The First century of the republic: a review of American progress

Front matter

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THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC.

Contents

INTRODUCTION: COLONIAL PROGRESS.

By EUGENE LAWRENCE.

The Declaration of Independence. — Character of the Signers. — The Condition of the Colonies. — Wealth and Population. — Social and Political Characteristics. — Colonial Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce.— The Slave-trade.— Western Pioneers and the Savages. — Education and Keligion. — Journalism and General Literature Page 17

II. Mechanical Progress

Bt EDWARD H. KNIGHT.

Mechanical Progress a Characteristic Feature of the Century. — Agricultural Implements. — The Steam-engine and its Applications. — Steam Navigation. — The Locomotive.— Cotton Manufacture. — Iron. — Engineering. — Wood-working. — Elevators. — Domestic Machinery. — Safes. — Fire-arms and Ordnance. — The Telegraph. — Electroplating. — Electric Light. — Fire-engines. — Atmospheric Railway. — Balloons. — Weighing - machines. — Gas. — Silver. — Ice. — Sugar. — Porcelain. — Glass. — Paper. — India Rubber. — Meteorological Instruments. — Anaesthetics. — Artificial Limbs. — Aquaria. — Matches. — Musical Instruments. — Type - founding. — Type - setting Machines. — Stereotyping. — Electrot yping. — The Printing- press. — Folding - machines. — Addressing - machines.— Printing for the Blind. — Engraving. — Lithography. — Photography. — Photolithography. — Miscellaneous Photo - processes. — Photomicography 39

Illustrations. — Patent-office, Washington ; Newcomen's Steam-engine ; Watt's double-acting Steam-engine, 1769 ; Rude modern Plows ; The Origin of the Hoe and the Plow ; American Plow of 1776 : Plows, 1785-1874; Howard Wheel-plow; Fowler's Steam-plow; Reaping in Gaul, first to fourth Century a.d. ; Gladstone's Reaper, England, 1S06 ; Bell's Reaper, England, 1S26 ; "Champion " self-raking Reaper ; Meikle's Thresher, 1786 ; American Threshing-machine ; English Threshing-machine ; Single-acting Cornish Pumping-engiue ; Symingtou's Steamboat, "Charlotte Dundas ;" Pulton's Steamboat, "Clermont," 1S07; Bell's Steamboat, "Comet," 1812; Screw Steamship "City of Peking ;" Trevethick and Vivian's Locomotive, 1S05 ; Evans's Locomotive ; Blenkinsop's Locomotive, 1811 ; Hedley's Locomotive, 1813 ; Dodd's and Stephenson's Locomotive, 1815 ; Stephenson's Locomotive, 1829 : English Locomotives ; American Locomotive (two views) ; Whitney's Cotton-gin; Spinning-wheel; HargreavesV Spinning-jenny; Arkwright's Spinning-machine; Mule Spinner; Crompton's fancy Loom; Iron Furnace of the Kols, Hindostan ; Modern Blast-furnace; Puddling-furnace; Danks's Mechanical Puddler; Rolling-mill for Iron Bars; Nasmyth's double-frame Steam-hammer; Bessemer Plant; Perkins's Transferring-press and Roller-die ; Whitworth's Millionth Measuring-gauge ; Caisson at Copenhagen : Caisson of the East River Bridge, New York; Floating Derrick, New York ; Floating Dock "Bermuda;" Perronet's Chain-pumps, France; Current Water-wheel, London Bridge, 1731; Heading of the Excavation, Hallett's Point Reef, East River, New York; Iron Arch Bridges; The Illinois and St. Louis Bridge ; Iron Truss and Lattice Bridges; Portable Circular Saw; Baud Saw; Moulding-machine ; General Wood-worker ; Blanchard's Spoke Lathe ; Singer Sewing-machine; Lamb's Knitting-machine; Taylor's Machine Gun ; Morse Apparatus, Circuit and Battery ; Morse Key ; Morse Register ; Duplex Tele-

Illustrations — Continued.

graph; Electroplating; Electric Light; Steam Fire-eugiue, "Washington, No. 1 ;" Diagram of Gas-works ; Stetefeldt's Roasting - furnace ; Carre's Apparatus for Ice -making; Modern Sugar Process; Centrifugal Filter; Glass-making in Egypt; Successive Stages of Cylinder Glass; Pulping- engine : The Barograph ; Condell's Artificial Arm ; Egyptian and Cuneiform, Ideographic and Syllabic Characters ; Phonetic Languages of Asia ; Phoenician and Egyptian Writing j Bruce's Type-casting Machine ; Casting-pan; Stereotyping — Plaster Process: Moulding-press — Clay Process; Beating-table — Papier-mache Process ; Stereotype Mould-drying Press — Paper Process ; Black-leading Machine ; Electrotyping-press ; Electrotyping Bath and Battery ; Benjamin Franklin's Press ; Lord Stanhope's Press ; "Columbian" Press; "Washington" Press; Principles of Action of Power -presses ; Adams Press; Campbell's Single-cylinder Press; Gordon Job Press; Walter's Perfecting-press ; Bullock Perfecting-press; "Victory" Perfecting-press and Folding-machine; "Hoe" Web Perfecting-press; Chambers's Folding -machine; Addressing - machine ; Lithographing Hand -press; Hoe's Lithographic Printing-machine; Bellows Camera; Enlarging Solar Camera; Stereoscopic Camera; Osborne's Copying Camera and Table ; Woodward's Micro-photographic Apparatus ; The Lord's Prayer.

III. Progress In Manufacture

By the Hon. DAVID A. WELLS.

What are Manufactures? — Sources of Information. — Progress from 1607 to 1776. — Cause of the American Revolution. — Progress since the Revolution. — Number of Persons employed in Manufacture. — Social Condition of Laborers Page 147

IV. Agricultural Progress

By Professor WILLIAM H. BREWER.

Early Introduction of Foreign Plants. — Relation of Mechanical Progress and Scientific Discovery to Architecture. — Changes in the Use of Agricultural Implements. — Application of Chemistry to Agriculture. — Improvement in Fertilizers. — Draining and Irrigation. — Grazlng and Stock-raising. — The Cheese Factory System 174

V. The Development Of Our Mineral Resources

By Professor T. STERRY HUNT.

Distribution of Coal. — The Petroleum Industry. — Iron Mines and Iron Manufacture. — Copper-mining. — Gold and Silver 185

VI. Commercial Development

By EDWARD ATKINSON.

The True Function of Commerce. — Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations." — Lessons from the History of the Dutch Republic. — Abolition of Restrictions upon Commerce between the States. — Other Injurious Restrictions still Enforced. — Our Great Centres of Manufacture and Agriculture. — Our National Commerce. — Concentration of Population in Cities and Towns. — Influence of Commercial Activity upon Modern Life 200

VII

GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION. By the Hon. FRANCIS A. WALKER.

The Early Settlements, 1607-1660. — Settlements in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 1660-1688. — Settlement of Georgia, 1733. — Western Settlements, 1754-1790. — Population in 1776. — The First Census, 1790. — Extension of Settlements since 1790.— Cities. — The Centre of Population. — The Arithmetical Process of the National Growth. — The Geographical Process of the National Growth. — The Pacific Coast Settlements. — The Post-office. — Our Foreign Elements. — Interstate Migration. — The Population of 1870 Page 211

Illustrations -Map showing the Acquisition of Territory, 1776-1S68; Map showing the Progress

of Settlement East of the 100th Meridian , Map showing Progress Westward of the Centre of Population from Baltimore, 1800-1870; Maps Illustrating Iuterstate Migration; Map showing Density of Population.

VIII. Monetary Development

By Professor WILLIAM G. SUMNER.

Barter Currency in the Colonies. — Early Paper Currency. — Financial Measures of the First and Second Continental Congresses. — The Bank of North America. — The Financial Situation at the Close of the Revolution. — Establishment of the Treasury Department. — The National Bank, 1791. — Passage of the Mint Laws, 1786. — Financial Result of the European Wars, 1791-1815. — Effect of the War of 1812. — The United States Bank, 1816. — President Jackson's Opposition to the Bank. — Suspension of Specie Payments in 1837. — Situation of the Banks in 1840. — Paper Money in the West. — Discovery of Gold in California. — The Panic of 1857. — Financial Legislation DURING THE ClVIL WAR. — THE NATIONAL BANK ACT OF 1863. — THE PRESENT

Situation 238

IX. The Experiment Of The Union, With Its Preparations

By T. D. WOOLSEY, D.D., LL.D.

Moral and Historical Influences. — The English Colonies in America. — Auspicious Time of the Emigrations. — Equality" of Condition among the Settlers. — Preparations for Union. — The Confederation. — The Constituton. — Sectional Differences. — The Civil War. — Reconstruction. — Sources of Danger opened up by the War. — Concentration of Power in the Federal Government. — Universal Suffrage. — The Influx of Foreigners. — Financial Delusions. — Political Corruption. — The Need and Hope of Reform 260

X. Educational Progress

By EUGENE LAWRENCE.

Early* Attention given to the Subject. — The American Plan of Education. — Common Schools in New England. — The Struggle for Free Schools in New York. — The Sectarian Question. — The Common-school System in Pennsylvania. — Educational Institutions in the South. — Education and the Press. — The Educational Problem of To-day. — General Tendency of American Education Page 279

XL

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.

I. THE EXACT SCIENCES.

By F. A. P. BARNARD, D.D., LL.D.

Aid rendered by Government to Scientific Investigation. — Scientific Associations. — American Contributions to Mathematical Science. — Astronomy. — Physical Astronomy. — Comets. — Auroras. — Meteoric Astronomy. — Meteorology. — Sound. — Light and Heat. — The Spectrum. — Photography'. — Production of Cold. — The Microscope. — Electricity- and Magnetism.— Voltaic Induction. — Magneto -electricity. — Induction Coils. — Static Electricity*. — Chemistry 294

II. NATURAL SCIENCE.

By Professor THEODORE GILL.

First Steps. — Societies and Local Development. — General Explorations. — Mineralogy. — Botany. — Zoology. — Paleontology. — Geology 337

XII

A CENTURY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. , By EDWIN P. WHIPPLE.

Colonial Thought as represented by Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Frankon. — The Authors of the "Federalist:" Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. — Fisher Ames. — Poets, 1776-1810: Timothy* Dwight, Philip Freneau, John Trumbull, Francis Hopkinson, Robert Treat Paine, Jun., Joel Barlow. — Early- Writers of Fiction: Susanna Eowson, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Charles Brockden Brown. — Theological Writers of the Calvinistic School. — Ethan Allen's " Reason, the Only Oracle of Man."— Tom Paine's Writings. —English Revival of Letters, 1810-1840.— Wordsworth's Influence in America. — William Cullen Bry-ant. — Richard Henry Dana. — Washington Allston. — Washington Irving. — James Fenimore Cooper. — Joseph Rodman Drake. — Fitz-Greene Hai.leck.— James K. Paulding. — Reaction against' Puritanism and Calvinism in New England. — William Ellery' Channing. — Andrews Norton. — Orville Dewey*. — John G. Palfrey. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. — Theodore Parker. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. — John Greenleaf Whittier. — Oliver Wendell Holmes. — James Russell Lowell. — Julia Ward Howe.— Charles Sprague. — Nathaniel Parker Willis. — James G. Percival. — Edgar Allan Poe. — Bayard Taylor. — George William Curtis. — History and Biography: Jared Sparks, the Adamses, Hamilton, George Bancroft, Richard Hildreth, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, John Foster Kirk, George W. Greene, John W. Draper, James Parton, Henry Wilson, W. T. Sherman, George Ticknor, William R. Alger.— Political Orators : John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, Abraham Lincoln. — Essayists and Humorists : Henry D. Thoreau, A. Bronson Alcott, Walt Whitman, George H. Derby, Charles F. Browne, S. L. Clemens, Bret Harte, William D. Howells, Charles Dudley Warner, Thomas Bailey Aldrich. — Later American Novelists : Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catherine M. Sedgwick, William Ware, R. B. Kimball, Donald G. Mitchell, Sylvester Judd, Thomas W. Higginson, Maria S. Cummins, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, J. W. De Forest, Edward Everett Hale, Louisa M. Alcott, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, William G. Simms, Theodore Winthrop, J. G. Holland, Mary J. Holmes, Marian Harland, Augusta Evans Wilson. — Remarkable Poems. — Theological Writers. — Miscellaneous Page 349

XIII. Progress Of The Fine Arts

By S. S. CONANT.

Early American Artists. — John Watson and John Smybert. — Absence of Public Galleries of Paintings. — The American Art Union, 1839. — The National Academy of Design, New York City. — Academy of Art in Philadelphia. — Painting in Water-color. — The Artists' Fund Society. — Portrait - painters : Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, Charles Wilson Peale, J. W. Jarvis, Chester Harding, Gilbert Charles Stuart. — Prominent Palnters of the Present Century. — Historical Painters: John Trumbull, Washington Allston, Emanuel Leutze. — Landscape Painters. — Genre Painters. — American Sculptors: Horatio Greenough, Thomas Crawford, Hiram Powers, J. Q. A. Ward. — Engraving. — Drawing on Wood. — Caricature 399

Illustrations. — Paul Revere ; John Singleton Copley ; Benjamin West ; Gilbert Stuart ; Colonel John Trumbull; Alexander Anderson ; Rembrandt Peale; Washington Allstou ; Thomas Sully; Professor Morse ; Henry Iuman ; Thomas Cole; Horatio Greenough ; Hiram Powers ; Thomas Crawford ; John F. Kensett.

XIV. Medical And Sanitary Progress

By AUSTIN FLINT, M.D.

Educational Institutions. — Medical Associations. — Medical Literature. — The Great Medical Events of the Century. — Vaccination. — Discovery of Auscultation. — Medical Use of the Thermometer. — American Contributions to Medical Progress. — Ovariotomy. — Hunter's Operation. — Beaumont's Observations in relation to Digestion. — An.esthesia. — Important Improvements in Practical Surgery. — American Contributions to the Materia Medica. — General Indications of Progress 416

XV. American Jurisprudence

By BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT.

The American Library op Law. — Jurisprudence in Colonial Times. — Written Constitutions. — The Twofold System of Courts. — Our Admiralty Jurisdiction. — Patents and Copyrights. — Extradition of Criminals. — Bankruptcy. — The California Land Claims. — Rights of Married Women. — Homestead and Exemption Laws. — Mechanics' Lien Laws. — Protection of Animals. — Reformed Procedure. — Codes and Revised Statutes. — A Brief Retrospect Page 434

XVI. Humanitarian Progress

By CHARLES L. BRACE.

The Prisons. — Overcrowding of Former Prisons. — Imprisonment of Debtors. — Severity of Penalties. — County Prisons. — Reform of the Prison System in the United States. — Religious Instructions. — Secular Teaching. — Libraries. — The Treatment of Criminal and Unfortunate Children. — Prevention of Children's Crimes. — Treatment of Lunatics 454