IN GEORGE HOLMES HOWISON The Great Figures of the Civil War (Authoritative portraits of the Federal and Confederate comman 5TUART JOHNSTON vlilitary Commanders, North and South s as reproduced in the Photographic History of the Civil War) HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FROM ABORIGINAL TIMES TO TAFT S ADMINISTRATION By JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, A.M., LL.D. ACADEMIC EDITION Revised 1911 by THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS ILLUSTRATED Volume THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY NEW YORK El7g v. 3 COPYRIGHT 1874. BY J. T. JONES COPYRIGHT 1902, BY ROXANA S. RIDPATH COPYRIGHT 1911, BY THE AMERICAN BOOK CO. NEW YORK THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESt RAHWAV, N. J. V. 3 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES VOLUME 111 8SI135 CONTENTS VOLUME III THE END: PAGES Mutiny in the Army 449 Greene in the South 452-458 Guilford Courthouse 454 La Fayette in Virginia 458 Cornwallis and Yorktown 460-462 Peace and Independence 463-465 CONFEDERATION AND UNION Early Efforts at Union 465-467 Articles of Confederation 467 Defects in the Articles 469 Making of the Constitution 470-472 Washington the First President 474 ADAMS ADMINISTRATION: Strained Relations with France 489-491 Organization of the Army 490-491 Death of Washington 492 Founding of the Capital 493 Alien and Sedition Laws ...... 494 JEFFERSON S ADMINISTRATION: Admission of Ohio 496 Purchase of Louisiana 497 Trouble with the Barbary States ..... 499-501 Duel Between Hamilton and Burr .... 502 Lewis and Clark Expedition 502-504 Impressment of Seamen 505-508 Fulton and the Steamboat 508 MADISON S ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR OF 1812: Repeal of the Orders in Council 510 Harrison and the Indians 512-513 The President and the Little Belt 515 Preparations for War 517 Surrender of Michigan 519 The Constitution and the Guerriere .... 520 Other Sea Fights 521-524 Harrison and the Northwest . . . . . . 526-532 Perry s Victory on the Lake 53 2 ~534 Chrysler s Field 536 Sea Fights 537~54O Chippewa, Lundy s Lane, Lake Champlain . . . 541-544 Washington and Baltimore . . . . . . 546-548 Battle of New Orleans ....... 550-552 Treaty of Ghent . 552 Founding of Liberia 555 Contents v MONROE S ADMINISTRATION: PAGES Internal Improvements 558 The Erie Canal . . 559 Jackson in Florida 560 Admission of New States 561-562 Purchase of Florida 561 Missouri Compromise 562-563 The Monroe Doctrine 564 Visit from La Fayette 564-565 ADAMS ADMINISTRATION: The Panama Congress 566-567 The Anti-Masons 568 Protective Tariff 569 Campaign of 1828 570 JACKSON S ADMINISTRATION: The Spoils System 571 Veto of the Bank Bill 572 The Webster-Hayne Debate 573 South Carolina and Nullification 573~574- The Black Hawk War 574 Indian Troubles in the South 575-577 Foreign Relations 579 VAN BUREN S ADMINISTRATION: War with the Seminoles 582 Panic of 1837 583 The Independent Treasury 584 Rebellion in Canada 585 ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON AND TYLER: Death of Harrison 587 Tyler Vetoes the Bank Bill 588 Webster-Ashburton Treaty 589 Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island ..... 589 Anti-Rent Riots in New York 590 The Mormons 590-592 Texas 593 FOLK S ADMINISTRATION AND THE MEXICAN WAR: Zachary Taylor in Texas 596-597 Conquest of California 602-604 Battle of Buena Vista 604-605 Scott Captures Vera Cruz 606 Cerro Gordo . . 606-607 Surrender of Mexico 610 Treaty of Peace 611 Discovery of Gold in California 612 ADMINISTRATION OF TAYLOR AND FILLMORE: California Seeks Statehood ... ... . .616 Debates on the Omnibus Bill . . - . . . . 617-619 Lopez s Expedition to Cuba . . . . . . 619 vi Contents P*ERCE S ADMINISTRATION: PAGES Opening of the Ports of Japan 624 Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill . . . 625 Civil War in Kansas 626 BUCHANAN S ADMINISTRATION: Rebellion in Utah 628 Laying of the First Atlantic Cable 630 The Dred Scott Decision 631 John Brown and Harper s Ferry 632 Election of Lincoln 634 Secession of Southern States 635-636 Admission of Kansas 637 LINCOLN S ADMINISTRATION AND THE CIVIL WAR: Lincoln-Douglas Debates 638 Firing on Fort Surater 640-641 Call for Troops 641 The Blockade 643 CAUSES OF THE WAR: Different Constructions of the Constitution . . . 644 Different Systems of Labor 646 Want of Intercourse 647 Publication of Sectional Books ..... 650 FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR: McCIellan in West Virginia . . . . . . 652 Battle of Bull Run 653-655 Operations in Missouri 656-658 Ball s Bluff 658 The Trent Affair 659-660 CAMPAIGNS OF 1862: Mill Spring . . . . 661 Fort Donelson 662-664 Battle of Shiloh 663-664 Capture of Island No. 10 665 The Monitor and the Merrimac . . . . . 667 Capture of New Orleans 669 luka and Corinth . . 670-671 McCIellan on the Peninsula 674-678 Second Bull Run 679 Antietam . ,, 680 ILLUSTRATIONS Commanders and Leaders of the Civil War . Frontispiece President Lincoln and General McCIellan After Antietam . . . . . . . . facing page 655 LIST OF MAPS PAGK Siege of Yorktown . . . ... . . . 460 The Mexican Campaign ........ 606 CHAPTER VIII THE END FOR the Americans the year 1781 opened gloom ily. The condition of the army was desperate no food, no pay, no clothing. Even the influence of Washington was not sufficient to quiet the grow ing discontent of the soldiery. On the first day of January the whole Pennsylvania line, numbering nearly two thousand, mutinied, left their camp at Morristown, and marched toward Philadelphia. General Wayne, after trying in vain to prevent the insurrection, went with his men, still hoping to control them. At Princeton they were met by two emissaries from Sir Henry Clinton, and were tempted with offers of money, clothing, and re lease from military service if they would desert the American standard. The mutinous patriots made answer by seizing the British agents and de livering them to General Wayne to be hanged as spies. For this deed the commissioners of Con gress, who now arrived, offered the insurgents a large reward, but the reward was indignantly re fused. Washington, knowing how shamefully the army had been neglected by Congress, was not un willing that the mutiny should take its own course. 449 45 o ... History , of the United States The congressional .agents were therefore left to adju^trierdifficuJt}? ^iih -th. rebellious troops. But the breach was easily healed; a few liberal con cessions on the part of the government sufficed to quiet the mutiny. About the middle of the same month the New Jersey brigade, stationed at Pompton, revolted. This movement Washington quelled by force. General Robert Howe marched to the camp with five hundred regulars and compelled twelve of the principal mutineers to execute the two leaders of the revolt. From that day order was completely restored. These insurrections had a good rather than a bad effect; Congress was thoroughly alarmed, and immediate provisions were made for the better support of the army. An agent was sent to France to obtain a further loan of money; Robert Morris was appointed secretary of finance ; and the Bank of North America was organized. In the North military movements were begun by Arnold. On arriving at New York the traitor had received the promised commission, and was now a brigadier-general in the British army. In the preceding November, Washington and Major Henry Lee formed a plan to capture him. Sergeant John Champe undertook the daring en terprise, deserted to the enemy, entered New York, joined Arnold s company, and with two assistants concerted measures to abduct him from the city and convey him to the American camp. But Ar nold suddenly moved his quarters, and the plan was defeated. A month afterward he was given The End 451 command of a fleet and a land force of sixteen hundred men, and on the i6th of December left New York to make a descent on the coasts of Virginia. Early in January the traitor entered James River and began war on his countrymen. His pro ceedings were marked with much ferocity, but not with the daring which characterized his former ex ploits. Again Washington planned his capture. The French fleet, anchored at Newport, was or dered to sail for Virginia to co-operate with La Fayette, who was sent in the direction of Ports mouth with a detachment of twelve hundred men. But Admiral Arbuthnot, being apprised of the movement, sailed from New York and drove the French squadron back to Rhode Island. La Fa yette, deprived of the expected aid, was forced to abandon the undertaking, and Arnold again escaped. About the middle of April, General Phillips ar rived at Portsmouth with a force of two thousand British regulars. Joining his troops with those of Arnold, he assumed command of the whole, and again the fertile districts of Lower Virginia were ravaged with fire and sword. Early in May, Phil lips died, and for seven days Arnold held the su preme command of the British forces in Virginia. That was the height of his treasonable glory. On the 20th of the month Lord Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg and ordered him to begone. Return ing to New York, he received from Clinton a sec ond detachment, entered the Sound, landed at New 452 History of the United States London, in his native State, and captured the town. Fort Griswold, which was defended by Colonel Ledyard with a hundred and fifty militiamen, was carried by storm. When Ledyard surrendered, the British officer who received his sword stabbed him to death; it was the signal for a massacre of the garrison, seventy-three of whom were murdered in cold blood ; of the remainder, thirty were wounded and the rest made prisoners. With this bloody and ignominious deed the name of Arnold disap pears from American history. Meanwhile, some of the most stirring events of the war had occurred at the South. At the close of the preceding year General Greene had taken command of the American army which was only the shadow of an army at Charlotte, North Carolina. Corn- wallis had fallen back in the direction of Camden. Greene with great energy reorganized his forces and divided them into an eastern and a western division; the command of the latter was given to General Morgan. In the first days of January this gallant officer was sent into the Spartanburg district of South Caro lina to repress the Tories and encourage the patriot militia. His success was such as to exasperate Cornwallis, who immediately dispatched Colonel General Nathanael Greene The End 453 Tarleton with his famous cavalry legion to de stroy Morgan s forces or drive them out of the State. The Americans, apprised of Tarleton s ap proach, took a favorable position at the Cowpens, where, on the iyth of January, they were attacked by the British, eleven hundred strong. Tarleton, confident of success, made the onset with impetu osity; but Morgan s men sustained the shock with firmness, and, when the enemy s reserves were called into action, either held their ground or re tired in good order. At the crisis of the battle the American cavalry, commanded by Colonel William Washington, made a furious charge and scattered the British dragoons like chaff before them. The rout was complete the victory deci sive. Washington and Tarleton had a personal encounter on the field, and the latter fled with a sword-gash in his hand. His corps was annihi lated; ten British officers and ninety privates were killed, and five hundred and twenty-three were cap tured. Two pieces of artillery, eight hundred mus kets, and two flags were among the trophies of the battle. When Cornwallis, who was encamped with his army thirty miles down the Catawba, heard of the disaster to his arms, he made a rapid march up the river to reach the fords in Morgan s rear. But Greene, who had also heard the news, hastened to the camp of Morgan, took command in person, and began a hasty retreat. At the same time he sent word to General Huger, who commanded the eastern division, to fall back toward Charlotte, 454 History of the United States where it was proposed to form a junction of the two wings of the army. On the 28th of January, Morgan s division reached the Catawba and crossed to the northern bank, with prisoners, spoils, and baggage. Within two hours the Brit ish van arrived at the ford; but it was already sunset, and Cornwallis concluded to wait for the morning; then he would cross and win an easy victory. During the night the clouds opened and poured down torrents; in the morning the river was swollen to a flood. It was many days before the British forced their way across, dispersing the militia on the opposite bank. And now began a second race of the two hostile armies, first to the valley of the Yadkin and later into Virginia, where Greene s army was re-enforced by several hundred militia. At length Greene took a strong position at Guilford Courthouse, in North Carolina, and awaited his antagonist. Cornwallis, accepting the challenge, at once moved forward to the attack. On the 1 5th of March the two armies met on Greene s chosen ground, and a severe but indeci sive battle was fought. The forces of Greene were superior in numbers, and those of Cornwallis in discipline. If the American militia had stood firm, the result would not have been doubtful; but the raw recruits behaved badly, broke line, and fled. Confusion ensued; the American regulars fought hard, but were eventually driven from the field and forced to retreat for several miles. In killed and wounded the British loss was greatest; but large bodies of the militia returned to their The End 455 homes, reducing Greene s army to less than three thousand. Nevertheless, to the British the result was equivalent to a defeat. Cornwallis now boasted, made big proclama tions, and then retreated. On the 7th of April he reached the sea-coast at Wilmington, and im mediately thereafter proceeded to Virginia. How he arrived at Petersburg, superseded Arnold, and sent him out of the State has already been nar rated. The British forces in the Carolinas re mained under command of Lord Rawdon, who was posted with a strong division at Camden. With him General Greene, after the departure of Cornwallis, was left to contend. The American army was accordingly advanced into South Caro lina. A detachment was sent against Fort Watson, on the east bank of the Santee, and the place was obliged to surrender. Greene marched with the main body to Hobkirk s Hill, a short distance north of Camden, posted his men in a strong po sition, and awaited the movements of Rawdon. What that officer would do was not long a ques tion of doubt. On the 25th of April he moved from Camden with his entire force and attacked the American camp. For once General Greene came near being surprised; but his men were swiftly formed for battle; Rawdon s column was badly arranged; and for a while it seemed that the entire British force would be slain or captured. Just at the critical moment, however, some valu able American officers who commanded in the cen ter were killed; their regiments, becoming con- 456 History of the United States fused, fell back; Rawdon saw his advantage, pressed forward, broke the center, captured the hill, and won the day. The Americans retired from the field, but saved their artillery and bore away the wounded. Again the genius of Greene made defeat seem little less than victory. On the loth of May, Lord Rawdon evacuated Camden and retired to Eutaw Springs, sixty-five miles above the mouth of the Santee. The British posts at .Granby, Orangeburg, Fort Mott, and Au gusta fell successively into the hands of the pa triots. By the 5th of June only Eutaw Springs, Charleston, and Ninety-Six remained in possession of the enemy. After considerable sparring the British fell back from Ninety-Six to Orangeburg and the Americans retired to the highlands in the Sumter district and in the healthful air of the hill country passed the summer months. Sumter, Lee, and Marion were constantly abroad, traversing the country in all directions, cutting off supplies from the enemy, breaking his lines of communication, and smiting the Tories right and left. Lord Rawdon now resigned the command of the British forces to Colonel Stuart and went to Charleston. While there he became a principal actor in one of the most shameful scenes of the Revolution. Colonel Isaac Hayne, an eminent patriot who had formerly taken an oath of allegiance to the king, was caught in com mand of a troop of American cavalry. He was at once taken to Charleston, arraigned before Colonel Balfour, the commandant, hurried through the The End 457 mockery of a trial, and condemned to death. Raw- don gave his sanction, and on the 3ist of July, Colonel Hayne was hanged. Just men in Europe joined with the patriots of America in denouncing the act as worthy of barbarism. On the 22d of August, General Greene left the heights of the Santee and marched toward Orange- burg. The British decamped at his approach and took post at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below. The Americans pressed after them and overtook them on the 8th of September. One of the fiercest battles of the war ensued; and General Greene was denied a decisive victory only by the bad conduct of some of his men, who, before the field was fairly won, abandoned themselves to eating and drink ing in the enemy s camp. Stuart rallied his troops, returned to the charge, and regained his position. Greene, after losing five hundred and fifty-five men, gave over the struggle. The British lost in killed and wounded nearly seven hundred, and more than five hundred prisoners. On the day after the battle Stuart hastily retreated to Monk s Corner; Greene followed with his army, and after two months of maneuvering and desultory warfare the British were driven into Charleston. In the meantime, General St. Clair had cleared North Carolina by forcing the enemy to evacuate Wil mington. In the whole country south of Virginia only Charleston and Savannah remained under do minion of the king s army; the latter city was evacuated by the British on the nth of July, and the former on the I4th of December, 1782. Such 458 History of the United States was the close of the Revolution in the Carolinas and Georgia. But the final scene was to be enacted in Virginia. There, in the last days of April, 1781, Cornwallis took command of the British army and began to ravage the country on both banks of the James. In the course of the following two months prop erty, public and private, was destroyed to the value of fifteen million dollars. La Fayette, to whom the defense of the State had been intrusted, was unable to meet Cornwallis in the field, but watched his movements with sleepless vigilance. While the British were in the vicinity of Richmond a detach ment under Tarleton proceeded as far west as Charlottesville, where the Virginia legislature was in session. The town was taken, the country devas tated, and seven members of the assembly made prisoners. Governor Jefferson escaped only by riding into the mountains. When there was little left to destroy, Cornwal lis marched down the north bank of the James to Green Springs, eight miles above the site of Jamestown. From here, after a skirmish with General Wayne, he conveyed his army to York- town, on the southern bank of York River, a few miles above the mouth. La Fayette quickly advanced into the peninsula and took post but eight miles distant from the British. From this position he sent urgent dispatches to Washington, beseeching him to come to Virginia and aid in striking the enemy a fatal blow. A powerful French armament, commanded by Count de The End 459 Grasse, was hourly expected in the Chesapeake, and La Fayette saw at a glance that if a fleet could be anchored in the mouth of York River, cutting off retreat, the- doom of Cornwallis would be sealed. During the months of July and August, Washington, from his camp on the Hudson, looked wistfully to the South. But all the while Clinton was kept in feverish alarm by false dispatches, written for the purpose of falling into his hands. These intercepted messages indicated that the Americans and French would immediately begin the siege of New York; and for that Clinton made ready. When, in the last days of August, he was informed that Washington had broken up his camp and was already marching with his whole army toward Virginia, the British general would not believe it, but went on preparing for a siege. Washington pressed rapidly forward, paused two days at Mount Vernon, where he had not been for six years, and met La Fayette at Williamsburg. Meanwhile, on the 3Oth of August, the French fleet, numbering twenty-eight ships of the line, with nearly four thousand troops on board, had reached the Chesapeake and safely anchored in the mouth of York River. Cornwallis, with the British army, was blockaded both by sea and land. To add still further to the strength of the al lies, Count de Barras, who commanded the French flotilla at Newport, sailed into the Chesapeake with eight ships of the line and ten transports, bearing cannon for the siege. On the 5th of September the English admiral .Graves appeared in the bay, 460 History of the United States and a naval battle ensued, in which the British ships were so roughly handled that they returned to New York. On the 28th of September the al lied armies, superior in numbers and confident of success, encamped around Yorktown. The story of the siege is brief. Tarleton, who occupied Glouces ter Point, on the other side of the river, made one spirited sally, but was driven back with severe loss. On the night of the 6th of October the trenches were opened at the distance of six hun dred yards from the British works. The can nonade was constant and effective. On the nth of the month the allies drew their second parallel within three hundred yards of Cornwallis s re doubts. On the night of the I4th the enemy s The End 461 outer works were carried by storm. At daydawn of the i6th the British made a sortie, only to be hurled back into their intrenchments. On the next day Cornwallis proposed a surrender; on the i8th terms of capitulation were drawn up and signed; and at two o clock in the afternoon of the i9th Major-General O Hara for Cornwallis, feigning sickness, remained in his tent led the whole Brit- The Surrender of Cornwallis ish army from the trenches into an open field, where, in the presence of the allied ranks of France and America, seven thousand two hundred and forty-seven English and Hessian soldiers laid down their arms, delivered their standards, and became prisoners of war. Eight hundred and forty sailors were also surrendered. Seventy-five brass and thirty-one iron guns were taken, together with all the accouterments of the army. 462 History of the United States By a swift courier the news was borne to Con gress. On the evening of the 23d the messenger rode into Philadelphia. When the sentinels of the city called the hour of ten that night, they added, " and Cornivallis is taken." On the morrow Con gress assembled, and before that august body the dispatch of Washington was read. The members, exulting and weeping for gladness, went in con course with the citizens to the Lutheran church and turned the afternoon into a thanksgiving. The note of rejoicing sounded through the length and breadth of the land; for it was seen that the do minion of the Briton in America was forever broken. After the surrender the conquered army was marched under guard to the barracks of Lancaster. Washington, with the victorious Americans and French, returned to the camps of New Jersey and the Hudson. On the Continent of Europe the news was received with every demonstration of gladness. In England the king and his ministers heard the tidings with mortification and rage; but many of the English people were either secretly pleased or openly rejoiced. During the fall and winter the ministerial majority in Parliament fell off rapidly; and on the 2Oth of March, 1782, Lord North and his friends, unable longer to conduct the government, resigned their offices. A new ministry was immediately formed, favorable to America, favorable to freedom, favorable to peace. In the beginning of May the command of the Brit ish forces in the United States was transferred The End 463 from Clinton to Sir Guy Carleton, a man friendly to American interests. The hostile demonstrations of the enemy, now confined to New York and Charleston, ceased; and Washington made no ef forts to dislodge the foe, for the war had really ended. In the summer of 1782 Richard Oswald was sent by Parliament to Paris. The object of his mission was to confer with Franklin and Jay, the ambassadors of the United States, in regard to the terms of peace. Before the discussions were ended, John Adams, arriving from Amsterdam, and Henry Laurens from London, entered into the negotiations. On the 3Oth of November pre liminary articles of peace were agreed to and signed on the part of Great Britain by Oswald, and on behalf of the United States by Franklin, Adams, Jay, and Laurens. In the following April the terms were ratified by Congress; but it was not until the 3d of September, 1783, that a final treaty was effected between all the nations that had been at war. On that day the ambassadors of Holland, Spain, England, France, and the United States, in a solemn conference at Paris, agreed to and signed the articles of a permanent peace. The terms of the Treaty of 1783 were briefly these: A full and complete recognition of the in dependence of the United States ; the recession by Great Britain of Florida to Spain; the surrender of all the remaining territory east of the Mississ ippi and south of the Great Lakes to the United States; the free navigation of the Mississippi and 464 History of the United States the lakes by American vessels; the concession of mutual rights in the Newfoundland fisheries; and the retention by Great Britain of Canada and Nova Scotia, with the exclusive control of the St. Lawrence. Early in August, Sir Guy Carleton received in structions to evacuate New York City. Three months were spent in making arrangements for this important event. Finally, on the 25th of No vember, everything was in readiness; the British army was embarked on board the fleet; the sails were spread ; the ships stood out to sea ; dwindled to white specks on the horizon; disappeared. The Briton was gone. After the struggles and sacri fices of an eight years war the patriots had achieved the independence of their country. The United States of America took an equal station among the nations of the earth. Nine days after Carleton s departure there was a most affecting scene in the city. Washington as sembled his officers and bade them a final adieu. When they were met, the chieftain spoke a few affectionate words to his comrades, who came for ward in turn and with tears and sobs which the veterans no longer cared to conceal bade him fare well. Washington then walked to Whitehall, fol lowed by a vast concourse of citizens and soldiers, and thence departed to Annapolis, where Congress was in session. On his way he paused at Phila delphia and made to the proper officers a report of his expenses during the war. The account was in his own handwriting, and covered a total ex- Confederation and Union 465 penditure of seventy-four thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars all correct to a cent. The route of the chief from Paulus s Hook to An napolis was a continuous triumph. The people by hundreds and thousands flocked to the villages and roadsides to see him pass; gray-headed states men to speak words of praise ; young men to shout with enthusiasm; maidens to strew his way with flowers. On the 23d of December, Washington was in troduced to Congress. To that body of patriotic sages he delivered an address full of feeling, wis dom, and modesty. Then with that dignity which always marked his conduct he surrendered his com mission as commander-in-chief of the American army. General Mifflin, the president of Congress, responded in an eloquent manner, and then the hero retired to his home at Mount Vernon. The man whom, the year before, some disaffected sol diers were going to make king of America, now, by his own act, became a citizen of the Republic. CHAPTER IX CONFEDERATION AND UNION DURING the progress of the Revolution the civil government of the United States was in a deplor able condition. Nothing but the imminent peril of the country had, in the first place, led to the 466 History of the United States calling of a Continental Congress. And when that body assembled, it had no method of pro ceeding, no constitution, no power of efficient ac tion. The two great wants of the country were money to carry on the war and a central authority to direct the war: the former of these was never met; and Washington was made to supply the latter. Whenever Con gress would move in the direction of a firmer gov ernment, division would spring up, and action would be checked by the remonstrance of jealous "Old Glory" colonies. Nevertheless, the more far-seeing states men of the times labored constantly to create sub stantial political institutions. Foremost of all those who worked for better government was Benjamin Franklin. As early as the times of the French and Indian War he began to agitate the question of a permanent union of the colonies. During the troubled years just pre ceding the Revolution he brooded over his cher ished project, and in 1775 laid before Congress the plan of a perpetual confederation of the States. But the attention of that body was wholly occu pied with the stirring events of the day, and Frank lin s measure received but little notice. Congress, without any real authority, began to conduct the government, and its legislation was generally ac- Confederation and Union 467 cepted by the States. Still, the central authority was only an authority by sufferance, and was liable at any time to be annulled by the caprice of State legislatures. Under such a system thinking men grew rest less. On the nth of June, 1776, a committee was appointed by Congress to prepare a plan of confederation. After a month the work was com pleted and laid before the house. Another month was spent in fruitless debates, and then the ques tion was laid over till the following spring. In April of 1777 the discussion was resumed, and continued through the summer. Meanwhile, the power of Great Britain being overthrown, the States had all adopted republican governments, and the sentiment of national union had made con siderable headway. Finally, on the I5th of No vember, a vote was taken in Congress, and the Articles of Confederation reported by the commit tee were adopted. The next step was to transmit the articles to the several State legislatures for ratification. The time thus occupied extended to the following June, and then the new frame of government was returned to Congress with many amendments. These having been consid ered and the most serious objections removed, the articles were signed by the delegates of eight States on the 9th of July, 1778. Later in the same month the representatives of Georgia and North Carolina affixed their signatures. In No vember the delegates of New Jersey, and in the following February those of Delaware, signed the 468 History of the United States compact. Maryland held aloof; and it was not until March of 1781 that the consent of that com monwealth could be obtained. Several of the States, especially Maryland, had withheld their ratification on account of the troublesome land question. Seven of the thirteen States laid claim to Western lands, based chiefly on their colonial charters and extending to the Mississippi River. The States not having such claims took the ground that the others should cede these lands to the gen eral government, and Maryland refused to ratify the Articles until they promised to do so. Through the cession of these lands the government came into possession of a vast territory, an empire in extent, which, as a common possession, became a bond of union of inestimable value. The government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation was a democratic re public. It presented itself under the form of a Loose Union of Independent Commonwealths a confederacy of sovereign States. The executive and legislative powers of the general government were vested in Congress a body composed of not less than two nor more than seven representatives from each State. But Congress could exercise no other than delegated powers; the sovereignty was reserved to the States. The most important of the exclusive privileges of Congress were the right of making war and peace, the regulation of for eign intercourse, the power to receive and send ambassadors, the control of the coinage of money, the settlement of disputed boundaries, and the care Confederation and Union 469 of the public domain. But there were most seri ous defects in the Articles of Confederation. There was no chief executive and no general judiciary. Above all, Congress had no power to enforce its own laws and the national government had no direct relations with the citizen. Its rela tions were with the State, and if the States chose to disregard the laws of Congress there was no power to coerce them. The consent of nine States was necessary to complete an act of legislation. In voting each State cast a single ballot. The union of the States was declared to be perpetual. On the day of the ratification of the articles by Maryland the old Congress adjourned, and on the following morning reassembled under the new form of government. From the very first the in adequacy of that government was manifest. To begin with, it contradicted the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence. Congress had but a shadow of authority, and that shadow, instead of proceeding from the people, emanated from States which were declared to be sovereign and independent. The first great duty of the new gov ernment was to provide for the payment of the war debt, which had now reached the sum of thirty- eight million dollars. Congress could only recom mend to the several States the levying of a suffi cient tax to meet the indebtedness. Some of the States made the required levy; others were dilatory; others refused. At the very outset the govern ment was balked and thwarted. The serious trou bles that attended the disbanding of the army were 47 History of the United States traceable rather to the inability than to the indis position of Congress to pay the soldiers. The princely fortune of Robert Morris was exhausted and himself brought to poverty in a vain effort to sustain the credit of the government. For three years after the treaty of peace public affairs were in a condition bordering on chaos. The imperiled state of the Republic was viewed with alarm by the sagacious patriots who had carried the Revolution to a successful issue. It was seen that unless the Articles of Confederation could be replaced with a better system the nation would go to ruin. The project of remodeling the government origi nated at Mount Vernon. In 1785, Washington, in conference with a company of statesmen at his home, advised the calling of a convention to meet at Annapolis in the following year. The propo sition was received with favor; and in September of 1786 twelve representatives of five States as sembled. Since only a minority of the States were represented in the conference, it was resolved to adjourn until May of the following year, and all the States were urgently requested to send repre sentatives at that time. Congress also invited the several legislatures to appoint delegates to the proposed convention. All of the States except Rhode Island responded to the call; and on the second Monday in May, 1787, the representatives assembled at Philadelphia. Washington, who was a delegate from Virginia, was chosen president of the convention. After some discussion it was decided to set aside the Articles and frame a new Confederation and Union 471 Constitution. Edmund Randolph, a delegate from Virginia, offered a plan of government which came to be known as the Virginia plan. Ijt pro vided for such radical changes as giving Congress full power over foreign and interstate commerce, power to tax and to enforce its own laws, and it made the individual citizen amenable to national laws, as well as to those of his State. This plan was long debated and after many modifications it was adopted and became the Constitution of the United States. The convention finished its great work on the I7th of September and sent the newly framed document to the various States to be ratified. Under the Constitution of the United States the powers of government are arranged under three heads Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The legislative power is vested in Congress a body composed of a Senate and a House of Representa tives. The members of the Senate are chosen by the legislatures of the several States, and serve for a period of six years. Each State is repre sented by two Senators. The members of the House of Representatives are elected by the peo ple of the respective States; and each State is en titled to a number of representatives proportion ate to the population of that State. The members of this branch are chosen for a term of two years. Congress is the lawmaking power of the nation; and all legislative questions of a general character are the appropriate subjects of congressional action. 472 History of the United States The executive power of the United States is vested in a President, who is chosen for a period of four years by a body of men called the electoral college. The electors composing the college are chosen by the people of the several States; and each State is entitled to a number of electors equal to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. The duty of the President is to en force the laws of Congress in accordance with the Constitution. He is commander-in-chief of the armies and navies of the United States. Over the legislation of Congress he has the power of veto; but a two-thirds congressional majority may pass a law without the President s consent. He has the right of appointing cabinet officers and foreign ministers; but all of his appointments must be ap proved by the Senate. The treaty-making power is also lodged with the President; but here again the concurrence of the Senate is necessary. In case of the death, resignation, or removal of the President, the Vice-President becomes chief magis trate ; otherwise his duties are limited to presiding over the Senate. The judicial power of the United States is vested in a supreme court and in inferior courts established by Congress. The highest judicial offi cer is the chief-justice. All the judges of the su preme and inferior courts hold their offices during life or good behavior. The jurisdiction of these courts extends to all causes arising under the Con stitution, la\vs, and treaties of the United States. The right of trial by jury is granted in all cases Confederation and Union 473 except the impeachment of public officers. Trea son against the United States consists only in levy ing war against them, or in giving aid and comfort to their enemies. The Constitution further provides that full faith shall be given in all the States to the records of every State; that the citizens of any State shall be entitled to the privileges of citizens in all the States; that new Territories may be organized and new States admitted into the Union ; that to every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government; and that the Constitution may be altered or amended whenever the same is pro posed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the legis latures of the several States. In accordance with this last provision fifteen amendments have been made to the Constitution. The most important of these are articles which guarantee religious free dom ; change the method of electing President and Vice-President ; abolish slavery; and forbid abridg ment of suffrage on account of race or color. On the question of adopting the Constitution the people were divided. It was the first great political agitation in the country. Those who fa vored the new frame of government were called Federalists; those who opposed, Anti-Federalists. The leaders of the former party were Washington, Jay, Madison, and Hamilton, the latter statesman throwing the whole force of his genius and learn ing into the controversy. In those able papers called the Federalist he and Madison successfully 474 History of the United States answered every objection of the anti-Federal party. Hamilton was the first and perhaps the greatest expounder of constitutional liberty in America. To him the Republic owes a debt of perpetual gratitude for having established on a firm and en during basis the true principles of free government. Before the end of 1788 eleven of the States had adopted the Constitution. By its own terms the new government was to go into operation when nine States should ratify. For a while North Carolina and Rhode Island hesi tated, but their consent was Alexander Hamilton finall Y obtained. In accordance with the provisions of the Con stitution and a resolution of Congress, the first Wednesday of January, 1789, was named as the time for the election of a chief magistrate. The people had but one voice as to the man who should be honored with that high trust. Early in April the ballots of the electors were counted in the pres ence of Congress, and George Washington was unanimously chosen President and John Adams Vice- President of the United States. On the I4th of the month Washington received notification of his election, and departed for New York. His route thither was a constant triumph. With thk auspicious event the period of revolution and con federation ends, and the era of nationality in the New Republic is ushered in. PART V NATIONAL PERIOD A.D. 1789-1884 CHAPTER I WASHINGTON S ADMINISTRATION, 1789-1797 ON the 3Oth of April, 1789, Washington was duly inaugurated first President of the United States. The new government was to have gone into opera tion on the 4th of March, but the event was con siderably delayed. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of the old Federal Hall, on the corner of Broad and Wall streets. Chancel lor Livingston of New York administered the oath of office. The streets and house-tops were thronged with people; flags fluttered; cannon boomed from the Battery. As soon as the public ceremony was ended, Washington retired to the Senate chamber and delivered his inaugural address. The organ- 475 History of the United States ization of the two houses of Congress had already been effected. The new government was embarrassed with many difficulties. The opponents of the Consti tution were not yet silenced, and from the begin- Washington Taking the Oath of Office ning they caviled at the measures of the adminis tration. By the treaty of 1783 the free naviga tion of the Mississippi had been guaranteed. Now the jealous Spaniards of New Orleans hindered the passage of American ships. The people of the Washington s Administration 477 West looked to the great river as the natural out let of their commerce; they must be protected in their rights. On many parts of the frontier the malignant Red men were still at war with the set tlers. As to financial credit, the United States had none. In the very beginning of his arduous duties Washington was prostrated with sickness, and the business of government was for many weeks delayed. Not until September were the first important measures adopted. On the loth of that month an act was passed by Congress instituting a depart ment of foreign affairs, a treasury department, and a department of war. As members of his cabinet Washington nominated Jefferson, Knox, and Ham ilton; the first as secretary of foreign affairs; the second, of war; and the third, of the treasury. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitu tion, a supreme court was also organized, John Jay receiving the appointment of first chief-justice. Edmund Randolph was chosen attorney-general. Many constitutional amendments were now brought forward. Seven of the States on ratify ing the Constitution proposed various amendments. One of the main defects of that instrument was that it did not guarantee enough personal liberty. These suggested amendments were resolved into a Bill of Rights and on their adoption became the first ten amendments. By this action on the part of Congress, the objections of North Carolina and Rhode Island were removed and both States rati fied the Constitution, the former in Novem- 478 History of the United States ber of 1789 and the latter in the following May. The national debt was the greatest and most threatening question; but the genius of Hamilton triumphed over every difficulty. The indebted ness of the United States, including the revolution ary expenses of the several States, amounted to nearly eighty million dollars. Hamilton adopted a broad and honest policy. His plan, which was laid before Congress at the beginning of the sec ond session, proposed that the debt of the United States due to American citizens, as well as the war debt of the individual States, should be assumed by the general government, and that all should be fully paid. By this measure the credit of the coun try was vastly improved, even before actual pay ment was begun. As a means of augmenting the revenues of the government, a duty was laid on the tonnage of merchant-ships, with a discrimina tion in favor of American vessels; and customs were levied on all imported articles. Hamilton s financial schemes were violently opposed by Mr. Jefferson and his party. The assumption of the State debts was especially galling to the advocates of State sovereignty. The States, jealous of their power, thought the taking over of their Revolu tionary debts would rob them of some of their rights and would subordinate them too completely to the general government. But his policy pre vailed, and the credit of the government was soon firmly established. The proposition to assume the debts of the Washington s Administration 479 States had been coupled with another to fix the seat of government. It was deemed wise to locate the National Capital where it would be free from the control of any State and could be under the sole jurisdiction of the federal government. Both sec tions of the country wished to possess the capital of their country. The matter was settled by a trade and a compromise. Jefferson yielded the point on the assumption of the State debts, in re turn for which the capital city should be located, after it should remain at Philadelphia for ten years, at some point on the Potomac. In the autumn of 1790 a war broke out with the Miami Indians. Fort Washington, on the present site of Cincinnati, had been established as the capital of the Northwestern Territory; and General St. Clair had received the appointment as governor. The Indians had fairly relinquished their rights to the surrounding country; but other tribes came forward with pretended claims, and went to war to recover their lost possessions. At the close of September, General Harmar, with fourteen hundred troops, set out from Fort Wash ington to chastise the hostile Miamis. After de stroying several villages and wasting the country as far as the Maumee, he divided his army into de tachments. Colonel Hardin, who commanded the Kentucky volunteers, was ambuscaded and his forces routed at a village eleven miles from Fort Wayne; and on the 2ist of October the main di vision was defeated with great loss at the Mau mee Ford. General Harmar was obliged to 480 History of the United States abandon the Indian country and retreat to Fort Washington. In the beginning of 1791 an act was passed by Congress establishing the Bank of the United States. The measure originated with the secretary of the treasury, and was violently opposed by Jef ferson and the anti-federal party. The opposition was based on the idea that the federal government had no constitutional right to establish such an institution. This gave rise to the question as to how the Constitution should be interpreted. Ham ilton and his followers promulgated what is known as the loose construction theory. Jefferson held that since the Constitution did not specifically empower the government to organize such a bank, it had no right so to do. Hamilton on the other hand maintained that while it did not say so in so many words, yet it was implied in the general wel fare clause of that instrument. The Bank was to have a capital of $10,000,000, one-fifth to be owned by the government. It was to furnish a circulating medium to the people and loan the government money when needed. It was char tered for twenty years. About the same time Vermont, which had been an independent territory since 1777, adopted the Constitution, and on the i8th of February was admitted into the Union as the fourteenth State. The claim of New York to the jurisdiction of the province had been purchased, two years previously, for thirty thousand dollars. The first census of the United States, completed for the year 1790, Washington s Administration 481 showed that the population of the country had increased to three million nine hundred and twenty- nine thousand souls. After the defeat of Harmar the government adopted more vigorous measures for the repres sion of Indian hostilities. On the 6th of Septem ber, 1791, General St. Clair, with an army of two thousand men, set out from Fort Washington to break the power of the Miami confederacy. On the night of November jd he reached a point nearly a hundred miles north of Fort Washington, and encamped on one of the upper tributaries of the Wabash, in what is now the southwest angle of Mercer county, Ohio. On the following morn ing at sunrise his camp was suddenly assailed by more than two thousand warriors, led by Little Turtle and several American renegades who had joined the Indians. After a terrible battle of three hours duration, St. Clair was completely defeated, with a loss of fully half his men. The fugitive militia retreated precipitately to Fort Washington, where they arrived four days after the battle. The news of the disaster spread gloom and sorrow throughout the land. St. Clair, overwhelmed with censures and reproaches, was superseded by Gen eral Wayne, whom the people had named Mad Anthony. The population of the Territory of Kentucky had now reached seventy-three thousand. Only seventeen years before, Daniel Boone, the hardy hunter of North Carolina, had settled with his companions at Boonesborough. Harrodsburg and 482 History of the United States Lexington were founded about the same time. During the Revolution the pioneers were constantly beset by the savages. After the expedition of Gen eral Clarke, in 1779, the frontier was more secure; and in the years following the treaty thousands of immigrants came annually. In the meantime, Vir ginia had relinquished her claim to the territory; and on the ist of June, 1792, Kentucky was ad mitted into the Union. At the presidential elec tion, held in the autumn of the same year, Wash ington was again unanimously chosen; as Vice- President, John Adams was also re-elected. During Washington s second administration the country was greatly troubled in its relations with foreign governments. Europe was in an uproar. The French Revolution of 1789 was still running its dreadful course. After three years of unpar alleled excesses, the Jacobins of France had be headed the king and abolished the monarchy. Citizen Genet was sent by the new French republic as minister to the United States. On his arrival at Charleston, and on his way to Philadelphia, he was greeted with unbounded enthusiasm. Taking advantage of his popularity, the ambassador began to abuse his authority, fitted out privateers to prey on the commerce of Great Britain, planned expedi tions against Louisiana, and, although the Presi dent had already issued a proclamation of neu trality, demanded an alliance with the government. Washington and the cabinet firmly refused; and the audacious minister threatened to appeal to the peo ple. In this outrageous conduct he was sustained Washington s Administration 483 arid encouraged by the anti-Federal party, and for a while the government was endangered. But Washington stood unmoved, declared the course of the French minister an insult to the sovereignty of the United States, and demanded his recall. The republican authorities of France heeded the demand, and Genet was superseded by M. Fouchet. During the summer and autumn of 1794 the country was much disturbed by a difficulty in West ern Pennsylvania, known as the whiskey insurrec tion. The farmers of this section were so far removed from the markets that it was next to im possible for them to dispose of their surplus grain. To manufacture it into whiskey was an easy and profitable way of marketing it. Congress, hoping to improve the revenues of the government, had, three years previously, imposed a tax on all ardent spirits distilled in the United States. While Genet was at Philadelphia, he and his partisans incited the people of the distilling regions to resist the tax-collectors. The disaffected rose in arms. Washington issued two proclamations, warning the insurgents to disperse; but instead of obeying, they fired upon and captured the officers of the government. The President then ordered General Henry Lee to enter the rebellious district with a sufficient force to restore order and enforce the law. When the troops reached the scene of the disturbance, the rioters had already scattered. The insurrection was a political rather than a social outbreak: the anti-Federalists were in a majority in the distilling region, and the whiskey-tax was a 484 History of the United States measure of the Federal party. The result of this insurrection was beneficial to the nation. It was the first time the new government had been put to the task of enforcing its own laws. It was still on trial. The Constitution had not passed beyond its experimental stage. But the prompt and vig orous action of Washington showed that the fed eral government had power, and it consequently rose in the respect and estimation of the people. Meanwhile, General Wayne had broken the Mi ami confederacy. In the fall of 1793 he entered the Indian country with a force of three thousand men. Reaching the scene of St. Clair s defeat, he built a stockade named Fort Recovery, and then pressed on to the junction of the Au Glaize and the Maumee, in Defiance county, Ohio. Here he built and garrisoned Fort Defiance. Descending the Maumee to the rapids, he sent proposals of peace to the Indians, who were in council but a few miles distant. Little Turtle, more wise than the other chiefs, would have made a treaty; but the majority were for battle. On the 2Oth of August, 1794, Wayne marched against the sav ages, overtook them at Fallen Timbers on the Maumee, and routed them with terrible losses. The relentless general then compelled the hum bled chieftains to purchase peace by ceding to the United States all the territory east of a line drawn from Fort Recovery to the mouth of the Great Miami River. This was the last service of Gen eral Wayne. Remaining for a while in the Indian country, he embarked on Lake Erie to return to Washington s Administration 485 Philadelphia. In December of 1796 he died on board the vessel, and was buried at Presque Isle. The conduct of Great Britain toward the United States became as arrogant as that of France was impudent. In November of 1793 George III. issued secret instructions to British privateers to seize all neutral vessels that might be found trad ing in the French West Indies. The United States had no notification of this high-handed measure; and American commerce to the value of many mil lions of dollars was swept from the sea by a proc ess differing in nothing from highway robbery. But for the temperate spirit of the government the country would have been at once plunged into war. Prudence prevailed over passion; and in May of 1794 Chief- Justice Jay was sent as envoy extraordinary to demand redress of the British government. The sending of Jay to negotiate the treaty was bitterly resented by the anti-Federalists, or Republicans, as they were now beginning to be called. It was thought that Jay because of his strong British sympathies would not secure from that nation the best possible bargain. While the result was not what could be desired, yet it was no doubt all that was possible to get at that time and it was far preferable to war. Even Hamilton, a Federalist of the Federalists, characterized it as an old woman s treaty. The United States had certainly fared ill in the deal. To accept it re quired considerable humility on the part of the Americans. Not until June of 1795 were the terms of settlement ratified by the Senate and signed by 486 History of the United States the President. It was specified in the treaty that Great Britain should make ample reparation for the injuries done by her privateers, and surrender to the United States certain Western posts which until now had been held by English garrisons. As was to be expected there was a justifiable out cry against it. Jay was bitterly denounced. In Boston, New York, and Philadelphia indignation meetings were held. While Washington himself did not approve of the treaty, yet he signed it. This act caused the Republican press unmercifully to assail him. Since an appropriation was necessary to carry into effect the terms of the treaty, the House of Representatives had the right to say if such ap propriations should be made or not. This branch of Congress was Republican by a small majority and there was considerable doubt if the measure could pass. The debate lasted for weeks. Emi nent men spoke on either side. But the one great speech, not only of the occasion, but one that de serves a high place among the great American ora tions, was delivered in favor of the treaty by Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts. Ames was an invalid and he had risen from a sick bed, against the ad vice of his physician, and in spite of his frail con dition for three hours poured forth in burning eloquence an appeal for the passage of the bill. It had the desired effect, and when the vote was taken it was found that instead of being defeated by six votes as was expected, it had carried by three. Washington s Administration 487 In October of 1795 the boundary between the United States and Louisiana was settled by a treaty with Spain. The latter country at the same time guaranteed to the Americans the free navigation of the Mississippi. Less honorable was the treaty made with the kingdom of Algiers. For a long time Algerine pirates had infested the Mediter ranean, preying upon the commerce of civilized nations ; and those nations, in order to purchase exemption from such ravages, had adopted the ruinous policy of paying the dey of Algiers an annual tribute. In consideration of the tribute the dey agreed that his pirate ships should con fine themselves to the Mediterranean, and should not attack the vessels of such nations as made the payment. Now, however, with the purpose of injuring France, Great Britain winked at an agree ment with the dey by which the Algerine sea-rob bers were turned loose on the Atlantic. By their depredations American commerce suffered greatly; and the government of the United States was obliged to purchase safety by paying the shameful tribute. In the summer of 1796, Tennessee, the third new State, was organized and admitted into the Union. Six years previously North Carolina had surren dered her claims to the territory, which at that time contained a population of thirty-five thousand; and within five years the number was more than doubled. The first inhabitants of Tennessee were of that hardy race of pioneers to whom the perils of the wilderness are as nothing, provided the wil- 488 History of the United States derness is free. By the addition of the two States southwest of the Ohio more than eighty-three thousand square miles of territory were brought under the dominion of civilization. Washington was solicited to become a candidate for a third election to the presidency; but he would not. His resolution had already been made to end his public career. With the Father of his Country the evening of life drew on, and rest was neces sary. Accordingly, in September of 1796, he issued to the people of the United States his Fare well Address a document crowded with precepts of political wisdom, prudent counsels, and chas tened patriotism. As soon as the President s de termination was made known the political parties marshaled their forces and put forward their champions, John Adams appearing as the candi date of the Federal, and Thomas Jefferson of the anti-Federal party. Antagonism to the Constitu tion, which had thus far been the chief question between the parties, now gave place to another is sue whether it was the true policy of the United States to enter into intimate relations with the re public of France. The anti-Federalists said, Yes! that all republics have a common end, and that Great Britain was the enemy of them all. The Federalists said, No! that the American republic must mark out an independent course among the nations, and avoid all foreign alliances. On that issue Mr. Adams was elected, but Mr. Jefferson, having the next highest number of votes, became Vice-President; for according to the old provision Adams s Administration 489 of the Constitution, the person who stood second on the list was declared the second officer in the government. CHAPTER II ADAMS S ADMINISTRATION, 1797-1801 ON the 4th of March, 1797, President Adams was inaugurated. From the beginning his administra tion was embarrassed by a powerful and well- organized opposition. Adet, the French minister, made inflammatory appeals to the people, and urged the government to con clude a league with France against Great Britain. When the President and Congress stood firmly on the doctrine of neutrality, the French Direc tory grew insolent, and began to demand an alliance. The treaty which Mr. Jay had con cluded with England was espe cially complained of by the partisans of France. On the loth of March the Directory issued instructions to French men-of-war to assail the commerce of the United States. Soon afterward the Federalist, Mr. Pinck- ney, the American minister, was ordered to leave the territory of France. John Adams President 1797-1801 490 History of the United States These proceedings were equivalent to a decla ration of war. The President convened Congress in extraordinary session, and measures were devised for repelling the aggressions of the French. El- bridge Gerry and John Marshall were directed to join Mr. Pinckney in a final effort for a peaceable adjustment of the difficulties. But the effort was fruitless. The Directory of France refused to re ceive the ambassadors except upon condition that they would pledge the payment into the French treasury of a quarter of a million of dollars. It is said Pinckney answered with the declaration that the United States had millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute. The envoys were then ordered to leave the country; but Gerry, who was an anti- Federalist, was permitted to remain. These events occupied the summer and fall of 1797. The American people were thoroughly aroused. The vigorous recommendations were generally ap proved. The very strong pro-France faction of the country was either silent or joined enthusias tically in maintaining American honor against the insults of the Directory. The war-spirit ran at high tide. Patriotic songs were sung and speeches demanding redress were everywhere made. War with France seemed imminent. In the beginning of the next year an act was passed by Congress completing the organization of the army. Washington was called from the re tirement of his old age and appointed commander- in-chief. Hamilton was chosen first major-general. A navy of six frigates, besides privateers, had been Adams s Administration 491 provided for at the session of the previous year; and a national loan had been authorized. The patriotism of the people was thoroughly aroused; the treaties with France were declared void, and vigorous preparations were made for the impend ing war. The American frigates put to sea, and in the summer and fall of 1799 did good service for the commerce of the country. Commodore Truxtun, in the ship Constellation, won distin guished honors. On the 9th of February, while cruising in the West Indies, he attacked the In surgent, a French man-of-war carrying forty guns and more than four hundred seamen. A desperate engagement ensued; and Truxtun, though inferior in cannons and men, gained a complete victory. A year later he overtook another frigate, called the Vengeance, and after a five hours battle in the night would have captured his antagonist but for a storm and the darkness. These events added greatly to the renown of the American flag. But the Directory of France had come to its last days. In the waning hours of its power it expressed a willingness to receive an American minister. Presi dent Adams, without even consulting his cabinet, proceeded at once to appoint envoys. Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte had over thrown the Directory of France and made himself first consul of the republic. More wise and just than his associates, he was eager for peace with the United States. The proposals were met with favor. Three American ambassadors Murray, Ellsworth, and Davie reached Paris, after many 492 History of the United States delays, in the beginning of March, 1800. Nego tiations were at once opened, and, in the follow ing September, were happily terminated with a treaty of peace. In all his relations with the United States, Napoleon acted the part of a consistent and honorable ruler. Before the war-cloud was scattered America was called to mourn the loss of Washington. On the 1 4th of December, 1799, after an illness of only a day, the venerated chieftain passed from among the living. All hearts were touched with sorrow. The people put on the garb of mourning. Con gress went in funeral procession to the German Lutheran church, where General Henry Lee, the personal friend of Washington, delivered a touching and eloquent oration. Throughout the civilized world the memory of the great dead was honored with appropriate ceremonies. To the legions of France the event was announced by Bonaparte, who paid a beautiful tribute to the vir tues of " the warrior, the legislator, and the citi zen without reproach." As the body of Washing ton was laid in the sepulcher, the voice of partisan malignity that had not hesitated to assail his name was hushed into everlasting silence ; and the world with uncovered head agreed with Lord Byron in declaring the illustrious dead to have been among warriors, statesmen, and patriots " The first, the last, the best, THE ClNCINNATUS OF THE WEST." The administration of Adams and the eight eenth century drew to a close together. In spite Adams s Administration 493 of domestic dissensions and foreign alarms, the new republic was growing strong and influential. The census of 1800 showed that the population of the country, including the black men, had increased to over five millions. The seventy-five post-offices reported by the census of 1790 had been multiplied to nine hundred and three; the exports of the United States had grown from twenty millions to nearly seventy-one millions of dollars. The per manency of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land was now cheerfully recognized. In December of 1800 Congress for the first time as sembled in Washington city, the new capital of the nation. Virginia and Maryland had ceded to the United States the District of Columbia, a tract ten miles square lying on both sides of the Poto mac; but the part given by Virginia was afterward re-ceded to that State. The city which was de signed as the seat of government was laid out in 1792; and in 1800 the population numbered be tween eight and nine thousand. With prudent management and unanimity the Federal party might have retained control of the government. But there were dissensions in Mr. Adams s cabinet. He, himself, except for the brief period in which he upheld American honor against France, had not been popular. His method of re opening negotiations with that nation when the country was ripe for war was especially odious to his party and it was split in twain. At this day it is pretty difficult to see where there was less genuine statesmanship displayed in trying to avoid 494 History of the United States war with France than there was three years before in accepting the Jay Treaty to prevent war with England. Much of the recent legislation of Con gress, too, had been unwise and unpopular. The alien law, by which the President was authorized to send out of the country any foreigners whose pres ence should be considered prejudicial to the inter ests of the United States, was specially odious. The sedition law, which punished with fine and impris onment the freedom of speech and of the press when directed abusively against the government, was denounced by the opposition as an act of tyranny. Partisan excitement ran high. No at tempt to enforce the alien law was ever made. But in order to muzzle the press, editors were ar rested, and imprisoned under the sedition law for printing some very inconsequential statements. There was much justifiable remonstrance to such high-handed legislation. But as is usual where party spirit runs wild many things are done that history does not approve. These laws furnished the occasion for the famous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Jef ferson was the author of the first and Madison of the second. But at the time and for many years thereafter the authors were unknown. The resolu tions condemned unsparingly the alien and sedi tion laws, claimed that Congress had exceeded its authority in passing them, and proposed the very dangerous doctrine that the Constitution is only a compact between the States, that the powers of the Federal government are only delegated ones, that Adams s Administration 495 the States have a right to judge of the infractions of the United States, and lastly that the remedy of such infractions was nullification by the States. Other legislatures condemned these resolutions, and while the people as a whole did not approve of them, yet they served to arouse a feeling against the party responsible for the odious measures. The campaign that followed was a bitter one. Mr. Adams and Mr. Charles C. Pinckney were put for ward as the candidates of the Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr of the Repub licans or Democrats. The latter were triumphant. In the electoral college Jefferson and Burr each re ceived seventy-three votes; Adams, sixty-five; and Pinckney, sixty-four. In order to decide between the Democratic candidates, the election was re ferred to the House of Representatives. Here the influence of Hamilton over the Federalists was thrown for his rival, Jefferson. " I cannot," he said, " remain with a party which so degrades itself as to elect Burr." After thirty-five ballotings, the choice fell on Jefferson; and Burr, who was now second on the list, was declared Vice-President. After controlling the government for twelve years, the Federal party passed from power, never to be restored. 49 6 History of the United States CHAPTER III JEFFERSON S ADMINISTRATION, 1801-1809 AT the beginning of his administration Mr. Jef ferson transferred the chief offices of the govern ment to members of the Democratic party. This policy had in some measure been adopted by his predecessor; but the principle was now made uni versal. Such action was justified by the adherents of the President on the ground that the affairs of a republic will be best administered when the of ficers hold the same political sentiments. One of the first acts of Congress was to abolish the sys tem of internal revenues. The unpopular laws against foreigners and the freedom of the press were also repealed. But the territorial legislation of Jefferson s first term was most important of all. In the year 1800 a line was drawn through the Northwest Territory from the mouth of the Great Miami River to Fort Recovery, and thence to Canada. Two years after ward the country east of this erected into the State of Ohio and Thomas Jefferson President 1801-09 line was admitted into the Union. The portion west of the line, embracing the present States of Indiana, Jefferson s Administration 497 Illinois, Wisconsin, and a part of Michigan, was organized under the name of the Indiana Terri tory. Vincennes was the capital ; and General Wil liam Henry Harrison received the appointment of governor. About the same time the organization of the Mississippi Territory, extending from the western limits of Georgia to the great river, was completed. Thus another grand and fertile dis trict of a hundred thousand square miles was re claimed from barbarism. More important still was the purchase of Lou isiana. In 1800 Napoleon had compelled Spain to make a secret cession of this vast territory to France. The First Consul then prepared to send an army to New Orleans for the purpose of estab lishing his authority. But the government of the United States remonstrated against such a proceed ing; France was threatened with multiplied wars at home; and Bonaparte, seeing the difficulty of maintaining a colonial empire at so great a dis tance, authorized his minister to dispose of Lou isiana by sale. The President appointed Mr. Livingston and James Monroe to negotiate the purchase. On the 3Oth of April, 1803, the terms of transfer were agreed on by the agents of the two nations ; and for the sum of eleven million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Louisiana was ceded to the United States.* In another conven tion, which was signed on the same day, it was * Bonaparte accepted in payment six per cent, bonds of the United States, payable fifteen years after date. He also agreed not to sell the bonds at such a price as would degrade the credit of the American government. 498 History of the United States agreed that the government of the United States should assume the payment of certain debts due from France to American citizens; but the sum thus assumed should not, inclusive of interest, ex ceed three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Thus did the vast domain west of the Mississippi, embracing an area of more than a million square miles, pass under the dominion of the United States. The purchase of Louisiana was the greatest event of Jefferson s administration. Out of the southern portion of the new acquisition the Terri tory of Orleans was organized, with the same lim its as the present State of Louisiana ; the rest of the vast tract continued to be called the Territory of Louisiana. The possession of the Mississippi was no longer a matter of dispute. Very justly did Mr. Livingston say to the French minister as they arose from signing the treaty: "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives." Two years previous to these events John Mar shall had been nominated and confirmed as chief- justice of the United States. His appointment marks an epoch in the history of the country. In the colonial times the English constitution and com mon law had prevailed in America, and judicial decisions were based exclusively on precedents es tablished in English courts. When, in 1789, the new republic was organized, it became necessary to modify to a certain extent the principles of jurisprudence and to adapt them to the altered Jefferson s Administration 499 theory of government. In some measure this great work was undertaken by Chief- Justice Jay; but he was a great statesman rather than a great judge. It remained for Chief- Justice Marshall to establish on a firm and enduring basis the noble structure of American law. For thirty-five years he re mained in his high office, bequeathing to after times a great number of valuable decisions, in which the principles of the jurisprudence of the United States are set forth with unvarying clear ness and invincible logic. The Mediterranean pirates still annoyed Ameri can merchantmen. All of the Barbary States as the Moorish kingdoms of Northern Africa are called had adopted the plan of extorting annual tributes from the European nations. The emper ors of Morocco, Algiers, and Tripoli became espe cially arrogant. In 1803 the government of the United States dispatched Commodore Preble to the Mediterranean to protect American commerce and punish the hostile powers. The armament proceeded first against Morocco; but the frigate Philadelphia, commanded by Captain Bainbridge, was sent directly to Tripoli. When nearing his destination, Bainbridge gave chase to a pirate, which fled for safety to the batteries of the har bor. The Philadelphia, in close pursuit, ran upon a reef of rocks near the shore, became unmanage able, and was captured by the Tripolitans. The crew and officers were taken; the latter were treated with some respect, but the former were enslaved. The emperor Yusef and his barbarous 500 History of the United States subjects were greatly elated at their unexpected success. In the following February, Captain Decatur re captured the Philadelphia in a marvelous manner. Sailing from Sicily in a small vessel called the Intrepid, he came at nightfall in sight of the har bor of Tripoli, where the Philadelphia was moored. The Intrepid, being a Moorish ship which the American fleet had captured, was either unseen or unsuspected by the Tripolitans. As darkness settled on the sea, Decatur steered his course into the harbor, slipped alongside of the Philadelphia, lashed the two ships together, sprang on deck with his daring crew of only seventy-four men, and killed or drove overboard every Moor on the vessel. In a moment the frigate was fired, for it was the purpose to destroy her; then De catur and his men, escaping from the flames, re turned to the Intrepid and sailed out of the harbor amid a storm of balls from the Tripolitan batter ies. Not a man of Decatur s gallant band was lost, and only four were wounded. In the last of July, 1804, Commodore Preble arrived with his fleet at Tripoli and began a block ade and siege which lasted till the following spring. The town was frequently bombarded, and several Moorish vessels were destroyed. In the meantime, William Eaton, the American consul at Tunis, had organized a force in that kingdom, and was marching overland to Tripoli. Yusefs elder brother, Hamet, who was the rightful sovereign of Tripoli, was co-operating with Eaton in an Jefferson s Administration 501 effort to recover his kingdom. Yusef, alarmed at the dangers which menaced him by sea and land, made hasty overtures for peace. His offers were accepted by Mr. Lear, the American consul-gen eral for the Barbary States ; and a treaty was con cluded on the 4th of June, 1805.* For several years thereafter the flag of the United States was respected in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1804 the country was shocked by the intelligence that Vice- President Burr had killed Alex ander Hamilton in a duel. As the first term of Mr. Jefferson drew to a close, Burr foresa\v that the President would be re- nominated, and that he himself would not be renominated. Still, he had his eye on the presidency, and was determined not to be Aaron Burr baffled. He therefore, while holding the office of Vice-President, became a candi date for governor of New York. From that posi tion he would pass to the presidency at the close of Jefferson s second term. But Hamilton s pow erful influence in New York prevented Burr s elec tion; and his presidential ambition received a stun ning blow. From that day he determined to kill the man whom he pretended to regard as the de stroyer of his hopes. He accordingly sought a * It is a matter of astonishment that Lear agreed to pay Yusef sixty thousand dollars for the liberation of American slaves: their liberation ought to have been compelled and might have been if Lear had said so. 502 History of the United States quarrel with Hamilton; challenged him; met him at Weehawken, opposite New York, on the morn ing of the nth of July, and deliberately murdered him; for Hamilton had tried to avoid the chal lenge, and when face to face with his antagonist refused to fire. Thus under the savage and abominable custom of dueling the brightest intel lect in America was put out in darkness. In the autumn of 1804 Jefferson was re-elected President. For Vice-President George Clinton, of New York, was chosen in place of Burr. In the fol lowing year that part of the Northwestern Territory called Wayne county was organized under a separate territorial government with the name of Michigan. In the same spring, Captains Lewis and Clark, acting under orders of the Presi dent, set out from the falls of the Missouri River with a party of forty-five sol diers and hunters to cross the Rocky Mountains and explore Oregon. Not until November did they reach their destination. For two years, through forests of gigantic pines, along the banks of unknown rivers, and down to the shores of the Pacific, did they continue their explorations. After wandering among unheard-of Merriwether Lewis Jefferson s Administration 503 tribes of barbarians, encountering grizzly bears more ferocious than Bengal tigers, escaping perils by forest and flood, and traversing a route of nine thousand miles, the hardy adventurers, with the loss of but one man, returned to civilization, bringing new ideas of the vast domains of the West. It was largely upon this expedition that our government based its claim to the Oregon country in later years. After the death of Hamilton, Burr fled from popular indigna tion and sought refuge in the South. At the opening of the next session of Congress he returned to the capital, and presided over the Senate until the expiration of his term of office. Then he delivered his valedictory, went to the West, and, after traveling through several States, took up his residence with an Irish exile named Harman Blennerhassett, who had laid out an estate and built a splendid mansion on an island in the Ohio just below the mouth of the Muskin- gum. Here Burr unfolded a scheme, which the adventurous Irishman readily approved. His plan was to raise a sufficient military force, invade Mex ico, wrest that country from the Spaniards, and Lewis and Clark at the Gate of the Rocky Mountains 504 History of the United States some say detach the Western and Southern States from the Union, make himself dictator of a South western empire, and perhaps subvert the govern ment of the United States. For two years he la bored to perfect his plans. He passed down the Ohio, visited prominent people, and enlisted many in his filibustering scheme. Again returning to the East he sought aid from the English minister. His success in the East was meager, for while he had many warm friends there, he was not so popu lar as in the West. In the meantime at Marietta, Ohio, boats were being built and stores of various kinds collected. Burr, returning to Blennerhassett Island, proceeded with the final touches of prepa ration. When everything gave promise of success, President Jefferson issued a proclamation calling for the arrest of everybody connected with the scheme. Burr escaped; the military stores were destroyed; the beautiful Blennerhassett home and island were changed to scenes of desolation, and Blennerhassett and family became once more ex iles. But his purposes were suspected. In Febru ary of 1807 Burr himself was arrested in Ala bama and taken to Richmond to be tried on a charge of treason. Chief-Justice Marshall pre sided at the trial, and Burr conducted his own defense. The verdict was, " Not guilty, for want of sufficient proof." But his escape was so narrow that under an assumed name he fled from the country. Returning a few years afterward, he resumed the practice of law in New York, lived to extreme old age, and died alone in poverty. Jefferson s Administration 505^ During Jefferson s second administration the country was constantly agitated by the aggressions of the British navy on American commerce. Eng land and France- were engaged in deadly and con tinuous war. In order to cripple the resources of their enemy, the British authorities struck blow after blow against the trade between France and foreign nations; and Napoleon retaliated with equal energy and vindictiveness against the commerce of Great Britain. The measures adopted by the two powers took the form of blockade that is, the sur rounding of each other s ports with men-of-war to prevent the ingress and egress of neutral ships. By such means the commerce of the United States, which had grown vast and valuable while the European nations were fighting, was greatly in jured and distressed. In May of 1806 England declared the whole coast of France from Brest to the Elbe to be in a state of blockade. Neutral nations had no warn ing. Many American vessels, approaching the French ports, were seized and condemned as prizes; all this, too, while the harbors of France were not actually, but only declared to be, block aded. In the following November, Bonaparte is sued a decree blockading the British Isles. Again the unsuspecting merchantmen of the United States were subjected to seizure, this time by the cruisers of France. In January of the next year the gov ernment of Great Britain retaliated by an act pro hibiting the French coasting-trade. Every one of these measures was in flagrant violation of the laws 506 History of the United States of nations. The belligerent powers had no right to take such steps toward each other; as to neutral States, their rights were utterly disregarded; and the nation that suffered most was the United States, for at this time she was the carrier for the world. Great Britain aggravated her injustice by a still more arrogant procedure. The English theory of citizenship was that whoever is born in England remains through life a subject of the British em pire. Under this claim English cruisers were au thorized to search American vessels and to take therefrom all persons suspected of being British subjects. Those who were taken were, without in quiry, impressed as seamen in the English navy; and that was the real object of the whole shameful business, nor would the British ministry agree to America s offer of a mutual exchange of deserters. To these general wrongs was added a special act of violence which kindled the indignation of the Americans to the highest pitch. On the 22d of June, 1807, a frigate, named the Chesapeake, which had just sailed out of the bay of the same name, was approached by a British man-of-war, called the Leopard. The frigate was hailed; British officers came on board as friends, and then, to the astonishment of Commodore Bar- ron, who commanded the Chesapeake, made a de mand to search the vessel for deserters. The de mand was indignantly refused and the ship cleared for action. But before the guns could be gotten in readiness, the Leopard poured in several de- Jefferson s Administration 507 structive broadsides, killing three and wounding eighteen and compelled a surrender. Five men were taken from the captured ship, three of whom proved to be American citizens; one of the others, who were actual deserters, was tried by the British naval officers and hanged. The government of Great Britain disavowed the outrage of the Leopard, and promised reparation; but the prom ise was never fulfilled. Five years later the three deserters were replaced on the Chesapeake. The President at once issued a proclamation for bidding British ships of war to enter the harbors of the United States. Still, there was no reparation; and on the 2ist of December, Congress passed the celebrated Embargo Act, which cost Mr. Jef ferson much of his popularity. By its provisions all American vessels were detained in the ports of the United States. The object was, by cutting off commercial intercourse with France and Great Britain, to compel them to recognize the rights of American neutrality. But the measure was of little avail; and after fourteen months the embargo act was repealed.* Meanwhile, in November of 1808, the British government outdid all previous proceedings by issuing an " order in council," pro hibiting all trade with France and her allies. And Napoleon, not to be outdone, issued his famous " Milan decree," forbidding all commerce with England and her colonies. Between these out- *The embargo act was the subject of much ridicule. The opponents of the measure, spelling the word backward, called it the O grab me act. 508 History of the United States rageous acts of foreign nations and the American embargo, the commerce of the United States was well-nigh crushed out of existence. The harbors were filled with rotting ships. Stores of grain and other produce were lying in barns and warehouses. New England especially suffered, and from this time until even to-day America has no extensive merchant marine. While the country was distracted with these troubles Robert Fulton was building the First Successful Steamboat. Several attempts to utilize steam had been made with some degree of success. In 1786 James Rumsey had experimented on the Potomac and in the same year John Fitch demon strated its possibilities on the Delaware. These events exercised a vast influence on the future de velopment of the nation. It was of the first im portance to the people of the inland States that their great rivers should be enlivened with rapid and regular navigation. This, without the appli cation of steam, was impossible; and this Fulton successfully accomplished. Indeed, the steamboat was the harbinger of a new era in civilization. Fulton was an Irishman by descent and a Pennsyl- vanian by birth. His education was meager and imperfect. In his boyhood he became a painter of miniatures at Philadelphia. His friends sent him to London to receive instruction from Benja min West; but his tastes led him to the useful rather than to the fine arts. From London he went to Paris, where he became acquainted with Chan cellor Livingston ; and there he conceived the proj- Jefferson s Administration 509 ect of applying steam to the purposes of naviga tion. Preliminary experiments were made on the river Seine in France. Returning to New York, he began the construction of a steamboat in East River. When the ungainly craft was completed and brought around to the Jersey side of the city, Fulton invited his friends to go on board and enjoy a trip to Albany. It was the 2d of September, 1807. The incredulous crowds stood staring on the shore. The word was given, and the boat The ciermont did not move. Fulton went below. Again the word was given, and this time the boat moved. On the next day the happy company reached Albany. For many years this first rude steamer, called the Ciermont, plied the Hudson. The old methods of river navigation were revolutionized. Jefferson s administration drew to a close. The territorial area of the United States had been vastly extended. Burr s conspiracy had come to naught. Pioneers were pouring into the valley of the Mississippi. Explorers had crossed the mountains of the great West. The woods by the river shores resounded with the cry of steam. But the foreign relations of the United States were troubled and gloomy. There were forebodings of war. The President, following the example of Washington, declined a third election, and was 510 History of the United States succeeded in his high office by James Madison, of Virginia. For Vice-President .George Clinton was re-elected. CHAPTER IV MADISON S ADMINISTRATION AND WAR OF 1812 THE new President was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1809. He had been a member of the Continental Congress, a delegate to the Constitu tional Convention of 1787, and secretary of state under Jefferson. Long familiarity with public af fairs had fitted him in an eminent degree for the presidency. He owed his election to the Demo cratic party, whose sympathy with France and hos tility to the policy of Great Britain were well known. Six days before the new administration came into power, the embargo act was repealed by Congress; but another measure was adopted instead, called the non-intercourse act. By its terms American merchantmen were allowed to go abroad, but were forbidden to trade with Great Britain. Mr. Erskine, the British minister, now gave notice that by the loth of June the " orders in council," so far as they affected the United States, should be repealed. But the British gov ernment disavowed the act of its agent; and the orders stood as before. In the following spring the emperor of the French issued a decree authorizing the seizure of Madison s Administration and War of 1812 511 all American vessels that might approach the ports of France or other harbors held by his troops. But in November of the same year the hostile decree was reversed, and all restrictions on the commerce of the United States were removed. If Great Britain had acted with equal liberality and jus tice, there would have been no further com plaint. But that govern ment, with peculiar ob stinacy, adhered to its former measures, and sent ships of war to hover around the American ports and enforce the odi ous orders issued in previ ous years. It was only a question of time when such insolence would lead to retaliation and war. The affairs of the two nations were fast ap proaching a crisis. It became more and more ap parent that the wrongs perpetrated by Great Britain against the United States would have to be corrected by force of arms. That England, after such a career of arrogance, would now make reparation for the outrages committed by her navy was no longer to be hoped for. The ministry of that same George III. with whom the colonies had struggled in the Revolution still directed the af fairs of the kingdom; from him, now grown old James Madison President 1809-17 512 History of the United States and insane, nothing was to be expected. The gov ernment of the United States had fallen completely under control of the party which sympathized with France, while the Federal party, from its leaning toward British interests and institutions, grew weaker year by year. The American people, smarting under the insults of Great Britain, had adopted the motto of Free Trade and Sailors Rights, and for that motto they had made up their minds to fight. The elections, held between 1808 and 1811, showed conclusively the drift of public opinion; the sentiment of the country was that war was preferable to further humiliation and dis grace. In the spring of 1810 the third census of the United States was completed. The population had increased to seven million two hundred and forty thousand souls. The States now numbered seven teen, and several new Territories were preparing for admission into the Union. The resources of the nation were abundant; its institutions deeply rooted and flourishing. But with the rapid march of civilization westward the jealousy of the Red man was aroused and Indian Territory was af flicted with an Indian war. The Shawnees were the leading tribe in the country between the Ohio and the Wabash. Their chief was the famous Tecumtha, a brave and sa gacious warrior; and with him was joined his brother Elkswatawa, called the Prophet. The former was a man of real genius ; the latter, a vile impostor, who pretended to have revelations from Madison s Administration and War of 1812 513 the spirit-world. But they both worked together in a common cause; and their plan was to unite all the nations of the Northwest Territory in a final effort to beat hack the whites. When, therefore, in September of 1809, Governor Harrison met the chiefs of several tribes at Fort Wayne, and honorably purchased the Indian titles to three mil lion acres of land, Tecumtha refused to sign the treaty, and threatened death to those who did. In the year that followed he visited the nations as far south as Tennessee and exhorted them to lay aside their sectional jealousies, in the hope of saving their hunting-grounds. Governor Harrison from Vincennes, the capital of the Territory, remonstrated with Tecumtha and the Prophet, held several conferences with them, and warned them of what would follow from their proceedings. Still, the leaders insisted that they would have back the lands which had been ceded by the treaty of Fort Wayne. The governor stood firm, sent for a few companies of soldiers, and mustered the militia of the Territory. The Indians began to prowl through the Wabash Val ley, murdering and stealing. In order to secure the country and enforce the terms of the treaty, Harrison advanced up the river to Terre Haute, built a fort which received his own name, passed on to Montezuma, where another block-house was built, and then hastened toward the town of the Prophet, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe. When within a few miles of his destination, Harrison was met by Indian ambassadors, who asked for the 514 History of the United States appointment of a conference on the following day. Their request was granted; and the American army encamped for the night. The place selected was a piece of high ground covered with oaks. Burnet Creek skirted the encampment on the west. Beyond that, as well as to the east of the oak grove, were prairie marsh lands covered with tall grass. Before daybreak on the following morn ing, yth of November, *& 1 8 1 1 , the treacherous sav- :/ ages, numbering seven Block-house hundred, crept through the marshes, surrounded Harrison s position, and burst upon the camp like demons. But the American militia were under arms in a moment, and fighting in the darkness, held the Indians in check until daylight, and then routed them in several vigorous charges. On the next day the Americans burned the Prophet s town and soon afterward returned victorious to Vin- cennes. Tecumtha was in the South at the time of the battle ; when he returned and found his people scattered and subdued, he repaired to Canada and joined the standard of the British. Meanwhile, the powers of Great Britain and the United States had come into conflict on the ocean. The British ship Guerriere was reported to have impressed an American seaman named Diggio. The secretary of the navy determined to make an object lesson of this vessel. Accord- Madison s Administration and War of 1812 515 ingly, on the i6th of May, Commodore Rodgers, cruising in the American frigate President, hailed a vessel off the coast of Virginia, thinking it to be the Guerriere., Instead of a polite answer to his salutation, he received a cannon-ball in the main mast. Other shots followed, and Rodgers re sponded with a broadside, silencing the enemy s guns. In the morning for it was already dark the hostile ship was found to be the British sloop- of-war Little Belt. The vessel had been severely though justly punished by the President, having eleven men killed and twenty-one, wounded. The event produced great excitement throughout the country and increased the war spirit that was fast gaining control of the Americans. On the 4th of November, 1811, the twelfth Congress of the United States assembled. In the body were many men of marked ability and pa triotism who were destined to take the fore front in the nation s councils. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, now took his seat as a member of the House of Representatives. Henry Clay was chosen speaker. From the first it was seen that war was inevitable. It was impossible for the United States, knowing that more than six thou sand American citizens had been impressed into the British navy, to endure, without dishonor, further injury and insolence. Still, many hoped for peace; and the winter passed without decisive measures. On the 4th of April, 1812, an act was passed by Congress laying an embargo for ninety days on all British vessels within the juris- 516 History of the United States diction of the United States. But Great Britain would not recede from her hostile attitude. One of the ministers declared that it was " an ancient and well-established right " of His Majesty s gov ernment to impress British seamen on board of neutral vessels. Before the final decision of Eng land was known, Louisiana, the eighteenth State, was, on the 8th of April, admitted into the Union. The area of the new commonwealth was more than forty-one thousand square miles; and her popu lation, according to the census of 1810, had reached seventy-seven thousand. President Madison sent his war message to Con gress on June 1st. Diplomatic relations had virtually been broken off between the two countries. Our minister to England, William Pinckney, had come home. Francis James Jackson, the last British ambassa dor, an arrogant boaster, had been sent back two years before. Now the English had selected for the new minister one Augustus John Foster, who came to Washington with no sort of a message, except palliative offers. But the American people had lost their patience and the English representa tive was given to understand that it was to be either a repeal of the Orders in Council or war. On the 4th of June a resolution declaring war against Great Britain was passed by the House of Representatives. On the iyth of the same month the bill received the sanction of the Senate; and the next day the President issued his proclamation of war. Five days after Madison had set his seal Madison s Administration and War of 1812 517 to the declaration of war, the Orders in Council were repealed. But before the news reached America the actual contest had begun. Vigorous preparations for the impending conflict were made by Congress. It was ordered to raise twenty-five thousand regular troops and fifty thousand volun teers. At the same time the several States were requested to call out a hundred thousand militia for the defense of the coasts and harbors. A na tional loan of eleven million dollars was au thorized. Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, was chosen first major-general and commander-in- chief of the army. The first movement of the war was made by General William Hull, governor of Michigan Ter ritory. A force of twelve hundred Ohio volun teers, together with three hundred regulars, was organized at Dayton for the purpose of overawing the Indians on the northwestern frontier. Hull was also authorized, should circumstances warrant such a course, to invade and conquer Canada. The march began on the ist of June; and it was a full month before the army, toiling through more than two hundred miles of forests, reached the western extremity of Lake Erie. Arriving at the Maumee, Hull dispatched his baggage, stores, and official papers in a boat to Detroit. But the British forces posted at Maiden had already been informed of the declaration of hostilities; and Hull s boat with everything on board was captured. Nevertheless, the American army pressed on to Detroit, where early in July the general received dispatches in- 518 History of the United States forming him of the declaration of war, and di recting him to proceed with the invasion of Can ada. On the 1 2th of the month he crossed the Detroit River to Sandwich with the avowed pur pose of capturing Maiden. And this might easily have been accomplished had not the inefficiency of the general checked the enthusiasm of the army. Meanwhile, the news came that the American post at Mackinaw had been surprised and captured by the British. This intelligence furnished Hull a good excuse for recrossing the river to Detroit. Here he received intelligence that Major Brush, sent fonvard by Governor Meigs of Ohio, was ap proaching with re-enforcements and supplies. Major Van Home was accordingly dispatched with a body of troops to meet Brush at the river Raisin and conduct him safely to Detroit. But Tecumtha, assisted by some British troops, had cut the lines of communication and laid an ambush for Van Home s forces in the neighborhood of Brownstown. The scheme was successful; Van Home ran into the trap and was severely defeated. Any kind of energetic movement on Hull s part would have retrieved the disaster; but energy was altogether wanting; and when, three days later, Colonel Miller with another detachment attacked and routed the savages with great loss, he was hastily recalled to Detroit. The officers and men lost all faith in the commander, and there were symptoms of a mutiny. In the meantime, General Brock, the governor of Upper Canada, arrived at Maiden and took Madison s Administration and War of 1812 519 command of the British forces. Acting in con junction with Tecumtha, he crossed the river, and on the 1 6th of August advanced to the siege of Detroit. The Americans in their trenches outside of the fort were eager for battle, and stood with lighted matches awaiting the order to fire. When the British were within five hundred yards, to the amazement of both armies Hull hoisted a white flag over the fort. There was a brief par ley and then a surrender, perhaps the most shame ful in the history of the United States. Not only the army in Detroit, but all the forces under Hull s command, became prisoners of war. The whole of Michigan Territory was surrendered to the British. At the capitulation the American officers in rage and despair stamped the ground, broke their swords, and tore off their epaulets. The whole country was humiliated at the disgraceful business. The government gave thirty British prisoners in exchange for Hull, and he was brought before a court-martial charged with trea son, cowardice, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was convicted on the last two charges, and sentenced to be shot; but the President, having compassion on one who had served the country in the Revolution, pardoned him. After all the dis cussions that have been had on Hull and his cam paign, the best that can be said of him is that he was a patriot and a coward. On the same day Detroit fell, Fort Dearborn, on the present site of Chicago, was invested by an army of Indians. The garrison was feeble, and 520 History of the United States the commandant proposed a surrender on condition that his men should retire without molestation. This was agreed to; but the savages, finding that the garrison had destroyed the whiskey that was in the fort, fell upon the retreating soldiers, killed some of them, and distributed the rest as captives. On the day after the capitulation Fort Dearborn was burned to the ground. These losses were more than compensated by Battle Between the Constitution and the Guerriere brilliant victories on the ocean. During the sum mer of 1812 the American navy won a just re nown. On the 1 9th of August the frigate Consti tution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, a nephew of the Michigan governor, overtook the British ship-of-war Guerriere off the coast of Massachusetts. Captain Dacres, who commanded the British vessel, had been boasting of his prow ess and sending challenges to American ships to Madison s Administration and War of 1812 52 r come out and fight; now there was an opportunity to exhibit his valor. The vessels maneuvered for a while, the Constitution closing with her antago nist, until at half-pistol shot she poured in a ter rible broadside, sweeping the decks of the Guer- riere and deciding the contest. Dacres, after los ing fifteen men killed and sixty-three wounded, struck his colors and surrendered his shattered vessel as a prize. The American loss was seven killed and an equal number wounded. On the following morning the Guerriere, being unmanage able, was blown up; and Hull returned to port with his prisoners and spoils. On the 1 8th of October the American sloop-of- war Wasp, of eighteen guns, under command of Captain Jones, fell in with a fleet of British mer chantmen off the coast of Virginia. The squad ron was under convoy of the brig Frolic, of twenty-two guns, commanded by Captain Whin- yates, who put his vessel between the merchantmen and the Wasp, and prepared for battle. The sea was running high and the vessels pitched up and down before each other. A terrible engagement ensued, lasting for three-quarters of an hour. Both ships became nearly helpless; but the Wasp closed with her foe and delivered a final broadside which completely cleared the deck. The Ameri can crew then boarded the Frolic and struck the British flag; for not a seaman was left above deck to perform that service. Scarcely had the smoke of the conflict cleared away when the Poictiers, a British seventy- four gun ship, bore down upon the 522 History of the United States scene, captured the Wasp, and retook the wreck of the Frolic. But the fame of Cap tain Jones s victory was not dimmed by the catas trophe. Seven days afterward, Commodore Decatur, commanding the frigate United States, of forty- four guns, attacked the British frigate Macedo nian, of forty-nine guns. The battle was fought a short dis tance west of the Canary Islands. After a two hours engagement, in which the United States was but little injured, the Macedonian surrendered, with a loss in killed and wounded of more than a hundred men. On the I2th of December the ship Essex, corn- Commodore Decatur manded by Captain Porter, cap tured the Nocton, a British packet, having on board fifty-five thousand dollars in specie. More important still was the capture of the frigate Java by the Constitution, better known as "Old Ironsides," now under command of Com modore Bainbridge. On the 29th of December the two vessels met off San Salvador, on the coast of Brazil. A furious battle ensued, continuing for two hours, every mast was torn from the British ship, and her hull was burst with round shot. The deck was made slippery with the blood of more than two hundred killed and wounded seamen. The vessel was reduced to a wreck before the flag was struck; then the crew and passengers, numbering Madison s Administration and War of 1812 523 upward of four hundred, were transferred to the Constitution, and the hull of the Java was burned at sea. The news of these successive victories roused the enthusiasm of the people to the highest pitch. In the course of the year three hundred Old Ironsides British ships, carrying three thousand sailors, and cargoes of immense value, were captured by the American cruisers. During the summer and autumn of 1812 mili tary operations were active, but not decisive, on the Niagara frontier. The troops in that quarter, consisting of the New York militia, a few regu lars, and recruits from other States, were com- 524 History of the United States manded by General Stephen Van Rensselaer. The first movement of the Americans was made against Queenstown, on the Canada side of the river. On the 1 3th of October a thousand men were em barked in boats and landed on the western shore. They were resisted at the water s edge, and Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, the leader, was wounded. The subordinate officers led the charge, and the British batteries on the heights of Queenstown were carried. The enemy s forces were rallied, however, by General Brock, and returning to the charge, were a second time repulsed. General Brock fell mortally wounded. The Americans be gan to intrench themselves, and orders were sent across the river for the remaining division, twelve hundred strong, to hasten to the rescue. But the American militia on the eastern shore declared that they were there to defend the United States, and not to invade Canada. There they stood all afternoon, while their comrades at Queenstown were surrounded by the British, who came with strong re-enforcements from Fort George. The Americans bravely defended themselves until they had lost a hundred and sixty men in killed and wounded, and were then obliged to surrender. General Van Rensselaer, disgusted at the conduct of the New York militia, resigned his command, and was succeeded by General Alexander Smyth, of Virginia. The Americans, numbering between four and five thousand, were now rallied at Black Rock, a few miles north of Buffalo. From this point, on War of 1812 525 the 28th of November, a company was sent across to the Canada shore; but instead of following with a stronger detachment, General Smyth ordered the advance party to return. A few days afterward another crossing was planned, and the Americans were already embarked, when they were com manded to return to winter quarters. The militia became mutinous. Smyth was charged with cow ardice and disloyalty, and after three months was deposed from his command. The only success of the year to the American arms on land was the repulse of seven hundred British at Ogdensburg, New York, by a force under Jacob Brown, a Quaker farmer. Thus ended the military opera tions of 1812. In the autumn Madison was re- elected President; the choice for Vice-President fell on Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts. In the debates at the opening of Congress the policy of the administration was strongly condemned by the opponents of the war; but vigorous measures were adopted for strengthening the army and navy. CHAPTER V WAR OF 1 8 12. CONTINUED IN the beginning of 1813 the American army was organized in three divisions : the Army of the North, commanded by General Wade Hampton, to operate in the country of Lake Champlain; the 526 History of the United States Army of the Center, under direction of the com- mander-in-chief, to resume offensive movements on the Niagara frontier and Lake Ontario; the Army of the West, under command of General Win chester, who was soon superseded by General Har rison. Early in January the latter division, made up of various detachments of militia from the Western States, moved toward the head of Lake Erie to regain the ground lost by Hull in the previous summer. On the loth of the month the American advance, composed of eight hundred men under Winchester, reached the rapids of the Maumee. A body of British and Indians was posted at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, thirty miles from Winchester s camp. A detachment of Americans pressed forward, attacked the enemy, captured the town, encamped there, and on the 2Oth of the month were joined by Winchester with the main division. Two days afterward the Americans were sud denly assaulted by a force of fifteen hun dred British and Indians under command of Gen eral Proctor. A severe battle was fought, each party losing nearly three hundred men. The Brit ish were checked, and for a while the issue was doubtful; but General Winchester, having been taken by the enemy, advised his forces to capitulate under a pledge of protection given by Proctor and his subordinates. As soon as the surrender was made the British general set off at a rapid rate to return to Maiden. The American wounded were left to the mercy of the savages, who at once be- War of 1812 527 gan their work with tomahawk and scalping-knife and torch. The two houses into which most of the wounded had been crowded were fired, while the painted barbarians stood around and hurled back into the flames whoever attempted to escape. The rest of the prisoners were dragged away through untold sufferings to Detroit, where they were ransomed at an enormous price. This shame ful campaign has fixed on the name of Proctor the indelible stain of infamy. " Remember the Rai sin," now became the war-cry of the west. General Harrison, on hearing the fate of Win chester s division, fell back from the Maumee, but soon returned and built Fort Meigs, near the pres ent city of Toledo, Ohio. Here he remained un til the ist of May, when he was besieged by a force of two thousand British and savages, led by Proctor and Tecumtha. Meanwhile, General Clay with twelve hundred Kentuckians advanced to the relief of the fort. The besiegers were attacked in turn, and at the same time the besieged made a successful sally. But for the mistake of Colonel Dudley, who allowed his detachment to be cut off and captured, the British would have been com pletely routed. Again the American prisoners were treated with savage cruelty until Tecumtha, not Proctor, interfered to save them. In a few days the Indians deserted in large numbers, and Proc tor, becoming alarmed, abandoned the siege, and on the 9th of May retreated to Maiden. For nearly three months active operations were suspended. In the latter part of July, Proctor 528 History of the United States and Tecumtha with a force of nearly four thou sand men returned to Fort Meigs, now commanded by General Clay. For several days the British general beat about the American position, attempt ing to draw out the garrison. Failing in that, he filed off with about half his forces and attacked Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, now Fre mont, Ohio. This place was defended by a hun dred and sixty men under command of Colonel George Croghan, a stripling but twenty-one years of age. But he exhibited the skill and bravery of a veteran. To the enemy s summons, accom panied with a threat of massacre in case of re fusal, he answered that the fort should be held as long as there was a man left alive within it. For a while the British cannonaded the ramparts with out much effect, and on the 2d of August advanced to carry the place by storm. Croghan filled his only gun, " Old Betsy," with slugs and grape-shot, and masked it in such a position as to rake the ditch from end to end. The British, believing the fort to be silenced, crowded into the fatal trench, and were swept away almost to a man. The re pulse was complete. Proctor, fearing the approach of Harrison, raised the siege and returned to Maiden. At this time the waters of Lake Erie were com manded by a British squadron of six vessels car rying sixty-three guns. It was seen that a suc cessful invasion of Canada could only be made by first gaining control of the lake. This serious undertaking was imposed on Commodore Oliver War of 1812 529 s H. Perry, of Rhode Island a young man not twenty-eight years old, who had never been in a naval battle. His antagonist, Commodore Barclay, was a veteran from the sea-service of Europe. He had lost an arm with Nelson at Trafalgar. With indefatigable energy Perry directed the construc tion of nine ships, carrying fifty-four guns. The vessels were built at Presque Isle, now Erie, Penn sylvania. When Perry arrived the timber for his fleet was mostly standing in the forest. The equip ment had to be drawn by sleds and wagons from New York and Philadelphia. The construction of the craft was protected by a sand-bar at the mouth of the Erie River. All summer the fleet of Barclay lay in full view, like a watch-dog ready to pounce upon its prey when the new fleet should attempt to cross the bar. But one Sunday, when the British commander had relinquished his wonted vigilance, Perry succeeded in an ingenious way in getting his vessels upon the open water. The British commander did not now seem so anxious for the fight. A month was spent in dodging about over the lake. At last on the loth of September the two fleets met a short distance northwest of Put-in Bay. Careful directions had been given by both commanders for the impending battle; both were resolved on victory. The fight was begun by the American squadron, Perry s flagship, the Lawrence, leading the attack. This vessel was named for the brave Captain James Lawrence, who had lost his life a short time before in the unequal contest of the Chesapeake and the Shan- 530 History of the United States non. On the mainmast of this goodly vessel floated a blue pennant with his dying words, " Don t give up the ship/ His principal antago nist was the Detroit, under the immediate com mand of Barclay. The British guns, being longer, had the wider range, and were better served. For two hours the gallant ship withstood a most galling and terrific fire. Her decks grew slippery with the blood of her brave crew. Nearly all the cannon were dismounted, masts torn away, sailors killed. No one was left to man the only gun yet fit to be used. The last shot was fired by Com modore Perry himself, with the help of the chap lain. The Lawrence was in ruins and seemed about to sink. Between the other ships the battle was proceed ing in a desultory way without much damage ; but Barclay s flagship was almost as nearly wrecked as the Lawrence. Perceiving with quick eye how the battle stood, the dauntless Perry, himself unhurt, put on his uniform, seized his banner, got over board into an open boat, passed within pistol-shot of the enemy s ships, a storm of balls flying around him, and transferred his flag to the Niagara. A shout went up from the American fleet; it was the signal of victory. With the powerful Niagara still uninjured by the battle, Perry bore down upon the enemy s line, drove right through the midst, dis charging terrible broadsides right and left. In fifteen minutes the work was done; the British fleet was helpless. Perry with a touch of pride returned to the bloody deck of the Lawrence, and there re- War of 1812 531 ceived the surrender. And then he sent to General Harrison this famous dispatch: " We have met the enemy, and they are ours two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. " This victory gave the Americans full control of Lake Erie. Both Proctor and Harrison awaited the result. If Barclay should win, Proctor would Commodore Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie invade Ohio; if Perry should prove victorious, Harrison would conquer Canada. For the Ameri cans the way was now opened. On the 2yth of September, Harrison s army was embarked at San- dusky Bay and landed near Maiden. The dis heartened British retreated to Sandwich, the Americans following hard after. From the lat ter place Proctor continued his retreat to the river Thames, and there faced about to fight. The bat- 532 History of the United States tlefield was well chosen by the British, whose lines extended from the river to a swamp. Here, on the 5th of October, they were attacked by the Americans led by Harrison and General Shelby, governor of Kentucky. In the beginning of the battle, Proctor, being a coward, ran. The Brit ish regulars sustained the attack with firmness, and were only broken when furiously charged by the Kentuckians under Colonel Richard M. Johnson. When that part of the field was won, the Ameri cans wheeled against the Indians, who, to the num ber of fifteen hundred, lay hidden in the swamp to the west. Here the battle raged fiercely. Te- cumtha had staked all on the issue. For a while his war-whoop sounded above the din of the con flict. Presently his voice was heard no longer, for the great chieftain had fallen. At the same time Colonel Johnson was borne away severely wounded. The savages, appalled by the death of their leader, fled in despair. The victory was com plete. So ended the campaign in the West. The Indian confederacy was broken to pieces. All that Hull had lost was regained. Michigan was re covered. Ohio no longer feared invasion. Perry swept Lake Erie with his fleet. Canada was pros trated before the victorious army of Harrison. Meanwhile, the Creeks of Alabama, kinsmen of the Shawnees, had taken up arms. They had no grievance against the United States, but the elo quent Tecumseh had influenced them. Besides, there was a more potent influence in the shape of British gold five dollars for each American scalp War of 1812 533 being the price offered by the English agents in Florida. In the latter part of August, Fort Mims, forty miles north of Mobile, was surprised by the savages, who appeased their thirst for blood with the murder of nearly four hundred people; not a woman or child was spared, and but few of the men in the fort escaped. The news of the massacre spread consternation throughout the Southwest. The governors of Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi Territory made immediate prepa rations for invading the country of the Creeks. The Tennesseeans, under command of General Jackson, were first to the rescue. A detachment of nine hundred men, led by General Coffee, reached the Indian town of Tallushatchee, attacked it, burned it, left not an Indian alive. On the 8th of November a battle was fought at Talladega, east of the Coosa, and the savages were defeated with severe losses. During the winter Jackson s troops, unprovided and starving, became mutinous and were going home. But the general set the example of living on acorns ; then rode before the rebellious line and threatened with death the first mutineer who stirred. And no man stirred. At Tohopeka, called by the whites the Horseshoe Bend, the Creeks made their final stand. Here the Talla- poosa winds westward and northward, inclosing a large tract of land in the form of a peninsula with a narrow neck. This position the Indians had for tified with more than their usual skill. The whites, led by General Coffee, surrounded the 534 History of the United States place, so as to prevent escape by crossing the river. On the 2yth of March, the main body of whites under General Jackson stormed the breastworks and drove the Indians into the bend. There, hud dled together without the possibility of escape, a thousand Creek warriors, with the women and children of the tribe, met their doom. The des perate Red men asked no quarter, and none was given. The few chiefs who were still abroad sent in their submission; the spirit of the nation was completely broken. On the 25th of April, 1813, General Dearborn, commanding the Army of the Center, embarked his forces at Sackett s Harbor, near the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario. The object of the expedition was to capture Toronto, the capital of Upper Canada. Here was the most .important depot of supplies in British America. The Ameri can fleet under Commodore Chauncey had already obtained the mastery of the lake, so that Dear born s passage was unopposed. On the 2yth of the month a force of seventeen hundred men, com manded by General Pike, the explorer, was landed within two miles of Toronto. At the water s edge they were met by the British. The Americans drove the enemy for a mile and a half, stormed a battery, and rushed forward to carry the main defenses. At that moment the British magazine blew up with terrific violence. The assaulting col umn was covered with the debris of the explosion. Two hundred men were killed or wounded. Gen eral Pike was fatally injured, but lived long enough War of 1812 535 to hear the shout of victory; for the Americans, first shocked and then maddened by the calamity, made a furious charge and drove the British out of the town. General Sheaffe with a body of regu lars escaped; the rest were taken prisoners. Prop erty to the value of a half million dollars was se cured to the victors. While this movement was taking place the enemy made a descent on Sackett s Harbor. By the with drawal of the American forces that post had been left exposed. The British succeeded in destroying a quantity of stores; but General Brown rallied the militia, and drove back the assailants with con siderable loss. Meanwhile, the victorious troops at Toronto had re-embarked and crossed the lake to the mouth of the Niagara. On the 27th of May the Americans, led by Generals Chandler and Winder, crossed the river and stormed Fort George, on the Canada shore. The British hastily destroyed their posts along the Niagara and re treated to Burlington Bay, at the western extremity of the lake. The Americans, pursuing them thither, were attacked in the night, but succeeded in repulsing the enemy with loss. During the months of summer military opera tions on the frontier were suspended. After the battle of the Thames, General Harrison had trans ferred his forces to Buffalo, and then resigned his commission. On account of old age and ill health General Dearborn also withdrew from the service, and was succeeded by General Wilkinson. The next campaign, which was planned by General 53 6 History of the United States Armstrong, secretary of war, embraced the con quest of Montreal. For this purpose the Army of the Center, under Wilkinson, was ordered to join the Army of the North at some convenient point on the St. Lawrence. The enterprise was attended with many difficulties and not a few de lays. Not until the 5th of November did a force of seven thousand men, embarking from the mouth of French Creek, twenty miles north of Sackett s Harbor, sail down the St. Lawrence for the con quest of Montreal. Parties of British, Canadians, and Indians, gathering on the northern bank of the river, constantly impeded the progress of the expedition. General Brown was landed with a considerable force to disperse these bands or drive the enemy into the interior. On the nth of the month a severe battle was fought at a place called Chrysler s Field. Neither party gained a victory, but the advantage remained with the British. The Americans, having lost nearly three hundred men in the fight, passed down the river to St. Regis, on the southern shore, where the forces of General Hampton were expected from Plattsburg to form a junction with Wilkinson s command. But Hamp ton did not stir; and the project of attacking Mon treal had to be abandoned. The Americans then went into winter quarters at Fort Covington, at the fork of Salmon River, nine miles from St. Regis. In the meantime, the British on the Niagara frontier rallied and advanced against Fort George. General McClure, the commandant, abandoned War of 1812 537 the place on the approach of the enemy, but be fore retreating burned the Canadian town of New ark. It cost the people of Northern New York dearly; for the British and Indians crossed the river, captured Fort Niagara, and fired the vil lages of Youngstown, Lewiston, and Manchester. On next to the last day of the year Black Rock and Buffalo were laid in ashes. In the sea-fights of 1813 victory generally de clared for the British. During the year both na tions wasted much blood and treasure on the ocean. Off the coast of Demarara, on the 24th of February, the sloop-of-war Hornet, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, fell in with the Brit ish brig Peacock. The ships were equally matched. A terrible battle of fifteen minutes ensued, and the Peacock, already sinking, struck her colors. While the Americans were trying to transfer the con quered crew the ocean yawned and the brig sank out of sight. Nine British sailors and three of Lawrence s men were sucked down in the whirl pool. On returning to Boston the command of the Chesapeake one of the best frigates in the Ameri can navy was given to Lawrence, and again he put to sea. Before sailing he received a challenge from Captain Broke, of the British frigate Shan non, to come out and fight him. Lawrence ought not to have accepted the banter; for his equip ments were incomplete and his crew ill assorted, sick, and half-mutinous. But he was young, and the favorite of the nation; Congress had bestowed 538 History of the United States upon him a gold medal for his victory over the Peacock; fired with applause, he went unhesitat ingly to meet his foe. Eastward from Cape Ann the two vessels met on the first day of June. The battle was obstinate, brief, dreadful. In a short time every officer who could direct the movements of the Chesapeake was either killed or wounded. The brave young Lawrence was struck with a musket-ball, and fell dying on the bloody deck. As they bore him down the hatchway he gave in feeble voice his last heroic order ever afterward the motto of the American sailor " Don t Give Up the Ship ! " The British were already leaping on deck, and the flag of England was hoisted over the shattered vessel. Both ships were charnel houses; but the Shannon was still able to tow her prize into the harbor of Halifax. There the bod ies of Lawrence and Ludlow, second in command, were tenderly and honorably buried by the British. The next important naval battle was fought on the 1 4th of August between the American brig Argus and the British Pelican. The former ves sel had made a daring cruise about the coasts of England, capturing more than twenty ships. One of these contained a cargo of wine. The sailors drank freely and then set fire to the captured ves sel. The light revealed her position to the Pelican and soon the vessel and its intoxicated crew sur rendered. On the 5th of September another Brit ish brig, the Boxer, cruising off the coast of Maine, was overhauled and captured by the American En terprise, commanded by Captain Burrows. The War of 1812 539 fight raged for three-quarters of an hour, when the Boxer surrendered. Captain Blyth, the Brit ish commander, was killed; and the gallant Bur rows received a mortal wound. The bodies of both officers were taken to Portland and buried side by side with military honors. All summer long Captain Porter in the frigate Essex cruised in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For five months he was the terror of British merchantmen in those broad waters. On the 28th of the fol lowing March, while the Essex was lying in the harbor of Valparaiso, she was beset, contrary to the law of nations, by two powerful British vessels, the Phasbe and the Cherub. The Essex had been crippled by a storm, and was anchored in neutral waters; in that condition Captain Porter fought his two antagonists until nearly all of his men were killed or wounded; then struck his colors and surrendered. Notwithstanding the losses sustained by the American navy, privateers continued to scour the ocean and capture British vessels. It is estimated that sixteen hundred British merchant men were captured by the two hundred and fifty ships Congress had licensed to plow the seas. From honorable warfare the naval officers of England stooped to marauding along the seashore. The Atlantic coast was blockaded from New Eng land to the Mississippi. Early in the year a squad ron entered Delaware Bay and anchored before Lewistown, A requisition on the inhabitants to supply the fleet with provisions was met with a brave refusal. A threat to burn the town was an- 54 History of the United States swered with a message of defiance. A bombard ment of twenty-four hours duration followed; the houses were much injured, and the people fled, car rying their property to places of safety. Other British men-of-war entered the Chesapeake and burned several villages on the shores of the bay. At the town of Hampton, just above the Roads, the soldiers and marines perpetrated such outrages as covered their memory with shame. Commodore Hardy, to whom the blockade of the New England harbors had been assigned, behaved with more humanity; even the Americans recognized and praised his honorable conduct. The year 1813 closed without decisive results. CHAPTER VI THE CAMPAIGNS OF 14 IN the spring of 1814 another invasion of Canada was planned. The Niagara frontier was the scene of operations ; but there was much delay in bring ing the scattered detachments of General Wil kinson s army into proper position. Not until the 3d of July did Generals Scott and Ripley, at the head of three thousand men, cross the Niagara from Black Rock to Fort Erie. This post, garri soned by two hundred British, was surrendered without a battle. On the following day the Ameri cans advanced down the river-bank in the direction The Campaigns of 14 541 of Chippewa village. Before reaching that place, however, they were met by the British army, led by General Riall. On the evening of the 5th a severe battle was fought on the plain just south of Chippewa River. The Americans, led on by Generals Scott and Ripley and the gallant Major Jessup, won the day; but their loss amounted to three hundred and thirty-eight men. The British veterans, after more than five hundred of their number had fallen, were driven into their intrench- ments. General Riall retreated first to Queenstown and afterward to Burlington Heights. General Scott, commanding the American right, was detached to watch the movements of the enemy. On the even ing of the 25th of July he found himself suddenly confronted by Riall s army, strongly posted on the high grounds in sight of Niagara Falls. Here was fought the hardest battle of the war. A man less courageous and self-confident than Scott would have retreated; but with extraordinary daring he held his own until re-enforced by the other divi sions of the army. The British reserves were also rapidly brought into action. Twilight faded into darkness, and still the battle was undecided. A detachment of Americans, getting upon the Brit ish rear, captured General Riall and his entire staff. Still the contest raged. The key to the enemy s position was a high ground crowned with a battery. Calling Colonel James Miller to his side and pointing to the hill, General Brown said, " Colonel, take your regiment and storm that bat- 54 2 History of the United States tery." " I ll try, sir/ was the answer of the gal lant officer; and he did take it, and held it against three desperate assaults of the British. In the last charge General Drummond, who led, was wounded, and the royal army, numbering fully five thousand, was driven from the field with a loss of eight hundred and seventy-eight men. The Ameri cans engaged in the battle numbered about four thousand; their loss in killed, wounded, and miss ing was more than eight hundred. After this battle of Niagara, or Lundy s Lane, as it is sometimes called, General Ripley took com mand of the American forces ; for Generals Brown and Scott were both wounded. It was deemed pru dent to fall back to Fort Erie. To that place General Gaines crossed over from Buffalo, and being the senior officer, assumed command of the army. Very soon General Drummond received re-enforcements, moved forward, and on the 4th of August invested Fort Erie. The siege continued for ten days, and then the British attempted to storm the works, but were driven back with se vere losses. But the enemy was re-enforced and the siege resumed. A regular and destructive bom bardment was kept up by the British, and was answered by the Americans with equal energy. On the 28th of August, General Gaines was injured by the explosion of a shell and obliged to relin quish his command. General Brown, though still suffering from the wound received at Niagara, was again called to direct the defenses of the fort. On the iyth of September a sortie was ordered, and The Campaigns of 14 543 the advanced works of the British were gallantly carried. At the same time news arrived that the American general Izard was approaching from Plattsburg with strong re-enforcements. Alarmed at the threatening aspect of affairs, the British raised the siege and retreated to Fort George. On the 5th of November, Fort Erie was evacuated and destroyed by the Americans, who then recrossed the Niagara and went into winter quarters at Black Rock and Buffalo. So ended the war in the country between Lakes Erie and Ontario. The winter of 1813-14 was passed by the Army of the North at French s Mills, afterward called Fort Covington. In the latter part of February, General Wilkinson advanced his forces to Platts burg, and in the following month began an inva sion of Canada. At La Colle, on the west bank of the Sorel, he encountered a force of the enemy, made an imprudent attack, and was defeated. Falling back to Plattsburg, he was superseded by General Izard. How that officer marched to the relief of General Brown at Fort Erie has already been narrated. The remaining division of the northern army, fifteen hundred strong, was left under command of General Macomb at Plattsburg. At this time the American flotilla on Lake Cham- plain was commanded by Commodore MacDon- ough. For the purpose of destroying this fleet and obtaining control of the lake, the British gen eral Prevost advanced into Northern New York at the head of fourteen thousand men, and at the same time ordered Commodore Downie to ascend 544 History of the United States the Sorel with his fleet. The possession of Lake Champlain and New York was important to the British. Their army had been depending for its supplies upon this section. Anti-war Americans did not hesitate to sell their cattle and other provi sions to their country s enemy. Also, since the British had taken Maine, they had determined to keep it at all hazards at the end of the war. New York must therefore be held as a military base. The invading army reached Plattsburg without opposition. Commodore MacDonough s squad ron lay in the bay. On the 6th of September, Gen eral Macomb retired with his small but courageous army to the south bank of the Saranac, which skirted the village. On came the British, entered the town, and attempted to cross the river, but were driven back. For four days they renewed their efforts; the Americans had torn up the bridges, and a passage could not be effected. The British fleet was now ready for action, and a gen eral battle by land and water was planned for the nth. Prevost s army, arranged in three columns, was to sweep across the Saranac and carry Macomb s position, while Downie s powerful flo tilla was to bear down on MacDonough. The naval battle began first, and was obstinately fought for two hours and a half. At the end of that time Downie and many of his officers had been killed; the heavier British vessels were disabled and obliged to strike their colors. The smaller ships escaped; for the American brigs were so badly crippled that pursuit could not be made. The Campaigns of 14. 545 Nevertheless, the victory on the lake was com plete and glorious. The news was carried ashore, where the Americans were bravely contesting the passage of the river against overwhelming num bers. At one ford the British column succeeded in crossing; but the tidings from the lake fired the militia with ardor; they made a rush, and the enemy was driven back. Prevost, after losing nearly two thousand five hundred men and squan dering two and a half million dollars in a fruitless campaign, retired precipitately to Canada. The ministry of England, made wise by the disasters of this invasion, began to devise measures looking to peace. In the country of the Chesapeake the scenes of the previous year were renewed by the British. Late in the summer Admiral Cochrane arrived off the coast of Virginia with an armament of twenty- one vessels. General Ross with an army of four thousand veterans, freed from service in Europe, came with the fleet. The American squadron, commanded by Commodore Barney, was unable to oppose so powerful a force. The enemy s flotilla entered the Chesapeake with the purpose of at tacking Washington and Baltimore. The larger division of the British fleet sailed into the Patuxent, and on the I9th of August the forces of General Ross were landed at the town of Benedict. Com modore Barney was obliged to blow up his vessels and take to the shore. From Benedict the Brit ish advanced against Washington. At Bladens- burg, six miles northeast of the capital, they were 546 History of the United States met, on the 24th of the month, by the militia and the marines under Barney. Here a battle was fought. The undisciplined militia behaved badly. Barney s seamen were overpowered by the British, and himself taken prisoner. The news of the de feat was rapidly borne to Washington. The President, the cabinet officers, and the people be took themselves to flight, and Ross marched unop posed into the city. He had been ordered by his superiors to use the torch, and the work of de struction was accordingly begun. All the public buildings except the Patent Office were burned. The beautiful but unfinished Capitol and the Presi dent s house were left a mass of blackened ruins. Mrs. Madison had the presence of mind to secure the famous picture of Washington by Stuart and the original draft of the Declaration of Independ ence. Many private edifices were also destroyed; but General Ross, himself a humane man, did less than he was ordered to do.* Five days after the capture of Washington, a portion of the British fleet, ascending the Poto mac, reached Alexandria. The inhabitants of that town, in order to avoid the fate of the capital, purchased the forbearance of the enemy by the surrender of twenty-one ships, sixteen thousand barrels of flour, and a thousand hogsheads of to bacco. Baltimore redeemed herself more bravely. Against that city, after the capture of Washington, *An excuse for this outrageous barbarism was found in the previous conduct of the Americans, who, at Toronto and other places on the Canadian frontier, had behaved but little better. The Campaigns of 14 547 General Ross proceeded with his army and fleet. Meanwhile, the militia, to the number of ten thou sand, had gathered under command of General Samuel Smith, a Revolutionary veteran. On the 1 2th of September the British were landed at North Point, at the mouth of the Patapsco; and the fleet began the ascent of the river. The land forces, after marching about halfway to Balti more, were met by the Americans under General Strieker. A skirmish ensued in which General Ross was killed; but Colonel Brooks assumed com mand of the invading army, and the march con tinued. When approaching the city, the British came upon the American lines and were brought to a halt by a severe cannonade. General Strieker, however, ordered his men to fall back to a second line of defenses, from which they gave the enemy a permanent check. Meanwhile, the British squadron had ascended the Patapsco and begun the bombardment of Fort McHenry, at the entrance to the harbor. From sunrise of the i3th until after midnight the guns of the fleet poured a tempest of shot and shells upon the fortress.* At the end of that time the soldiers of the garrison were as full of spirit and the works as strong as at the beginning. It was plain that the British had undertaken more than they could accomplish. Disheartened and baffled, * During the night of this bombardment, Francis S. Key, de tained on board a British ship and watching the American flag over Fort McHenry seen at intervals by the glare of rockets and the flash of cannon composed The Star-spangled Banner. 548 History of the United States they ceased to fire. The land forces retired from before the American intrenchments and re-em barked. The siege of Baltimore was at an end. General Ross was, himself, numbered among the dead. New England did not escape the ravages of war. On the 9th and loth of August the village of Stonington, in the southeastern corner of Connecti cut, was bombarded by Commodore Hardy; but the British, attempting to land, were beaten back by the militia. The fisheries of the New England coast were for the most part broken up. The salt works at Cape Cod escaped only by the payment of heavy ransoms. All the principal harbors from Maine to Delaware were under a rigorous block ade, and the foreign commerce of the Eastern States was totally destroyed. The beacons in the lighthouses were allowed to burn out, and a gen eral gloom settled over the country. From the beginning many of the people of New England had opposed the war. Their interests centered in ships and factories; the former were captured at sea and the latter came to a standstill. Industry was paralyzed. The members of the Federal party cried out against the continuance of the contest. The legislature of Massachusetts ad vised the calling of a convention. The other East ern States responded to the call; and on the I4th of December the delegates assembled at Hartford. The objects of the convention were not very clearly expressed; but opposition to the war and the policy of the administration was the leading The Campaigns of 14 549 principle. The leaders of the Democratic party, who supported the war policy of the government, did not hesitate to say that the purposes of the assembly were disloyal and treasonable. Be that as it may, the convention ruined the Federal party. After remaining in session with closed doors for nearly three weeks, the delegates published an ad dress more moderate and just than had been ex pected; and then adjourned. But little hope of political preferment remained for those who par ticipated in the Hartford convention. During the progress of the war the Spanish au thorities of Florida sympathized with the British. In the month of August a detachment of the ene my s fleet was allowed by the commandant of Pensacola to use that post for the purpose of fit ting out an expedition against Fort Bowyer, commanding the entrance to the bay of Mobile. On the 1 5th of September the latter post was at tacked, but the assailants were driven off. General Jackson, who at that time commanded the Ameri can forces in the South, remonstrated with the Spaniards against this violation of neutrality, but received no satisfaction. Jackson, whose way it was to mete out summary justice to offenders, marched a force against Pensacola, stormed the town, and drove the British out of Florida. This was the beginning of the last campaign of the war. After the taking of Pensacola, General Jackson returned to his headquarters at Mobile. There he learned that the British were making formidable preparations for the conquest of Louisiana. Re- 550 History of the United States pairing at once to New Orleans, he assumed con trol of the city, declared martial law, mustered the militia, and adopted the most vigorous measures for repelling the invasion. From La Fitte, chief of a band of smugglers in the Bay of Barataria, he obtained information of the enemy s plans. The British army, numbering twelve thousand, came in a fleet of fifty vessels from Jamaica. Sir Edward Packenham, brother-in-law of the duke of Wel lington, was commander of the invading forces. On the loth of December the squadron entered the outlet of Lake Borgne, sixty miles northeast of New Orleans. Four days afterward a flotilla of gunboats which had been placed to guard the lake was captured by the British, but not until a severe loss had been inflicted on the enemy. On the 22d of the month Packenham s advance reached the Mississippi nine miles below the city. A detachment was sent to the western bank of the river, but this operation was checked by a counter movement on the part of the Americans. On the night of the 23d General Jackson sent a schooner down the Mississippi to bombard the British camp, while at the same time he and General Coffee ad vanced with two thousand Tennessee riflemen to attack Packenham s camp in front. After a bloody assault Jackson was obliged to retire, the enemy losing most in the engagement. On the following day Jackson fell back and took a strong position along the canal, four miles below the city. Pack enham advanced, and on the 28th cannonaded the American position with but little effect. On New The Campaigns of 14 551 Year s day the attack was renewed. The heavy guns of the British had now been brought into po sition ; but the Americans easily held their ground, and the enemy was again driven back. Packen- ham now made arrangements to lead his whole army in a grand assault on the American lines. Jackson was ready. Earthworks had been con structed, and a long line of cotton-bales and sand bags thrown up for protection. On the morning of the memorable 8th of January the British moved forward. They went to a terrible fate. The battle began with the light of early morning, and was ended before nine o clock. Packenham hurled column after column against the American position, and column after column was smitten with irretrievable ruin. Jackson s men, behind their breastworks, were almost entirely secure from the enemy s fire, while every discharge of the Ten nessee and Kentucky rifles told with awful effect on the exposed veterans of England. Packenham, trying to rally his men, was killed; General Gibbs, second in command, was mortally wounded. Gen eral Keene fell disabled; only General Lambert was left to call the shattered fragments of the army from the field. Never was there in a great bat tle such disparity of losses. Of the British fully seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners. The American loss amounted to eight killed and thir teen wounded. After the battle Jackson granted a truce for the burial of the British dead. That done, General 552 History of the United States Lambert recalled the detachment from the west bank of the river and retired with his ruined army to Lake Borgne. At Fort Bowyer he received the news of peace. Jackson marched into New Orleans with his victorious army, and was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Such, so far as operations by land were concerned, was the close of the war. On the ocean hostilities lingered until spring. On the 2Oth of February the American frigate Constitution, cruising off Cape St. Vincent, caught sight of two hostile vessels, gave chase, and after a severe fight captured them. They proved to be British brigs the Cyane, of thirty- six guns, and the Levant, of eighteen. On the 23d of March the American Hornet, commanded by Captain Biddle, ended the conflict by capturing the British Penguin off the coast of Brazil. Already a treaty of peace had been made and ratified. Both nations had long desired such a re sult. In the summer of 1814 American commis sioners were sent to Ghent, in Belgium, and were there met by Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams, ambassadors of Great Britain. The agents of the United States were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin. Several months were spent in negotiations; and on the 24th of De cember, 1814, a treaty was agreed to and signed. In both countries, but especially in the United States, the news was received with deep satisfac tion. On the 1 8th of February the treaty was rati fied by the Senate, and peace was publicly pro- The Campaigns of 14 553 claimed. It was in the interim between the conclusion of the treaty and the reception of the news in the United States that the battle of New Orleans was fought. A telegraph would have saved all that bloodshed. There never was a more absurd treaty than that of Ghent. Its only significance was that Great Britain and the United States, having been at war, agreed to be at peace. Not one of the distinctive issues to decide which the war had been undertaken was settled or even mentioned. Of the impressment of American seamen not a word was said. The wrongs done to the commerce of the United States were not referred to. The rights of neutral na tions were left as undetermined as before. Of " free trade and sailors rights," which had been the battle-cry of the American navy, no mention was made. The principal articles of the compact were devoted to the settlement of unimportant boundaries and the possession of some petty islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy. There is little doubt, however, that at the time of the treaty Great Britain gave the United States a private assurance that impressment and the other wrongs complained of by the Americans should be prac ticed no more. For nearly a century vessels bear ing the flag of the United States have been secure from such insults as caused the war of 1812. At the close of the conflict the country was bur dened with a debt of a hundred million dollars. The monetary affairs of the nation were in a de plorable condition. The charter of the Bank of 554 History of the United States the United States expired in 1811, and in the fol lowing years the other banks of the country were obliged to suspend specie payment. The people were thus deprived of the currency necessary for the transaction of business. Domestic commerce was paralyzed by the want of money, and foreign trade destroyed by the enemy s fleet. In the year after the close of the war a bill was passed by Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States. The measure being objectionable, the President interposed his veto; but in the follow ing session the bill was again passed in an amended form. The capital was fixed at thirty-five million dollars. The central banking-house was estab lished at Philadelphia, and branches were au thorized at various other cities. On the 4th of March, 1817, the new financial institution went into operation; and the business and credit of the country were thereby greatly improved. Mean while, the United States had been engaged in a foreign war. During the conflict with Great Britain, the Al- gerine pirates renewed their depredations on American commerce. As soon as the treaty of Ghent was concluded the government of the United States ordered Commodore Decatur, commanding a fleet of nine vessels, to proceed to the Mediter ranean and chastise the Barbary sea-robbers into submission. On the xyth of June, Decatur, cruis ing near Gibraltar, fell in with the principal frigate of the Algerine squadron, and after a se vere fight of twenty minutes compelled the Moor- The Campaigns of 14 555 ish ship to surrender. Thirty of the piratical crew r including the admiral, were killed, and more than four hundred taken prisoners. On the I9th De- catur captured another frigate, bearing twenty guns and a hundred and eight men. A few days afterward he sailed into the Bay of Algiers, and dictated to the humbled and terrified dey the terms of a treaty. The Moorish emperor was obliged to release his American prisoners without ransom, to relinquish all claims to tribute, and to give a pledge that his ships should trouble American merchantmen no more. Decatur next sailed against Tunis and Tripoli, compelled both of these states to give pledges of good conduct, and to pay large sums for former violations of international law. From that day until the present the Bar- bary powers have had a w T holesome dread of the American flag. The close of Madison s troubled administra tion was signalized by the admission of Indiana the smallest of the Western States into the Union. The new commonwealth, admitted in De cember, 1816, came with an area of nearly thirty- four thousand square miles, and a population of ninety-eight thousand. About the same time was founded the Colonization Society of the United States. Many of the most distinguished men in America became members of the association, the object of which was to provide somewhere in the world a refuge for free persons of color. Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, was finally selected as the seat of the proposed colony. A republican 55 6 History of the United States form of government was established there, and immigrants arrived in sufficient numbers to found a flourishing negro State. The capital was named Monrovia, in honor of James Monroe, who, in the fall of 1816, was elected as Madison s suc cessor in the presidency. At the same time Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, was chosen Vice- President. CHAPTER VII MONROE S ADMINISTRATION IN its political principles the new administration was Democratic. The policy of Madison was adopted by his successor. But the stormy times of Madison gave place to many years of almost un broken peace. The new President was a native of Virginia; a man of moderate talents and accomplish ments. He had been a Revolution ary soldier; a member of the House of Representatives; a senator; gov ernor of Virginia ; envoy to France ; James Monroe minister to England; secretary of President ,817-25 ^ Q under Madison. The mem- bers of the new cabinet were John Quincy Adams, secretary of state; William H. Crawford, secre tary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; B. W. Crowninshield, secretary of the navy; William Wirt, attorney-general. The ani- Monroe s Administration 557 mosities and party strifes of the previous years were in a measure forgotten. Statesmen of all parties devoted their energies to the payment of the national debt. It was a herculean task; but commerce revived; the government was econom ically administered; population increased; wealth flowed in ; and in a few years the debt was greatly reduced. The most important financial event at the close of the war was the re-establishing of the United States Bank. The charter of the old bank, which Hamilton had founded, had expired in 1811 and a recharter had been denied by Congress. But in 1 8 1 6, when the secretary of the treasury urged that the bank be re-established, Congress passed the bill and granted a charter for twenty years. The cap^ ital stock was thirty-five million dollars, seven mil lions of which was taken by the government. The new bank had a magic effect in restoring public confidence. Closely associated with this question was that of the tariff. Before the war there were two great industries of the American people agriculture and commerce. To these must now be added a third manufacturing. The embargo and the war had forced the people to manufacturing in order to supply their own wants. But on the coming of peace the country was flooded with English goods and sold purposely at a rate so low that the Ameri can manufacturers could not compete with their British rivals. To meet these conditions there was a loud clamor for a higher tariff on foreign im- 558 History of the United States ports. Congress answered by passing the tariff law of 1816. By this tariff the duties were raised to an average of about twenty per cent, and the result proved very beneficial to the infant indus tries that had sprung up all over the country. From that day to the present the United States has stead ily pressed forward in this field of industry and now stands second to none as a manufacturing nation. In December of 1817 the western portion of Mississippi Territory was organized as the State of Mississippi and admitted into the Union. The new State contained an area of forty-seven thou sand square miles, and a population of sixty-five thousand souls. At the same time the attention of the government was called to a nest of buc caneers who had established themselves on Amelia Island, off the northeastern coast of Florida. They claimed to be acting under the authority of some of the South American republics, but were in re ality pirates. An armament was accordingly sent against them, and the lawless establishment was broken up. Another rendezvous of the same sort, on the island of Galveston, off the coast of Texas, was also suppressed. In the first year of Monroe s administration the question of internal improvements began to be much agitated. The territorial vastness of the country made it necessary to devise suitable means of communication between the distant parts. Without railroads and canals it was evident that the products of the great interior could never reach Monroe s Administration 559 a market. Had Congress a right to vote money to make the needed improvements? Jefferson and Madison had both answered the question in the negative. Monroe held similar views; and a ma jority of Congress voted against the proposed appropriations. In one instance, however, a bill was passed appropriating the means necessary for the construction of a na tional road across the Al- leghanies, from Cumber land to Wheeling. For many years appropria tions were made for this road, and it was con tinued to Illinois. But at length it was turned over to the States in which it lies, and internal improvements by the national government were confined chiefly to rivers and harbors. Other forms of internal improvements were referred to the several States ; and New York took the lead by constructing a splendid canal from Buffalo to Albany, a distance of three hundred and sixty-three miles. The cost of this important work was more than seven and a half million dollars, and the eight years of Monroe s administration were occupied in completing it. In the latter part of 1817 the Seminole In dians on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama became hostile. Some bad negroes and treacherous Creeks joned the savages in their depredations. Locks in the Erie Canal 560 History of the United States General Gaines, commandant of a post on Flint River, was sent into the Seminole country, but after destroying a few villages his forces were found inadequate to conquer the Red men. General Jackson was then ordered to collect from the adja cent States a sufficient army and reduce the Sem- inoles to submission. Instead of following his directions, that stern and self-willed man mustered a thousand riflemen from West Tennessee, and in the spring of 1818 overran the hostile country with little opposition. The Indians were afraid to fight the man whom they had named the Big Knife. While engaged in this expedition against the Seminoles, Jackson entered Florida and took pos session of the Spanish post at St. Mark s. He deemed it necessary to do so in order to succeed in suppressing the savages. The Spanish troops stationed at St. Mark s were removed to Pensa- cola; and two Englishmen, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who fell into Jackson s hands, were charged with inciting the Seminoles to insurrection, tried by a court-martial, and hanged. Jackson then advanced against Pensacola, captured the town, besieged and took the fortress of Barancas, at the entrance to the bay, and sent the Spanish authorities to Havana. These summary proceed ings excited much comment throughout the coun try. The enemies of General Jackson condemned him in unmeasured terms; but the President and Congress sustained him. A resolution of censure, introduced into the House of Representatives, was voted down by a large majority. Monroe s Administration 561 Seeing that the defense of such a province would cost more than it was worth, the Spanish monarch proposed to cede the territory to the United States. For this purpose negotiations were opened at Washington city; and on the 22d of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded by which East and West Florida and the outlying islands were surren dered to the American government. In considera tion of the cession the United States agreed to relin quish all claim to the territory of Texas and to pay to American citizens, for depredations committed by Spanish vessels, a sum not exceeding five million dollars. By the same treaty the eastern boundary of Mexico was fixed at the river Sabine. Monroe s administration was noted for the great number of new members which were added to the Union. In 1818, Illinois, the twenty-first State, embracing an area of more than fifty-five thousand square miles, was organized and admitted. The population of the new commonwealth was forty- seven thousand. In December of the following year Alabama was added, with a population of a hundred and twenty-five thousand, and an area of nearly fifty-one thousand square miles. About the same time Arkansas Territory was organized out of the southern portion of the Territory of Mis souri. Early in 1820 the province of Maine, which had been under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts since 1652, was separated from that government and admitted into the Union. At the time of ad mission the population of the new State had reached two hundred and ninety-eight thousand ; its 562 History of the United States territory embraced nearly thirty thousand square miles. In August of 1821 the great State of Mis souri, with an area of sixty-seven thousand square miles and a population of seventy-four thousand, was admitted as the twenty-fourth member of the Union; but the admission was attended with a po litical agitation so violent as to threaten the peace of the country. When the bill to admit Missouri was brought before Congress, a proposition was made in that body to prohibit slavery in the new State. This measure was strongly supported by the free States of the North, and as strongly opposed by the slave- holding States of the South. The country was sec- tionally divided. Congress was distracted with long and angry debates in which the whole question of slavery was discussed. At last a compromise, suggested by the Senate, was agreed to. As this matter had to be arranged by a joint committee of which Henry Clay was chairman, he has usually been regarded as the author of the compromise. This measure, known as the Missouri Compromise, was one of the most important acts of American legislation. The principal conditions of the plan were these: first, the admission of Missouri as a slaveholding State; secondly, the division of the rest of the Louisiana Purchase by the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; thirdly, the admission of new States, to be formed out of the territory south of that line, with or without slavery, as the people might determine ; fourthly, the prohi bition of slavery in all the new States to be organ- Monroe s Administration 563 ized out of territory north of the dividing line. By this compromise the slavery agitation was al layed for some years. Meanwhile, the country had measurably recov ered from the effects of the late war. With peace and plenty the resources of the nation were rapidly augmented. Toward the close of his term Mon roe s administration grew into high favor with the people; and in the fall of 1820 he was re- elected with great unanimity. As Vice-President, Mr. Tompkins was also chosen for a second term. Scarcely had the excitement over the admission of Missouri subsided when the attention of the gov ernment was called to an alarming system of piracy which had sprung up in the West Indies. Early in 1822 the American frigate Congress, accompa nied with eight smaller vessels, was sent thither; and in the course of the year more than twenty piratical ships were captured. In the following summer Commodore Porter was dispatched with a larger fleet to cruise about Cuba and the neigh boring islands. Such was his vigilance that the retreats of the sea-robbers were completely broken up; not a pirate was left afloat. At this time the countries of South America were disturbed with many revolutions. From the days of Pizarro these states had been dependencies of European monarchies. Now they declared their independence, and struggled to maintain it by force of arms. The people of the United States, having achieved their own liberty, naturally sym pathized with the patriots of the South. Mr. Clay 564 History of the United States urged upon the government the duty of giving offi cial recognition to the South American republics. At last his views prevailed; and in March of 1822 a bill was passed by Congress recognizing the new states as sovereign nations. In the following year this action was followed up by the President with a vigorous message, in which he declared that for the future the American continents were not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European power. This famous declaration con stitutes what has ever since been known in the politics and diplomacy of the United States as the Monroe Doctrine a doctrine by which the entire Western hemisphere, except the portions already occupied by European powers, is consecrated to free institutions. Great was the joy of the American people in the summer of 1824. The venerated La Fayette, now aged and gray, returned once more to visit the land for whose freedom he had shed his blood. The honored patriots who had fought by his side came forth to greet him. The younger heroes crowded around him. In every city, and on every battlefield which he visited, he was surrounded by a throng of shouting freemen. His journey through the country was a triumph. It was a solemn and sacred moment when he stood alone by the grave of Washington. Over the dust of the great dead the patriot of France paid the homage of his tears. In September of 1825 he bade a final adieu to the people who had made him their guest, and then sailed for his native land. Adams s Administration 565 At his departure, the frigate Brandywine a name significant for him was prepared to bear him away. While liberty remains to cheer the West, the name of La Fayette shall be hallowed. Before the departure of the illustrious Frenchman another presidential election had been held. It was a time of great excitement and much division of sentiment. Four candidates were pre sented for the suffrages of the people. There was an appearance of sectionalism in the canvass. John Quincy Adams was put forward as the candidate of the East ; William H. Crawford, of Georgia, as the choice of the South; Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson as the favorites of the West. No candi date received a majority of the electoral votes, and for the second time in the history of the govern ment the choice of President was referred to the House of Representatives. By that body Mr. Adams was duly elected. For Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, had been chosen by the electoral college. CHAPTER VIII ADAMS S ADMINISTRATION, 1825-1829 THE new President was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1825. He was a man of high attainments in literature and statesmanship. At the age of eleven years he accompanied his father, John 566 History of the United States Adams, to Europe. At Paris and Amsterdam and St. Petersburg the son continued his studies, and at the same time became acquainted with the man ners and politics of the Old World. The vast opportunities of his youth were improved to the fullest extent. In his riper years he served his country as ambassador to the Nether lands, Portugal, Prussia, Rus sia and England. He had also held the offices of United States senator from Massa chusetts, and secretary of state under Monroe. He brought to the presidential chair wis dom, experience, and ability. The new administration was an epoch of peace and pros perity in the country; but the spirit of party manifested itself with much violence. The ad herents of General Jackson and Mr. Crawford united in opposition to the policy of the President; and there was a want of unanimity between the different departments of the government. In the Senate the political friends of Mr. Adams were in a minority, and their majority in the lower House only lasted for one session. In his in augural address the President strongly advocated the doctrine of internal improvements; but the adverse views of Congress prevented his recom mendations from being adopted. In 1826 the at tention of the country was attracted by the Panama John Quincy Adams President 1825-29 Adams s Administration 567 Congress, a convention of American republics to be held at Panama. President Adams, led by Henry Clay, his secretary of state, determined to send delegates to the congress; but the Senate was so long giving its consent that the convention had ad journed before the American delegates arrived on the ground. The object of this congress was to promote the trade of the American republics with one another, to establish firmly the Monroe Doc trine, and the like; but its deliberations produced little effect. For a quarter of a century a difficulty had ex isted between the government of the United States and Georgia in respect to the lands held in that State by the Creek Indians. When, in 1802, Geor gia relinquished her claim to Mississippi Territory, the general government agreed to purchase and surrender to the State all the Creek lands lying within her own borders. This pledge on the part of the United States had never been fulfilled, and Georgia complained of bad faith. The difficulty became alarming; but finally, in March of 1826, a treaty was concluded between the Creek chiefs and the President, by which a cession of all their lands in Georgia was obtained. At the same time the Creeks agreed to remove to a new home beyond the Mississippi. On the 4th of July, 1826 just fifty years to a day after the Declaration of Independence the venerable John Adams, second President of the United States, and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, both died. Both had lifted their voices for free- 568 History of the United States dom in the early and perilous days of the Revo lution. One had written and both had signed the great declaration. Both had lived to see their country s independence. Both had served that country in its highest official station. Both had reached extreme old age: Adams was ninety, Jef ferson, eighty-two. Now, while the cannon were booming for the fiftieth birthday of the nation, the gray and honored patriots passed, almost at the same hour, from among the living. In the following September, William Morgan, a resident of Western New York, having threat ened to publish the secrets of the Masonic fra ternity, of which he was a member, suddenly dis appeared from his home, and was never heard of afterward. The Masons fell under the suspicion of having abducted and murdered him. A great clamor was raised against them in New York, and the excitement extended to other parts of the coun try. The issue between the Masons and their ene mies became a political one, and many eminent men were embroiled in the controversy. For several years the anti-Masonic party exercised a consider able influence in the elections of the country. De Witt Clinton, one of the most prominent and valu able statesmen of New York, had to suffer much, in loss of reputation, from his membership in the order. His last days were clouded with the odium which for the time being attached to the Masonic name. In the congressional debates of 1828 the ques tion of the tariff was much discussed. By a tariff Adams s Administration 569 is understood a duty levied on imported goods. The object of the same is twofold: first, to produce a revenue for the government; and secondly, to raise the price of the article on which the duty is laid, in order that the domestic manufacturer of the thing taxed may be able to compete with the for eign producer. When the duty is levied for the " The Rocket," the First Railway Locomotive (From an Old Engraving) latter purpose, it is called a protective tariff. Whether it is sound policy for a nation to have protective duties is a question which has been much debated in all civilized countries. Mr. Adams and his friends decided in favor of a tariff; and in 1828 the duties on fabrics made of wool, cotton, linen and silk, and those on articles manufactured of iron, lead, etc., were much increased. The object of such legislation was to stimulate the manufac- 570 History of the United States turing interests of the country. The question of the tariff has usually been a sectional issue. The people of the Eastern and Middle States, where factories abound, have favored protective duties; while in the agricultural regions of the South and West such duties have been opposed. The tariff passed by Congress in 1828 was so high that it was called the " Tariff of Abominations." With the fall of 1828 came another presidential election. The contest was specially exciting. Mr. Adams, supported by Mr. Clay, the secretary of state, was put forward for re-election. In accord ance with an understanding which had existed for several years, General Jackson appeared as the candidate of the opposition. In the previous elec tion Jackson had received more electoral votes than Adams; but disregarding the popular preference, the House of Representatives had chosen the lat ter. Now the people were determined to have their way; and Jackson was triumphantly elected, re ceiving a hundred and seventy-eight electoral votes against eighty-three for his opponent. As soon as the election was over, the excitement as is usual in such cases abated; and the thoughts of the people were turned to other subjects. Jackson s Administration 571 If CHAPTER IX JACKSON S ADMINISTRATION, 1829-1837 THE new President was a military hero. But he was more than that: a man of great native powers and inflexible honesty. His tal ents were strong but unpolished; his integrity unassailable; his will like iron. He was one of those men for whom no toils are too arduous, no responsibility too great. His personal character was strongly impressed upon his administration. Believing that the public affairs would be best conducted by such means, and to reward his friends for their party service, he removed nearly seven hundred officeholders, and appointed in their stead his own political friends. This practice came to be known as the Spoils System. It was adopted by Jackson s successors and was continued till after the Civil War. In his first annual message the President took strong ground against rechartering the Bank of the United States. Believing that institution to be both inexpedient and unconstitutional, he recom mended that the old charter should be allowed to expire by its own limitation in 1836. But the in fluence of the bank, with its many branches, was Andrew Jackson President 1829-37 572 History of the United States very great; and in 1832 a bill to recharter was brought before Congress and passed. To this measure the President opposed his veto; and since a two-thirds majority in favor of the bill could not be secured, the proposition to grant a new charter failed. The year following Jackson s veto of the bank bill was one of great excitement on account of his determination to remove the government deposits from the old bank. This he accomplished through his secretary of the treasury. The bank officials were greatly chagrined at this bold action of the President, and by withholding their customary loans from other banks and business firms, they brought on a financial crisis of wide extent. Thou sands of people petitioned the President to replace the deposits, but he was inflexible and refused to be moved, declaring that any institution that had the power to disturb the business of the country to such an extent had no place in a republican gov ernment. Jackson won in the end and the United States Bank ceased to exist at the expiration of the old charter. The reopening of the tariff question occasioned great excitement in Congress and throughout the country. In the session of 1831-32 additional duties were levied upon manufactured goods im ported from abroad. By this act the manufactur ing districts were again favored at the expense of the agricultural States. South Carolina was spe cially offended. A great convention of her people was held, and it was resolved that the tariff law Jackson s Administration 573 of Congress was unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. Open resistance was threatened in case the officers of the government should attempt to collect the revenues in the harbor of Charleston. In the United States Senate the right of a State, under certain circumstances, to nullify an act of Congress was boldly proclaimed. On that issue occurred the famous debate between the eloquent Daniel Webster s Oration at Bunker Hill Monument Colonel Hayne, senator from South Carolina, and Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, perhaps the greatest master of American oratory. The former appeared as the champion of State rights, and the latter as the advocate of constitutional supremacy. But the question was not decided by debate. The President took the matter in hand and issued a proclamation denying the right of any State to nullify the laws of Congress. But Mr. Calhoun, the Vice-President, resigned his office to accept a 574 History of the United States seat in the Senate, where he might better defend the doctrines of his State. The President, having warned the people of South Carolina against pur suing those doctrines further, ordered a body of troops under General Scott to proceed to Charles ton, and also sent thither a man-of-war. At this display of force the leaders of the nullifying party quailed and receded from their position. Blood shed was happily avoided; and in the following spring the excitement was allayed by a compromise. Mr. Clay brought forward and secured the passage of a bill providing for a gradual reduction of the duties complained of until, at the end of ten years, they should reach the standard demanded by the South. In the spring of 1832 the Sac, Fox, and Winne- bago Indians of Wisconsin Territory began a war. They were incited and led by the famous chief Black Hawk, who, like many great sachems before him, believed in the possibility of an Indian con federacy sufficiently powerful to beat back the whites. The lands of the Sacs and Foxes, lying in the Rock River country of Illinois, had been pur chased by the government twenty-five years pre viously. The Indians, however, remained in the ceded territory, since there was no occasion for immediate occupation by the whites. When at last, after a quarter of a century, the Indians were re quired to give possession, they caviled at the old treaty, and refused to comply. The government insisted that the Red men should fulfill their con tract, and hostilities began on the frontier. The Jackson s Administration 575 governor of Illinois called out the militia, and Gen eral Scott was sent with nine companies of ar tillery to Chicago. At that place his forces were overtaken with cholera, and he was prevented from co-operating with the troops of General Atkinson. The latter, however, waged a vigorous campaign against the Indians, defeated them in several actions, and made Black Hawk prisoner. The captive chieftain was taken to Washington and the great cities of the East, where his understanding was opened as to the power of the nation against which he had been foolish enough to lift his hatchet. Returning to his own people, he advised them that resistance was hope less. The warriors then abandoned the disputed lands and retired into Iowa. Difficulties also arose with the Cherokees of Georgia. These were the most civilized and hu mane of all the Indian nations. They had adopted the manners of the whites. They had pleasant farms, goodly towns, schools, printing presses, and a written code of laws. The government of the United States had given to Georgia a pledge to purchase the Cherokee lands for the benefit of the State. The pledge was not fulfilled; the authorities of Georgia grew tired of waiting for the removal of the Indians; and the legislature passed a statute by which the government of the Red men was abrogated and the laws of the State extended over the Indian domain. With singular illiberality, it was at the same time enacted that the Cherokees and Creeks should not have the use of the State 576 History of the United States courts or the protection of the laws. This code, however, was declared unconstitutional by the su preme court of the United States. The Indians then appealed to the President for help; but he re fused to interpose between them and the laws of Georgia. He also recommended the removal of the Cherokees to lands beyond the Mississippi ; and with this end in view, the Indian Territory was organized in the year 1834. The Indians yielded w r ith great reluctance. More than five million dol lars were paid them for their lands; but still they clung to their homes. At last General Scott was ordered to remove them to their new territory, using force if necessary to accomplish the work. The years 1837-38 were occupied with the final transfer of the Cherokees to their homes in the West. More serious still was the conflict with the Sem- inoles of Florida. The trouble arose from an at tempt on the part of the government to remove the tribe to a new domain beyond the Mississippi. Hostilities began in 1835, and continued for four years. The chief of the Seminoles was Osceola, a half-breed of great talents and audacity. He and Micanopy, another chieftain, denied the validity of a former treaty by which the Seminole lands had been ceded to the government. So haughty was the bearing of Osceola that General Thomp son, the agent of the government in Florida, ar rested him and put him in irons. The red warrior dissembled his purpose, gave his assent to the old treaty, and was liberated. As might have been Jackson s Administration 577 foreseen, he immediately entered into a conspiracy to slaughter the whites and devastate the country. At this time the interior of Florida was held by General Clinch, who had his headquarters at Fort Drane. seven ty-five miles southwest from St. Au gustine. The post was considered in danger; and Major Dade with a hundred and seventeen men Fort King was dispatched from Fort Brooke, at the head of Tampa Bay, to re-enforce General Clinch. After marching about half the distance, Dade s forces fell into an ambuscade, and were all massacred except one man who was left alive under a heap of the dead. On the same day Osceola with a band of warriors, prowling around Fort King, on the Ocklawaha, surrounded a storehouse where Gen- 578 History of the United States eral Thompson was dining with a company of friends. The savages poured in a murderous fire, and then rushed forward and scalped the dead before the garrison of the fort, only two hundred and fifty yards away, could bring assistance. Gen eral Thompson s body was pierced by fifteen balls; and four of his nine companions were killed. On the 3 ist of December General Clinch fought a battle with the Indians on the banks of the With- lacoochie. The savages were repulsed, but Clinch thought it prudent to retreat to Fort Drane. In the following February General Scott took com mand of the American forces in Florida. On the 29th of the same month General Gaines, who was advancing from the West with a force of a thou sand men for the relief of Fort Drane, was at tacked near the battlefield where Clinch had fought. The Seminoles made a furious onset, but were repulsed with severe losses. In May some straggling Creeks who still remained in the country began hostilities; but they were soon subdued and compelled to seek their reservation beyond the Mississippi. In October of 1836 Governor Call of Florida marched with a force of two thousand men against the Indians of the interior. A divi sion of his army overtook the enemy in the Wahoo Swamp, a short distance from the scene of Dade s massacre. A battle ensued, and the Indians were driven into the Everglades with considerable losses. Soon afterward another engagement was fought on nearly the same ground; and again the savages were beaten, though not decisively. The remain- Jackson s Administration 579 der of the history of the Seminole War belongs to the following administration. In 1834 the strong will of the chief magistrate was brought into conflict with France. The Ameri can government held an old claim against that country for damages done to the commerce of the United States in the wars of Napoleon. In 1831 the French king had agreed to pay five million dollars for the alleged injuries; but the dilatory government of France postponed and neglected the payment until the President, becoming wrathful, recommended to Congress to make reprisals on French commerce, and at the same time directed the American minister at Paris to demand his pass ports and come home. These measures had the desired effect, and the indemnity was promptly paid. The government of Portugal was brought to terms in a similar manner. The country, though flourishing, was not with out calamities. Several eminent statesmen fell by the hand of death. On the 4th of July, 1831, ex- President Monroe passed away. Like Jefferson and Adams, he sank to rest amid the rejoicings of the national anniversary. In the following year Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, died at the age of ninety-six. A short time afterward Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution, de parted from the land of the living. The patriot bard had reached the age of eighty. On the 24th of June, 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke died in Philadelphia. He was a man admired for his 580 History of the United States talents, dreaded for his wit and sarcasm, and re spected for his integrity as a statesman. In 1835 Chief Justice Marshall breathed his last, at the age of fourscore years; and in the next year ex- President Madi son, worn with the toils of eighty-five years, passed away. To these losses of life must be added two great disasters to property. On the 1 6th of December, 1835, fire broke out in the lower part of New York city and laid thirty acres of buildings in ashes. Five hundred and twenty- nine houses and property valued at eighteen mil lion dollars were consumed. Just one year after ward the Patent Office and Post Office at Washing ton were destroyed in the same manner. Jackson s administration was signalized by the addition of two new States. In June of 1836 Ar kansas was admitted, with an area of fifty-two thousand square miles, and a population of seventy thousand. In January of the following year Mich igan Territory was organized as a State and added to the Union. The new commonwealth brought a population of a hundred and fifty-seven thousand, and an area of fifty-six thousand square miles. In Samuel Francis Smith Author of " My Country, Tis of Thee" Fan Buren s Administration 581 the autumn of the previous year Martin Van Buren had been elected President. The opposing candi date was General Harrison of Ohio, who received the support of the new Whig party. As to the vice-presidency, no one secured a majority in the electoral college, and the choice devolved on the Senate. By that body Colonel Richard M. John son, of Kentucky, was duly elected. CHAPTER X, VAN BUREN S ADMINISTRATION, 1837-1841 MARTIN VAN BUREN, eighth President of the United States, was born at Kinderhook, New York, on the 5th of December, 1782. After re ceiving a limited education he became a student of law. In his thirtieth year he was elected to the Senate of his native State; and in 1821 was chosen United States Senator. Seven years afterward he was elected governor of New York, but soon re signed to become Jackson s secretary of state. In 1831 he was sent as minister to England. The following year he returned and was elected Vice- President of the United States. Now he was called to the highest office in the gift of the people. One of the first duties of the new administra tion was to finish the Seminole War. In the begin ning of 1837 the command of the army in Florida was transferred from General Scott to General 582 History of the United States Jessup. In the following fall Osceola came to the American camp with a flag of truce; but he was suspected of treachery, seized, and sent a prisoner to Fort Moultrie, where he died in 1838. The Seminoles, though disheart ened by the loss of their chief, continued the war. In December Colonel Zach- ary Taylor, with a force of over a thousand men, marched into the Ever glades of Florida, deter mined to fight the savages in their lairs. After un paralleled sufferings he over took them on Christmas day, near Lake Okeechobee. A hard battle was fought, and the Indians were defeated, but not until a hun dred and thirty-nine of the whites had fallen. For more than a year Taylor continued to hunt the Red men through the swamps. In 1839 the chiefs sent in their submission and signed a treaty; but their removal to the West was made with much reluctance and delay. In the first year of Van Buren s administration the country was afflicted with a monetary panic of the most serious character. The preceding years had been a time of great prosperity. The national debt was entirely liquidated and a surplus of nearly forty million dollars had accumulated in the treasury of the United States. By act of Congress this vast Martin Van Buren President 1837-41 Fan Bttren s Administration 583 sum had been distributed among the several States. Owing to the abundance of money, speculations of all sorts grew rife. The credit system pervaded every department of business. The banks of the country were suddenly multiplied to nearly seven hundred. Vast issues of irredeemable paper money stimulated the speculative spirit and increased the opportunities for fraud. The bills of these unsound banks were receivable at the land offices; and settlers and speculators made a rush to secure the public lands while money was plentiful. Seeing that in receiving such an un sound currency in exchange for the national do main the government was likely to be defrauded out of millions, President Jackson had issued an order called the Specie Circular, by which the land agents were directed henceforth to receive nothing but coin in payment for the lands. The effects of this circular came upon the nation in the first year of Van Buren s administration. The in terests of the government had been secured by Jackson s vigilance; but the business of the country was prostrated by the shock. The banks suspended specie payment. Mercantile houses failed; and disaster swept through every avenue of trade. Dur ing the months of March and April, 1837, the failures in New York and New Orleans amounted to about a hundred and fifty million dollars. A committee of business men from the former city besought the President to rescind the specie circu lar and to call a special session of Congress. The former request was refused and the latter complied 584 History of the United States with; but not until the executive was driven by the distresses of the country. When Congress convened in the following Sep tember, several measures of relief were brought forward. A bill authorizing the issue of treasury notes, not to exceed ten millions of dollars, was passed as a temporary expedient. More important by far was the measure proposed by the President and brought before Congress under the name of the Independent Treasury Bill. By the provisions of this remarkable project the public funds of the nation were to be kept on deposit in a treasury to be established for that special purpose. It was argued by Mr. Van Buren and his friends that the surplus money of the country would drift into the independent treasury and lodge there ; and that by this means the speculative mania would be effect ually checked; for extensive speculations could not be carried on without an abundant currency. It was in the nature of the President s plan to sep arate the business of the United States from the general business of the country. The independent treasury bill was passed by the Senate, but defeated in the House of Representa tives. But in the following regular session of Con gress the bill was again brought forward and adopted. In the mean time, the business of the country had in a measure revived. During the year 1838 most of the banks resumed specie pay ments. Commercial affairs assumed their wonted aspect; but trade was less vigorous than be fore. Enterprises of all kinds languished, and the Van Buren s Administration 585 people were greatly disheartened. Discontent pre vailed; and the administration was blamed with everything. In the latter part of 1837 there was an insur rection in Canada. A portion of the people, dis satisfied with the British government, broke out in revolt and attempted to establish their independ ence. The insurgents found much sympathy and encouragement in the United States, especially in New York. The insurgents took refuge on Navy Island, in the Niagara River, above the great falls, and were supplied with food and arms by the Caroline, an American vessel. The loyalists of Canada one night approached the island with the intention of destroying the Caroline. But at that moment the boat was on the American side of the river. Determined not to be thwarted in their pur pose, the Canadians crossed over, boarded the ves sel, set her on fire, and sent her burning over the falls. These events created considerable excite ment, and the peaceful relations of the United States and Great Britain were endangered. But the President issued a proclamation of neutrality, forbidding interference with the affairs of Canada ; and General Wool was sent to the Niagara fron tier with a sufficient force to quell the disturbance and punish the disturbers. The New York insur gents on Navy Island were obliged to surrender, and order was soon restored. Otherwise, the administration of Van Buren was uneventful. He became a candidate for re election, and received the support of the Demo- 586 History of the United States cratic party. The Whigs again put forward Gen eral Harrison. The canvass was one of the most exciting in the history of the country. The leaders of the opposition poured out all their wrath upon the luckless and unprosperous administration of Van Buren; and Harrison was triumphantly elected. After controlling the government for forty years, the Democratic party was temporarily routed. For Vice-President, John Tyler of Vir ginia was chosen. CHAPTER XI ADMINISTRATIONS OF HARRISON AND TYLER, 1841-1845 THE new President was a Virginian by birth, and the adopted son of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. He was a graduate of Hamp- den-Sidney College, and afterward a student of medicine. Attracted by the military life, he en tered the army of St. Clair; was rapidly promoted; became lieutenant governor and then governor of Indian Territory, which office he filled with great ability. His military career in the Northwest has already been narrated. He was inaugurated Presi dent on the 4th of March, 1841, and began his duties by issuing a call for a special session of Congress to consider " sundry important matters connected with the finances of the country." An able cabinet was organized^ at the head of which Administrations of Harrison and Tyler 587 was Daniel Webster as secretary of state. Every thing promised well for the new Whig adminis tration; but before Congress could convene, the venerable President, bending under the weight of sixty-eight years, fell sick, and died just one month after his inaugura tion. It was the first time that such a calamity had befallen the American people. Profound and universal grief was mani fested at the sad event. On the 6th of April Mr. Tyler took the oath of office, and became President of the United States. He was a statesman of considerable distinction; a native of Virginia ; a graduate of William and Mary College. At an early age he left the profes sion of law to enter public life; was chosen a: member of Congress; and in 1825 was elected gov ernor of Virginia. From that position he was sent to the Senate of the United States ; and now at the age of fifty-one was called to the presidency. He had been put upon the ticket with General Harri son through motives of expediency; for although a Whig in political principles, he had been a Demo crat, and was not in full sympathy with the party that elected him. William Henry Harrison President 1841 588 History of the United States The special session of Congress continued from May till September. One of the first measures pro posed and carried was the repeal of the independ ent treasury bill. A general bankrupt law was then brought forward and passed, by which a great number of insolvent business men were relieved from the disabilities of debt. The next measure a favorite scheme of the Whigs was the rechartering of the Bank of the United States. The old charter had expired in 1836; but the bank had con tinued in operation under the authority of the State of Pennsylvania. Now a bill to recharter was brought forward and passed. The President interposed his veto. Again the bill was presented, in a modified form, and received the assent of both Houses, only to be rejected by the executive. By this action a final rupture was produced between the President and the party which had elected him. The indignant Whigs, baffled by want of a two- thirds majority in Congress, turned upon him with storms of invective. All the members of the cab inet except Mr. Webster resigned ; and he retained his place only because of a pending boundary treaty with Great Britain. From the time of the treaty of 1783 the limit of the country on the northeast had been a matter of controversy. Sometimes the difficulty grew seri- John Tyler President 1841-45 Administrations of Harrison and Tyler 589 ous and portended war. Lord Ashburton on the part of Great Britain, and Mr. Webster on the part of the United States, were called upon to settle the dispute. They performed their work in a man ner honorable to both nations ; the present boundary was fixed; and on the 2Oth of August, 1842, the treaty was approved by the Senate. In the next year the country was vexed with a domestic trouble. For nearly two centuries the government of Rhode Island had been adminis tered under a charter granted by Charles II. By the terms of that ancient instrument the right of suffrage was restricted to those who held a certain amount of property. There were other clauses re pugnant to the spirit of republicanism ; and a propo sition was made to change the constitution of the State. On that issue the people of Rhode Island were nearly unanimous ; but in respect to the man ner of abrogating the old charter there was a seri ous division. One faction, called the " law and order party," proceeding in accordance with the former constitution, chose Samuel W. King as gov ernor. The other faction, called the " suffrage party," acting in an irregular way, elected Thomas W. Dorr. In May of 1842 both parties met and organized their rival governments. The " law and order party " now undertook to suppress the faction of Dorr. The latter resisted and made an attempt to capture the State arsenal. But the militia, under direction of King s officers, drove the assailants away. A month later the ad herents of Dorr again appeared in arms, but were 59 History of the United States dispersed by the troops of the United States. Dorr fled from Rhode Island; returned soon afterward, was caught, tried for treason, convicted, and sen tenced to imprisonment for life. He was then of fered pardon on condition of taking an oath of allegiance. This he stubbornly refused to do; and in June of 1845 obtained his liberty without con ditions. About the same time a disturbance occurred in New York. Until the year 1840 the descendants of Van Rensselaer, one of the old Dutch patroons of New Netherland, had held a claim on certain lands in the counties of Rensselaer, Columbia, and Delaware. In liquidation of this claim they had continued to receive from the farmers certain tri fling rents. At last the farmers grew tired of the payment, and rebelled. From 1840 until 1844 the question was frequently discussed in the New York legislature; but no satisfactory settlement was reached. In the latter year the anti-rent party be came so bold as to coat with tar and feathers those of their fellow-tenants who made the payments. Officers were sent to apprehend the rioters; and them they killed. Time and again the authorities of the State were invoked to quell the disturbers. The question in dispute was finally settled in favor of the farmers. Of a different sort was the difficulty with the Mormons, who now began to play a part in the history of the country. Under the leadership of their prophet, Joseph Smith, they made their first important settlement in Jackson county, Missouri. Administrations of Harrison and Tyler 591 Here their numbers increased to fully fifteen hun dred; and they began to say that the great West was to be their inheritance. Not liking their neigh bors or their practices, the people of Missouri de termined to be rid of them. As soon as opportunity offered the militia was called out, and the Mormons were obliged to leave the State. In the spring of 1839 they crossed the Mississippi into Illinois, and on a high bluff overlooking the river laid out a city which they called Nauvoo, meaning the Beautiful. Here they built a splendid temple. Other Mor mons from different parts of the Union and from Europe came to join the community, until the num ber was swelled to ten thousand. Again popular suspicion was aroused against them. Under the administration of Smith, laws were enacted con trary to the statutes of Illinois. The people charged the Mormons with the commission of certain thefts and murders; and it was believed that the courts in the neighborhood of Nauvoo would be powerless to convict the criminals. In the midst of much excitement Smith and his brother were arrested, taken to Carthage, and lodged in jail. On the 27th of June, 1844, a mob gathered, broke open the jail doors, and killed the prisoners. During the rest of the summer there were many scenes of violence. In 1845 tne char ter of Nauvoo was annulled by the legislature of Illinois. Most of the Mormons gave up in despair and resolved to exile themselves beyond the limits of civilization. In 1846 they began their march to the far West. In September Nauvoo was can- 592 History of the United States nonaded for three days, and the remnant of its inhabitants driven to join their companions at Council Bluffs. Thence they dragged themselves wearily westward; crossed the Rocky Mountains; reached the basin of the Great Salt Lake; and founded Utah Territory. Meanwhile, a great agitation had arisen in the country in regard to the republic of Texas. From 1821 to 1836 this vast territory, lying between Louisiana and Mexico, had been a province of the latter country. For a long time it had been the policy of Spain and Mexico to keep Texas unin habited, in order that the vigorous race of Ameri cans might not encroach on the Mexican borders. At last, however, a large land grant was made to Moses Austin, of Connecticut, on condition that he would settle three hundred American families within the limits of his domain. Afterward the grant was confirmed to his son Stephen, with the privilege of establishing five hundred additional families of immigrants. Thus the foundation of Texas was laid by people who were of the English race. Owing to the oppressive policy adopted by Mex ico, the Texans, in the year 1835, raised the stand ard of rebellion. Many adventurers and some heroes from the United States flocked to their aid. In the first battle, fought at Gonzales, a thousand Mexicans were defeated by a Texan force number ing five hundred. On the 6th of March, 1836, a Texan fort, called the Alamo, was surrounded by a Mexican army of several thousand, commanded Administrations of Harrison and Tyler 593 by President Santa Anna. The feeble garrison was overpowered and massacred under circumstances of great atrocity. The daring David Crockett, an ex-congressman of Tennessee, and a famous hunter, was one of the victims of the butchery. In the next month was fought the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which gave to Texas her freedom. The independence of the new State was acknowledged by the United States, Great Britain, and France. As soon as the people of Texas had thrown off the Mexican yoke they asked to be admitted into the Union. At first the proposition was declined by President Van Buren, who feared a war with Mex ico. In the last year of Tyler s administration the question of annexation was again agitated. The population of Texas had increased to more than two hundred thousand souls. The territory em braced an area of two hundred and thirty-seven thousand square miles a domain more than five times as large as the State of Pennsylvania. It was like annexing an empire. The proposition to admit Texas into the Union was the great question on which the people divided in the presidential elec tion of 1844. The annexation was favored by the Democrats and opposed by the Whigs. The ground of Whig opposition was the fact that Texas would become a slave State and the party opposed the extension of slavery. James K. Polk, of Ten nessee, was put forward as the Democratic candi date, while the Whigs chose their favorite leader, Henry Clay. The former was elected, and the hope of the latter to reach the presidency was for- 594 History of the United States ever eclipsed. For Vice-President, George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was chosen. The convention by which Mr. Polk was nom inated was held at Baltimore. On the 29th of May, 1844, the news of the nomination was sent to Washington by the magnetic telegraph. It was the first dispatch ever so transmitted; and the event marks an era in the history of civilization. The inventor of the telegraph, which has proved so great a blessing to mankind, was Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, of Massachusetts. The magnetic principle on which the invention depends had been known since 1774; but Professor Morse was the first to apply that principle for the benefit of men. He began his experiments in 1832; and five years afterward succeeded in obtaining a patent on his invention. Then followed another long delay; and it was not until the last day of the session in 1843 that he procured from Congress an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars. With that appropria tion was constructed between Baltimore and Wash ington the first telegraphic line in the world. Per haps no other invention has exercised a more benefi cent influence on the welfare and happiness of the human race. When Congress convened in December of 1844, the proposition to admit Texas into the Union was formally brought forward. During the winter the question was frequently debated; and on the ist of March only three days before Tyler s retirement from the presidency the bill of annexation was adopted. The President immediately gave his as- Folk s Administration 595 sent; and the Lone Star took its place in the con stellation of the States. On the day before the inauguration of Mr. Polk bills for the admission of Florida and Iowa were also signed; but the lat ter State the twenty-ninth member of the Ameri can Union was not formally admitted until the following year. CHAPTER XII FOLK S ADMINISTRATION AND THE MEXICAN WAR, 1845-1849 PRESIDENT POLK was a native of North Carolina. In boyhood he removed with his father to Tennes see; entered the legislature of the State; and was then elected to Congress, where he served as mem ber or speaker for fourteen years. In 1839 he was chosen governor of Tennessee, and from that posi tion was called, at the early age of forty-nine, to the presidential chair. At the head of the new cabinet was placed James Buchanan, of Pennsyl vania. It was an office requiring high abilities; for the threatening question with Mexico came at once to a crisis. As soon as the resolution to annex Texas was adopted by Congress, Almonte, the Mexican minister at Washington, demanded his passports and left the country. On the 4th of July, 1845, tne Texan legislature ratified the act of annexation; and the union was 596 History of the United States completed. Knowing the warlike determination of Mexico, the authorities of Texas sent an immedi ate and urgent request to the President to dispatch an army for their protection. Accordingly, Gen eral Zachary Taylor was ordered to march from Camp Jessup, in Western Louisiana, and occupy Texas. The real question at is sue between that State and Mex ico was concerning boundaries. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western limit, while Mexico was determined to have James K. Polk . XT President 1845-49 the NuGces as the separating^ line. The territory between these two rivers was in dispute. The government of the United States made a proposal to settle the con troversy by negotiation, but the authorities of Mex ico scornfully refused. This refusal was construed by the Americans as a virtual acknowledgment that the Mexicans were in the wrong, and that the Rio Grande might justly be claimed as the boun dary. Instructions were accordingly sent to Gen eral Taylor to advance his army as near to that river as circumstances would warrant. Under these orders he moved forward to Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Nueces, established a camp, and by the beginning of November, 1845, had concen trated a force of between four and five thousand men. In the following January General Taylor was ordered to advance to the Rio Grande. It was Folk s Administration 597 known that the Mexican government had resolved not to receive the American ambassador sent thither to negotiate a settlement. It had also transpired that an army of Mexicans was gathering in the northern part of the country for the invasion of Texas, or, at any rate, for the occupation of the disputed territory. On the 8th of March the American army began the advance from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel, on the gulf. At that place General Taylor established a depot of supplies, and then pressed forward to the Rio Grande. Arriv ing at the river a few miles above the mouth, he took his station opposite Matamoras and hastily erected a fortress, afterward named Fort Brown. On the 26th of April, General Ampudia, com mander of the Mexican forces on the frontier, notified General Taylor that hostilities had begun. On the same day a company of American dragoons, commanded by Captain Thornton, was attacked by a body of Mexicans, east of the Rio Grande, and after losing sixteen men in killed and wounded, was obliged to surrender. This was the first blood shed of the war. General Taylor, alarmed lest the Mexicans should make a circuit and capture his stores at Point Isabel, hastened to that place and strengthened the defenses. The fort opposite Matamoras was left under command of Major Brown with a garrison of three hundred men. As soon as his supplies at Point Isabel were deemed secure, General Taylor set out with a pro vision train and an army of more than two thou sand men to return to Fort Brown. Meanwhile, 598 History of the United States the Mexicans to the number of six thousand had crossed the Rio Grande and taken a strong position at Palo Alto, directly in Taylor s route. At noon on the 8th of May the Americans came in sight and immediately joined battle. After an engage ment of five hours duration the Mexicans were driven from the field, with the loss of a hundred men. The American artillery was served with sig nal effect; while the fighting of the enemy was clumsy and ineffectual. Only four Americans were killed and forty wounded; but among the former was the gallant and much lamented Major Ring- gold of the artillery. On the following day General Taylor resumed his march in the direction of Fort Brown. When within three miles of that place, he again came upon the Mexicans, who had rallied in full force to dispute his advance. They had selected for their second battlefield a place called Resaca de la Palma. Here an old river bed, dry and overgrown with cactus, crossed the road leading to the fort. The enemy s artillery was well posted and better served than on the previous day. The American lines were severely galled until the brave Captain May with his regiment of dragoons charged through a storm of grape shot, rode over the Mexican bat teries, sabered the gunners, and captured La Vega, the commanding general. The Mexicans, aban doning their guns and flinging away their accouter- ments, fled in a general rout. Before nightfall they had put the Rio Grande between themselves and the invincible Americans. On reaching Fort Folk s Administration 599 Brown, General Taylor found that during his ab sence the place had been constantly bombarded by the guns of Matamoras. But a brave defense had been made, which cost, with other losses and suf fering, the life of Major Brown, the commandant. Such was the beginning of a war in which Mexico experienced a long list of humiliating defeats. When the news of the battles on the Rio Grande was borne through the Union, the war spirit was everywhere aroused. Party dissensions were hushed into silence. The President, in a message to Congress, notified that body that the lawless soldiery of Mexico had shed the blood of American citizens on American soil. On the I3th of May, 1846, Congress promptly responded with a dec laration that war already existed by the act of the Mexican government. The President was author ized to accept the services of fifty thousand volun teers, and ten million dollars were placed at his dis posal. War meetings were held in all parts of the country, and within a few weeks nearly three hun dred thousand men rushed forward to enter the ranks. A grand invasion of Mexico was planned by General Scott. The American forces were or ganized in three divisions : The Army of the West, under General Kearny, to cross the Rocky Moun tains and conquer the northern Mexican provinces ; the Army of the Centre, under General Scott as commander-in-chief, to march from the gulf coast into the heart of the enemy s country; the Army of Occupation, commanded by General Taylor, to subdue and hold the districts on the Rio Grande. 6oo History of the United States The work of mustering the American troops was intrusted to General Wool. By the middle of summer he succeeded in dispatching to General Taylor a force of nine thousand men. He then established his camp at San Antonio, Texas, and from that point prepared the gathering recruits for the field. Meanwhile, Taylor had resumed active operations on the Rio Grande. Ten days after the battle of Resaca de la Palma he crossed from Fort Brown and captured Matamoras. Soon afterward he began his march up the right bank of the river and into the interior. The Mexicans, grown wary of their antagonist, fell back and took post at the fortified town of Monterey. To cap ture that place was the next object of the campaign ; but the American army was feeble in numbers, and General Taylor was obliged to tarry near the Rio Grande until the latter part of August. By that time re-enforcements had arrived, increasing his numbers to six thousand six hundred. With this force the march against Monterey was begun ; and on the i Qth of September the town, defended by fully ten thousand troops, under command of Am- pudia, was reached and invested. The siege was pressed with great vigor. On the 2 ist of the month several assaults were made, in which the Americans, led by General Worth, carried the fortified heights in the rear of the town. In that part of the defenses only the bishop s palace a strong building of stone remained; and this was taken by storm on the following day. On the morning of the 23d the city was successfully Folk s Administration 60 1 assaulted in front by Generals Quitman and But ler. In the face of a tremendous cannonade and an incessant tempest of musket balls discharged from the house tops and alleys, the American storming parties charged resistlessly into the town. They reached the Grand Plaza, or public square. They hoisted the victorious flag of the Union. They turned upon the buildings where the Mex icans were concealed; broke open the doors; charged up dark stairways to the flat roofs of the houses; and drove the terrified enemy to an igno minious surrender. The honors of war were granted to Ampudia, who evacuated the city and retired toward the capital. The storming of Mon terey was a signal victory, gained against great su periority of numbers and advantage of position. The famous general Santa Anna returned from his exile at Havana and again became president of the country. In the course of the autumn a Mexican army of twenty thousand men was raised and sent into the field. General Taylor, acting under orders of the War Department, again moved forward. On the I5th of November, the town of Saltillo, seventy miles southwest from Monte rey, was captured by the American advance under General Worth. In the following month, Victo ria, a city in the province of Tamaulipas, was taken by the command of General Patterson. To that place General Butler advanced from Monterey on the march against Tampico, on the river Panuco. At Victoria, however, he learned that Tampico had already capitulated to Captain Conner, com- 602 History of the United States mander of an American flotilla. Meantime, Gen eral Wool, advancing with strong re-enforcements from San Antonio, entered Mexico, and took a po sition within supporting distance of Monterey. It was at this juncture that General Scott arrived and assumed the command of the American forces. The Army of the West had not been idle. In June of 1846 General Kearny set out from Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, for the conquest of New Mexico and California. After a long and wearisome march he reached Santa Fe, and on the 1 8th of August captured and garrisoned the city. The whole of New Mexico submitted without fur ther resistance. With a body of four hundred dra goons Kearny then continued his march toward the Pacific coast. At the distance of three hundred miles from Santa Fe he was met by the famous Kit Carson, who brought intelligence from the far West that California had already been sub dued. Kearny accordingly sent back three-fourths of his forces, and with a party of only a hundred men made his way to the Pacific. On that far-off coast stirring events had happened. For four years Colonel John C. Fremont had been exploring the country west of the Rocky Mountains. He had hoisted the American flag on the highest peak of the great range, and then directed his route by Salt Lake to Oregon. Turn ing southward into California, he received dis patches informing him of the impending war with Mexico. Determined to strike a blow for his coun try, he urged the people of California, many of Folk s Administration 603 whom were Americans, to declare their independ ence. The hardy frontiersmen of the Sacramento valley flocked to his standard; and a campaign was at once begun to overthrow the Mexican authority. In several petty engagements the Americans were victorious over greatly superior numbers. Mean while, Commodore Sloat, commanding an Ameri can fleet, had captured the town of Monterey, on the coast, eighty miles south of San Francisco. A few days afterward Commodore Stockton took command of the Pacific squadron and made him self master of San Diego. Before the end of sum mer the whole of the vast province was subdued. In November General Kearny arrived with his company and joined Fremont and Stockton. About a month later the Mexicans rose in rebellion, but were defeated on the 8th of January, 1847, m the decisive battle of San Gabriel, by which the authority of the United States was completely es tablished. A country large enough for an empire had been conquered by a handful of resolute men. In the mean time, Colonel Doniphan, who had been left by Kearny in command of New Mexico, had made one of the most brilliant movements of the war. With a body of seven hundred fearless men he began a march through the enemy s coun try from Santa Fe to Saltillo, a distance of more than eight hundred miles. Reaching the Rio Grande on Christmas day, he fought and gained the battle of Bracito; then, crossing the river, cap tured El Paso, and in two months pressed his way to within twenty miles of Chihuahua. On the 604 History of the United States banks of Sacramento Creek he met the Mexicans in overwhelming numbers, and on the 28th of February completely routed them. He then marched unopposed into Chihuahua a city of more than forty thousand inhabitants and finally reached the division of General Wool in safety. As soon as General Scott arrived in Mexico he ordered a large part of the Army of Occupation to join him on the gulf for the conquest of the capital. By the withdrawal of these troops from the divisions of Taylor and Wool these officers were left in a very exposed and critical condition; for Santa Anna was rapidly advancing against them with an army of twenty thousand men. To resist this tremendous array General Taylor was able to concentrate at Saltillo a force numbering not more than six thousand; and after putting sufficient gar risons in that town and Monterey, his effective forces amounted to but four thousand eight hun dred. With this small but resolute army he marched boldly out to meet the Mexican host. A favorable battle-ground was chosen at Buena Vista, four miles south of Saltillo. Here Taylor posted his troops and awaited the enemy. On the 22d of February the Mexicans, twenty thousand strong, came pouring through the gorges and over the hills from the direction of San Luis Potosi. Santa Anna demanded a surrender, and was met with defiance. On the morning of the 23d the battle began with an effort to outflank the American position on the right; but the at tempt was thwarted by the troops of Illinois. A Polk s Administration 605 heavy column was then thrown against the center, only to be shattered and driven back by Captain Washington s artillery. The Mexicans next fell in great force upon the American left flank, where the second regiment of Indianians, acting under a mistaken order, gave way, putting the army in great peril. But the troops of Mississippi and Kentucky were rallied to the breach; the men of Illinois and Indiana came bravely to the support; and again the enemy was hurled back. In the crisis of the battle the Mexicans made a furious and final charge upon Captain Bragg s battery; but the gunners stood at their posts undaunted, and the columns of lancers were scattered with terrible vol leys of grapeshot. A charge of American cavalry, though made at the sacrifice of many lives, added to the discomfiture of the foe. Against tremen dous odds the field was fairly won. On the night after the battle the Mexicans, having lost nearly two thousand men, made a precipitate retreat. The American loss was also severe, amounting in killed, wounded and missing, to seven hundred and forty- six. This was the last of General Taylor s battles. He soon afterward returned to the United States, where he was received with great enthusiasm. On the 9th of March, 1847, General Scott be gan the last campaign of the war. With a force of twelve thousand men he landed to the south of Vera Cruz, and in three days the investment of the city was completed. Trenches were opened at the distance of eight hundred yards; and on the morning of the 22d the cannonade was begun. THE aOBXICAlT 606 History of the United States On the water side Vera Cruz was defended by the celebrated castle of San Juan d Ulloa, erected by Spain in the early part of the seventeenth cen tury, at the cost of four million dollars. For four days an incessant storm of shot and shell from the fleet of Commodore Con ner and the land batteries of Scott was poured up on the doomed castle and town. Life and property were swept into a com mon ruin. An assault was already planned, when the humbled authorities of the city proposed capitu lation. On the night of the 27th terms of surren der were signed, and two days afterwards the American flag floated over Vera Cruz. The route from the gulf to the capital was now open. On the 8th of April General Twiggs, in command of the American advance, set out on the road to Jalapa. The main division, led by General Scott in person, followed immediately. For sev eral days there was no serious opposition; but on the 1 2th of the month Twiggs came upon Santa Anna, who, with an army of fifteen thousand men, had taken possession of the heights and rocky pass of Cerro Gordo. The position, though seemingly impregnable, must be carried, or further advance was impossible. On the morning of the i8th the Polk s Administration 607 American army was arranged for an assault which, according to all the rules of war, promised only disaster and ruin. But to the troops of the United States nothing now seemed too arduous, no deed too full of peril. Before noonday every position of the Mexicans had been successfully stormed and themselves driven into a precipitate rout. Nearly three thousand prisoners were taken, together with forty-three pieces of bronze artillery, five thousand muskets and accouterments enough to supply an army. The American loss amounted to four hun dred and thirty-one, that of the enemy to fully a thousand. Santa Anna escaped with his life, but left behind his private papers and wooden leg. On the next day the victorious army entered Jalapa. On the 22d the strong castle of Perote, crowning a peak of the Cordilleras, was taken without resistance. Here another park of artil lery and a vast amount of warlike stores fell into the hands of the Americans. Turning southward, General Scott next led his army against the ancient and sacred city of Puebla. Though inhabited by eighty thousand people, no defense was made or attempted. The handful of invaders marched un opposed through the gates, and on the i5th of May took up their quarters in the city. The Amer ican army was now reduced to five thousand men, and General Scott was obliged to pause until re-en forcements could be brought forward from Vera Cruz. By the 7th of August General Scott had received 6o8 History of the United States re-enforcements, 2400 men under the command of a future President of the United States Franklin Pierce. Leaving a small garrison in Puebla, he again began his march upon the capital. The route now lay over the summit of the Cordilleras. At the passes of the mountains resistance had been expected; but the advance was unopposed, and the army swept through to look down on the Val ley of Mexico. Never before had the American soldiery beheld such a scene. Clear to the horizon stretched a most living landscape of green fields, villages and lakes a picture too beautiful to be torn with the dread enginery of war. The army pressed on to Ayotla, only fifteen miles from the capital. Thus far General Scott had followed the great national road from Vera Cruz to Mexico; but now, owing to the many fortifications and dangerous passes in front, it was deemed advisable to change the route. From Ayotla, therefore, the army wheeled to the south, around Lake Chalco, and thence westward to San Augustine. From this place it was but ten miles to the capital. The city could be approached only by causeways leading across marshes and the beds of bygone lakes. At the ends of these causeways were massive gates strongly defended. To the left of the line of march were the almost inaccessible positions of Contreras, San Antonio, and Molino del Rey. Directly in front, beyond the marshes and closer to the city, were the powerful defenses of Churubusco and Chapultepec, the latter a castle of great strength. These variou^ positions were Folk s Administration 609 held by Santa Anna with a force of more than thirty thousand Mexicans. That General Scott, with an army not one-third as great in numbers, could take the city seemed an impossibility. But he was resolved to do it. On the iQth of August the divisions of Generals Pillow and Twiggs were ordered to storm the Mex ican position at Contreras. About nightfall the line of communications between that place and Santa Anna s reserves was cut, and in the darkness of the following midnight an assaulting column, led by General Persifer F. Smith, moved against the enemy s camp. The attack was made at sun rise, and in seventeen minutes six thousand Mex icans, commanded by General Valencia, were driven in utter rout from their fortifications. The American storming party numbered less than four thousand. This was the first victory of that mem orable 2Oth of August. A few hours afterward General Worth advanced against San Antonio, compelled an evacuation and routed the flying gar rison. This was the second victory. Almost at the same time General Pillow led a column against one of the heights of Churubusco where the enemy had concentrated in great force. After a terrible assault the position was carried and the Mexicans scattered like chaff. This was the third triumph. The division of General Twiggs added a fourth victory by storming and holding another height of Churubusco, while the fifth and last was achieved by Generals Shields and Pierce, who de feated Santa Anna, coming to re-enforce his gar- 610 History of the United States risons. The whole Mexican army was hurled back upon the remaining fortification of Chapultepec. On the morning after the battles the Mexican authorities sent out a proposition to negotiate. It was only a ruse to gain time, for the terms pro posed by them were such as conquerors would have dictated to the vanquished. General Scott, who did not consider his army vanquished, rejected the proposals with scorn, rested his men until the yth of September, and then renewed hostilities. On the next morning General Worth was ordered to take Molino del Rey and Casa de Mata, the west ern defenses of Chapultepec. These positions were held by fourteen thousand Mexicans; but the Americans, after losing a fourth of their number in the desperate onset, were again victorious. The guns were next brought to bear on Chapultepec itself, and on the I3th of the month that frowning citadel was carried by storm. Through the San Cosme and Belen gates the conquering army swept resistlessly, and at nightfall the soldiers of the Union were in the suburbs of Mexico. In the darkness of that night Santa Anna and the officers of the government fled from the city; but not until they had turned loose two thousand convicts to fire upon the American army. On the following morning, before day-dawn, forth came a deputation from the city to beg for mercy. This time the messengers were in earnest; but General Scott, weary of trifling, turned them away with contempt. " Forward! " was the order that rang along the American lines at sunrise. The war- Folk s Administration 6n worn regiments swept into the beautiful streets of the famous city, and at seven o clock the flag of the United States floated over the halls of the Montezumas. So ended one of the most brilliant campaigns known in modern history. On leaving his conquered capital Santa Anna, with his usual treachery, turned about to attack the American hospitals at Puebla. Here about eighteen hundred sick men had been left in charge of Colonel Childs. For several days a gallant re sistance was made by the feeble garrison, until General Lane, on his march to the capital, fell upon the besiegers and scattered them. It was the closing stroke of the war a contest in which the Americans, few in number and in a far-distant, densely peopled country, had gained every vic tory. The military power of Mexico was now com pletely broken. Santa Anna was a fugitive. It only remained to determine the conditions of peace. In the winter of 1847-48 American ambassadors met the Mexican congress, in session at Guadalupe Hidalgo, and on the 2d of February a treaty was concluded between the two nations. The com pact was ratified by both governments, and on the 4th of the following July President Polk made a proclamation of peace. By the terms of settle ment the boundary line between Mexico and the United States was fixed as follows: The Rio Grande from its mouth to the southern limit of New Mexico ; thence westward along the southern and northward along the western boundary of that 6 12 History of the United States territory to the river Gila ; thence down that river to the Colorado; thence westward to the Pacific. The whole of New Mexico and Upper California was relinquished to the United States. Mexico guaranteed the free navigation of the Gulf of California, and the river Colo rado from its mouth to the confluence of the Gila. In consid eration of these ter ritorial acquisitions and privileges the United States agreed to surrender all places held by military occupation in Mexico, to pay into the treasury of that country fifteen million dollars, and to assume all debts due from the Mexican government to American citizens, said debts not to exceed three million five hundred thousand dol lars. Thus at last was the territory of the United States spread out in one broad belt from ocean to ocean. A few days after the signing of the treaty of peace an event occurred in California which spread excitement through the civilized world. A laborer, employed by Captain Sutter to cut a mill race on the American fork of Sacramento River, discov ered some pieces of gold in the sand where he was digging. With further search other particles were Finding Gold Folk s Administration 613 found. The news spread as if borne on the wind. From all quarters adventurers came flocking. Other explorations led to further revelations of the precious metal. For a while there seemed no end to the discoveries. Straggling gold hunters sometimes picked up in a few hours the value of five hundred dollars. The intelligence went flying through the States to the Atlantic, and then to the ends of the world. Men Crossing the Plains thousands of miles away were crazed with excitement. Workshops were shut up, business houses abandoned, fertile farms left tenantless, offices deserted. Though the over land routes to California were scarcely yet discov ered, thousands of eager adventurers started on the long, long journey. Before the end of 1850 San Francisco had grown from a miserable village of huts to a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants. By the close of 1852 the territory had a population of more than a quarter of a million. The impor tance of the gold mines of California, whose rich ness is not yet exhausted, can hardly be overes timated. In the first summer of President Folk s adminis tration the country was called to mourn the death of General Jackson. The veteran warrior and statesman lived to the age of seventy-eight, and died at his home, called the Hermitage, in Ten nessee. On the 23d of February, 1848, ex-Presi- 6 14 History of the United States dent John Quincy Adams died at the city of Washington. At the time of his decease he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was struck with paralysis in the very seat from which he had so many times electrified the nation with his eloquence. In 1848 Wisconsin, the last of the five great States formed from the Northwestern Territory, was admitted into the Union. The new common wealth came with a population of two hundred and fifty thousand and an area of nearly fifty-four thousand square miles. By establishing the St. Croix instead of the Mississippi as the western boundary of the State, Wisconsin lost a consider able district rightfully belonging to her territory. Another presidential election was at hand. Three well-known candidates were presented for the suffrages of the people. General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was nominated by the Democrats, and General Zachary Taylor by the Whigs. As the candidate of the new Free Soil party, ex-President Martin Van Buren was put forward. The rise of this new party was traceable to a question con cerning the territory acquired by the Mexican war. In 1846 David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, brought before Congress a bill to prohibit slavery in all the territory which might be secured by treaty with Mexico. The bill was defeated; but the advocates of the measure, which was called the Wilmot Proviso, formed themselves into a party, and in June of 1848 nominated Mr. Van Buren for the presidency. The real contest, however, Administrations of Taylor and Fillmore 615 lay between Generals Cass and Taylor. The posi tion of the two leading parties on the question of slavery in the new territories was as yet not clearly defined, and the election was left to turn on the personal popularity of the candidates. The mem ory of his recent victories in Mexico made General Taylor the favorite with the people, and he was elected by a large majority. As Vice-President, Millard Fillmore of New York, was chosen. So closed the agitated but not inglorious administra tion of President Polk. CHAPTER XIII ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR AND FILLMORE, 1849-1853 THE new President was a Virginian by birth, a Kentuckian by breeding, a soldier by profession. In 1808 he left the farm to accept a commission in the army. During the war of 1812 he distin guished himself in the Northwest, especially in defending Fort Harrison against the Red men. In the Seminole War he bore a conspicuous part, but earned his greatest renown in Mexico. His reputation, though strictly military, was enviable, and his character above reproach. His administra tion began with a violent agitation on the question of slavery in the territories; California, the El Dorado of the West, was the origin of the dispute. 616 History of the United States In his first message President Taylor expressed his sympathy with the Californians, and advised them to form a State government preparatory to admission into the Union. The advice was promptly accepted. A convention of delegates was held at Monterey in September of 1849. A constitution pro hibiting slavery was framed, submitted to the people, and adopt ed with but little op position. Peter H. Burnet was elected governor of the Terri tory; members of a general assembly were chosen; and on the 2Oth of December, 1849, the new government was organ ized at San Jose. At the same time a petition in the usual form was forwarded to Congress asking for the admission of California as a State. The presentation of the petition was the signal for a bitter controversy. As in the case of the admission of Missouri, the members of Congress, and to a great extent the people, were sectionally divided. But now the position of the parties was reversed; the proposition to admit the new State was favored by the representatives of the North and opposed by those of the South. The ground of the opposition was that with the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific the Zachary Taylor President 1849-50 Administrations of Taylor and Fillmore 617 right to introduce slavery into California was guar anteed by the general government, and that there fore the proposed constitution of the State ought to be rejected. The reply of the North was that the argument could apply only to a part of the new State, that the Missouri Compromise had re spect only to the Louisiana Purchase, and that the people of California had framed their constitution in their own way. Such was the issue; and the debates grew more and more violent, until the sta bility of the Union was seriously endangered. Other exciting questions added fuel to the con troversy. Texas claimed New Mexico as a part of her territory, and the claim was resisted by the people of Santa Fe, who desired a separate govern ment. The people of the South complained bit terly that fugitive slaves, escaping from their mas ters, were aided and encouraged in the North. The opponents of slavery demanded the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Along the whole line of controversy there was a spirit of sus picion, recrimination, and anger. The illustrious Henry Clay appeared as a peace maker. In the spring of 1850 he was appointed chairman of a committee of thirteen, to whom all the questions under discussion were referred. On the 9th of May he brought forward, as a com promise covering all the points in dispute, the Om nibus Bill, of which the provisions were as fol lows : First, the admission of California as a free State ; second, the formation of new States, not ex ceeding four in number, out of the territory of 6i8 History of the United States Texas, said States to permit or exclude slavery as the people should determine; third, the organiza tion of territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah, without conditions on the question of slavery; fourth, the establishment of the present boundary between Texas and New Mexico, and the payment to the former for surrendering the lat ter the sum of ten million dollars from the na tional treasury; fifth, the enactment of a more rigorous law for the recovery of fugitive slaves; sixth, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. When the Omnibus Bill was laid before Con gress, the debates began anew, and seemed likely to be interminable. While the discussion was at its height and the issue still undecided, President Taylor fell sick, and died on the 9th of July, 1850. In accordance with the pro visions of the constitution, Mr. Fillmore at once took the oath of office and en tered upon the duties of the presidency. A new cabinet was formed, with Daniel Webster at the head as sec retary of state. Notwith standing the death of the chief magistrate, the government moved on without disturbance. The compromise proposed by Mr. Clay and sus tained by his eloquence was at length approved by Congress. On the i8th of September the last Millard Fillmore President 1850-53 Administrations of Taylor and Fillmore 619 clause was adopted, and the whole received the immediate sanction of the President. The ex citement in the country rapidly abated, and the distracting controversy seemed at an end. Such was the last, and perhaps the greatest, of those pacific measures originated and carried through Congress by the genius of Henry Clay. He shortly afterward bade adieu to the Senate, and sought at his beloved Ashland a brief rest from the arduous cares of public life. The year 1850 was marked by a lawless attempt on the part of some American adventurers to gain possession of Cuba. It was thought that the people of that island were anxious to throw off the Span ish yoke and to annex themselves to the United States. In order to encourage such a movement, General Lopez organized an expedition in the South, and on the I9th of May, 1850, effected a landing at Cardenas, a port of Cuba. But there was no uprising in his favor; neither Cubans nor Spanish soldiers joined his standard, and he was obliged to seek safety by returning to Florida. Renewing the attempt in the following year, he and his band of four hundred and eighty men were attacked, defeated, and captured by an overwhelm ing force of Spaniards. Lopez and the ringleaders were taken to Havana, tried, condemned, and executed. In 1852 a serious trouble arose with England. By the terms of former treaties the coast fisheries of Newfoundland belonged exclusively to Great Britain. But outside of a line drawn three miles 620 History of the United States from the shore American fishermen enjoyed equal rights and privileges. Now the dispute arose as to whether the line should be drawn from one headland to another so as to give all the bays and inlets to England, or whether it should be made to conform to the irregularities of the coast. Under the latter construction American fishing vessels would have equal claims in the bays and harbors; but this privilege was denied by Great Britain, and the quarrel rose to such a height that both nations sent men-of-war to the contested waters. But reason triumphed over passion, and in 1854 the difficulty was happily settled by negoti ation; the right to take fish in any of the bays of the British possessions was conceded to Ameri can fishermen. During the summer of 1852 the celebrated Hun garian patriot Louis Kossuth made the tour of the United States. Austria and Russia had united against his native land and overthrown her liber ties. He came to plead the cause of Hungary before the American people, and to obtain such aid as might be furnished to his oppressed countrymen. Everywhere he was received with expressions of sympathy and goodwill. His mission was only partially successful, as the long established policy of the United States forbade the government to interfere on behalf of the Hungarian patriots. About this time the attention of the Ameri can people was directed in a special manner to explorations in the Arctic Ocean. In 1845 Sir John Franklin, one of the bravest of English sea- Administrations of Taylor and Fillmore 621 men, went on a voyage of discovery to the extreme North. He believed in the possibility of passing through an open polar sea into the Pacific. Years went by, and no tidings came from the daring sailor. It was only known that he had passed the country of the Esquimaux. Other expeditions were dispatched in search, but returned without success. Henry Grinnell, a wealthy merchant of New York, fitted out several vessels at his own expense, put them under command of Lieutenant De Haven, and sent them to the North; but in vain. The government came to Mr. Grinnell s aid. In 1853 a new Arctic squadron was equipped, the com mand of which was given to Dr. Elisha Kent Kane ; but the expedition, though rich in scientific results, returned without the discovery of Franklin. During the administrations of Taylor and Fill- more the country was called to mourn the loss of many distinguished men. On the 3ist of March, 1850, Senator John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, passed away. His death was much lamented, es pecially in his own State, to whose interests he had devoted the energies of his life. His earnestness and zeal and powers of debate have placed him in the front rank of American statesmen. At the age of sixty-eight he fell from his place like a scarred oak of the forest, never to rise again. Then followed the death of the President; and then, on the 28th of June, 1852, Henry Clay, having fought his last battle, sank to rest. On the 24th of the following October the illustrious Daniel Webster died at his home at Marshfield, 622 History of the United States Massachusetts. The place of secretary of state, made vacant by his death, was conferred on Ed ward Everett. As Fillmore s administration drew to a close the political parties again marshaled their forces. Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, appeared as the candidate of the Democratic party, and General Winfield Scott as the choice of the Whigs. The great question before the country was the Com promise Act of 1850. But the parties, instead of being divided, were for once agreed as to the wisdom of that measure. Both the Whig and Democratic platforms stoutly reaffirmed the justice of the Omnibus Bill, by which the dissensions of the country had been quieted. A third party arose, however, whose members, both Whigs and Demo crats, doubted the wisdom of the compromise of 1850, and declared that all the Territories of the United States ought to be free. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, was put forward as the can didate of this Free Soil party. Mr. Pierce was elected by a large majority, and William R. King, of Alabama, was chosen Vice-President. CHAPTER XIV PIERCE S ADMINISTRATION, 1853-1857 THE new chief magistrate was a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Bowdoin College, a Pierce s Administration 623 lawyer, a politician, a general in the Mexican War, a statesman of considerable abilities. Mr. King, the Vice-President, had for a long time represented Alabama in the Senate of the United States. On account of failing health he was sojourning in the island of Cuba at the time of the inauguration, and there he received the oath of office. Growing still more feeble, he returned to his own State, where he died on the i8th of April, 1853. As secretary of state under the new administra tion William L. Marcy, of New xr , , Franklin Pierce York, was chosen. President ^^ In the summer of 1853 the first corps of engineers was sent out by the government to explore the route for a Pacific railroad. The en terprise was at first regarded as visionary, then be lieved in as possible, and finally undertaken and accomplished. In the same year that marked the beginning of the project the disputed boundary between New Mexico and Chihuahua was satisfac torily settled. The maps on which the former treaties with Mexico had been based were found to be erroneous. Santa Anna, who had again become president of the Mexican republic, attempted to take advantage of the error, and sent an army to occupy the territory between the true and the false boundary. This action was resisted by the authorities of New Mexico and the United States, and a second Mexican war seemed imminent. The 624 History of the United States difficulty was adjusted, however, by the purchase of the doubtful claim of Mexico. This transac tion, known as the Gadsden Purchase, led to the erection of the new Territory of Arizona. The first year of Pierce s administration was signalized by the opening of intercourse between the United States and Japan. Hitherto the Japa nese ports had been closed against the vessels of Christian nations. In order to remove this foolish and injurious restriction Commodore Perry, a son of Oliver H. Perry of the war of 1812, sailed with his squadron into the Bay of Yeddo. When warned to depart, he explained to the Japanese officers the sincere desire of the United States to enter into a commercial treaty with the emperor. After much delay and hesitancy consent was obtained to hold an interview with that august personage. Accord ingly, on the 1 4th of July, the commodore with his officers obtained an audience with the dusky monarch of the East, and presented a letter from the President of the United States. Still the gov ernment of Japan was wary of accepting the propo sition, and it was not until the spring of 1854 that a treaty could be concluded. The privileges of commerce were thus conceded to American mer chant vessels, and two ports of entry were des ignated for their use. On the very day of Commodore Perry s intro duction to the emperor of Japan the Crystal Palace was opened in the city of New York for the second World s Fair. The palace itself was a marvel in architecture, being built exclusively of iron and Pierce s Administration 625 glass. Thousands of specimens of the arts and manufactures of all civilized nations were put on exhibition within the spacious building. The en terprise and inventive genius of the whole country were quickened into a new life by the beautiful and instructive display. International exhibitions are among the happiest fruits of an enlightened age. And now the great domain lying west of Minne sota, Iowa, and Missouri was to be organized into territorial governments. Already into these vast regions the tide of immigration was pouring, and it became necessary to provide for the future. In January of 1854 Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, brought before the Senate of the United States a proposition to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In the bill reported for this purpose a clause was inserted providing that the people of the two ter ritories, in forming their constitutions, should de cide for them, selves whether the new States should be free or slave- holding. This was a vir tual repeal of the Missouri Compromise, for both the new territories lay north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. Thus by a single stroke the old settlement of the slavery question was to be undone. From January un til May Mr. Douglas s report, known as the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, was debated in Congress. Early Stage Coach 626 History of the United States All the bitter sectional antagonisms of the past were aroused in full force. The bill was violently opposed by a majority of the representatives from the East and North; but the minority, uniting with the congressmen of the South, enabled Douglas to carry his measure through Congress, and in May of 1854 the bill received the sanction of the Presi dent. Kansas itself now became a battlefield for the contending parties. Whether the new State should admit slavery now depended upon the vote of the people. Wherefore both factions made a rush for the Territory to secure a majority. Kansas was soon filled with an agitated mass of people, thousands of whom had been sent thither to vote. An election held in November of 1854 resulted in the choice of a pro-slavery delegate to Congress, and in the general territorial election of the fol lowing year the same party was triumphant. The State Legislature thus chosen assembled at Le- compton, organized the government, and framed a constitution permitting slavery. The Free Soil party, declaring the general election to have been illegal on account of fraudulent voting, assembled in convention at Topeka, framed a constitution excluding slavery, and organized a rival govern ment. Civil war broke out between the factions. From the autumn of 1855 until the following sum mer the Territory was a scene of constant turmoil and violence. On the 3d of September the Presi dent apponted John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, military governor of Kansas, with full powers to Pierce s Administration 627 restore order and punish lawlessness. On his ar rival the hostile parties were quieted and peace restored. But the agitation in the Territory had already extended to all parts of the Union, and became the issue on which the people divided in the presidential election of 1856. The parties made ready for the contest. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was nominated as the Democratic candidate. By planting himself on a platform of principles in which the doctrines of the Kansas-Nebraska bill were distinctly re-af firmed, he was able to secure a heavy vote both North and South. For many Northern Demo crats, though opposed to slavery, held firmly to the opinion that the people of every territory ought to have the right to decide the question for themselves. As the candidate of the newly founded Republican party, John C. Fremont, of California, was brought forward. The exclusion of slavery from all the Territories of the United States by congressional action was the distinctive principle of the platform. Meanwhile, an American or Know-Nothing party had arisen in the country, the leaders of which, anxious to ignore the slavery question and to restrict foreign influences in the nation, nominated Millard Fillmore for the presi dency. But the slavery agitation could not be put aside ; on that issue the people were really divided. A large majority decided in favor of Mr. Bu chanan for the presidency, while the choice for the vice-presidency fell on John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 628 History of the United States CHAPTER XV BUCHANAN S ADMINISTRATION, 1857-1861 JAMES BUCHANAN was a native of Pennsylvania, born on the I3th of April, 1791, educated for the profession of law. In 1831 he was appointed minister to Russia, was afterward elected to the Senate of the United States, and from that position was called to the office of secretary of state under President Polk. In 1853 he received the appoint ment of minister to Great Britain, and resided at London until his nomination for the presidency. As secretary of state in the new cabinet General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was chosen. In the first year of Buchanan s administration there was a Mormon rebellion in Utah. The dif ficulty arose from an attempt to extend the judicial system of the United States over the territory. Thus far Brigham Young, the Mormon governor, had had his own way of administering justice. The community of Mormons was organized on a plan very different from that existing in other Territo ries, and many usages had grown up in Utah which were repugnant to the laws of the country. When, therefore, in 1856, a Federal judge was sent to preside in the Territory, he was resisted and driven from the seat of justice. To quell this insurrection an army of two thousand five hundred men was sent to Utah in the fall of 1857. The Mormons prepared for resistance and cut off the supply Buchanan s Administration 629 trains of the army. Meanwhile, however, Thomas L. Kane arrived with conciliatory letters from the President. Overtures for peace on the basis of a Federal pardon were accepted by the Mormons, and order was finally restored. In 1858 the army marched to Salt Lake, was then quartered at Camp Floyd, and in May of 1860 was withdrawn from the Territory. Early in 1858 an Ameri can vessel, while innocently exploring the Paraguay River, in South America, was fired on by a jealous garrison. When reparation for the insult was demanded, none was given, and the government of the United States was obliged to send out a fleet to obtain satisfaction. A commis sioner was sent with the squadron who was em powered to offer liberal terms of settlement for the injury. The authorities of Paraguay quailed before the American flag, and suitable apologies were made for the wrong which had been com mitted. The 5th of August, 1858, was a memorable day in the history of the world. On that day was completed the laying of the first telegraphic cable across the Atlantic Ocean. The successful accom plishment of this great work was due in a large measure to the energy and genius of Cyrus W. James Buchanan President 1857-61 630 History of the United States Field, a wealthy merchant of New York. The cable, one thousand six hundred and forty miles in length, was stretched from Trinity Bay, New foundland, to Valentia Bay, Ireland. Telegraphic communication was thus established between the Old World and the New, and the fraternal greet ings of peaceful nations were for the first time transmitted through the depths of the sea. The great problem of quick communication between Laying the Atlantic Cable two nations separated by a vast expanse of water was indeed solved; but this particular cable did little more than solve the problem and point out the possibilities of the future. After but three weeks service it parted somewhere in mid-ocean and eight years passed before another one was successfully laid. In 1858 Minnesota was added to the Union. The area of the new State was a little more than eighty-one thousand square miles, and its popula tion at the date of admission a hundred and fifty thousand souls. In the next year Oregon, the Buchanan s Administration 631 thirty-third State, was admitted, with a population of forty-eight thousand, and an area of eighty thou sand square miles. On the 4th of March preced ing, General Sam Houston, of Texas, bade adieu to the Senate of the United States and retired to private life. His career had been marked by the strangest vicissitudes. He was a Virginian by birth, but his youth was hardened among the mountains of Tennessee. He gained a military fame in the Seminole War, then rose to political distinction, and was elected governor of his adopted State. Overshadowed with a domestic calamity, he suddenly resigned his office, left his home, and exiled himself among the Cherokees, by whom he was made a chief. Afterward he went to Texas, joined the patriots, and became a leading spirit in the struggle for independence. It was he who commanded in the decisive battle of San Jacinto; he who became first president of Texas, and also her first representative in the Senate of the United States. Through all the misfortunes, dangers, and trials of his life his character stood like adamant. The slavery question continued to vex the nation. In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States, after hearing the cause of Dred Scott, formerly a slave, rendered a decision that negroes are not, and cannot become, citizens. Scott was the slave of one Dr. Emerson, an army surgeon, who was stationed for a time in Illinois, and later in the territory that became Min nesota, taking his slave with him. Later when he 632 History of the United States returned to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom on the ground that he had been illegally held in slavery on free soil. He won his case in the Mis souri courts, but lost in the Federal Supreme Court. This decision was violently assailed by the opponents of slavery; and in several of the free States personal liberty bills were passed, the object of which was to defeat the execution of the Fugi tive Slave law. In the fall of 1859 the excitement was still fur ther increased by the mad attempt of John Brown, of Kansas, to incite a general insurrection among the slaves. With a party of twenty-one men as daring as himself, he made a sudden descent on the United States arsenal at Harper s Ferry, cap tured the place, and held his ground for nearly two days. The national troops and the militia of Virginia were called out in order to suppress the revolt. Thirteen of Brown s men were killed, two made their escape, and the rest were captured. The leader and his six companions were given over to the authorities of Virginia, tried, condemned, and hanged. In Kansas the old controversy still continued, but the Free Soil party gained ground so rapidly as to make it certain that slavery would be interdicted from the State. All these facts and events tended to widen the breach between the people of the North and the South. Such was the alarming condition of affairs when the time ar rived for holding the nineteenth presidential elec tion. The canvass was one of intense excitement. Buchanan s Administration 633 Four candidates were presented. The choice of the Republican party was Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. The platform of principles adopted by this party again declared opposition to the exten sion of slavery to be the vital issue. In the month of April the Democratic convention assembled at Charleston. The delegates were divided on the question of slavery, and after much debating the party was disrupted. The Southern delegates, un able to obtain a distinct expression of their views in the platform of principles, and seeing that the Northern wing was determined to nominate Mr. Douglas the great defender of popular sov ereignty withdrew from the convention. The rest adjourned to Baltimore, where, on the i8th of June, they chose Douglas as their standard bearer. The delegates from the South adjourned to Richmond, and then to Baltimore, where, on the 28th of June, John C. Breckinridge was nom inated. The American party now known as Con stitutional Unionists chose John Bell, of Ten nessee, as their candidate. The contest resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln. He received almost the entire electoral vote of the North, while the support of the Southern States was, for the most part, given to Breckinridge. Mr. Douglas re ceived a large popular but small electoral vote, his supporters being scattered throughout all the States. The result of the election had been anticipated. The leaders of the South had openly declared that the choice of Lincoln would be regarded as a just 634 History of the United States cause for the dissolution of the Union. The Re publicans of the populous North crowded to the polls, and their favorite was chosen. As to the government, it was under the control of the Doug las Democracy; but a majority of the cabinet and a large number of senators and representatives in Congress were supporters of Mr. Breckinridge and the advocates of disunion as a justifiable meas ure. It was now evident that with the incoming of the new administration all the departments of the government would pass under the control of the Republican party. The times were full of pas sion, animosity, and rashness. It was seen that disunion was now possible, and that the possibility would shortly be removed. The attitude of the President favored the measure. He was not him self a disunionist. He denied the right of a State to secede; but at the same time he declared himself not armed with the constitutional power necessary to prevent secession by force. The interval, there fore, between the presidential election in Novem ber of 1860 and the inauguration of the follow ing spring was seized by the leaders of the South as the opportune moment for dissolving the Union. The actual work of secession began in South Carolina. On the I7th of December, 1860, a convention assembled at Charleston, and after three days of deliberation passed a resolution that the union hitherto existing between South Carolina and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, was dissolved. It was a step of fearful importance. The action was con- Buchanan s Administration 635 tagious. The sentiment of disunion spread with great rapidity. The cotton-growing States were almost unanimous in support of the measure. By the ist of February, 1861, six other States Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas -had passed ordinances of secession and withdrawn from the Union. Nearly all of the senators and representatives of those States, following the action of their constituents, resigned their seats in Congress and gave themselves to the disunion cause. In the secession conventions there was but little opposition to the movement. In some instances a considerable minority vote was cast. A few of the speakers boldly denounced disunion as bad in principle and ruinous in its results. The course of Alexander H. Stephens, afterward Vice-President of the Confederate States, was peculiar. In the convention of Georgia he undertook the task of preventing the secession of his State. He deliv ered a long and powerful oration in which he de fended the theory of secession, advocated the doc trine of State sovereignty, declared his intention of abiding by the decision of the convention, but at the same time spoke against secession, on the ground that the measure mas impolitic, unwise, dis astrous. Not a few prominent men at the South held similar views; but the opposite opinion pre vailed, and secession was accomplished. On the 4th of February, 1861, delegates from six of the seceded States assembled at Montgom ery, Alabama, and formed a new government, 636 History of the United States under the name of the Confederate States of Amer ica. On the 8th of the month the government was organized by the election of Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as provisional President, and Alexan der H. Stephens as Vice- President. On the same day of the meeting of the Confederate Congress, at Montgomery, a peace conference assembled at Washington. Delegates from twenty-one States were present ; certain amendments to the Con stitution were proposed and laid before Congress for adoption, but that body gave little heed to the measures suggested, and the conference adjourned without practical results. The country seemed on the verge of ruin. The national government was for the time being par alyzed. The army was stationed in detachments on remote frontiers. The fleet was scattered in distant seas. The President was distracted with hesitancy and the adverse counsels of his friends. With the exception of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, Fort Pickens near Pensa- cola, and Fortress Monroe in the Chesapeake, all the important posts in the seceded States had been seized by the Confederate authorities, even before Jefferson Davis President of the Confederacy Lincoln s Administration 637 the organization of their government. All this while the local warfare in Kansas had con tinued; but the Free State party had at last gained the ascendency, and the early admission of the new commonwealth, with two additional Repub lican senators, was foreseen. Early in January the President made a feeble attempt to re-enforce and provision the garrison of Fort Sumter. The steamer Star of the West was sent with men and supplies, but in approaching the harbor of Charles ton was fired on by a Confederate battery and compelled to return. Such was the condition of affairs that it was deemed prudent for the new President to approach the capital without recogni tion. For the first time in the nation s history its chief magistrate slipped into Washington by night. CHAPTER XVI LINCOLN S ADMINISTRATION AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth President of the United States, was a native of Kentucky, born on the 1 2th of February, 1809. At the age of seven he was taken with his father s family to Southern Indiana, where his boyhood was passed in pov erty, hardship, and toil. On reaching his majority he left the farm and river life, moved to Illinois, and some years later became a student of law. 638 History of the United States After many years of struggle he distinguished him self in his profession, meantime having served in the legislature of his adopted State, and afterward in Congress. He gained his first national reputa tion in 1858, when, as the competitor of Stephen A. Douglas, he can vassed the State of Illinois for the United States Sen ate. His contest with Mr. Douglas proved him to be Log Cabin in Which Lincoln one o f the foremost Was Born , , f , debaters of the country. These debates served to crystallize the sen timent regarding the extension of slavery. Lincoln proposed to Douglas a trying question which either way he might answer would offend either the North or the South. Douglas answered it in a way to please the North and thus won the re-election to the Senate, but it lost him the Presidency two years later, when the Democratic party was hopelessly divided and Lincoln was elected. The position to which he was now called was one of fearful respon sibility and trial. The new cabinet was organized with William H. Seward, of New York, as secretary of state. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, was chosen secretary of the treasury, and Simon Cameron, of Pennsyl vania, secretary of war; but he, in the following January, was succeeded in office by Edwin M. Stanton, of Ohio. The secretaryship of the navy Lincoln s Administration 639 was conferred on Gideon Welles, of Connecticut. In his inaugural address and first official papers the President indicated the policy of the new ad ministration by declaring his purpose to repossess Abraham Lincoln President 1861-65 (From the Most Striking and Lifelike Photograph Ever Made of Him) the forts, arsenals, and public property which had been seized by the Confederate authorities. He declared that he had no purpose to destroy slavery where it already existed. But the question had now assumed larger proportions. Some of the 640 History of the United States States were in revolt against the United States Government; and Mr. Lincoln declared that as he should have a vow registered in heaven to pre serve and protect the Union, he would execute the laws in all the States. His meaning was clear; he would preserve the Union. It was with this pur pose that the first military preparations were made. In the meantime, on the I2th of March, an effort was made by commissioners of the seceded States to obtain from the national government a recog nition of their independence; but the negotiations were unsuccessful. Then followed a second at tempt on the part of the government to re-enforce the garrison of Fort Sumter; and with that came the beginning of actual hostilities. The defenses of Charleston Harbor were held by Major Robert Anderson. His entire force, in cluding non-combatants, amounted to 128 men. Owing to the weakness of his garrison, he deemed it prudent to evacuate Fort Moultrie and retire to Sumter. Meanwhile, Confederate volunteers had flocked to the city, and powerful batteries had been built about the harbor. When it became known that the Federal government would re-enforce the forts, the authorities of the Confederate States de termined to anticipate the movement by compelling Anderson to surrender. Accordingly, on the nth of April, General P. T. Beauregard, commandant of Charleston, sent a flag to Fort Sumter, de manding an evacuation. Major Anderson replied that he should hold the fortress and defend his flag. On the following morning, at half-past four Lincoln s Administration 641 o clock, the first gun was fired from a Confederate battery. A terrific bombardment of thirty-four hours duration followed; the fort was reduced to ruins, set on fire, and obliged to capitulate. The honors of war were granted to Anderson and his men, who had made a brave and obstinate resistance. Al though the cannonade had been long continued and severe, no lives were lost either in the fort or on the shore. Thus the defenses of Charleston Harbor were secured by the Confederates. The news of this start ling event went through the country like a flame of fire. Public opinion in both the North and the South was rapidly consolidated. Three days after the fall of Sum- ter President Lincoln issued The Militia Man of 6l The New York Ninth Re giment s Memorial in Central Park, New York City a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve three months in the overthrow of the secession movement. There was a ready response from every part of the North. Party divisions were for gotten. Mr. Buchanan came out strongly for the Union. Mr. Douglas, the late defeated candidate for the Presidency, vigorously defended Mr. Lin coln s inaugural address. Later he called upon the President, and the announcement of this inter- 642 History of the United States view was a call to the million men in the North who looked upon him as their leader. Two days later Virginia seceded from the Union. On the 6th of May Arkansas followed the example, and then North Carolina on the 2Oth of the same month. In Tennessee especially in East Tennessee there was a powerful opposition to disunion, and it was not until the 8th of June that a secession ordinance could be passed. In Missouri, as will presently be seen, the movement resulted in civil war, while in Kentucky the author ities issued a proclamation of neutrality. The people of Maryland were divided into hostile par ties, the disunion sentiment being largely prev alent. In all the border States soldiers were fur nished both armies. It often happened that members of the same family were on opposite sides. On the 1 9th of April, when the first regiments of Massachusetts were passing through Baltimore on their way to Washington, they were fired upon by the citizens, and four men killed. This was the first bloodshed of the war. On the day before this event a body of Confederate soldiers advanced against the armory of the United States at Har per s Ferry. The officer in command hastily de stroyed a portion of the vast magazine collected there, and then escaped into Pennsylvania. On the 2Oth of the month another company of Virginians assailed the great navy yard at Norfolk. The of ficers commanding fired the buildings and ships, spiked the cannon, and withdrew their forces. Most Lincoln s Administration 643 of the guns and many of the vessels were after ward recovered by the Confederates, the property thus captured amounting to fully ten millions of dollars. So rapidly was Virginia filled with vol unteers and troops from the South that, for a while, Washington city was in danger of being taken. But the capital was soon secured from immediate danger; and on the 3d of May the President issued another call for soldiers. This time the number was set at eighty-three thousand, and the term of service at three years or during the war. Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott was made commander-in-chief. As many warships as could be provided were sent to blockade the South ern ports. This was the beginning of a most effi cacious method of warfare. The navy was small and inadequate, but merchant vessels were trans formed into ships of war, and it was not a great while until the three thousand miles of coast were effectively blocked and the Southern markets were closed to the world. On every side were heard the notes of preparation. In the seceded States there was boundless and incessant activity. Al ready the Southern Congress had adjourned from Montgomery, to meet on the 2Oth of July at Rich mond, which was chosen as the capital of the Con federacy. To that place had already come Mr. Davis and the officers of his cabinet, for the pur pose of directing the affairs of the government and the army. So stood the antagonistic powers in the beginning of June, 1861. It was now evident to all men (how slow they had been to believe it!) 644 History of the United States that a great war, perhaps the greatest in modern times, was impending over the nation. It is ap propriate to look briefly into the causes of the approaching conflict. CHAPTER XVII CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR THE first and most general cause of the civil war in the United States was the different construction put upon the national Constitution by the people of North and South. A difference of opinion had always existed as to how that instrument was to be understood. The question at issue was as to the relation between the States and the general government. One party held that under the Con stitution the Union of the States is indissoluble; that the sovereignty of the nation is lodged in the central government; that the States are subordi nate; that the acts of Congress, until they are re pealed or pronounced unconstitutional by the su preme court, are binding on the States; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to the gen eral government, and not to his own State; and that all attempts at nullification and disunion are in their nature disloyal and treasonable. The other party held that the national Constitution is a com pact between sovereign States ; that for certain rea sons the Union may be dissolved; that the sov- Causes of the Civil War 645 ereignty of the nation is lodged in the individual States, and not in the central government; that Congress can exercise no other than delegated powers ; that a State, feeling aggrieved, may annul an act of Congress; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to his own State, and afterward to the general government, and that acts of nulli fication and disunion are justifiable, revolutionary, and honorable. Here was an issue in its consequences the most fearful that ever disturbed a nation. It struck right into the vitals of the government. It threat ened with each renewal of the agitation to undo the whole civil structure of the United States. For a long time the parties who disputed about the meaning of the Constitution were scattered in vari ous sections. In the earlier history of the country the doctrine of State sovereignty was most advo cated in New England. Other States in the North had promulgated the same dangerous doctrine Pennsylvania in 1808 and Ohio in 1820. With the rise of the tariff question the position of parties changed. Since the tariff a congressional meas ure favored the Eastern States at the expense of the South, it came to pass naturally that the people of New England passed over to the advocacy of national sovereignty, while the people of the South took up the doctrine of State rights. Thus it hap pened that as early as 1831 the right of nullify ing an act of Congress was openly advocated in South Carolina, and thus also it happened that the belief in State sovereignty became more prevalent 646 History of the United States in the South than in the North. These facts tended powerfully to produce sectional parties and to bring them into conflict. A second general cause of the civil war was the different system of labor in the North and in the South. In the former section the laborers were freemen, citizens, voters; in the latter, bondmen, property, slaves. In the South the theory was that the capital of a country should own the labor; in the North that both labor and capital are free. In the beginning all the colonies had been slave- holding. In the Eastern and Middle States the system of slave labor was gradually abolished, being unprofitable. In the five great States formed out of the Northwestern Territory slavery was excluded by the original compact under which that Territory was organized. Thus there came to be a dividing line drawn through the Union east and west. It was evident, therefore, that whenever the question of slavery was agitated a sectional division would arise between the parties, and that disunion and war would be threatened. The danger arising from this source was increased and the discord be tween the sections aggravated by several subordi nate causes. The first of these was the invention of the Cot ton Gin. In 1793, Eli Whitney, a young collegian of Massachusetts, went to Georgia, and resided with the family of Mrs. Greene, widow of General Greene, of the Revolution. While there his atten tion was directed to the tedious and difficult process of picking cotton by hand that is, separating the Causes of the Civil War 647 seed from the fiber. So slow was the process that the production of upland cotton was nearly profit less. The industry of the cotton growing States was paralyzed by the tediousness of preparing the product for the market. Mr. Whitney undertook to remove the difficulty, and succeeded in invent ing a gin which aston ished the beholder by the rapidity and excellence of its work. From being profitless, cotton became the most profitable of all the staples. The industry of the South was revolu tionized. Before the civil war it was estimated that Whitney s gin had added a thousand millions of dollars to the revenues of the Southern States. The American crop had grown to be seven-eighths of all the cotton pro duced in the world. Just in proportion to the increased profitableness of cotton, slave labor be came important, slaves valuable, and the system of slavery a fixed and deep-rooted institution. From this time onward there was constant dan ger that the slavery question would so embitter the politics and legislation of the country as to bring about disunion. The danger of such a result was fully manifested in the Missouri Agitation of 1820-21. Threats of dissolving the Union were Eli Whitney 648 History of the United States The Cotton Gin freely made in both the North and the South in the North, because of the proposed enlargement of the domain of slavery; in the South, because of the proposed re jection of Missouri as a slave-holding State. When the Missouri Compro mise was enacted, it was the hope of Mr. Clay and his fellow statesmen to save the Union by re moving forever the slavery question from the politics of the country. In that they suc ceeded for a while. Next came the Nullification Acts of South Caro lina. And these, too, turned upon the institution of slavery and the profitableness of cotton. The Southern States had become cotton producing; the Eastern States had given themselves to manufac turing. The tariff measures favored manufacturers at the expense of producers. Mr. Calhoun and his friends proposed to remedy the evil complained of by annulling the laws of Congress. His meas ures failed; but another compromise was found necessary in order to allay the animosities which had been awakened. The annexation of Texas, with the consequent enlargement of the domain of slavery, led to a renewal of the agitation. Those who opposed the Causes of the Civil War 649 Mexican War did so, not so much because of the injustice of the conflict as because of the fact that thereby slavery would be extended. Then, at the close of the war, came another enormous acquisi tion of territory. Whether the same should be made into free or slaveholding States was the ques tion next agitated. This controversy led to the passage of the Omnibus Bill, by which again for a brief period the excitement was allayed. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed. Thereby the Missouri Compromise was repealed and the whole question opened anew. Meanwhile, the character and the civilization of the Northern and the Southern people had become quite dif ferent. In population and wealth the North had far outgrown the South. In the struggle for ter ritorial dominion the North had gained a consid erable advantage. In 1860 the division of the Democratic party made certain the election of Mr. Lincoln by the votes of the Northern States. The people of the South were exasperated at the choice of a chief magistrate whom they regarded as in different to their welfare and hostile to their in terests. The third general cause of the civil war was the want of intercourse between the people of the North and the South. The great railroads and thoroughfares ran east and west. Emigration flowed from the East to the West. Between the North and the South there was little travel or in terchange of opinion. From want of acquaintance the people, without intending it, became estranged, 650 History of the United States jealous, suspicious. They misjudged each other s motives. They misrepresented each other s beliefs and purposes. They suspected each other of dis honesty and ill-will. Before the outbreak of the war the people of the two sections looked upon each other almost in the light of different nation alities. A fourth cause was found in the publication of sectional books. During the twenty years preced ing the war many works were published, both in the North and the South, whose popularity de pended wholly on the animosity existing between the two sections. Such books were generally filled with ridicule and falsehood. The manners and customs, language and beliefs, of one section were held up to the contempt and scorn of the people of the other section. The minds of all classes r especially of the young, were thus prejudiced and poisoned. In the North the belief was fostered that the South was given up to inhumanity, igno rance, and barbarism, while in the South the opin ion prevailed that the Northern people were a sel fish race of mean, cold-blooded Yankees. A book published in the North was especially influential in exposing the evils of slavery. It was Uncle Tom s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Another book, though written by a North Carolinian, was Helper s Impending Crisis, in which an attempt was made to show slavery to be an economic evil. This aroused a great deal of feeling among his Southern countrymen. A fifth cause may be cited in the influence of First Year of the War 651 the professional politician. There are always men who help to incite partisanship and sectionalism in order to reap political reward. That the people, North and South, were never allowed to forget their differences was often seen in the incendiary speeches made on both sides of the Mason and Dixon Line. While these are in brief the several causes, remote and immediate, of one of the most terrible conflicts of modern times, yet when all these are reduced to their last analysis, we find that slavery was the controlling factor in all the differences that led to the estrangement of the two sections of our land. CHAPTER XVIII FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR ON the 24th of May the Union army crossed the Potomac from Washington city to Alexandria. At this time Fortress Monroe, at the mouth of James River, was held by twelve thousand men, under command of General B. F. Butler. At Bethel Church, in the immediate vicinity, was stationed a detachment of Confederates commanded by Gen eral Magruder. On the loth of June a body of Union troops was sent to dislodge them, but was repulsed with considerable loss. Meanwhile the conquest of Western Virginia had been undertaken by General George B. McClellan. 652 History of the United States In the last days of May General T. A. Morris moved forward from Parkersburg to Graf ton with a force of Ohio and Indiana troops, and on the 3d of June came upon the Confederates stationed at Philippi. This was in reality the first battle of the war. After a brief engagement the Fed erals were successful; the Confederates retreated toward the mountains. General McClellan now arrived, took command in person, and on the nth of July gained a victory at Rich Mountain. Gen eral Garnett, the Confederate commander, fell back with his forces to Carrick s Ford, on Cheat River, made a stand, was again defeated and him self killed in the battle. On the loth of August General Floyd, commanding a detachment of Con federates at Carnifex Ferry, on Gauley River, was attacked by General Rosecrans and obliged to re treat. On the 1 4th of September a division of Confederates under General Robert E. Lee was beaten in an engagement at Cheat Mountain an action which completed the restoration of Federal authority in Western Virginia. The people living in this section of the State were not in sympathy with the rebellion. They owned but few slaves and when the governor of Virginia called upon them for their quota of troops to serve in the Confed erate army, some forty of these mountain counties refused. Mass meetings were held in various cities. The result was the holding of a convention. A new government was established and thus in time another State was carved from the soil of the Old Dominion. First Year of the War 653 In the beginning of June General Robert Pat terson marched from Chambersburg with the in tention of recapturing Harper s Ferry. On" the iith of the month a division of the army com manded by Colonel Lewis Wallace made a sudden and successful onset upon a detachment of Con federates stationed at Romney. Patterson then crossed the Potomac with the main body, entered the Shenandoah Valley, and pressed back the Con federate forces to Winchester. Thus far there had been only petty engagements, skirmishes, and marching. The time had now come when the first great battle of the war was to be fought. After the Union successes in West Virginia the main body of the Confederates, under command of General Beauregard, was concentrated at Man- assas Junction, on the Orange Railroad, twenty- seven miles west of Alexandria. Another large force, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, was within supporting distance in the Shenandoah Valley. The Union army at Alexandria was com manded by General Irwin McDowell, while Gen eral Patterson was stationed in front of Johnston to watch his movements and prevent his forming a junction with Beauregard. The Federal army consisted of raw, untrained militia, and were far from being able to compete with the Southerners, who naturally inclined toward the military. But there was a general note of impatience in the North at the inactivity of the army. On the i6th of July the national army moved forward. Two days afterward an unimportant engagement took place 654 History of the United States between Centreville and Bull Run. The Unionists then pressed on, and on the morning of the 2ist Sunday came upon the Confederate army, strongly posted between Bull Run and Manassas Junction. A general battle ensued, continuing with great severity until noonday. At that hour the advantage was with McDowell, and it seemed not unlikely that the Confederates would suffer a com plete defeat. But in the crisis of the battle General Johnston arrived with nearly six thousand fresh troops from the Shenandoah Valley. General Pat terson had failed to detain him. This blunder lost the Federals the day. The tide of victory turned immediately, and in a short time McDowell s whole army was hurled back in utter rout and confusion. A ruinous panic spread through the defeated host. Soldiers and citizens, regulars and volunteers, horsemen and footmen, rolled back in a disorgan ized mass into the defenses of Washington. The Union loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners amounted to two thousand nine hundred and fifty- two; that of the Confederates to two thousand and fifty. Great was the humiliation of the North, and greater the rejoicing of the South. But the defeat served as a valuable lesson to the North. They learned that the contest now on was not a " break fast job," as Secretary Seward had said, but that the Southern people were in deadly earnest, and for the first time there was a feeling that the war might be a long and bloody one. For a while the Federal government was more concerned about A Copyright, Patriot Pub g-. Co., 1910 President Lincoln and General McClellan From a photograph taken just two weeks after the battle of Antietam First Year of the War 655 its own safety than about the conquest of Rich mond. In that city, on the day before the battle, the new Confederate government was organized. In the Southern Congress and cabinet were many men of distinguished abilities. Jefferson Davis, the President, was a far-sighted man, of wide experience in the affairs of state, and consid erable reputation as a soldier. He had led the troops of Mississippi in the Mexican War, had served in both houses of the national Congress, and as a member of President Pierce s cabinet. His talents, decision of character, and ardent advocacy of State rights had made him a natural leader of the South. In the meantime President Lincoln had called an extra session of Congress. There was a general unanimity in vot ing the President all the men and munitions of war necessary in putting down the rebellion. He was authorized to call for five hundred thousand additional volunteers for three years. The Sec retary of the Treasury was permitted to borrow $250,000,000. Taxes were levied, the navy in creased, and the whole military and naval forces were put on a war footing. The next military movements were made in Mis souri. That commonwealth, though slaveholding, still retained its place in the Union. A convention, called by Governor Jackson in accordance with an act of the legislature, had in the previous March refused to pass an ordinance of secession. The disunionists, however, were numerous and power ful ; the governor favored their cause, and the State 656 History of the United States became a battlefield for the contending parties. Both Federal and Confederate camps were organ ized, and hostilities began in several places. By capturing the United States arsenal at Liberty, in Clay county, the Confederates obtained a consid erable supply of arms and ammunition. By the formation of Camp Jackson, near St. Louis, the arsenal in that city was also endangered; but by the vigilance of Captain Nathaniel Lyon the arms and stores were sent up the river to Alton, and thence to Springfield. Camp Jackson was soon afterward broken up by the exertions of the same officer. The lead mines in the southwest part of the State became an object of great importance to the Confederates, who, in order to secure them, hur ried up large bodies of troops from Arkansas and Texas. On the iyth of June, Lyon encountered Governor Jackson with a Confederate force at Booneville, and gained a decided advantage. On the 5th of July the Unionists, led by Colonel Franz Sigel, were again successful in a severe engagement with the governor at Carthage. On the loth of August the hardest battle thus far fought in the West occurred at Wilson s Creek, a short distance south of Springfield. General Lyon made a dar ing but rash attack on a much superior force of Confederates under command of Generals McCul- lough and Price. The Federals at first gained the field against heavy odds, but General Lyon was killed, and his men retreated under direction of Sigel. First Year of the War 657 General Price now pressed northward across the State to Lexington, on the Missouri River. This place was defended by a force of Federals two thousand six hundred strong, commanded by Colonel Mulligan. A stubborn defense was made by the garrison, but Mulligan was soon obliged to capitulate. Price then turned southward, and on the 1 6th of October Lexington was retaken by the Federals. General John C. Fremont, who had been appointed to the command of the Union forces in Missouri, followed the Confederates as far as Springfield, and was on the eve of making an at tack, when he was superseded by General Hunter. The latter, after retreating to St. Louis, was in turn superseded by General Halleck on the i8th of November. It was now Price s turn to fall back toward Arkansas. The only remaining move ment of importance was at Belmont, on the Miss issippi. The Confederate general Polk, acting under or ders of his government, had, notwithstanding that State s neutrality, entered Kentucky with an army, and had captured the town of Columbus. Bat teries planted here commanded the Mississippi. The Confederates gathered in force at Belmont, on the opposite bank. In order to dislodge them Colonel Ulysses S. Grant, with a brigade of three thousand Illinois troops, was sent by way of Cairo into Missouri. On the 7th of November he made a vigorous and successful attack on the Confed erate camp ; but General Polk sent re-enforcements across the river, the guns of Columbus were 658 History of the United States brought to bear on the Union position, and Grant was obliged to retreat. The rout at Bull Run had the effect to quicken the energies of the North, and troops were rap idly hurried to Washington. The aged General Scott, unable to bear the burden resting upon him, retired from active duty, and General McClellan from his victories in West Virginia was called to take command of the Army of the Potomac. By the middle of October his forces had increased to a hundred and fifty thousand men. On the 2ist of that month a brigade, numbering nearly two thousand, was thrown across the Potomac at Ball s Bluff. Without proper support or means of retreat, the Federals were attacked by a strong force -of Confederates under General Evans, driven to the river, their leader, Colonel Baker, killed, and the whole force routed with terrible loss. Fully eight hundred of Baker s men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. During the summer of 1861 the Federal gov ernment sent to sea several important naval ex peditions. One of these, commanded by Commo dore Stringham and General Butler, proceeded to the North Carolina coast, and on the 29th of August captured the forts at Hatteras Inlet. On the 7th of November a second armament, under command of Commodore Dupont and General Thomas W. Sherman, entered the harbor of Port Royal, and captured Forts Walker and Beaure- gard. Hilton Head, a point most advantageous for military operations against Charleston and Sa- First Year of the War 659 vannah, thus fell into the power of the Federals. Around the whole coast the blockade was becoming so rigorous that commerce and communication be tween the Confederate States and foreign nations were being rapidly cut off. In this juncture of affairs a difficulty arose which brought the United States and Great Britain to the very verge of war. There was much reason for the South to expect aid and sympathy from some of the European countries, especially England. While the relations of that country and the United States were espe cially amicable, yet the cotton mills of Liverpool and Manchester needed cotton from the South. Even prominent English statesmen, among whom was Gladstone, prophesied the inability of the North to maintain the Union. The English min istry refused to commit itself on the matter of the recognition of the Confederacy. Scarcely had the echoes from the guns upon Sumter died away, before the Confederate government was accorded belligerent rights. The Confederate government had appointed James M. Mason and John Slidell, formerly sen ators of the United States, to go abroad as ambas sadors from the Confederate States to France and England. The envoys went on board a blockade runner, and escaping from Charleston Harbor, reached Havana in safety. At that port they took passage on the British mail steamer Trent, and sailed for Europe. On the 8th of November the vessel was overtaken by the United States 660 History of the United Stales frigate San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes. The Trent was hailed and boarded; the two ambassadors and their secretaries were seized, transferred to the San Jacinto, carried to Boston, and imprisoned. The Trent proceeded on her way to England; the story of the insult to the British flag was told, and the whole kingdom burst out in a blaze of wrath. At first the people of the United States loudly applauded Captain Wilkes, and the government was disposed to defend his action. Congress ten dered him a vote of thanks. The Cabinet with one exception united with the people in their re joicings. The President, however, saw danger ahead. England at once flew into a rage. Prep arations for war were immediately begun. Seven days were allowed in which the United States might apologize. The country was saved from the peril of war by the adroit and far-reaching diplomacy of William H. Seward, the secretary of state. When Great Britain demanded reparation for the insult and the immediate liberation of the prisoners, he replied in a mild, cautious, and very able paper. It was conceded that the seizure of Mason and Slidell was not justifiable according to the law of nations. A suitable apology was made for the wrong done, the Confederate ambassadors were liberated, put on board a vessel, and sent to their destination. This action of the secretary was both just and politic. The peril of war went by, and Great Britain was committed to a policy in regard to the rights of neutral flags which she had Campaigns of 62 66 1 hitherto denied and which the United States had always contended for. So ended the first year of the civil war. CHAPTER XIX CAMPAIGNS OF 62 THE Federal forces now numbered about four hun dred and fifty thousand men. Of these nearly two hundred thousand, under command of General Mc- Clellan, were encamped in the vicinity of Wash ington. Another army, commanded by General Buell, was stationed at Louisville, Kentucky, and it was in this department that the first military movements of the year were made. On the 9th of January Colonel Humphrey Marshall, com manding a force of Confederates on Big Sandy River, in Eastern Kentucky, was attacked and de feated by a body of Unionists, led by Colonel Gar- field. Ten days later another and more important battle was fought at Mill Spring, in the same section of the State. The Confederates were com manded by Generals Crittenden and Zollicoffer, and the Federals by General George H. Thomas. After a hot engagement, in which both sides lost heavily, the Confederates suffered a defeat which was rendered more severe by the loss of Zollicof fer, who fell in the battle. The possession of the Mississippi River was of the utmost importance to the Federals. The people of the West were 662 History of the United States particularly desirous of holding this great artery of trade. To secure it meant the cutting of the Confederacy in twain. The opening of this river now became one of the prime purposes of the North. But the border States were filled with Confederate forces. Southern Kentucky was still held by the South, and to clear these States of the opposing armies met with a hearty response from the people of the Central West. The next operations were on the Tennessee and the Cumberland. The Tennessee River was com manded at the southern border of Kentucky by Fort Henry, and the latter by the more important Fort Donelson, ten miles south of the Tennessee line. At the beginning of the year the capture of both these places was planned by General Halleck. Early in February Commodore Foote was sent up the Tennessee with a flotilla of gunboats, and at the same time General Grant was ordered to move forward and cooperate in an attack on Fort Henry. Before the land forces were well into position the flotilla compelled the evacuation of the fort, the Confederates escaping to Donelson. Eighty-three prisoners and a large amount of stores were cap tured. The Federal gunboats now dropped down the Tennessee, took on supplies at Cairo, and then as cended the Cumberland. Grant pressed on from Fort Henry, and as soon as the flotilla arrived began the siege of Fort Donelson. The defenses were strong, and well manned by more than ten thousand Confederates, under General Buckner. Campaigns of 62 663 Grant s entire force numbered nearly thirty thou sand. On the 1 4th of February the gunboats were driven back with considerable loss, Commodore Foote being among the wounded. On the next day the garrison, hoping to break through Grant s lines, made a sally, but met a severe repulse. On the 1 6th Buckner was obliged to surrender. In the early morning General Buckner, seeing that he could not hold out much longer, sent a note to Grant offering to capitulate. Grant sent him the laconic reply demanding " Unconditional surren der," and added, " I propose to move immediately upon your works." His army of ten thousand men became prisoners of war, and all the maga zines, stores, and guns fell into the hands of the Federals. It was the first decided victory which had been won by the national arms. The immedi ate result was the evacuation of Kentucky and the capital of Tennessee by the Confederates. The way to the western South was now open to the Federals. General Grant, an unknown tanner from Illinois, suddenly found himself famous. After his success at Fort Donelson General Grant ascended the Tennessee as far as Pittsburg Land ing. In the beginning of April a camp was estab lished near Shiloh Church, a short distance from the river ; and here, on the morning of the 6th, the Union army was suddenly attacked by the Confed erates, led by Generals Albert S. Johnston and Beauregard. The attack was a surprise to Grant. He had not taken proper precaution to protect his army. 664 History of the United States On Sunday morning there burst through the woods in front of the Union camp a magnificent line of battle. The onset was at first successful. Grant, who had spent the night at Savannah some miles away, hastened to the battlefield. All day long the battle raged with tremendous slaughter on both sides. The Federals were forced back to the river, and but for the protection of the gun boats would have been driven to destruction. Night fell on the scene with the conflict undecided; but in this desperate crisis General Buell arrived from Nashville with strong re-enforcements. On the following morning General Grant assumed the offensive. The contest reopened at daybreak. The Confederates yielded slowly before the heavy im pact of the Federal columns as they pressed against them. General Johnston had been killed in the battle, and Beauregard, on whom the command devolved, was obliged to retreat to Corinth. The losses in killed, wounded, and missing in this dreadful conflict were more than ten thousand on each side. There had never before been such a harvest of death in the New World. It is in this battle of Shiloh that we first find General W. T. Sherman taking a prominent part. Events of importance were also taking place on the Mississippi. When the Confederates evacuated Columbus, Kentucky, they proceeded to Island Number Ten, a few miles below, and built strong fortifications commanding the river. On the west ern shore was the town of New Madrid, which was held by a Confederate force from Missouri. Campaigns of 62 66$ Against this place General Pope advanced with a body of Western troops, while Commodore Foote descended the Mississippi with his flotilla to attack the forts on the island. Pope was entirely suc cessful in his movement, and gained possession of New Madrid. The land forces then cooperated with the gunboats, and for twenty-three days Island Number Ten was vigorously bombarded. On the yth of April, when the Confederates could hold out no longer, they attempted to escape ; but Pope had cut off retreat, and the entire garrison, numbering about seven thousand, was captured. The Mississ ippi was thus opened as far down as Memphis, and that city was taken by the fleet of Commodore Davis on the 6th of the following June. In the beginning of the year General Curtis had pushed forward through Missouri, entered Arkan sas, and taken position at Pea Ridge, among the mountains in the northwestern angle of the State. Here he was attacked on the 6th of March by an army of more than twenty thousand Confed erates and Indians, under command of Generals McCulloch, Mclntosh, and Pike. After a hard fought battle, which lasted for two days, the Fed erals were victorious. McCulloch and Mclntosh were both killed and their men obliged to retreat toward Texas. This contest settled the matter of Missouri joining the Confederacy. From this time on there was no fear of this northern slave State leaving the Union. On the next day after the conflict at Pea Ridge an event occurred at Fortress Monroe which 666 History of the United States changed the character of naval warfare. It was to be the world s first battle of the ironclads. Cap tain John Ericsson, of New York, had invented and built a peculiar war vessel with a single round tower of iron exposed above the water-line. Mean while, the Confederates had raised the United States frigate Merrimac, one of the sunken ships Battle Between the Monitor and the Merrimac at the Norfolk navy yard, and had plated the sides with an impenetrable mail of iron. This done, the vessel was sent to attack the Union fleet at Fortress Monroe. Reaching that place on the 8th of March, the Merrimac began the work of destruc tion, and before sunset two valuable vessels, the Cumberland and the Congress, were sent to the bottom. During the unequal contest the shore batteries poured volley after volley on the sides of the Merrimac, but they glanced harmlessly into Campaigns of 62 667 the water. During the night, however, Ericsson s strange ship, called the Monitor, arrived from New York, and on the following morning the two ironclad monsters turned their terrible enginery upon each other. After fighting for five hours, the Merrimac was obliged to give up the contest and to return badly damaged to Norfolk. The timely arrival of this " Yankee Cheese-box on a Raft," as it was called, not only saved the other Union vessels, but proved the salvation of the wooden ships elsewhere. With such a powerful leviathan of war the blockade of the Southern coast could easily have been lifted. Such was the excitement produced by this novel sea fight that for a while the whole energies of the navy depart ment were devoted to building monitors. Early in 1862 a strong land and naval force, commanded by General Ambrose E. Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough, was sent against the Confederate garrison of Roanoke Island. On the 8th of February the squadron reached its destina tion ; the fortifications on the island were attacked and carried, and the garrisons, nearly three thou sand strong, taken prisoners. Burnside next pro ceeded against Newbern, North Carolina, and on the 1 4th of March captured the city after four hours of severe fighting. Proceeding southward, he reached the harbor of Beaufort, carried Fort Macon, at the entrance, and on the 25th of April took possession of the town. On the i ith of the same month Fort Pulaski, commanding the mouth of the Savannah River, 668 History of the United States surrendered to General Gillmore. By this impor tant capture the chief emporium of Georgia was effectually blockaded. But these reverses of the Confederates were trifling in comparison with that which they sustained in the loss of the city of New Orleans. Early in April a powerful squadron, commanded by General Butler and Admiral Far- ragut, entered the Mississippi and proceeded as far as Forts Jackson and St. Philip, thirty miles above the gulf. The guns of these forts, standing on opposite shores, completely commanded the river, and obstructions had been placed in the chan nel. The forty-seven vessels comprising the Fed eral fleet were brought into position and a furious bombardment of the forts was begun. From the 1 8th to the 24th of April the fight continued with out cessation. At the end of that time the forts were but little injured, and Farragut undertook the hazardous enterprise of running past the bat teries. In this he succeeded, breaking the chain across the river and overpowering the Confederate fleet above the obstructions. The Union fleet had thrown 16,800 shells. The roar of the artillery had literally shaken the earth. Just before dawn of the 24th the grand finale of this five days ar tillery duel occurred. Fire rafts had been floated down to burn the Union ships. Amid the lurid flames of these fire ships and the gleams from the shrieking shells as they hurtled through the air, Farragut, the hero of the battle, unperturbed, directed the movements of the vessels. On the next day he reached New Orleans with a portion of Campaigns of 62 669 his fleet, and took possession of the city. The citi zens of New Orleans could hardly believe that their city had actually been taken. When they fully realized it there was indescribable excitement. Panic reigned everywhere. Immense quantities of cotton were burned, and it is said the flames could be seen thirty miles away. General Butler became commandant, and the fortifications were manned with fifteen thousand Federal soldiers. Three days afterward Forts Jackson and St. Philip sur rendered to Admiral Porter, who had remained below and prosecuted the siege. The control of the lower Mississippi and the metropolis of the South was thus recovered by the Federal govern ment. The Confederates were not going to give up Kentucky without a struggle. From East Tennes see they invaded the State in two strong divisions, the one led by General Kirby Smith and the other by General Bragg. On the 3Oth of August Smith s army reached Richmond, attacked a force of Federals stationed there, and routed them with heavy losses. Lexington was taken, and then Frankfort; and Cincinnati was saved from capture only by the extraordinary exertions of General Wallace. Meanwhile, the army of General Bragg had advanced from Chattanooga to Mumfords- ville, where, on the iyth of September, he cap tured a Federal division of four thousand five hundred men. From this point the Confederate general pressed on toward Louisville, and would have taken the city but for a forced march of 670 History of the United States General Buell from Tennessee. The latter arrived with his army only one day ahead of Bragg, but that one day gave the Unionists the advantage, and the Confederates were turned back. From the North came re-enforcements for Buell s army, swelling his numbers to a hundred thousand. In the beginning of October he again took the field, the Confederates slowly retiring to Perryville. At this place, on the 8th of October, Bragg was overtaken, and a severe but indecisive battle was fought. The retreat was then continued to East Tennessee, the Confederates sweeping out of Ken tucky a train of four thousand wagons laden with the spoils of the campaign. In September there were some stirring events in Mississippi. On the iQth of the month a hard battle was fought at luka between a Federal army, commanded by Generals Rosecrans and Grant, and a Confederate force, under General Price. The latter was defeated, losing, in addition to his killed and wounded, nearly a thousand prisoners. Gen eral Rosecrans now took post at Corinth with twenty thousand men, while General Grant, with the remainder of the Federal forces, proceeded to Jackson, Tennessee. Perceiving this division of the army, the Confederate generals Van Dorn and Price turned about to recapture Corinth. Advanc ing for that purpose, they came on the 3d of Octo ber upon the Federal defenses. Another obsti nately contested battle ensued, which ended, after two days fighting and heavy losses on both sides, in the repulse of the Confederates. Campaigns of 62 671 In the mean time, General Grant had removed his headquarters from Jackson to La Grange. His purpose was to cooperate with General Sherman, then at Memphis, in an effort to capture Vicksburg. The movement promised to be successful, but on the 2Oth of December General Van Dorn suc ceeded in cutting Grant s line of supplies at Holly Springs, and obliged him to retreat. On the same day General Sherman, with a powerful armament, dropped down the river from Memphis. Proceed ing as far as the Yazoo, he effected a landing, and on the 29th of the month made an unsuccessful attack on the Confederates at Chickasaw Bayou. The assault was exceedingly disastrous to the Fed erals, who lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners more thari three thousand men. The enterprise was at once abandoned, and the defeated army returned to the fleet of gunboats in the Mississippi. The closing conflict of this year s operations in the West was the great battle of Murfreesborough. After his successful defense of Corinth General Rosecrans was transferred to the command of the Army of the Cumberland. Late in the fall he made his headquarters at Nashville, and there col lected a powerful army of forty-seven thousand. Meanwhile, General Bragg, on his retirement from Kentucky, had thrown his forces into Mur freesborough. Thus the two generals found them selves face to face, and but forty miles apart. Late in December, Rosecrans moved forward to attack his antagonist, and on the evening of the 3Oth came upon the Confederates strongly posted 672 History of the United States on Stone s River, a short distance northwest of Murfreesborough. On the following morning Bragg advanced to the attack, and a furious bat tle ensued, continuing until nightfall. Such was the success of the Confederates that the Union army was brought to the verge of ruin. Only the heroism of Generals Thomas and Rosecrans kept the army from being utterly shattered. But during the night Rosecrans rallied his forces, ar ranged his batteries, and at daybreak was ready to renew the conflict. On that day there was a lull, both generals preparing for the final struggle. On the morning of the 2d of January Bragg s army again rushed to the onset, gained some suc cesses at first, was then checked, and finally driven back with heavy losses. The main loss fell upon the division of Breckinridge. Two thousand of his men were lost within twenty minutes. Bragg, however, withdrew his shattered columns in good order, then abandoned Murfreesborough and filed off toward Chattanooga. In this desperate engage ment the losses amounted to more than ten thou sand on each side. In Virginia the campaigns of 1862 were even more grand and destructive than those in the West. The first stirring scenes of the year were enacted in the Shenandoah Valley. Desiring to occupy this important district, the Federal government sent forward a strong division under General Banks, who pressed his way southward, and in the last days of March occupied the town of Har- risonburg. In order to counteract this movement* Campaigns of 62 673 the gallant Stonewall Jackson was sent with a force of twenty thousand men to pass the Blue Ridge and cut off Banks s retreat. At Front Royal, on the Shenandoah, just before the gap in the mountains, the Confederates fell upon a body of Federals, routed them, captured their guns and all the military stores in the town. Banks suc ceeded, however, in passing with his main division to Strasburg. There he learned of the disaster at Front Royal, and immediately began his retreat down the valley. Jackson pursued him hotly, and it was only by the utmost exertions that the Fed erals gained the northern bank of the Potomac. The Confederate leader, though completely vic torious, now found himself in great peril. For General Fremont, at the head of a strong force of fresh troops, had been sent into the valley to intercept the retreat of the Confederates. It was now Jackson s time to save his army. With the utmost celerity he sped up the valley, and suc ceeded in reaching Cross Keys before Fremont could attack him. Even then the battle was so little decisive that Jackson pressed on to Port Republic, attacked the division of General Shields, defeated it, and then retired from the scene of his brilliant campaign to join in the defense of Richmond. All during the autumn and winter of 1 86 1 the Army of the Potomac lay inactive, as far as campaigns were concerned, in the camps about Washington. The bitter lesson taught the Unionists at Bull Run was bearing fruit. Under the leadership of General George B. McClellan, 674 History of the United States this raw, untrained body of men was to be welded into a fighting machine that should bear the brunt of three years of terrible campaigning. No better man could have been found for the task than this popular general, fresh from his victories in West Virginia. In these months of drill, McClel- lan transformed this disorganized and disheart ened mass of men that returned from Bull Run into an army that at a later day under the tenacious Grant could beat down the walls of Petersburg. Public opinion was, however, getting restless. The press was demanding that this magnificent army, consisting of the flower of the North, should now get out and do something. At last the army was ready to move. On the loth of March the grand Army of the Potomac, numbering nearly two hundred thousand men, under command of General McClellan, set out from the camps about Washington to capture the Confederate capital. The advance proceeded as far as Manassas Junction, the Confederates falling back and forming a new line of defenses on the Rappahannock. At this stage of the cam paign McClellan, changing his plan, embarked a hundred and twenty thousand of his men for Fort ress Monroe, intending from that point to march up the peninsula between the James and the York. This transfer of the army with all its accouter- ments was a stupendous undertaking, requiring great skill. The celerity and ease with which it was done does credit to the splendid discipline of McClellan s army. By the 4th of April the trans- Campaigns of 62 675 fer of troops was completed, and the Union army left Fortress Monroe for Yorktown. The road over which the Union army passed was through the low tidal belt of Virginia. The soldiers suf fered intensely and the progress was necessarily slow as they trudged over the boggy marshes of the Peninsula. Yorktown was garrisoned by ten thousand Confederates, under General Magruder; and yet with so small a force McClellan s advance was delayed for a whole month. When at last, on the 4th of May, Yorktown was taken by siege, the Federal army pressed forward to Williams- burg, where the Confederates made a stand, but were defeated. Four days afterward, in an en gagement at West Point, at the confluence of the Mattapony and Pamunkey, the Confederates were again driven back. The way to Richmond was now open as far as the Chickahominy, ten miles north of the city. The Union army reached that stream without further resistance, and crossed at Bottom s Bridge. Meanwhile, General Wool, the commandant of Fortress Monroe, had not been idle. On the loth of May he led an expedition against Norfolk and captured the town; for the Confederate gar rison had been withdrawn to aid in the defense of Richmond. On the next day the celebrated ironclad Merrimac was blown up to save her from capture by the Federals. The James River was thus opened for the ingress of national transports laden with supplies for the Army of the Potomac. That army now advanced toward Richmond, and 676 History of the United States when but seven miles from the city was attacked on the 3 ist of May by the Confederates at a place called Fair Oaks or Seven Pines. Here for a part of two days the battle raged with great fury. At last the Confederates were driven back; but McClellan s victory was by no means decisive. Richmond was but six miles away. The spires of the city were in plain view, and but for the swampy valley of the Chickahominy the city could have easily been taken. The Confederate loss was largest, amounting to nearly eight thousand in killed and wounded; that of the Federals was more than five thousand. Among the severely wounded was General Joseph E. Johnston, the commander-in-chief of the Confederates. Two days after the battle his place was filled by the appointment of General Robert E. Lee, a man of military genius, who, until its final downfall, remained the chief stay of the Confederacy. There was now a period of inactivity except for the establishment of the supply depot. President Lincoln had promised McClellan the army of forty thousand under General McDowell. To make a junction with the force that was coming to his help, McClellan had extended his right wing. But Lin coln changed his plans. McDowell did not come and McClellan found himself with his army di vided by the sluggish Chickahominy. The Army of the Potomac was now on the retreat and the battles that followed, taken collectively, are known as the Seven Days Fight before Richmond. These mark the places where McClellan s army turned Campaigns of 62 677 at bay to beat back the pursuers. McClellan now formed the design of changing his base of supplies from White House, on the Pamunkey, to some suitable point on the James. The move ment was one of the utmost hazard, and before it was fairly begun General Lee, on the 25th of June, swooped down on the right wing of the Union army at Oak Grove, and a hard-fought battle ensued without decisive results. On the next day another dreadful engagement occurred at Mechanicsville, and this time the Federals won the field. But on the following morning Lee renewed the struggle at Gaines s Mill and came out victorious. On the 28th there was but little fighting. On the 29th McClellan s retreating army was twice attacked in the morning at Savage s Station and in the afternoon in the White Oak Swamp but the divisions defending the rearguard kept the Confederates at bay. On the 3Oth was fought the desperate but indecisive battle of Glen- dale or Frazier s Farm. On that night the Federal army reached Malvern Hill, on the north bank of the James, twelve miles below Richmond. Al though this position was protected by the Federal gunboats in the river, General Lee determined to carry the place by storm. Accordingly, on the morning of the ist of July, the whole Confed erate army rushed forward to the assault. All day long the furious struggle for the possession of the high grounds continued. Not until nine o clock at night did Lee s shattered columns fall back exhausted. For seven days the terrific roar 678 History of the United States of battle had been heard almost without cessation. No such dreadful scenes had ever been acted on the American continent. Although victorious on Malvern Hill, General McClellan, instead of advancing at once on Rich mond, chose a less hazardous movement, and on the 2d of July retired with his army to Harrison s Landing, a few miles down the river. The great campaign was really at an end. The Federal army had lost more than fifteen thousand men, and the capture of Richmond, the great object for which the expedition had been undertaken, seemed fur ther off than ever. The losses of the Confederates had been heavier than those of the Union army, but all the moral effects of a great victory re mained with the exultant South. McClellan s purpose was to move against Rich mond from this point, but his plans were disap proved of at Washington and he was ordered to bring his army back to that city. General Lee, perceiving that Richmond was no longer endangered, immediately formed the design of invading Maryland and capturing the Federal capital. The Union troops between Richmond and Washington, numbering in the aggregate about fifty thousand, were under command of General John Pope. They were scattered in detachments from Fredericksburg to Winchester and Harper s Ferry. Lee moved northward about the middle of August, and on the 2Oth of the month Pope, concentrating his forces as rapidly as possible, put the Rappahannock between his army and the ad- Campaigns of 62 679 vancing Confederates. Meanwhile, General Banks, while attempting to form a junction with Pope, was attacked by Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain, where nothing but desperate fighting saved the Federals from complete rout. No sooner had Pope gotten his forces well in hand than Jackson shot by with his division on a flank movement, reached Manassas Junction, and made large captures of men and stores. Pope with great audacity threw his army between the two divisions of the Confederates, hoping to crush Jackson before Lee could come to the rescue. On August 28th and 29th there was terrible but inde cisive fighting at Manassas Junction, the old Bull Run battleground, and Centreville. At one time it seemed that Lee s army would be completely de feated; but Pope s re-enforcements were withheld by General Fitz-John Porter, and on the 3ist of the month the Confederates bore down on the Union army at Chantilly, fought all day, and won a victory. Generals Stevens and Kearny were among the thousands of brave men who fell in this battle. On that night Pope withdrew his broken columns as rapidly as possible, and found safety within the defenses of Washington. His wish to be relieved of his command was immedi ately complied with ; his forces, known as the Army of Virginia, were consolidated with the Army of the Potomac, which had now returned from the peninsula below Richmond; and General McClel- lan was placed in supreme command of all the divi sions about Washington. 68o History of the United States General Lee prosecuted his invasion of Mary land. Passing up the right bank of the Potomac, he crossed at Point of Rocks, and on the 6th of September captured Frederick. On the loth Ha- gerstown was taken, and on the I5th a division of the Confederate army, led by Stonewall Jackson, came upon Harper s Ferry and frightened Colonel Miles into a surrender by which the garrison, nearly twelve thousand strong, became prisoners of war. On the previous day there was a hard- fought engagement at South Mountain, in which the Federals, led by Hatch and Doubleday, were victorious. McClellan s whole army was now in the immediate rear of Lee, who, on the night of the 1 4th, fell back to Antietam Creek and took a strong position in the vicinity of Sharpsburg. Then followed two days of skirmishing and maneuver ing, which terminated on the lyth in one of the great battles of the war. From morning till night the struggle continued w r ith unabated violence, and ended, after a loss of more than ten thousand men on each side, in a drawn battle. This is said to be the bloodiest day in American history. But to the Confederates, who were greatly inferior in numbers, the result was almost as disastrous as defeat. McClellan did not press his advantage, and Lee withdrew his forces from the field and recrossed the Potomac in safety. His campaign of only a month had cost him nearly thirty thou sand men, and his proposed invasion of the North was at an end for this time. General McClellan, following the retreating Campaigns of 62 68 1 Confederates, again entered Virginia, and reached Rectortown. Here he was superseded in the com mand of the Army of the Potomac by General Burnside, who at once changed the plan of the campaign and advanced against Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock. Here the two armies in full force were again brought face to face with only the river between them. Burnside s movement was fatally delayed by the non-arrival of his pontoons, and it was not until the nth and I2th of Decem ber that a passage could be effected. Meanwhile the heights south of the river had been thoroughly fortified, and the Union columns were hurled back in several desperate assaults which cost the as sailants the dreadful loss of more than twelve thou sand men. Thus in gloom and disaster to the Federal cause ended the great campaigns of 1862. I .