Young folks' history of America

Preface

The editor has sought the best materia.!s in the preparation of this History of America, and is indebted to McKenzie's admirable History of the United States, a work published abroad some ten years ago, for the larger part of the text, and especially for the fine moral analyses in the parts having reference to the Puritans, to Slavery, and to the War for the Union. The opening and closing chapters, and the parts having especial reference to Canada, are, for the most part, original ; the text from McKenzie has been enlarged, revised, and edited ; stories have been interpolated, and the illustrations have been selected from the best sources by the most competent editors. The publishers have thus aimed to present a work of unusual attractiveness and value.

H. BUTTERWORTH.

Boston, May, 1881.

\y

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Ruins in Central America Frontispiece

PAGE

The Cradock Mansion 12-

Phoenician Vessel 14

Dighton Rock • • ^5

Skeleton in Armor 16

Mounds at Marietta, Ohio 17 ,

Mounds near Newark, Ohio 20

Fragment of Ancient Pueblo Pottery 21

Toltec Ruins, Yucatan 23.

Siberian Elephant and Mastodon Restored '-25

Indians in Council 27

Coil-made Jar from Southern Utah 28

Spanish Prior 31

Columbus Watching for Land 33 .

" Dreary ^Yith Ice and Snow " 37

Ponce de Leon in the St. John's River 38

Bivouac in Florida 39 i

Burial of De Soto 43

Home of the Alligator 46

Tropical Forest 47 -

Henry VIII 51

Champlain 52

Quebec in i6o8 53

Chained Bible, Time of James 1 56

Planting the Cross on New Lands 57 u

Francis 1 60

The Ruined Settlement 61 >^

Sir Walter Raleigh 64

The Settlers at Jamestown % 65 -^

Clearing the Forest 68

John Smith a Captive among the Indians 69

Indian Attack on Settlers in Virginia 73 v

Baptism of Virginia Dare 77 /

Captain Smith and the Chief of Paspahegh 79 viii List of Illustrations.

PAGE

Marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas 8i ^

" Meadows Stretched to the Eastward " 84

Dinner Amusements at Port Royal 87 --

Baptism of Indians at Port Royal 91

James 1 93

The Mayflower at Sea 951

William, Prince of Orange 97

The Pilgrims Receiving Massasoit 101

Many Visitors 105

Oliver Cromwell 106

Founding a New Settlement 107

Charles I 109

Dealing out the Five Kernels of Corn in ■

French and Dutch Quarrel 115,

Destruction of the Narragansetts I2iv

The Alarm 123

Death in the Field .124

Death of King Philip ^ . . . . 125

Weetamo on a Raft 128

Philip's Head Brought to Plymouth 129 .

Monument to John Eliot 135

Henry Hudson in the North River 137

Charles H 140

Dutch Traders at Manhattan 141 .

Perm's Arrival in America 144

Penn's Treaty with the Indians 145

Dr. Johnson 148

Penn's Colonists on the Delaware 150 ■■

George II 131

Oglethorpe and the Indians 153

Witchcraft at Salem Village . . . 161

Whipping Quakers at the Cart's Tail in Boston 167

Roger Williams in Peril for his Enemies . 171

George Fox 173

The Old and the New 175 ;

Jam^s II. . 178

Franklin 184

Burke 185

Death of General Braddock 191 -^

French and English Naval Conflict 195

List of Ilhisti^aiions. ix

PAGE

Montcalm 198

Death of Wolfe 199 1

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 206

Samuel Adams 209 ;.

Destruction of Tea 213 v.

The Signal Lanterns 218

Paul Revere's Ride 219 ,x

Battle of Lexington 223 \y

British at Colonel Barrett's 225

Roads and Historic Localities at Concord, Mass 226

Combat at the Bridge ... 227 i.

Fight at Merriam's Corner 230

Christ Church, the Old North Meeting-House ...... 232

The Hancock House 236

Faneuil Hall 237

Andros a Prisoner in Boston 239

Queen Mary - 241

The Battle of Bunker Hill 243,

The Old Powder-House at Somerville 247

General Israel Putnam 251 v

English Ships of-War 255

Breed's and Bunker Hills 259 v

Bunker Hill Monument 261

The Washington Elm 262

George III 271

Continental Currency . . 273

Washington Crossing the Delaware 277

Lafayette 281

English Attacked at Germantown . 285

French Naval Victory 291

The Assault 301

1775 • 303

Mount Vernon 309

Fight between the Constellation and La Vengeance 31 iv

The English Right of Search 315

Sea-Fight, War of 1812 317

English Captive in French and Indian War 32 1^

Jesuit Missionary Addressing the Indians 327 V

Marquette and Joliet Discover the Mississippi 333,

La Salle Claims the Mississippi Valley for France ^y]

Murder of La Salle in Texas 341

X List of Illustrations.

PAGE I

Emigrants on the St. Lawrence 347 %•

Mule-jenny Spinning-frame 3C1

Cotton Plant -yei

Scene in Texas -jcq > /

Daniel Webster -361

General Taylor on the Rio Grande 364

Spanish Monastery in Mexico 365^^

General Pierce Landing in Mexico 368

The Land of Promise Z^'^'^

Gold Digging 372

Crossing the Mountains ZIZ^/

Gold Washing in California 377

Pioneer Life in the West 381

Border Settlers 385

Pioneer Travellers 389

Home of a Western Pioneer 393

Going to Court through Western Woods 399v^ 1

1861 405

Attack on Fort Sumter 409

Passing through Baltimore 415

Battle-Field . 430

Slaves Escaping to Union Troops 433

Battle of Antietam 437

Plan of Battle of Gettysburg 447

The Wilderness \ 457

Camp Followers of Sherman's Army, Foraging 461

Sheridan Turning the Tide of Battle 465

Ruins in Richmond 471

Negro Troops in Richmond 475

President Lincoln in Richmond 479

Assassination of Lincoln 481

Capitol at Washington 487

Horticultural Hall 495

Bridge near Fairmount 499

Memorial Hall 503

The Main Building 507

James A. Garfield 509

THE CRADOCK MANSION.

The oldest house in America ; built about 1634 by Matthew Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Colony.

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF AMERICA.

Chapter I. The Mysterious Races

It is highly probable that the American continent was known to the ancients, though in a somewhat imperfect way. Plato, four hundred years before our Saviour's time, gives a particular account of the great island of Atlantis, " an island that was larger than Libya (Africa) and Asia." Strabo and Pliny both mention a like mysterious island. We are told that this great territory was inhabited by a powerful people, who became so wicked that they were drowned by the judgment of heaven, and that the island itself, that was larger than Africa and Asia, sunk in the sea. For many years it was deemed dangerous for navigators to sail westward on account of the ruins of this mysterious island which, it was believed, strewed the waters and impeded the way.

Atlantis may have been a fabulous land, but the Phoenicians or Canaanites had a knowledge of a country beyond the sea. Phoenicia, like England, once ruled the waves. Take the map of Asia and glance over the narrow strip of territory lying between the hills of Palestine and the sea. Here are the sites of Tyre and Sidon, the ancient London and Liverpool of the Mediterranean, into whose gay bazaars, glittering temples, and spacious palaces once flowed the luxuries of the world. The ships of Phoenicia gathered the treasures of the Mediterranean, the Euxine, and the Adriatic, the vine-clad hills of Ionia and Italy, and the shores of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) were for a long period believed to be the end of the world.

The Phoenician sailers began to strike out beyond the Pillars of Hercules. They visited the British Islands for tin,

PHCENICIAN VESSEL.

and the shores of the Baltic for amber. We are told that certain of these navigators were once driven on to a wonderfully fertile island in the Western Ocean, and that it was their purpose to keep this discovery a secret.

THE WRITING ROCK AND SKELETON IN ARMOR.

Among the most marked evidences that the coast of New England was visited by old-time mariners long before the coming of the Spanish voyagers and the Pilgrims, are the well-preserved relics known as the Writing Rock, at Dighton,

The Writing Rock.

Massachusetts, the Skeleton in Armor found at Fall River, and that ancient landmark, the Old Stone Tower, at Newport.

The celebrated Writing Rock at Dighton is situated on the Taunton River, a stream associated with many Indian traditions and events of colonial history. It is often visited by antiquaries, and its inscriptions are well preserved. It consists of a solitary mass of fine-grained granite, lying on the sands of the river, a few feet above low-water mark, but covered with water at each rising of the tide. On the water side it presents an inclined plane, the face of which, eleven feet

DIGHTON ROCK.

by five feet, seems to have been originally covered with sculptures and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The face of the rock is extremely hard, and, however old the inscriptions may be, those that rise above the low-water mark can have undergone but little change from the action of the elements.

The rock was noticed by the Pilgrims, but received little attention from historians and antiquaries until the years 1834-35, when a most extraordinary relic was found a few miles distant, in the town of Fall River. In digging down a hill near the town, a mass of earth slid off, uncovering a human skull, which was found to belong to a skeleton buried i6

Young Folks History of America.

in a sitting posture, enveloped in a covering of bark. This envelope was removed, when the astonished workman saw that the trunk of this skeleton was encased in a breastplate of brass. The breastplate, which was similar to that which Homer describes as having been worn by Hector, was thirteen inches long, six inches broad at the upper end and about

five inches at the lower.

It was evidently cast in a furnace, and was about one-eighth of an inch in thickness.

But what is most remarkable about this armor is, that it seems to have no association with the armorial customs of Northern or Eastern Europe, nor with any recent historical date.

Below the breastplate, and entirely encircling the body, was a belt composed of brass tubes, each four and a half inches in length and three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. The tubes were cast upon hollow reeds, and were so prepared as to protect the vulnerable parts of the body below the breastplate.

Who were these mysterious and unknown mariners^ The poet Longfellow, in his " Skeleton in Armor," associates this nameless hero with the builders of the round arch tower at Newport, which the Danes claim as the work of their ancestors. Out of the materials thus supplied the poet weaves a fanciful story, which is familiar to many of my readers : —

" Speak, speak, thou fearful guest, Who with thy hollow breast, Still in rude armor drest, Comest to daunt me ! "^

THE SKELETON IN ARMOR.

To which the skeleton in armor is supposed to begin his story thus : —

'* Far in the Northern land, By the wild Baltic strand, I, with my childish hand, Tamed the ger-falcon."

The researches of travellers and antiquaries have, however, thrown discredit upon the romantic narrative that follows these lines. Both the skeleton and the inscription on the Writing Rock seem to be of Asiatic origin. Several careful writers on the subject believe the Writing Rock to contain a representation of the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), and that the mail-clad hero was one of the crew of a Phoenician vessel who passed the Pillars of Hercules and crossed the Atlantic. The armor is the same as appears in drawings taken from the sculptures found at Palenque, Mexico, which has led to the supposition that an Asiatic race transiently settled in North America, and afterwards went to Mexico and founded those rock-walled cities, in exploring the ruins of which such astonishing evidences of Asiatic civilization have been discovered. A portion of the North American Indians and certain tribes of the Aztecs in Mexico had distinct traditions of the flood.

THE MOUND-BUILDERS. "^\.

Of all the vanished races of antiquity the Mound-builders are among the most mysterious and interesting. Their mounds are to be found principally in the West, and are numerous in the Mississippi Valley. A mound until recently was to be seen on the plain of Cahokia, Illinois, nearly opposite the city of St. Louis, Missouri, that was seven hundred feet long, five hundred feet broad, ninety feet high, and that overed more than eight acres of ground. Some of these

Young Folks History of America.

mounds in Wisconsin and Iowa are in the shape of huge animals ; and there is one near Brush Creek, Adams County, if V'i

MOUNDS NEAR NEWARK, OHIO.

Ohio, that is in the form of a serpent, and that is more than one thousand feet in length. The mouth of this strange figure is open, as in the act of swallowing or ejecting an oval

The Mound-Builders.

substance, which is also curiously made of earth-works. This oval mound is thought to represent an ^gg.

At Marietta, Ohio, are ancient works that cover an area about three-fourths of a mile long, and half a mile broad. " There are two irregular squares, one containing fifty acres, and the other twenty-seven acres, together with the crowning work standing apart, which is a mound thirty feet high, elliptical in form, and enclosed by a circular embankment."

But the most intricate, and perhaps the most extensive, of the works of the Mound-builders are those in the Licking Valley, near Newark, Ohio, extending over an area of two square miles. Why they were built we may not even conjecture, but that they were constructed with almost infinite toil by a superior race of people, under skilled direction and for some definite purpose, no one can deny who examines them.

Many of these mounds have been found to contain skeletons ; and the appearance of the bones would seem to point to an antiquity of two thousand or more years. Curious pottery, known as the " coil-made," has been found in the mounds and caves, and at the ruined

FRAGMENT OF ANCIENT PUEBLO POTTERY.

pueblos m Utah. Vessels of various forms and sizes were made, without the potter's wheel, by coiling bands of clay upon themselves. On the outside the projecting edges of these coils often formed bands or ridges, which were cut into diamond-shaped figures, marked with the thumb-nail, or otherwise ornamented, as shown in the engraving of the coil-made jar.

The ancient Mexican pyramids, teocallis, or temples of the sun, were still more remarkable. Two of the most ancient of these, near the city of Mexico, were each nearly two hundred feet high, and the larger of these two covers an area of eleven acres, which is nearly equal to that of the Pyramid of Cheops, in Egypt. The ancient city of Mexico contained nearly two thousand temples and structures, and it is believed that there were some forty thousand in the whole empire.

Who built these mounds in the Mississippi Valley, and these pyramids in Mexico ? Not the Indians who were found in America when the country was discovered. They are the productions of greater skill and culture than these tribes possessed. They aie doubtless the monuments of a vanished people, whose coming and going and splendid history must ever remain to a great extent a mystery. -

Antiquaries have furnished many theories to answer this question which arises in the mind of every student of history. Some have maintained that the Mound-builders and the mysterious people who preceded the Aztecs in Mexico were the descendants of crews from Japan, whose ships had been accidentally driven across the Pacific.

A more reasonable solution is that these people migrated from Asia.

Take your map : look at the Isthmus of Suez ; cross Central Asia to Siberia ; carefully examine Behring Strait ; run your eye down the western coast and the Mississippi Valley, thence to Mexico, thence across the Isthmus of Panama to Peru. You have now passed over the supposed track of an Asiatic race, possibly the Shepherd Kings.

Who were the Shepherd Kings ?

They came down to Egypt from Central India, driving their flocks before thq^n, about the time of the building of the Tower of Babel. They conquered Egypt, built the pyramids, but were at last overcome by the ancient inhabitants, and

TOLTEC RUINS, YUCATAN.

The Mound-Builders.

driven away from the Nile. They wandered back into Central Asia. In Siberia, it would seem, they erected mounds like those in the Mississippi Valley. They are then supposed to have journeyed north, crossed Behring Strait, which was then very narrow, passed through Alaska to the temperate zone, and pushed south to Mexico, Central America, and Peru.

THE SIBERIAN ELEPHANT AND MASTODON RESTORED.

We do not say that this theory is proven to be true : it has many things to support it. It is so interesting and it makes the ancient Egyptians seem so neighborly, we could wish it to be true.

That access from Asia to America was easy centuries ago, possibly by land connection, is evident from the discovery in Siberia and on the Pacific coast, in Alaska, of the remains of the Siberian elephant.

26 YouJig Folks History of America.

THE INDIANS.

The Indians do not seem to have sprung from the Mound-builders or the founders of the ancient Mexican Empire. They may have been the descendants of MongoHan emigrants who crossed at different times the Strait of Behring.

Nearly all the Indian tribes that inhabited the continent at the time of its discovery are gone. They have vanished, like the forests they inhabited, and the beasts of prey they hunted. New England was once the home of the Narragansetts, the Pequots, the Mohegans, but nothing but the names of these tribes remain ; the Iroquois dwelt by the great lakes of Erie and Huron, and the Algonquin nations inhabited the centre of the continent. Beyond the Algonquin territory lived the Dacotahs, on the prairies of the west, while on the south were the Tuscaroras, the Catawbas, the Creeks, and the Seminoles. With the exception of the Seminoles and the Dacotahs, hardly a remnant of these tribes remains ; the church-spires rise and the school-bells ring where their wigwams clustered, and the locomotives roll through the fair valleys where they once smoked the pipe of peace, and under the pine-plumed hills against which their war-cry was raised.

They were a race of tall, powerful men — copper-colored, with hazel eye, high cheek-bone, and coarse black hair. In manner they were grave, and not without a measure of dignity. They had courage, but it was of that kind which is greater in suffering than in doing. They were true to their friends, but to their enemies they were cunning, treacherous, and cruel. Civilization could lay no hold upon them. They quickly learned to use the white man's musket. They never learned to use the tools of the white man's industry. They developed a love for intoxicating drink, passionate and irresistible beyond all example. The first setders of New Eng-

The Indians.

land intended to treat them as Christian men should. They took no land from them. What land they required they bought and paid for. Nearly all of New England's soil was

INDIANS IN COUNCIL.

come by with scrupulous honesty. The friendship of the Indians was anxiously cultivated, — sometimes from fear, oftener from pity. But nothing could stay their progress towards extinction. Inordinate drunkenness and the gradual

Yotmg Folks' History of America.

limitation of their hunting-grounds told fatally on their numbers. And occasionally the English were forced to march against some tribe which refused to be at peace, and to inflict a defeat which left few survivors.

COIL-MADE JAR FROM SOUTHERN UTAH.

Chapter II

THE GREAT DISCOVERY, A. D. 1492.

It was late in the history of the world before Europe and America became known to each other. During the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era Europe was unaware of the vast continent which lay beyond the sea.

Men had been slow to establish completely their dominion over the sea. They learned very early to build ships. They availed themselves very early of the surprising power which the helm exerts over the movements of a ship. But, during many ages, they found no surer guidance upon the pathless sea than that which the position of the sun and the stars afforded. When clouds intervened to deprive them of these uncertain guides, they were helpless. They were thus obliged to keep the land in view, and content themselves with creeping timidly along the coast.

At length there was discovered a stone which the wise Creator had endowed with strange properties. It was observed that a needle brought once into contact with that stone pointed ever afterwards steadfastly to the north. Men saw that with a needle thus influenced they could guide themselves at sea as surely as on land. The mariners' compass untied the bond which held sailors to the coast, and gave them liberty to push out upon the sea.

Just when sailors were slowly learning to put confidence in the mariners' compass, there arose in Europe a vehement desire for the discovery of unknown countries. A sudden interest sprang up in all that was distant and unexplored.

The strange fables told by travellers were greedily received. The human mind was beginning to cast off the torpor of the Middle Ages. As intelligence increased, men became increasingly eager to ascertain the form and extent of the world in which they dwelt, and to acquaint themselves with those unknown races who were their fellow-inhabitants.

Portugal and Spain, looking out upon the boundless sea, were powerfully stirred by the new impulse. The courts of Lisbon and Madrid swarmed with adventurers who had made discoveries, or who wished the means to make them. Conspicuous among these was an enthusiast, who during eighteen years had not ceased to importune incredulous monarchs for ships and men that he might open up the secrets of the sea. He was a tall man, of grave and gentle manners, and noble though saddened look. His eye was gray, '^ apt to enkindle " when he spoke of those discoveries in the making of which he felt himself to be Heaven's chosen agent. He had known hardship and sorrow in his youth, and at thirty his hair was white. His name was Christopher Columbus. In him the universal passion for discovery rose to the dignity of an inspiration.

THE STORY OF COLUMBUS.

Christopher Columbus, or Columbo, was bom at Genoa, Italy, about the year 1436 (Irving). He was of a humble family, and one of his early employments was feeding swine. But he had a high spirit and a restless religious zeal, and he engaged in the life of a mariner at the age of fourteen. He thirsted for knowledge, and studied geometry, astronomy, geography, navigation, and the Latin language, at the University of Pavia. From this time he stored his mind with knowledge, and it was this studiousness that put it in his power to so interest a good Spanish prior in his schemes for exploration as to lead to his successful introduction to the court of Spain.

1497- The Story of America's Name. 49

bers of which lay about, some dead, some alive, some roasting on the coals. Vespucius did not know what they were, and describes them as ^^ serpents about the size of a kid, with hard, filthy skins, dog snouts, and long, coarse feet armed with large nails."

At length the natives grew less timid, and finally welcomed the discoverer, and treated him so hospitably that he remained nearly a fortnight, visiting their inland villages and picking up all the information he could. When he returned, hundreds of the people followed him to the shore, and even insisted upon going aboard his ship.

As they climbed over the gunwales and swarmed about the decks, suddenly Vespucius gave the signal to have the cannon fired. The artillery thundered forth its smoke, and in a second every one of the red-skinned crowd dived into the water like frogs off a log. Reassuring them, at length, by explanations, the admiral completely won the confidence of this peaceful tribe, and when parting-time came, they exchanged presents with him. From this place he sailed north-west, exploring the coast, and finally put into the bay. of Cumana, Venezuela, where he remained thirty-seven days, making inland journeys and getting acquainted with the natives.

These entertained prodigious notions of the white man's power and prowess, and, when Vespucius began to talk of going away, begged him as a favor to punish their enemies, who lived, they said, on an island in the sea, and every year came and killed and ate a great many of their tribe. The navigator promised to avenge their wrongs, at which they were much pleased, and offered to accompany him on the expedition, but he refused to take more than seven of them.

When Vespucius arrived at the island, the warlike cannibals came down to the shore in battle array, carrying bows, arrows, lances, and clubs, and were painted and feathered in true Indian style. A severe fight followed. At first the

50 YotC7tg Folks History of America.

Spaniards got no advantage, for the savages pressed them so closely that they could not use their swords. At last the edge of Castilian steel sent the naked foe scampering back to the woods and mountains.

Vespucius tried to make friends with these cannibals, but that was out of the question now. Their voice was still for war, and the admiral finally determined to give them enough of it. He fought them two days, took two hundred and fifty of them prisoners, burned their town, and sailed away.

On the 15th of October, 1498, Vespucius was back in Cadiz, whence he started. His two hundred and fifty cannibal prisoners he sold for slaves, justify in^g the act, according to the morality of his times, on the ground that they were enemies taken in war.

This is the voyage in which the discovery of America was made which gave it its name.

Chapter III. Seeking Homes In The New Land

In comparison with the great empires of the East, America's history begins at a very recent date. Yet if we note the events of that history in connection with English history, we seem to be carried far back into the past. It was during the reign of Henry VII. of England that America was discovered, that Acadia was first seen by the Cabots, that Americus Vespucius made the famous voyage that gave to the western world its name. It was during the reign of Henry VIII. that Florida was visited by Ponce de Leon ( i 5 i 2 ) , that the Pacific Ocean was discovered by Balboa (15 13), that Cortez beheld the shining cities of the Aztecs and captured Montezuma (15 21), that Cartier gazed on the St. Lawrence, and De Soto on the Mississippi. It was during the reign of Elizabeth that Sir Walter Raleigh made his expeditions, that Gosnold discovered Cape Cod (1602), that Quebec was founded by

HENRY VIII.

Yoimg Folks History of America.

the French under Champlain (1608), and that Hendrick Hudson explored the Hudson River. All these things took place before the reigns of the Jameses, the Charleses, and the Georges. It seems a long time to look back to the reigns of the Henries.

CHAMPLAIN.

It was not a pleasant world which the men and women of Europe had to live in during the sixteenth century. Fighting was the constant occupation of the kings of that time. .A year of peace was a rare and somewhat wearisome exception.

QUEBEC IN 1608.

i6o4. James I. and Parliametit. 55

Kings habitually, at their own unquestioned pleasure, gathered their subjects together, and marched them off to slay and plunder their neighbors. Civil wars were frequent. In these confused strifes men slew their acquaintances and friends as the only method they knew of deciding who was to fill the throne. Feeble Commerce was crushed under the iron heel of War. No such thing as security for hfe or property was expected. The fields of the husbandman were trodden down by the march of armies. Disbanded or deserted soldiers wandered as " masterless men " over the country, and robbed and murdered at their will. Highwaymen abounded, although highways could scarcely be said to exist. Epidemic diseases of strange type, the result of insufficient feeding and the poisonous air of undrained lands and filthy streets, desolated all European countries. Under what hardships and miseries the men of the sixteenth century passed their days, it is scarcely possible for us now to conceive.

The Enghsh Parliament once reminded James I. of certain "undoubted rights" which they possessed. The king told them, in reply, that he " did not like this style of talking, but would ratiier hear them say that all their privileges were derived b}' che grace and permission of the sovereign." Europe, durii.g the sixteenth century, had no better understanding of the matter than James had. It was not supposed that the king was made for the people. It seemed rather to be thought that the people were made for the king. Here and there some man wiser than ordinary perceived the truth, so familiar to us, that a king is merely a great officer allowed by the people to do certain work for them. There was a Glasgow professor who taught in those dark days that the authority of the king was derived from the people, and ought to be used for their good. Two of his pupils were John Knox the reformer, and George Buchanan the historian, by whom this doctrine, so great and yet so simple, was clearly perceived

Young Folks' History of America.

and firmly maintained. But to the great mass of mankind it seemed that the king had divine authority to dispose of his subjects and their property according to his pleasure. Poor patient humanity still bowed in lowly reverence before its kings, and bore, without wondering or murmuring, all that