li iipiiiM.i.l.T,,-;, ll illflli j THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ^ LOS ANGELES ||| i Vt^0> GIFTOF SK^^^^ f \Fc3C^>-^r3'T M mml @p _!-!> rvTE .- wIafiP?^** v Live? of Our 1 COMPLETE BIOGRAPHIES the Presidents of tlje Uijited States, FROM THE FORMATION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME, INCIDENTALLY EMBRACING A History of this Country for More than One HnnJrei Years, BY W. A. PETERS. With Full Page Portraits and Numerous Other Illustrations. NEW YORK : . Ml. LTJiPTOIvr, Fi No. 3 PARK PLACE, 1884, COPYRIGHT BT P. M. LUPTON PREFACE. In presenting to the public, in this work, the lives of the Presidents of the United States, the author has been actuated not only by the ordinary motives of the biographer and his- torian, but also by an earnest desire to present to the youth of the land for then- admiration, ambition and emulation the noblest examples of self-made manhood the world ever saw. Human history fails to present, since governments began, a succession of rulers who have so generally risen from humble positions, and, by the inherent and cultivated elements of true and noble manhood, reached such sublime heights in the records of individual achievement and greatness. In all those qualities through which they have improved their own condi- tion and that of their fellow men, they outrank the noblest Roman patrician and the sublimest Grecian philosopher. In no other historical or biographical events could the peculiar advantages and blessings of our form of government be so con- spicuously set forth to the world as in the manner in which these men have respectively risen step by step, successively oc- cupied the highest position within the gift of the people, and passed into the serene and dignified retirement of the statesman and the patriot, while the rising generation who have followed their example step forward to take their places. The author's work, however, would not be complete, were it only a biographical eulogy, filled with sentiments of praise and incidents of personal life . The endeavor has been also to embrace in the work as much of the history of our country as is con- nected with the public career of the Presidents. Such a history cannot fail of being interesting to every American citizen, em- bracing, as it naturally should, particular records of many im- portant events which are mentioned but briefly in general hig- tory. Such historical events become not only more interesting, but are more easily remembered by their association with the life of a particular President. The profession of politics is also more clearly outlined in such a work, and each administra- tion naturally forms an era in our history marked by dividing lines which do not exist in the ordinary records of national events. Thus the life of Washington has its clearly denned historical era, beginning with the Indian wars and the French and English war for supremacy on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, embrac- ing his personal connection with our war for independence and ending with his retirement from public life. The life of John Adams may be said to embrace the diplo- matic era of our early history. To that of Thomas Jefferson more properly belongs the era of our ablest statesmanship, including the Declaration of Independence, the noblest expo- nent of political sentiments ever given to the world. The War of 1812 is inseparably connected with the adminis- tration of James Madison, save so far as its greatest victory associates it with Andrew Jackson and binds him in memory with its halo of glory. To Jackson and Harrison more properly belongs the era of our Indian wars after the establishment of the Union, while with the biographies of Taylor and Pierce are entwined the interest- ing incidents of the Mexican War. Next arose in our history a series of fierce political contests on the question of slavery and its extension, embracing several ad- ministrations, and culminating with that of Abraham Lincoln, during which the great war was waged which secured universal freedom in our land and the permanency of the Union. The author's endeavor has been in this manner to so entwine the history of our country with the biography of her greatest heroes and statesmen that it cannot fail of being interesting and instructive to bot h young and old. It has also been the en- deavor to so compile and condense thai, the informa'ion is con- tained in a single volume of such moderate size that it is brought easily within the reach of all, and especially of that class of the rising youth who, to succeed in life, must, like so many of Our Presidents, make themselves. Here there is food for study, food for admiration and food for example and ambition. If these purposes have been accomplished in this work, the author will fee gratified that the labor expended on its pages has contributed to a better knowledge of the Presidents of the United States and the history of our country connected with their public life, and he will rest content with any share of appreciation the public may bestow upon his labor. W. A. PETERS. CONTENTS. PAGE. GEORGE WASHINGTON 11 JOHN ADAMS . 49 THOMAS JEFFERSON 75 JAMES MADISON 109 JAMES MONROE 125 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 137 ANDREW JACKSON 151 MARTIN VAN BUREN 175 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 183 JOHN TYLER 199 JAMES K. POLK 203 ZACHARY TAYLOR 211 MlLLARD KlLLMORE 229 FRANKLIN PIERCE 235 JAMES BUCHANAN 245 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 261 ANDREW JOHNSON 303 CONTENTS. Vii PAOE. ULYSSES S. GRANT 323 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 351 JAMES A. GARFIELD 367 CHESTER A. ARTHUR 395 GROVER CLEVELAND 417 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA 440 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait of Gteorge Washington 10 The Old Elm Tree 21 Dorchester Heights 25 Washington Crossing the Delaware 32 Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh 39 Old Family Vault 47 Portrait of John Adams 48 Continental Currency 51 Battle of Bunker Hill 57 Independence Hall, Philadelphia 68 Portrait of Thomas Jefferson 74 Residence of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Va 78 Fac-Simile of the Signatures to the Declaration of Inde- pendence 91 Tomb of Jefferson 105 Portrait of James Madison 108 Portrait of James Monroe 124 The Capitol at Washington 181 Portrait of John Quincy Adams 136 Portrait of Andrew Jackson 150 Statue of Andrew Jackson, New Orleans, La 171 Portrait of Martin Van Buren 174 Portrait of William Henry Harrison 182 Portrait of John Tyler 198 Portrait of James K. Polk . . 202 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. IX PAGE. Portrait of Zachary Taylor 210 Portrait of Millard Fillmore 22S Portrait of Franklin Pierce 234 Portrait of James Buchanan 244 The White House 252 The East Room 253 Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. 260 The Early Home of Abraham Lincoln 262 Mr. Lincoln's Residence at Springfield 274 The Tomb of Lincoln 300 Portrait of Andrew Johnson 302 Birthplace of Andrew Johnson at Raleigh, N. C 304 Portrait of Ulysses S. Grant 322 The Birthplace of General Grant 324 Portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes 350 Portrait of James A. Garfield 366 Mr. Garfield's Residence at Mentor, Ohio 380 Portrait of Chester A. Arthur 394 Portrait of Grover Cleveland 416 Birthplace of Grover Cleveland, at Caldwell, New Jersey. . 419 Christopher Columbus. 441 Discovery of the Mississippi River by De Soto 450 The Mayflower 468 Plymouth Rock , 470 William Penn. .. .. 502 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. GEORGE WASHINGTON. "Immortal Washington! to thee they pour A grateful tribute to thy natal hour, Who strike the lyre to Liberty, and twine Wreaths for her triumphsfor they all are thine. Wooed by thy virtues to the haunts of men, From mountain precipice and rugged glen, She bade tfape vindicate the rights of man, And in her march 'twas thine to lead the van." There is in the history of every nation a heroic age when some grand and noble spirit rises sublimely at the critical period of her existence; some strong arm, some master mind, some noble heart, to do and dare and conquer for the right. In Washington was our country blessed with such a sublime hero in her darkest hour of peril, and it becomes our proud and pleasant duty to record in these pages the historical facts which have made his name shine like a star in all lands. The subject of this sketch, George Washington, was born on the 22dof February, 1732, on the banks of the beautiful Potomac River, in Virginia. His father was Augustine Washington, the son of John Washington, who, nearly two centuries ago, left England in company with his brother Lawrence and settled in Virginia, where John manied and raised a family, of whom Augustine was the second son. Augustine was married twic'*. His first wife was Jane Butler, by whom he had several chil- dren. His second wife was Mary Ball, who is so well known to American history as the revered mother of George Washington. 1$ LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Augustine Washington died when George was about ten years of age. Of his life, business and prominent traits of character but little is known. One incident, however, stands out in his- tory to mark his nobility of soul his sublime reply to his son: " I would rather lose a thousand trees than have my boy tell a lie." But if George was blessed with a noble father, he was fortunate in having a mother who was an honor to him in every quality of- maternal excellence, and who, on the death of her husband, devoted herself to the earnest work of securing an education for the son who was to become so conspicuous in after years. The means of education at that period were of course very limited, and a grammatical knowledge of the Eng- lish language, mathematics, history, natural and moral philoso- phy formed the course of his youthful studies. Of this educa- tion mathematics formed by far the most important part. This proved of great advantage to him in early life in qualifying him for the office of practical surveyor, and in later years in its connection with military science. His manuscripts of business rules and forms of commercial paper, prepared at an early age, gave indications of superior qualifications of mind and of his earnest devotion to acquiring a knowledge of those things which would most fit him for practical business in life. At fifteen, his education being nearly completed, he was desirous to enter into active life, and obtained the berth of a midshipman in the British navy, but seeing his mother in tears at the thought of parting with him, his great affection and reverence for her dissuaded him from the adoption of this course of life. Of the early youth of Washington very few facts have been preserved in history. He had the natural passions of a boy for the active sports and games of school days, but he possessed more dignity than was customary at his age, and he was pro- verbial for manly bravery. Full of morality, dignity and cour- age, he was ready to defend others as well as himself. His well- developed physique and proverbial strength were as conspicuous in his boyhood as in after years, and served to win for him both admiration and respect. But if conspicuous for those qualities, how much more admired was he for his moral traits of character and for his deep and earnest love and veneration for his mother, CffiORQE WASHINGTON. 13 During all these years he was acquiring the rudiments of a good English education, and having applied himself with en- ergy, he acquired the fundamental principles of knowledge which so eminently fitted him in after years for his successful military leadership and eminent statesmanship. There is no brighter example in human record of the tree inclining to the bend of the twig than the relationship of Washington's man- hood to the noble traits of his boyish character. He appeared instinctively to cultivate every quality of heart and soul and mind necessary to fit him for his conspicuous after life, as though he had been selected at his birth as the instrument of a nation's redemption. After leaving school, and while he was still under sixteen years of age, he became acquainted with Lord Fairfax while residing with his brother, Lawrence Washington, at Mount Vemon. and so won upon the confidence and friendship of Fair- fax that he employed young Washington to survey his immense tracts of land granted him by the Crown, which were located in the wilderness of the Alleghanies. This was an undertaking requiring the greatest moral courage and physical endurance. To accomplish it Washington set out with a few attendants in the early spring, while snow and ice still covered the ground, and through pathless wildernesses, among savages and wild beasts, they marched by day and slept by night, sometimes in tents, occasionally in the wigwams of friendly Indians, and often under the starry sky. By day all sorts of obstacles and dangers were encountered swollen streams, mountainous rocks, dense and impenetrable forests and swamps, besides occasional hostile savages and ferocious wild beasts, which we might say, in grim humor, had to be surveyed around. It was through such difficulties as this that Washington accomplished the first labor of his business life. The success of his undertaking and the accuracy of the survey were such that he was then appointed as a public surveyor, in which position he diligently continued f 01 three years, at which time he had so attracted public attention by his abilities that he was appointed one of the adjutants general of Virginia, being then but nineteen years of age. When scarcely twenty-one he wag 14 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. employed by the government of his native colony in an enter- prise of very considerable importance. The French, as the first European discoverers of the Missis- sippi River, claimed all those extensive regions whose waters emptied into that river, and they had just formed the plan of connecting their possessions in America by the unior. of Louisi- ana and Canada. In pursuance of this design a line of military posts from the lakes to the Ohio River had been commenced in the year 1753. This line of forts ran within the boundaries of Virginia, and the Governor of that province deemed it his duty to remonstrate against this encroachment, which he considered in violation of previous treaties. He therefore determined to send an agent to the French commander on the Ohio to convey his views upon this important and delicate subject. For this purpi se Mr. Washington was the person selected. In discharge of this trust he set out about the middle of No- vember from Wills' Creek, then an extreme frontier settlement, and through an unexplored tract of morasses and forests, over rivers and difficult passages and among hostile savages, for over five hundred miles he pursued his dangerous journey. After many hardships he at last reached the Monongahela, where he learned that the French General was dead and that the greater part of the army had retired to winter quarters. Here, after spending a few days among friendly Indians, he wisely secured the services of some of their chiefs, who guided him to the fort at French Creek, where he found the command- ing officer on the Ohio. Delivering his letters, in three or four days he received an official reply, and immediately set out oft his return. Finding the snow deep and his horses weakened with fatigue, he determined to pursue his way on foot, and leaving the luggage, provisions and horses with the remainder of the expedition, he took his necessary papers, a gun and pack, and set out on foot with a single companion. It soon became evident that their journey was not to be without dangerous in- cidents, for on the next day they fell in with a party of French Indians, one of whom fired upon them. Taking this Indian prisoner, they kept him with them until nine o'clock in the evening, when they released him and walked without stopping GEORGE WASHINGTON. 15 all thp rest of the night, in order to be beyond the reach of pursuit. When they again reached the Alleghany River the ice was drifting down the stream with dangerous rapidity, which neces- sitated building a raft to cross. All day they worked to launch a poor, frail construction of logs and grape vine, and just as night was closing down they ventured on it into the stream. In this perilous voyage "Washington was thrown into the water, from which with great difficulty he rescued himself by clam- bering on the logs. Passing the night on an island, without fire, they next morning found the river frozen over, and com- pleted their crossing on the ice. The answer of the French commandant was entirely unsatis- factory, as it indicated no disposition to withdraw from the dis- puted territory. It was thereupon determined by the Assembly of Virginia to maintain by force the rights of the British Crown. Immediate action was taken on the defiant attitude of the French, and a regiment of three or four hundred men was raised and the command given to Mr. Fry, while Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel. Desirous to engage in active service, and take as early measures as possible in defense of the colony, Washington obtained permission to march in advance of the other troops to Great Meadows. On reaching this place he learned from the friendly Indians that a party of the French were encamped in a valley a few miles to the west. The night was dark and rainy, and entirely concealed the movements of the troops. They surrounded the French camp and took it completely by surprise. The commanding officer was killed. Soon after this affair Colonel Fry died, and the command of the regiment devolved upon Washington, who speedily collected forces at Great Meadows to the number of four hundred men. A small stockade was erected, called Fort Necessity, in which a few soldiers were stationed to guard the horses and provisions, while the main body moved forward to dislodge the French from Fort Duquesne. They had not proceeded more than thirteen miles when they were informed by friendly Indians that the French, as numerous as pigeons in the woods, were ad- vancing in a hostile manner toward the English settlements, 16 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. and also that Fort Duquesne had been strongly reinforced . This was a great surprise and disappointment to Washington, and in the critical situation it was resolved to retreat to Great Meadows, and every exertion was made to render Fort Neces- sity strong enough to resist an attack. Before the completion of the works, however, the fort was attacked by a considerable force, the assailants being protected by trees and high grass. The Americans received them with great bravery, and Wash- ington distinguished himself by his coolness and military skill. After an entire day's fierce engagement the French general de- manded a parley and offered terms of capitulation. These were refused, but others were offered and accepted during the night. The fort was surrendered on condition that Washington and his soldiers should march out with the honors of war, retaining their arms and baggage, and proceed without molestation to the Virginia settlements. On their return a public vote of thanks was tendered to Washington and the officers under his command for their conduct in the affair, and three hundred pistoles in silver were distributed among the soldiers. The dispute with the French in respect to the Ohio lands, which commenced in Virginia, was vigorously taken up in England, and two regiments were at once ordered to America to maintain the claim of the British Crown to the territory in dispute. These troops arrived in the early part of 1755, under the command of General Braddock, who invited Washington to serve during the campaign as a volunteer aide-de-camp. This invitation he at once accepted, and joined the regiment on its march to Fort Cumberland. At this post the expedition was unfortunately detained until near the middle of June, waiting for teams and army stores, and by the tune they were ready to march Washington was prostrated by a serious illness, but, with his characteristic spirit, he refused to remain at the fort, and accompanied the army in a covered wagon. The object of the campaign being to capture Fort Duquesne by a rapid march and possible surprise, Washington advised the general to leave his heavy artillery and baggage behind, and to press forward with a chosen body of troops as expeditiously as possible. This advice being adopted, twelve hundred men were selected, to be GEORGE WASHINGTON. 17 commanded by General Braddock in person, and to advance with the utmost dispatch. But, much to the disappointment of Washington, the inarch was not made with the speed or caution the exigencies of the case required. Writing to his brother, Washington said : ''I found that instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every molehill and to erect bridges over every brook." At Little Meadows Washington -was so overcome by sickness that he had to remain behind for a few days until the arrival of Colonel Dunbar with the remainder of the army. He again reached the main army on the day before that eventful battle in our early history. This was on the 9th of July, when General Braddock, having crossed the Monongahela River, was pressing forward to Fort Duquesne without caution or preparation to prevent surprise. Earnestly Washington expostulated with him, and explained to him the peculiar warfare of the wily savage, but to this advice of the colonial militia officer the vain and arrogant Braddock gave a contemptuous reply that he had nothing to fear from French or Indians, and that he commanded British troops whose bravery and tactics were superior to that of any savage foe. Thus he marched his troops on without a single scout until within a few miles of Fort Duquesne, when suddenly they fell into that terrible and deadly ambush so familiar to history as one of the most stupid and obstinate blunders ever made by a military man. Here the hidden foe of French and Indians in the high grass and behind trees poured MI air deadly volleys of musketry into the broken and disordered ranks, and with dead and dying strewing the ground in every direction, the greatest consternation prevailed, and officers and soldiers alike went down or fled, unable to see or fight thr : r foe. Washington and his Virginia militia alone were cool, and they alone saved the remnant of the British army from entire de- struction. Skilled in the Indian mode of warfare, the Virginia troops took to the shelter of the trees, and by their well-directed fire held the savages in check and stopped the relentless pursuit and butchery. Braddock was soon shot down, and the entire defense devolved on Washington, who rode through the hottest of the engagement and had two horses killed under him and 18 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. four bullets passed through his coat. It seems indeed dential interposition that saved him from the fate of those around him. Never before was an army more completely surprised in day- light, or thrown into greater dismay or disorder. A thousand deadly bullets were whistling through the forest, and hundreds of panic-stricken soldiers writhed in death agonies. This was the fearful surprise, the awful ambush against which Washing- ton had continually warned Braddock, who had time in his dying agonies, while being carried to the camp of Dunbar, to realize his fatal mistake, if he did not even fully realize it on the field of his terrible defeat, while Washington's heroic deeds upon that bloody field stand out as one of the brightest pages of his renown. Intelligence of the defeat of Braddock and of the withdrawal of the regular forces from Virginia arrived while the Assembly of that colony was still in session, and, realizing that the de- fense of the frontier settlements depended on them, they at once resolved to raise a regiment of sixteen companies. The com- mand of this was given to Washington, with authority to name the field officers. In executing the duties of his office, Washington visited the frontiers nnd made the best disposition of the few men he found in the various posts. But he had not even reached Williams- burg when he was overtaken by a messenger with information that the back settlements had been broken up by the French and Indians, who were burning their houses, devastating their crops, murdering and leading into captivity the men, women and children. The few troops stationed on the frontiers were unable to render them any assistance, but retired for their own safety to the stockade forts. The condition of the people of the settlements was awful to contemplate, and in their farms and villages they lay down every night with the fear of a cruel death or a more cruel bondage continually before them. The people, pitiful in their helpless condition, looked to Washington for the protection he was unable to give. The difficulty of rais- ing a large number of men, and the inability of a small number to protect the extensive frontiers cf Virginia, were ccntinu; i GEORGE WASHINGTON. 19 sources of anxiety and distress. The cruel and relentless sav- ages made no distinction in their warfare. They slew the women and children, the aged and the helpless, as well as the men they found in arms. No human pen can record the horrors suffered by the people of the Virginia frontier. The awful scenes wit- nessed by Washington caused him at one time to write to the Governor of the province as follows : ''The supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sorrow that I solemnly declare I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butcher- ing enemy, could that contribute to the people's ease." During all this time Washington was indefatigable in repre- senting to the Governor the wretched condition of the frontiers and the great defects of the existing mode of defense. He strongly advised the reduction of Fort Duquesne, the lurking- place and stronghold of the savages, as the only means of effect- ually restoring security to the frontier settlements. In case this measure was not adopted he advised that twenty-two forts, extending in a line of three hundred and sixty miles, should be erected and garrisoned by two thousand men in constant pay and service. In the autumn of 1758, to the great joy of Wash- ington, an expedition was fitted out against Fort Duquesne, but on reaching the fort they found that the garrison had deserted it and retreated down the Ohio. The allies of the Indians having departed, a treaty of peace was soon made with the tribes. Fort Duquesne was repaired and, under the name of Fort Pitt, was garrisoned with two hundred men from Washington's regi- ment, and for a time the occupation of war was at an end. The great object of his wishes having been thus happily ac- complished, Washington resigned his commission and ended his career as a provincial officer. This retirement from public life was soon followed by a very happy event that of his marriage to Mrs. Martha Custis, a young and beautiful lady of accomplish- ments and most amiable character. Retiring to the estate at Mount Vernon, which had descended to him from his brother Lawrence, he devoted himself assiduously to the business of agriculture, and became one of the greatest landholders in North America, His Mount Vernon estate alone consisted ef nine 20 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. thousand acres, and his domestic and farming establishments were composed of nearly a thousand persons. Here in this beautiful and quiet retreat it is probable he passed the happiest years of his life, full of the sweetest domestic joy and content. Here Washington, in his retirement from active public services, had every opportunity to store his mind with the rich and varied knowlc dge which in after years so eminently fitted him for the leadership of a freedom loving people. But even here he was not entirely free from public duties. He served the people as judge of a county court and as a member of the House of Bur gesses of his native province, in which positions he secured the esteem and confidence of his constituents by the firmness and propriety of his conduct and the uniform good sense of his counsels. While in this latter situation he took an active part in opposition to the action of the British Parliament in taxing the American colonies. He was elected a Representative to t! e first Congress, which met at Philadelphia in 1774, and was the active member of all the committees on military affairs. This now brings us to the grand culminating point in the his- tory of our country and the public career of Washington. The greatest principles that ever influenced human action were about to shake the world in revolution, and the sublime spec- tacle of a mere handful of freemen opposing the despotic will of Great Britain was to be presented to an interested and ad- miring world. Such an example of lofty courage and integrity of purpose could nowhere else be found on the pages of human history. The British Cabinet resolved to force the colonists into the submission of slaves or to destroy them. But the lordly power of England had "reckoned without her host." The pa- triots of America were made of sterner stuff, and the elements of enduring manhood were as deep and strong in them as ever it had been in the most heroic Greek or Roman of the classic age. When the commencement of hostilities made it necessary to appoint a commander-in-chief of the American forces, George Washington was unanimously elected to the office. On receiv- ing from the President of Congress official notice of this appoint- ment he addressed that honorable and patriotic body as follows , GEORGE WASHINGTON. ai '' Mr. President, although I am truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities acd military experience may not be equal to the extensive and im- portant trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert every power I possess in their service and for support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approval. But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remem- bered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare, with the ut- most sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. As to the pay, sir. I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecu- niary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employ- ment, at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses ; those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire." A special commission was made out for him, and at the same time a unani- mous resolution was adopted by Congress "that they would maintain and assist him, and adhere to him with their lives and fortune, for the maintenance and preservation of American liberty." Washington a t once prepared to enter upon the duties of his position, and taking a hasty leave of his family and passing a few days in New York, arranging some military details with General Schuyler, in command of the post, he proceeded to Cam- bridge, the headquarters of the American army. On his way thither he received from individuals and public bodies the most flattering attention and the strongest promises of support and assistance. A commiti.ee of the Massachusetts Congress THE OLD ELM I'l LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. met him at Springfield, about one hundred miles from Boston, and conducted him to the army, and under the historic old elm at Cambridge George Washington took command of the Conti- nental forces. Immediately after his arrival the Congress presented him an address, in which they expressed their approbation of his ap- pointment and the great respect and affection they entertained for him. His reply was well calculated to increase these senti- ments. He returned the warmest acknowledgments of their kindness, and promised ever to retain it in grateful remem- brance. In the course of this reply he observed : " In exchanging the enjoyments of domestic life for the duties of my pres- ent honorable but arduous situation, I only emulate the virtue and pubiic spirit of the whole province of Massachusetts, which, with a firmness and patriotism without example, has sacrificed all the comforts of social and political life in support of the rights of mankind and the welfare of our com- mon country. My highest ambition is to be the happy instrument of vindi- cating these rights, and to see this devoted province again restored to peace, liberty and safety." On reaching the camp the first movements of the Commander- in-Chief were directed to an examination of the strength and situation of his forces. They amounted to about fifteen thou- sand poorly armed and undisciplined militia, occupying several posts in an extent of about tw. Ive miles. Some were stationed at Roxbury, some at Cambridge and some on Winter and Pros- pect Hills, in front of Bunker Hill. A few companies were posted in the towns about Boston Bay, which were most ex- posed to attacks from British armed vessels. The troops were not sufficiently numerous to defend so large an extent of coun- try, but it was difficult to make a more compact arrangement. The British army was posted in three divisions. The main body, under General Howe, was intrenching itself on Bunker Hill, near Charlestown; another division was stationed on Copp's Hill, and the third was strongly intrenched and fortified on Roxbury Neck, and light horse and infantry were stationed in Boston. The strength of the British forces was augmented by their war ships which floated defiantly in the harbor. The situation was certainly a discouraging one to the Ameri- cans. In comparison to the British regulars their array was GEORGE WASHINGTON. 23 miserably provided with munitions of war. The supply of amu- nition would not have given each soldier a dozen rounds, and, to add still more difficulties to the situation, the army was with- out discipline, and being enlisted for only a short time they were not submissive to the commands of their officers. This was the material Washington had to mould into the defense of the country. But with great labor and skill he brought the army up to a better condition, having actually reorganized his forces in front of the enemy. General Gage, who was in command of the British forces, whose numbers at that time amounted to some eight or ten thousand men, had devoted his exertions principally to self- defense, and with the exception of a few skirmishes both armies had been industriously engaged in strengthening their fortifica- tions. But this inactive condition of things was unsatisfactory to Washington, who believed that active operations should be undertaken to destroy the British army in Boston before it was reinforced, and before the resources of the colonies should be entirely exhausted. After frequently reconnoitering the situation of the enemy Washington was of opinion that their works could be carried by- storm. This proposition, however, was opposed by a council of war as a dangerous risk which might involve the capture or de- struction of the army and ruin the cause. The original plan of continuing the blockade was therefore decided upon as the safest. During t he autumn the Americans made gradual approaches to- ward the British posts, and the strength of the army was in- creased by the arrival of about fifteen hundred soldiers from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and, to add to the condition of the army, a British ordinance ship completely laden with military stores was captured by an American privateer under the com- mand of Captain Manly. At this time a serious and almost fatal mistake was made as to the time of enlistment of the troops. A Committee of Congress was appointed in September to visit the camp at Cambridge and confer with the chief magistrates of the northern colonies, and the Council of Massachusetts, on the continuance and regulation of the C/pntinental army. The re- 24 LIVES Of OUR ^RESIDENTS; suit of this conference was that the new army should consist of twenty thousand three hundred and seventy-two men to serve till the last day of December. Washington, realizing that the term of enlistment was too short, called upon the soldiers and officers to make their election whether to retire or remain with the army. This naturally led to difficulties in effecting the re- enlistment. Many were unwilling to continue in the army on any terms, some required leave of absence to visit their fami- lies, and others were in doubt as to what course to pursue. To remove this di- affection Washington resolved to appeal directly to the pride and patriotism of both officers and men, and in a general order issued October 20th he said : " The times and the importance of the great cause we are engaged in allow no room for hesitation and delay. When life, liberty and property are at stake; when our country is in danger of being a melancholy scene of blood- shed and desolation; when our towns are laid in ashes, innocent women and children driven from their peaceful habitations, exposed to the rigors of an ui_lempnt seas' n to depend on the hand of charity for support; when ca- urnitics like these are staring us in the face, and a bru: a), savage enemy thn-atens us and everything we hold dear with destruction from foreign P= i lit le becomes the character of a soldier to shrink from danger and "ndition for new terms. It is the general's intention to indulge Doth officers ., . * Idlers, who compose the new army, with furloughs for a reasonable irae; but tbis must be done In such a manner as not to injure the service or weaken the army too much at once " This appeal of Washington's had a beneficial effect upon many, but still the new regiments did not fill as rapidly as had been expected. Many of the old troops whose term of service had expired were eager to return home, while the new troops were slow in coming in. This condition of things often left the American lines in a defenseless state, and the peculiar circum- stances were such that Washington, in a communication to Congress, wrote as follows : "It is not in the pages of history to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket- shot of the enemy for six months together without ammunition, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another within that distance of twenty odd British regiments, is more, probably, than ever was attempted." The regular force engaged for the year now amounted to about fifteen thousand men, and the militia to about six thou- GfiOJJGE WASHINGTON. sand. The troops being in good condition, Washington now determined to begin active operations. His plan was to take possession of Dorchester Heights, and by fortifying them com- mand Boston and the harbor. To secretly effect the occupation a heavy bombardment of the town and lines of the enemy was begun on the night of the 2d of March, 1776, and continued on the two succeeding nights. This so engaged the attention of the enemy that on the night of the 4th a detachment of troops under command of General Thomas crossed the neck from Rox- bury and took posses- sion of the Heights, ^ffiBftjjLffi ! fe^te and by working hard all night in the frozen ground, they had by daylight a fort bristling with cannon looking down on the enemy's vessels of war. In hope of dis- I lodging the patriots the British admiral opened a heavy fire- _' on the works, but in spite of his broadsides the fortifications con- tinued to grow until the fleet's fire was wholly wasted on them. The tremendous cannonading from the fleet and British forts in Boston on the morning when they discovered that the Americans were in possession of the heights, is described as follows by a writer on the scene : " Cannon shot are continually rolling and rebounding over the hill, and it is astonishing to observe how little our soldiers are terrified by them. During the forenoon we were in momentary expectation of witnessing an awful scene; nothing less than the carnage of Breed's Hill battle was expected. The royal troops are perceived to be in motion, as if embarking to pass the harbor and lard on Dorchester shore to attack our works. The hills and elevations in this vicinity are covered with spectators to witness deeds of horror in the expected conflict. His Excellency General Washington is DORCHESTER HEISHTS. 26 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. present, animating and encouraging the soldiers, and they, in their turn, manifest their joy and express a warm desire for the approach of the enemy. Each man knows his place and is resolute to execute his duty." In expectation of dislodging the Americans, General Howe determined to attack the Heights, and ordered three thousand men on this service, but ere they could make a landing a storm dispersed them, and before they could again proceed the Ameri- can works were in such a state of security as to discourage any attempt against them. The British were now in a peculiar position, and, realizing that their fleet was at the mercy of the Americans, they resolved to evacuate Boston as quickly as possible, and were glad to leave the town uninjured provided Washington would not fire on their fleet. A communication to this effect from the Selectmen of Boston to Washington secured the assurance of his good wishes for the safety of the town, and of his intention to allow the fleet to pass unmolested if they did not fire upon Boston. Thus, on the 17th of March the British army embarked on their ships, and as they went down the harbor the Americans tri- umphantly marched into Boston in great exultation over their bloodless victory. Throughout the entire war there was not a more glorious vic- tory, or one of such importance secured at so little sacrifice ; and to the final success of American arms must be greatly at- tributed this early dislodgment of the British from a harbor which, once strongly fortified by them, would have been held, and perhaps been one of the means of our ultimate subjugation. It being evident that the destination of the fleet and British army was New York, Washington at once prepared to send a part of his forces to that town to hold it, if possible, against the expected occupation by the enemy. Entering Boston with the remainder of his gallant army, the Commander-in-Chief was received with the greatest enthusiasm and delight by the in- habitants, while Congress passed a vote of thanks and ordered a medal struck to perpetuate the remembrance of the event. After remaining in Boston long enough to provide for the safety of the town, Washington marched with the main army to NQW York, and made every preparation for the defense of GEORGE WASHINGTON. $fl this important position. In these labors the Americans were incessantly engaged until June, when the British fleets arrived at Sandy Hook, and with their powerful army, which had been reinforced, took possession of Staten Island. From there Gen- eral Howe sent a letter by a flag, directed to " George Washing- ton, Esq." This the General refused to receive, as it did not recognize the public character with which he had been invested by Congress. After again addressing him in the same manner, the British commander was at last compelled to address his communication to General George Washington. Thus was the contempt of the British forced within the limits of military courtesy. At this time the Declaration of Independence had just been adopted by Congress, and the issue of the war was clearly defined for independence and absolute separation from Great Britain. The effect of this upon the American army was highly encouraging, and added greatly to the strength of the cause for which they were fighting. Now, instead of a mere contest for their rights as subjects of the British Crown, the deathless sen- timents of the Declaration of Independence were set forever in the niche of history on the immortal Fourth of July that day which lovers of freedom honor in all lands. Oa the arrival of General Howe at Staten Island the American army did not consist of more than ten thousand men, but the number was rapidly augmented until by the end of August it amounted to twenty-seven thousand. In the distribution of this force Washington exercised such excellent military skill that the enemy were in doubt, not only as to the number of our men. but also as to the most advantageous point of attack. The Americans were guarding every probable point of debarkation, and in daily anticipation of attack, Washington had prepared the minds of his men for expected action, and in a general or- der he said : " The time is now at hand which must probably determine whether Ameri- cans are to be freemen or slaves ; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will uo-.v depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel $8 LlVteS OP OtTE PRESIDENTS. and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance or the most abject submission. We have resolved to conquer or die. Our own, our country's honor call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, then, rely on the goodness of our cause and on the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman, contend- ing for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth." This order and appeal had scarcely been issued before the enemy attacked the American forces under the command of General Sullivan on Long Island. The armies, fighting in de- tachments all day, occasioned a succession of small engagements in which the Americans were defeated in every quarter. Their greatest disadvantage was a want of experience, and they also suffered from a lack of discipline. Night closed in on them, discouraged and worn out with fatigue, with the victorious enemy in front ready to attack them at daylight, while the British fleet was preparing to enter the East River to cut off their retreat. In this disastrous position Washington crossed the East River during the night, to conduct in person the evacuation of the island. By a most Providential occurrence, about two o'clock in the morning a heavy fog enveloped Long Island and enabled Washington to successfully conduct a re- treat of nine thousand men, with their baggage, provisions, horses and military stores, across a river more than a mile wide, and landed them in New York without material loss. So dense was the fog and of such duration, that the enemy knew nothing of the retreat until after the last man was safely landed in New York. The entire retreat was under the personal supervision of Washington, who remained among the men until he saw the last of them safely over. The reverse sustained by our forces had a most discouraging effect upon the 1 men. The great enthusiasm of the soldiers for the just cause of their country and liberty led them to believe that the skill and discipline of the enemy could not prevail against them. With the utmost confidence of victory they had GEORGE WASHINGTON. 29 engaged the British troops, and being thrown almost into con- sternation by their own defeat, they became so dispiriud and so overrated the adroitness and skill of the enemy that they anticipated nothing but defeat in every movement. " Our situ- ation," said Washington in a letter to Congress, "is truly dis- tressing. The check our detachment received on the twenty- second ultimo has dispirited too great a proportion of our troops, and filled their minds with apprehension and despair. The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost efforts to a brave and manly opposition, in order to repair our losses, are dismayed, intractable and impatient to return." Washington had always held the opinion that an efficient army could only be secured by long enlistments, and he urged Congress to extend the time of service, earnestly avowing to them that the defense of the public liberties was to be in- trusted only to a pei-manent army, regularly disciplined. He fully explained the difficulty of reducing militia and raw re- cruits to the requisite military strictness. This remonstrance had the desired effect, and soon after Congress resolved to raise eighty-eight battalions to serve during the war. It was impor- tant, therefore, to wear away the present campaign with as little loss as possible, in order to take the field in the ensuing year with a well organized army. The situation was one to call forth all the grandest qualities of Washington's nature, and he did what no other mortal man could have done he held the army together. Thoroughly un- derstanding the cri&is, he wisely avoided an engagement and resolved upon the evacuation of New York if necessary for the preservation of the troops. During this time the British commander was also actively preparing to bring on a general engagement, and for this pur- pose sent four thousand men and five ships of war up the Hud- son River, some three miles above New York, to cut off the sup- plies and retreat of the Americans. Works had been thrown up at this place by the Americans, capable of defense, but upon the landing of the British our troops fell back from their forti- fications, although two brigades had been sent from the main army to support them. Believing that his troops would make 30 LIVES OF OUR PBES1DENTS. a brave resistance, Washington rode at once to the scene of ac- tion, where he found the army in full retreat. In the greatest mortification at their want of courage, he attempted to rally them, but at the first movement of the enemy they again broke and fled in disorder. This cowardly action so wrought upon the high and noble spirit of Washington that, for the first and last time in the history of the war, despair overwhelmed him, and he turned his horse's head toward the enemy, determined to seek an honorable death, and it was only by the friendly vio- lence of his aids that he was turned from his purpose. After this action of the army Washington realized the imme- diate necessity of evacuating New York. This he happily ac- complished with the loss of only a few men, although he was forced to leave behind all his heavy artillery, tents and most of his military stores. The departure of the American troops was immediately followed by the entry of the British army, when they posted their troops in encampments across the island in front of the Americans, and protected their flanks from front to rear with ships of war. The Americans were strongly posted at Kingsbridge, which kept open their communication with the country. Another detachment also held a fortified position on the heights of Harlem. This post was in sight of the British lines, and the frequent skirmishes between them and the enemy were beneficial in giving the undisciplined troops experience in military service. Scarcely had the Americans retreated from New York before a detachment of the enemy's troops appeared in the open space between the two camps, and Washington ordered some troops, under the command of Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch, to attack them. These officers displayed the utmost courage and most soldierly qualities in leading their men in the charge, but unfortunately they were both mortally wounded. After they were borne from the field their troops bravely continued the attack, and drove the enemy from the field, although the British greatly outnumbered them. This victory had a most beneficial influence on the army, and in a general order Washington praised the courage of the officers and men in contrast to the cowardly conduct of the troops on the day previous, and he GEORGE WASHINGTON. 81' appealed to the whole army to remember and imitate the brave example. To honor the memory of the brave major he gave out the name of ' ' Leitch " the next day for the parole, or coun- tersign, and he took occasion to say, in making the appointment to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the colonel, that " the officer succeeded the gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton, who would have been an honor to any country, and who had fallen gloriously fighting at his post." At this time General Howe was prosecuting his scheme for cutting off Washington's communication with the Eastern States and compelling him to a general engagement. But Washington was too fully alive to the vital interests of his country to risk all on an unequal fight, and thwarting the Brit- ish general in this design, the latter then adopted a new plan of operation, and resolved upon the invabion of New Jersey. About the same time Fort Washington was taken by storm, with the loss of the entire garrison of over two thousand men as prisoners of war, together with all their tents and military stores. The capture of Fort Washington was followed by the necessary evacuation of Fort Lee, on the Jersey shore, leaving behind the baggage and artillery. These two disasters, and the invasion of New Jersey by the enemy, made it necessary for Washington and his army to fall back into that State, and keep themselves in front of the advancing foe to hold them in check as much as possible. His first stand was on the Hackensack, and then he was forced to fall back toward the Delaware. So close was the pursuit of the British that the skirmishers of one army entered a village as the rear guard of the other was falling back at the other end. Washington, however, frequently made a show of resistance, which halted the enemy and threw them on the de- fensive, making their advance more cautious, as they did not know how much Washington's force was being recruited in New Jersey. They were not aware, however, that it was one of the darkest hours in American history. General Howe had issued a proclamation as commissioner, commanding all persons in arms against the King to return peaceably to their homes, and offering a full pardon to all who would sub- scribe submission to the royal authority. This was issued at a LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. lime when the American army, reduced in numbers, worn oub with fatigue and disheartened by defeat, were fleeing barefooted and almost in rags before a large, disciplined body of finely- armed troops. So great was the despondency in New Jersey that many wealthy families returned to their allegiance to the Crown. It is probable that all that sustained the cause was the WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. firm and unshaken stand maintained by Congress, which, as the hour grew darker, blessed by the memories of those heroes, was only roused to more vigorous exertions for the freedom of the people. 'vVnshington had now retreated across the Delaware, and the elated British were only waiting for the ice to form sufficiently to cross and take possession of Philadelphia. The American GEORGE WASHINGTON. 33 forces now consisted of about seven thousand men, although during their retreat through New Jersey they had scarcely amounted to half that number. The British felt so secure, with their weak and fleeing foe on the opposite side of the river, that they relaxed their vigilance and stationed their men in a very loose and uncovered manner. Learning of this unprotected situation of their detachments. Washington, saying that it was the tune to clip their wings when they were so spread, formed the bold plan of recrossing the Delaware and attacking the Brit- ish posts on its eastern banks. This he accomplished during a terrific storm at night, with billows and ice almost crushing the boats and actually preventing two out of the three divisions from effecting the crossing. With this main division of a little over two thousand men, Washington pushed rapidly ahead to Trenton, where he surprised fifteen hundred Hessians and British light horse. So great was their surprise that, after their commanding officer, Colonel Rahl, was mortally wounded, they threw down their arms and surrendered over nine hundred prisoners, six pieces of artillery, a thousand stand of arms and some military stores. After this capture, Washington very wisely recrossed the Delaware. After securing his prisoners and giving his men two or three days' rest, he returned and took possession of Trenton. The next day, however, Lord Cornwallis moved forward with a numerous force and drew up in front of Trenton about sundown. Here the situation of the Americans would have been critical had the British forced an immediate engagement, but Cornwallis, feeling confident of capturing the entire army, deferred the attack until the following morning. Washington being upon the opposite side of the creek which ran through the town, had strongly guarded the passes, and conceived the idea of withdrawing from his position during the night and making a forced march on the rear of the detachment of the enemy at Princeton. To conceal his movement from Cornwallis, he had stationed guards to perform their usual rounds until near daylight, and kept the camp fires burning all night. Washington reached Princeton early in the morning, and would have completely surprised the Britisli had not three of their regiments met him on their way to Cornwallis' camp. 34 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. After a hot engagement, in which Washington bravely led his troops, the British were forced back, with a loss of one hundred killed and three hundred prisoners. These victories naturally revived the hope's of the American army and the entire country, and their results were of the ut- most importance to the cause. Philadelphia was saved for the winter, and New Jersey was recovered from the control of the British, who, from the wholesome check they had received, were inspired with respect, if not even fear, for the Americans, and they moved with so much slowness and caution that many advantages were thereby secured for our army. The character of the Commander-in-Chief rose higher than ever in public esti- mation, and the influence upon enlistment was very beneficial at the time. The campaign having been carried into January, it was now advisa ble for the army to go into Avinter quarters, which Washington selected at Morristown, at which place he was secure from molestation by the British, who had an exag- gerated idea as to Washington's force. The remainder of the winter was therefore passed with occasional skirmishes, in which the Americans were generally victorious. In the spring Washington had much trouble and labor in as- sembling the troops from the different States, owing to a desire of certain States, fearing invasion, to retain part of their troops at home for defense, and to nothing but Washington's great personal influence is due the successful reorganization of the army. The British opened the campaign about the first of June, and advanced their forces toward Philadelphia, in Somerset County, New Jersey, from which position they fell back to New Bruns- wick. Washington, from a number of advances and retreats made by the British without any apparent purpose, believed that they intended to move up the Hudson River, and to thwart their probable oojecfc he detached a brigade to reinforce the Northern division of his army. At this time the cause of free- dom received great encouragement and assistance from France in the arrival of two French vessels with twenty-four thousand stand of arms, which placed our army on a more equal war footing with the enemy. During the month of August Wash- GEORGE WASHINGTO::. 35 ington received information that the British had taken posses- sion of Chesapeake Bay and landed an army near Philadelphia. Washington at once ordered the divisions of his army to unite in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, nnd called f jr the militia of the adjoining States to take the field. In his effort to rein- force the Northern army Washington had sent a portion of his own forces, and could only muster about eleven thousand men with whom to oppose the enemy in their march upon Phila- delphia. The two armies approached each other on the third of September, and the British troops advancing, sought to turn the right of the American army. To secure a better position, Washington fell back across the Brandywine River and posted his troops on the hill near Chadd's Ford, while General Max- well, with his light corps, took possession of the hills south of the river, to hold the enemy in check if they should approach in that direction. The other fords of the river were guarded against the attempted crossing of the enemy. On the morning of the eleventh the British advanced, and one column marched to Chadd's Ford and forced Maxwell's corps to cross the river, while the other column, under Cornwallis, moved up on the west side of the Brandywine, and falling upon the main army of the Americans, drove them back with a loss of about nine hundred men. The Americans made a creditable resistance, and retreated at night to Chester and on the next day to Philadelphia. Washington took immediate steps to rein- force his army for a vigorous defense of Philadelphia. Fifteen hundred men were marched from Peekskill and large detach- ments of militia ordered into the field, and Washington again marched upon the enemy and met them about Lweaty-three miles from Philadelphia, but just as he opened the engagement a terrific storm arose, and such a torrent of rain fell that the ammunition of the Americans was ruined, and they were forced to retreat to Warwick's Furnace to refit their muskets and re- plenish their cartridge boxes. The British then moved rapidly toward Reading, with the intention of capturing Washington's military stores. To save these the Americans took a new po- sition, and leaving Philadelphia unprotected, the British tri- umphantly entered that city on the twenty-sixth of the month. 36 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. The object of the British was to effect an open communica tion through the Delaware with their fleet, but Washington for a while prevented this by erecting forts on both sides of the Dela- ware and by obstructing the channel below the city. To destroy these works, a considerable force of British troops were sent, which gave Washington a favorable opportunity to attack the main body of the enemy. This attack was well planned, and at first the Americans were successful, and routed the enemy in two different quarteis and took a number of prisoners, but a heavy fog prevented Washington from understanding his own situation or that of the enemy, and he hastily abandoned the field and resigned a victory which he had thought secure. About this time news was received of the surrender of General Burgoyne and his entire division of the British army as prisoners of war. This not only greatly raised the hopes of the Ameri- cans, but enabled a portion of the Northern army to join Wash- ington, who then took position at or near White Marsh. Sir William Howe moved out to dislodge him, but finding the Americans in too strong a position, he fell back to Philadelphia, and soon after Washington retired into winter quarters at Valley Forge, where the pitiful, destitute army of patriot heroes suf- fered cold and hunger and every deprivation while trying to maintain their very existence until spring. To add still more to Washington's trials, great dissatisfaction was raised through- out the country at what was claimed as his mismanagement, and there was a clamor to supplant him in office and raise Gen- eral Gates to the chief command, on account of his successful capture of Burgoyne's army. But the counsel and judgment of wiser heads prevailed, and the only man on American soil who could have carried our armies through to victory was left in chief command. Soon after this the cheering news was received that France had dispatched a fleet and army to our aid. This had a corre- spondingly depressing effect upon the British, and Sir William Howe having resigned his command, Sir Henry Clinton, his successor, received immediate orders to evacuate Philadelphia. The British general, deciding on a march to New York, crossed the Delaware about the middle of June, and Washington put GEORGE WASHINGTON. 37 his troops in motion to harass his rear, and even bring him to a general engagement if a favorable opportunity was presented. Having sent a detachment of troops to the front, under com- mand of General Lee, to make an attack to be supported by the main army, Washington came up with the reserve to find Lee in full retreat without having struck a blow. This lost the ad- vantages which were so inviting to the Americans. The troops could not be formed in position for attack that night, and by the next morning the British were nowhere to be seen, having moved away in great silence during the night, sustaining a loss, including prisoners, of about three hundred and fifty men. Soon after the battle of Monmouth the American army took post at White Plains, and remained there and in the vicinity till autumn was far advanced, and then retired to Middlebrook, in New Jersey. During this period only occasional skirmishes occurred. The French fleet arrived too late to attack the British in the Delaware, and undertook to engage the King's fleet off the coast of Rhode Island, but a storm so injured both fleets that the French sailed to Boston and the British to New York to refit. With the battle of Monmouth active operations closed in the Middle States, and the American army went into winter quar- ters in the Highlands. At the close of 1778, except the posses- sion of New York by the British, the local situation did not materially differ from that of the commencement of the cam- paign of 1776. For a time the alliance with France led the people to believe that our independence would be achieved with scarcely any further effort on our part. It required much labor on the part of Washington to dispel this dangerous delusion, and it was not until late in January that he prevailed on Con- gress to pass resolutions for re-enlisting the army. It was also with the greatest difficulty that Washington could prevent a large portion of the army from throwing down their arms be- cause the depreciated Continental currency they received as pay was not sufficient to keep their wives and children from the point of starvation. The American army in these years was destitute not only of food, but of clothing, and it seems as if Washington possessed supernatural influence to calm all the disturbing elements and hold the army together. SJ8 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. The effective force of Sir Henry Clinton in 1779, strongly for- tified in New York and Rhode Island, amounted to about six- teen thousand men, while that of the Americans did not exceed thirteen thousand. West Point was the chief post of the Ameri- cans, and to entice them from this stronghold the British began a wholesale system of plundering the Connecticut coast and burning villages and farm-houses. While the British devastations were going on, Washington planned an expedition against Stony Point, a bold hill on the Hudson, on which the British had built a fort garrisoned by about six hundred men. The attack was made by General Wayne, resulting in the capture of the fort and its defenses. This was soon followed by the surprise of the British garrison at Paulus Hook, conducted by Major Henry Lee, who, with three hundred soldiers, entered the fort and carried away one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners. At this time the Americans were awaiting the expected aid from France, and thought best not to hazard any decisive move- ments, and after a reduction of the Indians, by an expedition under command of General Sullivan, the army went into winter quarters at Morristown, where they again suffered terribly dur- ing the long months. But notwithstanding the situation of his army, Washington, ever ready to sec his advantage, planned an expedition against the British works on Staten Island, and a detachment of twenty-five hundred men, under command of Lord Stirling, crossed the ice at Elizabeth town, but the British had learned of the expedition and withdrawn to their fortifica- tions, and the results of the expedition consisted in a quantity of blankets and military stores captured from the enemy. Soon after this event Washington received intelligence of the loss of Charleston and the surrender of General Lincoln's army, which proved so depressing to the Americans that some of the troops actually announced their intention of returning home. In July, 1780, the expected allies arrived on the coast of Rhode Island. Their fleet consisted of twelve large vessels, five smaller ones, and an army of six thousand men. Washington, soon after their arrival, sent proposals to the French commander for commencing the siege of New York. This design was suspended GEORGE WASHINGTON. 39 by the return of Sir Henry Clinton to New York with about eight thousand men, and the arrival soon after of Admiral Rodney with eleven British war vessels upon the American coast. At this period Benedict Arnold attempted the acts which will forever make his name infamous in human history. Being in- WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH. trusted with the command of West Point, partly from motives of avarice, and partly from feelings of revenge for some public censures he had received from the Government, he determined to deliver this post into the hands of the enemy. His attempt and the results are well known, and belong to general history rather than to the biography of Washington. When the Com- mander-in-Chief arrived at West Point, and learned of the 40 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS, treachery and flight of Arnold, he said : " I thought that an officer of courage and ability, who had often shed his blood for his country, was entitled to confidence, and I gave him mine. I am convinced now, and for the rest of my life, that we should never trust those who are wanting in probity, whatever abilities they may possess." The campaign of this year ended with no very decided effects, and the army went into winter quarters. But the year 1781 opened with a serious mutiny among the troops at Mbrristown, and all but three regiments paraded under arms without their officers, supplied themselves with provisions, and seizing six pieces of artillery, expressed their determination to march to Philadelphia and demand of Congress the justice that had so long been denied them. This insurrection resulted in securing the relief sought, but Washington severely dealt with the next mutiny. In March, M. de Grasse having sailed from France with a fleet, arrived in the Chesapeake on the thirteenth of August, where he was soon joined by the French fleet from Rhode Island to co-operate with Washington and Count Rochambeau on the land. Washington's plan was to lay siege to the post of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. This plan of operation was so well digested and admirably executed that Washington and Count Rochambeau had passed the British headquarters at New York and were considerably advanced on their way to Yorktown be- fore the British were aware of his intentions. Meeting M. de Grasse on board his fleet, the plan of operation was agreed upon, and the combined forces then proceeded on their way to Yorktown, where Washington began at once ro encircle the post, while the French fleet co-operated in the harbor. The next morning Cornwallis found himself surrounded by the bat- teries of the Americans and the French fleet in the harbor, and realized that he could not escape. Hastily he made every effort to strengthen his position and prepare to defend himself against the terrific bombardment which was opened upon him. Day after day the fearful rain of death fell on his army with no hope of relief. Redoubt after redoubt was being carried by the Amer- icans and French, and death and capture were approaching GEORGE WASHINGTON. 41 nearer to the doomed British. Seeing that further conflict was hopeless, Cornwallis yielded to the inevitable, and on the 19th of October, 1778, surrendered, and seven thousand British vet- erans laid down their arms and became prisoners of war, and their entire cannon and military stores fell into the hands of the victorious Americans. After the surrender, Washington proved his finer sentiments and delicacy of feeling by issuing the following request to his victorious soldiers : " My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumph you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase their mortification. It is sufficient that we wit- ness their humiliation. Posterity will huzza for us." This great victory revived the hopes of the country, and greatly discouraged the British at the wonderful energy and endurance of the Americans. Congress marched in a body to church and returned thanks to Heaven for the great victory. After the capture of Cornwallis, Washington, with the greater part of his army, returned to the vicinity of New York, and turned his attention to the plan of dislodging the British from their strong hold upon that important city. But while he was arranging to co-operate with the French for this purpose, news arrived that the discontinuance of the war had been moved and debated in the British Parliament. The expected approach of peace relaxed the efforts of the States, and it was impossible to procure funds for the pay and subsistence of the troops, and Washington was in great fear of the result of reducing the army and turning into the world the men soured by penury and what they called the ingratitude of the public. These appre- hensions were well founded, and when the army went into winter quarters, Washington remained in camp to watch and control the soldiers, though there was no probability of any military operations to require his presence. Nothing had been decided by Congress in respect to the claims of the soldiers, when news arrived in March, 1783, that Great Britain had acknowledged the independence, of the United 42 LIVES OF OtTR PRESIDENTS. States. This intelligence spread the wildest joy throughout the entire country. Thus ended the war, eight years after our land had been consecrated to freedom by the sacred blood of patriots shed at Lexington, and now, after the most terrible suffering and deprivation, and loss of life and desolation of homes, the country was free. But the joy of the army was clouded by gloomy anticipations of the injustice of their country, and to force Congress to a settlement of their accounts, a meeting of the officers was called by anonymous circulars, and every indi- cation was given that a storm was imminent that would destroy the peace of the country. To prevent the results which would probably occur from this inflamed assemblage, Washington called a meeting of the officers and made a most touching ap- peal to them, which resulted in calming the trouble. The result of this meeting was communicated by Washington to Congress, accompanied by an impressive letter, which had the result of se- curing from Congress satisfactory resolutions in reference to the pay of officers and soldiers. In April the Commander-in-Chief issued to the army his order proclaiming the cessation of hostilities, after which he devoted his time until November in reducing the army, which was a difficult measure, requiring deliberation. On the second of No- vember, 1783, General Washington issued his farewell orders to the armies of the United States. In bidding them an affection- ate farewell, his closing words were : "Your general being now to conclude these his last public orders, to take his ultimate leave in a short time of the military character, and to bid adieu to the armies he has so long had the honor to command, he can only again offer in their behalf his recommendations to their grateful country and his prayers to the God of armies. May ample justice be done to them here, and may the choicest of Heaven's favors, both here and hereafter, attend those who, under the Divine auspices, have secured innumerable blessings for others. With these wishes and this benediction the Com- mander-in-Chief is about to retire from service. The curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and the military scene to him will be closed forever." In November the British army evacuated New York, and the GEORGE WASHINGTON. 43 American army under General Knox took possession, and soon after General Washington made his public entry into the city amid great festivities and a grand triumphal ovation. Here he remained until the fourth of December, when he took an affectionate farewell of his officers, who had fought with him the battles and shared with him the hardships of war. When Washington entered the room where they were assembled his emotions were too strong to be repressed or concealed. Fill- ing a glass, he turned to the surrounding officers and said : " With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable. I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand." One by one, in silence and in tears, his old comrades grasped him by the hand, and then, with a look of deep emotion and inexpress- ible tenderness on his face, Washington passed from the room and began his journey toward his home and waiting family at Mount Vernon. Every where the ovations of the people awaited him. Reaching Annapolis, then the seat of Government, he proceeded at once to resign his commission as Commander-in- Chief , and in an appropriate address he expressed his great hap- piness at the confirmation of our independence, and commended the interests of our country to the protection of God, closing with the expression of his desire to take leave of all employ- ments of public Iffe. Having thus, of his own accord, become one of the people, the American chief hastened to his delightful residence at Mount Vernon, where he devoted his attention, with untiring industry, to the pursuits of agriculture and the extension of inland navi- gation. A crisis now seemed approaching in our problem of self-gov- ernment which required a very superior statesmanship to avert. Many complications and evidences of weakness were growing out of the Confederation, and nothing short of a union of the States, with certain rights delegated to the general Government, appeared adequate to the demands of the national situation. 44 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Washington was deeply interested in this necessary change in the relationship. In accordance with the general opinion that a better form of government was necessary, a convention of delegates from the several States was proposed. This convention met in Phila- delphia in May, and unanimously chose George Washington their President. The result of this Convention was the Consti- tution under which our present form of government was pro- posed. This Constitution being accepted by eleven of the States, all eyes were turned toward Washington as the most worthy and suitable person to be President of the United States. The official announcement of his election to the Presidency was made to General Washington on the fourteenth of April, 1789, and two days after receiving this notification he left Mount Vernon for New York, which was then the seat of Government. Everywhere on the route throngs gathered to gaze on the face of the hero of the Revolution. Military escorts attended him from State to State, and his reception at New York was celebrated by a grand procession and illumination, and on the 30th of April, 1789, he took the oath of office and was inaugurated President of the United States, in which position he remained for eight years, having been re-elected for a second term. When he began his administration the situation of the United States was highly critical. There were no funds in the Treasury, and large debts were due on every side. Opposition to the new Constitution was strong, and our relationship with foreign powers was very unsettled. Difficulties occurred with Spain, and the Indian nations were at war with the United States in several localities. To guide the ship of state over and through these difficulties required the greatest skill and statesmanship on the part of Washington, but with a master hand he steered us safely through the most critical period of our national exist- ence. Among his first measures was the effort to make peace with the Indians. Through his skillful and prudent manage- ment, also, the difficulty with Spain was amicably adjusted. His great firmness and wisdom in compelling a strict neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain deserved the deep- GEORGE WASHINGTON. 45 est gratitude of the entire country. Some complications arose between the United States and France just previous to the ex- piration of his second term of office, but before the difficulty was adjusted he had ceased to be President, and had retired to his beautiful and cherished home. His farewell address was one of the ablest State papers ever issued, and was received in every part of the Union with the most unbounded admiration. His journey home was a per- fect ovation, and wherever he passed, crowds came to meet him and pay their respects to him. In the retirement of his beauti- ful Mount Vernon he resumed Ms agricultural pursuits, and in the society of his friends and many guests he sought a quiet ending to an active and anxious life. But his country turned to Mm in trouble like the needle to the pole, and when the im- pending difficulty with France obliged our Government to adopt vigorous measures, Congress authorized the formation of a reg- ular army, and President Adams nominated Washington to the chief command of the armies of the United States, with the rank of lieutenant general. After this appointment, Washing- ton divided his time between agricultural pursuits and the or- ganization of the army. Soon after this the Directory was overthrown and the French Government passed into the hands of Napoleon, who soon arranged a peaceful settlement with the United Stales. In all of Washington's duties, precision and punctuality marked the performance. Having a certain hour for dining, he always sat down to the table at the time, allowing five min- utes for lateness ot 88 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. ishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of tkese States ; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us with- in many cases out our consent; for depriving us [ j of the benefits of trial by jury ; for transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses; for abolishing the free system of Eng- lish laws, in a neighboring province ; establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for colonies introducing the same absolute rule into these [States] ; for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our govern- ments ; for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us, in all cases whatsoever. by declaring us He has abdicated government here \_withdrawinfj his t^n * nd 8 w r0t: ri C ff vernors > and declaring us out of his allegiance and pro- war against uf. ttetion\. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty scarcely parallel- an< l perfidy, [ ] unworthy the head of a civilized nation. ed in the most He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive on and b totaVly &geS ' the higb seas> to bear arms a ainst their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. excited domestic He has [ ] endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our i usurrecti ons frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule among us.and has of warfare is an undisguised destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions [of existence.] [He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow- citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture, and confisca- tion of our property. He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, vio- lating its most sacred rights of lifeand liberty, in thepersons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market, where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- pressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now THOMAS JEFFERSON. exciting these very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of tohich he has deprived them, by murdering thepeople on whom lie also obtruded them; thus paying off former Crimea committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.} In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our repeated peti- tions have been answered only by repeated injuries. A prince whosa character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a [" ] free people [who mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe, that the hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass oftwelveyears only, to lay a foundation so broad and so undisguised for tyranny, over a people fostered and fixed in principles of freedom.] Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warnod them from time to time of attempts by their legislature, to extend [a] jurisdiction an unwarrantable over [these our States.] We have reminded them of the us. circumstances of our emigration and settlement here [no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension, that these were effected at the expense of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain; that in constituting indeed our several forms of govern- ment, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them, but that submission to their Parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited, and] we [ ] appealed to then* native justice and magna- have nimity, [as well as to] the ties of our common kindred to and we have con- disavow these usurpations which [were likely to] interrupt J ured them bv our connection and correspondence. They too have been would inevitably deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity [and lohen occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election, re- established them in power. At this very time, too, they are permitting their Chief Magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries, to invade and destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free and a great people together, but a communication of grandeur and of LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. We must there- freedom, it seems, is below their dignity . Be it so, since fore they will have it. The road to happiness and to glory is open to us too. We will tread it apart from them, and\ acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our [eternal] and hold them as separation [ ] ! we hold the rest of mankind, ene- mies in war, in peace friends. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, do in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these [States re- ject and denounce all allegiance and subjection to the Kings of Great Britain, and all others, who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve allpolitical connexion which may heretofore have subsisted between us and the people or Parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare these colonies to be free and independent States] and that as free and inde- pendent States they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declara- tion we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled, appeal- ing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten- tions, do in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de- clare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and in- dependent States; that they are ab- solved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this decla- ration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Mr. Jefferson, as an active member of the second Congress, was appointed, together with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane, a commissioner to the Court of France, to negotiate treaties of alliance and commerce with that nation. This important posi- tion his health and cares of a private nature compelled him to decline. Virginia had, during the year 1776, notwithstanding her active co-operation with Congress, also been engaged in THOMAS JEFFERSON. forming a State Constitution and plan of government for her- self, and Mr. Jefferson, teeing that our national affairs were ^gM^^^^ =^-^> -37 ik~*f^ * sFfr 1 ^- / ix J^ ^ FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. under the guidance of bold hearts and strong hands, and think- ing that his native State was in need of his services, resigned his seat to which he had been elected in the third Congress, in 92 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. September, 1776, and accepted a seat in the State Legislature in the following month. At an early period in this session Mr. Jefferson was appointed, with Edmund Pendleton, George Mason, Thomas L. Lee and George Wythe, on a committee to revise the laws of the State. This work being divided between Mr. Jefferson and two other members, they reported in June, 1779, a code of laws comprised in the compass of one huudred and twenty-six bills, of which a few were passed at each Legislature until the last of them was enacted about the year 1785. It must not be supposed because Mr. Jefferson retired from Congress that his public service was light. On the other hand, it was so extensive and laborious that time would not admit of giving an adequate idea of his great services to his State. Many persons not familiar with the real motives of Mr. Jefferson, have thought him an innovator, desirous of destroying old laws and customs. In this respect he was guided purely by a desire to adopt everything advantageous to the existing state of affairs and the more practical wants of human nature. He did not believe in carrying a bag of corn to mill balanced with a stone in the other end of the bag because his fathers had done so, when half the corn in each end would balance it with less weight and more good sense, and whatever changes he made in the laws of Virginia were of the most beneficial nature. His aim was to strike out from our laws all those aristocratic features, such as the law of converting estates entail, the right of primo- geniture, and all such feudal and unnatural distinctions. Mr. Jefferson's ideas were to adapt our laws to a republican form of government. He also stood firm for establishing the freedom of religious opinion, and that kind of an innovator was most invaluable to his State and the entire country. In June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was elected successor to Mr. Henry as Governor of Virginia, a situation of peculiar difficulty to one so entirely unused to mili tary matters ; but he rose equal to the emergency, and proved his excellent capacity in pro- tecting the State from the attacks on the seaboard by the infa- mous traitor Arnold, and by Tarlton and Cornwallis on the southern border. JEFFERSON. 93 In 1781 he proved his regard for the welfare of his State by advising that a military man should become Governor, and he was succeeded by General Nelson. Just at this time, and only two days after his retirement from the office, he barely escaped being taken prisoner by Tarlton, who had been dispatched by Cornwallis to Charlottesville to capture the Governor and mem- bers of the Assembly, but they were notified of the approach in time to escape, Mr. Jefferson actually fleeing from Monticello on his horse on one side of the estate as the enemy dashed up the hill on the opposite side. After Mr. Jefferson's retirement from office, it was urged by some over-officious members of the Legislature that he had been negligent in adopting measures for the defense of the seaboard at the time of Arnold's descent upon Richmond, and they moved for an investigation of his conduct. To this Mr. Jefferson will- ingly assented, but before it took place the instigators, convinced of the groundlessness of the complaint, declined to prosecute the investigation. Soon after this Mr. Jefferson found time to assist M. de Mar- bois, Secretary of the French Legation, in obtaining useful sta- tistical information concerning the American States, and Mr. Jefferson, in answer to inquiries concerning Virginia, replied at great length in a most interesting statement as to the natural history, the soil, productions, institutions and statistics of his native State. This work was afterward published by him under the title of "Notes on Virginia." Mr. Jefferson's talents, however, were of too high an order at that critical time in our history to be spared from his country's service, and in 1781 he had been appointed a Minister Plenipo- tentiary, together with Mr. Adams, Mr. Jay, Mr. Laurens and Dr. Franklin, for negotiations of peace, which were then expected to take place. His health preventing his acceptance at that time, he was again appointed in 1782, and made preparations to go, but news of the signing of preliminaries of peace made it unnecessary. In 1783 and 1784 Mr. Jefferson was again elected to Congress, and was appointed chairman of the Committee upon the State of the Treasury, and also of the committee to act on the definite i)4 LIVES OF CUB PRESIDENTS. treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States. This treaty was ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784. Congress then, in the same year, on the 7th of May, appointed Mr. Jefferson, together with Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin, who were then in Europe, a Minister Plenipotentiary for the forma- tion of treaties of commerce with foreign nations, and in the following July he embarked with his eldest daughter at Boston, arriving in Paris on the 6th of August, where he was joined by Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin. Both this and subsequent at- tempts of the commissioners to form commercial treaties were discouragingly unsuccessful, owing to the indifference or oppo- sition of foreign powers, Prussia and Morocco being the only powers with whom treaties were secured. In 1786 Mr. Jefferson accompanied Mr. Adams to England, in hope of effecting a treaty of commerce with that country, but the mission being a fruitless one, Mr. Jefferson returned to Paris, after an absence of seven weeks. Mr. Jefferson resided as our Minister at Paris over five years, and during that time he accomplished much as the representa- tive of a new country at a foreign court, although his diplomatic duties, by comparison with his eventful labors during our strug- gle for independence, would appear dull and uninteresting. But it was to him a period of great pleasure in his life, associated as he was with the highest circle of refinement and intelligence in Paris. Unlike Mr. Adams, he admired the French people, and in time was a favorite of theirs, as was also Dr. Franklin, to whom they looked up with almost veneration. He wrote en- thusiastically in his letters of France, and the warmth and friendship of her people, and of their hospitality, politeness of manners, ease of conversation and eminence in science. Yet, notwithstanding his love for France and its society, America still held the high and lofty place in his heart, and he sighed for the retirement of Monticello. In a letter to the Baron Geismer, dated at Paris, September 6, 1785, he says : " The character in which I am here at present confines me to this place, and will confine me as long as I continue in Europe. How long this will be 1 cannot tell. I am now of an age which does not easily accommodate itself to new manners and new modes of living, and 1 am savage enough to prefer THOMAS JEFFERSON, 95 the woods, the wilds and the independence of Monticello to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital. I shall, therefore, rejoin myself to my native country with new attachments and with exaggerated esteem for its advan- tages; for, though thei e is less wealth there, there is more freedom, more ease and less misery." Mr. Jefferson, during his residence in Europe, was making interested comparisons between the general condition of the French people and that of his own countrymen. His sentiments and the result of his observations are thus expressed in a letter to Mr. Bellini, dated Paris, 1785 : " Behold me at last on the vaunted scene of Europe 1 It is not necessary for your information that I should enter into details concerning it. But you are perhaps curious to know how this new scene has struck a savage of the mountains of America. Not advantageously, I assure you. I find the general fate of humanity here most deplorable. The truth of Voltaire's observations offers itself perpetually, that every man here must be either the hammer or the anvil. While the great mass of the people are thus suffering under phys- ical and moral oppression, I have endeavored to examine more nearly the condition of the great, to appreciate the true value of the circumstances in their situation, which dazzle the bulk of spectators, and especially, to com- pare it with that degree of happiness which is enjoyed in America by every class of people. Intrigues of love occupy the younger, and those of ambi- tion the elder part of the great, conjugal love having no existence among them ; domestic happiness, of which that is the basis, is utterly unknown. "In lieu of this are substituted pursuits which nourish and invigorate all our bad passions, and which offer only moments of ecstacy amidst days and months of restlessness and torment ; much, very much inferior, this, to the tranquil, permanent felicity, with which domestic society in America blesses most of its inhabitants, leaving them to follow steadily those pursuits which health and reason approve, and rendering truly delicious the intervals of these pin-suits. " In science the mass of people are two centuries behind ours ; their literati, half a dozen years before us. With respect to what are termed polite manners, without sacrificing to much the sincerity of language, I would wish my countrymen to adopt just so much of European politeness as to be ready to make all those little sacrifices of self which really render European manners amiable, and relieve society from the disagreeable scenes to which rudeness often subjects it. Here it seems a man might pass a life without encountering a single rudeness. In the pleasures of the table they are far before us, because with good taste they unite temperance. They do not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming themselves into brutes ; I have never yet seen a man drunk in France , even among the lowes' of the people. Were I to proceed to t,-ll you how much I enjoy their archi- tecture, sculpture, painting and music, I should want words. It is in these 08 LIVES OF acts they shine. The last of them particularly is an enjoyment the depriva- tion of which with us cannot be calculated. I am almost ready to say it is the only thing which from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite of all the authority of the decalogue, I do covet." In another letter to Mr. Wythe, dated Paris, August, 1786, when speaking of the revision of the law in which the Assem- bly of Virginia had been engaged, he writes : " I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other foundation can be de- vised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. If anybody thinks that kings, nobles or priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send him here. It is the best school in the universe to cure him of that folly. He will s>ee here with his own eyes that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy against the happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipotence of their effect cannot be better proved than in this coun- try, particularly where notwithstanding the finest soil upon earth, the finest climate under heaven, and a people of the most benevolent, the most gay and amiable character of which the human form is susceptible ; where such a people, I say, surroun led by so many blessings from nature, are loaded wilh misery by kings, nobles and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance ; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose, is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid t kings, nobles and priests, who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignoraace." Mr. Jefferson was so closely confined to his official duties while in Paris that he seldom had any opportunity for visiting other parts of the continent. He passed seven weeks in London with Mr. Adams, in the vain hope of securing a commercial treaty. He also went to the Hague at a later period to meet Mr. Adams and assist in negotiating a loan, and returned along the banks of the Rhine, and in 1787, while suffering from the effects of a dislocated wrist, he took the opportunity of visiting the southern provinces of France and northern part of Italy. In October, 1789, Mr. Jefferson having obtained from the government the permission he had long solicited to return home for a short time, embarked at Havre for the United States. It was not at that time his intention to resign his position as Min- ister at the Court of Versailles. His long residence in France had made for him many ties of friendship. The spirit of free- THOMAS JEFFERSON. 97 dom and revolution which had aroused our people to secure for themselves independent nationality was also spreading among the different classes of France, and Mr. Jefferson watched with the deepest interest the rapidly approaching contest between the people and the throne, and the struggle between liberty and long-established oppression was to him one of peculiar solici- tude, desirous, as he must have been, to see the rights and principles for which he had so successfully contended in America transplanted and flourishing in the soil of Europe. All these things conspired to confirm his intention to return and resume Ms office after a short visit to his native country. He arrived at Norfolk in the latter part of November, where he found a letter awaiting him from General Washington, containing an appointment to the Cabinet as Secretary of State. In reply, Mr. Jefferson stated his desire to re- turn to France, but true to patriotic sentiments, he assured the President that he would willingly remain if his services to his country were counted more valuable at home than abroad. In reply to this President Washington sent him a second letter, expressing his desire to have Mr. Jefferson accept the position, but giving him his choice of the two situations. This desire of the President's induced him to forego his own preference and accept the appointment. To Mr. Jefferson's agreeable surprise he found that during his long absence great changes had taken place in the United States. When he departed five years before the country was just emerging from the great struggle which had secured our glorious independence, at the same time that it had impoverished the people, and the imperfect form of government existing at that time endangered the internal peace of the country. Now, he beheld a wonderful transformation ; the country was happy, prosperous and rapidly increasing in wealth and population. The Federal Constitution had been adopted, the national government organized under its wise pro- visions, and at its head had been placed the he.ro who had so successfully led her armies to victory, and he who had been " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his coun- trymen," was proving himself as wise in counsel as he had been valorous and successful in war. 98 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Mr. Jefferson entered at once upon the duties of the high and important position to which he had been appointed, and in accordance with his fine abilities and peculiar fitness for the office he discharged the duties. These duties were of an arduous and responsible nature, and having no precedents to govern in the administration, they were difficult to perform, embracing the superintendence both of domestic affairs and foreign relations. For the duties of the latter, however, Mr. Jefferson was eminently qualified by his former diplomatic experience, and it was so conducted that the rights and inter- ests of our citizens were protected, and the honor and dignity of the nation supported without any infringment of the rights of others ; while in the Home Department abundant proof of his talents and industry exists to-day in the numerous reports and state papers on subjects of the highest importance, which from time to time he laid before Congress. It was but natural that party spirit which never slumbers long in any human government, and perhaps least of all in a republic, should have risen in our country, and Mr. Jefferson, at the close of the year 1793, finding himself differing in views from a majority of the administration, to which he was officially attached, and these views every day widening the breach between them, he honestly considered that he could not con- sistently act with them in the measures which they as a majority would adopt, and therefore he retired from the office of Secretary of State. At this time the whole body of the people, from the first statesman in the cabinet down to the merest village alehouse politician, were ranged under the banners of one or the other of the contending parties. To that one of these parties known by the name of Democratic, Mr. Jefferson found himself drawn by the whole course of his previous habits and opinions. The other members of the cabinet, however, were attached to the other party, and Mr. Jefferson, therefore, felt himself called upon to withdraw, and in withdrawing he for a time retired from public life and devoted himself to the cultivation and improvement of his estate and followed those literary and scientific pursuits which were most congenial to his tastes. It was during this time, for a few years at Monticello, THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 surrounded by his family, that he doubtless enjoyed the greatest domestic happiness and quiet of any period of his life. About the time of his retirement he was chosen President of the American Philosophical Society, as successor to Rittenhouse, and for the long period he filled the chair was active in promoting in every way in his power the prosperity of the institution. But it was not in the nature of things that so prominent and talented a citizen and so eminent a statesman as Mr. Jefferson should be allowed to remain in private life. The Farewell Address of General Washington in 1796 conveyed to the people, whose affections he so firmly held, the information of his determination to retire to private life. This at once afforded the two parties, in which the people had arrayed them- selves, an opportunity to bring their candidates in the field. Mr. Adams was nominated by one and Mr. Jefferson by the other, and at the election, which took place in the fall, after the first heated national campaign in our history, Mr. Adams was chosen President and Mr. Jefferson Vice- President for the term of four years. The duties of the Vice-President being merely to preside over the Senate, save in case of the death of the President, Mr. Jefferson had the opportunity of spending much of his time at Monticello. His party, however, was growing stronger during the four yearp, and in 1801, having again been nominated as a candidate in opposition to Mr. Adams, he received a majority of the votes of the people. But as the number of votes given for Mr. Jeffer- son and for Mr. Burr, who was the Democratic nominee for Vice-President, were equal, and the Constitution, through lack of suitable amendment, did not require that the votes should specify the office to which each was respectively elected, and neither having a majority, which was necessary to a choice, the election devolved upon the House of Representa- tives. Here the opponents of Mr. Jefferson cast their votes for Mr. Burr, and it was not till after thirty-five unsuccessful ballots that Mr. Jefferson was elected President and Mr. Burr selected as Vice-President. On March 4, 1801, Mr. Jefferson took the oath of office and de- livered his inaugural address, from which we take the following ; 100 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. " Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us re- store to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having ban- ished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intoler- ance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agoniz- ing spasms of infuriated man seeking through blood and slaughter his long- lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to meas- ures of safety, but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans; we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot in the full tide of successful experiment abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself ? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others ? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him f Let history answer this question." He then proceeds to give in the following summary manner a brief statement of the principles which were to be the rule of his administration : " About to enter, fellow -citizsns, on the exercise of duties which compre- hend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should under- stand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will com- press the_n within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political ; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the sup- port of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the rights of election by the tHOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided ; absolute acqui- escence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may iclieve them ; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority ; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened ; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faitli ; encouragement of agri- culture and of commerce as its handmaid ; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason ; freedom of re- ligion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus and trials by juries impartially selected. These prin- ciples form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment, they should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust ; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." From the election of Mr. Adams dates the first ascendancy into power of the Democratic party in the national councils of the country, and the acts of Mr. Jefferson's administration were so far approved that at the expiration of his first term in 1805 he was re-elected to the Chief Magistracy by a large majority, notwithstanding all the exertions of the Federal party. Mr. Jefferson was undoubtedly a wise man, although in the excitement of partisanship his opponents believed many of his acts injurious to the welfare of the country. His purchase of Louisiana and the annexation of that fertile country to the United States, thereby securing the undisputed navigation of the Mississippi, was of the most incalculable benefit to the country. On the other hand, the embargo of 1807 was most warmly supported by his friends and most violently opposed by his enemies. This was necessitated by the continued and un- warranted aggressions of the two great belligerent powers of Europe, England and France, upon the neutral commerce of the country after negotiation and remonstrance had been tried in vain, and it was evident that stronger measures for our pro- tection were necessary, and President Jefferson called the atten- 102 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. tion of Congress, in December, 1805, to the many aggressions and injuries by the impressment of our seamen and numerous depredations on our coast, alluding to this grave subject in the following terms : " Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private armed vessels, some of them without commissions, some with illegal com- missions, others with those of legal form, but committing piratical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried them off under pretence of adjudication, but not daring to approach a court of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the way, or in obscure places where no evidence could arise against them, ir.altreated the crews and abandoned them in boats in the open sea or on desert shores without food or covering. The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbors under color of seeking enemies has also been carried on by public armed ships to the great annoyance and oppression of our commerce. New principles too have been interpolated into the law of nations, founded neither in justice nor the usage or acknowledgment of nations. Accoid- ing to these a belligerent takes to itself a commerce with its own enemy which it denies to a neutral on the ground of its aiding that enemy in the war. But reason revolts at such an inconsistency; and the neutral having equal rights with the belligerents to decide the question, the interests of our constituents and the duty of maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire between just nations, impose on us the obligation of providing an effectual and determined opposition to a doctrine so injurious to tbe rights of peaceable nations." These suggestions by the Executive stirred Congress to make preparations for the defense of our coast in case of a war, and the non-importation act passed in 1806, and commissioners were also appointed to adjust the existing difficulties and prevent the recurrence of the causes. During the pending of those negotiations the outrage by the British frigate Leopard upon the frigate Chesapeake in our very waters caused the President to issue a proclamation on the 3d of July, 1807, requiring all British armed vessels then within the waters of the United States to depart, and forbidding them to enter. A disavowal and offers of reparation for the injury and insult to the Chesapeake was made, but almost immediately the British Orders in Council appeared, by which the British Government prohibited all commerce between the United States THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 and the ports of British foes in Europe, unless the articles had been first landed in England, and the duties paid for their re- exportation. This called for decided measures at once on the part of our Government, but Mr. Jefferson believed that our country was not then in a situation to hazard a war, and that the only means left to prevent the destruction of our commerce was to keep them in port and deprive the belligerents of the benefits of our commerce. In execution of this policy Congress passed an act on December 22, 1807, laying an embargo on our vessels and prohibiting their departure from any port of the United States. Mr. Jefferson's second administration was also disturbed by an unexpected domestic difficulty, which was no less than the infamous conspiracy of Aaron Burr. Rendered sullen and vicious by his defeat for the Vice-Presidency, and moved and actuated by an unprincipled ambition, this man, under the pre- text of forming a military expedition against the Spanish ter- ritories on our southwestern border, organized a body of armed men for the purpose, as generally supposed, of bringing about a separation of the States west of the Alleghenies from the general government, to form them into an independent State. The government being apprised that bodies of men were organ- izing and arming ostensibly for making war upon a power with whom we were at peace, Congress at once took steps to seize their arms and stores and arrest the ringleaders. On the discovery of the plan Burr fled, but was soon captured and taken to Eichmond, Virginia, under arrest, where he was tried for a high misdemeanor, and also on a charge of treason, but unfortunately, for want of evidence, was aquitted. In 1809, Mr. Jefferson's second term of office having expired, he determined upon retiring forever from political life. For nearly forty years he had devoted his energies to the service of his country, and he felt that natural desire for rest and retirement to the shades of domestic life which declining years require. With this earnest wish for the sweet peace of Monti- cello, he departed for his home in March, 1809, and from that time took no further part in politics, passing his declining years overlooking the cultivation of his estate, devoting hours to 104 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. study and extending a gracious hospitality to his friends. He also became much interested in the establishment of a system of general education in Virginia, and in the superintendence of the new university of that State, which he labored to found in 1818. This institution was located at Charlottesville, in which town the estate of Monticello was situated, and Mr. Jefferson was chosen director at its foundation, in which office he continued during the remainder of his life. The last years of his life were disturbed by financial embar- rassment, which necessitated the disposal of his estate at Monti- cello, to prevent its being sacrificed and in order to raise money to pay his debts, which will forever remain as an evidence of the most eminent public services being repaid by indifference to the comfort of his declining years. But the day was fast ap- proaching when his earthly wants were to cease. That day was ushered in with the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, on the 4th of July, 1826. Great preparations were being made to celebrate it as the completion of the half century of our free national existence, and the citizens of Washington, to add to the great occasion, invited Mr. Jefferson, as one of the few surviving signers of the Declara- tion, to participate in the celebration. A serious and increas- ing illness prevented him from accepting the invitation, and his reply, on the 24th of June, gave evidence that although his earthly frame was fast perishing, his mind was still animated with the same ardent love of liberty. Regretting his inability to be present, he expressed how greatly he should have delighted in meeting and exchanging congratulations with the small band, that remnant of the host of worthies who joined with him on that doubtful day, and decided for their country be- tween submission and the sword, and to have enjoyed with them the consolation that after a half century of experience and prosperity their fellow-citizens were glorifying the anni- versary as a sacred day in our national existence. The letter was full of the noblest sentiment, such as had ever emanated from his pen, and it had scarcely been written before \us illness had rapidly increased, and on the 26th he was obliged to confine himself to his bed. On the '2d of July his THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 condition was such, that his physicians entertained no hope of his recovery, and he also was sensible that his last hour had come, and with the. most perfect calmness he conversed with his family and gave directions concerning his funeral, being desirous that his last resting-place on earth should be Monticello. TOMB OF JEFFERSON. Gradually he was sinking, and on Monday he inquired the day of the month. Being told that it was the 3d of July, he expressed the earnest wish that he might live to see the day of the fiftieth anniversary ushered in. His prayer was heard ; that day whose dawn was hailed with such rapture throughout our land burst upon his eyes, and then they were closed forever. And what a noble consummation of a noble life ! To die on 106 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. that day, the birthday of a nation, the day which his own name and his own act had rendered glorious ; to die amid the rejoic- ings and festivities of a whole nation who looked up to him as the author, under God, of their greatest blessings, was all that was wanted to fill up the record of his life. Fifty summers had rolled over his head since the day when the Congress of 1776 declared America independent, and on that day, amid the acclamations of twelve millions of freemen, in the hour within which fif ey years before he had signed the Magna Charta of American freedom, his spirit was freed from the bondage of earth, and almost at the same hour the kindred spirit of the memorable Adams, as if to bear him company, left the scene of his earthly honors. Mr. Jefferson had attained a venerable old age at his death, being eighty-three years and some months. It will here be of interest to give some particulars as to his family. In January, 1772, he married Mrs. Martha Skelton, widow of Bathurst Skelton, and daughter of John Wayles, a prominent lawyer of the colonial times. This union was not of long duration, as she died in 1782, leaving three daughters, one of whom died young ; the others were married, one to Thomas M. Randolph, after- ward Governor of Virginia, the other to Mr. Eppes. Mr. Jefferson was tall, being over sir. faet in height, and thin but well formed. His eyes were light, and his hair, which was red in early life, became silvery white in old age. He was fair in complexion, with broad forehead, and his whole counte- nance beamed with intelligence and though tfuloess. In him the elements of self-control were great. Possessing great forti- tude, as well as personal courage, his command of temper was such that his most intimate friends had never seen him in a passion. He was also possessed of simplicity of manners, although coupled with easy dignity. He was fluent and eloquent in conversation, and remarkably precise and correct in his language. As a classical scholar his writings were after the best models of antiquity, and he never endeavored to con- vince by the mere force of argument. Several of his works have been previously mentioned, but they are altogether so numerous, including state papers, etc., that the archives of THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 the government alone can give the reader a definite knowledge of them. In reference to the religious opinions of Mr. Jefferson, which naturally were the subject of political prejudice, we could not perhaps speak in particular terms of approbation should we enter upon a full consideration of them. As a mere moralist he must ever be esteemed for opinions and doctrines which would have done honor to the purest sages of Greece and Rome, and which certainly far surpassed the theory and practice of his masters in religion, the skeptics of the French school. Mr. Jefferson's whole life was so nearly passed before the public that his actions speak his character better than words can express them, and whatever his faults may have been, if he had them, he will be cherished and held in grateful memory as one of the bold and fearless patriots of the Re volution and as the f ramer and a signer of the immortal Declaration of American Independence. If public sentiment may be divided concerning tho wisdom and expediency of his measures while he occupied the Presidential chair, there can be no divided sentiment in the minds of his grateful countrymen when they consider him as one of the Congress of 1776, as one of the firmest opposers of British aggressions, as one of the most able statesmen of the Revolution. In all these things his conduct has been stamped by the approbation of a whole nation, and a judgment rendered that no future age will ever reverse. JAMES MADISON. After reading the biographies of three such men as "Washing- ton, Adams and Jefferson, the lives of other eminent men of our country may not appear as brilliant by comparison ; but it is evident that James Madison was also one of the conspicuous heroes of our early history, filling the sphere of his duties with honor, patriotism and devotion, and leaving behind him a memory cherished by his countrymen. Of the early life of Mr. Madison very .few incidents have been preserved. He was born in the year 1750 at Montpelier, "Va., and at an early period in his life devoted his interest and labors to the cause of our infant republic. In reference to his private life, he was married, in 1794, to Mrs. Todd, in Phila- delphia, who was the widow of a prominent lawyer at the Phil- adelphia bar. Her father was a Quaker named Paine, who had emigrated from Virginia to Philadelphia. Being left a widow at the early age of twenty-one years, she was quite young when she became Mrs. Madison, and, being of agreeable manners and fascinating in conversation, she became popular in the circle of her associates and filled the high position to which she was called as the wife of the President with dignified affa- bility, striving to soften the political asperities of the time by the amenities of social life. At an early age Mr. Madison became prominent as an active member of the Continental Congress. To him, more than to any other, the people of the United States are indebted for our national Constitution. As the leader in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, he was its moet influen- tial supporter in the Virginia Convention, which adopted it. He was the author of the Virginia Resolution of 1798 and the Virginia Report of 1799, and for sixteen years was charged 110 I,IVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. with the administrai ion of the government, as the incumbent successively of the second and first offices m the executive. Mr. Madison, among other eminent statesman, recognized the weakness of our confederated form of government and the inability of Congress to regulate commerce for the States, form treaties or raise funds, and he made a proposition for a convention of delegates, which resulted in a meeting at An- napolis representing five States, where it was fully realized that a federal government and constitution were necessary for all international relations, as well as for better management of affairs at home. But the jealousy of certain States occasioned much opposition and delay in the desirable reform in our imper- fect system of government. At length, however, the majority of the State Legislatures were brought to coincide in the views of the federal statesmen, and these so influenced the others that all but Rhode Island sent delegates to Philadelphia in 1787, at which convention Washington was chosen President. The convention deliberated with closed doors, until at length on the 17th of September the proposed constitution was made public, and after presentation to Congress was submitted to the several States for their acceptance. No sooner had it appeared than between Federalists and Democrats and individual opinion it was attacked with a host of objections. These discussions occupied the year 1788, after which the Constitution was generally accepted and the grand point of a federal union achieved. The month of March, 1789, was the time appointed for the commencement of the new government, and as soon as Con- gress met the first step was to elect a President, for which office George Washington was unanimously chosen, the cere- mony of his inauguration taking place on the 30th of April. As soon as the federal government was in operation Congress proceeded at once to consider the most important subject, the revenue. In reference to this Mr. Madison proposed a tax on imported goods and tonnage. Some objected to the tonnage duty on the groiind that as we had but few ships of our own, the duty might drive off those we would need. But Mr. Madison pointed out the necessity of fostering the infant navy of the JAMES MADISON. Ill country as the only defensive force that would be available in a future war. This argument overcame the objection. After Congress had provided for the revenue and the just debts of the States, the departments of the Treasury, of War and of State were formed, and the appointments to those departments were made, Mr. Madison's being the only name of eminence omitted in the arrangement. When Congress assembled in 1793 the British Government had declared France to be in a state of blockade by issuing orders to stop all neutral ships laden with provisions bound to her ports. In reference to this state of affairs, Mr. Madison early in January, 1794, submitted to the House his commercial resolu- tions for further restrictions and higher duties in certain cases on the manufactures and navigation of foreign nations. The last of these resolutions declared that provision ought to be made for ascertaining the* losses sustained by American citizens, from the operation of particular regulations of any country con- travening the law of nations; and that these losses be reim- bursed, in the first instance, out of the additional duties on the manufactures and vessels of nations establishing such regula- tions. On the 4th of March, 1809, Mr. Madison, who had been Sec- retary of State under the preceding administration, was inau- gurated President of the United States. Upon this occasion, in accordance with the example of his predecessors, he deliv- ered a most able inaugural address, bearing iipon our national condition and our domestic and international relations. At this time the situation of our affairs was in many respects gloomy. France and England were still at war and were directing against each other commercial edicts which were seriously affecting our trade and commerce. A new administration generally commences with fair prom- ises on one side and hopes on the other, of a change, and the English Minister hoped that with the change of administration and the repeal of the embargo which had just been effected, a favorable opportunity was offered for renewing negotiations. Mr. Erskine accordingly received from the English Secretary of State power and instructions to treat, and in consideration 112 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. of certain concessions by the British Government the President suspended the non-intercourse act, but this was no sooner done than the English Government disavowed Mr. Erskine's negotia- tions, and Mr. Madison declared the non-intercourso act again in full force. These diplomatic blunders were unfortunate, and led both Americans and the Parliamentary opposition to believe that the disavowal of Mr. Erskine was merely an act of capri- cious hostility on the part of the British Minister, and Mr. Jack- son, who was sent in his place, was received with coldness, and having angrily retorted to an allusion to the duplicity of the British Government, his recall was demanded. France was more friendly in reference to the edict and was willing to annul her decrees if England would raise her block- ade. Mr. Madison took advantage of this fairness on the part of France to secure from Congress resolutions approving the high and defiant tone of policy observed by him toward England, and preparations for war were begun. The non-intercourse act expiring in 1810, the Americans again insisted upon the two powers removing their restrictions ; a declaration of war being Mr. Madison's purpose if the restrictions were not removed, as they were equivalent to our abandonment of the sea altogether. To this Napoleon replied, amicably offering to suspend his decrees. The British Government, through stubbornness and from a pretended belief in the insincerity of the French declaration, as well as from the fact that our demand was accompanied by a menace, refused to repeal the order in council. This conduct strengthened the animosity against Great Brit- ain and resulted in admitting the vessels of France to our ports whilst the interdict against the English was renewed. The condition of affairs after this was such that Mr. Pinckney, our Minister, demanded his audience of leave, believing that his mission was hopeless. Soon after this an accidental collision took .place between vessels of the respective countries tending much to widen the existing differences. An English sloop of war the Little Belt, meeting the American frigate the President on our coast, both simultaneously hailed each other. Without replying, both hailed. JAMES MADISON. 118 again, resulting in the first shot from the Little Belt and her severe handling by the President, in which engagement the British sloop lost over thirty men while the ship suffered severely. This hastened preparations for war by the United States, and fortifications were prepared at New York and New Orleans, the latter point being the most vulnerable part of the country. In the spring of 1811 Mr. Foster was sent as plenipotentiary from England to make another attempt at negotiation, but as he had no power for stipulating the repeal of the orders in council, nothing resulted from his mission. In the November following Congress was called together, and President Madison addressed it fully respecting the consequences of the still widening difference, showing that even after the ex- tinction of the French decrees the orders in council of Great Britain had been put into more rigorous execution and fresh outrages had been committed on the A.merican coasts. ' ' With this evidence," said Mr. Madison, "of hostile inflexibility, in trampling on rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis and correspond- ing with the national spirit and expectations." This was fol- lowed by demands of increase in the army, the navy, and all military stores and establishments. Active preparations for early hostilities were made during the winter of 1811. The British Government became arrogant as it met with military success in the conflict with France, and although the able Marquis of Lansiowne in the House of Lords, and the eloquent Brougham, in the Commons, used their strongest appeals in favor of abandoning the obnoxious orders, still nothing satisfactory could be accomplished. Finding that all our efforts for a peaceful settlement were in vain, the President sent a message to Congress, calling attention to all the causes of complaint against England, including the stirring up of the Indians on the Wabash River, and a formal declara- tion of war was recommended, and although the Federals were opposed to the extreme measure, war was declared against Great Britain on the 18th day of June, 1812. Massachusetts, and especially Boston, was most adverse to hostilities with 114 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. Great Britain, while the Southern States were strongly favor- able to the war. The war opened by skirmishes in Canada and on the Ameri- can border. When hostilities commenced, General Hull, Gov- ernor of Michigan Territory, collected over two thousand troops, and invaded Canada with the intention of attacking Montreal, but learning that the Indians had invaded his territory in the rear, and that General Brock was in his front with a consider- able force, he retreated to Fort Detroit, where Brock besieged him, and Hull, hoisting the white flag, surrendered the fort and army without firing a gun. In about a month after, another American army was collected upon the same position, and Queenstown, on the Niagara, was selected as the point of attack. An American division under Colonel Van Rensse- laer crossed with the expectation of capturing the place. It was gallantly stormed, but General Brock arrived just at the point of victory and drove the Americans back, while their militia refused to cross the river to reinforce their army. The battle resulted in the capture of all who crossed ; the British victory being clouded, however, by the loss of the gallant Brock, who was shot while leading his men. Thus singularly were the Americans defeated on land at the begin- ning of the war while victory immediately perched upon oar banner on the sea. General Hull had scarcely surrendered ere Captain Hull, commanding the Constitution, met the British frigate Guerriere and in half an hour's engagement so com- pletely disabled her as not only to compel her surrender but to necessitate burning her. Another signal naval victory was achieved on the 17th of October, over an enemy decidedly superior in force. This was the capture of the brig Frolic of twenty-two guns by the sloop-of-war Wasp, in command of Captain Paul Jones, who had returned from France two weeks after the declaration of war, and again on the 13th of October put to sea. On the 17th he fell in with six merchant ships under convoy of a brig and two ships, armed with sixteen guns each. The brig, which proved to be the Frolic, dropped behind and opened the engagement with the Wasp. In five minutes the Frolic's JAMES MAbiSOtf, 115 inaintopmast was shot away, bringing down her maintopsail yard across the sails. In two minutes more her gaff and mizzen-topgallant-mast was shot away. Soon after this Cap- tain Jones boarded her and found an almost unprecedented scene of havoc and ruin, with thirty killed and fifty wounded, while on board the Wasp only five were killed and five slightly wounded. The Wasp and Frolic, however, were both captured the same day by a British seventy-four-gun ship. On the 25th of October a combat occurred between the frigate United States, commanded by Commodore Decatur, and the British ship Macedonian, resulting in the surrender of the latter after great loss of men and damage to the vessel. In November Congress met, and President Madison in his message frankly acknowledged the defeats our armies had met with on the Canadian border. He also complained of the savage warfare brought on by British employment of the Indians. Massachusetts and Connecticut also came in for a share of blame in refusing to furnish their quota of militia. But while it seemed almost impossible to put an army in the field, our navy was gaining tbe most signal and remarkable victories on record. On December 29th the Constitution gained a second victory, her capture being the Java, a British frigate of 49 guns and 400 men. This engagement was fought off St. Salvador, and after two hours the Java struck her colors, naving lost sixty killed and one hundred and twenty wounded. The Con- stitution had nine killed and twenty-five wounded. During the winter also, after a fifteen minutes' engagement, the Amer- ican ship Hornet captured the British sloop-of-war Peacock. On surrendering she displayed a signal of distress, and was found to be sinking so fast that the Hornet's crew, laboring at the risk of their lives, could not rescue all the vanquished, and nine of the British and three Americans went down with the sloop. The English were left so destitute that the Hornefs crew divided their clothing with them. At this period of the war the Presidential election took place, and notwithstanding the opposition of the Eastern States, Mr. Madison was re-elected, and the majority in Congress justify- 116 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. ing his course was sufficient to pass a resolution approving the President's refusal to make peace, except upon the removal of the possibility of the English impressing or searching for American seamen. On land the war was continued through the inclemency of a Northern winter, and in January, 1813, General Winchester marched with an American army to recapture Detroit ; but General Procter, with a force of regular troops and Indians, defeated the Americans, and took Winchester and the greater number of his army prisoners. Soon after this the Kentucky troops marched upon Procter, and at their first charge drove hun from his position, but the British rallied and routed the Americans. The defeats of the American army soon proved the necessity of turning our military operations on the Canada border into naval ones, and a fleet was fitted out on Lake Ontario with great activity and zeal, and by the end of April it was ready to transport a small army. The first expedition embarked two thousand men and captured York, with about six hundred British prisoners. This stirred up the British to rival their enemy on the lakes, and soon they had a flotilla equal, or supe- rior, to the Americans, which turned the advantage upon Lake Ontario against them. Lake Erie, however, was the scene of our grandest naval victory. Commodore Perry, with a fleet of nine vessels of fifty to sixty guns each, met a force of six of the enemy's ships of a still greater number of guns, and capturing their whole squadron, sent his laconic report : "We have met the enemy and they are ours." This great victory had such a depressing effect upon the British that they were forced to fall back from their positions, Detroit being the first stronghold abandoned. In this retreat the Americans under General Harrison came up with Sir George Prevost near the Moravian villages on the Thames, and defeated him with signal loss to the British. In this battle Tecumseh, the great Indian warrior, was slain, and this seemed to dis- courage the savage allies. The turn of the victorious tide brought about by the engage- ment on Lake Erie prepared the way for a more successful in- JAMES MADISON. 117 vasion of Canada. The force destined for this work amounted to twelve thousand men, eight thousand of whom were sta- tioned at Niagara and four thousand at Plattsburg. In addition to these forces, those under General Harrison were expected to arrive in season to take an important part in the campaign. The plan was to descend the St. Lawrence, pass the British forts above, and, after a junction with General Hampton, to pro- ceed to the island of Montreal. This plan was prevented by unex- pected obstacles, and the American army wintered at St. Regis. General Wilkinson concentrated his forces at Grenadier's Island, one hundred and eighty miles from Montreal, and leav- ing this place on the 25th of October, on board the fleet, they descended the St. Lawrence, in expectation of capturing Mont- real. Arriving at Williams burg on the 9th of November, fifteen hundred men were landed from the flotilla to protect the boats in their passage of the rapids. This detachment meet- ing a body of the enemy on the llth, engaged them, resulting in a drawn fight. A few days previous to this battle, as General Harrison had not arrived, General Wilkinson dispatched orders to General Hampton to meet him at St. Regis. This being impracticable, the proposed attack on Montreal was abandoned, and the army went into winter quarters at French Mills. In the Southwest a furious war was earned on between the Creek Indians and the Americans, in which General Jackson, by his great valor, subdued the savages after destroying a large part of their tribe. At sea this year the Americans had not been so successful, as the British were very desirous of wiping out some of the stains on the navy of their country. After the victory of the Hornet over the Peacock, Captain Lawrence was promoted to the com- mand of the frigate Chesapeake. The British frigate Shannon was soon off Boston harbor, and Captain Broke, her ' com- mander, challenged the Chesapeake, and Captain Lawrence sailed out to meet the foe, who, after fifteen minutes, boarded and captured the Chesapeake. The gallant Lawrence was mor- tally wounded, and his dying orders were : " Don't give up the ship." Congress still supported the policy of Mr. Madison, not with- 118 LIVES OF OUB PRESIDENTS. standing the complaint of the opposition at the expense. The summer session was devoted to voting additional taxes, which, now that commerce was paralyzed, were necessarily some of them internal. Duties were levied on wine, spirits, sugar, salt, etc., and a loan of over seven millions of Hollars was author- ized, and still other loans were required. During the course of the year the Emperor of Russia offert d his mediation between England and America. We at once sent commissioners to St. Petersburg, but Great Britain declined the mediation, but offered to send commissioners to any neutral port more friendly to England. Gothenburg was selected for the purpose. At both extremities of Lake Ontario the war was continued by desultory engagements of either army. Forts Erie and Oswego were taken by the British. In July an American invading force attacked the British at Chippewa, in Canada, and repulsed the enemy. Soon after this, Commodore McDonough, with his fleet, met the ships of the enemy on Lake Champlain, and captured the entire British fleet. As the war in Europe was now over, Great Britain determined to make the United States feel more fully the inconvenience of having provoked their hostility, and a squadron under Sir Alexander Cochrane, with an army on board under General Ross, sailed up the Chesapeake in the month of August in pur- suit of the American flotilla, which had taken shelter in the Patuxent River. As the British fleet could not go up the river, General Ross disembarked his troops and pursued the American vessels by land until they were destroyed to prevent their fall- ing into the hands of the enemy. From Marlborough, where the flotilla was destroyed, the British troops continued their march toward Washington. To prevent the capture of the national capital, the Americans took a strong position at Bladensburg, the chief approach to which lay over a bridge commanded by the American artillery, but the raw militia of Virginia and Maryland were no match for the British veterans of the peninsula, and after three hours' fighting Bladensburg was abandoned by its defenders, and the British marched to Washington, where in a spirit of inexcusable vandalism they burned the public buildings. JAMES MADISON. 119 On the invasion of the capital and the destruction of the national buildings, President Madison, from his retreat in Vir- ginia issued a proclamation denouncing the wanton acts of destruction by the British, and calling upon the entire country to unite in a manly and universal determination to chastise and expel the invader. The indignation of the public, however, was divided between the British and those who should have provided for the defense of the capital. The work of destruction accomplished, the British retreated without loss of time to their ships, and re-embarking, sailed to ravage other points. Alexandria was captured and paid a ransom to save all but its stores and shipping. The British then selected Baltimore as the next city upon which to wreak their vengeance, but the city was so well fortified and defended that the British attack was repulsed. On the 19th of September Congress again assembled at Washington, the members meeting in rooms hastily fitted up for their reception, and on the following day President Madison sent in the usual Message to Congress, in which, after review- ing the temporary successes and permanent dishonor of the enemy's recent unjustifiable destruction of public property, called attention to the splendid victories gained on the Ca- nadian side of the Niagara by the American forces under Generals Brown and Scott and Gaines. The Message also called attention to the bold and skillful operations of Major- General Jackson in having subdued the principal tribes of hostile savages. The Message then, after entering into financial details of national receipts and expenditures, closed with an earnest appeal for both men and money to vigorously assail the invading foe against whom we had forborne declaring war until, among other British aggressions, had been added the capture of nearly one thousand American vessels and the im- pressment of thousands of American seafaring citizens. The commissioners of both nations had in the meantime met at Ghent, instead of Gothenburg ; but the victory of the British over Napoleon had made them arrogant, and their demands were more than we would concede. In the meantime the party opposed to the war in the New 120 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. England States became highly exasperated, and a convention was proposed by them of delegates from each State to meet at Hartford in order to consider changes in the Constitution. But this dangerous spirit was arrested by the tidings that peace negotiations had at length been signed at Ghent. These tidings, however, did not arrive until the army, victorious at Wash- ington, had received a check which terminated the war in a manner glorious to the nation and much to the support of Mr. Madison's administration. We refer of course to the battle of New Orleans. The news of peace came amidst the rejoicings for the victory of New Orleans. It was doubly welcome because so gloriously terminated. Great Britain made no demands, and as impress- ment and right of search had ceased with the war bet%veen Great Britain and France, we naturally desisted from our demand, and a commercial treaty was concluded upon fair terms between the countries. But it was not long ere this began to affect American manufactures. During the war, whilst shut out from England, the Americans began to manu- facture the different goods they were deprived of, but of course at a higher price and of poorer quality than those excluded. Peace brought back the cheap and excellent goods of England, the competition was driving American manufacturers to the wall, and they exclaimed against the want of patriotism in sacrificing them to foreigners. The opinion gained strength in the country that our manufacturers should be supported and encouraged, and Mr. Madison, himself jealous of the decline of manufactures and still more of shipping, owing to the rivalry of the British, felt his old prejudices revive, and his messages to Congress soon began to recommend prohibitory measures and conservative duties. The summer and winter of 1816 passed away without being marked by any event of particular importance, and the time arrived when Mr. Madison should leave the Presidential chair and retire to private life. Returning to MontpeUer he passed the remainder of his years in a dignified and honorable retire- ment. Without mingling in the petty and distracting discus- sions of the day, he was always ready to express his opinions on JAMES MADISON. 121 the great constitutional questions in regard to which he was consulted. No man, perhaps, was so familiar with the history of the constitution, so thoroughly understood it, or speculated with so much clearness and felicity on its principles as Mr. Madison. The letter which he wrote in 1830 to Edward Everett on the agitating topic of nullification, was one of the most admirable and conclusive documents which ever emanated from any of our statesmen on a political question. From this lengthy and comprehensive document we extract the following : '' The constitution was formed, not by the governments of the component States, as the Federal Government for which it was substituted was formed. Nor was it formed by a majority of the people of the United States, as a single community, to the manner of a consolidated government. "It was formed by the States, that is, by the people in each of the States, acting in their highest sovereign capacity; and formed, consequently, by the State Constitution. ' Being thus derived from the same source as the constitutions of the States, it has, within each State, the same authority as the constitution of the State ; and is as much a constitution, in the strict sense of the term, within its prescribed sphere, as the constitutions of the States are within their re- spective spheres, but with this obvious and essential difference, that being a compact among the States in their highest, and constituting the people thereof one people for certain purposes, it cannot be altered or annulled at the will of the States individually, as the constitution of a State may be at its in- dividual will. " And that it divides the supreme powers of government between the Gov- ernment of the United States and the governments of the individual States is stamped on the face of the instrument; the powers of war and of taxation, of commerce and of treaties and of other enumerated powers vested in the Government of the United States being of as high and sovereign a character as any of the powers reserved to the State governments. " Nor is the Government of the United States, created by the Constitution, less a government in the strict sense of the term, within the sphere of its powers, than the governments created by the constitutions of the States are, within their several spheres. It is, like them, organized into Legislative, Executive and Judiciary departments. It operates, like them, directly on persons and things. And, like them, it has at command a physical force for executing the powers committed to it. The concurrent operation in certain cases is one of the features marking the peculiarity of the system. 'Between these different constitutional governments, the one operating in all the States, the others operating separately in each, with the aggregate powers of government divided between them, it could not escape attention that controversies would arise concerning the boundaries of jurisdiction and that some provision ought to be made for such occurrences. A political 122 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. system that does not provide for a peaceable and authoritative termination of occurring controversies would not be more than the shadow of a govern- ment; the object and end of a real government being the substitution of law and order for uncertainty, confusion and violence. " That to hare left a final decision in such cases to each of the States could not fail to make the Constitution and laws of the United States different in different States was obvious, and not less obvious that this diversity of inde- pendent decisions must altogether distract the Government of the Union and speedily put an end tc the Union itself. A uniform authority of the laws is in itself a vital principle, home of the most important laws could not be par- tially executed. They must be duly executed in all the States or they could be duly executed in none. An import or an excise, for example, if not in force in some States would be defeated in others. It is well known that this was among the lessons of experience which had a primary influence in bring- ing about the existing Constitution. A loss of its general authority would moreover revive the exasperating questions between the States holding ports for foreign commerce and the adjoining States without them. " To have referred every clashing decision, under the two authorities for a final decision, to the States as parties to the Constitution, would be at- tended with delays, with inconveniences and with expenses amounting to a prohibition of the expedient, not to mention its tendency to impair the salutary veneration for a system requiring sucU frequent interpositions, nor the delicate questions which might present themselves as to the form of stating the appeal and as to the quorum for deciding it. "To have trusted to negotiation for adjusting disputes between the Government of the United States and the State governments, as between independent and separate sovereignties, would have lost sight altogether of a constitution and government for the Union, and opened a direct road from a failure of that resort to the ultima ratio between nations wholly hide- pendent of and alien to each other." Mr. Madison, in this style, ably followed out the entire argu- ment against the false and dangerous doctrine of nullification, and the assertion of the right of a minority of the State to change or annul the Constitution, calling attention to the pro- vision in the Constitution itself requiring two-thirds of the States to institute and three-fourths to effectuate an amend- ment to the Constitution. During the latter part of his Lfe Mr. Madison was associated with Mr. Jefferson in the institution of the- University of Vir- ginia, and after his death was placed at its head with the title of Rector. He was also president of an agricultural society in JAMES MADISON. 123 the county of his residence. Such were the occupations of i his philosopher, statesman and patriot until the 21st day of June, 1836, tho anniversary of the day on. which the ratification of the constitution of Virginia, in 1738, had affixed the seal of James Madison as the father of the Constitution of the United States, when, without a struggle, his life serenely ended on earth, and he passed into that land beyond the bounds of time. JAMES MONROE. James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, was born in September, 1759, on the banks of the Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, Virginia. His ancestors had for many years resided in the province in which he was born, and one of them was among the first patentees of that province. Young Monroe was, at seventeen years of age, in the process of completing his classical education at the College of William and Mary, when the Colonial delegates, assembled at Philadel- phia to deliberate upon the unjust and manifold oppressions of Great Britain, declared the separation of the colonies, and pro- mulgated the Declaration of Independence. His youth pre- cluded him from taking any part in the controversies which had agitated the country from the first attempt to enforce the Stamp act ; but upon the first formation of the American army young Monroe, at that period eighteen years of age, left his college and proceeded to General Washington's headquarters at New York, enrolled himself in the army as a cadet in the regiment commanded by Colonel Mercer, and shared all the defeats and privations which attended the footsteps of Washington through the disastrous battles of Flatbush, Harlem Heights and White Plains. He was present at the succeeding evacuation of New York and Long Island, at the surrender of Fort Washington and the retreat through New Jersey. He stood with Washing- ton on the banks of the Delaware to contend with the British invader, and at tho battle of Trenton he led the vanguard, and in charging the enemy received a wound in his left shoulder. This bnivery secured his promotion to a captaincy of infantry, which position he assumed after his recovery from the wound. Soon after this he became an officer on the staff of Lord Ster- ling, and later exerted himself to collect a regiment for the 126 LIVES OB 1 OUR Virginia line. Failing in this, he entered the office of Mr. Jeffer- son, at that time Governor of Virginia, and pursued the study of law, serving at the same time as a volunteer. He was next promoted by Mr. Jefferson to the position of military com- missioner, to inquire into the condition of the Southern army under De Kalb. His talents were such that the country needed him in a higher field, and in 1782 he was elected a member of the Legis- lature of Virginia, and by that body he was elevated to a seat in the Executive Council, where he displayed such extraordi- nary talent that in the succeeding year he was chosen a member of Congress, and from 1783 to 1786 was an industrious and use- ful member. In 1784 he was appointed one of nine commis- sioners to act as judges in a controversy between the States of Massachusetts and New York. During his attendance in Congress at New York he married Miss Kortwright of that city, who was not only celebrated for her beauty, but for her accomplishments of mind and elegance of manners. In 1787 Mr. Monroe began the practice of law in Fredericks- burg, but soon after was elected to the Legislature of the State, and in the following year chosen a member of that Virginia Convention which met to decide upon the Federal Constitution. Mr. Monroe, with such men as George Mason and Patrick Henry, opposed the adoption of the Federal Constitution in the form in which it had been submitted, but the position he took did not shake the confidence and high esteem in which he was held by the citizens of his native State, for in 1789 he was chosen by them to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, in which position he continued for nearly five years. In 1794, our Minister Plenipotentiary to France having been recalled, Mr. Monroe was appointed his successor. At the close of Washing- ton's administration he was recalled, and returning home, pub- lished an able work in explanation of his own opinions and proceedings, entitled : "A View of the Conduct of the Execu- tive in the Foreign Affairs of the Unite 1 States, connected with the Mission to the French Republic, during the years 1794, 5 and 6." Mr. Monroe was bitterly opposed to the treaty which JAMES MONROE. 127 Mr. Jay had concluded with Great Britain, although it proved afterward very beneficial to this country, but Mr. Monroe's election to the State Legislature on his return home, and soon after to the office of Governor of Virginia, proves how strong a hold he had upon the hearts and confidence of his fellow citizens. On the llth of January, 1803, Mr. Monroe was appointed En- voy Extraordinary, and joined with that eminent patriot, Rob- ert R. Livingston, our resident Minister in France, to negotiate a purchase of the island of New Orleans, and the Spanish ter- ritory east of the Mississippi River. He was also appointed with Charles Pinckney, then our Minister Plenipotentiary at Madrid, to an extraordinary Mission, to negotiate, if necessary, the same purchase with Spain, which nation still held possession of Louisiana. It was not until after Mr. Monroe's arrival in France that the Emperor was favorably inclined to the sale of Louisiana, but realizing the need of the large amount of money asked for the territory, he showed a willingness to sell. The benefits secured to the United States by the fifteen millions of dollars paid for Louisiana can scarcely be fully realized. Had the French con- tinued to hold the mouth of the Mississippi, with the English in possession of the St. Lawrence, we would have had only the Atlantic Ocean for an outlet, and it is probable that those two powerful empires would have sought to possess themselves of the entire Pacific coast, and they would probably have made our Western territories their battle-field, and no one could have foreseen the fate of the country. After this successful sale and important treaty had been rati- fied, and certain claims of American citizens upon France ad- justed, Mr. Monroe proceeded to England as Minister Plenipo- tentiary, to succeed Rufus King, who, after seven years' faithful service, had requested that he might return home. Mr. Mon- roe, in the same conciliatory spirit which Mr. King had exer- cised, was endeavoring to adjust our difficulties with Great Britain in reference to the odious impressment outrages which were renewed on the outbreak of the war between France and England, when he was summoned to discharge his extiaordi- 128 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. nary mission to Spain, in reference to the purchase of Florida and the definite settlement of the boundaries of Louisiana. After remaining in Madrid five months, Mr. Monroe returned to England in June, 1805, to find that affairs had assumed such a menacing aspect that he had to contend with great difficulties. Mr. Pitt was at the head of the British Government, and pur- sued the interested and base policy of destroying the commerce of neutrals with France and Spain, to compel its enemies to traffic with the subjects of Great Britain. To effect this the British cruisers seized many of our vessels and procured their condemnation in the courts of admiralty. Mr. Monroe remon- strated against these acts of injustice, and being joined soon after by Mr. William Pinckney, a treaty was secured by which, with' proper modifications on our part, peace and harmony might have been restored, but President Jefferson insisted that some securer provisions might be added in reference to the im- pressment of seamen. The new British Minister refused to negotiate further on the ratification of the treaty, and therefore the mission of Monroe and Pinckney was at an end. From this period Mr Monroe never again went abroad, but was employed, until the expiration of his Presidential term, in offices of the highest importance and trust in his own country. For a few months after his return he rested from his labors in the peaceful retreat of domestic retirement, and then he was called to a seat in the State Legislature, and again re-elected Governor of Virginia for one term. After this, in the spring of 1811, he was appointed by President Madison Secretary of State. He accepted this important position at a critical period in our national history, when we were just on the eve of war, and as he was among the first of those gallant men who joined the army of the Revolution, so he was called to the councils of Gov- ernment in an hour of great need for his services. Mr. Monroe, in addition to his office of Secretary of State, was also appointed Secretary of War, after the blunders of the former incumbent of the office had compelled him to resign, and the successes of the war in our favor may be said to have dated from Mr. Mon- roe's discharge of the duties of the important office, at least so far as the able services of Mr. Monroe could improve our mili- JAMES MONROE. 129 tary condition in the field. In the discharge of his duties and in his noble devotion to his country at a time when our finances were in a deplorable condition, he, with a spirit of sacrifice worthy of the brightest epoch of Grecian renown, pledged his own individual credit in aid of a national loan. On the return of peace Mr. Monroe relinquished his office in the Department of War, and continued to exercise the duties of Secretary of State until the close of Mr. Madison's administra- tion. On the 5th of March, 1817, Mr. Monroe was inaugurated as President of the United States, upon which occasion he delivered a most able inaugural address, in which, calling attention to the recent war he urged upon our people the necessity of a better military and naval defense of our country. Among the appointments of President Monroe was that of John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State ; Wm. H. Crawford as Secretary of the Treasury, John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, and B. W. Crowninshield as Secretary of the Navy. Soon after making these appointments Mr. Monroe left Washington to commence his tour through the States, which elicited a most general expression of kindness, respect and courtesy. In his receptions in the various cities he received and delivered addresses denoting the highest statesmanship. President Monroe returned from his extensive and felicitous tour in time for the assembling of the new Congress, during which session the State of Mississippi was admitted into the Union. Soon after the adjournment of Congress Mr. Monroe visited those parts of the United States most exposed to the enemy, and especially the Chesapeake Bay and country lying on its exten- sive shores. Accompanied by the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy and other prominent officials, he made an exami- nation of Annapolis and the contiguous waters in reference to their fitness for a naval depot. After making a further exam- ination of the coast he proceeded to Norfolk, from which point he returned to Washington through the interior of Virginia. During the summer of 1819 President Monroe visited the South- ern section of the country, having in view the same great 130 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. national interests which had prompted him in his previous tour to the North. The most important topic of consideration during the ensu- ing session was connected with the admission of the Territory of Missouri into the Union. It was on the expediency of im- poting it as a condition of this admission that the future removal or transportation of slaves into that territory should be prohibited. This question gave rise to great warmth of feeling, and seemed at one time to threaten a dissolution of the Union. In the spring of 1820 the President transmitted to Congress important messages on the subject of our relations with Spain. The King of Spain had failed to ratify the treaty with the Unitrd States, and sent a Minister to Washington who had no authority to surrender the territory in dispute, but was instructed to make complaints and demand explanations respect- ing an imputed system of hostility on the part of citizens of the United States against the subjects and dominion of Spain, and to obtain new stipulations against these alleged injuries as the condition on which the treaty should be ratified. One proposi- tion of the Minister was that the United States should abandon the right to recognize the revolutionary colonies in South America, or to form new relations with them. In reference to this, in his message, Mr. Monroe's sentiments were of the highest order of statesmanship, and while he admitted that we might at pleasure occupy the territory which was intended and pro- vided by the late treaty as an indemnity for losses so long since sustained by our citizens, he urged the nobler forbearance until the head of the new organization of the Spanish Government fully understood the international question and difference between us. On the 13th of November, 1820, Congress reassembled at Washington, and the President's message included a most in- teresting report of the financial condition of the government, its resources and expenditures, together with an accurate state- ment of the public debt, and its reduction during the five years ending the 80th of September, 1820, and he called attention to the fact that during this period the expenses of the government JAMES MONROE. 131 of the United States were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil, military and naval establishments ; the public edifices in Washington had been rebuilt with considerable additions ; extensive fortifications had been commenced and were in rapid process of execution ; permanent arsenals and magazines had been erected in various parts of the Union ; our navy had been considerably augmented, and all our ordnance, munitions of war, and military and naval stores, replenished. With much pride Mr. Monroe called attention to the fact THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON. that the public expenditures for the year had been less than seventeen millions of dollars, while a substantial balance re- mained in the Treasury. On the 25th of November an effort was again made to secure the admission of the Territory of Missouri to the Union. The debate on the subject continued for one week and it was de- cided by a majority of fourteen in the House that Missouri could not be admitted into the Union with the present consti- tution. The Missouri question again presented iiself in rather a dif- ferent shape on the 14th of February, 1821, the day appointed 132 LIVES OF OUR PKESIDENTS. by law for opening and counting the votes for President and Vice-President for the ensuing term. It was foreseen that a difficulty might arise in regard to the votes for Missouri. To guard against any possible difficulty a resolution was passed in the Senate directing that if any objection should be made to counting the votes returned from Missouri, and provided these votes should not make any difference in the result, the Presi- dent should declare that if the votes of Missouri were counted, the number of votes for A. B. would be so many, and if the votes of Missouri were not counted, the number would be so many, and that in either case A. B. is elected. Upon this plan the votes for James Monroe, including the vote of Missouri, were two hundred and thirty-one, and excluding the vote of Missouri, they amounted to two hundred and twenty-eight, The vote without Missouri being such a decided majority, Mr. Monroe was declared elected President, and Mr. Tompkins Vice-President. On the 26th of February, Mr. Clay, from the joint committee appointed on the Missouri subject, reported a resolution favor- ing the admission of Missouri into the Union on an equal foot- ing with the original States. In this resolution there were certain fundamental conditions which gave rise to much dis- cussion, but the final result was the admission of Missouri. On the 22d of February, a proclamation was issued by the President promulgating the treaty which had been made with Spain, and its final ratification by the two countries. Two measures of great public interest and importance were thus at about the same period brought to a felicitous termination. On the 5th of March Mr. Monroe took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and was again inaugurated as President. On this occasion he made an address to his fel- low citizens at large, and laid before them a general view of the policy which the government intended to pursue. He very properly availed himself of his re-election to consider it as the public approbation of his conduct during the preceding term. After a brief notice of measures for fortification and defense, which had been rendered necessary by the events of the late war, the President took a cursory review of our foreign rela- JAMES MONROE. 13' tions and the state of the national revenue. He then called attention to the care of the Indian tribes within our limits, and took occasion to object to our treatment of them as independ- ent nations without their having any substantial pretension to that rank. After a brief reference to the unsettled condition of Europe, and the prospects of general war among the powers there, he cited with pride the condition of our own happy and peaceful country, and our increasing growth and prosperity, and claimed that in our whole system, national and State, we had shunned all the defects which unceasingly preyed upon and destroyed the ancient republics. In them there were dis- tinct orders, a nobility and a people, or the people governed in one assembly. Thus in the one instance there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the ascendancy, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow of the government and the ruin of the State. In the other, in which the people governed in a body, and whose dominions seldom exceeded the dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultous and disorderly movement permitted only a transi- tory existence. On the 3d of December Congress again assembled, and on the 5th the President transmitted to both Houses of Congress the annual message. It was quite long and interesting, pre- senting a favorable view of the affairs of the nation, as respected its commerce, manufactures and revenues. It stated that in pursuance of the treaty with Spain, possession of East and West Florida had been given to the United States, but that the archives and documents relative to the sovereignty of those provinces had not been delivered. Mr. Monroe also particu- larly mentioned our manufactures. "It cannot be doubted," said he, "that the more complete our internal resources and the less dependent we are on foreign powers for every national as well as domestic purpose, the greater and more stable will be the public felicity. By the increase of domestic manufac- tures will the demand for the rude materials at home be in- creased, and thus will the dependence of the several parts of our Union on each other, and the strength of the Union itself, be proportionately augmented." 134 LIVES OF OUE PRESIDENTS. On the 21st of January the Committee on the Judiciary reported a bill for establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy, and Mr. Sergeant, the chairman of the committee, made a speech in favor of the bill. This was followed by a speech from Mr. Randolph, who desired Congress to pass a law impair- ing the obligation of contracts, whenever made. The bill was finally rejected. On the 26th of February the solemn announcement was made to the Senate and House of the death of Mr. Pinckney, the noble patriot and able diplomat and statesman, who had done such able work for his country. Mr. Lloyd, of Maryland, the colleague of Mr. Pinckney in the Senate, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, were the memorial speakers of the occasion. On the 8th of March President Monroe communicated to Congress a message in which he recommended the recognition of South American independence. This message was referred to a committee, who reported unanimously in favor of the pro- posed measure, and introduced a resolution to appropriate a sum to enable the President to give due effect to such recog- nition. The Spanish Minister immediately entered a protest against the recognition of the insurgent provinces of Spain, and declared the intention of his country to employ every means to reunite them to the rest of her dominions. To this protest the Secretary of State replied that our recognition was not in- tended in any way to invalidate the rights of Spain, but was merely the acknowledgment of existing facts. On the 2d of December Congress again assembled, and the President submitted his message which contained a satisfactory exposition of the affairs of the Union, both at home and abroad. On the subject of internal improvement and manufac- tures the President observed : " Belie ving that a competent power to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such a power con- fined to great national purposes, and with proper limitations, would be productive of eminent advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable that an amendment to the Constitu- tion to that effect should be recommended to the several States." On the 1st of December the Eighteenth Congress commenced JAMES MONROE. i&5 its first session. In his message the President spoke in animated terms of the prosperous condition of the country, and of the amicable state of our relations with foreign countries. On the 27th of May, 1824, the Eighteenth Congress closed its first session. Among the most important bills which were passed was one for abolishing imprisonment for debt ; and a second establishing a tariff of duties on imports. During the succeeding summer the President had the pleasure of once more meeting with the Marquis de Lafayette, who again visited our country and the scenes of his early military labors as our friend and ally during the Revolutionary War. The second session of the Eighteenth Congress began on the 6th of December, 1824, and closed on the 3d of the following March, at which time the administration of Mr. Monroe closed. During his occupation of the Presidential chair the country enjoyed a uniform state of peace and prosperity. By his prudent management of the national affairs, both foreign and domestic, he eminently contributed to the peace and happiness of millions, and retired from office enjoying the respect, aft'ec- tion and gratitude of all. On the 3d of March, 1825, Mr. Monroe retired to his residence in Loudoun County, Virginia, where for a time he dicharged the ordinary judicial functions of a magistrate of the county and of curator of the University of Virginia. In the winter of 1829 and 1830 he served as a member of the Convention called to revise the Constitution of Virginia, over which body he was unanimously chosen president. Severe illness, however, soon compelled him to retire. The succeeding summer he was visited/ by a great bereavement in the death of the beloved partner of his life. Soon after this deep affliction he removed his residence to New York, where, surrounded by filial solicitude and ten- derness, the flickering lamp of life held its lingering flame as if to await the day of the nation's birth and glory, when the soldier of the Revolution, the statesman of the confederacy and the chosen chieftain of the nation passed into that slumber which has no awakening on earth, and yielded his pure and noble spirit to receive the sentence of his Maker. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. John Quincy Adams was descended from a race of farmers, tradesmen and mechanics. In 1630 his remote ancestor, Henry Adams, came to America with seven sons, and established him- self in this country. Thus early rooted in the soil, a warm attachment to the cause and the rights of America has been from generation to generation the birthright of this family. The first of this name who emerged from private life and rose to conspicuous public stations were Samuel Adams, the pro- scribed patriot of the Revolution, and John Adams, who was pronounced by his venerable compatriot, Thomas Jefferson, "The Colossus of Independence." These two distinguished benefac- tors of their country were descendants of the same remote an- cestors. Samuel Adams died without male issue. John Quincy Adams was a son of John Adams. He was born in the year 1767, and was named for John Quincy, his great-grandfather, who bore a conspicuous part in the councils of the province at the commencement of the last century. The principles of American independence and freedom were instilled into the mind of John Quincy Adams in the very dawn of his existence. Both of his revered parents had entered with every power and faculty into the cause of the country. "When John Adams repaired to France as joint commissioner with Franklin and Lee, he was accompanied by his son, John Quincy, then in his eleventh year, where he enjoyed the enviable privi- lege of the daily intercourse and sage attentions of Benjamin Franklin, whose primitive simplicity of manners and methodi- cal habits left a lasting impression on the mind of his youthful countryman. After remaining in France about eighteen months John Quincy Adams returned to America with his father, who came 1S3 LIVES 01? OUR PRESIDENTS. home to take part in the formation of the constitution of his native State. After a sojourn of a few months at home the voice of the country called on John Adams again to repair to Europe as a commissioner, and taking John Quincy with him, upon reaching Paris the youth was put to school. In July of the same year Mr. Adams repaired to Holland to negotiate a loan, and John Quincy was there placed first in the public school of the city of Amsterdam and afterward in the Univer- sity of Leyden. In July, 1781, Mr. Francis Dana, who had gone out with Mr. Adams as Secretary of Legation, received from the Continental Congress the commission of Minister to the Empress of Russia, and John Quincy Adams was selected by Mr. Dana as a private secretary of this mission. After re- maining fourteen months with Mr. Dana, he left him to return to his father in Holland, where he had been received as Minister from the United States. Young Adams reached the Hague in April, 1783, his father being at that time engaged at Paris in the negotiation of peace. The definite treaty of peace was signed in September, 1783, from which time until May, 1785, he was chiefly with his father in England, Holland and France. Mr. Adams was at the period last mentioned about eighteen years of age, and had led a life of wandering and vicissitude unusual at his age. Anxious to complete his education, and still more anxious to return to his native America, when his father in 1785 was appointed Minister to the Court of St. James, he asked permission to go back to his native shores. On his return to America he became a student of the ancient seat of learning at Cambridge. In July, 1787, Mr. Adams left college and entered the office of Theophilus Parsons, as a student of law, at Nswburyport. On a visit of General Washington to that town in i789, Mr, Parsons being chosen by his fellow-citizens as the medium of expressing their sentimen's to the General, called upon his pupils each to prepare an address. This being done, the ad- dress written by Mr. Adams was delivered by Mr. Parsons. After completing his law studies at Newburyport, Mr. Adams removed to the capitol of Massachusetts, with a view of em- ploying himself in the practice of the profession. JOHN^QmNCY ADAMS. 139 In April, 1793, on the first information that war between Great Britain and France had been declared, Mr. Adams pub- lished a short series of papers to prove that the duty and interest of the United States required them to remain neutral in the contest. These papers were published before General Wash- ington's proclamation of neutrality, and their opinions were in opposition to the ideas generally prevailing; Mr. Adams being first to express his views to the public on this new and difficult topic of national law. In the winter of 1793 and 1794 the public mind was agitated by the inflammatory appeals of the French Minister Genet. This influence was resisted by the powerful and skillful official correspondence of the then Secretary of State, Thomas Jeffer- son. Among those who co-operated in the public prints in the same patriotic cause, none was more conspicuous than Mr. Adams, whose essays in support of the administration were read and admired throughout the country. His reputation was now established as an American states- man, patriot, and political writer of the first order. Before his retirement from the Department of State, Mr. Jefferson recom- mended him to General Washington as a proper person to be introduced into the public service of the country. General Washington's own notice had been drawn to the various writ- ings of Mr. Adams. Thus honorably identified at the early age of twenty-seven with the first great and decisive steps of the foreign policy of the United States, and thus early attracting the notice and enjoying the confidence of Washington and Jefferson, Mr. Adams was in 1794 appointed Minister Resident to the Netherlands, an office corresponding in rank and salary with that of a Charge d' Affaires at the present day. Mr. Adams remained at his post in Holland until near the close of General Washington's administration. One of the latest acts of General Washington's administration was the appointment of Mr. Adams as Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal, but on his way from the Hague to Lisbon he received a new commission, changing his destination to Berlin. This latter appointment was made by Mr. Adams' father, then President of the United States. Although Mr. Adams' appoint- 140 LIVES OF OUR PKESIDENTS. merit to Portugal was made by General Washington, and Mr. Adams' father did no more than propose his transfer to Berlin, yet feelings of delicacy led him to hesitate before he even took this step. He consulted General Washington on the subject, who, in reply, gave it as his opinion that Mr. Adams was the most valuable public character we had abroad, and that the President should not withhold the merited promotion because of the relationship existing between them. The principal object of Mr. Adams' mission to Berlin was effected by the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with Russia. During the last year of his residence in Germany, Mr. Adams visited Silesia, which he described in a series of letters published in a volume, translated in French and German, and extensively circulated in Europe. Mr. Adams' residence in Europe, from 1794 to 1801, was of great importance in its influence upon his political character and feelings. He studied the causes and effects of the great political movements which were taking place, and was better qualified to hold an impartial and truly American course between the violent extremes to which public opinion iu America ran on the great question of our foreign relations in the war between France and England. During this critical period of our foreign and domestic politics, Mr. John Q. Adams was abroad and was not compelled to take part in those political contentions which must have either placed him in opposition to his father or have obliged him to encounter the natural imputation of being biassed in support of him by filial attach- ment, and he returned to his native land a stranger to local parties but a friend to his country. In 1802 Mr. Adams was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts from the district of Boston, and signalized his fearless inde- pendence by his strong though ineffectual opposition to a power- ful combination of banking interests, of which the centre was placed among his immediate constitutents. In 1803 he was elected a Senator of the United States for six years. His conduct in the Senate was such as might have been justly expected from his position. He had neither principles to permit, nor passions to drive him into indiscriminate op- JOHN QUIKCY ADAMS. 141 position or blind support. Especially in the new aspect which the political world was assuming in consequence of the infraction of our neutral rights and violation of the sovereignty of our flag by Great Britain. Mr. Adams was the prompt and undeviating supporter of the honor of his country, and of the measures adopted by the administra- tion for its defense. The Legislature of Massachusetts disapprov- ing of Mr. Adams' position, elected another person in 1808 as Senator from the expiration of Mr. Adams' term; and not choos- ing to represent constituents who had lost confidence in him, Mr. Adams immediately resigned his seat in the Senate. The decided support of a man like Mr. Adams was peculiarly ac- ceptable to the administration at this moment. It was a support given in the darkest days of Mr. Jefferson's adminis- tration. The retirement of Mr. Adams from the Senate of the United States did not abate the activity of his uncommon powers for serving his fellow men, and in 1806 he was called to the chair of rhetoric and oratory in the seminary where he received his education, and delivered a course of lectures on '-The Art of Speaking Well," the most important art to the youth of a free country. But his country had higher claims upon his services, and in June, 1809, he was appointed by Mr. Madison as Minister to Russia. He had the good fortune here to secure the confidence of the Emperor Alexander, who was delighted with the contrast of the republican simplicity of the American Minister with the splendor of the foreign Envoys. This circumstance laid the foundation of that good- will toward America that has continued to this day. But its first fruit was the proffered mediation of Russia, which indirectly led to peace between England and the United States. It was for this reason that he was placed by Mr. Madison at the head of the commission of five by which the treaty of peace was negotiated, and a proportionate share of the credit is due to him for that cogency and skill which drew from the Mar- quis of Wellesley, in the British House of Lords, the declaration ttaat, "in his opinion, the American commission had shown 142 LIVES OF OUR PKESIDENTS, the most astonishing superiority over the British during the whole of the correspondence." Having borne this important part in bringing the war to a close by an honorable peace, Mr. Adams was employed, in con- junction with Mr. Clay and Mr. Gallatin, in negotiating a con- vention of commerce with Great Britain on the basis of which our commercial intercourse with that country has been gince advantageously conducted. Having been appointed our Min- ister at London by Mr. Madison, Mr. Adams remained in that place until the accession of Mr. Monroe to the Presidential chair. In reference to the formation of his Cabinet, General Jack- son advised Mr. Monroe to select characters most conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity and firmness, without regard to party. Mr. Monroe felt that the association of any of the Federal party in the administration would wound the feelings of its friends to the injury of the Republican cause. He in- formed General Jackson, however, in a letter, of his intention to select Mr. Adams tor the Department of State, and in reply General Jackson asserted that the President could not make a better selection, and that Mr. Adams in the hour of difficulty would be an able helpmate. There seemed to be something almost prophetic in General Jackson's assertion, for it was not long before his conduct was the subject of solemn investigation before the grand inquest of the nation. The letters of Mr. Adams to the Spanish Minister, justifying the conduct of Gen- eral Jackson against the complaints of Spain, came seasonably to the support of this distinguished citizen, and effected the vindication of ^him against every charge of a violation of the rights of Spain. In performing the arduous duties of his office as Secretary of State, Mr. Adams received, as General Jackson had foretold that he would, the general approbation of the country. In reference to all questions of the foreign relations of the country he was the influential member of the Cabinet, and, more than any other individual composing it, was entitled to the credit of the measures which, during Mr. Monroe's administration, were adopted in reference to the foreign policy of the Government. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 143 Among these were the recognition of the new republics of South America and the successful termination of our differ- ences with Spain, after a controversy of thirty years, which had resisted, the skill of every preceding administration. On every important occasion and question that arose the voice of Mr. Adams was for his country, for mild counsels and for union. In the agitation of the Missouri question his influ- ence was exerted for conciliation. He believed that by the Constitution and the treaty of the session of 1803 Congress was barred from adopting the proposed restrictions on the admis- sion of Missouri. He was the friend of all internal improve- ments, and to the protection of American manufactures. Such were his claims to the last and highest gift which the people can bestow on a long-tried, faithful servant. Various circumstances conspired to strengthen them in the Presidential canvass for the term beginning in 1825. In consequence of the number of candidates, no choice by the people was effected, no candidate approaching nearer than within thirty votes of a majority. The three persons who received the highest num- ber of votes for the Presidency were Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and William H. Crawford. For the Vice- Presidency, John C. Calhoun received one hundred and eighty- two votes, and was consequently elected. The choice of the President, according to Constitutional provisions, fejl upon the House of Representatives, and, contrary to all expectations, an election was effected at the first balloting, Mr. Adams having received the votes of thirteen States, General Jackson the votes of seven States, and Mr. Crawford the votes of four States. The result of the election created great surprise, and in many quarters great indignation. The cry of corruption and intrigue was raised on all sides, and it was asserted that Mr. Clay had sold the vote of Kentucky for the promise of place. On the 4th of March, 1825, Mr. Adams was inaugurated Pres- ident of the United States ; and being introduced into the Capitol, he rose and read M'S inaugural address, in which, with patriotic solemnity and pride, he spoke of the great work of our forefathers and the mighty changes and progress which had taken place in our country, and gave a brief out- 144 I.IVKS OK oru PRESIDENTS. line of his administrative policy, which, like that of his prede- cessor, should be : "To cherish peace while preparing for defensive war ; to yield exact justice to other nations and main- tain the rights of our own ; to cherish the principles of freedom and of equal rights wherever they are proclaimed ; to discharge with all possible promptitude the national debt ; to reduce within the narrowest limits of efficiency the military force ; to improve the organization and discipline of the army ; to provide and sustain a school of military science ; to extend equal pro- tection to all the great interests of the nation ; to promote the civilization of the Indian tribes, and to proceed in the great system of internal improvements within the limits of the Con- stitution and power of the Union." The vacancies which were made in the Cabinet by the elec- tion of the Secretaries of State and of War to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, and by the retirement of the Secretary of the Treasury, rendered it expedient to convene the Senate im- mediately after the dissolution of the Eighteenth Congress. On the 4th of March, the same day 1 he President was inaug- urated, the members assembled and the Vice-President took the chair and addressed the Senate upon the importance of its duties and the immediate dependence of all the other depart- ments of the government upon that body. Aftei acting upon the credentials of new members, the Senate then went into the consideration of executive business, and confirmed the nominations made by tlje President for the several departments. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was appointed Secretary of State ; Eichard Rush, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury, and James Barbour, of Virginia, Secratary of War. To the appointment of Mr. Clay a warm opposition was made by a few Senators, and little doubt was left that the new administration was destined to meet with a systematic and organized opposition ; and previous to the meeting of the next Congress the grounds of the opposition were set forth at public meetings. The principal reasons of hostility to Mr. Adams were the assertion that his election was the result of a bargain between him and Mr. Clay, and his selection of Mr. Clay as JOHN VCINCY ADAMK. 143 Secretary of State was relied upon as conclusive proof of the bargain ; and also that Mr. Adams was elected against the ex- pressed will of the people, and that Congress, by not taking General Jackson, the candidate having the highest number of votes, had violated the Constitution and disobeyed their con- stituents. Mr. Clay's defendants declared that, as a represent- ative, he was obliged to decide between three candidates for the Presidency, and that his vote was in accordance with all his previous declarations. During the first year of Mr. Adams' administration a controversy arose between the national government and the executive of Georgia. This controversy grew out of a compact iiiude between these parties in 1802, by which the United States agreed to extinguish the Indian title to the lands occupied by them in Georgia, ' ' whenever it could be peaceably done on reasonable terms." The consideration of this compact was the relinquishment by Georgia of her claim to the Mississippi Territory. There still remained in Georgia over five millions of acres in the possession of the Cherokee", and over four mill- ions held by the Creek nation. During Mr. Monroe's adminis- tration great effort was made to induce the Indians to dispose of their lands and remove from Georgia, but the Creek nation had been enjoying the comforts and security of civilization, and were unwilling to leave them. After much trouble between Georgia and the Indians, a negotiation was opened between the Indian tribes and the national government, which resulted in annulling the old treaty and the formation of a new one, by which the Creeks were allowed to retain all their lands in Ala- bama, and ceded all their lands in Georgia for a more liberal compensation than had been before stipulated, but the Georgia delegation and the enemies of the administration made a fruit- less opposition to its ratification. The administration of Mr. Adams was also successful in making an amicable settlement with the Indians of the North- western States and Territories, and hostilities that had raged for nearly half a century almost without cessation were thus happily terminated. In September, 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, whose course 146 LIVES Otf OUR PRESIDENTS. through the United States had been a continuous series of festi- vals and celebrations, took leave of our people to return home. It was thought proper that his final departure from the coun- try should take place from the Capitol, and a frigate was accord- ingly provided, and named in his honor the Brandywine, to transport him to his native country. On the invitation of Mr. Adams, he passed a few weeks at the Presidential mantion, receiving and taking leave of the distinguished men who had been associated with him in the struggles of the Revolution. On the 7th of September his departure took place with cere- monies that were touching and sublime, and Mr. Adams de- livered an address that was a most appropriate tribute to the parting guest. The first session of the Nineteenth Congress opened on the 5th of December, 1825, and on the next day the President trans- mitted his message to Congress by his private secretary. The document presented a brief and simple examination of our domestic and foreign affairs, and called the attention of Con- gress to many important matters, including the claims of our merchants upon various European powers, and still more earnestly the claims of the few survivor of our Revolutionary army upon their country for relief and support. During the session of Congress a proposed amendment to the Constitution was offered, providing for a uniform mode of elect- ing the President and Vice-President by districts, and to prevent the election from devolving upon Congress. A resolution pro- viding for the same object, by a direct vote of the people in dis- tricts, was brought forward at about the same time in the Sen- ate by Mr. Benton, of Missouri, but both of these proposed amendments were rejected. Another subject which occupied much -of the attention of Congress, was the acceptance by the President of the invitation to send commissioners to the Congress of Panama. The nomi- nations made by the President were at length confirmed by the Senate, and the necessary appropriations made by the House, not, however, without a long and angry debate, in which many reflection" 1 were cast upon the President on account, as it was deemed, of his hasty acceptance of the above invitation. JOHN QtTlKCT ADAMS. 147 On the 26th of May, 1826, Congress closed its session, in which, excepting the sanction given to the Panama mission, nothing of great public interest was accomplished. The opposition to the administration of Mr. Adams gained strength and development, and numerous parties combined for its support or overthrow in various parts of the country. A resolution was expressed in some quarters to put down the ad- ministration at every hazard, no matter what might be its policy, its integrity or its success. The cry of corruption was re-echoed by office-seekers and the more desperate portion of the oppositionists, until it began to gain currency with the pub- lic, and proved sufficient to secure the downfall of the adminis- tration against which it was raised. The Panama mission, charges of extravagance, the President's assertion of his consti- tutional authority to appoint diplomatic agents during the vaca- tion of Congress, were all fruitful subjects of clamor and oppo- sition. In conformity with the views of the opposition, a nomination for the next Presidency was immediately made, and in Octo- ber, 1825, the Legislature of Tennessee recommended General Jackson to the suffrages of the people of the United States for the highest office in their gift. This nomination he formally ac- cepted, and in an address before the Legislature of the State intimated his dissatisfaction at the result of the late Presidential election on the ground of its corrupt origin. These charges were diffused with an industry and zeal paralleled only by their baseness. At length the charge of corruption was brought from a re- sponsible quarter, and an investigation ensued which resulted in the complete acquittal of the parties accused. Directly after the adjournment of the Eighteenth Congress a letter appeared purporting to relate a conversation with General Jackson as to a proposition made to him by Mr. Clay's friends to secure his election to the Presidency, on condition that Mr. Adams should not be continued as Secretary of State. General Jackson dis- claimed any charge against Mr. Clay. Testimony was now pro- duced by Mr. Clay and his friends which completely refuted the charge of bargain and hurled it with scorn in the teeth of his 148 tlTES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. enemies. But the accusation had been made to answer the pur pose for which it was framed, and the opposition to the ad- ministration had found a permanent basis to build upon. But however the efforts of the opposition might embarrass the movements of the administration, they could not retard the rapid progress of the country in wealth and prosperity under the wise policy of Mr. Adams. The great works of internal improvements were prosecuted with spirit and vigor. Routes for roads and canals were surveyed, the navigation of rivers improved, lighthouses and piers were built, and obstructions from bays and harbors removed. Congress having adjourned without passing any law for the purpose of meeting tho restrictive measures of the British Gov- ernment in respect to the colonial trade, the President issued a proclamation dated March 17, closing the ports of the United States against vessels from the British colonies, which had been opened by the act of 1822. By this act the British restrictions were completely reciprocated and the President was sustained in it by public opinion. The second session of the Nineteenth Congress commenced on the 4th of December, 1826, and the message of the President ably mentioned all important matters and events. The Creek controversy, which should have been happily set- tled by the treaty of April 22, again loomed up. The Gov- ernor of Georgia ordered the surveyors employed by him to begin the survey of the Indian lands, previous to the time prescribed by the treaty for the removal. This the Indians resisted, and the Governor ordered out a force of militia. In this posture of affairs the President determined to support the laws of the Union by the authority which the Constitution had placed in his hands, previously submitting the affair to Congress in a message, in which he gave a plain statement of the facts, and declared his determination to enforce the laws and fulfill the duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose to his charge. Great excitement was displayed in both houses on the receipt of this message. Congress sustained the President in his position, and his firmness brought the Governor of Georgia JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 149 to reason, and he addressed a letter to the delegation of that State afc Washington, submitting to the decision of Congress. Space does not permit of a more detailed account of the vari- ous measures of Mr. Adams' administration. During the whole of it the United States enjoyed uninterrupted peace ; for the foreign policy of the government had nothing in view but the maintenance of our national dignity, the extension of our com- mercial relations and the successful prosecution of the claims of American citizens upon foreign governments. In the condition which \ve have described, at peace with all the world, with an increasing revenue and with a large surplus in the Treasury, the administration of the government of the United States was surrendered by Mr. Adams to General Jack- son, bis successor. Thus ended the administration of Mr. Adams, an administra- tion marked by definite and consistent policy, and energetic councils, governed by upright motives, but from the beginning the object of the most violent opposition, resulting in a signal overthrow. The election which terminated in the defeat of Mr. Adams, was marked with extreme bitterness, asperity and profligacy. On both sides the pjess was virulent, libelous and mean. The brave soldier was described as a malignant savage, and the experienced statesman as a man who had purchased by intrigue that which he was determined to hold by corruption. After returning to his home Mr. Adams still took an active part in public affairs, and represented his native district in Congress, where until his death he took the firm and able stand to which his eminent talents and distinguished services fully entitled him. During the last days of his public services he had grown very feeble and infirm, and during the session of February, 1848, while making a speech in Congress, he was attacked by fatal illness, and without being removed from the Capitol he quietly breathed his last, and ended one of the noblest, ablest and most patriotic lives ever devoted to any country. ANDREW JACKSON. Andrew Jackson, that rough and rugged representative American, was born on the 15th of March, 1767. His father was an Irishman, who landed at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1765, and settled at Waxaw, where the subject of our narra- tive was born. Soon after his birth his father died, leaving three sons to be provided for by their mother. She appears to have discharged the duties in an exemplary manner, and Andrew, whom she intended for the ministry, was sent to school, where he continued until (he war of the Revolution interrupted his studies. At the age of fourteen Andrew Jackson and his brother, Robert, entered the American camp in the service of their coun- try. Even at this early age the unyielding and independent obstinacy of his character was developed. In an attack of the British on Waxaw eleven Americans had been taken prisoners, and among them were the two Jacksons. The evening after their capture Andrew was accosted by a British officer, who ordered him in an imperious tone to clean his boots. This order he scornfully refused to obey, alleging that he expected only such treatment as was due to a prisoner of wax. Incensed at bis reply, the officer aimed a blow at his head with a drawn sword, which the boy parried by throwing up his left hand, not, however, without receiving a wound, of which the scar re- mained until his death. His brother, for a similar cause, received a deep and dangerous cut on the head. The brothers were conveyed to jail, where their wounds were wholly neglected. That of Andrew was slight, but his brother's brought on an inflammation of the brain which, a few days after his liberation, ended in death. They were soon exchanged and returned to their mother, who died shortly after her son. 152 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. Andrew Jackson was thus left alone in the world, afflicted with disease brought on by the hardships he had undergone, and with the small-pox, which broke out on him at the same time. On his recovery he injudiciously began to squander his estate, but at length, foreseeing the consequences of his extravagance, he betook himself to a regular course of study, acquiring some knowledge of classics and continuing his literary pursuits until he reached the age of eighteen. He commenced the study of law in 1784, at Salisbury, in North Carolina. At the end of two years he obtained a license from the Judges to practice law. After remaining in the State until 1788, he decided that that locality presented few inducements to a young attorney. The western part of Tennessee about this time offered alluring prospects to young adventurers, and there we find Jackson soon after his departure from North Carolina. He took up his resi- dence at Nashville. There was but one lawyer in the county, and the knavish part of the community had so contrived as to retain him in their interest ; many merchants thereby being deprived of the means of enforcing payment of their honest dues. Jackson's advent was hailed with delight, and the morning after he arrived he issued seventy writs. His presence soon became a terror to the debtors in the place. Soon afterward he was appointed Attorney-General for the district. At this time Indian depredations were frequent on the Cumberland, and Jackson was accustomed to aid actively in garrisoning the forts and in pursuing and chastising the savages. In 1796 he was chosen a member of the convention for framing a Constitution for the State. He was the same year elected a member of the House of Representatives in Congress for the State of Tennes- see. In Tennessee his popularity continued to increase, and in 1797 he was elected to the United States Senate. Soon after taking his seat he asked leave to return home on private busi- ness, and before the next session he resigned his seat, being at that time little more than thirty years of age. On his return to Tennessee he was appointed major general pf the State militia, which commission he held until the year ANDREW JACKSON. 153 1814. Soon after his resignation of his seat in the Senate he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State. Congress, by the acts of February and July, 1812, authorized the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volun- teers. Subject to this order General Jackson raised twenty- five hundred men, and after being duly authorized under his command and armed and equipped for war, he assembled them at Nashville, and they descended the Mississippi to Natchez. But as there was no appearance of war in the Southwest their services were not needed, and General Jackson received an or- der from the Secretary of War to disband his troops and de- liver the public property in his possession to General Wilkin- son. This order General Jackson believed it proper to disobey, and in spite of all opposition he marched his troops homeward through the forests, sharing their hardships and setting them an example of untiring patience and perseverance. At the close of his march he disbanded his men, who returned to their homes. In a letter to the Secretary of War, he explained that had he dismissed his forces on receiving the order, the sick would have suffered and many would have been compelled by want to enlist in the regular service. His sensible conduct was approved, and the expenses incurred were paid by the Gov- ernment. Peaceful repose in the Southwest, however, was not of long duration. The Creek Indians were manifesting strong symp- toms of hostility toward the United States. This disposition was strengthened through means used by the Northern Indians, who were then making preparations fora war against the United States, and Tecumseh was despatched to the Southern Indians to kindle in them the same spirit, and frequent depredations were committed on the border settlers. By one of the incur- sions in the summer of 1812, several families had been mur- dered in a shocking manner near the mouth of the Ohio, and shortly after another party, entering the limits of Tennessee, had butchered two families of women and children. Soon after this the Indians proceeded to make an attack on Fort Minims, in the territory of Mississippi. This fort contained at that time about one hundred and fifty men, besides a consider- 154 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. able number of women and children, who had fled there for pro- tection. The Indians carried it by assault. The slaughter was indiscriminate. Nearly three hundred persons, including women and children, were put to death with the most savage barbarity. But seventeen of the whole number in the fort escaped to tell of the dreadful catastrophe. Great excitement was produced in Tennessee by the news of this outrage, and the citizens, after consultation with the Gov- ernor and General Jackson, proposed to march at once into the heart of the Creek nation, and the Legislature of the State authorized the Executive to call into the field three thousand five hundred of the militia. By order of the Governor, General Jackson, though suffering from a fractured arm, called out two thousand of the volunteers and militia of his division. To this force was joined five hundred horsemen under Colonel Coffee, to which were to be added all the mounted riflemen that he could gather, and preparations were made for a vigorous cam- paign. The soldiers went at once into camp. On the 7th of October, General Jackson joined his division and learned that the Creeks had detached up ward of eight hun- dred of their warriors to fall upon the frontier of Georgia, while the remainder of their force were marching on Hunts- ville. On the 9th, therefore, he set his army in motion and reached Huntsville that day by a forced march, forming a junction the next day with Colonel Coffee's regiment on th<> Tennessee River. Here they rested while scouts were sent to reconnoitre the Black Warrior River, on which were several Creek villages. While thus waiting a messenger arrived from Chinnaby, a chief of the friendly Creeks. He brought intelli- gence that Chinnaby's camp was threatened by the enemy and solicited aid. This induced General Jackson to move toward Chinnaby's camp. Near Ten Islands he was met by the chief, who informed him that he was within sixteen miles of the hos- tile Creeks, who were assembled to the number of a thousand to oppose his march. Colonel Dyer was then sent forward to attack the village of Littafutchee, on the Coosa, which he suc- cessfully accomplished, having burned the village and brought back a number of prisoners. The scouting parties now began ANDREW JACKSON. 155 to bring in prisoners and cattle and corn taken from the enemy, and reported that Chinnaby's statement was unfounded. The first week in November information was received that a body of the Muscogee warriors had taken a position at the vil- lage of Tallushatches, and Colonel Coffee was sent to attack them with nine hundred mounted men, who, after a feint to draw out the swages, charged them, and after a mosf desperate fight the Tennesseeans revenged the slaughter of Fort Mimms by slaying all the men and some women and children. Not one of the savages escaped. Over one hundred and eighty were killed, and eighty-four women and children were taken alive. Of the whites, only five were killed and forty-one wounded. On the evening of the 7th a messenger arrived from Talladega, a fort of the friendly Indians, thirty miles below, with informa- tion that the enemy had encamped before ic, and would destroy it unless assistance should be immediately rendered. Jackson at once marched to their assistance with all his available force, amounting to twelve hundred infantry and eight hundred mounted men. Crossing the river that night, the army marched with unabated ardor, and by the next evening were within six miles of the enemy. At four in the morning the army moved in order of battle. By seven o'clock, they were within a mile of the enemy, and after drawing the Indians from their cover, who, rushing tom- ahawk in hand upon the advance guard, drove them back and fell furiously on the left wing, General Jackson, rallying the companies which had fallen into disorder, checked the advance of the savages. The line now delivered an unbroken fire, and in fifteen minutes the Creeks gave way at all points and fled. The cavalry pursued them for three miles and made great slaughter. In this battle, a thousand and eighty of the Creeks were engaged, of whom about six hundred were slain. The loss of the whites was fifteen killed and nearly one hun- dred wounded. Thus were the friendly Indians at Talla- dega relieved, and the hostile Creeks terribly punished. After this, the army suffered terribly for food, owing to the failure of the commissary stores to reach them, until Jackson himself was even reduced to a diet of acorns, and mutiny 156 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. broke out in the camp, which was only suppressed through the greatest firmness of the commander. About the 22d of November, a deputation arrived from the Creek tribes, called Hillabees, to sue for peace. They had suf- fered severely at Talladega and were ready to submit to any terms. General Jackson replied that they must restore the prisoners and property they had taken, whether from the whites or the friendly Creeks, and surrender the persons concerned in the massacre at Fort Mimms. With this answer the Hillabee ambassadors returned to their villages on the 24th of the month. But that very night the Hillabees were attacked in their huts by the Tennessee militia, under General White. Sixty of them were killed, upward of two hundred and fifty were made prisoners, and their villages were utterly destroyed. The officers of the Eastern division were jealous of General Jackson's popularity and had refused to co-operate with him. The Hillabees, believing that they had been attacked by General Jackson after their overtures of peace, waged a war of extermination from that time until the cessation of hostili- ties. General Jackson about this lime was called upon to exercise the greatest firmness and bravery in preventing the troops from marching home. On a number of occasions he stood before revolted troops with his cocked pistol, and by the threat of shooting the first man who moved, prevented the success of sev- eral mutinies. In the meantime the Muscogees were sustaining great reverses. On the 4th of December they were defeated by the Georgia militia at Autossee, on the Tallapoosa River, where upward of two hundred of the savage warriors were slain and two villages destroyed. General Claiborne also destroyed the town of Ec- cancacha, and routed its defenders with loss, on the 1st of Jan- uary, 1814. On the 13th of January eight hundred and fifty of the newly- raised Tennessee volunteers arrived at Fort Strother. They were organized in two mounted regiments, and two days after took up the line of march for Talladega, followed by General Jack- sou with bis staff, an artillery company, three companies of in- JACKSOti. 157 f'antry and a company of volunteer officers, making about one thousand troops in all. At Talladega they were joined by two or three hundred friendly Creeks and Cherokees. With this force Jackson marched to the Emuckfaw River, where a large body of the enemy had collected. At daybreak the next morning, the Creek warriors drove in the sentinels and vigorously charged the left flank. The as- sault was fiercely given, but when light broke, a general charge forced the Muscogees at every point, and in the pursuit the slaughter was considerable. The next day the army commenced ics return to Fort Stroth- er. On the line of march there was a defile between two hills where a small stream was to be crossed, a place every way fitted for an ambuscade. General Jackson was too good a soldier to be taken at disadvantage in such a place, so he re- solved to cross the stream at another ford where there was no lurking place for the wily savage. He had just begun crossing the stream when the enemy charged the rear guard. For a time the troops fell into disorder, and were in great danger of a wholesale massacre. The Muscogees were swarming like bees, and for a time there was none to withstand them but the left wing, the artillery, a company of spies and a few of the rear guard . The repeated charges of grape from the artillery kept the savages at bay until General Jackson could rally his troops, and at last the Muscogees fled in great disorder, leaving one hundred and ninety dead on the field, besides about an equal number carried away, and the wounded, whose number could not be ascertained. Soon after this, however, they attacked General Floyd, but were repulsed with considerable loss. On the return to Fort Strother, General Jackson, hearing that fresh troops were expected from Tennessee, where the news of his success had much effect, determined to discharge his troops as soon as he could furnish them transportation home. The Thirty-ninth Regiment of Tennessee Militia arrived on the 6th of February, and the troops from the Second Division, under Brigadier-General Johnson, arrived on the 14th, which, added to the other forces, constituted about five thousand efficient men. After more trouble of insubordination and discontent, 158 LIVES OB' OUR PRESIDENTS. General Jackson got the army in good fighting condition and secured such supplies as enabled him to move at once. At the mouth of Cedar Creek lie established Fort Williams, and leav- ing Brigadier-General Johnson with a force for its protection, he set out for the Tallapoosa with a force of about three thou- sand men. On the morning of the 27th he reached the village of Tohopeka, where the enemy had collected to the number of about twelve hundred to give him battle. They had chosen an admirable spot for defense. Situated in a bend of the river, which almost surrounded it, it was accessible only by a narrow neck of land. Here they had placed large timbers and trunks of trees horizontally on each other, leaving but one place of entrance. From a double row of port-holes they were enabled to fire in perfect security behind it. To divert the savages from the real point of danger and prevent their escape in their canoes to the opposite shore, General Coffee, with mount* d infantry and friendly Indians, had been despatched early in the morning to encircle the bend. The General posted the rest of his army in front of the breastworks, which he began to battle with his cannon, while muskets and rifles were used as the Indians occasionally showed themselves. As soon as the signal announced that General Coffee had gained his destination, the soldiers, with wild enthusiasm, rushed forward through sheets of fire and leaden hail to charge the ramparts. Here an obstinate and destructive conflict ensued, in which Major Mont- gomery was shot dead ; but scarcely had he fallen before the troops had carried the breastworks and the savages fled before them, concealing themselves under the thick brush and timber, from which they poured a galling fire. Dislodged from their position, they rushed for their canoes, but to their consternation found the army lining the opposite shore and precluding escape in that quarter The survivors then hid under the fallen tim- ber on the river bank, from which they were driven out by fire from lighted torches, which set the dry brush in a fierce blaze, and the slaughter continued until but few of the savages were left to escape in the night. This battle gave a death-blow to the hopes of the hostile In- dians, and they did not again venture to make a decided stand. ANDREW JACKSON. 15V Their best and bravest fell, and few escaped the carnage. Five hundred and fifty seven were found dead on the field, besides those drowned in the river. Four men only and three hundred women and children were taken prisoners. Our loss, including the friendly Indians, was fifty-five killed and one hundred and forty -six wounded. Learning that the savages were in considerable numbers at Hoithlewalee, Jackson immediately took up his inarch to con- tinue his victories and crush out the war spirit of the Indians as speedily as possible. But high water prevented his reaching his destination until the enemy had fled. He, however, cap- tured twenty-five savages from the rear of their retreat. The next day the long-desired junction with the southern army was effected, and almost immediately after the principal chiefs of the Hickory ground tribes and the Creek chiefs came in with protestations of friendship and sued for peace. It had been expected that the Indians would make a desperate stand at the Hickory ground in the forks near where the Coosa and Tallapoosa unite. The army then continued its march to old Toulosse Fort, on the Coosa. Here the hostile chiefs arrived daily with proffers of submission, those who were still opposed to peace having fled to the Gulf coast and Pensacola. Thus ended the Creek War, in which General Jackson had so successfully crushed out the cruelties and butcheries of the savages, which for more than twenty years the Creeks had been perpetrating on our border in fact ever since they had allied themselves to Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. On the 22d of May, 181-1, General Jackson received the appoint- ment of United States Major- General. He was also associated with the commissioners for forming a treaty of peace and of limits with the Creek Indians. In the meeting with the Indians General Jackson made a decisive speech in answer to that of Big Warrior, upon which the Indians deliberated over the treaty and signed it. This treaty ceded to the Indians one hun- dred and fifty thousand square miles, a large and valuable body of lands in Tennessee and Southern Kentucky known as Jack- son's Purchase. But as soon as the treaty was signed the- IttO LJVES Of OUR PRESIDENTS. Chickasaws, Choctaws and Cherokees set up claims each to their particular share of the ceded lands. The Government at length purchased their title at an expense of about three hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. General Jackson had now leisure to extend his thoughts to Florida. The Spanish Governor of the Floridas had forfeited all claims to his professed neutral character by the supplies of ammunitions and aid so liberally furnished to the hostile Indians. During his journey to Alabama, General Jackson received information that about three hundred British troops had landed and were fortifying themselves at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, and were endeavoring to excite the Indians to war. He immediately acquainted the Government of the fact, and requested permission to make a descent upon Pensacola, and reduce it. Jackson next wrote sternly and decisively to the Spanish Governor, demanding the giving up of the hostile savages in his country. In reply the Governor denied some of the charges, and endeavored to palliate others by accusing our Government of having harbored traitors from the Mexican provinces, and of countenancing pirates who plundered Spanish commerce. The General replied to this letter by another, from which we select the following vigorous paragraphs : "Your Excellency has been candid enough to admit your having supplied the Indians with arms. In addition to this, I have learned that a British flag has been seen flying on one of your forts. All this is done while you pretend to be neutral. You cannot be surprised Ihen, but on the contrary will provide a fort in your town for my soldieis and Indians should I take it in my head to pay you a visit. "In future, 1 beg you to withhold your insulting charges against my Gov- ernment for one more inclined to listen to slander than I am ; nor consider me any more a diplomatic character, unless so proclaimed to you from the mouths of my cannon." Captain Gordon, who had been sent to Pensacola, reported on his return that he had seen some two hundred soldiers and officers, a park of artillery and about five hundred Indians under the drill of British officers, armed with new muskets and dressed in the English uniform. Jackson laid before the Government this information and ANDREW JACKSON. 161 again urged his favorite scheme of the reduction of Pensacola, and in order to have everything in readiness when the time of action should arrive, he addressed the Governors of Tennessee, Louisiana and the Mississippi Territory, and urged them to lend all the aid in their power. He also ordered the warriors of the different tribes of Indians to be marshaled and taken into the pay of the Government. General Jackson then departed for Mobile, to place the coun- try in a state of defense. He dispatched Colonel Butler to Tennessee to raise volunteers, and ordered General Coffee to advance with such mounted men as he could collect. Events soon transpired which confirmed Jackson in his inten- tion of marching against Pensacola, although he had not received permission from the Government to do so. Colonel Nicholls, with a small squadron of British ships, arrived at Pen- sacola, where the hospitalities of the Spanish Governor were extended to him. Here he issued a proclamation for the pur- pose of drawing deserters from the American side to his stand- ard. After waiting two weeks for his proclamation to influence its readers, he made an attack on Fort Bowyer, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, but was defeated with the loss of his best ship and one of his eyes. General Jackson, seeing the importance of Fort Bowyer, had put it in a state of defense. The attack from the sea was made with six hundred men and ninety heavy guns, while four hun- dred Indians and other troops attacked it from the rear. This force was defeated by Major Lawrence and one hundred and thirty men in the fort, with a loss to the enemy of one ship and two hundred and thirty men killed and wounded. The loss of the Americans did not exceed ten men. The British returned to Pensacola to refit and make a descent on some weaker point. Jackson now resolved to undertake the capture of Pensacola on his own responsibility, and awaited only the arrival of General Coffee, who soon came with the reinforce- ments, and on the second day of November the line of march was taken up. On the 6th the American army, consisting in all of about three thousand men, arrived at Pensacola, where the British and Spaniards had made preparations for resistance 102 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Jackson made an attempt at negotiation and dispatched Major Piere with a flag of truce, which was fired on. General Jackson then dispatcher another letter to the Governor by a Spanish officer who had been taken the day before. An answer was received stating that the above outrage was properly chargeable to the English, and that the Governor was ready to listen to whatever overtures the American General might make. In reply, Jackson wrote as follows : "I come not as the enemy of Spain, rot to make war, but to ask for peace; to demand security for my country, and that respect to which she is entitled and must receive. My force is sufficient, and my determination taken to prevent a future repetition of the injuries she has received. I de- mand, therefore, the possession of the Barrancas, and other fortifications, with all your munitions of war. If delivered peaceably, the whole will be re- ceipted for and become th^ subject of future arrangeoiout by our respective governments, while the property, laws aud religion of your citizens shall be respected. But, if taken by an appeal to arms, Jet the blood of your subjects be upon your own head. I will not hold myself responsible for the conduct of my enrag( d soldiers. One hour is given you for deliberation, wben your determination must be had." This proposition was rejected, and Jackson, early on the morn- ing of the 7th, put his troops in motion. To favor the idea that he would reach the town by the road along which he had been encamped, he sent a detachment of five hundred men, with orders to show themselves in that direction, while with the strength of the army he rapidly approached Pensacola in another direction. The stratagem succeeded. The British had formed their vessels across the bay and were waiting his approach with the most praiseworthy patience from the point where the detachment had been seen. Suddenly our troops were descried on the beach on the east side, where it was impos- sible for the flotilla to annoy them. They pushed forward, and were soon in the streets and shel- tered by the houses. Panic-stricken, the Governor hastened with a flag of truce, and he promised an immediate surrender of the town, the arsenals and the munitions of war. Everything was in readiness the next day to take possession of Barrancas. Our troops were approaching the place when a. tremendous explosion gave notice that all was destroyed. The ANDREW JACKSON. 163 fort was blown up and the British shipping had retired from the bay. General Jackson was now anxious to depart for New Orleans, believing that a large British fleet would soon appear on the coast. After certain necessary dispositions of the troops Jackson left Mobile on the 22d of November, and on the 1st of December established his headquarters at New Orleans. In the meantime orders were issued by the Secretary of War to the Governors of the adjoining States to hasten forward their quotas of men and supplies. Kentucky and Tennessee promptly responded. The Legislature of Louisiana had been for some weeks in ses- sion, but had not yet arrived at any definite decision. The ar- rival of Jackson infused new vigor into the public measures. He reviewed the volunteer corps of the city, visited the different forts and inspected the avenues to the city, and the forts were put in the best possible condition, and every precaution was taken to guard and defend the passes, but treachery at last pointed out to the enemy a narrow pass through which they effected a landing, and reached, undiscovered, the banks of the Mississippi. As soon as information was received that the English fleet was approaching, Lieutenant Jones, with his gunboats, was or- dered to i econnoitre and ascertain their disposition and force. This resulted in an engagement wherein our gunboats were compelled to surrender, after a fierce contest, in which the American loss was ten killed and thirty-five wounded, while the loss of the British could not have been less than three hun- dred, nearly two hundred of whom were drowned in an attempt to board the gunboats. When it was announced in New Orleans that the British had disembarked, all was panic among the citizens, notwithstanding the preparations of the General. On the night of the 2 ZACHARY TAYLOR. 225 bers. The moment was most critical. Captain O'Brien had been compelled to leave his guns on the field, his infantry sup- port being entirely routed. Captain Bragg then arrived, and at the risk of losing his guns, came rapidly into action, the Mexican line being but a few yards from the muzzles of his guns. The first discharge of canister wavered the enemy, and the second and third drove them back in disorder and saved the day. No further attempt was made by the enemy to force our position, and the approach of night gave an opportunity to refresh our soldiers. During the night the wounded were re- moved to Saltillo, and seven fresh companies were drawn from the town, and Brigadier-General Marshall, with a reinforce- ment of Kentucky cavalry and four guns, was near at hand, when it was discovered that Santa Anna had abandoned his position during the night, and our scouts learned that he had fallen back upon Agua Nueva. The great disparity of num- bers and the exhausted condition of our troops rendered it inexpedient and hazardous to give pursuit. General Taylor, by a reconnoisance later in the day, found that Santa Anna's position was occupied only by a small body of cavalry, and that his artillery and infantry were retreating tn the direction of San Luis Potosi in greatly reduced numbers, suffering from hunger and with the dead and dying strewing the road. The American force engaged at Buena Vista was officially shown to be 334 officers and 4425 men, exclusive of the small number left at and near Saltillo. The strength of the Mexican army, as stated by Santa Anna, was 20,000. Our loss was 267 killed and 456 wounded and 23 missing. The Mexican loss in killed and wounded may fairly be estimated at 1,500 to 2,000. At least 500 of their killed were left on the field of battle. Thus ended the battle of Buena Vista, with the vaunted boast of Santa Anna that his 20,000 Mexicans would cut our little army to pieces if Gen. Taylor did not surrender. Considering the difference in numbers, it was one of the grandest victories ever won by American troops. The battle of Buena Vista was the last of General Taylor's ser- 226 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. vices in the military field, and as he returned home his fame had everywhere preceded him, and his march was a grand tri- umph as he stopped from place to place on his route to receive the honors his countrymen poured upon him. In addition to his military honors, he had also been nominated as a candidate for the Presidency by the overwhelming enthusiasm of the peo- ple, and in November, 1848, he was elected, having received 163 electoral votes, while his opponent, General Cass, received 127. He was inaugurated on the 5th of March, 1849, the 4th having fallen upon Sunday. His administration, though a quiet one, presented to him many difficulties which to the old soldier were harder to over- come than an enemy on the field. He was a good soldier, but a poor statesman, and was therefore compelled to rely greatly on his friends and cabinet for guidance in his administration. But both the nation and his particular friends and advisers anticipated that his practical good pense and honesty of pur- pose would soon be supplemented by a developed statesman- ship that would close his administration with credit. The disappointment to the country, however, was to come not from his failure to acquire the qualities necessary for meet- ing the demands of the executive position, but from another most unexpected and melancholy source his death, which occurred on the 9th of July, 1850, a little over a year after his inauguration. The sorrow of the nation was deep, and the entire country engaged in solemn honor to the dead hero and President iu processions and funeral orations. The services in Washington City, -where he was temporarily interred, were particularly imposing. And two months later, when his remains were con- veyed to their last resting place at Louisville, Kentucky, the honors to the illustrious dead were renewed. " But strew his ashes to the wind, Whose sword or voice has served mankind, And is he dead whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high ? To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die." ZACHARY TAYLOR. 227 And thus the old hero of Palo- Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey and Buena Vista, while sleeping beneath the sod, still lives in the memories of his admiring countrymen. MILLARD FILLMORE. Millard Fillmore was the second Vice-President raised to the Executive chair by the death of the people's first choice, and the nation perhaps possessed at that time none better qualified to supply the vacancy than this polished statesman. The subject of our biography was born at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, N. Y., on the 17th of January, 1800, of poor but highly respectable parents. His early life was passed upon his father's farm, where young Fillmore did not differ from the typical country boy in his labors, sports and educational advan- tages, and it is said that he could catch fish equal with any of his youthful companions, and dive as far beneath the waters of the old mill pond as the best of them. His character had been molded in the right direction by the sacred teaching of a Christian mother, who had made the Bible the light of her home, and from its glorious truths instilled nobility into his soul. The log school-house was a prominent institution of his early life, and within its walls he acquired the foundation of the edu- cation which in later years was to raise him so far above his schoolmates; and what the poor facilities of the school failed to contribute to his mind was made up by the moral influence of his home and the practical information he was acquiring from observation. Thus he plodded along until he was fourteen years of age, when his father sent him to Livingston County to learn to weave cloth at a prominent mill. Here he would perhaps have settled down to the dull, monotonous life of a weaver, had it not been for an unexpected advantage presented at that time. He found in the neighboring village a small public library, which eome enterprising men of the place had struggled to establish, 280 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. This to Fillmore was as the rose blossoming in the desert, and he devoted his leisure hours to storing his mind with this unexpected wealth. Selecting the most valuable books of the collection upon all general subjects of information, he became so well informed by the time he was nineteen years old that, in addi- tion to his fine personal appearance, he attracted the attention of a prominent lawyer and judge in the neighborhood, who, seeing in the young man the material for a life of more extended use- fulness, advised him to study law, and as young Fillmore was not able to stand the expense, the judge kindly took him into his law office and advanced him money when needed. Hope and determination now beat high in the young man's breast, when he could see a higher destiny in life for himself than that of a cloth-weaver, and he made every effort to advance in his studies, helping himself by teaching school and in various ways to meet his expenses without drawing on the generosity of his friend and instructor. After two years' study in the little village law office, Fillmore went to Buffalo to secure the higher advantages of study in the city, where he remained still two years longer in his preparation for the bar. At the end of his two years' study in Buffalo, in 1823, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately afterward settled in Au- rora, in his native county, in the practice of his profession. Here his modest expectations were so fully realized that in 1826 he took unto himself a partner, not in the practice of law, but in the domestic relations of his life. This lady, who honored the rising young lawyer in marriage, and was in turn honored by him, was the beautiful and accomplished daughter of the Rev. Lemuel Powers, and whatever of this world's distinction came to Mr. Fillmore in after life, he certainly looked back to those first years of his practice and married life as the sweetest in all his years on earth. His progress in the law was so marked that a partnership was offered him in Buffalo, and just as he was preparing to remove to that city he was elected as a member of the New York Legislature, to represent Erie County. The fact of his being a Whig, and the State bsing strongly Democratic at the MILLARD FILLMORE. 231 time, was a further proof of the popularity of the rising young lawyer. Being in a hopeless minority, it could not be expected that the young representative would' be able to push through any important measures. He, however, devoted himself earn- estly to labor in behalf of the bill abolishing imprisonment for debt, and made nham. When the stars and stripes were seen floating over the hill the main body of the army came rapidly into the town and found the victory so complete that not a Mexican soldier could be found to dispute the ground. In this engagement General Pierce had his hat pierced by one of the bullets which, for a time, rattled like hail around our troops from the Mexican fire from the hill. Encamping in this town for the night, the army was again in motion at an early hour the next day. Later in the day they came to a stream with precipitous banks, which had been spanned by a magnificent stone bridge, but the main arch had been blown up, leaving a break of sixty feet or more, which appeared to be impassable, but Captain Bodfish, one of the volunteers from Maine, came to the rescue, and with a detail of five hundred men, had bridged the archway in three hours with a road over which the army and baggage passed in safety. Near Cerro Gordo General Pierce made a forced march at FRANKLIN PIERCE. 239 the head of a body of cavalry at night, for the purpose of capturing the heights commanding the road over which his army would pass on the following day, and it was very im- portant that the enemy should not be allowed to harass his army from such an advantageous position. General Pierce set out in a hard rain and surrounded by pitchy darkness, and after advancing as near the heights as was safe, they slept on their arms until the first faint streaka of light guided their way, and charging the small body of Mexicans they found upon one of the heights, and throwing a few charges of canister into their midst from a six-pounder, they quickly dispersed them, and took pos- session of the hills, and the army passed safely over the road. That night they encamped at a beautiful hacienda belong- ing to Santa Anna, which had a pure stream of sparkling cool water running through it. At noon the next day the army arrived at Jalapa, whereafter a short halt through the heat of the day, they pushed on and encamped for the night beyond the town. Thus, day after day, under many difficulties of tropical heat, sickness of his men, terrific storms of rain and the more than usual obstacles of a march, General Pierce continued to lessen the distance between himself and the main army of General Scott, with whom he was to effect a junction. Of his arrival at the Castle of Perote General Pierce wrote as follows : " I reached the castle before dark, and Colonel Windcoop, who was in command of the castle, with Captain Walker's elegant company of mounted riflemen, kindly tendered me his quarters. But I adhered to a rule, from which I have never deviated on the march, to see the rear of the command safely in camp; and when they pitched their tents, to pitch my own. The rear guard, in consequence of the broken condition of the road, did not arrive until nine o'clock, when our tents were pitched in darkness, and in the sand which surrounds the castle on all sides." The next day a detachment of cavalry arrived from General Scott, to learn the condition of General Pierce and his troops, and to assist them if in danger or render them aid in reaching the main army. After placing his sick in the hospital at the Castle of Perote, 240 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. General Pierce resumed his inarch and reached the main army under General Scott at Pueblo on the 7th of August. Thus ended the long and arduous march begun on the 13th of July, under a tropical sun and tropical rains and the constant dangers of an attack by the enemy, without the loss of a single piece of artilery or baggage and scarcely the loss of a man, the latter loss being either from sickness or from soldiers being killed while venturing away from camp. As soon as General Pierce arrived with the reinforcements, General Scott prepared at once to march upon and attack the city of Mexico. To prevent a surprise and to hold the Ameri- cans in check, Santa Anna had a force of seven or eight thousand soldiers at Contreras. This force General Scott found it necessary for his plans to capture or cut them off from com- munication with the city of Mexico. To accomplish this he ordered a detachment of troops under disguise of their inten- tions to take possession of the strong position in the rear of the Mexican detachment. To distract the attention of the enemy from the real purpose, General Scott ordered General Pierce to advance with four thousand troops and attack the Mexicans in front. The assault was fiercely made and as fiercely met. The Mexicans were not only two to one, but they occupied a strongly fortified position, and the ground was so rough that the Mexican skirmishers could conceal themselves behind the rocks, from which they poured a murderous fire. The storm of shot and shell hurled by the Mexican gunners was terrific, but bad gunnery may be said to have saved General Pierce's troops from a signal defeat. During the hottest of the engagement, the horse of General Pierce, while being urged to the head of the column, slipped upon the rocks and fell, breaking his leg and falling heavily upon General Pierce, who was badly crushed by the fall, and suffered intensely from a sprained knee. A surgeon was im- mediately sent for, who rendered some immediate assistance to General Pierce where he lay under the shelter of the rock, by which he recovered consciousness and immediately asserted his intention of rejoining the troops. Another horse being secured, FRANKLIN" PIERCE. 241 he was assisted into the saddle, and although scarcely able to keep his seat, he hurried again to the front. When night closed the battle the rain was pouring down hi sheets, but General Pierce remained in his saddle until near midnight, securing a sheltered position for his troops from the artillery of the enemy before he sought rest for himself, if such a term could be applied to tossing upon a wagon in the rain under the tortures of a sprained knee. During the night General Pierce received orders from General Scott to be ready for a fresh assault at daylight, and again, by the first glimpse of dawn, General Pierce had formed his men, and they were again dashing upon the enemy's front, while a fierce and unexpected charge was being made upon their rear. From such a charge and such a surprise there could be natur- ally but one result the overwhelming of the Mexicans. In just seventeen minutes, by the official statement, our victory was complete, and the Mexicans fled in perfect demoralization, leaving many prisoners in the hands of the victorious Ameri- cans. General Pierce joined hi the pursuit of the fleeing Mexicans, who were found dead and dying all along the route of the ter- rified retreat, and the pursuit was kept up until almost under the walls of Cherubusco. Fearing that Santa Anna would reach the city of Mexico with his troops and strengthen the stronghold, General Scott ordered General Pierce's command to push rapidly forward and attack Santa Anna in the rear. Fearing that General Pierce was too weak for the un dertaking, General Scott tried to per- suade him to remain behind, but he pleaded so hard to go with his soldiers that General Scott yielded. He went, but his strength was not adequate, and in the hottest of the battle of Cherubusco he fell to the ground exhausted, and remained sending cheering words to his officers and men until Santa Anna proposed the armistice which ended the battle. General Pierce was selected by General Scott as one of the commis- sioners to treat with the Mexican general, but nothing was agreed upon, and it was plainly to be seen that it was only proposed by Santa Anna to gain time. 242 LIVES OF OUK PKESIDENfS. On the 8th of September General Pierce was engaged in the bloody battle of Molino del Key under General Worth, and assisted in the defeat of the enemy. In this engagement a shell burst within a few feet of General Pierce, and he sustained a severe shock from the concussion, and was soon afterward taken so ill that he could not engage in the assault upon Che- pultepec, which took place a few days after. But General Pierce's military career was drawing to a close. Almost immediately after this the city of Mexico fell into our hands and the war was ended. In December General Pierce departed for his home, where he received an enthusiastic greeting from his friends and political admirers. Here, in resuming law and politics, he more fully than ever allied himself to the pro-slavery sentiment of the Democratic party, and the Southern wing of the party, in casting about in then- minds for a suitable man who could carry certain Northern States, set their thoughts on General Pierce, and in the Democratic National Convention which met at Baltimore on the 12th of June, 1852, after a number of ballotings, General Pierce's name was brought forward, and, after some further balloting, he received two hundred and eighty-two votes, against eleven cast for other candidates. The candidate of the Whig party was General Winfield Scott, and grand old military hero that he was, his party could not stem the tide of Democratic opposition, and General Pierce was elected by an overwhelming majority. On the 4th of March, 1853, he was inaugurated President of the United States, and began an administration which is mem- orable for the continual conflicts on the subject of slavery. Even then the coming events of the civil war were casting their shadows before. Even then the demands of slavery, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the battle for slavery or anti- slavery fought at the polls in Kansas with revolvers and bowie- knives, all pointed, like the needle to the pole, to the shock of battle and the red baptism of the battle-field. During President Pierce's administration he stood firmly for the South in all his actions, and tried to conciliate them wher- ever their will was thwarted. So marked were his pro-slavery FRANKLIN PIERCE. 243 sympathies that the popularity which had carried Northern States for him in his election was all gone from him, and when another Presidential campaign drew near, the Democratic party saw that defeat would be inevitable with President Pierce as their candidate. Thjis on the expiration of his term Mr. Pierce retired to bis home with almost " none so poor to do him reverence." Here domestic sorrows soon clouded his life by the sudden death of his only surviving child, followed soon by the death of his wife. From that date he lived quietly at Concord, almost forgotten by the outside world until his death in October, 1869, which left only his immediate friends and neighbors to mourn his departure. JAMES BUCHANAN. James Buchanan, the fifteenth President of the United States, was born at Stony Batter, Franklin County, Pennsyl- vania, on the 23d of April, 1791, and his early boyhood life was passed in one of the loveliest and most romantic spots among the AUeghany Mountains. The little farm of his father was located in a gorge of the mountain, with grand forests covering the slopes and beauteous nature in gayest attire. Such was the early home of James Buchanan, whose father had emigrated from Ireland in 1783, and after marrying the daughter of a Pennsylvania farmer, had moved to this wild and romantic spot and built a log cabin and cleared a few acres for cultivation. Here, like the characteristic pioneer, he grew up with the country, as it were, and, being possessed of a good English education, became a leader in the county. His wife was also possessed of a superior mind and a fine literary taste, and with these qualities, coupled with a deep and earnest piety, she proved a most worthy mother, and deserves much credit for the success of her son. Both father and mother being anxious to give their son the benefit of a good education, removed when he was eight years of age to Mercersburg, where young James was instructed in English* Latin and Greek. Being a bright scholar, he made rapid progress in his studies, and at the age of fourteen he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, where he became one of the foremost students in the institution, and at the age of eighteen he graduated with the highest honors. It must not be thought, because of his early development of a manly, studious disposition, that young Buchanan was not possessed of the natural vivacity of a boy. His early life had been mixed with toil and recreation, He could hoe potatoes 246 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. like an old farmer, and he could climb trees like a young monkey, and in all boyhood sports was unexcelled. True to boyish human nature, he dearly loved to fish and hunt. He could land more of the finny tribe and pop over more squirrels than almost any boy of his age, and as for eating either, his appetite was always good. In December, 1809, Mr. Buchanan went to Lancaster to begin the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He rose rapidly in his profession, and soon became one of the foremost young lawyers in the State, and it is stated that his name ap- peared in the Pennsylvania reports more frequently than that of any other lawyer of his day. One of his most important and successful cases was his cele- brated defense in the Pennsylvania Senate, in 1816, of a prominent judge of the State, who was arraigned on articles of impeach- ment. It need scarcely be added that his client was cleared of the charge, and Mr. Buchanan's reputation rose to a higher point than ever. At the age of thirty he had become so prominent and popular that he was elected to Congress, to which position he was con- secutively returned for ten years, until he declined any further re-election. His object in refusing longer to occupy a seat in Congress was not from a desire to return to his legal practice, for in 1831 he retired from his profession to rest upon his honors and the competent fortune he had secured. In taking up the record of Mr. Buchanan's political life, we find him, in 1814, in a public meeting in Lancaster, calling upon the people to volunteer for the defense of our country against England; and sotting the example, he himselfbecame a volun- teer and marched to the defense of Baltimore. After this, in politics, Mr. Buchanan became a Federalist, until the acts of the party, which Mr. Buchanan could not indorse, brought it into bad repute, and he gradually espoused the doc- trines of the Republicans. One of Mr. Buchanan's first public acts was to oppose the establishment of a United States Bank. The first prepared speech delivered by Mr. Buchanan in Con- gress was in favor of a military appropriation bill to cover sonic deficiencies in the Indian Department. This was a most JAMES BUCHANAN. 247 able effort, and so attracted attention that the public news- papers of the time published it in full. Mr. Buchanan proved himself to be one of the most vigilant of Congressmen ; one who constantly watched the interests of his constituency first and the general public good next. He was in every proper sense of the word an economist, wherever he believed the public funds too liberally dispensed, and on ap- propriation bills he was always ready to investigate their merits and speak upon any of their defects or extravagancies. During his first session in Congress he espoused the cause of General Jackson, when the conduct of the old patriot and soldier in Florida was being censured, and Mr. Buchanan was earnest in his efforts to have the charges investigated. In urging this upon Congress, he said: ' The most serious consequences might be expected to result, if, after charges of this sort were made against an individual, the House should avoid meeting the questions; should put them to sleep by permanently laying them on the table. He for one was willing to meet the proper responsibility of declaring his opinion either of the guilt or innocence of this distinguished individual." But by far the most important speech delivered by Mr. Buchanan during his first session in Congress was on the Bank- rupt Law. This bill was insidiously drawn up at a time when the country was suffering so great a stagnation of general business and universal suffering of all classes, that the public were ready to fly to any plausible means of immediate relief . Mr. Buchanan had given this bill his careful attention, and just before it was taken up for a final reading, he secured the floor and delivered one of the most powerful speeches against the bill to which he ever gave utterance. The bill was so framed as to extend its benefits not only to the mercantile classes, but to every industry in the land, and Mr. Buchanan saw in this an open door to universal dishonesty and trickery; an invitation to wild and reckless speculation, and so utter a disregard of the conscientious obligations of credit that the very foundations of business would be subverted. This was the position he assumed against the biU, 248 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. " Witt you," said he, in one of his arguments, "pass a bankrupt law for the farmer? Will you teach that vast body of our best citizens to disregard the f aith of contracts ? Are you prepared to sanction a principle by which the whole mass of society will be in danger of being demoralized? Audit will be left to an election by every man's creditors, in which a majority of two- thirds in number and value against the consent of the remainder shall have the power of discharging him from all the obligations of his contracts. Surely the House of Representatives are not prepared to answer these ques- t'ons in the affirmative. No nation in the world, whether commercial or agricultural, whether civilized or savage, has ever for a moment entertained the idea of extending the operation of its bankrupt laws beyond the class of traders." At the close of his long and powerful speech the vote was taken on the bill and it was defeated, the vote being 99 against and 72 in favor. On the question of the tariff, brought up in the second session of the Seventeenth Congress, Mr. Buchanan expressly favored a tariff for revenue only. In the Eighteenth Congress, which convened on the first of December, 1828, Mr. Buchanan was placed on the Judiciary Committee. It was in this session that Mr. Buchanan first had 1 he opportunity of measuring swords with Daniel Webster. Mr. Webster opposed the Tariff bill and Mr. Buchanan again favored it for revenue only. Henry Clay brought all lu's able powers to bear in favor of the bill, and General Jackson urged its passage in the Senate. Arrayed as were the giants of those days, the bill passed by only five majority in the House and three in the Senate. At this session of Congress Mr. Buchanan had publicly favored General Jackson for the Presidency. There were then four candidates in the field, General Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams and W. H. Crawford, and before the meeting of the second session of this Congress it was known that the election of President would take place in the House, owing to neither candidate having received a constitutional majority of electoral votes, and this business was the most important and exciting which could possibly be brought up during the session. Upon' this occasion Mr. Buchanan made himself conspicuous and popular by taking a firm stand against excluding the public from the galleries during the balloting for President; JAMES BUCHANAN. 349 This election in the House was one of the most conspicuous selections of a President made in the country, and as such is too familiar to the public io be particularized. The charge against Mr. Clay of "bargain and sale " has long since been clearly refuted, but the blame of a conscientious public will ever rest upon his memory for declaring against the expressed will of the people in favor of General Jackson, simply because Mr. Clay was prejudiced against military Presidents. In this Mr. Buchanan was one of the first men to see that Mr. Clay had sacrificed all his brilliant prospects for the future. The people generally resent a disregard of their will, and their disapproval was plainly shown in the manner in which they placed the old hero of New Orleans in the Presidential chair at the next election by a majority that gave Congress no oppor- tunity to make a President they did not want. In the Nineteenth Congress an important debate took place on a bill from the Judiciary Committee. The bill was presented by Mr. Webster, chairman of the committee, and Mr. Buchanan, as a member of the committee, spoke upon the bill, against which much unexpected opposition had been raised. Mr. Buch- anan's speech was particularly able, and it has been asserted that no speech on a similar subject ever embraced such wide range of acquaintance with law and jurisprudence as did this effort of Mr. Buchanan. During this session of Congress Mr. Buchanan, with almost prophetic vision, opposed the mission to the Congress of Panama which President Adams proposed and Mr. Clay so enthusias- tically supported. Mr. Buchanan made a very able speech on the subject, in which, while giving his cordial support and recognition to the independence of the South American repub- lics, he earnestly protested against our forming any alliance with the hybrid races of the Southern Continent, which would result in constantly embroiling us in complications with other powers. One of the first bills which came up in the second session of the Nineteenth Congress was one for granting pensions to sur- viving officers of the Revolution. In the face of much opposi- tion Mr. Buchanan defended this bill so ably that it finally be* r.>mp a law, 250 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. In the Twentieth Congress, which assembled on the 3d of December, 1827, Mr. Buchanan entered vigorously into the arena in discussing important measures before the House. On the subject of retrenchment, ho urged the application of the simplest rules of national economy. In reference to reducing the pay of Congressmen he said : " In relation to this question I formed a deliberate opinion six years ago, which my experience ever since has served to strengthen and confirm, that the per diem allowance of members of Congress ought to be reduced. As a compensation for our loss of time, it is at present wholly inadequate. There is no gentleman fit to bo in Congress who pursues any active business at home, who does not sustain a clear loss by his attendance here. If we con- sider our pay in reference to our individual expenses, it is too much. It is more than sufficient to cover our expenses. I believe that the best interests of the country require that it should be reduced to a sum no more than sufficient to enable us to live comfortably while we are here." Soon after this, in a debate on this same bill, Mr. Buchanan reviewed Mr. Adams' administration, and in ventilating its many abuses he insisted upon a thorough investigation being made. " What, sir!" said he, with eloquent energy, "are we told that we shall not inquire into the existence of abuses in this Govern- ment, because such an inquiry might tend to make the Gov- ernment less popular ? This is new doctrine to me doctrine that I never heard 'before on this floor. Liberty, sir, is a precious gift which can never long be enjoyed by any people without the most watchful jealousy. The very possession of power has a strong, a natural tendency to corrupt the heart. If the Government has been administered upon correct principles, an intelligent people will do justice to their rulers ; if not, they will take care that every abuse shall be corrected." Having occasion, in this same speech, to refer to the dress prescribed by the administration for our foreign Ministers, in his effective picture of this attempt to pattern after foreign courts, he said: "Imagine to yourself a grave and venerable statesman, who never attended a militia training in his life, but who has been elevated to the station of foreign Minister in con- sequence of his civil attainments, appearing at court arrayed in this military coat, with a chapeau under his arm and a small sword dangling at his side." JAMES BUCHANAN. 251 The next important service of Mr. Buchanan was his report from the Judiciary Committee of an amendment to our natural- ization laws, which, by his exertion, was adopted By the time Congress had again assembled General Jackson had been elected President by a sweeping majority, and Mr. Buchanan found himself, upon again taking his seat, in accord with the coming administration. During this session an amendment to the Constitution was offered, providing that no person who should have once been elected President of the United States shall be again [eligible to that office. Mr. Buch- anan, in opposing this amendment, said : "I would incline to leave to the people of the United States, without incor- porating it in the Constitution, to decide whether a President should serve mere than one term. The day may come when dangers may lower over us, and when we may have a President at the helm of state who possesses the confidence of the country and is better abl j to weather the storm than any other pilot. Shall we, then, undersuch circumstances, deprive the people of the United States of the power of obtaining his services for a second term ? Shall wo pass a decree, as fixed as fate, to bind the American people and prevent them from ever re-electing such a mau ? I am not afraid to trust them with this power." The first session of the next Congress was opened under the administration of President Jackson with a large increase of Democratic members in Congress. Mr. Buchanan was made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in place of Mr. Webster, who had been elected to the Senate. At this session a very im- portant matter was presented to the consideration of the com- mittee. It was the impeachment of Judge Peck, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Missouri. This impeachment passed the House of Representatives at the first session of the Twentieth Congress ; the trial was ready to take place on the assembling of the second session, and the Senate, in the capacity of a high court of impeachment, was ready for the case. Mr. Buchanan was one of five managers chosen by the House to conduct the prosecution. The following are the facts in the case, as presented in the articles of impeachment and evidence : Judge Peck in the United States District Court of Missouri de- cided against the claims of the widow and children of one 253 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS, Antoine Soulard to certain land within the State of Missouri and the then Territory of Arkansas, and when the decision of Judge Peck was published, L. E. Lawless, of St. Louis and of the counsel for prosecuting the claims before Judge Peck, wrote a short article to one of the St. Louis newspapers, specifying the errors into which the judge had fallen in his decision. This Judge Peck considered a contempt of court, and Mr. Lawless, being summoned before the court, was not only deprived of his right to practice law, but was also committed to prison. These THE YVUJ.TJS HOUSE. were the charges made by Mr. Lawless in his complaint to the House of Representatives, and upon Investigation the Judiciary Committee had unanimously reported articles of impeachment against Judge Peck. At the trial, which began on the 13th of December, 1830, Judge Peck was represented by Hon. William "Wirt and Hon. 'Jonathan Meredith as counsel for the defense. Both of these gentlemen made very able speeches for their client. Mr. Buch- anan was the last of the counsel for the prosecution to speak, JAMES BUCHANAN 25-6 and this masterly effort of his has gone down to history as un- surpassed in its review of constitutional and judicial law. To anyone reading the magnificent peroration of Mr. Buchanan, it cannot fail of being a matter of surprise that the Senate re- fused to impeach Judge Peck. The vote stood for his impeach- ment twenty-one, and against it twenty-two, but the Senate, in apparent apology for their leniency, soon after passed an act which deterred judges in the future from so attempting to trifle with the liberties of citizens on such unjustifiable pretexts. THE EAST ROOM. This brings us to the close of Mr. Buchanan's Congressional career, he having voluntarily retired at the close of the session, after ten years' uninterrupted membership. Mr. Buchanan was appointed by President Jackson, as Minis- ter to Russia soon after his retirement from Congress, at which court he represented the United States with great dignity and ability until 1833, when he returned home, and almost immedi- ately afterward was honored by a seat in the United States Senate. As an earnest friend of President Jackson, Mr. 264 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Buchanan returned at an opportune moment to defend him from the assaults of his enemies. Almost his first services in the Senate were devoted to sustaining President Jackson's de- mand upon France for payment of the indemnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831. In the important debate upon "Executive Patronage," Mr. Buchanan, by the most memorable argument, showed that not only was it the intention of the framers of the Constitution that the President should have power of removal from office, but that it would be impossible to call an adjourned Senate from the remote homes of the members every tune some in- competent or dishonest official at home or abroad required im- mediate removal. Mr. Buchanan also had occasion during this session to de- fend the Texan patriots who were struggling for the independ- ence of the " Lone Star " Republic, from the charge of filibus- terism. About this time the great fire in New York had caused so much suffering that a bill for the relief of the sufferers was proposed, and Mr. Buchanan, in his natural generosity and humane sympathy, threw his entire influence in favor of the bilL The relief sought for was only to grant the merchant sufferers time to pay their indebtedness to the United States, amounting to about $8,500,000. At the opening of the second session of the Twenty-fourth Congress Mr. Buchanan was chosen chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. During this session Mr. Benton, of Missouri, again brought forward his resolution for expunging from the Journal of the Senate the vote of censure which had been recorded against President Jackson for his removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. His re-election was an indorsement of his act by the people, and Mr. Benton was now reinforced by Mr. Buchanan, who came to the rescue with his masterly eloquence. Such was the force of argument brought to bear by Mr. Buchanan that after the delivery of his speech the resolution was passed to expunge the resolution of censure. On the 4th of March, 1837, General Jackson's successor, Mr. Van Buren, was inaugurated President. His administration began at a period of great financial suffering, and an extra session of Congress was called to take some measures of relief. At this session great excitement was aroused by the introduc- tion of the bill known as the " Sub-Treasury Act." This bill was passed twice by the Senate and as often defeated by the House. In favor of this bill Mr. Buchanan made a strong argument, which should have won for the bill a better fate. Mr. Buchanan was again promptly in his seat at the opening of the first regular session of the Twenty-fifth Congress. It was during this session, in defending our relations with Mexico, that he uttered that immortal sentiment: "Millions to defend our rights, but not a cent for tribute." In this session, Mr. Buchanan stood up nobly for the Western settlers on the question of the pre-emption of lands, and made one of his happiest efforts in behalf of wise legislation on the subject. To Mr. Buchanan the greatest praise is due for the benefits derived to the country by the passage of the Independent Treas- ury bill, which he so ably urged upon the attention of the Senate. The Maine boundary question was the most prominent sub- ject engrossing the attention of the second session of the Twenty-fifth Congress at its opening, but the question of inter- ference of Federal officers in elections was the one upon which Mr. Buchanan made his greatest effort of the session. In the Twenty-sixth Congress Mr. Buchanan distinguished himself, as usual, by his many able speeches. When the next session of this Congress opened, the political whirlwind had passed and General Harrison had been overwhelmingly elected, and after a somewhat unimportant session, Congress came to a close on the day General Harrison was inaugurated President. Before Congress met at the extra session called on the 31st day of May, President Harrison had been removed by death, and John Tyler became the Executive. The very first bill introduced at the extra session by the dom- inant party was a bill to repeal the Independent Treasury Act in the effort to again establish a national bank under the name of a " Fiscal Bank," as proposed by Mr. Clay. Mr. Buchanan was 256 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. selected by the Democracy to defeat, if possible, this proposed legislation, and his masterly effort against the Fiscal Bank bill was made on the 7th of July, 1841, in a speech of great length. President Tyler's veto of both the Fiscal Bank bill and the Fis- cal Corporation bill won for Mr. Buchanan the victory for which he made so gallant an effort. When the first regular session of the Twenty -seventh Con- gress met, Mr. Clay was burning for revenge against the Pres- ident for vetoing his pet schemes, and he began his work by off ering resolutions to restrict the veto power. Here, again, he found Mr. Buchanan his adversary, ready to defend the wise constitutional provision of the veto power. After Mr. Clay had urged the passage of his resolutions, he was followed by Mr. Buchanan in an able speech, which met and refuted every ar- gument brought forward against the veto power, and that the President still exercises that necessary safeguard is evidence that Mr. Buchanan triumphed. The most important question which arose for consideration at the opening of the Twenty-Eighth Congress, was that of a territorial government for Oregon, and the admission of Texas into the Union, both of which Mr. Buchanan favored. The annexation of Texas was not ratified at that session, but at the next meeting of Congress it again came up to be voted for on a joint resolution which was passed, and at last Texas became a State in the Union. Mr. Buchanan was the only member of the Committee on Foreign Relations who favored the admis- sion, and this act, together with his vote for annexation, was the last which crowned his Senatorial career. James K. Polk having been elected President in 1844, Mr. Buchanan was selected by him for his Cabinet, to fill the im- portant position of Secretary of State. In this position the first international matter engaging Mr. Buchanan's attention was that of the settlement of our Oregon boundary. Mr. Buchanan believed our title clear to the line of 54 40', but during the negotiations under the former administration Mr. Tyler had proposed a settlement on the line of 49 north latitude, and Mr. Buchanan was placed in the delicate position of seeking his own line for the settlement, while not withdrawing the propo- JAMES BUCHANAN. 257 sition made by the late Executive. But in a very able state paper he insisted upon England'8 acceptance of the proposition of Mr. Tyler, and his firmness in the matter resulted in En- gland's acceptance of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, as the boundary line. The most important subject, however, for Mr. Buchanan's consideration as Secretary of Stale, was the negotiations con- nected with the Mexican war, which negotiations were con- stantly kept up, and at last, after our flag waved over the city of Mexico, they terminated in peace. In his letter to Hon. John Slidell, while still Minister to Mexico, Mr. Buchanan firmly urged upon him the principles of the Monroe doctrine, and especially that we would not allow European sovereigns to apply the worn-out dogma of the balance of power to the free States on this continent, or suffer them to establish new colonies of their own intermingled with our free republics. When Mr. Buchanan's secretaryship terminated, our wars and rumors of wars had ceased, and our international affairs were in the most peaceful and prosperous condition, and it cannot be denied that to his great statesmanship was this condition of our affairs greatly due, and it is probable that in the acquisition of California, with all her grand area and treasures of soil, to Mr, Buchanan is due the greatest individual credit. After his retirement in 1849, at the election of General Tay- lor, Mr. Buchanan gladly returned to the sweet rest and seclu- sion of private life for which he had long sighed. It is probable that his honors were as truly thrust upon him unsought as those of any statesman in the country, and while no man ever labored more earnestly for the public good in official position, he was actuated more by a desire to serve than to be served, and did his work for the country, not for himself. But even in retirement his voice served mankind, and in every word and line he sought to benefit his country. The ben- efit of his opinions and counsel he gave in frequent letters on public topics. Upon the election of President Pierce, Mr. Buchanan was tgain drawn from his retirement and received the appointment 258 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. of Minister to England, which important position he filled with the highest honor to his country and with the most marked ability. It was during this mission that Mr. Buchanan met Mr. Mason and Mr. Soule, our Ministers to France and Spain, at Ostend, in reference to the purchase of Cuba. The meeting, however, resulted in no definite action. In 1856 Mr. Buchanan was nominated by the National Dem- ocratic Convention as their candidate for the Presidency. In this canvass the political conflict was a very hot and bitter one, in which, for the first time in the history of the country, a direct sectional issue was at stake. The pro-slavery interests were to a man with Mr. Buchanan, and the anti-slavery senti- ments of the country were with Mr. Fremont, the opposing candidate. What was called the " Irrepressible Conflict" was then looming up like a great shadow in the land. But for the time being Mr. Buchanan's party triumphed, and he was elected President, having received 174 electoral votes, while Mr. Fremont received 114. Mr. Buchanan's administration, which should have been the reward of his long, faithful and able services to the country, proved to him a source of the greatest anxiety and trouble. The country had entered upon stormy times, and the conflict on the slavery question and the extension of the institution was growing fiercer day by day, bitter hatred was growing deeeper, and Mr. Buchanan began soon to realize that his friends and party expected htm to join hands with them in the most ex- treme measures. As far as he could, consistently, he gave his support to the interests of slavery, and took sides with that in- stitution in the Kansas difficulties. This was the condition of public excitement and sectional animosity when Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a candi^ date for the Presidency by the Republican Convention at Chi- cago, on the 16th day of June, 1860. Then the menace of war was flung to the breeze, and the pro-slavery party declared that if Mr. Lincoln was elected they would secede from the Union. In anticipation of his probable election, extensive preparations began to be made to carry this threat into execu- tion, and the day it was known that he was elected, the move' JAMES BUCHANAN. 259 inent actually began, and preparations for war were com- menced in the South. In the face of this attitude of the South, Mr. Buchanan remained silent and lifted no warning voice and sounded no protest. When South Carolina seceded, in Decem- ber, 1860, nearly three months before Mr. Buchanan's Presi- dential term expired, he did nothing but look on in silent ac- quiescence or hopeless despair. One after another our forts and navy yards and arsenals were taken possession of by the lead- ers of the secession movement, and still Mr. Buchanan sat still, and only asserted that he had no constitutional power to pre- vent the overt acts of rebellion which were being committed. It will never be known how many hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of treasure might have been saved had Pres- ident Buchanan but possessed firmness and true patriotism enough to have made every effort in his power to hold our forts and ships and arsenals, and to have delayed the move- ments of the men who were bent upon breaking up the Union. It is not probable that anything he could have done would have prevented the war; that was inevitable, but he could have prevented the secessionists from securing the war ma- terial of the Government . It cannot be claimed that President Buchanan had had no plans of vigorous action presented to him, for General Scott had urged upon him the necessity of strengthening and rein*- forcing our forts and arsenals, and sending our war vessels to the harbors of the disaffected States. To all these plans Mr, Buchanan refused his consent, and while helpless imbecility marked his policy, the seceded States were actively forming their government, and fortifying positions, and strengthening the forts they had taken from the Government, and were ready for the conflict, and apparently waiting only through consider- ation for Mr. Buchanan. The eventful 4th of March, 1861, at last came, and with Mr. Lincoln's inauguration the long desired retirement of Mr. Buch- anan took place, and in his home at Wheatland he remained in silence and, probably, remorse, while the clash of armies, and thunder of war resounded throughout our land, until hfo death took place, in 1868. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Since General Washington occupied the chief executive chair of the nation there has been no President who has occupied so prominent a position before the country or the world, or who has been a subject of such universal interest, as Mr. Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was born in the State of Kentucky, on the 12th of February, 1809, in Hardin County, in that portion which was afterward formed into Larue County. Both his father and his grandfather were born in Rockingham County, Virginia. His father's name was Thomas and his grandfather's Abraham. His grandfather Abraham moved to Kentucky with his family, consisting of a wife and five children, three sons and two daughters, and settled in the wilderness. Very little is known of his pioneer life in his new home, beyond the fact that while at work one day in the field he was shot and killed by an Indian who had stealthily approached through the forest. This act of inhuman savagery left a widow and five helpless little children to struggle for subsistence. The names of the sons were Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas, and the names of the daughters were Mary and Nancy. Both of these daughters married and settled down in Kentucky, Mary having become the life partner of Ralph Grume, while Nancy became Mrs. William Brumfield. Thomas, by the untimely death of his father, was left to grow up without education as a com- mon farm hand. This son was the father of Abraham Lincoln. At full manhood he married Nancy Hanks, who was the mother of Abraham. There was also by this union a sister older and a brother younger than Abraham. The sister grew up and mar- ried, but the brother died in infancy. Thomas Lincoln began his married life in the poor and rude log cabin in which Abraham was born, and where the family 262 LlVKs OF Ol-R PRESIDENTS. remained in poverty and deprivation for about ten years, dur- ing which time Abraham received a few months of primary education in the old-fashioned log school-house of that day. When Abraham was about eight years of age, his father resolved to remove from Kentucky, on account of his dislike of slavery and the uncertain tenor of land titles in the State. It may be a matter of interest to state that he sold his little farm THE EARLY HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. for ten barrels of whisky and twenty dollars in cash. This stock of liquor, together with his household furniture, he loaded on a little flat-boat which he had built and launched, and floating out of the creek dignified by the name of Rolling Fork, he started down the river, destined for Indiana. It is probable this whisky would have bought all the land he wanted had he not met with the loss of nearly all of it by the overturning of his boat. This left him poorer than ever ; but settling in. Hypncer County, Indiana, on a piece of unbroken ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 263 forest laud which he purchased, he and the boy Abraham began the great labor of clearing the land, and from that day until he was over twenty-one years old, Abraham almost daily swung the ax, until he became more expert in its use than any man who ever filled the executive chair of the United States. Scarcely had little Abe begun to chop wood in his new home, before he poked his father's rifle through a crack of the log cabin one day, and shot a wild turkey out of a flock which had invaded the yard. When Abraham was about ten years of age, the family sus- tained a great loss in the death of his mother, a sweet, delicate, Christian woman, who in her best health was too frail for the rough, hard life of the pioneer ; and when the little motherless boy sat by the grave, with great tears rolling from his face, he realized that the angel of his early life was gone from him for- ever in this world. During their residence in Kentucky there was an itinerant Baptist preacher named Elkins, who had occasionally preached in their neighborhood, and had shared the rude hospitalities of the Lincoln cabin. To this servant of the Lord the thoughts of the family naturally turned in their bereavement, and Abraham wrote a letter asking him to come at his first opportunity and preach a funeral sermon in memory of his mother. Parson Elkins kindly appointed a day upon which he would come and preach the sermon, and notice of the occasion and day was sent from house to house. True to his word, on the appointed day Parson Elkins arrived after a journey on horseback through the wilderness of nearly a hundred miles. At the Lincoln cabin he found two hundred persons assembled, and, uncouth backwoods preacher as he was, he delivered a most tender, touching and eloquent tribute to the memory of the noble Christian woman whose life had gone out among the scenes of pioneer hardship, and passed away to that sweet rest beyond world and planet and star. During these early years of Abraham he was securing an occasional month or so of schooling, to which he added by read- ing such few books as could be secured in that frontier locality. Among these books were the Bible, ^3Lsop's Fables, Bunyan's 264 LIVES OF OUK PRESIDENTS. Pilgrim's Progress, the Life of Washington, and similar books. Among his teachers were Andrew Crawford, Azel W. Dorsey, and a Mr. Sweeny. In the year 1819 Abraham's father married Mrs. Sally Johns- ton, at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and with her three children she went with him to his Indiana home, where she became a devoted step-mother to Abraham and his sister. At the age of eighteen young Lincoln is said to have built a little flat-boat, on which he made his first trip down the river with the produce of his father's farm ; but of this voyage there is no authentic account, beyond that of an incident related by Mr. Lincoln himself in after years. While upon his boat at one of the landings one day, two men came hastily to the river de- siring to be rowed out to a passing steamer, and, select- ing Abraham from ameng the other boatmen for the service, they each gave him a half dollar when he had safely got them on board the boat. The poor boy had never made money so fast in his life, and this event he cherished in his mind for many after years. A year later he was employed by a neighbor to run a flat- boat to New Orleans, in company with another hand. This boat was what was termed on the Western rivers a trading boat, which had miscellaneous merchandise on board for the purpose of bartering with farmers and planters along the shore. This class of boats, by the time they reached New Orleans, had generally entirely exchanged their merchandise for farm produce, which readily sold for cash at the great city of the South. At this time Mr. Lincoln had grown to the extraor- dinary height of six feet four inches, and his great strength served him a good purpose on one occasion. Seven negroes made an attack upon the boat one night for the purpose of killing and robbing the two men in charge, but Abraham with his companion drove them off, and to prevent a renewed attack dropped their boat further down the stream. When Abraham had reached his twenty-first birthday the family resolved to move from Indiana in search of a better location, and the entire family, including also the families of the two daughters, set out on the 1st of March, 1830, for ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 265 Illinois. Here they settled in Macon County, on the Sangamon River, and during the first season built a cabin, cleared land and raised a crop of corn. After helping his father thus far in hii, new home, young Lincoln decided to bid adieu to the parental roof and seek his fortune in the outside world. For some months he hired as a farm hand, and when winter arrived he and his step- brother and John Hanks hired themselves to a man named Offutt, to take a flat-boat from Beardsfcown, Illinois, to New Orleans, as soon as the melting snow in the spring should raise the stream. Lincoln and the other hands were to join Offutt at Springfield, to which place they were compelled to go in a canoe down the Sangamon River. At Springfield they found Offutt, but he had failed in getting a boat, and made a bargain with them at $12 per month each to hew out timber and build a boat. The boat finally being completed, was launched on the Sangamon River, and Lincoln, with several others, went with the boat to New Orleans. On this trip the acquaintance between Offutt and Lincoln grew into a friendship, which resulted in young Lincoln being hired to clerk for Offutt in a store and mill in New Salem, in Sangamon County. Here Lincoln not only became a great favorite with the customers of the store and mill, but by his uprightness of character and conscientious- ness acquired the sobriquet of "Honest Abe," which clung to him through life. On several occasions he walked miles to rectify some mistake in his favor. An insolent fellow came into the store one day, and began to talk insultingly in the presence of ladies. Lincoln reminded him of the presence of the ladies, but this only made the ruffian more abusive. When the ladies left the fellow told Lincoln he had come there to thrash him. but the way Abe Lincoln slung him around that store soon set- tled the question of who was thrashed. Lincoln concluded by rubbing smart weed in his eyes until the fellow bellowed like a calf. Then Lincoln washed his face for him and talked kindly to him, and won his future friendship. Lincoln had served as clerk in the store but one year when Off utt's speculations in other parts of the county resulted in his failure and the closing of the New Salem establishment. 266 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. About this time the Black Hawk War broke out, in 1832, and young Lincoln, in great enthusiasm, joined a volunteer com- pany, in which he was elected captain. In this campaign he served three months, and in regular camp and on the march passed through the hardships of an ordinary soldier. On his return from this short campaign he was induced by his neighbors to become a candidate for the Legislature, but for the only time in his life he was defeated. This left him without occupation, and while looking about him for something to do, he was called upon to invoice a stock of goods which his friend, Mr. W. G. Greene, had just bought on a speculation. Lincoln then conceived the jdea of buying out the stock in connection with a man named Berry. The bargain was made, and Lincoln and Berry gave their notes for the stock, but by the bad management of Berry they only got deeper in debt, and to use Mr. Lincoln's expression, " the store winked out," and six years afterward " Honest Abe" paid Mr. Greene, who had moved to Tennessee, the last cent due on the notes of Lincoln and Berry. Soon after the failure of the store President Jackson appointed Mr. Lincoln postmaster of New Salem. This position pleased Mr. Lincoln, for it enabled him to read a great many news- papers. Several years after he had ceased to be postmaster, and when he was practicing law, an agent of the Post-Office Department called to collect a balance which for all those years had been due. Mr. Lincoln immediately went to a trunk and pulled out a package containing the identical money, some seventeen dollars, which was on hand when he gave up the office, or rather when it was discontinued. His next occupation was that of deputy surveyor of San- gamon County, having been employed for this work by the county surveyor, who gave Mr. Lincoln a certain part of the county to survey. Of course Lincoln knew nothing of survey- ing, but, as he had done in other emergencies, he gained the desired knowledge by quickly studying some standard books on the subject. In 1834 Mr. Lincoln again became a candidate for the Legis- lature v and this time was elected by a very large majority. In ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 26? the canvass he frequently met Major John T. Stuart, whose acquaintance he had made in the Black Hawk War, and this gentleman, taking a deep interest in young Lincoln, advised him to study law, and realizing the poverty of the young legis- lator, offered to loan him all the law books he needed. This offer Lincoln accepted after his election, and going to Spring- field, he returned with a load of books to New Salem and began his studies. This he kept up until he was out of money ; then he began surveying to make more, and so he alternately worked and pursued his studies. At that time the seat of government in Illinois was at Van- dalia, and to take his seat at the opening of the Legislature Mr. Lincoln walked a hundred miles. Here his native good sense served him a valuable purpose. Being in an entirely new and novel position, he remained quiet and learned all he could. In 1836 he was again elected to the Legislature. In this canvass he made the memorable speech which secured his repu- tation as one of the ablest orators in the State. In this session of the Legislature Mr. Lincoln met Stephen A. Douglas, and it was here that those two young men took those political positions which gave their results in after years. One of the most noted acts of Mr. Lincoln's early life was his pro- test, entered on the Illinois House Journal, in connection with Dan Stone, in reference to some liberal resolutions on the sub- feet of slavery in the United States. This protest asserted their belief that while Congress had no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States, they believed the institution was founded on both injustice and bad policy. This protest placed his principles on the slavery question on record, and in his after life he never changed or receded from the position, save in the exigencies of war to interfere with the institution by his emancipation proc- lamation. After the session adjourned Mr. Lincoln again walked the long, weary hundred miles from the State capital home. For a considerable distance he kept up with a number of his more fortunate brother legislators, who were on horseback, and when upon our occasion Mi 1 . Lincoln complained of l>eing cold, which 268 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. was not to be wondered at from his thin clothing, one of the company remarked that it was no wonder he was cold, "there was so much of him on the ground." In 1836 Mr. Lincoln was admitted to the bar, and after a year's practice he removed to Springfield, to which place, through his influence, with others, the capital had been trans- ferred. It is not probable, however, that this alone would have induced him to have given up his many true friends and help- ers at New Salem, had it not been that his old friend, Major Stuart, had offered him a partnership in the practice of law. This partnership evidently did not continue long, for Mr. Lin- coln was re-elected to the Legislature in 1838 and 1840, while Major Stuart was elected to Congress. On the assembling of the Legislature Mr. Lincoln was brought forward by the Whigs as their candidate for Speaker, but the Democrats were in the majority, and finally elected their can- didate by a majority of only one vote. Mr. Lincoln's reputation for relating anecdotes began to attract attention about this time, in his ready application of a comical story to subjects or persons under discussion. It is evident to those familiar with the Western custom of lawyers, to ride the circuit with the judge in attending the different courts in a district, that Mr. Lincoln acquired this facility for story-telling at the country taverns where the lawyers and citizens of each county-seat gathered on these circuits. In 1840, Mr. Lincoln formed a new law partnership with Judge Logan, of Springfield, and soon after, voluntarily retiring from the Legislature, he decided to devote himself more assiduously than ever to his profession, but the exciting political campaign of 1840 created such a demand for his services as a stump speaker that he was again compelled to neglect the law. In 1842, an important event transpired in his life, which was that of his marriage to Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of Hon. Robert G. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky, and for a time the newly married pair boarded at the Globe Hotel, in Springfield, at a cost of four dollars per week, which sum, small as it may now appear, was often quite a formidable amount for Mr. Lincoln to pay. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 269 In 1846, Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress from the Central District of Illinois, and took his seat at the opening of the ses- sion, in December, 1847, as the only Whig member from Illi- nois. Here he found one of the ablest legislative bodies ever assembled in the halls of Congress, and the session of that year was one of great excitement, owing to the war with Mexico and other important questions then being agitated. One of Mr. Lincoln's first votes was given in favor of a resolu- tion asserting the right of Congress to improve rivers and harbors, when necessary for the movements, convenience and safety of our Army and Navy. This resolution was tabled in opposition to Mr. Lincoln's vote. The next day Mr. Giddings presented a memorial from cer- tain citizens of the District of Columbia, asking Congress to repeal all laws upholding the slave trade in the District. Mr. Lincoln voted against a motion to lay this paper on the table. Mr. Lincoln on the same day offered a long and able preamble and resolution in reference to the Mexican War, in the nature of an inquiry into the acts upon both sides. Mr. Lincoln, like most of the Whigs, believed that the cause of the war had been our own military occupation of Mexican territory beyond the borders of Texas. These resolutions, although acknowledged to be both able and appropriate, were laid over. Mr. Lincoln did not believe that the war was begun by the act of Mexico, and he objected to any false statements as to the origin of the difficulty. On the ;.8th of December a petition was received from citi- zens of Indiana, asking for the abolition of slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia, and, as usual with such documents, the motion was at once made to lay it on the table and carried, Mr. Lincoln voting against the motion. On the 30th of December and 17th of January other memorials and resolutions in refer- ence to slavery in the District of Columbia were brought up, and in each instance Mr. Lincoln voted against tabling them. On the 17th of February Mr. Lincoln voted for the bill for supplies of men and money for the Mexican War. On the 19th of June Mr. Lincoln took a conspicuous position in favor of a protective tariff. Upon the same day Mr. Stewart, 270 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. of Pennsylvania, offered the following resolution, for which Mr. Lincoln voted : "Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill increasing the duties on foreign luxuries of all kinds, and on such foreign manufactures as are now coming into ruinous competition with American labor." On the 28th of July commenced the famous speeches of Mr. Webster and Mr. Corwin, on the bill to establish territorial governments for Oregon, California and New Mexico. In this bill was a provision prohibiting the territorial legislatures of California and New Mexico from passing laws in favor of or against slavery, but also providing that all the laws of the terri- torial legislatures shall be subject to the sanction of Congress. Mr. Lincoln, although not speaking upon the bill, took sides with Webster and Corwin, and voted to lay the territorial bills upon the table when they came up for consideration. On the 21st of December Mr. Gott offered a resolution in the House, asking that the Committee for the District of Columbia be instructed to report a bill as soon as practicable, prohibiting the slave trade in said District. This resolution was so strong that Mr. Lincoln voted to lay it on the table, and when, on the 16th of January, it was again before the House, on a motion to reconsider, Mr. Lincoln offered as a substitute a resolution that the Committee for the District of Columbia be instructed to report a bill to the effect that no person at that time in the Dis- trict and no person thereafter born within the District should be held to slavery within or without the District : provided, however, that those holding slaves in the slave States might bring them in and take them out again when visiting the Dis- trict on public business. The bill also contained a provision for the emancipation of any slaves legally held in the District at the will of the owners, who could claim their full value at the hands of the Government. Thus were the sentiments of Mr. Lincoln on the slavery ques- tion set forth during that session. He believed in its legal right under the Constitution, but always asserted that it was morally wrong, and he always voted against its extension. After hav- ing opposed the Mexican War, he also voted against the annex- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 271 ation of Texas, and gave his entire support to the Wilmot pro- viso. At the end of the session of 1849 he retired from Congress, and returned home to resume his practice of law in Springfield, and enjoy the pleasures of domestic life with his young and in- creasing family. Here he found it necessary to build up anew his law practice, which had slipped away from him during his political occupation, and until 1854 he so closely applied himself to business at home that he almost felt himself cut loose from politics, until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him to a new interest in the public welfare. At this time Mr. Lincoln, with prophetic vision, could see that an irrepressible conflict on the question of slavery was arising in the land. He saw that by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in revenge for the admission of California as a free State, the pro-slavery men intended to secure Kansas and Nebraska, if possible, as slave States. This Kansas-Nebraska bill had been fathered by Stephen A. Douglas, in accordance with his popular sovereignty views. From this action of Judge Douglas arose the great contest be- tween him and Mr. Lincoln in the Illinois campaign of 1854. Mr. Douglas, on his return home, found himself face to face with an enraged constituency, who were at first not even in- clined to allow him any opportunity for explanation or defense of his action, but it being understood that Mr. Lincoln intended to handle him without gloves, they came to Springfield in immense crowds during the holding of the State fair, and on the 4th of October the great debate came off. This was but the beginning of the campaign between these two intellectual giants, but Mr. Lincoln so scathed Judge Douglas that the latter kept out of his way for the remainder of the campaign. But Mr. Lincoln continued through the canvass with unabated zeal, and to him more than to any other man is due the great victory which gave the State to the Republicans that fall. The summer of 1858 in Illinois is memorable for the Senato- rial contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, the . latter having been re-elected by the Republican State Convention in June, 1858, as their candidate for United States Senator. 272 LIVES OF OUIi PRESIDENTS. There was considerable correspondence between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln in reference to a proposition and its acceptance for joint discussion. In these debates Mr. Lincoln made- a magnificent record for himself of great ability as a speaker. In the language of an Illinois journal, when he entered deeply into his subject " there was a grandeur in his thoughts, a com- prehensiveness in his arguments and a binding force in his con- clusions, which were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng were silent as death ; every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him serious attention. He was the tall man eloquent ; his countenance glowed with animation, and his eye glistened with an intelligence that made it lustrous. He was no longer awkward and ungainly, but graceful, bold, commanding." In one of his speeches he delivered the following memorable argument : " My distinguished friend says it is an insult to the emigrants to Kansas and Nebraska to suppose they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and answered. I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but I deny his right to govern any other per son without thai person's consent." In this contest Mr. Lincoln received a majority on the popu- lar vote over Mr. Douglas of four thousand and eighty-five, but the apportionment of the Legislative districts gave a majority of Democrats both in the State Senate and House of Representa- tives, and on the ballot in the Legislature Mr. Douglas was re- elected to his seat in the United States Senate. But if Mr. Lincoln lost the Senatorship, he destroyed Mr. Douglas' chances of becoming the Southern candidate for the Presidency ; and looking further, it must be admitted that the campaign and Mr. Lincoln's speeches secured for him the Presidency in 1860. The principles of the Republican party were so clearly laid down in Mr. Lincoln's speeches as published, in contrast to the Demo- cratic principles enunciated by Mr. Douglas, that they were universally used as campaign documents in the Presidential contest which so soon followed. This campaign gave Mr. Lincoln a national reputation, besides making him the most popular man in Illinois. He was present ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 273 at the Illinois State Republican Convention at Decatur, on the 10th of May, 1859, as a visitor, and had a compliment paid to him which raised the enthusiasm of the audience to the highest pitch. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's arrival, Governor Oglesby arose and announced that an old citizen of Macon County desired to make a contribution to the convention. This announcement was followed by the arrival of two fence rails, decorated with flags and wreaths and bearing this inscription : " ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the rail candidate for the Presidency in 1860. Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose father was the first pioneer of Macon County." Thus while Mr. Lincoln's popularity was increasing at home, it soon became evident to him that the people of other localities were anxious to see him and hear him speak. The people of Kansas looked to him as their deliverer, by reason of the grand exposure he gave of the plot to force slavery upon the Terri- tory, and when he visited that State he was received with the wildest enthusiasm. On his return from Kansas he passed through Ohio and made speeches at Columbus and Cincinnati. At both these cities Mr. Douglas had been before him, enunciating his Demo- cratic doctrines, entwined with squatter sovereignty and other pro-slavery principles, and in replying, as it were, to these speeches, Mr. Lincoln was fighting over his old battles with the "Little Giant." Scarcely had Mr. Lincoln delivered his two Ohio speeches before he was invited to visit New York and address the citi- zens. Upon the occasion Cooper Institute was crowded to overflowing, and among the audience were the most distin- guished men of the city. Mr. Lincoln's speech had been spe- cially and carefully prepared for the occasion, and was one of the ablest he had ever delivered, and his audience gave their heartiest approval of his masterly effort. His fame had now gone before him everywhere, and he received pressing invitations from numerous localities to address the people. In his visit to Connecticut he spoke in the principal cities, and it is probable that his influence carried the State by a Republican majority that year. 274 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Of one of his speeches, delivered in Norwich, Conn., the Rev. Mr. Gulliver said, in conversation with Mr. Lincoln : "I learned more of the art of public speaking last evening than I could from a whole course of lectures on rhetoric," This trip East had proven to Mr. Lincoln that there was something in his speeches and the manner of his delivery that took a firm hold upon his hearers, and his confidence in him- self was raised in place of a natural distrust of his abili- ties, which had always previously clung to him. He learned that the judgment of Western audiences is as correct in its ME. LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD. estimate of public men as that of any other portion of the country. During his visit to New York he one day strolled into the Five Points Mission Sunday School, and, doubtless, being mis- taken for a minister, was called upon to address the scholars. This he did in such a sweet, attractive way that all were fasci- nated with the stranger, and when he intended to stop they begged him to continue, and when, at last, he was on the point of leaving, the superintendent asked his name ; he simply re- plied, " Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois." We are now brought down to the period when the irrepressi- ble conflict was rapidly approaching. The ultra portion of the pro-slavery men in the South were at last resolved, if possible, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 275 to break up the Union. They had seen the power and prestige of slavery slipping away. They had just lost California, Kan- sas, and practically Nebraska, which they had fondly hoped to see admitted as slave States, and at last they realized that the preponderating population and wealth of the free States did not intend to submit to the extension of slavery into the terri- tories. They realized that the day had passed when pro- slavery men could dominate in the country. They realized that the people of the Northern States were beginning to con- sider slavery as an institution with no moral rights, and that it should have only the legal rights constitutionally guaranteed to it. Such was the condition of affairs that at last had resolved the Secessionists in principle to disrupt the Union and form an independent slave autocracy, in which slavery should be the fundamental principle of the government. The leaders of the slavery party would very complacently have remained in the Union could they have established slavery in California, Kan- sas, Nebraska and other territories, but failing in this they shrewdly saw that the rapid increase of free States and their growth in population and wealth, would soon be able to confine slavery to its present existing limits, if not even to gradually gather the border slave States into the fold of universal free- dom. This was the condition of affairs when indications pointed strongly to the election of a Republican President, and not only hi anticipation of this, but in actual desire for the accomplish- ment of the event, the leadersof the Secession movement began at once quietly to secure possession of our forts and arsenals in the South, by the appointment of officers in charge who were of known Secession sentiments, and who at the proper time would turn them over to the Southern government. But even with the threats of secession and the apparent intention to seize the military and naval strongholds, the general public could not be brought to a realization of the danger of a disruption of the government. In the spring of 1860, on the 2 3d of April, the Democratic National Convention met at Charleston. As was anticipated, the Northern and the Southern wings of the Democratic party S76 LIVES OF CUE PRESIDENTS. could not agree. The Northern Democrats wanted Douglas, and declared that he was the only man who could carry the party through to victory. But such a victory the Southern Demo- crats did not want. They wanted no candidate who was not absolutely and without reserve a pro-slavery man. On that they were candid in asserting that they wanted a square fight between slavery and anti-slavery, without the compromise of a single right. The result was a split, and the Southern delegation withdrew, leaving the regular convention in session, which, after balloting fifty-seven times without making a selection, adjourned to meet in Baltimore on the 18th of June, at which time they nominated Stephen A. Douglas as their candidate, while the Southern wing met and nominated John C. Breckinridge. There was still another party, made up mostly of old line Whigs, who met, and, declaring their principles to be " the Constitution, the Union and the Enforcement of the Laws," they nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachu- setts, for Yice-President. On the 16th of June, 1860, the National Republican Conven- tion met in Chicago, under circumstances of the greatest politi- cal interest and enthusiasm. The crowd of delegates and visitors was estimated at twenty-five thousand. The conven- tion met in a great building called the Wigwam, constructed for the purpose, and never before had there been such an immense attendance upon a similar occasion. When the balloting began there were found to be eleven candidates brought forward by the different delegations, but it was soon found that the con- test was to be between William H. Seward and Mr. Lincoln. In the three ballotings the results were as follows : On the first ballot, Mr. Seward received one hundred and seventy-three and a half votes, and Mr. Lincoln one hundred and two. Upon the second ballot, Mr. Seward received one hundred and eighty-four and a half votes, and Mr. Lincoln one hundred and eighty-one. On the third ballot, which also proved to be the last, Mr Lincoln received two hundred and thirty-one and a half votes, which required but one and a half vote to secure his nomination. Upon this announcement the four votes of Ohio were trans- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 277 {'erred to Mr. Lincoln, and his nomination being declared, there immediately arose the most intense excitement and unbounded enthusiasm, and when it was announced to the Immense, surg- ing crowd on the outside that " Abe Lincoln is nominated," the immense cheering actually drowned the noise of the cannon firing the salute. While these events were transpiring in Chicago, Mr. Lincoln was at home in Springfield anxiously awaiting the click of the telegraph. At last the momentous clicking began, and the messenger who bore to Mr. Lincoln the telegram said : " The convention has made a nomination, and Mr. Seward is the second man on the list." Mr. Lincoln's feelings can better be imagined than described, but after a moment's silence, when (he congratulations were over, he remarked : ' ' There is a little woman on Eighth street who has some in- terest in the matter ;" and, putting the telegram in his pocket, he rapidly walked home. The news soon spread in Springfield, and Mr. Lincoln's house was thronged with visitors heaping their congratulations upon him. A salute of a hundred guns was fired, and in the evening the State-House was brilliantly illuminated and thrown open for a great meeting of the citi- zens, who, at the close, marched in a body to Mr. Lincoln's house and called for him with the most enthusiastic cheering. In response, Mr. Lincoln came out and made an appropriate speech. Then he invited as many into the house as could get in, and entertained them until a late hour. The next day he was waited upon by the committee of the convention, and officially informed of his nomination. In an- ticipation of this official visit tsome of Mr. Lincoln's friends sent in several baskets of wines and liquors, but true to his cold- water principles, Mr. Lincoln politely returned them and drank the health of the committee in the only beverage he had ever used in his family, pure water. It soon became necessary to set aside a room in the State House for public receptions, so great was the throng that con- tinually came to pay homage to this great self-made man. It was so universally believed that Mr. Lincoln would be elected 278 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. President, that crowds who sought the public patronage came daily, as well as those who called for the sake of old acquaint- ance or political friendship. But to all alike was Mr. Lincoln courteous and kind, and especially so was he toward the hum- ble poor, so many of whom had known and befriended him in the days of his early struggles with the adversities of life. Upon one occasion two awkward, bashful young fellows came in while Mr. Lincoln was talking to a number of gentlemen, and seeing that they appeared ill at ease, he excused himself for a moment from his company, and stepped up to them and said: "How do you do, my good fellows ! What can I do for you? Will you sit down ? " One of them then explained that there had been a matter of dispute in reference to the relative height of Mr. Lincoln and his companion. Upon this explanation of the visit Mr. Lincoln good-naturedly stood up with the young man against the wall and compared heights, declaring as he rubbed liis head back and forth under the measurement that he and the young man were exactly the same height. At another time an old and poorly -dressed woman came to see him and reminded him of a very poor dinner she had once given him, when he had declared that it was good enough for the Presi- dent of the United States. Mr. Lincoln remembered the old lady, and talked so kindly and pleasantly to her of old times that she went away very happy. One thing that both surprised and pained Mr. Lincoln was to find that nearly all the ministers of the gospel in Springfield were opposed to his election: " These men," said he, " well know that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom every- where as far as the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this holy Book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me.' ; Continuing after a pause, with a trembling voice and his cheeks wet with tears, he said: " I know that there is a God and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm com- ing and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place for me, and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 279 Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares and humanity cares and I care, and with God's help I shall not fail. Doesn't it appear strange that men can ignore the moral aspects of this contest ? A revelation could not make it plainer to me that slavery or the government must be destroyed. It seems as if God had borne with this slavery until the very teachers of religion have come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction, and now the cup of iniquity is full and the vials of wrath will be poured out." Thus, with a consciousness of the right and justice of his course, Mr. Lincoln waited quietly the result of the election. The result at last came, and it gave Mr. Lincoln one hundred and eighty electoral votes, Mr. Breckinridge seventy-two, Mr. Bell thirty-nine, and Mr. Douglas twelve. As was naturally expected, Mr. Lincoln's election created great rejoicing among the Republicans, great uneasiness among the Northern Democrats and Southern Union men, and intense indignation among the Secessionists. For a short time there was a lull before the storm, and many, even of the Republicans, believed that the impending crisis would be averted. But the day of conflict was rapidly approaching. South Carolina began preparations in four days after the election, by mustering ten thousand volunteers and calling for a convention to pass an act of secession. This was followed up on the 27th of December, 1860, by the seizure of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney and the revenue cutter William AiJcen, in Charleston Harbor. On the 30th of December the arsenal was seized. This was followed, on the 2d of January, 1861, by the North Carolinians taking possession of Fort Macon and the arsenal at Fayetteville. Forts Pulaski and Jackson and the arsenal at Savannah fell into the hands of the Georgians on the 3d, and on the 4th Fort Morgan and the Mobile arsenal were taken possession of by the State of Alabama, and thus in succession Forts Johnson, Connel, McRae, Barrancas, Pike, St. Philip and Jackson, and the navy yard at Pensacola and arsenal at Baton Rouge, passed into the hands of the rebels. While these unlawful acts were being perpetrated the 280 LIVES OF OUB PRESIDENTS. Southern States began passing acts of secession, which rapidly culminated in the formation of a Southern Confederacy, with Jefferson Davis as President, and a Cabinet and Congress and general form of government similar to that of the United States, save that slavery and State rights were made the funda- mental principles of the new government which had been un- lawfully and unconstitutionally formed. During all these overt acts of rebellion President Buchanan sat in the executive chair a contemptible picture of imbecility, doing nothing and forbidding General Scott and other loyal military and naval officers from taking any steps to oppose the acts of rebellion. Such was the desperate condition of affairs on the llth of February, 1861, when Mr. Lincoln left his peaceful home in Springfield for the turmoil and strife and cares and anxieties and excitement of his Presidential career in Washington. Everywhere on his journey through the Northern States the public greeted him with the greatest enthusiasm, and in a num- ber of the principal cities he stopped and accepted the hospitali- ties ai-d ovations of the citizens, both receiving and delivering addresses appropriate to each special occasion. In this way he passed through Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. As he approached nearer to the National Capital, it became evident that a plot was on foot for his assassination, and threats had been freely made that he should never be inaugurated. Baltimore was evidently the dangerous point on the route, and the intention was to kill Mr. Lincoln during a riot gotten up for the purpose as the train passed through the city. This plan was thwarted by a secret and special train being provided to take him through at an hour when he was not expected. On this train he passed rapidly through, and arrived at Washington at daylight the next morning. At last the eventful 4th of March dawned upon the country, when the inauguration of a President was to take place which was to precipitate war upon the country by the acts of the re- bellious States. The crowd which had assembled was an im- mense concourse of human beings, and the procession was very ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 28l grand and imposing, as well as formidable by the strong mili- tary display which General Scott had provided in anticipation of any attempt at riot or assassination. In the procession Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Lincoln rode in the same carriage. Mr. Lincoln, on arriving at the Capitol, delivered his inaugu- ral address, of which the following contains the most important sentiments : " FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES: In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, to betaken by the President before he enters on the execu- tion of his office. " Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I have made this and many similar declarations, and have never recanted them ; and, more than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read : " ' Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic in- stitutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to tnat balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.' " I add, too, that all the protection that can consistently with the Constitu- tion and the laws be given, will be cheerfully extended to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause ; as cheerfully to one cause as to another. "A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now for- midably attempted . I hold that in the contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is im- plied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national Governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its or- ganic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express pro- visions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever ; it 282 LIVES OP OUK PRESIDENTS. being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. " The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association, in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence, in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles- of Confederation, in 1778 ; and finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less per- fect than before; the Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity. "It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, ac- cording to circumstances. " I therefore consider, that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is not broken ; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall certainly perform it so far as is practicable, unless nay rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. " All the vital rights of minorities and individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in the Con- stitution, that controversies never arise concerning them, but no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable lenerth contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by National or by State authorities ? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories ? The Constitution does not ex- pressly say. From questions of this class spring all our Constitutional con- troversies, and we decide upon them into majorities and minorities. " If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn, will rum and divide them ; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority ; for instance, why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it '! All who cherish disunion sentiments are now be- ing educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect iden- tity of interests among the States to compose a new Union to produce harmony only, and prevent secession ? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. ABRAHAM LINCOIJf. " One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended ; while the other believes it is v ron^ and ought not to be extended. And this is the only substantial dispute. Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other ; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face ; and intercourse either amicable or hostile must continue between them. Is it possible then to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before ? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than can laws among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. ' If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side of the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet for- saken this favored land, are still compe': :nt to adjust in the best way all our present difficulties. " In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the mo- mentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. " You can have no conflict without being yourselves the azg. cssc rs. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government ; while I shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect and defend ' it. " I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. " The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as ;-: urely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Thus ended his noble and patriotic address, and nothing more remained but to administer the oath of office which was to place Mr. Lincoln in the executive chair of the nation at the most perilous period of our national existence. It was hopeless to think that aught he said or that any man could say would turn aside the red hand of rebellion and war which was raised in the South, and nothing remained but for the President to select his Cabinet and prepare to uphold the Union in its integrity and honor. The selection of his Cabinet was wise and suitable to the grave demands of the hour. Mr. Seward was selected for Secretary 284 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. of State ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of Waf Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy ; Salrnoi; P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury ; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior ; Edward Bates, of Mis- souri, Attorney-General, and Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster-General. Language is scarcely adequate to describe the condition of affairs at this particular period. Every department of the Government in Washington and elsewhere was full of rebel sympathizers, who wore in everyway giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the Union. The diplomatic departments abroad were full of those who had been appointed under the previous administration for the purpose of moulding European opinion against the Government and securing their sympathy and aid for the cause of rebellion. The first labor was to clear these Augean stables of treason, and substitute loyalty and patriotism in their stead. The next important work was to quietly strengthen the hands of the Government wherever possible, and yet to do this in such a manner as not to give the Secessionists a pretext for the commencement of hostilities. Even the North was hesistating and divided as to the policy which should be adopted, and only the seceded States seemed united to a man. Something was needed to unite the Union-loving people of the country. That something \vas supplied the day Fort Sumter fell. Never before, perhaps, in the history of the world did any people spring forward with such feelings of indignation and with such a spirit of resistance as did the loyal people of the United States when the starry flag of our country had been fired upon and one of our forts had been battered by rebel guns and forced to surrender with its heroic garrison. On that day the United States Government, through the people, rose grand and sublime in her strength, and party lines were swept away. The one common sentiment that pervaded the public mind was to resent the insult to the flag and force the seceded States to return to the Union. For the first time Mr. Lincoln had an opportunity for action. An insurrectionary war had now been inaugurated by the seceded States, which had organized the so-called Southern Confed- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 385 eracy, with Jefferson Davis as President, and the seat of govern- ment at Montgomery, Alabama. On the 15th of April, 1861, three days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Mr. Lincoln issued the memorable proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to defend the national Capitol and finally to recover possession of the forts, arsenals and navy yards belonging to the United States which had been taken by the rebels. To facilitate action, the proclamation also convened Congress to assemble on the 4th of July. The greatest excitement and enthusiasm was created by the proclamation, and Stephen A. Douglas said to Mr. Lincoln : ' Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document, except that in the call for seventy-five thousand men I would make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men as well as I do." In the calm light of history we can see to-day that it should have been a call for even more than two hundred thousand men, but the traitorous Secretary of War, Floyd, during Buchanan's administration, had robbed the Northern arsenals of arms and sent them South to be used against the govern- ment, and it was found difficult to even supply munitions of war to the force called for. This the South knew, and they laughed to scorn the attempt to put down the rebellion with the facilities the government possessed, and the rebel Secretary of War said in Montgomery, just after the fall of Fort Sumter : "No man can tell where this war will end, but I will prophesy that the flag which now flaunts to the breeze above us will float over the dome of the old Capitol at Washington before the first of May, and may float eventually over Faneuil Hall itself." The next necessary action was for Mr. Lincoln to declare a blockade of the ports in the seceded States. After this important military movements were made as rapidly as possible. Washington was rendered safe against surprise and capture. Fortress Monroe was reinforced, and Cairo, 111., was occupied by government troops, and the block- ade was extended to the ports of Virginia and North Carolina. This was followed by the formation of the new military depart- ments. 286 T.IVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. On the 3d of May Mr. Lincoln called for forty -two thousand additional volunteers and for twenty- two thousand seven hun- dred and fourteen men for different classes of service in the regular army. There was also a call made for eighteen thousand men to serve in the navy. During this time the rebels were not idle, but were spreading their field of operations and taking possession of important points and throwing their troops into the slave States which had not seceded, with a view of forcing them out of the Union. In this they were encouraged and aided by disloyal officials of the States, the Governor of Missouri doing all in his power to throw his State into rebel hands, until General Lyon took military possession, and by seizing the arms in the St. Louis Arsenal for the Government troops, saved them from falling into the hands of our enemies. The so-called Confederate army was officered by many men from the regular Army, a number of whom were graduates of West Point, and at the commence- ment of hostilities they had been brought up to an excellent military condition, while our army was far from satisfactory. On the 22d of May, General Butler took command of the De- partment of the South and made his headquarters at Fortress Monroe, and on the 10th of June occurred the battle of Big Bethel. But a still more serious lesson was to be learned by the people of the Union. On the 19th of July began that bloody and cruel battle of Bull Run, which ended on the 21st in such a terrible rout of our forces, in which the entire army fled panic- stricken in the greatest disorder to Washington. This experience, even at so dear a cost, was after all a probable blessing in disguise. It brought the people of the country to realize how terrible a war had come upon us, and that if we would win we must become more imbued with the spirit and scathless courage of the Revolutionary patriots who taught us such a glorious lesson of endurance and devotion to a holy cause. In maintaining the integrity of the Union for which they had fought and died, our purpose was as noble as theirs, and defeat brought out the heroic part of our natures. It cannot be denied that the rebellion suffered a great disap- pointment in being unable to force all the slave States out of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 287 the Union. This hope they cherished for many months, and with almost equal results awaited the recognition of their sep- arate nationality by the governments of Europe. At almost the very opening of hostilities England and France had recognized the rebellious States as a belligerent power, and had it not been for the persistent diplomacy of Mr. Lincoln, through his able Secretary, Mr. Seward, it is certain that a general recognition of the insurrectionary government would have been made. Congress had, in accordance with the President's proclama- tion, met on the 4th of July, and in his message Mr. Lincoln urged that the contest be made a short and decisive one by placing at the control of the Government four hundred thou- sand men and four hundred million dollars. Mr. Lincoln then in his message took up the subject of State rights, and argued it in its relation to the right of secession as claimed, for the pur- pose not only of refuting the fallacy at home, but of convincing foreign governments of the entire lack of foundation for such a doctrine. Congress, fully recognizing the exigencies of the hour, placed five hundred millions of dollars and five hundred thousand troops at the disposal of the President, and fully indorsed all his measures for the suppression of the rebellion. There were naturally rebel sympathizers in Congress, and men who pro- tested and voted against every loyal measure, but the friends of the Union were greatly in the majority. On the 31st of August, General Fremont, in command of the Department of Missouri, issued a proclamation declaring mar- tial law within the lines of military occupation, and threaten- ing with death all those found within the lines with arms in their hands, also confiscating all the real and personal property of persons in the State who should take up arms against the United States, and declaring their slaves , when possessed, free. This proclamation created great excitement in the loyal slave States and caused the friends of the Union to fear that it might precipitate some of them into secession. Mr. Lincoln disapproved of the severe measures of the procla- mation, and he requested General Fremont to modify some portions of it, and especially that in reference to the liberation 388 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. of slaves, so that it would conform to the confiscation act just passed by Congress, by which only those slaves were freed that were engaged in rebel service. Early in November the memorable Trent affair occurred, by which the boarding of that vessel by Captain Wilkes and tak- ing off Mason and Slidell, the rebel commissioners, so nearly precipitated war between the United States and England, a disaster which was averted only by the masterly diplomacy of Mr. Seward, and however much our Government may have been blamed and even sneered at for the concession we made, it must be admitted that its peaceable results sealed the doom of the rebellion and lost them the chance of winning their cause through the aid of England. It was policy, not cowardice, that actuated us in the concession, and if we had any wounded honor to nurse, the Alabama claims applied the healing salve very soon afterward. On the 3d of December, 1861, the regular session of Congress met, and Mr. Lincoln's annual message opened with reference to the attitude of foreign governments, and advised that, should those governments be controlled only by material con- siderations, they would find that the quickest and best way out of the embarrassments of commerce caused by American diflS culties would be rather through the maintenance than the de- struction of the Union. "Since, however," he continued, "it is apparent that here, as in every other State, foreign dangers necessarily attend domestic difficulties, I recommend that ade- quate and ample measures be adopted for maintaining the pub- lic defenses on every side." The message then reviewed the favorable progress of the war for the Union cause, and gave the gratifying intelligence that the three States of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, neither of which would promise a single soldier at first, had then an aggregate of not less than forty thousand men in the field for the Union. About this time Mr. Lincoln began to detect in the public mind a growing sentiment in favor of abolishing slavery, and this encouraged him to put his own principles into action. With this end in view, on the 6th of March, 1863, he sent a mes- ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 289 sage to Congress, recommending the passage of a joint resolu- tion which should in substance be as follows : " Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may gradually adopt abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State at its discretion, to compensate for inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system." It could plainly be seen that circumstances were drifting to the freedom of the slaves, and that Mr. Lincoln was struggling as long as possible in his kind feeling toward the loyal stave States to leave slavery unmolested even in the rebellious States for their sakes, but these States were blind to the inevitable results of the war, and made no effort to accept of the measures of Mr. Lincoln's resolution, although the President was at that time gradually preparing the public mind for emancipation. At last Mr. Lincoln fully realized the military necessity of pun- ishing the rebellious States and inflicting upon them a serious blow by issuing his long-premeditated Emancipation Proclama- tion, and oa the 22d of September, 1862, he published the memor- able document declaring that on the 1st of January, 1863, all the slaves in the States then continuing in rebellion should be free. Naturally, the most intense excitement folio wed this bold and extreme measure. Even his Cabinet were taken completely by surprise wh^n he called them together for the purpose of read- ing it to them, at first during the summer of 1862. In present- ing it to them he stated that his purpose was made up and he did not ask for advice, but only for suggestions on minor points. The first suggestion came from Mr. Chase, who desirt-d the language stronger in reference to arming the blacks. Mr. Blair urged that it would lose us the fall elections. Mr. Seward then said : "Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind consequent upon our reported rt verses is so great that I fear so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted Government a cry for help ; the Government stretching forth its hands to Ethi- opia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth its hands to the Government ; our last shriek on retreat." And he advised its 290 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. postponement until it could follow after military success, in- stead of some of the greatest reverses of the war. This presented the matter in a new light to Mr. Lincoln, and he admitted the sound judgment of Mr. Seward that it would not be a favorable time to present it to the public just after General Pope's disaster at Bull Run and his precipitate retreat upon Washington, so Mr. Lincoln waited until the victory at Antietam gave the favorable opportunity, then he immediately rewrote and improved the original proclamation, and, calling his Cabinet together, informed them that the time for giving the proclamation to the country could no longer be delayed, and said he : "I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." The proclamation at first created universal discussion both in the army and out, and while the anti-slavery men were filled with delight, the conservative element were gravely in doubt as to the effect, while the special lovers of the institution were full of threatening denunciations. It was not long, however, before it was realized that both at home and abroad the act strength- ened the Government more than the most overwhelming vic- tory could have done, while it became a crown of glory to Mr. Lincoln which glitters brighter and brighter as time passes on. The preamble of the proclamation issued on the 1st of January, 1863, quoting from his preliminary proclamation, continued as follows : "Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:" Then follow the names of the States, with the exception of certain parishes in Louisiana, the forty-eight counties of West Virginia, and certain counties in Virginia : ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 291 " And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of >tates, are, and henceforth shall be free ; and that the executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval author- ities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. " And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense : and I recommend to them that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. "And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. ' And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, 1 invoke the considerate judg- ment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. " In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. " Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independ- ence of the United States the eighty-seventh. [L. s.] "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." On the 24th of September, 1862, Mr. Lincoln had issued his proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus. This he considered necessary to reach with suitable punishment the spies and informers with which the country abounded, as well as that class who discouraged enlistment and sought every opportunity to oppose the acts of the administration, and under the guise of political or party opposition to discourage the war for the maintenance of the Union. This proclamation at once caused a great outcry to be raised against the so-called military despotism which had endangered the public liberty and by the act of the President subverted the Constitution. At the next session of Congress the proclamation was the subject of complaint and animated discussion. A large majority in Congress, however, were on the side of Mr. Lin- coln, and a bill was passed sustaining him and indemnifying him and all who acted under the proclamation. Mr. Lincoln's regard for the sacred observance of the Sabbath actuated him to issue a circular letter to the army impressing upon them the "importance for man and beast of the prescribed 292 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. weekly rest; the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of the day or the name of the Most High." Mr. Lincoln had a dream of the colonization of the blacks in South America or Liberia or Hayti, but this dream was dissi- pated by one serious objection : the blacks had no desire to be colonized, and preferred to remain as ' ' hewers of wood and drawers of water" in the land of the whites. One of Mr. Lincoln's wise measures was the advocacy, in his annual message, of the national bank system for the production of a uniform currency, secured by the pledge of United States bonds. The bill ai, the time was viewed as a somewhat doubt- ful experiment, but fortunately for the financial condition of the country it was passed, and time has proven the great wis- dom of Mr. Lincoln as a financier. As time passed on the repeated victories of the Union forces in different parts of the country were giving us unmistakable headway in crushing the rebellion. It was slow and bloody work, however, and here and there rebel successes offset our victories. But the falling into our hands of New Orleans and Vicksburg, and Forts Donelson and Henry, and similar strong- holds of the rebellion, were slowly but surely breaking its back- bone. The first three years of the war produced a very marked effect upon Mr. Lin com. He was strong and robust as a back- woodsman when he entered upon his executive duties, but with all possible care of himself, he became, in that short time, a prematurely aged and feeble man, always complaining of being tired. If anything could refresh him, it was his favorite pas- time of relating anecdotes. He loved to read Artemus Ward, and he also liked the recreation of the theatre. The soldiers who were bearing the heat and burden of the war always held a near place in his heart and sympathy. Upon one occasion, when he had just written a pardon for a ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 293 young soldier who had been condemned by court martial to be shot for sleeping at his post as a sentinel, Mr. Lincoln re- marked : ' ' I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of that poor young man on my skirts. It is not to be wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep ; and I cannot consent to shoot him for such an act." The Rev. Newman Hall, in his funeral sermon upon Mr. Lincoln, said that this young soldier was found dead on the field of Fred- ericksburg with Mr. Lincoln's photograph next to his heart, on which he had inscribed, " God bless President Lincoln." At another time there were twenty-four deserters sentenced to be shot, and the warrants for their execution were sent to the President to be signed. He refused, and the general of the division went to Washington to see Mr. Lincoln. At the inter- view he said to the President that unless these men were made an example of, the army itself would be in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many. But Mr. Lincoln replied: " There are already too many weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." On another occasion a young soldier had fallen out of ranks when his regiment passed through Washington, and getting d'unk failed to join his regiment when it left the city. To the i'ri'-nd who came to secure a pardon, Mr. Lincoln said : ' Well, I think the boy can do us more good above ground than under ground," and he wrote out the pardon. In all such cases as the above, where the ordinary human weakness was the motive, Mr. Lincoln's heart was tender as a woman's, but to prove that he could entertain no sympathy for a cool, deliberate, mercenary crime, he was approached by the Hon. John B. Alley, of Massachusetts, one day, with a petition for the pardon of a man who had been convicted of engaging in the slave trade, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and the payment of a fine of one thousand dollars. His term of im- prisonment had expired, but in default of payment of the fine, he was still held. In answer to the appeal for pardon Mr. Lin- 204 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. coin said : " You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy, and if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an appeal ; but the man who would go to Africa and rob her of her children, and sell them into an interminable bondage with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon at my hands. No, he may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine." Upon another occasion the wife of a rebel officer, held as a prisoner of war, begged for the release of her husband, and to strengthen her appeal said that he was a very religious man. In granting the release of her husband, Mr. Lincoln said: " Tell your husband when you meet him that I am not much of a judge of religion, but that in my opinion the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government because they tbink that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which men can get to heaven." One day news of a great battle in progress reached Mr. Lin- coln, and his anxiety was so great that he could eat nothing. Soon after he was seen to take a Bible and retire to his room, and in a few minutes he was overheard in one of the most ear- nest prayers for the success of our arms. Later in the day a Union victory was announced, and Mr. Lincoln, with a beam- ing face, exclaimed: " Good news ! good news ! The victory is ours, and God is good." Mr. Lincoln was as simple and unassuming in his manner and habits in the Presidential position in the White House as if he were in his Western home. ' ' If you see a newsboy down the street, send him up this way," said he one morning to a passer-by, as he stood at the gate waiting for a morning paper. He persisted in walking the streets of Washington both day and night unaccompanied, notwithstanding the warning of his friends against exposing himself to danger. It was to him arways a gleam of sunshine through the clouds of war to meet his old Western friends and talk over old times. It was plainly ABRAHAM LINCOLK. 295 to be seen that he was wearing out. The care and anxiety were too much for human endurance. ' ' How willingly would I ex- change places to-day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac," said he one day to the Hon. Schuyler Colfax. At another time he said to a visitor: "I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over my work will be done." At the Republican Convention held in Baltimore on the 8th of June, 1864, Mr. Lincoln, upon the first ballot, received every vote except twenty -two from Missouri, which were cast for General Grant, but on motion of the Missouri delegation the nomination was made unanimous. To the committee that waited upon Mr. Lincoln to inform him of his nomination he said : " Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet unended na- tional peril, I can view this call to a second term in nowise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, than could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this view, and with assured reliance on that Almighty Ruler who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous people for their con- tinued confidence. I accept the renewed trust, with its yet onerous and per- plexing duties and responsibilities." The election resulted in giving Mr. Lincoln an overwhelming majority over General McClellan, the Democratic candidate, Mr. Lincoln having received 212 electoral votes out of the total 233, and a popular majority in every State except Kentucky, Delaware and New Jersey. Mr. Lincoln's re-election was a grand triumph for the Union cause, for it destroyed the hope of the rebellion, and so com- pletely silenced the disaffected elements of the Northern States that it greatly strengthened the hands of the army, and in- spired them with greater confidence and determination to crush out the rebellion. From this date the military operations were marked with great energy and signal success. While General Grant was sweeping Lee from his old lines on the Potomac, General Sher- man was beginning his grand march to the sea that practically <;ut the ^ebellion in two. 296 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. On the 5th of December Congress again met, and Mr. Lincoln sent in his annual message, in which he urged the passage of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery through- out the United States. A similar measure had been defeated at the previous session, but Mr. Lincoln saw that the country was more favorable to the movement. His re-election and the suc- cesses of the army had greatly changed public opinion. The result of the President's earnest suggestion resulted in the pass- age of the sought-for amendment to the Constitution abolish- ing slavery in all the States. The popularity of the measure is proven by the fact that it received more than the two-thirds vote necessary for its passage. To Mr. Lincoln this seemed the crowning work of his life, and in expressing his great gratification at the result, he uttered the sentiment that it was the one thing necessary to the wind- ing up of the whole difficulty, and that it completed and con- firmed the work of his Emancipation Proclamation, and he awaited only its ratification by the votes of the States. On the 3d of March Congress adjourned, at which time Mr. Lincoln's first term of office expired. The changes had indeed been great during the four years since he had taken his seat. Four years of one of the greatest wars in human history had been fought, which was rapidly sweeping the rebellion into hopeless defeat, and the peculiar institution it was inaugurated to sustain into inevitable dissolution. Since his first inaugura- tion Mr. Lincoln had proven himself one of the greatest states- men of this or any other age, and he stood sublime before the world as one of the greatest benefactors of human kind ; and yet the simplicity and modesty which characterized him at his first inaugural marked his demeanor upon the occasion of the second. His inaugural address closed with that noble and memorable sentiment : " With malice toward none, with cnaiity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- selves and with all nations." ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 297 It was but a short time after this before the rebellion was on the eve of its final collapse. General Sherman, after his march to the sea, had started North with his irresistible force, and was indeed making the rebellious States feel the iron heel of war. General Johnston was fleeing northward, while General Grant was holding JLee in Richmond in an almost helpless condition. On the 29th of March the Army of the Potomac began the grand march which so soon resulted in the surrender of Lee and the end of the rebellion. It was to Mr. Lincoln one of the greatest rewards of his years of labor, to enter the rebel capital as soon as it was occupied by our troops and receive from the joyful crowds of liberated blacks their humble expressions of thankfulness and praise. "Glory to God!" "Bless de Lord!" and "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" were the excited ejaculations he heard on every side as the happy people crowded around him. With Johnston's surrender the rebellion was ended, and the greatest rejoicing spread over the entire country, and the uni- versal praise of Mr. Lincoln was upon every tongue. The grandest results had been realized from his measures and acts. The curse of rebellion had been swept away, and the stain of African slavery had been wiped from American institutions. On the subject of reconstruction he said in a previous letter: " -I cannot see, if universal amnesty is granted, how under the circumstances I can avoid exacting in return uni- versal suffrage, or at least suffrage on the basis of intelligence and military service." We are now rapidly approaching the sad and tragic end of Mr. Lincoln's life. Although he knew that plots for his assas- sination were originated from the day he left Springfield for his inauguration, and although he had often predicted that he would not outlast the rebellion, still it is probable, when the war had ended and he had survived it, that he gave no further thought to assassination, and felt a relief that danger from violence was ended. The eventful 14th of April dawned upon Washington, and found Mr. Lincoln busy with his friends. General Grant was in the city, and had been invited to attend the Cabinet meeting 298 LIVES OF OtJR PRESIDENTS. held upon that day. On the day previous the manager of Ford's Theatre had invited Mr. Lincoln and General Grant to be present at the performance on the evening of the 14th of the play of "Our American Cousin," and the announcement of their intended presence was made in the Washington papers for the purpose of drawing a crowd. General Grant left the city during the day, and Mr. Lincoln, realizing that it would be a great disappointment to the people if he also failed to attend, decided to go, and Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln drove to the house of Senator Harris for his daughter, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbone, a son of the Senator's wife. The party reached the theatre at a little before nine o'clock, and as they passed to their private box the entire audience rose to their feet and enthusiastically cheered Mr. Lincoln and his party. On the morning of the 14th John Wilkes Booth, a disloyal actor well known in Washington, began to perfect his plot for the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. He secured a fleet horse, which he secreted during the day, and at night rode to Ford's Theatre. Dismounting, he quietly worked his way through the crowd, and entered the box occupied by the Presidential party. Drawing a pistol, the assassin instantly aimed at the back of Mr. Lincoln's head, and fired the fatal bullet into his brain. In the great confusion that followed, Booth sprang upon the stage, and, shouting in a theatrical tone, " Sic semper tyrannis," he rushed with a brandished dagger through the stage entrance to his horse and fled from the city. Mr. Lincoln never moved after being shot, but passed into immediate unconsciousness, from which he rallied, but breathed his last at twenty-two minutes past seven the next morning, surrounded by his weeping family and friends, whom he had never recognized after the cruel lead had entered his brain. During the terrible scene in the theatre another part of the plan of assassination was being enacted in the city. Mr. Seward had but recently been thrown from his carriage, and was suffering in bed from a broken jaw, when a man named Powell (or Payne), another one of the conspirators, pushed his ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 299 way into Mr. Seward's house, and after Knocking down Mr. Frederick Seward, the Secretary's son, he sprang upon the bed of Mr. Seward and stabbed him three times in the throat. He was prevented by the nurse, a soldier, from killing the Secre- tary, and stabbing the nurse, Payne broke away and escaped after attempting the lives of other members of the household. General Grant, Vice-President Johnson and others were marked for assassination also, but providentially escaped. Language cannot express the distressing effect of this cruel assassination. The most profound demonstrations of grief were exhibited throughout the land. The entire country was a continuous drapery of the sombre emblems of mourning, and tolling bells and solemn funeral services everywhere marked the universal sorrow of the people. Men met each other with low and solemn voices and tearful eyes ; puch a universal lamentation went up throughout the land as had never before been witnessed, and perhaps will never be again. Messages of condolence were sent from almost every nation on the earth, and all the world looked on the deed with horror. To the conquered South his death was a dire calamity when they so much needed his magnanimity, and those engaged in the rebellion who may have planned or connived at the assassina- tion regretted it when too late. On the following Wednesday the funeral service took place at the White House, which had been thrown open on the day previous for the vast crowd of mourners to view the embalmed body. The funeral services were very solemn and impressive, and the procession which accompanied the remains from the White House to the Capitol was the largest and most impressive ever seen in Washington. During these funeral services in the national Capitol, similar obsequies were performed and funeral services and orations de- livered throughout the entire country. After lying in state in the Capitol for a suitable time, the funeral train left Washington on the 21st of April for Spring- field, where Mr. Lincoln was to be buried. Never before had the country witne?sed such a solemn and imposing sight as the immense funqral procession a,nd crowd 800 LIVES OF OITR PRESIDENTS. which gathered around the train and marched through every city and village, literally reaching from Washington to Spring- field. A touching incident of the funeral journey was the accom- panying of Mr. Lincoln's remains by the coffin and molder- ing body of his little Willie, whose dust was to be laid by his side in the cemetery of their old home. The remains of the martyred President were viewed by im- mense crowds in procession in every city on the route, and. THE TOMB OF LINCOLN. from twelve to twenty-four hours in the largest cities the ceaseless throngs day and night passed by the coffin to catch a single sight of the face of one of earth's greatest dead. At Chicago the people received his remains as their own, and the Chicago Tribune gave him this beautiful tribute: " He comes back to us, his work finished, the republic vindicated, its enemies overthrown', suin? for peace . He left us. asking that the prayers of the people might bo offered to Almighty God for wisdom and help to see the right path and pursue it. Those prayers were answered. He accom- plished his work, and now the prayers of the people ascend for help to bear ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 301 the great affliction which has fallen upon them. Slain as no other man has been slain, cut down while interposing his great charity and mercy between the wrath of the people and guilty traitors, the people of Chicago tenderly receive the sacred ashes with bowed heads and streaming eyes." At last the earthly journey was over and the mortal remains of Mr. Lincoln had reached Springfield to rest among his old friends and neighbors, where the last and most touching of all the funeral rites were performed. There, surrounded by his weeping neighbors, they laid him away to sleep after his work was done. ANDREW JOHNSON. There is scarcely another instance on record of the ruler of a great people having risen to that sublime height from so lowly an origin as did the subject of our biography. Poverty is no dis- grace, but a great inconvenience, and it was certainly no exception to the rule iu the case of Andrew Johnson. He was born at Raleigh, N. C , on the 29th of December, 1808. His parents occupied the humblest position of respecta- ble poverty, and their lives were so full of deprivation and hardship that there seemed to be no prospect ahead in life for their only child. To make the outlook more gloomy still for little Andrew, when he was five years old his father lost his life in saving the editor of the Raleigh Gazette from drowning. After this he ran the streets a ragged, barefoot boy, with only his poor, hard-working mother to care for him and provide his meagre food and shelter. At ten years of age it became neces- sary that he should prepare to earn his own living and help to support his mother. He was accordingly apprenticed to a tailor. As he had never at this age, nor in fact at any future period of his life, attended school a single day, he could neither read nor write. But for all the lack of advantages, he had a yearn- ing after knowledge, and indicated a strong determination to pick up all the information possible. He was fortunate at this time in receiving the kind attentions of a gentleman in Raleigh, who, in accordance with the social customs of small places, was accustomed to spend much of his time in the tailor shop read- ing aloud while the men were at work. This visitor frequently read from a book of speeches, which deeply interested young Johnson, and he resolved that he would learn to read. Slowly, by the assistance of the journeymen tailors, he learned the alphabet. At this stage of his education the gentleman kindly LIVES OF OUR PRESIDEJvTS. made him a present of the book of speeches, and gave him some instruction in spelling, which was of great assistance to the boy. At last he could read, and new interests in life opened to the poor hoy. Many a night he burned the midnight oil, or, more appropriately for the time and locality, the tallow candle, in his search for the wonderful things to be found in books. BIRTHPLACE OP ANDREW JOHNSON AT RALEIGH In 1824 his apprenticeship expired, and he stepped out into the world with only his trade to rely upon. For the next two years he worked at Laurens Court House, S. C. , as a journeyman tailor, and it is said that during this time he came near losing his heart; but rhe poor, friendless stranger was not encouraged by the young lady or her parents. Returning to Raleigh, he soon decided upon moving to Tennessee, and, taking his mother with him, he settled in Greenville, where he readily found work at his trade which ANDREW JOHNSON. 805 comfortably supported himself and his mother. In a short time he married an estimable young lady of good education, who proved to him one of the noblest of helpmeets, for under the impulse of love she taught him how to write and also the science of arithmetic, beside other branches of a common edu- cation, until his advantages were equal to those of the average mechanic. But he did not pause here; ambition led him higher, and he soon became a leader of the workingmen. This resulted in his election to the office of alderman when he was only twenty years of age. Soon after this he joined a debating society connected with Greenville College, where he soon distinguished himself by his oratory until he was termed '' the village Demosthenes." In 1830 Mr. Johnson was chosen Mayor of Greenville, which prominent position be held for three terms. Almost his first step into political life was in espousing the principles of Andrew Jackson against nullification. The next honor bestowed upon Mr. Johnson was his election by the County Court as a trustee of Rhea Academy. In 1835 he was elected to the State Legislature as a Democrat. Here he attracted attention to his sound principles by his opposition to a scheme of internal improvements which would have in- volved the State in debt to the amount of some four million dollars. This opposition caused his defeat at the next election in 1837, but in 1839 his prediction had come true, and the public improvement scheme had become so unpopular that Mr. Johnson was again returned to the Legislature. In 1840 Mr. Johnson canvassed East Tennessee in favor of Mr. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate, who was running for the Presidency in opposition to General Harrison. In 1841 he was elected to the State Senate to represent Hawkins and Green counties, in which position he so ably acquitted himself that in 1843 he was elected to Congress, where he continued to represent the district for ten years. His first action in tlie the Twenty-eighth Congress was to advocate the restoration of the fine imposed upon General Jackson in New Orleans for having placed that city under martial law in 1814, We next find him in the ranks of the 306 UVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS friends of Texan annexation. On these questions he made able speeches, and distinguished himself to the extent that he was looked upon as one of the rising men of the country. At all times he was the friend and champion of labor. In 1853 Mr. Johnson was elected Governor of Tennessee. To this position he was again elected in 1855, his opponent being Meredith P. Gentry. It is well known that party politics ran hot in those days, and that often where arguments failed, ruffians were ready to threaten with the pistol and the bowie-knife. As an evidence of Mr. Johnson's remarkable courage, it is related that upon one occasion, when he was to speak on an exciting subject, threats were made that he should not leave the hall alive if he persisted in making a speech. Stepping upon the platform at the appointed time, Mr. Johnson drew his pistol, and laying it on the desk, said : " Fellow-citizens, it is proper when freemen assemble for the discussion of important public interests that everything should be done decently and in order. I have been informed that part of the business to be transacted on the present occasion is the assassination of the individual who now has the honor of ad- dressing you. I beg respectfully to propose that this be the first business in order. Therefore, if any man has come here to-night for the purpos% indicated, I do not say to him, let him speak, but let him shoot." Holding his pistol in his hand, he then waited for the shoot- ing to begin. It had evidently been postpone d, and after a short pause he said: " Gentlemen, it appears that I have been misinformed. I will now proceed to address you on the subject that has called us together ;" and without further digression he proceeded with his speech. After his second term as Governor of the State expired, he was in 1857 elected to a seat in the United States Senate for the full term of six years. Almost his first act was to advocate the Homestead Bill, by which every citizen, the head of a family, could secure a home from the public lands. In Mr. Johnson's great speech on the bill, he took occasion to reply to remarks made by Mr. Ham- ANDREW JOHNSON. 307 mond, of South Carolina, in which he had denned the laboring classes as the mud-sills of society, and that the white laborers of the North, who worked for stipulated wages, were after all only slaves like the negroes of the South, " the difference only being," said Mr. Hammond, " that our slaves are hired for life, yours are hired by the day." During Mr. Johnson's reply to this false theory, Mr. Hammond asked him to define a slave. Mr. Johnson replied : "What we understand to be a slave in the South is a man who is held during his natural life subject to and under the con- trol of a master. The necessities of life, and the various posi- tions in which a man may be placed, operated upon by avarice, gain or ambition, may cause him to labor ; but that does not make him a slave. If we were to go back and follow out this idea that every operative and laborer is a slave, we should find that we have had a great many distinguished slaves since the world commenced. Socrates, who first conceived the idea of the immortality of the soul, pagan as he was, labored with his own hands, yes, wielded the chisel and the mallet. Paul, the great expounder, was a tent-maker, and worked with his hands; was he a slave ?" Thus Mr. Johnson always stood upon the side of labor ; always t spoused and defended the cause which to him indicated the wants and interests of the people. He felt that he was a legis- lator, not a politician, and believed it his duty to devote his whole time and talents to the public good. On the subject of slavery he recognized it as an existing insti- tution under the Constitution, and he believed that slavery had its foundation and would find its perpetuity alone in the Union. But while giving this support to the institution, his independent action on several occasions laid him under the charge of anti- slavery sentiments. Upon one occasion, when the State of Ten- nessee was to be reapportioned into Congressional Districts, Mr. Johnson introduced the following resolutions in the State Legislature : " Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, that the basis to be observed in laying the State off into Congressional district* shall 308 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. be the voting population without any regard to the three-fifths of the negro population. " Resolved, That the one hundred and twenty thousand and eighty-three voters shall be divided by eleven, and that each eleventh of the one hundred and twenty thousand and eighty -three voters shall be entitled to one member in the Congress of the United States, or as near as may be practicable with- out a division of counties." To sum up Mr. Johnson's position, he stood by slavery until it organized itself against the government, and then he stood up for the government, and gave his earnest support to the over- throw of the institution. Mr. Johnson had never been conspicuous for loud praise and oratorical effusion in reference to the glorious Union and the institutions of our forefathers and the proud bird of freedom. He had never believed the Union in danger, but from the day that secession flaunted its threats in the face of the government he sprang with patriotic zeal to the cause of the Union, and ar- rayed himself with defiance against the disunionists. He was violently opposed to secession, and insisted that the rights of the South could only be maintained in the Union. In his great speech of the 18th and 19th of December, 1860, he made use of the following unanswerable argument : " Now let me ask, Can any one believe that in th* creation of this Govern- ment its founders intended that it should have the power to acquire territory and form it into States, and then permit them to go out of the Union ? Let us take a ca^e. How long has it been since your armies were in Mexico, your brave men exposed to the diseases, the sufferings incident to a cam- paign of that kind; many of them falling at the point of the bayonet, con- signed to the long, narrow home, with no winding sheet but their blankets saturated with their blood ? What did Mexico cost you ? One hundred and twenty million dollars. What did you pay for the country you acquired, besides ? Fifteen million dollars. Peace was made, territory was acquired, and in a few years California from that territory erected herself into a free and independent State. Under the provisions of the Constitution we admit ted her as a member of this confederacy. And now, after having expended one hundred and twenty million dollars in the war; after having lost many of our bravest and most gallant men; after having paid fifteen million dol- lars to Mexico for the territory, and admitted it into tbe Union as a State, according to this modern doctrine, the National Government was just made to let them step in and then to let them step out 1 Is it not absurd to say that California, on her own volition, without regard to the censideration paid ANDREW JOHNSON. 30d for her, without regard to the policy which dictated her acquisition by the United States, can walk out and bid defiance ? 4 'But we need not stop here. Let us go to Texas. Texas was engaged in a revolution with Mexioo. She succeeded in the assertion and establishment of her independence. She applied for admission into the family of States. After she was in she was oppressed by the debts of the war which had re- sulted in her separation from Mexico. She was harassed by Indians on her border. There was an extent of territory that lies north, if my memory serves me right, embracing what is now called the Territory of New Mexico. Texas had it not in her power to protect the citizens that were there. It was a dead limb, paralyzed, lifeless. "The Federal Government came along as a kind physician, saying, 'We will take this limb, vitalize it by giving protection to the people, and incor- porating it into a territorial government ; and in addition to that we will give you ten million dollars and you may retain your own public lands.' And the other States were taxed to pay this ten million dollars. Now after all this is done is Texas to say, ' I will walk out of this Union' ? Were there no other parties to this compact ? Did we take in California, did we take in Texas, just to benefit themselves ? " Again, take the case of Louisiana. What did we pay for her in 1803, and for what was she wanted ? Was it just to let Louisiana into the Union ? Was it just for the benefit of that particular locality ? Was not the mighty West looked to f Was it not to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi River, the mouth of which was then in the possession of France ? Yes, the navigation of that river was wanted. Simply for Louisiana ? No, but for all the States. The United States paid fifteen million dollars, and France ceded the country to the United States. It remained in a territorial condition for a while, sustained and protected by the strong arm of the Federal Government. We acquired the territory and the navigation of the river, and the money was paid for the benefit of all the States and not of Louisiana exclusively. "And now that this great valley is filled up, now that the navigation of the Mississippi is one hundred times more important than it was then; now, after the United States have paid the money, have acquired the title to Louisiana, and have incorporated her into the confederacy, it is proposed that she should go out of the Union . "In 1815, when her shores were invaded; when her city was about to be sacked; when her booty and beauty were about to fall a prey to British ag- gression, the brave men of Tennessee and of Kentucky, and of the surround- ing States, rushed into her borders and upon her shores, and under the lead of our own gallant Jackson, drove the invading forces away. And now after all this, after the money has been paid, after the free navigation of that river has been obt inecl, not for the benefit of Louisiana alone, but for her in common with all the States, Louisiana says to the other States: " ' We will go out of this confederacy. We do not care if you did fight our battles; we do not care if you did acquire the free navigation of this river from France; we will go out and constitute ourselves an independent power, and bid defiance to the other States.' 310 LHHES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. " It may be that at this moment there is not a citizen in the State of Louisiana who would think of obstructing the free navigation of the river. But are not nations controlled by their interests in varying circumstances ? And hereafter when a conflict of interest arises. Louisiana might fee) disposed to tax our citizens going down there It is a power that I am not willing to concede to be exercised at the discretion of any authority outside of this Government. So sensitive have been the people of my State upon the free navigation of that river, that as far back as 1796 now sixty-four years ago in their bill of rights, before they passed under the jurisdiction of the United States, they declared: " ' That an equal participation of the free navigation of the Mississippi is one of the inherent rights of the citizens of this State. It cannot, therefore, be conceded to any prince, potentate, power, person or persons whatever.' " This shows the estimate that people fixed upon this stream sixty -four years ago; and now we are told that if Louisiana does go out, it is not her in- tention to tax the people above. Who can tell what may be the intention of Louisiana hereafter ? Are we willing to place the rights, the travel, and the commerce of our citizens at the discretion of any power outside of this gov- ernment ? I will not. " How long is it siuce Florida lay on our coasts an annoyance to us ? And now she has got feverish about being an independent and separate govern- ment, while she has not got as many qualified voters as there are in one Congressional district of any other State ? What condition did Florida oc- cupy in 1811 ? She was in possession ot Spain. What did the United States think about having adjacent territory outside of their jurisdiction? Spain was inimical to the United States; and, in view of the great principles of self- preservation, the Congress of the United .States pissed a resolution, declaring that if Spain attempted to transfer Florida into the hands of any other power, the United States would take possession of it. There was the territory lying upon our border, outside of the jurisdiction of the United States; and we declared by an act of Congress that no foreign power should possess it. " We went still further and appropriated one hundred thousand dollars, and authorized the President to enter and take possession of it. Afterward we negotiated with Spain, and gave six million dollars for the territory, and we established a territorial government for it. What next ? We undertook to drive out the Seminole Indians, and we had a war in which this government lost more than all the other wars it was engaged in ; and we paid the sum of tsventy-five million dollars to get the Seminoles out of the swamps, so that the territory could be inhabited by white men. ' But now that the Territory is paid for, the Indians driven out, and twenty- five million dollars have been expended, they want no longer the protection of this Government, but will go out without consulting the other States ; with- out reference to the remaining parties to the compaci-. Where will she go ? Will she attach herself to Spain again ? Will she pass back under the juris- diction of the Seminoles ? After having been nurtured and protected and fostered by all these States, now, without regard to them, is she to be allowed at her own volition to withdraw from the Union ? I say that she has no con- ANDREW JOHNSON. 311 stitutional right to do it. When she does it, it is an act of aggression. If she succeeds it will only be a successful revolution; if she does not succeed, she must take the penalties and terrors of the law. " I have referred to the acts of Congress for acquiring Florida as setting forth a principle. What is that principle ? It is that from the geographical relations of this Territory to the United States, we authorized the President to expend a hundred thousand dollars to get a foothold there, and especially to take possession of it if it were likely to pass to any foreign power." In another vigorous speech, one of his sentiments was as follows : "\Ve may as well talk of things as they are; for if anything can be treason, is not levying war upon the Government treason ? Is not the attempt to take the property of the Government and to expel the soldiers therefrom, treason ? Is not attempting to resist the collection of the revenue, attempting to exclude the mails, and driving the Federal courts from the borders, treason ? What is it ? It is treason, and nothing but treason." Mr. Johnson also fortified his argument by quoting Madi- son, Webster, Jackson, Chief -Justice Marshall and other high authorities, to prove that a State could not constitutionally go out of the Union without the consent of all the States. He still further cited General Washington's action when President in putting down the rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1795 with fifteen thousand militia ; thus having as eminent an authority as Washington for the position that neither a State nor part of a State had a right to rebel against the Federal Government. Scarcely had these speeches been delivered in the United States Senate before South Carolina passed the ordinance of secession. This action was rapidly followed by the secession of the other rebellious States, and on the 4th of February, 1861, a convention of the seceded States met at Montgomery, adopted a constitution, and elected Jefferson Davis President of the so-called Southern Confederacy. It was but natural that Johnson's devotion to the Union and his fierce denunciation of treason should draw upon him threats of vengeance from the secessionists, and attempts were made to lynch him on his journey home, and on his return to Tennessee he received insults and threats and was even burned in effigy. The success of the Union armies in February, 1862, on the 312 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers recovered possession of Nashville and the central portion of the State of Tennessee, and on the 4th of March Mr. Johnson was nominated by Mr. Lin- coln and confirmed by the Senate as Military Governor of Tennessee, and taking possession of the office at Nashville on the 12lh of the month, he began at once to organize a provis- ional government for the State. His position was not an agreeable one. The rebel troops had but recently evacuated Nashville, and the Federal army had held possession but a few days. The citizens of the city and surrounding country in military occupation by the government were full of the most bitter hatred toward Governor Johnson. A conflict between him and the city officers at once began. He notified them to take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government; the Mayor and City Council refused to do so, and Governor Johnson issued a proclamation declaring their offices vacant, and appointed other persons to serve until a reg- ular election could be held. Governor Johnson's position was, during this time, a very critical one, for the rebel forces had but fallen sullenly back from the State, and were ready at the first opportunity to pounce down upon Nashville. The advance of the rebel General Bragg into Kentucky caused the Federal forces in Tennessee to be- come so depleted that Nashville was threatened by Forrest and Morgan, and nothing, perhaps, saved it but its hasty fortifica- tion by Governor Johnson. The Governor was not the kind of man to surrender, and the rebel generals did not care to under- take the capture of the city, and so they lost their last chance of ever reoccupying the capital of Tennessee. On the 9th of May, 1862, Governor Johnson found it neces- sary to issue the following proclamation : " Whereas, Certain persons, unfriendly and hostile to the Government of the United States, have banded themselves together and are now going at large through many of the counties of this State, arresting, maltreating and plundering Union citizens wherever found ; " Now, therefore, 1, ANDREW JOHNSON, Governor of the State of Tennessee, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested, do hereby proclaim that in every instance in which a Union man is arrested and maltreated by the marauding bands aforesaid, five or more rebels from the most prominent in ANDREW JOHNSON. 313 the immediate neighborhood shall be arrested, imprisoned and otherwise dealt with as the nature of the case may require ; and, further, in all cases where the property of citizens loyal to the Government of the United States is taken or destroyed, full and ample remuneration shall be made to them out of the property of such rebels in the vicinity as have sympathized with, and given aid, comfort, information or encouragement to the parties com- mitting such depredations. "This order will be executed in letter and spirit. All citizens are hereby warned, under heavy penalties, from entertaining, receiving or encouraging such persons so banded together, or in anywise connected therewith." On the 4th of July, 1862, in a speech, Governor Johnson said in reference to slavery: "This is the people's government; they received it as a legacy from Heaven, and they must defend and preserve it if it is to be preserved at all. I am for this Government above all e irthly possessions, and if it perish I do not want to survive it. lam for it though slavery should be struck from existence, and Africa swept from the balance of the world. I believe, indeed, that the Union is the only protection of slavery its sole guarantee; but if you persist in forcing this issue of slavery against the Government, I say in the face of Heaven, give me my government and let the negro go !" On the 13th of July, Forrest, with a rebel force of six thousand troops, captured Murfreesboro, and from there ad- vanced to Antioch, six miles from Nashville. Governor John- son declared that the first shot fired by the enemy at the capital would be the signal for the demolition of the houses of every prominent secessionist in town. This, it is said, induced the rebel sympathizers in Nashville to implore Forrest not to attempt to take the city, and as a result" he withdrew, but remained with Morgan in the neighborhood. The danger of attack and capture of the city still continued, however, and, on the 6th of September, the Union element of Nashville was thrown into great con- sternation on account of the report that General Buell had de- termined upon the evacuation of Nashville. On hearing this report, Governor Johnson exclaimed: " What, evacuate Nash- ville, and abandon our Union friends to the mercy of these infernal hounds ! Why, there is not a secessionist in town who would not laugh to see every Union man shot down in cold blood by rebel soldiers if they come here ;" and he not only protested against the evacuation or surrendering without a 314 UVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. fight, but declared that he would destroy the city rather than leave it to the enemy. The situation was critical indeed, but General Thomas fortunately arrived and took command, and sustained Governor Johnson's resolution that the city should neither be evacuated nor surrendered. Thus for a second time Governor Johnson saved Nashville by his matchless firm- ness and indomitable decision of character. In reference to Buell's timid and wavering conduct, the follow- ing amusing anecdote is related of Governor Johnson : There was at that time in Nashville a fighting Methodist preacher called Colonel Moody. During the great excitement incident upon Buell's expected evacuation of the city, Moody called upon Governor Johnson, who immediately met him, and with intense feeling said, '' Moody, we are sold out ! Buell is a traitor ! He is going to evacuate the city, and in forty -eight hours we shall all be in the hands of the rebels." Then he commenced pacing the floor again, twisting his hands and chafing like a caged tiger. Suddenly he turned and said: " Moody, can you pray?" " That's my business, sir, as a minister of the Gospel,'' replied the Colonel. " Well, Moody, I wish you would pray," said John- son, and instantly both went down on their knees at opposite sides of the room. As the prayer became fervent Johnson be- gan to respond in true Methodist style. Presently he crawled over on his hands and knees to Moody 's side, and put his arm over him, manifesting the deepest emotion. Closing the prayer with a hearty ' ' Amen " from each, they arose. Johnson took a long breath and said, with emphasis: ' ' Moody, I feel better. Will you stand by me ?" "Certainly I will," answered the preacher. " Well, Moody, I can depend on you ; you are one in a hundred thousand !" Then, after pacing the floor again for a while, he turned and said : " Oh, Moody, I don't want you to think I have become a religious man because I asked you to pray. I am sorry to say it, but I am not, and have never pretended to be religious. No one knows this better than you ; but, Moody, there is one thing about it, I do believe in Almighty God, and I believe in the Bible, and I say I'll be damned if Nashville shall be surren- dered I" And Nashville was not surrendered I In October, Governor Johnson's family, who had been left be- ANDREW JOHNSON. 315 hind when he assumed control of affairs in Tennessee, reached Nashville after great difficulty in passing the rebel lines The rebel War Department at first sent a small escort with them, who were needed to protect the family from violence. At Mur- freesboro, Forrest refused to let them pass until peremptory or- ders from Richmond allowed them to proceed. It was joy in that family when they were at last reunited in Nashville, and when the little woman who taught the tailor to write took her place as mistress of the governor's mansion. On the 5th of November the last attempt to capture Nash- ville was made by the rebel forces, which met with so decided a repulse that they fell back, and on the 14th, General Rose- crans arriving with heavy reinforcements, preparations were made to drive the rebel army out of Tennessee. On the 8th of December Governor Johnson issued a proclamation ordering elections to be held in certain districts to fill vacancies in Con- gress. On the loth of Decernber he assessed a tax upon the wealthy secessionists of Nashville for the support of helpless wives, children and widows, suffering from poverty and misfortune, whose only support had been forced into the rebel ranks. In addition to such efforts as this to relieve the sufferings of the citizens of Nashville, there were thousands of refugees coming into the lines in destitution who were actually com- pelled to look to the Government for their daily bread, and thus his duties were filled with constant care and anxiety and labor, and everything possible was done toward the resto ration of law and order and comfort in the State. When the National Union Convention met in Baltimore on the 6th of June, 1864, Governor Johnson had become so con- spicuous and popular from his devotion to the cause of the Union that he was selected as the candidate for Vice-Presi- dent on the ticket with President Lincoln for re-election. The following extract s from his speech on accepting the nomination are a fair index of the sentiments of the man : " This aristocracy has been the bane of the slave States; nor has the North been wholly free from its curse. It is a class which I have always forced to respect ine, for I have ever set it at defiance. The respect of the honest, in- 316 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. telligent and industrious class I have endeavored to win by my conduct as a man. One of the chief elements of this rebellion is the opposition of the slave aristocracy to being ruled by men who have risen from the ranks of the people. This aristocracy hated Mr. Lincoln, because he was of humble origin, a rail-splitter in early life. One of them, the private secretary of Howell Cobb, said to me one day: ' We people of the South will not submit to be governed by a man who has come up from the ranks of the common people, as Abe Lincoln has.' Now it has just occurred to me, if this aris- tocracy is so violently opposed to being governed by Mr. Lincoln, what in the name of conscience will it do with Lincoln and Johnson ? I reject with scorn this whole idea of an arrogant aristocracy. " There is an element in our midst who are for perpetuating the institution of slavery. Let me say to you Tennesseeans and men from the Northern States that slavery is dead. It was not murdered by me. I told you long ago what the result would be if you endeavored to go ouc of the Union to save slavery, and that the result would be bloodshed, rapine, devastated fields, plundered villages and cities; and therefore I urged you to remain in the Union. In trying to save slavery you killed it and lost your own freedom. Your slavery is dead, but I did not murder it. As Macbeth said to Banquo s bloody ghost : ' Shake not thy gory locks at me, Thou canst not say I did it.' "Now, in regard to emancipation, I want to say to the blacks that liberty means libercy to work and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Idleness is not freedom. I desire that all men shall have a fair start and an equal chance in the race of life, and let him succeed who has the most merit. This, I think, is a principle of Heaven. I am for emancipation for two reasons, first because it is right in itself, and second, because in the emancipation of the slaves we break down an odious aud dangerous aristocracy. I think we are freeing more whites than blacks in Tennessee. "I want to see slavery broken up, and when its barriers are thrown down, I want to see industrious, thrifty immigrants pourina; in from all parts of the country. Come on ! We need your labor, your skill, your capital. We want your enterprise and invention, so that hereafter Tennessee may rank with New England in the arts and mechanics, and that when we visit the Patent Office at Washington, where the ingenious mechanics of the free States have placed their models, we need not blush that Tennessee can show nothing but a mouse-trap or a patent churn. Come on I We greet you with a hearty welcome to the soil of Tennessee." In his letter accepting the nomination, he said : " At the beginning of this great struggle I entertained the same opinion of it I do now, and in my place in the Senate I denounced it as treason, worthy the punishment of death, and warned the Government and people of the impending danger. But my voice was not heard or counsel heeded until it was too late to avert the storm. It still continued to gather over us without ANDREW JOHNSON. 317 molestation from the authorities at Washington, until at length it broke with all its fury upon the country. And now, if we would save the Govern- ment from being over whelmed by it, we must meet it in the true spirit of patriotism and bring the traitors to the punishment due their crime, and by force of arms crush out and subdue the last vestige of rebel au hori^y in every State. I felt then as now, that the destruction of the Government was deliberately determined upon by wicked and designing conspirators, whose lives and fortunes were pledged to carry it out, and that no compro- mise, short of an unconditional recognition of the independence of the Southern States, could have been or could now be proposed which they would accept. The clamor fur ' Southern rights,' as the rebel journals were pleased to designate their rallying cry, was not to secure their assumed rights in the Union aad under the Constitution, but to d srupt the Govern- ment and establish an independent organization, based upon slavery, which they could at all times control. "In a letter dated May 1, 1833, to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, after demon- strating the heartless insincerity of the Southern nullifiers, General Jackson said . ' Therefore, the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery question > " Time has fully verified this prediction, and we have now not only ' the ne- gro or slavery question' as the pretext, but the real cause of the rebellion, and both must go down together. It is vain to attempt to reconstruct the Union with the distracting element of slavery in it. Experience has demonstrated its incompatibility with free and republican governments, ai;d it would be unwise and unjust logger to continue it as one of the institutions of the country. While it remained subordinate to the Constitution and laws of the United States, I yielded to it my support ; but when it became rebellious and attempted to rise above the Government and control its action, I threw my humble influence against it. "In accepting the nomination I might here close, but I cannot forego the opportunity of spying to my old friends of the Democratic parly. proper, with whom I have so long and pleasantly been associated, that the hour has now come when that great party can justly vindicate its devotion to true democratic policy and measures of expediency. The war is a war of great principles. It involves the supremacy and life of the Government itself. If the rebellion t-iumpbs, free government, North and South, fails. If, on the other hand, the Government is successful, as I do not doubt, its destiny is fixed, its basis permanent and enduring, and its career of honor and glory just begun. In a great content li^e this for the existence of free government, the path of duty is patriotism and principle. Minor consideradons and ques- tions of administrative policy should give way to the higher duty of first pre- serving the Government, and then ihere will be time enough to wrangle over the men and measures pertaining to its administration." On the 8th of November the Presidential election took place. Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President, and Andrew John- 318 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. son Vice-President, and the public acts of these two noble and devoted men were indorsed by the people of the nation. At this time, the rebellion was rapidly drawing to a close, and on the 9th of April its final crash came, and Lee surrendered to General Grant. Scarcely had the first enthusiastic burst of rejoicing rolled over the land when, on the 14th of April, President Lincoln was assassinated, and amid the most terrible grief and lamen- tation throughout the country over the foul murder, Mr. John- son was officially notified of the death of Mr. Lincoln and the vacancy in the office, and at 10 o'clock on the morning after the assassination, he took the oath of office and became Presi- dent of the United States. The inauguration was followed by a short but most appropriate address. On the 17th of April the citizens of Illinois in Washington, before leaving to accompany the remains of Mr. Lincoln to their future resting place in Springfield, called upon President John- son to express their confidence in him, and their determination to support him. Governor O^lesby, as speaker for the party, delivered a most appropriate address, to which the President replied in some of the finest sentiments he had ever given to the public, closing as follows : " While we are appalled, overwhelmed, at the fall of one man in our midst by the hand of a traitor, shall we allow men, I care not by what weapons, to attempt the life of a State with impunity ? While we strain our minds to comprehend the enormity of this assassination, shall we allow the nation to be assassinated ? I speak in no spirit of unkindness. I do not harbor bitter or revengeful feelings toward any I know that men love to have their actions spoken of in connection with acts of mercy; and how easy it is to yield to this impulse. But we must not forget that what may be mercy to the individual is cruelty to the State. In tne exercise of mercy there should be no doubt left that this high prerogative is not used to relieve a few at the expense of the many. Be assured that I shall never foiget that I am nx>t to consult my own feelings alone, but to give an account to the whole people. ' la regard to my future course I will now make no professions, no pledges. I have long labored for the amelioration and elevation of the great mass of mankind. I believe that government was made for man, not man for gov- ernment. This struggle of the people against the most gigantic rebellion the world ever saw, has demonstrated that the attachun nt of the people to their government is the strongest national defense human wisdom can devise. My past life, especially my course during the present unholy rebellion, is ANDREW JOHNSON. 319 before you. I have no principles to retract. I hare no professions to offer. I shall not attempt to anticipate the future. As events occur, and it becomes necessary for me to act, I shall dispose of each as it arises, deferring any declaration or message until it can be 'vritten paragraph by paragraph in the light of events as they transpire." Mr. Johnson entered upon the duties of his office possessing the highest admiration and fullest confidence of the people. His constant, bold and eloquent expression of the sentiments that the rebellion and slavery should both be crushed out together, and that traitors should be punished, had naturally led the people both North and South to believe that his measures of reconstruction would be of the most rigid nature, and that in the restoration of the conquered States to representation in Congress and the control of their State legislation, he would insist upon unmistakable loyalty as an official test, and that the late prominent rebels should not be allowed to enter into the foundations of reconstruction. The recent assassination of the beloved Lincoln had still further embittered the feelings of the people against the rebels, and it was their desire to punish the leaders wherever possible by disqualification for representation of their States, and in treating them as a conquered people, to reconstruct State and national government over them from the loyal element. It was naturally believed that this would be the firm policy of President Johnson, but the country was greatly surprised, and all, except the conservative element, highly indignant to find him urging a system of reconstruction that many believed would again place the control of the Gov- ernment in the hands of unrepenting rebels on the floor of Congress. Upon the question as to whether the Government should extend its absolute protection and support to the loyal men of the South, without distinction of race, who during the rebellion had remained true to the national flag, President J ihnson took the ground that the rebel States had never been out of the Union and could not constitutionally withdraw, and as States had never forfeited their political rights, and that in their State and national representation we could only lawfully exact of them an oath of allegiance to the Government of the United 320 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. States. Upon this broad ground he held that they had a right to control their own State affairs and to send representatives to Congress, subject only to the constitutional right to reject or expel. Adhering to this position, President Johnson endeavored to urge his policy upon Congress and to oppose their precautionary measures of reconstruction. This created a strong opposition to the President in the party which elected him, and threw him into the arms of the party which had voted against him. The position taken by Mr. Johnson, that the rebellious States could not constitutionally sever their connection from the Union, answered very -well for the war, but when it came to reconstruc- tion upon that principle, it became evident that it would loosen the military hold of the Government upon those States and their citizens, and not only leave them to select their own national representatives, but it would also leave the loyal men of those States, who had opposed the rebellion, and also the colored race, to the tender mercies of the men so lately in arms against the Government. The question therefore created a great discussion throughout the country. The position was taken, in opposition to Mr. Johnson, that the rebellion was so large as to become an exception to the general rule applying to ordinary insurrections, and that as the so-called Southern Confederacy had formed a government with a constitution and President and Congress, and with ambassadors and a regularly organized army and navy, with recognized rights as belligerents, when vanquished the Government had the right of conquerors over them and could reconstruct them according to the laws of war. With this view of the subject Congress insisted that certain guarantees should be required of the rebellious States before they should be allowed to resume their former status in the Union. These guarantees were presented to them in the form of terms of reconstruction to be accepted and adopted as amend- ments to their State constitutions, before they could be admit- ted to the free and equal condition of States which had always remained loyal. In the light of history it must be admitted that the Govern- ment was magnanimous. ANDREW JOHNSON. 621 The breach between President Johnson and Congress on the question of reconstruction was also extended to other issues, and conflicts arose during the remainder of his term in hie effort to thwart other measures to which he was opposed. To limit his power as much as possible, Congress passed the " Tenure of Office Act " in March, 1867. This act the President declared unconstitutional, and refused to be governed by it without submitting it to the decision of the Supreme Court as to its unconstitutionality. In this opposition to the "Tenure of Office Act" Mr. Johnson ordered the removal of Mr. Stanton from his position held under appointment from Mr. Lincoln, and appointed General Grant in his place. Upon the refusal of Secretary Stanton to vacate his position in the Cabinet, Mr. Johnson threatened to force him from the office. Congress assumed that the Presi- dent, by this opposition to a law of the land, had violated his oath of office, and was subject to impeachment. His trial began on the 4th of March and consumed nearly three months before the Senate, which was acting as the jury, had the case given them for their decision. The vote stood thirty-five for impeachment and nineteen for acquittal. A two- thirds vote being required for conviction, he was pronounced acquitted. The Presidential chair was saved to Mr. Johnson by one vote only, and he continued the remainder of his term shorn of his strength and without success in carrying out his policy. On the inauguration of President Grant, Mr. Johnson retired to his old home in Greenville, where he remained in seclusion until January, 1875, when he was chosen by the Legislature of Tennessee as United States Senator. He took his seat in the Senate at the special session on the 5th of March. During a visit to his daughter, who resided near Carter's Sta- tion, Tenn., in July, he was stricken with paralysis, and after a few days of insensibility, he died on the 31st of July, 1875, and went to his final rest in the little Greenville cemetery. ULYSSES S. GRANT. The greatest eulogy that can be offered to our republican form of government is the opportunity it offers for the devel- opment of genius from the ranks of the people. Many of our greatest statesmen and military heroes gave no indication in early life of the superior qualities they possessed until our republican institutions afforded them encouragement to develop the latent resources of their characters. Such was the character in early life of the subject of our biog- raphy. As a boy he gave no further indications of talent than would qualify him for clerking in a country store or similar modest employment. Ulysses S. Grant was born on the 27th of April, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, about twenty-five miles from Cincinnati. He is of good old Revolutionary stock. His great- great-grandfather, Noah Grant, was captain of a company of colonial militia in the French and Indian war, and as one of the patrioTs fell bravely fighting at the battle of White Plains in 1776. The family originally came from Scotland, and Noah Grant settled in Connecticut. The father of Ulysses, Jesse Root Grant, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. His father, Noah Grant, Jr. , who was born in Connecticut, began his mili- tary career as an officer at the battle of Lexington, and served with honor and devotion through the Revolutionary War. When a boy of sixteen, Jesse R. Grant was sent to Kentucky to learn the trade of a tanner, and at the expiration of his ap- prenticeship moved to Ohio, where he married Hannah Simp- son, and after many years of close application to his trade, se- cured a comfortable fortune, and turning the tannery over to his sons Orville and Simpson, he retired from business, '324 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Ulysses was the eldest son, and had necessarily been called upon early to assist his father in the routine of work. He early developed a fancy for horses and a talent for breaking and driving them. It is related of him that when only seven years old he harnessed a three-year-old colt to a sled and hauled wood, and by the time he was ten years old he was frequently THE BIRTHPLACE OF GENERAL GRANT. sent by his father to Cincinnati with loads of wood and leather to deliver to customers. His skill as a rider became so remark- able that at twelve years of age he could stand upon the back of a horse going at full speed, supporting himself only by the bridle. At about the same age he succeeded in riding the trick pony at a circus, despite all efforts to dismount him, the ring- ULYSSES S. GRAtff. ^325 master even unfairly bringing a monkey to his assistance, which fastened itself on the head and shoulders of Ulysses. At one time, when his father had undertaken to build the county jail, Ulysses came in one day with a load of logs and reported that there was no one to help him load. ' ' Why, how did you load this morning?" asked his father in surprise. " Oh, Dave and I loaded," he replied. Dave was one of the strong, heavy horses of the team. The surprising part of it was that the logs would have required fifteen or twenty men to lift any one of them, but the sturdy little boy had hitched the horse to the logs one at a time and dragged them across a fallen tree until one end was high enough to back the wagon under them ; then with the horse he pulled them on the wagon and drove home with his load. At about twelve years of age, while driving a team of horses before a light wagon, he was requested to take two young women to Georgetown, where he lived. There had been a heavy rain, and the creek which he had forded on the previous day had risen over its banks, and after driving a short distance into the water he found that the horses were swimming. The water filled the wagon box and the girls became very much frightened, but little Ulysses said : " Now don't be making a fuss there. Keep quiet and I'll take you through safe ;" and holding the horses steadily with the reins, he swam them to the opposite bank. Ulysses disliked work in the tannery and declared that he would not be a tanner, but wanted to be a farmer or merchant. His father suggested West Point, and the idea took finely with the boy, and, an appointment being secured, he entered the Military Academy at the age of seventeen. There happened to be another Grant in the same class, and the boys nicknamed U. S. Grant ' ' Uncle Sam " to distinguish him from the other Grant. At the academy Ulysses kept at about the middle of his class, and graduated from that position. In the dry studies he did not take much interest, but in all the military exercises, and especiall/ in horsemanship, he excelled. On the 1st of July, 1843, Grant received the appointment of 326 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Brevet Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, and was assigned to duty at Jefferson Barracks, in Missouri, where he re- mained until 1844, when he was sent with his regiment to Camp Salubrity, in Louisiana. The only notable thing he remembers doing at this camp was learning to smoke cigars. But the cloud of war was hovering over the locality of our young Lieutenant, and in 1845 he was sent to Corpus Christi to take command in the army under General Taylor, who was then holding himself in readiness for orders to pounce upon the Mexicans who were menacing the border. Soon after his arrival Grant was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant, and on the 8th of May, 1846, he participated in the battle of Palo Alto, and the next day again in that of Resaca de la Palma,. The first battle was a duel with cannon, lasting all day, in which Lieutenant Grant had but little opportunity to display his bravery. But the next day, the Mexicans, whom our heavy cannon had forced to retire in the first battle, rallied in a thicket of small timber and again fought fiercely a battle of in fantry in which Grant displayed his first qualities of skill and bravery. On the 23d of September he participated in the fierce battle of Monterey, in which General Taylor marched boldly upon the city garrisoned by ten thousand Mexican soldiers, and after two or three days' fierce fighting in the streets and at the forti- fications of the city, compelled it to surrender. This ended his campaign with General Taylor, and he was ?xx>n afterward sent with his regiment to join the army of General Scott, who was then preparing for an attack on Vera Cruz. This afforded Grant an opportunity of engaging in the .siege and capture of that stronghold. His brave conduct here marked him for a reward, and he was appointed Eegimental Quartermaster. Notwithstanding his new position, he engaged with his regiment in the battle of Cerro Gordo, also in those of San Antonio, Cherubusco and Molino del Rey, in which latter glorious engagement he so distinguished himself that he was promoted to the brevet rank of First Lieutenant. At the storm- ing of Chepultepec he added to his laurels such a record for bravery that he was breveted a Captain. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 327 With the capture of the City of Mexico, Grant had engaged in every battle of the war except Buena Vista. His military career in Mexico was now at an end, and he returned with his regiment to New York City, whence he was sent to Sackett's Harbor. Here, obtaining a short leave of absence, he married Miss Julia T. Dent, the daughter of a St. Louis merchant. In ] 849 he went with his regiment to Fort Brady, where he remained for two years. In 1852 the regiment was sent to the Pacnic coast, and one battalion, including Grant's company, was ordered to Columbia Barracks, in Oregon. Grant, however, soon became so tired of the life in that wild, remote locality, that he resigned his commission and returned to his wife and civilization in St. Louis. Being now thrown on his own resources, he followed one of his boyish inclinations, and settled on a farm which Mrs. Grant's father had given her. He began by hewing logs for his dwelling, and built the house himself. The farm was small, so it required his hardest labor to secure from it a sup- port for his family. In the winter he and his son hauled wood to St. Louis, each driving a team. Four years of farming found Grant discoaiaged with results, and moving to St. Louis, he opened a real estate office, but gave it up for a position in the Custom House, which he soon lost by the death of the Collector. In 1860 he moved to Galena, and en- gaged with his brother in the leather business. Scarcely was ~3 settled in his new avocation when the attack upon Fort Sumter aroused his military enthusiasm, and as soon as the call was made for volunteers, he took command of a company in Galena, and went with it to Springfield to report to the Gov- ernor for duty. Here his fifteen years' service in the regular army made him so familiar with all the details of military mat- ters that his merits were soon discovered by the Governor, who placed him in charge of the Twenty-first Illi nois Regiment, and, greatly to his surprise, sent him the commission of Colonel. His regiment was soon after ordered to guard the line of the Han- mbal and St. Joseph Railroad. From this point the regiment went to Ironton Mo. and while passing through St. Louis 328 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Colonel Grant received a commission promoting him to Briga- dier-General, and assigned him to the command of Southeastern Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky and Tennes- see. Reporting to General Fremont at St. Louis, he was at once instructed to make his headquarters at Cairo, 111., to which place he repaired on the 1st of September. Grasping the situation with his fine military mind, he real- ized that Paducah and Smithland. at the mouths of the Ten- nessee and Cumberland rivers, were two strategic points which should not be left to fall into the hands of the rebels, who were concentrating their forces for the occupation of Kentucky. To secure these points, General Grant, on the night of the 5th of September, embarked his troops on transports under convoy of two gunboats, and on the morning of the 6th arrived at Padu- cah and took possession. Grant returned to Cairo the same day ; General C. F. Smith was placed in command of Paducah, and troops were sent to take possession of Smithland and for- tify it sufficiently to hold the mouth of the Cumberland River. General Grant now devoted his time to fortifying Cairo and organizing and drilling the raw troops who were coining in every day. There was such a lack of efficient officers that General Grant had to perform most of the work himself, and teach the officers how to make out their different reports and requisitions. During this time General Grant had gathered a force of 20,000 troops at Cairo. But the rebels, far from being idle, had taken possession of Columbus, Ky., on the bank of the Mississippi River, about twenty miles below Cairo, and were rapidly fortifying its heights so as to command the river. To still further secure their position, they had formed a camp at Belmont. o i the Missouri shore, under the protection of the guns at Columbus. From this camp the rebels intended to make raids in Missouri. The position at Columbus was a strong one, and if allowed to be held would be a constant menace to both Paducah and Cairo, besides barring the navigation of the Mississippi. General Grant did not feel that his force was strong enough to capture Columbus, but he was quick to see that he could tTLYSSES S. GRANT. 320 inflict a severe punishment on the rebels at Belmont, and on the night of the 6th of November he, with about three thousand men, embarked on transports, convoyed by two gunboats, and landed early next morning above Columbus, just out of range of the enemy's guns, and quickly and quietly marching through the forest, made an impetuous charge upon the camp at Bel- mont, and swept the rebels out of their positions, capturing their camp, artillery and many prisoners. The repulse of the rebels could be seen from Columbus, and General Polk began immediately throwing reinforcements across the river. This afforded Pillow an opportunity to reorganize his command, and preparations were quickly made to assail the Union forces in the rear. But Grant was quick to discover the movement, and seeing transports crossing from Columbus with reinforcements, he hastily burned the rebel camp and began his retreat. Almost immediately he discovered a rebel force between him and his transports, and he ordered a charge which swept the enemy from before him, and gaining the cover of the gunboats, he embarked and returned to Cairo. This battle opened the campaign in that military division, and the rebels began at once to strengthen their positions for active work. They at once reinforced Columbus with a large garri- son and heavy guns, and fortified Bowling Green. They also constructed Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, about twelve miles distant from each other. These forts were made very strong, guns of the heaviest calibre were mounted, and the rebels believed they would be able to control the two rivers and prevent the ascent of the Union fleet and forces. The nearness of the forts to each other would enable one to reinforce the other, and the rebels did not believe that they could be taken. General Grant quickly realized the great importance of cap- turing both these forts, and secured from General Halleck the order for the movement. Fort Henry was the first point of operation, and on the 2d of February General Grant started upon the expedition with seventeen thousand men on trans- ports, accompanied by seven iron-clad gunboats, commanded by Commodore Foote and, landing the troops a few miles be* 330 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. low Fort Henry for an attack upon the rear, the gunboats steamed up within short range and opened a terrific fire upon the fort. The fire was vigorously returned by the fort, and General Tilghman, who was in command, stood bravely by his artillerists, directing.their fire. But the iron-clads had the ad- vantage of the heaviest guns, and completely silenced the fort in an hour and a half, and compelled its surrender. Owing to high water and almost impassable roads, Grant's main army did not reach the fort in time to strike it in the rear, as was in- tended, nor to intercept the main body of the garrison, which escaped to Fort Donelson. On the 12th of February General Grant made the advance on Fort Donelson. The rebels in the meantime had been making the greatest preparation for the impending struggle, and had not only largely increased their force, but had greatly strengthened the fort, which naturally was a strong position, being built on a ledge of rocks which overlooked the river for miles. It pos- sessed water batteries, mounting columbiads and similar heavy guns. There were ramparts, re-entrants, curtains, salients, bastions and rifle-pits, and the approaches on both the land and the water side were made practically impassable by heavy abatis. On the afternoon of the 12th there were slight skirmishes be- tween the rebels on the outer lines and McClernand's and Smith's commands, but General Grant was wisely investing the fort, and holding back from an engagement until the gunboats re- turned with the transports and reinforcements, as at that time the rebel force far exceeded that of the Union army. On the night of the 13th Commodore Foote arrived, bringing the much-wished-for reinforcements. The next day the newly arrived troops were all assigned to their positions, and all things being in readiness, the fleet of gunboats steamed up at about 3 P. M. within short range of the fort and opened fire. If Commodore Foote anticipated as easy work as he had expe- rienced at Fort Henry, he was doomed to disappointment. The relative positions of the two forts were very different. Fort Henry was on low ground, with a river bank overflowing, while Fort Donelson looked down on ihe gunboats from an elevation of thirty or forty feet, and could discharge her solid shot with tJLYSSES S. GRAKT. 331 terrific effect on the gunboats. Such was the disadvantage that at the end of an hour and a half the gunboats had been so roughly handled as to be compelled to draw off. This led the rebels to believe that they had won a victory by driving off the gunboats, but, as Colonel Oglesby said : ' ' Grant had gone there to take that fort, and he would stay until he did it ;" and as the rebels saw the Union forces growing in numbers every day the siege continued, they began to lose hope, and Floyd, on a consultation with his generals, decided that they must, if possible, cut their way out and escape. This plan, unfortunately for the Union forces, was put into execution while General Grant was absent on the flag- ship, having been sent for by Commodore Foote. The attack naturally fell on the weakest part of the line, and the head of the army not being on the field to direct the movement of the forces, one brigade after another was forced back, and Pillow was so sure of victory that he sent word to Johnston at Nash- ville that he had won the day. But he had " reckoned without his host." Grant returned, and for the first time became aware of the situation. He was surprised at the attack, and could not understand it until he saw that the knapsacks of the rebels were packed and their haversacks were filled with rations. At once he saw that they were fighting their way out, and as soon as he communicated this to the officers and soldiers, it revived their courage, and General Grant at once, by a masterly Na- poleonic move, reformed the lines, and charging the enemy, pushed them back into their lines, and when night closed the engagement, it found the Union forces victorious. Floyd now saw that there would be no alternative but to surrender, and resigning the command to Pillow, who in turn resigned to Buckner, these two Generals stole away in the night, while Forrest, with more valor, fought his way out with his cavalry and escaped. There being no others desirous of taking the risk of fighting their way out, Buckner then sent a flag of truce to General Grant, asking for an armistice and commissioners to arrange for capitulation. To this Grant replied : " No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move 832 LIVES oP otm immediately upon your works !" Buckner realized at once that delay would invoke a terrific slaughter of rebels, and he com- plied at once with the demand for "unconditional surrender," and Fort Donelson, with 14,623 men, 17 heavy siege guns, 48 pieces of field artillery, 20,000 stand of small arms, 8,000 horse?, besides a large quantity of military stores, fell into the hands of Grant. This was the most signal victory that had been secured, and it created the most universal joy among all Union people, wliile it had a depressing effect upon the rebels. Grant's name was heralded all over the land, and the greatest gratitude and praise were bestowed upon him. President Lincoln, quick to recognize the sterling qualities of the hitherto unknown man, rewarded him at once with a commission of Major-General. The fall of Fort Donelson inflicted serious damage upon the rebel cause far beyond the limits of that fortification. It threw Southern Kentucky and a considerable portion of Middle Tennessee into possession of the Federal forces, and, together with Fort Henry, gave them the navigation of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. It also forced the rebels to abandon Co- lumbus, Bowling Green and Nashville, and allow large quanti- ties of military stores to fall into our hands. It reached till further in its effects it inspired hope and confidence in the Union soldiers and aroused a fear in the breasts of the rebels that they were not invincible after all. After this signal defeat, General Johnston, the rebel com- mander, concentrated his scattered forces and established a new defensive line at Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, and at Mur- freesboro, but being soon compelled to evacuate Island No. 10, they changed their front to Corinth and Chattanooga. Grant's successful operations at this time were delayed and his plans changed by Halleck, his superior in rank and his inferior in everything pertaining to military matters. In his envy of Grant's success and growing lame he assigned him to new districts, and gave the command of important expeditions to other officers, until Grant, feeling the injustice so keenly, insisted upon being relieved from further duty in the depart- ment until he could appeal to higher authority. This resulted ULYSSES S. GRANT. 333 in a slight relaxation of the restraint put upon Grant, and with his new command he again prepared to move for active service. In the meantime the rebels had been making themselves strong by concentration, compelling all small Union commands in their vicinity to fall back. Indications pointed to a coming engagement on the line of the Tennessee, necessary to break the hold the rebels were securing in that quarter. On the 17th of March, 1862, General Grant began to concentrate his troops at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee, where he was to await the arrival of General Buell from Nashville, with forty thous- and troops. At this time Grant had but thirty-five thousand men, while the rebels had a force of seventy thousand concen- trated at Corinth, only twenty miles away. General Johnston, who was in command at Corinth, realized the necessity of crushing Grant before Buell arrived, and at daylight on the 6th of April, the entire rebel force, after a quick march from Corinth, fell upon Grant's army in overwhelming numbers, and during the entire day one of the most bloody battles of the war was fought. The carnage was fearful, and the Union army was in the greatest danger of being swept into hopeless ruin. They were driven back to the river in the greatest disorder, and nothing but the gunboats saved them from an unconditional surrender. Bravery could avail but little against the over- whelming force of the rebels. This was the desperate condition of Grant's army when night closed the contest. The rebels were confident of a complete victory the next morning. During the afternoon Buell arrived in advance of his troops, and anxiously inquired of Grant what preparation he had made lor a retreat across the river. " Why," replied Grant, "I have not despaired of whipping them yet. " ' ' But, " continued Buell, ; ' you haven't steamboats enough to carry away ten thousand men." "Well," replied Grant, " there won't be more than that many left when I get ready to go /" In the night 20,000 of Buell's troops arrived in advance of the others and crossed the river, where they were placed in position for an early resumption of hostilities the next morning. The arrival of fresh troops had so inspired the Union army with 334 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. confidence that at daylight they fell upon the rebels in a charge so fierce and impetuous that the latter were filled with astonish- ment. Grant knew his strength and advantage and he swept everything before him. All day the conflict raged with unpre- cedented fury, and at night the defeated rebels retreated to Corinth, leaving nearly 20,000 men dead on the field. Thus ended the battle of Shiloh on the first day and that of Pittsburg Landing on the second, in which Grant wrested a grand victory out of defeat. On the 9th of April, Major-General Halleck arrived and as- sumed command. With the greatest caution he advanced on Corinth, intrenching his position at almost every step. In the entire siege, which was contemptible in a military poiut of view, General Grant was entirely ignored by Halleck and was practi- cally relieved from command. The result of this slow and cautious advance was the escape of the rebels from Corinth with all their materials of war, to the great surprise of Halleck, who was doubtless considering his own chances of escape should he be attacked by the rebels. This fortunately ended his personal supervision of military movements in the West, for he was soon after called to Washington and Graut was again placed in command of the Army of the Tennessee. He soon after placed Rosecrans in command of Corinth and improved the fortifications by shortening the lined. His military foresight and skill were soon evident, for the rebels, under Van Dorn, advanced upon Corinth and made a vigorous attack, which Rosecrans repulsed ; and after a fierce battle the rebels re- treated, pursued by the Union forces, leaving on the field nearly 1,500 officers and men and more than 5,000 wounded, besides losing over 2,000 prisoners. The necessity for opening the Mississippi River was becoming more evident every day, and when General Grant requested permission of Halleck to make an attack upon Vicksburg, he found the General-in-Chief favorable to his plan, and he at once began to concentrate troops for the great campaign. His plan was to have the fleet co-operate with the land forces, and after a number of small battles in Mississippi, in which divisions of the army were engaged, General Grant pushed on with the ULYSSES S. GRANT. 335 entire force toward Vicksburg as rapidly as possible, issuing orders for the army to subsist from the country. The siege of Vicksburg is such a history in itself that only general details can be given. As a natural military stronghold it could scarcely be surpassed by any other position occupied by the rebels. This city is located on a bluff, two hundred and fifty feet above low water mark, while innumerable swamps and bayous extend in all directions in the rear through the almost impenetrable forests, and never perhaps in the history of any siege since the world began were there so many natural obstacles to its progress. Every means was devised that human ingenuity could plan. Canals, passes, bayous and every other species of water-course were tried in the endeavor to pass Vicks- burg with the fleet and army to a point of operation below, but these plans all failed. The forests, bayous and swamps were too much for human ingenuity, and giving up all these plans, General Grant concentrated the army in front of Vicks- burg, and decided to send the iron-clads and transports down the Mississippi River under the fire of the Vicks- burg batteries, and on the 16th of April, at night, the fleet, under Admiral Porter, steamed past Vicksburg, under a terrific fire from the heaviest guns, to which all the gunboats replied with fearful energy while they floated with the current. After the fleet and army had reached a point below Vicksburg, General Grant worked incessantly to prepare for the grand assault which he knew must be made. Immedi- ately he began a series of fierce assaults from day to day on the rebel lines, while all the operations of the siege were pushed vigorously forward. Nearer and nearer the works approached Vicksburg, while mines were sunk, and sharpshooters from towers and tree-tops were constantly picking off the rebel gun- ners. On the 26th of June, a great mine, dug under one of the strongest batteries of the enemy, was exploded, with the most tremendous force, shaking the very city to its foundations, and strewing the air with dirt, timbers and cannon, and the mangled bodies of the rebels. This explosion was followed by an assault on the enemies' line of defense, which had been broken by the explosion, but it accomplished nothing. 336 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS- At last Grant's works, mounted by heavy guns, were all completed, and he directed that the general attack be made on the morning of the 5th of July. Pemberton, the rebel com- mander at Vicksburg, realizing the terrific slaughter of his men that would result from the assault, sent out a flag of truce on the 3d for the appointment of commissioners to arrange for the capitulation. But Grant demanded unconditional surren- der, although offering to meet Pemberton to arrange details. The meeting took place, and Pemberton accepted the terms, which allowed the officers and soldiers to be liberated on their paroles, taking with them their clothing, rations, cooking utensils and a limited number of wagons. These terms were accepted, and on the 4th of July, and by three o'clock in the afternoon, Vicksburg was in our hands, with all its siege guns, small arms and military stores. The force surrendered amounted to 27,000 men, including 6,000 wounded and sick in hospital. This grand victory of General Grant's was one of the most important of the war, and resulted in opening the Mississippi from the Ohio to the Gulf. General Sherman had, in the meantime, been sent with a force to attack Johnston, and succeeded in driving him from Jackson to Meridian. On the 6th of June a detachment of colored troops, aided by the gunboats, defeated McCulloch's command of 3,000 rebels at Milliken's Bend. A rebel force of 8,000 men made an attack upon the Union garrison at Helena on the 4th of July, but General Prentiss, assisted by the gunboats, made such a gallant resistance that the rebels were signally defeated and driven off. As soon as the fall of Vicksburg relieved the necessity of the large force concentrated there, General Grant sent reinforce- ments to Banks, who was besieging Port Hudson, and on the 8th of July that rebel stronghold surrendered with 10,000 pris- oners and 50 guns. Thus were a series of smaller victories added to the brilliant conquest of Vicksburg, to the great discomfiture of the rebels and the depression of their cause. This successful campaign 4 ULYSSES S. GRANT. 337 raised the fame of Grant above all the envious falsehoods and villainous influences that had been brought to bear against him. He had proven himself the military superior not only of the rebel generals, but also of his enemies among the officers of our own army, and yet without pride or retaliation he pushed ahead and gave his noble services to the cause he so dearly loved. After the fall of Vicksburg, President Lincoln and the Secre- tary of War so fully appreciated the ability of Grant that he was made Major-General in the regular army, which outranks a Major-General of volunteers. In September General Grant was thrown from his horse in New Orleans, and for nearly three weeks was confined to his bed. During this time the Union forces, under Rosecrans, received the well-remembered defeat at Chickamauga. Bragg's forces having been weakened by detachments being sent to other points, and Rosecrans feeling sure of success, pressed on after Bragg, who retreated through Chattanooga until he received the reinforcements of Buckner's, JLongstreet's and Folk's com- mands. Then, with an army of eighty thousand men, he turned upon Rosecrans and almost crushed his army at Chick- amauga, inflicting a loss of sixteen thousand men, killed, wounded and missing, and besieging Rosecrans in Chattanooga, where he was in the most critical situation. General Grant, as soon as he learned of the disaster at Chicka- mauga and the dangerous position of Rosecrans, relieved him of the command and General Thomas was appointed in his place , with instructions telegraphed to hold Chattanooga at all hazards until reinforcements could reach him. The reply of Thomas was brief and business-like: " We'll hold the town till we starve." General Grant immediately set out for Chattanooga, and reached it on the 23d of October, when he commenced his plans of operation at once by opening a line of communication for reinforcements and supplies. General Sher- man was ordered forward with all possible speed, and by a forced march, under the greatest difficulties of bad roads and flooded streams, that faithful warrior hurried, forward his troops to reinforce Chattanooga. 338 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. As soon as Sherman arrived General Grant was ready for offensive operations. He sent General Sherman, on the night of the 23d of November, across the Tennessee River to hold a position ready for attack upon Missionary Eidge. On the 24th General Hooker stormed Lookout Mountain and swept the rebels in the greatest disorder from their position. The next day the entire army charged the rebels in one of the most ter- rific battles of the war, and when night came the rebels had been swept from every point, and in a wild rout they were flee- ing toward Atlanta with General Grant in pursuit, and the road strewn with everything that they could cast away in their wild rush for life and liberty. Thus again did General Grant turn into a glorious victory the impending defeat and surrender which had hung over the besieged army at Chattanooga. The successful management of this battle is one of the most remarkable events in history, and its result was to drive back the rebels from Kentucky and Tennessee and prepare the Union army for finally breaking the back of the rebellion in Georgia. The news of the great victory created the wildest enthusiasm for General Grant throughout the country, and on the 4th of February, 1864, a bill was passed in Congress reviving the grade of Lieutenant-General in the army, and calling General Grant to the command of all the armies of the United States. This at once relieved him from subjection to inefficient superiors and placed him in supreme command, subject only to the Pres- ident. The bill was approved by Mr. Lincoln on the 1st of March, and on the 9th General Grant received his commis- sion. General Grant at once decided to end the Rebellion on the banks of the Potomac, and began reorganizing the army and concentrating a great force in tlie East, knowing that the rebels would be compelled to withdraw or decrease their troops at all other points to defend Richmond and support Lee, thus leaving the West and South at the mercy of Sherman, Thomas, McPher- son and similar able and faithful gent rals. As soon as General Grant began to develop his plans all roads seemed to lead to the Potomac, and from every direction the ULYSSES S. GRANT. 339 martial tread of armies was heard. After locating and instruct- ing his generals of the Eastern army, he gave to General Sher- man a grand expedition, which only Grant and Sherman were capable of accomplishing, that of cutting the Confeder- acy in two, and breaking the back of the Rebellion by that daring march from Atlanta to the sea. For the first time in the history of the war the control of the army und its military movements were in the bands of the two military giants of the country, and the result was soon to be what might have taken place two years earlier under their control the end of the war. Lee had defeated every other General of the Army of the Potomac who had confronted him, and General Grant knew that the war would only end with the overthrow of the military leader of the Rebellion. The time had come for his defeat, and no one knew it so well as Grant. The following ideas, expressed in one of his reports as Lieuten- ant-General, are worthy of the genius of Napoleon : " From an early period in the Rebellion I had been impressed with the idea that active and continuous operations of all the troops that could be brought into the field, regardless of season and weather, were necessary to a speedy termination of the war. The resources of the enemy and his numerical strength were very inferior to ours ; but, as an offset to this, we had a vvst territory, with a population hostile to the Government, to gar- rison, and long lines of river and railroad communications to protect, to enable us to supply the operating armies. " The armies in the East and West acted independently and without con- cert like a balky team, no two ever pulling together enabling the enemy to use to great advantage his interior lines of communication for transporting troops from east to west, reinforcing ihe arnrjr most vigorously pressed and to furlough large numbers during seasons of inactivity on our part, to go to their homes and do the work of providing for the support of their armies. It was a question whether our numerical strength and resources were not more than balanced by these disadvantages and the enemy's superior posi- tion. " From the first I was firm in the conviction that no peace could be had that could be stable and conducive to the happiness of the people both North and South until the military power of the rebellion was entirely broken up. " I therefore determined, first, to use the greatest number of troops prac- ticable against the armed force of the enemy, preventing him from using the same force at different seasons against first one and then another of our armies, and the possibility of repose for refitting and producing necessary supplies for carrying on resista nee ; secondly, to hammer continuously against 340 LIVES OF OUK PRESIDENTS. the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until, by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal sections of our common country to the Constitution and laws of the land. " These views have been kept constantly in mind, and orders given and campaigns made to carry them out. Whether they might have been better in conception and execution is for the people, who mourn the loss of friends fallen, and who have to pay the pecuniary cost, to say. All that I can say is that what I have done has been done conscientiously, to the best of my ability and in what I conceived to be for the best interests of the whole country." Relying implicitly on Sherman's ability to sweep irresistibly through Georgia to Savannah and thence northward, destroy- ing railroads, devastating the country, capturing Charleston, Columbia and other rebel strongholds, General Grant began his preparations. On the 3d of May, 1864, at midnight, General Grant moved his whole army and crossed the Rapidan before daylight. Push- ing on toward Spottsylvania his army swept through the Wilderness, and he disposed his troops in position to prevent every possible surprise. Lee, in his perfect confidence secured by all previous experi- ence with the Army of the Potomac, determined to fall upon Grant by surprise, and, by cutting his army in two, sweep him from the field. On the morning of the 5th Lee suddenly ap- peared, rushing impetuously upon the centre of Grant's army, with his troops massed and bent upon dividing it and sweeping it in hopeless defeat across the Rapidan. But for once Lee had met his superior, and although he had forced the fight upon his own familiar ground, with his own plan and at his chosen time, he found himself at the close of the first day's terrific battle pressed back upon the field and six thousand of his men welter- ing in their blood. He realized that he had a desperate under- taking befoie him, and doubtless " bitterly thought of the mor- row " as he waited for daylight to renew the carnage. The sec- ond day dawned, and fiercely through all its long hours the battle raged at every point, with each army pushing back di- visions of the other and victory refusing to perch upon either standard. When night again closed upon the weary com- TJLYSSES S. OKANl'. 841 batants twenty thousand men lay dead and wounded on the fear- ful field. It may appropriately be said that Lee was very much dis- couraged, and during the night he retreated to seek his in- trenchments near Spottsylvania Court House ; but Grant, with worthy courage and invincible determination, started in imme- diate pursuit, and the next day a running fight was kept up in a paralM line, but the dense growth of the trees and under- brush in the Wilderness was so thick that the two armies could scarcely see each other. Thus passed the third day, and on the next morning General Grant made the attack upon Lee in his works, and drove the rebels from their outer intrench ments with a loss of about three thousand prisoners. Night again came, and the armies slept, as it were, with their hands on each others' throats. The next morning Grant was up at daylight, thundering away with his batteries at the rebel breast-works, and all day continued with- out an intermission. The next day it was resumed and fought with indescribable fury, and ended with an irresistible charge upon the enemy's works, sweeping them from the outer line and capturing two thousand prisoners. The loss in this day's terrific struggle was nearly ten thousand men on each side. Up to that time 5,000 rebel prisoners had been taken, while only a few stragglers here and there had been secured from our army. It was at the close of this day's fighting that General Grant said in his laconic message to the War Department, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes me all summer." On the next day, the llth, the armies were so completely exhausted that there was no general engagement, but Grant was laying his plans, and at midnight General Hancock, in a terrific thunder-storm, charged the enemy's lines with such impetuous fury that he drove the rebels back from their in- trenchments in that division, capturing over 3,000 prisoners and thirty guns. This brave charge brought on a general en- gagement, which continued the remainder of the night and all the next day, with a loss in killed and wounded equal to that of the day previous. Had it not been for Meade's delay in rein- forcing Hancock, an overwhelming victory would evidently 342 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. have been gained over the rebels, but in the half hour in which the reinforcements were behind Lee had strengthened the force in front of Hancock until their position could not be carried, and the brave general was forced to abandon the captured in- trenchments and fall back. This day's battle resulted in forcing Lee to fall back to his inner lines, and General Grant took up a new position nearer the enemy. But he had formed a plan for a flank movement, and by a quick march carried his army south to a position be- yond Spottsylvania Court House. Lee, however, had the short- est line of march, and being on the alert, threw his force with great celerity into the intrenchment he had previously prepared in front of Grant's new position, with a view to prevent a march upon Richmond. When General Grant had secured his new position he sent Sheridan with his cavalry to destroy the railroads and break Lee's communication with Richmond. This raid was success- ful in breaking railroad communication and in defeating Stuart's cavalry; and cutting his way through the country, Sheridan established his communications with Butler at Bermuda Hundred. General Grant followed ioi mediately after this raid and took up a new position at Guinea Station. The movements of General Grant had caused great uneasiness to Lee, who began to fear that his line of communication would be cut off, and that Grant would make a forced march and capture Richmond. He was therefore compelled to abandon his position and push on toward Richmond. His line of march was only a few miles from that of the Union forces, with whom he was keeping abreast. General Grant's army had been increased to one hundred and fifty thousand men, and as it swept on irresistibly Lee dared not risk an attack, and could only keep up with it and watch for some unguarded moment or some false military move; but Grant was not the General to permit such opportunities. General Grant's plan of operations against Richmond had been matured with a view of uniting his army with the forces under Butler, whose movement began from Fortress Monroe and ended by taking up a strong position at Bermuda Hundred, ULYSSES S. GRANT. 343 which afforded an excellent base for operations against either Petersburg or Richmond. Knowing that he was sure of rein- forcements on the south side of Richmond, General Grant pushed on with his army, hoping at any moment to catch Lee at a disadvantage and to crush him. General Grant reached Cool Arbor on the 1st of June, at which point he was within a few miles of Richmond with his line stretching nearly ten miles, at which point Lee made a vig- orous assault upon the weakest part of the line, hoping to break it; but he was forced to fallback behind his fortifications, where Grant in turn made an attack upon him on the morning of the 3d. This was a gigantic conflict in which three hundred thou- sand men were engaged. Day after day the battle raged with terrible slaughter, without any particular ad vantage perceptible; but Grant knew that his blows were having a distressing effect upon Lee. On the night of the 5th the rebels in desperation charged upon the lines of the Union Army, under support of a fearful fire from their heavy batteries, but they were met with a solid sheet of flame from our cannon, which poured forth the most deadly volleys of grape and canister, sweeping the rebels away like wheat before a sickle. Appalled at the terrible destruction, the rebels turned and fled, leaving their dead on the field. On the llth General Grant executed one of the most brilliant moves of the war, and while menacing Lee with skirmishers to conceal his object he began a flank movement, and by a rapid march reached and crossed the James River, and forming a junction with General Butler, took up a position south of Richmond. Scarcely had the junction been formed before Grant began his attack upon Petersburg. Lee was completely outwitted by this movement, and had it not been for the delay of General Grant's subordinates in carry- ing out his instructions Lee would have found the Union army in full possession of Petersburg when he arrived. It had not, however, been taken, and he poured his rebels into its fortifica- tions until they were bristling at every point with bayonets and frowning with cannon. Then came the long, tedious siege and daily terrific struggles of the two armies. B44 LIVES O# OUfe PRESIDENTS. While battling with Lee, General Grant did not forget the great importance of destroying the railroads and cutting off Lee's communications with the South. To effectually isolate Petersburg, General Grant ordered all the cavalry force of his army to not only destroy communications, but to join Hunter near Lynchburg, or to push on and unite with Sherman in Georgia, if the obstacles met were not too formidable. All this time General Grant was making his position stronger and weaving the net a round Petersburg that could not be broken through. To encourage him still more, he heard of Sherman's success in taking Atlanta, and he knew that the invincible old warrior, with his hundred thousand men, would soon be thun- dering toward the sea in his march of destruction, and if he only hurried in his Northern march, he would doubtless be in at the death of the rebellion. Sherman's march had been one of the most remarkable and destructive in military history, and had been as irresistible as that of the old Roman legions. He had carried the war home to the South, and had not only cut the Confederacy in two, but had cut their communications and destroyed their supplies by sweeping a path of desolation sixty miles wide and three hundred miles long, in which railroads and everything that could aid the rebellion were destroyed, and beef cattle, sheep, hogs, fowl, horses and mules captured for the use of the army. At this time it was evident that Lee was contemplating the evacuation of Petersburg and uniting with Johnston; but Gen- eral Grant was on the alert for such a movement and ready to pounce on the enemy. He fully realized that if Lee was per- mitted to escape and form a junction with Johnston's army they would attempt to crush Sherman, and he was resolved to give Lee no rest or opportunity to strike another blow. At the first movement of Lee which indicated that he had commenced the evacuation of Petersburg, Grant hurled his forces upon him and stormed his intrenchments in a terrific contest which lasted for three days. On the night of the third day, which was the 3d of April, 1865, Lee abandoned Peters- burg and fled in the vain attempt to save his fated army. This retreat gave us Richmond and Petersburg ; but Lee was yet to ULYSSES S. GRANT. 345 be taken, and as he fled down the north bank of the Appomattox he was vigorously pursued by the victorious army of the Union. With splendid military skill General Grant had sent Sheridan by a shorter route to throw the Fifth Army Corps across the path of the rebel retreat, and to the consternation of Lee he found himself surrounded and cut off from his supplies. In every direction Sheridan, Meade, Ord, Humphrey and other generals of divisions were driving the rebels in at every attempt to escape, capturing prisoners, arms and military stores at almost every charge. The very rations for the rebels had been captured and in their half famished condition they lacked strength to make further resistance. Lee had evidently given up hope when he abandoned Petersburg, and in anticipation of surrender had allowed his soldiers to drop out of line along his entire route and return to their homes, until at the time he was completely surrounded at Appomattox Court House his army did not contain over 10,000 men in line. General Grant, at this point, with real sympathy for the miser- able remnant of the once proud army, and to save them from slaughter, sent the following dispatch to General Lee : "GENERAL : The result of the last week must convince you of the hopeless- ness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the sur- render of that portion of the Confederate States Army known as the Army of Northern Virginia." To this note Lee replied at once asking for the terms that would be offered on condition of surrender. la reply General Grant insisted upon but one condition, namely : ' ' That the men and officers surrendered shall be dis- qualified for taking up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged." To this Lee replied in a manner that indicated his desire to delay the unpleasant matter of surrender as long as possible, and he expressed his wish to meet with General Grant rather more to arrange for terms of peace than for a surrender. General Grant, after putting his troops in motion around 346 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Appomattox Court HOUSP, so that Lee could not mistake the alternative, sent the following note : " GENERAL, : Your note of yesterday is received. I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace; the meeting proposed for ten o'clock A. M. to-day could do no good. I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself," etc. Lee, knowing that the surrender was inevitable, no longer parlied for delay, but sought for definite terms of surrender and accepted them. Never before was a surrender conducted on more honorable terms or with kinder regard for the feelings of the vanquished, and the exhausted rebel soldiers were the first to raise the wild cheer of joy at the news of the surrender ; then one united shout arose from the throats of the Union army, which was caught up in a universal hurrah of triumph throughout the land as soon as the joyful news was heralded over the wires. Peace at last ! What glorious significance there was in the news I The great rebellion was crushed, and it only remained for Johnston to surrender to Sherman, which he did on the 25th of April, and the other rebel commands throughout the country either to surrender to the Union troops in their front or to dis- band and return to their homes, to release our great army from further duty in the field. The world had never before witnessed such a spectacle as the quiet, orderly and peaceful disbanding and dispersing of such an immense army, and it gave an additional guarantee of the stability of our republican institutions to realize that fierce soldiers could so quickly be returned to the arts of peace. In token of the high appreciation of the country for the noble and patriotic services of Lieutenant-General Grant, he was on the 25th of July, 1866, promoted to the rank of General, the highest military grade possible in our Army. A still further compliment to his ability was paid him by his ULYSSES s. GRANT. 847 appointment as Secretary of War ad interim, on the 12th. of August, 1867. By the reconstruction acts of March, 1867, mili- tary commanders were nppointed for the several districts into which the South was divided by the acts. These commanders General Grant advised, in his official instructions, to use great moderation and kindness toward the people of the South, and in all his duties, both as General of the army and Secretary of War, he acted with excellent discretion and ability. It must be said, in justice to General Grant, that he did not wish to accept the office of Secretary of War, and counseled the retaining of Mr. Stanton, and it was only when he saw that President Johnson was determined upon Stanton's removal that he accepted it, that it might not, in his own language, fall into the hands of some incompetent or unpatriotic person. When President Johnson, without any reasonable pretext, removed Generals Sheridan, Sickles and Pope from their com- mands in the South, General Grant earnestly advised the Presi- dent against the unwise act, but when Johnson persisted in his removal of the very men whom General Grant had recom- mended for the positions, he quietly acquiesced, and earnestly co-operated with the newly appointed commanders in the work of reconstruction. One of the most beneficial services he rendered the country during his exercise of the office, was the reduction of various expenses, by cutting down the number of employes in the Freedman's Bureau, also by transferring the duties of the Bureaus of Rebel Archives and of exchange of prisoners to the office of the Adjutant-General, besides closing many depart- ments and offices which were the outgrowth of the war and whose sphere of usefulness had ceased with the war. In various other ways he cut down expenses connected with the War Department. When the Senate met and refused to concur in the removal of Mr. Stanton, and decided that he be reinstated, General Grant at once quietly acquiesced and relinquished the office. President Johnson asserted that General Grant had promised that he would in this event either resign the Secretaryship or remain and resist the reinstatement of Mr. Stanton. This 848 LIVES OF OttR PRESIDENTS. promise General Grant denied having made, and this was the question of veracity between the President and General Grant, on which the country generally stood by the General of the Army. On the 21st of May, 1868, the National Republican Conven- tion, which met in Chicago, by acclamation nominated General Grant as their candidate for President of the United States. Just two days previous to the meeting of the Convention, there had been held also in Chicago a convention of soldiers and sail- ors, who had unanimously nominated General Grant as their candidate for the Presidency, which was a double indorsement of his sterling qualities and fitness for the position, more espe- cially as many of the soldiers and sailors were War Democrats. To the committee notifying General Grant of his nomination he expressed the following sentiments in the concluding portion of his speech : " If elected to the office of President of the United States it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giving peace, quiet and protection everywhere. In times like the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wrong, through an administration of four years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constant'y arising ; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing ; and a purely adminis- trative officer should always be left free to execute the will of the people. I always have respected that will, and always shall. Peace and universal prosperity, ils sequence, with economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the national debt. Let us have peace 1" The Democratic party nominated Horatio Seymour, a very popular man and an able statesman, as their candidate, and the contest was naturally an exciting one. General Grant received at the election 3,016,353 of the popular vote and Seymour 2,906,631. The electoral vote stood 214 for Grant and 80 for Seymour. On the 4th of March, 1869, General Grant made his inaugural address and took the oath of office, upon which he entered with the confidence and highest respect of the entire country re- gardless of party. In the sentiment he had previously uttered, " Let us have peace," the white wings of peace were ULYSSES S. GRANT. 349 hovering over the land, and the swords had been beaten into plowshares. There were, however, many difficulties presenting themselves in his administration. Some of the Southern States were still undergoing reconstruction, while many political difficulties were constantly presenting themselves. One very important question was that of the welfare of the f reedmen who had been cast upon the generosity of the government to work out their political equality in the land, and to educate them and prepare them for self-support. Besides there were the usual intricacies of foreign relations, and many issues of a local and sectional as well as general interest to be disposed of, which have puzzled many a wise statesman. But such was General Grant's uniform and satisfactory administration of the executive office that he was nominated for re-election by the National Republican Convention in 1872, and at the election he received 292 electoral votes, which placed him in the executive chair for a second term. General Grant had long desired to make an extensive tour of foreign countries, and at the close of his second term he resolved to put his plans into execution. Starting soon after on a tour around the world, he visited England, France, Ger- many, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy Spain, Turkey, India and China, Everywhere he traveled he received the highest courtesies and most perfect ovations. His fame had reached the remot- est ends of the eaiih, and men who could not speak a word of our language gathered to do him honor. On his return he again became one of the citizens of our great republic, and has since been engaged in various business pursuits, having been one of the most active promoters of the proposed lines of railroads in Mexico. He died at Mount McGregor, N. Y., July 23d, 18.85. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. The subject of this biography descends from an ancient Scotch family, said to be traced back to two Scottish chieftains named Rutherford and Hayes, who fought with Wallace and Bruce, but, with the varying fortunes of the land of hills and heather, the estates of the family passed into other hands, and they were scattered in other localities. The American branch of the family dates back to George Hayes, who came to this country and settled in Windham, Conn., in 1682, where he engaged in making wagons and other useful articles in wood and iron. His son Daniel having been captured by Indians in 1712, it cost the Colonial government seven pounds to ransom him, or the family would probably have been cut short at that point, and turned the Presidential succession in this country in another direction. After being ransomed he did his duty to his country by marrying Sarah Lee. Ezekiel, the son of this marriage, was born in 1824, and gave to the country the first Eutherford Hayes, who combined the three industries of farming, blacksmithing and keeping tavern. His son Rutherford, who was father of President Hayes, was born in Brattleboro, Vt., where he became an. ex- cellent citizen and a prosperous merchant. Being tempted toward the great West, which was then becom- ing so attractive to emigrants, he removed to Delaware, Ohio, with his wife and children and a brother of his wife's, named Sardis Birchard. Here, as in Vermont, he became a promi- nent citizen and prospered in business. His life in Ohio, how- ever, was short, for five years afterward he died of typhoid fever. Three months after his death a son was born to the widow, whom she named Rutherford Birchard Hayes, after her departed husband and brother. This son is the subject of our 352 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. biography. The particular date of his birth was the 4th of October, 1822. Rutherford, for months after his birth, was so sickly that he was not expected to live, but through his mother's assiduous care he improved in health and became stronger, until his chances of life were equal to those of other children. When he was but three years old his only brother was drowned, and then he became more precious to his mother than ever. Mrs. Hayes had been left in comfortable circumstances by her husband at his death, with a good brick dwelling in the town of Delaware and a farm from which she drew her in- come. Some of the sweetest recollections of the ex-President are of those childhood days, when he went to the old farm in fruit time and the roasting-ear and watermelon season, and later in the fall when the frost was rattling down the hickory nuts and walnuts. These early joys were shared with him by his sister, who was two years his senior. This sister was inval- uable to him in his studies and assisted him and studied the same books with him at home and at school until he was four- teen years old, when he went to the Norwalk, Ohio, Academy for two years, and then, at the age of sixteen, entered Kenyon College, Ohio, from, which he graduated in 1842. Tt is said of young Hayes that he was amiable at school, atten- tive to his studies and very observant of the rules of the college. Returning home for a few weeks after his graduation he then began the study of law in the office of Sparrow & Matthews at Columbus, Ohio, where he remained ten months, when it was decided to complete his studies in the Law Department of Harvard College at Cambridge, Mass., where he graduated at the end of two years. Returning to Ohio he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, from whence he went to Fremont and be- gan the practice of law as a partner of Ralph P. Buckland. It will never be known how extensive a practice would have re- sulted from this partnership, for Mr. Hayes' health broke down from the long mental strain at college and in the law school, during all which time he had taken no rest or recreation. It became necessary, therefore, for him to relinquish practice for a time and recruit his failing health. RUTHERFORD B HAYES. 353 His first intention was to become a volunteer in the Mexican War, but his physician forbade a trip South and insisted on his going to a Northern climate. Obeying his medical adviser, he passed the summer in New England and Canada, roughing it in the woods and mountains, hunting and fishing, and part of the time camping out. Returning restored in health, he then paid a visit to an old college chum in Texas, where he freely enjoyed the free wild life of the ranch. On his return from Texas, in 1849, he decided to settle in Cincinnati and resume the practice of the law in that city. Here he formed a new law partnership, and while slowly building up a practice, was carefully reviewing his legal studies. Here his first important case was as attorney for the defense of a woman named Nancy Farrer, who had poisoned a number of persons. Sir. Hayes was appointed to the defense by the Court, and he at once entered a plea of insanity, and so persistently clung to it by able arguments and citation of precedents that he landed his client in the lunatic asylum instead of on the gallows. This was such a remarkable ca5e that his success at once secured reputation and popularity for our young lawyer, and after that clients and fees were more plentiful. He now, like most young men when they find themselves es- tablished in a lucrative business, looked about him for some worthy young lady as a companion and helpmeet, and having found the object of his choice, he was on the 30th of December, 1852, united in marriage with Miss Lucy Ware Webb, of Cin- cinnati. This estimable lady has made him one of the noblest of wives, as all know who ever visited the White House while she presided over it. After this marriage Mr. Hayes rapidly developed his noblest traits of character. At about the same time he joined the Literary Club of Cincinnati, in which he became intimate with Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Corwin, Gen- eral Ewing, James Hoadley and other able men of literature, law and politics. Mr. Hayes was formerly a Whig but joined the Republican party soon after its formation, when he realized that the Whig party had outlived its usefulness. Its old issues were no longer the existing ones before the country. Slavery had become the 354 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. absorbing political question of the day, and in 1856 we find Mr. Hayes supporting Fremont, the Republican candidate for the Presidency. In 1853 Mr, Hayes was chosen by the City Council of Cincin- nati as City Solicitor, to fill a vacancy, and his performance of ihe duties of that office were indorsed by his re-election a few montbs later. In 1860, he gave his full support to Abraham Lincoln, and watched with the keenest interest the turn of political events. On the subject of secession he expressed the sentiment that if the threats were really meant, it was time the Union was dis- solved or the traitors crushed out. At last the moment of supreme excitement came. The news flashed over the wires that Fort Sumter had fallen, and in the wild outburst of popular indignation, and the grand uprising of the people, Mr. Hayes stood foremost among the citizens of Cincinnati in speeches and resolutions calculated to thrill th<> public with a sense of the enormity of the treason, and the necessity of stamping it out. On the 15th of May he wrote as follows : " Judge Matthews and I have agreed to go into the service for the war ; if possible, in the same regiment. I spoke my feelings to him, which he said were his own : that this was a Just and necessary war, that it demanded the whole power of the country, and that I would prefer to go into it if I knew I was to be killed in the course of it, rather than to live through and after it without taking part in it." Immediately after this they together enlisted and almost immediately a Colonel's commission was sent to him through the influence of Secretary Chase, but Mr. Hayes, realizing his military unfitness for such a responsibility, declined the com- mission, saying that he desired a position in a capacity less re- sponsible. He was then appointed Major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers, and he at once went into camp at Columbus with the regiment. Here they remained training in comfort and tranquillity until news of the crushing defeat at Bull Run aroused the government to the necessity of pushing troops to the front from all the training regiments, and in this general RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 855 activity the Twenty-third Ohio was ordered to West Virginia, to guard the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and for skirmish duty in preventing rebel raids. Here the regiment was kept busy in hunting and driving out bands of guerrillas who were plunder- ing and murdering the people of West Virginia. The first real engagement in which the regiment participated was in the fight with Floyd at the battle of Carnifex Ferry. In this engagement Major Hayes was ordered with four companies of the regiment to make a flank movement on the enemy. This order Major Hayes executed without any special instructions, and forming his men into a skirmishing line,- put them under the fire of the enemy as coolly as if he were preparing to argue a case in court. The victory over Floyd was so complete that nothing but night saved his army from capture. This success gave confidence to the regiment and some little experience to Major Hayes. After this battle Major Hayes was ordered to the head- quarters of General Rosecrans to serve on his staff as Judge- Advocate. On his return to his regiment six weeks later, he found that the lieutenant-colonel had resigned, and Major Hayes was promoted to fill the vacancy. The winter was passed by the regiment at Camp Ewing, with only an occasional raid and skirmish with the enemy. On the 1st of May Lieu- tenant-Colonel Hayes led in a charge upon the rebel fortifica- tions at Princeton. So impetuous was the charge that he carried the enemy's works, and they fled, leaving the place in possession of the gallant Twenty-third regiment. The rebels, however, on the 8th of the month, four thousand strong, attacked the Twenty -third, which with five hundred cavalry and a battery of light artillery was under command of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Hayes at Giles Court House, compelling him to fall back. This movement required the best military judg- ment and bravery to prevent the capture of the entire com- mand, but Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes threw out skirmishers and kept the pursuing enemy at a distance, while he retreated in excellent order and reached the main line of the army in safety. In the retreat Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was slightly wounded by a piece of shell. 3o6 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. The regiment was then ordered to Washington to join McClellan's army, where it reported on the 13th of September; it was sent to the front, where it arrived in time to engage in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. The battle began with the advance of Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes' command, which was ordered to advance by a mountain path and attack the rebels on i he right flank. The regiment was in General Cox's Division, and the advance on the rebel flank was opposed by General Gar- land, who was killed and his troops swept away by the im- petuous charge, until Longstreet, with fresh troops posted behind strong intrenchments, drove back the Union forces until they were reinforced. Here Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was exposed to a fire so terrific that almost every blade of grass was cut away and nearly every leaf stripped from the trees, while grape and canister cut fearful swathes in the ranks, and everywhere the men were going down before the hail of death. It was while surrounded by this awful carnage that Lieutenant- Colonel Hayes, in leading his men over rocks, logs and broken ground, was struck down by a ball that shattered his left arm, and was left on the field while his regiment charged ahead. Being forced to fall back, they were leaving him between them and the rebels, when he shouted out : " Halloo, Twenty-third Ohio ! Are you going to leave your Colonel here for the enemy ? " At this a number of brave boys rushed back, but the fire of the rebels became so hot that he ordered his soldiers not to expose themselves. Then one of his Lieutenants came and assisted him out of range of the fire, and left him behind a log in company with a wounded rebel Major. By this time rein- forcements arrived, and the Twenty-third Ohio, in command of the Major, charged the enemy and drove them from the hill at the point of the bayonet. When Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was at last placed in charge of the surgeon, his condition was serious, and grave fears were entertained that he would not survive. While he was not aware of his dangerous condition, he was only solicitous about saving his arm, which had been so badly shattered that part of the bone was shot away. While in this condition, his wife, with the love and devotion of a woman, was hunting for him RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 35 1 ? among all the farm-houses and barns for twenty miles around, to which the wounded had been carried. At last she found him in an old dilapidated building. The wonderful vitality of the Lieutenant-Colonel, and, doubtless, too, the presence of Mrs. Hayes, carried him through, and his arm was healing so rapidly without amputation, that he sent word to the Governor of Ohio, "Tell Governor Todd that I'll be on hand again shortly." While still in the hospital, Lieutenant-Colonel Hayes was pro- moted to the rank of Colonel of the Twenty-third Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Colonel Scammon to Bri gadier-General. In October, 1862, the Twenty-third Ohio went into winter quar- ters at the falls of the Great Kanawha, to recruit their strength and numbers. Here they were rejoined by Colonel Hayes ; and although his arm was still so tender that he could not raise it to his head, he went about the camp constantly, looking after the welfare of the men and the sanitary condition of the camp, which had been made a model of comfort with its neat little cabins. The quarters were called "Camp Lucy Hayes," in honor of Mrs. Hayes, who came for the winter with the chil- dren, and passed her time in the hospital, caring for the sick. On the 15th of March the division was ordered to break camp and march to Charleston, W. Va., from which point they raided Virginia and destroyed many rebel military stores, be- sides capturing a number of prisoners. From this point Colonel Hayes was ordered to Southwestern Virginia to break the railroad communication. The expedition, after many hardships and dangers, succeded in its object and returned about the mid- dle of July, just in time for Colonel Hayes to start in pursuit of Morgan, who was returning south from his raid into Indiana and Ohio. Ordering two steamboats from Charleston up the Kanawha and receiving consent for the expedition from the General of the division, Colonel Hayes embarked on the boat with two regiments and a section of artillery. On reaching Pomeroy, Ohio, he found the military drawn up in line waiting for Morgan's arrival. Colonel Hayes was not only waiting for him also, but he went to meet him, and after a spirited little engage- 858 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. merit, Morgan fled with the Twenty-third at his heels. The next morning Colonel Hayes was reinforced by Judah's cavalry and the gunboats, and resuming the fight with Morgan, the latter was routed with a loss of half his men, followed soon after by the capture of the remainder, including Morgan himself. This defeat and capture of the rebel raider was plainly the result of the expedition planned by Colonel Hayes, without which early movement it is probable Morgan would have escaped. After this tbe Twenty-third Regiment, together with the other troops over which Colonel Hayes was in command as acting Brigadier-General, returned to Charleston, where they remained until April, 1864, at which time they were ordered to join General Crook in a raid for the purpose of destroying the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad by burning the bridge over New River. The march was one of the most diffi- cult that could possibly be accomplished : over mountains, through ravines, with torrents and swollen streams and dense for- ests, almost impassable with snow and ice and rain. Just before reaching the railroad, they found a rebel force posted in a strong position on the mountain ridge over which they were compelled to pass. The rebel position was bristling with three lines of the most formidable fortifications, which must be taken. This position Colonel Hayes was ordered to take by assault. Form- ing his men at the edge of the meadow, he charged across the open field under a fierce fire of the enemy, and dashing through a stream at the base of the mountain, his soldiers climbed over rocks and fallen timber until they reached a slight shelter under the edge of the cliff. Halting there only long enough to reform his lines, Colonel Hayes ordered the fearful charge up the almost perpendicular sides of the mountain, with the terrible hail of musketry and cannon playing on them with deadly effect. Knowing that the quicker they got into the enemy's works the fewer Union soldiers would be sacrificed, they raised a wild yell and rusho d so furiously up the steep h)liside that they were pouring over the breastworks before the rebels could comprehend the situation. The rebels rushed panic-stricken from their first lines, with the Union soldiers after them to pre- vent them from reforming on the second crest. Here a fierce RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 359 hand-to-hand fight of a few minutes followed, when the rebels again retreated to their last line, and fought with desperation until they were again overwhelmed and fled rapidly down the mountain and disappeared in the heavy timber on the oppo- site side. General Crook now hastened his troops to the New River Bridge, which they burned, together with the railroad ties, for several mile:-, thereby destroying the rebel communica- tion in that direction. The expedition having accom- plished its purpose, immediately set out on its return before reinforcements of the enemy could cut off its retreat, and after a wretched march through torrents of rain and flooded roads and streams, they arrived at Staunton on the 8th of June, where Colonel Hayes' brigade joined Hunter's command. At the attack on Lexington on the llth, Colonel Hayes' brigade led the advance and deserved great credit in the cap- ture of the town after a three-hours' fight. On the 14th he ad- vanced within one or two miles of Lynchburg, and engaged a body of rebels, whom he defeated. On the 18th the regular attack on Lynchburg was made by Hunter in front and Crook in the rear, but heavy reinforcements having been sent from Richmond, the Federal forces were compelled to fall back. Hayes' brigade was ordered to cover the retreat, and, although they had been two nights without sleep and almost without food, they bravely performed their duty, fighting all day and remaining awake at night to prevent surprise. On the 20th Hayes took possession of Buford's Gap, and held it all day, thereby keeping back a body of rebels who intended shelling the; retreating army from the heights. At Big Se wall Mountain "Hayes' Brigade obtained the first food and rest since the retreat **>gan, having performed almost superhuman services. "Aching Charleston on the 1st of July, Crook's command "tested until the 10th, when it was ordered to oppose the ad- vance of Early into Maryland and Pennsylvania. When in the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, Hayes was sent, on the 18th, with his brigade and a howitzer battery to reconnoitre Early's movements, and being surrounded by rebel cavalry, fought his way out and joined Crook at Winchester, on the 22d. 360 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. To prevent Early from reinforcing Lee, General Crook's divi- sion was kept busy making raids and harassing Early at every available point, and Hayes' brigade always seemed to be the favorite one selected for movements of this kind. Upon one of these occasions, Hayes was sent out with his brigade to co- operate with another brigade, under Colonel Mulligan, in an attack upon an advancing body of rebels. As the two brigades advanced upon the enemy, they could only see a line or two of skirmishers, and supposed the rebel movement to be only a re- connoissance, but great was their surprise to find the rebels massed in great force on the hills, between which the commands of Hayes and Mulligan were hemmed. They saw at once that it was fight or surrender, and fight they did. Almost at the first fire Colonel Mulligan was killed, and the rebels closed in upon the apparently doomed Union forces, but Colonel Hayes quickly fe.ll back to a thick wood, where he formed his men and poured such a deadly volley into the enemy that he held them at bay, and disconcerting them by his firm resistance, he con- tinued his retreat, and for twelve miles held the enemy in check by turning when closely pressed and pouring a volley into their rank?. In this way Colonel Hayes reached Crook's forces with the two brigades. After this Hayes's brigade was kept busy in the Shenandoah Valley, and on the 23d of August he executed his most brilliant charge at Halltown, and captured entire a South Carolina regiment, which so completely surprised the rebels that they exclaimed : " Who the are you-uns ?" Colonel Hayes again engaged in a hot battle on the 3d of September at Berryville. Here his brigade drove back with great slaughter a strong force from Longstreet's Division. Colonel Hayes had posted his men behind a low stone wall along the line of the turnpike, and as the enemy charged, the Hayes brigade rose with a wild shout and poured a deadly volley into the ranks of the discomfited enemy, and then they charged the rebels, who in great disorder fled to their main body, which in turn chased Hayes' command to the cover of the woods. On the 19th of September Colonel Hayes accomplished one RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. S61 of the most daring services at the battle of Winchester. General Crook's division was ordered to advance on the enemy's extreme right. In the charge Hayes's Brigade was in front and with a line of skirmishers he drove back the enemy's cavalry while his brigade marched across the open fields. When they reached an elevation in the field they were in plain view of the enemy, who began pouring a brisk artillery fire into their ranks. Ordering his men on the double quick, Colonel Hayes pushed through the underbrush, and to his surprise came upon a deep slough or miry creek forty or fifty yards wide. The rebels never supposed that a body of troops would attempt to go through the dark water and dangerous mud of this slough, but Colonel Hayes saw at a glance that the rebel battery beyond was almost unsupported, and, plunging into the horrible filth, he and his horse for a moment disappeared from sight, but struggling to the surface, the horse swam and dragged himself through the deepest wj.ter until he mired and sank down on the opposite side. Here Colonel Hayes turned and waved his cap for his brigade to follow. With a yell they followed their brave commander, and while many were mired or drowned, the remainder crossed in safety and poured over the rebel intrenchments, where they captured a number of prisoners, but could not secure the battery, which had been hastily with- drawn. Colonel Hayes then formed bis brigade on the ground taken from the enemy, and, assisted by Sheridan's cavalry, which had crossed at the end of the slough, the brigade charged the rebel lines, and, supported by Crook's main force, they carried the day and swept the rebels from the field. The next day occurred the battle of Fisher's Hill. After the defeat of the day previous the rebels retreated to a narrow de- file in the Shenandoah Valley, commanded by the mountain ridge called Fisher's Hill, which they fortified and believed to be impregnable. This position Crook and Sheridan decided could be taken by turning the left flank of the enemy. The army was at once put in motion, and after the most difficult march- ing and clambering over rocks and through ravines, they came in sight of the rebels, and, ordering the charge, Hayes galloped down on the rebels with the army yelling at his heels. 362 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. The charge was made with such a dare-devil rush that the rebels, without firing a gun, rushed panic-stricken from their intrenchments, leaving every gun behind. On the 19th of October, Early having reorganized his com- mand and received reinforcements, engaged Crook's and Sheridan's commands, during the absence of General Sheridan, and most disastrously defeated them, driving them back in the greatest disorder. Colonel Hayes acted with the greatest bravery and coolness, and, keeping his lines unbroken, fell back stubbornly before the enemy. During this brave and stubborn resistance Colonel Hayes was at one time left exposed to the fire of the enemy, who seemed to concentrate their hail of lead around him. Galloping away at full speed, his horse was suddenly struck down dead, riddled bv bullets. His fall was so sudden that Colonel Hayes was thrown over his head, badly bruising himself and dislocating his ankle. Watching his chance, just after a shower of bul- lets fell around him, he jumped up and hastily hobbled to the lines of his brigade, where he mounted another horse and kept his men firing at the enemy. Suddenly there was a dash on the road, and Sheridan was seen furiously advancing on his magnificent black horse, which was streaming with perspiration and flaked with foam, and as he reached the disordered ranks, he said : ' ' Boys, this would never have happened if I had been here," and at once he began to form the broken lines and prepare for a wild charge upon the enemy The history of that charge is known to almost eveiy one, and a splendid victory wiped out the defeat and swept the rebels from the valley. Nearly all their supplies were captured and all that we had previously lost retaken. After the gallant conduct of Colonel Hayes in this battle Sheridan said to him : " You will be a Brigadier- General from this time," and it was but a short time after that he received his promotion, which specified that it was "for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek." Later he received the commission of a Brevet Major-General as a reward for the same and other gal- lant services rendered during the war. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 363 During the time Colonel Hayes was in the hottest of the Shenandoah Valley campaign he was nominated for Congress by the Republicans of his district in Cincinnati. His friends wrote to him that he ought to be present in Cincinnati to insure his election. To this he replied : "An officer fit for duty, who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for Congress, ought to be scalped. You may feel perfectly sure I shall do no such thing. 1 ' So while he remained at his post and fought, his friends elected him to Congress. Shortly after this the war ended, and sending in his resignation, Mr. Hayes returned home to Cincinnati, and in the following December took his seat in Congress, where he became an industrious worker. He was appointed chairman of the Library Committee, and by his exer- tions secured a large increase of the Library of Congress. Having done his duty in many other works during his term, he was re-elected for the next term by a gain over his first vote. It was his intention, at the end of his second term, to retire to his uncle's farm at Fremont, but he reluctantly accepted the nomination for Governor of Ohio in 1867, upon the issue of the reconstruction measures. His opponent was Mr. Thurman, and the Republican party regarded General Hayes as the strongest man they could put up against him. As a proof of Hayes' per- sonal popularity, he was elected Governor, while the Legisla- ture and Constitutional Amendment were lost by fifty thousand majority. In 1 869 General Hayes was renominated by the Republican convention by acclamation, and was elected over Mr. Pendle- ton, the Democratic candidate. At the end of this term he ex- pressed his desire to withdraw from political life, and wrote to a friend, saying : " I, too, mean to be out of politics. The rati- fication of the fifteenth amendment gives me the boon of equality before the law, terminates my enlistment and dis- charges me cured." His friends were not willing for him to retire from public services, and in 1872 he was again nominated for Congress in his old district. Reluctantly he entered the canvass and made a number of excellent speeches, but the opposition had grown too strong for Republican success, and he was defeated. 364 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. General Grant now offered him the position of Assistant United States Treasurer at Cincinnati, but his uncle, Sardis Birchard, had just died and left him his fine farm at Fremont, and declining the position offered him by the President, he re- tired to the sweet comfort of rural life. But here he was not allowed to remain. His friends of the Republican party ap- pealed to him in 1875 as the only man who could save the party from defeat in the Gubernatorial contest, and Mr. Hayes be- came the nominee. The issue was on the currency, and not only rallied a full Republican vote, but also many votes of War Democrats were secured by the personal popularity of Mr. Hayes, and for the third time he was elected Governor, in which position he displayed the greatest executive ability, and not only reduced the State debt, but was instrumental in secur- ing much beneficial legislation. The day was rapidly approaching when higher honors awaited him. In 1876 the Republican Convention met at Chicago to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice- Presidency. Those who had previously been talked of as the most probable candidates were Blaine and Conkling, between whom the party was divided. The Ohio delegation, however, came up solid for General Hayes, and urged his nomination as the strongest that could be made. This influence was so strong that after a number of ballots General Hayes was nomi- nated for the Presidency, and after writing a very able letter of acceptance, he retired to his home at Fremont. The Demo- crats nominated Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, for the Presidency, and the succeeding campaign was a close and vigorous one. The result of the election was unfortunately in doubt. Cer- tain complications arose in the election in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida as to the admission of votes from certain districts in those States. There was a long and angry debate in Congress over the grave question of counting the electoral votes. The popular vote as taken had given Mr. Tilden a large majority, but the Republicans declared that the returns from parts of three States in dispute were irregular, and that certain votes were illegal and should not be counted. There could be RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 365 no agreement on the regular method of counting the electoral vote, so at last both parties agreed to refer the issue to a Com- mission composed of fifteen members, of whom five were tp be from the House of Representatives, five from the Senate, and the remaining five were Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. The selection of the Commission was made as follows: Three of the Senators were to be Republicans, and two to be Democrats; three of the Representatives were to be Demo- crats and two of them Republicans. Of the Judges, four were to be equally divided between the two parties, and they were to select the fifth. This one happened to be a Republican. This gave the Republicans eight out of fifteen of the Commission, and it was but natural that they would decide every question by a party vote. This out-voted the Democrats by one vote and secured the Presidency for Mr. Hayes. It was unfortunate for his administration that the popular vote had been so large for Mr. Tilden, as his political opponents and even some of his own party believed that he was not entitled to the office. In the face of all this he gave the country a very quiet and commendable administration, and exercised the office with the least possible ostentation, thus securing friends from among his enemies, and at the expiration of his term retiring as modestly as he came in, and returning to his home at Fremont followed by the good opinions and well wishes of the nation. JAMES A. GARFIELD. James Abrain Garfield was born November 19th, 1831, in a log-cabin on a new farm, in Orange township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which his father was clearing. He came of hardy, industrious, intelligent New England stock. His earliest American ancestor was Edward Garfield, who emigrated from Cheshire, England, on the border of Wales, and settled in Watertown, Mass., in 1630, and was a selectman of his town for many years. The fourth son of Edward was Benjamin Garfield, a militia captain and a representative of Watertown in the General Court for nine terms. The line of descent comes down through Thomas Garfield, of Weston, Mass., his third child, and a second Thomas, who lived in Lincoln and was the oldest child of the first Thomas, to Solomon, the great-grand- father of General Garfield. Solomon's brother Abraham was in the fight at Concord Bridge. Solomon moved to Otsego County, New York, and settled in the township of Worcester. His son Thomas succeeded him as a small farmer. Abram, a son of Thomas, born in 1799, went to Ohio when a lad of eighteen and worked at chopping wood and clearing land in Newburg, near Cleveland. Afterward he journeyed to Mus- kingum County, where he met Eliza Ballou, who had been his schoolmate in his old home in Worcester, when they were children. They were married in 1820, and went to live in Bed- ford, Cuyahoga County. Eliza Ballou, the mother of General Garfield, was born in New Hampshire, of French Huguenot stock. Her ancestor, Maturin Ballou, fled from France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and settled in Rhode Island, James was the youngest of four children. His father bought eighty acres of forest land in Orange a short time before the boy's birth, put up a log cabin of a single room, moved his 368 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. family into it, and began the work of clearing a farm. In May, 1833, the father died, leaving the farm, partly cleared and only partly paid for, as the whole support of his young family. His last words were, " Eliza, I have planted four saplings in these woods; I leave them to your care." The mother, a woman of great courage and strong will, sold off half the land to pay the debt, and by the help of the oldest son managed to keep the family together, and to rear the children in the atmosphere of a pious, moral, self -sacrificing home life. James helped on the farm as soon as he was old enough to handle an ax or a hoe, or drive the oxen for his big brother to hold the plow. When older, he earned money by working for the neighbors in the hay-field. His first regular wages were gained by working in a potash factory owned by a neighboring storekeeper. His early education was got at a district school- house, where he learned to read, write and cipher. He had a passion for books from his childhood, and read the few volumes left by his father and everything he could borrow from the neighbors before he was ten years old. As a boy he was strong, active, fond of outdoor sports, kind, but quick-tempered, and swift to resent an insult with his fists. At school he was known as a fighting boy, because of his readiness to defend himself when misused by the larger boys. When eighteen he went to Newburg and took a contract to chop one hundred cords of wood at fifty cents a cord. There he got his first glimpse of Lake Erie, and the sight of its blue waters and white sails revived in him a boyhood dream of becoming a sailor. When the job of chopping was finished he went to Cleveland, with the intention of shipping as a hand on a schooner, but the captain of the first craft he boarded greeted him with a torrent of profanity and ordered him ashore. As no one wanted a green hand on the lake craft, he hired out to drive horses on the canal, and spent the summer boating between Cleveland and Brier Hill, on the Mahoning River, making one trip to Eittsburg. He soon rose to the rank of steersman, but hard work and exposure brought on a malarial fever which lasted all the next winter. With the help of the district schoolmaster, his mother JAMES A. (JARFIELD. 860 dissuaded him from making another effort to go upon the lakes as a sailor, and in the following spring he went to Geauga Academy, a Baptist institution in the village of Chester, to make a start at getting an education. A cousin about the same age went with him, and the two lads hired a room and lived mostly on provisions which they took from home. His mother gave him seventeen dollars, which she and his brother Thomas had scraped together, and with this money he got through one term of school. In the summer he worked for day wages in the hay and harvest fields, and helped build a frame house for his mother, thus learning something of the carpenter trade, which was of great service to him afterward in enabling him to com- plete his education. Returning to the academy in the fall, he boarded himself at a cost of thirty-one cents per week, but find- ing the fare hardly good enough for health, increased his ex- penses to fifty cents per week. In the winter he taught a coun- try school for twelve dollars a month and " boarded around." The only time in his life when he sought a public position was when he looked for his first school. He tramped two days over the country without success, his youth and rather awkward, overgrown appearance being against him ; but after his return from his fruitless search, as he was sitting disconsolate at home, a neighbor came up and offered him a school half a mile away, which he had not ventured to apply for because it had been broken up two winters in succession by the unruly pupils. His good uncle Boynton, who was his adviser in all his early life, told him to undertake the school, and said, " You will go into that school as the boy Jim Garfield ; see that you leave it as Mr. Garfield, the teacher." James conquered the school and made an excellent teacher. He went back to the academy the following spring, and sup- ported himself by working for a carpenter mornings and even- ings and Saturdays. The carpenter agreed to board and lodge him and do his washing for one dollar and six cents per week, and credit him with his work by the hour or the job. James paid his way, bought himself some clothes and books, and had three dollars left at the end of the term. In the winter he taught school again this time a larger school in the village of 370 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. Independence for which he got sixteen dollars a month. He joined the Disciples Church, to which his mother and uncle be- longed, and which met in the school-house near his mother's farm, and was baptized in a little creek running into the Chagrin River. From Chester Academy the young student went to Hiram, in the adjoining county of Portage, where the Disciples had just opened a new school, called the Hiram Eclec- tic Institute. There, too, he earned his way by teaching country schools winters and working in summer at the carpenter's bench, until he was offered a tutorship in the institution. His ruling passion now was to get a college education. In three years' time he went through a preparatory course and half of the regular col- lege course, with the assistance of one of the teachers who studied with him, and thus did six years' study in 'three, while teaching classes all the time. To accomplish this he did an amount of brain work that would have appalled one less resolute, and would have broken down a constitution not remarkably strong. In 1854, when nearly twenty -three years old, he entered Wil- liams College, at Williamstown, Mass., and passed the examina- tions for the Junior Class. He had saved money enough from his salary as a teacher to pay his expenses for one year. How to get the rest of the sum needed was a problem. A kind- hearted gentleman many years his senior, who was ever after one of his closest friends, loaned him the amount. So scrupu- lous was the young man about the payment of the debt that he got his life insured and placed the policy in his creditor's hands. "If I live," he said, " I shall pay you, and if I die you will suffer no loss." The debt was repaid soon after he graduated. In 1856 he graduated with the highest honor of his class. His classmates remember well his prodigious industry as a student, his physical activity in the college games, and his cordial, hearty social ways. During the two winter vacations which occurred while he was at Williams he taught writing-schools, first at North Pownal, Vermont, and next at Poestenkill, near Troy, N. Y. Returning to Ohio from college, young Garfield went back to the school at Hiram, and was given the professorship of Latin and Greek, and the next year, when only twenty-six years old, JAMBS A. GABFIELD. 371 he was made President of the Institute. There probably never was a younger president. He carried into his new position the remarkable energy and vigor and good sense which were the mainsprings of his character. He soon increased the attend- ance at the school, raised its standard of scholarship, strength- ened its faculty, and inspired everybody connected with it with something of his own zeal and enthusiasm. At the same time he studied law and was an omnivorous reader of general literature. Garfield's first political speech was made at Williamstown in 1856, just before he left college. It was an enthusiastic appeal in behalf of Fremont, the first Eepublican candidate for the Presidency. When he returned to Hiram he entered with ardor into the campaign then in progress, and made a number of speeches at evening meetings in country school-houses and town-halls. His first vote was cast that fall. Thus his political career began with the birth of the Republican party. His place in life seemed now won, and he married the object of his youthful love Lucretia Rudolph, a farmer's daughter, who had been his fellow-student at Chester Academy, and his pupil at Hiram. Miss Rudolph was a refined, intelligent, affec- tionate girl, who shared his thirst for knowledge and his ambi- tion for culture, and had, at the same time, the domestic tastes and talents which fitted her equally to preside over the home of the poor college professor and that of the famous statesman. Much of Garfield's subsequent success in life may be attributed to his fortunate marriage. His wife grew with his growth, and was, during all his career, the appreciative companion of his studies, the loving mother of his children, the graceful, hospitable hostess of his friends and guests, and the wise and faithful helpmeet in the trials, vicissitudes and successes of hij busy life. While teaching at Hiram, Garfield was in the habit of deliv- ering religious discourses on Sunday. He was never ordained as a minister, but in his denomination no ordination is required for occupying a pulpit, any member of the church being priv- ileged to deliver sermons. Garfield's talent as an orator and his sincere religious convictions made his services as a preacher of great value to the Disciples, and he was strongly urged to 372 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. become a regular minister. His mind was already made up, however, that the law should be his ultimate profession, but he was glad to aid his denomination by pulpit discourses when- ever he could. For some time he spoke regularly in the Dis- ciples church at New burg, near Cleveland, going there from Hiram Saturdays and returning Monday mornings in time for his school duties. His stay at Hiram was a period of great intellectual activity for him. Besides his teaching and preach- ing, he delivered two lectures a week to the pupils of the Insti- tute on literary and historical subjects, took part in the fall campaign, and often lectured in the neighboring towns. At- one time he held a five days' joint discussion on geology with William Denton, taking the providential against the material view of creation. In 1859 Garfield was elected to the Senate of Ohio from the counties of Portage and Summit. He had taken part in the po- litical campaigns of 1856, 1857, and 1858, and had become pretty well known as a vigorous, logical stump orator. He did not think a few weeks in the winter at Columbus would break in seriously upon his college work, to which he was devoted. It is probable, however, that he already felt the promptings of political ambition, which he did not even acknowledge to him- self. His most intimate friend in the Senate was J. D. Cox, who afterward became a Major-General, Governor of the State, and Secretary of the Interior. The two young Senators roomed together, studied together, and helped each other in the work of legislation. Garfield pushed his law studies forward, and early in the winter of 1861 was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court. During the session of 1861 Garfield was char- acteristically active and vigorous in aiding to prepare the State to stand by the General Government in opposition to the rising storm of rebellion. When the storm burst he determined to drop everything and enter the army. He talked the matter over with his friend Cox, and both agreed that it was their duty to offer their lives, if need be, for their country. A company was raised at Hiram, composed exclusively of the students of his college, and was attached to the Forty-second Ohio Infantry. Governor Dennison offered Garfieid the colonelcy, but JAMES A. GARFIELD. 373 he modestly declined, on account of his lack of military experi- ence, and asked that a West Pointer be put in command. The Governor made him lieutenant-colonel, and a few weeks later, when the regiment was organized, he yielded to the universal desire of its officers and accepted the colonelcy. The regiment took the field in Eastern Kentucky, in December, 1861. Colonel Garfield was assigned to the command of the Eighteenth Brigade, and was ordered by General Buell to drive Humphrey Marshall out of the Sandy Valley. Thus a citizen soldier, who had never een battle, was intrusted wiih the serious task of defeating a force outnumbering his by nearly two to one, and commanded by a man who had led the famous charge of the Kentucky Volunteers at Buena Vista. By a forced night march he reached Marshall's position, near Prestonburg, at daybreak, fell upon him with impetuosity, and after a sharp fight forced him to burn his baggage and retreat into Virginia. The rebels left a small force in Pound Gap, which they fortified and held as a point of observation. On the 14th of March Colonel Garfield started wiih 500 infantry and 200 cavalry to dislodge this force. A severe march of ten days brought his men to the gap. He sent his cavalry along the main road to attract the enemy's at- tention, while he scrambled over the rocks and through the woods with his infantry and reached the outskirts of the rebel camp unobserved. A few volleys scattered them in full retreat. These operations cleared Eastern Kentucky and stopped the flank movement which was disturbing BuelFs plan. This expedition was so successful and so fully proved the mil- itary capacity of Garfield that he was immediately promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and the following incident proves how well he deserved his commission : While camping at Pike- ton heavy rains flooded Sandy Valley, until the brigade was cut off from supplies and were in danger of starvation. General Garfield took in the situation at once, and decided to go himself in search of a steamboat to bring food to his famished army. At last he found one in the Ohio, tied up near the mouth of the Big Sandy, waiting for the flood to subside. It was a dilapi- dated old boat, and the captain said that no boat could live in the flood that was pouring out of the Big Sandy, and besides there 374 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. was no channel to Piketon, and a boat would have to go through the woods and over submerged fields to get there. Persuasion was of no avail, and the picture the general drew of his starving men met with no sympathetic response in the heart of the cau- tious boatman. " Well," said Garfield, drawing his revolver, " that boat will carry food to my men or sink in the attempt." " I aint got no man that can pilot her up thar," said the cap- tain. " Never mind the pilot. I'll steer the boat," replied Gar- field. The boat was then loaded with provisions, and with General Garfield at the wheel, putting in practice what little he had learned as a canal-boat pilot, they started to -Stem the flood, and for two days and a night he stuck to his post, running the boat over bushes and through the mud and bumping her against old logs until he could see the flags and bayonets of his brigade on the hillside. With a wild shout the boys rushed pell-mell to the boat, and when they saw their commander in the pilot house, steering the ark of safety that was bringing food to the hungry, they raised such a hurrah as had never been heard in that locality before, and they did not believe that the man could be licked by the rebels who had such grit as that. On the 23d of March General Gai-field received orders from Bu^ll to proceed to Louisville with his command, except a small force left at Piketon. When Garfield reached Louisville he found that BueJl's army had left to join Grant at Pittsburgh Landing, on the Tennessee River. Following rapidly after, General Garfield reached Buell at Columbia, Tennessee, and was at once assigned to the command of the Twentieth Brigade. News of the rebel attack upon General Grant had already reached Buell, and the army was hastened with all speed to Savannah, on the Tennessee, where they embarked on boats for Pittsburgh Landing, reaching that place late in the afternoon of the day of the battle of Shiloh, where they found Grant's army pressed back to the river, his position being held with desperation against an overwhelming force of rebels. General Garfield 's brigade was at once thrown into the action, and in that JAMES A. GAEF1ELD. 375 terrible afternoon's fight he did his work nobly in helping to save the army from a crushing defeat. The next day after the victory of Pittsburgh Landing was gained, Garfield with his brigade was sent forward with Sherman in pursuit of the enemy, who fled to their strong fortifications at Corinth. There Gen- eral Garfield took a brave and conspicuous part in the long and tedious siege which resulted hi the evacuation of the place by the rebels. General Buell was then ordered to advance along the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and for the purpose of transportation. General Garfield was sent in advance with his brigade to repair the railroad. This order he executed to the letter, after which he went into camp at Huntsville, Ala- bama. At this place he was appointed president of a court martial to try Colonel Turchin for the conduct of his command at Athens, Alabama. Soon after this he was violently attacked with chills and fever, and was forced to return home on sick leave. While there he received orders to report to the Secre- tary of V. r ar at Washington as a member of the court-martial to try General Fitz John Porter. While at Washington he was appointed chief of staff to General Rosecrans. At this time General Rosecrans' inactivity was the cause of much complaint both on the part of General Ilalleck and the War Department. General Rosecrans gave as his most important reasons for his delay in moving against the enemy, the weakness of his cavalry force and the great military advantage of keeping Bragg in his front instead of driving him away to unite with Johnston and attack Grant at Vicksburg. At first General Garfield thought Rosecrans was right, but as soon as he became familiar with the situation and could exer- cise his excellent judgment, he favored an attack upon Bragg, and urged Rosecrans to make it. To satisfy himself of the views entertained by his generals, he requested in writing from them their opinions in reference to an immediate or early attack upon the enemy. The entire seventeen generals who gave their opinions coincided with General Rosecrans. These letters General Garfield reviewed in a strong argument against them, which has been pronounced the ablest military document submitted by a chief of staff during the war. This induced. 376 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. General Rosecrans to make the move from Murfeesboro toward Bragg's strongly intrenched position at Tullahoma, which resulted in forcing the rebel general to evacuate hie position and retreat to Chattanooga, leaving sixteen hundred prisoners, six cannon and a large quantity of stores in posses- sion of the Union forces. A remarkable incident connected with this advance is that the seventeen generals of Rosecrans' command sent General Crittenden to headquarters to say to General Garfield that they understood that the movement was his work, and that they wished him to understand that it was a rash and fatal move, for which he would be held responsible. It is to be regretted that he could not have had the opportunity of being held responsible for more such movements against the enemy. General Garfield next engaged in the battle of Chickamauga, in which he wrote every order except the fatal one which lost the battle. Had he written this, the unfortunate mistake of Wood in interpreting the order would have been prevented, and had Garfield commanded the army, it is probable that Chicka- mauga would have been a victory instead of a disaster. On the 16th of August Rosecrans moved his army against Chattanooga, which he endeavored to turn and cut Bragg's communication. This intention the rebel commander thwarted by evacuating Chattanooga and falling back toward Daltou. Never doubting but that Bragg was in sincere retreat, Rose- crans pushed vigorously after him, and divided his army for the purpose of a more successful pursuit. Bragg's movement, however, was only a feint, and as soon as he had formed a junction with Longstreet, he turned fiercely on Rosecrans' sur- prised army to crush it. Such was the unfortunate position of the army, and such the fatal mistake of General Wood, that nothing saved the Union forces from being crushed but the volunteer movement of General Garfield in going to General Thomas and giving him information of the position of the rebel army and the advantage he could take of it to save his division and protect the others which had been thrown into confusion. Even this could not have saved the army had not General Granger'? command of Steadman's Division arrived just in time JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 377 to close a gap through which Longstreet was pouring his rebel troops to the rear of our array. This enabled General Thomas to hold the enemy in check. Here the rebels charged again and again, with our artillery pouring grape and canister iuto their ranks, and at last a bayonet charge of Thomas' brave soldiers, when they were entirely out of ammunition, drove the enemy away for the night and saved our army. General Garfield fell back with the army to Chattanooga, and was of invaluable service in organizing it for the siege which the rebels laid to the place. For his conduct at Chickamauga Garfield was made a major- general. A military critic, writing of his career soon after the close of the war, said : "As a chief of staff Garfield was un- rivaled. There, as elsewhere, he was ready to accept the gravest responsibilities in following his convictions. The bent of his mind was aggressive ; his judgment of purely military matters was good ; his papers on the Tullahoma campaign will stand a monument of his courage and his far-reaching, soldierly sagacity ; and his conduct at Chickamauga will never be forgotten by a nation of brave men." This closed General Garfield's military career in the field. In the summer of 1862, when everybody supposed the war was going to end in a few months, a number of officers who had gained distinction in the field were taken up at home and elected to Congress. Among them was General Garfield, who was nominated by the Eepublicans of Joshua R. Giddings' old district while with his brigade in Kentucky. He had no knowledge of any such movement in his behalf, and when he accepted the nomination he did so in the belief that the Rebell- ion would be 'subdued before he would be called upon to take his seat in the House, in December, 1863. His nomination was partly the result of his military fame and panly of a desire on the part of the friends of Giddings to defeat the man who had pushed him out of Congress four years before. Garfield's popularity made him the most available man in the district for this purpose. He was elected by a majority of over ten thou- sand. He continued his military service up to the day of the meeting of Congress. Even then he seriously thought of re- 378 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. signing his position as a Representative rather than his major- general's commission, and would have done so had not Presi- dent Lincoln made a personal appeal to him to enter the House and give the administration the help of his military experience in passing measures for filling up the army and pushing the war to a conclusion. Had he remained in the field he would have had the command of a corps in Thomas' army. He was appointed on the Military Committee, under the chair- manship of General Schenck, and was of great service in carry- ing through the measures which recruited the armies during the closing years of the war. At the same time he began a course of severe study of the subjects of finance and political economy, going home every evening to his modest lodgings in Thirteenth street with his arms full of books borrowed from the Congressional Library. He soon took rank in the House as a ready and forcible debater, a hard worker, and a diligent, practical legislator. His superior knowledge used to offend some of his less learned colleagues at first. They thought him bookish and pedantic until they found how solid and useful was his store of knowledge, and how pertinent to the business in hand were the drafts he made upon it. His genial personal ways soon made him many warm friends in Congress. The men of brains in both houses and in the departments were not long in disco vering that here was a fresh, strong intellectual 'orce that was destined to make its mark upon the politics of the country. They sought his acquaintance, and before he had been long in Washington he had the advantage of the best society of the Capital. As a leader in the House he was more cautious and less dash- ing than Blaine, and his judicial turn of mind made him too prone to look for two sides of a question for him to be an effi- cient partisan. When the issue fairly touched his convictions, however, he became thoroughly aroused and struck tremendous blows. Elaine's tactics were to continually harass the enemy by sharp-shooting surprises and picket firing. Garfield waited for an opportunity to deliver a pitched battle, and his generalship vas shown to best advantage when the fight was a fair one and vaged on grounds where each party thouizht itself strongest. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 379 Then his solid shot of argument were exceedingly effective. On the stump, Garfield was one of the very best orators in the Re- publican party. He had a good voice, an air of evident sincerity, great clearness and vigor of statement, and a way of knitting his arguments together so as to make a speech deepen its im- pression on the mind of the hearer until the climax was reached. With the single exception of 1867, when he made a tour in Europe, he did hard work on the stump for the Republican party in every campaign after he entered Congress. His services were in demand in all parts of the country. He usually re- served half his time for the Ohio canvass, and gave the other half to other States. The November election usually found him worn and haggard with travel and speaking in the open air, but his robust constitution always carried him through, and after a few weeks' rest on his farm, he would appear in Washington refreshed and ready for the duties of the session. Whea chairman of the Appropriations Comnaittae, General Garfield used to work fifteen hours a day. Of his industry and studious habits a great deal might be said, but a single illustra- tion will suffice. Once during the busiest part of a very busy session at Washington, a friend found him in his library behind a big barricade of books. This was no unusual sight, but when the visitor glanced at the volumes he saw they were all different editions of Horace, or books relating to that poet. " I find I am overworked and need recreation," said the General. " Now, my theory is that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it be idle, but to put it at something quite outside of the ordinary line of its employment. So I am resting by learning all the Congressional Library can show about Horace, and the various editions and translations of his poems," General Garfield was the possessor of two homes, and his family migrated twice a year. Finding how unsatisfactory life was in hotels and boarding-houses, he bought a lot of ground on the corner of Thirteenth and First streets, in Washington, and with money borrowed of a friend built a plain, substantial three-story house. A wing was extended afterward to make room for the fast-growing library. The money was repaid in time, and was probably saved in great part from what would 380 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. otherwise have gone to landlords. The children grew up in pleasant home surroundings, and the house became a centre of much simple and cordial hospitality. The little cottage at Hiram was sold, and for a time the only residence the Garfields had in his district was a little summer house he built on Little Mountain, a bold elevation in Lake County, which commands MB. QARFIELD'S RESIDENCE AT MENTOE, OHIO. a view of thirty miles of rich farming country stretched along the shore of Lake Erie. Afterward he bought a farm at Men- tor, in the same county, lying on both sides of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. Here his family spent all the time when he was free from his duties in Washington. The original farm-house was a low, old-fashioned story -and a-half building, and its limited accomodations were supplemented by numerous outbuildings, one of which General Garfield used for office and library purposes. He had the house enlarged JAMES A. GARFIELC. 38 1 and remodelled, so that it now has a handsome modern look. The farm contains about 160 acres of excellent land in a high state of cultivation, and General Garfield found a recreation, of which he never tired, in directing the field work and mak- ing improvements in the buildings, fences and orchards. Cleve- land is only twenty-five miles away; there is a post-office and a railway station within half a mile, and the pretty county-seat town of Painesville is but five miles distant. One of the pleas- ures of summer life on the Garfield farm was a drive of two miles through the woods to the lake shore and a bath in the breakers. Visitors who came unannounced often found the General working in the hay-field with his boys, with his broad genial face sheltered from the sun under a big chip hat, and his trousers tucked in a pair of cowhide boots. He was a thor- ough countryman by instinct. The smell of the good brown earth, the lowing of cattle, the perfume of the new-cut grass, and all the sights and sounds of farm life, were dear to him from early associations. In person, General Garfield was six feet high, broad- shouldered, and strongly built. He had an unusually large head, that seemed to be three-fourths forehead, light brown hair and beard, touched with gray, large light blue eyes, a prominent nose and full cheeks. He dressed plainly, was fond of broad- rimmed slouch hats and stout boots, ate heartily, cared nothing for luxurious living, was a great reader of good books on all subjects, was thoroughly temperate in all respects save in that of brain work, and was devoted to his wife and children. Among men he was genial, approachable, companionable, and a remarkably entertaining talker. His mind was a vast store- house of facts, reminiscences and anecdotes. General Garfield had scarcely entered Congress before he delivered a speech so able and convincing that his popularity and influence as a party leader were at once recognized. This speech was in reply to one delivered by Mr. Alexander Long, Representative from Ohio, proposing the recognition of the Southern Confederacy. This speech aroused to indignation the sentiments of every Union-loving Representative on the floor of the House. At the close of the speech General Garfield 382 LIVES OF OUR PKESIDEKTS. sprang to his feet and delivered such a spirited, able and scathing rebuke that there was nothing left of Long's argu- ments but the memory of their dishonor. The following are among some of the final passages of General Garfield's speech : " Mr. Chairman, I am reminded by the occurrences of this afternoon of two characters in the war of the Revolution as compared with two others of the war of to-day. The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt near the Potomac, a few miles from us. When the great contest was opened between the mother country and the colonies, Lord Fairfax, after a protracted struggle with his own heart, decided that he must go with the mother country. He gathered his mantle about him and went over grandly and solemnly. "There was another man who cast in his lot with the struggling colonists and continued with them until the war was well nigh ended. In an hour of darkness that just preceded the glory of the morning he hatched the treason to surrender forever all that had been gained to the enemies of his country. Benedict Arnold was the man ! " Fairfax and Arnold find their parallel in the struggle to-day " When this war began many good men stood hesitating and doubting what they ought to do. Robert E. Lee sat in his house across the ri rer here doubt- ing and delaying, and going off at last almost tearfully to join the army of his State. He reminds one, in some respects, of Lord Fairfax, the sturdy royal- ist of the Revolution. " But now, when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God under the shadow of the flag, when thousands more maimed and shattered in the contest are sadly waiting the deliverance of death ; now, when three years of terrific warfare have raged over us : when our armies have pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers and crowded it into narrow limits until a wall of fire girds it; now, when the uplifted hand of a majestic people is about to hurl the bolts of its conquering power upon the Rebellion: now, in the quiet of this hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender all up, body and spirit, the nation and the flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to the accursed traitors to our country ! * * * * " Suppose the policy of the gentleman were adopted to-day. Let the order go forth 1 Sound the ' recall ' on your bugles, and let it ring forth from Texas to the far Atlantic, and tell the armies to come back. Call the victorious legions back over the battle-fields of blood, forever now dis- graced. Ca!l them back over the territory which they have conquered. Call them back and let the minions of secession chase them with derision and jeers as they come. And tell them that that man across the aisle, from the free State of Ohio, gave birth to the monstrous proposition. " Mr. Chairman, if such a word should be sent forth through the armies of the Union, the wave of terrible vengeance that would sweep back over this land could never find a parallel in the records of history. Almost in the moment of final victory the ' recall ' is sounded by a craven people not JAMES A. GARFIELD. 383 deserving freedom ! We ought every man to be made a slave should we sanction such a sentiment." In 1864 General Garfield was renominated without opposition and re-elected by an increased majority. He served on the Committee of Ways and Means, which was very much in the line of his tastes and studies. He favored a moderate protective tariff and a steady reduction of taxation and government expenditures. In 1866 a few of his constituents living in the Mahoning Valley, an iron-producing district, opposed his renomination on the ground that he did not favor as high a tariff on iron as they wanted. The convention was overwhelm- ingly on his side, however, and in after years he succeeded in convincing his opponents that a moderate duty, affording a sufficient margin for protection, was better for their interests than a high prohibitory rate. In his third term he was chair- man of the Committee on Military Affairs, and had plenty of work in remodeling the regular Army and looking after the demands of the discharged soldiers for pay and bounty, of which many had been deprived by the red-tape decisions of the Government accounting officers. It was during this session that he delivered his sublime ora- tion on the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. Having been selected to make the motion for an adjournment of Congress for the day, and in speaking on the motion, he said : " 1 desire to move that this House do now adjourn. And before the vote upon that motion is taken, I desire to say a few words. This day, Mr. Speaker, will be sadly memorable so long as this nation shall eudure, which God grant may be till the last syllable of recorded time, when the volume of human history shall be sealed and delivered to the omnipotent judge. In all future time on the recurrence of this day, I doubt not that the citizens of this Republic shall meet in solemn assembly to reflect on the life and char- acter of Abraham Lincoln, and the awful tragic event of April 14, 186.), an event unparalleled in the history of nations, certainly unparalleled in our own. It is eminently proper that this House should this day place upon its records a memorial of that event. The last five years have been marked by wonder- ful developments of individual character. Thousands of our people before unknown to fame have taken their places in history, crowned with immortal honors. In thousands of humble homes are dwelling 1 heroes and patriots 3H4 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. whose names shall never die. But greatest among all these great develop- ments were the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln, whose loss the na- tion still deplores. His character is aptly described in the words of England's great laureate, written thirty years ago, in which he traces the upward steps of some " ' Divinely gifted man, Whose life in low estate began. And on a simple village green; " ' Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blow of circumstance, And grapples with his evil star; " ' Who makes by force his merit known, And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mold a mighty State's decrees. And shape the whisper of the throne; " ' And moving up from high to higher, Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope The pillar of a people's hope, The centre of a world's desire." " Such a life and character will be treasured forever as the sacred posses- sion of the American people and of mankind. In the great drama of. the Rebellion there were two acts. The first was the war with its battles and sieges, victories and defeats, its sufferings and tears. That act was closing one year ago to night, and, just as the curtain was lifting on the second and final act the restoration of peace and liberty just as the curtain was rising on new characters and new events, the evil spirit of the Rebellion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed the hand of the assassin to strike down the chief character in both. It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln ; it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful, despairing hate, that struck him down in the moment of the nation's suprem- est joy. " Ah, sir, there are times in the history of men when they stand so near the veil that separates mortal from the immortal, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the fleld of honor through that thin veil to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the martyr President to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic, the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men. Awe-stricken by His voice, the American people knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with him and with each other, that their nation should be saved from its enemies that all its glories should be restored ; and on the ruins of slavery JAMES A. (JARFIELD. 385 and treason the tample of freedom and justice should be built, and should survive forever. It remains for us, consecrated by the great event, and under a covenant with God, to keep that faith to go forward in the great work until it shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying the behests of God, let us remember that " ' He hath sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat j, He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat ; Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet ; For God is marching on !' " Again re-elected in 1868, General Garfield was appointed chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee, and during the same Congress did most of the hard work of the Committee on the Ninth Census. His financial views, always sound, and based on the firm foundation of honest money and unsullied national honor, had now become strengthened by his studies and investigations, and he was recognized as the best authority in the House on the great subjects of the debt and the currency. His record in the legislation concerning these subjects is with- out a flaw. No man in Congress made a more consistent and unwavering fight against the paper-money delusions that flour- ished during the decade following the war, and in favor of specie payments and the strict fulfillment of the nation's obliga- tions to its creditors. His speeches became the financial gospel of the Republican party. In 1871 General Garfield was made chairman of the Commit- tee on Appropriations, and held the post until the Democrats got control of the House in 1875. In that important position he largely reduced the expenditures of the government and thoroughly reformed the system of estimates and appropria- tions, providing for closer accountability on the part of those who spend the public money, and a clear knowledge on the part of those who vote it, of what it is used for. He was one of the committee sent to Louisiana to report on the political situation, with a view to reconstruction. In 1876 he was appointed one of the Commission to decide the contested Presidential election. We now come to a period of still greater prominence in the life of General Garfield. On the 3d of June, 1880, the National Republican Convention met at Chicago to nominate candidates 386 LIVES OF OT7R PRESIDENTS. for President and "Vice-President. General Garfield attended this convention as a delegate from Ohio to present the name of Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, for the votes of the Convention. It became evident that the great battle was to be fought between the champions of Grant and Elaine. The breach be- tween the factions was widening every hour, when General Garfield arose, and, as soon as he could be heard after the storm of applause, nominated the Hon. John Sherman as an unob- jectionable man, in whom all the excellences of Republican qualities were blended, and upon whom all could unite. Dur- ing his able speech the shout arose, " Nominate Garfield." At this time General Garfield was saying : " We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, standing on a mountain height, sees all the achievements of our past history, and carries in his heart the memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want one who will act in no spirit of unkindness against those we lately met in battle. The Republican party offt rs to our brethren of the South the olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return to brotherhood on this supreme condition, that it shall be admitted forever and forevermore that we were right and they were wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and no other. We ask them to share with us the 'blessings and honors of this great Republic. " It became evident soon after this speech that General Garfield was the unobjectionable man who possessed all these qualities and who could unite the warring fractions. General Garfield's nomination for President by the Chicago Convention was unsolicited and unexpected by him. He was not a candidate, and did not mean to become one. When it became evident that neither Grant, Elaine nor Sherman could be nominated, and the dead-lock had continued for thirty -three ballots, the Wisconsin delegation voted for Garfield. He arose and protested against the use of his name without his consent. In spite of his refusal to be a candidate, hundreds of delegates turned to him as the man for the emergency. On the 35th bal- lot he received 50 votes, and on the 36th he was nominated by a large majority over all others. His long and consistent record, his wise counsels in favor of harmony in the midst of the stormy scenes at Chicago, his manly independence in advocat- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 38? ing what he thought the right course, and his national fame as a brave, cool-headed, patriotic, conservative Republican leader, convinced the convention that he was the man to head the ticket. The wildest enthusiasm was evidenced when it was known that he had received the nomination. The usual exciting campaign followed, and at the election which took place on the 2d of November, 1880, General Gar- field was elected by a majority of 59 votes in the Electoral Col- lege over General Hancock, the Democratic candidate. After the election and before his inauguration General Gar- field remained at his home at Mentor, where, although besieged with a constant throng of visitors, he was comparatively free from the horde of office seekers and applicants for various official favors who swarm around the President in Washington like hungry flies. But at last his home had to be abandoned for the noisy Capital, and leaving Mentor on the 1st of March, he arrived on the 2d, and two days later was inaugurated under apparently the most auspicious circumstances. Immediately after his inauguration President Garfield sent to the Senate, then in extra session, the names selected as members of his Cabinet, which were as follows : Secretary of State, James G. Elaine, of Maine ; Secretary of the Treasury, William Windom, of Minnesota ; Secretary of War, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois ; Secretary of the Navy, W. H. Hunt, of Louisiana ; Secretary of the Interior, S. J. Kirkwood, of Iowa ; Attorney -General, Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania ; Post- master-General, Thomas L. James, of New York. It was soon realized that President Garfield's administration was not destined to be a tranquil one. The Republican party was arrayed in factions, one sustaining the President and the other joining the banner of Senator Roscoe Conkling, and being known as the " Stalwarts." This split in the party was caused by Senators Conkling and Platt, of New York, assuming to dictate to the President whom he should appoint to the Collector- ship of the Port of New York. Upon the refusal of the Presi- dent to yield to their dictation, Conkling and Platt resigned their seats in the Senate, carrying with them the "Stalwart" faction of the party. 888 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Among these "Stalwarts" was a miserable, ambitious, re- vengeful wretch, named Charles J. Guiteau, who, having done some slight but valueless services for the party during the Presidential canvass, presumed upon it to demand an important foreign mission. His ability, morals and position in society were so low that he was scarcely above a vagabond, and was unworthy of either encouragement or trust. It was with most presumptuous bigotry that he ever entertained the hope of any position, and when he had resigned that, there was not a place in the gift of the President low enough for such a man. With cruel fiendishness he resolved upon revenge, and only waited his opportunity to accomplish his murderous purpose. This opportunity occurred on the 3d of July. President Garfield started to leave Washington for a tour in New England, intend- ing first to go to Long Branch for Mrs. Garfield. who was to accompany him on the projected trip. A party of friends, who were to accompany him on the journey, were awaiting his arrival at the Baltimore and Potomac depot, at which the Presi- dent soon after arrived in company with Mr. Blaine, who came to see him off. Just as the President had entered the ladies' waiting-room, Guiteau stealthily approached him from behind, and drawing a heavy revolver, suddenly fired two shots at the President, one taking effect in his arm and the other in his back, shattering a rib and carrying away part of the spine. The murderous attack was so sudden and unexpected that at first those present did not fully realize the circumstances, but in a few moments the greatest excitement prevailed, which rapidly spread over the city and from thence over the entire country, until the effect could only be equaled by that which followed the news of the assassination of President Lincoln. President Garfield immediately fell, and lay upon the floor with the blood streaming from both wounds, while Guiteau rushed to the door, where he was secured by a policeman. In a few moments a mattress was obtained, and the President, who was entirely conscious, was placed upon it and as quickly as possible taken back to the White House, and a telegram was hastily sent to Long Branch for Mrs. Garfield, while Dr. Bliss JAMES A. aAJBFIELD. 889 and other eminent surgeons did everything in professional skill that could benefit the wounded man. It was evident, as soon as the extent of the wound was ascer- tained, that the President had scarcely a hope of recovery, but that slender chance President Gar field, in his wonderful vitali- ty, clung to with the greatest fortitude, while day after day, and even minute by minute, a tearful, agonized nation waited for news and prayed for his recovery, hoping against hope. Never before in the history of the world was there a parallel case. In that of President Lincoln the first news flashed over the wires was of his death, and it was all over, with no hope ; but as the days passed on and President Garfield still lived, and the prayers of the nation still went up, the people looked with faith for an answer to their supplications. Two months of terrible suffering to the President passed dur- ing the fiercest heat of the summer, and then with the tender- est care the patient sufferer was removed to Long Branch to a seaside cottage, where it was hoped the pure breeze from the ocean would add its healing influences to nature's efforts. There the sympathies of the world gathered around the suf- fering martyr, and from every land came messages of anxious inquiry and condolence and encouragement. There gradually the mind and memory of the President withdrew itself from thoughts of the honor of his high position and centred upon his family, and went back with sweet longings to the dear, quiet home that he was never to see again. He was dying slowly, but surely, and he realized it. " I am not afraid to die," said he ; "I only want to meet all my family together." Eighty days of suffering and suspense had passed, and then, on the 19th of September, it was seen that President Garfield's life was going out. The light was flickering in the socket. An hour or so more was all of life and earth left to him. At mid- night he was rapidly failing, and with a terrible pain at his heart he sank into a stupor from which he never revived. ' Twelve o'clock," and all would soon be well with James A. Garfield, beyond the sorrows and the pains of earth. A half- hour passed, and surrounded by his family and physicians, and a number of statesmen, his life went out. 390 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Through the remainder of the night bells began tolling all over the land, and by the next day the news had reached the principal cities and countries of the civilized world, while every city and hamlet throughout our broad land was draped in the sombre emblems of mourning, and the deepest grief over- shadowed the land. After his remains were conveyed from Long Branch to Washington they lay in state at the Capitol for two days, while the great throng of sorrowing people passed by to gaze on the pale, wasted face of the dead President. After the public had been permitted to view the remains, one sacred hour was de- voted to the family, that they might be alone with their dead. After this followed the funeral services, which were grand in their very simplicity, accompanied as they were by the impres- sive circumstances and surroundings ; the beautiful catafalque, the decorative draperies of the rotunda hall of the Capitol, and the august assemblage of the nation's great men, made it a scene never to be forgotten. The funeral services were performed by ministers of the Church of the Disciples, of which President Garfield had been a member, after which the procession took up the line of march to the de- pot in the following order : Two battalions of District of Co- lumbia militia ; two companies of United States Marines ; four companies of the United States Second Artillery ; Light Bat- tery Company A, United States Artillery ; Grand Army of the Republic ; Boys in Blue ; Washington Commanderies Knights Templars and Beausant Commandery Knights Templars of Baltimore. These were followed by the hearse, after which came a long line of carriages, in which were i he wife and family of President Garfield, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, President Arthur, Secretary Blaine and other Cabinet Ministers, and rela- tives ; officers of the Executive Mansion ; the Diplomatic Corps ; Chief Justice Waite and Associate Justices ; Senators, Members of the House, Governors of States and Territories, and a great line of other important officials and distinguished per- Arriving at the depot, the coffin, still bearing the Queen of England's beautiful wreath, was borne to the special train be- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 391 tween the generals and the admirals of the Army and the Navy, and the double ranks of soldiers and marines, and in a few moments more the train was bearing away the dead to its last resting place at Cleveland. All along the route the demonstrations of respect and mourn- ing were most impressive. Church bells tolled, flags were at half-mast and the drapery of mourning covered almost every house, while a continuous throng stretched along the entire route of the train. Language cannot convey an adequate im- pression of the grand reception extended to the funeral party at Cleveland, where the remains were to be interred. There the final ceremonies were beautiful and impressive. The grandest preparations had been made for the funeral services, and a pavillion had been erected in Monumental Park for the recep- tion of the remains. Here they were borne in an immense pro- cession, and lay in state for a day and night, to be viewed by the eager throng. This structure was one of the most beauti- ful ever erected in the country, and the decorations were most magnificent. From the centre of the roof rose a gilt spire, on which stood a figure of an angel twenty-four feet high, while shields and flags and drapery and hanging baskets of flowers ornamented every column and arch and angle of the structure. On the 26th of September, at 10:30 A. M., the funeral services -were begun by the singing of Beethoven's " Funeral Hymn." Then Bishop Bedel, of the Episcopal diocese of Ohio, read pas- sages from the Scriptures. This was followed by an earnest and impressive prayer by the Rev. Mr. Houghton, of the First M. E. Church, after which the Rev. Isaac Errett, of Cincinnati, delivered the funeral sermon from the text, " And the archers shot King Josiah. and the King said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded." "There was never," said he, " a mourning in all the world like this mourning. I am not speaking extravagantly, for I am told it is the result of calculations carefully made, that certainly not less than 300,000,000 of the human race share in the sadness and the lamentation, the sorrow and the mourning that belong to this occasion here to-day. It is the chill shadow of a calam- ity that has extended itself into every home iu all this land, and 392 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. into every heart, and that has projected itself over vast seas and oceans into distant lands and awakened the sincerest and pro- foundest sympathies with us in the hearts of the good of all nations and among all people. * ***** * " James A. Garfield went through his whole public life with- out surrendering for a single moment his Christian integrity, his moral integrity or his love for the spiritual. " He passed all the conditions of virtuous life between the log cabin in Cuyahoga and the White House, and in that wonder- ful, rich and varied experience, still moving up from higher to higher, he has touched every heart in all this land at some point or other, and he became the representative of all hearts and lives in this land, and not only the teacher, but the inter- preter of all virtues; for he knew their wants and he knew their condition, and he established legitimate ties of brotherhood with every man with whom he came in contact." After continuing this most beautiful and touching tribute, he concluded: '' I have discharged now the solemn covenant trust reposed in me many years ago, in harmony with a friendship that has never known a cloud, a confidence that has never trembled, and a love that has never changed. Farewell, my friend and brother ! Thou hast fought a good fight. Thou hast finished thy course. Thou hast kept the faith. Hence- forth there is laid up for thee a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to thee on that day! and not unto thee only, but unto all them also who love his appearing." The sermon was followed by the reading of General Gar- field's favorite hymn, the " Reaper's Song," which was sung by the Cleveland vocal society, after which Dr. Pomeroy delivered the final prayer, and the procession took up its solemn line of march to the cemetery, with a most imposing array of mili- tary and distinguished citizens. At the grave the Rev. J. H. Jones, Chaplain of the Forty-second Ohio, General Garfield's regiment, made a beautiful address, and after other solemn and appropriate services the body was laid in its final resting place, JAMES A. GARFIELD. So died James A. Garfield, the sturdy canal boatman, the poor and struggling student and tutor, the gallant soldier, the eminent legislator, and the second martyred President of the United States. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. Chester Alan Arthur was born in the town of Fairfield, Frank- lin County, Vermont, on the 5th day of October, 1830. He was the elder of two sons ; he had four sisters older and two younger than himself. His father, the Rev. Dr. William Arthur, was a Baptist clergyman, who came to the United States from Bally mena, County Antrim, Ireland, when only eighteen years old, and died at an advanced age in Newton- ville, near Albany, on October 27th, 1875. Dr. Arthur was a finely-educated man ; a graduate of Belfast University, Ire- land. For several years he published The Antiquarian, a jour- nal devoted, as its title indicates, to antiquarian research. A work of his own, " Family Names," is still highly esteemed by the collectors of that kind of literature. While devoting him- self to literature, he yet faithfully fulfilled all the duties of his special calling. He was pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, Albany ; and also of Baptist churches at Bennington, Hines- burg, Fairfield and Williston, in Vermont ; and at York, Perry, Greenwich, Schenectady, Lansingburg, Hoosic, West Troy and Newtonville, in New York State. The second son, William Arthur, highly distinguished himself in the Union army dur- ing the War of the Rebellion. A letter from Saratoga, printed in the Rutland (Vt.) Herald, gives some interesting particulars of an event that happened soon after the arrival of Dr. Arthur at Fairfield : "Nearly fifty years ago the writer, then a small boy, lived in a remote district in the town of Fairfield, Vermont, which joins St. Albans on the east. I well remember the advent to that neighborhood of a Baptist preacher of Irish birth, but of remarkable ability and eloquence. He drew audiences unheard of before in that rustic community, where there was a flourishing Baptist Church. He at first preached in the district school house, which soon failed to hold half of his audience. Finally a spacious neighboring barn. LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. was pressed into service as a place of worship. I well remember the ap- pearance of that audience. The women were mostly seated in improvised seats of slabs upon the barn floor. The deacons and older men occupied the stable, the young folks climbed upon the hay-mow, while certain adventu- rous boys perched aloft among: the beams. To this audience that eloquent and well-educated young minister preached with great effect, and many conver- sions were the result of his labors. A meeting-house was soon built, in which he afterward preached. On moving his family to the place of his labors, there was no vacant house suitable to receive them; the large families of the fanners filled all desirable tenements. The minister, with his wife and four young daughters, moved into a small log cabin, only a few rods from the humble dwelling of my parents, to remain there till a small but comfortable parsonage should be built across the way. One night my mother was mys- teriously absent, and our anxious inquiries concerning her whereabouts were answered gravely but evasively by our father, but she returned in the morn- ing to the care of her own little flock, her face radiant with smiles, and astonished us with the intelligence that a new boy had been sent to the minister's during the night. She said that the reverend gentleman quite forgot the dignity of his office, and nearly danced up and down with wild delight when my grandmother informed him that ' it was a boy,' and that boy, born in that humble log cabin, is now the President of the United States. Last summer 1 had the curiosity to identify the site of the old log cabin where General Arthur was born. It was in the northeast portion of Fairfleld, about a mile east of the old brick meeting-house, so long a conspic- uous feature in the landscape, and where his father, the Rev. Dr. Arthur, preached. In a rugged pasture on the hillside only a slight hollow marks the spot where stood the log cabin in which the distinguished son of Ver- mont first saw the light, more than fifty years ago. The old parsonage where he spent his early childhood is still standing." Chester A. Arthur found his father's fine knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics of great advantage to him. when he came to prepare for college. His preparation first began in Union Village, now Greenwich, a beautiful village of Washing- ton County, New York, and was concluded at the grammar school at Schenectady. The Hon. James I. Lourie, now a prominent lawyer of Greenwich, who formerly taught in the academy there, in a letter to the Editor of the Leavenworth Times, recounting the subsequent career of some of his pupils, says : " Another scholar of those days, though only about twelve years of age, was Chester A. Arthur. His eyes were dark and brilliant, and his physical system finely formed. He was frank and open in his manners and genial in his disposition. Even at that early age be was a, favorite with all who knew CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 397 him. He was full of life and animation. His active abilities, his courage and his strength of will, made him a leader among his companions. One of his sisters, an excellent and beautiful girl, died here at the old Baptist par- sonage where the Rev. Dr. Arthur resided. He afterward graduated at Union College, and settled in the city of New York, and distinguished him- seif as a leading and reliable statesman. A few years ago, while he was C< Elector of the Port of New York, he came here to visit his old home. He was exceedingly interested in all the familiar places in and around the vil- lage, and especially in the parsonage. He went through every room, from the cellar to the roof of the old, time-worn building. He met his early friends with great cordiality. There is no more genial, reliable, noble- hearted man in the State of New York than Chester A. Arthur." Thanks to his fine training young Arthur took a high position in Union College, which he entered in 1845, when only fifteen years old. Every year of his college course he was declared to be one of those who had taken "maximum honors ;" and at the conclusion of his college course, out of a class of more than one hundred members, he was one of six who were elected members of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the condition of entrance to which is the highest scholarship. This was the more creditable to him as he was compelled to absent himself from college two winters during his course, to earn money to go on with his education. His father was receiving a small salary, and had a large family to support. When sixteen years old, therefore, and a Sophomore, young Arthur left college, and obtaining a school at Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, taught there through- out the winter. He also had to keep up his studies in college. In the last year of his college course he again taught during the winter at Schaghticoke. He was graduated, at eighteen years of age, from Union College, in the class of 1848. In college he had been very popular with his fellow-students, and had become a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, in whose welfare he ever after took a keen interest. At college he had determined to become a lawyer. Accord- ingly, upon graduation he went to a law school at Ballston Springs, and there remained diligently studying for several months. He then returned to Lansingburg, where his father then resided, and studied law. In 1851 he obtained a sicuation as principal of an academy at North Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont. He prepared boys for college, all the while 398 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. studying law. Two years after he left North Pownal, in 1853, a student from Williams College named James A. Garfleld came to that place, and in the same academy building taught penmanship throughout one winter. It was a singular cir- cumstance that after nearly a quarter of a century both these men should meet at a great political convention and unexpect- edly to themselves be chosen as the candidates of the Republican party for President and Vice-President. Mr. Arthur removed to New York in 1853 and entered the law office of E. D. Culver as a law student. By the strictest economy he had saved $500, and with this determined to start out in business life. He had known Mr. Culver when the lat- ter was a Congressman from Washington County, and when Mr. Arthur's father was pastor of the Baptist Church in the village of Greenwich, in that county. Mr. Culver was cele- brated in Congress for his firm anti-slavery principles. The association thus formed was the more congenial to young Arthur because of the strong anti-slavery sentiments which he had already derived from his father. Dr. Arthur had enjoyed the intimate friendship of Gerritt Smith, and that famous leader in true Republicanism had often been his guest, and several times occupied his pulpit. Together, at Utica, October 21st, 1835, they had taken a perilous part in the first meeting of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, which was scattered by rioters, and its leaders mobbed on the very day when, in Bos- ton, a similar meeting had been broken up by a mob, and William Lloyd Garrison dragged through the streets by a rope until rescued by the Mayor and lodged in jail for his own pro- tection. Admitted to the Bar in 1854, Mr. Arthur became at once a member of the firm of Culver, Parker & Arthur. Already there were signs of the coming struggle over slavery. Mr. Arthur's ability as a lawyer, as well as his strong anti- slavery sentiments, had already been shown by his successful management of the celebrated Lemmon slave case. In 1852, a slaveholder of Virginia named Jonathan Lemmon determined to take eight slaves to Texas. He brought them by steamer from Norfolk to New York, intending to reship them from New CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 399 York for Texas. While in New York these slaves were discov- ered by a free colored man named Louis Napoleon. He had been told that slaves could not legally be held in the State of New York. He accordingly presented a petition to Elijah Paine, a Justice of the Superior Court of New York, asking that a writ of habeas corpus be issued to the persons having the slaves in charge, commanding them to bring the slaves into court at once. Mr. Culver and John Jay appeared as counsel for the slaves, and H. D. Lapaugh and Henry L. Clinton for Lemmon. Judge Paine, after hearing long arguments, ordered the slaves released, affirming that the fugitive-slave law did not apply to them, and that no human creature could be held in bondage in the State, except under that national law. This decision created great excitement in the slave States, as it prac- tically made every slave free who should, not being a fugitive, be brought by his master into a free State. Governor Cobb, of Georgia, thought the decision would be "just cause for war." Governor Johnson, of Virginia, said: "In importance it is of the first magnitude, and in spirit it is without a parallel. If sustained, it will not only destroy that comity which should have subsisted between the several States composing this Confederacy, but must seriously affect the value of slave property wherever found." Inspired by this message, the Legislature of Virginia directed the Attorney -General of the State to employ counsel to appeal from the decision of Judge Paine to the higher courts of New York. Mr. Arthur went to Albany, and, after persistent effort, induced the Legislature of New York to take up the challenge ; and he procured the passage of a joint resolution requesting the Governor to appoint counsel to defend the interests of the State. Ogden Hoffman, then Attorney-General ; E. D. Culver and Joseph Blunt were appointed the counsel of the State. Mr. Arthur was the State's attorney in the matter, and upon the death of Ogden Hoffman he associated with him William M. Evarts as counsel. The Supreme Court sustained Judge Paine's decision. Thereupon, to strengthen their cause, the slavehold- ers engaged Charles O'Conor to argue the case before the Court of Appeals. But there again the counsel for the State were successful in defending Judge Paine's decision ; and thence- 400 LIVES OF OUK PRESIDENTS. forth no slaveholder dared venture into the State of New York with his slaves. Mr. Arthur became such a champion of their interests in the eyes of the colored people by his connection with this case that it was natural they should seek his aid when nc xt in trouble. The street car companies of New York, cringing to the senti- ments of the slaveholders, made almost no provision for the transportation of colored people. Upon several of the lines oc- casionally there could be seen passing by an old and shabby- looking car labeled, "Colored persons allowed in this car." Several of the lines did not^ make even this provision. This was the case of the rich Fourth Avenue line. One Sunday in 1855, a neatly-dressed colored woman named Lizzie Jennings, who had just come from fulfilling her duties as superintendent of a colored Sunday-school, hailed a Fourth Avenue car. The car stopped, she took a seat, and the conductor took her fare thus silently acknowledging her right to ride in the car. The car went on a block, and then a drunken white man said to the conductor : " Are you going to let that nigger ride in this car?" " Oh, Iguessit wont make any difference," said the conductor. " Yes, but it will," answered the pro-slavery man ; " I have paid my fare, and I want a decent ride, and I tell you you've got to give me a decent ride." Thereupon the conductor went to Lizzie Jennings and asked her to leave the car, offering to return her fare. She refused to comply with the request. The car was stopped and the con- ductor attempted to put her off by force. She strenuously re- sisted, all the while crying : "I have paid my fare and I am entitled to ride." Her clothing was almost torn from her body, but still she resisted, and resisted successfully. Finally, the conductor had to call in several policemen, and by their efforts she was finally removed from the car. Influential colored peo- ple soon heard of her treatment, and going to the office of Cul- ver, Parker & Arthur, told them all about it. They at once told them that her wrongs should be righted. A suit was brought against the railway company in her behalf in the Su- preme Court in Brooklyn. Public sentiment was still on the CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 401 side of the slaveholder, however, and even the judge seemed pre- judiced. When Mr. Arthur handed him the papers in the case, he said : "Pshaw ! do you ask me to try a case against a corpo- ration for the wrongful act of its agent ?" Mr. Arthur immedi- ately pointed out a section of the Revised Statutes under which the action had been brought, making a corporation liable for the acts of its servants. Ifc could not be disputed, and upon trial of the case, judgment in favor of Lizzie Jennings to the amount of $500 was rendered. Without further contest the railroad company paid the mcney. It then issued orders to its conductors that colored people should be allowed to ride in their cars. All the city railroad companies followed the exam- ple. The " Colored People's Legal Rights Association " annu- ally for years celebrated the anniversary of the day on which Mr. Arthur won their celebrated case. It was in the year 1856 that Mr. Arthur b^gan to be prominent in politics in New York City. He had taken an active interest in politics elsewhere at a very early age. He sympathized with the Whig party, and was an ardent admirer of Henry Clay. It is related of him that during the contest between Polk and Clay, he was leader of the boys of Whig parentage in Greenwich village, who determined to raise an ash pole in honor of Henry Clay. They were attacked by the boys of Democratic parent- age while doing so, and for a time driven off the village green. But they were rallied by young Arthur and, he leading a des- perate charge, the Democrats were driven with broken heads from the field. Then, with a shout of triumph, the Whig boys raised the ash pole. His first vote was cast in 1852 for Winfield Scott for President. In New York City Arthur identified him- self with the "practical men " in politics by joining political associations of his party and at the polls acting as inspector on election day. Mr. Arthur was a delegate to the convention at Saratoga that founded the Republican party. During these political labors he became acquainted with Edwin D. Morgan and gained his ardent friendship. Governor Morgan, when re-elected in 1860, testified to his high esteem for Arthur by making him Engineer- in-Chief on his staff. 403 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. Mr. Arthur had for several years previously taken a great interest in the militia organization of the State, and had been appointed Judge Advocate General of the Second Brigade. In this position he was associated with many men who afterward took part in the War of the Rebellion and held high positions. Brigadier-General Yates, who commanded the Second Brigade, was a very thorough disciplinarian, and for several years required all the brigade and staff officers to meet every week for instruction. In this manner they became very proficient in military tactics and regulations, and the instruction proved to be of inestimable advantage to General Arthur in the great and exceedingly responsible duties to which he was soon to be called. The breaking out of the War of the Rebellion in April, 1861, found him still Engineer- in-Chief. The day after Fort Sumter was fired upon, while on the way to his law office, he received a dispatch from Governor Morgan summoning him to Albany. Upon reaching there Governor Morgan requested him to open a branch Quartermaster's Department in New York City, and fulfill all the duties there of Quartermaster-General. General Arthur was young, strong and, as Governor Morgan saw, of a vigorous nature. The Governor put in his hands the duty of quartering, subsisting, uniforming, equipping and arming New York's soldiers for war. It was not only a herculean task, but was one of special difficulty, for there was no broad road of ex- perience to guide the young man. Men who had been trained in the small regular Army, or in the still smaller State militia regiments, were staggered by the enormous tasks set before them in the equipment and forwarding of several hundred thousand men to the seat of war. There was nothing for which General Arthur afterward received higher praise than the way he rose to the height of the occasion in all difficulties that beset him in the toilsome years which followed. He was the brains, the organizing force, that took the raw levies of New York, put uniforms on their backs, muskets in their hands, and sent them on to the war. Governor Morgan practically made him the War Minister of the State, shifting him from place to place on his staff, and from time to time transferring to him CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 403 the duties of other military officers of the State, in order that the work might be properly and quickly done. He was virtually the centre about which all the military operations of the State revolved. He did not go near his law office during the first two years of the war. His task was to create, almost out of noth- ing, a great department for the provision and equipment of an army. He succeeded, and had the proud satisfaction of seeing that New York had sent one-fifth of all the soldiers that marched to subdue the Rebellion a splendid contingent of 690,000 men. It is well to recall some details of his work at this time. When he began in New York, in April, 1861, to perform the work of Quartermaster-General, there were thousands of enlisted men in the city to be subsisted and equipped, the militia regi- ments were departing for the war from this State, and New England regiments were passing through the city. All these regiments had to be fed and quarters provided for them where none existed. Wealthy citizens of New York aided General Arthur generously, giving him the right to occupy their build- ings. Mr. Astor, Mr. Devlin and Mr. Goelet were conspicuous in this service. The number of troops passing through the city finally became so great that it was found necessary to provide more quarters for them. Then it was that barracks were erected in the City Hall Park. To get them ready for the troops, workmen, under General Arthur's direction, worked night and day. Meanwhile, the work of creating a Quartermaster's De- partment went on. General Arthur advertised for proposals for subsistence for the troops, and succeeded in making a con- tract at rates one-third lower than those paid by the United States Government. This saved the State many thousands of dollars. Everything was done in a business-like way; from the first day the quartermaster's stores were issued on regular Army requisitions, and receipts were demanded for everything. It was natural that contractors should seek to ingratiate themselves with a man who was buying such enormous quantities of sup- plies. But every present that reached Mr. Arthur with this motive was at once returned to the sender. The troops poured into New York by the thousands, and it 404 LIVES OF OUK PRESIDENTS. was found necessary every day to provide additional quarters. General Arthur built more barracks at various places on Long Island, on Staten Island and Hiker's Island. The first quota of the State, outside of the militia regiments, was for thirty-eight regiments. These regiments were organized in different parts of t^e State in the Spring of 1861. The work of quartering, subsisting, uniforming, equipping and arming these regiments went on without regard to Sunday or the hours of sleep. For months General Arthur did not sleep over three hours a night. Whoever had any business connected with the army came to the State headquarters in Elm street (afterward in Walker street), and consequently Arthur's office was constantly besieged by crowds. All sorts of adventurers went on to Wash- ington, obtained commissions to raise troops, and returning to New York began their work. All these classes required the close supervision of General Arthur, as they would endeavor to act independently of his office. His ability to deal with these men, many of whom were of a very rough character, was highly praised at the time. Several instances of his energetic action are remembered to this day. One of the adventurers was " Billy " Wilson, who had been the representative in the New York Board of Aldermen of the roughest element of the city population, and who bad been authorized at Washington to raise a regiment from this class. The regiment at one time refused to eat the Government rations and supported itself by raiding on the restaurants in the vicinity of its barracks. General Arthur, hearing of these outrages, sent for Wilson, and told him that he must put an end to them. Wilson thereupon said, in an impudent manner : ' Neither you nor the Governor has anything to do with me. I am a colonel in the United States service, and you've got no right to order me." " You are not a colonel," indignantly replied Arthur, "and you will not be until you have raised your regiment to its quota of men and received your commission." "Well, I've got my shoulder-straps, anyway," said Wilson, "and as long as I wear them I don't want no orders from any of you fellows," CHESTER A. ARTHUK. 405 He had scarcely made this insolent reply, when Arthur, who is a very strong man, sprang toward him, saying : " We'll make short work of your shoulder-straps," and tear- ing the straps from Wilson's shoulders, put him under arrest. He had a similar experience with Colonel Ellsworth's Fire Zouaves, who were quartered in Devlin's building, on Canal street. One day the members of the regiment refused to un- pack their muskets from the boxes in which they had been re- ceived. General Arthur having been applied to by Colonel Ellsworth, went among the throng with several policemen, had the ringleaders in the revolt pointed out to him, and said : " Arrest that man, and that one, and that one." His orders were obeyed, the regiment was cowed, and there were no more revolts of that nature. The regiment had an amusing experi- ence on starting for the war. It was organized on the very original plau of having attached to it a battery of light artil- lery and a troop of cavalry. Furthermore, it had 120 men to the company, being more than the regulation complement. The War Department sent orders to Governor Morgan that the regi- ment should not be mustered into the service or leave the city until it had equalized or reduced its companies. But that very day the regiment, 1,300 strong, had received a stand of colors from Mrs. Astor, in Canal street, and was on its way to the steamer Baltic, to take passage for the South. General Wool had reviewed the regiment, and, induced by the persuasion of the officers of the regiment, had rescinded the order for its de- tention. The regiment had then marched proudly to the troop- ship, which soon afterward steamed down the harbor. An hour after the steamer had sailed an officer strolled into the Elm street headquarters and said accidentally : " Well, the Fire Zouaves have got off at last." " Got off ? " said Arthur, in amazement ; ' ' that's not possible. Orders have been received from Washington, forbidding them to leave, and there is not a pound of provisions of any sort on the troop-ship, as I countermanded the order which had been given." It was clear that the regiment must be provided for at short notice. General Arthur jumped into a carriage, drove to an 406 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. army contractor, and ordered the rations. " Impossible to sup- ply them at such short notice," said the contractor. '"It's not impossible, and you must do it. I will pay you fifty cents, instead of the usual rate of thirty-five cents a ration, and will have them transported myself to the Baltic." Stimulated by this reward, the contractor got together five days' rations for 1,300 men in an hour. Arthur, meanwhile, had hired every tug he could obtain. He put the rations on these tugs, caught up with the Baltic at the Narrows 1 where the regimental officers had discovered the deficiency and come to anchor and pro- visioned the ship. The Baltic sailed the same night. The " Ulster County Guards," in which the present General George H. Sharpe was a captain, was a regiment of excellent character. It was composed of men from the finest families of Ulster County. On their way to Washington they occupied the Park Barracks on the night they were completed. They had hardly got possession before orders came from the War Department to Governor Morgan that the regiment should re- turn home, as no more three-months regiments were to be accepted. The regiment was almost beside itself with rage and disappointment. Thereupon Arthur took a night train for Albany, described to Governor Morgan the martial character of the regiment and the damaging effect of its being compelled to return home, and insisted upon its being sent onto Washing- ton. He obtained the necessary permission, and returned to New York by a special train. He reached the barracks at one A. M., and told the good news. The joy of the regiment was indescribable. A volunteer regiment was thus saved the ser- vice, for nearly all re-enlisted for three years at the end of their three months' service. The regiment throughout the war named its camps " Camp Arthur," in gratitude for this service of General Arthur. It was his readiness to deal with such matters that led Gov- ernor Morgan to intrust Arthur with the management of the war affairs of the State. As the immediate representative of Governor Morgan he became known to army officers from every section, and this was the foundation of his large per- sonal acquaintance in the State. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 407 In the fall of 1861, after thirty-eight regiments had been fur- nished, ifrwas seen that the Government would be glad to accept troops without limit ; and as the State had furnished the full quota of those regularly called for through the Governor, num- bers of men of desperate fortunes, adventurers, went to Washing- ton and obtained authority to raise regiments. They came to New York and began to raise troops, claiming to be independent of State authority. There were parts of over a hundred regiments being raised at one time. General Arthur made an investiga- tion as to the character of these adventurers, and found that many of them were men of bad antecedents. One of them, who afterward adorned Ludlow Street Jail, advertised for "young gentlemen of pious character " for his regiment, and sold com- missions in the regiment. Another hired the old New York Club House, then vacant, ordered a service of plate, furnished the house handsomely and ran into debt to tradesmen all over the city, ostensibly in behalf of the regiment . These men defied the authority of the State officers. Arthur advised Governor Morgan to claim from the United States Government supervision over all the troops raised in New York, as Governor of the State, and also to obtain the commission of major-general in the United States service. Governor Morgan, accompanied by General Ar- thur, went on to Washington, and Arthur depicted to the War Department officials the character of the men they had commis- sioned. The officials were amazed at the result of their indis- criminate issue of authorizations to raise independent regiments, and readily consented to the suggestion that Governor Morgan should be made a major-general, that a Department of New York should be established and that all the independent organiza- tions should be put under Governor Morgan's authority. At this time Arthur was Acting Adjutant-General of New York, and was also actually doing the work of the Engineer-in-Chief, Inspector-General and Quartermaster-General. As Inspector- General, he afterward consolidated all the uncompleted regi- ments in the State. One Sunday in March, 1862, there came hurrying into his office, almost breathless, and very red in the face, Colonel Gus- tavus Loomis, the oldest regular infantry officer in the service. 408 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. "What in the world has happened, Colonel?" said Arthur, offering the veteran a chair. " The rebel ram Merrimac ! The rebel ram Merrimac," faintly said Colonel Loomis. " Well, what about her ?" " I ha\e a dispatch from General McClellan saying that she has sunk two United States ships that she is coming to New York to shell the city may be expected at any moment I'm so out of breath running to tell you the news, that I can hardly speak." General Arthur hastened to General Sanford, who com- manded the First Division of New York State Militia, and had him send to the forts in the harbor, from his artillery regiment, such men as had been trained to the use of heavy ordnance ; Colonel Loomis having reported that the forts were filled with regular recruits who didn't know bow to handle the guns. It was then discovered that there was no powder in the forts ; but fortunately a schooner arrived from Connecticut that day loaded with powder, and Arthur sent it to the forts. He then hurried to the house of Mayor Opdyke, to inform him of the situation. The Mayor, on receiving the alarming news, sum- moned to his house many eminent citizens. They proposed to sink ships loaded with stone in the Narrows and thus bar the approach of the Merrimac to the city. General Arthur pro- tested that he would have nothing to do with a scheme that might close the harbor for years to come. The council dis- solved without adopting any plan for the protection of the city. Fortunately for New York, news came during the night that the Monitor had reached Hampton Roads that day and had sunk the Merrimac, This was not the first occasion when General Arthur had to do with the defense of the seaport of New York during the war. When Mason and Slidell were taken from the Trent by Captain Wilkes. and war seemed imminent with England, one day in December, 1861, Arthur summoned the most eminent engineers in the State to meet him in New York to consult about the defenses of the harbor For two months this Board of Engineers, of which he was a member, labored constantly, CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 409 and at the end of that time produced a plan for the defense of the harbor which won universal praise. Before its completion, war with England seeming at hand, the erection of a tempo- rary barrier across the harbor was proposed. Colonel Delafield, of the United States Engineers, had suggested that it would be practicable to construct a barrier consisting of cribs of timber loaded with stone, and connected and held in place by chain cables. An immense amount of timber was needed for such a barrier and there was no State appropriation with which to buy it. General Arthur took upon himself the responsibility of buy- ing it. He went to Albany and in a day got the refusal of all the timber there and along the river. He also made a contract for the timber then being rafted down the Hudson. Unluckily, the day after the purchase was made the Hudson froze, and it was plain that it would be impossible to deliver it before spring. Undaunted, he returned immediately to New York and bought up most of the timber there. Before the proposed barrier could be erected, however, Mason and Slidell were surrendered to Eng- land and all danger of war passed away. But the State had upon its hands the immense quantity of timber he had bought, and grumblers severely criticised the purchase in the State Senate. General Arthur having been sent for by the Governor to advise about the disposition of the timber, went to Albany and had a bill then before the Legislature in regard to war ex- penditures amended so as to provide for the sale of unused war material. The bill passed, was at once signed by Governor Morgan, and the timber was sold soon afterward at a profit to the State. In February, 1862, Arthur was appointed Inspector-General, there being duty to perform with the armies in the field. In May, 1862, he went to Fredericksburg, and inspected the New York troops there under the command of General McDowell. He then went to the Army of the Potomac, lying near the Chickahominy, and there carefully inspected the New York troops with a view of having the depleted regiments then in service filled by enlistments to their proper strength, instead of having new regiments raised. As an advance on Richmond was daily expected, he volunteered for duty on the staff of his 410 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. friend Major-General Hunt, commander of the reserve artillery. It is well to state here that shortly after the commencement of the war General Arthur was offered the command of the Ninth New York Militia, which enlisted in the United States service for two years, and desired to accept the post, but Governor Morgan would not release him from the more important work. The year afterward, when four volunteer regiments had been formed through the efforts of the Metropolitan Police Com- missioners of the City of New York, in which they were largely aided by General Arthur, the colonels of the regiments offered him the command of the brigade, known as the " Metropolitan Brigade." He thereupon made formal application to the Governor for permission to accept the command, saying that it had long been his desire to have active service in the field. Governor Morgan replied that he could not be spared from the service of the State, and that while he appreciated Arthur's desire for war service, he knew he would do far more valuable service for the country by continuing at his post of duty in New York State. In June, 1862, the affairs of the country looked desperate. There had been defeats, regiments were getting thinned out, and it was evident a great levy would have to be made. Gov- ernor Morgan telegraphed General Arthur, then with the Army of the Potomac, to return to New York. He did so, and was immediately requested to act as secretary at a secret meeting of the Governors of loyal States, held at the Astor House on July 28th, 1862. At this meeting President Lincoln was requested by the Governors to call for more men. President Lincoln, on July 1st, issued a proclamation thanking the Governors for their patriotism and calling for 300,000 volunteers and 300,000 militia for nine months' service. Private knowledge that such a call was to be issued would have enabled contractors to have made millions. The secret was kept by all, however, till the procla- mation was issued. The quota of New York under the call for 300,000 volunteers was 59,705. It was desired that these sixty regiments should be recruited and got to the seat of war at the earliest possible moment. In view of the fact that the greater part of the labor would fall upon the Quartermaster's Depart- CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 411 ment, the request was made by Governor Morgan to Arthur that he should take his old post. He complied, and on July 7th, 1862, again became Quartermaster-General, and set energet- ically to work. The incoming of a Democratic State Administration deprived him of his office in December, 1863. His Democratic successor made a most favorable comment upon General Arthur's admin- istration in his annual report to Governor Seymour. Upon his retirement from office General Arthur resumed the active duties of his profession. Hi^ partnership with Mr. Gar- diner ceased only with that gentleman's death in 1866. Alone for over five years he carried on his law practice. It then be- came so large that he formed, in 1871, the now well-known firm of Arthur, Phelps, Knevals & Ransom. He became coun- sel to the Department of Taxes and Assessments, at a salary of $10,000 yearly, but abruptly resigned the position when the Tammany Hall officials at the head of the New York depart- ments attempted to coerce the Republicans connected with those departments. Gradually he was drawn into political life again. He was very much interested in promoting the first election of President Grant, being chairman of the Central Grant Club of New York. He also served as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican State Committee of New York. He re-entered official life on November 20th, 1871, being appointed Collector of the Port of New. York by President Grant. The post of Col- lector came to him unsought and unexpectedly, and was ac- cepted with much hesitation. The appointment met with the general approval of the busi- ness community, many of the merchants having become per- sonally acquainted with General Arthur during the war. He instituted many reforms in the management of the Custom House all calculated to render the business there less vex- atious than it ordinarily is to the mercantile classes. He also performed the work of a Collector in the matter of appoint- ments and removals in the Custom House in such a manner as to cause less than the usual amount of commotion among poli- ticians. The number of removals during his administration 412 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. was far less than during the rule of any other Collector since 1857. New appointees were put in the lowest grades of Custom House service and compelled to work their way up to higher positions. So satisfactory was his work that upon the close of his term of office, in December, 1875, he was renominated by President Grant. The nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate without referring it to a committee a compli- ment never given before except to ex-Senators. He was the first Collector of the Port ever reappointed for a second term, and was, with only one or two exceptions, the only one who in fifty years ever held the office for more than the whole term of four years. General Arthur was succeeded as Collector in 1878 by General E. A. Merritt. He then resumed the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1879 he was elected chairman of the Republican State Committee, of which he had been a prominent member for many years before his appointment as Collector, and con- ducted the victorious campaign of that year, which ended in the election of all but one of the candidates of the Republican party for six State offices. General Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was a daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon, U. S. N., who in 1851-2 gained world- wide fame as commander of the naval expedition sent by the United States to explore the River Amazon. The heroic death of Captain Herndon, while in command of the United States mail steamship Central America, some twenty years ago, is still fresh in the memory of many, and was one of the noble deeds of which the American Navy will always be proud. Mrs. Arthur died suddenly in the early part of January, 1880, leaving two children, Chester Alan Arthur and Ellen Herndon Arthur. In June, 1880, General Arthur was nominated for Vice- President by the National Republican Convention, held at Chicago. General Stewart L. Woodford proposed his name in the convention ; and the nomination was seconded by ex- Governor Dennison, of Ohio ; General Kilpatrick, of New Jersey ; Emory A. Storrs, of Illinois ; John Cessna, of Pennsyl- vania ; Chauncey L. Filley, of Missouri, and many others. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 413 The election resulted in the choice of Garfield and Arthur, and on the 4th of March, 1881, at the extra session of the Senate, General Arthur was inaugurated as Vice-President and entered at once upon his duties as presiding officer of the Senate. For a short time the adminisf ration moved smoothly, but subsequently there arose a conflict between President Garfi Id and Senator Conkling, mainly in reference to th^ appointment of a Collector of Customs for New York. Tn this quarrel Gen- eral Arthur took sides with the New York Senator, and a hot contest ensued which split the Republican party into factions. That faction which sided with Senator Conkling were called 'Stalwarts," while those of the other faction, who supported the President, were termed "Half Breeds." Ttis probable that the appointment of James G. Blaine to a seat in President Garfield's Cabinet was the first firebrand thrown into the ranks of Senator Conkling and the members uf the party who had'supported the nomination of General Grant and fiercely fought the Blaine party at the National Convention, and culminating on the Col- lectorship, resulted in the resignation of the New York Senators Conkling and Platt. This was the condition of affairs when the assassination of President Garfield occurred, and immediately all party bitterness was ended in the universal grief, sympathy and anxiety of the entire country, regardless of political differences. During the long and terrible suffering of the President, General Arthur acted with the truest nobility of soul and a modesty that is worthy of emulation. He refrained from exercising any of the duties of the Executive, so that the President might not be affected even in the slightest degree by a thought of the emer- gency, and his every utterance breathed sympathy for the suffering President and his grief-stricken family. A letter written at the time said of him : " As General Arthur sat in Senator Jones' parlor to- night, he looked like a man full of anxiety and sorrow. He scarcely spoke a word to his friend the Senator, and often did not answer questions that were put to him. Aside from the grief which the Vice-President naturally felt in his deplorable con- dition, there is the dreadful sense of the great responsibility that must be laid upon him if the President should not recover ! " 414 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. During the long, weary weeks that followed, General Arthur returned to his home in New York, and exhibited such delicacy of feeling in his reluctance to assume any of the executive duties while the President lived, that lie won the highest respect even of his political enemies. But the day was rapidly approaching when he would find the frail life-threads of the assassinated President snapped asunder, and he would be called upon to take up the mantle like Joshua of old, when Moses died upon the mountain top. On the 19th of September, the members of the Cabinet, who had remained at Elberon until the end, sent the following telegram to General Arthur : " HOD. CHESTER A. ARTHUR, No. 123 Lexington avenue, New York : " It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield, and to advise you to take the oath of office without delay. If it concurs with you* judgment, we will be very glad if you will come down on the earliest train to-morrow morning." This was signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Navy, Postmaster General, Attorney-General and Secre- tary of the Interior. To this General Arthur at once sent a reply, to Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, expressing his great grief at the intelligence and extending his deepest sympathy to Mrs. Garfield. His next step was to send immediately for Hon. John R. Brady, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, before whom he took the oath of office as President of the United States. After the oath was administered, President Arthur sent the following telegram to the members of the Cabinet : "NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 1881. "I have your message announcing the death of President Garfield. Per- mit me to renew throusrh you the expression of sorrow and sympathy which I have already telegraphed to Attorney-General MacVeagh. In ac- cordance with your suggestion, I have taken the oath of office as President before the Hon John K. Brady, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. I will soon advise you further in regard to the other suggestions in your telegram. C. A. ARTHUR." President Arthur soon after met the members of the Cabinet CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 415 at Long Branch, and after attending the funeral services at Elberon, he accompanied the funeral train to Washington, where on the next day he underwent the formal ceremony of again taking the oath of office as President, before the Chief Justice of the United States. The first official act of President Arthur was to issue a proc- lamation setting forth the 26th of September as a day of humiliation and prayer on account of the death of the late President. President Arthur gave the country a most excellent admin- istration, and performed the executive duties with great ability, dignity and credit, winning the confidence and respect of all. He succeeded admirably in healing dissensions in his own party, and conciliating those opposed to him politically, and retired at the expiration of his term loaded with honors and cherished in the hearts of his countrymen as one of the most upright men who has filled the high position of the Chief Executive of the nation. GROVER CLEVELAND. The election of Grover Cleveland as the twenty-second Presi- dent of the United States marks an era of unusual interest in the history of our country and of peculiar significance in the political succession of parties, which bears within its system the fundamental principles of human liberty. The wonderful survival through twenty-four years of defeat, and the final triumph of the party which has elevated Grover Cleveland to the chief executive office of the nation, is a grati- fying evidence of the firm convictions and tenacity of purpose which actuate the American citizen in the performance of his duty to that which he believes to be for the best interests of his country, and there can be no better safeguard to the perma- nency of our institutions than a condition of almost evenly bal- anced strength between our political parties. Grover Cleveland, the subject of our biography, was born in a Presbyterian parsonage in the little village of Caldwell, New Jersey, about sixteen miles west of New York City, and within a few miles of Newark, in the year 1837. Regarding his ancestry there are some interesting facts. In 1635 Moses Cleveland emi- grated to the wilderness of the new world from Suffolk County, England. The first authentic account we have of his residence in this country was at "Woburn, Mass., where he married Miss Ann Winn, in 1648. Eleven children were born to them. Of these children Aaron Cleveland, the second son, alone rose to distinction, having in his occupation of farmer and carpenter acquired wealth and prominent position in his native town. In 1675 he married Miss Dorcas Wilson, by whom he was blessed with a happy do- mestic life and ten children. The oldest of these was Aaron Cleveland, Jr., who in turn raised up another Aaron, who also 418 IIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. married in Woburn, his wife being a Miss Abigail "Waters, and they, like the Cleveland ancestry, gave evidence of their par- tiality for a large family by also raising ten children, among whom was another Aaron, who after graduating from Harvard College in 1735, became a minister of the Presbyterian faith, and after having fought the good fight for many years in dif- ferent pastorates he died at the residence of Benjamin Frank- lin in Philadelphia while on his journey to take charge of a pastorate at Newcastle, Pa. This reverend member of the Cleveland family, who married Miss Susannah Porter, like his father and grandfather, also had ten children, one of whom he regarded it as his duty to his ancestry as well as his posterity to also name Aaron. Settling in Norwich, Conn., he became conspicuous as a politician, and as one of the old, original abolitionists, to which principles he firmly adhered until Ms death at New Haven in 1815. The records do not state the number of his children, but his oldest son, Charles Cleveland, who was a minister in Boston, sustained the reputation of the family by thirteen children. The second son of Aaron Cleveland was named William, and his second son was Richard Falley Cleveland, the father of Grover. While residing in Baltimore as a school-teacher, Richard met and courted Miss Anne Neal, and returning to that city after he had attended Princeton Theological Seminary , and been ordained as a Presbyterian clergyman, they were married, from which union there were nine children, who were born in the following order: Anna, who became Mrs. Dr. Hastings; William N. ; Mary, now Mrs. W. E. Hoyt; Richard Cecil; Grover, who was baptized Stephen Grover; Margaret, who became Mrs. N. B. Bacon; Lewis Frederick; Susan (Mrs. Yeomans), and Rose E., who is now mistress of the White House. The Presbyterian parsonage in which Grover Cleveland was born, is a substantial-looking old-fashioned frame house, with high gables and vines clambering over the little portico. It is a much more substantial and well designed structure and com- fortable home than those in which several other Presidents were born. Jackson and Andrew Johnson first looked upon the walls of log cabins in North Carolina ; Lincoln was born in GROVER CLEVELAND. 419 another log cabin in the wilds of Kentucky, where the blood- curdling whoop of the Indian had scarcely ceased to startle the lonely settlements, and the house of General Grant's nativity is one of the most humble in the dilapidated old town of Point Pleasant, on the Ohio River. The grounds surrounding the parsonage consist of some two BIRTHPLACE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, AT CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY. acres, interspersed with forest trees, which give the place a very sheltered appearance, as though they had stood guard over the future President with their shade and protection from heat and rude blasts. The room in which Grover first saw the light of day is an ordinary apartment, fifteen feet square, with two windows and a low ceiling, and the stairway in the hall where he tumbled down half the flight when a baby, is of the old-fashioned country style, that has tripped many a person, young and old, many a time. The old-time frame church in 420 LIVES OP OUR PRESIDENTS. which his father preached at Caldwell has given way to a handsome brown stone edifice of modern architecture. When four years of this world's experience had passed over the head of little Grover, his father accepted a call to the pas- torate of the Presbyterian Church at Fayetteville, a little vil- lage near Syracuse, N. Y. To accomplish the journey at that day it was necessary to take a Hudson River boat to Albany, and thence by canal boat to Fayetteville, making a marked contrast between Grover's first and more recent trips to and from the capital of New York State. At that time the village of Fayetteville, like Grover, was small, but both grew, and in a few years the little boy began to importune his father for his consent to attend school. The par- sonage was so near the village academy that little Grover could watch the school children from the window, and his budding mind yearned for something more than the simple toys and childish sports that beguiled his young life within his home. It was with great pride and joyous anticipation that he accom- panied his father across the street to the academy one morning and began his first day's experience at having his young ideas taught how to shoot. It is related of him that 'he was rather a sedate and quiet little fellow at times, and at others he developed a spirit for fun ; one of his bits of mischief being the ringing of the school bell whenever he got a sly chance, and the anecdote is related of his rigging a long rope to the bell-clapper, and by stretching it over a number of trees and pulling it vigorously he aroused the whole village one night and kept them wondering for hours what supernatural agency was keeping up such a noise. Soon after, however, he joined the church, and it is supposed that that step put an end to the supernatural agencies. In 1849 his school days at the academy ended, and he entered a store as a clerk, in which everything was sold from drugs to groceries, and from hardware to calicoes and silks. This was a new experience to him, but the business ideas he acquired were valuable in forming his general character, and developing the resources of his mind. In this occupation he gave evidence of the same studious habits which characterized Abraham Lin- GEOVER CLEVELAND. 431 coin under similar circumstances, and the midnight hour fre- quently found young Cleveland at his studies, among which were Latin and Greek. During his clerkship, which was nat- urally a public position in a small village, Grover became a great favorite with the villagers, and was regarded as a good, honest, honorable and polite boy. But the nine years of his residence in Fayetteville were rapidly drawing to a close, and at last the failing health of his father necessitated a change. He accepted a call from the Home Missionary Society to go to Clinton, N. Y., at which place Hamilton College was located. He removed to Clinton in 1851, in which year Grover entered the preparatory school to fit him- self for college. Before entering college, however, his father advised him to rest his mind from the strain upon it at an age when he needed more physical strength and activity. In com- pliance therewith Grover returned to the store in Fayetteville, at a salary of $50 for the first year. Soon after this, his father, still in search of a better field for his health, accepted a call as pastor of the church at Holland Patent, about twelve miles from Utica, to which place he re- moved with his family in 1853. Here at first everything seemed propitious, but only a few weeks had passed ere the faithful minister was called from his earthly labors and Grover was hastily summoned to the funeral while on his way to attend his sister's wedding. This sad event was a serious blow to the family and to the prospects of young Grover, as he contemplated his widowed mother with a housefull of children to be supported and edu- cated. To assist in the battle of life, Grover and his oldest brother William secured positions in the Institution for the Blind in New York, where Grover remained for a year, at which time he decided that better prospects could be developed in the West. To pay his fare to some other locality he sought and obtained a loan of $25 from an old friend of the family, Hon. Ingham Townsend. The first places in which young Cleveland sought employ- ment were Utica and Syracuse, but failure attending his efforts, he decided to try his namesake city, Cleveland, Ohio. 422 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. At Buffalo, however, he stopped to visit his uncle, a well- known citizen, named Lewis F. Allen. To this gentleman Grover unfolded his plans. It had been his intention to be- come a lawyer, but he explained to his uncle how the changed fortunes of the family had destroyed his hopes of the law. Fortunately, Mr. Allen was at that time engaged in the prepa- ration of a book entitled "The American Short- Horn Herd Book," and he realized that Grover was just the one he needed to assist him on the work ; so occupation was supplied to the young man at once and life appeared brighter. When the book was completed Mr. Allen arranged for his worthy and intelligent nephew to enter the law office of Bowen & Rogers as office boy, with the opportunity of devoting his leisure hours to the study of law. An amusing incident befell him on the first day of his entrance into the law office. Having been given a copy of Blackstone to read, lie became so absorbed in it that the clerks locked him up in the office at night with- out his being aware of their departure. Gathering darkness aroused him to the situation, and hunting up an old lamp, he lighted it and continued reading all night . For two years young Cleveland worked diligently for the law firm at four dollars weekly remuneration, walking several miles each day to and from his uncle's home, at which alone his slender income could secure him the necessities of life. During the following two years his wages were increased, and to be nearer the law office, he took a small attic room in a farmers' and drovers' hotel, where he breakfasted every morn- ing by candle-light. Four years passed and young Cleveland was promoted to the head clerkship, with a salary of $1,000 a year. During these four years he had secured a reputation for indomitable indus- trj, unpretentious courage and unswerving honesty. His character was marked as that of a man who thoroughly mas- tered whatever he undertook. But it was perhaps his quality of intellectual integrity more than anything else that afterward caused him to be listened to and respected when more brilliant men who were opposed to him were applauded and forgotten. Thus he diligently applied himself to his duties, while slowly, &ROVER CLEVELAND. 423 but unconsciously to himself, he was rising in public attention- Thus the even tenor of his life progressed until in the year 1863 an Assistant District Attorney was wanted for Erie County. This office was naturally sought for with eagerness by the ris- ing young lawyers of Buffalo. It is recorded, however, that young Cleveland had not sought the position until urged by his friends to make application therefor. His traits of character were even at that time so conspicuous that the office appeared only to be waiting for him to seek it, and the result was his appointment over many disappointed aspirants. For three years the labors of the office fell mostly upon his shoulders, but his vital energies proved equal to the emer- gency, and no higher words of praise can be spoken in behalf of his devotion to the interests of the public than to relate an incident which transpired during his occupation of the office. In 1865 his friends nominated him for the office of District At- torney, and there can be no doubt but that if Mr. Cleveland had neglected his official duties to have entered the electioneer- ing field, as did his opponent, he would have been elected, but even on the very day of the election he was attending to the prosecution of a casein court, and when the judge saw that he could not prevail on Cleveland to go out and look after his own interests in the canvass, he adjourned the case. But strict at- tention to the " public trust" resulted in his defeat by the Re- publican candidate, who had no " public trust " to prevent his electioneering. Mr. Cleveland then being out of office, entered into partner- ship with J. K. Vanderpool, in which he remained for three years. In 1869 he formed a partnership with A. P. Lansing and Oscar Folsom. The friendship existing between the three was very close and remained unbroken until the death of Mr. Folsom, at which time, at a meeting of the bar of Erie County, as a tribute to the memory of the departed legal brother, Mr. Cleveland made the most beautiful and touching memorial speech of the occasion, of which the following are some of the most impressive sentiments: "It has been said, 'Light sorrows speak great grief is dumb,' and the application of this would enforce my silence on this occasion. But I cannot 434 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. go so far, nor let the hours pass without adding a tribute of respect and love to my departed friend. He was my friend in the most sacred and complete sense of the term. I have walked with him, talked with him, ate with him, slept with him was he not my friend ? "I must not, dare not recall the memories of our long and loving friend- ship. And let not my brethren think it amiss if I force back the thoughts that come crowding to my mind. I shall speak coldly of my friend, but the most sacred tribute of a sad heart is unspoken. " When I was abruptly told of his death, I shall not attempt to describe my emotions. Death seemed so foreign to this man, and the exuberance of his life was so marked and prominent, that the idea of his dying or his death seemed to me fncongruous and out of place. And before I saw him dead I found myself reflecting how strange he would look, dying or dead. I had seen him in every other part in the drama of life but this, and for this he seemed unfitted. " His remarkable social qualities won for him the admiration of all with whom he came in contact, while his great heart caused all to love him who knew him well. He was remarkably true in his friendship, and, having really made a friend, he grappled him with hooks of steel. Open and frank himself, he opposed deceit and indirection. His remarkable humor never had intentional sting; and though impulsive and quick, he was always just. In the practice of his profession and in the solution of legal questions he saw which was right and just, and then expected to find the law leading him directly there. " It is not strange to find joined to a jovial disposition a kind and generous heart ; but he had, besides these, a broad and correct judgment and a won- derful knowledge of men and affairs ; and the instances are numerous in my experience when his strong common sense has aided me through diffi- culties. Such was my friend. " Among his many bright anticipations of life he had planned a home in an adjoining town. But God has intervened. The hands of loving friends bore him to a home, but not the oae he had himself provided. He found peace in the home provided for the sons of men, and quiet, ah, such quiet I in the grave. J know how fleeting and how soon forgotten are the lessons taught by such calamities. ' The gay will laugh, the solemn brow of care plod on, and each one as before pursue his favorite phantom.' But it seems to me long, long years will intervene before pleasant memories of his life will be unmingled with the sad admonitions furnished by the death of Oscar Folsom." The entire speech was a noble tribute to the memory of a departed friend, and attracted considerable attention toward Mr. Cleveland as a speaker and man of rising abilities. In 1870, at the solicitation of his friends, Mr. Cleveland became a candidate for the office of Sheriff of Erie County, to which office he was elected and was sworn in on the 1st of GROVER CUEVELAND. 425 January, 1871. For this important office his firmness, courage and strict integrity eminently fitted him, and he filled the office with credit to himself and honor to the county. He did not seek a re-election, and at the close of the term he again resumed the practice of law and entered into a partnership with Lyman K. Bass and Wilson S. Bissell. The triple partnership, how- ever, lasted but a short time, as the health of Mr. Bass com- pelled him to retire from the firm and go West, after which the firm became Cleveland & Bissell. From this date began Mr. Cleveland's reputation as one of the ablest lawyers in western New York. He was not one of the flashy, meteoric style of lawyers, who possess that marvelous power of saying nothing in language wherein they would convey the impres- sion that they had said a great deal, but as a man of clear views, simple logic, direct application and thorough mastery of all the intricate points woven around each case, he possessed the respect, confidence and admiration of all with whom he came in contact. It was about this time that the people of Buffalo were aroused to a realization of the corrupt condition of the municipal gov- ernment in their city, the defiant acts of ring rule and the dis- honesty that was robbing the public treasury. They realized that reform was needed and that to effect that reformation a strong guiding hand was required to hold the reins. Public attention became directed toward Grover Cleveland as the one man of firmness and integrity for the position. His name thus becoming prominent, the Democratic party took it up as the keynote for victory, and Mr. Cleveland being actually over- whelmed by solicitation, accepted the nomination in the follow- ing neat and appropriate speech: " GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : I am informed that you have bestowed upon me the nomination for the office of Mayor. It is certainly a great honor to be thought fit to be the chief officer of a great and prosperous city like ours, having such important and varied interests. I hoped that your choice might fall upon some other and more worthy memher of the city Democracy, for personal and private considerations have made the question of acceptance on my part a difficult one. But because I am a Democrat, and because I think no one has a right at this time, of all others, to consult his own inclinations, as against the call of his party and fellow citizens, and 426 LIVES OF OTJR PRESIDENTS. hoping that I may be of use to you in your efforts to inaugurate a better rule in municipal affairs, I accept the nomination tendered to me. " I am assured that the result of the campaign upon which we enter to-day will demonstrate that the citizens of Buffalo will not tolerate the man or the party who has been unfaithful to public trusts. I say these things to a convention of Democrats, because I know that the grand old party is hon- est, and they cannot be unwelcome to you. Let us then in all sincerity promise the people an improvement in our municipal affairs, and if the opportunity is offered to us, as it surely will be, let us faithfully keep that promise. By this means, and by this means alone, can our success rest upon a firm foundation and our party ascendancy be permanently assured. Our opponents will wage a bitter and determined warfare, but with united and hearty effort we shall achieve a victory for our entire ticket. And at this day, and with my record before you, I trust it is unnecessary for me to pledge to you my most earnest endeavors to bring about this result; and if elected to the position for which you have nominated me, I shal 1 do my whole duty to the party, but none the less, I hope, for the citizens of Buffalo." The result of the campaign was a victory beyond the most sanguine expectations of his party, and he was elected by the largest majority ever given to a candidate for Mayor of that city. At his inauguration Mayor Cleveland rang out the death- knell of ring power and roguery in the .following inspiring words : " We hold the money of the people in our hands, to be used for their pur- poses and to further their interests as members of the municipality, and it is quite apparent that when any part of the funds which taxpayers have thus intrusted to us are diverted to other purposes, or when by design or neglect we allow a greater sum to be applied to any municipal purpose than is necessary, we have to that extent violated our duty. There is surely no dif- ference in his duties and obligations whether a person is intrusted with the money of one man or many. And yet it sometimes appears as though the office-holder assumes that a different rule of fidelity prevails between him and the taxpayers than that which should regulate his conduct when, as an individual, he holds the money of his neighbor. " It seems to me that a successful and faithful administration of the gov- ernment of our city may be accomplished by constantly bearing in mind that we are the trustees and agents of our fellow citizens, holding then- funds in sacred trust, to be expended for their benefit; that we should at all times be prepared to render an honest account of them touching the man- ner of their expenditure; and that the affairs of the city should be con- ducted, as far as possible, upon the same principles as a good business man manages his private concerns." Scarcely had Mayor Cleveland entered upon the duties of his QROVER CLEVELAND. 427 office before he set about to save the city $109,000 on a street sweeping contract, and $803,630, of which the city was to be relieved on a sewer contract ; thereby saving the city $1,000, 000 during his first six months in office. On another occasion the City Council had adopted a resolution directing the City Clerk to draw a warrant for $500 in favor of the Secretary of the Firemen's Benevolent Association. This Mayor Cleveland vetoed because the action was clearly unauthorized by the State Constitution. At the same meeting the City Council also passed a resolution directing the City Clerk to draw a warrant on the Fourth of July Fund for $500 in favor of the Decoration Day Committee of the Grand Army of the Republic, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of observing Decoration Day. This resolution Mayor Cleveland also vetoed on the ground of its unconstitutionally, while at the same time he extolled the occasion as a most worthy one for such an appropriation, pro- vided any provision of the Constitution would have permitted his approval of the action. As it did not, however, he appealed to the generosity of the citizens in raising the amount by a sub- scription, and headed a list for the same with a handsome dona- tion, and the remainder was quickly raised, while the Mayor's performance of his ^public trust" was highly approved. Soon after this a committee from the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Children waited upon Mayor Cleveland in behalf of the street waifs of the city, and he called the at- tention of the Council to the condition of the little girls and boys engaged in selling papers and blacking boots on the streets, and requested some action to prevent the children from remain- ing out at late hours of the night, in danger of falling underin- fluences leading to profligacy, vagrancy and crime. It was such conscientious performance of his official duties as here related, and many other similar reformatory acts, that en- deared Mayor Cleveland to the citizens of Buffalo, and turned the eyes of the State upon him in admiration of the man. And his rapid and fortunate career is all the more remarkable that he had not sought prominence, and appeared at all times to be impressed with the idea that it was a duty he owed to the public to become their servant for the performance of "public 428 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. trusts," and he was at all times actuated by the most upright motives in rendering his duty, like that good steward in the Bible to whom it was said : " Well done, thou good and faith- ful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many." In all his official life Mr. Cleveland has given evidence of the practice of the loftiest statesmanship, measured by the stand- ard, not of political trickery, but of honesty, fidelity, industry and patriotism. In addition to these qualities, as Mayor of Buffalo he coupled simplicity of manners in all his intercourse with the people and won the public heart as a man easily ap- proached and not hedging himself about with his personal importance. As he was in public life so he was in social habits, quiet and unostentatious, seeking at all times to give a pleasant word or do a kind deed. In religious sentiments he always clung to the Presbyterian church, which he joined when a boy, but he possesses a most liberal spirit toward all, and believes that Christian duty consists in acting our religion. So conspicuous had Mayor Cleveland become by the great reformation he had wrought in the municipal government of Buffalo that his nomination lor Governor of the State was urged by his fellow citizens for the consideration of the Democratic party, and as the idea grew in the minds of the citizens of Buf- falo, they began to form Cleveland clubs which gradually spread until " Cleveland and Reform" became a rallying cry that spread throughout the State. Among the prominent papers which earnestly advanced his claim upon the people, the New York Sun spoke of him in highest praise. The following is an extract from that periodical : " Grover Cleveland, now Mayor of Buffalo, and the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, is a man worthy of the highest public confi- dence. No one can study the record of his career since he has held office in Buffalo without being convinced that he possesses those highest qualities of a public man, sound principles of administrative duty, luminous intelligence, and courage to do what is right, no matter who may be pleased or dis- pleased thereby. ***** " No matter what political faith a man may have been educated in, no matter by what party name he may now prefer to be called, no one can consider such principles and sentiments as those declared by Mr. Cleveland GROVER CLEVELAND. 429 without feeling that such a public officer is worthy of the confidence and support of the whole people, and that the interests of the Empire State wLU be entirely safe in his hands." On the 22d of September, 1882, the Democratic State Con- vention met at Syracuse, and on the third ballot Grover Cleve- land received the nomination, amid great applause and mutual congratulation of the delegates. This was one of the most memorable gubernatorial campaigns ever fought in the State, and resulted in Mr. Cleveland's election by a majority of 192,000, the largest ever given to any candidate for Governor in the United States. The triumph of the reform party created the most unbounded enthusiasm throughout the State, at the same time that it created a sensation throughout the entire country. Early in December following the election the Manhattan Club of New York City grave a grand reception to Governor-elect Cleveland, and upon the occasion there was the greatest assemblage of dis- tinguished citizens that have probably met in the parlors of the club at any period in its existence, and for an hour or more Mr. Cleveland stood shaking hands with those who were presented to him, and receiving the most heartfelt congratulations. In response to the toast proposed to his health Governor-elect Cleveland said : " We stand to-night in the full glare of a grand and brilliant manifestation of the popular will, and in the light of it how vain and small appear the tricks of politicians and the movements of partisan machinery. He must be blind who cannot see that the people well understand their power and are determined to use it when their rights and interests are threatened. There should be no skepticism to-night as to the strength and perpetuity of our government. Partisan leaders have learned, too, that the people will not unwittingly, and blindly, follow, and that something more than wavering devotion to party is necessary to secure their allegiance. I am quite cer- tain that the late demonstration did not spring from any pre-existing love for the party that was called to power, nor did the people put the affairs of the State in our hands to be by them forgotten. They voted for themselves and in their own interest. If we retain their confidence we must deserve it, and we may be sure they will call on us to give an account of our steward- ship. We shall utterly fail to read aright the signs of the times if we are not fully convinced that parties are but instruments through which the people work out their will, and that when they become less or more, the people desert or destroy them. The vanquished have lately learned these 430 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. things, and the victors will act wisely if they profit by the lesson. I have read and heard much of late touching the great responsibilities cast upon me, and it i-s certainly predicated upon the fact that my majority was so large fts to indicate that many not members of the party to which I am proud to belong supported me. God knows how fully I appreciate the re- sponsibilities of the high office to which I have been called, and how much I sometimes fear that I shall not bear the burden well. It has seemed to me that a citizan who has been chosen by his fellows to discharge public duties owes no less nor no more to them whether he is elected by a small or a large majority. In either event he owes to the people who honored him his best endeavors to carefully protect their rights and further their interests. An administration is only successful in a partisan sense when it appears t) be an outgrowth and result of party principles and methods. These honored doctrir.es of the Democratic party are dear to me. If honestly applied in their purity, I know that the affairs of the government will be fittingly and honestly administered, and I believe that all the wants and needs of the people would be met. They have survived all changes, and good , patri- otic men have clung to them through all disasters as the hope of political salvation. Let us hold them as a sacred trust, and not forget that the intelligent, thinking, reading people will look to a party which they put in power to supply all their various needs and wants, and that the party which keeps pace with the developments and progress of the times, which keeps in sight its landmarks, and yet observes the things which are in ad- vance, and which will continue true to the people as well as to its traditions, will be the dominant party of the future. My only aspiration is to faithfully perform the duties of the office to which the people of my State have called me, and I hops and trust a proud endeavor will light the way to a successful administration." The inauguration of Governor Cleveland took place on the first of January, 1883, in a simple and unostentatious manner, after which he quietly went to work early and late, exercising diligence and dispensing with all formality, and with the as- sistance of his efficient secretary, Mr. Daniel T. Lamont, he executed the duties of his office after a most admirable system. His first official policy was against the existing excessive taxation, and his influence was directed toward its reduction. His next step was toward reformation in the government of New York City, and in furtherance of this purpose he signed the bill depriving the Aldermen of confirming powers. A sav- ing of $200,000 annually was effected for the city by abolishing the fee system in the Register's, County Clerk's, Surrogate's and Sheriff's offices, and giving salaries to the Register and County Clerk. Another important step was his effort in be- GROVER CLEVELAND. 431 half of the protection of our forests, to save the water-ways of our inland commerce from being eventually destroyed. One of the most conscientious acts of Governor Cleveland was his veto'of the " Five-Cent Fare Bill," on the ground that it involved a breach of faith on the part of the State. The char- ter of the elevated roads gave them a right to charge ten-cent fares during certain hours of the day, and no Legislature had a just right to deprive them of the privileges granted by their charter. The very fact that the laboring classes had the bene- fit of five-cent fares at the very hours in the day they could travel on the elevated roads, convinced Governor Cleveland that the bill was simply a legislative job for political capital, and he did his duty in sustaining the good faith of the State. The Tenure of Office Bill, which he also vetoed, was a badly constructed bill, deficient in nearly every point of relief sought, and Governor Cleveland showed statesmanship in withholding his approval. To his credit and praise, however, it can be said that he never withheld his approval from any good and true bill which, possessing law and justice in its favor, was for the good of the public. Space does not permit mention of the numberless reforms that Governor Cleveland effected and the noble deeds he performed while occupying the executive chair of the State. We now approach that era in the life of Governor Cleveland when the eyes of the nation began to be turned toward him as a true exponent of the principles of honest and economical government, and as a man whose official acts proved him worthy of higher honors and responsibilities. The Republican National Convention had met at Chicago and nominated James G. Blaine and John A.. Logan as their candidates for President and Vice- President, and the names of several prominent Democratic lead- ers were being discussed as the probable and suitable standard- bearers of the party, among whom the friends and admirers of Governor Cleveland had placed his name and were present- ing his conspicuous qualities as a light set upon a hilL On the 8th of July, 1884, the Democratic National Convention met in Chicago with a large and able delegation, and Hon. Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, was elected temporary chairman. The 432 UVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. usual skirmishing engaged the attention of the delegates on the opening day and an attack was made by the enemies of Governor Cleveland on the unit rule, but the attempted amend- ment was lost, and in this signal defeat of the enemy it was clearly seen that the Cleveland star was brightly in the ascendant. The second day was devoted to reports of committees, debates and resolutions and to the election of Colonel William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, as permanent chairman. The names of candi- dates for President were then presented on the roll-call of States, and when New York was called, Mr. Daniel S. Lock wood, of Buffalo, presented the name of Governor Cleveland amid the wildest enthusiasm, and in an able speech in which one of the sentiments was as follows : "A little more than three years ago I had the honor, at the city of Buffalo to present the name of this same gentleman for the office of Mayor of that, city. It was presented then for the same reason, for the same causes that we present it now ; it was because the government of that city had become corrupt and had become debauched, and political integrity sat not in high places. The people looked for a man who would represent the contrary, and without any hesitation they named Grover Cleveland." The third day was consumed in further nominations and speeches. In the evening session, after the platform was read and adopted, a resolution for the ballot was carried, and the votes of the delegates were cast as follows : Cleveland, 392 ; Bayard, 170 ; Thurman, 88 ; Randall, 78 ; McDonald, 56 ; Car- lisle, 27 ; Flower, 4 ; Tilden, 1 ; Hoadly, 3 ; and Hendricks, 1. This so decidedly placed Cleveland in the ascendancy that on the fourth day State after State began to wheel into line, cast- ing their votes for Cleveland, and upon the announcement being made that he had received the necessary two-thirds ma- jority, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed and artillery began to thunder throughout the land in answer to the lightning's flash along the wires. When Chairman Vilas proclaimed the result, a large floral anchor was placed upon the platform, bearing a stuffed eagle with pinions spread and holding in its beak an ensign with the name of Cleveland glittering on it. The total vote for Cleveland upon the second ballot was 683. The nomination was then made unanimous on motion of OROVER CLEVELAND. 433 Mr. Hendricks, and the nomination for "Vice-President being next in order, Thomas A. Hendricks was found to be the unanimous choice of the convention. Then, with waving standards, patriotic music by the band, and song after song and general rejoicing, the convention adjourned. During the time that the ballots were being cast that made Governor Cleveland the standard bearer of his party, he was busily employed at Albany attending to the duties of his office, and at the sound of the cannon firing the salute, General Farnsworth exclaimed : " Governor, they are firing a salute over your nomination !" "Do you think so?" replied Governor Cleveland. "Well, anyhow, we'll finish up this work." After the work was done the Governor took a recess and re- ceived the congratulations of his friends, and a regular Demo- cratic ovation was given, which was added to by the telegrams of congratulation that came pouring in from every quarter. The Democratic press of the country almost to a unit were enthusiastic in their indorsement of the nomination, and Har- per's Weekly, the New York Times, the Evening Post and other leading organs of the .Republican party gave their hearty indorsement and support to Cleveland. The customary official notification to Governor Cleveland of his nomination was presented on the 29th of July, 1884, at the Governor's Mansion in Albany, in the presence of a consider- able number of prominent persons. After Governor Cleveland had taken his position to receive the committee, Colonel Vilas, late Chairman of the Democratic National Convention, and president of the Notification Committee, approached, and after shaking hands with Governor Cleveland, made an appropriate address, after which the secratary of the committee read the letter of notification, signed by the committee, and then pre- sented it to the Governor in a wallet. Governor Cleveland replied as follows : "MB. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: Your formal announce- ment does not, of course, convey to me the first information of the result of the Convention lately held by the Democracy of the Nation, and yet when, as I listen to your message, I see about me representatives from all parts of 434 IIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. the land of the great party which, claiming to be the party of the people, asks them to intrust to it the administration of their government ; and when I consider, under the influence of the stern reality which the present surroundings create, that I have been chosen to represent the plans, pur- poses and the policy of the Democratic party, I am profoundly impressed by the solemnity of the occasion and by the great responsibility of the position in which I stand. " Though I gratefully appreciate it, I do not at this moment congratulate myself upon the distinguished honor which has been conferred upon me, because my mind is full of anxious desire to perform well the part which has been assigned to me. Nor do I at this moment forget that the rights and interests of more than fifty millions of nay fellow-citizens ara involved in our effort to gain Democratic supremacy. This reflection presents to my mind the consideration which more than all others gives to the action of my party in convention assembled its most sober and serious aspect. The party and its representatives which ask to be intrusted at the hands of the people with the keeping of all that concerns their welfare and their safety, should only ask it with the full appreciation of the sacredness of the trust, and with a firm resolve to administer it faithfully and well. I am a Democrat because I believe that this truth lies at the foundation of true democracy. I have kept the faith because I believe, if rightly and fairly administered and applied, Democratic doctrines and measures will insure the happiness, con- tentment and prosperity of the people. "If, in the contest upon which we now enter, we steadfastly hold to the underlying principles of our party creed, and at all times keep in view the people's good, we shall be strong, because we are true to ourselves and because the plain and independent voters of the land will seek by their suffrages to compass their release from party tyranny where there should be submission to the popular will, and their protection from party corrup- tion where there should be devotion to the people's interests. These thoughts lend a consecration to our cause, and we go forth not merely to gain a par- tisan advantage, but pledged to give to those who trust us the utmost benefits of a pure and honest administration of national affairs. No higher purpose or motive can stimulate us to supreme effort or urge us to continu- ous and earnest labor and effective party organization. Let us not fail in this and we may confidently hope to reap the full reward of patriotic ser- vices well performed. "I have thus called to mind some simple truths, and true though they are, it seems to me we do well to dwell upon them at this time. I shall soon, I hope, signify in the usual formal manner my acceptance of the nomination which has been tendered to me. In the meantime I gladly greet you all as co-workers in a noble cause." On August 18, 1884, Governor Cleveland wrote his formal let- ter of acceptance to the gentlemen of the Democratic Committee. Space will not permit its publication here, but in it Governor GROVER CLEVELAND. 435 Cleveland clearly outlined his political creed in full accordance with Democratic principles. The campaign was now fairly opened, and proved to be one of the most spirited since the log-cabin days of old "Tippe- canoe," and party lines were more broken up than at any time since the war. It must not be forgotten that there were four candidates in the field, although two of them were of but slight political significance and only served the purpose of drawing votes away from the regular candidates to make the race more uncertain. The Prohibition party nominated Governor St. John of Kansas as a hopeless candidate for principles' sake and a dis- affected fragment of the Democratic party, under the title of the " People's Party," brought out another hopeless candidate in Benjamin F. Butler. It was, however, a quiet campaign as far as Governor Cleve- land's active participation was concerned, for he remained at Albany in attendance upon the duties of his office. But his dignified inaction was more than over-balanced by the wildest enthusiasm and activity of the Democratic party, aided by the Independent Republicans. The eventful election day at last arrived, and so close was the vote in several States, and especially in New York, that the result was held in suspense for over a week, during which great crowds, with the most anxious faces, thronged the streets in front of the bulletin boards of the different newspaper offices. But at last the painful suspense was broken, and the vote of New York was decided for the Democratic candidate by a plurality of 1,257. With New York the election of Governor Cleveland was assured. He had carried all the Southern States, together with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Indiana, which gave him 219 electoral votes. Then followed a season of great rejoicing in the ranks of the Democratic party and the Independent Republicans who had supported Governor Cleveland, but the President-elect con- tinued the even tenor of his way, performing his official duties at Albany until he resigned the Governorship to prepare for his inauguration, 436 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. On the 4th of March, 1885, in the presence of the greatest multitude who had ever assembled in Washington City to wit- ness an inauguration, Mr. Cleveland stood on. the east front of the Capitol and took the oath of office as President of the United States, with his hand laid upon the little Bible which his mother had given him when he left home as a boy to carve out his own destiny in life. Before taking the oath he deliv- ered the following inaugural address : " FELLOW-CITIZENS : In the presence of this vast assemblage of my coun- trymen I am, about to supplement and seal, by the oath which I shall take, the manifestation of the will of a great and free people. In the exercise of their power and right of self -government, they have committed to ona of their fellow-citizens a supreme and sacred trust, and he here consecrates himself to their service. " This impressive ceremony adds little to the solemn sense of responsibility with which I contemplate the duty I owe to all the people of the land. Nothing can relieve me from anxiety lest by any act of mine their interests may suffer ; and nothing is needed to strengthen my resolution to engage every faculty and effort in the promotion of their welfare. "Amid the din of party strife the people's choice was made ; but its attend- ant circumstances have demonstrated anew the strength and safety of a government by the people. In each succeeding year it more clearly appears that our democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guarantee of good govern- ment. " But the best results in the operation of a government wherein every citi- zen has a share, largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort, and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen. " To-day the executive branch of the Government is transferred to new keeping. But this is still the Government of all the people, and it should be none the less an object of affectionate solicitude. At this hour the animosi- ties of political strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat, andthe exultation of partisan triumph, should be supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will, and a sober, conscientious concern for the general weal. Moreover, if from this hour we cheerfully and honestly abandon all sectional prejudice and distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one an- other, to work out harmoniously the achievements of our national destiny, we shall deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of Govern- ment can bestow. " On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of our devotion to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders of the republic, and consecrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has for almost a cen- tury borne the hopes and the aspirations of a great people through prosper GROVER CLEVELAND. 437 ity and peace and through the shock of foreign conflicts and the perils of domestic strafe and vicissitudes. " By the Father of his Country our Constitution was commended for adop- tion as 'the result of a spirit of amity and mutual concession.' In that same spirit it should be administered, in order to promote the lasting wel- fare of the country and to secure the full measure of its priceless benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings of our national life. The large variety of diverse and competing interests subject to Federal con- trol, persistently seeking the recognition of their claims, need give us no fear that ' the greatest good to the greatest number ' will fail to be accom- plished if, in the halls of national legislation, that spirit of amity and mutual concession shall prevail in which the Constitution had its birth. If this involves the surrender or postponement of private interests and the aban- donment of local advantages, compensation will be found in the assurance that thus the common interest is subserved and the general welfare advanced. " In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be guided by a just and unstrained construction of the Constitution, a careful observance of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people, and by a cautious appreci- ation of those functions which, by the Constitution and laws, have been especially assigned to the executive branch of the Government. " But he who takes the oath to-day to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts of trade, and everywhere, should share with him. The Constitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours; the Government you have chosen him to administer for a time, is yours ; the suffrage which executes the will of freeman, is yours ; the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State Capitols and the National Capitol, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants, and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil polity, municipal. State and Federal ; and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the republic. " It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government, economically administered, because this bounds the right of the Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property of the citizen, and be- cause public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a republican form of government, and most compatible with the mission of the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to manage public affairs, are still of the people, and may do much by their example to encourage, consistently with the 438 LIVES OF OUR PRESIDENTS. dignity of their official functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity. "The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their home life and the attention which is demanded for the settlement and development of the resources of our vast territory, dictate the scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign pol'cy commended by the history, the traditions and the prosperity of our republic. It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and defended by our known love of justice and by our power- It is the policy of peace, suitable to our interests. It is the policy of neul trality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other con tinents, and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy of Monroe, of Washington and Jefferson: ' Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.' " A due regard for the interests and prosperity of all the people demands that our finances shall be established upon such a sound and sensible basis as shall secure the safety and confidence of business interests and make the wages of labor sure and steady, and that our system of revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve the people from unnecessary taxation, having a due regard to the interests of capital invested and workingmen employed in American industries, and preventing the accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury to tempt extravagance and waste. Care for the property of the nation, and for the needs of future settlers, requires that the public domain should be protected from purloining schemes and inlawf ul occupation . " The conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our bound- aries shall be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the Government, and their education and civilization promoted with a view to their ultimate citizenship ; and that polygamy in the Territories, destructive of the family relation and offensive to the moral sense of the civilized world, shall be re- pressed. The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigra- tion of a servile class to compete with American labor with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization. "The people demand reform in the administration of the Goverment and the application of business principles to public affairs. As a means to this end, civil service reform should be in good faith enforced. Our citizens have the right to protection from the incompetency of public employes who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service, and from the corrupt- ing influence of those who promise and the vicious method of those who expect such rewards. And those who worthily seek public employment have the right to insist that merit and competency shall be recognized in- stead of party subserviency, or the surrender of honest political belief. " In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact justice to all men, there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the pro- tection of the freedmen in their rights, or their security in the enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its amendments. All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded to them as American citizens is idle and unprofitable, except as it suggests the necessity for their improvement. (JROVER CLEVELAND. 439 The fact that they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due to that rela- tion, and charges them with all its duties, obligations and responsibilities. ' These topics and the constant and ever-varying wants of an active and enterprising population, may well receive the attention and the patriotic endeavors of those who make and execute the Federal law. Our duties are practical and call for industrious application, an intelligent perception of the claims of public office, and, above all, a firm determination, by united action, to secure to all the people of the land the full benefits of the best form of government ever vouchsafed to man. And let us not trust to human effort alone;; but, humbly acknowledging the power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over the destiny of nations and who has at all times been revealed in our country's history, let us invoke His aid and Sis blessing uoon our labors." On the day after the inauguration President Cleveland sent his Cabinet nominations to the Senate for confirmation. The gentlemen selected were as follows : Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; Secretary of the Treasury, Daniel Manning, of New York; Secretary of War, William C. Endicott, of Massachusetts; Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney, of New York; Secretary of the Interior, L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi; Postmaster-General, William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin; Attorney-General. A. H. Garland, of Arkansas. President Cleveland's administration has begun under the most propitious circumstances and from its present progress bids fair to be all that the country can desire for an able and economical management of the national affairs. His appoint- ments have given satisfaction and confidence and his econom- ical reforms have won for him the admiration of his country- men irrespective of party. The President's home life at the White House began in charm- ing simplicity and absence of ceremony, with his sister, Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, as mistress of the house. The social atmosphere of the White House is a subject of more interest in Washington society than questions of State and politics, and it indicates a spirit of industry in President Cleveland to know that breakfast is served at 8 o'clock each morning and that his secretary and clerks are at their desks at an early hour. As the last successor of Washington and as the exponent of the principles of Jefferson, there is important work ahead for President Cleveland, and we hope he will perform it nobly. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY. The physical formation of the earth has been BO peculiarly subject to volcanic action, that the earliest date of existence of the continent of America is a vague and uncertain period in the speculative mind of the scientist. That it was at an early period joined to Asia is a well-founded belief. But whatever condition of human existence it then possessed different from the aborigines found at its discovery, is still but a speculative theory, and the mound-builders and other races that gave evi- dence of a remote civilization will perhaps remain forever hid- den in mystery. Until the fifteenth century the continent was not only en- tirely unknown to the inhabitants of the Old World, but it was not even known that the earth was a globe. Even the most skilled navigators believed it to be a great circular plain, like the top of a round table, and surrounded on all sides by a sea of unknown extent, with terrible mysteries in the boundless waste of waters beyond. They even supposed that at a short distance above the earth the heavens rose like a great arch and rested on the tops of the highest mountains, while the sun, moon and stars were thought to rise from and set beneath the waves of the sea. A few wise men among the Greeks thought the earth was a globular body, and that it revolved around the sun; but it was dangerous in those days to advance such ideas, and they withheld their opinions. The belief in the earth's flat- ness was still held, even after navigators who had been driven out of their course by adverse winds had discovered the Azores and Madeira Islands. But a master spirit arose in the fifteenth EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 441 century and boldly asserted the doctrine of the Greek philoso- phers. That man was Christopher Columbus, who, after long study, had arrived at the conclusion that our earth was a globe, and that only a part of it was then known to the inhab- itants of Europe. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. At that time, mariners were anxious to find a passage by water to the eastern shore of Asia, of which many stories were told of its fabulous wealth of gold and diamonds and precious stones. It was at this period that Christopher Colum bus blessed the world by his superior mind. A native of sunny Italy, born at Genoa in 1435, he had been reared from child- 443 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. hood on the bosom of the sea, and had roamed over nearly all the known world at that time. Being a thorough navigator and a close student of geography and astronomy, he began to advance the theory that the earth was round, and asserted that he could reach Asia by sailing west. Struck with this concep- tion, he addressed himself successively to every maritime power in Europe, for assistance in discovering the truth of his theory. But treated as a wild, visionary adventurer, he had well-nigh become utterly discouraged when Isabella, Spain's noble Queen, interested herself in his behalf, and even resolved to sacrifice her jewels to aid the purposes of Colum- bus. With such a fair and noble friend enlisted in his behalf, Columbus set sail on Friday, August 3, 1492, from the Spanish port of Palos on his western voyage of discovery, with three little ships that were frail indeed for such a voyage among unknown dangers, without a chart or knowledge of the diffi- culties he was to encounter. Who can contemplate his feelings and those of his crew, as day after day they sailed away from everything they knew of the earth ? When he struck the trade winds that swept his little ships on more swiftly to the west, fear and grave mistrust began to rise in the breasts of his sailors, as they looked forward with a grave fear that they would reach the edge of the world and be swept over into a terrible vortex beneath. After ten weeks had passed, indications of land were seen : birds, weeds, and berries, and also a cane, curiously carved as if by some strange race of human beings. Still day after day passed on, and the sun rose and set upon the wide waste of waters, and land appeared not. Morning and evening, clouds fringing the horizon had often deceived the weary mariners into the glad cry of land, but the deception floated away, and still the wild waves rose and fell. The frightened and muti- nous sailors refused to venture further to their almost certain destruction, and clamored to return ; but the calm, heroic cour- age of Columbus won their devotion from time to time, and he reasoned with them so calmly, so ably, to convince them of the correctness of his theory, that again they would become half converted and once more willing. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 443 At last the fragrant land breezes, laden with the perfume of tropic flowers, floated over the decks of the little waifs on the bosom of the strange ocean, and the next morning that beauti- ful scene of enchantment, a tropic island of the New World, lay before them like a gem upon the bosom of the ocean, and the sorrows and misgivings of the long, weary voyage were ended. How vivid in imagination and remembrance is that picture of the landing so f amiliar to every schoolboy : Columbus stand- ing in proud dignity, bearing aloft the banner and emblem of Spain, with his brave and enduring seamen bowing before him in thankfulness to God, while the wondering and awe-struck natives have thrown themselves upon their faces or stand peer- ing through the rich tropical foliage at the superior beings be- fore them, whom they believed to be deities, and the ships huge birds that had borne them on snowy wings from heaven. Alas! the illusion was but too quickly dispelled when armies of the Spanish conquerors, by their inhuman cruelty, made themselves more like devils than gods to the poor, simple natives. Columbus took formal possession in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, and, planting a cross, he called the island San Salvador, or Holy Saviour. The island, which is one of the Bahamas, was explored, and then a short voyage of discovery was made to the West Indies, of which he had learned from the natives of San Salvador. At the end of three months, Columbus re-embarked with his crew and seven natives, and set sail for Spain, to bear the glad news of his great discovery, of which he had abundant proof in the dusky natives and other trophies. The homeward voyage was made with joyous speed, and on the 15th of March, 1493, the sea-worn ships arrived at Palos, where the grandest ovation was given to Columbus and his faithful sailors, and a triumphal march was made to Barcelona, the court of Spain, where the King and Queen were waiting to graciously receive Columbus and hear from him a recital of the wonderful things he had to tell them of the New World he had given to ' ' Castile and Aragon. " It was a proud day for Columbus. The Bong and Queen appointed him Viceroy over all that he had or 444 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. should discover in the New World, and titles of nobility were bestowed upon him and his family. After this, he soon again made other voyages ; but although he discovered many other islands, and actually saw the main- land at the mouth of the Orinoco, he never appeared to realize that there was a mighty continent lying west of the islands. The triumph of Columbus aroused the envy and the machi- nations of his enemies, and they finally succeeded by false ac- cusations in having him placed in chains and disgrace. While Queen Isabella lived she defended and protected him, but at her death the noble discoverer was left to persecution and neglect, and soon the sorrows of his life wore out his feeble body, wasted by disease, and, commending his spirit to God, he passed away to explore the land beyond the last river. Beautifully did the German poet render tribute to him in the following lines upon his death : " Soon with thee will all be o'er, Soon the voyage be begun That shall bear thee to discover Far away a land unknown. " Land that each alone must visit, But no tidings bring to men ; For no sailor, once departed, Ever hath returned again. " .No drift-wood nor clustering berries Ever came from that far wild ; No carved staff, or broken branches, Nor the corse of angel child. " All is mystery before thee ; But in peace, and love, and faith, And with hope attended, sailst thou Off upon the ship of Death. " Undismayed, my noble sailor, Spread, then, spread thy canvas out ; Spirit, on a sea of ether, Soon shalt thou serenely float " Where the sea no plummet soundeth ; Fear no hidden breakers there ; And the fanning wings of angels Shall thy bark right onward bear. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 445 " Quit now, full of heart and comfort, These Azores they're of earth ; Where the rosy clouds are parting, There the ' Blessed Isles ' loom forth. " Seest thou now thy San Salvador ? Him, thy Saviour, thou shalt hail, Where no storms of earth shall reach thee, Where no more thy heart shall fail." Honors were then showered on his memory and inscriptions blazoned on his tomb where, in the island of Hispafiola, his body lay for nearly three hundred years,until the remains were transferred to Havana, Cuba, where they are treasured with sacred care. A year after the third voyage of Columbus, a Florentine navigator named Amerigo Vespucci made a voyage to the coast of South America, and having written a distinct account of his discovery, the country was named after him, and once more was Columbus robbed. Other navigators were also busy, and in the year 1496 John Cabot, a British mariner, explored the coast of Labrador, and in 1497 discovered Newfoundland. CHAPTER II. THE SPANISH CONQUESTS. Spain, possessed at that period of her greatest glory and strength of a powerful navy, was not idle in regard to her new possessions, and rapidly subdued and colonized the West Indies, and reduced the natives to slavery. From these islands she stretched her conquering arms further, and exploring the Gulf of Mexico took possession of a portion of Yucatan, and planted colonies at Pan- ama and Porto Bello, these being the first settlements made on the American Continent. In 1520, Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, discovered the Pacific Ocean by sailing through the straits which bear his name, and although he died on the voyage, his ship passed on and reached Asia, from which it returned by the Cape of Good Hope to Spain, forever settling all doubts as to the globular form of the earth. Among the many adventurers of Spain was one Juan Ponce 446 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. de Leon, at one time Governor of Porto Eico. This gentle- man's credulity had been imposed upon by the natives, who told him. a fabulous story about a famed "Fountain of Youth '' which rejuvenated those who drank of its wonderful waters. Ponce de Leon was growing old, but ardently desiring to be young again, he fitted out three ships and started on a voyage to discover the waters that could heal the scars of time. He found them not, but coasting along in his vain search, he dis- covered a land of floral beauty and sweet perfumes, which he named Florida, and landing where St. Augustine now stands, he took possession in the name of the King of Spain. Being appointed Governor, he afterward returned to colonize the land, but his force was attacked and defeated by the natives and de Leon himself was mortally wounded and returned to Cuba, where he died. Soon after this other Spaniards sailed along the southern coast for the purpose of capturing the natives to work as slaves in Cuba and San Domingo. They were partly successful in their cruel adventures, but later they found the natives aroused, and a signal defeat of the Spaniards broke up such expeditions on the coast now possessed by the United States. But further south, Cortez and Pizarro, two cruel and bloodthirsty Span- ish adventurers with small armies under their command, invaded Mexico and Peru and conquered the inhabitants and practiced the most heartless cruelties upon them. C; rtez sub- dued Mexico, after putting to death Montezuma. Pizarro overran Peru and gathered unbounded wealth from the inhab- itants, whom he forced to dig in the mines to fill his treasury with gold and silver. The cruelty and inhumanity of these two conquerors stain all the glory of Spain in colonizing the New World. CHAPTER in. ENGLISH AJS'D FRENCH EXPLORERS. After the first and second voyages of Columbus the fame of his discoveries spread throughout Europe, and England and France, being maritime nations, naturally became eager to add KAKLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 447 to their own possessions by discoveries in the New World. There was at that time a Venetian named John Cabot living in Bristol, England, as a merchant, who became imbued with the spirit of bold adventure, and sought from Henry VII. letters patent for himself and his sons to embark on a voyage of dis- covery, and to take possession of all lands they should discover, in the name of the King of England. England's hardy seamen had become trained to the hardships of the Northern seas in their regular fishing excursions around the coast of Iceland, and it was but natural that John Cabot and Sebastian, his son, should undertake their voyage in a northern latitude. Sailing due west from that rugged commercial town, Bristol, after the hardships of the long voyage they discovered North America in 1497, one year before Columbus had seen the coast of South America from a distance. After this Sebastian Cabot made many voyages, and for a half century was one of the most daring adventurers on the stormy main, having not only visited Labrador, but sailed within twenty-three degrees of the North Pole in his attempt to discover a northwestern passage. He also discovered the Newfoundland fishing banks, where large schools of fish have been found for hundreds of years. The French speedily availed themselves of the neglect of England to monopolize these fisheries, and Francis I. was also aroused to a spirit of conquest and sent Narazzani, a Florentine navigator, on a voyage of dis- covery. After touching at the Madeira Islands, he then sailed west, and first s aw land where Wilmington, North Carolina, now stands, from whence, without landing, he sailed north and explored the coast. Narazzani's explorations included New York Harbor and Newport, as well as the New England and Nova Scotia coasts, and from his very full account of his discoveries France laid claim to all the territory from South Carolina to Newfoundland. In 1534, Jacques Cartier, an experienced mariner, was placed in command of an exploring expedition for further discoveries and for colonization. Sailing direct for Newfoundland, he then proceeded southwest through the Straits of Belleisle and finally landed at. the inlet of Gaspe, where he took possession 448 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. in the name of France. He soon after returned to France with the most enthusiastic description of the country and its almost tropical climate, which he had only experienced in mid-sum- mer. His account of the luxuriance and profusion of fruits, flowers and vegetation induced the French court to send a colony to the New World, and in the next year Cartier returned to the land of his discovery with a company of young colonists, and, reaching the gulf, he named it St. Lawrence, in honor of the anniversary of the saint of that name. Ascending the river, to which he gave the same name, he reached a beautiful island on which was a high hill. This hill he named Mont Real, which is now the name of the city at that place, changed to one word. Here a fierce winter soon dissipated his beau- tiful vision of a tropical climate. After this one or two other attempts to colonize were made, which failed, and nearly fifty years elapsed before success in this direction was gained. CHAPTER IV. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The conquests and plunder secured by Cortez and Pizarro, and the fabulous tales of untold wealth of gold and silver, had so demoralized the Spaniards that they had no further thoughts of colonization on the continent of America than was necessary for destroying the natives and securing the wealth they could find. For this purpose Ferdinand de Soto, who had helped Pizarro pillage Peru, undertook an expedition to conquer Florida and possess himself and his followers with the fabulous wealth he had been told the country abounded in. This permission was not only granted by his Spanish sov- ereign, but to encourage him he was appointed Governor of Cuba and any country he obtained possession of. Florida was believed to be as rich in cities and gold and silver as Mexico and Peru, and volunteers were eager to embark in the expedi- tion. Many of Spain's noblest sons joined the company, of whom De Soto selected about six hundred, which number was swelled to one thousand in Cuba, over which island De Soto's EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 449 wife was left to govern in his absence. Landing on the coast of Florida at what is now called Tampa Bay, with his enthusi- astic army of conquest, De Soto sent his ships back to Cuba so that his men would be forced to rely upon courage and mili- tary skill, and started through the pathless forest with Indian guides, who had been enslaved in Cuba, to lead them to the hidden treasures of gold. Willing to humor the Spaniards in hopes of ultimate escape, the Indian guides lured them on across the country through forest and swamp in search of gold, which always seemed further on, like the fabled pot of money at the foot of the rainbow. The diversions of the Spaniards were varied from card-playing in camp to the pillaging of the Indians, and every cruelty that could be inflicted upon them, such as cutting off their hands, burning them at the stake and tearing them to pieces by bloodhounds. After long and weary wandering, they at last reached the present site of Mobile, then a walled Indian town named Mavilla. Coveting the rude comfort and shelter of this town, De Soto attacked it and a bloody battle ensued , in which the Spanish gained a victory, but the town was burned and their baggage lost in the fierce struggle. This coveted winter quarters being lost to them, De Soto led his men to the northern part of the State of Mississippi, where they quartered in a deserted village and foraged on the corn belonging to the Indians. Here they had a fierce fight with the Chickasaw Indians, and only won a victory over them at dear cost. When spring returned they once more started on their weary march, in sad plight, with their clothing in rags and a most meagre supply of food. On this march De Soto discovered the Missisippi River, which he regretted finding in his path, imped- ing as it did his progress westward after the cities and wealth which seemed forever fleeing before him and eluding his grasp. A month was required in building boats to transport his horses across. Then the weary wanderers tramped two hundred miles further westward, finding nothing but poor Indians and a little corn. Another winter was passed through and nothing was accomplished except poverty, of which they were secur- ing more every day. Two hundred miles more had been 450 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. traversed further south, and in the spring De Soto descended the Wachita and Red rivers and once more reached the turbid Father of Waters, sick, worn out and broken in spirit, with all his hopes of wealth vanished away. Disease and death had wasted and thinned the ranks of his once proud followers until the gloom of despair had well nigh settled upon them. Then came the closing scene, a violent fever, a rapid sinking, DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BY DE SOTO. and the once proud De Soto was no more, and with nis body wrapped in his winding : heet he was buried beneath the muddy waters, and by slow degrees the remnant of his army of conquest, themselves vanquished by sickness, hunger, want and bitter disappointment, reached the Gulf of Mexico and returned to Cuba and Spain, and one hundred and thirty years passed away before the bosom of the mighty river was again looked upon by a white man. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 451 CHAPTER V. PERMANENT SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA. It is probable that the wilds of North America would have remained without permanent settlements for a long period of time were it not that religious and political changes in Europe were paving the way for peopling this country with a noble ele- ment of mankind, who left their native lands for conscience' sake and embarked with their wives and children for the hard- ships and dangers of the New World. Never before or since in the history of the world have there been such examples of re- ligious principles and sentiments of civil liberty as actuated the colonists who settled the United States. How sublime the con- trast to those brutal hordes of robbers under Cortez and Pi- zarro who came for murder, rapine and pillage. They belonged to the dark ages of the world. Our ancestors were born with the Reformation and its higher Christian sentiments, and the era of a dawning civil liberty destined to disenthrall the world. Driven from their homes by religious persecutions and civil commotions, they sought permanent homes where the freedom of conscience was of greater value than the wealth and com- fort of bigoted Europe. The first attempt in France to found a colony in the New World through this incentive was made by Coligny, the French admiral, who was an earnest Protestant and was anxious that his co-religionists might have an asylum to which they might flee from the persecutions that encompassed them, and although the French Government was indifferent on the subject, Coligny obtained a commission from Charles IX. and fitted out an expe- dition which sailed in command of Captain John Ribault, an earnest Protestant, who was known to have the best interests of the colonists at heart. The experience of the French in the St. Lawrence settlement induced them to seek a warmer climate, and the ships were steered for the Florida coast, where they landed, first at St. Augustine and then steered further north along the Carolina shore, where they landed at the harbor now known as Port Royal in the year 1562. Here, surrounded by magnificent forests 452 EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. filled with fragrant flowers and all the luxuriance of the delightful climate, they began a settlement, and built a fort on one of the islands, and named it Carolina in honor of the French Queen. Leaving the colonists in charge of the fort to maintain possession of the country, Captain Ribault returned with the ships to France for the purpose of bringing provisions and more colonists. But France was at that time in the throes of civil war, and Ribault found it impossible to return to the New World. The unhappy colonists at Port Royal were thus left in a destitute condition, and after waiting vainly for months, they set about building a ship, and when the poorly- constructed craft was completed they set sail for France insuf- ficiently provided for the voyage, and when nearly perishing from famine, they were rescued by an English ship, and their glowing account of the rich soil, fine climate and luxuriant forests greatly inclined the English to colonization. At the first lull in the civil war in France, Coligny prepared another expedition under Laudoniere, who had been with the Port Royal expedition. Their destination this time was Florida, of which fabulous stories of its climate and great wealth were still told. These great expectations naturally drew into the ranks of the colonists many adventurers. Reaching Florida in 1564, they formed a settlement on the river now called St. Johns, where they built another fort, which they also named Carolina. Shortly after the settlement was made, a number of the adventurers, under pretense of going to Spain, em- barked as pirates, and being captured by the Spanish, some were made slaves. Famine now threatened the little colony while awaiting anxiously for provisions and recruits from France. None came, and, becoming disheartened, they were on the point of re-embarking for France in an English vessel, commanded by Sir John Hawkins, who had arrived from the West Indies, where he had disposed of a cargo of African slaves. Just as the colonists were preparing to leave, Captain Ribault came into the harbor with supplies and several shiploads of emi- grants, with everything requisite for tilling the soil. Hope and joy returned to the colonists, and they decided to remain. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 458 But a melancholy fate was in store for the little colony. Philip II., the cruel and infamous King of Spain, learned that French Protestants had settled in Florida, and he at once re- solved to destroy them and break up the colony. For this pur- pose he sent Pedro Melendez, a cruel, bloodthirsty man, to conquer Florida, and made him Governor for lif e. Bis pur- pose was to cultivate sugar-cane in Florida with negro slaves, and he quickly had a large expedition under way. As at that period there was a patron saint for almost every day in the year, the Spanish fleet landed on St. Augustine day, which gave the name to the oldest town which now exists in the United States. The Huguenots were greatly surprised to see the Spanish ships, and inquiring who they were and what the purpose was, were answered as follows : " I am Melendez of Spain, sent by my sovereign to behead and gibbet every Protestant in these regions ; the Catholics shall be spared, but every Protestant shall die." At this announcement the French fleet fled, pursued by the Spanish, who, failing to overtake them, returned, and after laying out the boundaries of St. Augustine, prepared to destroy the Protestant colony. In the short contest which ensued the French were overpowered, and nearly every man, woman and child was massacred. To justify his actions before France and the Catholic world, Melendez raised above the graves this inscription : " I do not this as unto Frenchmen, but as unto heretics." Scarcely had the carnage ceased before a storm wrecked the French fleet, and when the crews had surrendered to Melendez on his promise of humanity toward them, he marched them out and murdered them all to a man. Thus, by shipwreck and massacre nearly one thousand persons perished. France was indifferent to the massacre of her Protestant subjects, but the Huguenots were aroused to righteous ven- geance at the fiendish cruelty of the Spaniards, and Dominic de Gourges, a French Huguenot, fitted out three ships, with a determined force of nearly two hundred men, and, sailing for Florida, they surprised the Spaniards at the scene of the mas- sacre, and, completely overpowering them, hung about two 454 EARLY HISTORY OF AMKRICA. hundred of them to the trees, with this inscription placed above them: " I do not this as unto Spaniards, but as unto traitors, robbers and murderers 1 " Thus avenging the murder of hia brethren, Gourges returned to France, where the Catholic King offered a reward for his head, which compelled the just avenger to conceal himself to save his life, and this was the end of the French Protestant colony in America. The French Government, in its friendly relations with Cath- olic Spain, relinquished all claim upon Florida, and once more turned its attention to the profitable fisheries of Newfound- land and to the colonization of the St. Lawrence country. In 1567, a commission was granted to the Marquis de la Roche for establishing a colony, but the company secured for the purpose were criminals, and the enterprise failed. In 1608, Samuel Champlain formed an expedition of a company of merchants of Rouen which proved a success. In the same year, Sieur de Monts, a Huguenot, secured letters patent bestow- ing upon him the governorship of the territory extending from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal, called at that time Acadia, and reaching as far west as he should extend his rule. This patent secured to him the monopoly of the fur trade and gen- eral commerce, and granted religious freedom and protection to all Protestants entering the colony. Two ships were secured for the expedition, which hi due time entered a harbor in Nova Scotia which they named Port Royal. Here an abundance of fish and a fertile soil offered the Acadians the most hopeful prospects of success. The settlement was made in 1607, and this was the first permanent French colony in America. A few years later the Jesuits came as missionaries among the Indians in Maine, and by their influence secured the alliance of the Penobscot and Kennebec tribes, who remained as allies during all the French contest with England for supremacy in the New World. De Monts endeavored to form settlements in New England, but failed. Champlain in the meantime founded Quebec, and made many explorations, among which he discovered the lake EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 455 which bears his name. Thus by his perseverance he succeeded in making a permanent French settlement on the St. Lawrence River which for one hundred and twenty years remained under the crown of France. CHAPTER VI. ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. England's valid claim to supremacy in North America was based upon the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot. But for nearly one hundred years she had made no definite attempt to colo- nize the territory she claimed. During this time, however, she was not idle, but by industry and frugality at home, and by the daring and skill of her brave sailors among the fisheries of the north, she was training a race of seamen who were des- tined to sweep the Spanish naval supremacy from the ocean. While biding his time, Henry V1LL was encouraging the navy and building up the commerce of his country for a time when its white sails would glisten on every ocean. Queen Mary, who married Philip II. of Spain, seemed to encourage that powerful monarch in his design to subjugate her own country, and it was but natural, during her reign, that she should encourage Spanish occupation of the New World. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, however, the spirit of English adventure revived. Sir Francis Drake made a number of voyages to the New World, during which, after having suf- fered much molestation from the Spaniards, he landed on the Isthmus of Panama, in 1573, and captured a rich treasure which was about to be shipped to Spain. On this voyage a native directed him to a high point, from whence he saw the Pacific Ocean stretching away into the boundless blue expanse. This sight aroused in Drake the greatest enthusiasm, and re- turing to England he fitted out a squadron to explore the great ocean. Returning to the shores of the New World, he sailed through the Strait of Magellan out upon the Pacific, where he captured a number of Spanish vessels with a large amount of treasure, and sailed along the coast of Oregon as far north as 456 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. latitude 43. Wintering in the Golden Gate at San Francisco he returned home in the spring by way of the Cape of Good Hope, having, on the voyage, circumnavigated the globe. In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had been attracted by the growing importance of the Newfoundland fisheries, ob- tained letters patent from Queen Elizabeth to form a settle- ment near the fisheries. Landing at St. John's, Newfoundland, he formally took possession of the territory, to the great sur- prise of the -fishermen of other nations, whose sovereigns had also obtained formal possession. Sailing further north to make other discoveries, Sir Humphrey lost his largest ship and crew, and, with only two ships left, he sailed for home. With noble courage, he shared the dangers of the crew of the smallest, a mere shell, instead of sailing on the large vessel. During a storm, in which he had been encouraging his men, the light of his little craft was seen to suddenly disappear beneath the waves, and he was never seen again. Sir Walter Ealeigh was the next brave Englishman to prose- cute the explorations and colonization of the New World. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was his half-brother, but, not to be deterred by his fate, Sir Walter, the noble scholar and poet, under a charter from Queen Elizabeth, fitted out two vessels under Amidas and Barlow, and, setting sail, they reached the coast of Carolina in 1584. Having studied the art of war under Coligny, the high admiral of France, Sir Walter was eminently fitted for the management of such an expedition. They were charmed with the climate of the beautiful land in which they had arrived. It seemed like a delightful paradise of luxuriant forests, sweet perfumes and fruit-laden bowers, echoing with the songs of birds of the most beautiful plumage. The natives were gentle and hospitable, and kindly entertained the white strangers. After taking formal possession of the country in the name of England's Queen, they explored Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and the adjoining coast and islands, and returned to England, taking two of the natives with them. The glowing descriptions of the beautiful land and its tropi- cal luxuriance aroused the spirit of colonization, and a fleet of seven vessels was soon equipped, and with one hundred and EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 457 eight emigrants on board, set sail under command of Sir Richard Grenville, and about the middle of June, 1585, they landed on Roanoke Island, and after the colonists had begun the new settlement Sir Richard Grenville began an explora- tion of the neighboring coast and inlets. On one of these expe- ditions he unwisely burned an Indian village and destroyed their fields of corn because a paltry silver cup had been lost or stolen. This unwise cruelty to the Indians was followed up soon after by Lane, the governor of the colony, hav- ing caused the murder of a chief and his followers. These acts lost to the settlers the friendship and aid of the Indians, and such was the discouraging experience of the colonists that, when Sir Francis Drake, on his way home from the West Indies, stopped at Roanoke Island, the colonists re-embarked for home on his vessel. Scarcely had they sailed before a ship sent by Raleigh arrived with supplies for the settlement. In two weeks more, Grenville returned with three ships, but, not finding the colonists, he left fifteen men to hold possession. In 1586, Raleigh's second expedition arrived with emigrants and their families, who came prepared to cultivate the soil and be self-sustaining. Stopping at Roanoke Island, they beheld the melancholy spectacle of the moldering bones of the men left by Grenville. No vestige of a human habitation was left, and it was supposed that all had been destroyed by the Indi- ans. The commander of the fleet left the emigrants on Roa- noke Island, where they began to build the city of Raleigh. They soon found the Indians were hostile, and the colonists be- coming alarmed, urged the Governor to return to England for assistance. Previous to his departure his daughter, Mrs. Dale, wife of one of the settlers, gave birth to a daughter, the first child of English parentage born on the soil of the New "World. On his return to England, Governor White found the country in great alarm in view of the expected invasion by Spain, which country was at that time preparing what was called the " Invincible Armada.'' This prevented any aid being sent to the colony, and it was not until 1590 that White could return. He then found the settlement on Roanoke Island a crumbling ruin, and no vestige of the unhappy settlers was 458 EARLY HISTORY OK AMERICA. ever found, and it could only be supposed that they had been killed by the Indians. Eighty years afterward there was a tradition among the Indians that they had been carried off by the Hatteras tribe far inland, where all vestiges of them were lost. This ended Raleigh's attempts at colonization, and after having expended nearly $200,000 of his private fortune in the enterprise, he relinquished his charter to a company of mer- chants, although he afterward sent several times at his own expense to search for the lost colonists. No immediate steps were taken to form new settlements, and as Sir Francis Drake had a few years before destroyed the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, the country was once more left to the red man, one hundred years after Columbus had made his first dis- covery. Sir Walter Raleigh had, however, by his example paved the way for the future permanent occupation of the country, although misfortune soon clouded his life, and he never enjoyed the fruits of his labors and expended fortune. On the accession of James I. to the throne, Raleigh was unjustly accused of plotting against the King, and although he defended himself with all the eloquence and dignity of his innocent position, his property was confiscated, and after a cruel imprisonment of thirteen years in the Tower of London he was taken to the scaf- fold and beheaded, his last words being : ' ' No matter where the head lies, so the heart is all right !" CHAPTER VII. THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. The "Invincible Armada" having been swept away by the storms of heaven, as if in derision and rebuke of the vanity of the name, Spain's naval supremacy on the ocean was gone, and with it departed her power to appropriate any more of the New World. England became the mistress of the seas, and from that era began to push her conquests over the world. King James laid claim to all the territory lying between Cape EAKLY HISTOBY OP AMERICA. 459 Fear, in North Carolina, and Newfoundland on the north, and extending to the west indefinitely. This territory was divided into South Virginia, extending from Cape Fear to the Potomac, and North Virginia, from the mouth of the Hudson to New- foundland. To settle these territories, he granted charters in 1606 to two companies, known as the Plymouth Company and the London Company, the region between the Hudson and the Potomac rivers being neutral territory, which both companies were at liberty to settle within a certain limit of each other, Believing in the " divine right of kings," James I. undertook to make all the laws for the colonists himself, and forbade religious differences of opinion, requiring all to conform to the doctrines of the Church of England. Three ships set sail for the new home of the colony of the Lon- don Company, composed of one hundred and five persons, forty- eight of whom bore the title of " gentleman," and expected to live in idleness and luxurious comfort very poor material for the rugged settlement of the New "World. Captain Newport, the commander of the fleet, touched at Roanoke and visited the ruins of the City of Raleigh, but a storm driving the fleet into the Chesapeake Bay, they entered a large river which they called the James, in honor of their King. Landing on the 13th of May, 1607, they began a settlement which they called James- town, also in honor of the English sovereign, and the capes at the entrance of the bay were called Henry and Charles, after his sons. The leading spirit of the C3lony was Captain John Smith. This celebrated man, though but thirty years of age at the time, had experienced an eventful history. He had traveled through France, Italy and Egypt ; had fought for the freedom of Holland ; had served as a soldier against the Turks in Hun- gary ; and had been captured and sold as a slave in Constanti- nople, where he had been rescued by a Turkish lady and taken to the Crimea. There he killed an oppressor and escaped through Russia to Morocco, and, after various other adven- tures, returned to England just as the London Company were preparing their expedition. This new adventure was j ust suited to Smith's bold spirit, and he readily joined the party. 460 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. It was customary for colonies to carry with them what was called the mysterious box. This box contained the names of the officers and council of the settlement who had been selected by the King, and it was opened after the colonists reached their destination. When the box of the London Company was opened, it was found, much to the disappointment of cer- tain envious and jealous ones, that Captain Smith was selected by the King as one of the council. To prevent him from act- ing in the council, he was falsely accused and placed under arrest ; but on the trial, which he demanded, his enemies failed to substantiate their charges, and he took his seat in the council. Soon after this Newport and Smith undertook to explore the river and adjoining country and to secure the friendship of the Indians. They visited Powhatan at his capital on the site of Richmond, where he presided over thirty tribes. The old chief, who was a tall, grave warrior of about sixty years, received them with civility, but was distrustful of the presence of the white settlers. On their return to the settlement Newport returned to Eng- land, leaving the colonists in a deplorable condition. Sickness was rapidly spreading among them, their provisions were spoiled from the long voyage, and in two weeks after New- port's departure scarcely a dozen of the party were able to wait on the sick. Before winter half the colonists had died. To make their condition still worse, it was discovered that Wingfield, the President, had been subsisting upon the choicest of the food, and had also conspired with others to seize the public stores and escape to the West Indies. Upon this discovery the council deposed him, and elected Ratcliffe as President. But he was found entirely incompetent, and the management of the colony in this serious crisis was unanimously intrusted to Smith. Im- mediately his wiso administration of affairs improved the condi- tion of the settlement. He encouraged the sick and timid, and forced the rebellious into subjection. To replenish their stock of provisions, Captain Smith organized trading expeditions with the Indians for corn, while abundance of wild fowl in the winter supplied additional food. EAKLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 461 Having thus improved the condition of his people, Smith undertook a number of voyages of discovery upon the neigh- boring rivers. On one of these expeditions several of his com- panions, having against his orders left their boats, were captured and killed by the Indians, and Smith himself, after killing three of his enemy, sank into a swamp and was taken prisoner. To save himself from immediate death, he aroused their won- der by showing them his compass, and explaining to them the wonders of astronomy. For the purpose of conciliating the Indians with presents, Smith wrote to the colonists to place a number of articles in positions he mentioned, and telling the Indians what they would find at cer- tain places. His words proved true, and the simple Indians looked upon him as a supernatural being, and he was led in triumph from village to village and viewed with great wonder and awe. At last he was taken to Powhatan's village to decide the fate of the distinguished captive. After much ceremony the chief condemned Smith to death, and with the head of the captive laid upon a stone, Powhatan raised his war club to strike the fatal blow, when his beautiful daughter, Pocahontas, whose friendship Smith had won, rushed between the upraised club and Smith, and placing her head on his breast, begged her father to spare his life or she would perish with him. The heart of Powhatan was touched, and he not only spared Smith but permitted him to return to Jamestown and gave him assurance of the future friendship of the In- dians. Pocahontas after that frequently visited the colony and brought them presents of corn to relieve their pressing need. When Captain Smith returned to Jamestown he found the colony reduced to forty men, and the able-bodied ones were preparing to desert in the small boats. With the greatest bravery, and at the risk of his life, Smith prevented their de- parture. Soon after, Newport arrived with 120 emigrants, some of whom, in their desire to stumble upon wealth without working for it, found what they took to be gold ore, and neglecting everything else, the entire colony rushed to the sup- posed gold field, where they toiled until they loaded a ship 462 EARLY HISTOKY OF AMERICA. with the new-found treasure, which, when taken to England, proved to be but glittering sand. During three months of the year 1608 Smith engaged in axploring the Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River. From the friendly Indians he first heard of the great warriors, the Mohawks, who dwelt on a great water, had many boats and made war on all the world. Exploring further, Smith dis- covered the harbor of Baltimore and passed up the Potomac above where Mount Vernon is situated. He thus traversed three thousand miles in an open boat and made an accurate rnap of the country he had explored. On his return his abilities as a leader were so signally proven and so fully recognized that he was formally elected President of the council, and he began systematically to direct the labor of the colonists so that thrift might follow industry ; but to still further demoralize the settlement another colony of idlers came in the fall, and in protest against such useless material for building up the New World, Smith wrote to the company at home : " When you send again, I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, black- smiths, masons and diggers up of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such as we have." The condition of the colony was indeed discouraging to Cap- tain Smith as he looked around and contemplated the result of two years' labor, represented by only about forty acres in cul- tivation, with a force of over two hundred able-bodied men. To enforce industry Smith put two rigid laws in force. One was that those who did not work should not eat, and the other required that every man should labor six hours each day. The interest of England in the settlement of America became more lively, and in 1609 a new charter was granted to the Lon- don Company with more extended limits and larger powers. Lord Delaware was appointed governor, and a fleet of nine vessels with five hundred men were sent out in command of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and Captain Newport, who were to govern the colony until Lord Delaware's arrival. The emigrant ships arrived safely on time, but a severe storm jstranded the ship conveying Gates, Somers and Newport near the Bermu- EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 463 das, and it was nine months before they reached Jamestown. Dur- ing this time the commissioners and their crew built a small ves- sel in which to reach Jamestown. Captain Smith had great diffi- culty in subjecting the rebellious portion of the new colonists to obedience to the Jamestown code, but his firm spirit compelled them to acknowledge that he was the ruler of the settlement until his authority was regularly supplanted. Soon after this he was injured by an explosion of gunpowder and was com- pelled to return to England for proper surgical treatment. He appointed George Percy his successor, and after an affectionate parting with his old friends of the colony, he left Virginia for- ever. Scarcely had he departed before the great loss of this superior man was felt. He it was that had kept the Indians in check. They liked and respected him, and he stood up for their rights when the colonists stole their corn and otherwise ill-treated them. When it was known to the Indians that Smith was gone they laid a plan to destroy the colonists at a single blow, and would have succeeded had it not been for Pocahontas, who came one stormy night to Jamestown to warn the settlers and thereby saved their lines. But indolence, vice, sickness and famine soon began to deplete the Colony, and in six months after the departure of Smith only sixty were living. Of the others who had not died, thirty had captured a ship and sailed to the Southern seas as pirates. Sir Thomas Gates was surprised on his arrival to find the settlement in such a deplorable condition, and he resolved to abandon it and take the remaining colonists back to England with him ; but just as they had dropped down the river they met Lord Delaware coming, on the 10th day of June, 1611, with abundance of supplies and reinforcements, and, with renewed hope, all returned to Jamestown the same night and began the work of settlement upon enlarged plans. Every man was set to work, new forts were constructed, houses built, farms and gardens laid out and many other improvements made. Lord Delaware's administration was a most excellent one, and under it the colony thrived, both in industrious habits and morals. Their reliance on God was such that thev 464 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA met at the little church every morning, and invoked His bless- ing before beginning the labors of the day. But soon illness compelled Lord Delaware to return to England, and the next year his successor, Sir Thomas Gates, arrived with six ships and three hundred emigrants. New settlements were formed higher up the river, and in 1611 cattle and hogs were sent over from. England. One great improvement made in the condition of the settlers was that of giving to each man a portion of ground to cultivate for himself. As a mark of the ingratitude of the settlers, Pocahontas, the t'rue and faithful friend of Captain Smith and the early settlers of Jamestown, was, in 1613, while visiting a neighboring tribe, sold by the chief to Captain Argall for a copper kettle. Argall was so lost to gratitude and honor as to demand a large ransom from her father for her release. Powhatan indignantly refused to pay a ransom and prepared for war. In the meantime John Rolfe, one of the most exemplary men of the colony, won the love of Pocahontas and offered his hand in marriage to the beautiful young maiden of the forest. Powhatan gladlv ac- cepted Rolfe as his son-in-law, and the marriage secured his warm friendship and that of his tribe for the whites. Previous to the marriage, Pocahontas renounced the religion of her race and was baptized in the faith of Christ, after which the nuptials were performed according to the rites of the Church of England, and Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe settled down to happy domestic life in the colony. At the end of three years Rolfe took his wife to England, where apartments in the Royal Palace were allotted to her, and she was visited and caressed by the noblest ladies in the land. Among those who came to pay his respects to her was her old friend, Captain Smith, whom she supposed dead, and his unexpected appearance so suddenly brought up the old associations that she was over- come with emotion and shed tears of mingled gladness and sorrow. It is sad to contemplate that she never again saw her native America, for just as she was preparing to return with her husband and infant son she was suddenly taken ill and died at the age of twenty-two. Her son Thomas was afterward highly educated and became a prominent man, and from him EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 465 some of the leading families of Virginia are descended. Peace .to the memory of the gentle Pocahontas ! In 1614 the colonists appealed to Parliament for aid, but this being refused, they had to rely upon tobacco for their revenue, and it was so universally cultivated that the streets of Jamestown were planted with it. The crop soon became a valuable commodity for export. At the end of two years' rule Dale returned to England, leav- ing George Yeardley as Deputy Governor, and his administra- tion was marked by many improvements. But the designing Argall managed to supersede him until his vices and villainies caused his dismissal by the company and the restoration of Yeardley as Governor, and once more the colony prospered. At this time, although the colony had existed for twelve years, there had been but few women residing in the settle- ment. But it became evident that for the permanency of the settlers wives should be brought over to them from England, and after twelve hundred more men came over, one hundred and fifty young, pretty and respectable women were sent to the colony to become wives of the settlers, each husband paying at the rate of one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco for the expenses of the voyage of the wife. It was during Yeardley's administration that the House of Burgesses was established and convened at Jamestown, being the first Colonial Assembly in America. As an evidence of their firm reliance upon God, the fol- lowing resolution was passed at its organization : " For- asmuche as man's affaires doe little prosper when God's service is neglected, we invite Mr. Bucke, the minister, to open our sessions by prayer that it would please God to sanctifie all our proceedinges to His owne glory and the good of this plan- tation." The laws passed by this legislative body were most excellent for the time. Idlers were to be sold to a master until they showed signs of reformation ; playing of cards, dice and similar games was prohibited ; so were drunkenness and other vices. Provisions were made for the erection, of a university and college, both for the children of the settlers and any acceptable and promising children of the natives. The House 466 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. of Burgesses strictly adhered to the principle that the people should have a voice in making their own laws, and the London Company granted a written constitution to the colonists under which the people could have a legislative assembly of their own choice. This constitutional freedom was maintained for the colony until the London Company dissolved, when the charter was taken away by the King. CHAPTER VIII. LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, in seeking for a shorter route to America, sailed directly across, and his effort was crowned by success in seven weeks, by reaching the New England coast in the vicinity of Nahant, and coasting further south he dis- covered Cape Cod, which he named after the immense schools of fish he found there. He also discovered Martha's Vineyard and other islands near by. At the time he saw the country, in the early summer, it presented a charming appearance, and he gave such a glowing description of its islands and bays, and lakes and beautiful forests and flowers that England's attention was directed to that portion of the coast. The Plymouth Company, to which King James granted the country lying between the 41st and 45th parallels of north lat- itude, were anxious to form a settlement and soon attempted to colonize at the mouth of the Kennebec in Maine, but the winter proved so severe that they gladly returned to England in the spring. Then Captain John Smith, who had done so much for the Virginia colony as the illustrious founder of Jamestown, explored the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, and made a map of the country, which included many of the prominent features. This territory he named New England. Smith returned to England in 1614. But scarcely was he away before Captain Hunt, one of his assistants, enticed an Indian chief named Squanto, with about thirty of his tribe, on board the ships and carried -them away to Spain, where he sold thorn into slavery. There the chief and a few of the others were pur- EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 467 chased by some monks who Christianized them and sent them back as missionaries to the Indian tribes. In 1620 King James gave a grant of all the land lying be- tween 40 and 48 degrees north latitude and from the Atlantic to the Pacific to a commercial company with many exclusive privileges. So great a monopoly did this bestow upon the com- pany that Parliament took up the subject in warm debate, and while all parties concerned were wrangling over the subject, a permanent settlement in New England was made by the Puri- tans, who are familiar and dear to the American heart as the "Pilgrim Fathers." The Puritans were a religious sect of England who had existed since 1550. Their prominent traits of character were an uncompromising abstinence from gayety and amusements, firm belief in the practice of the teaching of the Bible, and a fervid love of civil and religious liberty. Having been driven from England by persecution, because they would not conform to the doctrines of the Church of England, they took refuge in Holland in 1608. There they were permitted to live and wor- ship God as they chose, but the national disregard for the Sabbath and the demoralizing influences surrounding their children at last determined them to emigrate to the wilderness of America. Reports of the Virginia settlement had reached them, and they made application to the London Company to become colonists on their land. In their petition they made the following declaration of their principles : " We verily believe that God is with us, and will prosper us in our en- deavors. We are weaned from our mother country, and have learned patience in a hard and strange land. We are indus- trious and frugal ; we are bound together by a social bond of the Lord, whereof we make great conscience, holding our- selves to each other's good. We do not wish ourselves home again ; we have nothing to hope from England or Holland ; we are men who will not be easily discouraged." Some objection to their admission to the colony being raised by members of the company, their consent was not given to the Puritans to emigrate to Virginia. One great difficulty in the way was their extreme poverty. In their persecutions and 468 EARLY HISTOEY OF AMERICA exile for conscience' sake they had become so poor that they could supply little or no means toward the expedition. After their failure to arrange with the London Company , a number of London merchants formed a company to advance the means for establishing the colony on condition that each emigrant should labor seven years to make up the amount of his stock THE MAYFLOWER. in the company against the sum of ten pounds paid in by each one of the merchants. Two vessels, the Mayflower and Speedwell, were secured for the voyage, and all the younger and more vigorous of the Puri- tan congregation in Holland embarked on the vessels at Delft Haven in charge of William Brewster. At the parting their venerable pastor, John Robinson, who remained in charge of EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 469 those still left in Holland, delivered to the emigrants an affec- tionate farewell in which he said : ''I charge you before God and His holy angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveal any- thing to you, be ready to receive ; for I am verily persuaded the Lord has more truth yet to break out of His Holy Word. I beseech you remember it is an article of your church covenant that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written Word of God. Take heed what you receive as truth ; examine it, consider it, and compare it with other scriptures of truth before yoii receive it ; the Chris- tian world has not yet come to the perfection of knowledge.' The night before their departure was passed in prayer and exhortations on shore, in company of the venerable pastor and the brethren who came with him from Leyden, and the next morning, after a prayer and benediction from Robinson, the Pilgrims went on board the ships and embarked for the New World. After stopping at Southampton and again sailing, it was discovered that the Speedwell was unseaworthy, and her captain declaring that he could not cross the ocean with her, both ships put back to Plymouth, where they left the Speed- well and all the emigrants who could not go in the Mayflower. Again the Mayflower set sail with her devoted band of one hundred Pilgrims, and buffeting the waves with her precious freight, she reached the icy shores of a rock-bound winter coast. The Pilgrims had intended settling on the neutral territory near the Hudson River, but after sixty-three days they found themselves on the coast of Massachusetts, where they made a landing in a rocky harbor which they named Plymouth after the last port from which they had sailed in the Old World. The landing was made on Plymouth Rock,- on the 21st day of December, 1620, and immediately they began to build the first town in New England. Among the prominent men of the colony were William Brewster, the ruling elder ; John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow and Miles Standish. John Carver was elected governor and Miles Standish, the intrepid soldier, who had 470 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. fought in Queen Elizabeth's army sent to aid the Dutch aaainst the Spaniards, was selected as the captain of the colony. The sufferings of the colonists began from the very day of PLYMOUTH ROCK. their landing, but they bravely bore them without a murmur, and maintained a firm trust in God. It was slow, hard work to fell and hew the trees for building their houses, but they EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 471 persevered even when their strength failed them. During the month of December six of the colonists were taken sick, and before the winter ended over forty of them had been laid in their graves. Bradford and Winslow lost their wives, and Miles Standish also lost his young bride, Rose Standish, while among the men Carver, the governor, lost his son; then he died, and was soon followed by his wife, all of whom were buried near Plymouth Rock. So discouraging was their condition that at one time only seven of the colony -were not confined to sick be .is. But with all their sad and destitute condition not one of them desired to return on the Mayflower when she set sail for England. The blessings of civil and religious liberty were too dear to them in the land of their adoption to be abandoned while life lasted, and even death would be sweet if at so dear a cost they could leave the birthright of freedom and constitu- tional government to their children and to unborn ages. As spring advanced the health and prospects of the colonists improved, and during the summer they raised a scanty supply of food, but in the fall a new company of emigrants came, almost without provisions, and there was great danger of famine. For many months the Indians had never entered the settlement, but when seen near by and approached had always fled, until one day a friendly Indian named Samoset, of the Wampanoags, entered the little vil- lage, exclaiming in English, " Welcome, Englishmen ! Welcome, Englishmen!" It was a surprise to the little colony to hear him speak in their native tongue. He had learned a few English words from previous navigators and the fishermen on the Penobscot. Samoset told the colonists that they could occupy the settlement, as a pestilence had destroyed the former owners of the land. In a few days Samoset returned with Squanto, who was formerly kidnapped and taken to Spain as a slave, where he was ransomed by the monks and educated for a missionary, and returned to his native land. Squanto in- formed the Pilgrims that Massasoit, the chief of the Wampa- noags, wanted an interview with them. In a few days Mas- sasoit, with a number of his tribe, visited Plymouth, and 472 EARLY HISTOKY OF AMERICA Squanto acted as interpreter, and by his influence a treaty was made with the Pilgrims, by which they bound themselves to defend each other from the attacks of enemies. This treaty was observed for over fifty years, until King Philip's war arrayed the Indians against the whites. This treaty created a warm friendship between the colonists and the Wam- panoags, and their good opinion of the Pilgrims was greatly improved by the latter offering to pay for a basket of corn they found hidden when they first landed. Squanto proved himself a noble friend and a blessing to the colony. He understood agriculture on the sterile soil of New England, and taught the colonists how to make the corn grow by putting fish in each hill, and he also showed them where to find the fish. He was their interpreter and guide, and, best of all, he was a convert to the Christian religion. By his instruc- tions corn soon became so plentiful that the colonists began to exchange with the Indians for furs, which they could easily sell to England for merchandise. The Narragansetts, who lived on the shores of Narragansett Bay, were enemies of the Wampanoags, and they did not like the arrival of the Pilgrims. Canonicus, to show his hostility to the whites, sent to Plymouth a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin, of a rattlesnake. This skin Governor Bradford sent back filled with powder and shot. This the superstitious Indians viewed with great awe, and, after sending it from tribe to tribe among their medicine men, they returned it to Plymouth and decided not to molest the whites ; but,, for the sake of precaution, the colonists built a palisade around their settlement a mile in circuit. In all their transactions with the Indians the Pilgrims treated them with justice and kindness, and when they finally became involved in difficulties with them it was through no fault of their own, but through the evil actions of others. A merchant of London, named Weston, wishing to monopolize the fur trade with the Indians, obtained a charter for land near Wey- mouth, and sent over a company of men. They aroused the hostility of the Indians by stealing their corn and otherwise ill- treating them. The Indians not recognizing the difference be- EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 473 tween the noble justice of the Pilgrims and the roguery of Weston's men, planned to destroy all the white settlers in a sudden attack upon them. At this time, Massasoit being dangerously sick, Governor Winslow visited him and gave him medicine which saved his life, and to reward him Massasoife revealed the plot to Winslow. This greatly frightened the Pil- grims, and Captain Standish, with a few brave men, hastened to Weymouth to apprise the settlement of the intended attack, and to assist them to repel it. The result was that Captain Standish took the Indians by surprise, and killed several of their best warriors, including the chief who had planned the intended massacre, and his head was brought back to Plymouth on a pole by Standish. News of the fight having reached the venerable pastor, Robinson, who was still in Leyden, he sor- rowfully wrote to the colonists : ' ' Oh, how happy a thing had it been, had you converted some before killing any." This saved the Plymouth colony from further danger, for the Indians were glad to seek peace ; and the Weymouth colony soon returning to England, the Indians had no further griev- ance to complain of. In the fall of 1628 was celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in America. The crops had been gathered in and Governor Bradford set apart a day for a feast and thanksgiving to God. On the day before, men were sent out to secure game for the great feast, and for the first time they met in celebration of that day which has become one of our national anniversaries. The colonists were visited during the year 1622 by thirty-five vessels on trading voyages and the Pilgrims purchased small supplies of provisions and other necessities at extortionate prices. The colony was so poor and with such imperfect agri- cultural implements, and no domestic cattle or boats for fishing, that they found it impossible at that time to supply themselves with food by their labor. Until that time they had labored in common, but it being recognized that individual labor and profits offer the greatest incentive to action, there was a divis- ion of the land made in 1624, and each colonist receiving a small tract, after that they had corn in abundance and to sell. The merchant stockholders in London became dissatisfied 474 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. with their share of the profits from the labors <>f the colony, and to prove their displeasure they would not permit the remainder of the Puritans in Holland, with their pastor, Robin- son, to go to the Plymouth colony. They also endeavored to take from them the fur trade with the Indians, and, not content with interfering in their temporal affairs, even attempted to force their religious opinions by sending them as a pastor a clergyman, named Lyford, who held to the faith of the Church of England, but who was soon expelled from the colony for im- morality. The first government of the colony was conducted by all the members of it, who assembled in town meeting and decided all questions that arose, but in 1639 their numbers had so increased that a representative system was organized, consisting of a governor and a council of five, who made all the laws subject to the approval of the people. The colony was without a charter for ten years before they received a title to the land from the company in London. It was through such hardships and difficulties as these that the pioneers of religious and civil liberty established the founda- tions of this great government, and of which Governor Brad- ford spoke of the progress in his day in the following beautiful words : ' ' Out of small beginnings great things have been pro- duced by His hand that made all things out of nothing ; and as one small candle will light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many ; yea to our whole nation." CHAPTER IX. THE COLONY OP MASSACHUSETTS BAY. The increasing prosperity of the Plymouth colony aroused great interest among the Puritans, who were still struggling against persecution in the mother country, and other compa- nies began to seek an asylum in the land of peace and quiet whatever might be its toils and deprivations. The old London Company had been reorganized and had become the Council of Plymouth, and it was granting charters EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 475 to whoever would settle the laud, and, having given a Dor- chester company a grant of land bordering on Massachusetts Bay, the company sent out a colony of one hundred men in 1628, under the management of John Endicott. a man of noble character and unquestioned integrity. They landed at a place whose Indian name was Naumkeag, which they changed to Salem, and made it a permanent settlement which included in its ranks of noble pioneers Winthrop, Saltonstall, Simon Brad- street, Thomas Dudley, William Coddington, Bellingham and others whose illustrious names have come down in their posterity to the present time. The charter of the colony was a very liberal one. and permitted the settlers to make their own laws without royal signature. Soon afterward another colony of about two hundred arrived, with the Rev. Francis Higginson as their pastor, who on leaving England stood on the vessel's deck and exclaimed : "Farewell, England! Farewell, all Christian friends! We separate not from the Church, but from its corruptions. We go to spread the Gospel in America." On their arrival part remained at Salem, while the remainder founded Charlestown. Winter soon came, and, as usual, brought sickness and priva- tion, and in less than a year half of the colonists had died, including the minister, Higginson. When the provisions of the charter were examined into it was found to grant no rights to the colonists, but left them to the arbitrary rule of the English company. One clause, how- ever, afforded an opportunity to circumvent the " divine right of kings" and corporations. The charter permitted the Coun- cil to select their own place of meeting, and they shrewdly decided to meet in the colony, thus virtually transferring the government to America and making the colony independent of English rule. The officers of the Council were a governor, deputy governor and eighteen assistants. John Winthrop was elected governor and Thomas Dudley deputy governor. In 1630 they set sail for America with fifteen hundred emi- grants in seventeen ships, and arriving in midsummer, began 476 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. settlements at Charlestown, Newtown, Dorchester, Watertown. and Shawmut, the latter being the peninsula afterward called Boston. It was soon found that the system of holding office and electing officers was not a favorable one to the rights and interests of the settlers. Under the provisions of the charter the assistants could hold office for life if they desired, beside exercising the sole privilege of electing the officers. In revis- ing the tenure of office clause it was decided that the assist- ants or magistrates should be elected annually, and to extend the right of voting to freemen of the colony, the general court passed a law that no one could vote who was not a member of a church. This created another disturbance and resulted finally in every freeman having the right to vote. After this the colony prospered and became firmly established. The greater safety of the settlements was secured by building a fort at Boston, and for better communication a ferry was established between the settlements of Boston and Charles- town. During this time the friendship and good will of the Indians had been secured by honest and fair dealings with the natives, and some of the weaker tribes sought the protection of the col- onies. The different colonies also began to be very sociable toward each other, and visits were exchanged not only as far away as to the Plymouth settlement, but also to the Manhat- tan settlement of the Dutch at the mouth of the Hudson River. In 1635', over three thousand colonists came from England, among whom were the Rev. Hugh Peters and a young man named Harry Vane, who was soon after elected governor in place of Winthrop. Human nature soon asserted itself in the colony in matters of arbitrary religious proscription. The Puritans, themselves fleeing from religious persecution, had failed to realize that of all Christian virtues the greatest is charity, and while secur- ing religious liberty for themselves they were unwilling to grant it to others, but desired to enforce upon all their own religious doctrines and an attendance upon their churches. Among those who had come over in 1631 and settled at Salem was a young clergyman named Roger Williams, who taught EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 477 that every man had a right to worship God as his conscience dictated, and that bigotry and persecution were the same in the New World as in the Old. He soon, also, came in conflict with the magistrates by claiming that they should not be obeyed by the people, and that the oath of allegiance to the colony should not be taken. He also denounced the law compelling every one to attend church as against conscience, and he also held that the expenses of the church should be borne by its members and not by the entire colony. These doctrines were looked upon by the Puritan leaders as grave heresies, and Roger Williams was publicly censured. The Salem people then called him to be their pastor, but the Boston colony at- tempted by withholding land from them and in other ways to induce them to repudiate Williams and his doctrines. Salem, however, stood up for him until the town was disfranchised by the next General Court, and admonished against the pains and penalties of sedition. These measures had the desired effect upon Salem, and she returned to her Puritanic al- legiance, while the court pronounced the decree of ban- ishment against Roger Williams. Upon this arbitrary ac- tion Williams became a wanderer, and sought for conscience' sake some other part of the New World where religious liberty could be enjoyed with none to molest or make him afraid. For fourteen weeks he wandered among the snows of the for- est and sought the hospitality of friendly Indians, while at other times his lodging was nothing better than a hollow tree or cave. At last he reached the wigwam of Massasoit, where he was kindly received and remained until summer. He had decided upon forming a settlement at Seekonk, on the Paw- tucket River, but that being within the limit of the Plym- outh colony, Governor Winslow admonished him to settle elsewhere and prevent further trouble. Williams then re- ceived from the Narragansetts a tract of land on the bay O f that name, and with five companions he began a settle- ment at a place where he found a spring of water. This settlement he called Providence, to commemorate the goodness of God. This was the first settlement in Rhode Island, and Williams and Ms five companions were soon joined by other 478 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. friends from Salem and Boston, with whom he divided the land. The settlement became popular and rapidly increased because of the perfect freedom of action and belief accorded to each one. It was a government of the people, by the people and for the people, after Roger Williams' own heart. During the term of Governor Vane's administration in Boston other religious dissensions sprang up, among which it may be said that the first " woman's rights" doctrines in America were promulgated by Ann Hutchinson, who gathered around her certain adherents to the doctrine that if women were not allowed to have a voice in religious meeting they certainly had the right to hold meetings of then* own and advance their own ideas on theological questions. In these meetings they cen- sured the Puritan clergy and advanced religious theories that were denounced as greater heresies than those of Roger Will- iams. Governor Vane and many others espoused Mrs. Hutch- inson's cause, while Winthrop, the ministers and body of the Puritan laity vigorously opposed the new departure in religion. The Hutchinson party asserted that they worked under a "cov- enant of grace." Her opponents declared that she was a witch. The strength of the Hutchinson party was broken by the election of Winthrop as governor and the return of Vane to England, after which Mrs. Hutchinson, having been first admonished, was banished from the colony, together with her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, and a few others, who left the colony in 1638 and settled in Aquidneck or Aquiday Island in Narragansett Bay. Roger Williams had invited the exiles to settle in his colony or near by, and it was through his influence that the island was secured from Miantonomoh, the future successor of Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts. The island was renamed the Isle of Rhodes and William Coddington was elected ruler of the colony. In the year 1639 Newport was founded hear the site of an old stone tower of great antiquity, the origin of which was even unknown to the Indians. For many years the Rhode Island colony was independent of the Roger Williams settlement at Providence, but in 1644 they received a charter and were united under the name of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 479 After a few years Mrs. Hutchinson and her family moved west beyond New Haven, where they were finally taken captive and murdered by the Indians. CHAPTER X. SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. In 1614 the Dutch from Manhattan discovered the Connecti- cut River, and erected on the site of Hartford a trading post which they fortified, and for a time held and claimed possession of the country, but incurring the hostility of the Indians, they were forced to abandon it and lose the Indian trade? after hav- ing failed in inducing the Pilgrims to leave the Plymouth colony and form a settlement in common with them in the Connecticut Valley. Governor Winslow, however, explored the region, and its fertility having been favorably reported in England, the Council of Plymouth gave a grant of Connecticut to the Earl of Warwick, who transferred it to Lord Say, Lord Brooke and others. This grant extended from the Narragansett River to the Pacific Ocean. When the Dutch learned of the intention of the English to settle the country, they purchased of the Indians all the land in the vicinity of Hartford and mounted cannon on their fort to prevent the English from ascending the river, but William Howe, with a company of settlers from Plymouth, proceeded up the Connecticut in a sloop without any regard to the threat of the Dutch, and began a settlement at Windsor. In the autumn of 1635 a company of sixty persons from the Plymouth colony made the journey by land through great labor and difficulties, and arrived to find the river frozen by the approach of an early winter. This prevented the sloop with their provisions and household furniture from reaching them; and losing their cattle from cold and starvation, the settlers were themselves reduced to corn and acorns to prevent them- selves from perishing. During the same year the Reverend Thomas Hooker with three thousand emigrants arrived in Boston from England, at 480 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. a time when the colonists were still agitating the Williams con- troversy. Hooker, who had been silenced from preaching in England as a Nonconformist, was not pleased with the religious dissension in Boston, and he, with John Haynes and a number of others, determined to settle in Connecticut. In the spring they set out with about one hundred persons for the fertile Connecticut Valley and toiled through the pathless wilderness by the aid of a compass, while they drove their cattle before them and bore heavy loads upon their shoulders. Thus they finally reached the locality of Hartford, where they purchased lands from the Indians and began a settlement. It was not long before difficulties with the Indians arose and the settlements were in danger of destruction. The fertile val- ley of the Connecticut was more populous with Indians than the locality of the other settlements. Among the most power- ful tribes were the Pequods,whose warriors numbered over two thousand, besides having a number of smaller tribes as allies. The Pequods inhabited the southeastern portion of Connecticut, stretching from the shores of Long Island Sound along the bank of the lower Connecticut. This warlike tribe would doubtless have destroyed the settlements could they have incited the Mo- hegans and Narragansetts to warfare against the whites, but these two tribes, who were enemies of the Pequods, were friends of the colonists. The Pequods had some years before murdered a trader named Stone, and at the time of their threat- ened war with the whites, Captain Oldham and his crew were murdered near Block Island while they were on an exploring expedition to the Connecticut River. As soon as the news of the unprovoked murder reached Boston, Cap- tain John Endicott was sent with a force to punish the murderers. Finding the island abandoned by the natives, Endicott destroyed their village and crops, after which lie crossed to the main land to demand satisfaction of the Pequods for the murder of Stone, and on the refusal of the Indians to deliver up the two warriors who had killed him, Endicott burned two of their villages and laid waste a part of their country. This aroused the revengeful spirit of the Pequods, and they soon visited all the wiles and cruelties of Indian warfare EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 481 upon the settlements. Lone houses were stealthily approached and burned while the defenseless inmates were killed and scalped ; men were shot down in the fields and the helpless women and children were brained at their firesides. The greatest alarm soon seized upon the Connecticut settlers and they hurriedly called upon Massachusetts for assistance, but the minds of the Puritans were so engrossed with their theo- logical difficulties that they only sent twenty men to the aid of their Connecticut brethren. The Pequods were cautious of entering into open warfare without the assistance of the other strong tribes, and for the purpose of enlisting them in the bloody work they sent messen- gers to the tribes they desired as allies. Roger Williams, upon hearing that they had sent a messenger to the Narragansetts, hastened to that tribe to save some of the very men who had banished him from Massachusetts. After a weary trip through a great storm he reached the Narragansett village, to find the Pequod chiefs already there urging the Narragansetts to war against the whites, and for three days, at the risk of his life, he boldly pleaded his cause, and was rewarded by the refusal of the Narragansetts to join the Pequods, and they also gave their promise to Williams that they would aid the whites, and Will- iams, after sending a messenger to Boston to warn the people of their danger, returned home. Soon after this the Connecticut settlers, in a convention at Hartford, declared war against the Pequods, and with a force of about eighty settlers and sixty Mohegans, under the friendly chief Uncas, marched against the enemy. The expedition was commanded by Captain John Mason, whose experience as a soldier in Flanders fitted him for the position. The night before they started on their perilous expedition they engaged in prayer with their ministers, Hooker and Stone. Expecting aid from the Narragansetts, they stopped at their village on the way, where they were received with friendship, but the chief replied : ' Your design is good, but your numbers are too weak to brave the Pequods, who have mighty chieftains and ajre skillful in battle." He, however, consented to send two hundred of his warriors along to assist if they saw an opportunity to 482 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. turn the tide of victory against their ancient enemy. Nothing daunted by the disappointment, Mason determined to carry out the undertaking with the force he had. When the Pequods saw the English sail past the mouth of the Thames River, they thought the whites were fleeing from them, and they set up a shout of derision. But Mason \vnr> only sailing into Narragansett Bay for the purpose of attacking the Pequod forts by land; and on the 26th of May, at ju.-t abou' daylight, Mason's party cautiously approached the village of their sit eping foe, knowing that life and death and all that they held dear in their families on the Connecticut depended on the issue. An Indian dog gave the alarm, and the sentinel, hastily aroused, rushed into the fort shouting "The English ! the English !" The attack was fiercely made and fiercely met, as the English issued through the palisades and poured the fire of their guns in the very faces of their savage foe. The issue was uncertain, when Mason grasped a torch, and shouting "We must bum them!" set fire to the wigwams, which were soon ablaze in a fearful conflagration, and as the Pequods rushed frantically through the flimes, the English and their red allies formed a circle around the burning village and swept the Pequods away in confusion. Over six hundred men, women and children perished. After this wholesale slaughter the warriors from the other fort arrived, three hundred strong, and Mason, fearing that there might be an attack upon the defenseless settlement, embarked his men in their boats and hastily returned. A few days later Captain Stoughton arrived from Massa- chusetts with one hundred men and pursued the broken- spirited Pequods, destroying their villages and crops and over-! whelming them at every point. So desperate became the situation of the Pequods that they were driven from place to place and butchered by the English and their Indian allies until the remnant of two hundred surrendered in despair to the English. These were divided out captives among their enemies and sent to the West Indies as slaves, and thus was blotted out the once proud Pequod tribe. The fate of Miantonomoh, the chief of the Narragansetts, EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 483 and friend of the whites, was most melancholy. Having been captured by the Mohegans in a war with that tribe, he was delivered over to his old enemy, Uncas, who, in the presence of men of the Connecticut settlements, tomahawked the old chief, and cutting a piece of flesh from his shoulder, ate it, declaring that it was the most delicious morsel that had ever passed his lips. In 1638, a London clergyman named John Davenport, and Theophilus Eaton, a rich merchant, having with a number of their followers been exiled from England, sailed for America and landed in Boston, and though urged to remain with that prosperous colony, they decided to seek their new home in the fertile valley of Connecticut of which they had heard so favor- ably. During the winter Eaton, with a number of the company, had explored the coast of the Sound, and selected a location for their colony, and with the arrival of spring, Davenport and the remainder sailed from Boston and arrived at the location se- lected by Eaton, where Davenport preached his first sermon on the Sabbath under a large tree, and together they formed a government in which the officers and right of voting were to be confined to church members, and the Bible was selected as their guide in all things. The land they purchased from the Indians, and the settlement was called New Haven. Eaton was made governor, and during the remainder of his life, more than twenty years, was successively re-elected. In 1639 the people of the Connecticut colonies met in con- vention at Hartford, and framed a constitution and form of general government for the settlements. Those who took an oath of allegiance were entitled to vote, and it was resolved that England should have no voice in the control of their affairs. A General Assembly was created by their constitution, to which members were selected from the different towns in proportion to the number of inhabitants. The constitution and form of government thus created remained in force until the days of the Revolution, one hundred and fifty years afterward. In 1622 the Plymouth Council granted to Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason a portion of land situated in New Hampshire and Maine to be called Laconia, and soon after 484 EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. emigrants were sent over who settled near the mouth of the Piscataqua, and founded Portsmouth and Dover. Wheel- wright, who was banished with Mrs. Hutchinson from Massa- chusetts, founded Exeter. In this manner the colonists were progressing and working out their own forms of government independent of England. They had received nothing from her but exile and persecution, and they sought no favors of her in their wilderness homes. The very hardships and dangers which surrounded them im- bued them with a self-reliant, independent spirit and they only desired to be let alone. But designing men in England were watching their progress and planning to reap the benefits of their labor. Believing that the attempt was to be made to establish over them the rule of the Church of England, and to appoint a governor-general to control them in the interest of the Crown, the colonists raised six hundred pounds for fortifica- tions for the resistance of any encroachments upon their rights. In 1640 many of the colonists returned to England to aid their Puritan brethren in overturning the government of Charles I., and in bringing him to the scaffold under the iron will of Cromwell. But the Restoration soon brought a revul- sion and among those whom royal revenge destroyed were the Rev. Hugh Peters and Harry Vane, who were beheaded on the scaffold for having aided the Puritan cause. In 1643 the colonists found it necessary to join themselves together under the title of " The United Colonies of New Eng- land, " to protect themselves from the hostile^ Indians and the encroaching French and Dutch. In this confederation each colony was left undisturbed in its self-government, while two commissioners from each colony formed the legislative body that deliberated and made laws for the general welfare. The important qualification required of the commissioners was church membership. Rhode Island refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Council of Plymouth, and consequently she was not permitted to join the Union. Thereupon Roger Williams proceeded to England to obtain a separate charter, which Harry Vane secured from Parliament under the title of the Providence EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 485 Plantations. Soon after this Roger Williams became a Baptist, and in 1644 founded the first Baptist Church in America. Up to this time religion had engrossed the attention of the colonists above other important requirements, but education began to impress its necessity upon them also. Each year saw the number of finely educated men increase in the colonies, and it began to be realized that a higher class of educational insti- tutions should be established for the growing youth of the land. The first of these colleges was established in 1638, and named Cambridge, after the famous institution of that name in Eng- land. To this institution the Rev. John Harvard left his library and half his fortune. In 1639 a printing press arrived from Holland, and was scarcely set up before it was at work printing books of psalms for the New England churches. In 1647 the subject of education was again taken up and free schools were established, where every child could receive a common English education. The enactment required that every town or district having fifty householders should establish a common school. All the New England colonies, except Rhode Island, established free schools in accordance with this enactment. In 1656 a new religious disturbance broke out in the colonies. There had arisen in England a class of dissenters from the Puritan doctrines, called Quakers, who were opposed to all former modes of worship, and it was even rumored in the colonies that they denied their obligation to all civil laws. Almost with bated breath the devout New England Puritans awaited the arrival of some of this dreaded sect in their midst. They had had Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson with their heresies, and now they were to be troubled with Quakers. At last two women arrived whose bonnets revealed their identity even before they were seized and their books examined. It was at first even thought advisable to try them as witches, but finally their books were ordered to be burned by the hangman and they were sent back to England with a warning never to return. The Puritans then passed rigid laws against the entrance of any Quakers into the colony, and even went to the extreme of 486 EAftLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. passing a law condemning to death any Quaker who, having been banished from the colony, should return ; but with all the precautions, they still came, and even some of those who had been sent away returned, as though seeking death for con- science' sake, and four of them were actually put to death ; but their blood seemed to cry out against the self-righteous Puri- tans, and at last the persecutions ceased and the Quakers became good citizens, and many of them became missionaries to the Indians, under the guidance of the noble and devoted minister, John Eliot, who in his earnest labors among the Indians even succeeded in translating the Bible for them in their native tongue. Among other noble spirits who labored for the souls of the poor untutored Indians was Mayhew, who afterward, in returning to England, was lost with all on board. During all these events, in matters of religion and education the colonies were prospering and growing into a permanent civilization, which was making the land to blossom as the rose. The following extract from a writer of the day indicates the progress the people were making : " The Lord hath been pleased to turn all the wigwams, huts and hovels the English dwelt in at their first coming, into orderly, fair and well-built houses, well furnished, many of them with orchards filled with goodly fruit trees and garden flowers. This poor wilderness hath equalized England in food, and goes beyond it for the plenty of wine and apples, pears, quince-tarts, instead of their former pumpkin pies. Good white and wheaten bread is no dainty ; the poorest person in the country hath a house and land of his own and bread of his own growing, if not some cattle. Many fair ships and lesser vessels, barques and ketches were built. Boston, of a poor country village, is become like unto a small city ; its buildings beautiful and large ; some fairly set out with brick, tile, stone and slate, orderly placed, with comely streets, whose continual enlargements piesageth some sumptuous city," Thus it will be seen that, notwithstanding the bigotry and fanaticism in religious matters of the Massachusetts settlers, their indomitable perseverance was exactly what was required in developing the resources of the glorious land of their adoption. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 487 CHAPTER XI. VIRGINIA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE. The colony in Virginia had not been prospering as well as the sister settlements in New England. They had lost two valuable friends, Captain John Smith and Powhatan ; the former had returned to England, the latter was dead, and with him. had departed the influence which held the savage spirit of the Indians in check. Opecbancanough, his brother, was chief of the tribe, and though openly friendly with the whites, he was secretly their enemy, and wished for their extermination. This secret spirit of hate was engendered by the unwise actions of the settlers, who took possession of the most fertile land wher- ever they found it, without any offer of purchase or remunera- tion to the Indians. This aroused the spirit of revenge in Opechancanough, and he secretly planned the extermination of the English in Virginia. The colonists numbered about four thousand in the year 1622, while the tribes of Indians within striking distance of James- town and the different settlements numbered about five thou- sand. The plot was formed that the warriors of this force should on a certain day fall upon the settlements simulta- neously and massacre every man, woman and child. While this plan was being arranged Opechancanough was unusually friendly with the settlers, and up to the very day of the intended attack the Indians were eating at the tables of the whites and playing the hypocrites more completely than was thought pos- sible with the Indian character. The plot was so well laid that it would have been carried out, to the almost entire destruction of the English, had not a con- verted Indian named Chauco brought the news to Jamestown on the morning of the fatal day. The colonists were at once thrown into the greatest excitement, and messengers were hurried off in every direction to warn the settlements. But all could not be reached, and at noon the merciless savages simul- taneously began the massacre upon all the settlements, and in one hour, on the 22d of March, 1622, they cruelly butchered three hundred and forty-seven men, women and children and 488 EARLY HISTORY Of AMERICA. seventy-two plantations were laid waste. The fleeing settlers sought safety at Jamestown and left their homes to desolation. Death had entered nearly every family, and to add to their wretched condition, sickness and famine visited them with dire results, and in less than three months twenty-five hundred only were alive out of the four thousand colonists. So great was the mortality in the Virginia colony that out of nine thousand settlers only two thousand remained at the end of two years, and many years passed before prosperity again visited the colony. The territory of Maryland was included in the grant of land to the London Company in 1609, and Captain John Smith ex- plored the Chesapeake, after which a trade gradually sprang up with the Indians, which the enterprising Virginians had ex- tended on both sides of the bay. William Clayborne, a sur- veyor, was employed by the governor to explore the sources of the Chesapeake and make a map of the country. After this exploration a company was formed in England to trade with the Indians, and Clayborne becoming the agent of the company, made settlements on Kent Island, opposite Annapolis, and at the mouth of the Susquehanna. In 1632 Lord Baltimore obtained from King Charles a grant for a large tract of land on the Potomac, after his attempt to found a colony on the shores of Newfoundland had failed. Lord Baltimore had but recently left the Protestant church and joined the Catholics. This had prevented his attempt to form a colony in Virginia, where he was met with a religious test oath which as a Pvoman Catholic he could not take. This difficulty de- termined him onfounding an asylum for all religions, where men would be free to exercise their own conscience in the service of God. The colonists were to make their own laws and were to be entirely free from English taxation. This territory he named Maryland in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles. Lord Baltimore did not live to see the results of his efforts, for just as the charter was granted he died, and his son, Cecil Calvert, succeeding him in the title, sent out his brother Leonard in 1632 in charge of two hundred emigrants, mostly Catholics, who arrived in the Chesapeake just as a tribe of EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. 489 Indians were preparing to move on account of their enemies, the Susquehannas. These Indians sold to the colony their cultivated fields and village on the St. Mary's, a branch of the Potomac, where they settled, and named the town St. Mary's. Governor Harvey, of Virginia, paid them a friendly visit soon after their arrival, and extended to them the welcome and assistance of Virginia. The colony soon became prosperous, and in the second year of their existence held their first legislative Assembly, They treated the natives with great consideration and soon established a profitable trade with them. This aroused the enmity of Clayborne, whose license to trade with the Indians was annulled by Lord Baltimore's charter. Clayborne refused to recognize Lord Baltimore's authority over his two trading posts. This resulted in a collision, in which Clayborne was defeated and fled to Virginia. Governor Calvert demanded his return as a fugitive from justice, and to evade the demand Governor Harvey sent him to England to be tried. The Vir- ginia people sympathized with Clayborne and in their indigna- tion at the course of Harvey, impeached him and removed him from office, but Kong Charles reappointed him and he returned as governor in spite of the Virginians. To make matters worse Clayborne returned from England and incited a rebellion which drove Governor Calvert from the province, but in 1646 he returned from Virginia with troops and suppressed the rebellion and pardoned all offenders. Leonard Calvert died in 1647. During the rule of Cromwell and the troubles which followed, several governors were ap- pointed over Maryland until the Assembly repudiated both Cromwell and Baltimore ; but on the restoration of Charles II., Philip Calvert Lord Baltimore convinced the King that he had been a loyalist all the time, and he was appointed gov- ernor, and his authority being recognized by the people of Maryland, he granted a full pardon to all, and peace and pros- perity were again restored to the colony. After Sir William Berkeley became successor to Harvey as governor of Virginia, England began to restrict the trade of the colony and claim it as her own. This crippled the colony and interfered with their industry and commerce until 490 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. the days of the Revolution. The war in England which over- turned Charles I. also disturbed the colony, and divided them in their opinions of the cause to be espoused. Virginia was the last of the colonies to acknowledge the authority of Cromwell's Commonwealth. Religious disturbances also arose. The Puri- tans in New England had been banishing Episcopalians, and Virginia, which held to the Church of England, began to ban- ish the Puritans who were living in their midst. After Charles was led to the scaffold, Virginia became the asylum of many loyalists, who were kindly received by the colonists. After Cromwell died, the Virginia House of Bur- gesses passed a resolution " that the supreme power will res'de in the Assembly." They at the same time elected Berkeley governor. It is said that Virginia acquired the name "Old Dominion " by her loyalty to Charles II. in his exile, by invit- ing him to come and be king of Virginia. These peculiarities of early Virginia are explained by the fact that her first colo- nies were organized and protected by the nobility of England, which created from the start an aristocratic spirit in the set- tlers. Another reason of their pride was that the cultivation of tobacco developed large plantations and slave labor, in addition to a class of white men, mostly political offenders, who were bound out or indentured for a term of years. After the Restoration, Berkeley declared that he was gov- ernor, not because he was elected but because he had been appointed by Charles II. The Assembly was at that time, in 1662, composed of landholders who were mostly wealthy and generally aristocratic, and they decided to deprive the common people of the right to choose their own legislators by declaring the Assembly perpetual, and during a usurpation of fourteen years nearly all the civil rights of the people were swept away. The Church of England was declared the authorized religion of the colony. The cause of education was neglected, and Berkeley even said, " I thank God there are no free schools nor printing ; and I hope we will not have them these hundred years." During the forty years that Berkeley was governor he was not troubled with free schools or printing presses, and it was ninety years after Massachusetts had both, before Virginia had either. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 491 In 1675 a war broke out between Maryland and the Indians, and Virginia sent a company of soldiers, under John Washing- ton, the great-grandfather of George Washington, to help the people of Maryland. When they arrived on the Potomac, the Susquehannas sent six of their chiefs to treat for peace, but the Virginians killed the entire number. This enraged the Su-que- hannas, and they marched over the border into Virginia and killed ten men for every one of theirs whom the Virginians had slain. In their distress the people called upon Berkeley to send soldiers to their aid, but he was more interested in the fur trade, and made no effort in behalf of the unprotected settlements. The people then called upon Nathaniel Bacon, a young English- man, a lawyer and a patriot, to take command of their volunteer soldiers, but Berkeley, who disliked Bacon, refused to grant him a commission. The Indians continued their bloody work until the situation became so desperate that the volunteers put themselves under command of Bacon and marched against the Indians. On hearing of this action, Berkeley proclaimed Bacon a traitor and his soldiers rebels. At this time the more populous counties that were not molested by the Indians exhibited signs of dissatisfaction at the usurpations of the As- sembly and the haughty actions of the governor, and as soon as Bacon had returned successful with his troops the people forced the obnoxious Assembly to dissolve, and an election for new members was called. Among these, Bacon was elected to represent Henrico County, and the new Assembly corrected the evils of its usurping predecessor. They also elected Bacon commander of the army, to which Berkeley at first refused to give his sanction, but after having done so, as soon as Bacon again went in pursuit of the Indians Berkeley again proclaimed him a traitor. In reply to this Bacon said : " It vexes me to the heart that while I am hunting the wolves which destroy our lambs, I should myself be pursued like a savage." To thwart the will of the people Berkeley then gathered a motley army of English sailors and Indians and prepared to sub- jugate the people to his will. In anticipation of his intentions the people met in convention at Middle Plantation, and resolved to oppose his tyranny by force. Soon after this Berkeley with 492 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA five ships sailed to Jamestown to put down what he termed an insurrection of the people. At Jamestown he was met and defeated by Bacon and the army of the people, and Berkeley and his mongrel army fled, leaving Jamestown in possession of Bacon. To prevent Berkeley from again securing possession of Jamestown, a council of war was held, and it was resolved to burn the town. Drummond and Lawrence and other prom- inent patriots applied the torch to their own dwellings. Thus the first town built on this continent by Englishmen crumbled to ashes as a sacrifice to civil liberty, and all that to-day re- mains of that " Old cradle of an infant world In which a nestling nation lay ; Struggling awhile ere she unfurled Her gallant wings and soared away," is the old vine-clad ruin of the church tower. It was now believed that the people of Virginia had secured the fruits of a permanent victory over usurpation, but their noble leader was soon seized with an illness which ended his brave and useful life. The tyrant Berkeley seized upon this oppor- tunity to again possess himself of the government, and began to persecute with fines, confiscation and death all who had sided with the patriots. The first who was condemned to death was Hansford, who was not permitted to be shot like a soldier, but was executed by hanging, being the first white native of America who perished on the gallows. When Drummond was taken, Berkeley said with an air of triumph : "You are wel- come ; I am more glad to see you than any man in Virginia. You shall be hanged in half an hour." Before the vengeance of the relentless Berkeley was satiated twenty-two persons were executed. At last Berkeley left the country and returned to England, and to celebrate the departure the people built bon-fires and held a public rejoicing. In England he was received with loathing and disgust, and even King Charles exclaimed: " The old fool has taken away more lives in that naked country than I for the murder of my father." The cup of Virginia was not yet full. In 1678 Charles gave EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 493 the governorship of Virginia to Culpepper for life, and in 1680 he came and began enriching himself by taxing and impover- ishing the people, and when he had sufficiently robbed them he took his departure, and a more impecunious and avaricious governor named Effingham succeeded him. After the accession of William and Mary, the college bearing their name was founded in Virginia in 1691, and the Rev. James Blair was its President for fifty years. So completely had Virginia been given over to royal favorites, and her trade and commerce restricted for their profit, that there had long ceased to be any inducement to emigration, and the chief labor in raising tobacco appeared to be done by slaves, and kidnapped whites of the lower order of society in England. This condition of things in Virginia, together with the struggles for civil liberty under Bacon, also affected Maryland with a spirit of dissatisfaction. On the accession of William and Mary, the deputy governor of Maryland was not inclined to acknowledge allegiance to them. This was seized upon by designing persons to incite the people against the government of the colony, and a number of Protestant leaders armed the peo- ple to seize the deputy governor, and the deliberations of a convention resulted in deposing Lord Baltimore, and declaring the people as the sovereigns. King William learning of this action, deprived Lord Baltimore of his rights under the charter, declared the colony a royal province, placed over them a royal governor, made new laws for them, established over them the Church of England 'and disfranchised the Catholics for whom the colony had been formed. In 1716 Lord Baltimore's rights under the charter were restored to his heir, and all the former laws were re-established. Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, for the purpose of advancing the Protestant religion, granted a charter in 1626 to a company of Swedes to establish a colony in the New World, and in the following year a few emigrants came over, but a war soon engrossed the attention of the Swedish King, and his death soon after on the field of battle ended his efforts in behalf of American colonization. Oxenstiern, a distinguished states- man, then took up the matter, and in 1638 a company of Swedes 494! EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. and Finns in charge of Peter Minuits arrived in Delaware Bay, on the shores of which he bought land from the Indians and began a settlement, which they called New Sweden, and near the present site of Wilmington built Fort Christiana, named in honor of Sweden's youthful queen. The colony was soon in a flourishing condition and another settlement was made by new emigrants on land now included in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Nearly all the territory secured by the Swedes had been pur- chased by the Dutch, who some years before had been sent out from New Amsterdam to form a settlement, but dissensions and a war with the Indians had destroyed the colony. On this claim to the territory the Dutch protested against the Swedish usurpation, and in 1651 they built a fort at New Castle, within a few miles of Fort Christiana. This fort the Swedes attacked and destroyed. For this injury and presumption, Stuyvesant, the Governor of New Netherlands, marched against the Swedes with six hundred men and took possession of their country. In passing under Dutch rule, the Swedes were generously treated and were allowed to retain all their rights as citizens. Thus was Delaware settled, and thus in seventeen years ended Swedish power in America. CHAPTER XII. SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK. In 1609 Henry Hudson was sent out by a company of London merchants in search of a northwestern passage to India. His expedition proving unsuccessful, the company refused to send him on a second voyage. He then offered his services to the Dutch East India Company, who supplied him with a ship, called the Half-Moon, and he was permitted to sail without special instructions and in the exercise of his own judgment. He first sought a passage to the northeast, and went as far beyond the capes of Norway as the ice would permit. Then turning west across the Atlantic he sailed along the coast of America as far south as the shore of Virginia, after which he retraced his course, and, sailing north, entered Delaware Bay. From thence he again proceeded north, and, after passing EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 495 through a narrow channel, entered a beautiful bay, where he anchored near one of the islands now known as Manhattan Island, embracing a part of the city of New York. Here, for several days, he was visited by the astonished natives in their canoes, who thought the ship and whites had come from the Great Spirit. Believing that the great river that stretched away to the north might be the long-sought passage to India, he sailed up the stream one hundred and fifty miles, and by that exploration gave his name to the river and immortality to his memory. On his return to England Hudson was not permitted to serve the Dutch any longer, but his future discoveries were desired for England. On his next voyage, undertaken in the interests of some London merchants, he took a northerly direction and discovered the bay known by his name. There he wintered among the islands, intending-to resume his search in the spring for the northwestern passage, but when that season came he found it impossible, from shortness of provisions, to continue the voyage. In great disappointment he set sail for home, but in a short time his crew mutinied, and he and his son and some sick seamen were set adrift in a small boat and were left to perish in the great, gloomy bay that bears his name. The Dutch having learned, from Hudson's description of his voyage in their service, of the great beauty, fertility and abun- dance of timber in the bay and inlet of New York, a ship was sent the next year to open up traffic with the Indians, and in a few years there were forts and trading posts as far up the river as Albany, then called Fort Orange. A rude fort had been built on the lower end of Manhattan Island, which was the first building ever erected in New York. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company obtained from Hol- land a grant of all the territory in America they might occupy for the purposes of trade and colonization. This monopoly of trade reached from Cape May to Nova Scotia, and to this terri- tory the Dutch gave the name of New Netherlands. The valley of the Mauritius, as the Hudson Eiver was then called, offered the most profitable inducements for trade, and to that locality the Dutch gave their particular attention. 496 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. Peter Minuits was appointed governor of the first colony, and coming over in 1625, he bought the whole of Manhattan Island from the Indians for $24. The settlement was called New Amsterdam. The industry of the colony at first consisted of a trade in furs and the capture of any Spanish vessel that approached the harbor. The Dutch soon stretched their settlements over Long Island, Staten Island and New Jersey, and in their treatment of the Indians they were very honorable, buying their lands and pay- ing in the best legal tender of the day knives, beads, wampum and similar goods. To encourage emigration, every person who would come was offered a sufficient quantity of land for cultivation, and there was also offered to every man who in four years would found a colony of fifty souls a tract of land sixteen miles in length by eight in width anywhere in the New Netherlands, except Manhattan Island, and the person should be given the title of "Patroon" or "Lord of the Manor." This offer was taken advantage of by Van Rensse- laer, Godyn and others. The Dutch West India Company, to favor New Amsterdam, determined to make that settlement the capital of the New Netherlands and to centre the trade there. A law was passed forbidding any one, under penalty of banishment, to make fabrics of any kind for clothing, all being compelled to buy the goods at New Amsterdam. In 1683 Walter Van Twiller became governor in place of Minuits, who had resigned. He proved himself, however, incom- petent for the important position, and neglected the rights of the colonists in his great desire to serve the company. So great were his shortcomings that the old plain-spoken Dutch Min- ister, Dominie Bogardus, reproved him in a letter saying that he would give him " such a shake from the pulpit on the follow- ing Sunday as would make him shudder." Van Twiller was soon succeeded by William Kief t. This man, while more competent than his predecessor, was avaricious, unscrupulous and tyrannical in his administration, and was continually quarreling with the Swedes, English and Indians. The Indians had previously been friendly with the Dutch, and EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 497 the Mohawks and Iroquois had been supplied with several hun- dred muskets to fight their Indian enemies. Kieft, under a pretended authority from the company, attempted to levy an annual tribute on the tribes of Indians living along the Hudson River. To this the Indians replied that he " was a shabby fellow to come and live on their land with- out being invited, and then want to take away their corn for nothing." This refusal to pay the tribute ended the attempt to collect it. Soon after this Kieft accused some Raritan Indians of steal- ing some hogs which had really been taken by some Dutch traders. Kieft, without investigating the truth of the charge, sent some soldiers who destroyed the corn of the Raritan tribe and killed some of their men. The Raritans retaliated by kill- ing four settlers on Staten Island. The next year a Hollander was killed at Manhattan by an Indian who had vowed to re- venge the death of his uncle twenty years before, whom he had seen killed when he was a little child. Kieft demanded the murderer, but the Indians refused to give him up, and offered to pay two hundred fathoms of wampum in satisfac- tion. To settle the difficulty Kieft permitted a committee of twelve of the colony to investigate the Indian difficulty. This committee also availed themselves of the opportunity to con- sider the despotic acts of their governor, which enraged Kieft, and he broke up the committee, and thus ended the first deliberative Assembly of the Dutch in America. Soon after this a colonist sold brandy to a young Indian, and after cheating him drove him away. The youth, inflamed by the liquor, returned with his bow and arrows and shot the Hollander dead. Kieft demanded the murderer, but he had fled to a neighboring tribe, and the chiefs replied to the de- mand by saying : " It is your own fault. Why do you sell brandy to our young men? It makes them crazy. Your own people get drunk and fight with knives." Immediately after this a band of Indians pursued by the Mohawks took refuge on the bank of the Hudson, opposite Manhattan, and appealed to the Dutch for protection. Kieft was urged to secure for- ever the friendship of the neighboring tribes by protecting 498 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. them from the warlike Mohawks, but he resolved to extermi- nate the helpless Indians. In protest against this unwise and inhuman resolve De Vries said : " If you surrender these poor creatures who have put themselves under your pro- tection, you will involve the whol3 colony in ruin, and their blood and the blood of your own people will be required at your hands." This admonition was scorned by Kieft, who sent a body of soldiers across the river at midnight and butchered the unsuspecting and helpless Indians. Old and young, strong and helpless, men, women and children all shared a common fate. The Indian tribes along the river rose in horror and rage when they heard of the unprovoked and cowardly butchery of the helpless tribe that had thrown themselves upon the protec- tion of the Dutch. A desperate and bloody retribution was visited upon the colonists. The united tribes made war upon the pale-faces wherever they found them and the cries of butchered settlers and the smoke of burning houses rose in every direction. Scarcely a settler was left outside of Manhattan and Staten islands. Nearly all fled to the fort on Manhattan who could escape the enraged sav- ages, and it was feared for a time that the entire Dutch colony would be swept from America. They were alone saved proba- bly by the intercession of Roger Williams, whose influence with the Indians was such that he persuaded them to stop the terrible butchery. So much for the brutality of Kieft. One incident of the war is worthy of mention. De Vries had on that fatal night saved an Indian and his wife from being slaughtered, and when the Indians attacked De Vries' settle- ment on Staten Island the grateful Indian pleaded with the savages to spare the settlement, and the Indians proved their appreciation of De Vries' humanity by withdrawing from the attack. It was finally agreed between the Indians and Dutch that they would each send messengers to Rockaway, Long Island, to treat for peace, and De Vries, whose influence with the Indians was known, was one of the messengers sent by the Dutch. At the conference, one of the chiefs held in his hand a number of little sticks, and as he began to talk he held up one EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 499 and said : ' ' When you first came to our shores you wanted food ; we gave you our beans and our corn, and now you murder our people." Holding up another stick he continued : "The men whom your first ships left to trade we guarded and fed ; we gave them our daughters for wives ; some of those whom you murdered were of your own blood." He then took up another stick to recount the wrongs done his people, but the messengers had heard enough to trouble their consciences, and asked to make peace and for- get the past. The Indians consented to bury the hatchet, but this was not agreed upon by the young warriors, and soon war broke forth afresh, and it was only by obtaining the services of Captain John Underbill, who had become famous for his success in the Pequod war, that the Dutch saved themselves from extermination. An aggressive war was then waged against the savages for two years, and they were hunted through forest and swamp ; but still they continued to ambush the un- protected farmers, and, murdering them in their fields, would carry off their wives and children as captives. This warfare destroyed the crops, and famine added its terrors to the colony. In the prolonged struggle for extermination nearly two thousand Indians had been killed, and the Dutch had been so reduced in numbers that there were scarcely one hundred per- sons left on Manhattan Island. At last the hopelessness of the struggle induced both parties to seek peace, and a meeting was arranged between the differ- ent tribes at war and the Dutch, assisted by a delegation of friendly Mohawks, and at the Battery on Manhattan Island the terms of peace were arranged. At this conference Kieft was charged with the whole cause of the war. The Dutch at once sought his recall, and covered with infamy and loaded with his ill-gotten gains, he embarked for Holland in a vessel which was lost on the voyage, off the coast of Wales, and Kieft with nearly all the crew perished. Peter Stuyvesant was then appointed governor by the West India Company, and he at once established rigid business prin- ciples of conducting the affairs of the colony. He cultivated the friendship of the Indians, settled disputes in reference to 500 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. boundaries, and in every possible way promoted the interests of the colony. Stuyvesant wisely decided that the colonies in the New World should not disagree because of wars between their mother countries in the Old World, and he agreed to ne- gotiate with New England on the question of a boundary be- tween them. But Stuyvesant, in his just administration of affairs between the colony and the Indians and his New England neighbors, overlooked the wise policy of justice toward his own people. For many years the colonists had sought for the same freedom in their laws that the New England colony enjoyed, but Stuy- vesant was a strict military disciplinarian, and he contended that the people could not govern themselves, and that they should attend to their own business and he would govern them according to his own ideas. This was a fatal position, and it greatly weakened his hold on the regard of the people, and he found to his sorrow that they indifferently deserted him when his hour of trial came. The English had long been contemplating the conquest of the Dutch possessions in America, on the ground that they belonged by right of discovery to the British Crown, and in 1664 Charles II. granted the whole territory from Connecticut to the Delaware to his brother James, the Duke of York, after- ward James II. Stuyvesant's first intimation of this intention was the appear- ance of a powerful fleet in the harbor of Manhattan under Richard Nicholl. As an old soldier, Stuyvesant prepared at once for vigorous resistance, but to his surprise found that the people whose civil rights he had ignored were indifferent, and many even expressed their preference for the more liberal English rule. The letter sent to the governor by the English admiral offered to the people full protection of their rights, property, religion and institutions, but Stuyvesant refused to let his people see the letter and angrily destroyed it. The people then protested against his arbitrary conduct, and made their own terms with the English. Thus Stuyvesant was forced to surrender, and all the posses- ions of the Dutch and the settlements of the Swedes on the EABLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 501 shores of the Delaware passed without a gun being fired into the hands of the English. Nicholls was appointed governor and the name of New Amsterdam was changed to that of New York, in honor of the duke to whom it was granted, and Fort Orange was called Albany. The territory between the Hudson and the Delaware was ceded by the Duke of York to Lord Berkeley, who had been governor of the Isle of Jersey, and Sir George Carteret, to which they gave the name of New Jersey. Emigration was invited to this terrtiory by most liberal religious and civil laws. The Duke of York afterward, disregarding the rights of Berke- ley and Carteret, appointed Andros governor of the colony. Berkeley, at this example of bad faith, sold that part of the territory called West Jersey to Edward Byllinge, who in turn disposed of it to William Penn and others, who amicably agreed with Carteret to divide the territory. Soon after this Scotch Presbyterians began to emigrate in large numbers to East Jersey, which has ever since retained strong impressions of that denomination. CHAPTER XIIT. SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. Among those who were persecuted for conscience' sake in England, and who sought an asylum in the New World, was the religious sect called Quakers. It would naturally have been supposed that the Puritans, and even those who came to America through political persecutions, would have re- ceived them kindly. We have, however, read in previous chapters an account of the cruel treatment and even death inflicted upon the unfortunate Quakers who sought a home in New England, while even the Virginia colony refused to allow them a home. George Fox, the founder of the sect, had sought in vain in America for an asylum for his distressed followers, and after cruel persecutions a number of Quakers ventured to make a settlement in New Jersey in 1675, and the next year Berkeley sold West Jersey to William Penn and other Quakers, which gave them EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. rightful possession of a home where they might no longer be assailed. This small experiment proving successful, Penn undertook to secure a larger territory for his co-religionists, and in 1681 obtained from Charles II. a large tract of land west of the Delaware in payment of a claim against the Crown for 16,000 left him by his father, and the king bestowed on it the name of Pennsylvania "the forest of Penn." WILLIAM PENN. This great benefactor of his sect and the human race was a son of Sir William Penn, an admiral who had won distinction by his conquest of Jamaica and his brilliant achievements dur- ing the war with Holland. Born in 1644, young Penn became a student at Oxford, from which he was expelled for having become a convert to the doctrines of Quakerism. Becoming very indignant at his expulsion, his father severely punished EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 503 him and turned him away from his home, but on further con- sideration sent him to travel on the Continent for two years, thinking that a larger experience of the world would eradi- cate the Quaker heresy from his mind. He returned much improved in two years, but still a Quaker. The old admiral then lost all patience and renounced his son and sent him adrift. It was not long after this that Penn was sent to prison for his conscience' sake, and upon being threatened with impris- onment for life if he did not recant, he replied : " Then the prison shall be my grave !" Upon one occasion, Stillingfleet, the learned clergyman, was sent to convince him. Young Penn sent to the King the following message : " The Tower is to me the worst argument in the world ; those who use force for religion can never be in the right." After his release, a fine position in the navy was offered him, and other royal favors, if he would renounce his religion, but still he remained firm. Soon after he was again arrested, and the jury were starved two days and nights to force them to convict him, but although they were afterward fined, they still persisted in a verdict of "not guilty." In spite of the .verdict, the judge fined Penn and cast him into prison until his father paid his fine and released him. Soon after this his father, on his death- bed, became reconciled to his son, and calling him to his bed- side, said : " Son William, if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living, you will make an end to the priests." Leaving England for a time, Penn went to Holland, and afterward made the tour of Germany, preaching in numerous villages. At last, after making his purchase of territory from Charles II. , he determined to embark for his new home in the wilder- ness. As an assurance to those about to emigrate, as well as to the settlers already on the land he had purchased, Penn drew up a proclamation offering the people the right to make their own laws. In this proclamation he said: " I propose to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief; that the will of no one man may hinder the good of a whole country." 504 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. Three vessels soon after set sail in charge of his nephew, Will- iam Markh am. Penn's estate was now nearly exhausted, and taking advantage of his condition, a large sum of money was offered him by a company of speculators for the exclusive right to the trade between the Susquehanna and Delaware. But Penn refused on the ground that each one in his colony should have an equal right. In 1682 Penn, with one nundred settlers, sailed for his new home, and on the 27th of October, after a long voyage of nine weeks, and the loss of thirty of his company by small-pox, he landed at New Castle, on the Delaware, where he was met by the English, Dutch and Swedes with great courtesy. Sailing up the Delaware, he soon reached a beautiful forest of pine treee, where he decided to found his city. There under a spreading elm he met the chiefs of the neighboring tribes and made his memorable treaty with them which each party kept inviolate for fifty years. Penn's promises of just treatment of the Indians were never broken, and they always looked upon him as a true and honorable friend. During the same year twenty-three ship-loads of emigrants arrived at the Penn -settlement, and in 1683 the location was selected for the city, and the lands purchased from the Swedes. The embryo city was called Philadelphia ''brotherly love.'' Each home was to have a large garden, so that it should be " a greene country town," and the broad streets were laid out through the forest. In three years the new citv had six hundred houses and the colony had increased to nearly ten thousand souls. As an evi- dence of the justice accorded to the Indians, it was one of the laws of the colony that in all differences between the two races the jury to try those cases should be selected of six whites and six Indiana. Thus it was that while other settlements suffered from the Indians, the Quakers were never known to be molested- The only trouble that Penn experienced was in the settle- ment of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware. Failing to agree with Lord Baltimore, Penn referred the diffi- culty to the King, and a grant of half the land between Chesa- peake Bay and the Delaware was given to Penn. The boundary EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 505 that now exists was surveyed in 1761, by Mason ani Dixon, and is familiarly known as Mason and Dixon's Line. In 1683 the first Assembly in Pennsylvania was called and held its session. It was composed of six members from rach county, whose term of office was one year. The right of voting and holding office was accorded to every freeman who believed in God and abstained from labor on the Sabbath day. The people enjoyed a liberal representative Government, and were free from restraint in religious matters. Three peace- makers were appointed in each county to arbitrate difficulties and prevent lawsuits. In 1692 a public high school was estab- lished by Penn at Philadelphia, and a printing press was in operation. The territory of Delaware was at first a part of Pennsylvania, but after Penn returned to England the " three lower coun- ties," as Delaware was then called, became dissatisfied at their connection with the Quaker government and sought their in- dependence. Penn yielded to their wish, and they became a separate colony. In 1684 Penn returned to England, leaving the colony firmly established, with a population of 7,000. There he influenced King James to liberate over twelve hundred Quakers from prison. But while he was working for the good of his people in the Old World, they were encroaching upon his rights in the colony, and began to appropriate to public use the rents which were his only remuneration for his outlay in establishing the colony. When the English revolution in 1688 drove James II. into ex- ile and placed William of Orange on the throne, Penn lost his firm friend and the favor he had enjoyed at the English court. He was charged by his enemies with favoring the cause of the exiled king, and his proprietary rights in the colony were taken from him. He was otherwise annoyed, and was arrested three times upon charges which could not be sustained. He then prepared to return to America with a large number of emigrants, but was again arrested, and he now determined to remain until he was cleared of every charge. A deep family affliction then fell upon him in the death of his wife and eldest 506 EAfiLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. son. At last his character was vindicated and his rights in the colony were fully restored, but by this time his fortune was exhausted, and his visit to the colony thereby being delayed, he sent his nephew Markham, who called an assembly of the people, whose rights during Penn's absence had been en- croached upon, and helped them frame a liberal constitution. Penn then arrived, and when his advice was asked he re- plied, " Keep what is good in the charter and frame of govern- ment, and add what may best suit the common good." Among the first emigrants to Pennsylvania were a number of German Quakers, whom Penn had converted by his preaching in their country, who settled at Germantown, a suburb of Phila- delphia. A few years later the wars on the continent of Europe drove large numbers of Germans from their homes, who emi- grated to Pennsylvania and settled in the most fertile regions of the State. These later emigrants were mostly Lutherans and German Reformers in religion. Settling together, they retained their manners, language and religion, and to the present day continue a distinct and important element of the rural popula- tion of the State. A large emigration also began turning toward Pennsylvania from the North of Ireland and Scotland, composed principally of Presbyterians, whose posterity constitute an important part of the population. Having returned to the colony, Penn intended making it his final home, but hearing that the Crown intended to take away the charter of his colony, to which he held a double title, hav- ing purchased the land both from Charles and from the Indians, Penn hastened back to England, where his influence saved the colony from becoming a royal province, over which avaricious and unprincipled governors would have been appointed to im- poverish the people. After this Penii became so poor that he was even for a time consigned to a debtors' prison, but to the last he refused to sell his estate and rights in America without retaining for the people the enjoyment of all their liberties. At last in 1718, at the extreme of poverty, but rich in virtues and nobility of soul, William Penn died, but his memory and principles will live to bless the world throughout all time. HISTORY OF AMERICA. 507 CHAPTER XIV. COLONIZATION OF THE CAROLINAS. The territory called Carolina was that in which Coligny attempted in 1622 to form a Protestant settlement of French Huguenots, who were so soon afterward destroyed by the relentless Spaniards. This territory extended from the southern boundary of Virginia to the northern limit of Florida. After the Huguenots had so miserably perished, attempts were fre- quently made by the Virginia colonists to form settlements within the borders of this "delightsome land." Those who emigrated from Virginia were mostly dissenters from the Church of England, a class who were treated with much severity by the dominant church in Virginia, which annoyed them by the collection of tithes and enforced attendance upon the Episcopal service. A company of Presbyterians having settled on the Chowan, jurisdiction over them was usurped by Berkeley, the governor of Virginia, who appointed a governor over them. This ruler was William Drummond, a Scotch Presbyterian of liberal mind and earnest principles of popular liberty. It was this worthy man who afterward fell a victim on the gallows to the vengeance of the cruel Berkeley for having, after his return to Virginia, espoused the cause of Bacon in his effort to secure civil liberty for the people. In 1663 Charles II., after former grants of the same land to others, granted to Lord Albemarle, the Earl of Shaftesbury, General Monk, Sir William Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, and several others, all that territory lying between the southern line of Virginia and the St. John's, in Florida, and extending from ocean to ocean. In anticipation of founding a great kingdom, Shaftesbury and the philosopher John Locke were appointed to frame the consti- tution and lay out the framework of the government. The re- sult of their labor was a constitution called the " Grand Mode] " It was created expressly for rulers of noble blood, with no rights for the common people. The entire adminstration was to be placed permanently in the hands of earls, barons and squires. A modified form of feudalism was embraced in it, by which 50& EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. all persons not owning fifty acres of land were to be attached to the soil as permanent tenants, and only those owning the re- quired fifty acres were to be regarded as freemen. The difficulty the "Grand Model" met with was that it found hardy settlers already on the soil who had bought their land from the Indians, and they refused to give up their prop- erty, pay rent, or accept the "Grand Model" with its lords and dukes. The Carolinas were a land of deerskin and homespun clothing, not adapted to nobility, except that which could wield an ax and hold a plow. In 1661 a few settlers from New England had formed a colony on Cape Fear River, but the barrenness of the soil dis- couraged them, and many returned to their former homes. In 1664 another settlement was made by planters from the Bar- badoes, and Sir John Yeamans was appointed governor. These Bettlers worked industriously to establish an industry in staves and shingles made in the pine barrens and shipped to the West Indies. In 1670 a company of emigrants, under William Sayle, were sent by the charter owners of the land, who appointed Joseph West as their agent. These colonists landed near the mouth of the Ashley River, where they founded a settlement which is now the city of Charleston. A republican form of government was established after the " Grand Model" had been tried and failed, and by founding this separate government they estab- lished the division between North and South Carolina. The colony rapidly increased. All nationalities and religions came, including a large number of Huguenots, induced by the fine climate and offers of special advantages from Charles II. , who was anxious to introduce the culture of grapes and olives and the raising of silk worms for future silk industry. The peculiar condition of the inhabitants of the Carolinas made it impossible for the charter owners to establish laws over them. They had emigrated from other colonies to escape per- secution and restraint. They did not settle in towns, but were scattered along the rivers and through the forests, where codes of laws could not control them. In 1671 Yeamans, the previously appointed governor, re- EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 509 turned from the Barbadoes with fifty families and about two hundred slaves, which was the beginning of African slavery in South Carolina. The institution rapidly grew underthe foster- ing care of Yeamans, whose avarice was unbounded. He was finally dismissed by the company, and Joseph West was ap- pointed his successor. An attempt was next made to levy duties upon the colonies as a source of revenue from the small but growing trade. This the people resisted, and James Colleton was sent over as governor, to force the people to submission. The Assembly at once resisted his authority and asserted its rights and those of the people, and they even arrested Colleton's secretary. His call for the militia was met with a defiant refusal ; and finally, when William and Mary ascended the throne, Colleton was banished from the colony. For a short time there were disputes among the Quakers, Presbyterians and Huguenots in reference to land titles and rents ; but in 1694, John Archdale, a just Quaker, was elected governor, and he successfully acted as mediator between the disputants. He conciliated all parties by selecting for his council men of all religions. He also secured the friendship of the Indians, and by ransoming some of their Indian converts from slavery he made friends of the Spaniards at St. Augustine, who in return sent home some shipwrecked English sailors. In 1694 there was an agreement entered into between the dif- ferent religious denominations in the colony, for the sake of a concession, to permit one minister of the Church of England to be maintained at the public expense, although at the time the Dissenters were in a considerable majority. Soon after this, the adherents to the Church of England, finding themselves with a majority of one in the Assembly, passed a law depriving the Dissenters of their religious and political rights, and made the Church of England the established church of the colony, which they divided into parishes, and applied to the church in England for pastors. The people rose in opposition to this deprivation of their liberties, and upon appeal to the House of Lords the unjust act was repealed, and equal rights again existed in South Carolina. 510 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. During Archdale's governorship rice was sent from Mada- gascar, to be distributed among the planters for seed. The soil and climate proved well adapted to the cultivation of the crop, and soon a large industry was developed therein. The colonists began to manufacture home-made clothing for their own use, but scarcely had the industry been begun before the English merchants and manufacturers complained of the loss in trade that would acrue to them therefrom. Through this selfish desire to enrich themselves and impoverish the colony, Parliament passed a law in favor of the merchants and manufacturers, prohibiting woolen goods being transported between the colonies or to foreign ports. As a result of this, manufacturing industry in South Carolina was impeded, and the people were compelled to turn their attention to agri- culture. War having broken out between England and Spain, James Moore, then governor of Carolina, unwisely but avariciously, through his desire for plunder, planned an expedition against St. Augustine. Setting sail with a number of vessels and a portion of his troops, he sent the others by land to make a con- certed attack upon the Spanish settlement. Reaching St. Augustine, he readily captured the town ; but the Spanish soldiers retiring to the fort, held it against the besiegers. While Moore was waiting for cannon from Jamaica, an Indian had been hurried to Mobile by the besieged Spaniards, to notify the French settlers there, who hastily sent word to Havana of the situation, and Moore was surprised by the appearance of two Spanish war vessels, and with a loss of all his stores and ammu- nition he was obliged to hastily retreat, gaining only the hate of the Spaniards and a heavy debt on the colony. The Spanish priests had established missions among the Ap- palaohee Indians of Florida, who, having- been converted to the Catholic faith, had begun to cultivate the soil, live in vil- lages, and worship in churches of their own construction. This influence over the Indians alarmed the English colonists in the Carolinas, and Moore, taking advantage of this feeling, planned an expedition against the Christianized Indians. With an army of fifty whites and one thousand Indian allies, Moore EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 511 made a rapid march through Georgia, and surprised the con- verted Indians in their village on Appalachee Bay one morning at daylight. The assailants, after burning a church, retired before the vigorous resistance of the Appalachees in defense of their homes. The next day the fight was renewed, and the Appalachees, under the leadership of the commander of a SpanislTship in the harbor, made a gallant resistance ; but being overpowered by Moore and his army, the Indian village was destroyed, their churches plundered and burned, and large numbers of the unfortunate Appalachees taken prisoners, white their land was given to the Seminoles, who aided Moore in his cruel invasion. Having in this enterprise placed Indian allies of the English between the French and Spanish, Moore claimed Georgia by conquest for the British Crown. The next year a fleet of French and Spanish ships appeared before Charleston, to avenge the destruction of the Appalachees. The colonists, under William Rhet and Sir Nathaniel Johnson, made such a vigorous resistance that the enemy were repulsed and a French ship was captured. In this attack the French and Spanish lost three hundred out of eight hundred of their soldiers in killed and prisoners. So signal was the victory that the enemy organized no further expedition against the warlike South Carolinians. Religious controversies again agitated the people of the Caro- linas, and a vigorous effort was made to subject the colonies to the rule of the Church of England. Especially was it attempted to force the established church upon North Carolina, which was styled the "Sanctuary of Runaways; a land of Presby- terians, Independents, Quakers and other evil-disposed persons, where there was scarcely any government." All who refused to observe the law to sustain the Church of England were to be debarred from holding any offices of public trust. This usurpa- tion of the people's rights led to rebellion and resistance at every point. North Carolina, which previous to 1712 had been at peace with the Indians, was now to suffer, as other colonies had, from the horrors of Indian warfare. The Tuscaroras, a strong and warlike tribe, becoming alarmed at the rapid encroachment of 512 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. the whites upon their territory, resolved to make war upon the intruders. Their attack was hastened by the unwise action of the Carolina charter owners, who assigned Indian lands to a company of German emigrants that had arrived in the colony in charge of De Graffenreid. Lawson, the surveyor of the colony, while on an expedition in company of De Graffenreid, was captured by the Indians and burned at the stake, while De Graffenreid was only spared and released when the Indians learned that he was not English and had but recently arrived in the country. The Tuscaroras then attacked the settlements on the Roanoke and Pamlico Sound, and cruelly murdered a large number of the helpless colonists. To aid the settlements Governor Craven, of South Carolina, sent a small force with a number of friendly Indians, who surrounded the Tuscaroras in their fort and compelled them to make peace. This would doubtless have ended the war, but the troops on their return home at- tacked some Indian villages and carried off a number of the Indians as slaves. This aroused the Tuscaroras, and the war was renewed. At last the Tuscaroras were overpowered, and after many were killed and sold as slaves they were driven from their lands, and, returning north, where their fathers formerly lived, they joined the Five Nations, and became the sixth in that alliance which cost so many lives in later years. For a while peace existed in the Carolinas, and traffic with the Indians was resumed and extended toward the Mississippi. But soon the French and Spanish began to exert an influence over the different tribes, and the Yamassees, who had assisted the colonists in their war on the Tuscaroras, formed an alliance with the Catawbas, Creeks and Cherokees, and planning an attack upon the whites, suddenly fell upon the settlements one morning, slaughtered men, women and children without mercy and carried off many as prisoners. The alarm was hastily sent to other settlements, and the people sought safety in flight to Charleston. For a short time the savages swept everything before them, but Governor Craven hastily raised a few determined troops and marched to the defense of his South Carolina neighbors, and after a determined struggle the EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 513 Yamassees were defeated and driven out of the country to Florida, where the Spaniards gladly received them as allies. As the charter owners refused to protect the colonists or meet any of the expenses of the war, the settlers determined that they would repudiate the authority of the company, and , upon the mater being brought before Parliament, the charter was declared forfeited and the company dissolved. Francis Nicholson was then appointed as provisional gov- ernor over both the Carolinas in 1720. His administration was not particularly successful, although he agreed with the people and confirmed all their laws. After his departure the Crown bought out the rights of the old company, and, in 1729, North and South Carolina were separated, and a colonial governor appointed over each. CHAPTER XV. THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. For many years after the Carolinas had become flourishing colonies, that territory lying west of the Savannah River remained unsettled. It had been claimed by England for a long period, and Moore, in his march to St. Augustine, had also declared his possession of it for the Crown of England. It had remained, however, for that beautiful and fertile land to be devoted to the noble cause of an asylum for the oppressed and poor and needy. A noble work was undertaken by James Edward Oglethorpe, a kind-hearted member of Parliament and a thorough Christian gentleman, who had become deeply interested in the sorrows of those who were confined in the debtors' prison of England, of whom, at the time, there were over four hundred thousand unfortunates locked within gloomy walls with scarcely a hope of release but death. Having by his exertions secured the release of hundreds of these unfortunates, Oglethorpe proposed to found a colony for this helpless class in America, where they could secure comfort and happiness by industry. In furtherance of this plan he obtained a charter in 1732 from George II. for the territory west of the Savannah, which in honor of the 514 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. king was called Georgia. Twenty-one trustees were appointed for twenty-one years to administer the affairs of the col any in behalf of the poor. The next year Oglethorpe with his first company of colonists reached the Savannah and began a settle- ment. The company consisted of thirty-five families, amount- ing to one hundred and fifty persons. The site selected for the settlement was on a bluff twenty miles from the mouth of the river, and was owned by a small band of Muscogee Indians who kindly received the colonists and through the interpreta- tion of Mary Musgrove, an educated Indian woman, the daughter of a chief and wife of an Englishman at Charleston, the land was purchased of the Muscogees. At the first friendly meeting the chief of the little tribe presented Oglethorpe a buffalo robe adorned with the feathers of an eagle. Said he : " The eagle signifies speed and the buffalo strength ; the English are swift as the eagle, for they have flown over vast seas; they are strong as the buffalo, for nothing can withstand them. The feathers of the eagle are soft and signify love ; the buffalo is warm and signifies protection ; therefore I hope the English will love and protect our little families." The colonists began immediately to lay out the city of Savan- nah, and to fortify the place. The streets were laid out wide and at right angles, and the houses were built a uniform size, with a garden attached to each ; and preparation was made for the development of the silk industry by planting mulberry trees to feed silk worms. Everything was favorable to the success of the colony. The Creeks, the Cherokees and the Choctaws all made treaties with the new settlers, and began to trade with them. About this time the persecutions and sufferings of the Moravians in their homes in the Alps had aroused the sympa- thies of England, and these noble heroes for conscience' sake were invited to make Georgia their home, where every kind- ness and advantage would be bestowed upon them. This invi- tation was gladly accepted, and nearly one hundred of them set forth on the long journey, aided by money from England, and at last, after hardships and storms, they reached their home in the wilderness, and received a warm welcome, and EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 515 gave thanks to God that they had reached a land of rest. A place had already been selected for their settlement, and they at once laid out a town which, in remembrance of the good- ness of God, they named Ebenezer, and where they were soon joined by others whom they had left in their old home. During all this time Oglethorpe was nobly devoting himseli to the cause of the poor and to improve their condition. After remaining with the colony a year and a half he returned to England to obtain more colonists, taking with him enough silk produced by the colony to make a dress for the Queen. The next year Oglethorpe returned with a company of Scotch mountaineers, who made a settlement at Darien. They were accompanied by their minister, John McLeod, and in 1736 John and Charles Wesley came over to labor for the religious wel- fare of the colony and for the conversion of the Indians. In two years, however, John Wesley returned to England and became one of the founders of the Methodist Church. The eloquent Whitefield also devoted several years to labor in the colony and founded an orphan asylum at Savannah. To better protect the colony Oglethorpe built a fort at St. Simon's Island, at the mouth of the Altamaha. The Spanish had been watching with great jealousy the encroachment of the English on what they claimed as their territory, and they de- manded the surrender not only of Georgia, but also a part of Carolina, and they began preparations to enforce their demand, and Oglethorpe hastened to England to prepare for the impend- ing contest. In less than a year he returned with six hundred soldiers, whom he had raised and trained. On his return the Indian allies hastened to offer their services to him, and he made preparations to defend the southern border of Georgia. War was shortly declared by England against Spain, and Ogle- thorpe was made military commander of the forces in Georgia and Carolina, with orders to invade Florida. Accompanied by his Indian allies, he at once marched on St. Augustine, but was surprised to find the place much stronger than he anticipated. The garrison had been increased and the fortifications strength- ened. Oglethorpe commenced a siege, but soon the Indians began to desert, and sickness forced the Carolina regiment to 516 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. return home. This ended the siege, and abandoning the expe- dition, Oglethorpe returned home. The effect of this expedi- tion was injurious to the Georgia colony, for it had drawn the people from their farms to become soldiers, and the crops and morals were both neglected, while many of the Moravians and other persons opposed to war left the colony and settled in the Carolinas. The Spaniards, aroused at the invasion of their territory, fitted out at Havana and St. Augustine, in 1742, thirty-six ves- sels and three thousand troops, and sailed to invade Georgia. The Spanish commander, Monteano, directed his attack against the town of Frederica, on St. Simon's Island, where Ogle- thorpe made a stand against them with a small force. At- tempting to surprise the Spaniards in their camp at night, the plan was spoiled by a French deserter who gave the alarm to the Spaniards. Oglethorpe then resorted to strategy, and sent a letter to the Frenchman urging him to delay the Spaniards until British ships, which he pretended were on the way to St. Augustine, could reach that town and destroy it. This resulted in the arrest of the Frenchman as a spy, and the precipitate return of the Spaniards to St. Augustine, after an attack upon Frederica, in which they were defeated ; and thus ended the invasion of Georgia and Carolina. In 1743 Oglethorpe returned to England, and never again risited the colony. Ten years of his life had been spent in his noble exertion to help the poor and distressed settlers in the New World, and found for them a colony which had grown prosperous and strong. Up to his departure slavery had been excluded from Georgia, but soon after the settlers began to hire slaves for a season from Carolina; afterward the term was extended to one hundred years. The Moravians and Scotch were opposed to slavery, but there were numbers of English who would not work if pos- sible, who clamored for slavery, and in a few years after Ogle- thorpe had departed, this unworthy institution was regularly introduced into the colony by slave ships from Africa. In 1752 the trustees resigned their charter and Georgia became a royal province. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 517 CHAPTER XVI. NEW ENGLAND AFTER THE RESTORATION. When Charles II. returned to his throne the news was brought to New England by Whalley and Goffe, who fled from England to escape execution as regicides who had helped to condemn Charles I. to death. Scarcely had they arrived among the hardy settlers before a requisition came demanding their delivery and return to England for trial. But through the protection of the colonists they could not be found, and were subs3quently aided in their escape to Connecticut. The Puritans of New England had sided with Cromwell, and Charles II., in revenge for the execution of his father, was in- clined to severity in his government of the colony. It was soon rumored in Boston that he intended to send war vessels into their harbor, and it was at last thought advisable for the New England colony to proclaim him King and acknowledge his authority. Among the colonists who had returned to England during the war and were afterward executed by Charles II. , were Hugh Peters and Sir Harry Vane, and the King meditated the punishment of others who had remained in New England, when the colonists sent commissioners to conciliate the mon- arch. In complying with their wishes Charles required them to recognize equal rights for the Church of England and to extend the right of voting to those who were not church mem- bers. The colonists were not inclined to grant this concession, and four commissioners were sent over by the King to examine into the affairs of the colony, as their intolerance of all who were not Puritans had reached the royal ears. This difficulty had scarcely ended before the New England colonies became involved in a long and bloody Indian war, known as King Philip's War, which broke out in 1675.. The colony had been at peace with the Indians for forty years, since the fate of the unfortunate Pequods had forced peace upon the natives. The Indians were becoming more restless every year at the rapid growth of the colony and the constant encroach- ment of the settlements upon their lands. The population of the Indians had neither increased nor diminished, while the colony 618 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. was growing stronger in numbers every day. Some of the tribes of Indians, among whom were the Wampanoags and Narra- gansetts, had been so crowded into little bays and peninsulas that they could scarcely obtain means of subsistence. Massasoit, the early friend of the English, was dead, and in his place had left two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, who had resided in Plymouth, where they received the names of Alex- ander and Philip, and they naturally learned much of the whites and foresaw the ultimate extinction of the Indian race. After these young men became chiefs of their tribe, the colo- nists became suspicious of their influence among the Indians, and sent Winslow with an armed force to take prisoner Wamsutta, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags. Be- ing surprised with his followers in his hunting lodge, Wamsutta was thrown into such indignation and excite- ment from the unprovoked outrage upon himself and his tribe that he was thrown into a fever, from which he died the next day, on his way home. This aroused the secret hostility of his brother Philip, who only awaited after that his opportunity for revenge. This burning desire for vengeance was increased by a number of occurrences, one of -which started the spark which kindled the flame of war. A chief had, in 1(574, been required to give up his arms and obey a summons to Bos- ton. In defiance of this order he and his followers killed the informer, for which they were arrested, tried and hanged. In revenge for this a party of Philip's men attacked the village of Swanzey, when the people were returning from church, and killed eight or nine of them. When Philip heard of this slaughter of the whites he shed tears. He knew that it meant the inevitable destruction of his tribe. He was aware of the great strength, skill and numbers of the colonists. He knew that his race were but poorly sup- plied with weapons of war, but he resolved to fight with des- peration, and destroy as many of his enemy as possible. Single- handed, he and his tribe began the struggle, while the other tribes remained neutral or offered their assistance to the English. In less than a week after the massacre at Swanzey troops EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 519 from. Boston reached the vicinity and pushed rapidly after the Wampanoags, whose route of retreat was marked by the smok- ing ruins of homes and by poles bearing the heads of their un- fortunate victims. Philip was more terrible as a fugitive than ever before. With burning eloquence he went among the neighboring tribes and exhorted them to join him. By his earnest pleading the Nipmucks were induced to become his allies, and the terrible war whoop resounded among the defense- less settlements. The inhabitants were terror stricken, for nowhere could they feel safe from the prowling savages, who skulked from tree to tree and ruthlessly shot down the farmers at their plows and massacred their wives and children, and left their mangled bodies in the burning ruins of their homes. With the Nipmucks Philip hastened through the un- protected valley of the Connecticut, spreading desolation as he went. To win back the friendship of the Nipmucks, Captain Hutchinson, son of Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been banished from Massachusetts, went with twenty men to treat with then, but the Indians ambushed and murdered the whole party at Brookfield, and after destroying the town, besieged the people in their block house, which the savages set on fire, but a rain fortunately extinguished the flames, and help opportunely coming, the Indians were driven off. The savages next burned Deerfield, and on a Sunday attacked Hadley, while the people were at church. The people at once became panic-stricken, and the savages had begun the massa- cre, when a tall, white-haired man with brandished sword sud- denly appeared, and forming the men in line, led them to such a fierce attack on the savages that they fled precipitately from the place. The strange deliverer disappeared as suddenly as he came, and for some time the people thought an angel had been sent to deliver them from slaughter. It was afterward learned that the noble and daring friend in need was Goffe, the regicide, who was, with Whalley. living in concealment in the home of Mr. Russell, the minister at Hadley. Goffe had been a general in Cromwell's army, and his military skill saved the lives of the people of Hadley. Almost immediately after this attack upon Hadley a com- 520 EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. pany of eighty young men of Essex County, who had been sent to bring the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley to establish a depot of food, were ambushed by seven hundred warriors and all slaughtered at a stream to which the massacre gave the name of Bloody Creek. Hatfield was next attacked, but the people were prepared and repulsed the savages. After this Philip returned to Mount Hope, his old home, but finding it destroyed he went to the Narragansetts and tried to induce them to join him. Fearing that he would secure them as allies, the colonists deter- mined to invade the country of the Narragansetts. A thousand men under Josiah Winslow were sent to attack the enemy in their palisade fort in the frozen swamp, where nearly three thousand of the tribe had gone into winter quarters with their provisions. After a toilsome march the English reached the fort. Upon their approach a destructive fire was opened upon them by the savages, but after two hours' fierce fighting the entrance was forced and the torch was applied to the wigwams, and a ter- rible destruction followed. One thousand warriors were slain and several hundred were made prisoners. The condition of the remnant was now pitiful. Their pro- visions were all destroyed and starvation was inevitable to many of them. But miserable as was their condition, the surviving warriors terribly avenged the destruction of their tribe upon the helpless settlements, and burned and massacred wherever they went. ".We will fight to the last man," said Canonchet, the chief of the remnant ; but in the spring he was taken captive, and when going to his execution said : " I like it well I I shall die before I speak anything unworthy of myself." Philip surprised the town of Lancaster in February, 1676, and forty-two persons took refuge in the house of Mary Rowland- son, who described the terrible scene as the "dolefulest" she ever saw, with the house on fire, part of the people sweltering in their blood and the others massacred as soon as they escaped from the flames. So constant and terrible were the attacks of Philip made on EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 521 the defenseless settlements that it became necessary to track him to his hiding-place ; and Captain Turner being sent with troops for this purpose, and tracing him to the falls of the Con-, necticut, he was surprised in the night and most of his warriors killed or driven over the cataract. The Nipmucks and New Hampshire Indians, having aban- doned the war, Philip was now driven from place to place, until, in June, 1676, a strong force was raised and placed under com- mand of Captain Church, for the purpose of exterminating the remnant of the savage foe. He soon captured and killed most of the remaining Wampanoags. Among the captives were Philip's wife and child. Philip, who had 'returned to Mount Hope, now exclaimed : " My heart breaks ; I am now ready to die !" A few days later he was shot by a friendly Indian in Captain Church's company, who had pursued Philip into a swamp ; and with his body quartered, and the head carried on a pole to Plymouth, King Philip's war was ended at a cost of many lives and over six hundred houses destroyed. The ex- pense of the war was very heavy, but no part of the burden was borne by England. Instead of helping the colony, Charles established a custom house in Boston to gather duties from the people, and to compel them to pay, threatened to take from the merchants their passes for ships in the Mediter- ranean. The colony fared no better under James II., who was bigoted, stubborn and deceitful. In 1686 he appointed Joseph Dudley as royal president of Massachusetts until a regularly appointed governor should arrive, and Edward Randolph was appointed censor of the press. James made no provision in the commis- sion of Dudley for an Assembly or representative body of the people. He did not believe in legislatures making laws when he could make them more suitable to his own wishes. At last James resolved to take away the charters of all the colonies, and appointed Sir Edmund Andros governor of all New England. Under this despotic official, the rights of the people were nearly all taken away, while their taxes were increased. The Church of England was established over the people. 522 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. Andros, after dissolving the Assembly of Rhode Island, and breaking the seal of the colony because they refused to deliver up their charter, then proceeded with an armed guard to Con- necticut and demanded their charter. The Assembly was then in session at Hartford, and Governor Treat vainly remonstrated with him, and an earnest debate in the Assembly prolonged the session until evening, when candles were brought in. Suddenly the lights were extinguished, and while the hall was in darkness the charter disappeared. Captain William Wads- worth had fled with the precious document and hid it in the hollow of a massive oak tree, which became famous as the Charter Oak. Andros assumed the government of Connecticut, after which he deposed Governor Dongan of New York, and for a time in 1688 all the English colonies north of Pennsylvania were con- solidated in one royal government under the tyrant Andros. But the end of his reign soon came. The English people, roused against James, hurled him from his throne, and gave it to William, Prince of Orange. When this news reached the colonies, they rose in revolt and restored their former govern- ment. Andros, Dudley and Randolf were lodged in jail and sent to England for trial. Connecticut's charter was then taken from its hiding-place and restored to the Assembly. CHAPTER XVII. WITCHCRAFT IN MASSACHUSETTS. In 1684, an unfortunate delusion became identified with the people of Massachusetts, which has cast a stain on the intelli- gence and Christian principles of the early settlers of that State, and especially of Salem, where so many innocent per- sons perished on the gallows. The absurd delusion was believed in at that age by many Christian people throughout the civilized world. The peculiar theory was that, as Christians were in covenant with God, so witches were in covenant with the devil, who gave them in- visible influence over their victims and power to torture them. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 523 in every conceivable way. The ridiculous belief was also held that witches rode on broomsticks through the air to meet the devil at the communion of witches. It is probable, however, that human lives would not have been sacrificed to appease the infernal superstition had not the Rev. Increase Mather and his son, the Rev. Cotton Mather, with devilish ingenuity, written books which proved the death warrants of many a poor and innocent creature, for whose sacrifice a thousand such abject lives as the Mathers' could not have atoned. As soon as Increase Mather's book was published, the people became excited on the subject, and to feed the flame a girl named Goodwin was announced to be bewitched. This girl had accused the daughter of an Irish washerwoman of stealing some insignificant article of clothing. This accusation the indignant washerwoman disproved, and gave the false accuser a good scolding. As if in revenge, the Goodwin girl and her brothers and sisters began to act strangely, with contortions and twistings. The physician who was called consulted Mather's book and pronounced it a case of withcraft. Then five ministers, who claimed to be ordained of God, held a day of prayer and fasting at the Goodwin house, and the recovery of one of the children was credited to a removal of the spell by prayer. The poor Irish woman was then arrested and accused of witchcraft, and being frightened out of her senses was tried, convicted and judicially murdered on the gallows. The Good- win girl was possessed of vicious cunning, and played her part well, working upon the weakness of Cotton Mather. Four years later, two daughters of Samuel Parris, the minis- ter at Salem, for pure deviltry began to exhibit signs of being bewitched, which afforded Parris an opportunity for revenge against members of his congregation. Rebecca Nurse, a worthy Christian woman, was first accused, then her sister Sarah Cloyce, and from the excitement raised in a few weeks nearly one hundred persons were arrested and held for trial. Just at this time Sir William Phipps came to Massachusetts as gov- ernor, with William Stoughton as deputy governor. The latter was a member of Cotton Mather's church, and a very con- venient tool to be used by the Mathers and Parris in the prose- 524 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. cution of their infernal persecution. The governor's first act after his arrival was to appoint a court to try the witches in Salem prison. The prisoners when brought into court were compelled to stretch out their arms to prevent torturing their victims. One of Parris' nieces, when told to touch one of the prisoners, screamed that her fingers burned, and, with the greatest ingenuity, she testified that she had been asked to sign the devil's book by the spirit of one of the accused, and that she had, while under the influence of the witches, seen their sacrament with the devil. This was the kind of adroit testimony upon which worthy innocent Christian women were condemned to death in that dark age. Any one was liable to arrest who asserted disbelief in witchcraft. No one was safe. A man whipped his servant for claiming to have been be- witched, and, bringing him to his senses, asserted that he could cure any one the same way. For this he was cast into prison. The Rev. George Burroughs, against whom Parris had an enmity , had pronounced witchcraft a delusion. This cost him his life. Being arrested, the witnesses pretended to be dumb, and Stoughton sternly asked : " Why are these witnesses dumb ?" Burroughs replied, " Because I suppose the devil is in them." " Ah," replied the Judge, " he is loath to have testimony borne against you." This evidence was sufficient to send the noble Burroughs to the gallows. To save their lives many confessed that they were witches ; others died martyrs to the truth. Many believed in witchcraft until their own wives and daughters were accused. Thus the terrible leprosy of superstition spread until twenty or thirty persons had been cruelly put to death and fifty more were in prison. Then a change in public opinionwas brought about by a vigorous pamphlet, published by Robert Calef , of Boston, who exposed the irregularity of the trials and ridiculed the brutal ignorance of a belief in witchcraft. When the General Court held its session it reprieved those under sentence and soon the people of Salem, in great indigna- tion at the base deception practiced on them, drove Parris out of the town and made every restitution in their power to the living. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 525 CHAPTER SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH. One of the most interesting portions of the early history of America is contained in the accounts recorded of the early attempts of the French to found settlements in the territory now forming part of the United States. Of these settlements we have already given an account of the colony founded by Cham plain, whose name is borne by that beautiful lake on the northeastern border of New York. The French who came early to the country came as traders with the Indians, and scarcely had a thought of permanent settlement; hence to secure furs from the Indians they penetrated far inland. Father Le Caron, a missionary priest who came with Cham- plain, had in a birch -bark canoe paddled up the St. Lawrence River, and even penetrated as far inland as Lake Huron. In 1634 Louis XIII. gave a charter to a company, including in its grant all the valley of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries. The policy decided upon was for the conversion of the natives to the Catholic faith, whereby it was hoped to make them firm allies of the French against the English. To effect this conversion the mission was placed under the charge of the Jesuits. With great religious zeal the Jesuit priests began their labors in the New World, and explored remote localities, and to gain still greater influence with the natives they advo- cated the social equality of marriage between the traders and the daughters of the Indians. Two Jesuit priests returned west with a company of Hurons who had been to Quebec on a trading expedition, and for nine hundred miles they followed the tribe to their home on Lake Huron, through forests and across streams, with lacerated feet and clothing torn in shreds. Reaching their destination, they built a small chapel in which to instruct the simple natives in the mysteries of their religion. Influenced by the teachings of these zealous missionaries, the chief of the Hurons became a convert to their religion. Soon after this a college and convent were founded at Montreal to educate and convert the Indian girls, and several nuns came from France to teach them. 526 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. As early as 1539 the Iroquois Confederacy was formed, con- sisting of five nations of Indians, which was afterward increased to six nations by the admission of the Tuscaroras. This con- federation was formed by Hiawatha, a great chief, whom the Indians believed was guided by the Great Spirit, and that in a snow-white canoe, attended by delightful music, he was taken up to the Happy Hunting Grounds. This powerful confedera- tion made war on the Hurons, and during their struggle a num- ber of Jesuit missionaries had suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Iroquois, whom no gentle Christian influences could affect. In 1643 the Mohawks attacked an expedition of French on their return to Quebec, and took some prisoners, among whom was the missionary. Father Jogues. When the chief of the Hurons, Ahasistari, saw that his teacher had been taken pris- oner, and believing that he would be burned at the stake by the cruel Mohawks, the noble Indian convert hastened from his secure hiding place into the midst of his enemies, and standing by the side of Father Jogues, said : "My brother, I made oath to thee that I would share thy fortune, whether death or life; here I am to keep my vow," and with his eyes upon the cruci- fix in his hand, he met death at the stake like the Christian martyr that he was. After a long captivity and almost constant torture, dragged from place to place, Jogues at last made his escape to Fort Orange, where the Dutch kindly received him. Going to France, he again returned in a few years to his field of labor among the same Indians who had tortured and so cruelly used him before, where he was soon afterward killed by one of the Father Bressani was another missionary who labored and suffered untold tortures in his endeavors to convert the savages. In 1643 the Abenakis tribe of Indians in Maine asked for mission- aries, and Father Dreuilettes was sent from Montreal and established a mission near the Penobscot, where he labored so successfully among the natives that a permanent mission was built up. In 1646 there were about seventy missionaries laboring in EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 527 fields between Lake Superior and Nova Scotia. But their mis- sions were frequently broken up by the warlike Mohawks. In 1648 they attacked the St. Joseph mission on Lake Simcoe when the warriors were absent, and murdered Father Daniel and the women and children of the tribe. So persistent were the Mohawks that the Upper Canada missions were nearly all broken up and the Hurom were scattered and many of their converts were taken prisoners and distributed among the Five Nations. In 1661 a mission was established among the Onondagas and Oswegos, two New York tribes, but scarcely had the priests begun to labor among the Indians before the French sent a colony to settle at the mouth of the Oswego River. This aroused the Indians, and they not only drove away the colonists, but the missionaries also, and that was the last French settlement in New York. In 1666 Father Allouez penetrated beyond Lake Superior among the Chippewas, where he remained for two years and secured their friendship for the French. When Allouez re- turned to Quebec he carried back the first account of the Upper Mississippi. The following year Father Marquette came from France and started in canoes with Joliet, another priest, and a few boatmen and Indian guides, and after carrying their canoes frequently overland, they at last floated out of the "Wis- consin River and gazed on the mighty " Father of Waters." Floating down on its broad bosom nearly two hundred miles, they saw the first Indian village, and through the interpreta- tion of their guides were told that the great river extended far away to the south, where the heat was intense and where four- footed monsters floated in the stream and devoured those who ventured on it in canoes. Still floating further down, they passed the mouth of the turbid Missouri. Still further on they reached the mouth of the Ohio, which the French called " Le Belle Riviere." At the mouth of the Arkansas they turned and retraced their journey up the river, paddling hard against the swift current. The friendly Indians had tools and weapons obtained of Europeans, and it was feared that they might fall into the hands of the Spaniards if they ventured further down, the stream, 528 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. Entering the Illinois, they passed up that river to its head- waters, and from there overland to Lake Michigan ; and while Joliet proceeded to Quebec to bear the news of the dis- covery, Marquette remained in the wilderness, and undertook an expedition to the Illinois tribes. There one day, while sail- ing on Lake Michigan, he went ashore to perform his religious duties, and when sought for after an unusual delay, he was found on his knees at an altar, where he had died at his prayers. There he was buried, at the mouth of the stream that bears his name. In 1675 a young French adventurer, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, received from Louis XIV. of France a commission to settle on the western lands of America, and a large territory was granted to him on Lake Huron, on condition that he would hold and maintain Fort Frontenac. While laboring to secure the trade of the Iroquois, he learned of the discovery of the Mississippi by Marquette. Returning to France, he received a commission to make discoveries and a grant of land for settlements on the banks of the mighty river, and returning to the west he built a small vessel on Lake Erie, and having passed through to the upper lakes with her, he sent her to Niagara laden with furs, and while waiting her return, he explored the valley of the Illinois, and built a fort where Peoria now stands. His ship was wrecked, and after wandering and toiling and re- turning to France, he again, at the end of three years, returned to the banks of the Illinois, where he built a small vessel, on which he and his companions floated down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and in 1682 he took possession of the territory at the mouth of the river and named it Louisiana, in honor of his King. Returning to Quebec, he sailed for France and laid before Louis his plan for settling Louisiana. His proposition being favored, he was given an armed ship and three other vessels, and with two hundred and eighty persons he embarked in 1684 to form a settlement in Louisiana. Instead of placing La Salle in command of the fleet, it was placed in charge of Beaujeu, who knew nothing of the coast, and he missed the mouth of the Mississippi and ran the storeship on the eastern coast of EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA.. 529 Texas, where a storm destroyed her, with nearly all the generous outfit for the colony. This so discouraged the colonists that numbers of them returned on the remaining ships to France. La Salle then built a fort and prepared a temporary settle- ment in Texas until he could search for the Mississippi. After a toilsome march through the wilderness he returned, having sought in vain for the great river, to find the colony reduced to forty persons. Taking sixteen men, he then started to thread the mazes of the forest to Canada for assistance. After two months' toilsome march La Salle was murdered one nigkt by two of his own men, who had become dissatisfied and mutinous. Thus ended the noble but unsuccessful efforts of La Salle to secure to his country the great valley of the Mississippi. The companions of his toilsome march, after visiting retribution on his murderers, reached Canada, but the colony left in Texas was never again heard of beyond its destruction by the Spaniards, who thereby claimed Texas by conquest. The conflict between the French traders on the lakes and the Indians had ceased for a time, but the Five Nations became aroused with apprehensions at the expedition of La Salle. New York at that time possessed a Catholic Governor appointed by James II., who was friendly to the French, and induced the Mohawks to receive the Jesuit missionaries. But as soon as Dongan, the Governor of New York, saw that the French were beginning to monopolize the fur trade, all his sympathies on the score of religion vanished, and he stirred up the Mohawks to hostility against the French. Almost immediately after this James was driven from his throne, and Louis XIV. espousing his cause, the breach be- tween England and France was widened, and the feeling ex- tended to the respective colonies of the two countries in America. The French sought to possess the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, but the Mohawks had been to them a standing menace. The French sought an alliance with the Mohawks for the invasion of New York, but the Indians gave their answer by capturing Montreal and massacring the in- habitants. 530 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. In 1689 Frontenac again returned to New France as governor, and at once began an expedition against the English colonies and stirred up the New Hampshire Indians to attack and de- stroy Dover. Soon after this a party of French and Indians from Montreal made a night attack upon Schenectady and killed over sixty of the inhabitants, burned the place and took numbers of the women and children prisoners. The colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York then planned an invasion of Canada, as a means of ending the menacing diffi- culty, but through the inoompetency of the leaders the expedi- tion failed. The Indians in Maine were incited by the French to a cruel warfare on the helpless settlements in that colony, and to en- courage them the French bought as slaves all the women and children brought them by the Indians. Among the heroic deeds of the settlers one is worthy of par- ticular mention. The Indians attacked the house of a farmer named Dustin, near Haverhill, and carried away Mrs. Dus- tin, her nurse and a boy. After a toilsome march they planned an escape, and one night when their twelve captors were asleep, Mrs. Dustin assigned to her companions the Indians each one was to strike with the deadly tomahawk. With most desper- ate courage they succeeded in killing ten warriors, sparing only a woman and a child. Then scalping the Indians as a trophy of the heroic deed, Mrs. Dustin procured a canoe and the three floated down the Merrimac to Haverhill, greatly to the surprise and joy of their friends. One cold night in 1704 a company of French and Indians made an attack upon Deerfield, in the Connecticut Valley, and passing over the snowdrifts to the palisades, they ruthlessly slaughtered forty-seven persons and carried away over one hundred as captives after burning the town. In 1708 the French, under Hertel de Rouville, marched through the defenseless settlements with their cruel Indian allies, and burned Haverhill, killing and capturing the inhab- itants. Thus encouraged by their fiendish success, the French renewed their energetic efforts to secure the valley of the Mississippi. EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. 631 In 1699 D'Iberville sailed from Canada with four ships and about two hundred colonists to found a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. Entering the mouth of the river, D'Iber- ville thought he was mistaken until the Indians brought him a letter written to La Salle by Tonti thirteen years before. After planting a colony on the Gulf at the mouth of the Pas- cagoula, D'Iberville set sail for France for supplies and colo- nists, leaving his brothers Sauville and Bienville in charge of the settlement. Returning the next year, D'Iberville brought sixty colonists, and ascending the Mississippi four hundred miles to where Natchez now stands, he built a fort and named it Fort Rosalie, which is the oldest town on the Mississippi, while Mobile be- came the important Gulf settlement. Soon after a settlement was established up the Red River at Natchitoches and another up the Alabama, which is now Montgomery. About this time the great Mississippi scheme of John Law was planned. Law was a broken-down gambler fram Scot- land, who obtained authority from the French Government for forming a company to colonize Louisiana and to issue an unlimited circulation of paper money. This circulation reached $200,000,000 at a time when Law was Minister of Finance, but the bubble burst in 1720 and thousands were ruined. In 1718 Bienville began clearing the ground for a city, and soon a number of French colonists arrived, who laid out the future city and named it New Orleans in honor of the Duke of Orleans. The embryo city grew slowly and for years only mere huts were built, while the colonists showed a lamentable lack of industry and enterprise. The only settlers who exhibited any inclination to labor were some German colonists whom Law had secured. The French settlement at Fort Rosalie was growing stronger, and they made a demand upon a Natchez tribe called " the children of the sun " to give up the land upon which their village stood, that the French might divide it into farms. Such an un- reasonable demand aroused the indignation of the Natchez, and they suddenly fell upon Fort Rosalie and killed all the French, 532 EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. except their women and children, who were taken captive. The chief, Great Sun, cut off the heads of the French officers who had been slain and, setting them in a circle, smoked his pipe in triumph in their midst. While he and his tribe were still cele- brating the victory, a party of French and Choctaws from New Orleans came up the river and, falling upon the Natchez with great slaughter, captured Great Sun and nearly all the re- mainder, some four hundred, and sent them into slavery at San Domingo. A few fled to the Chickasaws, and their tribe from that day ceased to exist. As the Chickasaws had incited the Natchez to the massacre at Fort Rosalie, the French decided to retaliate, and in 1736 two expeditions of French were ordered to form a junction for an attack upon the Chickasaws. Bienville advanced from New Orleans with twelve hundred Choctaws to meet D'Artaguette, the governor of Illinois, who was coming down with a thous- and French and Indians. D'Artaguette made the fatal mis- take of attacking the Chickasaws without waiting for Bien- ville, but the wily foe were on the alert and defeated D'Arta- guette and took him prisoner before Bienville could come to his rescue. When the latter arrived he found the Chickasaws strongly intrenched, and his assault being repulsed, he threw his cannon into the river and hastily retreated. The Chicka- saws then burned D'Artaguette at the stake. Notwithstanding this repulse the French persisted in form- ing posts along the Alleghany, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The Iroquois claimed possession of the valley of the Ohio and the English colonists iu Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, to secure a better title to the territory the French were encroaching upon, sent commissioners to the Iroquois, who pur- chased for 400 all their title to the territory between the Blue Ridge in Virginia and the Alleghany mountains in Pennsyl- vania. In 1744 began what is known as King George's war. The hostilities opened by the French attack upon and capture of Fort Canso, in Nova Scotia, the garrison being taken as prisoners to Louisburg, the stronghold of the Fjench in Cape Breton. This attack aroused the New England colonists to a realization of EARLY HISTORY OP AMERICA. 583 their danger from the encroachments of the French, who had already nearly destroyed the commerce and fisheries of the colonies. The Legislature of Massachusetts thereupon decided to fit out an expedition against Louisburg, and the other colonies were invited to join in the undertaking. Sir William Pepperell was selected as commander of the expedition, and an army of 3,800 men was raised and placed at his disposal. Farmers, merchants, mechanics, hunters, fishermen and even clergymen volunteered with great zeal. They were undoubt- edly as brave a company of men as ever shouldered muskets, and what they lacked in skill they made up in willingness to fight. General Pepperell soon set out with his force, and reaching Louisburg and making an attack upon one of the outer forts, the French spiked the guns, and retreated to the main fort. A skillful gunsmith soon drilled out the spikes, and the guns were soon playing on the great fort of Louisburg, which had walls forty feet thick, thirty feet high, and a ditch eighty feet wide, while it was defended by over two hundred cannon and a garrison of 1,600 men. General Pepperell regularly besieged the place, while the fleet commanded the harbor, and was fortunate enough to decoy and capture a sixty-four gun ship, laden with stores for the fort. So vigorously was the siege carried on that in six weeks the French were compelled to surrender. This was a most joy- ous victory for the colonists. They had defeated the French in their most powerful stronghold, and cheer after cheer went up from every camp-fire as well as from every New England home. France, smarting under the defeat, resolved to recapture Louisburg, and in revenge ravage the New England coast. A fleet was sent for this purpose, but a storm disabled it. The next year another fleet sent out was captured by a British squadron. Soon after this, while the colonies were preparing to capture Canada, the treaty of Aix la Chapelle put an end to the war between France and England, and Louisburg was re- stored to the French, much to the disappointment of the colo- nists of New England, who felt that their dearly-bought victory had been wrested from them by their own people. 584 EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA. CHAPTER XIX. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. Previous to 1749 the English colonists had made no attempt to form settlements in the valley of the Ohio, but its great fer. tility and delightful climate became known abroad, and the Governor of Virginia received royal instructions to grant a charter to the Ohio Company for large tracts of land on the M onongahela, Kanawha and Ohio rivers ; one condition being that the company should send one hundred families. This movement the French at once undertook to defeat by sending a force to drive out the English settlers and take pos- session for themselves. The Indians, with deep interest and solicitude, watched the movements of both French and English and asked the question : " If the French take possession of the north side of the Ohio and the English take the south side, where is the Indian's land ?" The English and French were each contemplating the build- ing of a fort at the head of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now stands, and so vigorously had the- French taken possession wherever a foothold had been secured, that they had at that time about sixty forts between Montreal and New Orleans. In addition to these they had also built a fort at Presque Isle, the present site of Erie; another at French Creek, where Water- ford now stands, and another on the Alleghany, at Franklin. The Virginians becoming alarmed at the French encroach- ment, Governor Dinwiddie sent a trusty messenger to the French to remonstrate against their intrusion on English terri- tory. That messenger was George Washington, who, though then but twenty-two years of age, had attracted attention by his abilities, and two years before had been appointed adjutant- general. Young Washington set out on his important mission on the 21st of October, 1753, from Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, and after a toilsome march of twenty-four days through the wilderness and across swollen streams, he reached the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, where Pittsburgh now stands. He was at once impressed with the F.ART.Y HISTORY OF AMERICA. 685 importance of the location for a fort, but the French already had the place in view for a fortification, and soon built Fort Duquesne at that spot. In company with the chief of the Delawares, Washington reached Logstown, where he held a consultation with the Indians, who proclaimed their friendship for the English. With several chiefs, Washington then proceeded to Venango, where the French commander announced the intention of taking possession of the entire valley of the Ohio. Washington then undertook the difficult journey to Waterford, where he found the French strongly fortified and many boats and canoes in readiness for an expedition. St. Pierre, the commandant, informed Washington that his instructions from the French general were to destroy every English post on the Ohio. Washington, finding that his efforts were unavailing to turn the French from their intentions, turned his face homeward ; and winter having set in in all its severity, he found the jour- ney full of difficulties and grave dangers which were greatly increased from the fact that he was forced to return on foot, the horses having become disabled. But his mission was faith- fully performed and he was able to inform the governor of his colony fully as to the intentions and strength of the French, which enabled Virginia to prepare for action. In the spring the Ohio Company began, at Washington's sug- gestion, to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, but the French had this important point in view, and, making a descent upon the English, forced them to surrender the position. The French then began the erection of Fort Duquesne. Washington having been appointed lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, was then ordered, owing to illness of the colonel, to proceed with a detachment of troops to hold the French in check until the main force of Virginia troops could effect a junction with him. Reaching Little Meadows, he learned that the French were in great force at Fort Duquesne, and that a force was then marching toward his little army. Half -King, the faithful friend of Washington, sent an Indian runner to apprise him that the French, were very near, and soon Half- 53 3 1158 00282 2145 ^^^ ^*^PP >u\ ^ "" * V- iX^S-V^I/^-f ^-^