what we could ascertain afterward, we guessed that Somers, going aground in the channel and finding that he was about to fall into the enemy's hands, deliberately went into the powder room with a light and fired the magazine. One of the enemy's gunboats was sunk, and two crippled. THE "CONSTITUTION" "OLD IRONSIDES" IN THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD, SHOWING BUNKER HILL MONUMENT IN THE BACKGROUND (From a photograph by Baldwin Coolidge) DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 247 Meanwhile, the government continued to increase the force of the navy in the Mediterranean until we had a respectable fleet of war vessels assembled in those waters. The command passed to Captain James Barron, who after ward released it to John Rodgers, returning to America because of ill health. Activities at sea were now confined to two expeditions, one against Tunis and the other one of which I shall presently speak. The Bey of Tunis, urged on probably by England, became insolent about the time we were bombarding Tripoli. Captain Rodgers, hearing of it through the American consul, Mr. Davis, repaired thither with thirteen war- vessels, and informed the Bey that he had thirty-six hours in which to conform to terms of peace proposed by Captain Rodgers. The ultimatum, backed by the powerful fleet, had a salutary effect. The Bey com plied, and in September the Congress, Captain Stephen Decatur in command, sailed for Washington, bearing a Tunisian minister to the United States. The other affair was an intrigue between Mr. William Eaton, formerly our consul at Tunis, and Hamet Kara mauli, brother of Jussuf Karamauli, Bashaw of Tripoli and pretender to the throne. Mr. Eaton induced Hamet to organize an army and move against Tripoli in cooperation with the American fleet. The army, a motley array of oriental and Christian adventurers, moved across the desert upon Derne, the capital of the richest province of Tripoli, led by Mr. Eaton and Hamet Karamauli, Derne being taken with the assistance of part of the fleet under Master-Commandant Isaac Hull. Hamet asked for an additional supply of ammunition, which Hull refused him, telling him that if his claim was good, he ought now to be able to enlist enough help from the people of the province to make it possible for him to march against Tripoli. Although he failed in this, the internal disturbance 248 VALOR & VICTORY combined with the external attacks of the Americans fright ened the Bashaw into a disposition for peace. On the third of June, 1805, he signed a treaty relinquishing all future claim to tribute from the United States, and agreeing to ex change his prisoners for the Tripolitans we had taken, and a ransom of $60,000 ; terms consid ered more fa vorable than could have been hoped for. My feelings when I learned that _ the American ALGIERS, FROM THE SEA captives in Tripoli were to be surrendered can be imagined. Al though the time of exchange was predicated upon the rati fication of the treaty and payment of the ransom, and was therefore postponed, I arranged through Captain Rodgers, to whom I told my story, to go ashore and make inquiries, to ascertain whether there might be one among them who might prove to be my father. But though I searched dili gently, with the assistance of the consul and the indulgence of a man high in official circles in Tripoli, I learned nothing of comfort ; so that it was with a heavy heart that I turned my face once more toward the west, when the Enterprise sailed for America. Now I come to a part of my story which has always seemed to partake of the nature of tragedy; though there is in it grim humor too. Among the sailors whom we ex changed, and who came aboard our vessel that he might DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 249 be with a mate whom he had formerly known, was an Irishman named O'Brien. He had been one of the Phila delphia's crew. Not to omit any chance to make inquiries for my father, I fell into an acquaintance with O'Brien, and we soon became as close friends as the difference in our station aboard ship would permit, I now being a midship man. He told me many tales, and at last the tale which made the tragedy to which I have referred. It was in mid- Atlantic, on a soft night, with a fresh free breeze and a pretty sea, that he told me. We were lounging in the waist of the schooner, talking desultorily of our past experiences. " And 't is not the first time ever I was in the hands of them savages," he said to me, after a pause following an anecdote of his life in Tripoli. "So?" said I. "Was it in Tripoli, that other time?" "It was not," said he. "It was in Algiers, and lucky I was to come out of there, too, after a good two years spent as a slave for the blackamoors, for I might tell ye of one who had been already there for fifteen long years, and may still be there, for all I know; he being already half Turk." His words started a strange thrill within me, which I was at great pains to dissemble, for I did not wish to startle him from the story, a thing I had learned was easily done by any appearance of urging him to talk. "Do you mean that the man had lost his nationality and was being assimi lated by the Algerians?" I asked, by the way. "Assimilated or not I don't know," replied O'Brien, looking at me beneath his brows; "but true to tell, he was half Turk then, as I have said." "Didn't he want to get back to his own country?" I went on, still with a show of indifference. "Was there no one to whom he wished to return?" "There was not," said O'Brien; "and thereby hangs my tale, if you would hear it." 250 VALOR & VICTORY I took out my chronometer, pretending to look at it, before I answered. "I should like to listen to it, O'Brien, if it is not too long." "Well, then, we '11 have it; for 't is a likely yarn, and one for such a night as this on a homeward voyage," he returned. "I first saw him about the palace of the Dey, where I was laying up a stone wall, being among other things handy with a trowel. He was a sort of an overseer, as I learned afterward from his own tongue; for he was ready with figures and sharp to look about him. He was come to see that the wall went up right. "I took him for one of the heathen, getting but a glimpse of him above my shoulder as I worked; but betimes, when he stood hanging behind me with never a word, I turned to gaze full upon him, being minded to pass a compliment or two upon him for his impudence in staring so. Then I saw that I was mistaken, and that the man was white. A sizable man he was, too, with a fine Christian face, but one that might have been a thousand years on earth, by the look. "'So 't is you, then?' says I, nonplussed to see he was not a Turk. 'You should have better care with your dress lest a Christian mistake ye for a Turk, as I have. " "'Are you from America?' says he, abrupt like. "'Ay, mate, and a long way from,' says I. 'Maybe you are the same?' "He shook his head, and smiled a smile that made me wish to weep in his long white hair. 'I was, once,' says he. '"I am pleased to know as much, for it makes ye seem still less like a Turk,' says I. 'And how long may it be since ye came to this port?' "'Near fourteen years,' said he. "' Glory be!' says I. ' 'T is a cheerful prospect for my- DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 251 self. But how comes it ye stay so long, and wear the gear of a Turk ? Have you no love for your land ? ' At that he smiled, for which I was sad; for it was like the sorrows of the wide world when he smiled; but it roused him, as I thought it would. ' Think you I stay here for my ; own pleasure?' he asked me, indignant like. "'I think nothing at all, only that it is a strange thing for a man to be here so long, when the United States is so handy about buying ransoms,' says I. "'I am forgotten, I tell you,' says he. "'Am I an old woman, that ye talk to me in riddles?' says I. 'How can it be that a man is forgotten?' "' Fourteen years ago,' says he, looking afar, and coming at last to the tale; 'fourteen years ago I set sail from Boston with my son, a lad of two years. His mother had died when he was an infant, and w r e were left alone in the western world; I was engaged in commerce with others. It came about that one of us must make a voyage to France, and I, being sick at heart and in need of new scenes, was chosen. There was no one with whom I might leave my lad, and I took him with me. '"He was a likely lad, with a bright face and eyes out of which his mother's soul looked at me. He played about the ship, the idol of the sailors, who took him aloft with them in fair weather, and made much of him, he being manly and brave beyond belief.' He wiped a tear from his eye as he spoke, and, praise be, so did I. Sure, to be a slave and childless and forgotten there among those raven ing Turks was enough to make any man weep. "'All went well,' says he, continuing, 'until we were near the coast of France, when we were attacked by a corsair. When the pirates were approaching, I took my boy, my baby, and concealed him in a cuddy in the captain's cabin, hoping to keep him from harm. We made a bitter fight for 252 VALOR & VICTORY our freedom, killing many of the pirates; but they were too strong for us in the end. I myself was struck by a scimitar before it was over, and when I recovered my senses we were aboard the corsair, with no other sail in sight. "'There were a score or more of the sailors and passen gers aboard, the others having been slain in the struggle. I wondered that they had brought me, wounded as I was, instead of pitching me over the side, as was their habit, until the captain of our vessel told me that he himself had prevailed upon the corsair to save me, telling him that I was a man of con sequence, whose ransom would be worth while. I inquired among them for my boy. They had forgotten him in the confusion; he was left alone on the deserted vessel, hidden in the dark cuddy. " 'God help me, what misery was mine! What torture have I not endured in the weary years since then, picturing his slow death on that awful ship! Alone on the wide seas! Creeping from his hiding-place to call my name among the dead on the decks of that horrible ship! Alone in the dark night, with the dead about him, weeping, seeking me, crying out my name! " 'Great God, why have I not been bereft of my senses. A TROPICAL GARDEN IN ALGIERS DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 253 that I might forget this terrible thing? I see his piteous face before me in the night ; silent places echo with his despairing cry. I see the terror in his eyes; the eyes out of which his mother's soul looked into mine. I see him weak, perishing " 'Come, now,' says I laying hand on him, seeing he went too far for his own good, let alone mine. 'Ye see noth ing of the kind. 'T was near the coast of France, ye say? Belike he is a good sized Frenchman by this time, mate; for 't is not long that any manner of a ship can drift up and down the seas near the coast of France, acting strange, with out being boarded by some manner of seafaring men, most like to be French. Come, have cheer, my hearty, for 't will not be so bad as ye think for.' With that I struck him rough upon the shoulder to rouse him. "Whether it was that I recalled him to himself, or whether he repented having laid bare his aching soul to the eyes of an Irishman, I have no way of knowing, but true it is that he became straightway calm. 'I was very bitter with them; both the men of our ship, captives now, and the pirates, for what had happened,' he went on, 'so that I in curred their displeasure; and when we came to Algiers my captors, finding me not a man of consequence, as they had thought, sold me into bondage in the interior. Many long years I was far from the coast, and beyond the reach of my countrymen. That is how it is that I came to be forgotten. And when I returned to Algiers He broke off. ' What manner of difference does it make whether I am here or else where?' He made an end. " 'It makes the difference that there is between a Chris tian and a Turk,' said I. 'Have you never told your tale to the consul here?" " 'I have told my tale to no one but you,' he answered. "And you, O'Brien?" I asked, composing myself with an effect "Did you not tell the consul?" 254 VALOR & VICTORY "That I did not," replied the fellow, "for 't was no affair of mine if a Christian has a desire to turn Turk." "And then?" I suggested. "And then, there was no more ; for my stomach turned against the man to think of his turning Turk, and I fell to my work. By the same token, 't is fit I should take my watch below." With that he left me alone in the waist of the ship alone with the story he had told me of this man, whom I knew in my heart to be my father. I spoke no more with O'Brien during the voyage, turning against the man because he had not saved my father with a word to the consul. I spoke little to any one, although I made a bold show about my accustomed duties. All the weary way across the waters I brooded with a heavy heart, trying to think clearly to an end, trying to plan. At last we landed in Philadelphia. I was still like one in a stupor, not knowing whither to turn my next step. Walking up the street, I passed a tavern. I turned back; I would stop for a glass of wine; I must find time to think; I would try again to arrive at some course of action. It was not my custom to drink, except on occasion. It was THE PORT OF ALGIERS DANGERS, AND A GLASS OF WINE 255 not with a purpose of drinking that I turned back to the tavern now. It was only to find time to think. If I had known what it was to cost; if I had known whither my feet led me then, I would have stricken them from my limbs, and the tongue from my mouth, rather than turn back as I did. BOOK III THE SECOND WAR CHAPTER I THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS ANY one with half an eye could have seen that some thing was wrong with the dinner party, and that it was not the viands or the wines. The host, Mr. James Madison, secretary of state, sat uneasily in his seat at the head of the table, clearly apprehensive of some impending disaster. Senator Fontaine Stevens of Massachusetts, taking refuge behind his chest, from which vantage-point he emitted occasional platitudes, was neither imposing nor happy ; while Cyril Thwaite, member of the house from Massachusetts, was making not the least attempt to conceal his frame of mind, dividing his time exclusively between looking down his nose in fuming silence and addressing himself sotto voce to Leonora, the senator's daughter. As for the women of the party, little more can be said except that women by nature are better equipped than men to carry off an unnatural situation with convincing effect. Yet even the hostess, Dolly Madison, wife of the secretary, was for once at a loss. Her beauty, her charm, her sim plicity, her naivete, were still about her, but they lacked the vital spark; they were not spontaneous. As a matter of truth, Mrs. Madison was palpably conscious of herself in relation to her surroundings; a condition unusual in her. The senator's wife, fully aware of the electrical charge in the atmosphere, was making glorious efforts to abet the hostess, 256 MISTRESS DOLLY MADISON (From the portrait by Alonzo Chappell] THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 259 alternately endeavoring to entice her husband from behind his chest and to suggest a pattern for the speech of her daughter, who, having had advantages, was weaving a fabric of conversation highly embroidered but not in much present demand. The only one of the party who was both at ease and show ing an intelligent appreciation of the purpose of the dinner was Nicholas Snell, who, coming uninvited at the last mo ment, had been interjected into the company by the host, always a Virginia gentleman. Snell ate and drank and talked without fear or favor; over-indulging a little in all three activities, perhaps; addressing the host as secretary and the senator as such with an easiness that did more credit to Mr. Madison's wine than to his own breeding; patronizing the disgruntled representative, and including the ladies in his remarks when he held them to be of feminine interest. In brief, and to use a term, he was the life of the party, which, as has been suggested, was rather an unhealthy party in the matter of enjoyment. Snell was a social, political, and moral anomaly. He had come to Washington on the political omnibus conducted by Aaron Burr, one of the large following that leader had gathered about him. He had been deep in the conspiracy having for its object the election of Burr to the presidency when there was a tie between him and Jefferson in the elec toral vote of 1800, and had continued to be a friend of Burr's through many things, including the duel with Hamilton. Then he slipped from his seat on the Burr omnibus and delivered himself, bound and placarded, to President Jeffer son, as being one who conducted a more trustworthy vehicle. The President, recognizing in Snell a man with a facility of acquiring information, and a discretion in imparting it, had received him into a certain favor; whence it followed that he was welcome at the house of the secretary of state, and 260 VALOR & VICTORY that his ring at the bell had procured him admission, even on the inauspicious occasion of the dinner party. There was one other present at the dinner who must not be omitted from mention. It was a young woman, dark, pensive, and with just enough sadness in her eyes to mellow and make them beautiful, and just enough of quiet reserve THE INTERIOR OF MONTICELLO to arouse a man. Her name was Ruth Gardner. She was the orphaned daughter of a distant kinsman of the secretary, who had recently come to live with him. She did not seem to feel so ill at ease as most of the others about the table, but it was more prepossession than self-possession that saved her. The chances for creating mental disturbance on this occasion were many and mixed. In the first place, it was a love feast, a peace offering, to which he had come unin vited, unexpected, and, perhaps, unintentionally; and love feasts, as every one knows, are likely at best to be in a state of delicate equilibrium. This love feast was for the placa- THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 261 tion of Senator Stevens and Representative Thwaite. The senator, originally a Federalist, had long been wavering toward Jefferson and Republicanism, being himself by birth a Virginian, with Virginia sympathies and habits of thought, and being furthermore a frank, honest soul not below changing his convictions. Representative Thwaite was a hot Federalist, reactionary to an extreme, and a fiery fighter against Jefferson on the floor of the house. It had been hinted that by careful handling these two men might be inducted into the Republican fold; and Madison, acting on the inspiration, had them to dinner to see what could be accomplished. It is fair to state that the secretary's wife was not a party to the plot, further than lay in the circumstance that she placed Representative Thwaite, the incorrigible, by the side of Leonora, the sena tor's daughter. It illuminates the character of Snell to observe that he was not deterred from indulging his whim to make ^- ~~~ ^ trouble MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON 262 VALOR & VICTORY by any sense of loyalty to the President. For material from which he might construct a satisfactory situation, Snell had at hand a several and individual hatred held against him by Stevens and Thwaite, each for reasons of his own. Stevens despised him on general principles of fair play, for the part he had taken in the Burr intrigue for the Presi dency; and Thwaite detested him for a suspected complicity in the Burr- Hamilton duel. The Hamilton-Burr affair is ca pable of much latitude in interpretation. The clouds of partisan wrath have not yet evaporated from its details, and the outlines of the truth are hard to unfog. Certain it is that Burr and Hamilton, by temperament and circum stance, were for many years insatiable enemies. Certain it is that each sought to undo the other politically; that Hamilton did not spare Burr with pen or tongue; that Burr, whipped at last, challenged Hamilton for certain expressions he had let fall, and killed him under the Heights of Wee- hawken in July, 1804. How much of the opprobrium that attaches to the mem ory of Burr is due to the duel with Hamilton is wholly matter of conjecture. Whether he would be so harshly reprobated for it by posterity if his personal history, precedent and subsequent to the episode, had been different, can well be doubted. The fact stands, however, that the victor in the fight was much cried out upon, and was indicted in New York and New Jersey. He fled to Philadelphia, but soon appeared on the public stage again when, with character- THE SPOT WHERE HAMILTON FELL AT WEE- HAWKEN THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 263 istic effrontery, he presided over the senate during the impeachment proceedings brought by John Randolph, at Jefferson's instigation, against Samuel Chase of the supreme court, Burr being vice-president until the spring of 1805, when George Clinton succeeded him. Thence he went a journey through the West, traveling as far as New Orleans, stopping to pay his respects on the way to local celebrities, among them Andrew Jackson. He returned to St. Louis, and to Philadelphia; which brings us back to the dinner party in the house of the secretary of state on an autumn day in the year of 1805; and which brings Burr's shadow back with us. For Thwaite, casting his eye for once beyond his nose, inquired of Snell, with mock interest and a hard tang to his voice, where his friend was in hiding at that time. " Congressman," answered Snell, jovially enough, with a relish for the trace of hostility he detected in the other's voice, "I have no friend who is in hiding at present; and, so far as I know, no friend who need be in hiding." "I beg your pardon, Mr. Snell," Thwaite returned, with increasing sarcasm, "I perceive I have used the term ill- advisedly. You will, I hope, condone the inadvertence as a natural error, and will doubtless agree with me that I had some ^^fifllHBH^B^^^^ reason to THE DUEL BETWEEN BURR AND HAMILTON 264 VALOR & VICTORY suppose that one who had so actively interested himself in Mr. Burr's affairs on numerous occasions would not resent being characterized as his friend when his fortunes turned." The secretary of state looked from Thwaite to Snell in some alarm; the women failed lamentably at the juncture, ceasing entirely from the chatter of their small talk to await the reply; Senator Stevens prepared to emerge from his chest to join in the fray. But Snell only laughed. "I did not know whom you meant," he said. " Mr. Burr, we are informed, has lately returned to Phil adelphia after a voyage through the West and down the river to New Orleans," said Mr. Madison, perceiving that Thwaite's inquiry left an effect upon the aroused expecta tions of the company that must be countered. "You say, Mr. Madison, that you are informed," repeated Thwaite, with a significant emphasis on the word. " Are we to infer from that that the government is following the movements of the late vice-president?" The secretary of state moved uneasily in his chair, dis comfited by the intrusiveness of the question, but unwilling to rebuke the man he desired to propitiate. "I can scarcely understand why the government should," he answered eva sively. "I did not know but that it might be considered both proper and wise on the part of the government to watch a man who has repeatedly expressed his contempt for the Constitution and the Union," returned Thwaite; "whose friendship with Merry, the British minister, is a matter of common notoriety; who endeavored by a trick to steal the highest office under the government; who murders his enemies; and who even now returns from a trip the sole purpose of which was to prepare for a coup that he contem plates against the integrity of the government." "You have forgotten to mention one crime in your list," THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 265 interrupted Snell, with a grin. "You have forgotten to say that he refused once to make a league and covenant with New England Federalists." The thrust was a savage one, bearing a reference to a transaction projected by certain of Thwaite's own school of Federalists when Burr was governor of New York, by which they hoped to bring New York into a confederation of Eastern States separate from the Union. Thwaite, pretending to ignore the interruption the flush of anger and chagrin on his cheeks showed with how much success continued to Mr. Madison. "Perhaps it is because the President would hesitate to take any steps in the matter, lest his actions be misconstrued as inspired by spite against a fallen rival," he sneered, turning his anger into irony, for which, being young, he had zest. Silence followed his words; a moment of anxious sus pense, for he struck close to the host at whose table he sat when he twitted the President with a jealous fear of Burr. Madison, laboring for a space with confusion, answered cautiously, still endeavoring to keep the New Englander within bounds without offending him. "It would have been impossible for the rumors concerning Mr. Burr's activities to have escaped the ears of those in authority," he said, choosing to revert to the first part of Thwaite's speech and neglect his final rudeness; "but no official cognizance has been accorded them, so far as I am able to say." "Do you mean that the government is sitting com placently by without paying any attention to the reports that are ringing through the city?" he cried. Mr. Madison raised his eyes to meet those of the fiery young Yankee. "If you ask me whether the government is allowing itself to be made a dupe, I shall answer no," he replied. "If you ask me what the government is doing in the matter, I must plead the high privilege of my office in declining to tell you, Mr. Thwaite." 266 VALOR & VICTORY As though he would save Thwaite from the discomfiture of facing the reproof of the secretary before the undivided attention of the company, Snell ventured at this point upon a question, apparently idle and only by way of creating a diversion. " Mr. Thwaite," he asked, "you say that Mr. Burr has been through the South, and is even now in Philadelphia?" "I am so in formed," he returned, un consciously following the words of Mr. Madison. "You are so informed," re joined Snell, in turn mocking Thwaite' s rep etition of their ALEXANDER HAMILTON (From the portrait' by Trumbull in the New York Chamber of Commerce) USC. prCVlOUS ' ' TV) en vmi really did not need to ask me about my friend, did you, if you knew he was in Philadelphia, and not in hiding?" There was nothing bitter in the remark, but Thwaite winced under a sense of being discovered in a disadvantage. "I merely wished my information to be verified," he ex plained. THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 267 "A very good custom to adopt," suggested Snell. "If you would follow it more closely, you might be spared the humiliation of making ridiculous and outrageous charges against citizens of the country who take enough interest in their land to travel about and take a look at it.' 7 There was no heat or malice in the speech; it was cold and dis passionate, which made it the more punishing. Dolly Madison, startled by the look that came into the face of the Federalist, essayed to lead the talk away. "Mr. ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S TOMB IN TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK Burr is forgiven much by me," she said, playfully, "for it was through him that I first met Mr. Madison, in Phila delphia, when Mr. Madison was congressman like yourself, Mr. Thwaite," but the beast of discord would not be made captive. There was a moment's lull in which the voices of the women chirruped briskly, as they hopped about the crumb of gossip Dolly Madison had let fall, but with a lack of spirit strange in the circumstances, and suggestive of the song of birds that have returned North too early in the spring. It was the senator from Massachusetts who destroyed all 268 VALOR & VICTORY hope of peace, incidentally tearing into shreds an elaborate skein of words his daughter was shuttling into the unhearing ears of Cyril Thwaite. "Mr. Madison," he said, heavily, "I have frequently marveled at the gracious spirit of our President, and admired his generosity of soul; but I was never so strongly impressed with his magnanimity as I have been this after noon." Pausing, he looked significantly at Nicholas Snell. "In the bigness of his heart he finds it possible to entertain close relations of confidence with one who, five years ago, was actively conspiring against his high interests, and who even now is ready to make a defense of Mr. Jefferson's and the country's most dangerous enemy. I only hope his charity does not wholly obscure his wisdom." Snell, to the great relief of the company, wholly ignored the wanton attack. But Thwaite, smarting with his hurts, irritated beyond control, took up the words of his colleague to turn them against the President, always a fair game for his school of Federalism. "I might suggest," he said, "that Mr. Jefferson may be able to understand a change of heart in the faithful that would be quite incomprehensible to others, having exhibited a facility in readjusting his own principles of conduct to shifting circumstance, quite out of the ordinary." "To what do you refer, Mr. Thwaite?" asked Secretary Madison, displeased, and challenging the charge. Thwaite, realizing that he had permitted his anger against Snell to betray him into an act of unpardonable rudeness toward his host, answered with much confusion that he had in mind the purchase of Louisiana by Jefferson in 1803. The purchase of the territory of Louisiana from France was the most important act of Jefferson's presidential career. The territory extended from the Gulf to British America, and from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. That it THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 269 must prove of immense intrinsic value was foreseen by public men; but the immediate incentive of its purchase was its strategic importance. In the hands of Spain it had more than once threatened the peace between the two countries; for the settlers in the Mississippi Valley, in Tennessee, and in Kentucky had no other outlet than New Orleans. In 1800 the territory was transferred by Spain to France. Knowledge of the transfer NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH 270 VALOR & VICTORY BAS-RELIEF FROM LOUISIANA PURCHASE MONUMENT AT SAINT Louis EXPOSITION, SHOWING MONROE, LIVINGSTON, AND MARBOIS SIGNING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY came to America in 1802, accompanied by rumors that Napoleon, First Consul, had dreams of colonization which, if realized, would be fatal to Western development and dangerous to the peace of the Eastern States. In the following year Jefferson sent James Monroe to France to negotiate with the First Consul for its purchase. Fortunately for the success of his plans Europe was about the ears of the French Consul, who had meanwhile become Emperor, making it necessary for him to obtain funds at the mo ment, and he consented to part with his American possessions. The trade was made, the United States paying $15,000,000 for the inland empire. There was a great outcry against the transaction, the Federalists especially maintaining that it was a useless ex travagance, that the newly acquired territory would swamp the nation, and that there was no warrant in the Constitu tion for the purchase. The last point they urged with peculiar relish, for Jefferson had found much fault with the Federal ists in times past for failure to abide by the close con struction of our national charter. Now the ta bles were turned. That Jefferson knew he was exceeding his DESK IN THE CABILDO AT NEW ORLEANS ON WHICH THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY WAS SIGNED THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 271 constitutional powers when he acquired Louisiana is made evident by his communications to members of Congress with the treaty of purchase was being considered. "The less that is said about any constitutional difficulty the bet ter," he wrote. "It will be desirable for Congress to do what is necessary in silence." And, again: "Whatever Congress shall consider it necessary to do, should be done with as little debate as possible, particularly so as respects the constitutional difficulty." It was this delicate ground upon which Thwaite had in truded with the secretary of state. He reproached himself heartily as he sat looking at Mr. Madison, who was visibly annoyed. Senator Stevens came to his rescue. "An apparent inconsistency may, on occasion, be not only a wise course but one peculiarly courageous," he said. "I think no one can doubt, now that the territory is ours, that our country will derive immense benefit from it, and one that should justify Mr. Jefferson's action. Brought face to face with a situation presenting for his choice a strict adher ence to an abstract, dogmatic doctrine in alternative to an act of statesmanship and hard common sense, he chose the latter, for which I think we should rather praise than blame him. The doctrinnaire succumbed to the statesman." "I am quite sure that I shall do the same if you gentle men do not cease your stupid discussion," interposed Dolly Madison, beaming upon them, having found herself at last. "It may seem to you gentlemen to be of consequence whether Mr. Jefferson followed the Constitution or not, but let me assure you that it is much more important that the ladies should be entertained." There was a laugh, of course, and some gallant apologies, the company finding itself much relieved. The current of conversation ran a new course, breaking up among the guests into little channels of talk. Thwaite seized the oppor- 272 VALOR & VICTORY tunity to sweep Leonora Stevens into an eddy with himself; the secretary entered into a deep discussion of matters of government with the senator from Massachusetts; Ruth Gardner played the senator's wife in the riffles of capital small talk, while Snell conducted Dolly Madison over a rather bois terous narra tive of events in the Bar- bary States, These several currents pres ently winding f | i ff*f their way into a quiet pool of casual silence, the c o m p a n y found them selves listen ing to Snell, who still rushed on over rocks and gravel in a smother of words. "I was just telling Mrs. Madison some of the stories I heard from the officers of the Enterprise," he said to the others, perceiving that they all overheard. "She's just got back from the Mediterranean. And by the way, Miss Ruth," he added, "I met a friend of yours who sent a message to you. He was a sailor on the Enterprise. His name was Morris- Dick Morris." CELEBRATING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE, DECEMBER 1803 (From the painting by Thuhtrup) 20, THE SECRETARY HAS GUESTS 273 The ladies, observing Ruth with polite interest, saw a flush of color rush through her cheeks, and saw her hand tremble for an instant when the name was mentioned. "What was the message?" she asked, with a fine show of indifference, knowing the eyes of the women were fastened on her. "Oh, it wasn't much of a message," Snell returned, arresting himself in the act of draining his glass to make answer. "He only asked how you were when he found I knew you, and wished to be remembered to you." "Yes ? That was thoughtful of him." Not one of those who watched her for further sign could discern the least thing in her tone or her manner. The current of talk flowed on, leaving no ripple of what had passed. THE ENTRANCE TO MONTICELLO CHAPTER II THE TRAVELER THE city of Washington was not a pretty place in the year 1806. It was not much prettier than it was in 1800, when the capital of the United States was moved thither from Philadelphia. Perhaps, at this distance of time, it would not be a sacrilege to say that, in the beginning, it was a decidedly unpleasant place. Magnificent buildings were scattered abruptly about hills covered with trees and brush ; between them were magnificent distances, occupied either with more forest and brush, or marshes. The magnificent buildings THE CITY OF WASHINGTON ABOUT 1830 Were raw, with an effect about them of being naked. Abigail Adams had hung the family washing to dry in the east room of the White House. Residences were huts; inhabitants were negroes or poor white trash; the hotels were nothing, or worse. If it had not been for the government buildings desecrating the primal wildness it would have been a beautiful wilderness. If it had not been for the wilderness, men of vision might have foreseen beauty in the ragged young capital. In the circumstances, the city of Washington in the beginning was somewhat of a wrench against the laws of nature concerning cities. One day late in the spring of 1806, Ruth Gardner went forth through this wilderness on her thoroughbred, to con- 274 THE TRAVELER 275 sider certain things. Throughout the winter her heart had been as bleak and dreary as the drear and leafless woods; but now she felt a stirring of happiness within, just as the trees felt the thrill of sap through their branches and burst forth gladly into leaf. Since the day when Nicholas Snell had given her the message from Richard Morris there had existed a period of winter in her heart. She had not known how much of the pleasure and satisfaction of life had been derived from her love for the lad with whom she had passed her childhood; she had not learned how much he meant to her. So the distant and indifferent message he sent to her through Snell had been like a frost in her heart, laying it barren. It was only now, with the spring, that she felt it might be possible still to be happy. Contentment stole over her as she rode through the woods. Above her was a soft mist of quivering buds; about her the birds sang with throats of love; beneath, between leaves of grass, violets peeped up at her. The warmth of the sun stole golden through the leaflets of the forest; the brushes were fretted lace- work in the undershadows ; the world was good, and life worth living. She had ridden beyond Georgetown, seeking seclusion and the beauties of the wilderness. In the distance she could hear waterfalls shouting in their frolic. She paused, considering whether to turn toward them or to go on. As she was undecided, she heard the sound of a horse approach ing along the road from the west, and waited to see who the traveler might be. Presently he came in sight among the trees, and a fitting picture he made in such a scene. His dress was that of a frontiersman, with leather jacket, rough shirt, and coonskin cap. He was tall and slender; his carriage suggested supple strength. He was mounted on an animal tall and slender and suggestive of strength like himself. By the mud on 276 VALOR & VICTORY associa- them both, and by a slight droop in the animal's ears, Ruth perceived that they had traveled far. As the rider came closer, her attention, attracted by the picturesque appearance of the man, was kindled into vivid interest by a fancy that she had seen him before that he was not a stranger, but one who had already been in her life. As she ^fe stared at him puzzled, trying to awaken the tion in her memory, he returned her look with the same quizzical expression. "How do you do?" asked Ruth, real izing, with some embarrass ment, that she was gazing at the man in a manner not altogether polite. "How do you do, miss?" he returned, lifting his coonskin cap with natural grace. He drew his horse up at a civil distance. "You have traveled far," said the girl, searching his face for memory. "Do you think you know me?" He caught the look in her eye and added: "I think I have known you, but I can not recall when or where. My name is Sylvester Stevens, and I am from the border." It all came with a rush. "Yes," she cried, "you used to come to a house in Philadelphia where I spent much time when I was a child. One day, the first time I saw you, you helped a very little boy who was fighting a very big man. I am the little girl who cried so hard when the little boy was hurt; my name is Ruth Gardner." Ruth, looking narrowly at him, perceived a fixed suggestion of sadness in his face that lay behind the pleasure he showed in the meeting, and THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE IN SAINT Louis COUNTY, MISSOURI THE TRAVELER 277 was not obscured by it, like the trace of sorrow. This, and the picture the man made in the woods, awoke her romantic interest. Sylvester Stevens met her look for a moment in silence. "It is a long time ago," he said presently, shaking his head reminis- cently. "And many things have hap- pened since then," Ruth sug gested, hoping, with the heart of a young woman, that he would tell her his sorrow; which was a beautifully femi nine inconsist ency, for she had as a child been a witness to much of the drama. "Yes," he an swered, "much has happened. Our country has grown beyond belief, and our people nation." "But you," she insisted, disappointed and a little piqued at his effort to lead the conversation into impersonality. He might at least have shown enough civil interest to inquire about Margaret and Richard. "What has happened to you, and where have you been?" THE EMIGRANT (From the drawing by Freeland A. Carter} have become a 2 ? 8 VALOR & VICTORY WILLIAM CLARK MERIWETHER LEWIS THE TRAIL- MAKERS TO THE FAR NORTHWEST (From the portraits by Charles Wilson Peale) "Little has happened to me, although I have traveled much," he answered. "Tell me." "What would you have me tell you?" "Of your travels." They set off through the woods on the way she had come, side by side; and as they rode, he talked to her. "I have seen wonders," he said. "I have been across this continent with Lewis and Clark. I have seen rivers thousands of miles in length; great plains, wider than the thirteen States, swarming with buffalo and antelope; mountains stupendous and rough as the ruins of a world; deserts flat as the sea, silent and lonely as the thought of eternity. I have seen THE TRAVELER 279 the Western coast, luxuriant, prolific. I have been with savages to whom the white man was a celestial being. I have been where time has not begun." Ruth watched him, fascinated; he was looking afar off, full of dreams. "Out there, for a month at a time, I have seen no one, traveling through the canons of the huge Stony Mountains," he went on. "I have slept in a cleft of rock so deep that its lips seemed to meet above me, where my path and bed was a ledge you might span with your hand. Beneath me the mountain torrents roared and tore at the primeval rocks; from the cliffs echoed the cries of wolf and fox and puma. I have met and passed in the night wild animals who gave no heed to me, beyond a sniff and a growl, not knowing what manner of animal I was. I have been where God is mighty, and man is a mite. My soul has stretched itself in the naked expanse, and now I am ready to die." He had forgotten A MOUNTAIN ROAD THROUGH OREGON 2 8o VALOR & VICTORY her; that much she could tell by the rapt expression of his countenance, by the light in his melting eyes. "But now I have come back, and it must be forgotten," he said, turning to her presently with a smile, half shame faced and apologetic. "It makes the frontier to which I am used seem tame and civilized, to have been where I have been." "I am afraid I do not know as much about this expedi tion as I should," said Ruth, with genuine interest. "Tell me more about it, please." "It was an expedition of discovery and exploration," Sylvester began, "made at the suggestion of President Jef ferson. Meri wether Lewis and William Clark were placed at the head of it. Lewis was a captain in the army. Clark is a brother of George Rogers Clark, who captured the British outposts in the West during the Revolution. These two organized a small force, picking men from the ranks of the army and from private life; but privates had to enlist, for the expedition was military. "I was lucky enough to be selected, having some knowl edge of woodcraft and experience with the Indians. We were forty-five altogether, in three boats. We set out in 1804 from Saint Louis, sailing up the Missouri River. We spent the winter in the Mandan country, where Indians of that name live in fixed villages. In the spring we continued up the river. There was plenty of game, and a few Indians. We had no trouble with the savages, who were for the most part friendly. We came at last to three streams joining, which we named the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. "We followed the Jefferson until we could go no higher. We learned that we were near the headwaters of a river that ran into the Pacific. But let me tell you how we learned it. When we were with the Mandans, we found an Indian THE TRAVELER 283 woman who had been stolen from the mountain tribes. We called her the Bird Woman. She accompanied us on our journey. When we came to the head of the Jefferson, Lewis went looking for Indians of whom we could inquire the way. The savages were shy; he could not come up with any. " Finally he discovered a woman and some girls. They expected to be killed, but Lewis convinced them that he was friendly. Presently their men returned, and were pre vailed upon to accompany Lewis back to the river, where our canoes were. Would you believe that the men be longed to a tribe whose chief was the brother of the Bird Woman ? "From there we journeyed on horses until we came to a mighty westward river, which we called the Columbia. I shall not soon forget the majestic beauties of that stream, as we floated down it toward the sea. The Indians along the bank were such thieves that the company did not remain there, but went up the coast to find a better wintering place. "I left them there, to take word back to the President. I made such haste that I succeeded in crossing the mountains before the winter set in too severely, spending the cold months with the tribe of the Bird Woman. With the first thaws I was on my way. I got this horse in Saint Louis; and here I am." The return of the expedition was as remarkably success ful as the journey out. The party reached Saint Louis in September, 1806, having traveled thousands of miles through wholly unknown country, exposed to wild dangers and hardships among savage tribes, with the loss of only one man, who died of illness. They crossed the Rocky Mountains twice, discovered waterways extending half across the continent, found a way to the Pacific, and illumi nated a dark territory with the light of exploration. 284 VALOR & VICTORY Ruth and her companion fell into silence. The woods man was the first to speak. "You have not told me how you come to be in Washington?" he said, supplementing his inquiry with an inclination of the head and a look of fixed interest. "My mother died in the year of the plague," she an swered, "and my father soon afterward. He was a dis tant cousin of Mr. Madison, now secretary of state, who was kind enough to give me a home, where I am very happy in deed," she added, as though the fact admitted of discussion and needed to be asseverated. "And the lad the boy who was hurt?" pursued Syl vester Stevens, with a wise smile. "I do not know much about him, except that he is a sailor," answered the girl. If she had been in any doubt that the man had the soul of a poet, un certainty no longer remained, for he comprehended fully that there was much behind the little she told him. "Tell me the story," he said gently. Ruth, con scious of some mysterious bond GRAND VIEW CANON, WASHINGTON THE TRAVELER 285 between herself and this man, did not hesitate to open her heart. "You have guessed it," she said. "There is a story or there was. We were happy together as children, and we thought we loved one another. He went on a search for his father; that is a tale I cannot tell. He was at sea for many years. He wrote to me, I suppose as often as he could, but not as often as I would have had him. I do A LOG RAFT ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER not blame him for that, however. I do not blame him for anything. "There was a long period when I heard nothing. At the end of it, I heard again; but not directly. He sent a message to me through another. He had just returned from a long cruise in the Mediterranean; he wished to be remembered to me, and that was all. I cannot blame him for having found that he had outgrown me; he had seen much of the world, and at best we were only childhood lovers. If he had chosen some other way to tell me than by sending a message through this other, who is little better than 286 VALOR & VICTORY a stranger or I might say, worse than a stranger I should have been glad." " Who is this other?" demanded Sylvester, sharply spurred by a sudden thought. "Nicholas Snell. Why," the girl went on, an idea flashing into her mind, "he is the very one whom Richard was fighting with that first night!" * ' Where is he now ? I should like to have a few questions with him." "I ought not to know, but I do know that he is in New Orleans, on private business for the President, concerning Mr. Burr." "Did he tell you that your friend sent messages to you ? What were the circum stances?" "Mr. Snell had just been down to meet the Enterprise, returning from the Mediterranean. He came back and said SACAJAWEA, THE BIRD WOMAN (From the statue in City Park, Portland, Oregon) THE TRAVELER 287 he had seen Richard, and delivered the message. I know Richard was on the boat." "Snell is a rascal, and there is some mischief here. I do not believe what he told you. The message was fraudulent. Snell has some purpose in de ceiving you." "I have thought it all over, Mr. Stevens, and I am sure it must be true," Ruth returned with a sad smile. " Once before Richard came back from a long cruise and went to sea again without coming to see me." "Did he give any reason for it?" "Yes, he wrote me a note of explanation." "Was the reason good?" "Yes, it was plausible. It was sufficient, if true." "Do you know what you are doing, Miss Gardner?" ex claimed Sylvester. "You are charging this young fellow with faithlessness, with cowardice in the manner of getting rid of you, and with lying. I do not be lieve he is that kind of a man. Do you?" "Oh, no, no! I do not think that ! I do not mean that!" cried the girl. "I only mean that I am cer tain he has grown away PIERWEE FALLS. WASHINGTON 288 VALOR & VICTORY from me, and that I do not blame him for it. For the rest, I suppose he thought he was taking the way that would hurt me least." "Has it ever occurred to you that your friend might have had some good reason for not seeing you before he went to sea once more? Did it never seem possible to you that this man Snell was given a message for you that was quite different from the one you got?" "He is capable of it," said the girl, eager to believe. "Has it never been as long as six months between your letters from him? Could it not be true that he might not have been able to get a letter to you since last fall?" "Yes, yes! It might well be a year." "Do you not think it might be well for you to wait a year before dismissing him as a childish lover who has forgotten ?" His answer was a flushing of her cheeks, a blush of shame because she had judged her lover. They rode in silence. She it was who broke it this time. "Is there no one else of whom you would inquire?" she asked, wistfully. "Is there one of whom you would tell me anything?" "Margaret Rutgers has been here with her husband, who was attached to the minister's staff," she said, softly. "They have gone away again. I believe he has gone into the army. I do not think she is happy; but she is brave." The look of distance came into his eyes, as though he saw beyond ^_^- ; : -^^ the world. CHAPTER III SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD SYLVESTER STEVENS did not remain long in Washington. Ruth saw him twice before his de parture. Once he came to dine at the secretary's house, and once he called to see her and bid her adieu. She found courage from him to be happy and hope, and was sorry to see him go; for there had sprung up between them one of those friendships that seem to run back to the beginning of time and to spring into full-blooded life at the first contact of its participants. The summer passed, and the fall, completing the year she had allowed herself to hope. There was no word from Richard Morris, direct or indirect. There were times in the twelvemonth when she was on the point of setting afoot an investigation of the story Snell had told her; but her femininity prevented. Probably she would have made keen inquiry of the bearer of the message himself, after her talk with Sylvester Stevens, if he had been in Washington. But he was not there when the frontiersman first whetted her suspicions, and did not return until autumn. By that time the fight was wholly her own, and she was schooling herself once more to forget. The year of 1806 was one of anxiety for her kinsman, James Madison, and for President Jefferson. From Janu ary until November rumors about Burr's conspiracy to divide the Union and form the Western States into a confederacy came to the ears of the government in Washington; rumors often reaching the status of direct charges from authori tative sources. In January Joseph Hamilton Daviess of 289 2 go VALOR & VICTORY Frankfort, Kentucky, wrote to Jefferson telling him that Burr planned to seize New Orleans with an armed force, invade Spanish territory, and join the fruits of his operations into a new confederacy. The same charges he reiterated through the spring, without result and without response. THE JUMEL MANSION, WEST 1620 STREET, NEW YORK: WASHINGTON'S HEAD QUARTERS, BURR'S HOME, AND THE LAST OF THE COLONIAL RESIDENCES ON MANHATTAN ISLAND Burr meanwhile was in the East, part of the time at Washington and part of the time at Philadelphia, intriguing with Merry, the British minister, and with Yrujo, minister from Spain. Jonathan Dayton, Federalist senator from New Jersey, was his chief partner in the East. Burr sounded Commodore Truxtun, who coldly rebuffed him, and Gen eral William Eaton, who revealed his secret to Jefferson. In June Merry was removed by his King, and was succeeded by David Montague Erskine ; in July Yrujo was told by his government to have nothing to do with the scheme. Find ing his efforts in the East coming to nothing, Burr started SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 291 for the West in August, being preceded thither by several of the leading conspirators. On his way West he digressed from Pittsburg to solicit Colonel George Morgan. Morgan not only repulsed his subtle advances, but also informed Jefferson of what had passed, reporting that Burr had said the West would be totally divided from the East within five years, had stated why it would, and should, come to that pass, and had asserted that with 200 men he could drive Congress into the Potomac, with the President at their head. From Pittsburg Burr went down to the Ohio to see Blen- nerhasset, an Irishman who lived in melancholy and impe cunious splendor on an island in the Ohio River. Blenner- hasset warmed to the cause, and undertook to direct the forces that were gathering for an expedition down the river, and to build boats for the voyage. Leaving Blennerhasset at this ^*~~!Z~r~~ t *+*^ task, Burr went into Ken JOHN MARSHALL'S HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 2Q2 VALOR & VICTORY Tennessee, where he was well received, winning the con fidence of Andrew Jackson, among others, by his personal charm and the plausible story he told. Burr and his colleagues having purchased the Bastrop grant on the Washita, made the pretext that the pur pose of the expedition was not more serious than to colonize the newly acquired land, some thirty miles square. At about this time Daviess, growing impatient at the lack of action by the President, founded the Western World at Frankfort, Kentucky, and commenced the publication of the story, making charges against Burr, with whom he implicated General James Wilkinson. General Wilkinson was commander of the American army, situated at New 7 Orleans. At one time he had been a pensioner of Spain, that government having hoped to alienate the Western States from the Union. In spite of these public attacks, Burr was making progress with his scheme. Men were enlisting, arms were being procured, and provisions gathered together. The attitude of the people of Kentucky was disclosed when Daviess took it upon himself to bring Burr into court to answer to charges, Henry Clay acting as his attorney. The court and the people were partisan to the accused; the chief witness ran away, and the case fell flat, to the frankly expressed delight of the populace. Twice this happened, Burr emerging from the second incident in triumph. Jefferson and his cabinet were aware of all that went on, in a general way if not in detail. It was not a lack of con fidence in their informers or a failure to appreciate the ANDREW JACKSON (From the portrait by Jarvis) SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 2 93 dangers of the situation that led to a delay in acting against the conspiracy. It was rather uncertain regarding the course to be pursued. There were many meetings of the cabinet, and many discussions of plans. At last John Graham was dispatched to New Orleans, with instructions to notify the governors of the States through which he passed to be on their guard against Burr. Graham reached Kentucky when Daviess was acting on his own responsi bility, and found the wind taken out of his sails. Jefferson, before taking final steps, was waiting to hear the truth concerning Wilkinson, and his complicity with Burr. The general was a notorious intriguer; the charges against him had intrinsic probabilities in their favor; but the Chief Magistrate wished to be sure. Early in the year he had sent Nicholas Snell, handy man and confidential agent, to investigate in his own inimitable way. Now the fall had come, and with it Snell. On a night in November the President called his cabinet together. James Madison, the first to respond, found him in his office, wearing an expression of assurance and EARLY NEW ORLEANS 294 VALOR & VICTORY satisfaction that had been a stranger to his face for many weeks. "Mr. Madison," he said, leaning across the table toward the secretary of state, "you were not friendly toward my proposal when I sent Snell to New Orleans to make private investigations of General Wilkinson's position in this serious matter." Mr. Madison conceded that he had entertained some doubt of the wisdom of the act, more because of a lack of confidence in the messenger than for any other reason. "I am certain that you will be gratified to learn that I have been vindi cated," Jefferson went on. "Mr. Snell has returned with a message from General Wilkinson that at once must remove all suspicion of the man himself from your mind, and make obvious our course in the premises." Madison was on the point of assuring his chief of his pleasure in the news, when he was interrupted by the arrival of Snell himself, closely followed by the secretaries. What Snell told them was enlightening and interesting; but not nearly as enlightening and interesting as certain things that he did not tell them. What he told them, in addition to much that has already been narrated, was that Burr and Wilkinson had been in consultation, at New Orleans and at Saint Louis, about some plan that Burr intimated he was considering; that letters had passed between them after- CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL (From an old miniature) SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 295 ward; that Wilkinson, receiving one such communication when on the Natchitoches River with his forces, whither he had gone to watch a body of Spanish troops marching about Texas, obtained from it a first intimation of the true signi ficance of Burr's plans; that upon receipt of it he had sent Snell himself back to Wash ington with a letter informing the President. The letter from Burr to Wilkinson, written in July, was full of misstatements that could not have been other wise than intentional. He assured the general that all was in readiness ; that troops had been enlisted ; that Eng land would furnish the naval force ; that Commodore Trux- tun was going to Jamaica to cooperate with the British admiral at that point; that LUTHER MARTIN about 500 men would be ready to start from the falls of the Ohio on November 15; that they would reach Natchez about December 5, and that he expected Wil kinson to meet him there. Wilkinson did not believe what the letter told him, and sent information to Jefferson, stating that an expedition was forming on the Ohio and Mississippi that was directed against Vera Cruz, but dis claiming knowledge who was at the head of it. What Snell did not tell the council of the cabinet was quite as extended as what he did tell them. He did not tell that Wilkinson and Burr had come to a complete under standing over the working out of the plans; that Wilkinson was to be commander of the armies of the new confederation; 296 VALOR & VICTORY that he was to use his American troops for the furtherance of the scheme; that he turned informer at the last only be cause he mistrusted Burr and feared for the final outcome of the conspiracy. Neither did Snell tell that he himself, sent as a confidential agent by President Jefferson, was then and had been one of the conspirators, and that he too had come back into the fold only when he assured himself that Burr would not succeed in the undertaking. Snell came so far from telling this part of the episode that he continued to rise in the esteem of James Madison throughout the colloquy, emerging from it as a hero and an honest patriot, a cir cumstance that must have been sufficiently amusing to Snell, who was not without a sense of humor. The cabinet was not slow to act with this last accumu lation of evidence in their hands. A proclamation was issued, declaring that certain persons were engaged in an illegal conspiracy against Spain, instructing all civil and military officials to seize and hold persons and property concerned in the plot, and calling on the governors of Ohio and Kentucky, and on Andrew Jackson, for help in inter cepting the conspirators. The name of Burr was not specifically mentioned in the proclamation. When the proclamation reached Ohio the governor seized some of the boats then building at Marietta, and Blennerhasset fled down the river with a few armed followers. Burr himself was on his way to Nashville, where he found it necessary to explain matters to Andrew Jackson. This he did so skillfully that although the proclamation signed by the President reached Nashville when Burr was still there, Jackson suffered him to leave without hindrance. Meanwhile, Wilkinson, having determined which side it would be most wholesome for him to take in the affair, was busying himself to make abortive the plans he had until recently fostered and abetted. He prepared the forts along SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 299 the Mississippi, alarmed New Orleans, organized militia there, placed an embargo on the port to hold sailors at home for purposes of defense, seized Bollmann, Swartwout, and Ogden, three conspirators, smuggled Bollmann and Swart wout north by sea, defied the courts that endeavored to liberate Ogden on habeas corpus, and placed the city vir tually under martial law. Burr, leaving Nashville in some haste after the arrival of the proclamation, joined Blennerhasset at the mouth of the Cumberland, and the two floated down the river toward the South, accompanied by 200 men in thirteen flat-boats. That was the expedition that was intended to sever the Western States from the Union, overrun Spanish territory, and establish a new nation on the face of the earth, with Burr at its head. Reaching Natchez, Burr, inquiring for news, was given a copy of the New Orleans Moniteur containing his letter of July to Wilkinson. Wilkinson had published it to justify his arrest of Bollmann on a charge of treason. The game was up. Burr fled across the river, presently surrendering to Cowles Mead, secretary and acting governor of Mississippi. Through technicalities the charges fell flat, but he was still held on his recognizance. Alarmed for his safety, he fled into hiding in the woods, whence he presently went toward the Spanish frontiers, disguised as a boatman. The disguise was penetrated, however, and on February 19 he was ar rested by Lieutenant Gaines of Fort Stoddart, a few miles from his destination, and safety. Followed the trial of Burr and his fellow-conspirators for treason. In the beginning, the senate suspended the right of habeas corpus in certain cases for three months. The house refusing to pass the bill, the cases against Boll mann, Swartwout, and Ogden were dismissed. Burr was brought to Richmond and placed on trial before Chief Jus- 300 VALOR & VICTORY tice Marshall. Never was there such a trial. From all over the country came men, great and small, to testify or to listen. The public was frantic in its championship of Burr; each day, in his apartments in the penitentiary, he held levees which put the most brilliant assemblages of the President to shame. It was a holiday in Richmond a spectacle. Luther Martin was chief counsel for Burr. The legal talent on the two sides of the case comprised the most famous men of the time: Edmund Randolph, Charles Lee, William Wirt. The fight was keen and bitter. Jefferson was subpoenaed, but refused to appear. His wrath against Burr, and the prisoner's reception at the hands of the people, led him into indiscretions. He begged that Luther Martin, the "Federal Bulldog," might be charged with misprision of treason because of his manner of conducting the case. Burr escaped punishment on a point raised and skillfully insisted upon by his attorneys, the point that he could not be charged with any overt act of treason because he was not present when the expedition set out from Blennerhasset's Island, the Constitution -^^1^ defining treason in such a way that he must ^m d^^ have been present when the Wjjm ^**** i ^ ex P e " dition BURR'S PRISON IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 301 set out to have rendered himself a party to the treason. The reason satisfied Justice Marshall; he ruled out the evidence against Burr as irrelevant; the case went to the jury , and Burr was acquitted. Although he was acquit ted, Burr was ruined and discredited. For four years he traveled through Europe, wearing out his welcome in the capitals there. When the storm he brewed had blown over, he returned to America and practiced law in New York, a rather obscure man with few friends and fewer enemies, until 1836, when he died. Some happiness, how ever, came into his last years, through his marriage with Madam Jumel, who long Survived him. With the ex- BANNER'S HOTEL, NEW YORK, IN WHICH ception of Benedict Arnold, BuRR DlED there is no man in American history about whom more vicious things have been said. He does not fully merit the obloquy posterity has placed on him. He was a man purely selfish in his ambitions, without ideals or reverence ; with no high regard for the things that are held worthy in this world; a man whose genius was too strong for the restraints which his abortive conscience placed upon it, a victim of his own unmorality. Blennerhasset, wrecked in the adventure, died in miser able poverty in Europe. Swartwout lived to be made col lector of the port of New York, where he stole a million from the government by way of expressing his appreciation 302 VALOR & VICTORY of being considered honest. Dayton and Ogden sank into, the whirlpool of excitement, and were seen no more. Boll- mann found London congenial. The minor conspirators readjusted themselves, and were forgotten. Two men rose high on the tide of this event. One of them was Wilkinson, whose betrayal of Burr found him THE TOMB OF AARON BURR, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AT PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY much favor with Jefferson. He was tried before a packed court-martial and cleared of all stain by a coat of whitewash, after a fashion still alive, and forever after continued to pose as an honest man, leaving behind him on his death three volumes of memoirs to bear out his pretensions, which are as false as any ever written by man. The other who benefited largely was Nicholas Snell. The whole affair was one to his liking, and he made the most of it. There was nothing he had ever done or said or written that could be produced against him. Only Burr and Wil- SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 303 kinson knew how closely he was involved in the workings of the plot. Wilkinson did not care to divulge the secret, and Burr kept silence, being convinced to the last that Snell was friendly toward him and was exercising his peculiar talents in his behalf. Perhaps he was; but he so contrived that he appeared in the eyes of Thomas Jefferson as a spirit of truth and holy vengeance , howbeit he worked rather quietly, after the manner of spirits. There was little he could do in the case; there was little he cared to do, beyond making it appear that he was doing much. How well he suc ceeded may be inferred from what follows. One night late in August, 1807, Nicholas Snell entered the office of James MadisonJ The ostensible reason for the interview was to inform the sec-' retary of state of the result of journey Snell had just made to New York, where he had seen ROB E R TF^ '(From the Robert Fulton's Clermont begin her portrait by Benjamin West) voyage of 150 miles to Albany, accomplishing the feat in thirty-two hours. Robert R. Livingston had long been interested in steam navigation, and had himself built a steamboat on the Hudson, which would not work. But when Jefferson sent him as minister to France in 1801, he met Fulton, who was trying to interest Napoleon in his new device. Livingston understood the value of the invention far better than the First Consul, and persuaded the inventor 304 VALOR & VICTORY to return to his native land. Together the partners had just now won a monopoly of the right to use steamboats in New York waters for twenty years, and had begun a new era in the world's development. After some dicussion of this notable event, Snell asked permission to bring forward a personal matter, and when it was granted, went on to speak, with some embarrass ment. "I approach the subject I have come to talk to you about with great reluctance and hesitation," he said, fumbling his hat and looking at the rug to corrob orate his testimony. "I realize the delicacy that sur rounds it under the best of cir cumstances, and I realize the dis advantages under which I labor. I am a man some what spent in years, Mr. Mad ison, and one who, through not giving his own interests suffi cient attention, has not reached any position of importance in the world." Mr. Madison hastened to reas sure him, Snell pausing to afford him the chance. ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON SNELL OBTAINS A REWARD 305 " Thank you, Mr. Madison. What A you say gives me great courage and hap piness. I shall be brief, and come to the point, sir. What I wish to speak to you about is a point that is close to both of us. I may make bold in asserting that it is close to me, but if an affec tionate heart and a devoted soul are enough, then I am entitled to the privilege. Mr. Madison, I am in love with your ward, with Miss Ruth. I know what you will say. You will object to my position in life, to my years, to my standing in society. I grant you that your ground will be well taken. I am poor; I am older than she by many years; I am obscure. THE To ^^^ RT FuLTON IN But if Strength and purity of affection TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK weigh at all, if past services can be permitted to recom mend me, I shall ask for your indulgence; I shall ask you to let me make my addresses to your ward." James Madison was silent for a moment. He drummed his fingers on the table ; he cleared his throat ; he looked into the far corners of the room. "You have proved yourself worthy of my consideration, sir, and hers," he answered, presently. "I shall not say that I would not have been better pleased if this, ah situation had not developed. I do not mean that I withhold from you any of my respect or regard. On the contrary, it gives me anxiety lest your merits fail to meet with their deserved favor from my ward. She is young, you must remember, and youth will have its romance. Have you any assurance of success, Mr. Snell?" "Sir," replied Mr. Snell, "I have no assurance whatever: 306 VALOR & VICTORY nor would I seek any before I spoke of the matter with you. On that point I am willing to run the risk of all who play a game for heavy stakes, and if my suit can have your approval I shall be satisfied to have made the trial, what ever the results may be." "Mr. Snell," rejoined the secretary, rising and extending his hand to the other, "you have my complete permission, and I wish you every success; but you will understand, of course, that I can go no further." "Sir," Snell answered, "if I cannot win the heart and hand of Ruth on such merits as I may be able to present to her consideration, I should consider myself unworthy, and would not have her love on any other basis." With which noble sentiment Snell concluded the dialogue, and left the room to seek Ruth. THE OLDEST STEAMBOAT IN THE WORLD IN COMMISSION, NOW RUNNING FROM TROY, NEW YORK CHAPTER IV RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC A LTHOUGH Ruth Gardner taught herself to think IJL of Richard Morris as nothing more than a dream of childhood too long clung to, and smoothed him out of her heart when the year went by without a word from him, she did not by that process reduce herself to a condition of mind that was receptive to the advances of Nicholas Snell. In the beginning she was rather amused at his stupidity in paying court to her; presently she was annoyed at his audacity; in the end she was angered by his persistency. This she told him on a day when it seemed best to do so, laying some stress on his age and worldly condition in the process, and making other points against him that were wholly irrelevant to her reasons for disliking him. Snell, deeply hurt, accepted the blow humbly and forgivingly. Believing that was the end of it, Ruth dismissed him from her mind as completely as she had from her presence. Snell gave every sign of having abandoned his vaulting ambition, and of having cured himself of whatever infatu ation might once have disturbed the bachelor tenor of his ways. But he did not permit his failure with Ruth to inter fere with his progress with James Madison, her guardian. Madison, elected to succeed Jefferson in 1808, did not forget or fail him. Snell found himself comfortably billeted during the first term, with freedom to come and go at the White House, and with opportunity to learn many things in the day's work with which he had no concern. In 1812, when Madison was elected for the second time, he obtained at his own request an appointment in the navy department. 307 3 o8 VALOR & VICTORY Many things had happened in the few years in which Snell was making such material progress, events of grave historical consequence to this country. From the beginning of our nationality, England had bullied us in a commercial way, fighting in trade when she could no longer fight in open war. Her behavior toward us was, for the most part, inci dental to her general pol icy of helping herself to the world's busi ness by hurt- i n g her ne ighbors and rivals in it ; although toward us there was a seasoning of chagrin and anger. Her Orders in Council placed prohibitive restrictions on American vessels trading with English possessions; there were rules and regulations about flags and bottoms that hurt in more ways than one ; there was every device and practice which a shrewd race could think of to keep England up, and America down. The most unbearable practice of England from a moral point of view, although not the one that caused the greatest indignation among merchants and statesmen, was the right of search, claimed and maintained by England through many weary, bitter years. England held that any man who had ever been a subject of the English Crown was always a IMPRESSING AMERICAN SEAMEN FROM THE " CHESAPEAKE : RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC 309 subject, and therefore liable to service in the British navy. Urging this principle of international law, her war-ships habitually overhauled American merchantmen and searched the crews for Englishmen. It was a notorious fact that the question of nationality was secondary to the need for more men on the searching vessel, and to the ablebodiedness of sea men under scrutiny. The most flagrant and intolerable instance of the exercise of this asserted right was the Leopard- Chesapeake affair. In June, 1807, the frigate Chesapeake, setting sail for the Mediterranean to relieve the Constitu tion, was overhauled by the Leopard, whose offi cers insisted on searching the crew for English de serters. Commodore Barren, commanding the Chesapeake, would not suffer it; whereupon the Leopard opened fire. The Chesapeake was not ready for a fight; her decks were lumbered with stores, ammunition, and heavy guns that had not yet been mounted, and powder, balls, and matches, were in inextricable confusion. It was twenty minutes before a gun could be fired in response; that one was fired by using a live coal brought from the galley in the naked hands of Lieutenant William Henry Allen; and was fired just in time. The next moment the flag came down and the Chesapeake, with two masts gone, with two men killed and several wounded, surrendered to a British ship- THE BIRTHPLACE OF HENRY CLAY, HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA VALOR & VICTORY of-war. The Leopard's officers came aboard, took off four men, and went their way, leaving the Chesapeake to limp back into Hampton Roads with pumps working and water rising in her hold. Still there was no war. Jefferson, taking up the weap ons with which England was fighting, induced Congress to lay an embar go, by which he thought to crip ple England and bring her to terms. The second edge of the weapon cut deeper than the first; our mer chant marine has never en tirely recovered from the blow struck at it in the Long Em bargo. In New England, towns that had been JOHN C. CALHOUN (From the drawing by J. B. Longacre) . . . , thriving and full of business died away until grass grew in their streets, and useless ships rotted at moss- covered wharves. So it went, England bullying the United States, and our statesmen playing futile tricks in Congress by way of resent ing it. Nor was England alone in abusing our infant nation. France under Napoleon did the best she could with her more limited naval resources. When all Europe was in volved by Napoleon in war, these two nations preyed per- RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC 311 sistently and with a beautiful consistency on American commerce, devising such intricate rules for neutral carriers that few American vessels escaped both powers. Madison, elected into this tangle, took up the task of straightening it out. The British minister at the time was David M. Erskine, who, being young and anxious to achieve a reputation for smoothing away troubles between America and England, made proposals and promises to Madison upon the strength of which the President annulled the embargo. A thousand ships at once sailed away and the country became wild with enthusiasm for the new President. But Canning, prime min ister of England, repudiated Erskine 's promises and re called the young man, which brought President Madison down out of the sky. Vessels that had set sail were per mitted to finish their voyages; but beyond that, the old condi- j HENRY CLAY tions were restored. There followed a period in which the United States tried to play off against each other England and France; but England and France, finding themselves preoccupied and the conditions surrounding American commerce materially beneficial to themselves, omitted the important detail of playing the game as outlined by the United States. Napo leon, in need of funds, made a pretense of playing the game, and invited American ships into French ports by a procla mation abrogating some of the former restrictions he had 312 VALOR & VICTORY laid against them. As soon as he considered that there were enough Americans in port to make it worth while, he an nounced that he had not meant what he said, and confis cated the vessels, cargoes, captains, and all. Madison grieved over this, and deplored the event to the country, but does not seem to have done much more. Probably there was not a family in the United States that had not some claim arising from the French spoliation, that still comes up at odd times to stir golden hopes among the younger generation. Madison, throughout his first term and for years before, as secretary of state, had held to the opinion that, if there must be war with either country, it should be with France. But in the year 1811 events began so to shape themselves as to make it seem necessary for him to change his opinion, or compromise with it. The first of these was a fight be tween the United States frigate President and the British sloop-of-war Little Belt, one of the fleet that was blockading our coasts to enforce the decrees and Orders of Council. A second, and more consequential, was the election of Henry Clay to the speakership of the house. Clay, young, ambi tious, born to lead, and full of fire, began to insist on a war with England. He found many of a kindred spirit, and among them John C. Calhoun. These were the "War Hawks" who brought on war. The first step toward it was taken before the adjourn ment of the house in 1811, when Congress renewed an act of non-intercourse with Great Britain, which had been suspended when there was promise of peace. In 1812- they passed a law establishing another embargo for ninety days; six weeks later war was declared against England. Madison advocated both these measures in messages to Congress, but it must not be forgotten that the war party was growing stronger every day, that the year was the year of a presiden- RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC 315 tial election, and that Madison had a natural desire to suc ceed himself. He was renominated in the interval between the embargo and the declaration of war. If the cable had been laid under the Atlantic at that time, there would have been no war; for two days before hostilities were declared, on June 1 6, England revoked the Orders in Council, which was the principal cause of the rupture. It was not a popular conflict, in spite of the war cry, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights!" The Federal party was opposed to it from the beginning; the New England States, where the party still enjoyed a sporadic existence, refused to support the government, going to lengths that led to the edge of secession, of which more hereafter. It was not a popular war in the White House, perhaps; it was contrary to the President's judgment, if not to his will. Dolly Madison, a Quaker by birth, was secretly unhappy, though she made a brave show and helped her husband through the heavy times with courage and fidelity. Ruth at first was quite forlorn, feeling the disapproval directed against her guardian. The weight of the conflict was early brought home to the household in Washington. The cry from the first was "On to Canada!" There were those who believed, probably sincerely, that Canada could be overrun and conquered in a campaign. Henry Clay said he could do it with two Kentucky regiments; but Henry Clay did not go to the front. Early in 1812, before the war had been declared in fact, General William Hull set out for Detroit with 2000 men, with a plan to march against Maiden and Fort Amherstburg. Advancing across the river from Detroit and investing Mai den, Hull met with unexpected opposition from Major- General Isaac Brock. Learning presently that Tecumseh was slicing into his communications between Maumee and Detroit, Hull returned to the post, where he was followed VALOR & VICTORY by Brock, who, August 8, 1812, prevailed upon him to surrender without firing a shot, though behind fortifications. The surrender laid Hull open to savage criticism. Sub sequently he was tried on charges of treason, cowardice, and incompetency. On the two last charges he was con victed and sentenced to be shot, but President Madison pardoned him. The news of the surrender gave the enemies __.^^ of the administration an opportunity to complain of which they fully availed themselves. Hull, however, has been vindicated by modern mili tary critics. The outcry made against the President and his advisers bore on no one more heavily than on Ruth Gardner, whose sensitive nature was hurt by every blow directed against her guardian. She took upon herself a respon sibility that in no wise belonged either to her or to James Madison, and grew more unhappy each day as GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK complaints and criticisms against the conduct of the war, and the war itself, accumulated. Early in September she was strolling through the grounds of the White House, more depressed and worried than usual, when Michael Forbeson joined her. Forbeson was a young man who had come to Washington within the year to act as a clerk in the war office, an appointment for which he was indebted to Nicholas Snell. Through the same source, he had obtained an introduction to the family in the White House, and had at once become devoted to Ruth; in which devotion, it might be mentioned, he was by no means alone. RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC 317 "You seem very low to-day, Miss Ruth," he said, gayly, falling into pace with her stroll. "Oh, the news from the West has quite disconcerted me," she answered. " 'T would be bad enough for our arms to suffer defeat if the blame were not all laid to my uncle. Knowing what a sweet and lovable man he is, I cannot bear to think of others attacking him as they do." "Come, that is not the way to win wars," Forbeson reproved. "We arc only beginning. A reverse or two at first will only serve to make us fight the harder for victory the next time. And as for the President, think what fame and fortune will be his when success comes at last." Ruth shook her head by way of answer. "By Jove! "cried Forbe son, "I would rather a dozen Hulls surrendered than that you Should be SO Cast down." GENERAL WILLIAM HULL She turned to him a smile. "That is not very patriotic, Mr. Forbeson. I do not understand." "Well, then, since I must be bold in the matter, I will tell you that your one smile is worth more to me than a dozen triumphs of our arms, and not because I love my country the less, either." Ruth withdrew her glances in sudden confusion, no longer in doubt about his meaning. "Am I forgiven, then, and acquitted of a charge of lack of patriotism?" Forbeson went on. VALOR & VICTORY Ruth laughed for answer. "And am I forgiven because I wish above all things else in this world to see you smiling and happy?" "Is it a sin to wish to see me smile?" she parried. "How you women do twist things!" laughed Forbeson. "To be sure, it would be a sin to wish to see you sad; but by the same token it might be a bold fault to tell you other wise, as I have just told you." "I hope I shall not be so severe," said the girl. "With all my heart I hope that," rejoined Forbeson fervently, grasping her arm for a passing instant. Ruth, fluttered and pleased, led the talk away with feminine skill. They came presently to the White House door, where Ruth bade him farewell, and entered, re stored in spirits for the mo ment, and at least glad for what he had said to her. He was full of such speeches, but never had she been so pleas- urably affected by his subtle declarations of affection as now. He had come upon her in a mood when HULL'S SURRENDER TO BROCK AT DETROIT drawing by H. L. Stephens) (From the RUTH LEARNS ARITHMETIC she hungered so deeply that her thoughts had been running away with her, back to that childish love she had known years ago, and which she thought she had put away. She passed down the wide hall of the White House, all afloat with the sensations he had aroused, half afraid to seek Dolly Madison and find shelter from her thoughts. She had no more than got within the door, when the Presi- DETROIT AT AN EARLY DAY (From an engraving) dent's wife rushed to her, aglow with joy, and clasped her in her arms. "My child! My child!" cried Mrs. Madison. " Won derful news! Great news! What think you it is? We have taken a ship! We have dragged the flag of England from the seas!" Ruth could do no more than ask a startled question. " Captain Isaac Hull, nephew to the poor man at De troit, has taken a British frigate, the Guerriere, with the Con stitution. Oh, child, think what it means to us, and to my husband!" By little the story came out, how Hull, going to sea in search of a prize, had fallen in with the Guerriere and 3 2o VALOR & VICTORY utterly overwhelmed the enemy; how he had come back to Boston in triumph; how the country had gone mad with joy, and many other things dear to a woman who tells a story. "And just think of the poor men who were on the British ship for so long, and were released at last," went on Mrs. Madison, inconsequentially. "How glad they must be, and how we rejoice for them!" "What men, auntie?" "Why, have n't I told you ? There were some American sailors aboard the British ship, men who were impressed and made to fight against their country. Think of what they must have suffered, child! But now they are back, and will even up the score, I warrant you." A sudden and strange intuition burst into the brain of Ruth, a mad thought that set her trembling. "Who were they?" she asked, half whispering. "Who were they?" repeated Mrs. Madison, without considering the strangeness of the question. "Here are their names." She took a paper from the table and read three or four names first, and then "Richard Morris, for many years an impressed sailor, thrown into chains for refusing duty in the fight - " and passed on to the next. Now Ruth understood the years of silence. She was whirled back through many years to those early days, and the love that had been born then had a new birth, filling her heart, making her forgetful of all else. "See how you have rumpled my hair, auntie," she said, carelessly. "I must go and set it to rights." "But, child, you are weeping!" exclaimed Mrs. Madison, heeding her closely for the first time. "It is only to think how glad the President will be." "Sweet child." purred Mrs. Madison, kissing her cheek. "Run along now, and arrange your hair, if you must." CHAPTER V RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS NICHOLAS SNELL looked up from the clutter of papers on his desk in the navy department into the countenance of Michael Forbeson, which had lost its expres sion of debonair frankness. " So you think you are not going through with it?" he said, with half a sneer. "I tell you for sure that I am not!" ex claimed the other. "I am not made to be a spy." Snell shrugged his shoulders. " I have seen better myself," he said. "But now that you are one, you might as well make the most of it; for when you once begin the game it is hard to stop." "But I am going to stop, I tell you again." "Why?" Snell stretched out in his chair until his head rested on the back of it. "I'll tell you why, then; replied Forbeson, impulsively. the girl that 's made the change in me. MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY DEARBORN I came here first with a clear conscience, believing all was fair in war, and I have done my work so that there is no complaint. But it has come to such a pass with me now that I can scarcely look into her face without crying out my shame to her and going down on my knees, asking her forgiveness." 321 3 22 VALOR & VICTORY Snell shrugged his shoulders again. "Mike," he said, "do you know you are likely to lose your neck from losing your heart like this?" " And how about yourself ? " Forbeson rejoined. "Do you suppose that you would be believed if you told them I was with you in this ? Do you suppose I would leave FORT DEARBORN, CHICAGO a place for any story from you ? Do not forget that I have the ear of the President, and have it first. " "You would not betray me like that, sure!" cried Forbe son, more in anger and contempt than in fear. Snell rose from his seat and placed his hands on the other's shoulders. "Mike," he said, "I would do nothing that you would not compel me to do. Now let us talk better sense for a moment. Here you are, safe and sound, doing a good work. It will not last long. The war will soon be over, and then you can return to England with the girl and high honors from a grateful government, and she will be none the worse for it ; because it will come out so in the end whether you play your part or not. Only, unless you do, you shall not have Ruth." RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS 323 "But I mislike it much," mumbled Forbeson, wavering. "It is not a pleasant task," Snell returned. "War is not pleasant, but all is fair in war, as it is in love, too, if you remember." "But I don't want you to believe that it is your threats that keep me to it!" "Threats! I make no threats. I only point out a few plain truths, which you have wis dom to un- derst and and be guided by. So let us not play the fool again, Michael. Swallow your con science for the time. You can make it up to the girl after it is all over." Forbeson, shaking his head and complaining against fate, left Snell to his papers. Alone once more, the attache of .the navy department struck the side of his nose thrice with an extended finger, winking with each blow, and turned to his task. A clerk came in, bearing a bundle of mail, tied in red tape. "Here is the ship's mail, sir," he said, laying it down. "All right. That is what I want." The clerk turned to go. "You understand the purpose of this, Brown?" Snell called after him. "We have suspicions that make it BAS-RELIEF FROM THE TABLET MARKING THE SITE OF OLD FORT DEARBORN, CHICAGO VALOR & VICTORY well to investigate all the mail that comes to Washington from our ships-of-war, and you must arrange so that none gets by us." "I have notified proper parties at every port, sir." "That is right, And, Brown, it would be just as well for you not to speak of this, for we do not want to put any THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS one on his guard by letting him know what precautions we are taking. We shall land some of them yet, the damned traitorous scoundrels. And one thing more, Brown. This fellow Morris, Midshipman Richard Morris. You saw to it that he was shipped away in the United States?" "That was done, sir." "Good. You see, Brown, this fellow's presence would be very embarrassing to certain high parties in Washington, and we must arrange to keep him at sea. I am sorry that I cannot tell you more about it, for it is an interesting story. Be certain to bring me privately every report you have that mentions his name, and keep close watch that he does not RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS 327 get ashore. We will order him from one place to another for a time, until the present affair in which he is involved blows over. That is all." Alone once more, Snell unbound the packet of letters, and ran through them, examining each address carefully. "Aha!" he said, presently, under his breath. "Here we have it. Now we shall take a look at this, to see what manner of letter the fellow writes. ' My beloved Ruth,' he says. 'At last, after years of trouble and anxiety, I find it possible to write you once more, to tell you I am alive and well.' Good. Now let me see." He read on, in silence, grinning sardonically from time to time. When he had finished, he tore the letter into small pieces and threw them into the fireplace. "So much for Middy Morris," he said, grinning again as he returned to his desk. "Now, when she is made to believe her laddy is dead, and falls suffi ciently in love with our friend the spy, we will teach her what it is to flout Nick GENERAL STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER (From a Snell." minature by C. Fraser) For a time in the fall of 1812 the spirits of the war party ran high, and the opponents of the war found little comfort, There was not only the victory of the Constitution over the Guerriere; another engagement at sea had resulted in a victory for the Americans. On August 13, six days before the Constitution-Guerriere fight, the frigate Essex fell in with and captured the British sloop Alert and reduced her to a wreck in eight minutes. In celebrating this achievement, the Americans lost sight of the fact that the Essex heavily 328 VALOR & VICTORY SITE OF THE REDAN BATTERY AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS outweighed her opponent. At that, the event was worthy of enthusiasm, for the victory was more decisive than the disparity in force alone would warrant. Meanwhile, affairs on land were not prospering. Detroit was gone; Mich- ilimackinac had fallen into British hands; the garrison of Fort Dearborn, Chicago, together with a number of refugee inhabitants, had been murdered by the Indians, who operated with the British against the place. In addi tion to these calamities, operations against Canada were languishing. In pursuance of his plans to invade the Dominion, General Dearborn made elaborate prep- ^__^ arations, mobilizing at Niagara. By .4; October, General Van Rensselaer oc cupied the American side of the river ^ with 6000 troops, many of them militia .- from New York. Early on the morn- ^ ing of October 13 Van Rensselaer crossed with 1500 men and stormed the heights of Queenston. Later in the morning the Canadians returned to il THE SPOT WHERE BROCK FELL AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS 329 the attack, led by General Brock at the head of reinforce ments. In the crisis the militia from New York refused to cross into Canada, taking advantage of a law under which they were not obliged to go outside the State. Because of their failure to cooperate, the advance guard occupying Queenston Heights was captured. General Brock was killed in the fight, to become a hero in the annals of the Dominion. In December Captain Stewart, commanding the Constella tion lying in the river before Washington, having given a ball to high officials in the government, it was deemed suitable and politic to return the festivities to the navy, honoring the heroes of the sea for their g recent victories. Captain Hull was in Washington, had fought on the Consti- On the night of Decem- brilliantly illuminated, was chivalry of official Wash- blaze of bunting; at one flags of the Guerriere and was there with the mem- their wives; senators and men from the departments, best of the nation. Dolly Madison, captured flags, brat ion. At F o n - wife I with several officers who tution and the Essex. ber 8, Tomlinson's hall, filled with the beauty and ington. The room was a end were the captured the Alert. The President bers of the cabinet and their wives, naval officers, the best of the town the holding court beneath the was the center of the cele- her right hand was Mrs. taine Stevens, A of the SIR ISAAC BROCK'S MONUMENT AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS 330 VALOR & VICTORY senator from Massachusetts, who, because he had adopted the war policy, had lost his seat in the last election and would not come back next spring. Near them was Repre sentative Thwaite, submitting to the prosecution of the war, of which he had disapproved, he was there because Leonora was there. There was greater joy to-night than had been contem plated; for rumor told of another victory at sea; of another British ship captured by American salts. No one could tell how, or where, or by what vessel; there was nothing more than an excited tale. Many said it was the United States that had done it, and that the vanquished ship was the Macedonian, but no one could fully verify the story. Ruth Gardner, doing her best to be gay and interested, stood in the midst of a group of admirers, laughing and making eyes at them in a hollow, heavy way. The music struck up. Michael Forbeson led her on to the floor. " You are not well to-night, Miss Ruth," he said, tenderly. "Do I dance so poorly?" "On my word, you dance like a lily alive on its stem in a May morning; but the sun is not shining as it should in May." "If there were nothing but sunshine, the lily would soon wither away, Mr. Forbeson." "If I did not pluck it first," he whispered. "Then it might grow in my heart forever and a day." She was saved from making any response by a com motion that arose at the bottom of the hall; the sound of loud voices, half shouting; a bustle of men and women surrounding one who made his way up the hall, toward Mrs. Madison, where she stood beneath the captured flags. They both looked that way, abandoning the dialogue. "Come, let us see what this is," said Forbeson, making way toward the same point, dragging Ruth after him. RUTH GROWS SUSPICIOUS With a cry, a half-dozen men lifted to their shoulders the one in their center. He was a young officer of the navy. About his shoulders was a drapery of colors. At sight of him, and what he had wrapped about him, the company went wild with joy. "Who is it ?" cried Ruth, striving to get a glimpse of him through the press. "Lieutenant Hamilton, son of the secretary of the navy," some one answered. "What has he wrapped about him?" " 'Fore God, 't is another flag!" cried Forbeson. "The Macedonian's!" another at his elbow added. "She was taken by the United States off Madeira, and has just come to port." The elegant gathering was turned into a tumult as the news was bruited about. Come there to celebrate two victories, and informed of a third, the people could not con tain their joy. They laughed, they wept, they embraced one another. And when Lieutenant Hamilton, struggling from the shoulders of the men who car- ried him, made his THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE 332 VALOR & VICTORY way through the crowd and placed the flag at the feet of Dolly Madison, there was such an uproar that those who had not learned what it was all about were filled with panic. In the confusion, Ruth's hand slipped from Forbeson's arm, and she lost track of him. Quivering with excitement, she was striving to come closer to her aunt when a low voice over her shoulder gave her pause. " There is another side to this," said the voice. She turned ; it was Nicholas Snell. ' ' There is many a poor devil who gave his life to make this holiday for us," he went on. 11 There is many a devil, perhaps, who is in no danger of giving his," Ruth retorted, angered, and despising the man for his croaking manner, and for all that had gone before. " Among them," pursued Snell, paying no heed to the innuendo in her speech, "among them, as I learn by the reports that reached the office just before I left, is an excellent friend of ours, of the name BLACK PARTRIDGE SAVING MRS. HELM r ^ ^ j Tvyr rirr : c IN THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE ot Diehard Morns. (From the monument in Chicago] Vague, fragmentary suspicions of Snell that had floated like broken clouds in Ruth's mind for a long time flew together in an instant. "I shall ask to see the reports, Mr. Snell," she said, looking him fully in the eye. "I shall be happy to show them to you, Miss Gardner," he returned, meeting her gaze without a flutter. "Come to the office at your leisure, and you shall see them." "I will go now," she said. "Shall I ask your aunt to provide an escort ?" "No," returned the girl, "I will go alone." CHAPTER VI RUTH SETS A TASK IT was not difficult, in the excitement of the moment, for Ruth to pass unobserved from the hall in the company of Snell. She delayed long enough only to get her bonnet and wrap. The two were soon walking through the dismal streets of the city toward the navy office. He led her down the passage, turning in through a door way near the feeble candle. The room in which they stood was the office of the secretary of the navy. It, too, was dimly lighted. One belated clerk was bending over a report which did not appear to be having an exhila rating effect upon his spirits. They passed through the secre tary's office into an inner room. Another candle was burning here. Snell communicated the flame to several more, which he placed on table in the center of the room. "If you will sit down, I will get the' reports," he said. Ruth took a chair, thanking him. JACOB 0From Peale , s He left the room, returning after some portrait.) delay with a bundle of papers. "Brown was just working over these, getting them in shape for Mr. Hamilton," Snell explained. "Of course," he added, bethinking him self, "it is understood that I am showing you these reports in confidence, and because you seem interested to learn all you can of this Richard Morris ; and not to vindi- 333 334 VALOR & VICTORY cate my veracity, your opinion of which is of no consequence to me? You will do me the grace to concede that much, Miss Gardner." Ruth was abashed for the first time, wondering whether she might not have done this man an injustice. Such is the value of the dangerous art of getting angry. I do not mean to be unfair, Mr. Snell," she said. "Here is the report from Captain Decatur. You may read it all, if you care to. The only mention he makes of Morris is here, where he says: 'I have the honor of especially commending the brave conduct of Midshipman Richard Morris throughout the engage ment, and to suggest his name for promotion, if he survives the wounds he received while tending to his duties during battle.' " Ruth took the paper and read with quivering lip. She read, and read again. "Here is another report, signed portrait] by the surgeon, giving a list of those who died following the engagement and were buried at sea,' 7 said Snell, after a great fumbling and searching among the bundle of papers he had. "Will you look at it? That is all that concerns you, I believe, the others being official reports of other officers covering various departments of the service You are welcome to look them over, if you choose." She did not answer; she was reading down through the list. As she read, her eyes closed, as though to shut out what she saw. She handed the paper back to Snell without DAVID PORTER (From Wood's RUTH SETS A TASK 335 speaking. She arose; her eyes, wide and dry, were dis traught with grief. "Can you take me back?" she said. "I am sorry that I doubted you." "On the whole, I am rather glad," Snell made answer, replacing on her shoulders the cloak THE BIRTHPLACE or JAMES FENIMORE COOPER BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY THE BIRTHPLACE OF JAMES LAWRENCE that had fallen when she arose. "It settles an issue that seems to have been between us, and leaves us both, I apprehend, free to go about our affairs without crossing each other's paths again." Ruth did not return to the ball, but went directly to the White House, where through the long night that followed she fought her fight with the last grief, and won, solacing herself with the thought that at least he had died bravely. 336 VALOR & VICTORY If Ruth had detected, when she read the surgeon's report of those buried at sea, that the ink of it was scarcely dry, although it purported to have been penned a week be fore; if she had seen the wink and the nod that Snell bestowed upon the clerk in the office when he returned the reports; if she had caught a glimpse of the grin on the face of the clerk, much of this story would not have been written. Some days later Ruth, meet ing Lieutenant Hamilton, had courage to ask concerning the part her childhood's lover had in the fight, hinting at a touch of kin to explain her inquiry. Lieutenant Hamilton could not be sure what had happened on the part of the ship where Morris was stationed, though he had heard afterward that the fellow acquitted JAMES LAWRENCE (From himself nobly. Morris was much cut up, he said, and he was not Stuart's portrait} THE "CHESAPEAKE" AND "SHANNON" (From an old print) RUTH SETS A TASK 337 surprised when Ruth told him that the poor lad was dead, although he had not remembered that. In time, and with a rapidity that was surprising to her self, Ruth grew to think of Richard as if he had been dead ever since he passed out of her life, on the eve of his de- THE DEATH OF JAMES LAWRENCE (From the painting by ChappelF) parture in search of his father. The letters that had passed between them after that she overlooked ; he was once more the young lad who kissed her farewell, and went to his death. Thinking thus of her sweetheart, it was not strange that she should turn her face toward Michael Forbeson with a smile and a free heart; it is not to be rebuked that she was able to contemplate him as a lover without disloyalty toward the one who was gone. Forbeson's devotion to her was such that it was foolish and vain to ignore the probability that he 338 VALOR & VICTORY would become her avowed lover in time, and a short time at that. Ruth did not anticipate the event; she did not plan how she should receive his protestations of affection; she only knew that she was not sorry that this brisk, happy, bright, frank-faced young fellow found in her something to care for. As the year wore away, there came news of more vic tories by sea. On October 15 the sloop-of-war Wasp, Captain Jacob Jones, encountered the British brig Frolic, convoying a fleet of merchantmen from Honduras to England, in the midst of a Hatteras gale. Each vessel > was small, being of about 1 450 tons, and each was ' thrown about by the sea until the muzzles of the guns rolled under; but the fight went on. When, at the end of forty minutes, Lieu tenant James Biddle boarded the enemy, he found not one man unwounded on deck, and only one officer. The Constitution, Captain David Porter, cruising along the coast of South America, fell in with the British frigate Java off Brazil. After two hours of fighting, the British surrendered, having lost 230 men. In February the sloop Hornet, Captain James Lawrence, destroyed the British brig Peacock, sending her to the bottom before her men could be taken off. These victories of the sea, picturesque and inspiriting as they were, had no other than a moral effect on the belli gerents. The loss of a few ships and sailors did not prevent England from blockading the American coast, and was without result on her policy or the conduct of the war. But THE TOMB OF LAWRENCE, TRINITY CHURCHYARD, NEW YORK ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF TIPPECANOE AT THE DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT RUTH SETS A TASK 341 their moral influence must not be underestimated. In all her recent wars, England had not lost as many vessels in single engagements as she had already lost to this upstart nation with a navy made out of bundles of pine boards. Britannia, mistress of the seas, was insulted, outraged, by a handful of Yankee skippers and sailors. The thing was insufferable. In the depth of her chagrin, England was solaced by one success. Captain Philip Broke, commanding the Shannon, brought home victory, and was made a baronet for it. He captured the frigate Chesapeake off Boston harbor on June i, 1813. The Chesapeake was a new vessel, hardly in com mission, with a crew drawn in part from the farms about Boston, many of whom did not know a marlinspike from the main truck. She was commanded by Captain Law rence, late of the Hornet. Broke challenging him, he went out, unprepared as he was, and lost. He paid his life forfeit to his courage; but his dying words were soon to float over a victorious fleet on an inland sea, " Don't give up the ship!" Land operations against Canada were resumed in the West early in the year. General William Henry Harrison, succeeding General Hull, set out to recover Detroit. He was an experienced Indian fighter, having wiped out the Prophet and his band at the battle of Tippecanoe two years before. The Prophet and his brother Tecumseh, inspired by the same dream that led Pontiac along the war-path, planned to reunite the Indian tribes of the West against the encroaching whites. The conspiracy was destroyed by Harrison; but Tecumseh had his revenge in January, when he commanded the Indians in a force of British and Indians that attacked Harrison's advance on the River Raisin and annihilated it. Only a few escaped to bear the news; the wounded and prisoners were massacred by the Indians. This disaster proved to the administration the futility 342 VALOR & VICTORY of any endeavor to invade Upper Canada without first ob taining control of the lakes. Preparations were made at once to put fleets in Ontario and Erie. Commodore Chauncey, in Ontario, gathered together a number of craft which so preponderated over the enemy's vessels that the Americans were able to make a successful expedition against York, now Toronto, the capital of Canada West, which place they captured and burned, wantonly, much as their own capital was burned later in the war. Lake Erie was of great strategic importance, command ing, as it did, an entrance to the other lakes, and holding control over the Northwest Territory, which, after the disaster at the River Raisin, there was danger of our losing. General Harrison could do nothing until assured that his communications, which were exposed to Lake Erie, were secure. The British had a fleet of six vessels on the lake, commanded by Captain Barclay, who had fought with Nelson. Into this situation was projected, by some fortunate acci dent in the navy department never suffi ciently ac- THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, BERKELEY, VIRGINIA RUTH SETS A TASK 343 counted for, a dynamic force in the person of Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval officer only twenty-eight years old, and without previous experience in actual fighting. Perry turned the virgin forest into a fleet of vessels, and conjured men and arms out of the wilderness, in time to offer battle to the enemy on September 10 His flag-ship, called the Lawrence, bore at her masthead Captain Lawrence's dying words, " Don't give up the ship." There were nine vessels in -the American fleet, smaller than the English ships, and throwing ^ less metal. Engaging the two heaviest vessels of the enemy with the Lawrence, he endured their combined fire until his vessel was a wreck, when he leapt into a boat with eight men, all that re mained of his Crew, and rowed GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON to the Niagara. Marshaling his ships, he led them in a charge that broke through the enemy's ranks and scattered them, not one of the six escaping capture. This is the message that Perry sent to General Harrison. "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. Yours, with great respec.t and esteem." O. H. PERRY The victory cleared the way for Harrison, who promptly crossed into Canada and defeated Proctor and Tecumseh in the battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was killed in the fight, and the power of the Indian allies broken. Detroit was soon recovered, and the Northwest Territory was secured once more to the United States. 344 VALOR & VICTORY The campaign of this year against Lower Canada was ridiculous and disgraceful. James Wilkinson, sometime pensioner of Spain, sometime conspirator with Aaron Burr, and always incompetent, had been placed in charge of an army that was to move down the Saint Lawrence to Mon- THE ROCK ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF TIPPECANOE FROM WHICH THE PROPHET SANG OF AMERICAN DEFEAT treal, where he was to be met by a force under General Wade Hampton, a Southern gentleman of ability and char acter. General Wilkinson marched his men until a detach ment of 2000 militia encountered 800 Canadians at Chryst- ler's Farm and were miserably whipped. He sat down to wait. Meanwhile, Hampton had obeyed orders by .march ing from Plattsburg to Chateaugay, expecting to be joined by Wilkinson. Waiting there as long as it was safe, he turned about and marched back to Plattsburg. Hampton resigned in the spring; Wilkinson asked for and received a court-martial, including a coat of whitewash. President Madison was not completely disheartened, RUTH SETS A TASK 345 but made great preparations to bring the next campaign to a better ending. He appointed two brand-new major- generals, George Izard and Jacob Brown, and several new brigadiers, among them Scott, Macomb, and Gaines. In the selection of these men he followed a procedure unique in his administration; he rewarded merit and recognized demonstrated ability. Not to be too thorough in his house- cleaning, he appointed John Armstrong of New York to succeed Eustis as secretary of war, Eustis having resigned in December. At the same time, Paul Hamilton left the navy department, and was followed by William Jones of Philadelphia, who, being a ship-owner, was of some value in a technical way. One change that should not be omitted from mention was the selection of Fontaine Stevens, former senator from Massachusetts, for a position in the war department. Ruth, who sympathized with the President's policies as a ward should, and who had grown somewhat used to war, partook of the hope that filled the Chief Magistrate, viewing the future with calm assurance and faith that was TECUMSEH'S TRAIL ALONG THE WABASH RIVER 346 VALOR & VICTORY consoling to herself and him, if nothing more. All this time, as has been intimated, Forbeson was pressing his suit and coming closer to the critical moment, from which he seemed deterred only by a mysterious influence which Ruth could not guess, and which piqued her. She had come to look BURIAL PLACE OF THE SOLDIERS WHO FELL AT THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE, INDIANA forward wistfully to his declaration, if for no other reason than because it was delayed. At last the moment came. They were walking in the White House grounds in the early spring evening. The leaves were peeping from their buds, the moon was in the sky, and all was fitting. He told her of his love passionately, in many words, to which she listened with averted gaze. and a soft flush of exhilarating excitement. "My hero," she said, when he paused, "the man I shall love, must be a brave man, and not one who stays safe at home when others fight for their country." " You ask that as proof of my love ?" he asked, presently. RUTH SETS A TASK 347 "No; I should not like to put it that way. I do not want you to go to the front. I should be unhappy if you ran any risk; and yet I have a fancy, which may be foolish, that I could not love a man as I would want to love him, if he stayed here while others fought." There was another silence as they walked beneath the moon among the bursting trees. "If I go, and come back ?" he resumed. "You will love me then, Ruth?" "I --I shall give you my answer when you come back," she murmured. "And if I do not come back?" he suggested, resorting to an ancient and honorable device. She laid a fluttering hand on his sleeve. "Do not speak of that," she whispered. He lifted the hand to his lips. "I will go," he said, with a struggle, "I shall start to-morrow." There was silence between them again. "You will say farewell to me?" he whispered, bending above her shoulder. She averted her face. "You will come back," she said; and left him. THE DEATH OF TECUMSEH AT THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES, ONTARIO CHAPTER VII LETTERS FROM A HERO IN the morning there came a note from Forbeson, bidding Ruth farewell. He should not see her again, he said, until he had proved himself worthy of her love. If the proof demanded the last sacrifice, and he never saw her again, he would be content, provided he could feel that he died secure in her regard. He hoped, in such an event, she would not reproach herself, for she was right in making this demand. Reading the note, Ruth felt for the first time the full signifi cance of the test she had set, and would have been glad to relent. Her woman's nature pre venting any expression of such weaken ing, she was compelled to let him go, hoping for better fortune than that he NAPOLEON IN 1814 348 LETTERS FROM A HERO 349 skillfully suggested might be his, justi- herself as being party to a patriotic rifice. Although Ruth was a heroine, she was also a woman. The summer was a gloomy one in Washington. In two years of fighting, nothing had been gained. Blows had been given and taken at Detroit ; the American fleets had control of the Great Lakes; pic turesque victory had come sailing up out of the seas, and a maraud ing force had burned York, the capital of JOSEPHINE, EMPRESS or THE FRENCH Canada West. Beyond Perry's victory in Lake Erie, which had given control of that waterway to the Amer icans, not the least advan tage had been gained, the sea victories themselves being barren of other result than a sporadic enthusiasm among Americans and an abiding resentment in Eng land. Canada was intact, and likely to remain so; Lake Erie was of no offen sive value that could be put into practice; the British navy was as powerful at sea as ever. BIRTHPLACE OF JOSEPHINE, ISLAND or MARTINIQUE 350 VALOR & VICTORY While nothing had been gained, much had been lost, and still more threatened. The English navy, unaffected by the trifling losses that had been inflicted on it through sea duels, was blockading the entire coast of America, from Maine to New Orleans. Squadrons lay off every port; shipping was throttled; even American war-ships lay help less at their berths, unable to get to sea. Eastport and Nantucket had been captured by the English; eastern Maine was overrun and proclaimed English territory; Admiral Cochrane was laying waste the shores of the Chesa peake; the Delaware was sealed against commerce; the capital itself was threatened with capture and destruction. Napoleon, overwhelmed at last by weight of the numbers he had raised against him self, had ab dicated the French throne and been sent to Elba. Devo tion to the republican principle had fired France with an en thusiasm that went far to- ward con quering the world. The dynasties of Europe saw NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE, 1809 their power LETTERS FROM A HERO 351 waning, and coalition after coalition sought to restore kingly prestige. Unfortunately Napoleon, led away by his vaulting ambitions, played right into the hands of his inveterate and implacable foes, and to this his downfall may be directly traced. He divorced his empress, Josephine, that he might wed the Grand Duchess Maria Louisa of Austria, seeking alliance with a great imperial house in order to fix the Napoleonic dynasty upon France. It resulted only in an other and successful coalition against him, in which Austria was the chief mover under British instigation. Freed of this dread that had kept her occupied for a score of years, England was able to turn her attention to her troubles in America, and in early summer sent ships and soldiers to the scene of war, old veterans who had fought against the best regulars of the Little Corporal. With all this to assail him from without, President Madison was further disconcerted by a lack of harmony within the nation. New England, angered by the loss of its shipping, alarmed by the invasion of Maine, was anxious for peace at any price. An extreme wing of the Federalist party was muttering about secession and independent peace with England. Farmers in Vermont and New York were sending supplies to British invading armies, and denying them to the Americans; militia-men were refusing to pass beyond the limits of the States in which they had organized, or were being prohibited from doing so by the States them selves; soldiers were scarce, and scared; finances were at the lowest ebb; patriotism seemed submerged beneath party feeling and private interest. The one hope of the President lay in the operations about Niagara. At last he had men in charge in whom it was sane to repose hope. Brown, Izard, Scott, Macomb, and Gaines, were men of ability and integrity. The plan was to invade Canada a plan that had failed miserably heretofore 352 VALOR & VICTORY because of the manner of men employed in carrying it out. Brown was to cross at Niagara; Izard to move up Lake Champlain, through Plattsburg, and so to Montreal. Michael Forbeson, commissioned lieutenant by virtue of his influence at the capital, left Washington to join Gen eral Brown's army early in June. Ruth had a note from NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL Fo NTAI NEBLEAU him when he arrived, telling how Brown had marched from Sackctf s Harbor to Niagara, where he found 3500 men under Scott, well drilled and ready for war, and intimating that he expected soon to see fighting. Late in August she heard again, this time more fully. "My Treasure," the letter ran, 4t if I may make so bold as to call you so. Treasure you are, at least ; but whether mine or not perhaps the next few days will tell ; for we are on the very brink of battle, unless all signs fail. Orders are issued for a march to-morrow morning, which will be July 3. I do not know where we are going, except that we are LETTERS FROM A HERO 353 going to fight. The scheme of the war is to march against Chippewa and Yorktown Heights when the fleet is ready on Lake Ontario; but that will not be until late July, so that this movement will not be a part of the larger movement. For my part, I think it is undertaken against Fort Erie, on the north side of Lake Erie, and that it is as much for the purpose of keep ing our troops in good mettle as any other one thing to be gained by it. "I am in B rigadier- Gener al Scott's brigade, and a fine body of troops it is, if I do say so who should not. They are well trained and in good or der, thanks to the energy of Gen eral Scott, and are willing to fight, for the most NAPOLEON SIGNING His ABDICATION, AUGUST n, 1814 part, which is something not entirely usual in these northern armies, it would seem. For my part, I am ready for what the future holds, and I would not have you think otherwise ; but I find myself dreading to die here, so far away from you, and that for one reason which I can by no means tell you. I should have told you before I left, but that I was too great a coward. But this thing I ask of you, Ruth darling: whatever whispers you may hear of me should I 354 VALOR & VICTORY die to-morrow, believe not, but hold to the faith that you have in me, believing always that I died loving you, and honorably. I can only hint at what I would tell you ; but I conjure you to do as I ask, or my soul will surely ride on the griddles of hell .... "July 7. My beloved, I take my pen once more to tell you that I have been through two fights, and believe that it is intended I shall live, now that I have come through the second one. I had no chance to send this to you when I wrote the first of it, for which I am glad, because now I can add this much to it. "I was right when I conjectured that we should move against Fort Erie. We took the place with very little of a struggle , although, God knows, there was noise enough for a time to make me afraid. But now I have been baptized, and battle cannot frighten me more ; which I say in all modesty, and for which I can take no credit, for it is my thinking of you that has made it so. "Now I will tell you the story of the fight we fought. We took Fort Erie, as I have said, on the third of July, and on the next day we started, with Scott's brigade in advance, toward the enemy at Chippewa. The British were well scattered in the beginning, but were concentrating all this time on the news of our advancing against Fort Erie. "So that we should not fall upon them at Chippewa too quickly, they had torn up and destroyed many bridges on the way, and this country being rough, with many rivers and ravines, we were delayed by their operations so that we did not come to the Chippewa until near night, though the dis tance was no more than sixteen miles. Finding the enemy strong in front, General Scott withdrew his men to Street's Creek, a mile in the rear, where he waited for Porter and Ripley to come up with the other brigades. "The next day General Brown, deciding to bridge the LETTERS FROM A HERO 357 river above the British position and attack them, sent Gen eral Porter with some Indians and volunteers through the woods toward the river. There they ran into a body of British that made them turn and flee. The fugitives came into our camp in the midst of a jubilee that General Scott had got ready to celebrate the nation's birthday a great feast, and somewhat to drink, but little of food. By great good fortune the eating was done, and the troops had formed in line, ready to cross the creek, where there was to be a review. "The fugitives, running into our camp, cried out that the British army was crossing to attack. This General Scott did not believe, but marched forward to cross the bridge over Street's Creek, as he had first intended. I was not far from the head of the column. When we came to the bridge there burst out upon us from the other side a blast of artillery that shook us on our feet, and swept death against the head of the column. Men fell groaning about me ; shot screamed over my head; the air was split into fragments with the roaring of the guns. "I saw my men looking at one another with whitening faces, and knew they felt sick at the stomach, just as I did. Would you believe that I found it hard to keep on my feet at all ? Nevertheless, thinking of you and what I must do to earn your regard, I waved my sword above my head with a great sweep, as brave to all appearances as the bravest, and shouted to them to come on. And come they did, like noble lads. "Then we did a thing that, I am told, is very hard to do, and hard enough we found it, I '11 be bound. We formed in line of battle on the far side of the stream, where was an open space, with the fire of the enemy always upon us. Company after company, passing the bridge, wheeled into its place, as though on parade, men dropping from the ranks the 358 VALOR & VICTORY while like sick flies, not at all like parade, until all was in order, and we were told to charge. For this manceuver we have only General Scott to thank , for he had so drilled the men that they moved like one machine. "The enemy was in force; that we could see. General Riall had no mind to wait to be routed out, but was coming to chastise us, taking the advantage of the first blow. Although he perceived that the British were in full force, and outnumbered him, General Scott did not delay or hesitate, but went at once into the fight, determined that what we lacked in numbers we should make up in aggression. At the same moment that we moved forward, the enemy charged also ; so that we came at each other across the fields like two great snarling, crawling, spitting beasts. I shall not soon forget the din, though I forgot it at the time and forgot that death was behind the sound of it. Men fell all about me ; some with a sob, and some with a 1 one with a laugh, which, by Charles ingham) God help me, will go to my grave in my ears. It had in it all the horrors of war. "I went at the head of my troops, who were advancing and firing at intervals. I found myself walking more slowly as we came nearer, and wondering when this thing was going to stop, this crawling together of two hating, snarling, snap ping, roaring dragons. I was well at the end of the line, on the left flank. Looking across our front, I could see it sag ging. I wondered whether it was going to break. In the MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD curse SCOTT (From the portrait ' LETTERS FROM A HERO 359 moment I saw that the enemy sagged too in the middle, and was reassured. "We were very close now, so close that I could make out the faces of the enemy when the smoke gave me a sight of them, and could have known a friend among them, if there had been one ; which, thank God, there was not. That is a horrible thing, to look into the eyes of the man you are killing, and see the look of death come into them to peer out at you; to see a face wrinkle and writhe in torment, and to know that behind the torment lay your own bullet, and be hind the bullet your will to kill. "But I am afraid we had not such thoughts at the time, for we had no more than come to such a position against them when our men, with a yell, rushed upon them, bayo nets fixed, and fell into a melee with them that was for all the world like a Donnybrook fair, but more bloody. There was clubbing and swearing and sweating, and grapplings by the throat ; but the difference was that here flashed cold steel, which is a thing never seen in a fair fight among the Irish. But Irish though I am, I found myself using the steel, and felt it pricking its way through but this is a thing you will not like to read about. It is enough to say that the enemy shortly broke and fled, we having touched them upon the other flank in the same manner. Two days later we drove them from their camp on the Chippewa, following as far as Queenston, where we now hold a strong position. We are waiting for Chauncey to be ready with his fleet, for without that we can do little more. At the same time, the British are being daily augmented, many old soldiers arriving from the Napoleonic wars, which are now brought to a close. I never before thought I should be sorry to see the wretch conquered ; now I wish it might have been done at another time. "In our fight with the English at Chippewa we lost 297 360 VALOR & VICTORY men killed and wounded, while they lost 515, a discrepancy due largely to the better marksmanship of our soldiers. And now, my beloved, farewell for a space. There is like to be other fighting. I have arranged with a friend, Captain Scoggin, to send you any word that I may be prevented from sending myself. I hope you will join me in praying God that he will have no need to bear a message to you. " Yours in the proof, "MICHAEL FORBESON, Lieutenant, U. S. A." Three weeks passed; the battle of Lundy's Lane had been fought, and no news from the front for Ruth! At last came a letter, but the sight of it sent a shudder through her, for it was in another hand than his. She opened it with a dead feeling of guilt upon her, and looked at it in a vacant way, dreading to read. The first words reassured her some what , though before she laid it down again her worst appre hensions were aroused for the safety of the man whom she now accepted as her lover. "You will perhaps be startled at first to have a letter from me written in another hand," the letter read, after a salutation more formal than those that had opened his previous epistles, "so I hasten to assure you that it is nothing more than a ball through my shoulder that feels for the better part of the time like a hot ramrod, and makes it impossible for me to use my fingers. My old friend Captain Scoggin is writing this for me, seated at the side of my cot in Fort Erie ; for they have put me to bed for a space. You may think it strange for me to be calling him my old friend, when I never laid eyes on him until this summer; but when two men go through such thick places as we two have been through within the fortnight, 't is like they will be thick friends from thenceforth. "We have had stirring times here since I last wrote you LETTERS FROM A HERO 361 from Queenston. It seemed for a while that the whole of the British Empire was like to pour hot shot down the backs of our necks, but we have more than stood them off in the long run, for all that we are back here at Fort Erie, where we began. In that argument it must not be overlooked that the British are also back where they began, and in sore straits too, from all we hear of them. "For two weeks we lay at Queenston, Gen eral Brown un ready to move until Commo dore Chauncey should be pre pared with the fleet on Lake Ontario. He had had experience of military ma- nceuvers without the aid of the fleet on the year before, had Brown, and he was loath to move too soon. Meanwhile the British army was daily growing stronger, notably by the addition of General Drummond and some regiments that had had their eye teeth cut on the sabers of Napoleon's cavalry, and knew more than to run from gun fire, as we were afterward to learn. "On July twenty-fifth General Brown, made nervous by JACOB BROWN (From the portrait by J. W. Jarvis) 362 VALOR & VICTORY the increase in the enemy's strength and the continued absence of the fleet, fell back upon our old position of Chippewa. Hearing that a force was coming up the Ameri can side of the river, he sent General Scott with his brigade along the Canadian bank to threaten the rear of the advan cing column, and turn them back. I was with t h e troops, of course, being still in the brigade- with the rank, by the way, of major now , a circum stance that I would not mention from vanity unless I hoped it might lead you to show me the great er favor as being, perhaps, some evidence of my having furnished the proof you asked of me. "It was five in the afternoon when we set out, my regiment being in the van. We had not gone far when there came to us word that the enemy was in camp below the falls, not far ahead of us. This was surprising news to General Scott, who had no word of any force in his front ; but he was not the sort of man to hesitate, and we went to seek for trouble. WILLIAM EUSTIS, SECRETARY OF WAR by J. N. Daniels) (From the portrait LETTERS FROM A HERO 363 Presently we saw the enemy in force. We learned later that it was General Riall, with a force that had followed Brown when he retired from Queenston. "When we were still approaching and at a distance, the British troops began to move off. 'Run them down!' cried General Scott, riding to the head of the line. 'Do not let them slink away like cowards!' So we were after them, pellmell down the hill and up the other side of the valley, when we ran plump into the foe, who had stood after all, General Drummond having come up and countermanded the orders for a retreat issued by General Riall. " There, on that hill near Lundy's Lane that evening, you would have thought the world was in a frying-pan. Never have I heard such a sputtering of gun-fire in my life, and never do I wish to do so again. We held on to the shelf of the hill like terriers, growling away the while, with the foe giving us back as good, until we both ceased, from sheer exhaustion, with nothing acccomplished on either hand but many sudden deaths. And there we lay, in the hushful evening, with the twilight dying out of the sky, and the whole world thinking of nothing but peace and sleep; for it was late when we began the slaughter, and by now was full nine o'clock. u By degrees, as we lay there, the pot began to boil again. Little pops of firing came from here and there in the line, lighting up the dusk and echoing across the somber hills. Presently, on the left, the noise became more portentous, until at last we knew the battle was on again. Fresh troops had come up, and were going in. Then there happened something which I shall liken to the tearing of a strip of cloth, so that you may have a better understanding. Away on the left, where the trouble was renewing itself, started a rattle of musketry in volley, a solid crash of noise, which came along the line in an even progress, making me think 364 VALOR & VICTORY as it came to our regiment and passed off of that which I have mentioned the tearing of heavy cloth. Brrrp! it went by, and the battle was on again. "I was with the regiment, watching and directing the disposition of the companies from time to time, when there came an order to advance upon the hill, the enemy having been routed from his guns by a charge on his right, and being in retreat all along the front. When we started for the crest I must say that it did not seem to me that they were leaving with any startling alacrity, and it was then that I felt the shot that has wounded me; but by the time we arrived at the top of the hill, where the foe had been a moment before, we found the ground deserted. They had disappeared. "Now it seemed to me that the day was over, and I was thinking of looking about me for a surgeon to attend to my wound, which was thumping and hot, when there came crashing out of the woods before us a whole army of British, rushing right up to us, as though the day had just begun. We gave them what they came for, and sent them stumbling back; but it was a horrid thing on both sides. Men fell like blades before a reaper; I saw three strike together in falling, and roll in one silent heap. It was pitch dark by now, but in the flare of the guns we could see the buttons on the red coats, and could see the eyes glaring at us from out the heads of the enemy. That, as I have told you, I do not like. And I am afraid, too, that I have too tender a heart for a true soldier. " Twice more the British came at us in the same way, striving more particularly to reach us on the left, where were the guns we had driven them from. Twice more we sent them reeling down the dark slope up which they had come ; but the thing was not to be endured. Of our army not more than 700 remained in position. Brown and Scott were both wounded. At midnight General Brown led the army back LETTERS FROM A HERO 365 into their old camp, two miles away, in good order; but when we sent back for the guns that had been captured, the British were found in possession of the hill, from which we had driven them with such heavy cost, and nothing was gained. "From there we returned to Fort Erie, General Ripley having taken command because of the wounds from which both General Brown and General Scott suffered, Reading to this point, Ruth gave a little cry, and covered her eyes with the back of her hand; for the letter came to a full stop, and was continued by the amanuensis, writing for himself. Steadying herself, she read on, expecting to learn the worst that could be told her. "Dear Madam," it continued, "I should be very un willing to cause you any unnecessary alarm, but my dear friend Major Forbeson having exacted from me a promise that I would communicate with you in case it became im possible for him to do so, and he having taken his narrative this far in my hands, I feel con- it to the present, with what additional part, however loath I may be to do "At the point of interruption in the letter above, the major gave a gasp and rolled from the pillow on which he had been propped while he dictated the letter to me. I was certain for a moment that he was dead ; but discovering presently that he had no more than swooned, I SOLDIERS' MONUMENT ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF LUNDY'S LANE, ONTARIO strained to bring news I can im- so. 366 VALOR & VICTORY sent for a surgeon, who came at once and worked over him as he would a brother. He was rewarded presently by restor ing our friend to consciousness; or, at least, to a more active state of body; but the new condition was that of fever. He has been lying in his fever now for two days, in which I have postponed completing and forwarding the letter, thinking perhaps I might have more definite word to impart to you at any time. I shall delay no longer, for it is a matter of complete uncertainty when he will come to any change. Meanwhile, I can assure you that he has considerable com forts and all the care he could receive anywhere, and that for the present there need be no occasion for too grave apprehension of the final outcome of his illness. I shall inform you at once of any change that is decisive. I would strongly advise against your coming here, if the thought has occurred to you, for the trip would be an ordeal, and you could hardly be received in the fort as you should be. More over, by the time you arrived the thing will be decided, one way or another. Rest assured that everything will be done possible for our friend. " Hoping to be the bearer of better news soon, I beg to remain, with great respect, "Your humble servant to command, "ANDREW SCOGGIN, Captain, U. S. A." CHAPTER VIII RETALIATION RUTH GARDNER, depressed and heavy spirited, wandered absently down Pennsylvania Avenue to ward the White House, returning from a visit to Leonora Stevens, to whom she had gone with that human instinct which com pels the stricken to seek compan ionship. She had hoped to get away from herself for a time, to obtain some peace of mind in the unhappiness and uneasiness that had possessed her since the re ceipt of Michael's latest letter. She had been dis appointed; she had only witnessed a quarrel between Leonora and Simon Thwaite. Walking up Pennsyl vania Avenue in an absent mood, Ruth was presently aware of a commotion on the Street excited groups JAMES MONROE (From Vanderlyn's portrait) gathering at corners ; men rushing to and fro ; messengers dashing past ; women standing about in their aprons, and hatless ; children clinging to their skirts, open-eyed, speechless. "What is the excitement?" she inquired of a woman who stood with a child in her arms at the edge of a group. 367 3 68 VALOR & VICTORY "Where have you been that you have not heard?" returned the woman. "The British are coming. There is a fleet of fifty sail at the mouth of the Potomac." Ruth did not stop to hear more, but hastened toward the White House. In the grounds she met General William H. Winder, lately appointed by the President to command the defenses of Washington. He had a wild, distracted look. Ruth hailed him. "What is the news I hear?" she asked. "Is it true that the British are coming?" He looked vacantly at her for a moment before he replied. "Oh, I do not know!" he cried. "I cannot tell; we know nothing. There is a report that a great fleet is sailing up the Potomac. Yes, I presume they will come this way. I have been to see your father." "You mean the President?" Ruth corrected. "Yes, yes, Mr.. Madison. We must prepare some de fense. If they had waited, if they had not come so soon, we should have been ready for them. I was about to begin an elaborate system of defense, forts, and ditches, and what not." RELICS OF THE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHING TON, BURNED BY THE BRITISH RETALIATION 369 "Perhaps, if you send them word, they will wait until you can do this," said Ruth, bitterly. She knew the man's incompetency; that he had been up and down the country for two months since he was appointed, looking for sites for fortifications, without settling upon one; that he had organized no defense of any sort; that there were barely 500 regu- , lars and only a | few marines to protect the city against the vet erans of Welling- ton's army whom I the English were sending over. Knowing this, she was resentful. Winder took her suggestion with some sur - prise, and seemed to be considering the feasibility of it for a moment. In the end he shook his head sadly, and hurried on, muttering to himself again as he went, and waving the cluttered papers through the air. Ruth, watching him for a moment with a half-pitying contempt, entered the White House and sought out Dolly Madison. There was probably no calmer soul in Washington that night and through the next few days than Dolly Madison. The President was frightened, though he made a brave show of courage, even to his wife. The cabinet was alarmed and uncertain what to do. General Winder sat in his office in the midst of orders and suggestions and advice, rumpling his hair, sighing, and falling into more and more hopeless confusion. The people of the city went through the streets, THE BATTLEFIELD AT BLADENSBURG, MARYLAND 370 VALOR & VICTORY dragging their valuables to places of safety, preparing for flight, remembering what had befallen Havre de Grace. Panic was rampant; but Dolly Madison was quiet, impart ing a calm courage to those about her. The next day came word that the British general Ross had landed at Benedict, on Chesapeake Bay. The news THE BRITISH IN THE STREETS or WASHINGTON (From an old print) threw the city and the government into worse disorder. The President sent out requisitions for the militia of the surrounding States; men of Washington rushed to arms; General Winder, with James Monroe, who had fought in the Revolution, and still had military aspirations, went out to the Wood Yard, down the river, to rendezvous the troops. They could see the British marching to Upper Marlboro, serene and undisturbed through the August woods, as if they were soldiers on a holiday. General Winder, rumpling his hair, was approached by men from Washington, organized into militia, who asked to be allowed to prepare a defense. Pleased with the fancy, RETALIATION Winder, with the British already at the doors of the city, went to work to fortify, throwing up some breastworks with a ditch or two at Bladensburg. Bladensburg is at the head of the East Branch, on the road from Upper Marlboro, where the enemy were, to Washing ton, and the site of the only cross ing at that time, except the long bridge at the mouth of the Branch, near the navy yard. Convinced that this was the place where a bat- SMOOT HOUSE, WHERE DOLLY MADISON RESTED OVER- i j ^ NIGHT tie would be fought, Winder withdrew from the Wood Yard on Mon day to Old Fields, four miles in the rear and on the road to Bladensburg. Here he was met at midnight by the Presi dent, and by Jones, secretary of the navy, Armstrong, secre tary of war, and Rush, the attorney-general. Tuesday he rode about all the morning, and concluded from observation that Ross would not march that day. Believing this, he set out for Bladensburg to see how things were going for ward there. He had not been gone an hour before Ross appeared before the American lines. Battle was formed on both sides, and would have been joined, if the defender of Washington, inadvertently sent for, had not returned in time to order a retreat. The retreat was Winder's masterpiece in blundering. He fell back on the navy yard at the mouth of East Branch, which was unapproachable to the enemy, being naturally 372 VALOR & VICTORY defended by the width of the stream and the length of the bridge across, and further defended by the guns of vessels at the yards and 500 marines under Barney. This ma- nceuver left unwatched the road around the head of the stream, through Bladensburg. Meanwhile, in the village of Washington, dismay and panic walked hand in hand. Banks sent their specie out of town; citizens loaded carts and wagons with valuables and sent them into the country; many buried their silver and jewels. In the White House, Dolly Madison and Ruth waited for news from the front, the President having gone away on Monday to join General Winder. Two notes had come from Madison to his wife, written in pencil. One told her to be ready to leave the city; that the enemy was stronger than was supposed; that it might happen they would reach the capital with the intention of destroying it. Great bustle followed. Dolly Madison packed the cabinet papers in trunks and sent them off in a carriage, which they completely filled. Now sounds of distant cannon reached the White House. It was the beginning of the farce at Bladensburg; the farce that was called a defence of a capital city. Ross, marching from Upper Marlboro upon the rabble that had gathered there with muskets and enthusiasm, sent a brigade across the bridge. The Americans, in line on the crest of a green hill, fired, holding the advance of the enemy, until others came up. Whereupon the advancing foe sent some Congreve rockets sputtering into the ranks that had been on the hill, but the ranks were no longer there, they- were scattered along the road toward Georgetown in an order determined by the respective speeds of the components' members. Well in advance was President Madison, with his secretaries about him. A moment before the rockets were fired he had said to Monroe: "It would now be RETALIATION 375 proper for us to retire to the rear, leaving the military move ments to military men," meaning, perhaps, the British. One stand was made against the invaders. The sailors and marines under Barney, who had obtained from General Winder a reluctant permission to join the fight, came up from the navy yard after their friends were on their way to Georgetown, unlimbered some field pieces they had got hold of, and opened up on the English troops. Three times they repulsed a direct assault, but were finally dislodged by a flank movement through a ravine. Dolly Madison and Ruth, "in the White House, heard the firing, and waited for news from the field. At 3 o'clock two messengers came, covered with dust, to tell them to fly, but Dolly Madison would not go until her husband had returned. Some one brought a wagon, which they filled with silver plate, urns, and valuables of bulk. Early that da) George Washington Parke Custis had come to the White House, anxious about the portrait of George Washington, painted by Stuart, which hung in the dining-room. At the last moment, Mrs. Madison had a servant knock the frame from the wall, there being no time to unscrew it, take out the canvas, and roll it up. This was piled into the wagon with the rest and carted to Georgetown. That done, the coach was ordered up and they drove off. The noise of battle had ceased. They knew the conflict had ended and how, because they saw frightened men hurry ing along the way, "groups of military, wandering in all directions, as if there were lack of arms or spirit to fight for their own firesides," as Mrs. Madison described them after ward. The party had driven only a short distance when Mrs. Madison, who had been silent for a time, said to the coachman: " Drive back to the White House." Drive back she would, in spite of the whole British army, which more than one told her was on the heels of her husband. 37 6 VALOR & VICTORY But there was some distance between his heels and the head of their column. He was found at the White House, where he had stopped for a few minutes, making arrange ments to meet his wife on the morrow. Thence he went through the grounds to the river, where he took boat for Virginia, accompanied by the secretary of state and the attorney- general. Dolly Madison, accompanying him to the river, watched him until he was out of sight across the waters in the gathering dusk. The head of the nation had fled from the enemy in his capital. "Poor James! Poor James!" she sighed, throwing her arms about Ruth, who stood near her, "I fear he was never meant to be a soldier!" There followed a wild night in the city of Washington. The invaders, finding no further opposition, marched leisurely to the edge of the town. Soon the streets were filled with knots of redcoats, boisterous, rough worded, making mirth in the enemy's capital. Citizens cowered about, slinking away fearful for their lives those, that is, who had not taken advan tage of an earlier opportunity. THE OLD CANNON IN BALTIMORE TO-DAY RETALIATION 377 Ruth Gardner, gazing through the window of the house where they had taken refuge, saw a sudden lurid light lift into the sky; saw bellying smoke; saw tongues of fire lap across it, from the direction of Washington. She looked again and saw, outlined in the glare, the capitol! The British were burning it. Another flaring glare illuminated the night. The White House was in flames! Another and another were seen, and men asked. u Are the British giving the whole city to the flames?" Ruth, watching with a heavy heart, saw a flash of light split the sky, and heard a mighty rumbling roar. She started, wondering what might be the cause, believing some arsenal or ship had been blown up. As she wondered, the flash and crash came again. She saw that it was a white light, and knew then it was lightning. flames that were mounting the sky, she they looked twisted and torn, writhed in the grip of the wind, moment a dash of rain sprinkled the pane, by the violence of its sending her back with a start. Swiftly the storm rose. The air was filled with driving rain; trees tugged madly at their roots, thrash- to hand me his card, with much ceremony. I re sponded in kind, and left him. THE HOUSE AT SECOND AND B STREETS, WASHINGTON, WHERE THE ONLY ARMED RESISTANCE WAS MADE TO BRITISH INVASION CHAPTER V AN OLD LOVE, AND A NEW IN my inability to understand the situation I was not at a loss what to do. I called into my confidence a fellow- officer of the Guerriere, and sent him to both Snell and Captain Forbeson. I had grave fears lest Snell would not fight. The reply I received from each was a surprise and a disappointment. Although I had lost no time, Captain Forbeson's expedition had exceeded mine; my second reached Nicholas Snell when Forbe son's second was concluding arrangements for a meeting on the following morning, at Bladensburg, between DOLLY MADISON Snell and Forbeson. It was agreed among the three seconds that I might present myself at the field of honor, and engage the survivor. At the appointed time I rode out to Bladensburg, accom panied by my second, bearing a pair of swords and a set of dueling pistols in case there should be a meeting with either, for Snell had chosen firearms and Forbeson steel. The two who were to fight before me were already there, confronting each other. Pistols were the weapons, Snell, is seemed, conceiving himself to have no little skill with that arm. 490 AN OLD LOVE, AND A NEW 491 They stood at twenty paces, each with his weapon raised. At a middle distance between, but at one side, stood one whom they had selected to drop a handkerchief as a signal ; the white cloth was hanging in the dead air from his fingers ; the scene was as quiet as the great Beyond which one of them seemed likely soon to enter. I had no malice in my heart against the stranger, but I found myself wishing that it might be he, that I could have my satisfaction at first hand from Snell. In the midst of this thought the handkerchief fell. My eyes were on Snell ; I saw his pistol leap with the discharge ; saw the smoke spurt out ; heard the explosion. In the next instant, I saw him sink to the ground, his face distorted. I turned swiftly to see how the other might have fared, and why he did not fire. He lay on the ground, his head supported by his second; above them hung a little wisp of smoke. They had fired simultaneously, and each had hit. I stood in my tracks, watching one and then the other for a sign of the extent of their injuries. Glancing presently toward Forbeson, I saw his second beckoning me, and went thither. The wounded man held up a hand to me. "We shall not meet," he whispered, being, as I saw at once, des perately hard hit. "He has finished me." "He is down, too," I returned. "So they have told me," Forbeson replied. The cold blooded way in which we conversed seems strange enough to me now, but at the time, and in the circumstances, there on the field where we had come to administer death to one another, it seemed natural enough. "Ay, and he is dead," whispered his second, who had been watching the group about the other combatant. "Then there is but one thing more for me to do," ob served Forbeson, contentedly. He held up his hand to me again. "Lean over; listen," he whispered. 492 VALOR & VICTORY I knelt at his side on the ground. I did not make any attempt to staunch the wound, although prompted to by my surgical instinct. It was past all help. " There is not much that I have to do," the wounded man went on: "for which I thank God, for I fear there is not much time left for me to do it in. You have been AN INTERIOR VIEW OF MONTPELIER tricked by this villain now happily dead; how much you have been tricked I can never tell you. What I have to say before I die is of something else is of Ruth." My heart shriveled with a fear that this was Ruth's beloved dying before me. I looked without thinking toward the wound, to see if anything, after all, might be done. "I was to have been married to her within the week," he went on, huskily, struggling for breath. ''Do not look so solemn over it. I am dying, you see." "That is why I look solemn, man," I retorted, somewhat AN OLD LOVE, AND A NEW 495 angered by his insinuation, for all that he was a dying man. I was hardened to death, perhaps, by my profession. "I meant nothing hard," said he, perceiving my displea sure with the quickened sense of a dying man, "and do not believe that her grief will be as great as you fear. She was to have been my wife, but only because she thought you dead and buried beneath the sea; for it is you she loves. Now 't is all ended, and may God give you luck in it!" How shall I tell the rest ? I was with him until he died, some hours later. That much I felt I owed her. I did not go to her in her grief. That much, too, > I owed her. I did not go to her until she learned that I was in Washington. Spare me the telling of that meeting. I went promising myself to keep up the fiction of her love for Forbeson, and her bereavement. May God forgive me if I broke that promise! As soon as it was seemly we were married, going to live in Baltimore, where I practiced medi cine and surgery, with a run now and then down the bay on a small craft I had built. There is little more to be told. My grief over the loss of my father, and the shock it occasioned, was the only remain ing unhappiness in our lives. My beloved wife has proved herself a pat tern of devotion; our chil- THE BURIAL PLACE OF JAMES MADISON 496 VALOR & VICTORY dren have grown up about us to call us blessed ; our worldly affairs prosper sufficiently; I am a man of some repute among my fellow-citizens, and can feel that I have done some good. I do not want to bring this narrative to a close without speaking of Sylvester Stevens. He is grown a great man in Kentucky now, and is happy in the conjugal companion ship of her who was Margaret Rutgers. President Madison, in office for two years after the close of the war, left with his sins of omission, of which he had been guilty during the conflict, forgotten, and enjoying the affectionate regard of his countrymen. Now, in the year 1823, our country thrives, and is happy and prosperous. We as a nation have turned our faces from the sea, and are spreading over the vast West, full of untold riches for a race such as ours. As for me and mine, we are passing down the current of our lives smoothly, with great happiness, and bountiful measure of those things that make life worthy: love, affec tion, and sympathy. ^^ So be it to THE END. IN THE GROUNDS AT MONTPELIER INDEX INDEX Abellino, THE American privateer, 484 takes prizes into Tunis and Tripoli, 483 Acasta, THE British frigate of forty guns, 472 in Collier's squadron, 472 pursues American ships, 472 recaptures Levant at Port Praya, 472 ADAIR, JOHN leads Kentucky forces at battle of Xew Orleans, 404. ADAMS, ABIGAIL wife of John Adams, 208 portrait of. 208 spot where, saw burning of Charlestown, picture of, 420. ADAMS, JOHN concludes treaty of Paris, 2 r peace negotiations of, a triumph of diplomacy, 44 portrait of, 69 raises money from Dutch usurers, 72 goes to England to negotiate commercial treaty, 72 snubbed by England, 72 with Washington at his inauguration, 119 becomes President, 202 publishes Telleyrand's correspondence, 202 consistently fosters navy, 202 Vassall House at Quincy, Massachusetts, the home of, picture of, 205 ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY peace commissioner at Ghent, 423 spot where, saw burning of Charlestown, picture, of, 424 ADAMS, SAMUEL doubts the wisdom of consolidation of States, 85 the grave of, picture of, 98 chairman of ratification convention, 99 public opinion leads, to favor Constitution, 99 Adams , THE American frigate, 464 destroyed off coast of Maine, 464 Alert, THE the Essex captures, 327-328 ALGIERS Bainbridge brings tribute to Dey of, 224 under tribute to Grand Porte of Constanti nople, 226 makes treaty of peace with France, 226-227 offends Grand Porte, 227 demands that Bainbridge carry present to Sultan of Turkey, 227 ALGIERS continued Grand Porte demands that, make war on France, 227 Dey of, resentful toward Bainbridge, 227-228 Dey of, brought to terms by frigate President and the Enterprise, 228 from the sea, picture of, 248 a tropical garden in, picture of 252 port of, picture of, 254 Dey of, looses corsairs against American shipping, 472 Decatur sails for, 425, 473 Decatur and Dey of, picture of, 473 navy of, 473 Rais Hammida, admiral of, 473 panorama of, 475 description of, 477-478 in the old town of, picture of, 478 Decatur forces treaty with, 478-480 Dey of, inclined to break treaty 484 Dey of, influenced by presence of Bainbridge, 484 ALLEN, WILLIAM HENRY carries live coal to fire gun of Chesapeake, 309 AMES, FISHER portrait of, 200 speech of, gains acceptance of Jay's treaty by senate, 201 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND Congress at, 46 Washington resigning his commission at, picture of, 47 the old City Hotel at, picture of, 49 the old senate chamber at, picture of, 50 old State House at, picture of, 51 commissioners from several States go to, 79 old Capitol at, picture of, 80 old senate chamber at, picture of, 81 Argus, THE American brig of sixteen guns, 448 Arthur Sinclair in command of, 448 Ariel, THE American ship in Perry's squadron, 458 assists Lawrence, 458 ARMSTRONG, JOHN major on Gates's staff, 23 writes inflammatory appeal to soldiers, 23, 2 acts under mistaken belief, 23 succeeds Eustis as secretary of war, under Madison, 345 meets Winder at Old Fields, 371 resigns from cabinet under severe criticism, 381 succeeded by Monroe, 381 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION adopted by last of colonies, 68 establish Congress on constitutional basis, 68 502 VALOR & VICTORY ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION cont. merely a bond between commonwealths, 68 conditions upon which Maryland consented to, 74 Congress begs to amend, 80 impost amendment to, defeated, 80 ASSUNPINK RIVER Washington crosses in triumph, no Atlanta, THE British war vessel, 465 captured by Wasp, 465 brings last news of Wasp to Savannah, 465 Avon, THE British war vessel, 465 captured by Wasp, 465 B BALTIMORE, MARYLAND old cannon in, picture of, 376 battle monument at, picture of, 377 British naval attack on, repulsed by Fort McHenry, 382 British defeated in land engagement at, 382 Ross killed in attack upon, 382 BAINBRIDGE, WILLIAM captain of the George Washington, 224 sails for Algiers with tribute for Dey, 224 portrait of, 225 forced to carry present from Dey to Sultan, 227 Dey resentful toward, 227-228 taken prisoner by Tripolitans, 232 meets Decatur at Gibraltar, 484 in command of Mediterranean squadron, 484 brings Dey of Algiers into compliance with treaty, 484 BARATARIA LAKE, LOUISIANA Lafitte brings pirates from, to Jackson, 400 BARBARY STATES, see also ALGIERS, TRIPOLI, TUNIS pirates protected by, 225 United States declares war against, 472 offend United States, 483 BARBER, FRANCIS lieutenant-colonel on Gates's staff, 23 distributes inflammatory pamphlet among soldiers, 23, 28 BARCLAY, COMMODORE ROBERT H. commands British squadron on Lake Erie, 342, 456 blockades American squadron, 456 Perry escapes from blockade of, 456 at Camden, 456 refuses to engage Perry, 456 has to leave Camden, 456 squadron of, descried by Perry, 456 description of squadron of, 457 fights Perry, 458-461 surrenders to Perry, 461-462 BARNEY, JOSHUA captain in American navy, 375 commands marines at Bladensburg, 375 fights gallantly but is dislodged, 375 BARREAUT, CAPTAIN captain of the Insurgente, 218 BARRON, JAMES in command of the New York, 230 takes command of fleet in Mediterranean, 247 releases command to Rodgers, 247 returns to America in ill health, 247 commands the Chesapeake in encounter with the Leopard, 309 BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN, see MAC- DONOUGH, THOMAS BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, see also LUNDY'S LANE . picture of, 355 description of, 363, 365 BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, see also JACKSON, ANDREW pictures of, 405, 419 description of, 404-408 news of victory at, rejoices Washington, 419 BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG BAY, see also MACDONOUGH, THOMAS picture of, 393 BAYARD, JAMES A. peace commissioner at Ghent, 423 Bellerophon, THE carrying Napoleon to Saint Helena, picture of, 43i BENEDICT, MARYLAND on Chesapeake Bay, 370 Ross lands with invading army at, 370 BENTON, THOMAS HART wounds Jackson in duel, 398 Berceau, THE French corvette, 221 the Boston captures, 221 BERKELEY, VIRGINIA birthplace of Harrison at, picture of, 342 BERLIN, MARYLAND birthplace of Stephen Decatur at, picture of, 227 BIDDLE, JAMES taken prisoner in Tripoli, 232 commander of the Hornet, 232 in encounter between Wasp and Hornet, 338 BIRD WOMAN accompanies Lewis and Clark, 283, 286 BLADENSBURG, MARYLAND battlefield at, picture of, 369 Winder throws up breastworks at, 371 location of, 371 Winder rides to, 371 Winder leaves unwatched the road through, 372 British attack, 375 Barney and his marines fight gallantly at, 375 BLENNERHASSET, HARMAN Burr goes to see, 291 undertakes to direct forces for Burr, 291 flees, 296 Burr joins, 299 wrecked in Burr's intrigue, 301 dies in poverty, 301 INDEX 503 BpLLMAN, ERIC in Burr's conspiracy, 299 case against, dismissed, 299 BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON, see NAPOLEON BONAPARTE BOONE, DANIEL a frontiersman, 95 portrait of, 100 monument at Boonesborough, picture of, 100 eld ferry on the Kentucky River, showing where the daughters of, and the Galloway girls were captured by Indians, picture of, 102 where, first beheld Kentucky, picture of, 137 old monument to, picture of, 142 loses property in Kentucky, 143 retires to Missouri, 143 services of, recognized by grant of land, 143 dies, 143 buried in Kentucky, 143 monument to, after remodeling, picture of, 143 Boone's Cave, where, spent the winter of 1769- 1770, picture of, 144 BOONESBOROUGH, KENTUCKY Boone monument at, picture of, 100 spring near, picture of, 101 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS grave of John Hancock at, picture of, 83 grave of Samuel Adams at, picture of, 98 Constitution reaches, 446 Constitution blockaded in, 464 Constitution sails from, 464 Boston, THE captures the Berceau, 221 BOWDOIN, JAMES governor of Massachusetts, 75 sends Lincoln against Shays, 75 constituents of, elect Hancock governor, 85 BRITISH INVASION OF LOUISIANA, see PAKENHAM, SIR EDWARD BRITISH INVASION OF MARYLAND, see Ross, ROBERT BROCK, SIR ISAAC opposes Hull's march, 315 portrait of, 316 Hull surrenders to, 316 Hull's surrender to, picture of, 318 killed at Queenston Heights, 329 spot where, fell at Queenston Heights, picture of, 328 monument to, at Queenston Heights, picture of, 329 BROKE, SIR PHILIP BOWES VERE commands the Shannon, 341 captures the Chesapeake, 341 BROWN, JACOB Madison appoints, major-general, 345 man of integrity, 351 marches from Sackett's Harbor to Niagara, 352 finds Scott at Niagara with 3500 men, 352 marches on Fort Erie, 353 captures Fort Erie, 354 marches on Chippewa, 354 BROWN, JACOB continued decides to bridge river at Chippewa, 354 sends Porter to attack British, 357 defeats Riall at Chtppewa, 359 drives Riall from his camp, 359 marches on Queenston, 359 portrait of, 363 falls back on Chippewa, 361-362 sends Scott against enemy, 362 holds hill at Lundy's Lane, 363 wounded in battle, 364 leads army to camp two miles away, 365 sends back for captured guns, 365 finds British in possession of battlefield, 365 repels British attack on Fort Erie, 382 Izard ordered to join, 383 BURGOYNE, JOHN C., credit of capturing, due Schuyler, 31 BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY birthplaces of James Fenimore Cooper and James Lawrence at, picture of, 335 BURR, AARON portrait of, 87 attracts a coterie of young men, 87-88 birthplace of, picture, 88 prominent and successful lawyer, 88 grandson of Jonathan Edwards, 88 son of president of College of New Jersey, 88 personal description of, 88 Hamilton the only rival of, 88 Richmond Hill, home of, picture, 89 conspiracy to elect, President, 259 tie between, and Jefferson in electoral vote for Presidency, 259 Hamilton and, bitter enemies, 262 kills Hamilton in duel, 262 indicted in New York and New Jersey, 262 flees to Philadelphia, 263 duel between, and Hamilton, picture of, 263 presides over senate during impeachment proceedings against Chase, 263 Clinton succeeds, as vice-president of United States, 263 makes journey through West, 263 expresses contempt for Constitution, 264 close friendship of, with Merry, 264 refuses to enter into covenant with New England Federalists, 265 rumors of conspiracy of, to divide Union reach Washington, 289, 290 intrigues with Merry and Yrujo, 290 Truxtun rebuffs, 290 Eaton reveals secret of, to Jefferson, 290 home of, in New York, picture, 290 unable to secure aid in East, 290-291 Morgan repulses, 291 Blennerhasset warms to plan of, 291 wins confidence of Andrew Jackson, 292 purchases grant on Washita, 292 Daviess attacks, 292 progresses with scheme, 292 Daviess brings, into court, 292 Jefferson takes action against, 294-296 Wilkinson turns traitor to, 294-299 explains matters to Jackson, 296 joins Blennerhasset, 299 learns of Wilkinson's treachery, 299 54 VALOR & VICTORY BURR, AARON continued flees, 299 arrested, 299 trial of, 299-300 escapes punishment, 300-301 prison of, in Richmond, picture, 300 ruined and discredited, 301 marries Madam Jumel, 307 dies, 301 Banner's Hotel, New York, in which, died, picture of, 301 tomb of, picture, 302 BUTLER, GENERAL RICHARD in command of force against Indians, 182 force of, encounters Indians on upper Wabash, 182-183 scalped and tomahawked, 183 CADIZ, SPAIN Decatur at, 473 Caledonia, THE American vessel in Perry's squadron, 458 CALHOUN, JOHN CALDWELL portrait of, 310 Clay finds kindred spirit in, 312 CAMDEN, ONTARIO British squadron at, 456 Perry sails to, 456 Barclay will not leave, 456 British squadron forced out of, 456 CAMPBELL, CAPTAIN HUGH GEORGE in command of corvette that goes to Barbary, 230 CANADA many Tories go to, 41 Franklin asks England for, 44 many believe that, can be conquered in a campaign, 315 operations against, languish, 328 New York militia refuse to cross into, 329 CANNING, GEORGE prime minister of England, 311 repudiates promises of Erskine, 311 CARD, JACK American sailor impressed on Macedonian, 453 killed in action with United States, 453 CARLETON, SIR GUY remains idle in New York, 21 evacuates New York, 45 Carolina, THE river gunboat at New Orleans, 397 attacks British camp, 402 destroyed by British fire, 403 sailors from, man earthworks, 404 CARROLL, HENRY a secretary to the commission of peace, 421 brings news of the treaty of Ghent, 421 CARROLL, WILLIAM brings Tennessee brigade to Jackson at New Orleans, 400 CARTHAGENA, SPAIN Macedonian takes captured Mashouda to, 477 CATALANO, SALVATORE pilot with Decatur, 234 CHASE, SAMUEL Justice of Supreme Court of United States, 203 harshly administers sedition law, 203 Randolph brings impeachment proceedings against, 263 CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA Genet lands at, 191 CHATAHOOCHEE RIVER southern boundary of United States to run from Yazoo River to, 72 CHATEAUGAY, QUEBEC Hampton waits for Wilkinson at, 344 CHAUNCEY, ISAAC in command of Chesapeake, 230 Brown awaits ships of, at Queenston, 359 commodore commanding American fleet on Lake Ontario, 342, 454 awaits attack of British, 454 assists in capture of York, 342, 455 portrait of, 461 Cherub, THE British frigate, 466 blockades Porter in Valparaiso. 466 fights Essex, 466 Essex surrenders to, 466 Essex fighting Phoebe and, picture of, 469 CHESAPEAKE BAY Cochrane lays waste shores of, 350 Ross lands invading army at Benedict on, 370 Chesapeake, THE in squadron that goes to Barbary, 230 impressing American seamen from, picture of, 308 fired upon and disabled by the Leopard, 309 forced to surrender, 309 and Shannon, picture of, 336 captured by Shannon, 341 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS in 1830; old Fort Dearborn, picture of, 313 Fort Dearborn, picture of, 322 bas-relief from tablet marking site of old Fort Dearborn in, picture of, 323 Indians murder garrison at, 328 Fort Dearborn massacre at, picture of, 331 Black Partridge saving Mrs. Helm in Fort Dearborn massacre at, picture of, 332 CHIPPEWA, ONTARIO Brown to march on, 353 Brown and Scott march on, 354 Scott halts for reinforcements near, 354 Brown sends Porter to attack British at, 357 Brown and Scott defeat Riall at, 359 - Riall driven from camp at, 359 American and British losses at, 359-360 Brown falls back on, 361 Chubb, THE British sloop-of-war in Downie's squadron, 384 crippled and forced to strike, 386 CINCINNATI, ORDER OF THE decoration of the, picture of, 37 idea of General Knox leads to formation of, 43 rules and observances of, 43 country bitterly opposed to, 43-44 INDEX 505 CLARK, GEORGE ROGERS captured British outpost during Revolution, 280 William Clark a brother of, 280 CLARK, WILLIAM portrait of, 278 trail-maker to the far Northwest, 278 Lewis and, placed at head of exploring expedi tion, 280 brother of George Rogers Clark, 280 expedition of, sets out from Saint Louis, 280 explorations of, 280-283 returns to Saint Louis, 283 CLAY, HENRY acts as Burr's attorney, 292 birthplace of, Hanover County, Virginia, picture of, 309 portrait of, 311 elected to speakership of house, 312 insists on war with England, 312 finds kindred spirit in Calhoun, 312 peace commissioner at Ghent, 423 Clermont, THE at Albany, picture of, 297 makes trip up Hudson, 303 CLINTON, GEORGE first governor of New York, portrait of, 66 house of, at Poughkeepsie, New York, picture, 67 is opposed to any change in New York, 86 followers of, oppose adoption of Constitution, 100 Genet marries daughter of, 192 succeeds Burr as vice-president of United States, 263 COCHRANE, ADMIRAL THOMAS lays waste shores of Chesapeake, 350 COCKBURN, THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR GEORGE portrait of, 380 naval commander of British invading force, 381 goes to attack Baltimore, 382 bombards Fort McHenry without success, 382 COFFEE, JOHN American general under Jackson, 399 chases Indians in Alabama, 399 Jackson sends for, 399 reaches New Orleans, 400 attacks British left, 402 COLLIER, SIR GEORGE portrait of, 471 commander of Leander, 472 pursues American squadron, 471-472 follows and recaptures Levant, 472 COLUMBIA RIVER Lewis and Clark discover and name, 283 log raft on, picture of, 285 Confiance, THE British frigate of thirty-seven guns, 384 Downie's flag-ship, 385 engages the Saratoga, 385 rakes the Saratoga, 387 Saratoga conquers, 387 CONGRESS soldiers cannot get pay from, 21 has no power to levy taxes, 22 States deny, authority to collect duties, 22, 25 in state of despair, 22 army passes resolutions expressing confidence in, 36 urges laws for protection of Tories, 41, 45 legislatures disregard wishes of, 41 drunken rabble drives, from Philadelphia, 42 not in favor with the people, 42 instructs Washington to proclaim cessation of hostilities, 45 Articles of Confederation establish, on con stitutional basis, 68 power of, 68-71 becomes bankrupt, 72 beseeches States for 'money, 73 States turn over holdings in West to, 74 refuses to sanction States' meeting, 80 begs to amend Articles of Confederation, 80 people realize that more power should be vested in, 80 King reconciles, to meeting of commissioners, 81 both houses of, assemble at Washington's inauguration, 119 Washington addresses, 120 government assumes the debts of the old, 168 State debts develop a conflict in, 168 room in which the first Constitutional, met in Philadelphia, picture of, 169 meets in Philadelphia, 171 investigates Saint Glair's expedition, 184 blames Hamilton and Knox for faulty arrange ments, 184 passes embargo, 310 renews act of non-intercourse with Great Britain, 312 convenes in old patent office, 381 Congress, THE American frigate of thirty-six guns, 448 John Smith in command of, 448 sails from Boston, 448 dismantled at Portsmouth, 464 CONNECTICUT Pennsylvania and, squabble for Valley of Wyoming, 71 holds strip of land in West, 74-75 disregards commercial congress at Annapolis, 79 agrees to prolong slave trade for twenty years, 158 Constellation, THE capturing the French frigate Insurgente, pic ture of, 213 encounter of, and Insurgente, 214, 217-218 encounter of, and Vengeance, 218-221 in squadron that goes to Barbary, 230 picture of, 465 American frigate of thirty-six guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 sights the Mashouda, 474 alarms Mashouda by error, 474 attacks Mashouda, 474 Constitution, THE "Old Ironsides," picture of, 245 5o6 VALOR & VICTORY Constitution, THE continued captures the Java, 338 American frigate, 441 pursued by British squadron, 441 Hull in command of, 441 escapes, 441 meets and conquers Guerriere, 319, 441-445 captures Guerriere, picture, 443 sails to Boston, 446 greeted with great enthusiasm, 446-447 blockaded in Boston, 464 escapes British blockade, 464, 466 Stewart commander of, 464 sails to Bermudas, 466 takes British war vessel, 466 sails to Madeira, 466 espies two British men-of-war, 468 fights Cyane and Levant, 469, 470 captures Cyane and Levant, 424, 470 sails to Port Praya, 471 meets Susan at Port Praya, 471 pursued by British ships, 471 escapes, 472 reaches New York, 472 CONSTITUTION, THE FEDERAL New York ratifies, 99 federal convention submits, to the States, 99 Madison and Hamilton not wholly satisfied with, 99 Massachusetts ratifies, 99 contest over, long and bitter in Virginia, 99 New Hampshire adopts, 100 Virginia adopts, 100 actions of convention convened to draw up, kept secret, 152 Edmund Randolph submits plan about which, is chiefly built, 154 Madison chief author of, 154 provisions of, 154 plans submitted for forming of, 154-157 New England and Southern States make compromise in forming of, 158 Gouverneur Morris makes final draft of, 158 order in which the States ratify, 165-167 COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE birthplace of, Burlington, New Jersey, picture, 335 COOSA RIVER, GEORGIA Hickory Bend at confluence of Tallapoosa with, 399 CORNWALLIS, LORD surrenders, 21 CORSICA birthplace of Napoleon at, picture, 241 CRAB ISLAND, NEW YORK in Lake Champlain near Plattsburg, 384-385 CREEK NATION, THE massacre whites at Fort Minims, 398 Weatherford chief of, 398 Council Oak, headquarters of, picture, 398 defeated by Jackson at Horse-Shoe Bend, 399 Hickory Ground, the seat of, 399 Jackson dictates peace to, 399 surrender most of their land, 399 withdraw to the West, 399 CROCKETT, DAVID with Jackson in Indian war, 398 CUMBERLAND HEAD, NEW YORK in Plattsburg Bay, 384 CURTIS, GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE saves Stuart's portrait of George Washington in the White House, 375 Cyane, THE meets the Constitution, 468 fights the Constitution, 469-470 Falcon commander of, 470 thirty-two gun frigate, 470 surrenders to Stewart, 426470 taken to Port Praya, 471 pursued by British, 471 escapes, 471 reaches America, 471 D D ACRES, JAMES RICHARD, see also Guerriere, THE captain commanding Guerriere, 440 surrenders Guerriere to Hull, 445 Hull demands payment of bet from, 445 DAVIESS, JOSEPH HAMILTON writes Jefferson of Burr's conspiracy, 290 founds the Western World, 292 makes charges against Burr, 292 brings Burr into court, 292 DAYTON, JONATHAN Federalist senator from New Jersey, 290 chief partner of Burr in East, 290 DEARBORN, MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY portrait of, 321 makes elaborate preparations for invasion of Canada, 328 DECATUR, STEPHEN, THE YOUNGER birthplace of, at Berlin, Maryland, picture, 227 portrait of, 228 first lieutenant on the Essex, 229 episode of, and the Spanish captain, 229-230 succeeds Hull in command of the Enterprise, 231 taking the Philadelphia, picture of, 235 destroys the Philadelphia, 233-241 attempts to run blockade at New York, 416 commands the President, 416 fights the Endymion, 416 compelled to surrender, 416 commands squadron against Algiers, 425, 473 Guerriere flag-ship of, 473 sails from Boston, 473 description of squadron of, 473 obtains information of enemy at Cadiz, 473 sails from Tangiers in pursuit of Mashouda, 474 sights Mashouda, 474 opens fire upon Mashouda, 474-477 Mashouda surrenders to, 477 forces treaty from Algiers, 478-480 sails to Tunis, 484 forces Dey of Tunis to pay for prizes yielded to the British, 484 forces Bashaw of Tripoli to pay for prizes, 484 INDEX So? DECATUR, STEPHEN, THE YOUNGER continued sails to Sicily and Gibraltar, 484 meets Bainbridge and his squadron, 484 Washington house in which, died, picture of, 488 DEGUY, JOHN American citizen on Spitfire, 439 impressed by Guerriere, 439 DELAWARE sends commissioner to Annapolis, 79 first State to ratify the Constitution, 165 sealed against commerce, 350 DERNE, TRIPOLI capital of richest province of Tripoli, 247 Hamet Karamauli takes, 247 DETROIT, MICHIGAN English commandant at, incites Indians against settlers, 182 Hull sets out from, 315 Hull surrenders, 316 Hull's surrender at, picture of, 318 at an early day, picture of, 319 Harrison sets out to recover, 341 recovered, 343 DICKINSON, JOHN portrait of, 40 refrains from calling local militia, 42 DOBB'S FERRY, NEW YORK monument at Livingston Manor, picture of, 26 Livingston Manor at, picture of, 27 DOUGLAS, GEORGE commander of Levant, 470 surrenders to Stewart, 470 DOWNIE, GEORGE commands British naval force on Lake Champlain, 383 description of squadron of, 383 sails to engage Macdonough, 383 finds Macdonough in favorable situation, 383- 384 engages Macdonough, 385 Confiance, flag-ship of, 385 rakes the Niagara, 386 surrenders, 387 DRUMMOND, SIR GORDON joins Riall at Queenston with veteran brigade, 361 countermands Riall's orders for retreat, 363 DUNGENESS, GEORGIA "Light Horse Harry" Lee's grave at, picture of, 165 E Eagle, THE American war vessel in Macdonough 's squadron, 385 forced back by the Linnet, 386 EAST CHESTER, NEW YORK Saint Paul's Church, picture of, 89 EASTPORT, MAINE captured by English, 350 EATON, WILLIAM consul at Tunis, 247 enters into intrigue with Hamet Karamauli, 247 and Hamet Karamauli lead assault upon Derne, 247 reveals Burr's secret to Jefferson, 290 EGYPT Turkey and England at war with Napoleon in, 227 ELBA, ISLAND OF Napoleon sent to, 350 ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY Boudinot Mansion, where Washington was entertained by a committee from Congress, picture of, 109 ELLIOTT, JESSE DUNCAN commander of Niagara, 458 disregards orders, 458 comes to assistance of Lawrence, 458 Enterprise, THE capturing a Tripolitan corsair, picture of, 215 wins fame in war with France, 222 Dey of Algiers brought to terms by the President and, 230 sails for United States, 230 Decatur succeeds Hull in command of, 231 Epervier, THE American sloop-of-war of eighteen guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 Downes commander of, 477 attacks the Mashouda, 477 captures the Mashouda, 477 leaves Straits of Gibraltar and is never heard of again, 483 ERIE, BATTLE OF LAKE, see PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD ERIE, LAKE preparations made to put a fleet on, 342 of great strategic importance, 342 Perry's victory gives Americans control of, 349 British squadron of six vessels controls, 4^5 Perry arrives at. 455 ERSKINE, DAVID MONTAGUE succeeds Merry, 290 Madison annuls embargo on promises of, 311 Canning repudiates promises of, 311 Canning recalls, 311 Essex, THE American frigate of forty-six guns, 228 sails for Mediterranean, 228-229 capturing British ship Alert, picture of, 325 captures the Alert, 327-328 Porter commander of, 466 cruises in Pacific, 466 destroys British commerce in Pacific, 466 cooped up in Valparaiso harbor, 466 attacked by Phoebe and Cherub, 466 forced to surrender, 466 and prizes at Bay of Tumbez, picture of, 466 at Nookaheevah, picture of, 466 offering battle to Phoebe, picture of, 468 fighting Phoebe and Cherub, picture of, 469 508 VALOR & VICTORY EUSTIS, WILLIAM secretary of war, 345 resigns, 345 Armstrong succeeds, 345 portrait of, 362 Experiment, THE capture of a frigate by, picture, 218 wins fame in war with France, 222 FAIRFAX, THOMAS, SIXTH BARON Washington is in the employ of, when Franklin suggests his Albany plan, 160 FALCON, GORDON commander of Cyane, 470 surrenders to Stewart, 470 FEDERALISTS political party led by Hamilton, 171 Madison leaves, for Republicans, 171 X Y Z dispatches restore, to power, 202 pass alien and sedition laws, 203 alien and sedition laws are the undoing of, 203 cry out against purchase of Louisiana, 270 opposed to war with England, 315 Hartford Convention composed of, 412 Finch, THE British sloop-of-war in Downie's squadron, 384 attacks the Ticonderoga, 386 disabled by Ticonderoga, and strikes, 387 Firefly, THE American brig-of-war of twelve guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 puts back, 473 Flambeau, THE American brig-of-war of twelve guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 chases strange sail in Mediterranean, 474 FLORIDA Spanish province, 399 Jackson in, 399 Pensacola, captured by Jackson, 399 FORT AMHERSTBURG, ONTARIO Hull marches against, 315 FORT DEARBORN, see CHICAGO FORT ERIE, ONTARIO Brown to march on, 353 Brown takes, 353 British attack upon, repulsed, 382 Izard ordered to join Brown at, 383 FORT MCHENRY, MARYLAND defends Baltimore from British naval attack, 382 Key writes "The Star-Spangled Banner" on successful defense of, 382 picture of, 382 FORT MIMMS, ALABAMA description of massacre at, 398 massacre at, picture of, 401 FORT WASHINGTON Harmar sets out from, to punish Indians, 182 Saint Clair retreats to, 184 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA site of old, picture, 194 Anthony Wayne founds, 196 FRANCE abuses United States in matter of trade rights, 172 beheads her king, 187 blood and terror reign in, 188 French republic finds partisan in United States, 188 declares war against England, 188 difficulties arise between, and United States, 201 United States prepares for war with, 202 United States is virtually at war with, 212 Dey of Algiers makes treaty with, 226-227 Spain transfers Louisiana to, 269 Jefferson purchases Louisiana from, 269 preys on American commerce, 310-311 FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY the old capitol at, picture of, 135 Kentucky River at, picture of, 139 Western World founded at, 292 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN concludes treaty of peace, 21 peace negotiations of, a triumph of diplomacy, 44 portrait of, 145 tomb of, at Philadelphia, picture, 155 portrait of, at age of eighty-four, 158 urges delegates to sign Constitution, 159 reminds convention delegates of his Albany plan, 159160 sees aim of his life fulfilled, 160 Albany plan of, the first complete outline of a Federal constitution, 160 FRANKLIN, STATE OF free state called, established in North Carolina 73 Sevier made president of, 73 FRANKLIN, WILLIAM TEMPLE grandson of Benjamin Franklin, 22 secretary of American Peace Commission, 22 FRAUNCES'S TAVERN, see NEW YORK CITY FRENCH REVOLUTION has effect on American national affairs, 187 Hamilton distrusts and fears, 188 extravagances following, separate France from United States. 197 Frolic, THE British sloop-of-war, 338 Wasp captures, 338 FULTON, ROBERT portrait of, 303 Livingston interested in invention of, 303 steamboat invented by, makes trip up Hudson, 303 tomb of, in Trinity churchyard, New York, picture, 305 INDEX 509 GAINES, EDMUND PENDLETON arrests Burr, 299 Madison appoints brigadier-general, 345 man of ability, 351 GALLATIN, ALBERT peace commissioner at Ghent, 423 GALLATIN RIVER Lewis and Clark find and name, 280 GATES, GENERAL HORATIO defeat at Camden throws, into obscurity, 23, 28 returns to army, 23 starts intrigue, 23, 28 portrait of, 23 Schuyler the victim of, 31 Washington appoints, to preside at meeting of officers and men, 34 intrigue of, baffled, 36 GENET, CITIZEN EDMOND CHARLES envoy of French Republic, 188 sent to gain aid for France against England, 188 blunders, 191 seizes British vessels in American waters, 191 received coldly by Washington, 191 Jefferson's attitude toward, cordial, 191 attempts to discredit Washington, 191 violates amity, 191 American sentiment turns against, 191 France recalls, 191 portrait of, 192 fears to return to France, 192 settles in New York, 192 marries daughter of Governor Clinton, 192 GEORGE II Franklin suggests his Albany plan in the days of, 1 60 GEORGE III Washington declares for neutrality in war between France and, 188 GEORGETOWN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Madison and cabinet flee to, 375 valuables from White House taken to, 375 George Washington, THE sails for Algiers, 324 GEORGIA disregards commercial conference at Anna polis, 79 insists that trade in African slaves be con tinued, 158 ratifies the Constitution, 165 Eli Whitney goes to, 199 GERRY, ELBRIDGE refuses to sign Constitution, 159 home of, at Marblehead, picture of, 159 portrait of, 160 GHENT,BELGIUM treaty of peace signed at. 421, 423 American commissioners at, 423 picture of, 423 GIBBS, SIR GEORGE succeeds Pakenham in command of British attack at New Orleans, 408 killed, 408 GIBRALTAR Decatur meets Bainbridge and his squadron at, 484 GRAHAM, JOHN sent South to warn governors against Burr, 293 GRAND PORTE or CONSTANTINOPLE Dey of Algiers under tribute to, 226 Dey offends, 226-227 Dey forces Bainbridge to take presents to, 227 demands that the Dey make war on France, 227 GREAT BRITAIN many Tories go to, 41 terms of treaty of peace with, 44 stands aloof from United States, 72 great men of, snub Adams, 72 at war with Spain, 72 sends minister to America, 171 relations between America and, none too good, i?i declines to surrender outposts along frontier, 171, 197 is believed to have incited Indians against settlers, 172 abuses United States in matter of trade rights, 172, 308 French republic declares war against, 188 maintains that United States failed to live up to treaty of Paris, 197 Jay makes treaty with, 200 encourages piracy of Barbary States, 225 Turkey and, at war with Napoleon in Egypt, 227 right of search enforced by, 308-309 United States declares war against, 312 revokes principal -cause pf rupture too late, 315 blockades entire American coast, 350 navy of, unaffected by losses inflicted by America, 350 freed from dread of Napoleon, 351 able to turn attention to America, 351 signs treaty of peace with United States, 421, 423 GREAT LAKES, THE England gives up country south of, 44 American fleets have control of, 349 GREENE, NATHANAEL ruins of mansion ot, near Savannah, Georgia, picture, 197 Eli Whitney lives on estate of, 199 tomb of, Savannah, Georgia, picture, 201 old house of Washington Greene on estate of, picture, 209 GREEN MOUNTAINS New York and New Hampshire quarrel for, 71 Guerriere, THE British frigate of thirty-eight guns, 439 overhauls American brig Spitfire on May n, 1811, 439 impresses John Deguy, American citizen, from Spitfire, 439 under command of James Richard Dacres, 440 oft New Jersey coast, 440 espies strange sail, 440 strange sail espied by, proves to be Con stitution, 441 pursues Constitution, which escapes, 441 VALOR & VICTORY Gucrriere, THE continued in Halifax, 441 meets Constitution, 441 fights Constitution, 441-444 surrenders to Constitution, 319, 445 capture of, by Constitution, picture, 443 blown up, 446 Guerriere, THE American frigate of forty-four guns, 473 Decatur's flag-ship in squadron against Algiers, 473 H HAMILTON, ALEXANDER denies legality of trespass act, 51 wins decision for Tory in case of Rutgers vs. Waddington, 51 great writer of pamphlets, 53 writes reply to attack upon him, 53 attitude of, toward Tories makes enemies, 51- 52 wins many to his point of view, 53 portrait of, 63 the Grange, New York home of, picture, 64 three survivors of original thirteen trees planted by, near the Grange, picture, 65 draws up address, 79 views of, concerning government of States 83-86 sole rival of Aaron Burr, 88 opposes New Jersey plan, 157 introduces plan for forming of Constitution, 157 not wholly satisfied with the Constitution, 99 goes into fight defending Constitution, 99 secures adoption of the Constitution in New York, 100, 101, 166 secures advice of Madison, 101 writes "Federalist" papers, assisted by Madison and Jay, 101, 166-167 present at Washington's inauguration, 120 Washington selects, as secretary of treasury, 1 68 does great constructive work, 168 introduces wise financial system, 168 and Jefferson make a bargain, 168-170 forms a national bank, 171 Federalists led by, 171 house of, in Philadelphia, picture, 183 Congress blames, and Knox for Indian dis aster, 184 centralization policies of, triumphant, 187 does not take opportunities to grow rich, 187 distrusts and fears French Revolution, 188 Jefferson falls into quarrel with, 191 and Burr bitter enemies, 262 Burr kills, in duel, 262 spot where, fell at Weehawken, picture of, 262 duel between Burr and, picture of, 263 portrait of, 266 tomb of, in Trinity Churchyard, New York, picture, 267 HAMILTON, PAUL brings news of the capture of the Macedonian by the United States, 331 lays flag from Macedonian at Dolly Madison's feet, 332 leaves navy department, 345 HAMMIDA, RAIS admiral of Algiers, 473 navy of, 473 pursued by Decatur, 474 attacked by Americans, 474-477 killed by American cannon ball, 477 HAMMOND, AUGUST GEORGE first minister to America from Great Britain. 171 HAMPTON, WADE American general of ability, 344 marches to meet Wilkinson, 344 Wilkinson fails to join, 344 resigns, 344 HANCOCK, JOHN the grave of, picture, 83 elected governor of Massachusetts, 85 HARDIN, COLONEL JOHN junior officer to Harmar, 182 has disastrous encounters with Indians, 182 HARMAR, JOSIAH American general, 182 goes to subdue Indians, 182 discouraged because of raw troops, 182 HARRISON, BENJAMIN opposes Constitution, 165 HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY American general, 341 succeeds General Hull, 341 wipes out the Prophet and his band, 341 Tecumseh annihilates advance force of, 341 birthplace of, at Berkeley, Virginia, picture 342 Perry sends message to, 343 defeats Proctor and Tecumseh, 343 portrait of, 343 HARROD, JAMES builds first log cabin in Kentucky, 95 HARRODSBURG, KENTUCKY the east side of Main Street, picture, 104 the west side of Main Street, picture, 105 Boone's Cave, four miles east of, picture, 144 HARTFORD CONVENTION, THE composed of Federalists, 412 constituent members of, 412 deliberations kept secret, 412 convenes in Hartford, Connecticut, 412 hall in which, was held, picture of, 413 draws up report, 415 sends committee to Washington, 415, 417 declaration of peace renders committee's errand futile, 421 committee leaves Washington, 421 HENRY, PATRICK portrait of, 96 Red Top, at one time home of, picture, 97 opposes Constitution, 100, 165 HICKORY GROUND, GEORGIA at confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, 398-399 seat of warlike Creeks, 399 Jackson dictates terms of peace to Creeks at, 399 picture of, 400 plantation scene near, picture, 402 INDEX Hornet, THE American sloop-of-war, 338 captures the Peacock, 338 HORSE-SHOE BEND, ALABAMA on Tallapoosa River, 399 picture of, 399 Jackson defeats Creeks at, 399 HOUSTON, SAMUEL with Jackson in Indian war, 398 HULL, ISAAC in command of the Sally, 222 captures the Sandwich, 222 Decatur succeeds in command of the Enter prise, 231 refuses Hamet Karamauli ammunition, 247 portrait of, 438 commander of Constitution, 441 pursued by British squadron, 441 escapes by shrewd Yankee trick, 441 comes upon Guerriere, 441 fights and conquers Guerriere, 319, 320, 441- 445 asks Dacres to pay bet, 445 HULL, WILLIAM American general, 315 sets out from Detroit, 315 plans to march against Maiden and Fort Amherstburg, 315 meets with unexpected opposition, 315 returns to Detroit, 315 surrenders to Brock, 316 tried on charge of treason, cowardice, and in- competency, 316 sentenced to be shot, 316 pardoned by Madison, 316 vindicated by modern military critics, 316 portrait of, 317 surrender of, at Detroit, picture, 318 INDIANS English commandant at Detroit incites, against settlers, 182 Americans have disastrous encounter with, on Maumee River 182 Saint Clair takes the field against, 182 defeat Americans on upper Wabash, 183 massacre garrison at Fort Dearborn, 328 Insurgente, THE the Constellation capturing, picture of, 213 encounter of the Constellation and, 214, 217- 218 Intrepid, THE Mastico rechristened, 243 made into a fireboat, 243 blown up in attempt to fire Tripolitan fleet, 244 ISLE SAINT MICHEL, NEW YORK resting place of soldiers and marines killed at Plattsburg Bay on, picture of, 392 IZARD, GEORGE Madison appoints major-general, 345 man of ability, 351 to move up Lake Champlain, through Platts burg, and so to Montreal, 352 ordered from Plattsburg, 383 JACKSON, ANDREW Burr calls on, 263 portiait of, 292 Burr wins confidence of, 292 Jefferson asks aid of, in intercepting con spirators, 296 Burr explains matters to, 296 allows Burr to leave, 296 portrait of, after Vanderlyn, 395 at Pensacola, picture of, 396 receives word of British landing, 396 head of forces at New Orleans, 397 goes to Nashville in early manhood, 397 leaves North Carolina, 397 monument on spot of birthplace of, picture, 397 father of, an Irish immigrant, 398 posthumous child, 398 mother and elder brother die during Revolu tionary War, 398 bears man's part in Revolution, 398 marries Mrs. Rachel Robards, 398 believed her to have divorced former husband, 398 discovers mistake and has marriage ceremony repeated, 398 facts of marriage wilfully perverted by enemies, 398 fights many duels, 398 life saved from bullet by locket with wife's picture, 398 rises to eminence in Tennessee, 398 major-general of State militia, 398 raises force of 2500 sharpshooters, 398 federal authorities do not accept services of, 398 hears of massacre at Fort Minims, 398 fights duel with Benton, 398 rises from bed of illness, 398 hunts marauding Indians through Georgia, 398 Crockett and Houston with, 398 reaches the Hickory Ground, 398 defeats Creeks at Horse-Shoe Bend, 399 dictates terms of peace to Creeks, 399 occupies Mobile, 399 captures Pensacola against orders, 399 returns to New Orleans, 399 finds city unprepared for defense, 399 acts upon British landing, 390 sends for army from Baton Rouge and Ala bama, 399 makes requisitions on surrounding States, 399 issues proclamation, 399 proclaims martial law, 400 receives reinforcements, 400 marches on British camp, 401 swears British shall not sleep on American soil, 402 attacks British right and center, 402 drives British back, 403 builds line of defense, 403 description of earthworks of, 403 Pakenham opens cannon fire on, 404 silences British guns twice, 404 drives British back with heavy loss, 404-408 utterly defeats invading army, 408 unfinished monument to, at New Orleans, picture of, 418 512 VALOR & VICTORY JACKSON, ANDREW continued spot where, and staff stood during, battle of New Orleans, picture of, 422 Java, THE British frigate, 338 Constitution captures, 338 JAR vis, JAMES C. midshipman on the Constellation, 220 lost in engagement between Constellation and Vengeance, 220 JAY, JOHN concludes treaty of Paris, 21 peace negotiations of, a triumph of diplomacy, 44 fails to get commercial concessions, 44 negotiates treaty with Spain, 72 portrait of, 94 helps Hamilton write "Federalist" papers, 101 makes unsatisfactory treaty with England, 200 charged with treason, 200 JEFFERSON, THOMAS desk of, while secretary of state, picture, 122 portrait of, 161 minister to France, 168 Washington selects, as secretary of state, 168 Hamilton and, make a bargain, 168-170 Republicans led by, 171 gains popularity for party by favoring French Republic, 188 Cordial to Genet, 191 falls into quarrel with Hamilton, 191 tie between Burr and, in electoral vote for presidency, 259 persuades Randolph to bring impeachment proceedings against Chase, 263 Monticello, home of, picture, 261 purchases Louisiana from France, 268 purchase of Louisiana most important act of, during presidency, 268, 270 Federalists cry out against, for Louisiana purchase, 270 exceeds constitutional powers, 271 rumors of Burr's conspiracy reach, 289, 291 delays action against Burr's conspiracy, 293 Wilkinson informs, of Burr's plans, 295 sends proclamation to governors to intercept conspirator, 296 starts investigation of Burr's plot, 294 wrath of, against Burr leads to indiscretions, 300 induces Congress to pass embargo, 310 JEFFERSON RIVER Lewis and Clark find and name, 280 JONES, JACOB captain of the Frolic, 232 taken prisoner in Tripoli, 232 portrait of, 333 in command of the Wasp, 338 JONES, WILLIAM succeeds Hamilton in navy department, 345 . 37i meets Winder at Old Fields, 371 retreats to Washington, 372 JOSEPHINE Empress of the French, 349 birthplace of, picture, 349 Jo SEPHINE cont inued Napoleon's farewell to, picture, 350 Napoleon divorces, 351 JUMEL, MADAM ELIZA B. Burr marries, 301 K KARAMAULI, HAMET brother of Bashaw of Tripoli, 247 pretender to throne of Tripoli, 247 enters into intrigue with William Eaton, 247 Hull refuses, ammunition, 247 takes Derne with assistance of Americans, 247 KARAMAULI, JUSSUF Bashaw of Tripoli, 248 frightened into disposition for peace, 248 signs treaty with United States, 248 KENTUCKY settlers of, complain to Congress concerning transportation, 72 threatens to revolt, 73 Daniel Boone when he first beheld, picture, 137 becomes a State, 143 Boone buried in, 143 settled by emigrants from the Carolinas and Virginia, 172 passes resolutions against alien and sedition laws, 203 volunteers from, at New Orleans, 397, 404 Adair leads forces from, 404 KEY, FRANCIS SCOTT on British sloop-of-war during bombardment of Fort McHenry, 382 writes "The Star-Spangled Banner" after successful repulse of British naval attack on Fort McHenry, 382 portrait of, 382 KING, RUFUS maintains that States should disregard appeal to convene, 79 Congress approves views of, 80 reconciles Congress to meeting of commis sioners, 8 1 KINGSTON, ONTARIO British at, 454 KNOX, HENRY American general, 43 idea of, leads to formation of Order of Cin cinnati, 43 Washington bids, farewell, 49 present at Washington's inauguration, 1 10 Washington selects, as secretary ofc war, 168 Congress blames, and Hamilton for Indian disaster, 184 LAFITTE, JEAN helps Jackson against the British at New Orleans, 400 LAFITTE, PIERRE brings his pirates to help Jackson at New Orleans, 400 INDEX LAKE BORGNE, LOUISIANA British reach, 399 British destroy American gunboats on, 399 LAKE CHAMPLAIN Izard to move up, 352 LANSING, JOHN portrait of, 85 sent as delegate to convention of States, 86 leaves convention in disgust before Con stitution is ready to sign, 159 LAW, LIEUTENANT with Decatur at burning of the Philadelphia, 238 LAWRENCE, JAMES second in command at burning of Philadelphia, 233 birthplace of, picture, 335 portrait of, 336 captures the brig Peacock, 338 commands the Chesapeake in engagement with Shannon, 341 killed, 341 Perry's flag-ship, the Lawrence, bears dying words of, 343 Lawrence, THE Perry's flag-ship, 458 engages British squadron, 343, 458 disabled, 343, 458 Perry leaves, 458 strikes, 461 flies flag again, 461 British surrender to Perry on, 461-462 LAURENS, HENRY concludes treaty of peace, 21 Leander, THE British frigate of fifty guns, 472 Collier commander of, 472 pursues American squadron, 472 recaptures Levant at Port Praya, 472 LEE, CHARLES takes part in Burr's trial, 300 LEE, HENRY "Light Horse Harry," portrait of, 162 grave of, Dungeness, Georgia, picture, 165 a champion of the Union in Virginia conven tion, 1 66 LEE, RICHARD HENRY opposes Constitution, 165 Leopard, THE fires upon the Chesapeake, 309 Chesapeake unprepared and surrenders to, 309 Levant, THE meets the Constitution, 468 fights the Constitution, 469-470 surrenders to Stewart, 426, 470 sloop-of-war of twenty-one guns, 470 Douglas commander of, 470 pursued by British squadron, 472 flees to Port Praya, 472 recaptured there, 472 LEWIS, MERI WETHER portrait of, 278 trail-maker to the far Northwest, 278 LEWIS, MERIWETHER continued Clark and, placed at head of exploring ex pedition, 280 expedition of, sets out from Saint Louis, 280 explorations, 280-283 returns to Saint Louis, 283 LINCOLN, BENJAMIN American general, 75 sent to stop Shays's uprising, 75 Linnet, THE British sloop-of-war in Downie's squadron. 384 forces the Eagle to slip anchor, 386 rakes the Saratoga, 386 Saratoga conquers, 387 Little Belt, THE fight between the President and, 312 LITTLE, GEORGE captain of the Boston, 221 captures the Berceau, 221 LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R. portraits of, 119, 304 with Washington at his inauguration, 119 administers the oath of office, 120 bas-relief showing Monroe, and Marbois signing Louisiana Purchase Treaty, picture of, 270 goes to France as minister, 303 interested in steam navigation, 303 tries to interest Napoleon in Fulton, 303 Louis XVI recognizes Order of Cincinnati, 43 portrait of, 187 beheaded, 187 LOUISIANA threatens peace while in hands of Spain, 268 Jefferson purchases from France, 268 extent of territory called, 268 Spain transfers, to France, 269 desk in Cabildo at New Orleans, on which, purchase treaty was signed, picture of, 270 Federalists cry out against purchase of, 270 celebrating the, purchase, picture, 272 British fleet off coast of, 397 volunteers from, at New Orleans, 397 Louisiana, THE river gunboat at New Orleans, 397 destroyed by British fire, 403 LUNDY'S LANE, ONTARIO battle of, picture, 355 Brown and Scott attack Riall and Drummond at, 363-365 Brown retires to camp from, 365 British hold possession of battlefield, 365 soldiers' monument on battlefield of, picture, 365 M MACDONOUGH, THOMAS crushes Downie on Lake Champlahij 383 portrait of, 383 Downie sails to engage, 383 victory of, pictures, 384, 385 Saratoga flag-ship of, 385 takes up favorable position, 384 VALOR & VICTORY MACDONOUGH, THOMAS continued attacked by Confiance, 385 forces the Chubb to strike, 386 exposed to raking fire by Eagle's retirement, 386 has last gun on engaged side disabled, 386 warps port battery of Saratoga into action, 387 raked by Linnet and Confiancc during man euver, 387 rakes the Confiance and forces her to strike, 387 conquers the Linnet, 387 victory of, forces Prevost to retreat, 387 Macedonian, THE crack British frigate of thirty-eight guns, 452 Garden in command of, 452 engages United States, 450-452 surrenders to United States, 331, 452 convoyed to Newport and left, 453 captured by United States, picture, 459 blockaded by British in Newport, 465 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 chases strange sail in Mediterranean, 474 takes captured Mashouda to Carthagena, 477 MACOMB, ALEXANDER Madison appoints, brigadier-general, 345 a man of ability, 351 defeats British at Plattsburg, 387 MADISON, JAMES portraits of, 19, 73 personal descriptions of, 76, 153 prepares motion for commercial conference, 76 brings to pass convention of States, 79, 86 not wholly satisfied with Constitution, 99 goes into fight defending Constitution, 99 wins adoption of Constitution in Virginia, 100 decision of, concerning the adoption of Con stitution, 101 Hamilton seeks advice of, 101 helps Hamilton write "Federalist" papers, 101 notes of, contain most complete record of Constitutional convention, 152 called the "Father of the Constitution," 153 chief author of Constitution, 154 opposes New Jersey plan, 157 chief champion of the Union in Virginia, 166 leaves Federalists for Republicans, 171 endeavors to make treaty with France, 201 secretary of state, 256 succeeds Jefferson as President, 307 elected President a second time, 307 advocates ninety-day embargo and war with England, 312 changes his opinion regarding war with France, 312 annuls embargo, 311 war with England contrary to judgment of, 311 disconcerted by lack of harmony in nation, 351 hope of, lies in operations about Niagara, 351 alarmed at British invasion, 369 sends requisitions for militia to defend Wash ington, 370 goes to Old Fields, 371 writes wife to be ready to leave Washington, 372 retires hastily from Upper Marlboro with cabinet, 372 occupies house at Eighteenth Street and New York Avenue, Washington, 380 MADISON, JAMES continued returns to Washington \\ ith cabinet, 380 house occupied by, after destruction of White House, picture of, 389 portrait of, in eighty-third year, 412 state of nation under, description of, 412 interior view of Montpelier, home of, 492 Montpelier, home of, picture, 493 in the grounds of Montpelier, home of, picture, 496 enjoys aftectionate regard of countrymen, 496 MADISON, MRS. DOROTHEA PAYNE (DOLLY) wife of James Madison, 256 portrait of, 257 Quaker by birth, 315 helps husband in time of trouble, 315 Hamilton lays flag from Macedonian at feet of, 332 keeps presence of mind at British invasion, 369 Smoot House, where, stayed overnight, picture of, 371 husband writes, to be ready to leave Washing ton, 372 packs cabinet papers and sends them off, 372 has Stuart portrait of Washington taken from White House with other treasures, 375 returns to meet husband at White House, 376 bids her husband farewell, 376 MADISON RIVER Lewis and Clark find and name, 280 Madison, THE American ship of twenty-four guns 454 built at Sackett's Harbor, New Yor, 454 MAINE proclaimed English territory, 380 MALDEN, ONTARIO Hull marches against, 315 MANDAN INDIANS Lewis and Clark spend winter with, 280 MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS home of El bridge Gerry at, picture, 159 MARBOIS, FRANCOIS bas-relief showing Monroe, Livingston and, signing Louisiana Purchase treaty, picture, 270 MARIA LOUISA Napoleon weds, 357 MARIE ANTOINETTE Queen of France, 187 guillotined, 187 going to her execution, picture, 189 MARIETTA, OHIO governor seizes boats building at, 296 MARSHALL, JOHN champion of the Union in Virginia convention, 166 becomes chief justice of the United States, 166 wins a place among the founders of national government, 166 portrait of, 294 house of, in Richmond, Virginia, picture, 291 Burr on trial before, 299-300 MARTINIQUE, ISLAND OF birthplace of Josephine on, picture, 349 INDEX MARTIN, LUTHER leaves constitutional convention in disgust, 159 chief counsel for Burr, 300 portrait of, 295 MARYLAND fearful of larger neighbors, 74 conditions upon which, consents to Articles of Federation, 74 delegates from, and Virginia meet at Mount Vernon, 76 proposes commercial conference, 79 ratifies the Constitution, 165 MASON, GEORGE refuses to sign Constitution, 159 opposes Constitution, 165 MASSACHUSETTS bitter contest between merchants and farmers in, 75 . commissioner from, fails to go to Annapolis, 79 public opinion finds expression through town meetings in, 86 ratifies Constitution, 99, 165 agrees to prolong slave trade for twenty years, 158 sends delegates to Hartford Convention, 412 contributes more volunteers than any other State, 417 merchants of, at odds with the administration, 4i7 people of, not opposed to the war, 417 Mashouda, THE flag-ship of Algerian navy, 474 Decatur pursues, 474 Constellation sights, 474 Constellation fires upon, 474 Guerriere attacks, 474 Epervier attacks, 477 surrenders to Decatur, 477 Hammida killed on, 477 Algiers learns fate of, 478 Mastico, THE, see also Intrepid, THE Enterprise captures, 233 used in the burning of the Philadelphia, 233, 239 rechristened the Intrepid, 243 MAUMEE RIVER Americans have disastrous encounter with Indians at head of, 182 MEAD, COWLES secretary and acting governor of Mississippi, 299 Burr surrenders to, 299 MERRY British minister, 264 friendship of Burr for, a matter of notoriety, 264 Burr intrigues with, 290 removed by his King, 290 MlCHILIMACKINAC, MICHIGAN falls into British hands, 328 MIFFLIN, GOVERNOR THOMAS portrait of, 210 first governor of Pennsylvania, 211 issues orders for extirpation of fever in Phila delphia, 210 MIFFLIN, GOVERNOR THOMAS cont. old MifHin mansion, Philadelphia, home of, picture, 211 MISSISSIPPI RIVER England gives up territory as far west as, 44 dispute concerning navigation of, arises, 72 trouble with Spain concerning, 72-73 MISSOURI Boone retires to, 143 MISSOURI RIVER Lewis and Clark sail up, 280 MOBILE, ALABAMA Jackson in, 399 MONROE, JAMES opposes Constitution, 165 Jefferson sends, to negotiate Louisiana pur chase, 270 bas-relief showing, Livingston, Marbois, and, signing Louisiana purchase treaty, picture, 270 portrait of, 367 secretary of state under Madison, 370 served in Revolutionary War, 370 goes to rendezvous of troops at the Wood Yard, 370 retires to Georgetown, 375 goes to Virginia with Madison, 376 succeeds Armstrong as secretary of war, 381 MONTICELLO, VIRGINIA interior of, picture, 260 home of Jefferson, picture, 261 entrance to, picture, 273 MONTPELIER, VIRGINIA interior of, picture, 492 home of Madison, picture of, 493 in the grounds of, picture, 496 MONTREAL, QUEBEC Izard to march on, 352 MOORS, THE United States pays enforced tribute to, for protection of commerce, 211 MORGAN, COLONEL GEORGE repulses Burr and informs Jefferson, 291 MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR portrait of, 152 makes final draft of Constitution, 158 MORRIS, RICHARD VALENTINE goes to Barbary States in charge of squadron, 230 retired from command by Congress, 231 Preble succeeds, 231 with Decatur at burning of Philadelphia, 238 MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON picture of, 288 MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA Washington at, picture, 75 delegates from Virginia and Maryland meet at, 76 Washington's journey from, to New York a triumph, no old tomb of Washington at, picture, 220 resting place of General Washington at, pic ture, 221 MURRAY, CAPTAIN ALEXANDER in command of the Constellation, 230 VALOR & VICTORY N NAPOLEON BONAPARTE Turkey and England at war with, 227 portraits of, 240, 269 birthplace of, at Corsica, picture, 241 becomes Emperor of France, 270 sells Louisiana to America, 268, 270 Livingston tries to interest, in Fulton, 303 all Europe involved in war by, 310 confiscates American ships, 311-312 portrait of, in 1814, 348 farewell of, to Josephine, picture, 350 plays into the hands of his enemies, 351 divorces Joesphine, 351 marries Maria Louisa, 351 abdicates throne of France, 350 sent to Elba, 350 signing his abdication, picture of, 353 portrait of, in 1815, 425 at Waterloo, picture of, 427 on board the Bellerophon, picture of, 431 prison of, at Saint Helena, picture, 434 burial place of, at Saint Helena, 436 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Jackson practices law in, when frontier town, 397 NAVY YARD, THE near Washington, 371 at mouth of East Branch of the Potomac, 471 Winder falls back on, 471 unapproachable to British, 471 NELSON, HORATIO, ADMIRAL LORD opinion of, concerning the burning of the Philadelphia, 242 portrait of, 242 Barclay formerly an officer under, 342 NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS captured by British, 350 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY birthplace of Burr at, picture, 88 NEWBURGH, NEW YORK soldiers encamped at, 21 old Hasbrouck Mansion at, picture of, 29 interior of Washington's headquarters at, picture, 32 looking across the Hudson at, picture, 33 monument on the site of the camp at, picture, 34 incipient anarchy at, stopped, 34-36, 42 statue of "Mad Anthony" Wayne at, picture, i9S Newcastle, THE British frigate of fifty guns, 472 in Collier's squadron, 472 pursues American ships, 472 recaptures Levant at Port Pray a, 472 NEW ENGLAND, see also HARTFORD CONVENTION threatens to secede, 73 refuses to permit slave trade to be con stitutional, 158 compromise made between, and Southern States on Constitution, 158 towns of, crippled by embargo, 310 NEW ENGLAND continued refuses to support government in war with England, 315 anxious for peace, 351 NEWFOUNDLAND, BANKS OF American fishermen accorded privileges of, 44 NEW HAMPSHIRE New York and, quarrel for Green Mountains, 7i commissioner appointed by, fails to go to Annapolis, 79 adopts Constitution, 100 agrees to prolong slave trade for twenty years, 158 ninth State to ratify the Constitution, 165-166 NEW JERSEY sends commissioner to Annapolis, 79 ratifies the Constitution, 165 NEW ORLEANS the only outlet for settlers in Mississippi Valley, 269 desk at, on which Louisiana Purchase treaty was signed, picture of, 270 early, picture of, 293 picture of, 394 learns of British fleet off Louisiana coast, 397 Jackson arrives at, 399 unprepared for defense, 399 British reach Lake Borgne near, 399 Jackson begins defense, 399 Coffee, Carroll, and Lafitte come to aid of, 400 Creoles and French from, volunteer, 400 unfinished monument to Jackson at, picture of, 418 trees under which Pakenham died at, picture of, 420 NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND Macedonian convoyed to, by United States, 453 statue of Perry at, picture of. 454 mansion and statue of Perry at, picture of, 455 Macedonian blockaded at, 465 Constellation at, picture of, 465 NEW YORK CITY entrance of American army into, picture, 43 Washington's farewell to his officers at Fraunces's Tavern, picture, 45 Carleton evacuates, 45 paralyzed condition of, 49 tablet on Fraunces's Tavern, picture of, 52 Fraunces 's Tavern as restored by the Sons of Revolution, picture, 53 the long room in Fraunces's Tavern, picture, 55 Fraunces's Tavern, picture of, 58 . the old city hall, picture of, 59 Washington Arch in, picture of, 61 Washington's reception in, picture of, 107 the old city hall in Wall Street, picture, in the sub-treasury at Wall and Nassau Streets, picture of, 114 old Van Cortlandt mansion, where Washing ton was entertained, picture of, 115 Van Cortlandt mansion, to-day, picture of, 116 from Bedloe's Island, picture of, 117 old Federal Hall, where Washington was inaugurated, picture of, 118 Washington's pew in Saint Paul's Chapel picture of, 121 INDEX NEW YORK CITY continued Saint Paul's Chapel, picture of, 123 first presidential mansion, No. i Cherry Street, picture of, 126 picture of, 132 Alexander Hamilton's tomb in Trinity Churchyard, picture of, 267 Jumel mansion, picture of, 290 Banner's Hotel, in which Burr died, picture of, 301 tomb of Robert Fulton in, picture, 305 tomb of Lawrence, Trinity Churchyard, picture, 338 NEW YORK STATE return of Tories prohibited in, 41-42 trespass act passed in, 42 and New Hampshire quarrel for Green Mountains, 71 sends commissioner to Annapolis, 79 grows strong and rich, 80, 86 impost amendment defeated in assembly of, 80 struggle against adoption of Constitution in, 100 ratines Constitution, 99, 167 farmers in, send supplies to invading armies, 35i New York, THE in squadron sailing to Barbary, 230 NIAGARA, NEW YORK Dearborn mobilizes at, 328 Scott drills 3500 men to efficiency at, 352 Brown joins Scott at, 352 Niagara, THE American vessel in Perry's squadron, 458 Elliott commander of, 458 Perry boards, 461 NICOLA, COLONEL Louis proposes that Washington be made king, 28 NOOKAHEEVAH, WASHINGTON ISLANDS Essex and prizes at, picture of, 467 NORTH CAROLINA free State of Franklin established in, 7 ^ commissioner appointed by, fails to go lo Annapolis, 79 Rhode Island and, do not ratify the Constitu tion, 99 ratifies Constitution, 167 NORTHWEST TERRITORY claimed by Eastern States, 172 settled by old soldiers under auspices of Ohio company, 172 Saint Clair made governor of, 182 Americans in danger of losing, 342 secured to United States, 343 NOVA SCOTIA many Tories go to, 4 i Franklin asks England for, 44 o OGDEN, JACOB in Burr's conspiracy, 299 case against dismissed, 299 OHIO formerly called Western Reserve, 75 Connecticut holds, 74, 75 OHIO COMPANY, THE Northwest Territory settled under auspices of. 172 OLD FIELDS, MARYLAND Winder withdraws to, 371 President and cabinet at, 371 Ross marches on, 371 Winder withdraws from, 371 "OLD IRONSIDES," see Constitution, THE ONTARIO, LAKE preparations made to put fleet on, 342 Chauncey commands fleet on, 4 54 Americans control, 455 Ontario, THE American sloop-of-war of eighteen guns, 473 in Decatur j s squadron against Algiers, 473 OREGON mountain road through, picture of, 279 ORISKANY, NEW YORK Steuben's rustic house at, picture of, 130 Steuben's grave near, picture of, 131 OTIS, ALLYN chosen secretary of the senate, 1 20 present at Washington's inauguration, 120 PACIFIC OCEAN Lewis and Clark find a way to, 283 PARIS, FRANCE treaty of peace concluded at, 21 PAKENHAM, SIR EDWARD brother-in-law and lieutenant to Wellington, 397 commands expedition against New Orleans, 397 reaches Lake Borgne, 399 destroys gunboats, 399 sends reinforcements to British whose advance is attacked by Jackson and Coffee, 403 destroys American gunboats in river, 403 brings up thirty guns in eight batteries, 403 opens fire and has guns silenced, 404 awaits reinforcements, 404 attacks American earthworks, 407 forces of, driven back, 408 killed, 408 succeeded by Gibbs, 408 army of, utterly routed, 408 trees under which, died, picture of, 420 PATTERSON, DANIEL TOD taken prisoner in Tripoli, 232 commander in the fight before New Orleans, 232-233 PATTERSON, WILLIAM submits the New Jersey plan, 157 provisions of the plan submitted by, 157 Hamilton and Madison oppose plan of, 157 Peacock, THE captured by the Hornet, 338 PENNSYLVANIA and Connecticut quarrel for Valley of Wyo ming, 71 VALOR & VICTORY PENNSYLVANIA continued delegate from, goes to Mount Vernon, 76 sends commissioner to Annapolis, 79 second State to ratify the Constitution, 165 western part of, in revolt against excise on whiskey, 198 PENSACOLA, FLORIDA Jackson captures, 399 PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD victory of, on Lake Erie, picture, 2 turns forest into fleet of vessels, 343 engages two vessels of enemy, 343 sends message to Harrison, 343 victory of, gives Americans control of Lake Erie, 349 statue to, at Newport, picture of, 453 passes through Sackett's Harbor on his way to Lake Erie, 455 arrives at Presque Isle, 455 builds and launches Lawrence and Niagara, 455 mansion and statue of, at Newport, picture, 455 portrait of, 456 blockaded by Barclay, 456 escapes from blockade, 456 sails to Camden with squadron, 456 Barclay refuses to meet, 456 descries Barclay's squadron, 456 description of squadron of, 457 second view of victory of, picture, 457 flies flag on sloop, 457 Lawrence flag-ship of, 458 engages enemy, 458 flag-ship of, disabled, 458 leaves Lawrence in small boat, 458 shot strikes small boat of, 458 stuffs coat in shot hole, 458 boards Niagara, 461 orders charge, 461 British squadron surrenders to, 461-462 PETERSHAM, MASSACHUSETTS house in which Shays was captured near, picture of, 72 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA States urged to send commissioner to, 79 drunken rabble drives Congress from, 42 Washington rides through, crowned with laurels, no Independence Hall, pictures of, 147, 149 Franklin's tomb in, picture of, 155 old house on High Street, occupied by Wash ington, picture of, 167 room in which first Constitutional Congress met in, picture of, 169 seat of government transferred to, 171 Congress meets in, 171 pulpit and chancel of Christ Church in, picture of, 174 Christ Church in, picture of, 174 interior of Christ Church in, picture of, 175 side view of Independence Hall, picture, 176 Washington's pew in Christ Church in, picture of, 179 Hamilton's house in, picture of, 183 holds jubilee at news of war between France and England, 188 yisited by yellow fever, 192, 204 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA cont. old MifHin mansion, picture of, 211 capital of United States moved from, 274 Philadelphia, THE captured by Tripoli, 232 loss of, picture, 232 Decatur taking, picture of, 235 Decatur destroys, 233-241 Phoebe, THE British frigate, 466 blockades Porter in Valparaiso, 466 fights Essex, 466 Essex surrenders to, 466 Essex offering battle to, picture of, 468 Essex fighting, and Cherub, picture of, 469 PIKE'S PEAK named for Zebulon Montgomery Pike, 401 sunrise on, picture, 410 PIKE, ZEBULON MONTGOMERY conducts expedition to Rocky Mountains, 401 PINCKNEY, CHARLES Washington sends, to London to represent United States, 171 portrait of, 172 PITOT, CAPTAIN captain of the Vengeance, 221 PLATTSBURG, NEW YORK Hampton marches from, 344 Hampton returns to, 344 Izard to march through, 352 Izard ordered from, 383 Prevost marches on, 384 on Plattsburg Bay, 384 Macomb defeats Prevost at, 387 PORTER, PETER BUEL brigadier-general under Brown, 354 in advance on Chippewa, 354 attacks British near Chippewa and is repulsed, 357 PORTER, DAVID, see also Essex, THE taken prisoner in Tripoli, 232 career of, in Pacific waters a marvel, 232-234 portrait of, 237 attack of, on corsairs in harbor of Tripoli, 238 captures the Java, 338 portrait of, 464 commands the Essex. 466 cruises in Pacific, 4466 destroys British commerce in Pacific, 466 cooped up in Valparaiso harbor, 466 fights Phoebe and Cherub, 466 forced to surrender, 466 PORTLAND, OREGON Lewis and Clark exposition at, picture of, 281 PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE Congress dismantled at, 464 Wasp sails from, 465 PORT PRAYA Constitution reaches, 471 Susan at, 471 Stewart sails from, 471 Levant returns to. 472 Levant recaptured at, 472 INDEX POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK Governor Clinton's house at, picture of, 67 old Court-House at, picture of, 91 PREBLE, CAPTAIN EDWARD succeeds Morris in command of Barbary squadron, 231 conceived plan to destroy the Philadelphia, 233 operations of, about Tripoli, 242-243 portrait of, 243 Preble, THE American war vessel in Macdonough's squad ron, 385 attacked by British galleys, 386 driven back, 386 President, THE brings Dey of Algiers to terms, 230 sails for United States, 230 fight between, and the Little Belt, 312 American frigate of forty-five guns, 448 sails from Boston, 448 Rodgers in command of, 448 blockaded in New York, 464 Decatur in command of, 416 attempts to run blockade, 416 fights the Endymion, 416 surrenders to superior force, 416 PREVOST, SIR GEORGE commands expedition on Lake Champlain, 383 on the Sorel River with army, 383 marches in front of Plattsburg, 384 attacks Americans, 387 driven off by invalids and volunteers, 387 retires precipitately to Canada, 387 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Nassau Hall, Princeton University, picture of, 4i drunken rabble in Philadelphia drives Con gress to, 42 PROCTOR, WILLIAM British general, 343 Harrison defeats Tecumseh and, 343 PROPHET, THE brother of Tecumseh, 341 and brother plan to unite Indian tribes, 341 PROVOOST, BISHOP SAMUEL elected chaplain of Congress, 121 offers prayers after Washington's inauguration, 121 PUERTO PLATA the Sally captures the Sandwich in harbor of, 222 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY tomb of Aaron Burr at, picture, 302 Q QUEENSTON, ONTARIO battle of, picture, 324 site of redan battery at, picture, 328 Van Rensselaer storms, 328 captured by British, 329 Brock killed at, 329 spot where Brock fell at, picture, 328 Brock's monument at, picture of, 329 QUEENSTON, ONTARIO continued Brown and Scott follow Riall to, 359 Americans take up strong position at, 359 Brown waits for Chauncey at, 359, 361 Brown leaves, for Chippewa, 362 QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS Vassall House at, picture of, 205 R RAISIN RIVER Harrison's advance annihilated by Tecumseh on, 341 disaster at, endangers Northwest Territory, 342 RANDOLPH, EDMUND fights against adoption of Constitution, 100 portrait of, 153 Constitution chiefly built about plan sub mitted by, 154 refuses to sign Constitution, 159 Edge Hill, home of, picture, 166 Madison wins, from original opposition to the Union, 166 Washington selects, as attorney-general, 168 takes part in Burr's trial, 300 RANDOLPH, JOHN brings impeachment proceedings against Samuel Chase, 263 Reindeer, THE British war vessel, 465 captured by Wasp, 465 REPUBLICANS political party led by Jefferson, 171 Madison leaves Federalists for, 171 Jefferson gains popularity for, by favoring French, 188 RHODE ISLAND commissioner appointed by, fails to go to Annapolis, 79 continues issuing worthless money, 80 North Carolina and, do not ratify the Con stitution, 99 ratifies the Constitution, 167 RIALL, SIR PHINEAS British major-general commanding at Chip- pewa, 358 repulses attack of Porter, 358 marches against Scott, 358 forces of, break and flee, 359 driven from camp at Chippewa, 359 army of, daily augmented by veterans of Napoleonic wars, 359-363 Drummond joins, 363 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA John Marshall's house at, picture of, 291 Burr's prison in, picture of, 300 RIPLEY, ELEAZER WHEELOCK brigadier-general under Brown, 354 in advance on Chippewa, 354 ROCKY HILL, NEW JERSEY Washington's headquarters at, picture of, 41 ROCKY MOUNTAINS Lewis and Clark cross twice, 283 520 VALOR & VICTORY RODGERS, JOHN in command of corvette that goes to Barbary, 230 takes command of fleet in Mediterranean, 247 RODRIGUEZ CANAL, NEW ORLEANS American regulars posted behind, 401 part of American line of defense, 404 Ross, ROBERT British general, 370 lands at Benedict with invading force, 370 marches to Upper Marlboro, 370 appears before American line at Old Fields,. 37i disperses American rabble at Upper Marlboro, 372 dislodges Barney and his marines at Bladens- burg, 375 marches on Washington, 376 burns Capitol and public buildings, 377 retires from, 381 killed in attack on Baltimore, 382 RUSH, RICHARD attorney-general under Madison, 371 meets Winder at Old Fields, 371 retires to Georgetown, 375 goes to Virginia with Madison, 376 RUSSELL, JOHNATHAN peace commissioner at Ghent, 423 RUTHVEN LODGE, MARYLAND resting place of Dolly Madison during British occupation of Washington, 373 picture of, 373 SACKETT'S HARBOR, NEW YORK Brown marches from, 352 Izard ordered to, 383 Chauncey builds Madison at, 454 Perry passes through, 455 picture of, 462 SAINT-CLAIR, MAJOR-GENERAL ARTHUR portrait of, 181 made governor of Northwest Territory, 182 takes the field against Indians, 182 Washington cautions, against Indian surprises, 182 has disastrous encounter with Indians, 183 eight bullets pass through clothing of, 183 Congress investigates expedition of, 184 is relieved from blame, 184 retreats to Fort Washington, 184 Washington grieved and angered at defeat of, 184-185 SAINT HELENA Napoleon's prison on, picture of, 434 Napoleon's burial place at, picture of, 436 SAINT KITTS encounter of the Constellation and Insurgente takes place near, 213 SAINT Louis, MISSOURI bas-relief from Louisiana Purchase monument at, Exposition, picture, 270 Lewis and Clark set out from, 280 Lewis and Clark return to, 283 SAINT Louis COUNTY, MISSOURI first court-house in, picture, 276 Sally, THE captures the Sandwich, 222 Sandwich, THE the Sally captures, 222 Saratoga, THE Macdonough's flag-ship on Lake Champlain, 385 engages the Conftance, 385 forces Cherub to strike, 386 raked by Linnet after Eagle's retreat, 386 last gun on engaged side disabled, 386 port battery of, warped into action, 387 conquers the Confiance, 387 conquers the Linnet, 387 SAVANNAH, GEORGIA ruins of Nathanael Greene mansion near, picture, 197 tomb of Nathanael Greene at, picture, 201 old house of Washington Greene on Greene's estate near, picture, 209 Atlanta brings last news of Wasp to, 465 SCHUYLER, GENERAL PHILIP credit of Burgoyne's capture belongs to, 31 the victim of Gates, 31 Scorpion, THE American ship in Perry's squadron, 458 assists Lawrence, 458 SCOTT, WINFIELD Madison appoints brigadier, 345 a man of ability, 351 drills 3500 men to efficiency at Niagara, 352 joined by Brown, 352 marches on Fort Erie, 353 captures Fort Erie, 354 marches on Chippewa, 354 withdraws to Street's Creek, 354 awaits reinforcements, 354 portrait of, 358 defeats Riall at Chippewa, 359 drives Riall from his camp, 359 marches on Queenston, 359 takes up strong position, 359 falls back on Chippewa, 361 sent by Brown against Riall, 362 comes upon Riall in force, 363 holds hill at Lundy's Lane, 363 wounded in battle, 364 SEVIER, JOHN president of State of Franklin, 73 Shannon, THE the Chesapeake and, picture of, 336 captures the Chesapeake, 341 SHAYS, DANIEL house in which, was captured near Petersham, picture of, 72 captain in the Continental army, 75 insurrection of, 75 captured, 75 good results of rebellion of, 76, 80 SICILIES, THE Two King of, sends aid to Americans at Tripoli. 242 Decatur sails to, 484 INDEX 521 Siren, THE used to back up the expedition that burned the Philadelphia, 233 SMITH, MELANCTHON opposition of, to Constitution melts, 99 SOREL RIVER, QUEBEC Prevost camps on, 383 SOUTH CAROLINA disregards commercial congress at Annapolis, 79 insists that trade in African slaves be con tinued, 158 ratines the Constitution, 165 SOMERS, LIEUTENANT RICHARD in command of expedition to lire Tripolitan fleet, 244 breaks ring and gives pieces to Decatur and Stewart, 244 lost in expedition against Tripolitan fleet, 244 SPAIN England at war with, 72 closes Mississippi to American boats, 72 Jay negotiates treaty with, 72 makes trouble along the Mississippi, 172, 197 is believed to have incited Indians against settlers, 172 transfers Louisiana to France, 269 Spark, THE American brig-of-war of twelve guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 chases strange sail in Mediterranean, 4 74 Spitfire, THE American brig, 439 overhauled by Gueniere on May n, 1811, 439 John Deguy, an American citizen, taken from, 439 American schooner of war of ten guns, 473 assigned to Decatur's squadron sent against Algiers, 473 "STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, THE" written by Key on British sloop-of-war after successful defense of Fort McHenry, 382 STERETT, ANDREW inflicts a blow on Tripoli, 230 in command of the Enterprise, 231 STEUBEN, JOHANN, BARON VON present at Washington's inauguration, 120 rustic house of, at Oriskany, picture, 130 grave of, near Oriskany, picture, 131 STEWART, CHARLES in command of the Siren, 233 commander of Constitution, 464 sails to Bermudas, 466 takes British sloop-of-war, 466 sails to Madeira, 466 has presentiment of victory, 467 meets two British men-of-war, 468 fights Cyane and Levant, 469-470 captures Cyane and Levant, 470 sails to Port Praya, 471 meets Susan there, 471 three British ships pursue, 471 signals Cyane to change course, 471 signals Levant to change course, 472 STEWART, CHARLES continued goes free with Constitution, 472 arrives in New York, 472 STREET'S CREEK, ONTARIO Scott awaits reinforcements at, 353 Scott crosses, under fire, 357 Susan, THE Constitution meets at Port Praya, 471 Stewart uses as cartel for prisoners, 471 SWARTWOUT, SAMUEL in Burr's conspiracy, 299 case against, dismissed, 299 becomes collector of port of New York, 301 steals a million dollars from government, 301 TALLAPOOSA RIVER, GEORGIA Hickory Ground at confluence of Coosa River with, 399 Horse-Shoe Bend on the, picture of, 399 TALLEYRAND, CHARLES MAURICE DE double dealing of, 202 portrait of, 202 Adams makes correspondence of, public, 202 TANGIERS Decatur calls at, 474 TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK the Delavan plot in Sreepy Hollow Cemetery at, picture, 35 TECUMSEH interferes with Hull's communications, 315 and the Prophet plan to unite Indian tribes, 34i conspiracy of, destroyed by Harrison, 341 annihilates advance of Harrison, 341 killed at battle of the Thames, 343 trail of, along Wabash River, picture, 345 death of, at battle of the Thames, picture, 347 TENNESSEE settlers of, complain to Congress concerning transportation, 72 threatens to revolt, 73 settled by emigrants from Carolinas and Vir ginia, 172 volunteers from, at New Orleans, 397 Jackson rises to eminence in, 8 39 Jackson assists in framing constitution ot, 398 Jackson representative and senator in Con gress from, 398 Jackson judge of supreme court of, 398 Jackson major-general of State militia of, 308 Jackson raises force of 2500 sharpshooters i.i, 398 federal authorities do not accept volunteers from, 398 Carroll brings bngade from, to Jackson, 400 men from, posted behind Rodriguez Canal, 401 THAMES RIVER, ONTARIO Harrison defeats Proctor and Tecumseh at battle of, 343 Tecumseh killed at, 343 death of Tecumseh at, picture, 347 Ticonderoga, THE American war vessel in Macdonough's squad ron, 385 522 VALOR & VICTORY Ticonderoga, THE continued attacked by the Finch, 386 fights off British galleys, 386 disables the Finch, 387 TlPPECANOE on the battlefield of, at dedication of monu ment, picture, 339 Harrison wipes out the Prophet and his band at, 341 rock on the battlefield of, picture, 344 burial place of soldiers who fell at, picture, 346 Torch, THE American schooner-of-war of ten guns, 473 in Decatur's squadron against Algiers, 473 TROY, NEW YORK oldest steamboat in world, now running from, picture of, 306 TRIPOLI piracy recognized as part of national policy in, 225 Sterett inflicts a blow on, 230 harbor of, picture, 231 permits British cruisers to take out prizes, 483 offends United States, 483 Bashaw parades 20,000 men to intimidate Decatur, 484 but pays for prizes and receives Americans cordially, 484 TRUXTON, CAPTAIN THOMAS captain of the Constellation, 214 in the engagement between the Constellation and the Vengeance, 219 rebuffs Burr, 290 Burr implicates, in plot, 295 TUMBEZ, BAY or Essex and prizes sailing out of, picture, 466 TUNIS Bey of, becomes insolent, 247 Rodgers sends war vessels to, 247 Bey of, sends minister to United States, 247 street in, picture, 482 permits British cruisers to take out prizes, 483 offends United States, 483 Decatur forces payment for prizes upon Bey of, 484 TURKEY at war with Napoleon, 227 TYLER, JOHN, THE ELDER portrait of, 74 Greenway, the home of, picture, 77 the parlor at Greenway, picture, 76 a zealot for States rights, 79 stands sponsor for Madison's motion, 79 opposes the Constitution, 165 u UNITED STATES or AMERICA American Peace Commission of the, picture, 22 Congress petitions, for authority to collect duties, 22 collects duties, 22 taxes not paid by, 22 Congress urges, to pass-laws protecting Tories, UNITED STATES or" 1 AMERICA continued legislatures of, pass bills unfavorable to Tories, 4i condition of affairs in, at close of war, 42, 68, 7i, 74, 83 terms of treaty of peace favorable to, 44 Congress made up of delegates appointed by, 68 power of, over Congress, 68, 71 turns over holdings in West to Congress, 74 commissioners from, invited to meet at An napolis, 79 urged to send commissioners to Philadelphia, 79 Washington elected first President of, no struggle of, for existence, 196-198 internal dissension in, 198 Jay makes unsatisfactory treaty between, and England, 200 X Y Z dispatches cause great indignation in, 202 prepares for war with France, 202 virtually at war with France, 212 obliged to pay tribute to Barbary States, 225 England and France bully, 310-311 declares war against England, 312 inharmonious condition in, during War of 1812, 351 squadron of, in 1824, picture, 485 Untied States, THE American frigate of forty-four guns, 447 sails from Boston, 447 Decatur the younger in command of, 448 spies a stranger off the Azores, 449 clears for action, 449 begins to fight, 450 picture of, 450 stranger spied by, proves to be the Macedonian, 45i captures Macedonian, 331, 452 convoys Macedonian to Newport, 453 sails to New London, 453 capturing Macedonian, picture of, 459 blockaded in New York, 464 UPPER MARLBORO, MARYLAND Ross marches to, 370 disperses American rabble at, 372 V VALPARAISO, CHILE harbor of, in olden days, picture, 446 picturesque street in, picture, 451 VAN RENSSELAER, STEPHEN portrait of, 327 storms Queenston Heights, 328 New York militia refuse to support, 329 VIRGINIA delegates from Maryland and, meet at Mount Vernon, 76 commissioner from, goes to Annapolis, 79 does not wait for official endorsement of con vention plans, 81 names Washington as first delegate to con vention, 8 1 contest in, over Constitution long and bitter, 99 adopts the Constitution, 100 INDEX 523 VIRGINIA continued discusses the ratification of the Constitution with bitter contention, 165 decision of, concerning Constitution of great est importance to Union, 166 ratifies the Constitution, 166 passes resolutions against alien and sedition laws, 203 Vengeance, THE fight between the Constellation and, 218-221 VERGENNES, CHARLES CRAVIER, COUNT DE lends aid to America out of hatred for Eng land, 188 VERMONT farmers in, send supplies to invading armies, 3Si VlLLERE, MAJOR brings news to Jackson of British invasion, 396 w W ABASH RIVER Indians defeat Americans on upper, 183 Tecumseh's trail along, picture, 345 WADSWORTH, HENRY Longfellow a nephew and namesake of, 249 second in command to Richard Somers, 244 WALLIS, JOHN American sailor impressed on Macedonian, 453 killed in action with United States, 4 53 WAR OF 1812 ended by treaty of Ghent, 421, 423 effect of, upon Europe, 424 cost of, 424 WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA the Blessing of Peace, from bronze door of the Capitol at, pictuie, 39 capital of the United States moved to, 274 city of, about 1830, pictuie, 274 description of, in early days, 274 threatened with capture and destruction, 350 Winder in charge of defenses of, 368 relics of bridge burned by British in, picture, 368 news of British invasion reaches, 368 news of Ross's landing throws city into con fusion, 370 inhabitants of, rush to arms, 370 dismay and panic in, at British approach, 37 Madison writes wife to be ready to leave, 372 British occupy, 376 British burn Capitol, 377 ruined Capitol at, picture of, 378 old patent office at, picture of, 379 Congress convenes in old patent office in, 381 delighted at news of Jackson's victory at New Orleans, 419 goes wild over news of peace, 420-421 house in which Decatur died in, 488 house at Second and B Streets in, where only armed resistance to British invasion was made, picture, 489 WASHINGTON, GEORGE Houdon's statue of, picture, 20 portraits of, 21, 38, 223 WASHINGTON, GEORGE continued faces dissatisfaction of soldiers at Newburgh, 21, 34 Nicola proposes that, be made king, 28 Nicola's proposal odious to, 28 headquarters of, at Newburgh, picture, 30 interior of headquarters of, 32 masterful strategy of, 34 speaks at meeting of officers and men, 34-35 Greenough's statue of, picture, 36 Congress instructs, to proclaim cessation of hostilities, 45 farewell of, to his officers, picture, 45 takes formal leave of his officers, 46, 49 resigning his commission at Annapolis, pic ture, 47 at Mount Vernon, picture, 75 delegates from Virginia and Maryland meet at home of, 76 Virginia names, as first delegate to convention, 81 reception of, in New York City, picture, 107 elected first President of the United States, no journey of, from Mount Vernon to New York a triumph, no received with honor in New York, no old Federal Hall, New York, where, was inaugurated, picture, 118 inauguration of, description, 118-120 addresses Congress, 120-121 desk on which, wrote his first message to Congress, picture, 120 pew of, in Saint Paul's chapel, New York, picture, 121 taking the oath of office, picture, 127 the first cabinet appointed by, picture, 128 speech of, holds delegates to their task, 154 old house on High Street, Philadelphia, occupied by, picture, 167 selects his advisers, 168 sends Pinckney to England to represent United States, 171 pew of, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, pic ture, 179 cautions Saint Clair against Indian surprises, 182 profile of, 184 grieved and angered at defeat of Saint Clair, 185 declares for neutrality in war between France and England, 188 received Genet coldly, 191 Genet seeks to discredit, 191 quarrel between Hamilton and Jefferson brought before, 191 wisdom of, causes Jay's treaty to prevail, 200 army raised under, in preparation for war with France, 202 old tomb of, at Mount Vernon, picture, 220 resting place of, at Mount Vernon, picture, 221 death of, 223 WASHINGTON, MARTHA portraits of, 180, 222 profile of, 185 WASHINGTON, STATE OF Grand View Canon, picture, 284 Pierwee Falls, picture, 287 WASHITA Burr purchases grant on, 292 5 2 4 VALOR & VICTORY Wasp, THE captures the Frolic, 338 American sloop-of-war, 465 sails from Portsmouth to British Channel, 465 captures or destroys fifteen British vessels, 465 disappears, 465 WAYNE, ANTHONY drives the British from the Carolinas, 21 statue of, at Newburgh, picture, 195 defeats Indians at battle of Fallen Timber, 196 founds Fort Wayne, Indiana, 196 makes treaty with Indians, 196 WEATHERFORD chief of Creek Nation, 398 headquarters at Council Oak, picture of, 398 WEEHAWKEN, NEW YORK Burr kills Hamilton at Heights of. 262 spot where Hamilton fell at, picture, 262 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS birthplace of Eli Whitney, picture, 198 WESTERN RESERVE, see OHIO WEST INDIES many Tories go to, 41 WHISKEY REBELLION revolt in western Pennsylvania known as, 198 good results of, 198 WHITE HOUSE, THE sounds of British cannon at Upper Marlboro reach, 372 Dolly Madison saves treasures of, 375 Madison meets wife at, 376 destroyed by British, 383 WHITNEY, ELI birthplace of, in Westboro, Massachusetts, picture, 198 portrait of, 199 Yale graduate, 199 goes to Georgia, 199 invents cotton gin, 199 robbed of his invention, 199 invention of, changes industrial conditions in South, 199 WILKINSON, GENERAL JAMES Commander of American army at New Orleans, 292 Daviess implicates, with Burr, 292, 293 traitorous action of, toward Burr, 294-299 informs Jefferson concerning Burr's plans, 295 places New Orleans virtually under martial law, 299 betrayal of Burr brings, to favor, 302 cleared of all guilt, 302 WILKINSON, GENERAL JAMES cont. in charge of army moving against Montreal, 344 encounters Canadians at Chrystler's Farm, 344 defeated, 344 WINDER, WILLIAM H. general in command of defenses of Washing ton, 368 fails to erect fortifications, 369 has only 500 regulars and a few marines, 369 goes to rendezvous of troops at the Wood Yard, 370 withdraws from the Wood Yard to Old Fields, 37i meets President and cabinet there, 371 decides that Ross will not come and goes to Bladensburg, 371 orders retreat from Old Fields on Ross's coming, 371 falls back on navy yard, 371 leaves road through Bladensburg unwatched, 372 WIRT, WILLIAM takes part in Burr's trial, 300 WOOD YARD, THE, MARYLAND on the Potomac below Washington, 370 troops rendezvous at, 370 Winder withdraws from, 371 WYOMING VALLEY Pennsylvania and Connecticut quarrel for, 71 YATES, ABRAHAM portrait of, 84 sent as delegate to convention of States, 80 leaves convention in disgust before Con stitution is ready to sign, 159 YAZOO RIVER boundary of United States to run from, to Chatahoochee, 72 YORK (now TORONTO), ONTARIO Canadian capital, 455 captured and burned by Americans, 342, 349, 455 Washington burned in retaliation for burning of, 455 YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, ONTARIO Brown to march on, 353 YRUJO minister from Spain, 290 Burr intrigues with, 290 Spanish government tells, to shun Burr's plot, 290 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE RECALL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS BookS]ip-50m-9,'70(N9877s8)458 A-31/5, ac N9 868839 E179 Markham, E. M34 The real America in 1909 romance. v.10 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS For Reference Not to be taken from this room -- '