Opening
A NEW HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
The Greater Republic
EMBRACING
THE GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR COUNTRY FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT EVENTFUL YEAR
SHOWING HOW FROM THIRTEEN COLONIES WITH A SCATTERED POPULATION ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST A GREAT REPUBLIC HAS BEEN FORMED, EMBRACING FORTY-FIVE STATES WITH 75,000,000 INHABITANTS AND VAST COLONIAL POSSESSIONS IN TWO HEMISPHERES
By CHARLES MORRIS, LL.D.
Author of "Decisive Events in American History," "Half Hours with the Best American Authors," "An Historical Review of Civilization," Etc., Etc.
Embellished With Over 300 New Engravings
ILLUSTRATING ALL THAT IS INTERESTING AND INSPIRING IN OUR HISTORY
JOHN C. WINSTON & CO. PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO 1899
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1899, by
W.E. SCULL.
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
* * * * *
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.
The late war with Spain marks a momentous epoch in the progress of our country, whose history, stretching through the centuries of discovery, exploration, settlement, the struggle for independence, foreign and domestic war, lofty achievement in all departments of knowledge and progress, is the most interesting in human annals. It is a record full of instruction and incitement to endeavor, which must fill every American with pride in his birthright, and with gratitude to Him who holds the earth and the sea in the hollow of His hand.
The following pages contain a complete, accurate, and graphic history of our country from the first visit of the Northmen, a thousand years ago, to the opening of its new destiny, through the late struggle, resulting in the freeing of Cuba, the wresting of the Philippines, Porto Rico, and the Ladrones from the tyranny of the most cruel of modern nations, and the addition of Hawaii to our domain. The Greater United States, at one bound, assumes its place in the van of nations, and becomes the foremost agent in civilizing and christianizing the world.
The task, long committed to England, Germany, France, Russia, and later to Japan, must henceforth be shared with us, whose glowing future gives promise of the crowning achievement of the ages. With a fervent trust in a guiding Providence, and an abiding confidence in our ability, we enter upon the new and grander career, as in obedience to the divine behest that the Latin race must decrease and the Anglo-Saxon increase, and that the latter, in a human sense, must be the regenerator of all who are groping in the night of ignorance and barbarism.
It is a wonderful story that is traced in the pages that follow. A comprehension of the present and of the promise of the future necessitates an understanding of the past. The history of the Greater United States, therefore, is complete, from the first glimpse, in the early morning of October 12, 1492, of San Salvador by Columbus, through the settlement of the colonies, their struggles for existence, the colonial wars, the supreme contest between England and France for mastery in the New World, the long gloom of the Revolution that brought independence, the founding of the Republic, in 1787, the growth and expansion of the nation, the mighty War for the Union that united the divided house and planted it upon a rock, and the later "war for humanity," when the perishing islands, stretching their hands to us in helpless anguish, were gathered under the flag of freedom, there to remain through all time to come.
There have been many leaders in this great work. Not the story of the deeds alone, but of those who performed them is told. History, biography, and all that is interesting and profitable to know are here truthfully set forth, for their lesson is one whose value is beyond measurement.
In addition to the history of that which was simply the United States, a complete account is given of our new colonial possessions, Hawaii, Porto Rico, the Philippines, the Ladrones, and of Cuba, the child of our adoption. Their geography, their soil, climate, productions, inhabitants, and capabilities are set forth with fullness and accuracy.
In conclusion, the publishers confidently claim that "The Greater Republic" is the fullest, most interesting, reliable, and instructive work of the kind ever offered the public.
I. DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
The Visits of the Northmen to the New World--The Indians and Mound Builders--Christopher Columbus--His Discovery of America--Amerigo Vespucci--John Cabot--Spanish Explorers--Balboa--His Discovery of the Pacific--Magellan--Ponce de Leon--De Narvaez--De Soto--Menendez --French Explorers--Verrazzani--Cartier--Ribault--Laudonniere--Champlain --La Salle--English Explorers--Sir Hugh Willoughby--Martin Frobisher--Sir Humphrey Gilbert--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Lost Colony--Dutch Explorer--Henry Hudson 33
II. SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES
Virginia,--Founding of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--Introduction of African Slavery--Indian Wars--Bacon's Rebellion--Forms of Government--Prosperity--Education--_New England_,--Plymouth--Massachusetts Bay Colony--Union of the Colonies--Religious Persecution--King Philip's War--The Witchcraft Delusion--New Hampshire,--_The Connecticut Colony_,--The New Haven Colony,--Union of the Colonies--Indian Wars--The Charter Oak--Rhode Island,--Different Forms of Government--New York,--The Dutch and English Settlers--_New Jersey_,--Delaware,--Pennsylvania,--Maryland,--Mason and Dixon's Line--The Carolinas,--Georgia 47
III. THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
King William's War--Queen Anne's War--King George's War--The French and Indian War--England and France Rivals in the Old World and the New--The Early French Settlements--The Disputed Territory--France's Fatal Weakness--Washington's Journey Through the Wilderness--The First Fight of the War--The War Wholly American for Two Years--The Braddock Massacre--The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt--Fall of Quebec--Momentous Consequences of the Great English Victory--The Growth and Progress of the Colonies and their Home Life 75
IV. THE REVOLUTION--THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND
Causes of the Revolution--The Stamp Act--The Boston Tea Party--England's Unbearable Measures--The First Continental Congress--The Boston Massacre--Lexington and Concord--The Second Continental Congress--Battle of Bunker Hill--Assumption of Command by Washington--British Evacuation of Boston--Disastrous Invasion of Canada 89
Chapter V
THE REVOLUTION (CONTINUED). THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA.
Declaration of Independence--The American Flag--Battle of Long Island--Washington's Retreat Through the Jerseys--Trenton and Princeton--In Winter Quarters--Lafayette--Brandywine and Germantown--At Valley Forge--Burgoyne's Campaign--Port Schuyler and Bennington--Bemis Heights and Stillwater--The Conway Cabal--Aid from France--Battle of Monmouth--Molly Pitcher--Failure of French Aid--Massacre at Wyoming--Continental Money--Stony Point--Treason of Arnold--Paul Jones' Great Victory 103
VI. THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH (CONCLUDED)
Capture of Savannah--British Conquest of Georgia--Fall of Charleston--Bitter Warfare in South Carolina--Battle of Camden--Of King's Mountain--Of the Cowpens--Battle of Guilford Court-House--Movements of Cornwallis--The Final Campaign--Peace and Independence 131
VII. ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES
The Method of Government During the Revolution--Impending Anarchy--The State Boundaries--State Cessions of Land--Shays' Rebellion--Adoption of the Constitution--Its Leading Features--The Ordinance of 1787--Formation of Parties--Election of the First President and Vice-President 143
Chapter VIII
ADMINISTRATIONS OF WASHINGTON, JOHN ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON--1789-1809.
Washington--His Inauguration as First President of the United States--Alexander Hamilton--His Success at the Head of the Treasury Department--The Obduracy of Rhode Island--Establishment of the United States Bank--Passage of a Tariff Bill--Establishment of a Mint--The Plan of a Federal Judiciary--Admission of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee--Benjamin Franklin--Troubles with the Western Indians--Their Defeat by General Wayne--Removal of the National Capital Provided for--The Whiskey Insurrection--The Course of "Citizen Genet"--Jay's Treaty--Re-election of Washington--Resignation of Jefferson and Hamilton--Washington's Farewell Address--Establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point--The Presidential Election of 1796--John Adams--Prosperity of the Country--Population of the Country in 1790--Invention of the Cotton Gin--Troubles with France--War on the Ocean--Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief--Peace Secured--The Alien and Sedition Laws--The Census of 1800--The Presidential Election of 1800--The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution--Thomas Jefferson--Admission of Ohio--The Indiana Territory--The Purchase of Louisiana--Its Immense Area--Abolishment of the Slave Trade--War with Tripoli--The Lewis and Clark Expedition --Alexander Hamilton Killed in a Duel by Aaron Burr--The First Steamboat on the Hudson--The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic--England's Oppressive Course Toward the United States--Outrage by the British Ship Leander--The Affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake--Passage of the Embargo Act--The Presidential Election of 1808 153
IX. ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON, 1809-1817. THE WAR OF 1812
James Madison--The Embargo and the Non-Intercourse Acts--Revival of the Latter Against England--The Little Belt and the President--Population of the United States in 1810--Battle of Tippecanoe--Declaration of War Against England--Comparative Strength of the Two Nations on the Ocean--Unpopularity of the War in New England--Preparations Made by the Government--Cowardly Surrender of Detroit--Presidential Election of 1812--Admission of Louisiana and Indiana--New National Bank Chartered--Second Attempt to Invade Canada--Battle of Queenstown Heights--Inefficiency of the American Forces in 1812--Brilliant Work of the Navy--The Constitution and the Guerriere--The Wasp and the Frolic--The United States and the Macedonian--The Constitution and the Java--Reorganization and Strengthening of the Army--Operations in the West--Gallant Defense of Fort Stephenson--American Invasion of Ohio and Victory of the Thames--Indian Massacre at Fort Mimms--Capture of York (Toronto)--Defeat of the Enemy at Sackett's Harbor--Failure of the American Invasion of Canada--The Hornet and Peacock--Capture of the Chesapeake--"Don't Give Up the Ship"--Captain Decatur Blockaded at New London--Capture of the Argus by the Enemy--Cruise of the Essex--The Glorious Victory of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie--Success of the American Arms in Canada--Battle of the Chippewa--Of Lundy's Lane--Decisive Defeat of the Enemy's Attack on Plattsburg--Punishment of the Creek Indians for the Massacre at Fort Mimms--Vigorous Action by the National Government--Burning of Washington by the British--The Hartford Convention 181
Chapter X
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JAMES MONROE AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 1817-1829.
James Monroe--The "Era of Good Feeling"--The Seminole War--Vigorous Measures of General Jackson--Admission of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri--The Missouri Compromise--The Monroe Doctrine--Visit of Lafayette--Introduction of the Use of Gas--Completion of the Erie Canal--The First "Hard Times"--Extinction of the West Indian Pirates--Presidential Election of 1824--John Quincy Adams--Prosperity of the Country --Introduction of the Railway Locomotive--Trouble with the Cherokees in Georgia--Death of Adams and Jefferson--Congressional Action on the Tariff--Presidential Election of 1828 205
Chapter XI
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JACKSON, VAN BUREN, W.H. HARRISON, AND TYLER, 1829-1845.
Andrew Jackson--"To the Victors Belong the Spoils"--The President's Fight with the United States Bank--Presidential Election of 1828--Distribution of the Surplus in the United States Treasury Among the Various States--The Black Hawk War--The Nullification Excitement--The Seminole War--Introduction of the Steam Locomotive--Anthracite Coal, McCormick's Reaper, and Friction Matches--Great Fire in New York--Population of the United States in 1830--Admission of Arkansas and Michigan--Abolitionism --France and Portugal Compelled to Pay their Debts to the United States--The Specie Circular, John Caldwell Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster--Presidential Election of 1836--Martin Van Buren --The Panic of 1837--Rebellion in Canada--Population of the United States in 1840--Presidential Election of 1840--William Henry Harrison --His Death--John Tyler--His Unpopular Course--The Webster-Ashburton Treaty--Civil War in Rhode Island--The Anti-rent War in New York--A Shocking Accident--Admission of Florida--Revolt of Texas Against Mexican Rule--The Alamo--San Jacinto--The Question of the Annexation of Texas--The State Admitted--The Copper Mines of Michigan--Presidential Election of 1844--The Electro-magnetic Telegraph--Professor Morse--His Labors in Bringing the Invention to Perfection 215
XII. FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 1840
The Origin of the "Caucus"--The Election of 1792--The First Stormy Election--The Constitution Amended--Improvement of the Method of Nominating Presidential Candidates--The First Presidential Convention--Convention in Baltimore in 1832--Exciting Scenes--The Presidential Campaign of 1820--"Old Hickory"--Andrew Jackson's Popularity--Jackson Nominated--"Old Hickory" Defeated--The "Log-Cabin" and "Hard-Cider" Campaign of 1840--"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"--Peculiar Feature of the Harrison Campaign 239
XIII. ADMINISTRATION OF POLK, 1845-1849
James K. Polk--The War with Mexico--The First Conflict--Battle of Resaca de la Palma--Vigorous Action of the United States Government--General Scott's Plan of Campaign--Capture of Monterey--An Armistice--Capture of Saltillo--Of Victoria--Of Tampico--General Kearny's Capture of Santa Fe--Conquest of California--Wonderful March of Colonel Doniphan--Battle of Buena Vista--General Scott's March Toward the City of Mexico--Capture of Vera Cruz--American Victory at Cerro Gordo--Five American Victories in One Day--Santa Anna--Conquest of Mexico Completed--Terms of the Treaty of Peace--The New Territory Gained--The Slavery Dispute --The Wilmot Proviso--"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"--Adjustment of the Oregon Boundary--Admission of Iowa and Wisconsin--The Smithsonian Institute--Discovery of Gold in California--The Mormons--The Presidential Election of 1848 251
Chapter XIV
ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN, 1849-1857.
Zachary Taylor--The "Irrepressible Conflict" in Congress--The Omnibus Bill--Death of President Taylor--Millard Fillmore--Death of the Old Leaders and Debut of the New--The Census of 1850--Surveys for a Railway to the Pacific--Presidential Election of 1852--Franklin Pierce--Death of Vice-President King--A Commercial Treaty Made with Japan--Filibustering Expeditions--The Ostend Manifesto--The "Know Nothing" Party--The Kansas-Nebraska Bill and Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 269
Chapter XV
ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN, 1861-1865 THE WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861.
Abraham Lincoln--Major Anderson's Trying Position--Jefferson Davis--Inauguration of President Lincoln--Bombardment of Fort Sumter--War Preparations North and South--Attack on Union Troops in Baltimore--Situation of the Border States--Unfriendliness of England and France--Friendship of Russia--The States that Composed the Southern Confederacy--Union Disaster at Big Bethel--Success of the Union Campaign in Western Virginia--General George B. McClellan--First Battle of Bull Run--General McClellan Called to the Command of the Army of the Potomac--Union Disaster at Ball's Bluff--Military Operations in Missouri--Battle of Wilson's Creek--Defeat of Colonel Mulligan at Lexington, Mo.--Supersedure of Fremont--Operations on the Coast--The Trent Affair--Summary of the Year's Operations 285
XVI. ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 1861-1865
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1862.
Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson--Change in the Confederate Line of Defense--Capture of Island No. 10--Battle of Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh--Capture of Corinth--Narrow Escape of Louisville--Battle of Perryville--Battle of Murfreesboro' or Stone River--Battle of Pea Ridge--Naval Battle Between the Monitor and Merrimac--Fate of the Two Vessels--Capture of New Orleans--The Advance Against Richmond--McClellan's Peninsula Campaign--The First Confederate Invasion of the North--_Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg_--_Disastrous Union Repulse at Fredericksburg_--Summary of the War's Operations--_The Confederate Privateers_--The Emancipation Proclamation--_Greenbacks and Bond Issues_ 301
XVII. ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 1861-1865
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1863.
The Military Situation in the West--Siege and Capture of Vicksburg--The Mississippi Opened--Battle of Chickamauga--"The Rock of Chickamauga"--The Battle Above the Clouds--Siege of Knoxville--General Hooker Appointed to the Command of the Army of the Potomac--His Plan of Campaign Against Richmond--Stonewall Jackson's Stampede of the Eleventh Corps--Critical Situation of the Union Army--Death of Jackson--Battle of Chancellorsville--Defeat of Hooker--The Second Confederate Invasion--Battle of Gettysburg--The Decisive Struggle of the War--Lee's Retreat--Subsequent Movements of Lee and Meade--Confederate Privateering--Destruction of the Nashville--Failure of the Attacks on Charleston--The Military Raids--Stuart's Narrow Escape--Stoneman's Raid--Morgan's Raid in Indiana and Ohio 333
XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONCLUDED), 1861-1865
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONCLUDED), 1864-1865.
The Work Remaining to be Done--General Grant Placed in Command of all the Union Armies--The Grand Campaign--Bank's Disastrous Red River Expedition--How the Union Fleet was Saved--Capture of Mobile by Admiral Farragut--The Confederate Cruisers--Destruction of the Alabama by the Kearsarge--Fate of the Other Confederate Cruisers--Destruction of the Albemarle by Lieutenant William B. Cushing--Re-election of President Lincoln--Distress in the South and Prosperity in the North--The Union Prisoners in the South--Admission of Nevada--The Confederate Raids from Canada--Sherman's Advance to Atlanta--Fall of Atlanta--Hood's Vain Attempt to Relieve Georgia--Superb Success of General Thomas--"Marching Through Georgia"--Sherman's Christmas Gift to President Lincoln--Opening of Grant's Final Campaign--Battles in the Wilderness--Wounding of General Longstreet and Death of Generals Stuart and Sedgwick--Grant's Flanking Movements Against Lee--A Disastrous Repulse at Cold Harbor--Defeat of Sigel and Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley--"Bottling-up" of Butler--Explosions of the Petersburg Mine--Early's Raids--His Final Defeat by Sheridan--Grant's Campaign--Surrender of Lee--Assassination of President Lincoln--Death of Booth and Punishment of the Conspirators--Surrender of Jo Johnston and Collapse of the Southern Confederacy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--His Release and Death--Statistics of the Civil War--A Characteristic Anecdote 367
XIX. ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT, 1865-1877
Andrew Johnson--Reconstruction--Quarrel Between the President and Congress--The Fenians--Execution of Maximilian--Admission of Nebraska--Laying of the Atlantic Cable--Purchase of Alaska--Impeachment and Acquittal of the President--Carpet-bag Rule in the South--Presidential Election of 1868--U.S. Grant--Settlement of the Alabama Claims --Completion of the Overland Railway--The Chicago Fire--Settlement of the Northwestern Boundary--Presidential Election of 1872--The Modoc Troubles--Civil War in Louisiana--Admission of Colorado--Panic of 1873--Notable Deaths--Custer's Massacre--The Centennial--The Presidential Election of 1876 the Most Perilous in the History of the Country 407
XX. ADMINISTRATIONS OF HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR, 1877-1885
R.B. Hayes--The Telephone--Railway Strikes--Elevated Railroads--War with the Nez Perce Indians--Remonetization of Silver--Resumption of Specie Payments--A Strange Fishery Award--The Yellow Fever Scourge--Presidential Election of 1878--James A. Garfield--Civil Service Reform--Assassination of President Garfield--Chester A. Arthur--The Star Route Frauds--The Brooklyn Bridge--The Chinese Question--The Mormons--Alaska Exploration--The Yorktown Centennial--Attempts to Reach the North Pole by Americans--History of the Greely Expedition 427
Chapter XXI
ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (FIRST) AND OF HARRISON, 1885-1893.
Grover Cleveland--Completion of the Washington Monument--The Bartholdi Statue--Death of General Grant--Death of Vice-President Hendricks--The First Vice-President to Die in Office--George Clinton--Elbridge Gerry--William R. King--Henry Wilson--Death of General McClellan--Of General Hancock--His Career--The Dispute Between Capital and Labor--Arbitration--The Anarchistic Outbreak in Chicago--The Charleston Earthquake--Conquest of the Apaches --Presidential Election of 1888--Benjamin Harrison--The Johnstown Disaster--Threatened War with Chili--The Indian Uprising of 1890-91 --Admission of New States--Presidential Election of 1892 459
XXII. ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (SECOND), 1893-1897
Repeal of the Purchase Clause of the Sherman Bill--The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago--The Hawaiian Imbroglio--The Great Railroad Strike of 1894--Coxey's Commonweal Army--Admission of Utah--Harnessing of Niagara--Dispute with England Over Venezuela's Boundary--Presidential Election of 1896 487
XXIII. ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (SECOND, CONCLUDED), 1893-1897
Settling the Northwest--The Face of the Country Transformed--Clearing Away the Forests and its Effects--Tree-planting on the Prairies--Pioneer Life in the Seventies--The Granary of the World--The Northwestern Farmer--Transportation and Other Industries--Business Cities and Centres--United Public Action and its Influence--The Indian Question--Other Elements of Population--Society and General Culture 511
XXIV. ADMINISTRATION OF MCKINLEY, 1897-1901
William McKinley--Organization of "Greater New York"--Removal of General Grant's Remains to Morningside Park--The Klondike Gold Excitement--Spain's Misrule in Cuba--Preliminary Events of the Spanish-American War 527
XXV. ADMINISTRATION OF MCKINLEY (CONTINUED), 1897-1901
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
Opening Incidents--Bombardment of Matanzas--Dewey's Wonderful Victory at Manila--Disaster to the Winslow at Cardenas Bay--The First American Loss of Life--Bombardment of San Juan, Porto Rico--The Elusive Spanish Fleet--Bottled-up in Santiago Harbor--Lieutenant Hobson's Daring Exploit--Second Bombardment of Santiago and Arrival of the Army--Gallant Work of the Rough Riders and the Regulars--Battles of San Juan and El Caney--Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--General Shafter Reinforced in Front of Santiago --Surrender of the City--General Miles in Porto Rico--An Easy Conquest --Conquest of the Philippines--Peace Negotiations and Signing of the Protocol--Its Terms--Members of the National Peace Commission--Return of the Troops from Cuba and Porto Rico--The Peace Commission in Paris--Conclusion of its Work--Terms of the Treaty--Ratified by the Senate 547
XXVI. ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY (CONTINUED), 1897-1901
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS
The Islands of Hawaii--Their Inhabitants and Products--City of Honolulu--History of Cuba--The Ten Years' War--The Insurrection of 1895-98--Geography and Productions of Cuba--Its Climate--History of Porto Rico--Its People and Productions--San Juan and Ponce--Location, Discovery, and History of the Philippines--Insurrections of the Filipinos--City of Manila--Commerce--Philippine Productions--Climate and Volcanoes--Dewey at Manila--The Ladrone Islands--Conclusion 587
List of Illustrations.
PAGE
Amerigo Vespucci, 33 Meeting Between the Northmen and Natives, 34 Sebastian Cabot, 35 Columbus and the Egg, 37 An Indian Council of War, 41 "The Broiling of Fish Over the Fire," 43 Indian Village Enclosed with Palisades, 44 Sir Walter Raleigh, 45 Seal of the Virginia Company, 47 Armor Worn by the Pilgrims in 1620, 52 Landing of Myles Standish, 54 Roger Williams in Banishment, 57 Primitive Mode of Grinding Corn, 60 Friends' Meeting-House, Burlington, N.J., 64 Moravian Easter Service, Bethlehem, Pa., 68 Colonial Plow--1706, 71 Ancient Horseshoes, 72 A Colonial Flax-wheel, 72 Silk-winding, 73 A Comfortier, or Chafing Dish, 73 Early Days in New England, 74 Places of Worship in New York in 1742, 75 Attack on Rioters, Springfield, Mass., in 1786, 77 Young Washington Riding a Colt, 79 Braddock's Defeat, 81 Martello Tower on the Heights of Abraham, 82 A Dutch Household as Seen in the Early Days in New York, 83 Memorial Hall, Harvard College, 85 Bible Brought Over in the Mayflower, 86 American Stage-coach of 1795, 87 The Old South Church, Boston, 91 Patrick Henry, 93 The Monument on Bunker Hill, 94 Nomination of Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, 96 Faneuil Hall, Boston, 97 St. Paul's Church, New York, 101 Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 104 The Liberty Bell, 105 The Statue of Liberty, 107 An Old New York Mansion, 109 Washington Crossing the Delaware, 113 "Give Them Watts, Boys," 115 Washington at Valley Forge, 117 An Old Colonial House at Germantown, 120 Virginia Currency, 1670, 123 Paul Jones, 125 The Bon Homme Richard and Serapis, 126 British Captain Surrendering Sword, 127 Escape of Benedict Arnold, 129 Tarleton's Lieutenant and the Farmer, 134 Cornwallis, 137 A Plantation Gateway, 143 Senate Chamber, 147 House of Representatives, 149 An Old Indian Farm-house, 152 Mary Ball, the Mother of Washington, 153 George Washington, 154 Inauguration of Washington, 155 Alexander Hamilton, 157 Ben Franklin in His Father's Shop, 159 Franklin's Grave, 160 Chief Justice John Jay, 163 Washington's Bedroom in which He Died, 165 Mother of Washington Receiving Lafayette, 166 John Adams, 168 The Cotton Gin, Invented in 1793, 169 Thomas Jefferson, 171 Development of Steam Navigation, 177 Robert Fulton, 178 James Madison, 182 The Arts of Peace and the Art of War, 187 Mrs. James Madison, 191 Burning of Washington, 197 Weathersford and General Jackson, 201 First Train of Cars in America, 205 James Monroe, 205 An Indian's Declaration of War, 207 John Quincy Adams, 211 "Johnny Bull," or No. 1, 213 Andrew Jackson, 216 Samuel Houston, 218 Oseola's Indignation, 221 Western Railroad in Earlier Days, 222 John C. Calhoun, 223 Henry Clay, 224 Daniel Webster, 225 Martin Van Buren, 227 William Henry Harrison, 239 John Tyler, 231 Where the First Morse Instrument was Constructed, 235 Speedwell Iron Works, Morristown, N.J. 236 Old Gates at St. Augustine, Florida, 239 A Typical Virginia Court-House, 241 The White House at Washington, D.C., 243 Old Spanish House, New Orleans, 247 The Marigny House, New Orleans, 248 James K. Polk, 251 Robert E. Lee in the Mexican War, 253 General Winfield Scott, 257 Battle of Cerro Gordo, 259 The Smithsonian Institute, 263 Gold Washing--The Sluice, 264 Gold Washing--The Cradle, 265 Great Salt Lake City, Utah, 267 Zachary Taylor, 269 Millard Fillmore, 271 Franklin Pierce, 273 Lucretia Mott, 275 Henry Ward Beecher, 276 James Buchanan, 278 Lucretia Mott Protecting Dangerfield, 279 Harper's Ferry, 281 Abraham Lincoln, 285 From Log-Cabin to the White House, 286 Jefferson Davis, 287 Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S.C., 289 A Skirmisher, 291 General George B. McClellan, 293 Statue of McClellan, Philadelphia, Pa., 295 Fortifying Richmond, 297 Breech-loading Mortar, or Howitzer, 302 A Railroad Battery, 305 Sec. Stanton's Opinion about the Merrimac, 309 John Ericsson, 312 Libby Prison in 1865, 315 Libby Prison in 1884, 316 Moist Weather at the Front, 319 Antietam Bridge, 325 Model of Gatling Gun, 329 U.S. Military Telegraph Wagon, 331 Admiral Porter, 334 David G. Farragut, 335 Grant After the Battle of Belmont, 337 General George H. Thomas, 341 General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, 345 House in which Stonewall Jackson Died, 346 General Robert E. Lee, 349 General George G. Meade, 351 Cushing's Last Shot, 354 Entrance to Gettysburg Cemetery, 357 The Swamp Angel Battery, 363 Bailey's Dams on the Red River, 371 Monument of Farragut at Washington, 373 Bird's-eye View of Andersonville Prison, 383 Death of General Polk, 385 General William T. Sherman, 389 General Lee Leading the Texans' Charge, 393 General Philip H. Sheridan, 395 Lincoln Entering Richmond, 398 The Desperate Extremity of the Confederates, 403 Horace Greeley, 405 Lincoln's Grave, Springfield, Ill., 406 Andrew Johnson, 407 Log-cabin Church at Juneau, Alaska, 411 Southern Legislature Under Carpet-bag Rule, 413 Ulysses Simpson Grant, 415 Mrs. Julia Dent Grant, 415 The Burning of Chicago, 1871, 417 Section of Chicago Stock-yards, 418 Monument to General Lee, Richmond, Va., 422 General George Crook, 423 Memorial Hall of 1876, 425 Samuel J. Tilden, 426 Rutherford B. Hayes, 427 Grant at Windsor Castle, 431 Grant in Japan, 433 The Boy James Garfield and his Mother, 434 James A. Garfield, 435 The Aged Mother of President Garfield, 436 Assassination of President Garfield, 437 Memorial Tablet to President Garfield, 438 Chester Alan Arthur, 439 The Brooklyn Bridge, 440 Scene in Chinatown, San Francisco, 441 A Funeral in the Arctic Regions, 449 Grover Cleveland, 459 Tomb of General U.S. Grant, New York, 464 City Hall, Philadelphia, 467 Old Haymarket Plaza, Chicago, 471 General Crook's Apache Guide, 475 An Indian Warrior, 477 Benjamin Harrison, 479 Indian Mother and Infant, 481 Indian Agency, 484 Henry Moore Teller, 487 Model of U.S. Man-of-War, 488 Machinery Hall, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 490 Horticultural Building, World's Fair, 1893, 491 Agricultural Building, World's Fair, 1893, 491 Woman's Building, World's Fair, 1893, 492 Thomas A. Edison, 493 The Viking Ship, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 495 Art Palace, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 496 Government Building, World's Fair, 1893, 496 James G. Blaine, 499 A Scene of the Chicago Strike of 1894, 501 A Gold Prospecting Party, British Guiana, 505 The Venezuelan Commission, 507 William Jennings Bryan, 508 Albert Shaw, 511 A Dispute Over a Brand, 513 Sluice-gate, 517 Between the Mills, 518 Barrel-hoist and Tunnel, Washburn Mill, 518 Mossbrae, 520 Section of Chicago Stock-yards, 521 The Falls of St. Anthony, 1885, 523 Lake-shore Drive, Chicago, 525 Wm. McKinley, 527 The Obelisk, Central Park, New York, 529 John Sherman, 531 Thomas B. Reed, 533 Tomb of U.S. Grant, New York, 534 Review of the Navy and Merchant Marine on the Hudson, April 27, 1897, 535 Map of Alaska, 536 Ready for the Trail, 537 General Calixto Garcia, 539 General Maximo Gomez, 541 Jose Marti, 543 General Antonio Maceo, 544 The U.S. Battleship Maine and her Officers, 545 Admiral George Dewey, 551 Camp Scene at Chickamauga, 555 Richmond P. Hobson, 557 Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, 559 Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, 560 Gov. Theodore Roosevelt, 561 Rear-Admiral Winfield S. Schley, 565 Rear-Admiral John C. Watson, 567 Major-General William R. Shaffer, 570 Major-General Nelson A. Miles, 571 Major-General Joseph Wheeler, 573 Major-General Wesley Merritt, 577 Major-General Elwell S. Otis, 584 Admiral Dewey's Flagship the Olympia, 585 Native Grass House, Hawaii, 587 Royal Palace, Hawaii, 589 Raising of the American Flag, Honolulu, 589 Hula Dancing Girls, Hawaii, 590 Church in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, 592 Sugar Cane Plantation, Hawaiian Islands, 594 Tomb of Christopher Columbus, Havana, Cuba, 595 Indian Statue in the Prado, Havana, Cuba, 597 Daring Attack of Cuban Patriots, 599 General Maximo Gomez, 602 Sunrise Executions, Havana, 603 A Volante, Cuba, 608 Entrance to the Public Grounds, Havana, 609 A Market Girl, Porto Rico, 610 The Custom House, Ponce, Porto Rico, 612 Native Belles, Porto Rico, 614 The Market Place, Ponce, Porto Rico, 615 Filipinos of the Savage Tribes 617 Native Hunters, Philippine Islands, 618 Philippine Warriors, 622 Native Residence in the Suburbs of Manila, 624 A Typical Moro Village, Philippine Islands, 626 Bridge Over the Pasig River, 628 A Popular Street Conveyance, Manila, 631 A Wedding Procession, Philippine Islands, 633 Drying Sugar, Philippine Islands, 635 The Strange Wagons of Philippine Islands, 636 Native House and Palms, Ladrone Islands, 644
LIST OF FULL-PAGE HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page "I am ready for any service that I can give my country" Frontispiece Search for the Fountain of Youth opp. 39 Pocahontas Saving the Life of John Smith opp. 49 The Marriage of Pocahontas opp. 50 Gallup's Recapture of Oldham's Boat opp. 58 William Penn, the good and wise ruler opp. 65 Notable Audience in Maryland to hear George Fox opp. 66 Hiawatha, Pounder of the Iroquois League opp. 72 Washington's First Victory opp. 80 The Battle of Bunker Hill opp. 89 The Capture of Major Andre opp. 128 Daring Desertion of John Campe opp. 136 The Surrender at Yorktown opp. 139 United States Capitol, Washington opp. 142 The Battle of Fallen Timbers opp. 160 Campaign Speechmaking in Earlier Days opp. 238 Fremont, the Great Pathfinder, addressing the Indians opp. 250 Battle of Resaca de la Palma opp. 256 The Blue and the Gray opp. 284 The First Battle of Bull Run, 1861 opp. 294 The Attack on Fort Donelson opp. 301 General Lee's Invasion of the North opp. 324 The Battle of Malvern Hill opp. 333 The Fatal Wounding of "Stonewall" Jackson opp. 346 Pickett's Return from his Famous Charge opp. 355 Attack on Charleston, August 23 to September 29, 1893 opp. 360 The Sinking of the "Alabama" opp. 375 Sherman's Three Scouts opp. 384 Surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865 opp. 397 The Civil War Peace Conference opp. 400 The Electoral Commission, 1877 opp. 427 The Farthest North Reached by Lieutenant Lockwood on the Greely Expedition opp. 453 The Washington Monument opp. 460 Arbitration opp. 469 The Hero of the Strike, Coal Creek, Tenn opp. 486 The Viking Ship at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1893 opp. 495 Congressional Library, Washington, D.C. opp. 510 Cathedral Spires in the Garden of the Gods opp. 515 Greater New York opp. 528 President McKinley and the War Cabinet opp. 547 City of Havana, Cuba opp. 549 The U.S. Battleship "Maine" opp. 550 Map of Cuba opp. 553 The Battle of Manila, May 1, 1898 opp. 554 Americans Storming San Juan Hill opp. 560 U.S. Battleship "Oregon" opp. 565 The Surrender of Santiago, July 17, 1898 opp. 570 In the War-room at Washington opp. 576 The United States Peace Commissioners of the Spanish War opp. 580 Popular Commanders in the Filipino War opp. 586 Prominent Spaniards in 1898 opp. 595 San Juan, Porto Rico opp. 610 The Escolta, City of Manila opp. 619 The Beautiful Luneta, Manila's Fashionable Promenade and Drive opp. 620 The Shipyard and Arsenal at Cavite, Philippine Islands opp. 629 Raising the Flag on Fort San Antonio de Abad, Malate opp. 630 Scenes from the Philippine Islands opp. 639 The Mouth of the Pasig River opp. 640
Author's introduction.
The annals of the world contain no more impressive example of the birth and growth of a nation than may be seen in the case of that which has been aptly termed the Greater Republic, whose story from its feeble childhood to its grand maturity it is the purpose of this work to set forth. Three hundred years is a brief interval in the long epoch of human history, yet within that short period the United States has developed from a handful of hardy men and women, thinly scattered along our Atlantic coast, into a vast and mighty country, peopled by not less than seventy-five millions of human beings, the freest, richest, most industrious, and most enterprising of any people upon the face of the earth. It began as a dwarf; it has grown into a giant. It was despised by the proud nations of Europe; it has become feared and respected by the proudest of these nations. For a long time they have claimed the right to settle among themselves the affairs of the world; they have now to deal with the United States in this self-imposed duty. And it is significant of the high moral attitude occupied by this country, that one of the first enterprises in which it is asked to join these ancient nations has for its end to do away with the horrors of war, and substitute for the drawn sword in the settlement of national disputes a great Supreme Court of arbitration.
This is but one of the lessons to be drawn from the history of the great republic of the West. It has long been claimed that this history lacks interest, that it is devoid of the romance which we find in that of the Eastern world, has nothing in it of the striking and dramatic, and is too young and new to be worth men's attention when compared with that of the ancient nations, which has come down from the mists of prehistoric time. Yet we think that those who read the following pages will not be ready to admit this claim. They will find in the history of the United States an abundance of the elements of romance. It has, besides, the merit of being a complete and fully rounded history. We can trace it from its birth, and put upon record the entire story of the evolution of a nation, a fact which it would be difficult to affirm of any of the older nations of the world.
If we go back to the origin of our country, it is to find it made up of a singular mixture of the best people of Europe. The word best is used here in a special sense. The settlers in this country were not the rich and titled. They came not from that proud nobility which claims to possess bluer blood than the common herd, but from the plain people of Europe, from the workers, not the idlers, and this rare distinction they have kept up until the present day. But of this class of the world's workers, they were the best and noblest. They were men who thought for themselves, and refused to be bound in the trammels of a State religion; men who were ready to dare the perils of the sea and the hardships of a barren shore for the blessings of liberty and free-thought; men of sturdy thrift, unflinching energy, daring enterprise, the true stuff out of which alone a nation like ours could be built.
Such was the character of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, the hardy empire-builders of New England, of the Quakers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, the Huguenots of the South, the Moravians and other German Protestants, the sturdy Scotch-Irish, and the others who sought this country as a haven of refuge for free-thought. We cannot say the same for the Hollanders of New Amsterdam, the Swedes of Delaware, and the English of Virginia, so far as their purpose is concerned, yet they too proved hardy and industrious settlers, and the Cavaliers whom the troubles in England drove to Virginia showed their good blood by the prominent part which their descendants played in the winning of our independence and the making of our government. While the various peoples named took part in the settlement of the colonies, the bulk of the settlers were of English birth, and Anglo-Saxon thrift and energy became the foundation stones upon which our nation has been built. Of the others, nearly the whole of them were of Teutonic origin, while the Huguenots, whom oppression drove from France, were of the very bone and sinew of that despot-ridden land. It may fairly be said, then, that the founders of our nation came from the cream of the populations of Europe, born of sturdy Teutonic stock, and comprising thrift, energy, endurance, love of liberty, and freedom of thought to a degree never equaled in the makers of any other nation upon the earth. They were of solid oak in mind and frame, and the edifice they built had for its foundation the natural rights of man, and for its super-structure that spirit of liberty which has ever since throbbed warmly in the American heart.
It was well for the colonies that this underlying unity of aim existed, for aside from this they were strikingly distinct in character and aspirations. Sparsely settled, strung at intervals along the far-extended Atlantic coast, silhouetted against a stern background of wilderness and mountain range, their sole bond of brotherhood was their common aspiration for liberty, while in all other respects they were unlike in aims and purposes. The spirit of political liberty was strongest in the New England colonies, and these held their own against every effort to rob them of their rights with an unflinching boldness which is worthy of the highest praise, and which set a noble example for the remaining colonists. Next to them in bold opposition to tyranny were the people of the Carolinas, who sturdily resisted an effort to make them the enslaved subjects of a land-holding nobility. In Pennsylvania and Maryland political rights were granted by high-minded proprietors, and in these colonies no struggle for self-government was necessary. Only in Virginia and New York was autocratic rule established, and in both of these it gradually yielded to the steady demand for self-government.
On the other hand, New England, while politically the freest, was religiously the most autocratic. The Puritans, who had crossed the ocean in search of freedom of thought, refused to grant a similar freedom to those who came later, and sought to found a system as intolerant as that from which they had fled. A natural revulsion from their oppressive measures gave rise in Rhode Island to the first government on the face of the earth in which absolute religious liberty was established. Among the more southern colonies, a similar freedom, so far as liberty of Christian worship is concerned, was granted by William Penn and Lord Baltimore. But this freedom was maintained only in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, religious intolerance being the rule, to a greater or less degree, in all the other colonies; the Puritanism of New England being replaced elsewhere by a Church of England autocracy.
The diversity in political condition, religion, and character of the settlers tended to keep the colonies separate, while a like diversity of commercial interests created jealousies which built up new barriers between them. The unity that might have been looked for between these feeble and remote communities, spread like links of a broken chain far along an ocean coast, had these and other diverse conditions to contend with, and they promised to develop into a series of weak and separate nations rather than into a strong and single commonwealth.
The influences that overcame this tendency to disunion were many and important. We can only glance at them here. They may be divided into two classes, warlike hostility and industrial oppression. The first step towards union was taken in 1643, when four of the New England colonies formed a confederation for defense against the Dutch and Indians. "The United Colonies of New England" constituted in its way a federal republic, the prototype of that of the United States. The second step of importance in this connection was taken in 1754, when a convention was held at Albany to devise measures of defense against the French. Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan of colonial union, which was accepted by the convention. But the jealousy of the colonies prevented its adoption. They had grown into communities of some strength and with a degree of pride in their separate freedom, and were not ready to yield to a central authority. The British Government also opposed it, not wishing to see the colonies gain the strength which would have come to them from political union. As a result, the plan fell to the ground.
The next important influence tending towards union was the oppressive policy of Great Britain. The industries and commerce of the colonies had long been seriously restricted by the measures of the mother-country, and after the war with France an attempt was made to tax the colonists, though they were sternly refused representation in Parliament, the tax-laying body. Community in oppression produced unity in feeling; the colonies joined hands, and in 1765 a congress of their representatives was held in New York, which appealed to the King for their just political rights. Nine years afterwards, in 1774, a second congress was held, brought together by much more imminent common dangers. In the following year a third congress was convened. This continued in session for years, its two most important acts being the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and the Confederation of the States, the first form of union which the colonies adopted. This Confederation was in no true sense a Union. The jealousies and fears of the colonies made themselves apparent, and the central government was given so little power that it threatened to fall to pieces of its own weight. It could pass laws, but could not make the people obey them. It could incur debts, but could not raise money by taxation to pay them. The States kept nearly all the power to themselves, and each acted almost as if it were an independent nation, while the Congress of the Confederation was left without money and almost without authority.
This state of affairs soon grew intolerable. "We are," said Washington, "one nation to-day, and thirteen to-morrow." Such a union it was impossible to maintain. It was evident that the compact must give way; that there must be one strong government or thirteen weak ones. This last alternative frightened the States. None of them was strong enough to hold its own against foreign governments. They must form a strong union or leave themselves at the mercy of ambitious foes. It was this state of affairs that led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, by whose wisdom the National Union which has proved so solid a bond was organized. The Constitution made by this body gave rise to the Republic of the United States. A subsequent act, which in 1898 added a number of distant island possessions to our Union, and vastly widened its interests and its importance in the world's councils, made of it a "Greater Republic," a mighty dominion whose possessions extended half round the globe.
While the changes here briefly outlined were taking place, the country was growing with phenomenal rapidity. From all parts of northern and western Europe, and above all from Great Britain, new settlers were crowding to our shores, while the descendants of the original settlers were increasing in numbers. How many people there were here is in doubt, but it is thought that in 1700 there were more than 200,000, in 1750 about 1,100,000, and in 1776 about 2,500,000. The first census, taken in 1790, just after the Federal Union was formed, gave a population of nearly 4,000,000.
A people growing at this rate could not be long confined to the narrow ocean border of the early settlements. A rich and fertile country lay back, extending how far no one knew, and soon there was a movement to the West, which carried the people over the mountains and into the broad plains beyond. A war was fought with France for the possession of the Ohio country. Boone and other bold pioneers led hardy settlers into Kentucky and Tennessee, and George Rogers Clark descended the Ohio and drove the British troops from the northwest territory, gaining that vast region for the new Union.
After the War for Independence the movement westward went on with rapidity. The first settlement in Ohio was made at Marietta in 1788; Cincinnati was founded in 1790; in 1803 St. Louis was a little village of log-cabins; and in 1831 the site of Chicago was occupied by a dozen settlers gathered round Fort Dearborn. But while the cities were thus slow in starting, the country between them was rapidly filling up, the Indians giving way step by step as the vanguard of the great march pressed upon them; here down the Ohio in bullet-proof boats, there across the mountains on foot or in wagons. A great national road stretched westward from Cumberland, Maryland, which in time reached the Mississippi, and over whose broad and solid surface a steady stream of emigrant wagons poured into the great West. At the same time steamboats were beginning to run on the Eastern waters, and soon these were carrying the increasing multitude down the Ohio and the Mississippi into the vast Western realm. Later came the railroad to complete this phase of our history, and provide a means of transportation by whose aid millions could travel with ease where a bare handful had made their way with peril and hardship of old.
Up to 1803 our national domain was bounded on the west by the Mississippi, but in that year the vast territory of Louisiana was purchased from France and the United States was extended to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, its territory being more than doubled in area. Here was a mighty domain for future settlement, across which two daring travelers, Lewis and Clark, journeyed through tribes of Indians never before heard of, not ending their long route until they had passed down the broad Columbia to the waters of the Pacific.
From time to time new domains were added to the great republic. In 1819 Florida was purchased from Spain. In 1845 Texas was added to the Union. In 1846 the Oregon country was made part of the United States. In 1848, as a result of the Mexican War, an immense tract extending from Texas to the Pacific was acquired, and the land of gold became part of the republic. In 1853 another tract was purchased from Mexico, and the domain of the United States, as it existed at the beginning of the Civil War, was completed. It constituted a great section of the North American continent, extending across it from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and north and south from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a fertile, well-watered, and prolific land, capable of becoming the nursery of one of the greatest nations on the earth. Beginning, at the close of the Revolution, with an area of 827,844 square miles, it now embraced 3,026,484 square miles of territory, having increased within a century to nearly four times its original size.
In 1867 a new step was taken, in the addition to this country of a region of land separated from its immediate domain. This was the territory of Alaska, of more than 577,000 square miles in extent, and whose natural wealth has made it a far more valuable acquisition than was originally dreamed of. In 1898 the Greater Republic, as it at present exists, was completed by the acquisition of the island of Porto Rico in the West Indies, and the Hawaiian and Philippine Island groups in the Pacific Ocean. These, while adding not greatly to our territory, may prove to possess a value in their products fully justifying their acquisition. At present, however, their value is political rather than industrial, as bringing the United States into new and important relations with the other great nations of the earth.
The growth of population in this country is shown strikingly in the remarkable development of its cities. In 1790 the three largest cities were not larger than many of our minor cities to-day. Philadelphia had forty-two thousand population, New York thirty-three thousand, and Boston eighteen thousand. Charleston and Baltimore were still smaller, and Savannah was quite small. There were only five cities with over ten thousand population. Of inland towns, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with something over six thousand population, was the largest. In 1890, one hundred years afterwards, New York and Philadelphia had over one million each, and Chicago, a city not sixty years old, shared with them this honor. As for cities surpassing those of a century before, they were hundreds in number. A similar great growth has taken place in the States. From the original thirteen, hugging closely the Atlantic coast, we now possess forty-five, crossing the continent from ocean to ocean, and have besides a vast territorial area.
The thirteen original States, sparsely peopled, poor and struggling for existence, have expanded into a great galaxy of States, rich, powerful, and prosperous, with grand cities, flourishing rural communities, measureless resources, and an enterprise which no difficulty can baffle and no hardship can check. Our territory could support hundreds of millions of population, and still be much less crowded than some of the countries of Europe. Its products include those of every zone; hundreds of thousands of square miles of its soil are of virgin richness; its mineral wealth is so great that its precious metals have affected the monetary standards of the world, and its vast mineral and agricultural wealth is as yet only partly developed. Vast as has been the production of gold in California, its annual output is of less value than that of wheat. In wheat, corn, and cotton, indeed, the product of this country is simply stupendous; while, in addition to its gold and silver, it is a mighty storehouse of coal, iron, copper, lead, petroleum, and many other products of nature that are of high value to mankind.
In its progress towards its present condition, our country has been markedly successful in two great fields of human effort, in war and in peace. A brief preliminary statement of its success in the first of these, and of the causes of its several wars, may be desirable here, as introductory to their more extended consideration in the body of the work. The early colonists had three enemies to contend with: the original inhabitants of the land, the Spanish settlers in the South, and the French in the North and West. Its dealings with the aborigines has been one continuous series of conflicts, the red man being driven back step by step until to-day he holds but a small fraction of his once great territory. Yet the Indians are probably as numerous to-day as they were originally, and are certainly better off in their present peaceful and partly civilized condition than they were in their former savage and warlike state.
The Spaniards were never numerous in this country, and were forced to retire after a few conflicts of no special importance. Such was not the case with the French, who were numerous and aggressive, and with whom the colonists were at war on four successive occasions, the last being that fierce conflict in which it was decided whether the Anglo-Saxon or the French race should be dominant in this country. The famous battle on the Plains of Abraham settled the question, and with the fall of Quebec the power of France in America fell never to rise again.
A direct and almost an immediate consequence of this struggle for dominion was the struggle for liberty between the colonists and the mother-country. The oppressive measures of Great Britain led to a war of seven years' duration, in which more clearly and decisively than ever before the colonists showed their warlike spirit and political genius, and whose outcome was the independence of this country. At its conclusion the United States stepped into line with the nations of the world, a free community, with a mission to fulfill and a destiny to accomplish--a mission and a destiny which are still in process of development, and whose final outcome no man can foresee.
The next series of events in the history of our wars arose from the mighty struggle in Europe between France and Great Britain and the piratical activity of the Barbary States. The latter were forced to respect the power of the United States by several naval demonstrations and conflicts; and a naval war with France, in which our ships were strikingly successful, induced that country to show us greater respect. But the wrongs which we suffered from Great Britain were not to be so easily settled, and led to a war of three years' continuance, in which the honors were fairly divided on land, but in which our sailors surprised the world by their prowess in naval conflict. The proud boast that "Britannia rules the waves" lost its pertinence after our two striking victories on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, and our remarkable success in a dozen conflicts at sea. Alike in this war and in the Revolution the United States showed that skill and courage in naval warfare which has recently been repeated in the Spanish War.
The wars of which we have spoken had a warrant for their being. They were largely unavoidable results of existing conditions. This cannot justly be said of the next struggle upon which the United States entered, the Mexican War, since this was a politician's war pure and simple, one which could easily have been avoided, and which was entered into with the avowed purpose of acquiring territory. In this it succeeded, the country gaining a great and highly valuable tract, whose wealth in the precious metals is unsurpassed by any equal section of the earth, and which is still richer in agricultural than in mineral wealth.
The next conflict that arose was the most vital and important of all our wars, with the exception of that by which we gained our independence. The Constitution of 1787 did not succeed in forming a perfect Union between the States. An element of dissension was left, a "rift within the lute," then seemingly small and unimportant, but destined to grow to dangerous proportions. This was the slavery question, disposed of in the Constitution by a compromise, which, like every compromise with evil, failed in its purpose. The question continued to exist. It grew threatening, portentous, and finally overshadowed the whole political domain. Every effort to settle it peacefully only added to the strain; the union between the States weakened as this mighty hammer of discord struck down their combining links; finally the bonds yielded, the slavery question thrust itself like a great wedge between, and a mighty struggle began to decide whether the Union should stand or fall. With the events of this struggle we are not here concerned. They are told at length in their special place. All that we shall here say is this: While the war was fought for the preservation of the Union, it was clearly perceived that this union could never be stable while the disorganizing element remained, and the war led inevitably to the abolition of slavery, the apple of discord which had been thrown between the States. The greatness of the result was adequate to the greatness of the conflict. With the end of the Civil War, for the first time in their history, an actual and stable Union was established between the States.
We have one more war to record, the brief but important struggle of 1898, entered into by the United States under the double impulse of indignation against the barbarous destruction of the Maine and of sympathy for the starving and oppressed people of Cuba. It yielded results undreamed of in its origin. Not only was Cuba wrested from the feeble and inhuman hands of Spain, but new possessions in the oceans of the east and west were added to the United States, and for the first time this country took its predestined place among the nations engaged in shaping the destiny of the world, rose to imperial dignity in the estimation of the rulers of Europe, and fairly won that title of the GREATER REPUBLIC which this work is written to commemorate.
Such has been the record of this country in war. Its record in peace has been marked by as steady a career of victory, and with results stupendous almost beyond the conception of man, when we consider that the most of them have been achieved within little more than a century. During the colonial period the energies of the American people were confined largely to agriculture, Great Britain sternly prohibiting any progress in manufacture and any important development of commerce. It need hardly be said that the restless and active spirit of the colonists chafed under these restrictions, and that the attempt to clip the expanding wings of the American eagle had as much to do with bringing on the war of the Revolution as had Great Britain's futile efforts at taxation. The genius of a great people cannot thus be cribbed and confined, and American enterprise was bound to find a way or carve itself a way through the barriers raised by British avarice and tyranny.
It was after the Revolution that the progress of this country first fairly began. The fetters which bound its hands thrown off, it entered upon a career of prosperity which broadened with the years, and extended until not only the whole continent but the whole world felt its influence and was embraced by its results. Manufacture, no longer held in check, sprang up and spread with marvelous rapidity. Commerce, now gaining access to all seas and all lands, expanded with equal speed. Enterprise everywhere made itself manifest, and invention began its long and wonderful career.
In fact, freedom was barely won before our inventors were actively at work. Before the Constitution was formed John Fitch was experimenting with his steamboat on the Delaware, and Oliver Evans was seeking to move wagons by steam in the streets of Philadelphia. Not many years elapsed before both were successful, and Eli Whitney with his cotton-gin had set free the leading industry of the South and enabled it to begin that remarkable career which proved so momentous in American history, since to it we owe the Civil War with all its great results.
With the opening of the nineteenth century the development of the industries and of the inventive faculty of the Americans went on with enhanced rapidity. The century was but a few years old when Fulton, with his improved steamboat, solved the question of inland water transportation. By the end of the first quarter of the century this was solved in another way by the completion of the Erie Canal, the longest and hitherto the most valuable of artificial water-ways. The railroad locomotive, though invented in England, was prefigured when Oliver Evans' steam road-wagon ran sturdily through the streets of Philadelphia. To the same inventor we owe another triumph of American genius, the grain elevator, which the development of agriculture has rendered of incomparable value. The railroad, though not native here, has had here its greatest development, and with its more than one hundred and eighty thousand miles of length has no rival in any country upon the earth. To it may be added the Morse system of telegraphy, the telephone and phonograph, the electric light and electric motor, and all that wonderful series of inventions in electrical science which has been due to American genius.
We cannot begin to name the multitude of inventions in the mechanical industries which have raised manufacture from an art to a science and filled the world with the multitude of its products. It will suffice to name among them the steam hammer, the sewing machine, the cylinder printing-press, the type-setting machine, the rubber vulcanizer, and the innumerable improvements in steam engines and labor-saving apparatus of all kinds. These manufacturing expedients have been equaled in number and importance by those applied to agriculture, including machines for plowing, reaping, sowing the seed, threshing the grain, cutting the grass, and a hundred other valuable processes, which have fairly revolutionized the art of tilling the earth, and enabled our farmers to feed not only our own population but to send millions of bushels of grain annually abroad.
In truth, we have entered here upon an interminable field, so full of triumphs of invention and ingenuity, and so stupendous in its results, as to form one of the chief marvels of this wonderful century, and to place our nation, in the field of human industry and mechanical achievement, foremost among the nations of the world. Its triumphs have not been confined to manufacture and agriculture; it has been as active in commerce, and now stands first in the bulk of its exports and imports. In every other direction of industry it has been as active, as in fisheries, in forestry, in great works of engineering, in vast mining operations; and from the seas, the earth, the mountain sides, our laborers are wresting annually from nature a stupendous return in wealth.
Our progress in the industries has been aided and inspired by an equal progress in educational facilities, and the intellectual development of our people has kept pace with their material advance. The United States spends more money for the education of its youth than any other country in the world, and among her institutions the school-house and the college stand most prominent. While the lower education has been abundantly attended to, the higher education has been by no means neglected, and amply endowed colleges and universities are found in every State and in almost every city of the land. In addition to the school-house, libraries are multiplying with rapidity, art galleries and museums of science are rising everywhere, temples to music and the drama are found in all our cities, the press is turning out books and newspapers with almost abnormal energy, and in everything calculated to enhance the intelligence of the people the United States has no superior, if any equal, among the nations of the earth.
It may seem unnecessary to tell the people of the United States the story of their growth. The greatness to which this nation has attained is too evident to need to be put in words. It has, in fact, been made evident in two great and a multitude of smaller exhibitions in which the marvels of American progress have been shown, either by themselves or in contrast with those of foreign lands. The first of these, the Centennial Exposition of 1876, had a double effect: it opened our eyes at once to our triumphs and our deficiencies, to the particulars in which we excelled and those in which we were inferior to foreign peoples. In the next great exhibition, that at Chicago in 1893, we had the satisfaction to perceive, not only that we had made great progress in our points of superiority, but had worked nobly and heartily to overcome our defects, and were able to show ourselves the equal of Europe in almost every field of human thought and skill. In architecture a vision of beauty was shown such as the world had never before seen, and in the general domain of art the United States no longer had need to be ashamed of what it had to show.
And now, having briefly summed up the steps of progress of the United States, I may close with some consideration of the problem which we confront in our new position as the Greater Republic, the lord of islands spread widely over the seas. Down to the year 1898 this country held a position of isolation, so far as its political interests were concerned. Although the sails of its merchant ships whitened every sea and its commerce extended to all lands, its boundaries were confined to the North American continent, its political activities largely to American interests. Jealous of any intrusion by foreign nations upon this hemisphere, it warned them off, while still in its feeble youth, by the stern words of the Monroe doctrine, and has since shown France and England, by decisive measures, that this doctrine is more than an empty form of words.
Such was our position at the beginning of 1898. At the opening of 1899 we had entered into new relations with the world. The conclusion of the war with Spain had left in our hands the island of Porto Rico in the West Indies and the great group of the Philippines in the waters of Asia, while the Hawaiian Islands had became ours by peaceful annexation. What shall we do with them? is the question that follows. We have taken hold of them in a way in which it is impossible, without defeat and disgrace, to let go. Whatever the ethics of the question, the Philippine problem has assumed a shape which admits of but one solution. These islands will inevitably become ours, to hold, to develop, to control, and to give their people an opportunity to attain civilization, prosperity, and political manumission which they have never yet possessed. That they will be a material benefit to us is doubtful. That they will give us a new position among the nations of the earth is beyond doubt. We have entered formally into that Eastern question which in the years to come promises to be the leading question before the world, and which can no longer be settled by the nations of Europe as an affair of their own, with which the United States has no concern.
This new position taken by the United States promises to be succeeded by new alliances, a grand union of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, which will give them a dominant position among the powers of the world. In truth, it may not cease with the union of the Anglo-Saxons. The ambition and vast designs of Russia are forcing the other nations to combine for protection, and a close alliance of all the Teutonic peoples is possible, combined to resist the Slavic outgrowth, and eventually perhaps to place the destinies of the world in the hands of these two great races, the Teutonic and the Slavic.
All this may be looking overfar into the future. All that can be said now is that our new possessions have placed upon us new duties and new responsibilities, and may effectually break that policy of political isolation which we have so long maintained, and throw us into the caldron of world politics to take our part in shaping the future of the uncivilized races. For this we are surely strong enough, enterprising enough, and moral enough; and whatever our record, it is not likely to be one of defeat, of injustice and oppression, or of forgetfulness of the duty of nations and the rights of man.
CHARLES MORRIS. JULY, 1899.
I. DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
The Visits of the Northmen to the New World--The Indians and Mound Builders--Christopher Columbus--His Discovery of America--Amerigo Vespucci--John Cabot--Spanish Explorers--Balboa--His Discovery of the Pacific--Magellan--Ponce de Leon--De Narvaez--De Soto--Menendez--French Explorers--Verrazzani--Cartier--Ribault--Laudonniere--Champlain--La Salle--English Explorers--Sir Hugh Willoughby--Martin Frobisher--Sir Humphrey Gilbert--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Lost Colony--Dutch Explorer--Henry Hudson.
THE NORTHMEN.
It has been established beyond question that the first white visitors to the New World were Northmen, as the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden were called. They were bold and hardy sailors, who ventured further out upon the unknown sea than any other people. It was about the year 1000 that Biorn, who was driven far from his course by a tempest, sighted the northern part of the continent. Other adventurers followed him and planted a few settlements, which, however, lasted but a few years. Snorri, son of one of these settlers, was the first child born of European parents on this side of the Atlantic. Soon all traces of these early discoverers vanished, and the New World lay slumbering in loneliness for nearly five hundred years.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
Nevertheless, the country was peopled with savages, who lived by hunting and fishing and were scattered over the vast area from the Pacific to the Atlantic and from the Arctic zone to the southernmost point of South America. No one knows where these people came from; but it is probable that at a remote period they crossed Bering Strait, from Asia, which was the birthplace of man, and gradually spread over the continents to the south. There are found scattered over many parts of our country immense mounds of earth, which were the work of the Mound Builders. These people were long believed to have been a race that preceded the Indians, and were distinct from them, but the best authorities now agree that they were the Indians themselves, who constructed these enormous burial-places and were engaged in the work as late as the fifteenth century. It is strange that they attained a fair degree of civilization. They builded cities, wove cotton, labored in the fields, worked gold, silver, and copper, and formed regular governments, only to give way in time to the barbarism of their descendants, who, though a contrary impression prevails, are more numerous to-day than at the time of the discovery of America.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS.
The real discoverer of America was Christopher Columbus, an Italian, born in Genoa, about 1435. He was trained to the sea from early boyhood, and formed the belief, which nothing could shake, that the earth was round, and that by sailing westward a navigator would reach the coast of eastern Asia. The mistake of Columbus was in supposing the earth much smaller than it is, and of never suspecting that a continent lay between his home and Asia.
He was too poor to fit out an expedition himself, and the kings and rulers to whom he applied for help laughed him to scorn. He persevered for years, and finally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were won over to his views. They and some wealthy friends of Columbus furnished the needed funds, and on August 3, 1492, he sailed from Palos, Spain, in command of three small vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina.
As the voyage progressed, the sailors became terrified and several times were on the point of mutiny; but Columbus by threats and promises held them to their work, and on Friday, October 12, 1492, land was sighted. He was rowed ashore and took possession of the new country in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. While it is not known with certainty where he landed, it was probably Watling Island, one of the Bahamas. He named it San Salvador, and, believing it to be a part of India, called the natives Indians, by which name they will always be known. He afterward visited Cuba and Haiti, and returned to Palos on the 15th of March, 1493.
Columbus was received with the highest honors, and, as the news of his great discovery spread, it caused a profound sensation throughout Europe. He made three other voyages, but did not add greatly to his discoveries. He died, neglected and in poverty, May 20, 1506, without suspecting the grandeur of his work, which marked an era in the history of the world.
OTHER DISCOVERERS.
Another famous Italian navigator and friend of Columbus was Amerigo Vespucci, who, fired by the success of the great navigator, made several voyages westward. He claimed to have seen South America in May, 1497, which, if true, made him the first man to look upon the American continent. Late investigations tend to show that Vespucci was correct in his claim. At any rate, his was the honor of having the country named for him.
John Cabot, also an Italian, but sailing under the flag of England, discovered the continent of North America, in the spring of 1497. A year later, Sebastian, son of John, explored the coast from Nova Scotia as far south as Cape Hatteras. It was the work of the elder Cabot that gave England a valid claim to the northern continent.
From what has been stated, it will be seen that Spain, now decrepit and decayed, was one of the most powerful of all nations four hundred years ago. Other leading powers were England, France, and Holland, and all of them soon began a scramble for new lands on the other side of the Atlantic. Spain, having been the first, had a great advantage, and she was wise enough to use all the means at her command. We will first trace the explorations made by that nation.
In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a lawless rogue, hid himself in a cask on board of a vessel in order to escape his creditors, and was not discovered by the angry captain until so far from land that he could not be taken back again. As it turned out, this was a fortunate thing for the captain and crew, for Balboa was a good sailor, and when the ship was wrecked on the coast of Darien he led the men through many dangers to an Indian village, where they were saved from starvation. Balboa had been in the country before and acquired a knowledge of it, which now proved helpful.
The story of Spain in America is one long, frightful record of massacre, cruelty, greed, and rapine. Ferocious by nature, her explorers had not sufficient sense to see that it was to their interest to treat the Indians justly. These people, although armed only with bows and arrows, at which the Spaniards laughed, still outnumbered them a thousandfold and could crush them by the simple force of numbers. Besides, they were always provided with food, which they were eager to give to their pale-faced brothers, who were often unable to obtain it, but whose vicious nature would not permit them to be manly and just.
Moreover, the Spaniards were crazy after gold, which they believed existed in many places in prodigious quantities. The sight of the yellow ornaments worn by the natives fired their cupidity, and they inquired eagerly in the sign language where the precious metal could be found. One of the Indians replied that six days' travel westward would bring them to the shores of a great sea, where gold was as plentiful as the pebbles on the beach.
DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC.
This information, as may be believed, set the Spaniards wild, and, engaging a number of the natives as guides, they plunged into the hot, steaming forests, and pressed on until one day they came to the base of a mountain, from the top of which the guides said the great sea could be seen. Balboa made his men stay where they were while he climbed to the crest of the mountain alone. This was on the 26th of September, 1513, and, as Balboa looked off to the westward, his eyes rested upon the Pacific Ocean, the mightiest body of water on the globe.
He had made a grand discovery, and one which led to the conquest of Mexico and Peru and the colonization of the western coast of our country. Spain sent her armed expeditions thither, and in time they overran the sections named, their footprints marked everywhere by fire and blood. Many remains exist to-day in the Southwest of the early visits of those rapacious adventurers, during the first half of the sixteenth century. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a building made of adobe or sun-dried clay which was built in 1582.
THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE.
In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan coasted South America to the strait named in his honor, and, passing through it, entered upon the vast body of water discovered six years before by Balboa. Magellan gave it the name of Pacific Ocean, and, sailing westward, discovered the Philippine Islands, which have lately acquired such importance in our history. There Magellan died. Several of his ships were lost, but one of them succeeded in reaching Spain after an absence of two years. This was the first circumnavigation of the globe and demonstrated the grandeur of the discovery made by Columbus.
One of the companions of Columbus on his second voyage was Ponce de Leon. He was well on in years, and became deeply interested in a story told by the Indians of a wonderful land to the north of Cuba, where there was a marvelous spring, which would bring back youth to any who drank from its waters. De Leon set out to hunt for the land and discovered it in Florida on Easter Sunday, in 1513. He drank to repletion again and again from the springs he found, but without restoring his youth, and he was killed by Indians in 1521, while trying to form a settlement on the coast.
De Narvaez visited Florida, in 1528, in charge of a large expedition, with the intention of marching into the interior, but the Spaniards were so brutal to the Indians that they fought them step by step, until only four wretched beings were left alive. They lived a long time with the natives, but gradually worked their way across the continent to California, where they found some of their countrymen, who took care of them.
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
One of the best-equipped expeditions ever sent out was that of Hernando de Soto, which landed at Tampa Bay in May, 1539. Although the intention was to penetrate far into the interior, the Spaniards had no sooner set foot on land than they began their outrages against the Indians, who, as in the case of De Narvaez, turned upon them and slew large numbers. The explorers, however, pushed on and passed over a large section of country, though the precise course taken is not known. In the summer of 1541 they crossed the present State of Mississippi and thus discovered the Father of Waters. Three years were spent in wandering through the South, during which one-third of the number were killed or died and all the property destroyed. Losing heart at last, De Soto turned about, in May, 1542, and started for the sea with the intention of returning home. He was worn and weakened from fever, and he expired on the 21st of the month. Fearful that the news of his death would incite the Indians to attack them, his survivors wrapped the body in blankets, weighted it with stones, and at midnight rowed stealthily out into the river and let it sink from sight. There was something fitting in the fact that the Mississippi should prove the last resting-place of its discoverer.
Pedro Menendez was one of the most execrable miscreants that ever lived. He arrived off the coast of Florida with a large expedition and at the mouth of the St. John's saw a number of ships flying the flag of France. He furiously attacked them and drove them to sea. Then he returned to a fine harbor which he had discovered and began the town of St. Augustine. This was in 1565, and St. Augustine is, therefore, the oldest settlement within the present limits of the United States, excluding those founded in some of our colonial possessions.
Let us now turn attention to the French explorations. France in those days was a spirited rival of Spain, and, in 1524, she sent out a fleet of four vessels under the command of Verrazzani, who, strange as it may seem, was also an Italian. Two months later, with only a single ship remaining, he sighted the mainland of America, it is believed near North Carolina, from which point he coasted northward along New England. He gave the name of New France to all the countries he visited, but his account of his explorations is so vague that it is uncertain what lands he saw. Verrazzani, however, seems to have been the first navigator who formed a correct idea of the size of the globe.
In 1534 Jacques Cartier, with two ships, entered the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He was so impressed by the desolation of the shores of Newfoundland that he declared his belief that it was the land to which God had banished Cain. Nevertheless, he took possession of the country in the name of France and then returned home.
Cartier visited the country the following year with a larger expedition and sailed up the St. Lawrence to the sites of Quebec and Montreal. He was not successful in his attempts to found colonies, but his discovery gave France a title to the immense region which she held with a firm grasp for more than a hundred years.
Failing to establish colonies in the North, France now directed her efforts to the south. The Huguenots suffered so much persecution in the Old World that they sought a home in the New. Captain John Ribault, sailing from Havre with two ships, sighted Florida on the last day of April, 1562. The Indians were friendly and the explorers were charmed with the country. Ribault took possession of it in the name of France and gave French names to various places. Finally he dropped anchor in the harbor of Port Royal and began founding a settlement.
All were in good spirits and wished to remain, but Ribault sailed for France, leaving thirty men behind. After a time they quarreled and rigged up a worthless boat with which they set sail for home. All would have perished, had they not been picked up by an English vessel, which humanely landed the feeblest on the coast of France, while the strong men were taken to England as prisoners of war.
It was the intention of Ribault to return to America, but civil war was raging in France, and for a time he was prevented. In April, 1564, three more ships set sail to repeat the attempt at colonization. They were under the command of Captain Laudonniere, who had been a member of the former expedition. He began a settlement at what is now known as St. John's Bluff. The friendly Indians helped and all promised well, but unfortunately the colonists became dissatisfied and rebelled against the strict rule of Laudonniere. Some of the men stole two small vessels and set sail for the West Indies on a piratical expedition. Laudonniere hurriedly prepared two larger vessels to pursue them. When they were ready, the malcontents stole them and followed their comrades. Three of the buccaneers were captured by the Spanish, while the pilot of the fourth, who had been pressed into service, steered the vessel back to the colony before the rogues suspected what he was doing. Laudonniere made them prisoners and hanged the ringleaders.
At the time when utter ruin impended, Ribault arrived with seven ships and plenty of supplies. It was at this juncture, when everything promised well, that Menendez, the Spanish miscreant, as already stated, appeared with his powerful fleet and attacked the French ships. Three were up the river, and the four, being no match for the Spaniards, escaped by putting to sea. Menendez landed men and supplies further south, learning which Ribault prepared to attack them. Before he could do so, a violent tempest scattered his ships. By a laborious march through swamps and thickets, amid a driving storm, Menendez descended like a cyclone upon the unprotected French and massacred them all, including the women and children. Another force of French, under solemn promise of protection, surrendered, but they, too, were put to death. They were afterwards avenged by an expedition from France.
Samuel de Champlain proved himself one of the greatest of French explorers. He left the banks of the St. Lawrence at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and discovered the lake which bears his name. His numerous excellent maps added much to the knowledge of the country. Joining De Monts, another explorer, he founded the colony of Port Royal in Nova Scotia in 1605. This settlement, afterward named Annapolis, was the first permanent French colony planted in America. Quebec was founded by Champlain in 1608.
The greatest French explorer, however, was Sieur de la Salle, who was hardly twenty-three years old when he first visited Canada in 1666. Leading an expedition westward, he fell ill while in the country of the Seneca Indians and was forced to part with his companions near the head of Lake Ontario. When he regained his strength he pressed on to the Ohio River, down which he descended to the falls opposite the present city of Louisville. Returning to France, he was made a nobleman and appointed governor of the country around Fort Frontenac, which he had planted on the shore of Lake Ontario. He demolished the fort and erected a much stronger one, built four small vessels, and established a thriving trade with the Indians.
In August, 1679, La Salle launched a vessel at the port of Niagara, with which he sailed the length of Lake Erie, across Lakes St. Clair, Huron, and Michigan to Green Bay. He then sent back his vessel for supplies and crossed the lake in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he built a fort. He visited the Indian tribes in the neighborhood and made treaties with the chiefs.
On the present site of Peoria, he erected a fort in 1680. Then, sending Father Hennepin to explore the country to the northward, La Salle made the entire journey of several hundred miles, alone and on foot, to Fort Frontenac, where he learned that the vessel he had sent back for supplies was lost.
With a new party he made his way to the fort planted on the Illinois River, but found it had been broken up and all the white men were gone. Thence La Salle went down the Mississippi to its mouth, where he set up a column with the French arms and proclaimed the country the possession of the king of France. He was welcomed back to his native land, and when he proposed to his ruler to conquer the fine mining country in the Southwest, the offer was promptly accepted and he was made commandant. He set out with four ships and about 300 persons.
But the good fortune that had marked the career of La Salle up to this point now set the other way, and disaster and ruin overtook him. His men were mostly adventurers and vagabonds, and the officer in command of the ships was an enemy of the explorer. The two quarreled and the vessels had gone some distance beyond the mouth of the Mississippi before La Salle discovered the blunder. He appealed to the captain to return, but he refused and anchored off Matagorda Bay. Then the captain decided that it was necessary to go home for supplies, and sailing away he left La Salle with only one small vessel which had been presented to him by the king.
The undaunted explorer erected a fort and began cultivating the soil. The Indians, who had not forgotten the cruelty of the Spaniards, were hostile and continually annoyed the settlers, several of whom were killed. Disease carried away others until only forty were left. Selecting a few, La Salle started for the Illinois country, but had not gone far when he was treacherously shot by one of his men. The Spaniards who had entered the country to drive out the French made prisoners of those that remained.
THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS.
Next in order is an account of the English explorations. Going back to May, 1553, we find that Sir Hugh Willoughby sailed from London in that month with three ships. At that time, and for many years afterward, the belief was general that by sailing to the northwest a shorter route to India could be found, and such was the errand that led the English navigator upon his eventful voyage.
For two years not the slightest news was heard of Sir Hugh Willoughby. Then some Russian fishermen, who were in one of the harbors of Lapland, observed two ships drifting helplessly in the ice. They rowed out to the wrecks, and climbing aboard of one entered the cabin where they came upon an impressive sight. Seated at a table was Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his journal open and his pen in hand, as if he had just ceased writing. He had been frozen to death months before. Here and there about him were stretched the bodies of his crews, all of whom had succumbed to the awful temperature of the far North.
The third ship was nowhere in sight, and it was believed that she had been crushed in the ice and sunk, but news eventually arrived that she had succeeded in reaching Archangel, whence the crew made their way overland to Moscow. A result of this involuntary journey was that it opened a new channel for profitable trade.
Still the ignis fatuus of a shorter route to India tantalized the early navigators. The belief was general that the coveted route lay north of our continent. In 1576 Martin Frobisher started on the vain hunt with three small vessels. He bumped helplessly about in the ice, but repeated the effort twice, and on one of his voyages entered the strait that bears his name. The region visited by him is valueless to the world, and his explorations, therefore, were of no practical benefit to anyone.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in June, 1583, sailed for America with an important expedition which gave every promise of success. In his case, however, disaster overtook him earlier than others. He was hardly out of sight of land when his most important vessel deserted and went back to port. The men were a sorry lot, and at Newfoundland he sent another ship home with the sick and the mutineers. Of the three vessels remaining, the largest was wrecked and all but fifteen drowned. Sir Humphrey was on the smallest boat on his way home, when one dark night it foundered, carrying down all on board.
The famous Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Gilbert, and a great favorite at the court of Queen Elizabeth, was deeply interested in the plans of his relative, and in April, 1584, sent out two well-equipped vessels for the purpose of colonization. They brought back a glowing report and Raleigh was knighted by the pleased queen, who gave him the privilege of naming the new country. He called it Virginia, in honor of the virgin Queen Elizabeth.
A large expedition sailed for the new country in the spring of 1585 and a fort was built on Roanoke Island. But the Englishmen were as greedy for gold as the Spaniards, and, instead of cultivating the land, they spent their time groping for the precious metal. This was suicidal, because the Indians were violently hostile, and would not bring forward any food for the invaders. All must have perished miserably but for the arrival of Sir Francis Drake, who carried the survivors back to England.
It is worth recording that this stay in America resulted in the Englishmen learning the use of tobacco, which they introduced into their own country. Sir Walter Raleigh became a great smoker, and the incident is familiar of his servant, who, seeing his master smoking a pipe, was terrified at the belief that he was on fire and dashed a mug of ale over him to put out the flames.
Much more useful knowledge was that gained of maize or Indian corn, the potato, and sassafras. They attracted favorable attention in England, and were gradually introduced to other countries in Europe, where the amount raised is very large.
THE LOST COLONY.
A strange and romantic interest attaches to the colony which Sir Walter Raleigh sent out in 1587. It numbered 300 men and women and was in charge of John White. While resting at Roanoke, the daughter of Governor White, the wife of Ananias Dare, had a daughter born to her. She was given the name of "Virginia," and was the first child of English parentage born within the present limits of the United States.
These settlers were as quarrelsome as many of their predecessors and got on ill together. Governor White sailed for England for more immigrants and supplies, but when he reached that country he found the internal troubles so serious that he was kept away from America for three years. When finally he returned to Virginia, he was unable to find a member of the colony. On one of the trees was the word "CROATAN" cut in the bark, which seemed to indicate that the settlers had removed to a settlement of that name; but, though long and continuous search was made and many of the articles belonging to the settlers were recognized, not a person could be discovered. Sir Walter Raleigh sent several expeditions with orders to use every effort to clear up the mystery, but it was never solved. The story of the "Lost Colony" has led to a great deal of investigation and surmise. Two theories have supporters. The most probable is that all the settlers were massacred by Indians. Another is that they were adopted by the red men and intermarried among them. In support of this supposition is the fact that a long time afterward many members of the adjoining tribes showed unmistakable signs of mixed blood. There were so-called Indians with blonde hair, blue eyes, and light complexion--characteristics never seen among those belonging to the genuine American race.
Holland's explorations in America were less important than those of any of her rivals. The thrifty Dutchmen were more anxious to secure trade than to find new countries, and seemed content to allow others to spend wealth and precious lives in penetrating to the interior of the New World and in planting settlements, which almost invariably succumbed to disaster.
Early in the seventeenth century a company of English merchants sent out a skillful navigator named Henry Hudson to hunt for the elusive northwest passage. He took with him only eleven men, one of whom was his son. He made a brave effort to succeed, ploughing his way through the frozen regions until he passed the 80th degree of latitude, which was the furthest point then attained by man. But, within less than ten degrees of the pole, he was forced by the ice to turn back.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER.
Hudson's reputation as a skillful navigator led the wealthy corporation known as the Dutch East India Company to seek his services. He was placed in command of a small vessel called the Half Moon and ordered to sail to the northeast instead of the northwest. He did as directed, but his experience was similar to his previous one, and, being compelled to withdraw, he headed westward. Sighting Cape Cod, he named it New Holland, unaware that it had already been named by Champlain. He continued southward to Chesapeake Bay, where he learned that the English had planted a settlement. Turning northward, he entered Delaware Bay, but was displeased with the shallow water and sailed again northward. On September 3, 1609, he dropped anchor opposite Sandy Hook.
Hudson now began ascending the magnificent river which bears his name. At the end of ten days he had reached a point opposite the present site of Albany. The Indians were friendly and curious. Many of them put out in their canoes and were made welcome on board the little Dutch vessel, which was a source of constant wonderment to them, for they had never seen anything of the kind before.
Descending the stream, Hudson made his way to Dartmouth, England, from which point he sent an account of his discovery to Holland. That country lost no time in claiming sovereignty over the new territory, the claim being so valid that no other nation could legitimately dispute it.
Hudson's achievement added to his fame, and he was once more sent in search of the northwest passage. He entered the bay and strait which bear his name, and passed a winter in that terrible region. In the following spring his crew mutinied, and, placing the navigator, his son, and several members in an open boat, set them adrift, and none of them was ever heard of again.
II. SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES
Virginia,--Founding of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--Introduction of African Slavery--Indian Wars--Bacon's Rebellion--Forms of Government--Prosperity--Education--New England,--Plymouth--Massachusetts Bay Colony--Union of the Colonies--Religious Persecution--King Philip's War--The Witchcraft Delusion--New Hampshire,--The Connecticut Colony, --The New Haven Colony,--Union of the Colonies--Indian Wars--The Charter Oak--Rhode Island,--Different Forms of Government--New York,--The Dutch and English Settlers--New Jersey,--Delaware,--Pennsylvania, --Maryland,--Mason and Dixon's Line--The Carolinas--Georgia.
At the opening of the seventeenth century there was not a single English settlement on this side of the Atlantic. It has been shown that the French succeeded in planting colonies in Canada, that of De Monts, in 1605, in Acadia (the French name of Nova Scotia), proving successful, while Champlain founded Quebec three years later. St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by the Spanish in 1565, but it has played an insignificant part in our history. England was the mother of the colonies, from which the original thirteen States sprang, and we are vastly more indebted to her than to all other nations combined.
THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT.
In the year 1606, when James I. was king of England, he gave a charter or patent to a number of gentlemen, which made them the owners of all that part of America lying between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees of north latitude. The men who received this gift associated themselves together under the name of the London Company, and in the same year sent out three vessels, carrying 105 men, but no women or children. A storm drove them out of their course, and, in the month of May, they entered the mouth of a broad river, which they named the James in honor of their king. They sailed up stream for fifty miles, and, on the 13th of May, 1607, began the settlement of Jamestown, which was the first English colony successfully planted in America. Everything looked promising, but the trouble was that the men did not wish to work, and, instead of cultivating the soil, spent their time in hunting for gold which did not exist anywhere near them. They were careless in their manner of living and a great many fell ill and died. They must have perished before long had they not been wise enough to elect Captain John Smith president or ruler of the colony.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND HIS ADVENTURES.
This man is one of the most interesting characters in the early history of our country. He was a great boaster, and most of his associates did not like him. He had been a wanderer in many parts of the world, and had any number of stories to tell of his wonderful adventures. Probably some of those stories were true and many fiction. Be that as it may, he was an energetic and brave man, and the very one to save the perishing settlers. He made every man work, and none wrought harder than himself. As a consequence matters began to mend at once.
Obeying his orders in London, Captain Smith, when it seemed prudent to do so, spent much of his time in exploring the streams that flowed into the James. It must not be forgotten that it was still believed in Europe that America formed a part of Asia, and that no one needed to penetrate far into the interior to reach that country.
On one of these voyages Captain Smith was taken prisoner by the Indians, who led him before their chief Powhatan. The chief decided that he must be put to death, and, with his hands tied together, he was placed on the ground, with his head resting on two big stones. Then one of the warriors stepped forward to dash out his brains with a club. At that moment Pocahontas, the young daughter of the chief, ran forward, and, throwing her arms around the head of Smith, begged her father to spare his life. The chief consented, and the prisoner was set free and returned to Jamestown. Such is the story which Captain Smith told after the death of Pocahontas in England, which she had visited with her husband, an Englishman named Rolfe, and it can never be known whether the incident was true or not. Some years later Smith was so badly injured by the explosion of gunpowder that he had to return to England for treatment. There he died in 1631. His invaluable services in this country have led historians to regard him as the saviour of the Virginia colony.
The most woeful blow that was struck the American colonies was in August, 1619, when a Dutch ship sailed up the James and sold twenty negroes, kidnapped in Africa, to the colonists as slaves. It was thus that African slavery was introduced into this country, bringing in its train more sorrow, suffering, desolation, and death than pen can describe or imagination conceive. The institution became legal in all the colonies, and the ships of New England, as well as those of old England, were actively engaged for many years in the slave trade.
WARS WITH THE INDIANS.
The marriage of Pocahontas to one of the settlers made her father a firm friend of the whites as long as he lived. At his death, his brother Opechankano succeeded him. He hated intensely the invaders of the hunting grounds, and began plotting to exterminate them. On the 22d of March, 1622, he made such a sudden and furious assault upon the plantations, as the farms were called, along the James that 400 people were killed in one day. The settlers rallied, slew many of the Indians and drove the remainder far back in the woods, but by the time this was accomplished half of the 4,000 settlers were dead and the eighty plantations were reduced to eight.
Opechankano was not crushed, and for more than twenty years he busied himself in perfecting his plans for a greater and more frightful massacre. It was in April, 1644, that he struck his second blow, killing between three and four hundred of the settlers. Once more the Virginians renewed the war of extermination, and pressed it mercilessly until the Indians sued for peace, gave a large tract of land to their conquerors, and retired still further into the wilderness. It is worth noting that at the time of this last massacre Opechankano was nearly a hundred years old.
BACON'S REBELLION.
Sir William Berkeley was the most bigoted ruler Virginia ever had. In one of his messages, he thanked God that there were no free schools or printing in his province. He was very tyrannous, and, having friends in the assembly, they prevented the election of any new members from 1666 to 1676. The taxes became intolerable, and trade fell into the hands of a few individuals. Not only that, but the governor disbanded the troops which had gathered for protection against the Indians, who renewed their attacks on the exposed plantations.
This was more than the people could stand, and they rose in rebellion under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon, a popular young planter, who had lost several members of his family through the attacks of the Indians. Berkeley was cowed for a time, but the arrival of some ships from England enabled him to take the field against Bacon. During the civil war, Jamestown was burned to the ground and never rebuilt. Bacon pressed his resistance so vigorously that his success seemed certain, when unfortunately he fell ill and died. Left without a leader, the rebellion crumbled to pieces. The exultant Berkeley punished the leading rebels without mercy. He hanged twenty-two, and was so ferocious that the king lost patience and ordered him to return to England. "The old fool!" he exclaimed; "he has taken away more lives in that naked country than I did for the murder of my father."
PROSPERITY OF THE COLONY.
Colonial Virginia underwent several changes in its form of government. A "Great Charter" was granted to it in 1613 by the London Company. This permitted the settlers to make their own laws. The House of Burgesses, which was called together at Jamestown by Governor Yeardley, July 30, 1619, was the first legislative body that ever met in this country. King James was dissatisfied with the tendency of things, and in 1624 he took away the charter and granted a new one, which allowed the colony to elect the members of the House of Burgesses, while the king appointed the council and their governor. This made Virginia a royal province, which she remained until the Revolution.
Virginia became very prosperous. Immense quantities of tobacco were raised and sent to England and Holland, where it became widely popular. Its cultivation was so profitable in the colony that for a time little else was cultivated. It was planted even along the streets of Jamestown and became the money of the province. Everything was paid for in so many pounds of tobacco. The population steadily increased, and in 1715 was 95,000, which was the same as that of Massachusetts. A half-century later, Virginia was the richest and most important of the thirteen colonies. The people lived mostly on large plantations, for land was plentiful and the Indians gave no further trouble. Most of the inhabitants were members of the Church of England, and their assemblies passed severe laws against the entrance of people of other religious beliefs into the colony. It required the furnace blasts of the Revolution to purify Virginia and some other provinces of this spirit of intolerance.
Education was neglected or confined to the rich who could send their children to England to be educated. Some of the early schools were destroyed by Indians, but William and Mary College, founded in 1692, was the second college in the United States. It was never a very strong institution.
THE "OLD DOMINION."
It is worth recording how Virginia received the name of the "Old Dominion." She remained loyal to Charles I. throughout the civil war in England which ended in the beheading of the king. She was true also to Charles II. when he was a fugitive and declared an outlaw. While in exile, he sent Governor Berkeley his commission as Governor of Virginia, and that ruler was immensely pleased. The king, to show his appreciation of the loyalty of his colony, made public declaration that Virginia added a fifth country to his kingdom, making it consist of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia, and he devised as an addition to the motto of the English coat of arms, "En dat Virginia quintam" ("Lo! Virginia gives the fifth"). While Cromwell was turning things topsy-turvy in England, a great many of the best families among the Royalists emigrated to Virginia, where they were received with open arms by Governor Berkeley and the owners of the plantations. From this arose the name "Old Dominion," which is often applied to Virginia.
THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.
During the early days of Virginia there was bitter persecution in England of those whose religious views differed from the Church of England. This cruelty drove many people to other countries, and because of their wanderings they were called "Pilgrims." Those who remained members of the English church and used their efforts to purify it of what they believed to be loose and pernicious doctrines were nicknamed "Puritans." Those who withdrew from the membership of the church were termed "Separatists" or "Independents." This distinction is often confounded by writers and readers.
One hundred and two Pilgrims, all Separatists, who had fled to Holland, did not like the country, and decided to make their homes in the New World, where they could worship God as their consciences dictated. They sailed in the Mayflower, and, after a long and stormy passage, landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 21, 1620, in the midst of a blinding snowstorm.
The Pilgrims were hardy, industrious, and God-fearing, and were prepared to face every kind of danger and suffering without murmur. They were severely austere in their morals and conduct, and, when writhing in the pangs of starvation, maintained their faith unshaken in the wisdom and goodness of their Heavenly Father. All these admirable qualities were needed during the awful winter, which was one of the severest ever known in New England. They built log-houses, using oiled paper instead of glass for the windows, and in the spring were able to buy corn of the Indians, who pitied their sufferings, for in the space of a few weeks one-half of the Pilgrims had died. At one time there were but seven well persons in the colony. Among those who passed away was John Carver, the first governor.
The survivors held their ground with grim heroism, and by-and-by other immigrants arrived, and the growth and prosperity, though slow, was certain. It had no charter, but was governed by an agreement which had been drawn up and signed in the cabin of the Mayflower, about the time the bleak coast of New England was sighted. For sixty years after the settlement of Plymouth, its history was uneventful. It was never very large, but the real work which it accomplished was in bringing thousands of other colonists to follow it to New England, who were opponents of the Established Church, and who gave to that section of our country a distinctive character of its own.
MYLES STANDISH.
It is an interesting coincidence that while Virginia had her Captain John Smith, Plymouth possessed a character quite similar in the person of Captain Myles Standish. He was the military leader of the colony, with a courage that was absolutely fearless. He has been described as a very small man, with a "long, yellow beard," and a temper as inflammable as gunpowder. Nothing would rouse his anger sooner than to hear any slur upon his stature. A big, hulking Indian, belonging to a party much larger than Standish's, once looked down upon the diminutive Englishman, and, with a curl of his lip, referred to him as too small to fight. The next day, in a fight that arose with the chiefs, Standish killed the insulting Indian with his own knife. All readers are familiar with the beautiful poem of Longfellow, which tells how Standish employed John Alden to woo Priscilla, the "loveliest maid of Plymouth," for him, and he did it with such success that Alden won her for himself.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony included the part of the present State of Massachusetts from the neighborhood of Boston northward. It was founded by Puritans, who, it will be remembered, had not separated wholly from the Church of England, but opposed many of its ceremonies. In the civil war with England they sided with the Parliament and were subjected to the same persecution as the Separatists. In 1628 a number of wealthy Puritans bought the territory from the Council of Plymouth, and, receiving a charter the following year from Charles I., sent small colonies across the Atlantic. Then the company itself followed, taking with it the charter and officers, thus gaining a colony in America that was wholly independent of England. Salem and some other small settlements had previously been made.
The colony was one of the most important that ever settled in this country. Its leaders were not only of the best character, but were wealthy, wise, and far-seeing. A large number arrived in 1630, and founded Boston, Cambridge, Lynn, and other towns. Although they suffered many privations, they were not so harsh as those of Plymouth, and the colony prospered. During the ten years succeeding 1630, 20,000 people settled in Massachusetts, and in 1692 the two colonies united under the name of Massachusetts.
It would seem that since these people had fled to America to escape religious persecution, they would have been tolerant of the views of those among them, but such unhappily was not the case. The most important part of their work was the building of churches and the establishment of religious instruction. The minister was the most important man in the colony, and no one was allowed to vote unless a member of the church. A reproof in church was considered the most disgraceful penalty that could be visited upon a wrong-doer. The sermons were two, three, and sometimes four hours long, and the business of one of the officers was to watch those overcome by drowsiness and wake them up, sometimes quite sharply.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION.
Roger Williams, a Baptist preacher, told the Puritans, as the people came generally to be called, that they did wrong to take the land from the Indians without paying for it, and that a person was answerable to God alone for his belief. These charges were answered by the banishment of Williams from the colony. All the Baptists were expelled in 1635. Shortly afterward, Anne Hutchinson boldly preached the doctrine of Antinomianism, which declares that a man is not saved by the help of good works, but by divine grace alone. In other words, no matter how wickedly he lives, his salvation is wholly independent of it. She went to Rhode Island and afterward to New Netherland, where she was killed in one of the attacks of the Indians upon the Dutch settlements.
The Quakers greatly annoyed the New England colonists. They persisted in rising in the Puritan meetings and disputing with ministers. Many were fined, whipped, imprisoned, and banished, but in the face of warnings they returned. As a consequence, four were put to death. Then a reaction set in and the persecution ceased.
The most formidable war in which the early colonies of New England were involved was with King Philip, who was the son of Massasoit, a firm friend of the settlers until his death. Philip was one of the great Indians of history. Like many of his people he saw with anger the growth of the white men, who in time would drive him and his warriors from their hunting grounds. Realizing the magnitude of the work of exterminating all the settlers, he visited the different tribes and used every effort to unite them in a war against the invaders. He was partly successful, and, with the allies secured, King Philip began the war by attacking a party of settlers at Swansea, on Sunday, June 24, 1675, while they were on their way to church. Several whites were killed, when the Indians hurried off to the Connecticut Valley to continue their dreadful work.
All understood their peril, and flew to arms. Every man carried his musket to church, and they were stacked outside the door, while a sentinel paced up and down. More than once the long sermon was interrupted by the crack of the red men's guns and their wild whoops, as they swarmed out of the woods. Springing down from the pulpit, the minister was among the foremost in beating the heathen back, and, when quiet was restored, probably he resumed and finished his sermon.
The war was prosecuted furiously on both sides. In the depth of winter, when the snow lay several feet on the ground, John Winslow led 1,500 men against the Narragansett stronghold, which was in the heart of a great swamp, and was one of the most powerful fortifications ever erected by the red men on this continent. In the terrible fight, 200 white men and nearly 1,000 Indians were killed. Finally, Philip was run down in a swamp near his old home on Mount Hope, not far from the present city of Bristol, Rhode Island. While stealing out of his hiding-place, he was confronted by a white soldier and a friendly Indian. The gun of the former missed fire, whereupon the Indian leveled his musket and shot the Wampanoag leader dead. The war ended a few months later. During its continuance, six hundred white men were killed and many more wounded; thirteen towns were destroyed and five hundred buildings burned, but the Indian power in southern New England was shattered forever.
THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION.
One of the most fearful delusions recorded in history is that of the general belief in witchcraft which prevailed in Europe down to the seventeenth century. Its baleful shadow all too soon fell upon New England. Massachusetts and Connecticut made laws against witchcraft and hanged a number of persons on the charge of being witches. In 1692 the town of Salem went crazy over the belief that the diabolical spirits were at work among them. Two little girls, who were simpletons that ought to have been spanked and put to bed, declared with bulging eyes that different persons had taken the form of a black cat and pinched, scratched, and bitten them. The people, including the great preacher Cotton Mather, believed this stuff, and the supposed wizards and witches were punished with fearful severity. Suspicion in many cases meant death; evil men disposed of their creditors and enemies by charging them with witchcraft; families were divided and the gentlest and most irreproachable of women suffered disgraceful death. Everybody, including ministers and judges, lost their wits. The magistrates crowded the jails, until twenty had been put to death and fifty-five tortured before the craze subsided. Then it became clear that no one, no matter what his station, was safe, and the delusion, which forms one of the blackest pages in New England, passed away.
SETTLEMENT OF MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
New Hampshire was the name of John Mason's share of a territory granted to him and Sir Fernando Gorges by the Council of Plymouth in 1622. This grant included all the land between the Merrimac and Kennebec Rivers. The first settlement was made in 1623, at New and at Little Harbor, near Portsmouth. In 1629 the proprietors divided their grants, the country west of the Piscataqua being taken by Mason, who named it New Hampshire, while Gorges, who owned the eastern section, called it Maine.
The settlements were weak and their growth tardy. In 1641 New Hampshire placed itself under the protection of Massachusetts, but the king separated them in 1679, and made New Hampshire a royal colony. In 1688 it again joined Massachusetts, and three years later was set off once more by the king, after which it remained a royal colony until the Revolution.
THE CONNECTICUT COLONY.
The Connecticut colony included all of the present State of Connecticut, excepting a few townships on the shore of Long Island Sound. It came into the possession of the Earl of Warwick in 1630, and the following year he transferred it to Lords Say, Brooke, and others. The Dutch claimed the territory and erected a fort on the Connecticut River to keep out the English. The latter, however, paid no attention to them, and a number of Massachusetts traders settled at Windsor in 1633. Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, was settled in 1635. A great many emigrants came from Massachusetts in 1636, the principal leader being Thomas Hooker. They founded Weathersfield, Windsor, and Hartford, and in 1639 adopted the name of the Connecticut colony and drew up a written constitution, the first ever framed by a body of men for their own government. Other settlements were made and Saybrook united with them.
The most eventful incident in the history of Connecticut was the war with the Pequot Indians, who were a powerful tribe in the eastern part of the State. They tried to persuade the Narragansetts to join them, but Roger Williams, who lived among them, persuaded Canonicus, their chief, to refuse. Then the Pequots committed the fatal mistake of going to war alone. The settlers, fully roused to their danger, assailed the Pequot stronghold with fury, one summer morning in 1637, and killed all their enemies, sparing neither women nor children. Thus a leading tribe of Indians were blotted out in one day.
THE NEW HAVEN COLONY.
The New Haven colony comprised the townships already referred to as lying on Long Island Sound. It was settled in 1638 by a company of English immigrants, who were sufficiently wise and just to buy the lands of the Indians. Other towns were settled, and in 1639 the group took the name of the New Haven colony. Neither of the colonies had a charter, and there was much rivalry in the efforts to absorb the towns as they were settled. The majority preferred to join the Connecticut colony, for the other, like Massachusetts, would permit no one not a member of church to vote or hold office.
THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT.
What is known in the history of England as the Commonwealth, established by Cromwell, came to an end in 1660. Charles II. ascended the throne, and Winthrop, governor of the Connecticut colony, which had now grown to be the stronger of the two, went to England to secure a charter. It was granted to him in 1662, and covered the territory occupied by both colonies, who were permitted to elect their assembly, their governor, and to rule themselves. New Haven, after deliberating over the question, reluctantly accepted the charter, and in 1665 the two were united under the name of the Colony of Connecticut.
Everything was going along smoothly, when, in 1687, Governor Andros came down with a company of soldiers from Boston and ordered the people to surrender their charter. He was acting under the orders of the king, who did not fancy the independence with which the colony was conducting matters. Andros confronted the assembly, which were called together in Hartford. They begged that he would not enforce his demands. He consented to listen to their arguments, though there was not the slightest probability of it producing any effect upon him.
THE CHARTER OAK.
The talk continued until dark, when the candles were lighted. Suddenly, at a signal, all were blown out. When they were re-lighted, the charter, which had been lying on the table in plain sight, was nowhere to be found. Captain Wadsworth had slipped out during the interval of darkness and hidden the paper in the hollow of an oak. Then he returned and took his place among the members, looking the most innocent of all. Andros fumed and raved and informed the assembly that their trick would avail them nothing, since their charter government was at an end. He went back to Boston, to be turned out of office two years later, when the precious charter was brought from its hiding-place.
No effort was spared to preserve the historical "Charter Oak," that had thus been made famous. It was supported and propped in every part that showed signs of weakness, and held up its head until 1856, when a terrific storm brought it to the ground, shattered to fragments, all of which were carefully gathered and preserved by those fortunate enough to obtain them.
The early division of the colonies was long marked by the fact that Hartford and New Haven served as the two capitals of the State until 1873, when Hartford became the sole capital.
SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND.
It has been stated that when Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts he took refuge among the Narragansett Indians, who occupied the country at the head of Narragansett Bay. Canonicus, the chief, held the good man in high esteem, and presented him with a large tract of land, which the devout Williams named "Providence" in remembrance of the manner in which he believed God had directed him thither. Settlers from Massachusetts followed him, and all were hospitably received and kindly treated. The fullest religious liberty was allowed, and even when Anne Hutchinson visited Williams, he treated her like a sister. Williams obtained a charter in 1644 from the Parliament and it was confirmed in 1654. The new one granted by Charles II. in 1663 united all the colonies into one, under the name Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. This is still the legal name of the State, which retains its two capitals, Providence and Newport, the Legislature meeting alternately in each. The charter of Charles II. suited the people so well that it remained in force until 1842, when Thomas Dorr headed a rebellion, as related hereafter, which resulted in the establishment of a new charter.
The existence of Rhode Island was threatened by the claim of Connecticut to all the land on the west to the shore of Narragansett Bay, while Plymouth insisted that the land on the east to the shore of the same bay belonged to her. Rhode Island stoutly resisted, and succeeded in 1741 and 1752 in fixing her boundaries as they are to-day, which make her the smallest State in the Union.
SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK.
It has been shown that Holland was more anxious to secure trade than territory. Soon after the discovery of the Hudson, by Captain Henry Hudson, the Dutch traders sent vessels to Manhattan Island, now constituting the city of New York, and began bartering with the Indians. In 1621 Holland granted the territory from Delaware Bay to the Connecticut River to the Dutch West India Company. The name given to the territory was New Netherland, while the settlement, which grew in time into the metropolis of America, was called New Amsterdam. The whole island was bought from the Indians for sixty guilders, equal to about twenty-four dollars, a price which is considerably less than would be demanded to-day for the site of Greater New York.
New Netherland was governed successively by Peter Minuet, Walter Van Twiller, William Kieft, and Peter Stuyvesant, who were sent out by the Dutch West India Company, and whose rule extended from 1626 to 1664. Of these, Stuyvesant was by far the ablest, and he made a strong impression on the social and political life of New Netherland. He was severe and stubborn, however, and many of the Dutchmen found his rule so onerous that they were rather pleased than otherwise, when the English, in 1664, claimed the territory by right of discovery and sent out a fleet which compelled Stuyvesant to surrender the town. The doughty old governor stamped about New Amsterdam with his wooden leg, calling upon his countrymen to rally and drive back the rascals, but little or no heed was paid to his appeals.
Charles II. had granted the territory to his brother the Duke of York, who soon after ascended the throne, thus making the colony, which included that of New Jersey, a royal one. The Connecticut people had settled a large part of Rhode Island, which they claimed, but the duke was too powerful to be resisted, and Long Island became a part of New York, as the city and province were named.
In 1673, while at war with England, Holland sent a fleet which recaptured New York, but it was given back to England, upon the signing of a treaty in 1674. The manner in which New Netherland was settled by the Dutch was quite different from that of New England. Wealthy men, termed "patroons," were granted immense tracts of laud and brought over settlers, whose situation was much like that of the serfs of Russia. Traces of the patroon system remained long after the Revolution, and, in 1846, caused the "Anti-Rent War," which resulted in the death of a number of people.
The province of New York suffered greatly from misrule. The people were not permitted to elect their own assembly until 1683, and two years later, when the Duke of York became king, he took away the privilege. William and Mary, however, restored it in 1691, and it remained to the Revolution.
As a proof of the bad governorship of New York, it may be said that there is good reason to believe that one of its rulers was interested with the pirates who infested the coast, while another, who refused to sign the death-warrant of two persons who had committed no serious crime, was made drunk and then persuaded to sign the fatal paper. When he became sober, he was horrified to find that both had been executed.
WILLIAM KIDD, THE PIRATE.
The piracy alluded to became such a scandalous blight that strenuous measures were taken to crush it. In 1697 Captain William Kidd, a New York shipmaster and a brave and skillful navigator, was sent to assist in the work. After he had cruised for a while in distant waters, he turned pirate himself. He had the effrontery to return home three years later, believing his friends would protect him; but, though they would have been willing enough to do so, they dared not. He was arrested, tried in England, convicted, and hanged. Piracy was finally driven from the American waters in 1720.
In 1740 New York was thrown into a panic by the report that the negroes had formed a plot to burn the town. It is scarcely possible that any such plot existed, but before the scare had passed away four whites and eighteen negroes were hanged, and, dreadful as it may sound, fourteen negroes were burned at the stake. In addition, nearly a hundred were driven out of the colony.
The fine harbor and noble river emptying into it gave New York such advantages that, by 1750, it had become one of the most important cities on the coast, though its population was less than that of Philadelphia. At the time named, its inhabitants numbered about 12,000, which was less than that of Philadelphia. The province itself contained 90,000 inhabitants. The chief towns were New York, Albany, and Kingston. Brooklyn, which attained vast proportions within the following century, was merely a ferry station.
SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY.
New Jersey, as has been stated, was originally a part of New Netherland. As early as 1618, the Dutch erected a trading post at Bergen. All now included in the State was granted, in 1664, by the Duke of York to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret was once governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel, and gave the name to the new province. In the year mentioned, the first English settlement was made at Elizabethtown, now known as Elizabeth.
In 1674, the province was divided into East and West Jersey, a distinction which is preserved to some extent to the present day. Berkeley, who owned West Jersey, sold it to a number of Quakers, some of whom settled near Burlington. Carteret sold his part to William Penn and eleven other Quakers. The various changes of ownership caused much trouble with the land titles. In 1702, all the proprietors surrendered their rights to the crown and New Jersey became a royal colony. The same governor ruled New York and New Jersey, though those in the latter elected their own assembly. A complete separation from New York took place in 1738, and New Jersey remained a royal province until the Revolution. Its location averted all troubles with the Indians. Newark, the principal city, was settled in 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut. Burlington, founded in 1677, was one of the capitals and Perth Amboy the other.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
In 1638, a number of Swedes formed the settlement of Christina on the Delaware, near Wilmington. They bought the land from the Indians and named it New Sweden. A second settlement, that of Chester, was made just below the site of Philadelphia in 1643, and was the first in the present State of Pennsylvania. The fiery Governor Stuyvesant of New Netherland looked upon these attempts as impudent invasions of his territory, and, filled with anger, hurried down to Delaware and captured both. It was a matter of no moment to the thrifty Swedes, who kept on the even tenor of their way and throve under the new government as well as under the old. A further account of the settlement of Delaware will be given in our history of that of Pennsylvania.
SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.
The peace-loving Quakers were among those who suffered persecution in England for conscience sake. William Penn was the son of Admiral Penn, who disliked the Quakers and had been a valiant officer for the English government. When he died, the crown owed him a large sum of money, which William offered to liquidate in return for a grant of the land now known as the State of Pennsylvania. The king willingly agreed to this, and the Duke of York, who had a strong liking for Penn, added the present State of Delaware to the grant, in which, as has been stated, the Swedes had made a number of settlements.
William Penn was one of the best and wisest rulers that had to do with the settlement of our country. The king, more as a piece of pleasantry than otherwise, insisted upon naming the province "Pennsylvania," in honor of the proprietor, much to the good man's dismay. He offered the royal secretary a liberal fee to omit the first part of the name from the charter, but it was not done. No rule could have been more kindly. Absolute freedom of conscience was permitted; in all trials by jury of an Indian, one-half of the jury were to be composed of Indians, and, although Penn was induced to permit the punishment of death for treason and murder, to be provided for in the code, no man was ever executed while Penn had anything to do with the province.
His first act, after his arrival in 1682, was characteristic. He called the Indian chiefs together, under a great spreading elm at Shackamaxon, and paid them for the land that was already his by royal grant. In addition, he made the red men many presents and signed a treaty, which neither party broke for sixty years. It has been truly said that this was the only treaty not sworn to which was kept inviolate by both parties.
Penn himself laid out the city of Philadelphia in 1683. A year later, it had a population of 7,000, and in three years more its population increased faster than that of New York in half a century. Delaware, then called the "Three Lower Counties," was given a separate government at the request of the people in 1703. They were allowed their own deputy governor, but Pennsylvania and Delaware continued substantially under one government until the Revolution.
The good ruler met with many misfortunes. In 1692, the province was taken from him, because of his friendship to James II., but restored soon afterward. In 1699, when he made his second visit, he found the people had in a great measure grown away from him, and were unwilling that he should exercise his former supervision. While absent, a dishonest steward robbed him of nearly all his property in England; and, failing in health and mind, he died in 1718. His sons became proprietors, but the people grew more and more discontented with the payment of rents. To end the disputes and quarrels, the State abolished the rents during the Revolution, paying the proprietors the sum of $650,000 for the extinguishment of their rights.
PHILADELPHIA.
Philadelphia was prosperous from the first. New York City did not catch up to it until after the year 1810. It was early noted, as it has been since, for its cleanliness, fine buildings, and the attention it gave to education. It had a printing press in 1686, and three years later a public high school. In the year 1749, the present University of Pennsylvania was founded as a school, becoming a college in 1755, and a university in 1779. Many of the names of streets, such as Walnut, Chestnut, Pine, Mulberry, and others, were given to it when the city was laid out.
The settlement of the province was confined for a long time to the eastern section. No population was more varied. The Scotch and Irish were mainly in the central portion, the Dutch and Germans in the east and northeast, and the English in the southeastern part of the colony. There are hundreds of people to-day in Pennsylvania, whose ancestors for several generations have been born there, who are unable to speak or understand a word of English.
Maryland is the next colony in order of settlement. The Roman Catholics were among those who suffered persecution in England, and Maryland was founded as a place of refuge for them. Among the most prominent of the English Catholics was Sir George Calvert, known as Lord Baltimore. His first attempt to found a colony was in Newfoundland, but the rigorous climate compelled him to give it up. He decided that the most favorable place was that portion of Virginia lying east of the Potomac. Virginia had its eye already upon the section, and was preparing to settle it, when Charles I., without consulting her, granted the territory to Lord Baltimore. Before he could use the patent, he died, and the charter was made to his son, Cecil Calvert, in 1632. He named it Maryland in compliment to the queen, Henrietta Maria.
Leonard Calvert, a brother of Lord Baltimore, began the settlement of Maryland at St. Mary's, near the mouth of the Potomac. He took with him 200 immigrants and made friends with the Indians, whom he treated with justice and kindness. Annapolis was founded in 1683 and Baltimore in 1729.
Despite the wisdom and liberality of Calvert's rule, the colony met with much trouble, because of Virginia's claim to the territory occupied by the newcomers. William Clayborne of Virginia had established a trading post in Maryland and refused to leave, but he was driven out, whereupon he appealed to the king, insisting that the Catholics were intruders upon domain to which they had no right. The king decided in favor of Lord Baltimore. Clayborne however, would not assent, and, returning to Maryland in 1645, he incited a rebellion which was pressed so vigorously that Calvert was forced to flee. He gathered enough followers to drive Clayborne out in turn. The Catholics then established a liberal government and passed the famous "Toleration Act," which allowed everybody to worship God as he saw fit. Many persons in the other colonies, who were suffering persecution, made their homes in Maryland.
After a time, the Protestants gained a majority in the assembly and made laws which were very oppressive to the Catholics. The strife degenerated into civil war, which lasted for a number of years. The proprietor in 1691 was a supporter of James II., because of which the new king, William, took away his colony and appointed the governors himself. The proprietor's rights were restored in 1716 to the fourth Lord Baltimore. The Calverts became extinct in 1771, and the people of Maryland assumed proprietorship five years later. Comparative tranquillity reigned until the breaking out of the Revolution.
An interesting occurrence during this tranquil period was the arrival from England of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers. In the assemblage which gathered on the shores of the Chesapeake to listen to his preaching were members of the Legislature, the leading men of the province, Indian sachems and their families, with their great chief at their head.
The disputed boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was fixed in 1767, by two surveyors named Mason and Dixon. This boundary became famous in after years as the dividing line between the free and slave States.
Charles II., in 1663 and 1665, granted the land between Florida and Virginia to eight proprietors. The country had been named Carolina in honor of their king, Charles IX. (Latin, Carolus), and since Charles II. was King of England the name was retained, though he was not the ruler meant thus to be honored. The country was comparatively uninhabited after the failure of the French colony, except by a few Virginians, who made a settlement on the northern shore of Albemarle Sound.
THE CAROLINAS.
For twenty years the proprietors tried to establish upon American soil one of the most absurd forms of government ever conceived. The land was to be granted to nobles, known as barons, landgraves, and caziques, while the rest of the people were not to be allowed to hold any land, but were to be bought and sold with the soil, like so many cattle. The settlers ridiculed and defied the fantastical scheme, which had to be abandoned. It was the work of John Locke, the famous philosopher, who at one time was secretary of Lord Cooper, one of the proprietors.
The first settlement of the Carteret colony was made in 1670, on the banks of the Ashley, but in 1680 it was removed to the present site of Charleston. The colonies remained united for about seventy years, when it became apparent that the territory was too large to be well governed by one assembly and a single governor. In 1729, the present division was made, and the rights of government and seven-eighths of the land were returned to the crown.
The soil and climate were so favorable that thousands of immigrants were attracted thither. Among them were numerous Huguenots or French Protestants, whose intelligence, thrift, and morality placed them among the very best settlers found anywhere in our country. Newbern was settled by a colony of Swiss in 1711, and there was a large influx of Scotch after their rebellion of 1740, England giving them permission to leave Scotland. Scotch immigrants settled Fayetteville in 1746.
There were occasional troubles with the Indians, the most important of which was the war with the Tuscaroras, in 1711. This tribe was utterly defeated and driven northward into New York, where they joined the Iroquois or Five Nations. The union of the Tuscaroras caused the Iroquois to be known afterward as the Six Nations.
The Carolinas were afflicted with some of the worst governors conceivable, interspersed now and then with excellent ones. Often there was sturdy resistance, and in 1677 one of the governors, who attempted to enforce the Navigation Act, was deposed and imprisoned. In 1688, another was driven out of the colony. The population was widely scattered, but the people themselves were as a whole the best kind of citizens. They would not permit religious persecution, and defeated the effort to make the Church of England the colony church. As a consequence, the Carolinas became, like Maryland and Pennsylvania, a refuge for thousands of those who were persecuted in the name of religion.
GEORGIA.
Georgia was the last of the thirteen original colonies to be settled, and, though it long remained the weakest of them all, its history is very interesting. It, too, was a country of refuge for those suffering persecution, but their affliction was different in its nature from those of whom we have made record.
One of the remarkable facts connected with the government of nations claiming the highest civilization, hardly more than a century ago, was the brutality of their laws. Many crimes, comparatively trifling in their nature, were punishable with death. One of the most cruel of these oppressive laws was that which permitted a man to throw into prison a neighbor who was unable to pay the money he owed. If a poor tenant fell ill, and could not pay his landlord, the latter could have him flung into jail and kept there until the debt was paid. Since the debtor was unable to earn a penny while in prison, and probably his wife and children were equally helpless, the landlord thus deprived himself of all possibility of getting his money, while the wretched debtor literally "rotted" in prison. Thousands died in dreadful misery, merely because they were poor.
This system of allowing imprisonment for debt prevailed in our own country until within the memory of men still living. It makes one's cheeks tingle with shame and indignation to recall that Robert Morris, who devoted all his wealth and energies to raising money for the patriots during the Revolution, who furnished Washington with thousands of dollars, and but for whose help the war must have failed, became poor after independence was gained and was imprisoned for debt.
The system caused such horrible suffering in England that the pity of all good men was stirred. Among these was James Edward Oglethorpe, one of the most admirable characters in modern history. He was a brave and skillful soldier, eminently just, of the highest social position and a member of Parliament. He determined to do something practical for the perishing debtors in English jails. He, therefore, asked George II. to give him a grant of land in America to which the imprisoned debtors could be sent, and the king, whose heart also seemed to be touched, promptly did so. It was said of Oglethorpe that the universal respect felt for him made certain that any favor he asked of his own associates or friends would be willingly granted.
The king not only presented him with valuable equipments, but Parliament granted him a liberal sum, to which wealthy citizens added. He had the best wishes of his entire country when he sailed for America with one hundred and fourteen persons. He named the new colony Georgia in honor of the king, and began the settlement of Savannah in 1733, Darien and Augusta being founded three years later. It need hardly be said of such a man, that, like Penn and Baltimore, he bought the lands anew of the Indians and retained their friendship from the start. On one of his visits to England he took a party of red men with him, entertained them at his country place and presented them at court.
The Spaniards claimed Georgia as their own territory, and raised a large force with which to expel Oglethorpe, whose colony had been increased by the arrival of other immigrants, but the English officer handled his men with such extraordinary skill that the Spaniards were utterly routed.
It would be supposed that Georgia would have been one of the most successful of the original colonies, since seemingly it possessed every advantage, but such was far from the fact. One cause for this was the "coddling" the pioneers received. They were harmed by too much kindness. Had they been compelled to hew their own way, like their neighbors, they would have done better. They were like children spoiled by being granted too many favors.
Another cause was the poor laws by which the people were ruled. Slavery at first was forbidden within its borders, though it was tolerated all about them. Then, in 1747, the trustees yielded to the general demand and admitted slavery. Other rules caused discontent, and many settlers moved away. Population appeared to be at a standstill, and finally the trustees in 1752 surrendered their rights to the crown. More liberal laws followed and the prosperity increased.
Of General Oglethorpe, it may be added that he lived to reach his ninety-eighth year. It was said of him that he was the handsomest old man in London, and people often stopped on the streets to look at and admire him. He always had a warm regard for the American colonies. Indeed, it was this marked friendship for them which prevented his appointment as commander-in-chief of the British forces during the Revolution.
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
It will thus be seen that, beginning with Virginia, in 1607, the American colonies had grown in a little more than a century and a quarter to thirteen. These were strung along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, and in 1750 their population was about 1,260,000. This was vigorous growth. All the colonists, although born on this side of the Atlantic, considered themselves Englishmen, and were proud of their king, three thousand miles away across the ocean. With such loyal subjects, the English crown had the best opportunity in the world to become the most powerful of all the nations.
But Great Britain was not free from misgiving over the rapid growth of her American colonies. Nothing looked more probable than that before many years they would unite in one government of their own and declare their independence of the British crown. Then was the time for the display of wise statesmanship, but unhappily for England and happily for the colonies, such wise statesmanship proved to be lacking on the other side of the water. The colonies displayed great industry. They grew tobacco, rice, indigo, and many other products which were eagerly welcomed by the British merchants, who exported their own manufactures in exchange for them. The inevitable result was that England and the American colonies increased their wealth by this means. Not only that, but the colonies voted ships, men, and money to help the mother country in the wars in which she was often involved.
As early as 1651, Parliament passed the first of the oppressive Navigation Acts, which forbade the colonies to trade with any other country than England, or to receive foreign ships into their ports. This act was so harsh and unjust that it was never generally enforced, until the attempt, more than a century later, when it became one of the leading causes of the American Revolution.
III. THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
King William's War--Queen Anne's War--King George's War--The French and Indian War--England and France Rivals in the Old World and the New--The Early French Settlements--The Disputed Territory--France's Fatal Weakness--Washington's Journey Through the Wilderness--The First Fight of the War--The War Wholly American for Two Years--The Braddock Massacre--The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt--Fall of Quebec--Momentous Consequences of the Great English Victory--The Growth and Progress of the Colonies and Their Home Life.
KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
If anything were needed to prove the utter uselessness and horrible barbarity of war, it is found in a history of the strife in which the American colonies were involved through the quarrels of their rulers, thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. Men lived for years in America as neighbors, meeting and exchanging visits on the most friendly terms, and with no thought of enmity, until the arrival of some ship with news that their respective governments in Europe had gone to war. Straightway, the neighbors became enemies, and, catching up their guns, did their best to kill one another. Untold misery and hundreds of lives were lost, merely because two ambitious men had gotten into a wrangle. The result of such a dispute possessed no earthly interest to the people in the depths of the American wilderness, but loyalty to their sovereigns demanded that they should plunge into strife.
As time passed, Spain and Holland declined in power, and England and France became formidable rivals in the New World as well as in the Old. In 1689, when William III. was on the throne of England, war broke out between that country and France and lasted until 1697. The French, having settled in Canada, were wise enough to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, who helped them in their savage manner in desolating the English settlements. Dover, New Hampshire, was attacked by the French and Indians, who killed more than a score of persons and carried away a number of captives. In other places, settlers were surprised in the fields and shot down. Early in 1690, another party came down from Canada, and, when the snow lay deep on the ground and the people were sleeping in their beds, made a furious attack upon Schenectady. The town was burned and sixty persons tomahawked, while the survivors, half-clad, struggled through the snow to Albany, sixteen miles distant.
The Americans in retaliation attempted to invade Canada, but the result was a disastrous failure. The war continued in a desultory way, with great cruelties on both sides, until 1697, when a treaty signed at Ryswick, Holland, settled the quarrel between King William and James II., by deciding that the former was the rightful king of England. The suffering and deaths that had been inflicted on this side of the Atlantic produced not the slightest effect upon the quarrel between the two claimants to the throne.
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
In 1702, England got into a wrangle with France and Spain. This time the Iroquois Indians took no part, because of their treaty with France, although in the previous war they fought on the side of the English. In the depth of winter in 1703-4, Deerfield, Massachusetts, was attacked and destroyed. Forty-seven of the people were tomahawked and more than a hundred carried into captivity. Their sufferings were so dreadful on the long tramp through the snow to Canada that nearly all sank down and died. Maine and New Hampshire were devastated by the hordes, who showed no mercy to women and children. Another English invasion of Canada was attempted, but failed like its predecessor. The aimless, cruel war continued until 1713, when a treaty of peace was signed at Utrecht in Holland, by which England secured control of the fisheries of Newfoundland, while Labrador, Hudson Bay, and Acadia or Nova Scotia were ceded to Great Britain. The result in both instances would have been the same had the English and French settlers and the Indians continued on amicable terms.
KING GEORGE'S WAR.
In 1740, the War for the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe and soon involved most of the European nations. Because George II. was on the throne of England, the struggle is known in this country as King George's War.
A notable event in America was the capture of the fortress of Louisburg, one of the strongest fortifications in the world, mainly by New England troops. It was a grand achievement which thrilled this country and England, and caused consternation in France. A treaty of peace was signed in 1744 at Aix-la-Chapelle, a town in western Germany. New England was enraged to find that by the terms of this treaty Louisburg was given back to France, and all her valor, sacrifice, and suffering went for naught.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
It has already been shown that England and France, who had long been rivals in the Old World, had become equally bitter rivals on this side of the Atlantic. On the west, the thirteen English colonies were walled in by the Allegheny Mountains, beyond which none of the settlers had advanced. All the country lying between these mountains and the Mississippi was claimed by France, who was pushing southward through it, and had given it the name of New France or Louisiana. The first French settlement within the northwestern part of our country was the mission of St. Mary, near Sault Ste. Marie, now in the State of Michigan, it having been established in 1668. Several others of minor importance were planted at different points.
England did not oppose the acquirement of Canada by the French early in the seventeenth century, but no serious attempt was made by that people to colonize the territory within the United States until 1699, when D'Iberville crossed the Gulf of Mexico in quest of the mouth of the Mississippi. When he found it, he planted a settlement at Biloxi, now in Mississippi, but removed it in 1702 to Mobile. The Mississippi Company, a French organization, obtained in 1716 a grant of Louisiana, and in 1718 sent out a colony that began the settlement of New Orleans.
It will thus be seen that by 1750 the French had acquired large possessions in North America. They were, determined to hold them, and, to do so, established a chain of sixty forts reaching from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. These forts were the foundations of many important cities of to-day, such as New Orleans, Natchez, Detroit, Vincennes, Toledo, Fort Wayne, Ogdensburg, and Montreal. To the rear of the main chain of forts were others like Mackinaw, Peoria, and Kaskaskia.
Extensive as was the territory thus taken possession of by the French, they were fatally weak because of their scant population, amounting to less than 150,000 souls, while the English colonies had grown to 1,500,000. The French traders were just about strong enough to hold the Indians in check, but no more.
Thus with the French on the west and the English on the east of the Alleghanies, the two rival forces were slowly creeping toward each other, and were bound soon to meet, when the supreme struggle for possession of the North American continent would open. By-and-by, the French hunters and traders, as they climbed the western slope of the mountains, met the English trappers moving in their direction. Being the advance skirmishers of their respective armies, they often exchanged shots, and then fell back to report what they had seen and done to their countrymen.
The fertile lands of the Great West had long attracted attention, and many efforts had been made to buy them at a cheap price to sell again to settlers. In 1749, the Ohio Company was formed by a number of London merchants and several prominent Virginians. The lands they bought lay in western Pennsylvania, which Virginia claimed as part of her territory. This company proved its earnestness by sending out surveyors, opening roads, and offering tempting inducements to settlers.
The French were equally prompt and took possession of the country between the Alleghanies and their main chain of forts. They built a fort at Presq' Isle, on the site of the present city of Erie, and began erecting a new chain of forts southward toward the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia saw the danger of permitting this encroachment, and he wrote a letter of remonstrance to the French commander, which was placed in the hands of GEORGE WASHINGTON, to be carried five hundred miles through wilderness, across mountains and dangerous rivers, to the point in western Pennsylvania where the French officer was building his forts upon disputed ground.
The journey was a long and perilous one, but Washington, who was a magnificent specimen of vigorous young manhood, performed it in safety, and brought back the reply of the French commander, which notified Governor Dinwiddie that he not only refused to vacate the territory, but would drive out every Englishman he found within it.
This meant war, and Virginia made her preparations. She raised about 400 men and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, who was more familiar with the country than anyone else. The Ohio Company at that time were putting up a fort on the present site of Pittsburg, and Washington hurried forward to protect it. The Frenchmen understood the value of a post at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, and also started on a race for it. They arrived first, captured the fort, strengthened it, and gave it the name of Fort Duquesne. That done, they set out to meet Washington, who was descending the Monongahela.
OPENING OF THE WAR.
The meeting between these forces brought on the first fight of the French and Indian War. It was the advance party of each which met, and it is said that the first musket was fired by Washington himself. The French had enlisted a number of Indians, but Washington killed or captured nearly all of them as well as the whites. The main body of the French, however, was so much more powerful than his own, that Washington moved back a few miles and built a fortification which he named Fort Necessity. There, after a brisk fight, he was compelled to surrender, July 4, 1754, on the promise that he and his men should be allowed to return to Virginia. That province was so well pleased with his work that he acted as its leading officer throughout the remainder of the war.
A peculiarity of the French and Indian War must be noted. For two years it was entirely an American war, not extending to Europe until 1756. For the first time the English colonies acted together. They saw the value of the territory in dispute and were ready to make common cause for its possession. England was inclined to let them do the best they could without help from her. She advised that they form some plan for united action. In accordance with this suggestion, a meeting was held at Albany in 1754, composed of delegates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and the New England colonies. Benjamin Franklin, the great philosopher, proposed the "Albany plan of Union," which was agreed upon.
When this was submitted to the king, he saw too much of American independence in it, and promptly rejected it, while the colonies did the same on the ground that it gave the king too much power. There was much significance in this action.
EXPULSION OF THE CANADIANS.
It was now so evident that war must soon come that England and France began sending troops to America. At the same time, the respective governments continued to profess--diplomatically--their strong friendship for each other. In June, 1755, a force consisting of British regulars and colonial troops sailed from Boston and captured the few remaining French forts in Nova Scotia. The inhabitants were gathered together in their churches, placed on ships, and then distributed southward among the English colonies. This act has been often denounced as one unworthy of the British people.
BRADDOCK'S MASSACRE.
Among the English officers who arrived in 1755 was General Edward Braddock. He was brave and skillful, but conceited and stubborn. When Washington, who was one of his aides, explained to him the character of the treacherous foes whom he would have to fight and advised him to adopt similar tactics, the English officer insultingly answered that when he felt the need of advice from a young Virginian, he would ask for it. He marched toward Fort Duquesne and was within a few miles of the post, when he ran into an ambush and was assailed so vehemently by a force of French and Indians that half his men were killed, the rest put to flight, and himself mortally wounded. Washington and his Virginians, by adopting the Indian style of fighting, checked the pursuit and saved the remainder of the men.
In the spring of 1756, England and France declared war against each other and the struggle now involved those two countries. For two years the English, despite their preponderance of forces in America, lost rather than gained ground. Their officers sent across the ocean were a sorry lot, while the French were commanded by Montcalm, a brilliant leader. He concentrated his forces and delivered many effective blows, capturing the forts on the northern border of New York and winning all the Indians to his support. The English fought in detached bodies and were continually defeated.
ENGLISH SUCCESSES.
But a change came in 1758, when William Pitt, one of the greatest Englishmen in history, was called to the head of the government. He weeded out inefficient officers, replaced them with skillful ones, who, concentrating their troops, assailed the French at three important points. Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, which had been captured more than a hundred years before, during King George's War, was again taken by a naval expedition in the summer of 1758. In the autumn, Fort Duquesne was captured without resistance and named Fort Pitt, in honor of the illustrious prime minister. The single defeat administered to the English was at Ticonderoga, where Montcalm commanded in person. This was a severe repulse, in which the English lost in the neighborhood of 1,600 men. It was offset by the expulsion of the French from northwestern New York and the capture of Fort Frontenac, on the present site of Kingston in Canada.
One wise step of Pitt was in winning the cordial support of the provincials, as the colonists were called, to the British regulars. Our ancestors thus gained a most valuable military training which served them well in the great struggle for independence a few years later.
WOLFE'S GREAT VICTORY.
The year 1759 brought decisive success to the English. Knowing that they intended to attack Quebec, Montcalm drew in his troops to defend that city. It therefore was an easy matter for the English to capture Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort Niagara, General Wolfe, one of the very ablest of English leaders, left Louisburg with a fleet and sailed up the St. Lawrence. He found the fortifications of Quebec at so great an elevation that he could make no impression upon them. Three months passed in idle waiting and the besiegers were almost disheartened. Wolfe himself was so distressed by anxiety that he fell ill. The sagacious Montcalm could not be induced to come out and give battle, and there seemed no way of reaching him.
But the lion-hearted Wolfe would not be denied. He found a path leading up to the Heights of Abraham, as the plain above was called, and, selecting a mild night in September, his troops floated down the river in their boats and landed at the foot of the cliff. All night long the English soldiers were clambering up the steep path, dragging a few guns with them, and, when the morning sun rose, it shone on the flashing bayonets of the whole army drawn up in battle array before the walls of Quebec.
The astonished Montcalm, instead of remaining within the city, marched his army out and gave battle. In the fight both Wolfe and Montcalm were fatally wounded. Wolfe lived long enough to learn that the French were fleeing before his victorious troops. "Now, I can die happy," he said, and shortly after expired. When Montcalm was told he must die, he mournfully replied: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."
MOMENTOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR.
This battle was one of the decisive ones of the world, for, as will be seen, its results were of momentous importance to mankind. The conquest of Canada followed in 1760, and the other French forts fairly tumbled into the possession of the English. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was so angered at the turn of events that he refused to be bound by the terms of the surrender. He brought a number of tribes into an alliance, captured several British posts in the West, and laid siege to Detroit for more than a year, but in the end he was defeated, his confederacy scattered, and Pontiac himself, like Philip, was killed by one of his own race.
The war was over, so far as America was concerned, but England and France kept it up for nearly three years, fighting on the ocean and elsewhere. In 1762, Spain joined France, but received a telling blow in the same year, when an English expedition captured the city of Havana. In this important event, the provincials gave valuable aid to the British regulars. The colonies also sent out a number of privateers which captured many rich prizes from the Spaniards.
By 1763, Great Britain had completely conquered France and Spain, and a treaty of peace was signed at Paris. France and Spain agreed to give up all of North America east of the Mississippi, and England ceded Cuba to Spain in exchange for Florida, exchanging Florida in 1783 for the Bahama Islands. The former was a victory for Spanish diplomacy, since Florida was practically worthless to Spain, while Havana, the capital of Cuba, was an enormously wealthy city, and the island possessed marvelous fertility and almost boundless resources.
France, after her wholesale yielding to England, paid Spain her ally by ceding to her all her possessions west of the Mississippi, including the city of New Orleans. This enormous territory, then known as Louisiana, comprehended everything between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River, from British America to the Gulf of Mexico. In extent it was an empire from which many of the most important States of the Union have been carved. When it is remembered that these changes were the result of a war in which the capture of Quebec was the decisive conflict, it will be admitted that there was ample warrant for pronouncing it one of the great battles of the world.
The thirteen original colonies were now "full grown." Their population had increased to 2,000,000 and was fast growing. Their men had proven their bravery and generalship in the French and Indian War. Many of them had developed into fine officers, and all compared favorably with the British regulars. Their loyalty to England was proven by the 30,000 lives that had been given that she might conquer her traditional rival and enemy.
The adventurous spirit of the colonists was shown by the fact that many began crossing the Alleghanies into the fertile district beyond, where they were in continual danger from the fierce Indians. James Robertson led a party of emigrants who made the first settlement in Tennessee in 1768, and the famous Daniel Boone and a company of immigrants were the pioneers in Kentucky in 1769. No effort was made to settle the country north of the Ohio until after the Revolution.
The intellectual progress of the colonies was remarkable. The first printing press was set up at Cambridge in 1639, and newspapers and books were in general circulation. Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts in 1638; William and Mary, in Virginia, in 1692; Yale, in Connecticut, in 1700; the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), in 1746; the University of Pennsylvania, in 1749; and King's College (now Columbia), in New York, in 1754. Much attention was given to education, commerce was greatly extended, the oppressive Navigation Act being generally disregarded, and thousands of citizens were in prosperous circumstances.
More significant than all else was the growth of the sentiment of unity among the different colonies. Although properly known as provincials, to distinguish them from the British, they now, instead of speaking of themselves as New Englanders or Virginians or Englishmen, often substituted the name "Americans." The different colonies were looked upon as members of the same great family, ready to make common cause against a danger threatening any one of them. Some of the bolder ones began to express the thought that it would be a fine thing if they were all independent of the mother country, though for years the sentiment assumed no importance.
Now was the time for England to display wisdom, justice, and statesmanship toward her subjects in America. Had she treated them as she now treats Canada and Australia and her other colonies, there never would have been a Revolution. No doubt in time we should have separated from her, but the separation would have been peaceable.
But while Great Britain has always been immeasurably above Spain in her treatment of her American subjects, she was almost as foolish, because she chilled the loyalty that had been proven in too many instances to be doubted. The mother country was laboring under the weight of burdensome taxes, and, since the colonies had always been prompt in voting money and supplies as well as men to assist England, Parliament thought she saw a way of shouldering a large part of this burden upon the Americans. Her attempts to do so and the results therefrom properly belong to the succeeding chapter.
HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS.
A few facts will assist in understanding the events that follow. Slavery, as has been stated, was legal and existed in all the colonies, but climatic conditions caused it to flourish in the South and decline in the North. All the colonies were Protestant, though religious liberty was permitted everywhere.
The laws were amazingly strict and would never be submitted to in these times. To illustrate: a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning as notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Massachusetts had fourteen and Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with death. Some of the minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a common scold, she was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in her mouth, that all might see and beware of her example. For other offenses, a man was ducked in water or put in the stocks. A stock was a strong framework, through which the feet or both feet and hands were thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a framework through which the head and hands of a criminal were imprisoned. Besides the disgrace attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping-post was quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally used in Delaware.
Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fashions for women and girls were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of knickerbockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and buttons. The breeches of the poorer people were made of coarse cloth, deerskin, or leather, the object being to obtain all the wear possible. The wealthy used velvet, and the men and women were as fond of display as their descendants.
In the earliest days, all the houses were made of logs, and oiled paper took the place of glass for windows. Carpets were an unknown luxury. Often the floor was the smooth, hard ground. The cooking was done in the big fireplace, where an iron arm called a crane was swung over the fire and sustained the pots and kettles. Coal and matches were unknown, a fire being started by means of a piece of steel and flint or with the help of a sun glass.
Coffee and tea were great luxuries, but nearly every family made its own beer. Rum and hard cider were drunk by church people as well as others, the only fault being when one drank too much. The important cities and towns were connected by stages, but most of the traveling was done on foot or horseback. Since most of the settlements were near the sea or on large rivers, long journeys were made by means of coasting sloops. When a line of stages in 1766 made the trip between New York and Philadelphia in two days, it was considered so wonderful that the vehicles were called "flying machines."
Regarding the state of religion in the colonies, Prof. George F. Holmes says:
"The state of religion among the people differed greatly in the different provinces. The Church of England was the established religion in New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Maryland, the population remained largely Roman Catholic. In New England the original Puritanism was dominant, but its rigor had become much softened. A solemn and somewhat gloomy piety, however, still prevailed. The Presbyterians were numerous, influential, and earnest in New Jersey. There, but especially in Pennsylvania, were the quiet and gentle Quakers. In Carolina and Georgia, Moravians and other German Protestants were settled, and Huguenot families were frequent in Virginia and South Carolina.
"Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and consequently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of morals and of conduct was alleged against the communities of the Anglican Church. In the middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of religious sentiment was general. The revival of fervor, which was incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread by Whitefield in America, and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the country. The Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms and became warm partisans of the revolutionary movement."
IV. THE REVOLUTION--THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND
Clauses of the Revolution--The Stamp Act--The Boston Tea Party--England's Unbearable Measures--The First Continental Congress--The Boston Massacre--Lexington and Concord--The Second Continental Congress--Battle of Bunker Hill--Assumption of Command by Washington--British Evacuation of Boston--Disastrous Invasion of Canada.
CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.
England was never guilty of greater folly than in the treatment of her American colonies after the close of the French and Indian War. As has been said, she was oppressed by burdensome taxation and began seeking excuse for shifting a large portion of it upon the shoulders of her prosperous subjects across the sea, who had always been ready to vote money and give their sons to help in the wars which were almost solely for the benefit of the mother country. It has been shown that the intercolonial conflicts were of no advantage to the colonies which were dragged into them and suffered greatly therefrom. Since the surrounding territory would soon be necessary for the expansion of the Americans, they had much to gain by the defeat of the French and their expulsion from America; but they had done their full share, and it was unjust to demand further sacrifices from them.
PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT.
Hardly had peace been declared, when, in 1764, the British government asserted that it had the right to tax her colonies. The latter paid little attention to the declaration, but were rudely awakened in 1765 by the passage of the Stamp Act, which was to go into effect in November of that year. It decreed that thenceforward no newspapers or pamphlets could be printed, no marriage-certificate given, and no documents used in lawsuits, unless stamps were attached, and these could be bought only from British agents.
It was ordered further that the oppressive Navigation Acts, which had been evaded for a hundred years, should be rigidly enforced, while soldiers were to be sent to America to see that the orders were carried out. Since these troops were to be paid from the money received for the stamps, it will be seen that the Americans would be obliged to bear the expense of the soldiers quartered upon them.
Now we use revenue stamps to-day and no one objects, but the difference in the two cases is that we tax ourselves for our own expenses, and our representatives grade the taxes so as to suit the people. If we do not think the taxes equitable, we can elect other representatives, pledged to change them. But it must be remembered that we never had a representative in the British Parliament, whose English members did just as they pleased. That was "taxation without representation."
The news of the action of the British government threw the colonies into an angry mood and they vehemently declared their intention to resist the Stamp Act. They did not content themselves with words, but mobbed the stamp agents, compelled others to resign, and, when the date arrived for the act to go into effect, they refused to buy a single obnoxious stamp.
REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT.
The Stamp Act Congress, as it was called, met in New York City, October 7, 1765. There were representatives from all the colonies except four, but they supported the others. Lacking the authority to make any laws, it issued a bold declaration of rights and sent petitions to the king and Parliament, setting forth the American grievances. The sturdy resistance of the colonies alarmed England. They had many friends in Parliament, including the illustrious Pitt, and, at the beginning of 1766, the act was repealed. The Americans were so delighted that they almost forgot that England in repealing the act still asserted her right to tax them.
Several years now followed in which the colonies quietly resisted the efforts of England to tax them. This was done by a general agreement not to buy any of the articles upon which taxes were laid. The men who did this and opposed the mother country were known as Whigs, while those who stood by England were called Tories.
DEFIANT ACTS BY THE AMERICANS.
But violence was sure to follow where the indignation was so intense and widespread. There were continual broils between the British soldiers and citizens, the most serious of which occurred in Boston on March 5, 1770, when the soldiers fired upon the citizens who had attacked them, killed three and wounded several. This incident, known in history as the "Boston Massacre," added to the mutual anger. In North Carolina, William Tryon, the Tory Governor, had a battle with the patriots at Alamance in 1771, killed a large number, and treated others so brutally that many fled across the mountains and helped to settle Tennessee. In 1772, a British vessel, the Gaspe, which was active in collecting duties from Providence, was captured and burned by a number of Rhode Island people. England offered a reward for the capture of the "rebels," but, though they were well known, no one would have dared, if so disposed, to arrest them.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY.
The British Parliament was impatient with the colonies, and threatened all sorts of retaliatory measures. In 1770, Parliament took the tax off of all articles except tea, upon which it was made so light that the luxury was cheaper in America with the tax than in England without it. The Americans, however, were contending for a principle, and contemptuously rejected the offer. When the tea ships reached Charleston, the cargoes were stored in damp cellars, where they soon molded and spoiled. At New York, Philadelphia, and other points they would not allow the ships to land their cargoes, and they sailed back to England. A similar reception having been given the vessels in Boston, the British officers refused to leave the harbor. Late at night, December 16, 1773, a party of citizens, painted and disguised as Indians, boarded the ships and emptied 342 chests--all on board--into the harbor.
The "Boston Tea Party" thrilled the colonies and exhausted the patience of England, who felt that the time for stern measures had come. Her dallying course had only encouraged the rebels, and as in the story, having tried in vain the throwing of grass, she now determined to see what virtue there was in using stones.
ENGLAND'S UNBEARABLE MEASURES.
The measures which she passed and which were unbearable were: 1. The Boston Port Bill, which forbade all vessels to leave or enter Boston harbor. This was a death-blow to Boston commerce and was meant as a punishment of those who were leaders in the revolt against the mother country. 2. The Massachusetts Bill, which was another destructive blow at the colony, since it changed its charter by taking away the right of self-government and placing it in the hands of the agents of the king. 3. The Transportation Bill, which ordered that all soldiers charged with the crime of murder should be taken to England for trial. 4. The Quebec Act, which made the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio a part of Canada. These acts were to be enforced by the sending of troops to America.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.
The result of the passage of these harsh measures was to unite all the colonies in a determination to resist them to the last. The necessity for consultation among the leaders was so apparent that, in response to a general call, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, all the colonies being represented except Georgia, which favored the action.
This Congress adopted a declaration of rights, asserting that they alone were empowered to tax themselves, and it named a number of acts of Parliament that were a direct invasion of such rights. An address was sent to the king and to the people of Great Britain, but none to Parliament, which had deeply offended the Americans. The agreement known as the Articles of Association pledged our ancestors not to buy goods or sell them to Great Britain until the obnoxious acts were repealed by Parliament. It declared further that, if force was used against Massachusetts by England, all the other colonies would help her in resisting it. Before adjournment, a new Congress was called to meet in the following May.
The language of the First Continental Congress sounds bold, but the people themselves were bolder. Companies of armed men began drilling everywhere, and the Americans were eager for a conflict with the detested "red coats." The excitement was more intense in Massachusetts than anywhere else, and it was plain that the opening gun of the impending Revolution would be fired upon her soil. The affairs of the colony were directed by a provincial congress, which collected a quantity of guns and ammunition, and ordered the enrollment of 20,000 "minute men," who were to hold themselves ready to answer any call at a minute's notice.
General Gage was the British commander in Boston, and he was so alarmed by the aggressive acts of the Americans that he began to throw up fortifications on the neck of land connecting the town with the mainland. His alert spies notified him that the Americans had collected a quantity of military supplies which were stored at Concord, some twenty miles from Boston. Gage ordered 800 troops to march secretly to Concord and destroy them.
Guarded as were the movements of the British, the Americans were equally watchful and discovered them. Paul Revere dashed out of the town on a swift horse and spread the news throughout the country. In the gray light of the early morning, April 19, 1775, as the soldiers marched into Lexington, on the way to Concord beyond, they saw some fifty minute men gathered on the village green. Major Pitcairn ordered them to disperse, and they refusing to do so, a volley was fired. Eight Americans were killed and a large number wounded, the others fleeing before the overwhelming force. Thus was the shot fired that "was heard round the world."
The British advanced to Concord, destroyed the stores there, and then began their return to Boston. All the church bells were ringing and the minute men were swarming around the troops from every direction. They kept up a continuous fire upon the soldiers from behind barns, houses, hedges, fences, bushes, and from the open fields. The soldiers broke into a run, but every one would have been shot down had not Gage sent reinforcements, which protected the exhausted fugitives until they reached a point where they were under the guns of the men-of-war. In this first real conflict of the war, the Americans lost 88 and the British 273 in killed, wounded, and missing. General Gage was now besieged in Boston by the ardent minute men, who in the flush of their patriotism were eager for the regulars to come out and give them a chance for a battle. Men mounted on swift horses rode at headlong speed through the colonies, spreading the stirring news, and hundreds of patriots hurried to Boston that they might take part in the war for their rights. Elsewhere, the fullest preparations were made for the struggle for independence which all felt had opened.
As agreed upon, the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. It included some of the ablest men in America, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph, of Virginia; Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania; John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, of Massachusetts; John Jay, of New York; and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut. The former Congress had talked; the present acted. By general consent it was accepted as the governing body of the colonies. The forces around Boston were declared to be a Continental army, money was voted to support it, and Washington was appointed its commander.
Meanwhile, British reinforcements under Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne arrived in Boston, swelling Gage's army to 10,000 men. They occupied the town, on the peninsula which covers the middle of the harbor, while around them on the hills of the mainland was a larger force of Americans, without uniforms, poorly clothed, badly armed and undisciplined, but overflowing with patriotism.
A little to the north of Boston a second peninsula extended into the harbor. It has several elevations, one of which, Bunker Hill, the patriots determined to seize and fortify. Colonel Prescott with a thousand men set out one dark night to perform the task, but, believing Breed's Hill more desirable, since it was nearer Boston, he set his men to work upon that.
(The name "Bunker" is more euphonious than "Breed's," and the latter is now generally known by the former name. Upon it has been built the Bunker Hill Monument.)
Although close to the British sentinels, the Americans toiled through the night without discovery. When the sun rose June 17, 1775, the enemy in Boston were astonished to see a line of intrenchments extending across the hill above them, with the Americans still working like beavers. They continued without interruption until noon, when the British were seen coming across the harbor in boats. They were the regulars, finely disciplined, and numbered nearly 3,000, who, landing near Charlestown, formed in fine order and advanced with precision against the 1,500 patriots, eagerly waiting for them behind their intrenchments.
It was about the middle of the afternoon that the British columns marched to the attack, covered by a heavy fire of cannon and howitzers, Howe himself commanding the right wing. The steeples and roofs of Boston swarmed with people, breathlessly watching the thrilling sight. Charlestown had been fired and four hundred of its houses laid in ashes.
The Americans behind their breastworks were impatient to open fire, but Prescott restrained them until they could "see the whites of the eyes" of their enemies. Then in a loud, clear voice he shouted "Fire!" There was an outflame of musketry along the front of the intrenchments, and scores of troops in the first rank fell. The others hesitated a moment, and then turned and fled down the slope. There their officers formed them into line, and once more they advanced up the slope. The delay gave the Americans time to reload, and they received the troops with the same withering fire as before, sending them scurrying to the bottom of the hill, where with great difficulty the daring officers formed them into line for a third advance. The British cannon had been brought to bear, and the ships and batteries maintained a furious cannonade. The patriots were compelled to withdraw from the breastwork outside the fort, and the redoubt was attacked at the same moment from three sides. The spectators were confident of seeing the invaders hurled back again, but saw to their dismay a slackening of the fire of the Americans, while the troops, rushing over the intrenchments, fought with clubbed muskets.
At the very moment victory was within the grasp of the patriots, their recklessly fired ammunition gave out, and they began sullenly retreating, fighting with clubbed weapons. As it was, their retreat would have been cut off, had not a company of provincials checked the British until the main body of Americans had fallen back. The battle of Bunker Hill was over and ended with the defeat of the patriots, who had lost 150 killed, 270 wounded, and 80 taken prisoners. General Gage gave his loss as 224 killed and 830 wounded. Among the killed was Major Pitcairn, the leader of the English troops who fired upon the minute men at Lexington. The American Colonel Prescott had his clothing torn to shreds by bayonet thrusts, but was not hurt. A British officer, recognizing the brilliant Warren, snatched a musket from the hands of a soldier and shot him dead.
Prescott and Putnam conducted the retreat by way of Charlestown Neck to Prospect Hill, where new intrenchments commanding Boston were thrown up. The British fortified the crest of Breed's Hill. General Gage, in reporting the affair to his government, used the following impressive language:
"The success, which was very necessary in our present condition, cost us dear. The number of killed and wounded is greater than our forces can afford to lose. We have lost some extremely good officers. The trials we have had show the rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be, and I find it owing to a military spirit encouraged among them for a few years past, joined with uncommon zeal and enthusiasm. They intrench and raise batteries; they have engineers. They have fortified all the heights and passes around the town, which it is not impossible for them to occupy. The conquest of this country is not easy; you have to cope with vast numbers. In all their wars against the French, they never showed so much conduct, attention, and perseverance as they do now. I think it my duty to let you know the situation of affairs."
General Washington, accompanied by his aide, Mifflin, Joseph Reed, his military secretary, and General Lee, arrived at Cambridge, July 2, 1775. He was joyfully welcomed, and he and his companions remained for a few days the guests of President Langdon of Harvard College. On the 3th of July, Washington's commission was read to a part of the army and to the provincial congress of Massachusetts, and he assumed command of the Continental forces.
A prodigious task confronted him. The undisciplined and wretchedly clad swarm came and went as they chose, none having enlisted for more than a brief term. About 2,000 were sick or absent on furlough, out of a total of 16,771 soldiers. Several thousand more were needed to resist the attack that it was believed the enemy would soon make. But the British had received so severe treatment that it required weeks for them to recover, and the summer became oppressively hot. England recalled Gage, who sailed for home in October, and was succeeded by Howe. Washington closely besieged the enemy in Boston. Throwing up intrenchments, he steadily approached the city, and day by day and week by week the situation of Howe became more critical. When winter arrived, Washington formed the plan of crossing Charles River on the ice, but at a council of war the majority of officers declared the scheme too hazardous.
Washington now decided to fortify and occupy Dorchester Heights, which would command the city and in a large degree the harbor. General Knox brought a number of cannon from Ticonderoga, that were dragged over the Green Mountains on sleds. Their arrival did much to cheer the spirits of the patriots, who numbered about 14,000. The commander called upon Massachusetts to furnish him with 6,000 militia, which was partly done.
With a view of concealing his real purpose, Washington kept up a bombardment of the British lines throughout the nights of March 2, 3, and 4, 1776. On the night last named, General Thomas moved with 1,200 men from Roxbury and took possession undetected of the higher hill which commanded Nook's Hill, nearer the city. General Howe was amazed the next morning when he saw what had been done, for his position had become untenable. Preparations were made to embark men in boats and attack the Americans, but a violent storm prevented. Then it was agreed that but one thing could be done, and that was to evacuate Boston.
The evacuation took place March 17th. The British destroyed a great deal of property, but left many supplies behind which fell into the hands of the Americans. Washington entered the city on the 19th, the main body of troops following the next day. The street through which he rode still bears his name. The Massachusetts Legislature voted their thanks to the great man, and Congress ordered a commemorative medal in gold and bronze to be struck. This medal is now in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
When Howe sailed away, he took with him more than a thousand Tories, who dared not remain behind and meet their indignant countrymen. Instead of going to New York, as he originally intended, the British commander went to Halifax, where he waited for reinforcements and gave his thoughts to forming campaigns for the conquest of the colonies.
DISASTROUS INVASION OF CANADA.
While the siege of Boston was in progress, the Americans fixed upon a plan for the invasion of Canada. The mistake, which has been repeated more than once, was in believing that the Canadians, if given the opportunity, would make common cause against Great Britain. General Philip Schuyler was placed in command of the expedition, but fell ill, and Richard Montgomery, the second in command, took charge. He was a valiant Irishman, who had done brilliant service in the British army, and was full of ardor for the American cause.
In several unimportant skirmishes, his men were so insubordinate and cowardly that he was disgusted, and expressed his regret that he had ever taken command of such a lot of troops. Nevertheless, he pressed on from Ticonderoga, while Schuyler at Albany used every effort to forward him supplies. St. John was invested, and the impetuous Ethan Allen, one of his officers, hastened to Chambly to raise a force of Canadians. He recruited nearly a hundred, and, being joined by a few Americans, set out to capture Montreal. The promised reinforcements did not reach him, and, being attacked by a powerful force, he made the best defense he could, but was finally compelled to surrender, with all of his men who had not escaped. Allen was sent to England, where he was held a prisoner for a long time.
The British fort at Chambly was besieged, and surrendered October 18th. With its capture, the Americans secured six tons of powder and seventeen cannon. The fort of St. John was captured November 3d. By that time, Carleton, the British commander, was so alarmed that he abandoned Montreal, which surrendered on the 20th. Taking possession, Montgomery issued a proclamation, urging the Canadians to unite with the colonies in the war for independence, and to elect representatives to the Continental Congress.
Benedict Arnold, at the head of eleven hundred men, had withdrawn from the camp before Boston, September 13th, and was pressing forward to join Montgomery. His course was up the Kennebec, through the gloomy wilderness to the Chaudiere, down which he passed to Point Levi. The journey was of the most trying nature. The weather became bitterly cold, and the stream was too swift at times for them to make headway against it, except by wading the chilly current and slowly dragging the boats against it. At other places, even this was impossible, and the heavy boats had to be laboriously carried around the falls and rapids.
Finally the time came to leave the river and plunge into the snowy forests, where all would have been lost, had not a small party, sent in advance, "blazed" the trees. There was plenty of ice in the swamps, but none was strong enough to bear their weight, and they sank through to their knees in the half-frozen ooze. Toiling doggedly forward, a month passed before they reached Duck River, by which time they were in a starving condition. Their provisions gave out, and they ate dogs and candles. Some, in their extremity, chewed boiled moccasins for the infinitesimal nourishment to be extracted from them. Roots and the bark of saplings were devoured, and the wonderful courage of Arnold was all that prevented the men from throwing themselves on the ground and giving up. So many fell ill and died that Colonel Enos, in command of the rear division, turned about with his men and returned to Cambridge.
Nothing, however, could shake the dauntless courage of Arnold. He pushed on, and, obtaining a few cattle, was able to give his men temporary relief. Winter was closing in, the weather was growing colder every day, many men were barefoot, and without any protection against the icy rain except the branches of the leafless trees. The wonder is that the whole band did not perish.
Finally on the 4th of November, the famishing band caught sight of the first house they had seen in weeks. Traveling now became better, and about a week later they reached Point Levi, opposite Quebec. There they had to wait several days to procure canoes, with which the seven hundred men, resembling so many shivering tramps, crossed the St. Lawrence and huddled together under the Heights of Abraham.
What earthly hope could such a body of men, without cannon, with injured muskets and powder, and cartridges partly spoiled, have in attacking the walled town of Quebec? None, unless the Canadians made common cause with them. Following the steep path up which Wolfe and his brave men had climbed seventeen years before, the gaunt Americans struggled after their intrepid leader.
The next act in the grim comedy was to send forward a flag of truce with a demand for the surrender of Quebec. General Carleton must have smiled at the grotesqueness of the proceeding, when he sent back a refusal. A few shots followed, when Arnold, finding he had not half a dozen rounds of ammunition apiece for his men, and was in danger of being attacked himself, retreated to a point twenty miles below Quebec, where Montgomery joined him on the 1st of December and assumed command.
The Americans now numbered 3,000, and had six field-pieces and five light mortars. They set out for Quebec, in front of which they encamped four days later.
Of all the series of disastrous invasions of Canada, none was more dismal and pathetic than that of Montgomery and Arnold. The winter was unusually severe for a region which is noted for its intensely cold weather. The ground froze to the hardness of a rock, and, unable to make any impression in it with shovel and pick, the besiegers threw up walls of ice, which the cannon of the defenders sent flying into thousands of fragments. The men grew mutinous, and, realizing the desperate situation, Montgomery ordered an assault to be made on the last day of the year.
The plan was for the first division under Montgomery to move down the river and attack the lower town near the citadel, while the second division under Arnold was to pass around the city to the north, assault by way of the St. Charles, and unite with Montgomery in his attack upon the Prescott gate. The other two divisions were to remain in the rear of the upper town and divert the garrison by feint attacks.
A blinding snowstorm was raging and the men could hardly distinguish one another. Success depended upon surprise, but the defenders had learned of the intended attack, and Montgomery had hardly started when the battery delivered a fire which instantly killed him and both his aides. Their deaths threw his men into a panic, and they fled in such haste that they escaped the fate of their leaders.
Meanwhile, Arnold had moved, as agreed upon, with his division along the St. Charles, the men bending their heads to the icy blast and protecting their muskets under their coats. As soon as the garrison caught sight of the dim figures they opened fire, but the Americans pressed on and carried the first barricade. Arnold, however, received a severe wound in the leg, and, suffering great pain, was carried to the rear. Daniel Morgan, one of the bravest officers of the Revolution, succeeded to the command, and, with his riflemen at his heels, was the first to climb the ladders placed against the barricade. Two musket-balls grazed the leader's face, which was scorched by the flash, and he was knocked down; but he instantly sprang to his feet and called upon his men to follow him. They did so with such dash that the enemy took refuge in the houses on both sides of the street.
But for the disaster that had overtaken Montgomery, Quebec probably would have been captured, but Morgan's command was in darkness, the driving snow interfered with firing, and they knew nothing of the town. Only a few of the troops found the next barricade, and, when they climbed the ladders, were confronted by leveled muskets whose fire was very destructive. Not only that, but the British, who had taken refuge in the houses in the streets, kept up their firing.
The Americans fought for a long time with the greatest heroism, but after the loss of sixty, the remainder, with the exception of a few that had fled, were obliged to surrender. The fragments of the helpless army fell again under the command of the wounded Arnold, who, despite the hopelessness of the attempt, still pressed the siege of Quebec. He had sent an urgent message to Schuyler for reinforcements. They straggled through the wintry forests to his aid, some 3,000 arriving in the course of the winter. Carleton, who was too wise to venture out on the plain as Montcalm had done, felt secure behind the walls, and gave little heed to the ragged swarm huddled together in front of the town.
General Wooster brought fresh troops in March and assumed command. He lacked military skill, and two months later was succeeded by General Thomas. The latter saw that he had no more than a thousand effective troops under his control, and decided to withdraw the ill-starred expedition. Carleton, who had received large reinforcements, attacked him on his retreat and captured a hundred prisoners and nearly all the stores. The sufferings of the Americans were now aggravated by smallpox, which broke out among them and caused many deaths, General Thomas being one of the victims. General Sullivan succeeded him in command. He lost a number of prisoners and retreated to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, thus bringing the disastrous expedition to a close in the month of June, 1776.
It is proper that tribute should be given to the humanity of Carleton, the British commander. He caused search to be made in the snow for the body of Montgomery, and, when it was found, it was brought into the city and buried with the honors of war. Other parties scoured the woods for the suffering Americans, who were placed in the hospital and received tender care. Those who voluntarily came in were allowed to go as soon as they were strong enough to travel, and to the needy ones Carleton furnished money. A half-century later the remains of Montgomery were brought to New York and deposited beneath the monument in St. Paul's churchyard.