5TORY Q^ AMERICA SKETCHED '"SONNETS HENRY FRANK f THE STORY OF AMERICA SKETCHED IN SONNETS BY HENRY FRANK \\ AUTHOR OF "THE TRAGEDY OP HAMLET," "MODERN LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY," "PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY," "THE KINGDOM OF LOVE," "THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH," ETC. BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 1912 COPYRIGHT, 1911 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY FORE NOTE The author does not pretend to have presented anything like a continuous or complete history of the Nation. His effort has been to seize only on the salient events and conspicuous characters, and to weave their story in the metric setting of the sonnet forms. He believes, however, that the broad contour of the Nation's life is comprehended within the pic- tures and portraits presented, and that the general reader will have his memory rekindled by the refer- ences to the great events comprised by the poetic settings. The appended notes are merely for the benefit of the general reader who may desire to know more with regard to the references made than could be detailed in the sonnets. If, perchance, the author may have struck a genuine note of patriotism that will key the reader to a pitch of higher enthusiasm for his country's primal principles and lofty ideals, he will be hap- pily repaid for his labor of love. HENRY FRANK. New York City. CONTENTS PART I THE COLONIAL PERIOD Page AMERICA i THE NORSEMEN'S DISCOVERY OF AMERI- CAN CONTINENT 2 COLUMBUS 3 EARLY SETTLERS 5 FIRST BRITISH COLONISTS 6 HENRIK HUDSON 7 THE MAYFLOWER AND LANDING OF PIL- GRIMS 9 FIRST HERETICS AND SALEM WITCHCRAFT n FOUNDING OF MARYLAND ....... 13 SPANISH DISCOVERIES 14 INTRODUCTION OF AFRICAN SLAVERY . . 15 PART II THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 19 CROMWELL, THE FORERUNNER OF WASH- INGTON 20 CONTENTS Page GEORGE III 22 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY 23 THE REVOLUTION 25 LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 26 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 27 FALL OF TICONDEROGA 28 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE .... 29 THOMAS PAINE 31 THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 33 GEORGE WASHINGTON 35 NATHAN HALE 37 MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE 38 BENEDICT ARNOLD 40 SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS 42 PART III THE FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLIC SHAYS' REBELLION 45 FORMATION OF THE UNION 46 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION . . 48 THOMAS JEFFERSON 49 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 51 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 53 PART IV GROWTH OF THE UNION AARON BURR 57 CONTENTS Page LOUISIANA PURCHASE 58 ANDREW JACKSON 59 WAR OF 1812 , 61 MEXICAN WAR . .... 63 PART V THE PERIOD OF SLAVERY THE OLIGARCH 67 THE AGITATION 69 THE ABOLITIONIST 70 JOHN BROWN 71 JOHN C. CALHOUN 73 DANIEL WEBSTER 74 HENRY CLAY 76 CHARLES SUMNER 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 80 ULYSSES S. GRANT 84 ROBERT E. LEE 86 GETTYSBURG 88 APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE 90 RECONSTRUCTION AND REIGN OF TERROR 92 THE FRUITS OF VICTORY 94 ROBERT FULTON 97 ELI WHITNEY 99 CONTENTS Page SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 101 THOMAS A. EDISON 102 THE NEW WEST 104 THE AGE OF AGRICULTURE 105 THE AGE OF MANUFACTURE loC CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 108 THE NEW SOUTH no PART VII AGE OF WORLD CONQUEST SPAIN AND COLUMBIA 114 THE VERDICT AND OUTLOOK OF OUR HIS- TORY 117 AMERICA THE HOPE OF THE WORLD . . .121 PART VIII HISTORICAL NOTES .125 PART I THE COLONIAL PERIOD AMERICA I SING the child of Freedom, born on earth Of bloody conflict and time-woven wrong; Now grown to full and perfect manhood, strong In pride, in spirit virile, proud of birth; A Nation, whose just principles engirth The world, and all mankind inspire with song Of justice, human rights and civic worth, For earth's o'erwhelmed and despot-ridden throng ! America last born of nations, young Yet old in wisdom: from India's mystic soul, And lofty brain of Greece, thy spirit sprung, Responds with hope to Sorrow's age-long toll. To thee, from outmost isle and distant clime, Men cry for rescue from the wrongs of time! THE NORSEMEN'S DISCOVERY OF AMERICAN CONTINENT YOUNG to the modern world, 't is thousand years And more, since Viking bold the salt sea tore, 1 With gargoyled prow from Iceland's frigid shore, Past Greenland, where are piled the frosted tears Of gods full mountain-high, to where earth bears The grape and native corn (which Danish lore Hence Vineland named, Red Eric's saga swears), 2 Now known as famed New England's rugged shore. Asleep, this rumored world for centuries Lay, nursed by dwellers in the Mystic Mounds, 3 Or swarmed by heedless aborigines, Since Olaf's men displayed their trophied wounds. Though last revealed, perchance 't is oldest world, 4 Since compact earth from fiery mist was whirled. 2 COLUMBUS I ONCE at thy feet, Hispania, cringed the known, O'er-mastered earth; whose mute, inglorious prey 5 Of thy insatiate passion abject lay, 6 From Pillars of the East to setting sun; When one, whose martial genius had not shone 7 As yet amid the galaxy of those who slay Their fellow man for storied fame, did pray, Nor Ferdinand or Isabelle would shun 8 His overtures, to seek far India's shore, Or Asia's flowery realm (his mad desire), 9 By passage over western seas, which ne'er be- fore By vessel's keel were kissed. The fire Of his passion waned not till, amazed, He found his prize, then homeward turned dis- praised! 10 COLUMBUS II Although, Columbus, thou knewest not what boon 11 Thy glorious genius wrought for humankind, Nor, how in after years thy fame would bind Far continents as one, and moon to moon Would sing the echoing, triumphal tune Of thy renown; yet must thou have divined The world's acclaim, in History's high noon, Despite Hidalgo's hate and envious mind. 12 A New World to the Old thou gavest, not Alone because vast continents, long hid In watery wildernesses, to view were brought; But that the wider seas of mind were rid Of mists of ignorance, and isles arose To harbor Freedom from her age-long foes. EARLY SETTLERS SWIFT o'er the world the fleet-foot couriers flew, 13 Proclaiming fabled wealth beyond the sea, In lands from dreaded tread of white man free, Since time began. The age impatient grew; Cupidity with fevered pulses threw The dice of fortune ; and with madf ul glee, Where oceans roared and howling tempests blew, Adventured all on fancied victory. The human scum was swept from sea of life, And garnered as the tools of Fortune's few, Who ventured, with the soldier's zest for strife, To conquer Fate what masses though they slew; To grip more wealth the prod that moves the world And honor thus their country's flag unfurled. FIRST BRITISH COLONISTS THE swarthy Spaniard and the Briton bold, 14 With valorous arms a-blood in battle's blow, The glamour of their power each vied to throw, Athwart the promised land: the lure of gold, Beyond the latitude of temperate cold, The Spaniard led ; but where the sleet and snow, With beetling front of ice the shoreways hold, The Briton sought his prosperous seed to sow. The genius of Sir Gilbert Humphrey, first 16 Misled to seek the northwest flight for Ind, Inspired one his age both blessed and cursed .Sir Walter Raleigh through whose brilliant mind, The nation yet to be was peopled well With scions of a race its fate foretell. 16 HENRIK HUDSON I EGREGIOUS Spain with wanton thirst for gold Far-reaching o'er the world on Holland's thrift Her talons fastened ; then with sordid shift " Dutch wealth deported and brave freemen sold, To swell her alien purse ; till Freedom bold (Indignant at the purloined royal gift), Empurpled, with her myrmidon's rich blood, 18 The dykes, the roaring Zuyder Zee withstood. Redeemed from tyranny, the Netherlands 19 Outvied the ancient Ruler of the Seas, And sought o'er East and West all prosp'rous lands Her bravest mariners espied ; nor breeze So soft or gale of iciest blast, but they Brought thence their gift for Holland's fairer day. HENRIK HUDSON II 'Mongst those who braved the arctic snows, for course 80 That guided to far Orient's wealth, and fell By chance upon a Paradise, whose spell Forespoke the glory ages would rehearse, Was Henrik Hudson. With hungry crew and sparse, And many a venture, he found the stream where dwell, To-day, a Nation's millions, who still nurse His memory in mount and shadowy dell. Bright as thy splendid soul, brave as thy heart, From far North to the sea's wide arms, still flows Thy river, flanked with monumental art, That Nature carved in rocks, where radiant glows The orient sun on palisades that rise, O'er-tapestried with tints of flaming skies. 8 THE MAYFLOWER AND LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS I AS in the dewdrop's tiny breast is held The broad expanse of unhorizoned skies, Sometimes in heart of simple folk there lies The vision of a vaster world than welled In neighbor-souls ; whose magic hath impelled To utmost deeds of grandeur, till they despise Their fate, and, once their ancient fears are quelled, Dare challenge Death with dauntless enterprise. Such was the Pilgrim Band, a hundred strong, 21 That British tyranny and churchly curse Drove first to Holland's shores; thence (voyage long), 22 Through bitter seas and icy blasts, did nurse The hope that God would guide them to a land, Where they might serve Him void of culprit's brand. THE MAYFLOWER AND LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS II Heroic souls were they that little boat Brought to New England's bleak and stony strand, Miles Standish, Brewster leader of the band John Alden, Mary Chilton (who did gloat That first they touched the rock), whence soon should float A flag earth's bloodiest despots would withstand : Unterrified the Bigot's power they smote, 23 Whose curse had long prevailed in many a land. 24 Stern as the rugged shores to which they fled, Their hearts as virile as the virgin oak They clove with iron arms ; with tears unshed Amid the bitterest strifes ; such were the folk, Untutored and alone, who grandly bore Their banner brave to Freedom's waiting shore. 10 FIRST HERETICS AND THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT I T WAS blood that flowed from British veins and shaped The destiny of this fair land (by fate Preserved from sluggish Southern mind and hate Of cleric jealousy), which thus escaped The tyranny of Church and Creed, that draped The Old World long in gloom, and here first State And Church dissevered; nor customs aped Of dual despotisms obdurate. And yet one looms supreme in that far age, To teach us Freedom is not always free ; 86 For Puritan, who in religious rage Fled the oppressor's power, like liberty Denied Sir Roger Williams, who but sought To think as freely as the others taught. ii FIRST HERETICS AND THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT II Thus early Superstition's snapping teeth Bit fiercely at the towering forms of men, And women, too, like famous Anne ; whose pen 26 And voice denounced intolerance, and death Defied. Anon it roused from sleeping sheath, The vengeful sword should smite the witch's "sin," New England's conscience palled with Satan's breath, That lured enfeebled women to his den. Nowhere hath human inhumanity So cruelly display'd the Bigot's curse, As witnessed in the tragi-comedy, That Salem records shamefully rehearse. 27 From such base depths of pious infamy Hath man recoiled to worship Liberty! 12 FOUNDING OF MARYLAND WHILST protestant and papal prelate fought On English soil for regnancy, till, shorn Of power, the crown from kingly brow was torn ; Colonial sectaries were not less wrought With mutual contention, as each sought, Or Puritan or Cavalier (o'erborne By bigotry), the harsh, intolerant lot, Inquisitors impose on foes forlorn. But to the honor of Lord Baltimore 28 Of Maryland, the voice of History proclaims, He first of royal governors devoutly swore That freedom should prevail through his do- mains. 'T was Catholic rule, by irony of fate, That led to severance of Church and State. SPANISH DISCOVERIES VORACIOUS hunger and insatiable greed For gold (that shone on Eldorado's breast, Awaiting but adventurers' eager zest), Inspired Espafia's desp'rate sons to speed Their silken sails and seize for King and Creed, The fabled seat of Paradise; whose quest Enrolled Vespucci, time hath since agreed, Should name the land Columbus first caressed. 29 Of white men first Balboa gazed upon Pacific's placid breast; and with delight De Leon dallied, searching where the sun Disclosed death-conq'ring springs, in vain ; whilst sight Of land Pascua de flares blessed, he named 80 Like to her flowers, Florida, far-famed. THE INTRODUCTION OF AFRICAN SLAVERY (1620 A.D.) ERE yet in birth the Nation travailed sore, A slender form insidious shadow threw 81 Athwart the land, anon so monstrous grew, It lay anhungered, waiting at the door Of Liberty, to rend the breast that bore The infant-hope of humankind; though few, Discerning, did the evil form deplore, Demanding power its head from trunk to hew! Unslain, unscotched, the Monster's hideous thews, The Nation's body, like Laocoon's, Encircled, till outsprawled mid southern dews, It mocked the trembling fears of Freedom's sons. O ill-prophetic day, when from the waves Virginia first received her Afric slaves! PART II THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 'T WAS Anglo-Saxon grit and British blood Ordained the destiny of Freedom's birth, When 'twixt the Romance strain and British worth, The wage was cast, nor long the fates withstood. For Spaniards south and French a-north, with brood Of Indians, fell fast to reddened earth, Or fled distraught before the fiery flood Of British shot, that widened England's girth. When Montcalm fell on Quebec heights and Wolfe, On field of victory, the plan of Pitt Had triumphed o'er the French from Mexic gulf 82 To where the mighty lakes in grandeur sit. Thus Anglo-Saxon blood and virile force Foreshadowed young Columbia's conq'ring course. CROMWELL, THE FORERUNNER OF WASHINGTON I RUDE stature, cast in clay-and-iron mold, Immortal regicide and friend of man, Whose genius caught the scope of Freedom's plan Herculean Oliver ! Thy thousand-fold, Heroic deeds the monarchies of old O'erwhelmed, and kings dethroned. Thy stub- born clan Redoubted Ironsides with damning ban Hurled 'gainst the crime-acquiring power of gold, (Like cleansing thunder-clap from heaven sent, Down-clamoring from mountain height to glen), The rotting citadel of government Crushed ruthlessly; whilst thou, with austere men, Howbe't declared a god, denounced insane, Earth's yeomanry redeemed from royal bane. 20 CROMWELL, THE FORERUNNER OF WASHINGTON II If, erst, thou hadst not smote, 'neath White- hall's spires, The rising serpent on the soil (whose fang Bit unsuspecting ploughmen as they sang, In ignorance, its charms), perhaps the fires Which now from Freedom's hilltops wake the lyres Of her sons, had not yet blazed ; nor rang The shout of joy from our Colonial sires, When Liberty from lowly subjects sprang. All faint and flickering its light hath shone, Since primal passions of the human breast Spurred men to seek the courses of the sun, Who, oft deceived, pursued a glow-worm's crest ; Till thou the Torch upbore and hurled it on, To guide the destiny of Washington ! 21 GEORGE III TO thee let universal thanks be sung, Thou fool 'mongst despots and plaything of time! 33 Thy praise let pamphleteers in prose and rhyme Disport, from whom the Child of Freedom sprung. Without thy churlish temper, and thy young And childish jealousy, thy wish to climb Supreme among the monarchs of thy time, O'er whom thy proud, defiant banners flung, Perhaps fair Liberty had yet been held Imprisoned by the walls of ancient fear ; Perhaps had Pitt thy riotous passions quelled, Mankind might yet the despot's curses bear. God's fools are human blessings in disguise, Who oft have sodden souls made brave and wise. 22 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY I SINCE men the sense of liberty discerned, Cabals of government (from primal days Of civilization to tyranny's dark ways, Though oft their vulgar robberies were spurned By Freedom's sons), have little wisdom learned. Thus pompous kings (whose flagrant wealth displays Their love of luxury and wanton ease unearned), Their passion oft with vampire-thirst betrays. And British royalists thus blindly proved, They wot not how the love of liberty Had patriots oft to desperation moved, When with sardonic tax they shipped their tea To Boston's shore, 'neath Britain's flag unfurled, And roused a storm whose billows swept the world. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY II Nor loftier valor in her palmiest days, Or splendid strategy of practiced mind, Had Greece displayed than these rude plough- men, blind To consequences, when, athwart the quays, In Mohawk guise, all void of riotous craze, They hurled the fragrant cargo to the wind, 34 And sought alone the waves' redounding praise, Encoring the wild plaudits of mankind! Then o'er the ramparts first fair Liberty Her blood-stained banner hoist against the brow Of heaven, and with her vibrant prophecy Awoke the world's oppressed, relit the glow Of Hope's once smouldering torch, and smote the lyre, Whose fervor thrills the souls of Freedom's choir. 24 THE REVOLUTION WHEN once the fires burst in patriots' breasts, That kindled armies from the dust ; when last Insult of Crown and Laws' oppression passed All 'durance Fate bespoke her stern behests: No compromise or paltering requests Now sate the Sons of Freedom ; they boldly cast Their lot, all heedless of the gory crests Of war that boom the shores with shatt'ring blast! Then pigmies sprung to giants' power : a child, But yesterday among the nations, rose To sudden manhood, whose youthfulness be- guiled The practiced armies of the Crown to throes Of blinding struggle and defense, and won Undying fame with sword and belching gun. LEXINGTON AND CONCORD AT Lexington and Concord first was heard The startling volley echoing round the world, That beggarly, intrepid warriors hurled Against an Empire. Now that Freedom stirred The Age on every hand, the magic word "To arms!" roused patriots (with flag unfurled, And fife and drum) to taunt the foe they feared Yet braved, howe'er their ranks were torn and whirled. Undaunted, now, and 'boldened by the lust Of liberty, they challenge, with their lives, 86 The bursting bullets of the foe, and trust Alone in God; whilst half unarmed each strives For triumph, as ill-fed their wasted forms Lie bleeding and exposed in winter's storms. 26 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL A NATION bloody-baptized at its birth, Shames not with mem'ry of its first defeat ; 86 Whose heroes, forced by fate, in calm retreat Defied the foe, and proved, though plagued with dirth Of arms, they shirked nor fled the blinding sheet Of flame, that swept the battle-field's red girth; But braved the bullets falling like hot sleet Around them, as they charged with maddening mirth. Dismayed, cried Howe, chagrined: "Nor Fon- tenoy 87 Or Minden e'er such fire saw from belching gun, As these staunch yeomen, with impetuous joy, Poured forth beneath that burning summer sun !" 'T was there, in glorious defeat, the Free First heard a cannon sing for liberty. 27 FALL OF TICONDEROGA WHEN Poverty her bony finger lay On these ill-clad, bedraggled ranks, who fought Unarmed, unfed; grim Desperation wrought A miracle one morn at break of day, When Allen, sword in hand with victor's sway, Ticonderoga's instant fall besought ; 38 Whose officer, affrighted, with dismay The fortress yielded, unfended and unfought. 'T was here first fell the British standards low, And cheered the wearied troops with prophecy, That Justice would her dauntless prowess throw Athwart their armies, through whose victory A Nation soon would be begot, whose proud, Defiant flag would prove the Despot's shroud. 28 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE I THE while their triumphs ragged patriots On gory fields achieved, as ardent souls, In legislative halls, the magic scrolls Of liberty inscribed ; whose daring thought 39 Each Age's conscience still awakes (else rots), When inhumanity its scourge o'er rolls On human hearts, and stains with lurid spots Fair Freedom's breast, the hope of man extols. Once spurred to snap the bonds of royalty, And Independence absolute achieve; To pluck the age-sunk roots of tyranny, And time-wrought wrongs from vested usage cleave ; They, madly dashing like the whelming tide, Expunged the sovereignty of regal pride. 29 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE II With pen defiant they dashed to earth their dread ; Hurled madly from its pedestal, the lead- Enstatued form of George, and molded it M To bullets, which like hissing serpents hit The scattered foe, whilst consternation spread Where'er was heard the rebel's thunderous tread. Men swore that nevermore should Tyrant sit On throne, who spurns his subjects' plea for bread. The cry that inarticulate first fell From Abel's lips against the oppressor's scourge, At last full-syllabled, with resonant swell, Resounds to heaven like ocean's thund'ring surge. The clarion note rings down the grooves of time, Redeeming men from wrong and social crime ! THOMAS PAINE IMPERIOUS intellect and dauntless foe 41 Of frand in Church or State; immortal friend Of Man and Champion of Truth ; did'st spend Thy life to spread o'er earth the splendid glow Of Liberty's bright torch ; thy hand did throw The seed in Freedom's soil that yet would 'fend Mankind, and cause a glorious tree to grow, Whose fruitage ne'er would Despot durst to rend! Thou first, with cry for Independence, roused ** The sluggish councils to their work; thou first Prescribed the Constitution's form, and housed * 3 A People! E'en though vilifiers cursed Thy fame, to thee our fair Republic owes Its birth, who stayed it in its natal throes. THOMAS PAINE II Two governments once vied to honor thee, When like a whirling flame, with righteous hate Of tyrannies, thy love of Liberty Swept thee to France (her cherished deputy) To help consume the fruit of baneful fate, And on her blistered soil uphold the Free, Who hoped to found like ours a People's State, Redeemed from Monarch's sway on land and sea. 'T was not thy destiny the world's acclaim To hear; naught but the curse of crowns and smirch Of infamy, the prison-cell, and shame Of felon's fate (by grace of state and church) Were thine, who holp'dst benighted Man to free: 44 Who, freed, disdained thee with indignity! THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA I BUT ere the Nation shall its birthright prove, It must needs sail baptismal seas of blood : What boots it to proclaim in fiery mood Its boast of liberty and freedom's love, Whilst Burgoyne's bristling grenadiers above Canadian ramparts loom, and Clinton's brood 45 Of practiced warriors, with stealthy move, 46 May dash its hopes in battle's reddening flood? The serried hosts have clashed: Burgoyne dis- traught, His troups outnumbered, anhungered and for- lorn, 47 Ere Clinton came, dishevelled and outfought, Succumbed to fate and Tories' withering scorn. The day is won ; and from war's bursting breast A Nation bounds o'er Freedom's billowy crest. 33 THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA II Yet, erst, defeat was fate of valorous hosts, That fell before the torrent sweep of arms, Which British prowess swayed, athwart the farms And rude embattlements of Northern coasts, Where Burgoyne's army, spurred by blatant boasts " And braggadocio, heedless of alarms, Gave hope the Rebels would desert their posts, And, horror-struck, lay down their rustic arms. But British scorn soon turned to British shame : The laughter of the loyalists and sneers Contemptuous of foes, when Victory came To warrior-patriots, aroused the cheers Of all mankind, who hailed a Nation born At Saratoga on that fateful morn. 49 34 GEORGE WASHINGTON I HAIL, Champion of justice, paragon Of nobles*, virtues and of patriot's pride, 50 Whose stalwart scorn of British rule defied The power its puissant arms had won, And reared, blood-built, beneath this western sun (The sacred gift of those who bravely died), A citadel whose firm base rests upon Foundations that eternally abide. Blessed is a land o'er-topped with character, Supreme in goodness and in wisdom's strength, Whose splendor spreads athwart horizons far ; And o'er the tides (that urge through breadth and length Of surging seas which bank against the world), Reveals the banner Freedom hath unfurled. 35 GEORGE WASHINGTON II Thy Genius prompts our hearts and spurs our brains, To acts deliberate and with thoughts mature ; When else had Impulse oft to deeds impure, Impelled us on with Passion's fiery reins; Thy Wisdom's heritage our boon remains, Which oft from ambush-laden roadway leads The Coach of State (entrapped) to fairer plains, Where Justice calmly guides the sober'd steeds. O brightest star in yon bright galaxy Of glorious names the firmament displays, America supremely owes to thee Her century and more of honored days. May thy imposing name without surcease Throughout the world her majesty increase ! NATHAN HALE HEROIC, fond, ill-fated patriot, 61 Who gave thy young life for thy Country's weal, When Duty called for courage that would reel Nor halt in face of foe or hail of shot! When from his ranks great Washington be- sought Some dauntless soul, with cunning wit would steal The enemy's secrets and their plans reveal, At once the challenge of the direful lot Appealed to thee. By ignominious death, The brutal foe thy glory thought to shame ; But, like an oriflamme, thy dying breath Far-flung these golden words on wings of fame : "Had I more lives, my Country, they were thine ! M Such acts abide immortal and divine. 37 MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I WHEN tongue of liberty with cannon-roar, Resounded through the earth and roused man- kind, From stolid servitude and stupor blind, To Freedom's call from far New England shore, 'Mongst those who came and royal signets wore (When courage waned and warriors repined), To spur them on through battle's thick'ning gore, Was Lafayette, brave friend of humankind. 62 Where find in all the annals of the race A life more nobly sacrificed to truth? Though born to fortune and to favoring grace, So burned his spirit (yet a callow youth), With love of Liberty, he scorned the hand, Would honor him within his native land. MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE II He knew the gods awaited such an hour The crucial moment in the destiny Of Man when could but grip of Tyranny The Patriot's sword once loose, ne'er more such power O'er earth accursed would spread from sea to sea; But Fate, by dint of Freedom's civic dower, Would bless the world with joys of liberty And progress, ne'er to despots more would cower. Yet though his veins with rebel blood ran red, As stern conservator of human weal, When the fair breast of France was torn and bled With Revolution's blast, he drew his steel 'Gainst foes who posed as Freedom's friends, with art As keen and dauntless as a Bonaparte ! 39 BENEDICT ARNOLD I NOT void of drama's thrilling denouement, 68 Evolves the story of those bloody days, When vengeance, jealousy and treach'rous ways, Inspired some who sang, with brazen tongue, Perfervid tunes that roused the trembling throng ; Till, covered by the guns below the quays Of Charleston, Clinton stealth'ly crept along And capturing it compelled their sullen lays. The South now at his mercy lay; could he But gain a northern point that vantaged far As Canada's outposts, 't were victory Assured, and Washington's now waning star Soon set! 'T was then that to his waiting ear The Tempter came with plot he well might fear. 40 BENEDICT ARNOLD II Though dashing, brilliant, brave and prosperous, And brightly cynosured his star of fame, Ill-born was Arnold whose now blighted name Is twinned with Judas in deeds infamous. Humiliation stung his breast, and thus For Vengeance' sake and reckless of all shame, With venal end and spirit venomous, He staked his country in War's mad-fought game. Commanding, now, at West Point's fortressed hill, Into his net ill-fated Andre fell, Self-sentenced, mourned, condoned e'en mildly still, By all who pity whom misfortunes quell. Yet Justice is avenged; for British gold Befouled the fame that Arnold vainly sold! SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS WHEN seven Summers their bleeding length had drawn 54 Athwart the plains of war, anon, 't was done : Across the belching mouth of murd'rous gun, Fair Peace her white hands laid and hailed the dawn; On fields, where patriots' lives had oft been sawn By Battle's gory scythe, rose Freedom's sun. When his brave sword the valorous Washington At Yorktown sheathed, ne'er more 't was drawn. The earth, impregnant with the bloody seed Of lives implanted in her breast, brought forth A flower fair Liberty no vulgar weed Shall blight in any clime, or south or north: Her blossoms prophesy a Paradise, The world shall yet disport beneath the skies. 42 PART III FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLIC SHAYS' REBELLION WHEN silenced were the raucous guns of war, And Peace o'er all the land her mantle spread, Still sorrier were the battles fought for bread The grind of poverty that lay in store For those on whom the weight of debt now bore ; Till courts and legislative halls more dread Inspired, than once the fall of British tread, And mobs enraged that sordid vengeance swore. What better, courts of law than British guns, 66 To forge again the manacles of slaves? Far better Freedom sank with setting suns, Than freemen yield to Sheriff's mace and staves ! "To arms!" cried Shays, and madly mocked the power, At length mankind endued with Freedom's dower. 45 FORMATION OF THE UNION I ALAS ! though Freedom, once within the hand B6 Of stalwart warriors is held, too oft Forgetful of her charge (when Peace, with soft. Seductive pipes the pulses of the land Retards), they sleep unheedful of the wand That waves them on to distances aloft, Where hardier muscles of a deathless band Must reach the heights and scorn the crowds that scoffed. Thus first within Delilah's luring lap 67 The Victors lay, shorn of their pristine strength ; And dull Indifference did almost sap The vigorous veins, that once throughout the length Of staunch Columbia's frame with ardor throbbed, Till patriots were of their rude virtue robbed. 60 46 FORMATION OF THE UNION II "What shame," moaned Washington, "that Free- men fail To honor Liberty with tithe of time Her maintenance demands, within a clime Whence Tyranny has fled, and where the trail Of Fortune fast invites both firm and frail!" Yet, e'en despite their jarring notes, the chime 69 Of clamorous bells bespeaks melodic rhyme, Whose anthem shall some day the world assail. The storm fell full on Philadelphia's brow, When molders of the Constitution came, Who feared the sun of Liberty might set, 60 And lawlessness besmirch the land with shame. But fairer Destiny did shape the end, And our proud land from Anarchy defend. 61 47 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION (Philadelphia, 1787) WHAT governmental form in this far Wild, 62 Would spring from strifes provincial, selfish, crude What virus in the civic veins include Might rob a body politic, self-styled Republic ; what tragic evils mountain-piled, O'er-shadowing peace and hope ; none, then so shrewd To see ; yet there the poison lay, though mild, On future ages would its blight obtrude ! Shall States supreme in council be, or ONE, 63 The bond that holds them all in Unity? Shall here a NATION find its birth, or none But straggling states avouch for Liberty? This problem, all their wisdom then withstood, Some day the land would whelm with battles' flood. 48 THOMAS JEFFERSON I THE fabric of the law, by which our land Her glorious fame upholds, to Madison, The father of the Constitution, son Of fair Virginia, we owe. But grand Immunities of Freedom stalwart stand Of staunch Democracy were later won By him who fought with brave and single hand, The treach'rous web that vain unwisdom spun. Ingenious Jefferson, thy cunning wit, 6 * Thy human sympathy, prophetic eye, Such institutions sought whose benefit No single People should comprise, but high As heaven, wide as earth, would spread their power, Till all mankind partook of Freedom's dower. 49 THOMAS JEFFERSON II Maligned by Tory and Aristocrat, 65 Thy spirit heard the voice of Liberty With Revolution's song awake the Free, And scorned the Age's scorn of Democrat! From France, whose loins oft Freedom's son be- gat, Returning swiftly o'er the troubl'd sea, Thy heart aflame with dream of Victory, Spurred on the sword to strike where Despots sat. Nor orator or poet (since begun The pen of man to waken souls of men To sense of Human Rights 'neath every sun) 66 Hath so inspired hope nor can again. As long as Freedom shall her sons caress, They will thy name immortalize and bless. ALEXANDER HAMILTON I WHEN Peace, her soothing banners softly waved Above the silenced battlements of war, And bleeding embryons in travail tore The Nation's breast at birth ; men craved m For statesmanship and wisdom undepraved, Th' accouchement would aid and health restore : Yet who of those the Country's flag had saved, Could heal in peace the crimson'd wounds of war? 68 When Debt its crushing weight on Poverty Increased, and Vict'ry, helpless as defeat, Lay gasping, scoffed by mocking irony, And some feared Freedom would itself unseat, The Nation sprung intact, and wonder won, From brain and genius of young Hamilton. 69 ALEXANDER HAMILTON II A war-worn youth of thirty schooled in life, (With statesman's wit and tongue of orator And genius surfeited with Wisdom's lore), The Ship of State, through bloody seas of strife And war's depletion, piloted, though rife For anarchy and wild disunion's score. He towered like a beetling Teneriffe Above the blinding mists of ocean's roar. In spirit though a Monarchist, he won The solidarity of States and saved, From demagogue and vulgar charlatan, A people whom despair almost depraved: When Burr's avenging aim its target found, 70 It proved to be the Nation's King uncrowned. 71 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN I SAGE of two worlds; illuminating star Of wisdom; rare, encyclopaedic mind, 72 Whose towering genius, masterful but kind, Sought Freedom's birth on these wild shores afar, And calmly closed the mouthy lips of war : 73 In all her annals where shall history find One as befitting Fame's beleaguered car, In whom the gods all human wit combined? From humblest origin to high renown His talents shine unequalled on life's stage; Than whom no hero wears a nobler crown, Or name more luminous on storied page; He stole the secret terror of the skies, And snapped the sword of sceptred tyrannies! 53 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN II His simple precepts into proverbs run, Himself inspiring as myriads since, To rise from depths of social shame and thence To moral heights e'en saints have not outdone. As shines athwart the world the dazzling sun, O'ershadowing the lesser lights, this prince Of wit and wisdom, where his glory shone, O'erblazed with splendor of beneficence. To Franklin mankind owes a deathless debt, As wide as reaches of the elements, Whose vast achievements man can ne'er forget, Whilst comfort waits what human skill invents; In every field of knowledge, art and toil, His genius rose supreme in sky and soil. 74 54 PART IV GROWTH OF THE UNION AARON BURR AS when a leopard, mad with rage, upon A lion leaps, his crunching teeth red-dipped In 's veins till all the fluid 's sipped: So Burr had crushed the kingly Hamilton. Nathless, Ambition spurred his spirit on To challenge Fate, until of honor stripped, He sought, in vain, where sinks the setting sun, 76 The prize of Empire his fingers almost gripped. f A daring personality, and brain All scintillant, he fell like Lucifer, 78 Dishonored and besmirched with blighting stain ; Though once coquettish Fortune hoist his star Among the brighter magnitudes, and claimed For him the highest post the people yet had named. 57 LOUISIANA PURCHASE HOW often Judgment throws th* ungainful dice, Whilst Destiny with keen precision plays! Though oft a statesman wisdom rare displays, More oft he yields to Destiny's device : Few then discerned at what a meager price Great Bonaparte released an Empire's ways, 77 Whence myriads whom Freedom would entice, Columbia's prowess through the world would blaze. By deft diplomacy, our Nation won A trophy, richer than Napoleon's sword For France e'er wrung 'neath many a bleeding sun: A giant lay asleep, unseen, unheard, Within that vast domain whom magic powers Awoke and now all humankind o'ertowers. ANDREW JACKSON I A CRUDE, uncultured stature of the plains, Reared 'midst the frontier hills where sheer brute force And dogged, iron will, an Empire's course Predestined, Jackson rose unsmirched by stains Of pristine passions that sway the heart and brains Of pioneers ; conspicuous for terse, Laconic honesty, that ne'er refrains From obligations howe'er the mob may curse. When in his breast a hot conviction burned, It ate the marrow of his soul; nor all The powers of heaven or hell his purpose turned, Though on his head the weight of suns should fall. The foe of wealth by crime intrenched, he smote The hands thrust out to seize the Nation's throat! 78 59 ANDREW JACKSON II Convinced that Federal Sovereignty should reign Unchallenged, that the Union might be strong ; 79 At Carolina's proud, embattled throng He hurled defiance and forestalled the stain Else had disgraced our Country's flag. And fain, When Scandal piped its venomed voice to wrong A woman, his chivalry fought not in vain, 80 Himself howbeit slurred with slanderous tongue. Though impulse oft his reason roiled, and blind, Unguided passion his better judgment bent, His heart was true as purest gold refined, His breast unmarred by mercenary dent ; He stood the Sponsor of a Moral Right, When Priv'lege menaced with appalling might. 81 60 WAR OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE I LET truth be told though wounded pride pro- test: 82 Ambitious plot and sway of Avarice bold, Too clear the trace of infamy enscrolled, With selfish play of partisan behest, 83 Upon the Nation's once exalted breast: We vainly laud our heroes, paean tolled Upon a thousand tongues, who spurned the bold, Insulting plot of England's naval test. Perhaps 'tis vengeance sweet to win by wit Of trenchant art Decatur, Perry, Scott 84 And Jackson swayed, with genius infinite; 'T were nobler course, untouch'd with crimson spot Of shame, had we but heeded Wisdom's way, And prov'd with pen the mind's superior sway. 61 WAR OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE II Yet 't was not writ in human destiny, 86 That Freedom's rugged child should yield to blows, E'en smitten by a giant; howbeit the throes Of war enhanced domestic treachery, That bitterly harassed on land and sea Columbia's forces from Canadian snows, To southern swamps; with skilful artistry Conveying moral strength t' environing foes. 'T was fortunate that final peace prevailed, Ere piqued New England's voice, with loud pro- test, 86 Awakened civil strife, or ere assailed The government that scoffed at her behest. Our seamen's prowess even England praised Whose ships were shattered where their broad- sides blazed. 62 MEXICAN WAR I WHERE heave the tepid waves of Mexic's gulf, 87 Toward Rio Grande and the westering sun, (By war's arbitrament the Union won With lavished lives and gathered to itself, Yet not without suspicion of vain pelf), Lay Texas her own freedom long since won, When Houston, fiercer than an hungry wolf, Rent Santa Anna's troops with thund'rous gun. Yet Mexico alone her freedom scorned, And scourged her that she cried for succor strong ; Nor, though Columbia's serried armies warned, Withdrew till War's blood-thickened battle-song From Vera Cruz to Matamoras rang, With havoc wrought by cannon's murd'rous clang. MEXICAN WAR II Yet not unsmirched the martial triumph nailed 88 The lone-star banner to the starry flag! For not with crippled foot did Intrigue lag, As Jackson schemed and Houston's arms as- sailed, When Tyler and the Slave-South gladly hailed An empire, with whose power their tongues might wag Defiance at the North's disdain, whose mailed Fist yet might force the Southern cause to drag. Howbeit the bloody issue swelled the host Of westering States to California's strand, With Texas wrenched from Mexic's wreaking hand: The Union, nigh, at retribution's cost, Was severed, when fierce judgment fell malign, On that dread curse some blindly called divine. 64 PART V THE PERIOD OF SLAVERY 1838-1860 THE OLIGARCH I SINCE Freedom first in sanguine soils her seed Hath sown, whose hope the heart of man sus- tains, And watered it with blood of patriots' veins, Grim Slavery hath followed with fell speed, To blight the earth with mildew of man's greed ; And e'en Columbia's Eden fouled with stains Of inhumanity, for brutal creed That bartered human souls for soulless gains. This age-pursuing scourge of Liberty, Now that her promised Paradise was nigh, As if some usurpatious deity, Proclaimed itself supreme 'twixt earth and sky: "Whoso denies that Slavery is of God, Shall lose his life and rot beneath the sod !" 67 THE OLIGARCH II Thus roared the pompous Oligarch whose spell The land o'er-awed with fear; whose majesty Would vie with courts of ermined royalty, And feast on privilege to buy and sell In every mart the "chattel slave," whose fell Is badge of servitude, humanity Hath cursed in every age ! Who shall repel The swelling surge of this dark tyranny? It makes the laws, it binds the courts, it chains Not only slave, but citizen who dares Revolt against such criminating stains Of infamy, and scornfully declares That whoso shall attempt to free the slave Shall lie accurst within a traitor's grave. 89 68 THE AGITATION BUT far and near prophetic mutterings Bespoke the surging tide would sweep The bloody crests of war and wake the springs Of manhood. Turner and his brave men creep 90 From house to house and belch their slaughter- ings On fifty thresholds red ; whilst Whittier sings His anthems of the free, and they that sleep Awake when Phillips' words of fire leap. 91 T' appease the Monster's appetite, new laws By truculent tools are made, that fiercer still, With silenced Press and Speech, its crimson . claws Might tear out Freedom's heart with wanton will! When Congress stooped to Atherton's bold "gag," 92 The last base blow was struck at Freedom's flag. 69 THE ABOLITIONIST BUT once the Nation's slumb'ring conscience woke, To heed the thund'rous pleas of Garrison, Beshamed at echo of the murd'rous gun That felled Lovejoy, and felt the brutal stroke w On Summer's crown; the primal passions broke From breasts refined, and visages grew dun With rage; and in the flame of smould'ring smoke, Men read the prophecy of war begun. Now on his vested throne the Cavalier The angry blows of Puritan returns; Whilst Abolitionist who knows no fear Defies the power his rankled conscience spurns. The ruesome music of slave's rusted chains Has roused the world to stop its harrowing strains. 70 JOHN BROWN 94 I THE tearing teeth of Slavery deep bit Into the Nation's frame with festering Ferocity, and left it quivering With sense of shame, and void of voice yet fit To answer to the call of Freedom's wit: Where were the heroes from the soil would spring, And from the Monster's hand, which now did sit On Freedom's throne, his sceptred power wring? Like stricken patient the great country lay Within the grip of pestilential fear, Nor one so bold with martyr-heart durst say, " 'T were better Death with liveried shroud should bear The form of Liberty to her last home, Than falsely float her flag from Freedom's dome!" JOHN BROWN II Then burst a meteor 'thwart the sky of fate, That set the world afire, the Nation thrilled With fear or joy, and stirred faint hearts long chilled With Slavery's blighting touch with hope (though late) That tardy Justice would no longer wait, Nor halt till Falsehood's trumpet tones were stilled: For lo ! incensed 'gainst wrong, infuriate, His brave blood Brown at Harper's Ferry spilled. A madman's act? a fool's inspir'd wit? A blow would beat the ocean from its shores? A hand would tear the stars from where they sit, Or from their hinges hurl Time's weather'd doors? Perhaps. Still mid the choral joys that drown Earth's woes high rings the hymn to old John Brown ! 72 JOHN C. CALHOUN I FOREMOST among the thinkers of his Age, 96 Profound in Constitutional debate, Whose keen foresight foretold his Southland's fate, If once the manumitted slaves in rage Upon their masters turned ; he sought to gage Her counsels; more rigidly to solidate Her unity; e'en to the parlous stage Of Federal defiance by the State. Preeminent philosopher, whose far Foresight discerned the dangers would ensue, If corporate powers round the Nation's star 96 Like satellites assembled, alone he threw His glove at the dark Giant he saw tower Athwart the Country's breast with ominous power. 73 JOHN C. CALHOUN II Though foe of compromise, had he foreseen A decade hence his iron logic forced To its inevitable end, and nursed By circumstances, whose fell edge as keen As Damascus blade drove violently 'tween The joints of armored States, from peace di- vorced ; Would he the Union joyously have seen Dismantled, than by stubborn arms coerced? Sincere his spirit, though sinister the fate Befell his fame despite his honest heart. With Roman courage, at the threatened gate Of Liberty, a sentinel apart He stood, and yet unwittingly urged on The blow himself most caused, when he had gone ! 74 DANIEL WEBSTER I LIKE granite silhouette against the skies, He towered bravely o'er the stormy tide, Uprolling from the Southern shores t' o'er-ride Revolt of reason, convinced what victories For Freedom won were vain, if liberties A wedge inject that, spreading ever wide, Shall snap into its primal unities The compact Union, once a People's pride. With Demosthenean eloquence he plead, 97 Unmastered e'en when Calhoun's ponderous wit Or Hayne's defiance sneered at Northern blood, And sought to dim the torch that Freedom lit : "The strength of liberty in Union lay ; Once shattered, War would have its endless way." 75 DANIEL WEBSTER II Had he but been incarnate Conscience bold, M Where'er Iniquity's protaean head arose, Had struck all reckless of the dragon's pose; Undimmed had Time his deathless name en- scrolled. But when Revenge besought him to withhold (For sweet Ambition's sake) the words he chose Should rather on his lips defend his old Constituency, he yielded to their foes! With broken heart he heard the surging wail Of grim Atlantic's waves against the shores: He cast his lot with demagogues who quail At light of day and seek to even scores With fancied foes. A statesman's crown he won, But sullied as the mist-encircled sun. 76 HENRY CLAY I COMMANDING intellect, whose genius held " The balance 'twixt conflicting issues calm; Within a Nation's wounds the healing balm Of compromise serenely pouring ; quelled Oft the audacious claims had else impelled 10 The clash of arms and shock of bloody qualm, Ere Justice had discerned the Right, or welled Her powers to crush pretentious pomp and sham. Three times the "Great Pacificator," thrice 101 Defeated for Chief Magistrate, restrained The fiery passions whose impetuous rise Anon the fratricidal war ordained. His heart consumed with patriot's loyalty, His lips burned eloquent for liberty. 77 HENRY CLAY II Originator of the Feudal Tax, That barred from imposition on our shores Competitive and labor-crushing stores, (The mightier nations strove without relax To force within our gates), his wisdom scores Historic credit; for now wealth doth wax 108 Exceeding swift within our bounds, and pours An endless stream from source that never lacks. But could he since its evil trend behold, Of which he sought his compeers to convince, 103 Since buccaneers have with rapacious hold Impoverished the mass, would he not wince (Who held mankind in loftiest esteem), At such perversion of his golden dream? CHARLES SUMNER I A GREATER son than Webster from the loins Of Massachusetts sprung, when Conscience came Incarnate in the soul of Sumner's name ; 104 Whose radiant honor still untainted shines, As when, with stately but invective lines, He tore the mantle from a Nation's shame, And marked the sore that festered in its groins, Till anger wrapped his foes in blinding flame. Yet not the murd'rous blow of Brooks, nor all m The echo of demoniac applause, Could paralyze the tongue or wreak the fall Of one who championed a noble cause! Though serving well an age corrupt and bane, His was a patriot's heart devoid of stain. 79 CHARLES SUMNER II The fearless though fanatic friend of slaves, To wrench their chains, e'en to his dying day He fought relentlessly, with vast array Of erudition ; yet when bloody waves 108 Of war dissolved, he held not them as knaves, Who lay defeated, but lovingly did pray That Mercy grant what wounded Honor craves : To alter flags that memoried the fray. 107 And when, at topmost height of fame, he thought The Nation's Chief false to his lofty pledge, 108 Another Nathan he durst pierce the plot, Despite the painful blow of Censure's sledge, E'en friends swift swung and sorrowed for anon ; Though he, unchiding, deathless honor won. 80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN I TALL, sombre and sedate, o'er-looms Thy frame 'gainst Time's receding skies a god, Whom Destiny hath hoist from squalid sod, To seat of power whose fadeless splendor dims Th' unmerited glory of Fame's pandered grooms, Whom Fortune favored but Penury ne'er prod. Why soars thy haloed spirit o'er the tombs Of heroes men have long oblivious trod? Because thy martyred blood is seed of life, Implants the hope in lowliest 'mongst men, That Peace and Justice shall arise o'er strife, And guided for mankind by Wisdom's pen, Shall ne'er more suffer wrongs disguised and rife, To shackle souls in labor's lowly den. 109 81 ABRAHAM LINCOLN II Thou first no less a prophet of thy time, Then savior of the slaves of humankind Foresaw'st the menace fraught with malice blind, That masters, drunk with wealth and Fortune's wine, Would men, though freed, condemn to bestial grind 110 Of ceaseless toil, in slum and social slime: Thou knewest surfeited with gold men find, In gold their only god in every clime ! 'T was thou who first among out statesmen saw The false affront of sordid wealth to toil: Thy pen proclaimed equality at law, 111 For jeweled garb and gaberdine of moil ; That whoso owns by wage a workman free, 118 Maintains disguised the scourge of slavery ! 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN III 'T is not alone that swarthy millions from Thy hands the guerdon of their freedom took, Which they themselves wot not nor aught be- sook; Nor that the Union wouldst maintain with sum Of purchase-price for slaves enfreed, though glum And sullen hordes loud roared for war, and shook The Nation with embattled throes, till hum Of industry the ravished land forsook. Not these alone for thee thy laurels won, Ere bleeding there thy martyred body lay; But that thou first, within the roseate dawn Of peace, discern'st the fast approaching fray 'Twixt idle wealth and fruitful toil, and warned 118 The age beware if thy grim words were scorned. 114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN IV Hail first and foremost Plain American, 116 Whose mournful eye and heart of sympathy, Instinct with sense of human liberty, Foresaw the forefront of the Higher Man: A race of souls would smite the scourging ban Of false and social disequality 'Twixt men, once equal born 'tween sky and sea, And build the brotherhood of human clan! Through butt of ridicule and vengeful scorn, Like ocean rock unshook by seething tide, Thy presence loomed, the hope of earth's for- lorn, Nor barrier found the humblest in thy pride. Not Afric's chains alone dissolved in air, When Destiny submitted to thy care ! 116 84 ULYSSES S. GRANT I WHEN at the Nation's throat the insane arm Of fratricidal passion flung its dire, Destructive weapon of avenging fire, And Freedom, warned, with quavering alarm, Appealed for heroes 'gainst th' impending harm, Among the hosts (whose valorous desire For patriot's glory and the gory charm Of war, did their adventurous breasts inspire). Came one of humble birth and wasted youth, 117 Whose stars ordained his magical appraise Of martial strength, the fates to slay were loath ; Who rescued, from the labyrinthian maze Of brainless tactics, almost a fallen Cause ; Whose genius forced the world in praise to pause. ULYSSES S. GRANT II When o'er the federal flags the glowering cloud Of menacing defeat lay quick to burst With blighting breath, he, with unslakened thirst For victory in 's veins, undaunted, proud Of conscious prowess, restive and uncowed, At Donaldson with far foresight the first Strategic conquest won, and thence swift mowed The fleeing foe o'erwhelmed with fate accurst. At Shilo, Corinth, Vicksburg, and at last At Appomattox, his untarnished star On every field unwonted glory cast. 118 But though his fame outcrowed the blare of war, It sank to feeble notes mid civic frays, 119 Nor e'er regained the strength of martial praise. 86 ROBERT E. LEE I MORE valiant soldier ne'er drew breath, nor slew A foe with tenderer heart, whom Duty spurred His native state to 'fend, when Honor stirred 12 His spirit, and the Southland bravely threw Her gauntlet at the North, than he who knew, Whate'er his fate, false interest had not blurred His judgment, when his sword, and soul as true, Responded to a call his conscience heard. Though doomed to ruin and defeat his name, Resplendent shines amid the galaxy, Of valorous heroes trumpeted by Fame, To failure destined or to victory. His lofty manhood and his courtly grace Shone forth benignly from his noble face. ROBERT E. LEE II Magnanimous, his conqueror refrained To humble him in eyes of all the world, Who on a hundred hard-fought fields had whirled Embattled wings, that unexpected gained Proud victory, when hope had almost waned ; Nor e'er discouraged his brave banner furled, Till the last drop of patriot's blood had stained It, in defiance 'gainst a nation hurled. Eke soldier, scholar and philosopher, He doffed the sword to don the cap and gown, 181 And won with grace and ease his courtly spur In classic tilt, as on the bloody down. E'en though his sword on battle field had failed, His soul in nobler victory prevailed. 88 GETTYSBURG I HOW doubtful and unloaded are the dice Of war, was ne'er more vividly displayed Than when at Gettysburg the vast arrayed Confederate and Federal hosts, in vise Of mountain-fastnesses, the bitter price Of battle's bloody fruit to Fortune paid : When Meade was dull to victory's advice, Whilst Lee deplored his rash and costly raid. 122 Almost to pinnacle of triumph borne, The South, aroused by all the world's acclaim, And spurred by victories severely torn From Northern arms, would now her valiant name Within the welcome woof of nations weave, And her proud breast of Failure's scorn relieve. 89 GETTYSBURG II 'T was not in stars of destiny so writ: A broader and still bloodier battle trail Must they pursue who parry blow for blow, In jealous leadership and martial wit, And bury thousands in the gory pit. Nor Burnsides' bleeding hosts that fell below The guns of Fredericksburg, nor flames that spit From Seminary Ridge on fleeing foe, For North or South the conqu'ring dice yet threw : The fell and fatal scourge of war must sweep Still fairer lands still hotter passions brew, Till Anger and Revenge their harvest reap. With forty thousand souls the North here wrought Its rescue from the clutch that Lee had sought. 90 APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE I AS clouds sometimes begloom a golden morn, Grim o'er the mustering hosts of Lee that day, 123 The fell funereal shroud of failure lay, When, hemmed by Sheridan and Grant, forlorn His hope, his hosts with rage and anger torn, Still like a wounded beast when held at bay, He hurled upon the foe with withering scorn His tatter 'd remnants challenged to the fray. Unconscious of his fate he madly fought, Till Destiny his dauntless spirit broke: On bloody fields his prowess had not wrought The triumph of that Cause his genius woke. At length upon his saddened ear there fell The sound of his fond Southland's solemn knell. APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE II Dull o'er the dolorous land the painful thud Of Failure's final volley fell unheard; The smell of smould'ring fields no longer stirred The falt'ring hosts their banners trailed in mud Now eager only for the comfort could Be found in winding arms of love, who gird Their loins for lowlier ambitions' sway, Now free from where the deadly bullet whirred. How futile, frail and false, the passions' moods, That in their maelstrom oft enswirl an age ! Had Wisdom but prevailed, the fiery floods Had ne'er from human veins been shed in rage ; Nor had four seething years of savagery Prevailed to blast the scourge of slavery. 92 RECONSTRUCTION AND REIGN OF TERROR I SCORCHED by the furnaces of blistering war, Her soil denuded of its golden locks, Her breast still quaking with convulsive shocks, Athwart her frame the gash of many a scar, The South, with ghastly stare once more afar, Beholds her barren fields and blood-blotched rocks, And prays for favoring Fortune's rising star O'er blooming meads and shepherd's fleecy flocks. Alas ! The very hand its soothing grace Bestows, brings crueller misfortune than 184 Before ; and what with blatant speech and mace Of bestial force, throughout her ashen span, She lies the victim of marauding hosts, Whose vampire beaks surround her reddened "oasts. 93 RECONSTRUCTION AND REIGN OF TERROR II Though ravished, bleeding and deflowered, she thrusts Her arm to stay the brutal heel her breast Would crush, and at her throat the hand that pressed With throttling fury; while she feeds on crusts Of poverty, amid the ashen gusts That sweep her ruins, she vows to be redressed Of wrongs, and for the curse of martial lusts, Atone with harvests crowning her green crest. In vain ! Despair and desperation seize Her soul, and now with dark and bloody guise, Like murderous avenging deities, Her sons, distraught by her embittered cries, The hell-hounds frighten from her bleeding span, With terrors of a midnight, mystic Klan. 186 94 THE FRUITS OF VICTORY THE South had lost! And yet how dearly bought The victory, a saner judgment might Have won with bloodless battle for the Right, Had turbid passion, sordid interest, wrought Less selfishly, and marplots had not sought For brutish gain in fruits of social blight, Or turned to perverse use, what patriots taught An Age, but feebly crying for the light. Black slavery was crushed by bloody wars, Yet left a heritage of racial woes And virulence, evinced in crimson scars That mark the rise of sorrier social throes, Within whose travail now the Nation rocks, Whilst Penury implores and Profit mocks. 95 PART VI INDUSTRIAL EPOCHS INVENTORS ROBERT FULTON I A YOUTH whose mystic eye did oft traverse 126 Elysian fields of wonder-worlds, where dwell The Lords of Light, that draw with magic spell The souls of them with whom they would con- verse, Beheld, a-dream, a sailless boat immerse Its keel, and o'er the main its course propel, With strange, mysterious power the waves dis- perse, And swifter fly than swiftest caravel! Since then the genius of mankind defies The storied woes and terrors of the deep, Whose bosom heaves with traffic of the world. Scarce since old Hero stole the mysteries Of steam, that lay in Nature's breast asleep, Hath she her secret scroll so far unfurled. 99 ROBERT FULTON II Though Stephenson had erst the land berailed, And soon o'er continents the snorting horse, With rattling thunder of his vapory force, Had laggard Time so valiantly assailed, Men, awed by superstition, wept and quailed ; Yet had not Fulton learned e'en more to nurse The genie (once escaped away had sailed), Not half the fruitage ours from this vast source. The stormy steeds that strode the sea are reined, Their foamy flanks a genius now bestrides; Whence wealth a thousand fold the world hath gained, And man 'twixt continents serenely rides, While nations mingle from the ends of earth, And find in humankind a nobler worth. 100 ELI WHITNEY I WHOSO from mother soil evokes two blades Of grass where sprang but one, 't is said, is twice Beneficent to all mankind; but thrice And thousand times beneficent who grades Efficiency of toil, from lowest shades Of excellence to highest, and checks vice Of sloth, Incompetence too oft parades, That taxes Industry with pompous price. As Watt and Arkwright taught the spinners deft Their produce to increase a thousand fold, By magic mechanism, Whitney cleft The fruitful seed from heart of cotton boiled, 127 And thus, by dint of intellect divine, Transformed a people poor to wealth benign. 101 ELI WHITNEY II How oft Beneficence, alas ! by crime 128 Is fouled, when genius yields, exploited by Rapacious thieves, who prowl 'tween earth and sky, To seize the fruits of toil in every clime ! The greed of Avarice from ancient time Hath trailed the tread of honest Industry, Hath robbed the toiler, coined his sweaty grime, And coffered it with wanton liberty. Thus Genius innocently wrongs mankind, While Buccaneers of Trade by law upheld, The piteous multitude enslave, who, blind, With stolid face, behold their hopes dispelled. Sometime the Law of Freedom shall reveal The Hand of Justice stretched to man's appeal. 102 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE WHAT elfin of the air to man shall hint The secret pulses of the ether-sea, Which (thrust by arms of vulgar metal free), With magic, speed the flight of thought, by dint Of human touch ; till couriers, as swiftly sent As lightning-flash, spread broad the boundary Of Man's advance, and witness the faint glint Of dawns besprent with vaster prophecy? To thee the Elfin spake, O patient Morse, 129 And woke the sleeping magic of thy mind : Thy lot, to seize the unreined steeds, that course Th' aerial void, for uses of mankind. Thou hast together knit the ends of earth, And with enlightenment enswathed its girth. 103 THOMAS A. EDISON I THOU circumambient wizard of all space, 1 * Who steal'st atwixt interstices of air, And filchest from the vibratory race Of atoms, the secret of their rhythmic grace, To hold in waxen mold as prisoner The passing human speech, or movements, fair Or foul, of human deeds, that well replace, In truth's resemblance, life's drama unaware: Or who with wand of fine-spun carbon-thread Dost lure the flashing spark from cloud-swept realm, Its glow distributive around us spread, Till now effulgent stars the earth o'erwhelm, That rival heavenly orbs and e'en the sun, Sprung from thy brain whose art is but begun. 104 THOMAS A. EDISON II Thou unmythed Mercury of modern days, Whose fleet foot fiery flies through throbbing rails, O'er which is traffic whirled by viewless flails Of sparkling force ; or spinn'st in horseless shays, That flash like phantoms 'thwart dust-circled ways; Who yet the air may grip with vig*rous sails, Shall pierce with certain poise the cloudy maze, Howe'er the firmament with fear assails. O may not yet yon distant orbs await The call thy flash shall signal to the skies, When speech 'twixt stars may be a common sate, And thought indite the air through which it flies? ELECTRA goddess of the Wizard's world, Men tremble as thy wonders are unfurled. 105 INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS THE NEW WEST (DEVELOPED SINCE THE CIVIL WAR) SWIFT as the sun leaps from dismantled cloud, Whene'er the shock of storm is o'er, so leapt The Nation from her war-rent robe, all steeped With crimson gore, and, valiantly, with proud Assurance, scoffed at what some thought her shroud. Then 'thwart the continent she ran or crept, m Long rails (her feet), her arms (the wire- thread), Till she afar her golden harvest reaped. O valorous West, robustious, stalwart West, Rejuvenant with mankind's virgin hope, Who sucked thy strength at Freedom's bolst'ring breast, And learned alone with iron Fate to cope: Awake the Nation to her pristine aims, Though East, enervate, cringe to gilded shames ! 1 06 THE AGE OF AGRICULTURE THOUGH from her infinite bounty Nature gave Illimitable response to human toil, Whene'er assiduous labor teased the soil, And from the hearth the gnawing monster drave ; 'T was not till from vast waste men learned to save (And still increase the garnered fruit of toil) By binder, harvester and reaper brave, And giant plow, which cut without recoil The virgin plains the march of man await- That wealth upon our shore to mountain mass Arose, exalting each enfeebled State Into an empire, did itself surpass The Federal Commonwealth at primal birth, Whose presence thrills to-day the globe's wide girth. 107 THE AGE OF MANUFACTURE I WHENCE shall a Nation's towering prowess spring, From Ceres' lap or Vulcan's blazing forge ? Who yields to her, to him must needs disgorge What substance mart or factory shall bring, In fabric fashion'd well for offering Of human need ; thus only as they merge Their mutual powers and together cling, Will Progress mark the world's impelling urge. Industrial genius hath well learned this law That destined growth; hence clang of smithy welled With hum of loom, converting earth's crude, raw Materials, that ages long had held Emboweled, to rarer values than the world E'er saw from flying wheel and furnace hurled. 1 08 THE AGE OF MANUFACTURE II The godlike genius of the human brain Earth's hidden secrets challenged to come forth, When as by magic leap twixt South and North, The sunken deities from their domain: From East to West poured forth an endless rain Of rarest metals 'larged to nobler worth, By deft of human touch and hardship's strain, Where Vulcan's sooty imps disport their birth. The pipes that puff their grimy rings on high, And rival Pan with strident melody, Hail not Parnassus or .ZEgean sky, But sing the Age's praise of Industry. Where rings the anvil's song, the forge's hiss, Has Fancy fled and Worship gone amiss? 109 CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY I INDUSTRIAL giants, whose keen scent was guide To fortune favoring circumstances wrought, And glorified false Art of Trade (oft fraught With frantic conflict, where e'en Suicide And Death disported their grim fate, as Pride, Despoiled, sank desp'rate or fiercely fought For power, that Emp'rors would scarce deride, And won by cunning or by blood-spilled shot) ; Who carved their selfish way with ruthless wit, And swore allegiance to the God of Gain Though proud their prowess and enthroned they sit, How oft their sullen souls hath Avarice slain ! In sooth, the sordid price they paid for wealth Long since hath fouled the springs of moral health. no CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY II And yet, though vitiate the veins that throb In traffic's sordid frame, without the vast Acumen and envisioning scope to cast Into organic shape that which the mob May fashion, yet needs must suffer them to rob Whose genius musters wealth (which once amassed Constructs imperial glories) ; how dull and drab, Indeed, the hues on Life's grim canvas cast! The sensitive antennae of their minds, Felt to the far-most distances of space, Whate'er, accumulate, more favor finds, With whate'er god prevails in Life's rash race. They shape, despite the mad mob's murmuring mood, The path that leads to human brotherhood. in THE NEW SOUTH (AFTER 1865) THOUGH shorn thy beauty and thy heart dis- traught, When shatt'ring cannon ceased to tear thy breast, Had not stern Discipline thy soul caressed, Or thy redoubted spirit Courage taught, To call, from fell Deucalion stones, men fraught v - With newer life and loftier hope ; distressed Thy soured spirit had all vainly wrought, And vain thy heraldry of ancient crest ! But thou, oblivious of wrongs and woes, Thine eyes o'er widening horizons cast (As bleeding gladiator oft uprose Again to challenge Fate despite its blast), Like Ajax, braved thy breast against the sky, And snatched fair Fortune from false Destiny. 112 PART VII THE AGE OF WORLD CONQUEST SPAIN AND COLUMBIA I CUBA LIBRE THY wail, fair Cuba, from your yucca plains m (When, ravish'd by demoniac lust, thy form Lay bleeding, bound and trampled like a worm, While brutes still riveted thy festering chains), Awoke Columbia with dread refrains; Till passion, swelling, burst in furious storm, And hot o'er Weyler's realms the fiery rains Hurled hail of bullets to save thy haggard form. But wilt thou, Daughter of Antilles, be Fair as the blossoms on thy succored breast; Or, thankless to the hand that made thee free, Prefer to be in Midas' arms caressed? Beware the soil of predatory touch, Would seize thy soul with mercenary clutch! SPAIN AND COLUMBIA II SPAIN'S DEFEAT (1898) Low-lying deep within the dust and bowed, 133 Her hair disheveled, smeared with clotted blood, Whiles wringing wild her wrinkled hands; with eyes Transfixed on Fate's last curse ; o'erwhelmed and cowed, Like smitten ox in shambles there she lies, O'erwreck'd with shame; yet foolishly defies Fate's grim decree and wrack of war's red flood, Though writhing frantic in her blood-wet shroud. Castilian, scorned Death is now thy peer; Thy jewels are of dust; thy sceptre vain As moistless clouds o'er famine fields. A tear Of manly sympathy, O heatless Spain, Falls from Columbia's eyes upon the sod, As at thy grave, uncovered, she bows to God. 116 SPAIN AND COLUMBIA III FRUITS OF SPANISH CONQUEST The shot that Dewey at Manila fired, Howbeit ere since our guns affright the world, At Spanish ships for Freedom was not hurled; But that aggressive power might be acquired, To mar the dreams a glad world once inspired, That Liberty had her far flag unfurled, For all whoe'er her overtures desired, Till earth's last despot from his throne were hurled. Alas, when that same flag was used to bind With prison-withes brave Aguinaldo's frame, 134 Who fought, like Winkleried, alone and blind To fate, to burnish Freedom's tarnished name: Then was our 'scutcheon fouled with hideous blot, For Patriots failed, defeated by our shot! 117 SPAIN AND COLUMBIA IV THE DIMMED IDEAL No more a beacon light upon the hills, To warn encroaching suttlers on our camp, Our arms to death the foes of Freedom stamp; No more thy name the lowliest workman thrills, Oppressed by wrong in mart or toiling mills ; For fair Columbia, once the radiant lamp To light the world, e'en Freedom's heart now stills, Nor heeds the slaves who toil in dark and damp. Now proud with consciousness of mighty power, Thy hellish Sea-dogs plunging o'er the waves, Whose fiery tongues and flaming eye-balls glower On all who dare oppose what Avarice craves; Beware, if thou thy glorious mission cease, Avenging Fate may crush thy prosp'rous peace. 118 VERDICT AND OUTLOOK OF OUR HISTORY I A HUNDRED years and more, America, Thy pledge prevailed a challenge to the world ; Thy radiant flag, for Human Rights unfurled, Assured protection and fair honor's play To humblest citizen where'er he stray ; Nor e'er hath envious rival at thee hurled Invidious taunt, but thou with conqueror's sway Hast nobly passed and insult's banner furl'd. Once Freedom's cynosure 'mid nations wide, Whose fame inspired the sweat-soiled sons of earth : Tell me, hast thou serenely swept the tide, And topped the waves toward yon same star, thy birth Proclaimed would guide mankind to liberty: Or hast thou lost th* path where sail the free? 119 VERDICT AND OUTLOOK OF OUR HISTORY II O fond and fair Columbia, how love We all thy hallowed hills and echoing streams, And pray that thou'lt fulfil thy noblest dreams! But yet we fear, the hand within thy glove Is not to-day as 't was when heroes strove To scatter night with Freedom's morning beams, And spilt their blood that Justice from above Might fall on lowliest thy succor claims. The insidious coils of infamy thy frame Encircle hate of class; the power of wealth; Enslavement of the poor; the sordid game In every age hath staked a nation's health For gain of pampered few, these are the signs, O Land we love, that threaten thy confines. 120 VERDICT AND OUTLOOK OF OUR HISTORY III Since Egypt's slaves rebelled, and Roman arms Enervate lapsed emasculate with greed; Since Alva robbed the thrifty Dutch, who freed Themselves with stubborn grit; since Swabian farms Ran red with peasants' blood, and Russian swarms From massacres fled bleeding ; since British steed Was lashed to start Colonial alarms; Self-same has been the despot's gruesome meed. Nor shall thy brow, Columbia, unstained, With glory be regaled in coming days, Lest from thy breast thou thrust and hold dis- dained, The false embrace and perverse, winning ways Of predatory princes who, distraught, Conceive their cunning hath thy prowess wrought. 121 VERDICT AND OUTLOOK OF OUR HISTORY IV No nation thrives where Traffic's slaves are doomed, Be they of Slav or Hun or Afric blood, Or made by Conqu'rors sword or Judge's hood, E'en in a land where Freedom was enwombed : The cheated toiler, scorn'd by scion plumed With power absurd ; the vagrant void of food ; The court's disdain; free press and speech en- tombed ; Wan children flung (to feed the Age's mood), 'Neath Jaganath-enginery of grasping wealth ; These are the signs insidious decay Disports, with mawkish boast of stalwart health ! Beware, Columbia! Since ancient day, The blood of victims seeks its just revenge, When for subsistence men must beg and cringe. 122 AMERICA THE HOPE OF THE WORLD NOT yet thy Star, O promised Hope of Earth, Hath set behind the gath'ring clouds of shame, Nor irremedial blight befouled thy name, Despite Want's wail and Penury's wid'ning girth, Or Plutocrat's disdain of lowly birth ; Though clouds beset thy brow, thy heart's the same, As with its pristine joy at Freedom's birth, Exultantly it praised her dawning fame. Up ! up ! America, and crush the snake That thrusts its .deathful fangs at thy brave breast! 135 With one fell blow thou canst its foul coils break, And free thy frame from its envenomed crest. Thou wilt not fail, Defender of the Right; Thy shield is Truth and Justice is thy might ! 123 PART VIII HISTORICAL NOTES HISTORICAL NOTES 1. As to the Discovery of North America by the Norsemen. About the year 860 Noddodr, an illustrious rover, driven by a storm discovered Iceland and named it Snowland. Not many years after Earl Ingolf of Norway sought Ice- land as a refuge from tyranny, and planted a colony there. Greenland was discovered by ac- cident. One of the early settlers of Iceland was driven westward on the sea by a storm and dis- covered Greenland. To that retreat Eric the Red was compelled to fly from Iceland, and find- ing it more fertile than the latter, named it Greenland, made it his place of abode and at- tracted other Northmen thither. Among Eric's followers was a Norwegian, named Biarnje who traded between Norway and Iceland, and as his father had gone with Eric he proposed to his crew that they follow his parent. Biarnje did not wait to unload the cargo, but put straight to sea, on what he termed a foolish voyage, as he had never seen Greenland. He wandered many nights and days, seeing strange lands, which he refused to explore because they did not have the ice-hills of Greenland, which he had often heard his father describe; but at last they landed on 127 THE STORY OF AMERICA what is now believed to have been the American continent. The rumor of this fact reaching the sons of Eric in Iceland, one of them, Leif, set out to find the same country, and finally reached, as is believed by historians, the coast of Cape Cod, as well as the island of Nantucket. In Scribner's "History of the United States" we find a pleasing description of this exploration. "Leif divided his company into two parties, which were alternately to explore the country. On one of these expeditions a man named Tyrker, a German who was Leif's foster father, was miss- ing. A party had just started in search of him, with Leif at its head, when the German reap- peared in a state of great excitement. He ges- ticulated wildly, spoke for a long time in his native tongue, and Leif saw 'that his foster-father was not in his right senses.' But Leif was mis- taken ; the poor German, who had lived long in the ice fields of the frozen North, had only been carried back for the moment to the Vaterland, for he said at length in Norsk, 'I have not been much farther off, but still I have something new to tell ; I found vines and grapes !' 'But is that true, my foster-father?' quoth Leif. 'Surely it is true,' replied he, 'for I was bred up in a land where there is no want of either grapes or vines.' "Then, no doubt, he led them to the woods, that they might see with their own eyes the climb- ing vines and clustering fruit. ... So 128 HISTORICAL NOTES precious were they to Leif that thenceforth one duty of his men was to gather grapes, and he filled his log boat with them to take back te Green- land. What better evidence of the value of the land could he bring to the people whose greatest delight next to fighting was drinking? . . . So heaping up on deck the grapes of this beau- tiful land, where in winter was no frost, and which he named Vinland (Vineland), and filling the hold of his vessel with timber, about which at least there could be no questionable value in treeless Greenland, Leif returned home in the Spring." Another son of Eric the Red, Thorvald, ex- plored the region about Cape Cod and Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, where a colony was estab- lished which for years conducted posts of trade throughout that vicinage. For an elaborate account of the further ex- peditions of the Northmen in America see Scrib- E Q r's "History," which gives the following ex- planation of the sources of information, so long concealed from the world, on which we now de- pend for the historical proof of the Norse ex- plorations. "The fullest and most important of these rela- tions exist in manuscript, in a collection known as the 'Codex Flatoiensis,' written between the years 1387 and 1395. These now preserved in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, were found 129 THE STORY OF AMERICA in a monastery on the Island of Flato on the west coast of Ireland where they had lain for- gotten and unnoticed for centuries. There is no serious question now of the authenticity of these sagas. . . . The main facts related in them are unquestionably true; the incongruities, dis- crepancies and even absurdities which can be pointed out are such as would inevitably occur in verbal repetitions for nearly three centuries of the circumstantial details of distant voyages and adventures ; and such errors, moreover, are incontestable evidence that the narratives were not constructed for a purpose long after the date of the pretended event, but are veritable relations of actual occurrences told by those who took part in them, and unconsciously changed by those who repeated them from time to time on points which seemed to them of little importance or interest. Not less conclusive is the simplicity, sometimes childishness, of the narratives, the preservation of unimportant particulars, remarkable only for their singularity, so characteristic of all unculti- vated people, who, like children, delight in mar- vels and are captured by novelty" (p. 63). 2. "Saga meant simply any kind of literature in narrative form ; the good people of Iceland did not happen to have such a handy word as 'his- tory.' . . . The narrative on which our ac- count of the Vinland voyages is chiefly based be- 130 HISTORICAL NOTES longs to this class of historical sagas. It is the Saga of Red Eric. . . . The northern ver- sion is that made by priest Jon Thordharson. Jon's version thus made has generally been printed under the title of 'saga of Red Eric.' ' (John Fiske's "Discovery of America.") "The territorial limits of the [Spanish] mon- archy went on expanding beyond example: Cas- tile and Leon brought under the same sceptre with Aragon and its foreign dependencies, Sicily and Sardinia, with the kingdoms of Granada, Navarre and Naples, with the Canaries, Oran and the other settlements in Africa, and with the islands and vast continent of America. To these broad domains the comprehensive schemes of the sovereigns would have added Portugal; and their arrangements for this, although defeated for the present, opened the way to its eventual completion under Philip II. (Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella." 3. As to the antiquity of man in America. There are several geological discoveries that point to great antiquity on this continent. Among the most important and convincing may first be men- tioned the discovery about seventy-five years ago of a human pelvis in association with bones of the mastodon, the megalonyx, and other extinct animals near Natches, Mississippi. Sir Qiarles Lyell in 1846 made a very careful study of the lo- cality of this discovery during his visit to the American continent, and being much biased against the theory of man's immense antiquity, he conceived a theory of the pelvis having been washed down a mountain side and buried with the animal bones. But he afterwards admitted that "had the pelvic bone belonged to any other mam- mifer than man, such a theory would never have been resorted to." In New Orleans in 1852 while excavating for gas works, there was found a human skeleton at a depth of sixteen feet, buried under four suc- cessive subsoils of cypress forests. It is con- tended by some geologists that the skeleton must have been there for at least 50,000 years. Dr. Koch of St. Louis made some sensational discoveries in 1839. He seemed to have found sufficient evidence of the attack upon a mammoth or mastodon by human hunters, so that it is be- lieved the actual scene he fell upon was the dra- matic situation of one of those tremendous ani- mals, now extinct, having gotten caught in a swamp, in which perhaps one-half of his im- mense bulk was sunk so that he could not make his escape. He was discovered by a horde of hunters who fell upon him and buried him under a rain of arrows that finally effected his death. This picturesque event must have taken place, it is computed, over a hundred thousand years ago. 132 HISTORICAL NOTES In 1857 the fragment of a human skull was taken from the gold drift of California one hun- dred and eighty feet below the surface of the Table Mountain, together with the fossil bones of extinct animals. Again in 1868 or 1869 in Calaveras county in a shaft one hundred and fifty feet deep, through five beds of lava and vol- canic tufa and four beds of gold bearing quartz, a human cranium was found. The men whom this skull represented lived before the race of man appeared on the European continent, it is believed, and before the peaks of the Sierra Ne- vada Mountains of California appeared above the waters of the ocean. "Though the number of alleged facts bearing upon the antiquity of the human family on this continent are still few and need unquestioned con- firmation, the inclination of scientific belief is that the evidence exists and will still be found. However strong may be the probability of the Asiatic origin of the North American Indian, be- hind him appears another race which must have been displaced by the Mongolian migration." The evidence of this still more ancient and even semi-civilized people is found in the curious and suggestive mound-homes and fortresses found throughout the northern part of the North American continent. "Mound builders is the name given to an un- known people who inhabited the central portion 133 THE STORY OF AMERICA of North America at an unknown period in its history. They have left traces of skill in agri- culture and in the arts, and evidences of having attained to a considerable degree of civilization. All over the continent between the great range of hills extending from the northern part of Ver- mont to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Moun- tains, traces of this mysterous people are found in the remains of earthy risings, implying mili- tary works, places of sepulture, altars of sacri- fice, and even assuming the shape of animals, such as buffalo, eagle, turtle, serpent, lizard, alligator, etc. It is estimated that more than ten thousand mounds and more than two thousand earth en- closures are in the state of Ohio alone." "These witnesses to the occupation of the land by a numerous and busy population long ago can only be considered as the ruins which mark the site of that ancient habitation. The solid earth has withstood the inroads of time; whatever was perishable and once bore the impress of such degree of culture as the people ' may have ac- quired, has perished. In the mounds, however, we gain some further insight into their char- acter, though they are themselves as remarkable and almost as inexplicable as the extensive sys- tems of circumvallations, embankments and ex- cavations, of which they make a part. These mounds are of all dimensions, from that of the Cahokia, Illinois, one of the group of sixty which 134 HISTORICAL NOTES covered six acres of ground, and that of Seltzer- town, Mississippi, of about equal extent, and others of like imposing dimensions, to those of the region extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Valley of the Arkansas and westward into Texas, which are described as 'from one foot to five feet high, with a diameter from thirty feet to one hundred and forty feet,' and as 'num- bered by millions' and innumerable smaller mounds found in Missouri. If these are the foundations of human dwellings, the country must have been one vast town; and if it is dif- ficult to believe this, it is no less difficult to con- ceive of their being raised in such immense num- bers and in such close proximity, for any other purpose." (Scribner's "History of the United States," pp. 25, 26.) 4. "First born among the continents. Though so iruch later in culture and civilization than some of more recent birth, America, so far as her physical history is concerned, has been fairly de- nominated the NEW WORLD. Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters, hers the first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all the earth beside ; and while Europe was repre- sented by islands rising here and there above the sea, America already stretched an unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the Far West." ("Geological Sketches" by L. Agassiz, p. 1.) 135 THE STORY OF AMERICA 5. The vast growth and increase of Spanish dis- covery and conquest are indicated in the follow- ing quotations from Cressy's "Decisive Battles of the World." "Philip II was absolute master of an empire so superior to the other states of the world in extent, in resources, and especially in military and naval forces, as to make the project of en- larging that empire into a universal monarchy seem a perfectly feasible scheme. . . . Since the downfall of the Roman empire no such pre- ponderant power had existed in the world. . . . Besides the Spanish crown Philip had succeeded to the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the duchy of Milan, Franche-Comte and the Netherlands. In Africa he possessed Tunis, Oran, the Cape Verde and the Canary Islands ; and in Asia the Philippine and Sunda Islands and part of the Moluccas. Beyond the Atlantic he was lord of the most splendid portions of the New World. . . . The empires of Peru and Mexico, New Spain and Chile, . . . His- paniola and Cuba, and many other of the Ameri- can islands were provinces of the sovereign of Spain." 6. A wise and vigorous, though a severe admin- istration characterised the beginning of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabelle. . . . But amid these laudable cares the abominable tribunal of 136 HISTORICAL NOTES the Inquisition was furnished with such an extent of powers, that, under the pretense of extirpat- ing heresy and impiety, the whole kingdom be- came a scene of blood and horror. The fortunes of the lives of individuals were entirely at the mercy of the grand inquisitor and his subordi- nates. It was never allowed to a criminal to be confronted with his accuser, nor even to be in- formed of his crime ; the sole method of trial was by exposing the unhappy wretch to the most extreme torture, which either ended his life in agony, or forced a confession of his guilt, which was expiated by committing him to the flames.'* (Tytler's "Universal History.") "The data for an actual computation of the number of victims sacrificed to the Inquisition are not very satisfactory. From such as exists, how- ever, Lorente has been led to the most frightful results. He computes that during the eighteen years of Torquemada's ministry, there were no less than 10,220 burnt, 6860 condemned and burnt in effigy as absent or dead, and 97,321 reconciled by various other penances ; affording an average of more than six thousand convicted per- sons annually. In this enormous sum of human misery is not included the multitude of orphans, who from the confiscation of their paternal in- heritance were turned over to indigence and vice." (Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella.") "The conduct of the Spaniards towards the 137 THE STORY OF AMERICA inhabitants of the newly discovered countries and the cruelties exercised by them under the first governors, furnish a subject which, it were to be wished for the honor of humanity, could be for- ever veiled in oblivion. Religion and policy were the pretext for the most outrageous inhumanity. The favorite instruments employed in these pious purposes were the rack and the scourge. While some to escape their misery put an end to their own lives, others, flying from their inhuman persecutors into the woods, were hunted down like dogs and torn to pieces like wild beasts. In a little time Hispaniola, which consisted of three millions of inhabitants, and Cuba, that had above six hundred thousand, were absolutely de- populated. Bartholomeo de las Casas, who was witness himself to these barbarities, an unsuccess- ful advocate in the cause of humanity, had drawn these enormities in such colors as to form a pic- ture of horror almost exceeding credibility." (Tytler's "Universal History.") 7. Columbus was not reared to the life of a sol- dier. His father was a humble carder of wool. But some of Columbus' kindred were given to seafaring, and from the age of fourteen his home was that of a boat. Those with whom he spent his youthful years followed a life not much dif- fering from that of pirates. "It was with such sea rovers that the great 138 HISTORICAL NOTES captain learned the practice of navigation, learned how to carry himself in fight with sword in hand when he sprang over the bulwarks of a hostile vessel, learned how to control the rough and lawless men with whom he sailed ; now by the enforcement of an iron discipline, now by those arts of persuasion of which, with his winning speech and commanding presence, he was master." After a tragic incident at sea he arrived at Lisbon before he was thirty years of age, where he married, abandoned his roving life, and set himself to the task of manufacturing charts and maps. It was while engaged upon these studies that he became convinced of the possibility of a transit over western waters to Asia and the Orient. 8. Once persuaded that his theory of a western passage was right, "with patience that nothing cor Id wear out, and a perseverance that was ab- solutely unconquerable, Columbus waited and la- bored for eighteen years, appealing to eyes that wanted light and to ears that wanted hearing." He left Lisbon in 1483 and tried first at the Court of Genoa, his native city, where he failed. He tried the Court of Spain, but after much dis- appointment by evasive answers and unendura- ble delay, he went to England and France. But by good fortune Luis de Santagel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, having heard 139 THE STORY OF AMERICA that Columbus had actually arranged to leave his country to apply at foreign courts, he with Alonzo de Quintanilla, the Minister of Finance, prevailed upon Isabella to heed his claims. "They convinced her that the loss and shame to Spain would be great and irreparable if such an opportunity to add to her dominion of wealth by the discovery of a short passage to India should fall into the hands of any other power. A messenger was immediately despatched to bring Columbus back, the queen declaring that the enterprise should now be her own, and that she would pawn the royal jewels to defray its expenses. The generous sacrifice, however, on her part, was rendered unnecessary by Santagel who took it upon himself to advance the requisite sum." 9. The great passion of that age was to come in closer touch with India and the Orient, that its vast wealth, its immeasurable quantities of gold, might be tapped for the benefit of the then known Occident. Marco Polo, the great adventurer, had brought back from the East rapturously fascinating legends concerning its wonders of wealth and commercial prosperity. To reach that country in the shortest way was the supreme commercial ambition of that epoch. "India always India. It was well to win souls to God; it was well to dispel the clouds of 140 HISTORICAL NOTES ignorance, whether Christian or heathen; it was well to augment the glory of states and dynasties, and add to the sum of happiness, by the discov- ery of strange countries. But commerce with the gorgeous East, so teeming with all precious things, would enrich kingdoms and make states and princes powerful. . . . Great would be not the glory only, but the profit also, of that man or that people who would shorten that way in distance, remove its difficulties and perils, and pour the precious commodities of Asia in unstinted abundance into the lap of Europe." Columbus, like all the navigators of his age, was inspired by the same overpowering ambition to find this passage to the East, but he thought out a fresh way, had an original theory of his own. "From his geographical and astronomical studies he had come to the conclusion that the earth was in shape a sphere, but that it was much smaller than it had been generally supposed to be. Two-thirds of it at least, he was sure, was occupied by Europe and Asia, and the east- ern coast of Asia must, in that case, come within the other third of the whole circumference and stretch toward the western coast of Europe." He was despised by his rivals as an enthusiast, a heretic, a dreamer, and came near being con- demned by ecclesiastical courts for his pains. 141 THE STORY OF AMERICA 10. "The reaction in feeling and opinion made it possible to send him home in chains from the third expedition. The popular indifference to the injustice and cruelty which pursued him to the end of his days, and the bitter hostility of his many enemies, are explicable only by the dis- appointment of those magnificent hopes excited by his first discovery, and which he still held out in spite of the stern facts which had opened the eyes of everyone else. Small deference was paid to the authority of one who was looked upon, at best, as a half-crazed enthusiast, and the haughty Spaniards resented it as an insult that any power should still rest in the hands, or any confidence be placed in the words, of one whom they thought rather deserving of punishment as an impostor than of reward as a benefactor. He had promised dominion, power, riches, a short pas- sage to Cathay, the conquest of the East; a savage island or two in the Western sea was as yet the only fulfilment of that promise. What else it was to be he never knew. Not till he was dead did the world begin to understand that he had found the New World." 11. "The glory of the discovery that Columbus actually made has to a remarkable degree ob- scured the fact that in the long discussion before kings and councils of the discovery he proposed to make, it was Columbus who was in the wrong 142 HISTORICAL NOTES and his opponents who were in the right on the main question a short western route to India. The ignorance, the obstinacy, the stupidity with which he so long contended were indeed obstacles in the way of an event so important to all civi- lized races as possession of half the globe; but that event was no more proposed or foreseen by Columbus than it was opposed by those who with- stood him the most persistently or ridiculed him the most unmercifully. . . . Ten years of observation and reflection on the character of his discoveries moved him not in the least to any correction of this singular credulity. Even on his fourth and last voyage he wrote to the king and queen on the coast of Veragua that he had reached Mangi, 'contiguous to Cathay' 3 nine- teen days of travel by land, he was confident, would take him to the river Ganges. The mines of Aurea, whence, according to Josephus, he re- minas them, came the vast wealth of David and Solomon spoken of in Chronicles and the Book of Kings, were, he was now sure, identical with the mines of Veragua," etc., etc. 12. "Though Columbus himself never knew, or never acknowledged that he had made a mistake ; though never by a single word, so far as there is any record, did he anticipate the true cause of his undying fame, others saw when he returned from his voyage only the dispelling of a gorgeous 143 THE STORY OF AMERICA vision. The hidalgos who had thronged about him for that expedition, clamoring to be led to the possession of the East, found, not an empire filled with magnificent cities, their ports crowded with ships by thousands busy with the commerce of a third of the world ; not temples roofed with gold, resting on golden pillars cunningly wrought and colored; not a people clothed in silks and costly furs decked with precious stones, leading lives of magnificent luxury and ease in cities of palaces such as Europe never knew; but only an unreclaimed wilderness peopled by naked savages, where he who would not work must starve and where what gold they heard of was to be dug with weary toil out of the bowels of the earth. Such of these disappointed men as lived to return filled the kingdom with their clamors. If the sons of Columbus, who were pages of the king, passed that way, they would ex- claim : 'Look at the sons of Musquitoland, of that man who had discovered the lands of deceit and disappointment, a place of sepulchre and wretch- edness to Spanish hidalgos.' " (Scribner's "His- tory of the United States.") 13. "When the path of the new Indies was fairly opened, in the last decade of the fifteenth century, fresh voyages followed in rapid succession, and not navigators only, but sovereigns, vied with each other to share with Spain the glory and 144 HISTORICAL NOTES riches of the new discoveries. Henry VII of England, when he gave a patent to the Cabots, no doubt reflected that Columbus might have been an English, rather than a Spanish admiral. The king of Portugal did not attempt to con- ceal his chagrin that the dominion and power which had fallen, or inevitably would fall, into the hands of Spain, he had rejected. But though Spain could not be interfered with in the South, it was still possible to find a still undiscovered way to India by northern passage; there might still be unknown islands, or even continents, full of gold and heathen men, in northern seas. To the genius of Columbus this homage was paid by all his contemporaries whither he led, there they followed. As Ojedda and Ves- pucci, after his discovery of the Southern Con- tinent on his third voyage, went to Paria and explored the coast north and south of that gulf, so Solis and Pinzon, moved by his example, sailed into the Caribbean sea and along its shore where Columbus on his fourth voyage had led the way. Within four or five years of his death, in 1506, the whole coast from Carthagena to Yucatan had been visited by many adventurers, di- viding the country among them, fighting with each other as occasion offered, slaughter- ing, mutilating or enslaving the Indians as best served their purpose in gathering their gold." 145 THE STORY OF AMERICA 14. "Before the death of Columbus Spain had taken firm possession of Cuba, Porto Rico and San Domingo, and she stood ready to seize any of the adjoining lands or islands so soon as gold, pearls or aught else of value should be found. Cruises of discovery were made in every direc- tion, first, indeed, in Central and South America. In 1506 de Solis sailed along the eastern coast of Yucatan. In 1513 Vasca Nunes de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean from the Isthmus of Panama. In 1513 Ponce de Leon discovered the peninsula of Florida. In 1518 Valesques, governor of Cuba, sent Cortez westward with eleven ships and over six hundred men to make explorations. Landing at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he was ordered to leave, but instead destroyed his ships, gave battle to Montezuma, the reigning king, seized and held him as a hostage for the peaceable conduct of his subjects. Montezuma became a vassal to the Spanish crown and stipu- lated to pay an annual tribute. He appealed to his people to be reconciled to such an agree- ment, but they in revolt slew him. Cortez, re- inforced, then began the overthrow of the na- tives, conquered the country, and Mexico became a province of Spain. In 1519 Magellan sought to rival Columbus in finding the western passage to the Orient, touched the Canaries, explored the coast of South America, passed through the straits named after him, discovered the Philippine 146 HISTORICAL NOTES Islands (named after Philip I), and though him- self slain by natives, one of his ships returned to Spain, the first in history to make the circum- navigation of the globe. In 154S de Soto dis- covered the Mississippi river. These were among the most important of the early Spanish dis- coveries. "While the course of Spanish adventure was thus in the earlier years of the sixteenth century directed towards central America, leading in due season to such events as the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, the conquest of Peru and Mexico and the exploration of the western coast of the present United States, it was not forgotten that there might be other regions further north on the Atlantic coast worth possessing. Juan Ponce de Leon was commissioned to set forth on these ventures. He did not go very far north, dis- covered the Mississippi river at about the boun- dary line between Mississippi and Tennessee, and after many sufferings and misfortunes was slain and buried in the river he discovered. Further attempts were made at exploring and conquering this northern country, but as a rule they failed, notably one made by Don Tristam de Luna just twenty years after de Soto set forth. This proved to be disastrous. "Tristam de Luna at first refused to abandon his enterprise, and insisted on being left behind with a few followers, but he was recalled by the 147 THE STORY OF AMERICA Viceroy and at last returned to Mexico in 1561, about two years from the time of his setting out. Thus ended the most carefully prepared and most promising attempt ever made by the Span- iards to colonize Florida. Fortunately for the progress of the human race and the future his- tory of North America, all their efforts to gain a foothold north of the gulf of Mexico were in the main unsuccessful." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 15. He was born in England in 1539, was a dis- tinguished navigator, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, and reached Newfoundland which he put beneath the arms of Great Britain and took pos- session of in the name of the Queen, Elizabeth then reigning. But Sir Humphrey originally set out with the view of finding a shorter pas- sage to the East Indies, the same as Columbus, for the delusion had not yet ceased to possess the age; nor did any of them know but that in the discoveries thus far made they had but found the western portion of "Cathay." Off Cape Breton he encountered a great storm, in which he and the entire crew perished. Sir Walter Raleigh, born in 1552, who had ac- companied Gilbert on his expeditions, afterwards secured from Queen Elizabeth the grant given to him, which soon expired. He hurriedly secured another grant from the Queen, and sailing by 148 HISTORICAL NOTES way of the Canaries and West Indies, thus still following in the tracks of Columbus, it was "sixty-six days before the smell of the land, so sweet and strong a smell," warned them of their near approach to the Western continent. The first footprints of English blood on the shores of the New World were made, on the low sandy beach of Chickonocomack, still often called by the people of the neighborhood Hatteras, Cape Hatteras, or Hatteras Bank. ... In the name of a virgin queen Raleigh was permitted to call the new country Virginia ; as a reward for his part in its discovery the honor of knighthood was bestowed upon him. 16. As an illustration of the stalwart character and exalted quality of the men who went with Raleigh and afterwards with Granville in the same colony, mark the characteristics of Hariot, the friend and literary co-laborer of Raleigh. "Hariot was Raleigh's friend to the end of his career; aided him in that 'History of the World' which he wrote in the Tower; of him it is ques- tioned whether he or Descartes invented the sys- tem of algebraic notation, whether he or Galileo was the first observer of spots upon the sun and of the satellites of Jupiter the testimony in Hariot's favor being not trivial. Sir Richard Granville, who later presided over the Colony, off the Azores, fought fifteen great Spanish galleons 149 THE STORY OF AMERICA fifteen hours, and when at last mortally wounded, said with his last breath in the heat and smoke of battle, 'Here die I, Richard Granville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for country, queen, religion and honor.' ... It was men of this stamp who entered into the projects of Raleigh to plant English people, with English law and English civilization, in the New World." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 17. "The many and varied measures taken by Philip to enforce obedience in the Netherlands are well known. . . . We see that Alva was cruel from principle. He ruled the provinces by arrests and executions ; he razed the houses of the condemned to the ground, and confiscated their property. . . . The ancient power of the estates was reduced to a mere name. Span- ish troops occupied the country and a citadel was erected in the most important mercantile city. The duke insisted with obstinate despotism on the exaction of the most odious taxes, and in Spain . . . people asked what he could do with all the money." (Ranke's "History of the Popes.") 18. "Alva had believed his work at an end, but the struggle was in fact only beginning HISTORICAL NOTES The men of Leyden declared that rather than yield they would devour their left arms to enable themselves to continue the defence with their right. They took the bold resolution of break- ing down their dams and falling on the waves of the North Sea to expel the besiegers. ... It was the heroic age of Protestantism in Western Europe. ... In the Netherlands the power of the [Spanish] government had fallen to ruin in 1576." (Idem.) 19. "What was already the wealthiest and strongest of the regions subject to Spain, be- came through it one of the first of the self-sus- tained nations of Europe. Bound together by the Union of Utrecht in 1579, and declaring their independence in the memorable declaration issued at The Hague on the twenty-sixth of July, 1581, the seven provinces determined to throw off all foreign rule, established the Republic of the United Netherlands, and carried on the conflict against Spain not as a rebellion, but as an inde- pendent power. ... It had defeated Spain literally by virtue of its wonderful commercial prosperity. . . . While its commerce in Europe was of very great importance, the real golden prize, which the new nation in its long conflict had almost completely taken away from Spain, was the India trade. . . . They had not been idle in the matter, and their first efforts, THE STORY OF AMERICA like all others, had been confidently directed to the Arctic Seas. . . . The old pathways to In- dia were all their own; they had thus far found the way effectually barred to the northwest. But the old delusion was still powerful: it was only India upon which all minds were fixed ; and we shall see how it was only the action of one navigator that turned Dutch enterprise to- ward the West at all." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") %0. "Hoping to open a passage to India, Hudson, an English navigator, offered in 1609 to sail under the authority of the Dutch East India Company. Driven back by ice and fog from the northeast course, he turned northwest. Searching up and down near the parallel forty, he entered the mouth of the great river which bears his name. He found the coun- try inviting to the eye, and occupied by natives of friendly disposition. The subsequent career of this bold mariner has a mournful interest. He never returned to Holland, but touching at Dart- mouth, was retained by the English authorities and forbidden longer to employ his skill and ex- perience for the benefit of the Dutch. Again entering the English service and sent once more to discover the northwest passage, he sailed into waters of the bay which bears his name, where cold and hunger transformed the silent discontent 152 HISTORICAL NOTES of his crew into open mutiny and they left the fearless navigator to perish amid the icebergs of the frozen north." (Andrews' "History of the United States.") 21. The pilgrims were about one hundred and fifty in number, including women and children. Their object was to plant a colony on the shores of the Hudson, but after having been driven about for some time in the Atlantic Ocean, they were forced to land on that arid coast of New Eng- land which is now the site of the town of Plymouth. The rock is still shown on which the pilgrims dis- embarked. " 'But before we pass on,' continues our his- torian, 'let the reader with me make a pause and seriously consider this poor people's present con- dition, the more to be raised up to admiration of God's goodness towards them in their preserva- tion: for being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectation, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns to repair unto to seek for succor: and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to such unknown coasts. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, 153 THE STORY OF AMERICA full of wilde beasts, and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for whichsoever way they turned their eyes, save upward to Heaven, they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward ob- ject; for summer being ended, all things stand with a weather-beaten face, and the whole coun- try full of woods and thickets, represented a wilde and savage hew ; if they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed; and was now as a man in bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.' " (De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America.") 22. "Long before Lord Baltimore's settlement in Maryland, only a few years, indeed, after the settlement of Smith in Virginia, the Church of Brownists or Independent refugees, whom we saw driven in the reign of James to Amsterdam, had resolved to quit Holland and find a home in the wilds of the New World. . . . Returning from Holland to Southampton, they started in two small vessels for the new land: but one of these soon put back and only its companion, the Mayflower, a bark of a hundred and eighty tons, with forty-eight emigrants and their families on board, persisted in prosecuting the voyage. The little band of 'Pilgrim Fathers,' as after times loved to call them, landed on the barren coast of Massachusetts at a spot to which they gave 154 HISTORICAL NOTES the name of Plymouth, in memory of the last English port at which they touched. . . . Resolute and industrious as they were, their prog- ress was very slow; and at the end of ten years they numbered only three hundred souls. 'Let it not be grievous unto you,' some of their brethren had written to the poor emigrants in the midst of their sufferings, 'that you have been instrumental in breaking the ice for others. The honor shall be yours to the world's end.' " (Green's "Short History of the English People.") 23. "From the time when the barbarians over- ran the Western empire to the time of the re- vival of letters, the influence of the Church of Rome had been generally favorable to science, to civilization and to good government But dur- ing the last three centuries to stunt the human mind has been her chief object. Throughout Christendom whatever advance has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made in spite of her and has everywhere been in inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude and in intellectual torpor, while Protestant countries, once prover- bial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry into gardens, and can boast a long list of heroes, statesmen, philos- 155 THE STORY OF AMERICA ophers and poets." (Macaulay's "History of England.") 24. "The political and religious schism which had originated in the sixteenth century was, dur- ing the first quarter of the seventeenth century constantly widening. Theories tending to Turk- ish despotism were in fashion in Whitehall. Theories tending to Republicanism were in fashion with a large portion of the House of Commons. The violent prelates who were to a man zealous for prerogative, and the violent Puritans who were to a man zealous for the privileges of Par- liament, regarded each other with animosity more intense than that which, in the preceding genera- tion, had existed between Catholics and Protest- ants." (Idem.) "In their last remonstrance to the King the Commons had denounced Laud as the chief as- sailant of the Church of England ; and every year of his primacy showed him bent on justifying the accusation. . . . But backed as Laud was by the power of the Crown, the struggle became more hopeless every day. While the Catholics owned that they had never enjoyed a like tran- quillity, while the fines for recusancy were reduced and their worship suffered to go in private houses, the Puritan saw his ministers silenced or deprived, his Sabbath profaned, the most sacred act of his worship brought near, as he fancied, to the Roman 156 HISTORICAL NOTES mass. Roman doctrine met him from the pul- pit, Roman practices met him in the Church. We can hardly wonder that with such a world around them 'the goodly people in England be- gan to apprehend a special Providence in raising this plantation' in Massachusetts ; and 'their hearts were generally stirred to come over. It was vain that weaker men returned to bring news of hardships and dangers, and told how two hundred of the first comers had perished with the first winter. A letter from Winthrop told how the rest had toiled manfully on. 'We can now enjoy God and Jesus Christ,' he wrote to those at home, 'and is not that enough? I thank God I like so well to be here that I do not repent my coming. I would not have altered my course though I had foreseen these afflictions. I never had more content of mind.' " (Green's "Short History of the English People.") 25. "With the strength and manliness of Puri- tanism, its bigotry and narrowness had crossed the Atlantic too. Roger Williams, who held the doctrines of freedom of conscience, was driven from the new settlement to become a preacher among the settlers of Rhode Island. The intensity of its religious sentiments turned the colony into a theocracy. " 'To the end that the body of the Commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it is 157 THE STORY OF AMERICA ordered and agreed that for the time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of the body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the bounds of the same.' ' (Idem.) "Williams had the temerity to teach 'that the magistrate had no right to meddle with any man's conscience or religious opinions, and that the state exceeded its just power when it assumed to have jurisdiction over any other relations of the citizen than those of person and property.' . . . And in a community where no man was a citizen except he was a church member and no man was a church member except with the minister's per- mission, such doctrine was dangerous and in- tolerable. . . . He was stiff-necked and would not bend, and sentence of banishment was pronounced upon him." (Scribner's "His- tory of the United States.") 26. Religious enthusiast, born in Alford, Lin- colnshire, England, about 1500. She followed John Cotton and her brother-in-law, Wain- wright, to Boston, where she was admitted to membership in the church. Being a woman of strong mind, fluent of speech, bold in de- fence of her convictions, she soon acquired great influence in the church. She called meetings of the women of the church to discuss doctrines and sermons, and she expressed views 158 HISTORICAL NOTES on religious matters which had offended some of her fellow passengers on the voyage. Governor Vane, Cotton and Wainwright, as well as all the members of the church, save five, were her supporters, while the country churches were solidly against her. On August 30, 1737, an ecclesiastical synod at Newton condemned her opinions. . . . After a trial of two days' duration, she and some of her adherents were sentenced to banishment from the territory of Massachusetts. . . . She removed into the territory of the New Netherlands to avoid perse- cution. The Indians and the Dutch were then at war. The Indians invaded her home, murdered her, and carried off her little daughter. 27. The terrible delusion of belief in witch- craft accompanied the New England settlers, and they adopted the English laws against it. For a long time it was simply an undemonstrative be- lief, but at length it assumed an active feature in society in Massachusetts, as it was encouraged by some of the clergy whose influence was almost omnipotent. . . . An Irish woman was ac- cused of being a witch. . . . Rev. Cotton Mather, a superstitious, credulous and egotistic clergyman, a firm believer in witchcraft and who believed America was originally peopled with *a crew of witches transported hither from the devil,* hastened to Danvers with other clergymen, as 159 THE STORY OF AMERICA superstitious as himself. . . . Mather and his associates were satisfied that the Irish woman was a witch and had the satisfaction of seeing the poor creature hanged. . . . Malice, rapacity and revenge often impelled persons to accuse others who were innocent; and when some state- ment of the accused would move the court in favor of the prisoner, the accuser would solemnly de- clare that he saw the devil standing beside his victim whispering his touching words in his ear or her ear. And the absurd statement would be believed by the judge on the bench. Neither age, sex or condition were spared. Finally when the magnates in the Church and State found themselves in danger, they suspected that they had been acting un- righteously toward others, and cautiously ex- pressed doubts of further proceeding against such accused persons. A citizen of Andover being accused, being a much stronger character than was common, promptly sued his accusers for damages. The tide now turned; laws were enacted against fur- ther persecutions, Cotton Mather was popu- larly ridiculed, and was himself finally sued for slander. "This episode in the history of Massachusetts is known as the 'Salem Witchcraft.' It aston- ished the civilized world." (Harper's "Cyclo- paedia of United States History.") 1 60 HISTORICAL NOTES 28. "The laws and representative institutions of England were first introduced into the New World by the settlement of Virginia. Some years later a principle unknown to England as it was to the greater part of Europe found its home in another colony, which received its name of Mary- land from Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First. Calvert, Lord Baltimore, one of the best of the Stuart counsellors, was forced by his conversion to Catholicism to seek shelter for him- self and colonists of his new faith in districts across the Potomac, and round the head of the Chesapeake. As a purely Catholic settlement was impossible, he resolved to open the new colony to men of every faith. 'No person within this province,' ran the earliest law of Maryland, 'pro- fessing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be in any way troubled, molested or discountenanced for his or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof.' ' 29. "Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine merchant, enjoyed the glory of giving his name to the new hemisphere, in which he had not an inch of ground. He pretended to have been the first to discover the Continent. Even if it be true that this dis- covery was his, the glory would not belong to him; it belongs incontestably to him whose cour- age and genius induced him to make the first voy- age." (Voltaire.) "We are told that he falsely pretended to have 161 THE STORY OF AMERICA visited Paria and Maracaibo in 1497 in order to claim priority over Columbus in the discovery of the continent. What continent? When Ves- pucci wrote that letter to Soderini in 1504, neither he nor anybody else suspected that what we now call America had been discovered. . . . There is no reason whatever for imagining dishonesty in his narrative, and no reason for not admitting it as evidence on the same terms as those upon which we admit other contemporary documentary evidence. . . . At length the gigantic learn- ing of Alexander Humboldt was brought to bear on the subject and enough was accomplished to vindicate forever the character of Americus." (John Fiske's "The Discovery of America," which see for a learned and extended dissertation in vindication of Vespucci.) 30. "After a month of such idleness they crossed the Bahama channel, and on the twenty-seventh of March, which happened to be Easter Sunday and which the Spaniards call Pascua de Flores, they saw and passed an island on the opposite coast. Two or three days later Ponce de Leon arrived on the main land, . . . taking pos- session of it in the name of Spain. Because the land was first seen on the Pascua de Flores, and because it was fair to look upon, he named it Florida. (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 162 HISTORICAL NOTES . "Slavery was introduced about the year by a Dutch vessel which landed twenty ne- groes on the banks of the James. . . . The men sent to Virginia were seekers of gold, adven- turers, without resources and without character, whose turbulent and restless spirit endangered the infant colony and rendered its progress un- certain. The artisans and agriculturists arrived afterwards ; and although they were a more moral and orderly race of men, they were in no wise above the level of the inferior classes in England. The colony was scarcely established when slavery was introduced, and this was the main circumstance which has exercised so prodigious an influence on the character, the laws and all the future prospects of the South. Slavery, as we shall afterwards show, dishonors labor; it intro- duces idlem ss into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. The influence of slavery united to the English character explains the manners and the social condition of the Southern States." (De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America.") 3. "Across the Atlantic the field was wholly his own, and he [Pitt] had no sooner entered office than the desultory raids which had hitherto been the only resistance to French aggression were superseded by a large and comprehensive plan of attack. The sympathies of the colony 163 THE STORY OF AMERICA were won. . . . They raised at Pitt's call twenty thousand men, and taxed themselves heavily for their support. . . . The Ameri- can militia supported the British force in a vigor- ous campaign against the forts, and though Montcalm with a far inferior force was able to repulse General Abercrombie from Ticonderoga, a force from Philadelphia and Virginia, guided and inspired by the courage of George Washing- ton, made itself master of Duquesne. The name of Pittsburg, which was given to their new con- quest, still commemorates the enthusiasm of the colonists for the great minister who first opened for them the West. . . . Pitt had resolved, not merely to foil the ambition of Montcalm, but to destroy the French rule in America altogether. Wolfe headed a charge which broke the French line, but a ball pierced his breast in the moment of victory. . . . The fall of Mont- calm in the moment of his defeat completed the victory, and the submission of Canada . . . put an end to the dream of a French empire in America." (Green's "Short History of the Eng- lish People.") 33. "To check this Republican spirit, to crush all dreams of severance, and to strengthen the unity of the British empire was one of the chief aims of the young sovereign. . . . The part which George the Third succeeded in playing was 164 HISTORICAL NOTES undoubtedly a memorable one. In ten years he reduced government to a shadow, and turned the loyalty of his subjects at home into disaffection. In twenty he had forced the American colonies into revolt and independence and brought Eng- land to what then seemed to be the brink of ruin. He had a smaller mind than any Eng- lish king before him save James the Second. He was wretchedly educated and his natural powers were of the meanest sort. . . . His only feel- ing toward great men was one of jealousy and hate. . . . But dull and petty as his temper was, he was clear as to his purpose and obstinate in the pursuit of it. And his purpose was to rule." (Idem.) 34. "George III could not rest without assert- ing his supremacy over America. He made an arrangement with the East India company by which tea could be brought to America, spite of the hated tax, cheaper than in England. The colonists saw through the cunning attempt, and the tide of resistance rose higher than ever. At New York and Philadelphia the ships were forced to put to sea again without unlading. At Boston there was a deadlock ; the people would not let the tea be landed; the gov- ernor would not let the ships sail without unlad- ing. On the evening of December 26, 1773, the tax falling due the next day, a party of fifty citi- 165 THE STORY OF AMERICA zens disguised as Indians boarded the ships and threw three hundred and forty chests of tea into the harbor. The Boston Tea Party aroused all the obstinacy of George III." (Andrews' "His- tory of the United States.") 35. "On Major Pitcairn and his immediate command was thrown the responsibility, which soon proved so critical, of the outbreak of the war. The sun had not yet risen when Pitcairn, hurrying on his men, approached Lexington Com- mon. This was a little green in front of a meet- inghouse. Obedient to the alarm, the Lexington minute men had formed some time before. They had sent scouts down the silent road, who had re- turned, saying there was no enemy, so slow had been Smith's progress. On this announcement the men had withdrawn into the meetinghouse. At a second alarm they paraded again. They were under command of John Parker, a veteran of the French war. As the column under Pit- cairn approached, each party could observe the numbers of the other. Parker saw that his com- mand was wholly outnumbered and directed his men to retire. Pitcairn, at the same moment, rushed forward with the words which were long afterwards repeated in every household: 'Dis- perse, rebels, disperse!' "The English troops fired another volley in triumph and pressed on to Concord. 166 HISTORICAL NOTES The Concord minute men had formed and some of their neighbors from Lincoln, the next town, had joined them before Pitcairn and Colonel Smith arrived there. Some of the companies marched down the road toward Lexington. Here Barret, their colonel, joined them. . . . Barret found that he was out- numbered and withdrew his whole force across the Concord River, where he held them, watch- ing the English column in their native village. Colonel Smith, the English commander, attended to the duties assigned him. . . . But this did not last long. Shots at the North Bridge told all men, if any had doubted, that war had begun. ... In this encounter at the bridge the American militia first attacked the King's troops. . . . Meanwhile from every quarter the minute men were pouring down. They did not know what was the true 'objective,' but they meant to be in time and they were in time. The whole country between Boston and Concord was aroused. . . . 'They seemed to drop from the skies,' says an English soldier. . . . All that night the march of the minute men from every town in Massachusetts, from Rhode Island, from Connecticut, and from New Hampshire, kept the country towns awake. . . . The in- telligence had flown over the land that the Eng- lish troops had fired on the Lexington militia, and with it had gone the news that the column 167 THE STORY OF AMERICA had been driven back to Boston. The story grew as it went from province to province. No fiery cross ever stirred a nation to more eager enthusiasm." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 36. "On the night of June sixteenth a thousand men armed with pick and spade stole out of the American camp. At dawn the startled British found that a redoubt had sprung up in the night on Breed's Hill (henceforward Bunker Hill) in Charlestown. Boston was endangered and the rebels must be dislodged. About half past two two thousand five hundred British regulars marched silently and in perfect order up the hill, expecting to drive out the 'rustics' at the first charge. Colonel Prescott, the commanding officer, waited till the regulars were within ten rods. 'Fire !' A sheet of flame burst from the redoubt. The front ranks of the British melted away, and his Majesty's invincibles retreated to the foot of the hill. Again they advanced. Again that terrible fire. Again they fall back. Once more the plucky fellows form for the charge, this time with bayonets alone. When they are within twenty yards, the muskets behind the earth works send forth one deadly discharge and then are silent. Their ammunition is exhausted. The British swarm into the redoubt. The Conti- nentals reluctantly retire, Prescott among the 1 68 HISTORICAL NOTES last, his coat rent with bayonets. ... It was a virtual victory for the untrained farmer troops and all America took courage." (An- drews' "History of the United States.") 37. "At Bunker Hill an undisciplined body of farmers, ill-armed, weary, hungry and thirsty, calmly awaited the charge of old British cam- paigners and by a fire of dreadful precision drove them back. 'They may talk of their Fontenoys,' said the British general, Howe, 'but there was no such fire there.'" (Idem.) 38. "The nearest military posts were Ticon- deroga and Crown Point. From the former, especially, officers of the Crown came with their demands to the farms that lay scattered on the slopes of the Green Mountains. ... It held at once the outlook towards Canada and the nearest approach to the people of the unruly grants (the outlawed primitive settlers in New Hampshire and Vermont). To Western New England it was the best known fortified post and the one most identified with frontier life, while in the East it had a wide fame through its recent history. To this point, therefore, many eyes were turned when the difficulties with Great Britain began to reach open warfare. At Bennington there was a rendezvous and two men Hickock and Phelps made an excursion to 169 THE STORY OF AMERICA Ticonderoga to get exact information of the con- dition of the fort. . . . Phelps, disguising himself, entered the fort as a rustic who desired to be shaved, and while hunting for the barber, asked questions and kept his eyes open, playing the part of an ignorant rustic. . . . Here Allen, with his Green Mountain Boys, was ready for the attack, and the command of the principal body of the troops was given to him. The fort was surprised, and the victory was al- ready won without a blow, as the Green Moun- tain Boys set up a shout on the parade facing the barracks. It was so early that the Garrison was still asleep. Allen forced one of the sentries to show him the commanding officer's quarters, and standing at the entrance he called on Captain Delaplace to come forth and surrender his gar- rison. The Captain sprang out of bed, and half dressed, made his appearance at the door: 'By what authority?' he said. 'In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,' was Allen's reply. Delaplace, seeing the uncouth figure before him, was ready to dispute the com- mission ; but Allen with his sword was an unequal disputant. The commander yielded and ordered his men to be paraded without arms. The sur- render threw into the hands of the Green Moun- tain Boys one captain, one lieutenant, and forty- eight subalterns and privates . . . and mili- tary stores included one hundred and twenty- 170 eight pieces. The first surrender of the British was on the day of the meeting of the second Con- tinental Congress." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 39. "Up to the Autumn of 1775 the growth of the feeling in favor of Independence had been very slow. But after the royal proclamation had severed all relations except those between a government and rebels who 'have traitorously levied war' against it, the sentiment spread through the country. . . . When Congress assembled in May, 1775, the Massachusetts dele- gates were suspected of leaning toward separa- tion, which even the most active Sons of Liberty in Philadelphia were unprepared for, and they said to Adams on his arrival, 'You must not utter the word Independence, nor give the least hint or insinuation of the idea, either in Congress or in any private conversation; if you do, you are undone, for the idea is as unpopular in Pennsyl- vania and all the Middle and Southern states as the Stamp Act itself.' Early in 1776 Adams wrote that scarcely a newspaper was issued which did not openly vindicate the opinions recently an- nounced. . . . This statement of reasons for the Declaration of Independence was not so easily agreed upon as the resolution to declare it. The Committee on the third asked permission to sit again after a second day's debate. Changes had 171 been made in Jefferson's original draft by col- leagues on the committee appointed for its prepa- ration, still others were made by the house, but none were so important or so significant as the omission, in deference to the South, of the . . . passage relating to slavery. . . . But the great body of the document was left as Jefferson had written it. Finally, late on the afternoon of July fourth it was ap- proved and passed and ordered to be printed." (Idem.) "These decisive steps were followed by the great act with which American history begins, the adoption on the fourth of July, 1776, by the delegates in Congress of a declaration of Inde- pendence. 'We,' so ran its solemn words, 'the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our in- tentions, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.' " (Green's "Short History of the English People.") 4*0. "Throughout the country, in the army and in the town meetings from time to time as the declaration was received, it was accepted with similar manifestations of jubilation, tending sometimes to acts of extravagance. As in Phila- delphia the people tore down and burned all sym- 172 HISTORICAL NOTES bols of royal authority in public places, so in New York the mob pulled down the gilded leaden equestrian statue of George that stood in the Bowling Green. The head was taken off and placed in a wheelbarrow and wheeled to the gov- ernor's house. There was so much excuse for this act that lead was greatly needed. Ladies at Litchfield, Conn. . . . molded the re- mainder of the statue into forty-two thousand bullets to be shot at the soldiers of the King." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 4?1. "Most potent of all as a cause of the reso- lution to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense,' published in January, 1776, and circulated widely throughout the colonies. Its lucid style, its nomely way of putting things, and its appeals to Scripture, must have given it at any rate a strong hold upon the masses of the people. It was doubly and trebly triumphant from the fact that it voiced, in clear, bold terms, a long growing popular conviction of the pro- priety of independence, stronger than men had dared to admit, even to themselves." (Andrews' " History of the United States.") 42. "In March, 1775, Franklin maintained the assurance he had given Lord Chatham in the pre- vious year that he never had heard in America an expression in favor of independence 'from any 173 THE STORY OF AMERICA person drunk or sober.' . . . Many years after the Independence of America had been achieved, William Corbett, on his return to Eng- land after a long sojourn in the United States, wrote as follows : . . . 'A little thing some- times produces a great effect; an insult offered to a man of great talent and unconquerable per- severance, has in many instances produced . . . most tremendous effects ; and it appears to me very clear that some beastly insults, offered to Mr. Paine while he was in Excise in England was the real cause of the Revolution in America ; for, though the nature of the cause was such as I have heretofore described, though the principles were firm in the minds of the people of that coun- try, still, it was Mr. Paine, and Mr. Paine alone, who brought those principles into action.' So he [Paine] anticipated the Declaration of In- dependence by more than eight months with one of his own." (Conway's "Life of Thomas Paine.") "America has known some utterances of the lips equivalent to decisive victories in the field as some of Patrick Henry's and the address of President Lincoln at Gettysburg. But of utter- ances by the pen none have achieved such vast results as Paine's 'Common Sense' and his first 'Crisis.' Before the battle of Trenton the half- clad, disheartened soldiers of Washington were called together in groups to listen to that thrill- 174 HISTORICAL NOTES ing exhortation. The opening words alone were a victory." (Idem.) 43. "A recent writer says that Paine's 'Com- mon Sense' was 'just what the moment demanded,' and that it 'may be briefly described as a plea for independence and continental government.' In setting the nation at once to a discussion of the principles of such government, he led it to assume the principle of independence ; over the old English piers on their quicksands, which some would rebuild, he threw his republican arch, on which the people passed from shore to shoro. He and Franklin did the like in framing the Penn- sylvania Constitution in 1776, by which the chasm of 'Toryism' was spanned. . . . To demol- ish Burke [In his 'Rights of Man'], was the least part of Paine's task. . . . His real design was to write a Constitution for the English na- tion. And to-day the student of political history may find in Burke's pamphlet the fossilized, and in Paine's (potentially) the living constitution of Great Britain." (Idem.) 44. " 'Thomas Paine,' said President Andrew Jackson to Judge Hortell, 'Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands ; he has erected a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty.' . . . 'His principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown about the 175 THE STORY OF AMERICA world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no human being has been born in the civ- ilized world without some spiritual tincture from that heart, whose every pulse was for humanity, whose last beat broke a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of thrones." (Idem.) 45. "The English had a considerable force in Canada, and in 1776 had completely repulsed an attack which the Americans had made upon that province. The British ministry resolved to avail themselves in the next year of the advantage which the occupation of Canada gave them, not merely for the purpose of defence, but for the purpose of striking a vigorous and crushing blow against the revolted colonies. With this in view the army in Canada was greatly enforced. Without question the plan was ably formed; and had the success of the execution been equal to the ingenuity of the design, the reconquest or submission of the thirteen United States must in all human probability have been extinguished be- fore it existed a second year. . . . Burgoyne had gained celebrity by some bold and dashing exploits in Portugal during the last war; he was personally as brave an officer as ever headed Brit- ish troops ; he had considerable skill as a tacti- cian; and his general intellectual ability and ac- quirements were of a high order. . . . Bur- 176 HISTORICAL NOTES goyne assembled his troops and confederates near the river Bouquet, on the west side of Lake Cham- plain. . . . The army proceeded by water to Crown Point; . . . He landed there with- out opposition, but the reduction of Ticonderoga, a fortification about twelve miles to the south of Crown Point, was a more serious matter. Ticon- deroga . . . was considered to be the key to the route which Burgoyne was to follow. . . . Burgoyne now invested it with great skill, and the American general, St. Claire, who had only an ill-equipped army of about 3,000 men, evacuated it on the fifth of July. The loss of the British in these engagements was trifling. . . . Burgoyne had reached the left bank of the Hudson on July thirty. Hitherto he had overcome every difficulty which the enemy and the nature of the country had placed in his way. His army was in excellent order and the highest spirits." (Creasy's "Decisive Battles of the World.") 46. "Meanwhile, . . ; Sir Henry Clinton, a brave and skillful officer, was left with a consid- erable force at New York, and he undertook the task of moving up the Hudson to cooperate with Burgoyne. . . . As soon as he received them [re-enforcements], Clinton embarked about three thousand of his men on a flotilla, convoyed by 177 some ships of war under Commander Hotham, and proceeded to force his way up the river." (Idem.) 47. "It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable condition to which the British army was now reduced. The troops were worn down by a series of toil, privation, sickness, and desper- ate fighting. ... In these circumstances and thus weakened, they were invested by an army of four times their own number, whose position ex- tended three parts of a circle around them; who refused to fight them, knowing their own weak- ness, and who, from the nature of the ground, could not be attacked in any part." (Botta's "American History.") "Unfortunately, Burgoyne and Clinton were each ignorant of the other's movement; but if Burgoyne had won his battle on the seventh, he must, on advancing, have soon learned the tidings of Clinton's success and Clinton would have heard of his. A junction would soon have been made of the two victorious armies and the great object of the campaign might yet have been accomplished. . . . Burgoyne now took up his last position on the height near Saratoga and hemmed in by the enemy, who refused an encounter, he there lingered until famine compelled him to capitulate. . . . The articles of capitulation were settled on the fifteenth of October, and on 178 HISTORICAL NOTES that very evening a messenger arrived from Clin- ton with an account of his successes and with tid- ings that part of his force had penetrated within fifty miles of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too late." (Creasy's "Decisive Battles of the World.") 48. Says Burke in "Annual Register" for 1777 : "Such was the rapid torrent of success which swept everything before the Northern army in its onset. It is not to be wondered at if both of- ficers and private men were highly elated with their good fortune, and deemed their prowess to be irresistible ; if they regarded their enemy with greatest contempt, considered their own toils to be nearly at an end. . . . At home the joy and exultation was extreme; not only at court, but with all those who hoped or wished the unqualified subjugation and unconditional submission of the Colonies. The loss in reputation to the Amer- icans was greater. All the contemptuous and most degrading charges which had been made by their enemies of their wanting the resolution and abilities of men . . . were now repeated and believed. ... It was not difficult to diffuse an opinion that the war was over." 49. "Even of those great conflicts in which hundreds of thousands have been engaged and tens of thousands have fallen, none has been more 179 THE STORY OF AMERICA fruitful of results than this surrender of thirty- five hundred fighting men at Saratoga. It not merely changed the relations of England and the feelings of Europe toward these insurgent Col- onies, but it has modified for all time to come the connection between every colony and every mother state." (Lord Mahan.) "In December a treaty was arranged by which France acknowledged the Independent United States of America. This was, of course, tantamount to a declaration of war with England. Spain soon followed France, and before long Hol- land took the same course." (Creasy's "Decisive Battles of the World.") 50. "No nobler figure ever stood in the fore- front of a nation's life. Washington was grave and courteous in address, his manners were sim- ple and unpretending, his silence and the serene calmness of his temper spoke of a perfect self mastery ; but there was little in his outer bearing to reveal the grandeur of soul which lifts his fig- ure with all the simple majesty of an ancient statue out of the smaller passions, the meaner im- pulses of the world around him. ... It was only as the weary fight went on that the Colonists learned little by little the greatness of their leader, his clear judgment, his heroic endurance, his si- lence under difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or defeat, the patience with which he 1 80 HISTORICAL NOTES waited, the quickness and hardness with which he struck, the lofty and serene sense of duty that never swerved from its task through resentment or jealousy, that never through war or peace felt the touch of a meaner ambition, that knew no aim save that of returning to his own fireside when their freedom was secured. It was almost uncon- sciously that men learned to cling to Washington with a trust and faith such as few other men have won, or to regard him with a reverence which still hushes us in presence of his memory. Even America hardly recognized his greatness till death set its seal on 'the man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow country- men.' " (Green's "Short History of the English People.") "He rarely laughed and he was without humor, though he wrote and conversed well. He had the integrity of Aristides. . . . To subordinate, to foe, even to malicious plotter against him, he was almost guiltily magnanimous. . . . Be- come the most famous man alive, idolized at home, named by every tongue in Europe, praised by kings and great ministers, who compare him with Caesar, Charlemagne and Alfred the Great, his head swam not, but with steadfast mind and heart he moved on the simple pursuit of his country's weal." (Prof. E. Benjamin Andrews.) "Until time shall be no more," said Lord Broug- ham, "will a test of the progress which our race 181 THE STORY OF AMERICA has made in Wisdom and Virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of George Washington." Premier Gladstone said : "If among all the ped- estals supplied by history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, my choice would light upon George Washing- ton." 51. Nathan Hale was born June, 1735, and died September, 1776. His affectionate and magnetic character is revealed in the words of Dr. Eneas Munson, at the time of his graduation: "He was almost six feet in height, perfectly proportioned, and in figure and deportment he was the most manly man I ever met. His chest was broad, his muscles were firm, his face wore a most benign expression, his complexion was rose- ate, his eyes were light blue, and beamed with in- telligence; his hair was soft and light brown in color, and his speech was rather low, clear and musical. His personal beauty and grace of man- ner were most charming. Why, all the girls in New Haven were in love with him and wept tears of real sorrow when they heard of his sad fate." "The news of Lexington reached the quiet vil- lage where he was teaching and a town meeting was held at once. . . . He enrolled himself 182 HISTORICAL NOTES as a volunteer, and was made a lieutenant. . . . In response to a call from General Washington he volunteered to enter the British lines and procure intelligence. Disguising him- self as a school master and loyalist, he visited all the British camps on Long Island and in New York, openly making observations, drawings and memoranda of fortifications. As he was about returning he was apprehended and taken before Sir William Howe, who, upon evidence found in his shoes, condemned him to be executed before sunrise the next morning. . . . His execution took place in Colonel Henry Rutger's orchard, near Market street and East Broadway. As he ascended the scaffold he said: 'You are shedding the blood of the innocent ; if I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them down in defence of my in- jured, bleeding country.' And his last words were : 'I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.' ' (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") 52. "Marquis de Lafayette, French soldier, born 6 September, 1757, died May 20th, 1834. Having been commissioned a captain of artillery in a regiment stationed at Metz toward the end of 1776, he happened to meet at dinner the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III, and heard of the Declaration of Independence and other events that had lately occurred in the United 183 States. An enthusiastic sentiment of devotion to 'liberty' and the 'rights of man' was then grow- ing up among youthful Frenchmen in all classes of society. . . . DeKalb introduced him [La- fayette] to Silas Dean, who gave him a letter of introduction to Congress, in which he alluded to the great dignity and influence of La- fayette's family and asked for him a major gen- eral's commission. . . . He set sail from Pas- sage April 26, 1777, taking with him De Kalb and eleven other officers, and landed June four- teenth at Georgetown, South Carolina, whence he proceeded to Charleston. Congress was at that time beset with so many applications from foreign officers in quest of adventure . . . that La- fayette at first met with a cold reception. The next day he was introduced to Washington, and the lifelong friendship between the two begun. Among all the eminent Frenchmen of the revolutionary period he was perhaps the only one in whose career there was nothing to be ashamed of. His traits of character were rather solid than brilliant ; and he was too thoroughly imbued with American ideas to identify himself with any one of the violent movements originating in the French Revolution of 1789. His love of Consti- tutional liberty was too strong for him to coop- erate with either the Bourbons or with Jacobins or with Bonapartists ; and from all three quar- ters attempts have been made to detract from his 184 HISTORICAL NOTES rightful fame. In European history his place, though not among the foremost, is respectable; in American history he is not only a very pictur- esque and interesting figure, but his services in our struggle for Independence were of substantial and considerable character." (Appleton's "Cyclo- pzedia of American Biography.") 53. "Arnold in an evil hour allowed himself to be persuaded into the course that has blackened his name forever. Three years had elapsed since Saratoga and the fortunes of the Americans in- stead of improving had grown worse and worse. The army clad in rags, half starved and unpaid, was nearly ripe for the mutiny that broke out a few months later, and desertions to the Brit- ish lines averaged more than a hundred a month. The spirit of desertion now seized upon Arnold, with whom the British commander had for some time tampered through the mediation of John An- dre. . . . Stung by the injustice he had suf- fered, and influenced by his Tory surroundings. Arnold made up his mind to play a part like that which General Monk had played in the restoration of Charles II to the British throne. By putting the British in possession of the Hudson river, he would give them all that they sought to obtain by the campaigns of 1776-77, and the American cause would thus become so hopeless that an op- portunity would be offered for negotiation." 185 THE STORY OF AMERICA (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biog- raphy.") "For eighteen months he had been in communi- cation with Sir Henry Clinton, to whom, through Major John Andre, he had given from time to time much valuable information. His schemes were now complete through which he believed that, by the sacrifice of his country, he could achieve rank, fame and wealth for himself. It is not un- usual to explain Arnold's crime by the suggestion of some extraordinary impulse as that a proud and haughty spirit could not brook certain hu- miliations which had been put upon him in the American army, that a lofty ambition led him to extravagance in his living from which it was diffi- cult, if not impossible, to extricate himself, while the very heedlessness with which they were in- curred was the evidence only of a warm and gen- erous nature. It is difficult to admit that his conduct may be so explained when his whole career, both before and after his treason, is con- sidered. He was certainly distinguished for his wonderful energy and remarkable physical cour- age, and as a soldier these seem to have been his chief merits. But there was something in the way of his success which from the beginning of his public life always confronted him among those who knew him best and those whose duty it was to fathom his true character. There was an ap- parently insurmountable distrust of his integrity, 186 HISTORICAL NOTES and with some a vague but positive suspicion of his loyalty. His dash excited admiration, and at first won him hosts of unthinking friends ; but the more reflecting looked for and did not find in his conduct that rigid rule of a severe morality and that keen sense of honor of which he was so apt in boasting. . . . Clinton could have saved Andre as Washington let him know by the sur- render of Arnold; and it is to the honor of the British general that he would not betray his plighted faith to a traitor even to save his friend. The penalty of the crime fell upon the accomplice ; the chief criminal was paid his price in a commis- sion as brigadier-general, and six thousand, three hundred pounds sterling. Pensions of five hun- dred pounds a year to Mrs. Arnold and a hundred pounds a year to each of her children, were also awarded when Arnold took his family to England." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 54?. "By the thirtieth of September Yorktown was surrounded from a point on the river above to a point below, the French being on the right and the Americans on the left. Cornwallis re- tired within his works, and for the next nine days he saw weaving round him a mingled web of ditches, redoubts and batteries from which he could never break. He kept up a frequent fire on the busy soldiers, whose task was never intermitted by night or by day and who were sometimes 187 THE STORY OF AMERICA brought down dead or wounded ; but there was no reply till the ninth of October when the first par- allel was finished. . . . For four days the fire was incessant ; most of the batteries of the enemy were ruined, their guns were dismounted, the larg- est English man of war and two transports in the harbor were set on fire and destroyed. The sit- uation of Cornwallis was becoming daily more des- perate; of his seven thousand men, two thousand were in hospitals, incapable of service; his assail- ants were not less than fifteen thousand and by a second parallel they had advanced to within three hundred yards of his works. . . . Yorktown was no longer tenable, and before sunset of that day Cornwallis offered to surrender. On the nineteenth the terms of capitulation were con- cluded. . . . The surrender of Cornwallis was virtually the end of the war between England and America." (Idem.) 55. "The accumulation of debts rendered the courts of justice in the minds of many mere 'en- gines of destruction'; the increasing distress in private affairs, the depression in commerce, and the burden of Federal taxation, swelled the pop- ular discontent. The old methods of opposition to British tyranny were resumed in this new op- position to what was imagined to be Federal tyr- anny. Local conventions were held and commit- tees formed and the movement was spreading into 188 HISTORICAL NOTES the neighboring states. . . . At Worcester and at Springfield attempts were made to prevent the sitting of Court and at the latter place was ludicrously successful. Here also the insurgents threatened the arsenal under the lead of Daniel Shays, who had been a captain in the Continental army. The state militia drove the rebels from Springfield and finally dispersed them." (Idem.) "When the Shays Rebellion was put down, the Governor requested the neighboring states to lend their aid in bringing the insurgents to justice, and all complied with the request except the states of Vermont and Rhode Island. The legislature of Rhode Island sympathized with the rebels and re- fused to allow the Governor to issue a warrant for their arrest. ... A feeling of compas- sion for the insurgents was widely spread in, Mas- sachusetts. In March the leaders were tried and convicted. . . . At the annual election in April the candidates for the governorship were Bowdoin and Hancock, and it was generally be- lieved that the latter would be more likely to par- don the convicted men. So strong was this feel- ing that, although much gratitude was felt toward Bowdoin, to whose energetic measures the sup- pression of the insurrection was due, Hancock ob- tained a large majority. When the question of pardon came up for discussion, Samuel Adams, who was then President of the Senate, was strongly opposed to it. 'In monarchies,' he said, 'the 189 THE STORY OF AMERICA crime of treason and rebellion may admit being pardoned or lightly punished; but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a Republic ought to suffer death.' . . . But in spite of this view . . . the clemency of the American tem- perament prevailed, and Governor Hancock par- doned all the prisoners." (Fiske's "Critical Period of American History.") 56. "The years immediately after the war were an extremely critical period. The Colonies had, indeed, passed through the Red Sea, but the wil- derness still lay before them." (Andrews' "His- tory of the United States.") "The United States had acquired no respect as a Nation. 'The most remarkable thing,' wrote Adams, 'in the King's speech and in the debates is that every member has entirely forgot- ten that there is any such place as the United States of America.' . . . The dangers at home were even greater. Not only were the states arrayed against Congress whenever their local interests seemed in jeopardy, but popular conventions and neighborhood meetings began to arrogate authority." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") "Such was the constitution under which the United States began to drift toward anarchy even before the close of the Revolution. . . . Had the country put forth its strength in 1781 as it 190 HISTORICAL NOTES did in 1864^, an army of ninety thousand men might have overwhelmed Clinton in the North and Cornwallis at the South. . . . Had it put forth its full strength in 1777, four years of ac- tive warfare might have been spared. Mr. Lecky explains this difference by his favorite hypothesis that the American Revolution was the work of a few ultra-radical leaders, with whom the people were not in general sympathy." (Fiske's "Criti- cal Period of American History.") 57. "During the two years of negotiations and waiting for the consummation of peace between the allied powers, there were no general military operations. . . . Financial difficulties con- tinued to beset the Republic ; . . . the indus- try of the country was paralyzed, commerce was almost annihilated, poverty was universal, and the revulsion of a long war brought its own in- evitable troubles." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 58. "That an army half starved, half naked, without pay and with nothing to do, should become discontented and ripe for mischief, is not to be wondered at. . . . Some of them knew almost no other government than military rule; they felt its strength in the creation of a nation, and the instruments of that achievement they held in their own hands. For such civil government as there 191 THE STORY OF AMERICA was they had small respect, for they saw its im- becility in the long suffering years, in hunger, in nakedness, in the poverty to which their own de- votion to their country had brought their wives and children at home. ... If their wrongs were ever to be righted, they felt that they must be righted by themselves, and righted now while it was in their power." (Idem.} 59. "Some eighty soldiers of the Pennsylvania line, mutinous from discomfort and want of pay, broke from their camp at Lancaster and marched down to Philadelphia, led by a sergeant or two. They drew up the line before the State House, where Congress was assembled and after passing the grog began throwing stones and pointing their muskets toward the windows. They de- manded pay and threatened if it were not forth- coming to seize the members of Congress and hold them for hostages, or else to break into the bank where the Federal deposits were kept. Thus in a city of thirty-two thousand inhabitants, the largest city in the country, the Government of the United States, the body which had just completed the treaty browbeating England and France, was ignominiously turned out of doors by a handful of drunken mutineers. The affair was laughed at by many, but sensible men keenly felt the disgrace. . . . The army became more unpopular than ever. . . . Are we not poor 192 HISTORICAL NOTES enough already, cried the farmers, that we must be taxed to support in idle luxury a riotous rab- ble of soldiery, or create an aristocracy of men with gold lace and epaulettes, who will presently plot against our liberties?" (Fiske's "Critical Period of American History.") 60. "The progress of the insurrection in Ver- mont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, as well as the troubles in Rhode Island, had alarmed the whole country. It was feared that the in- surgents in these States might join forces and in some way kindle a flame that would run through the land. . . . Things had come to such a pass that people of all shades of opinion were be- ginning to agree upon one thing *,hat something must be done, and done quickly. . . . These troubles show how impractical was the attempt to create a national domain in any part of the coun- try which contained a considerable population. The instinct of self government was too strong to allow it. Any such population would have refused to submit to ordinances of Congress. To obey the parent state, or to set up for one's self these were the only alternatives which ordinary men at that time could understand. Experience had not yet ripened their minds for comprehending a tem- porary condition of semi-independence, such as exists to-day under our territorial governments. . . . Thus only three months before the Fed- 193 THE STORY OF AMERICA eral Convention Was to meet, if indeed it ever was to meet, Congress was decisively informed that it would not be allowed to take any effectual meas- ures for raising a revenue. There seemed now nothing left for Congress to do but to give its sanction to the proposed Convention. All at once the people began everywhere to feel an interest in the proposed Convention, and pres- ently Massachusetts changed her attitude. Up to this time Massachusetts had been as obstinate in her assertion of local independence as any of the thirteen states. . . . The Convention held its meetings in that plain brick building in Philadel- phia already immortalized as the place from which the Declaration of Independence was published to the world." (Fiske's "Critical Period of Amer- ican History.") 61. "Thus at length was realized the sublime conception of a nation in which every citizen lives under two complete and well rounded systems of law the state law and the federal law, each with its legislature, its executive and its judiciary mov- ing one within the other, noiselessly and without friction. It was one of the longest reaches of constructive statesmanship ever known in the world. ... As the meeting was breaking up and Washington arose, Franklin pointed to the chair and made it the text for a prophecy. 'As I have been sitting here all- these weeks,' he said, 194 HISTORICAL NOTES 'I have often wondered whether yonder sun was rising or setting. But now I know that it is a ris- ing sun.' " (Idem.) "As the British constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from progressive history, so the American constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." (Gladstone.) 62. "While events we have heretofore contem- plated seemed to prophesy the speedy dissolution and downfall of the half-formed American Union, a series of causes, obscure enough at first, but emerging gradually into distinctness and then into prominence, were preparing the way for the foundation of a national sovereignty. The growth of this sovereignty proceeded stealthily along such ancient lines of precedent as to take ready hold of people's minds, although few, if any, understood the full purport of what they were do- ing. Ever since the days when our English fore- fathers dwelt in village communities in the for- ests of northern Germany, the idea of a common land or folkland a territory belonging to the whole community and upon which new communi- ties might be organized by a process analogous to what physiologists call cell-multiplication had been perfectly familiar to everybody. Townships budded from village or parish folkland in Mary- land and Massachusetts in the seventeenth century 195 THE STORY OF AMERICA just as they had done in England before the time of Alfred. The critical period of the Revolution witnessed the repetition of this process on a gi- gantic scale. It witnessed the creation of a na- tional territory beyond the Alleghanies an enor- mous folkland in which all the thirteen original states had a common interest and upon which new and derivative communities were already begin- ning to organize themselves. . . . Without studying the creation of this national domain be- tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, we can- not understand how our Federal Union came to be formed." (Fiske's "Critical Period of American History.") 63. "Throughout the Revolutionary War the Americans claimed this territory as part of the United States ; but when once it passed from un- der the control of Great Britain to whom did it belong? To this question there were various and conflicting answers. North Carolina, indeed, had already taken possession of what was afterwards called Tennessee, and at the beginning of the war Virginia had annexed Kentucky. As to these points there could be little or no dispute. But with the territory north of the Ohio it was very different. Four states laid claim either to the whole or to parts of the territory, and these claims were not simply conflicting but irreconcil- able. 196 HISTORICAL NOTES "The Charters of Massachusetts and Connect- icut were framed at a time when the people had not got over the notion that this part of the Con- tinent was scarcely wider than Mexico, and those Colonies had received the royal permission to ex- tend from sea to sea. The region claimed by Connecticut was a narrow strip running over northern portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and we have seen how much trouble was occasioned in Pennsylvania by this circum- stance. But New York laughed to scorn these claims of Connecticut. . . . According to Virginia it made little difference what Massachu- setts, Connecticut and New York thought about the matter, for every acre of land fro*~i the Ohio river to Lake Superior belonged to her. Was she not the lordly 'Old Dominion,' out of which every one of the states had been carved? ... Of these conflicting claims those of New York and Virginia were the most grasping and the most formidable because they concerned a region into which immigration was beginning to pour. In January, 1781, Virginia offered to surrender all the territory west of the Ohio. ... It was New York, indeed, that set the praiseworthy example, . . . but Virginia gave up a princely territory of which she was actually in possession. ... In this plan, known as the Ordinance of 1784, Jefferson proposed to divide the northwestern territory into ten states, or just 197 twice as many as have actually grown out of it. It is interesting to trace the immediate origin of the famous Ordinance of 1787. It was provided that the northwestern territory should ultimately be carved into states, not ex- ceeding five in number, and any one of these might be admitted into the Union as soon as its popu- lation had reached 60,000. In the meantime the whole territory was to be governed by officers ap- pointed by Congress and required to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. Nothing could have been more emphatically an ex- ercise of national authority ; yet, as Madison said, while warmly commending the act, Congress did it 'without the least color of Constitutional au- thority.' " (Idem.) "On Monday, September 17, 1787, the Consti- tution finally agreed upon was signed by the dele- gates . . . and submitted to Congress, which in turn called upon the states in separate conven- tions to act upon the instrument, the acceptance of nine states being requisite before it could be declared adopted. . . . One by one the states fell into line, until on the twenty-first of June, New Hampshire, the ninth state, ratified the Con- stitution. Two conventions were still in session at that date in the important states of Virginia and New York." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 198 HISTORICAL NOTES 64. "Jefferson's temper was exceedingly placid, and his disposition was sweet and sympathetic. He was deeply interested in all the generous theo- ries of the eighteenth century concerning the rights of man and the perfectibility of human na- ture, and, like most of the philosophers whom he admired, he was a sturdy foe to religious intoler- ance and priestcraft. He was in his way a much more profound thinker than Hamilton, though he had no such constructive genius as the latter. As a political leader he was superior to any other man of his age ; and his warm sympathies, his al- most feminine tact, his mastery of the dominant political ideas of the time, and, above all, his unbounded faith in the commonsense of the people and in their essential rectitude of purpose served to give him one of the greatest and most command- ing positions ever held by any personage in American history." (Fiske's "The American Revolution.") 65. "Neither his retirement from public office, his eminent services, nor his advanced age," said Henry Clay in his speech on the New Army Bill, referring to Jefferson, "can exempt this patriot from the coarse assault of party malevolence. No, sir; in 1801 he snatched from the rude hand of usurpation the violated constitution of his country, and that is his crime. He preserved that instrument in form and substance and spirit, a 199 THE STORY OF AMERICA precious inheritance for generations to come, and for this he can never be forgiven. How vain and impotent is party rage directed against such a man. He is not more elevated by his lofty resi- dence upon the summit of his own favorite moun- tain than he is lifted by the serenity of his mind and the consciousness of a well spent life, above the malignant passions and bitter feelings of the day. No, his own beloved Monticello is not more moved by the storms that beat against its sides than is this illustrious man by the howlings of the whole British pack set loose from the Essex ken- nel." 66. "He soon found himself ill at ease in his place. He had left Paris when the fall of the Bastile had been a recent event, and when the rev- olutionary movement still promised to hopeful spirits the greatest good to France and to Europe. He left his native land a Whig of the Revolution; he returned to it a Republican-Dem- ocrat. . . . He brought to New York a set- tled conviction that the Republican is the only form of government that is not robbery and or- ganized violence. Feeling thus, he was grieved and astonished to find a distrust of republican government prevalent in society and to hear a preference for a monarchical form frequently ex- pressed. . . . He abolished all usages that savored of royalty, such as the conveyance of 200 HISTORICAL NOTES ministers in national vessels, the celebration of his own birthday by a ball, the appointments of fasts and thanksgiving days, the making of public tours and official visits. He refused to receive while traveling any mark of attention that would not have been paid to him as a private citizen, his ob- ject being both to republicanize and secularize the government completely." (Appleton's "Cy- clopaedia of American Biography.") 67. "The most important business then before Congress was the ratification of peace, but the radical difficulties of the situation arose from the shattered finances and from the helplessness and imbecility of the confederation. Hamilton flung himself into these troubles with the enthusiasm of his youth and genius, but all in vain. The case was hopeless. He extended his reputation for statesmanship and brillant eloquence, but ef- fected nothing, and withdrew to the practice of his profession more than ever convinced that the worthless fabric of the confederation must be swept away and something better and stronger put in its place. . . . Matters went rapidly from bad to worse. The states were bankrupt and disintegration threatened them. Internecine commercial regulations destroyed prosperity, and riot and insurrection menaced society." (Idem.) 68. "In 1784, when the Trespass Act threw New 201 THE STORY OF AMERICA York into confusion, Hamilton had come to be re- garded as one of the most powerful advocates in the country. In the test case which now came before the courts he played a bold and manly part. . . . There can be no better proof of his forensic ability than his winning a verdict in such a case as this from a hostile court that was largely influenced by the popular excitement. The decision nullified the Trespass Act and forth- with mass meetings of the people and an extra ses- sion of the legislature condemned the action of the court. Hamilton was roundly abused and his conduct was attributed to unworthy motives. But he faced the people boldly as he had faced the court. . . . The more intelligent and re- spectable citizens reluctantly admitted that Ham- ilton's arguments were unanswerable. A club of boon companions, . . . gravely proposed that the members of the club pledge themselves one after the other to challenge Hamilton to mortal combat until one of them should have the good fortune to kill him! The scheme met with gen- eral favor, but was defeated. . . . The in- cident well illustrates the intense bitterness of po- litical passion of the time, and as to Hamilton shows him in the light of a courageous and pow- erful defender of central government." (Fiske's "Critical Period of American History.") 69. "It was when the labors of the Convention 202 HISTORICAL NOTES were completed and laid before the people that Hamilton's labors for the Constitution really be- gan. He conceived and started the 'Federalist,' and wrote . . . those famous essays which riveted the attention of the country, furnished the weapons of argument and exposition to those who thought 'continentally' in all the states and did more than anything else for the adoption of the Constitution. ... In a brilliant contest, Hamilton, by argument rarely equaled in the his- tory of debate, either in form or eloquence, by skillful management and by wise delay, finally suc- ceeded in converting enough votes and carried ratification triumphantly. It was a great victory, and in the Federal procession in New York the Federal ship bore the name of 'Hamilton.' ." . . In April, 1789, Washington was inaugurated. He at once placed Hamilton at the head of it [the Treasury Department]. In the five years that ensued Hamilton did the work that lies at the foundation of our system of administration, gave life and meaning to the Constitution, and by his policy developed two great political parties. . . . On January 14, 1790, he sent to Con- gress the first 'Report on the Public Credit.' In that wonderful document and with a master's hand he reduced our confused finances to order, provided for a funding system and for taxes to sustain it, and displayed a plan for the assump- tion of the state debts. The financial policy thus 203 THE STORY OF AMERICA set forth was put into execution, and by it our credit was redeemed, our union cemented, and our business and commercial prosperity restored." (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biogra- phy.") 70. "After the election of Jefferson, Hamilton resumed the practice of his profession. But he could not separate himself entirely from politics. ... As time wore on and the breach between Jefferson and Burr widened, the latter re- newed his intrigues with the Federalists, but through Hamilton's influence was constantly thwarted and was finally beaten for the gover- norship of New York. But he apparently de- termined to fix a quarrel upon his lifelong enemy, for Hamilton had used the severest language about Burr. . . . and it was easy enough to bring it home to him. Hamilton had no wish to go out with Burr, but he was a fighting man and, more- over, he was haunted by the belief that democracy was going to culminate in the horrors of the French Revolution, that a strong man would be needed, and that society would turn to him for salvation a work for which he would be disqual- ified by the popular prejudice if he declined to fight a duel. He therefore accepted the chal- lenge, met Burr on July 11, 1804, on the bank of the Hudson at Weehawken, and fell mortally wounded at the first fire. His tragic fate called 204 forth a universal burst of grief and drove Burr into exile and conspiracy." (Appleton's "Cyclo- paedia of American Biography.") 71. "As time has gone on Hamilton's fame has grown, and he stands to-day as the most brilliant statesman we have produced. His constructive mind and far reaching intellect are visible in every part of our system of government, which is the best and noblest monument of his genius. His writings abound in ideas which there and then found their first expression, and which he im- pressed upon our institutions until they have be- come so universally accepted and so very com- monplace that their origin is unsuspected." (Idem.) 7. "The many-sidedness of Franklin's activ- ity was amazing. He founded the Philadelphia library, the first subscription library in Amer- ica, was one of the chief organizers of the edu- cational institution afterwards known as the Penn- sylvania University, became deputy Postmaster- General in 1753, and as such greatly improved the postal system of the Colonies, and finally made his immortal discoveries in electricity." (World's Classics.) "From early youth Franklin was interested in scientific studies, and his name by and by became associated with a very useful domestic invention 205 THE STORY OF AMERICA and also with one of the most remarkable discov- eries of the eighteenth century. In 1742 he in- vented the 'open stove, for the better warming of rooms'; an invention that has not yet fallen en- tirely into disuse. Ten years later by wondrously simple experiments with a kite he showed that lightning is a discharge of electricity ; and in 1753 he received the Copley medal from the Royal so- ciety for this most brilliant and pregnant discov- ery. ... In his old days of editorial work in Philadelphia, with his noble scholarly habit of putting every moment to some good use, he had learned the French language, with Italian and Spanish also, besides getting some knowledge of Latin. He was thus possessed of many talismans for opening many a treasure house, and among all the encyclopaedist philosophers in Paris it would have been hard to point to a mind more encyclopaedic than his own." (Idem.) 73. "On the part of the Americans the treaty of 1783 was one of the most brilliant triumphs in the whole history of modern diplomacy. Had the affair been managed by men of ordinary ability, the greatest results of the Revolutionary War would probably have been lost, the new republic would have been cooped up between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies, our westward expansion would have been impossible without further warfare, and the formation of our Federal Union would doubt- 206 HISTORICAL NOTES less have been hindered or prevented. To the grand triumph the varied talents of Franklin, Adams and Jay alike, contributed ; but without the tact of Franklin this probably could not have been accomplished without offending France in such wise as to spoil everything." (Idem.) 74?. "The abilities of Franklin were so vast and so various, he touched human life at so many points, that it would require an elaborate essay to characterize him properly. He was at once philosopher, statesman, diplomatist, discoverer, inventor, philanthropist, moralist and wit, while as a writer of English he was surpassed by few of his time. History presents few examples of a career starting from such humble beginnings a.id attaining to such great and enduring splendor. The career of Napoleon, for example, as compared with Franklin's seems vulgar and trivial. The ceaseless industry of Franklin throughout his long life was guided to an extraordinary degree by the clear light of reason and inspired by a warm and enthusiastic desire for the improvement of man- kind. He is in many respects the greatest of Americans, and one of the greatest men whose names are recorded in history." (Idem.) 75. "At the first fire Hamilton fell mortally wounded. But Burr's shot was more fatal to him- self than to his foe ; he left that 'field of honor' a 207 THE STORY OF AMERICA ruined man. . . . Though his political pros- pects were now blasted and his name execrated, his bold and resolute spirit did not break. Early in 1805 he turned his course toward the great West, then a new world. . . . His pur- pose seems to have been to collect a body of follow- ers and conquer Texas perhaps Mexico estab- lishing there a Republic which he would head. With this he associated the hope that the western states, ultimately falling away from the Union, would cast in their lot with him, making New Or- leans the capital of the new nation. ... It was a wild scheme, if not technically treasonable yet was so near to it as to make him a public en- emy. Events had advanced rapidly, and Burr's schemes were nearly ripe for execution when the President, who had not been ignorant of what was maturing, issued a proclamation October, 1806, denouncing the enterprise and warning the peo- ple against it. The project immediately col- lapsed. Burr was arrested and conveyed to Rich- mond, Virginia. Here was held the memorable trial for treason, lasting six months. The jury returned a verdict of 'not guilty' on the indictment of treason, and some time after the prisoner was acquitted." (Idem.) 76. "He stood among the leaders of the bar, with no rival but Alexander Hamilton. Obtain- ing possession of Richmond Hill, a fine New York 208 HISTORICAL NOTES mansion with ample grounds, he dispensed a lib- eral hospitality. Tallyrand, Volney and Louis Philippe were among his guests. In 1788 he was appointed by Governor Clinton the attorney-gen- eral for the State of New York, an office he held for two years. He was elected to the United States Senate and served for six years. He was almost chosen for the Presidency of the United States, having received the exact number of elec- toral votes which Jefferson received. But the House of Representatives elected Jefferson Presi- dent, and Burr Vice-President. . . . After Burr's killing of Hamilton his career was check- ered and disgraceful. . . . He soon sailed for England, animated with new schemes and hopes. After various ventures in that countiy he was expelled as an 'embarrassing' person, and went to Sweden. Having spent some time in Co- penhagen and various cities in Germany, he finally reached Paris. . . . Here, kept under gov- ernment surveillance and refused permission to re- turn to the United States, he was reduced to the severest pecuniary straits. Returning to Eng- land, he was obliged to remain there in desperate extremities for a year and a half. ... At last ... he reached Boston, May, 1812. Disguised under the name of Arnot, as well as with wig and whiskers, the return- ing exile entered the city in the most humiliating plight." 209 THE STORY OF AMERICA He finally managed to return to New York, open a law office and recoup his practice. "Shunned by society, though with a considerable practice, he lived on for twenty-three years. In his last days Burr was dependent on the charity of a Scotch woman. ... In his case the finest gifts of nature and fortune were poisoned by unsound moral principles and the ab- sence of all genuine convictions. He was a master of intrigue, but to no purpose. He was a re- spectable lawyer and speaker, but lacked the qualities of a statesman. Dauntless resolution and cool self-possession never deserted him. On the morning of his duel with Hamilton he was found by a friend in a sound sleep." (Idem.) 77. "By a private article in the treaty of St. Ildefonso, signed October 18, 1800, Spain had ceded to France the territory of Louisiana meaning, as the reader must always remember, not merely the State now known by that name, but the region north of Florida, west of the Mis- sissippi, and east of the Rocky Mountains, and a line drawn through the Sabine, Red and Arkansas rivers. At home the government was goaded by constant appeals from the Western States to se- cure an open passage to the Gulf of Mexico for their products. . . . Jefferson sent powers to Livingston, our Minister in France, to whom Monroe was joined, and bade the two to propose 210 HISTORICAL NOTES to the First Consul the purchase of the island on which Orleans stands, and the right of passage to the sea. The Commissioners were authorized to offer the First Consul two and a half million dol- lars. Before Monroe's arrival, however, Living- ston was met by a proposal which astounded him. When the journals announced that the new American envoy was on his way, he [Bona- parte] sent for Marbois, his Minister of the Treasury, and bade him meet the Commissioners immediately and offer to sell them the whole re- gion at fifty million francs. . . . Livingston was surprised at an offer so extraordinary." Marbois tried to get one hundred million francs, but through Livingston's shrewdness the purchase for only a part of which he was authorized to pay two and a half millions, was closed at sixty mil- lion francs. "The United States came into possession of a vast and to some extent undefined domain, con- taining a mixed free population of eighty-five thousand white people and forty thousand negro slaves, for the sum of fifteen million dollars. Bonaparte exclaimed: 'This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride.' ' 78. "The President's hostility to the United 211 THE STORY OF AMERICA States Bank . . . had more to do probably than anything else with his reelection. As the Bank would soon ask for a renewal of its charter ... he called the attention of Con- gress to the constitutionality and expediency of the law creating it. It had failed, he said, in es- tablishing a sound and uniform currency, and he suggested that a national bank, founded upon the credit and revenues of the Government, might be devised which would be constitutional and be bene- ficial to the finances of the country. It was the beginning of a long struggle which convulsed the country while it lasted. That the final result was beneficial was not long doubted after the party passion had subsided ; nor is it incredible that the motives of Jackson's hostility were what he professed they were. . . . The bank was . . . accused of using its means and its influ- ence to bring the question of recharter within the arena of politics. . . . When the President vetoed the bill [to renew the charter] there was not a two-thirds .vote in the Senate to sustain its previous action, and the bill failed. Jackson's argument, reiterated in many forms, was that the bank was buying up members of Congress ; ... he accused the officers of the bank of the most flagrant mismanagement and corrupt practices, and concluded with the an- nouncement that he had fully determined on the removal [of the national funds from the bank] 212 HISTORICAL NOTES and should assume the entire responsibility." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 79. "It has been imagined that General Jackson is bent on establishing a dictatorship in America, on introducing a military spirit, and on giving a degree of influence to the central authority which cannot but be dangerous to provincial lib- erties. . . . Far from wishing to extend the Federal power, the President belongs to the party which is desirous of limiting that power to the bare and precise letter of the Constitution ; . . . far from standing forth as the champion of centralization, General Jackson is the agent of all the jealousies of the states. . . . Gen- eral Jackson is the slave of the majority; he yields to its propensities, its wishes and demands ; say, rather, that he anticipates and forestalls them. Whenever the governments of the states come into collision with that of the Union, the President is generally the first to question his own rights. . . . Not indeed that he is nat- urally weak or hostile to the Union ; for when the majority decided against the claims of the par- tisans of nullification, he put himself at its head, asserted the doctrines which the Nation held distinctly and energetically, and was the first to recommend forcible measures ; but General Jack- son appears to me, if I may use the American ex- pression, to be a Federalist by taste, and a Re- 213 THE STORY OF AMERICA publican by calculation." (De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America.") 80. "John H. Eaton, Secretary of War, had married a Mrs. Timberlake, who, it was said was of bad reputation before Eaton mar- ried her. The families of other members of the government, as well as those of the Foreign Min- ister and of the better class of people generally in Washington, refused to recognize or admit her to their houses. There was a touch of chivalry in the impetuosity and passion with which Jackson came to the defence of this woman. Jackson was himself undoubtedly as chaste as a virtuous woman ; but it was, nevertheless, through the overbearing self will of this man that the sim- plicity and purity of a republican administration was for the first time and so far for the last time, smirched with the scandalous intrigues that in earlier times distinguished the courts of mon- archs." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 81. "So beneficent and so glorious has been the administration of this President that where to be- gin and where to end in the enumeration of great measures would be the embarrassment of him who has his eulogy to make. He came into office the first of generals, he goes out the first of states- men. His civil competitors have shared the fate 214 HISTORICAL NOTES of his military opponents. . . . Repulsed; driven back; discomfited; crushed; has been the fate of all assailants foreign, domestic, civil and military. . . . Great is the influence, great is the power, greater than any man ever before possessed in America, which he has acquired over the public mind. And how has he acquired it? Not by the arts of intrigue, or the juggling tricks of diplomacy ; not by undermining rivals or sacri- ficing public interests for the gratification of classes or individuals. But he has acquired it first by the exercise of an intuitive sagacity, which has always enabled him to adopt the right remedy at the right time and to con- quer soonest when the man of forms and office thought him near to ruin and despair; next, by moral courage which knew no fear when the pub- lic good beckoned him to go on ; last and chiefest, he has acquired it by an open honesty of purpose which knew no concealments, by straightforward- ness of action which disdained the forms of office and the arts of intrigue ; by a disinterestedness of motives, ... a devotedness of patriotism, which staked everything personal on the issue of every measure which the public welfare required him to adopt. "Great has been the opposition to President Jackson's administration ; greater, perhaps, than ever has been exhibited against any government short of actual insurrection and forcible iresist- 215 THE STORY OF AMERICA ance. Revolution has been proclaimed, and every- thing has been done that could be expected to produce revolution. The country has been alarmed, agitated, convulsed. From the Senate Chamber to the village barroom, from one end of the continent to the other, denunciation, agitation, excitement, has been the order of the day. For eight years the President of this republic has stood upon a volcano vomiting fire and flames upon him and threatening the country itself with ruin and dissolution if the people did not expel the 'usurper,' 'despot' and 'tyrant,' as he was called, from the high place to which the suffrages of mil- lions of freemen elevated him." (From speech of Senator T. H. Benton, on "The Expunging Res- olution.") 82. "The confidential message of President Madison on June first and the report thereon by the House Committee on Foreign Relations through its chairman, Mr. Calhoun, set forth at length the reasons for a declaration of war against Great Britain. The modern reader of these documents will look in vain in either of them for any evidence of unselfish patriotism or of the grasp of the statesman ; but he will be amazed at the boldness of the political partisan. There had been reasons enough for more than fifteen years for going to war with more than one nation, pro- vided war was the only way in which the United 216 HISTORICAL NOTES States could protect her rights and her interests. Mr. Madison in his message and Mr. Cal- houn in his report, when both papers were stripped of specious argument, really presented the determination of a war with England as a party measure." (Idem.) 83. "Congress sat with closed door to consider the confidential message. ... A protest against the war, in the form of an address to their constituents, was drawn up by Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, and signed by thirty- eight members of the House. They complained of the tyranny of the majority in passing in se- cret session a bill of so much importance without permitting it to be debated; they denounced the war as a pretext to give aid to Napoleon against England; . . . they warned their country- men of the madness of that party policy which disregarded the danger of the dissolution of the Union, when government was still 'in no small de- gree experimental,' etc. . . . Intense oppo- sition to the war, which showed itself in mass meetings, in pulpits, in newspapers and in pam- phlets, was met, on the other hand, by support no less earnest." (Idem.) 84. "Before the close of the year the brilliant exploits of the little American navy dispelled the 217 THE STORY OF AMERICA brooding gloom that hung over the people, and filled them with joy and confidence." "These naval victories astounded the British public. The lion was bearded in his den. The claims of Great Britain to the mastery of the seas were vehemently and practically disputed. The British newspapers raved and uttered oppro- brious epithets. A leading London journal pet- ulantly and vulgarly gave vent to its sentiments by expressing an apprehension that England might be stripped of her maritime supremacy, by 'a piece of striped bunting flying at the mast heads of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and cowards.' . . . The news of Perry's victory on Lake Erie startled the British public, and strange confessions of weak- ness were made in the English and provincial newspapers." (Idem.) 85. "The government of the United States was only nominally independent. Socially and com- mercially the United States tacitly acknowledged their dependence on Europe and especially upon England, and the latter was rapidly acquiring a dangerous interest and influence in American af- fairs when the war broke out. The war begun in 1775 was only the first great step towards inde- pendence ; the war begun in 1812 first thoroughly accomplished the independence of the United States. Franklin once heard a person speaking 218 HISTORICAL NOTES of the Revolution as the war of independence and reproved him, saying: 'Sir, you mean the Rev- olution ; the war of independence is yet to come. It was a war for independence, but not of inde- pendence.' ' (Harper's "Cyclopaedia of United States History.") 86. "It was a natural and easy step to the Hartford Convention. . . . The war which had proved disastrous and, till recently, except upon the sea uniformly disgraceful to the Amer- ican arms, had fallen with peculiar severity on New England. Most of her people believed that bad as the war was, it was still more badly con- ducted that the Administration was imbecile and unprincipled. . . . The Convention was called by a resolution of the Massachusetts Leg- islature passed October, 181A . . . The ul- terior object was to 'enquire whether the inter- ests of these states demand that persevering en- deavors be used by each of them to procure such amendments to be effected in the National consti- tution as may secure to them equal advantage, etc. . . . This only meant ... a proposition to amend the Constitution, if possi- ble, with the assent of all the states ; but, if im- possible, then the formation and adoption of a new constitution by so many of the states as agreed upon the necessity. In the last analysis, this was disunion as the corollary of reconstruc- 219 THE STORY OF AMERICA tion." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 87. "Attracted by fertility of soil and advan- tages for cattle raising, large numbers of Amer- icans had long been emigrating to Texas. By 18SO they probably comprised a majority of the population. March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence of Mexico, and on April tenth of that year fought in defence of the same the de- cisive battle of San Jacinto. Here Houston gained a complete victory over Santa Anna, the Mexican president, captured him, and extorted his signature to a treaty, acknowledging Texan independence. This, however, as having been forced, the Mexican government refused to ratify. "Not only did the Texans almost to a man wish annexation to our Union, but the dominant wing of the Democratic party in the Union itself was bent upon the same, forcing a demand for this into the National platform in 184*0. . . . Calhoun, Tyler's Secretary of State, more influ- ential than any other man in bringing it about, therefore now advocated it more zealously than ever. "Calhoun's purpose in this was to balance the immense growth of the North by adding to Southern territory Texas which would, of course, become a slave state and perhaps in time make several states. As the war progressed, he grew 220 HISTORICAL NOTES moderate out of fear that the South's show of territorial greed would give the North just ex- cuse for sectional measures." (Andrews' "His- tory of the United States.") 88. "By the Constitution of Mexico slavery was prohibited in Texas ; that alone was suffi- cient reason why the South should wish to control it. Separation was the first step to be taken ; the rest would follow. . . . General Samuel Houston, a Tennessean and a friend of the Presi- dent's, . . . went to Mexico, ostensibly as an emigrant, actually as a revolutionist. All this was an open secret hardly disguised, never seri- ously denied. . . . Adams in his diary says that 'Jackson was so sharp set for Texas that from the first year of his administration he set his double engines to the work of negotiating to buy Texas with one hand and instigating the peo- ple of that province to revolt against Mexico with the other. Houston was his agent for rebellion, and Anthony Butler, a Mississippi land-jobber in Texas, for the purchase. Butler kept him five years on the tenter-hooks of expectation, nego- tiating, wheedling, promising, and finally boast- ing that he had secured the bargain by bribing a priest with half a million dollars.' That method of negotiation, however, Jackson absolutely for- bade. The priest was to compass his end by the use of influence precisely how can only be con- 221 THE STORY OF AMERICA jectured but he was the father-confessor of the sister-in-law of Santa Anna, the Mexican Presi- dent." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 89. "Slavery was in the nature of the case al- ways aggressive. Its contest was with the laws of the universe; the very stars in their courses were against it. ... To be passive was to perish ; it could only live by continual conquest in the field of politics. . . . Slavery had become irresistible by the force of centralization of the Federal government through the power conferred by the constitution upon slaveholders. " 'Domestic slavery instead of being an evil, is the cornerstone of our republican edifice,' said Governor Duff of South Carolina. This was the Southern theory of the Republic not that it was a popular government, but a government in which the slaveholders were the ordained rulers. They assumed to be a privileged aristocracy. It was intended that the supremacy and perpetu- ation of the order should be the fundamental principle of the government, and the moment the Constitution was perverted from that purpose then, from that moment, the allegiance of the or- der ceased. . . . Large rewards were offered in some of the slave holding states for the appre- hension of several of the leading Abolitionists. The Legislature passed a law appropriating five 222 HISTORICAL NOTES thousand dollars to be paid to any person who should arrest, bring to trial and prosecute to con- viction under the laws of the state the editor of The Liberator (William Lloyd Garrison). . . . At a public meeting in Mississippi it was resolved that whoever should circulate anti-slav- ery literature 'was justly worthy in the sight of God and man of immediate death,' and that such would be the penalty in any part of the state. In Tennessee a traveling agent of the Bible Society in whose possession was found some anti-slavery publications, not for sale but for his own use, was sentenced ... to be punished with thirty lashes upon his bare back. ... In Wash- ington Dr. Reuben Crandall, who received some packages, the wrappers of which happened to be anti-slavery newspapers, was thrown into prison and kept there for nine months before he was per- mitted to answer to an indictment for publishing malicious and wicked literature with an intent to excite slaves to insurrections." (Idem.) 90. "Garrison's startling proposition was that all this involved a stupendous lie ; that there was no more necessity for the continuance of murder or robbery or dishonesty, for wrong or outrage of any kind that one man might commit upon an- other ; that on the contrary it must be brought to an immediate end ; that the slave holder must stop holding slaves, as the murderer should cease to 223 THE STORY OF AMERICA kill, etc. . . . The slaveholders heard pres- ently of this new doctrine with consternation. Slavery to them was wealth and power, social su- premacy and supremacy in the state. . . . There came an end to this tranquillity and content- ment in the light of this new doctrine." (Idem.) "Nat Turner, insurgent; born of negro slave parents in Virginia about 1800. In 1831 he con- fided to six men that in his belief he had been chosen by God to lead the slaves to liberty, and laid out a plan to kill every white person and in- cite the whole slave population to insurrection. His party started out from Turner's own house, where his master was killed, and then a movement was made against neighboring plantations where other slaves joined. In forty-eight hours the party numbered sixty and had killed fifty-five white persons. Turner and his men were finally captured in Jerusalem, Virginia, where Turner was hanged. Many of the others were also hanged." (Harper's "Cyclopaedia of United States History.") 91. Wendell Phillips, orator and reformer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 29, 1811. At the time of his graduation from Harvard Col- lege the agitation of the slavery question was vio- lent and widespread, and in 1836 Mr. Phillips joined the Abolitionists. He conceived it such a wrong in the Constitution of the United States 224 HISTORICAL NOTES in sanctioning slavery that he could not consist- ently act under his attorney's oath to that Con- stitution and he abandoned his profession. From that time till the emancipation of the slaves in 1863 he did not cease to lift up his voice against the system of slavery and against the Constitu- tion of the United States. . . . Mr. Phillips was an eloquent, logical and effective speaker. He died in Boston in 1884. 9. "Atherton Gag, the name applied to a res- olution introduced into the National House of Representatives by Charles G. Atherton of New Hampshire, providing that all petitions and pa- pers relating to the subject of slavery should be 'laid on the table without being debated, printed or referred.' The resolution, which was designed to prevent discussion of the slavery question, was passed December 11, 1838, and was rescinded in 1845." (Idem.) 93. Elijah P. Lovejoy, abolitionist, born in Al- bion, Maine, 180&, died in Alton, Illinois, Novem- ber 7, 1837. "In 1829 he became editor of a paper, in which he advocated the claims of Henry Clay for the Presidency. Meeting with a change in religious views, he was licensed to preach on April 18, 1833. On his return to St. Louis he established a religious paper called the Observer, in which he 225 THE STORY OF AMERICA reprobated slavery. Repeated threats of mob violence impelled him to remove his paper in July, 1836, to Al on, Illinois. His press was destroyed by mobs three 'times within the year, yet he pro- cured a fourth one and was engaged in setting it up when a mob, composed mostly of Missourians, again attacked the office. With his friends he defended the building and one of his assailants was killed. After the attacking party had ap- parently withdrawn Mr. Lovejoy opened the door, when he was instantly pierced by five bul- lets and died in a few minutes." (Appleton's "Cyclopasdia of American Biography.") It was at the meeting in Fanueil Hall, Boston, to protest against this murder that Wendell Phil- lips leaped into sudden and lifelong fame. 94. "John Brown, abolitionist, born in Tor- rington, Connecticut, May 9, 1800 ; hanged in Charlestown, Virginia, December , 1859, was a descendant of Peter Brown of the Mayflower. His grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution. . When John was five years of age his father moved to Ohio, . . . and in 1855 mi- grated to Kansas, where as an anti-slavery agi- tator he took an active part against the pro- slavery party. . . . Devout, moral, coura- geous, and intensely earnest, he sought to be an in- strument for the abolition of African slavery from the Republic. The idea that he might become a 226 HISTORICAL NOTES liberator was conceived as early as 1839. In May, 1859, he made his first movement to liber- ate the slaves in Virginia, which ended so disas- trously to himself at Harper's Ferry." (Har- per's "Cyclopaedia of United States History.") 95. "In estimating Mr. Calhoun's position ab- solutely and relatively, he is liable to a less favor- able verdict than his merits demand. His fame results from the possession of an ardent, sincere and intense soul which gave impulse and motive to a mind endowed with extraordinary analytic force, acute and subtle in its insight, fer- tile in suggestion, careful, laborious and profound in research, full of resources and comprehensive in its deduction of general principles. He had a large imagination, though he had little fancy. The estimate we have placed upon the genius of this remarkable man is confirmed by the touching tribute of his rivals at the time of his death. Henry Clay . . . said: 'He pos- sessed an elevated genius of the highest order.' Daniel Webster, his chief competitor in Constitutional debate, said: 'He is a man of undoubted genius and commanding talent. All the country and all the world admit that. I think there is not one of us . . . when he last addressed us from his seat in the Senate, who did not feel that we might imagine that we saw before us a Senator of Rome when 227 THE STORY OF AMERICA Rome survived. . . . I do not believe he had a selfish motive or a selfish feeling.' John Stuart Mill speaks of the great ability of his posthumous work and of its author as 'a man who displayed powers as a speculative political thinker superior to any who has appeared in American politics since the author of The Feder- alist." (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") 96. "He condemned what he deemed usurpation and denounced the influence of [Federal] patron- age as tending to the organization of parties upon the principle of 'the cohesive power of public plunder.' He claimed to belong to neither party, but to lead the band of 'state rights' men, whose course was directed by principle and not by the motives of party triumph or personal ambition." (Idem. ) 97. "After making all allowances it is highly probable that Webster when he made that speech in reply to Hayne was, then and there, the great- est of all orators, living or dead. That speech was not the mere effort of the moment ; it was the sum and substance of his whole moral nature, in- tellectual and political life, gathered up into a thunderbolt of eloquence and launched at once into human history. That speech was his creed, his experience, his aspiration, his work in a 228 HISTORICAL NOTES word, it was himself. After reading that, all else that Webster spoke reads like an echo, a rem- iniscence. . . . The hour and the man had met, and were glorified together." ("World's Classics.") 98. "When Texas asked for admission during Van Buren's administration, and the President declined, it killed him politically. Mr. Webster's unwillingness to abet it as Tyler's Secretary of State caused his removal from the Cabinet. Had Mr. Webster's public career come to an end then and there, his memory would have been revered for devotion to principle." (Scrib- ner's "History of the United States.") "President Taylor's death July 9, 1850 . . . was most unfortunate. He was known not to favor the pro-slavery aggression which, in spite of Clay's personal leaning in the opposite direc- tion, the 'Omnibus Bill' included. Mr. Fillmore, as also Mr. Websttr whom he made his Secre- tary of State, nervous with fear of an anti-slav- ery reputation, went fully Clay's length. The debate on this compromise of 1850 was the occa- sion when Webster deserted the free-soil princi- ples which were now dominant in New England. His celebrated speech March seventh marked the crisis of his life. He argued that the proviso was not needed to prevent slavery in the newly gotten district, while its passage would be a wan- 229 ton provocation to the South. From this mo- ment Massachusetts dropped him. When she next elected a Senator, it was Charles Sumner . . . who went to Congress pledged to fight slavery to death." (Andrews' "History of the United States.") 99. "Clay was unquestionably one of the great- est orators that America ever produced; a man of incorruptible personal integrity, of very great natural ability, but little study, of free and con- vivial habits, of singularly winning address and manners ; not a cautious and safe political leader, but a splendid party chief, idolized by his follow- ers." (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") 100. "He was actuated by a lofty national spirit, proud of his country and ardently devoted to the Union. It was mainly his anxiety to keep the Union intact that inspired his disposition to compromise contested questions. He had in his last hours the satisfaction of seeing his last great work, the compromise of 1850, accepted as a final settlement of the slavery question by the national conventions of both parties. But only two years after his death it became evident that the com- promise had settled nothing. The struggle about slavery broke out anew and brought forth a civil war, the calamity that Clay had been most anxious 230 HISTORICAL NOTES to prevent, leading to general emancipation which Clay would have been glad to see peaceably ac- complished." (Idem.) 101. "When Missouri presented herself with a state constitution, not only recognizing slavery, but also making it the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to prevent free negroes or mulattoes from coming into the state, . . . the House of Representatives refused to admit Missouri as a state with such a constitution. On Clay's motion . . . that the state should never make any laws to prevent from settling within its boundaries any descrip- tion of persons who then or thereafter might be- come citizens, . . . the resolution was adopted. This was Clay's part of the Missouri compromise, and he received general praise as 'the great pacificator.' ... In 1832 a state convention in South Carolina passed an ordinance nullifying the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. President Jackson issued a proclamation against the nullifiers which the governor of South Carolina answered with a counter-proclamation. Clay introduced a bill in behalf of Union and Peace, being a compromise which provided for a gradual reduction of the tariff until 1842, when it should be reduced to a horizontal rate of twenty per cent. This bill was accepted by the nullifi- ers, . . . and Clay was again proclaimed as 231 THE STORY OF AMERICA 'the great pacificator.' . . . Without wait- ing for an enabling act the inhabitants of Cali- fornia . . . had framed a constitution by which slavery was prohibited and applied to Con- gress for admission as a state. . . . Lead- ing Southern men threatened a dissolution of the Union unless slavery were admitted into the ter- ritories acquired from Mexico. On January 24, 1850, Clay brought forth in the Senate 'a com- prehensive scheme of compromise,' which he em- bodied in three bills, one of which, on account of its comprehensiveness, was called the 'omnibus bill.' . . . This was the compromise of 1850." (Idem.) This compromise gave Clay for the third time the title of "the great pacificator." 102. "Clay made speeches on internal improve- ments, advocating a liberal construction of con- stitutional powers . . . and in favor of a tariff law, which became known as the tariff of 1824, giving his policy of protection and internal improvements the name of 'the American sys- tem.' " (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") "Relief came at last with the enactment of the tariff of 1824, to the support of which leading men in both parties patriotically united for the common good. . . . The cooperation of these eminent men is a great historic tribute to the ne- 232 HISTORICAL NOTES cessity and value of protection. Plenty and prosperity followed as if by magic, the legislation to which they gave their support. We have their concurrent testimony that the seven years pre- ceding the enactment of the protective tariff of 1824* were the most discouraging which the young Republic in its brief life had encountered, and that the seven years which followed its enactment were beyond precedent the most prosperous and happy." (From Elaine's "Reply to Mr. Glad- stone's Argument for Free Trade.") 103. "During his retirement (in 1842) he vis- ited different parts of the country, delivering speeches in some of which he pronounced himself in favor not of a 'high tariff,' but of a revenue tariff with incidental protection, repeatedly af- firming that the protective system had been orig- inally designed only as a temporary arrangement to be maintained until the infant industries should have gained sufficient strength to sustain compe- tition with foreign markets and manufacturers." (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biog- raphy.") 104. "Sumner's greatest claim to renown lay in the fact that he raised the question of slavery out of the arena of practical politics into the loftier domain of morals. His treatment of the subject appealed to men's consciences and affections; it 233 THE STORY OF AMERICA struck the deep chord of religious feeling in the country. He abandoned the retirement of the scholar and the student which he loved so well, to go forth and do the work which he seemed to have believed Providence intended him to perform." ("World's Classics.") 105. "While averse to politics he was roused to action by the threatened extension of slavery over new territories. Thus it came about that he was nominated by the Free-Soil party for Con- gress in 1848, but defeated only to be successful in 1851 for the National Senate, in which he sat till his death. As the sole member of the Senate who stood out unflinchingly against slavery, he incurred the enmity of the Southern party by his unbridled invective ; and in 1856 was assaulted in the Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks, member of Congress from South Carolina. The injuries he received from this assault, and from which he never seemed to have thoroughly recov- ered, were severe enough to have incapacitated him for his senatorial duties for more than three years." (Idem.) 106. "With his multifarious learning he united a simplicity of mind which was after all the strong support of an invincible purpose, and his life was crowned by the only success he ever seems to have coveted, and that was the success of the cause 234 HISTORICAL NOTES that gave freedom to the negro slave." (Idem.) 107. "He introduced (in 187&) an unpopular bill which drew from the Massachusetts legislature in 1873 a vote of censure. It was to remove from the regimental colors of the army and from the army registei the names of battles won by the Union in the Civil War. The vote of censure was rescinded in 1874." (Harper's "Cyclopaedic History of the United States.") Mr. Schurz represents him as brooding and mourning over this event, and says : "Oh, those were evil days that winter, days sad and dark, when he sat there in that lonesome chamber, un- able to leave it, the world moving round him and in it so much that was hostile, and he prostrated with the tormenting disease which had returned with violence, unable to defend himself and with this bitter arrow in his heart." 108. "A nature as intense and fiery as his knew neither surrender nor compromise. His existence was bound up in contest it was in strife alone that he could find an outlet for his ag- gressive energy. He quarreled with Grant over the Santo Domingo affair." (Idem.) 109. "No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty none less inclined to take or to touch aught which 235 THE STORY OF AMERICA they have not earned. Let them beware of sur- rendering a political power which they already possess and which if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they and to fix new disabilities and bur- dens upon them till all liberty shall be lost. "There are already among us those who, if the Union be preserved, will live to see it contain two hundred and fifty million people. The strug- gle of to-day is not altogether of to-day it is for a vast future also." (Lincoln's Annual Mes- sage to Congress December 3, 1861.) 110. "That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be si- lent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles right and wrong throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or 236 HISTORICAL NOTES from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." (From Lincoln's reply in seventh and last joint debate with Douglas.) 111. "They [the authors of the Declaration of Independence] meant to set up a standard for a mixed free society which would be familiar to all and revered by all. . . . The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practi- cal use in effecting our separation from Great Britain ; it was not placed in the Declaration for that purpose, but for a future use. Its authors meant it to be as, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to all those who in af- ter times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land and commence their vocation they should have left for them at least one hard nut to crack." (From Lincoln's speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857.) "There is one point, not so hackneyed as others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place Capital on an equal footing with if not above Labor. . . . It is assumed that Labor is available only in connection with Capital ; that nobody labors unless somebody else, 237 THE STORY OF AMERICA owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. . . . Now there is no such relation between Labor and Capital as thus as- sumed, nor is there any such a thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired la- borer. Both these assumptions are false and the inferences from them are groundless. Labor is prior to and independent of Capital. Capital is only the fruit of Labor, and could never have ex- isted if Labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of Capital and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are worthy of protection the same as any other rights. . . . There is and always will be a relation between Labor and Capital produc- ing mutual benefits. The error consists in as- suming that the whole labor of a community ex- ists within that relation." (Lincoln's message to Congress December 3, 1861.) 113. "We are now a mighty nation; . . . we are about thirty millions of people and we own and inhabit about one-fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. . . . We have besides these men descended by blood from our ancestors among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all from these men ; they are men who have come from Europe, German, Irish, French and Scandinavians, men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose 238 HISTORICAL NOTES ancestors have come. . . . But when they look back through that old Declaration of Inde- pendence, they find that those old men say that 'We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to these men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them ; they find they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are. Now I ask you in all soberness if all these things [the insinuations of the inequality between men caused by social conditions] if indulged in, if rat- ified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country and to transform this gov- ernment into a government of some other form? These arguments that are made that an inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they can enjoy, . . . they are arguments that kings have made for enslaving people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the ar- guments in favor of kingcraft were of this class ; they always bestrode the necks of the people not that they wanted to do it, but that the people were better off for being ridden." (From Lin- coln's speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858.) 114. "This argument of the Judge [Douglas] 239 THE STORY OF AMERICA is the same old serpent that says 'You work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it.' Turn it whatever way you will whether it come from the mouth of a king, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of the men of one race as a reason for enslaving an- other race, it is all the same old serpent; and I hold . . . that it does not stop with the ne- gro. I should like to know where it will stop if one man says it does not mean the negro [that is, the principle of being created equal] why not an- other say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not truth let us go back to the statute book in which we find it and tear it out. Who is so bold as to do it? If it is not true, let us tear it out. . . . If we cannot give free- dom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. Let us turn this government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution found it. If we do not do so, we are tending in the opposite direction, . . . working in the traces that tend to make this one universal slave nation. Let us discard all these things until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal." (Idem.) 115. Hon. Joseph Choate, then ambassador to England, thus describes the appearance of Lin- coln and the impression he made on being first 240 HISTORICAL NOTES presented to a New York audience in Cooper Union. "He appeared in every sense of the word one of the plain people among whom he loved to be counted. ... It was a great audience, in- cluding all the noted men all the learned and cultured of his party in New York. For an hour and a half he held the vast audience in the hollow of his hand. His style of speech and manner of delivery were severely simple. What Lowell called 'the grand simplicities of the Bible,' with which he was so familiar, were re- flected in his discourse. ... It was marvel- lous to see how this untutored man by mere self- discipline and the chastening of his own spirit had outgrown all meretricious arts and found his way to the grandeur and strength of absolute sim- plicity." 116. The following words have been imputed to Lincoln, though I am not able to indicate where in his speeches they may be found : "I see in the near future a crisis arising which unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to pro- long its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few 241 THE STORY OF AMERICA hands and the republic destroyed. I feel at this time more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before. God grant that my fears may prove groundless." Even if these are not his exact words, anyone familiar with his well known theories of govern- ment will see that they are in exact accordance with his expressions. 117. "Poor and humbly born, he had to make his own way in the world. ... A cadetship was given him at the military academy of West Point, and after a brief period of service in the Mexican war, in which he was three times men- tioned in despatches, seeing no opening for a sol- dier in what seemed likely to be days of unbroken peace, he settled down to a humble life in a pro- vincial town. Citizens of St. Louis will remem- ber the rough backwoodsman, who sold cord wood from door to door and who afterwards became a leather seller in the obscure town of Galena. Those who knew him in those days have said that if anyone had predicted that the silent, unpros- perous, unambitious man, whose chief aim was to get a plank road from his shop to the railway station, would become twice President of the United States and one of the foremost men of his day, the prophecy would have seemed extrava- gantly ridiculous." (Canon Farrar's funeral oration on Grant.) 242 HISTORICAL NOTES 118. "Grant possessed in a striking degree the essential characteristics of a successful soldier. His self reliance was one of his pronounced traits and enabled him at critical moments to decide promptly the most important questions without useless delay in seeking advice from others and to assume the gravest responsibilities without asking anyone to share them. He had a fertility of resource and a faculty of adapting means at hand to the accomplishment of his purposes which contributed no small share to his success. His moral and physical courage were equal to every emergency in which he was placed. His unassum- ing manner, his purity of character and absolute loyalty to his superiors and to the work in which he was engaged, inspired loyalty in others and gained him the devotion of the humblest of his subordinates. He was singularly calm and pa- tient under all circumstances, was never unduly elated by victory or depressed by defeat, and never uttered an oath or an imprecation. . He was possessed of a physical constitu- tion that enabled him to endure every form of fatigue and privation incident to military service. While his achievements in actual battle eclipse by their brilliance the strategy and grand tactics employed in his campaigns, yet the ex- traordinary combinations effected and the skill and boldness exhibited in moving large armies . entitle him to as much credit as the qualities he 243 THE STORY OF AMERICA displayed in the face of the enemy." (Apple- ton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") 119. "What verdict history may pronounce on him as a politician, I know not. . . . Some think it would have been well for Grant if he had died in 1865 when steeples clanged and cities were illuminated and congregations rose in his honor. Many and dark clouds overshadowed the last of his days the blow of financial ruin, the dread that men should suppose that he had tarnished his reputation. . . . But here and now the voice of censure, deserved or undeserved, is silent. Let us record his virtue in brass ; but let his faults, whatever they may have been, be writ in water." (From Canon Far- rar's funeral oration on Grant.) 120. "His only authentic expression of opin- ion and sentiment on the subject of secession is . . . a passage ... in a letter to his sister: 'We are now in a state of war which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn, and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet, . . . with all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have 244 HISTORICAL NOTES not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the army and . . . hope I may never be called upon to draw my sword save in defence of my na- tive state.' " (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") . "The war being ended, Lee withdrew at once from public affairs, betaking himself to the work of a simple citizen, not morosely or in sul- len vexation of spirit, but manfully and with a firm conviction of duty. . . . He became president of Washington College at Lexington, Virginia (now Washington and Lee University), and passed the remainder of his life as an earnest educator of youth. . . . He was modest in the estimation of himself, but not lacking in that self-confidence which gives strength. ... In manner he was dignified, courteous and perfectly simple ; in temper he was calm, with that placidity of strength which is accustomed to self control." . "The Union or Northern troops were completely routed at Bull Run; there was con- sternation in the North and a corresponding ex- ultation in the South. ... It was at this time that Grant conquered at Vicksburg, and Meade won at Gettysburg. ... If Lee had beaten Meade, the North would have been in a 245 THE STORY OF AMERICA panic of fear and the Union disrupted ; but as Lee was beaten, the Confederates were thereafter on the defensive. The Confederate hope was not ut- terly destroyed at Gettysburg; had the issue been different, however, Union hope would have been destroyed. And so Gettysburg was one of the great decisive battles of the world. . . . The victory gained by Meade, . . . though in a purely strategic sense not a decisive victory at all, had the moral effect of convincing thousands of doubters that there was still hope for the preser- vation of the Union, while politically it stopped Lee in a movement which might very well have ended in his dictating terms of peace to Lincoln's Cabinet at Washington. . . . By this re- markable series of bloody struggles, in which it is said the losers lost some fifteen thousand five hundred men killed and wounded and the victors over sixteen thousand, Lee's invasion of the North was put a stop to. . . . After Gettysburg and until the final surrender Lee never again found himself in the position of an invader, the Confederacy being thenceforth on the defensive." (Creasy's "Decisive Battles.") "My dear General, I do not believe you appre- ciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with other later successes, have ended the war. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I 246 HISTORICAL NOTES am distressed immeasurably." (Letter of Pres- ident Lincoln to General Meade.) . "The army of northern Virginia was re- duced by famine, disease, death, wounds and cap- ture, to a feeble few. These struggled against enormous odds with almost unexampled fortitude, but were compelled to yield to overwhelming num- bers and strength. A portion of Sheridan's cav- alry . . . captured four Confederate supply trains at Appomattox Station. . . . Lee's vanguard approaching were pushed back to Ap- pomattox Court House, five miles northward, near which was Lee's main army. . . . Sheridan hurried forward the remainder of his command, and on that evening he stood directly across Lee's pathway of retreat. Lee's last avenue of escape was closed, and on the following day he met Gen- eral Grant at Appomattox Court House to con- summate an act of surrender. . . . The terms prescribed by Grant were extraordinary in their leniency and magnanimity, and Lee was much touched by them." (Harper's "Cyclopaedia of United States History.") "In the southern states the confusion was indescribable. The white people, were endeavor- ing to get back into their own hands the political power which had passed into the hands of the blacks under the operation of the reconstruction 247 laws and the acts of Congress disfranchising those who had aided and abetted the recent re- bellion. . . . Dependent as they [the re- constructed governments] were upon numerical strength of the black majorities, made up of ig- norant and unintelligent voters, it was hardly possible that these governments could long with- stand the attacks of the determined men whose trained political sagacity and overpowering una- nimity made the contest between the opposing forces very unequal. Secret political associa- tions, masked and disguised under various titles, but uniformly bent on the extinction of the negro vote, were organized in nearly all the southern states. . . . Loyal southern white men who had stood by the Federal Union more or less openly during the dark and trying times of the war hesitated to lend a hand to support the col- ored voters of the South in the retention of their newly secured right to vote and hold office." (Scribner's "History of the United States.") 125. "It cannot be denied that the radical method of reconstruction resorted to by Congress occasioned dreadful evils. Among other things it ignored the natural prejudices of the whites, many of whom were as loyal as any citizens in the land. The South, subjected to a second con- quest after having laid down its arms, felt out- raged and grew sullen. To most people in that 248 HISTORICAL NOTES section, as well as to very many in the North, this dictation by Congress to acknowledged states in time of peace seemed highhanded and guilty usurpation. . . . Black legislatures inevi- tably abused their power, becoming the instruments of carpet-bag leaders and rings in robbing white property holders. Nor could any but doctri- naires or the stupid have expected that the whites would long submit to such a regime. ... In state after state the whites . . . recovered their ancient ascendency. Where their aims could not be realized by persuasion or other mild means, resort was had to merciless intimidation and violence. The Ku Klux Klan, a great secret society, was organized for this rough business, numbering . . . among its abettors or mem- bers citizens of the highest respectability." (An- drews' "History of the United States.") "Robert Fulton was born in Little Brit- ain, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765, re- ceived a common school education, became a min- iature painter, and at the age of twenty was prac- ticing that profession in Philadelphia. Then he went to England and studied painting under Benjamin West, became a civil engineer, and made himself familiar with the steam engine then just improved by Watt. ; , . He wrote and published essays on canals and canal navi- gation. . . . He then went to Paris and re- 249 THE STORY OF AMERICA mained seven years, . . . studying lan- guages and invented a torpedo. ... In 1807 he perfected his steamboat for navigating the Hudson, having been aided by Robert R. Liv- ingston. . . . Livingston had made experi- ments with steamboats as early as 1798, when he was granted the exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of the State by steam. Fulton was finally included in the provisions of the act, and in September, 1807, the Clermont, the first steam- boat that navigated the Hudson, made a success- ful voyage from New York to Albany and back." (Harper's "Cyclopaedia of United States His- tory.") . "Eli Whitney, inventor, born in West- boro, Massachusetts, December 8, 1765. In the year of his graduation from [Yale] col- lege he went to Georgia and became an inmate of the family of Mrs. General Greene, and there in- vented his Cotton Gin which gave a wonderful im- pulse to the cultivation of the cotton plant, ren- dering it an enormous item in the foreign and domestic commerce of the United States. The seeds of the cotton raised in the United States adhered so firmly to the fibre that it was difficult to separate them from it. The seeds were sep- arated from the cotton-wool by the slow process of picking by hand. . . . The separation of one pound of wool from the seeds was regarded 250 HISTORICAL NOTES as a good day's work for a woman. So limited was the production on account of the labor that even high prices did not stimulate its cultivation, and the entire crop on the United States in 1791 was about two million pounds. . . . The im- mediate influence of Whitney's cotton gin . . was remarkable. It played an important part in the social, commercial and political history of the country for over seventy years. . . . Its effects upon the industrial pursuits of nearly one- half the nation were marvelous. . . . The cotton gin revived the dying institution of slavery, and made cotton, its representative, king of the nation, and for fifty years swayed an imperial sceptre almost unchallenged." (Idem.) 128. "Planters came from all parts of the South to see the wonderful machine which could do the work in a day of a thousand women. The workshop of the inventor was broken into and the model carried off. Imperfect machines were made by common mechanics. . . . The gin was patented before any [imitations] were made. The violators were prosecuted, but packed juries gave verdicts against the inventor. Even State legislatures broke their bargains, . . . and when Whitney . . . asked Congress for an extension of his patent, the members of the cotton states, whose constituents had been enriched by the invention, vehemently opposed the petitioner, 251 THE STORY OF AMERICA and it failed. . . . Eli Whitney, a Yankee schoolmaster, built the throne of King Cotton, but was denied his just wages by the subjects of the monarch." (Idem.) 129. "Samuel Morse, founder of the American system of electro-magnetic telegraphy, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1791, died in New York City, 1872. Mr. Morse first engaged in the study and pursuit of art, miniature and portrait painting, and gained a wide reputation, having painted some of the famous portraits that now hang in the public galleries of the nation. He had become interested in the study of electricity and magnetism while at college, and afterwards became interested in the lectures of Prof. Dana before the New York Athenaeum. It was while conversing about the subject of these lectures that suddenly the notion of the possibility of teleg- raphy entered his mind. On October 1, 1832, he sailed from Havre . . . for New York and among his fellow passengers was Charles T. Jackson, then lately from the laboratories of the great French physicists, where he had made spe- cial studies in electricity and magnetism. A con- versation in the early part of the voyage turned on the recent experiments of Ampere with the electro-magnet. When the question whether the velocity of electricity is retarded by the length of the wire was asked, Dr. Jackson replied 252 HISTORICAL NOTES that 'electricity passes instantaneously over any length of wire.' Morse then said, 'If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted by electricity.' The idea took fast hold of him, and thenceforth all his energies were devoted to the development of the electric telegraph. 'If it will go ten miles without stop- ping,' he exclaimed, 'I can make it go around the world.' ' (Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography.") 130. "Thomas A. Edison, born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847 ; had no school education whatever ; be- gan life as a newsboy, selling papers on the train ; got interested in telegraphy, invented the system of sending dual messages over the same wire, in- terested capital, settled in Menlo Park, where with every equipment conceivable for research and experiment he has startled the world with his achievements. "His inventions are many and varied. His contributions to the development of telegraphy are represented by sixty patents and caveats as- signed to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company of New York, and fifty to the Automatic Tele- graphy Company. His inventions include the in- candescent electric light, the carbon telegraph transmitter, the micro-tasimeter for the detec- tion of small changes in the temperature, the meg- 253 THE STORY OF AMERICA aphone to magnify sound, the phonograph, the patent of which sold for $1,000,000, the aero- phone, the kinetoscope, etc. On September 7, 1889, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government." (Idem.) 131. "Aside from West Virginia, made during the war from the loyal part of Old Virginia, the new states taken into the Union since 1860 are: Kansas, 1861; Nevada, 1864; Nebraska, 1867; Colorado, 1876; North Dakota, 1889; South Da- kota, 1889 ; Montana, 1889 ; Washington, 1889 ; Idaho, 1890; and Wyoming, 1890. The whole number of states has become thus far forty-four. We have also in the year 1894* four organized ter- ritories: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Okla- homa. [All of these are now (1911) states, mak- ing the whole number forty-eight.] . . . Since I860 there has been a steady filling up of the Pacific Coast, and an equally continual ex- tension of population to the west on this side the Rockies. . . . The construction of the five great Pacific railway lines, the Northern, the Un- ion, the Atlantic and Pacific, the Southern, and the Great Northern, with their branches, has brought into valuable employ infinite reaches of fertile land, previously as good as desert- land . . ." (Andrews' "History of the United States.") 254 HISTORICAL NOTES 132. "For more than a century Spain had been a dying nation while the effect of her rule, or rather misrule, in Cuba was a menace to peace and good order not only to this country, but of every other country having relations with the is- land. . . . The Ten Years War, with all its cruelty and horrors, had ceased purely through the exhaustion of the insurgents, only to be re- commenced with renewed vigor, with the insurrec- tion which had been in progress for two years at the outbreak of the late war. The voice of civiliza- tion demanded intervention. . . . The char- acter of the war waged by Spain against the in- surgents was cruel and often barbarous, despite the warnings given by our nation that it should be conducted in a humane manner. It was becoming a war of extermination. 'The Pearl of the An- tilles' was ruined and its population reduced many hundreds of thousands by death, in many cases by starvation." (Idem.) 133. "The recent war with Spain was the logi- cal outcome of the conditions which existed in Cuba. It was evident not only to this country but to all the world, that Spanish rule on this side of the ocean must necessarily cease if peace and international harmony were to be preserved. The great Spanish nation of the sixteenth cen- tury with its rich possessions encircling the globe, had so decayed in the nineteenth century as to 255 unfit it in every way, physically and financially, to control not only Cuba but the remain- ing colonies. . . . With a forbearance which perhaps no other nation would have shown, we had preserved the strictest neutrality at great cost, with much loss in our trade relations. On February 15, 1898, the world was startled by the blowing up of the Maine of the United States navy in the harbor of Havana, with the loss of 253 of her crew, . . . and from that moment Spanish rule in Cuba was doomed. The whole nation with one voice demanded its termina- tion. . . . On April twenty-fifth Congress declared war. . . . On July twenty-sixth (1898) the Spanish government asked for terms of peace. . . . On December tenth, the treaty of peace was signed in Paris. Porto Rico and the Philippines were ceded to the United States, and Cuba became a free and independent Repub- lic." (Harper's "Cyclopaedia of United States History.") 134. "Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the Philip- pine insurgents against Spanish authority and or- ganizer and president of the so-called Filipino Republic . . . presented himself to Admiral Dewey at Cavite shortly before the battle of Ma- nila bay, and was given an opportunity to or- ganize the Filipinos against Spanish author- ity. . . . The cruel treatment of the Spanish 256 HISTORICAL NOTES prisoners by the Filipinos and their claim to the right of sacking the city after the capture of Manila, soon caused serious trouble in the rela- tions between the United States and the natives. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo organized his Filipino Republic with himself as pres- ident and soon proclaimed himself as dictator. He protested against the Spanish- Ameri- can treaty of peace which ceded the Philippine Is- lands to the United States, and on the eve of Feb- ruary fourth, 1899, his troops attacked the Am- erican lines in the suburbs of Manila. Aguinaldo himself was captured by General Fun- ston on March twenty-third, 1901, and was im- mediately taken to Manila." (Harper's "Cyclo- paedia of United States History.") 135. Concerning the current critical moral con- dition of our country, Dr. Washington Gladden says in "The New Idolatry" : " 'Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell from Heaven,' Milton calls him. To him the homage of the multitude is given with no reserve. The worship of Mammon is the one stupendous fact of this generation. Men do believe in him ; their faith is sin- cere and unswerving; they are ready to prove it every day by their works. They have no doubt of his power or his supremacy ; all things are pos- sible, they think, to those who secure his favor. That he holds in his hands the real good of life for 257 THE STORY OF AMERICA man, and that there is no real happiness for any unless they propitiate him, is the first article of the creed of the great majority. It is not the rich or the prosperous alone who hold this creed; the poor and the degraded are equally ensnared by it ; their expectations of good are concen- trated upon the same potentate. "Never, since time began, has his worship been so widespread, so nearly universal as it is to-day. "It seems to be a time, just now, for some pretty serious thinking on the part of Christian people, respecting this form of idolatry. None more debasing has yet appeared before men ; its devastations threaten the life of the nation. "It is producing social and political disintegra- tion. It is sowing dishonesty, suspicion, enmity. It is hurrying us on the paths that lead to an- archy. For it must not be forgotten that Mammon cannot rule. Rule implies orderly governance, and what Mammon inevitably brings is disorder and strife and social chaos. A society in which the love of money is the ruling passion can have no end but destruction." Says Henry George in "Progress and Poverty": "The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamed. But in factories where labor saving machinery has reached it most wonderful development, little children are at work ; wherever the new forces are 258 HISTORICAL NOTES anything like fully utilized, large classes are main- tained by charity or live on the verge of recourse to it; amid the greatest accumulation of wealth, men die of starvation, and puny infants suckle dry breasts ; while everywhere the greed of gain, the worship of wealth, shows the force of the fear of want. The promised land flies before us like the mirage. The fruits of the tree of knowl- edge turn as we grasp them to apples of Sodom that crumble at the touch. "So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent. The reaction must come. The tower leans from its foundations, and every new story but hastens to the final catastrophe. To educate men who must be condemned to poverty, is but to make them restive; to base on a state of most glaring social inequality political institu- tions under which men are theoretically equal, is to stand a pyramid on its apex." Said Senator Robert LaFollette in U. S. Sen- ate, March 1908: Mr. President, I have talked in vain if I have not made plain the thought that there is just one issue before the country to-day. It is not currency. It is not tariff. It is not railroad regulation. These 259 THE STORY OF AMERICA and other important questions are but phases of one great conflict. Let no man think he is not concerned; that his State or his constituency is not interested. There is no remote corner of this country where the power of Special Interest is not encroaching on public rights. Let no man think this is a question of party pol- itics. It strikes down to the very foundation of our free institutions. The System knows no party. It is supplanting government. Mr. President, I think I may say without risk of being misunderstood, at least by those of whom I speak, that I know something of the sentiment of the people of this country. I have found no difference of opinion among them as to existing conditions and the causes underlying it all. In Wisconsin, and from New York to the Pacific States, the people I have met hold one opin- ion, have one conviction. They are deeply concerned. They understand. Men back of the System seem to know not what they do. In their strife for more money, more power more power, more money there is no time for thought, for reflection. They look neither forward nor backward. Government, society, and the indi- vidual are swallowed up in the struggle for greater control. The plain man living the wholesome life of peace and contentment has a better perspective, a saner judgment. He has ideals and conscience and human emotion. Home, children, neighbors, friends, church, schools, country, constitute life. 260 HISTORICAL NOTES He knows very definitely the conditions affecting the rights guaranteed him by the Constitution, but he longs for expression, he longs for leadership. Blind indeed is he who does not see what the time portends. He who would remain in public service must serve the public, not the System. He must serve his country, not Special Interests. 261 LONDON BOOK CO* 224 W. Broadway mortyf 000 858 736 7