Hand book for American citizens; or, Things every patriot should know

Front matter

Chap.La'-KiCopyright No

Shelf-M^,

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Contents

Pabt L

ORIGIN OP THE NATION.

Chaxacter of the Colonists, 17 Beconiing a Nation, ... 21 Beginning of the Union, . 22 Declaration of Independence, 23

Part II. THE MONROE DOCTRINK

Not a Part of National Law 82

Text of the Monroe Doctrine, . 83

Minister Anderson at Bogota, 84

The Holy Alliance and the Monroe Doctrine, . . 86

How Seward Enforced the Monroe Doctrine, 88

The Monroe Doctrine To-day 91

Pabt m.

THE SLAVERY ISSUK

Antagonism Between.

North and South, . . 93 Beginning of Negro

Slavery 94

The Missouri Compromise, 95 The Wilmot Proviso, . . . 96 Compromise of 1850, ... 98 The Fugitive Slave Law, 98 Kansas and Nebraska Act,106 Buchanan's Hope— Lincoln's Prophecy, ... 106 Emancipation Proclamationf 108 pakt rv.

THE TARIFF ISSUE.

As Old as the Union, ... Ill

Tariff Legislation 113

The Tariff After the War,114 Becomes the Leading Issue, 11*

The Wilson Tariff Law, .116 Tariff Rates Compared, .117 Reciprocity, llfl

Pap^ I.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NATION.

Character of the Colonists.

To comprehend with intelligence the rights and obligations of citizenship, and the political conditions under which we live, it is necessary to glance back to the origin of American institutions. The American Republic did not spring into being suddenly, like Minerva from the brain of Jove. The origin of our nation and of its fundamental laws must be sought far back in the ages. Their root was in that English middle class, removed alike from noble and from serf, which retained and cultivated throughout every vicissitude of civil and religious revolution the sturdy and homely virtues of their ancestry. The spirit which enabled the founders of these States to overcome every obstacle which English jealousy and savage hostility could place in their way, was the spirit which our Germanic ancestors displayed when they battled for their liberties under Arminius ; it was the spirit of the barons at Runnymede and of the seamen who confronted the Armada. The men who fashioned the rude beginnings of American nationality were chiefly Englishmen of the seventeenth century, untainted by the corruption of the court, deeply imbued with religious sentiment and with a high esteem for secular learning, in which indeed many of them were thoroughly proficient. While they loved freedom they detested anarchy, and had the strongest respect even for the technicalities of law. '

i8 HAND BOOK FOK

Much has been said of the religious intolerance which some of the early settlers — especially the Puritans — displayed toward dissenters from the religious creed of the majority. As to this it ought to be sufficient to state that the Puritan colonies did not invite promiscuous immigration any more than a religious community of the present day throws open its doors to strangers irrespective of their religious belief. The Puritan communities were intended for Puritans only, and all others were trespassers. That this was the Puritan view was shown by the declaration of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, to the effect that the Quakers who had been put to death, when they returned after banishment from the colony, were guilty of suicide. Of course, in this enlightened age, such an explanation appears grotesquely inadequate, but it shows that the Puritans were not cruel for cruelty 's sake. They had sailed thousands of miles to worship God in their own way, without intrusion or molestation, and they resented molestation after the fashion of the century in which they lived. If their course was tyrannical, it was tyranny very different in degree from that of the persecutors in England, who drove Englishmen from their homes because they would not conform to the established creed. However the early settl ers of New England were not all averse to religious libei'ty. Rhode Island gave a lively example of order combined with complete freedom of conscience, no member of the community founded by Roger Williams and his associates being under any compulsion whatever as to the profession or practice of religion.

It should be remembered that other religious elements, beside Puritan and Pilgrim, had their part in the early settlements — the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Huguenots in South Carolina and the Roman Catholics in Maryland. Some attempt has been made to claim for the last-mentioned the credit which really belongs to the founders of Rhode Island, of making religious freedom an original feature of their colonial laws. The obvious fact is that in the condition of English feeling at that time toward the Pope and his spiritual subjects, Roman Catholics would not have been permitted to persecute Protestants on any soil subject to the English crown, and in addition the so-called toleration in Maryland was not toleration at all, as compared with the complete liberty which prevailed in Rhode Island ; the Maryland statutes providing, for instance, that any person speaking disrespectfully of the mother of Christ should have the tongue bored with a red-hot iron. The Maryland claim to precedence over New England in recognizing the rights of conscience will not stand the test of impartial examination. That torch was lighted on the shores of Narragansett, not Chesapeake Bay.

The religious element did not enter largely into the settlement of colonies other than those already named. The thrifty Dutch intended to use New Amsterdam for a trading post ; the Virginia colonists were adventurers, and Carolina was designed to be the field of an absurd scheme of government, conceived in the brain of Locke. The object of William Penn in settling Pennsylvania was more humanitarian than religious, and at the same time not unmingled with a desire for personal aggrandizement.

The American colonists were Englishmen, and had no desire for or thought of political separation from the mother country. Of course I include in this designation the Dutch, the German, the Swedish, French and any other alien settlers who were politically absorbed by the English. The colonists considered themselves entitled to all of an Englishman's rights and privileges, and those of New England were earnest and even aggressive in asserting their rights. The influence of New

Eugland upon the destinies of Old England was already apparent, while the generation which landed at Plymouth and Boston remained in its prime. The sympathy between the exiled dissenters and their brethren at home was warm and energetic, and it might be said that the first English Revolution — the uprising of the English middle class against the tyranny of King and Church — had its blowpipe in Massachusetts. Nevertheless the feeling of the colonists, down to the period of the Revolution, was always loyal and friendly toward the British connection, and even in Massachusetts there was very little public expression of disloyalty. Looking over the newspapers of the earlier years in the latter half of the eighteenth century, I have been surprised to note the adulatory language used regarding the king and crown of Great Britain. It is clear that only the gravest oppression could have driven the colonists to sever the ties which bound them to England, and that but for the madness which possessed George III. and his advisers the colonies would have remained a part of the British empire.

It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose that the American Revolution had its conception in a desire for absolute independence. The colonists simply resisted the withdrawal and denial of rights which belonged to them as British subjects. The Revolution had been in progress for some time before it became a war for independence. At first it was only armed resistance to oppression. General Washington, when he commanded at Cambridge, regarded his own forces as in once sense British, and spoke of his antagonivSts as " the ministerial troops." Even then George III., by timely and reasonable concessions, might have saved America for Great Britain, and it is to be noted that, when the time came to declare independence, some who had been most earnest patriots up to that limit, refused to cast their lot with their countrymen.

Becoming a Nation.

When the colonies threw off the British yoke, the change was accompanied by no local changes of serious moment. Each colony already had its local government, the chief of which was either appointed by the king, as in New York, or elected by the colonists themselves, as in Rhode Island. The machinery of local government was perfect in itself, and sufficiently democratic to be readily adapted to the new conditions. The colony became a State, with a legislature and officials substantially as before, but no longer acknowledging allegiance to the crown of Great Britain. This state of affairs was in one sense a great help and in another a great hindrance to the cause of independence. The local machinery of government proceeding without clash or disorder, was useful in organizing support for the general cause, and in proving to the people that the royal guardianship had not been necessary to their welfare — that it had been potent only for evil. On the other hand the division of pov^er among so many different States, each a centre of authority and jealous of its recently acquired sovereignty, tended to hamper and embarrass the military arm of the nation. Had the first French Republic been divided into as many States as there were provinces in old France, instead of being directed by that relentless and terrible Convention, it could surely not have presented the fierce and successful resistance to embattled Europe which it did present. In the late Southern Confederacy, notwithstanding that it was founded on the cardinal doctrine of State's Rights, the central government at Richmond soon saw that the recognition of State sovereignty was incompatible with effective and concentrated military effort, and the Confederacy became a military despotism, the State governments retaining only the shadow of power. Had Washington not been possessed of nearly superhuman fortitude and discretion, the jealousy and selfishness of the confederated States might have defeated the c which he carried to a providential conclusion.

cause

Beginning of the Union.

The American Union had its beginning on Monday the fifth of September, 1774, when there assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, a number of men who had been chosen and appointed by the several colonies in North America to hold a Congress for the purpose of discussing the grievances imputed against the mothercountry. This Congress resolved on the next day that each colony should have one vote only. On Tuesday, the second of July, 1776, the Congress resolved, " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States," etc., etc. ; and on Thursday, the fourth of July, the whole Declaration of Independence having been agreed upon, it was publicly read to the people. Shortly after, on the ninth of September, it was resolved that the words " United Colonies" should be no longer used, and that the " United States OF America " should thenceforward be the style and title of the Unioa On Saturday, the fifteenth of November, 1777, ^ Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Uniou of the United States of America" were agreed to by the State delegates, subject to the ratification of the State Legislatures severally. Eight of the States ratified these articles on the ninth of July, 1778 ; one on the twenty-first of July ; one on the twenty-fourth of July ; one on the twenty-sixth of November of the same year ; one on the twenty-second of February, 1779 ; and the last one on the first of March, 17S1. Pler'e was a bond of union between thirteen independent States, whose delegates in Congress legislated for the general welfare, and executed certain powers, so far as they were permitted by the articles aforesaid.

As the Articles of Confederation were preceded by the Declaration of Independence, that — the greatest document of human origin since the beginning of the world — should be given first. It is as follows :

Declaration of Independence,

in congress — thursday, july 4, 1 776.

Agreeably to the order of the day, the Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to take into their further consideration the Declaration ; and after some time the President resumed the chair, and Mr. Harrison reported that the committee had agreed to a declaration, which they desired him to report. (The committee consisted of Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Sherman and R. R. Livingston.)

The Declaration being read, was agreed to, as follows :

A Declaration

BY THE representatives OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN congress ASSEMBLED,

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed :

that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people ^o aher or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world :

lie has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in ihetr operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature ; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights oif the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative' powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. "^ ^

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standine armies, without the consent of our legislature.

He has affiscted to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a iurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : ^

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us- For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment! for any murders whicu they should commit on the inhabi* tants of these states ;

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the worldl- or imposing taxes on us without our consent • *

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences ; *^

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ;

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our governments ;

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their countiy, to become the executioners of their Iriends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction, of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus markeil by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement Vjere. We have appealed to their r.arive justice and magnanimuy, and we have conjured them, by the ties of ©ur

AMERICAN CITIZENS.

common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war — in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STA TES, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right to do. And, for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members :

JOHN PIANCOCK.

New Hampslilre . Rhode Island.

JOSIAH BaRTLETT,

William Whipple, Stephen Hopkins,

Matthew Thornton. William Ellery.

Connediait. New York.

Roger Sherman, William Floyd,

Samuel Huntington, Philip Livingston,

William Williams, Francis Lewis,

Oliver Wolcott. Lewis Morris.

A'ew Jersey.

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark.

Pennsylvania.

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Massachusetts Bay.

Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Delaiuare.

C^sar Rodney, George Read, Thomas M'Kean.

Maryland.

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, James Carroll, of Carroll, ton.

Virginia.

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jun., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North Carolina.

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina.

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jun., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia.

Artici^es of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Congress about two years after the Declaration of Independence, and were intended to bind the States together for an effective prosecution of the war, as well as to insure their perpetual union for the common welfare and defence. The independence of the United States had been acknowledged by

France in the beginning of the year, and the American cause had been made more hopeful by Washington's victory at Monmouth. Although commonly known as Articles of Confederation, it should be kept in mind that their full designation, as already stated, was "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union." They were as follows :

In Congress, July 8, 1778.

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND PERPETUAL UNION

Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay^ Rhode Island and Providence Plantations^ Connecticut , New Yorky New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware^ Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Art. I. The style of this confederacy shall be, " The United States of America P

Art. 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and rights which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

Art. 3. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each Other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.

Art. 4. \ I. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states in this union, the free inhabitants of each of these states, paupers — vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted — shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states : and the people of each state shall have free ingress and egress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively ; provided, that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any state, to any other state, of which the owner is an inhabitant ; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction, shall be laid by any state on the property of the United States, or either of them.

^ 2. If any person, guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any stale, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon the demand of the governor or executive power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the stale having jurisdiction of his offence.

^ 3. Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these states, to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other state.

Art. 5.^1. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each state to recall its delegates; or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the remainder of the year.

^ 2. No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members ; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years, in any term of six years ; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any ofifice under the United States, for which he, or any other for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument, of any kmd,

^ 3. Each state shall maintain its own delegate in a meeting of the states, and while they act as members of the committee of these states.

§ 4. In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each state shall have one vote.

^ 5. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress, and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonments during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

Art, 6. ^ I . No state, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with any king, prince, or state, nor shall any person holding any ofifice of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

^ 2. No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.

^ 3. No state shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties entered into by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain.

^ 4. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of such state, or its trade ; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace, except such number only as, in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the fo^ts necessary for the defence of such state ; but every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage.

§ 5- No state shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of delay till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted , nor shall any state grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, unless such state be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine otherwise.

Art. 7. When land forces are raised by any state for the common defence, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each state respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the state which first made the appointment.

Art. 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states, in proportion to the value of all land within each state, granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled.