The American Centenary; a history of the progress of the Republic of the United States during the first one hundred years of its existence

Front matter

// / 7 y THE AMERICAN CENTENARY: A HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF ITS EXISTENCE. BY BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D., Author of 'Field Book op the Revolution," "History of the War of 1812," etc., etc. PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES, 822 Chestnut Street. Entered according to Ac! of Congress, in the year 1876, by PORTER & COATES, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PRESS OF Henry B. Ashmead, Philadelphia. TO MY FELLOW WORKERS WITH BRAIN AND HAND THIS BRIEF RECORD OK THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.

Introduction

. IN making this brief outline of the progress of our country during the one hundred years which have elapsed since the Declaration of Independence on Thursday, the 4th of July, 1776, I have confined myself almost entirely to the history of that progress, and omitted definitions of processes. I have first taken a general view of the Civil and Military transactions in the Republic during that period. This is followed by a consideration of the progress in Agriculture, the foundation of all other industries, and of Manufactures which are its indispensable coadjutors. Commerce, the legitimate offspring of Agriculture and Manu factures, is next considered in its various phases and alliances. It is the chief architect of civilizations ; and in its train follow its children, Literature, Education, Science, Fine Arts, Religion and the Benevolent and Social Institutions which mark our era.

While this is the general order in the construction of the work, full latitude has been given, at every point, for the introduction of topics that seemed to belong more especially to another division, but which found relevancy to the subject in hand. By this means the usual dullness of statistics has been relieved by the current narrative, and, as I trust, a more acceptable volume for the general reader has been made. In order to give a clear conception of progress among our industries and institutions, selections of model establishments and associations have been made, and detailed accounts of them have been given, that the contrast between them and their predecessors VI

INTRODUCTION.

may be made more conspicuous. To still more deeply impress the conceptions of that progress on the mind of the reader, pictures of the buildings of these model establishments and institutions have been given ; and in connection with these, brief personal sketches of their founders or managers have, in some instances, been pre sented, that the moral causes which have led to these developments, may be more distinctly understood. This work abounds with statements of alleged facts. For facts I have diligently sought at the best sources of information, such as the latest official reports issued from the Executive Departments of our National Government. These reports have been freely furnished by the respective heads of those departments. The statistics of industrial establishments and of institutions have been furnished by the responsible heads of each ; and for the miscellaneous facts I have consulted the best authorities at my command.

In the state ments of quantities, round numbers approximating to absolute exactness, have been used ; and in a few instances they are the products of careful estimates. In the preparation of this work I have sought to make it so credible that it will always be considered a faithful outline picture of the general condition of the Republic at the end of the first century of its existence ; also to give it a spirit and aspect that shall make it acceptable to all classes of readers. Benson J. Lossing. The Ridge, Dover Plains, New York, July 4, 1876. T H E AMERICAN CENTENARY.

Chapter I. The

Poet is often a Prophet. Philip Freneau, (sometimes called " the poet of the Revolution,") while he was a student in the College of New Jersey in 1 771 , wrote a dialogue in blank verse, to be spoken at his graduation, in which the destiny of America was fore shadowed. In that dialogue Leander says : " Say, shall we ask what empires vet may rise, What kingdoms, powers, and States where now are seen Mere dreary wastes and awful solitude — Where Melancholy sits, with eye forlorn, And Time anticipates, when we shall spread Dominion from the North, and South and West, Far from Atlantic to Pacific shores, And shackle half the convex of the main ? A glorious theme ! But how shall mortals dare To pierce the dark events of future years, And scenes unravel, only known to fate." Acasto answers : " This might we do, if warmed by that bright coal Snatched from the altar of seraphic fire Which touched Isaiah's lips — or if the spirit Of Jeremy and Amos, prophets old, Might swell the heaving breast.

I see ! I see A thousand kingdoms raised ; cities and men Numerous as sand upon the ocean shore ! The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town Of note ; and where the Mississippi stream, By forests shaded, now runs sweeping on, Nations shall grow, and States not less in fame, Than Greece and Rome of old ! We, too, shall boast Of Alexanders, Pompeys, heroes, kings That in the womb of Time yet dormant lie, Waiting the joyous hour of life and light." THE AMERICAN CENTENARY. 2 That prophecy, spoken years before the independence of the English- American colonies was declared, is now history. At the end of a century from the time of its utterance, the most earnest hopes indulged by Patriots then, have been fulfilled ; the most glorious dreams of the Prophets of that time have become realities. When the Continental Congress had adopted the Declaration of Inde pendence, they perceived that the act invested the colonies with national dignity, and implied the necessity for asserting national sovereignty.

Accordingly in the afternoon of that eventful day, the 4th of July, 1776, they resolved "That Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal for the United States of America." The genesis of the seal then decreed, was discovered by the writer, in the archives of our national State Department, in the year 1854. It was in the form of manuscript minutes of the proceedings of the several committees who from time to time had the matter in charge. They were accompanied by pen-and-ink drawings of devices by Du Simitiere, a French artist then living in Philadelphia. The original committee made a brief report in August following, but they had not agreed upon a device. The struggle for independence was then becoming more and more serious and doubtful, and the subject was allowed to slumber until March, 1779, when a new committee was appointed.

They reported in May, when the subject was recommitted to them. It again slept until April, 1782, when peace seemed near and the life of the young nation was almost assured. Then a new committee was appointed, and a month later they reported an unsatisfactory device, when the Congress referred the matter to Mr. Thomson, their Secretary, with discretionary power, and he employed William Barton, of Philadelphia, to make a design. At about that time Mr. Thomson received from John Adams, then in London, a simple device suggested by Sir John Prestwitch, an English baronet and an antiquary of some note. It was adopted by Congress on the 20th of June, 1782 — about six years after the original committee was appointed. The art of seal-engraving, now so perfect in the United States, was not then practiced in America, and the dies for the seal were cut in Paris under the supervision of Dr. Franklin.

The design of the Great Seal of the Republic now, is the same as that adopted then— a spread eagle bearing on its breast our national shield : in its beak a scroll with the words E PLURIBUS Unum : in its right talon an olive-branch, a symbol of Peace, and in its left a bundle of thirteen arrows, a symbol of the United States and of War : the crest, a glory breaking through a cloud and surrounding a cluster of stars forming a constellation. A part of the original device was for the reverse of a pendant seal, a form not now used in this country. i / / ' /✓ / /A / / / / A A / f"yxs , y/r ■ Vrr/r ■ AA//v, /y/ ■ AArArrAA//A/y , Ay/6. ■ A/yA/li //r/y //fy • Ay/ A . / POSITION OF THE COLONISTS. 3 The declaration of independence and the provision made for a seal — the emblem of sovereign authority — were the significant ceremonials at the birth of our Republic a century ago.

They decreed a struggle and promised triumph. The struggle was ended and the triumph was achieved thirteen years afterward when the nation was firmly established upon the solid foundations of a Constitution which the people, the source of all political sovereignty, approved as the supreme law of the land. That struggle, as every student of our national history knows, was long and fearful. It was a seven years' passage-at-arms. The well-disciplined and equipped forces, civil and military, of a compact, insular Kingdom con taining ten million inhabitants, with immense resources in men, money and munitions — the acknowledged " mistress of the seas," and the home of a high civilization — fought for the mastery with the crude, undisciplined and half armed yeomanry, at first, of the colonists of that strong kingdom, less than three million in number.

They were weak in military resources, and were scattered along a thousand miles of sea-coast. They possessed but few arms and a very small supply of munitions of war; and even in the fiercest of the struggle they were not absolutely united in political feeling or social relations, yet they were strong in the sense of the saying that •' Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just." The colonists were not revolutionists. They fought not to acquire liberty, for that they already possessed by prescriptive right. They struggled to defend their natural and chartered liberties, and the rights asserted at Runny mede five hundred years before, and which every British subject claimed to be his lawful treasure. For the space of ten years they begged the mother country to be just toward her trans-Atlantic children.

She blindly refused. She attempted to destroy their liberties by ungenerous legislation ; the colonists — her children — resisted by equally peaceable measures. She attempted by force of arms to deprive the Americans of their charters, and to make them submit to be slaves ; the colonists resisted by force of arms. The king and the parliament were the aggressors. They were the revolutionists. The colonists waited patiently for justice and reconciliation, until there was no longer a shadow of hope for either. Then a congress of representatives of the resisting provincials, assembled in the Pennsylvania State house in Philadelphia, in the large audience room since known as Independ ence Hall, passed a resolution on the 2d of July, 1776, in the following words : " RESOLVED, That these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; and that all political connection between us and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

THE AMERICAN CENTENARY. The State-house in which the Congress were then assembled is well pre served, in the form seen in its likeness portrayed in the frontispiece to this volume; and the room in which that important resolution was adopted by the Congress, has been carefully restored to the condition in which it was a hundred years ago. It is also the room in which another act of represent atives of the people of the freed States, no less important than that which decreed their independence, was performed, namely, the debating, adopting and signing, in 1787, of the National Constitution of government under which we live. The passage of the resolution was followed two days afterward by the Declaration of Independence, in which that resolution was embodied. The one hundredth anniversary of that event is the American Centenary.

The great Declaration imposed grave duties upon the people, political, civil, and military. Systems of self-government were imperatively demanded. Almost a year before, Dr. Franklin had submitted to the Continental Con gress a plan for a national confederation, but it was not acted upon. In May, 1776, when the Congress were glowing with a sudden desire for inde pendence, they recommended the several Colonies to form State governments. New Hampshire had already anticipated this action by adopting a constitution as early as January, 1776, to go into effect whenever Congress should recommend such action. Seven other Colonies followed the example during 1776, but Massachusetts, the most zealous of all for self-government, was the tardiest of all in embracing the privilege in a constitutional way.

That province did not form a State government until March, 1780. The royal charter of Connecticut was deemed sufficient for the time. Rhode Island clung to the royal charter obtained by Roger Williams, and that was the constitution of the State until 1842. State governments being established, a National government was essential as a bond of union when the stronger bond of common danger should be weakened by peace. A few days after the resolution for independence was introduced into Congress, a committee were appointed to prepare a form for a confederate government. The committee soon reported a scheme. It was discussed until in August (1776), when it was laid aside, and the subject was not called up until the spring of 1777. During the ensuing summer and autumn, the topic occupied much of the attention of the Congress.

At the middle of November, Articles of Confederation were adopted, and were submitted to the State legislatures for ratification. Those bodies were very tardy. It was difficult to harmonize conflicting interests. The States were unwilling to surrender power, and the ratification was delayed until March, 1781. The confederation so formed, was a simple League of States. The Con gress could not exercise national functions under it, and it was soon discovered - Me - S/y/r ■ y/yf-y f/fcsyu&rrkiwi/rr/.- ( /". the confederation a league of states. 5 that the free and independent States were yet in need of a National government. The strong bond of common danger had sufficed to preserve the union of the colonies so long as the war lasted. When peace came the Con federation, a weak and complicated machine, rapidly tended toward anarchy and dissolution.

British statesmen saw the weakness and refused to send a representative of their government hither, and would not enter into fair com mercial relations with the Americans. They expected to see the colonists gladly resume their allegiance to Great Britain. Early in the struggle for independence the Continental Congress organized a sort of civil government for what was then supposed to be a temporary purpose. So uncertain was the result that, as we have seen, the colonists struggled on for six years without a constitution of government, and without a seal, the token of national sovereignty. The functions of government were administered by committees chiefly. Having authorized the emission of Bills of Credit, the Continental Con gress, late in July, 1775, appointed two treasurers to manage the public finances.

At about the same time a postal-system was established with Dr. Franklin as Postmaster-general. In the following autumn they authorized the creation of a navy, and gave its management to a Naval or Marine Committee. In June, 1776, a Board of War and Ordnance was established, and to it was entrusted the general management of military affairs. Early in that year a Treasury Board was created, and after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in the spring of 1781, a Superintendent of Finance (Secretary of the Treasury) was appointed. At about the same time a Secretary of War and Secretary of Foreign Affairs (the latter to perform the duties of our present Secretary of State) were appointed. Such were the general features of the civil government of the United States during their struggle for independence, and until the reorganization of the government under the National Constitution, in 1789.

The American army, at the beginning of the struggle, was composed of volunteers. After the affair at Lexington and Concord, in April, 1775, the farmers of New England, in every variety of civil costume and every sort of arms in their possession (and many without arms), hastened toward Boston to the number of fifteen or twenty thousand, to confine the British soldiery to the peninsula. They were organized into an army under General Artemas Ward. They were afterward adopted by the general Congress as a Conti nental Army, and early in July, (1775) General Washington took the chief command of them. The enlistments, at first, were for short terms, and this produced a con stant fluctuation and embarrassment. Then they extended the time to one year, and finally " for the war." At first there was very little uniformity in the clothing, even among the officers.

Their fire-arms were all flint-locks, and many of them were fowling-pieces. After awhile the regiments were tolerably uniformed, especially those who were enlisted " for the war." Their costume was generally of the following description : The General and his staff— Blue coat with buff facings and cuffs ; coat lined with buff, and buff waistcoat and breeches. The general wore a white stock ; a cocked hat without a plume, but with a black ribbon cockade. His epaulettes were gold. He and his staff had their coat-tail flaps hooked, and fastened with hooks and eyes, and wore whole boots. The staff had black stocks, and the buttons of all were polished yellow metal. Infantry — Blue coats of modern length (coatee of Light Infantry) with red facings, cape and cuffs and white metal buttons. The coats were lined with white.

They had white waistcoats and breeches ; black stocks ; black cloth half-gaiters, and caps with red and white plumes. The officers wore cocked hats with white and red plumes ; crimson silk sashes tied around the waist under the coat, and silver epaulettes. Artillery — Long blue coats with yellow metal buttons and red facings, capes and cuffs. The coats were lined with red. They wore red waistcoats ; white breeches ; cloth half-gaiters ; cocked hats with blue and red plumes. Officers wore crimson sashes, black stocks, and gold epaulettes. Washington s Life Guard, a select corps organized early in the war for the protection of head-quarters, the person of the chief when in camp, the army papers, money-chest, et cetera — wore blue coats with white facings and linings, and white metal buttons ; black half-gaiters ; white underclothing ; stiff hats with blue and white plumes, and white epaulettes.

The officers wore cocked hats, crimson sashes, et cetera. The Cavalry generally consisted of what were termed Light Horsemen, and were largely employed as videttes and scouts. They never numbered in the aggregate, more than sixteen hundred men. Their costume, at near the close of the war, consisted of blue coats with white linings and red fac ings. Their swords had black leather sheaths, and on their heads they wore a sort of helmet, of skull-cap form, with a front, sometimes decorated with a plume. The Sappers and Miners were dressed the same as the artillery. We need not pause to consider the military events of the old war for Independence. The story is familiar to all intelligent readers. The armed conflict fairly began on Bunker's [Breed's] Hill, in June, 1775 ; it was ended in a skirmish on the Stono River, in South Carolina, in September, 1782.

The chief turning-point in the war, in favor of the Americans, was the defeat and capture of General Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, in October, 1777. It satisfied Europeans that the Americans could help themselves. Perceiving this, the French monarch openly proffered his aid, and in Feb ruary, 1778, acknowledged the independence of the United States and made with them a treaty of alliance. END OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 7 The political independence of the Americans was assured when, in October, 1781, Lord Cornwallis and his army were captured at Yorktown, in Virginia, by the combined American and French forces. That event convinced the British government and people, that a further prosecution of the war would be not only useless but cruel. Commissioners appointed by each party negotiated a preliminary treaty for peace and independence ; and on the 3d of September, 1783, a definitive treaty was concluded.

The British army left our shores on the 25th of November following. During that war of exactly eight years to a day from the skirmish at Lexington until the proclamation for a cessation of hostilities issued by Washington, the Continental army had on its muster-rolls the names of about two hundred and ninety thousand soldiers. Not one of them, nor the widow of one of them is now living. A little more than fifty-five thousand of the soldiers were pensioned by our government, by acts passed by Congress respectively in 181 8, 1828, and 1832. Almost forty thousand widows were pensioned; of these over thirty-four thousand were married before the year 1794, and three thousand seven hundred and fifty after the year 1800. The last surviving soldiers and pensioners were William Hutchings, of Maine, and Lemuel Cook, of Western New York.

The former died on the 2d of May, 1866, at the age of almost one hundred and one years and seven months ; the latter died eighteen days afterward, at the age of one hundred and two years. For portraits of these two men, see the American Historical Record. The United States were not made independent States by their own decla ration, nor their prowess, nor by the acknowledgment of the French mon arch, nor by the treaty stipulation of the British king, for they did not, by their fundamental law, constitute a nation — only a league of states. They were, inherently, too weak, as we have observed, to exercise sovereign authority or command the respect of other nations as a sovereign power. Leading patriots at once perceived the fatal impuissance of the new republic which received all its vitality and functional powers from thirteen different legislatures, all swayed by clashing interests.

Wise and thoughtful men, alarmed, yearned for a more perfect government, and many of these, representing the different States, met in convention in Philadelphia, in the summer of 1787, and there framed our National Constitution. It was finally ratified by the people, and in the spring of 1789, the new-modelled govern ment went into operation with Washington at its head as the first Presi dent of the United States. Then the old Continental Congress, which had done such signal service for mankind, expired. The innate vitality of the new constitution immediately arrested the pro found attention of the civilized world. It was seen that the commerce, diplomacy and dignity of the nation were no longer exposed to the caprice of numerous distinct and clashing legislative bodies, but were guarded by a central power of wonderful energy.

Great Britain, France, Spain, and Holland hastened to send diplomatic representatives to the new Republican court, and the world acknowledged that the new-born nation was a power on the earth, positive and tangible. Washington was inaugurated President of the Republic at the close of April, 1789. The first Congress under the new Constitution, were then in session, and busily engaged in the reorganization of the government, the executive power of which was vested in the President of the Republic, and the Legislative power in a Senate and House of Representatives, the former chosen by the state legislatures, and the latter by the people. They planned a system of revenue to regulate the wretched financial affairs of the country ; created the Executive Departments of Treasury, War, and Foreign, and called the heads of these, Secretaries (the latter Secretary of State), and organized a National Judiciary by establishing a Supreme Court with one chief-justice and five associate justices.

The choice of men, as a cabinet council, was given to the President, with the consent of the Senate. In the autumn Washington chose this council, when his Secretary of the Treasury, (Alexander Hamilton,) devised a financial scheme which laid the foundations of public credit and national prosperity, deep and abid ing. Within two years after the inauguration of Washington, the Repub lic had taken a proud position in the family of nations. A National Mint was established in 1794; and the same year a National Bank, with a capital of $10,000,000, and a decreed existence of twenty years, went into operation. During Washington's administration of eight years, the domestic and foreign policy of the government was settled, and hostile Indians on our north-western frontier, were compelled by force of arms, to make peace with our government.

Sympathy in this country with the French revolutionists, and the action of our government in the matter, had created violently antag onistic political parties here, known respectively as Federalist and Republican ; and an important treaty was negotiated with Great Britain by John Jay. Steps were taken to construct a navy for the defence of American commerce in the Mediterranean sea, which was suffering depredations by North Afri can sea-robbers. When John Adams succeeded Washington as President in 1797, there was a general belief that war between the United States and France was inevitable. There was a speck of war between them on the ocean, but when Bonaparte became chief magistrate of France in place of the Directory, he settled the dispute amicably, and gladly sold to the United States the French possessions in America.

For the sum of $1 5,000,000, our government bought the vast domain known as Louisiana, which the Spanish government TROUBLES WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 9 had lately rctroceded to the French. It stretched from the Gulf of Mexico northward, to the present Minnesota, and westward from the Mississippi toward the Pacific Ocean, and added about 900,000 square miles to our territory. Out of that magnificent domain have been carved many of our rich States and Territories beyond the " Father of Waters." At that time Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio had been organized, and added to the thirteen original States in the Union. Our little navy was employed by President Jefferson, at the beginning of this century, in a war with the Barbary Powers — the North African sea robbers — who seized our ships and cargoes, enslaved our sailors and compelled our government to pay an annual tribute as the price of ransomed captives.

They were not subdued until 1815, when Commodore Decatur, with an American squadron, spread terror among those semi-barbarians, who, forever afterward, kept their brigand hands off American property and American seamen. In a single brief cruise Decatur accomplished what the Christian powers of Europe, up to that time, had failed to do. For a series of years Great Britain and France disturbed the commerce of the world by their mad attempts to injure each other. By " orders," and " decrees," sea-ports were blockaded and many outrages were committed upon neutrals, by both parties. From their desperate games the Ameri cans suffered much. Great Britain was a special offender. Her government claimed the right to enter the vessels of any nation, in search of deserters from her Royal Navy, and if found, to take them from their concealment and carry them away without leave.

This was frequently done on Ameri can vessels, and American seamen were often so impressed into the British service. The solemn protests of our government availed nothing, and it was finally impelled, by self-respect and care for the interests of American citizens, to declare war against Great Britain. This was done by President Madison in June, 1812, and for almost three years there were severe conflicts between the forces of the two nations, on land and sea. These conflicts began and ended on the ocean. The first was between the United States frigate Presi dent, Commodore Rodgers, and the British frigate Belvidera, Captain Byron, off Nantucket Shoals, on the 23d of June, 1812 — four days after the declaration of war. The fight was indecisive. The last conflict was between the United States sloop-of-war Hornet, Captain Biddle, and the British brig Penguin, Captain Dickenson, near a group of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, on the 23d of March, 181 5, when the British vessel was sent to the bottom of the deep sea.

The disparity between the British and American naval forces at that time was so great that the most sanguine friend of the United States did not believe the latter could stand a moment before the former. The British navy then consisted of almost nine hundred vessels, with an aggregate of 144,000 men. The public vessels of the United States, exclusive of 170 gun-boats, numbered only 20 (of which only 12 ranked as large vessels) with an aggregate of little more than 500 guns. It must be remembered, how ever, that the British navy was much scattered, for that government had interests to protect in each quarter of the globe. At the same time, the American vessels were much scattered, and five of them were laid up in ordinary. The British government, statesmen and publicists looked upon the American marine with contempt.

The Constitution (yet afloat), one of the finest of our war vessels then, was spoken of by a British journalist, as "a bundle of pine boards, sailing under a bit of striped bunting ; " and it was asserted that " a few broadsides from England's wooden walls would drive the paltry striped bunting from the ocean." The Constitution, commanded by Hull, was the first to rebuke the arrogance of British cruisers by the capture of the Guerriere, Captain Dacres, to which an American song-writer of the time alluded in the following lines : " Too long our tars have borne in peace, With British domineering ; But now they've sworn the trade should cease — For vengeance they are steering. First gallant Hull, he was the lad Who sailed a tyrant-hunting, And swaggering Dacres soon was glad To strike to 'striped bunting.' " Letters-of-marque were issued early and freely, and very soon privateers, to the number of 250, swarmed upon the ocean, the swift-winged Baltimore clippers, each carrying from six to ten guns, and a single " Long Tom," being the favorites.