The territorial growth of the United States

Preface

IT is now many years since the substance of the following pages was first written. The manuscript was laid aside and the author began a more thorough study of the subject. That study has been continued to the present time, and the author has availed himself of all the authorities within his reach. During the last two years he has been largely engaged in rewriting and preparing the matter for the press. From the first, the history here embodied has appeared to him to be of great value to the American citizen, and to deserve a wider knowledge and more careful attention from all our people. The facts here presented in consecutive order have not heretofore been so fully given. It was, therefore, necessary to go back to original sources of information and to cull from many works of diverse character.

Some of the chapters have a brief treatment because others seem to demand fuller and more minute consideration. The history of the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of the Oregon country are considered more at length because of the exceptional value of that history and because correct information upon these subjects has not been generally obtainable.

It is difficult to appreciate fully the importance of the service done to this country by Dr. Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams, in the delicate task of negotiating the treaty of peace with Great Britain; and by Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe in accomplishing the purchase of the Louisiana province from the first Napoleon.

iv PREFACE

The special favor of Divine Providence toward this country appears again and again in the course of our history, particularly in the results of the old French and Indian War, the purchase of Louisiana, the acquisition of New Mexico and California, and the saving of Oregon from the grasp of England.

The map, showing our several territorial accessions, which forms the frontispiece to this book, was in the main copied from a cloth map twelve by seven and a half feet in size, which was made before Mr. Stocking's map appeared in the volume on Population, in the census report of 1870.

The author is indebted to Theodore Lyman's United States Diplomacy, in two volumes, published in Boston in 1828; to Marbois's History of Louisiana, Philadelphia, 1830; to Greenhow's History of Oregon and California, Little & Brown, 1844; and to Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, 8 volumes, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, 1889. Special mention ought to be made of the valuable article on the Peace Negotiations of iy82-i'j8s by the Hon. John Jay, published in the seventh volume of Winsor's history, above mentioned, pp. 89-165. Thanks are due to Hon. William R. Merriam, Superintendent of the Twelfth United States Census, for his courtesy in furnishing advance bulletins of the census, showing population, etc.

William A. Mowry.

Hyde Park, Massachusetts, May I, 1902,

Chapter I- Page

I

II.-

III.-

-Louisiana ....

IV.-

. 85

VI.-

-California ....

VII.-

VIII.-

IX.-

-Hawaii ....

-Porto Rico .

XI.-

. 208

XII.-

—Conclusion .

. 220

MAPS

The Territorial Growth of the United States y

Frontispiece ^

FACING PAGE

The Territory of the Present United States

DURING the French-Indian Wars . . 8 ^

Proposed Boundaries of the United States, Canada, and the Spanish Possessions in 1782 16 l^

The Territory of the Present United States

after September 3, 1783 .... 24 ^Z

Land Claims of the Thirteen Original States

Original Public Domain, 1787 .... 401-/

The United States in 1800 .... 48 l^-"

Western Portion of the Present United

States . 88 ^^

The Oregon Country 1 1 2 1/

The Hawaiian Islands ..... 184 "^

The West Indies 200 ^

The Philippine Islands 208 v vu

THE TERRITORIAL GROWTH

CHAPTER I

THE early history of most nations is involved in obscurity. The mythological romance that hangs about the earlier settlements of Greece and Rome hides in profound darkness the origin of those great civilizations. The dawn of English history is surrounded by uncertain traditions that cloud several centuries with the fog and mist of poetic ballads and stories of giants and demigods. But the beginnings of American history are as bright and balmy as a spring morning, with no cloud to obscure the glory of the rising sun. The facts of the emigration from the old countries and of the several settlements are well known and as well authenticated as any chapter in the history of the world.

The enthusiasm, energy, and courage that characterized the earlier discoverers and explorers, the religious earnestness and devotion to principle and to conscience that marked the New England settlers, the heroic selfdenial of the western pioneers, the changing fortunes and the final success that attended the English settlements between the Spanish Floridas and the French Acadia, have been recorded by able historians, though scarcely appreciated by the mass of their readers. The favoring conditions which conduced to the final independence and expansion of these colonies were numerous and marvelous. The overruling hand of a Divine Providence shaping the end shows in many conspicuous examples.

Among the causes of the present greatness and prosperity of the United States must be placed several acts of European governments.

That was an auspicious moment for America when, at the close of the Seven Years' War, England, "furiously imperious," and "drunk with success,"* dictated severe and humiliating terms to France, robbing her of all her North American colonies and dividing the great valley of the interior between herself and Spain. It was a sagacious and experienced statesman who, in commenting on the Treaty of Paris in 1763, could so foresee the progress of inevitable events as to

' Due de Choiseul. See Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. iv., p. 451.

say: "The consequences of the entire cession of Canada are obvious. I am persuaded that England will ere long repent of having removed the only check that could keep her colonies in awe. They stand no longer in need of her protection ; she will call on them to contribute toward supporting the burdens they have helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all dependence." '

Equally significant was the utterance of Napoleon at the conclusion of the treaty ceding the great province of Louisiana to the United States: "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States; and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride."*

Hardly less important to the future of our country was the treaty with Spain in 18 19, which not only ceded the two Floridas to the United States, but quitclaimed to us all Spain's right and title to the Pacific coast north of the forty-second degree of latitude.

The independence of the thirteen colonies once secured, their growth was inevitably rapid. The population at the taking of the first census, in 1790, was less than 4,ooo,ocx); one hundred years from that time

' Count de Vergennes, at that time the French Ambassador at Constantinople. See Bancroft, vol. ii., p. 564.

* M. de Marbois, History of Louisiana, p. 312. Lea & Carey, Philadelphia, 1830.

the official census aggregated over 52,000,000. The population by the census of 1900 is more than 76,000,000, besides an estimated 10,000,000 more in our island possessions. This unprecedented increase in the number of inhabitants is indicative of similar progress in other directions, and is largely dependent on the rapid increase of territory.

In the earliest discoveries and explorations Spain took the lead, but she made no successful efforts to plant colonies within the limits of the original territory of the United States. About the beginning of the seventeenth century England laid claim to the entire coast from Cape Fear in North Carolina to Halifax, — a breadth of about twelve degrees of latitude. In 1606 King James granted two important patents: one to the London Company, for all the territory between the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude, and the other to the Plymouth Company, for the section between the 38th and 45th degrees, with the provision that neither Company should make a settlement within a hundred miles of any colony of the other.

Under the direction of the London Company the first permanent settlement within the limits of our original territory— the first permanent English settlement in America — was made at Jamestown in 1607. Its name and the name of the river were given in honor of the king who granted the charter. The limits of the grant under this charter were from Cape Fear on the south to the southern line of Maryland on the north.

The language of the charter is important. It states the request made by Sir Thomas Gates and others, and grants their prayer as follows :

To make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our People into that part of America commonly called Virginia . . . situate, lying and being all along the Sea Coasts, between four and thirty Degrees oi Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctial Line, and five and forty Degrees of the same Latitude. . . . And to that End, and for the more speedy Accomplishment of their said intended Plantation and Habitation there, are desirous to divide themselves into two several Colonies and Companies; the one consisting of certain Knights, Gentlemen, Merchants, and other Adventurers, of our City of Lofidonj . . . and the other consisting of sundry Knights, Gentlemen, and Merchants and other Adventurers, of our Cities of Bristol and Exeter, and of our Town of Plimouth, and of other places, . . . [the former to] begin their Plantation and Habitation in some fit and convenient Place, between four and thirty and one and forty Degrees of the said Latitude,

[and the other] . . . between eight and thirty Degrees and five and forty Degrees of the said Latitude;

We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their desires; . . . DO, by these our Letters Patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended desires; and do . . . GRANT and agree, that the said Sir Thomas Gates and others, shall be called \}ci& first Colony ; And they shall and may begin their said first Plantation and Habitation, at any Place . between the said four and thirty and one and forty Degrees of the said Latitude; and that they shall have all the Lands . . , from the said first Seat of their Plantation and Habitation by the Space of fifty Miles of English Statute Measure, all along the said Coast of Virginia . . . toward the fVest and Southwest as the Coast lyeth, , . , And also all the Lands . . . from the said Place of their first Plantation and Habitation for the space of fifty like English Miles, all alongst the said Coasts of Virginia and America, toward the East and Northeast or towards the North, as the Coast lyeth . . . And also all the Lands . . . from the same fifty Miles every way on the Sea Coast, directly into the main Land by the Space of one hundred like English Miles; And shall and may inhabit and remain there. . . . And that no others of our Subjects shall be permitted, or suffered, to plant or inhabit behind, or on the Backside of them, towards the main Land, without the Express License or Consent of the Council of that Colony, thereunto in Writing first had and obtained.

And we do likewise, , . . Grant and agree, that the said Thomas Hanham and Ralegh Gilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, and all others of the Town of Plifnouth ... or elsewhere, which are, or shall be, joined to them of that Colony, shall be called the second Colony J And that they shall and may begin their said Plantation and Seat of their first Abode and Habitation . between eight and thirty Degrees of the said Latitude, and five and forty Degrees of the same Latitude; and that they shall have all the coasts ... by the Space of fifty like English Miles, as is aforesaid, all alongst the Coasts . . . towards the West and Southwest or towards the South, as the Coast lyeth, . . , And also all the Lands ... for the Space of fifty like Miles . . towards the East or Northeast or toward the North, as the Coast lyeth, . . . from the same fifty Miles every way on the Sea Coast, directly into the main Land, by the Space of one hundred like English Miles, etc.

The Plantation and Habitation of such of the said Colonies, as shall last plant themselves, as aforesaid, shall not be made within one hundred English Miles of the other of them that first began to make their Plantation, as aforesaid. . . . Each of the said Colonies shall have a Council . . . which shall consist of thirty Persons , . . and that also there shall be a Council, established here in England ... of thirteen Persons, . . . appointed by Us. . . . The Councils of the said Several Colonies shall and lawfully may dig, mine and search for all Manner of Mines of Gold, Silver, and Copper . . . YIELDING to Us, our Hcirs and Successors the fifth Part only of all the same Gold and Silver, and the fifteenth Part of all the same Copper so to be gotten or had, or as aforesaid, without any Manner of Profit or Account, to be given or yielded to Us, our Heirs or Successors, for or in Respect of the same.

Full authority to defend themselves, to trade, and to coin money was given both colonies, and the rights of English subjects were guaranteed to them and their posterity.

This patent was signed April 10, 1606, "in the fourth year of our Reign of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the nine and thirtieth." '

The second charter was given in 1609, and is dated "the 23d Day of May in the seventh Year of our Reign of England," etc.'' It rehearses the provisions of the former patent, and adds :

* Poore's Charters and Constitutions, part ii,, p. 1893. "^ Ibid., p. ig02.

We would be pleased to grant them a further Enlargement and Explanation of the said Grant, Privileges and Liberties, and that such Counsellors, and other Officers may be appointed amongst them, to manage and direct their Affairs, as are willing and ready to adventure with them, as also whose Dwellings are not so far remote from the City of London, but they may, at convenient Times, be ready at Hand, to give their Advice and Assistance, upon all Occasions requisite

And we do also . . . give, grant and confirm, unto the said Treasurer and Company, and their Successors all those Lands . . . from the Point of Land called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the Northward, two hundred miles, and ... to the Southward, two hundred Miles, and all that Space and Circuit of Land, lying from the Sea Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up into the Land throughout from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest.

The council resident in the colony was abolished and a council with a treasurer was appointed by the king. Lord Delaware was made governor for life, and the entire authority was vested in the governor, treasurer, and officers of the council, who were also empowered to make all laws for the colony. Arrangements for trade were made, and for customs or taxes on goods.

The third charter was given in i6i 2 and is dated March I2th (this was 1611, old style). It enlarges the rights and powers of the Company, but does not change the boundaries of the colonies. Here, then, we have the beginning of the English colonies in North America.

S}-iniah claima. 1 !

Fraxck claitns \ 1

.Englis^i jpossessio7is, r |

Copyright^ 1892^ in Mac Counts Histo?'ical Geograph the United States.

Copyright, 1892^ in MacCouv's Historical Geography of the United States.

The Dutch claim in North America came from a voyage made in May, 1609, by Captain Henry Hudson in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He sailed to the head of navigation on the great river which now bears his name. The validity of this claim was never allowed or acknowledged by the English. Although New Amsterdam was settled by the Dutch and held by them till 1664, in that year it was surrendered to the English and in September the British flag was raised at New Amsterdam, which then became New York, and the Dutch power in what is now the United States was at an end.

It is not necessary to our purpose to follow the planting of the several English colonies. Virginia was settled, as we have seen, in 1607 ; Plymouth in 1620 (united with the "Bay Colony " in 1692); New Hampshire in 1623; New York in 1623; Massachusetts Bay in 1628; Maryland in 1634; Connecticut in 1635; Rhode Island in 1636; Delaware in 1638; Pennsylvania in 1643 ; the CaroHnas in 1663 ; New Jersey in 1664; and Georgia in 1733. Four of these colonies — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut — were called Eastern or New England Colonies ; four — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — were called Middle Colonies ; and five — Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia — were called Southern Colonies.

Prior to the war of the Revolution Great Britain had lo THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES

undisputed control of the coast from the St. Mary's River, which was the northern boundary of Florida, to Nova Scotia ; and the government of this great territory was comprised in thirteen colonies, all subject to the British crown, and each independent of the others. The different systems of government that prevailed in the several colonies have generally been grouped under the three heads of provincial, proprietary, and charter governments. When the Revolution came, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had charters; three other colonies — Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — were proprietary. The remaining seven were provincial or royal colonies.

The boundaries of some of these colonies were vague and indefinite. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York all laid claim to the territory of Vermont. Connecticut, as late as 1782, claimed a part of Pennsylvania, and at one time claimed Rhode Island. At the time of the Revolutionary War six colonies had boundaries defined with reasonable exactness ; these were New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The others claimed western lands, extending generally to the Mississippi River. Some of the grants given by the king were clearly designed to extend to the Pacific Ocean. For example, the charter of Massachusetts says "throughout all the main lands from sea to sea " ; that of Connecticut, "to the south sea on the west"; that of

THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES ii

Carolina, "to the west as far as the south seas " ; and the second charter of Virginia, given in 1609, reads, "up into the Land throughout from Sea to Sea West and Northwest. "

The middle of the eighteenth century was a most important epoch in the history of this country. In the years from 1754 to 1763 England and France were at war. The contest began in America, and two years later involved the great powers of Europe.

At this time the English colonies occupied the coast between Florida and Nova Scotia, but nowhere extended inland beyond the AUeghanies. The entire valley of the St. Lawrence and the great basin of the Mississippi were first explored and settled by the French and hence belonged to France. Florida and Mexico had been settled by Spaniards and were, therefore, held by Spain. So read the map of North America at the middle of the eighteenth century; but important changes were about to take place.

The important province of Louisiana, so named in honor of the great Louis XIV., was transferred by France to Spain. It was a country of immense extent, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the present British possessions in latitude 49°, and from the Mississippi, "with western boundaries undefined." This cession to Spain was offset by that government passing Florida over to England, who retained it until, by the Treaty of 1783, she re-ceded it to Spain. In the Treaty of 1763 England sanctioned the cession of Louisiana to Spain, and, further, compelled France to cede to her all that part of New France lying east of the Mississippi, and all of Canada and Nova Scotia. Thus by this general change of titles, France was swept entirely from North America, Spain was limited to the territory beyond the Mississippi River, and England held everything between the Atlantic and the Mississippi.

"There is no hope of repose for our thirteen colonies as long as the French are masters of Canada," said Benjamin Franklin on his arrival in London in 1754. "He was already laboring, without knowing it, at that great work of America, independence, which was to be his glory and that of his generation. The common efforts and the common interests of the thirteen American colonies in the war against France were the first step toward that great coalition which founded the United States of America." '

So long as rival powers held the country on the south, west, and north of these English colonies, so long they needed the protection of the mother country. The final independence of the colonies was apparently assured when France, who had heretofore held all the country north and west of them, was driven from the continent. This peace placed in the hands of England the entire country between the

' Guizot's History of France, vol. vi., p. 199, Estes & Lauriat edition.

Alleghanies and the Mississippi, only that it might fall into the hands of the United States of America, thirteen years later, in 1776, when the infant republic took its place among the nations of the earth.

Guizot,' the great historian of his native country, France, says of the state of affairs in 1763 :

The struggle was over. King Louis XV. had lost his American colonies, the nascent empire of India, and the settlements of Senegal, He recovered Guadaloupe and Martinique, but lately conquered by the English, Chandernagore, and the ruins of Pondicherry. The humiliation was deep and the losses were irreparable. All the fruits of the courage, of the ability, and of the passionate devotion of the French in India and in America were falling into the hands of England. Her government had committed many faults; but the strong action of a free people had always managed to repair them. The day was coming when the haughty passions of the mother country and the proud independence of her colonies would engage in that supreme struggle which has given to the world the United States of America.

This war was more important than at first sight would appear. It began over a question of supremacy in America and extended until Europe and Asia were largely involved. It was not only a contest between England and France, but a war of races, languages, and religions. It was a war for the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon over the Latin race. It was a contest between the laws, manners, and customs of Great

' History of Franc e^ vol. vi., p. 214.

Britain, with rights guaranteed to the people by Magna Carta, and those of more despotic monarchies of southern Europe ; between the English language and the French ; between the Roman Catholic Church and "freedom in religious concernments"; and finally, as it now appears, it was the beginning of a contest for the ultimate supremacy in the world. On the Plains of Abraham were decided all these questions. The fall of Quebec, and the consequent conquest of Canada by the British was, therefore, the supreme moment in the history of North America.

The English colonies now had nothing to fear from the proximity of other European powers, and at once began, perhaps unconsciously, to prepare for independence. They no longer needed the aid of the mother country, — a fact which they quickly learned, — and began to shape their course accordingly. The succession of events was rapid. Franklin's plan of union had failed in 1754, but the common cause which the colonies made during the war bound them together, and prepared them to act in concert when the Revolutionary War began. This war finally resulted in independence and a new North American nation.

In 1779 Congress appointed John Adams of Massachusetts minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain„ Mr. Adams was soon after appointed minister to The Hague. He arrived in Paris early in 1780, and began correspondence and intercourse with Count de Vergennes, the French minister. It was not long before a mutual dislike and distrust grew up between Mr. Adams and Vergennes. Adams was convinced that it was the intention of the French government to sacrifice the interests of the Americans in favor of Spain, especially in the matter of the Newfoundland fisheries and the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. Americans must always be grateful to Mr. Adams for the clear-sightedness with which he thus read the designs of Vergennes and estimated at its true worth the purely selfish intervention of France in behalf of the United States. It soon became evident to the French government that the bold and manly position taken by Mr. Adams was likely to thwart the intention of France to play into the hands of Spain. Both the king of France and the king of Spain were Bourbons, and Adams was too much of an upright and downright Englishman to suit the plans of these Bourbon governments.

It may, therefore, be considered natural that French influence should be exerted upon Congress to place the negotiation of this treaty in other hands. Of course, France could not dictate who should be commissioned for such duties. She adroitly suggested to members of Congress, through persons friendly to France, that inasmuch as America had so many able statesmen, it might be well not to leave to one man i6 THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES

so important a duty as the negotiating of this treaty.

These counsels prevailed, and in June, 1781, Congress passed an act which gave to "John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson, or the majority of them, or as many of them as may assemble, or in the case of the death, absence, indisposition or other impediment of the others, to any one of them, full power and authority, general and special commission, to repair to such place as may be fixed upon for opening the negotiations for peace, and there for , us, and in our name, to confer, treat, agree and conclude with the ambassadors, commissioners, and plenipotentiaries of the princes and states, whom it may concern, vested with equal powers, relating to the establishment of peace, and whatsoever shall be agreed and concluded for us, and in our name, to sign, and thereupon make a treaty or treaties, and to transact everything that may be necessary for completing, securing and strengthening the great work of pacification, in as ample form, and with the same effect, as if we were personally present and acted therein."

This act placed John Adams at the head of the commissioners, and it was considered that he represented New England; John Jay the Empire State of New York; Benjamin Franklin the Keystone State, Pennsylvania; Thomas Jefferson the great commonwealth of Virginia ; and Henry Laurens the Southern states.

BOUNDARIES

UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS.

According to the proposal of the Court OF France, in 1782.

English

Spanish

Uncolored, Indian Territory, under Spanish or American protection, according as it lies East or West of the green intersecting line.

Mr. Jefferson did not join the commission, but all the other commissioners were present during some part of the discussions.

The task committed to these gentlemen was an extremely delicate one. France had espoused our cause, loaned us money, and furnished us with troops and a naval fleet. Her conduct, however, may be open to the suspicion that she was influenced by ill-will toward England as well as by love for the United States. The instructions from Congress to our commissioners were that they should "take no steps without France." It was plainly thought best to treat France with the utmost consideration, to confer with her on all points of the treaty; and, indeed, at first this was the view of John Adams himself. "In 'his determination to take no steps of consequence without consulting the ministers of his most Christian Majesty' he asked 'the opinion and advice' of Vergennes. "' But when these commissioners settled down to the business they discovered the double part that France was playing.

The three great questions in this treaty were :

1. The Newfoundland fisheries.

2. Remuneration to the loyalists.

3. The western boundaries.

The boldness, earnestness, and patriotism of John Adams finally secured for us the first point. The * Letter to Vergennes, see United States Diplomacy, vol. i, p. loi.

i8 THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES

agreement is stated in the third article of the treaty, which reads as follows :

It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind, on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both countries used, at any time heretofore, to fish; and also, that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind, on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen may use; (but not to dry or cure the same on that island;) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks, of all other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America: and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors and creeks of Magdalen Islands and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same, or either of them, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement without a previous agreement for that purpose, with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground.