A pictorial history of the United States

Front matter

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PICTORIAL HISTORY

Preface

This work has been prepared with great care, for the purpose of supplying a want long felt by the reading public, and especially by Heads of Families. Every important event in the history of the United States, from the Aboriginal period to the present time, is presented in a concise, but perspicuous and comprehensive manner, without giving those minute and often tedious details, which are valuable to the student, but irksome to the common reader. The History of our Republic is herein popularized, and adapted to the use of those who may not find leisure to peruse more extensive works upon the subject. The materials have been drawn from the. earlier, most elaborate, and most reliable historians and chroniclers of our continent. The work is constructed upon a new plan, which, it is believed, will be found to be the most acceptable yet offered to the public, for obtaining, with facility, and fi.xing in the memory, a knowledge of the great events of our truly wonderful history. And having visited a greater portion of the localities made pemorable by important occurrences in our country, the writer claims, in that particular, an advantage over his predecessors in this special field, for he has been able to correct errors and give truthful impressions of things and events. An endeavor has also been made to show the cause of every important event, and thus, by developing the philosophy of our history, to make it more attractive and instructive than a bald record of facts. And wherever the text appeared to need further elucidation, additional facts have been given in foot-notes.

The arrangement of the work is new. It is in six Periods, each comrnencing where the history naturally divides into distinct epochs. The first Period exhibits a general view of the Aboriginal race who occupied the continent when the Europeans came. The second is a record of all the Discoveries and preparations for settlement, made by individuals and governments. The third delineates the progress of all the Sefthments until colonial governments were formed. The fourth tells the story of these Colonies from their infancy to maturity, and illustrates the continual development of Democratic ideas and Republican tendencies which finally resulted in a political vi PREFACE.

confederation. The fifth has a full account of the important events of the War for TndeiMndence, and the sixth gives a concise history of the Republic, from its formation to the present time. The Supplement contains the Articles of Confederation and the National Constitution. The former shows the final result of the efforts of the people of the Colonies, who had struggled together for general independence, to form a national organization, but which signally failed, because in that League of States the supremacy of each was recognized, and the vitality of unity, which is essential to the existence of a nation, was wanting. The National Constitution is given in its original form, and with all of the amendments since adopted, accompanied by explanatory notes.

The system of concordance interwoven with the notes throughout the entire work, is of great importance to the reader. When a fact is named which bears a relation to another fact elsewhere recorded in the volume, a reference is made to the page where such fact is mentioned A knowledge of this relationship of separate events is often essential to a clear view of the subject, and without this concordance, a great deal of time would be spent in searching for that relationship. With the concordance the matter may be found in a moment. Favorable examples of the utility of this new feature may be found on page 289. If strict attention shall be given to these references, the whole subject will be presented to the mind of the reader in a comprehensive aspect of unity not to be obtained by any other method.

The engravings are introduced not for the sole purpose of embellishing the volume, but to enhance its utility as an instructor. Every picture is intended to illustrate a fact, not merely to beautify the page. Great care has been taken to secure accuracy in all the delineations of men and things, so that they may not convey false instruction. Geographical maps have been omitted, because they must necessarily be too small to be of essential service. History may be read for the purpose of obtaining general information on the subject, without maps, but it should never be studied without the aid of an accurate Atlas.

The author has endeavored to make this work essentially a F.^mily History, attractive and instructive ; and the Publishers have generously co-worked with him in producing a volume that may justly claim to be excellent in every particular. With these few observations concerning the general plan and merits of the work, it is presented to the public, with an entire wilUngness to have its reputation rest upon its own merits.

PouoHKEEPSiE, N. T,, June, 1867.

HISTORY

OF

THE UNITED STATES.

FIRST PERIOD.

FHE ABORIGINALS.

CHAPTER I. Every cultivated nation had its heroic

age — a period when its first physical and

moral conquests were achieved, and when

•rude society, with all its impurities, was fused and refined in the crucible of

progress. When civilization first set up its standard as a permanent ensign, in

the western hemisphere, northward of the Bahamas and the great Gulf, and the contests for possession began between the wild Aboriginals, who thrust no spade into the soil, no sickle into ripe harvests, and those earnest delvers from the Old World, who came with the light of Christianity, to plant a new empire, and redeem the wilderness by cultivation — then commenced the heroic age of America. It ended when the work of the Revolution in the eighteenth century was accomplished — when the bond of vassalage to Great Britain was severed by her colonies, and when thirteen confederated States ratified a Federal Constitution, and upon it laid the broad foundation of our Republic'

Long anterior to the advent of Europeans in America, a native empire, little inferior to old Rome in civilization, flourished in that region of our Continent which now forms the south-western portion of our RepubliCj,.and the adjoining States of Central America. The Aztec Empire, which reached the acmi' of its refinement during the reign of Montezuma, and crumbled into fragments beneath the heel of Cortez, when he dethroned and destroyed that monarch," extended over the whole region from the Rio Grande to the Isthmus of Darien ; and when the Spaniards came, it was gradually pushing its conquests northward, where all was yet darkness and gloom. To human apprehension, this people, apparently allied by various ties to the wild nations of North America, appeared to be the most efficient instruments in the hands of Providence, for spreading the light of dawning civilization over the whole Continent. Yet, they were not only denied this glorious privilege, but, by the-very race which first attempted to plant the seeds of European society in Florida, and among the Mobilian tribes,' and to shed the illumination of their dim Christianity over .the dreary region of the North, was their own bright light e.xtinguished. The Aztecs and their neighbors were beaten into the dust of debasement by the falchion blows of avarice and bigotry, and nothing remains to attest their superiority but the magnificent ruins of their cities and temples, and their colossal statuary, which has survived the fury of the Spanish iconoclast and the tooth of decay. They form, apparently, not the most insignificant atom of the chain of events which connects the history of the Aboriginal nations of America with that of our Republic. The position of the tribes of the North is difierent. From the beginning of European settlements, they have maintained, and do still maintain, an important relation to the white people.

The first inhabitants of a country properly belong to the history of all subsequent occupants of the territory. The several nations of red or coppercolored people who occupied the present domain of the United States, when Europeans first came, form as necessary materials for a portion of the history of our Republic, as the Frenchmen' and Spaniards,' by whom parts of the territory were settled, and from whom they have been taken by conquest or purchase.

The history of the Indian' tribes, previous to the formation of settlements among them, by Europeans,' is involved in an obscurity which is penetrated

' Page 3G0. ' Page 43. ^ Page 29. * Page ISO.

*■ Page 51. 6 Page 40. ' Before the year 1C07.

A

THE ABORIGINALS. H

only by vague traditions and uncertain conjectures. Whence came they ? is a question yet unanswered by established facts. In the Old World, the monuments of an ancient people often record their history. In North America, such intelligible records are wanting. Within almost every State and Territory remains of human skill and labor have been found,' which seem to attest the existence here of a civilized nation or, nations, before the ancestors of our numerous Indian tribes became masters of the Continent. Some of these appear to give indisputable evidence of intercourse between the people of the Old World and those of America, centuries, perhaps, before the birth of Christ, and at periods soon afterward.^ The whole mass of testimony yet discovered does not pi-ove that such intercourse was extensive ; that colonies from the eastern heinisphere ever made permanent settlements in America, or remained long enough to impress their character upon the country or the Aboriginals, if they existed ; or that a high degree of civilization had ever prevailed on our Continent.

The origin of the Indian tribes is referred by some to the Phoenicians and other maritime nations, whose extensive voyages have been mentioned by ancient writers, and among whom tradition seemed to cherish memories of far-off lands beyond the sea, unknown to the earlier geographers. Others perr ceive evidences of their Egyptian or Hindoo parentage ; and others find their ancestors among the " lost .tribes of Israel," who "took counsel to go forth into a further -country where never mankind dwelt, "^ and crossed from northeastern Asia to our Continent, by way of the Aleutian Islands, or by Behring's Straits.* These various theories, and many others respecting settlements of Europeans and Asiatics here, long before the time of Columbus, unsupported as they are by a sufficiency of acknowledged facts, have so little practical value

' Remains of fortifications, similar in form to tliose of ancient European nations, have been discovered. An idol, composed of clay and gypsum, representing a man without arms, and in all respects resembling one found in Southern Russia, was dug up near Nashville, in Tennessee. Also fireplaces, of regular structure ; weapons and utensils of copper ; catacombs with mummies ; oroaments of silver, brass, and copper; walls efforts and cities, and many other things which only a people advanced in civilization could have made. The Aboriginals, themselves, have various traditions respecting their origin — each nation having its distinct records in the memory. Nearly all have traditional glimpses of a great and universal deluge ; and some say their particular progenitor came in a bark canoe after that terrible event. This belief, with modifications, was current among most of the northern tribes, and was a recorded tradition of the half-civilized Aztecs. The latter ascribed all their knowledge of the arts, and their religious ceremonies, to a white and bearded mortal who came among them ; and when his mission was ended, was made immortal by the Great Spirit.

2 A Roman coin was found in Missouri ; a Persian coin in Ohio ; a bit of silver in Genesee county, New York, with the year of our Lord, 600, engraved on it; split wood and ashes, thirty feet below the surface of the earth, near Fredouia, New York ; and near Montevideo, South America, in a tomb, were found two ancient swords, a helmet and shield, with Greek inscriptions, showing that they were made in the time of Alexander the Great, 330 years before Christ. Near Marietta, Ohio, a silver cup, finely gilded within, was found in an ancient mound. Traces of u-on utensils, wholly reduced to rust, mirrors of isinglas.s, and glazed pottery, have also been discovered in the.se mounds. These are evidences of the existence of a race far more civUized than the tribes found by modern Europeans.

* The people of north-eastern Asia, and on the north-west coast of America, have a near resemblance in person, customs, and languages ; and those of the Aleuti.an Island.s present many of the characteristics of both. Ledyard said of the people of Eastern Siberia, "Universally and circumstantially they resemble the Aborigines of America."

for the student of our history, that we will not occupy space in giving a delineation of even their outlines. There are elaborately-written works specially devoted to this field of inquiry, and to those the curious reader is referred. The proper investigation of such subjects requires the aid of varied and extensive knowledge, and a far wider field for discussion than the pages of a volume like this. So we will leave the field of conjecture for the more useful and important domain of recorded history.

The New World, dimly comprehended by Europeans, afforded materials for wonderful narratives concerning its inhabitants and productions. The few natives who were found upon the seaboard, had all the characteristics common to the human race. The interior of the Continent was a deep mystery, and for a long time marvelous stories were related and believed of nations of giants and pigmies ; of people with only one eye, and that in the centre of the forehead ; and of whole tribes who e.xisted without eating. But when sober men penetrated the forests and became acquainted with the inhabitants, it was discovered that from the Gulf of Mexico to the country north of the chain of great lakes which divide the United States and the British possessions, the people were not remarkable in persons and qualities, and that a great similarity in manners and institutions prevailed over that whole e.\tent of country.

The Aboriginals spoke a great variety of dialects, but there existed not more than eight radically distinct languages among them all, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and westward to the Rocky Mountains, namely : Algonquin, Huron-Iroquois, Cherokee, Catawba, Uchee, Natchez, MoBiLiAN, and Dahcotah or Sioux. These occupied a region embraced within about twenty-four degrees of latitude and almost forty degrees of longitude, and covering a greater portion of the breadth of the north temperate zone.

All the nations and tribes were similar in physical character, moral sentiment, social and political organization, and religious belief. They were all of a copper color ; were tall, straight, and well-proportioned ; their eyes black and expressive; their hair black, long, coarse, and perfectly straight; their constitutions vigorous, and their powers of endurance remarkable. Bodily deformity was almost unknown, and few diseases prevailed. They were indolent, taciturn, and unsocial ; brave, and sometimes generous in war ; unflinching under torture ; revengeful, treacherous, and morose when injured or offended ; not always grateful for favors ; grave and sagacious in council ; often eloquent in speech ; sometimes warm and constant in friendship, and occasionally courteous and polite.

The men were employed in war, hunting and fishing. The women performed all menial services. In hunting and fishing the men were assiduous and very skillful. They carried the knowledge of woodcraft to the highest degree of perfection; and the slightest indication, such as the breaking of a twig, or the bending of grass, was often suificient to form a clew to the pathway of an enemy or of game. The women bore all buixlens during journeys; spread the tents ; prepared food ; dressed skins for clothing ; wove mats for

THE ABORIGINALS.

beds, made of the bark of trees and the skins of animals ; and planted and gathered the scanty crops of corn, beans, peas, potatoes, melons, and tobacco. These constituted the chief agricultural productions of the Aboriginals, under the most fiivorable circumstances. In these labors the men never engaged ; they only manufactured their implements of war. Their wigwams, or houses, were rude huts, made of poles covered with mats, skins, or bark of trees ; and all of their domestic arrangements were very simple.

And simple, too, were their implements of labor. They were made of stones, shells, and bones, with which they prepared their food, made their clothing and habitations, and tilled their lands. Their food consisted of a few vegetables, and the meat of the deer, buffalo, and bear, generally roasted upon the points of sticks ; sometimes boiled in water heated by hot stones, and always eaten without salt. Their dress in summer was a slight covering around the loins. In winter they were clad in the skins of wild beasts,' often profusely ornamented with the claws of the bear, the horns of the buffalo, the feathers of birds, and the bones of fishes. Their faces were often tattooed, and generally painted with bright colors in hideous devices. Their money was little tubes made of shells, fastened wajipum. upon belts or strung in chains, and called wampum? It was used in traffic, in treaties, and as a token of friendship or alliance. Wampu belts constituted records of public transactions in the hands of a chief

There was no written language in all the New World, except rude hieroglyphics, or picture writings. The history of the nations, consisting of the records of warlike achievements, treaties of alliance, and deeds of great men, was, in the form of traditions, carefully handed down from father to son, especially from chief to chief

INDIAN HIEROGLYPHICS.-

Children were taught the simple

' Tlie engraving at the head of this chapter represents some Sioux Indians, in their winter and fanciful costumes.

• Wampum is yet in use, as money, among some of the Western tribes, and is manufactured, we believe, as an article of commerce on tlie sea-shore of one of the counties of New Jersey. It is made of the clear parts of the common clam-shell. This part being split off, a hole is drilled in it, and the form, wliich is that of the bead now known as the fcu^fe, is produced by friction. They are about half an inch long, generally disposed in alternate layers of white and bluish black, and valued, when they become a circulating medium, at about two cents for three of the Ijlack beads, or six of the white. They were strung in parcels to represent a penny, three pence, a shilling, and five sliillings, of white; and double that amount in black. A fathom of white was worth about two dollars and a hal^ and black about five dollars. They were of less value at the time of our war for independence. The engraving shows a part of a string and a /icK of wampum.

3 This is part of a record of a war expedition. The figures on the right and left> — one with a gun and the other with a hatchet — denote prisoners taken by a warrior. The one without a head, and holding a bow and arrow, denotes that one was killed ; and the figure with a shaded part below the cross indicates a female prisoner. Then he goes in a war canoe, with nine companions, denoted by the paddles, after which a council is held by the chiefs of the Bear and Turtle tribes, mdicated by rude figures of these animals on each side of a fire.

THE ABORIGINALS.

INDIAN WEAPONS.-'

arts practiced among them, such as making wampum, constructing bows, arrows, and spears, preparing matting and skins for domestic use, and fashioning rude personal ornaments.

Individual and national pride prevailed among the Aboriginals. They were ambitious of distinction, and therefore war was the chief vocation, a^ we have said, of the men.' They generally went forth in parties of about forty bowmen. Sometimes a half-dozen, like knights-errant," went out upon the war-path to seek renown in combat. Their weapons were bows and arrows, hatchets (tomahawks) of stone, and scalping-knives of bone.

Soon after they became acquainted with the Europeans, they procured knives and hatchets made of iron, and this was a great advance in the increase of their power. Some wore shields of bark; others wore skin dresses for protection. They were skillful in stratagem, and seldom met an enemy in open fight. Ambush and secret attack wei-e their favorite methods of gaining an advantage over an enemy. Their close personal encounters were fiei'ce and bloody. They made prisoners, and tortured them, and the, scalps* of enemies were their trophies of war. Peace was arranged by sachems' in council ; and each smoking the same " pipe of peace." called calumet,'^ was a solemn pledge of fidelity to the contract.

With the Indians, as with many oriental nations, women were regarded as inferior beings. They were degraded to the condition of abject slaves, and they never engaged with the men in their amusements of leaping, dancing, targetshooting, ball-playing, and games of chance. They were allowed as spectators, with their children, at war-dances around fires, when the men recited the feats of their ancestors and of themselves. Marriage, among them, was only a temporary contract — a sort of purchase — the father receiving presents from the

' It Was offensive to a chief or warrior to ask him his name, because it implied that his brave deeds were unlcnown. Red Jacket, the great Seneca chief (whose portrait is at the head of this chapter), was asked his name in court, in compliance witli a legal form. He was very indignant, and replied, " Look at the papers which the wliite people keep the most carefully" — (land cession treaties) — " they will tell you who I am." Red Jacket was horn near Geneva, New York, about 1750, and died in 1830. He was the last great chief of the Senecas. For a biographical sketch of him, see Lossing's " Eminent Americans."

' Knights-errant of Europe, sis hundred years ago, were men clothed in metal armor, who went from country to country, to win fame by personal combats with other knights. They also engaged in wars. For about three hundred years, knights-errant and their e.xploits formed the chief amusement of the courts of Europe. It is curious to trace the connection of the spirit of knighthood, as exhibited by the one hundred and thirty-five orders that have existed, at various times, ui the Old World, with some of tlie customs of the rude Aboriginals of North America

^ a, bow and arrow ; h, a war club ; c, an iron tomahawk ; d, a stone one ; e, a scalpingkmfe.

' They seized an enemy by the hair, and by a skillful use of the knife, cut and tore from the top of the head a large portion of the skin.

' Sachems were the civil heads of nations or tribes ; chiefs were military leaders.

« Tobacco W.1S in general use among the Indians for smoking, when the white men came. The more filthy practice of cheioing it was invented by the white people. The calumet was made of pipe-clay, and was often ornamented with feathers.

Bur.iAL-rLACr.

husband, in exchange for the daughter, who, generally, after being fondled and favored for a few months, was debased to the condition of a domestic servant, at best. The men had the right to take wives and dismiss them at pleasure ; and, though polygamy was not very common, except among the chiefs, it was not objectionable. Every Indian might have as many wives as he could purchase and maintain. The husband might put his wife to death if she proved unfaithful to him. The affections were ruled by custom, and those decorous endearments and attentions toward woman, which give a charm to civilized society, were wholly unknown among the Indians ; yet the sentiment of conjugal love was not always wanting, and attachments for life were frequent. There was no society to call for woman's refining qualities to give it beauty, for they had but few local attachments, except for the burial-places of their dead.

From the fi-ozen North to the tropical South, their funeral ceremonies and methods of burial were similar. They laid their dead, wrapped in skins, upon sticks, in the bottom of a shallow pit, or placed them in a sitting posture, or occasionally folded them in skins, and laid them upon high scaffolds, out of the reach of wild beasts. Their arms, utensils, paints, and food, were buried with them, to be used on their long journey to the spirit-land. By this custom, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was clearly and forcibly taught, not as distinctively spiritual, but as possessing the two-fold nature of matter and spirit. Over their graves they raised mounds, and planted beautiful wild-flowers upon them. The Algonquins, especially, always lighted the symbolical funeral pyre, for several nights, upon the grave, that the soul might perceive and enjoy the respect paid to the body. Relatives uttered piercing cries and great lamentations during the burial, and they continued mourning many days.

Like that of the earlier nations of the world, their religion was simple, without many ceremonies, and was universally embraced. They had no infidels among them. The duaUty of God is the most ancient tenet of Indian faith — a prominent tenet, it will be observed, in the belief of all of the more advanced oriental nations of antiquity. They believed in the existence of two Great Spirits : the one eminently gi'eat was the Good Spirit,' and the inferior was an Evil one. They also deified the sun, moon, stars, meteors, fire, water, thunder, wind, and every thing which they held to be superior to themselves, but

' They believed every animal to have had a great original, or father. The first huffulo, the first' bear, the first beaver, the first eagle, etc., was the Maniiou of the whole race of the different creatures. They chose some one of these originals as their special Jlanitott, or guardian, and hence arose the custom of having the figure of some animal for the arms or symliol of a tribe, called iotum. For example, each of the Five Nations (see page 12) ^Sfe^^.^

was divided into several tribes, designated The Wolf, The Bear, The Turtle, r'^j^ J etc., and their respective Mums were rude representations of these animals. ^^ /A

When they signed treaties with the white people, they sometimes sketched ::ST — ' outlines of their Mums. The annexed cut represents the Mum of Teyendagages, of the Turtle tribe of the Mohawk nation, as affixed by him to a deed. TOTL'.'.r.

It would be a curious and pleasant task to trace the intimate connection of this totemic system with the use of symbolical signet-rings, and other seals of antiquity, and, by succession, the heraldic devices of modem times.

they never exalted their heroes or prophets above the sphere of humanity. They also adored an invisible, great Master of life, in different forms, which they called Manitou, and made it a sort of tutelar deity. They had vague ideas of the doctrine of atonement for sins, and made propitiatory sacrifices with great solemnity. All of them had dim traditions of the creation, and of a great deluge which covered- the earth. Each nation, as we have observed, had crude notions, drawn from tradition, of their own distinct origin, and all agreed that their ancestors came from the North.

It can hardly be said that the Indians had any true government. It was a mixture of the patriarchal and despotic. Public opinion and common usage were the only laws of the Indian.' All political power was vested in a sachem or chief, who was sometimes an hereditary monarch, but frequently owed his elevation to his own merits as a vrarrior or orator. While in power, he was absolute in the execution of enterprises, if the tribe confided in his wisdom. Public opinion, alone, sustained him. It elevated him, and it might depose him. The oflSee of chief was often hereditary, and its duties were sometimes exercised even by women. Unlike the system of lineal descent which prevails in the Old World, the heir to the Lidian throne of power was not the chief's own son, but the son of his sister. This usage was found to be universal throughout the continent. Yet the accident of birth was of little moment. If the recipient of the honor was not worthy of it, the title might remain, but the mfiuence passed into other hands. This rule might be followed, with benefit, by civilized communities. Every measure of importance was matured in council, which was composed of the ehlers, with the sachem as umpire. His decision was final, and wherever he led, the whole tribe followed. The utmost decorum prevailed in the public assemblies, and a speaker was always listened to with respectful silence.

We have thus briefly sketched the general chai-acter of the inhabitants of the territory of the United States, when discovered by Europeans. Although inferior in intellectual cultivation and approaches to the arts of civilization, to the native inhabitants of Mexico- and South America, and to a race which evidently occupied the continent before them, they possessed greater personal manliness and vigor than the more southern ones discovered by the Spaniards. They were almost all wanderers, and roamed over the vast solitudes of a fertile continent, free as the air, and unmindful of the wealth in the soil under their feet. The great garden of the western world needed tillers, and white men came. They have thoroughly changed the condition of the land and the people. The light of civilization has revealed, and industry has developed, vast treasures in the soil, while before its radiance the Aboriginals are rapidly melting like snow in the sunbeams. A few generations will pass, and no representative of the North American Indian will remain upon the earth.