American history for schools

Preface

In the preparation of this book the constant endeavor has been to hold the student to the proper view point of history and thus promote his progress toward two definite and most important achievements.

(i) The possession of well organized knowledge of the origin and character of the institutions which affect his life is of high value to every citizen. But well organized historical knowledge will not be attained if there is absence of organization in the study; while the spiritual value of the subject may remain undeveloped if organization rests upon a mechanical basis.

If only those who understand our country's history as a development can respond with full and intelligent obedience to society's demand for a citizenship which appreciates the worth and sympathizes with the nature of her institutions, then there is ample justification for following the threads of national thought and feeling which have become the warp and weft of our institutional life; accordingly, we have endeavored to build upon the one fundamental thought of progress and thus show the unity of American History.

(2) We have had another, and it seems to us a most important aim: that of leading the student through mental discipline to strengthen his native powers. To this end we have sought to induce him to think and to feel as well as to remember. The educational value of that kind of history teaching which exercises only the memory is exceedingly doubtful. It is too often supposed that the high school student is incapable of interpreting the events of history and that a book which seeks to follow the unity of a people's life in their thought and feeling is too difficult for his use. Yet a student who is capable of understanding Burke's Conciliation as a piece of English literature is also able to understand it as a source of historical knowledge and inspiration. The student who exercises in the study of History the degree of intellectual effort that is ordinarily employed in the study of Latin or of Algebra, finds opportunity on every page, and earns reward both abundant and sure. It has, therefore, been our constant aim to provoke thought, and it is hoped that the teacher into whose hands this book shall fall will prevent the student from forming the habit of simply memorizing external facts.

iv PREFACE

WTien our students shall be made to feel the uplifting influence of the motives and impulses that have urged the American people to national independence and toward individual freedom, much will have been done to make secure the future of our common country and to guarantee the personal happiness and efhciency of its individual citizens.

We acknowledge with grateful appreciation the assistance of Prof. H. W. Morelock, who so kindly aided us in the preparation of our references, and of Mrs. R. B. Cousins, who has patiently worked out the details of our military life, and who has given many valuable suggestions and helps throughout the entire work.

Canyon, Texas, THE AUTHORS.

PART I. — INTRODUCTION Chapter Page

I. The European Background i

The Forces of Heredity i

The Middle Ages 3

The Beginning of the Modern Age 7

The Anglo-Saxons 12

II. The New World 14

Physiographic Conditions 14

The Natives of North America 19

The Barbarous Indians 25

III. Discovery and Exploration 29

Incentives to Enterprise 29

Voyages of Discovery: the Spaniards 32

The French 36

The Portuguese 37

Exploring the Continent 38

Claims to America 41

French Efforts at Settlement 42

Spanish Efforts at Settlement 42

The English Rovers . . .' 44

English Efforts at Settlement 45

Part II. — The Building Of Free Local Institu- Tions

IV. The Southern Colonies 49

V. The Southern Colonies (Concluded) 65

The Carolinas 65

W vi CONTEXTS

Chapter Pace

VI. The MroDLE Colonies 76

VII. The New England Colonies 91

Attempts at Settlement 91

Conditions in the Mother Country 92

The Pilgrims 94

The Massachusetts Bay Colony 97

Rhode Island 102

Connecticut; New Hampshire; Maine 103

The New England Confederation 104

General Conditions in the Colonies 109

VIII. New France 115

The Traders and Trappers 115

Colonial Wars 122

The Border Struggle 124

IX. Colonial Conditions in 1760 135

The Foundation of Free Local Institutions 135

X. Causes of ihe Revolution 146

Colonial Development 146

Material Interests 140

Governmental Relations 151

Oppressive Measures 154

XI. The Revolutionary War 169

Separation and Autonomy 169

Washington's Campaigns: 1775-1777 ^7^

The Hudson River Campaign: 1777 179

The Philadelphia Campaign: 1777-177S 181

Virginia Campaign: 1781 196

The War in the West i97

CONTENTS vii

Chapter Pace

XII. The Formation of a General Government .... 205

Early Tendencies Toward Union 205

Tendencies of the Revolution 206

Weakness of the Confederation 214

Part III. — The Nationalizing Process— 1789-1875

XIII. A Conplict of National Ideals 225

Internal Factors in the Centralizing Process 225

External Factors in Centralization 237

The Decline of the Federalists 244

XIV. Growth Toward Stronger Union 250

Jefferson's Policies 250

Adjusting Old Theories to New Conditions 252

XV. The Rise of Sectionalism 280

The West 280

XVI. The People as President 297

Jackson's Fiscal Policy 304

National Progress and Sectional Interests 309

XVII. Slavery and the Constitution under the State

Rights View 313

The Constitution and Slavery 313

Slavery Considered Economically 315

The Quality of the Union 326

XVIII. The Far West 330

The Whig Rule of the Early Forties 330 v viii CONTENTS

Chapter Page

XIX. The Rise of the Republican Party 353

The Disorders in Kansas 353

Campaign of 1856 358

The Confederate States 372

XX. War Between the States — 1S61 376

War Policy of Lincoln 376

Beginning of War 380

Federal Advance in \'irginia 384

XXI. The Strategy of the War 392

The Blockade 392

The Blockade of Atlantic Ports 402

XXII. Strategy of the War: West 407

Operations for the Control of the Mississippi 407

XXIII. Strategy of the War: East 422

Combined Operations against Richmond 432

Campaigns in Georgia and Tennessee 435

XXIV. Reconstruction — 1 865-1 S76 446

Opposing Policies 446

XXV. Reconstruction (Concluded) 459

Struggle for Home Rule in the South 459

National Elections — 1872-1876 462

A Fitting Close of the Era 467

CONTENTS ix

PART IV. — DEVELOPMENT UNDER A RESTORED UNION Chapter Page

XXVI. New Industrial and Political Ideals 471

A Brief Inventory 47 1

The Civil Service 482

Economic Conditions Reflected in Politics 486

XXVII. Government for the People 492*

Public Office a Public Trust 492

Labor and Commerce 495

Labor and Capital 498

The Railroads 501

The Election of Harrison 504

XXVIII. Government for the Party 507

Republicans Reverse Cleveland's Policies 507

Blaine in the Limelight 512

XXIX. A New Crisis 517

Economic and Social Troubles 517

Economic Problems 521

The Silver Campaign of 1895 525

XXX. The Spanish-American War 53 1

Conditions in Cuba 53 1

The Philippines 534

The West Indies 536

The United States a World Power 539

XXXI. The New Democracy 544

Roosevelt and Conservation 544

The Panama Canal 548

The Problem of the Corporations 552

The Tariff 557

Currency and Banking : . . . . 561

The Peace Movement 562

X CONTENTS

Page

Appendix i

I. Declaration of Independence i

II. Articles of Confederation v

III. Constitution of The United States of America xii

IV. Growth in Territory and Organization xxv

Index xxix

LIST OF MAPS

Page Natural Features and Native Tribes of the United States. . . 16-17

Trade Routes in the Middle Ages 30

Toscanelli's Map, 1474 31

Lands Discovered by Columbus 34

Map Showing Jacques Cartier's Voyages 37

Map of Early Voyages 39

Map of De Soto's Route — 1 539-1 542 41

European Claims in 1600 47

Virginia in Early Days 50

European Colonies — about 1650 iii

Map to Illustrate French Explorations 121

Route of Braddock's Expedition 127

Map Showing French and English Forts 129

Central North America in 1755, before the French and Indian

Central North America in 1763, after the French and Indian

War '. f dicing 132

Reference Map for the Revolution: Northern and Middle

States 4 facing 1 78

Reference ISIap for the Revolution: Southern States. facing 188

Land Claims of the Thirteen Original States in 1783 . . facing 210

Route of Clark and Lewis 256

Route of Zebulon Pike 257

Map of the United States in 18 10-12 / facing 262

Reference Maps for the War of 181 2 267

Route of the National Road 281

Map of the United States in 1825 between 290-291

Map of the Mexican War 342

Territory acquired from Mexico as the result of the Mexican

War facing 344

Sketch-Map of Forts in Charleston Harbor 367

Map of the United States in 1S61 facing 370

Manassas Battlefield 389 xii LIST OF MAPS

Page

Reference Map for the Civil War between 390-391

Map of the \'icksburg Campaigns 413

Map of Hampton Roads, Virginia 424

Position of the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Landing,

Map of Campaigns in Virginia 428

Texas Coast, Showing Points of Occupation under Gen. N. P.

Banks, November, 1863 440

Territorial Growth of the United States, 1 783-1867 betzvecn 464-465

The Westward Movement of Population 477

"The Crossroads of the Pacific " 540

Irrigation Centers of the West 546

National Forests 547

The Route of the Panama Canal 551

AMERICAN HISTORY

Chapter I The European Background

Secondary Authorities. — Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, pp. 364-391; Symonds, A Short History of Renaissance in Italy; Cheney, European Background of American History; Schwill, Political History of Western Europe, pp. 1-43; West, Modern History, pp. igi-224; The Cambridge Modern History, vol. i; Thatcher and Schwill, Europe in the Middle Ages, pp. 583-657; Robinson, History of Western Europe, pp. 250-276, 321-464.

Sources. — Robinson, Readings, vol. i, chaps. 19 and 22; Ogg, Source Book of MedicEval History, pp. 445-477; Pennsylvania, Translations and Reprints, vol. i.

Illustrative Material. — Kingsley, Westward Ho; Moore, Utopia; Irving, Columbus.

THE FORCES OF HEREDITY

Since the day in which the discoverer incited the whole world 1. The

Ameri spirit to enterprise, wonderful progress has been made in the arts e"can and in the sciences by the nations that are still European, of whose advancement there seems no end. Yet the distinctively modern man, the man in whom European ancestry and a New World environment have combined to develop self-reliance, and whose self-reliance has developed the sense of freedom and of power, is the American.

In America more than elsewhere, men take hold of new undertakings with self-confidenc?, drive to the goal with relentless energy, enjoy victory, scorn defeat, and fill their days with accomplishment.

Having built institutions singularly free from the influence of servile tradition, the American resents with deepest anger any attempt to curtail his liberties. Sometimes, indeed, he sleeps with the enemy dangerously near, but when once aroused he fights with a vigor and an intelligence in such combination as the Old World does not know. His spirit of free initiative has been so tremendously exercised that the word American has almost become the synonym of radicalism in the vocabulary of nations. And, indeed, the vocabulary is not greatly in error. For after all, the difference between the diverse peoples of Western Europe and their composite descendants in America is a difference more of degree than of quality.

2. Ancestry The primary factor in the development of the American, in character both time and importance, is the people from whom he has

sprung. The men and women who first settled in Virginia and New England, as well as many of those who have since come to America, brought with them very small cargoes of perishable goods. But if their material wealth was small, their mental endowment was sufficient, and they were rich in those elements of character which form the basis of free and enlightened government.

In order to understand these people and the impulses which they gave to their descendants, it is necessary to know the European conditions out of which colonial life in America proceeded.

3. Making a In the Middle Ages a new man was being prepared to undernew man ^^-^^ ^-^^ enlargement of the known world — both in the physical

and in the intellectual sense. Indeed, by the beginning of the fifteenth century this new man had attained his majority and had assumed responsibility for the progress of the world. The discovery of America, and the building of a great civilization upon the new continent, is his most important achievement.

4. The The Middle Ages opened with three great constructive forces ckssl/""^*^^^' ^^ ^^'°'"^- Greece and Rome had finished the work of giving to culture mankind their highest conceptions of literature, art, science,

philosophy, law, and political organization — the combined

THE MIDDLE AGES 3

force that is now called classic culture. During the medieval period this force was gradually drawing the barbaric German invaders into the current of civilized life, and was furnishing them new ideals of beauty and organization which they were eventually to use in building anew upon their own ideals and institutions.

Moreover, Christianity had become well established at the 5. Chrisopening of this period, and was slowly at work wearing away*'*'"*^ the severities of paganism and substituting for its gloomy and mystical future reward the promise of love and hope. It held before the ignorant and superstitious barbarian two pictures: on the left, an abode of darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth to all eternity; on the right, a heaven free from all care, all sorrow and labor, supremely beautiful, and overflowing with everlasting happiness.

The third factor at work during the Middle Ages was the 6. The Teutonic race. Ignorant, superstitious, and destructive, the!^°™°^ Teuton was yet plastic, energetic, and virile. Inferior in past accomplishment, he was strong in possibilities. Having created little, he was nevertheless capable of creating much; for his mind sees no limitations, except to recognize their recession in proportion to his progress. It was the task of the Middle Ages to put him in possession of so much of classic and of Christian culture as would enable him to take hold where the Ancients left off, and carry a long way forward the material, intellectual, and spiritual standards of mankind.

THE MIDDLE AGES

It required a thousand years for these three forces, working?. The man

together, to produce the new man. And in truth, the outlook ^^*^f .

" ^ . . . Middle Ages

was not at all times promising. In the first few centuries of

the medieval period, much of the ancient culture was forgotten, and much of its work destroyed, because the barbarian was incapable of appreciating or even understanding it. Art perished, science was corrupted by base and superstitious practices, the Greek language and Uterature were forgotten, violence wrought the destruction of property and of life, land and other forms of wealth were concentrated in the hands of the few, public improvement ceased, roads and bridges fell into decay, commerce and industry languished, cities declined, intellectual life became stagnant, and enlightenment seemed about to vanish from the earth. The Church had acquired a majestic importance in the eyes of the people ; and both spiritually and intellectually they were its subjects. Society became stratified, education fell exclusively into the hands of the Church, and government was exercised by right of might. The great mass of mankind groped about in ignorance and superstition, accepting as inevitable a life bound in shallows and in chains. George Burton Adams says of the man of the Middle Ages: "He was only a part of a great machine. He acted only through some corporation, the commune, the guild, the order. He had but little self-confidence and very little consciousness of his ability single-handed to do great things or overcome great difficulties. Life was so hard and narrow that he had no sense of the world around him, and, as if this world were not dark enough, the terrors of another world beyond were very near and real. He lived with no sense of the past behind him, and with no conception of the possibilities of the future."

8. Material It will be remembered that when the barbarians invaded the

and social Roj^an Empire, life and property became so insecure that it conditions ' r i j . i .

was a common thing for the small landholder to commit himself and his possessions to the protection of a wealthy landlord or an able military chieftain, retaining the right to occupy the land indefinitely, and claiming from his master security from the lawlessness and violence of the time. In turn, he placed his services at the disposal of his chief, and became his man. This custom, together with perhaps other influences, resulted in the formation of two classes of society — the noble and the serf.

9. The life It will be remembered, also, thtit the baron eventually took of the baron j^jg ^x.d.\\d on some high and inaccessible hilltop, and there

erected his castle after the fashion of a fort; that he spent most

THE MIDDLE AGES 5

of his time in hunting and fighting, while depending upon his serf, both for the cultivation of his lands and for military support against the avaricious and intemperate representative of chivalry whose castle frowned from the neighboring hill; that all this produced a state of continual warfare on the one hand,

A Medieval Castle in France

and on the other erected a social organization based upon wealth and military prowess; that the noble lived in luxury and in ceremony at the expense of men lower than he, and in disregard of their interests; and yet that life was not very comfortable even for him. The constant dread of a hostile army, continuous imprisonment, as it were, in a dark and dungeonlike castle, which even the warmth of summer could scarcely penetrate, and which was not built for comfort or convenience; the necessity of wearing cumbrous armor, or shirt of mail, even within his castle, lest he be struck down by some faithless villein — all these things must have rendered even the life of a noble hard, narrow, and ignoble.

As for the serf, his condition was not expected to be happy, lo. The

His time and his labor belonged to the lord. He must work so ^^® °^ *^®

serf many days in the week and fight so many days in the year for

his master. On occasion, he must make contribution either in

11. The

universal Christian Church money or in kind to the noble's treasury or entertainment. He must not sell his horse or his cow without the lord's permission. He must grind his corn at the lord's mill and bake his bread at the lord's oven. He lived in a hovel of but one room, thatched with straw, or perchance with turf; his floor was dirt, his chimney was a hole in the roof. He ate black bread, cheese, and, at long intervals, meat, without salt, pepper, tea, coffee, or sugar. He drank beer or cider when he could get it. He wore a single garment, and the same one both day and night. Annual baths were regarded as helpful but not necessary; therefore, it is not surprising that plagues swept away multiplied thousands of the population every few years. Life was necessarily regarded lightly, because it was not worth much under such circumstances. The poor peasant might perchance escape from his lord, but at the risk of being captured by some one else equally exacting, and, if caught, of being hung up by his thumbs or his toes, or confined in a foul dungeon. If such were the material conditions of a vast majority of the people, what should be their intellectual and spiritual manner of life?

But another class of medieval society, the clergy, was fai: above the lords in influence and in learning. The Church was the most powerful organization of the Middle Ages, and was the chief security, so far as there was such, against violence and disorder of every kind. Moreover, it controlled whatever political organization there was. William the Conqueror consulted the Pope before his conquest of England; Henry IV stood barefoot in the snow .for three days at Canossa waiting for Pope Gregory VII to withdraw his excommunication; Philip Augustus, at the command of the Church, was forced to retain an uncompanionable wife; and King John surrendered England to the Pope and received it back as a fief from Rome. So complete was the dominion of the Church over the political organization that the state often helped the Church to maintain its doctrine, punishing heresy with as much alacrity as did the Church itself.

Furthermore, the Church was extremely wealthy. It re-

THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE 7

ceived large gifts of land, manors, buildings, etc., from rulers and rich men who hoped in this way to make reparation for their sins, or who sincerely wished to serve God in any acceptable way. Then, too, the Church levied the tithe as a means of support, and received valuable contributions through its various ordinances.

The Church alone was the custodian of learning. Books were kept in the monasteries, and hence only Church officials, as a rule, could read. Literature, philosophy, science, and art consequently assumed a religious character. Those who administered such a powerful organization inevitably became a class. The clergy enjoyed many exclusive privileges and were exempt from burdens which the masses of men must bear. Since the Church was the one agent of salvation, men trusted its teachings and feared its power. It should be said, however, in justice to this religious absolutism, that it met well the needs of the time, and performed for succeeding ages an invaluable service. It not only maintained the Christian faith; it also preserved pagan learning.

THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE

Circumscribed as was his hfe, and hopeless as seemed his 12. Devel-

future, the medieval Teuton was ordained to regenerate so- op™^'^* p* . , 1 . . the medi-

ciety. He it was who held in his hand the destiny of civiliza- eval man

tion. Classic culture and Christianity would gradually raise

this man to the level where he could see and appreciate the

ideals and institutions of Greece and Rome. Through the

processes of amalgamation and absorption he would slowly

but surely prepare to utilize all that the world before him had

created. The art and science and literature and law of the

Greek and Roman world would bring light to his benighted

but teachable mind. The softening influences of Christian love

and life and hope would gradually wear away the rough edges

of pagan superstition and Teutonic barbarism. The plodding

German intellect had begun to feel the effects of a thousand

years of training in the school of the Almighty.

13. The Man at length was beginning to think and was beginning to Renaissance £gg|^ and as he caught glimpses of the ideals and institutions

of Christianity and of classic civilization, he turned his face upward to the light and became restive under the restraint of medieval life. Though still unaware of his own rights and, what was more, of his own powers, he was yet no longer satisfied either with his ; ^ II material or with his

v intellectual and

spiritual environment. He felt that society, the Church, t , i .> 'f F\ r ""* i^illl'llll'™!'"™'" >% ^ , the feudal lord, the

economic and social organizations — something, somewhere, was depriving him of what by right w^as his. Self-confidence began to take the place of cringing

servitude. The

Monk Copying Manuscript , . . , , ,

beauties of the world

were opening unto him. He found new joy in living and looking upon his past; he knew that he was growing. His interest in new problems and his consciousness of his right to deal with them increased from day to day. The individual had begun to come into control of self. Enlightenment was taking the place of ignorance, and freedom the place of bondage. Superstition and custom were being defied, and reason challenged the institutions of society. Men dared to undertake things single-handed in every field of human interest.

14. The Perhaps the change of attitude toward life is first noticeable mei-Iturt ^" language and literature. Latin had been the Uterary language

of the Middle Ages, but in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, vernacular tongues began to take new dignity,

THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE 9

as is seen in the songs of the French troubadours and the German minnesingers. The poets of Spain sang of the Cid; Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales; WyckHflfe translated the Bible into EngUsh; and Dante composed the Divine Comedy in ItaUan, The movement reached its climax in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Shakespeare com-

Printing in the Fifteenth Century

posed his immortal dramas and Milton his sublime Paradise Lost. This building up of new languages and literatures was the result of the desire to express the new thoughts and feelings which were beginning to surge in men's breasts. At the same time they furnished a convenient weapon for use against fossilized authority; new forms of thought must clothe themselves in new forms of expression, and the Latin language was too inflexible to meet the emergency. Indeed, these new languages contributed reflexively to the development and propagation of the impulses and thoughts that had brought them into existence.

Art likewise reveals the presence of the free spirit. Medieval 15. The art had been stiff and imitative, expressing eloquently but ItT^^^ °^ monotonously the characteristic medieval habit of depending lo THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND

upon authority, and the lack of confidence which every man must have felt in his own ability to do original work. Formalism and dogmatism had given direction to the painter's brush and to the sculptor's chisel as well as to the scholar's philosophy and to the monk's religion. In fact, medieval art, no less than medieval science and medieval schools, had existed for the sake of religion, and, therefore, had received its character from that religion. On the other hand, the Renaissance art is overflowing with the spirit of liberty. The artists feel the bracing influence of a consciousness of power and of an appreciation of the beauties and joys of Kfe. Freedom is breathed from the folds of their draperies and beams from the countenances of their Madonnas. We feel its magic influence whether we gaze upon the Holy Family of Del Sarto or upon the Sistine Madonna of Raphael. Everywhere there is evidence of a breach with authority and a return to nature as the source of life and the fountain of inspiration. 16. Reli- In religion, and in education also, the presence of an awakened

^°'^ intelligence is everywhere apparent. As in the cases of literature and art, the movement here began in Italy. The resurgent mind first asserted itself in the desire to find the original sources of the world's stock of knowledge. Men began to feel the insufficiency of authority and the injustice and inconsistency in ecclesiastical organization and doctrine. They turned to the documents of classic and Apostolic .literature both for an explanation of their own institutions and for an understanding of their relation to things eternal. Their admiration for the philosophy of Plato and the polished rhetoric of Cicero developed into a passion, while their eagerness for the spirit of primitive Christianity led them to doubt, in some instances, the infallibility and the spiritual efficacy of the Church. The application of the spirit of free criticism to the abuses of the Church bore its legitimate fruits in the Protestant Revolution, and thus brought about the establishment of new churches and the invitation to men to choose their ecclesiastical relations. In politics the results of this movement were slower in ex-

THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE ii

pressing themselves than in other fields of activity. And yet 17. Gov-

it is no small evidence of a changed attitude in the mind of^'^®^*'

_ " nations;

Europe that nationalities begin to take permanent form in the science latter part of the fifteenth century. England becomes unified under the Tudor monarchs. The feudal lords of France gradually give way in large measure to the Capetian kings, and Spain attains nationality through the expulsion of the Moors and the union of Castile and Aragon in the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Much of the time and energy of medieval science had been consumed in efforts to transmute the baser metals into gold, to discover the philosopher's stone, to find the elixir of life, or to read one's fortune in the stars. Under the impulse of the new intellectual movement, and directly expressive of its nature, Copernicus further revolutionized the thinking of the day by proving that the sun, and not the earth, is the center of our universe. Galileo (i 564-1642) invented the telescope and established the Copernican theory. The scientific spirit, essentially the spirit of freedom, had at last entered upon the conquest of truth.

The crusades had given a strong impetus to trade and com- 18. Commerce. The West became eager for the luxuries of the East;™®*^*^!' trade routes were opened, and trade centers were established as a result. The rich cities of Italy and of the Levant sprang into existence, endowed with remarkable vigor and greatly devoted to liberty. The traders from East and West met and mingled in the markets and on the streets, and gained from one another many helpful ideas. Travel intensified men's interest in the world and developed a broader outlook upon life. Strange civilizations were drawn into the current of human interest, and curiosity about distant peoples and newly found lands began to express itself in a variety of forms. Inevitably there followed the desire to know. Practical inventions were beginning to arouse and to answer the spirit of inquiry. The compass had already come to guide the mariner in his search for new routes to the treasures of the East. Gunpowder came into effective use in the first part of the sixteenth century and powerfully aided in the destruction of feudalism, thus contributing to the idea of equality among men, irrespective of rank. Printing became general just as the revival of classic literature was at its height, and just in time to spread broadcast the results of new activities. Books multiplied many fold, and the number of those who used them much more. Learning could no longer be monopolized. Europe was astir with the breath of progress. The light of reason began to fall upon the time-worn institutions of society and they in turn began to totter. The spirit of criticism was doing its work and mankind was breaking the shackles of medieval bondage. Man awoke from his centuries of slumber, refreshed and strengthened, because in that long interval the assimilative processes had brought to him new elements of light and life. He now pushed out into unknown worlds and returned with fresher knowledge, broader outlook, and brighter hope. Christianity, with its spirit of exact justice demanding equal rights to all and special privilege to none, and classic culture, with its love for beauty and its veneration for law, had become bone and sinew to the old Germanic invaders. They accordingly rose in their strength, seized hold where the Greeks and Romans had left off, and began afresh the conquest of the world and the discovery of truth. It was in the full tide of this movement that the Western World was discovered. The breath of liberty brought America into life, and by it she has been nourished until this good hour.