America, the land we love : a narrative record of the achievements of the American people, their history--government--wars--inventions--discoveries--great men--famous women--industry--commerce--and the essential elements that have entered into the building of the republic

Front matter

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K ^c^

AMERICA

Contents

INTRODUCTORY

PAGE

America for Humanity — American Flag on Field of White as the Ensign of the World's Liberty and Peace — Emblazoned by Dr. Robert S. Freedman of New York — Originally designed by Mr. Henry Petit of Philadelphia on plan suggested by Dr. William Osborne McDowell of New York . . 3

Part I— History And Government

chapter page

I America and the Americans — A Graphic Description of the United

States and its people as they Exist To-day — Magnitude, Ideals, etc. 43

II Narrative History of the American People — A complete concise survey of the Discovery and Development of the American Continent — covering 400 years including Great American Political Campaigns ss

III Government of the American People — A clear interpretation of the Government of the United States showing the actual operations of its

various departments 141

CONTENTS

Part Ii— Great Events Chapter Page

IV Great American Wars 167

PART III— GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS V Great American Inventions 201

VI American Triumphs of Engineering 243

> PART IV— GREAT INSTITUTIONS

VII Great American Industries 277

VIII Great American Railroads and Commerce 306

IX Great Americatj Mines 329

X Great American Agriculture 347

XI Great American Banks 361

XII Great American Newspapers 368

PART V— GREAT AMERICANS XIII Great American Statesmen 383

XIV Great American Soldiers 393

XV Great American Jurists 401

XVI Great American Financiers . 410

XVII Great American Authors 421

XVIII Great American Artists 436

XIX Great American Composers 448

XX Great American Educators 460

XXI Great American Women 468

PART VI— HISTORIC AMERICAN SHRINES XXII Grandeur of American Scenery 480

XXIII Beautiful American Parks 493

XXIV Great American Architecture 497

XXV Great American Museums 504

(Contents continued on page 14)

COLLECTIONS OF HISTORIC PAINTINGS-ENGRAVINGS-PHOTOGRAPHS

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES—

Twenty-seven etchings by Audibert — Reproduced by courtesy of Mr. Irving E. Rines and permission of the American Educational Alliance.

George Washington John Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison Masterpieces from the

John Tyler James K. Polk Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant

OF

Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft Woodrow Wilson Art — Reproductions by

Metropolitan Museum special permission from: Morgan Collection Altman Collection

Vanderbilt Collection Marquand Collection

Huntington Collection Hearn Collection

Coles Collection Van Horn Collection

Dun Collection Smith Collection

EXHIBITS FROM THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Reproductions by Special Permission PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEYS THROUGH THE FORTY-EIGHT

STATES Complete Collection of Reproductions of State Capitols Alabama Illinois Minnesota North Carolina Tennessee

Arizona Indiana Mississippi North Dakota Texas

Arkansas Iowa Missouri Ohio Utah

California Kansas Montana Oklahoma Vermont

Colorado Kentucky Nebraska Oregon ^ Virginia

Connecticut Louisiana Nevada Pennsylvania Washington ^

Delaware Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island West Virginia

Florida Maryland New Jersey South Carolina Wisconsin

Georgia Massachusetts New Mexico South Dakota Wyoming

Idaho Michigan New York

PORTO RICO— HAWAII— ALASKA— PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

RARE ENGRAVINGS OF GREAT EVENTS AND WARS

From Collection in the The Search-Light Library

PHOTOGRAPHIC TOURS THROUGH AMERICA

Collection of Photographic Prints Showing the Mountains, Rivers, Agricultural and

Mineral Wealth, and Scenic Grandeur of America Hudson River Colorado Canyon Panama Canal

Niagara Falls Yellowstone Park Great Lakes

White Mountains Yosemite Valley Mississippi River ^

Natural Bridge Garden of the Gods Pacific and Atlantic States

Together with other photographs, covering the various phases of American Life, making a collection of about 300 historic illustrations.

u eie tne ^^^P'^'^'at^ from the world s great powers meet the President on State occasions— i>iomentous problems are discussed in this room.

in Washing-

WTIOWI <'\l'ir(M \'l- \V\SI11NCT(..N This niamuli.M.iil stnnlmv is a monument to deinocracy—It. covers an -^-^'"*-^^'' •^''""- -^ ' wA.iii. , ^^^_^ uiiyiual building was laid by Washington m l(9^>.

ftrca of 153,112 square feet— The corner-stone of th

EAT Ol I 111: A. \li:i;i( AX GOVERNMENT— It is here that the American people are molding the destiny of the republic— ibis is where the Congress of the United States and the Supreme Court convenes.

^\ASIII^GTON AT TltLM'ON — This engruviug by iaed portrays the Commander-in-Chief of the Amenean Revolution at tlie moment of Victory — Washington was unanimously elected hy Congress to lead the American forces in the War for American Independence on June 15, 1775 — He led them to triumph, after seven years of heroic struggle — Bidding farewell to his army, he resigned his commission and retired to his home at Mt. Vernon on December 23, 1783.

i

My Country, 'Tis of Thee

Samuel FRANcrs Smith.

KOOCDkTO

UNKNOWN.

AIR. "600 SAVE THE K1N8.'

My My Let Our coun na • mu fa -

• try,

tiv€

sic

thers*

'tis coua swell God, of try, the to thee, Sweet thee— Land breeze. And Thee, Au • land

of ring

thor of

the

from

of lib no all lib er . ty, ble free—

the trees

er - ty,

Of thee 1 sing;

Thy name I love;

S weet free - dom's song ;

To Thee we sing ;

Land where my

I love thy

Let mor • tal

Long may our fa • thers died, Land of the

rocks and rills, Thy woods and tongues a - wake ; Let all that

land be bright With free - dom's

Pil - grim's pride ; tern • pled bills; breathe par -take; ho - ly light;

From My Let

Pro ■ ev •

'ry moun heart with rap rocks their si .

tect us by tain side, Let free - dom ring.

ture thrills. Like that a - bove. lence break — The sound pro • long.

Thy might. Great God, our King.

A New National Anthem By

FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER and HENRY TAYLOR BLAKE

(To be sung to the tune "My Country 'tis of Thee" — See Music on Page 19)

All hail ! Beloved Land !

Our own Columbia grand

Whose flag unfurled In majesty and might Calls with its starry light To all who love the Right

Throughout the world!

II

Hark! From Atlantic shores, To where Pacific roars

In ceaseless boom; From never-melting snows, To where the orange grows.

And lilies and the rose,

Forever bloom.

Ill

Hear ye the trampling hum Of thronging peoples, come

To bide with thee!

Thy boundless plains to till, Draw wealth from every hill, And myriad cities fill

With industry!

IV

All! All, thy children true; Whatever climes we knew

For Fatherlands, To thee, our Mother now.

In loyal love we bow, And pledge with joyous vow

Our hearts and hands!

Thus Nature moves apace Building a mighty race American I

To form her latest born The varied brains and brawn From all the nations drawn She blends in one!

All hail the Age of Gold When in that perfect mould

Peace reigns above !

Valor and Truth, with awe For Justice throned on law Shall rule America

The Land we Love !

IX And in those glorious hours

When from their thrones all powers

Of Wrong are hurled !

Columbia! Still on Uplift thy stars to sky !

Goddess of Liberty

Lighting the World/ high

AMERICA

HISTORIAN'S FOREWORD

AMERICA: The Land We Love"-There is no grander epic than that of a Hundred Million People gathered into one loyal nation pledged to the support of the principles of intellerK . /T'"™''>' ^"f "'"^'ng conscientiously with their hands and wnes V L^ ''7"^-d souls, to build a nation upon the foundation stones . Uberty, Justice, Equality. It is the "Odyssey" of a strong virile people that has entered the world's arena not as a conqueror but alth

cemurle? ' "" "' '"""' "''* '""^""^ ^^= ''-" ^'™gg'-g f" -venty The record of such deeds and ideals is well worthy of a Josephus or a Herodotus It ca Is for a Thueydides to narrate the heroic st uggles of such a nation, a Plutarch to relate the stories of its great men, allvy o Sallust or Tacitus to proclaim its grandeur. Here on the Western Hem" sphere .here has arisen a modern phcenix based on the noblest principles of

and ArLt'lI Ttfr"- ''^ f'"' f ^"^^ '' *^ ^'^'^'^^ ''^-'i- °'p^^ Justinian H I J t' "="'""'"" °^ *^ '^g'^'^«°" °f Solon and earth gathered o create a new nation dedicated to the service of humanity.

most portentous period thus far in the world's history-are witness'^ Ae gi^atest social, economic, and political revolution in the annals o^mankmd Civilization IS passing through the crucible; society is undergoing

underlying the^ revolutions-or more properly .t,«&//<,„._agree Aat Aese crises, rather than being a reversion to medievalism or the overthw of organized government, are in fact the birth-throes of a new period i^ the history of mankind-the birth of higher ideals, more perfL sy tems c oser brotherhood among the peoples of the eard.-a step toward a h X; state of civilization, which, like the human race, is bom in blood. ^ It IS well, therefore, that we as Americans linger over these nages for

s fpe^rr "• f "^"'"^ "' "'' ""''"^^ ''''' - tett Tur'^lmt structure i; ^ T '^^- ""^ r"""'"''' '° ^^vey our country, and inspect the structure of civilization that we have built. This book is an evaluation of their achievements — an exposition of the products of their creation. The conventional treatment and technique of the historian have been set aside in the preparation of this book, and a more democratic treatment is used to enlarge its service and more completely meet the needs of a broad democracy.

The whole story of American civilization is unfolded in graphic narrative which will give the reader a comprehensive understanding at a glance. The Editorial Board has considered it advisable to organize this work into Farts.

It has been deemed fitting to open this memorial volume with three messages to the A?nerican Feople by the three most Eminent Americans — President Wilson, and former Presidents Taft and Roosevelt. These expressions of staunch Americanism are taken from their public addresses and form appropriate introductories to this book.

The literary pages of this book (Part I) begin with a graphic description of the United States — "America and the Atnerican People'' — as they exist to-day; their magnitude and ideals, — their fiber and character. The reader then surveys in concise, visualizing style, the whole "Story of the American Feople" from the discovery of the Western Continent, the founding and development of the American Nation, and the wonderful growth of the American race — ^oo years of human activity. This includes a summary of "Great American Political Campaigns,^ tracing the rise and fall of the various schools of economic thought as expressed through our political parties. From this follows a clear interpretation of the "Government of the United States^' showing the actual operations of its various departments.

This, in itself, might be considered a very good service to the American people, but we have desired to make this book more than a history; we have undertaken to make it a vital human record. It was Dionysius of Halicarnassus who said: "History is Philosophy teaching by experience." But Carlyle added the vital touch when he said : "History, as it lies at the root of all science, is also the first distinct product of man's spiritual nature," remarking that "histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul." So it is in this volume that we have undertaken to give it an "eye and a soul." We have taken the record of man's life in America and endeavored to present the sum of his achievements, with here and there an interpretation of its economic and sociological import.

Great Events are presented in Part II of the volume. It begins with the story of the "Great American Wars'" — their causes and results — with a broad sketch of the battles and dramatic incidents.

HISTORIAN'S FOREWORD

The American people do not depend alone upon their prowess in war or their sagacity in politics as the chief reason of their existence. They are a people with far nobler claims to a physical and spiritual existence. Thus, in Part III of this volume we survey our Great Achievements, with a passing consideration of the Great American Discoveries and their contributions to Human Progress through the "Great American Inventions" proving that we are indeed the most ingenious and inventive race in the world's history. This is followed by an inspiring chapter on "American Triumphs in Engineering," the building of the Panama Canal, great bridges, huge dams, tunnels, subways, and similar achievements.

A wise old classicist once complained that "history makes haste to record great deeds, but often neglects good ones." This is indeed a just criticism, but it is quite probable that the good deeds are in fact the greatest. The final test of civilization is in the strength of its three foundations: ''Agriculture — Commerce — Industry.'' These are the basis of all permanent society — the great "trinity" of civilization. Hence, in Part IV we have laid before our readers the static record of their civilization — a rapid glance at the Great American Industries, Mines, Railroads, Agriculture, Manufacturing — and all that represents the inventoried wealth and material interests of a nation, with a brief description of the Banking System, and its mediums for intercommunication and mutual knowledge through the great clearing houses of information and public opinion which we call the "Great American Newspapers.''

Carlyle in his essays remarks that "history is the essence of innumerable biographies." And so in this volume we have introduced in Part V a series of little talks on "Great Americans.'*- In these little fifteen minute conversations we have endeavored to discuss the essential phases of the character and work of the American people — their Great Statesmen, Soldiers, Jurists, Financiers, Scientists, Educators, Authors, Artists, Theologians, Composers, Women — with now and then a glimpse into the psychology of human action. The limitations of space, however, have allowed us only to suggest the possibilities of further study in this field of human equations, using only the foremost figures for the purpose of "teaching by examples."

The esthetic spirit of the American people is given recognition in Part VI. Here we cast a mental vision for the "Scenic Grandeur of America^' and pass through the "Beautiful American Parks." We view the "Famous American Architecture" and visit the Historic American Shrines, with a brief sojourn in the "Great American Museums."

But this is not all — we live in a country so vast that no man can fully comprehend its broad expanse, its imperial greatness, who has not journeyed over its plains and mountains teeming with illimitable wealth; it is a democracy in empire. Alcott in one of his essays truly says that "travel makes all men countrymen, makes people noblemen and kings, every man tasting of liberty and dominion" ; while Fuller gives this good advice: "Know most of the rooms of thy Native Country before thou goest over the threshold thereof." And so we go on a photographic series of ''Little Journeys Through the States'^- — forty-eight journeys through the States of New England, the Eastern States, Southern States, Middle West, Southwest, Great West, and the Pacific States — with four journeys into our Insular Possessions — Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines — and a trip to Alaska. After our return from these literary journeys we may exclaim with Menander, "Hail, dear Country ! I embrace thee, seeing thee after a long time," and with the poet, "O beautiful and grand, my own my Native Land I"

The subject "America — The Land We Love" embraces so magnificent a field of human action that a library of monumental works might readily be erected under this name. Alas, we have but one volume here in which to encompass half a world. It is necessary, therefore, that we keep this volumie as compact as possible — inspiring the reader with its illimitable possibilities.

The material for this volume has been gathered only by exhaustive researches into more than 1,500 sources, including the Congressional Library, the Government Archives, the historical societies throughout the States, and the leading Universities. I am especially indebted to Mr. Egbert Gilliss Handy, founder of the Search-Light Library, for the collection of photographic records; to Mr. W. T. Blaine, as publisher; to Mr. E. D. Appleton, who directed the publication, and to the investigators : Mr. Walter R. Bickford, Mr. Gabriel Schlesinger, Mr. David St. Clair, Mr. Herbert G. Wintersgill, Mr. Andre Tridon.

We trust that the volume may perform its humble service to Our Country by awakening our people individually to the tremendous responsibility which rests upon them and by inspiring them to the essential attributes of a democracy — good, conscientious citizenship and the unselfish, intelligent administration of government. In this epoch of progressive Americanism, we need not pledge ourselves to that historic toast of Admiral Decatur, "Our Country I May she always be in the right, but Our Country right or wrong!" Neither need we adopt that intense patriotism of Daniel Webster: "Let our object be, Our Country, our whole country, and nothing but our country." But rather let us adopt the broader words of President Wilson — the expression of world vision and world justice: "America for Humanity I"

Francis Trevelyan Miller. 24

AMERICA THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

* Message to "New Americans,"

BY WOODROW WILSON

THIS is the only country in the world which experiences constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women. And so by the gift of the free-will of independent people it is constantly being renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world. You have taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have said, "We are going to America," not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where you were born, but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit — to let men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them, knowing that, whatever the speech, there is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice.

And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you — bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin — these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts — but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and

• Historic Address by President Wilson delivered to New Citizens in Philadelphia directly after their naturalization, in which they swore allegiance to the United States, with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

My urgent advice to you is not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which separate and debase.

We came to America, either ourselves or in persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things that united. It was but an historical accident no doubt that this great country was called the "United States," and yet I am very thankful that it has the word "united" in its title; and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest, in the United States is striking at its very heart.

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us; some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose, as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what )^ou found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this, if we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief.

I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely

BIRTHPLACE OF DEOLARATIUN OF INDEPENDENCE— Historic- Independence Hall in

I liiladephia — Here the Continental Congress held its sessions ; Washington was

appointed commander-in-chief of armies — Constitution of United States was framed,

"AMERICA— THE HOPE OF THE WORLD"

to realize the dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are.

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family gets centered on itself if it is not careful and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in its own members. So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a family. Whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind.

The example of America must be a special example. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

So, if you come into this great nation, as you have come, voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, all that we have to give is this: We cannot exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. I sometimes think he is fortunate if he has to work only with his hands and not with his head. It is very easy to do what other people give you to do, but it is very difficult to give other people things to do. We cannot exempt you from work; we cannot exempt you from the strife and the heart-breaking burden of the struggle of the day — that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry; we can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.

I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling that you have so generously given me the sense of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts, of its great ideals which make America the hope of the world.

— ^WooDROw Wilson.

AMERICAN LIBERTY THE STABILITY OF FREEDOM

* Message to the American People

BY WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

President of the United States (1909-1913)

F we would stand on solid and safe ground we must re-examine the fundamental principles of stable popular government. The history ' of the world seems to show that our form of government is more en- ^ during and satisfactory than any other. We began as a small Union ' of thirteen states, strung along the Atlantic Coast, of three millions of people, and under the same Constitution we have enlarged to be a world power of forty-eight sovereign states, bound into one ; of more than ninety millions of people, and with a humane guardianship of ten millions more — nine in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. We have fought, beginning with the Revolution, four foreign wars, and we have survived a civil war of the greatest proportions recorded in history, and have united the battling sections by an indissoluble tie. From our body politic we have excised the cancer of slavery, the only thing protected by the Constitution which was inconsistent with that liberty, the preservation of which was the main purpose of establishing the Union. We have increased our business and productive activities in every direction; we have expanded the development of our natural resources to be continent-wide, and all the time we have maintained sacred those inalienable rights of man, the right of liberty, the right of private property and the right to the pursuit of happiness.

For these reasons we believe in popular government. Government is a human instrumentality to secure the greatest good to the greatest number and the greatest happiness to the individual. Experience, and especially the growth of popular govemment in our own history, has shown that in the long run every class of the people, and by that I mean those similarly situated, are better able to secure attention to their welfare than any other class, however altruistic the latter class may be. Of course this assumes that the members of the class have reasonable intelligence and capacity for knowing their own rights and interest.

Hence it follows that the best government, in the sense of the government most certain to provide for and protect the rights and govem-

* Excerpt from Address delivered by President Taft on the "Judiciary and Progress" at Toledo, OMo.

AJVIERICAN LIBERITY— STABILITY OF FREEDOM

mental needs of every class, is that one in which every class has a voice. In recognition of this, the tendency from earliest times in our history has been the enlargement of the electorate to include in the ultimate source of governmental power as many as possible of those governed. But even to-day the electorate is not more in number than one-fourth of the total number of those who are citizens of the nation and are the people for whom the government is maintained and whose rights and happiness the government is intended to secure. More than this, government by unanimous vote of the electorate is impossible, and therefore the majority of the electorate must rule.

We find, therefore, that government by the people is, under our present system, government by a majority of one-fourth of those whose rights and happiness are to be affected by the course and conduct of the government. This is the nearest to a government by the whole people we have ever had. Woman's suffrage will change this, and it is doubtless coming as soon as the electorate can be certain that most women desire it and will assume its burden and responsibility. But even then the electorate will only be part of the whole people. In other words, the electorate is a representative governing body for the whole people for which the government was established, and the controlling majority of the electorate is a body still less numerous.

It is thus apparent that ours is a government of all the people by a representative part of the people. The object of government is not only to secure the greatest good to the greatest number, but also to do this as near as may be by securing the rights of each individual in his liberty, property and pursuit of happiness.