Makers of our history

Preface

Boys and girls are hero worshipers. They like to read of those who, when young, conquered difficulties and paved the way for the achievements of later life. Their own lives may be shaped by the lives of the heroes of whom they read, for knowledge of how others have overcome great obstacles often gives the reader faith in himself, and acquaintance with exalted characters often helps in the formation of high ideals.

The plea of teachers has been for stories of the lives of great men so told as to make clear how the foundation of future greatness was often laid in boyhood. It is this plea that the author has kept in mind in telling these stories.

"Makers of Our History" sketches briefly the lives'of twenty-eight men, each of whom has had a large part in shaping the course of the American people. Of these twenty-eight great Americans the work of some lay in government, in war, or in industry, while others did their part as naturalists or as poets, or enriched and broadened our life in other fields.

Acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to quote copyrighted material in books published by them which are named at the close of the chapters in which the quotations appear : Henry Holt and Company, New York : " Leading American Inventors," by George lies (chapter on Eli Whitney). George W. Jacobs & Co.^ vi MAKERS OF OUR HISTORY

Philadelphia: "Robert Edward Lee," by Philip Alexander Bruce. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston: "Samuel F. B. Morse, his Letters and Journals," edited by Edward Lind Morse ; " Francis Parkman," by Henry Dwight Sedgwick ; and " The Story of My Boyhood and Youth," by John Muir. Acknowledgment is also made to William Holmes Davis, headmaster of the Danville School for Boys, Danville, Virginia, whose urgent request for such a book first suggested its preparation.

JOHN T. PARIS

Contents

(Names are given in order of birth)

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Benjamin Franklin, the Many-sided .... 3

Chapter I Benjamin Franklin, The Many-sided

(Born in Boston, January i 7, i 706 ; died in Philadelphia, April 1 7, 1 790)

It has been pointed out as a curious fact that the Enghsh ancestors of Frankhn and Washington Hved within a few miles of each other. Frankhn's father's home was in Eaton, sixty miles from London, while Sulgrave Manor, the estate of the Washington family, was close by.

Josiah Franklin came to Boston in 1685, when the city had about five thousand inhabitants. Here Benjamin was born, the thirteenth child in a family of seventeen, and the tenth and youngest son.

At first Mr. Franklin intended to make a minister of his son, and, at the age of eight, sent him to school. When the boy was ten years old his father needed him in the Franklin tallow chandler's shop, and kept him there for two years.

Benjamin was a real boy. He found plenty of opportunities for sport of all kinds. He was at home on or in the water. His first invention was a contrivance which enabled him. to swim faster. Later he tried his first experiment with a kite. By its aid he was drawn along the surface of the

water, sometimes at a rate too rapid for comfort.

After he was twelve years old opportunities for sport were not so plentiful, for he was then apprenticed to his brother James, to learn the printer's trade. For a period of nine years, or until he was twenty-one, he bound himself to serve his master faithfully, to keep his master's secrets, and to do his lawful commands.

Experience in the printing office made the apprentice wish to increase his meager knowledge. There were difficulties in the way, however; time for reading was scarce, and it was not always easy to secure books. So he arranged with his brother that he should be allowed for his board half the

II amount spent on the other apprentices, and he managed to Hve on half of this reduced amount. The small sum saved in this way helped him to pay for books, while the time saved from his meals gave him more leisure for his reading.

AN EARLY VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL

When he was seventeen, a disagreement with his. brother led him to leave the printing office. Unable to secure work at other Boston printing offices because of the tales his brother told about him, he sailed for New York, paying his fare by the sale of some of his books.

Learning that no work could be secured from the one printer in New York, he made up his mind to go to Philadelphia. The first stage of the journey, to Amboy, was made by boat. From there he trudged along the road to Burlington, where he took passage in another boat for his destination.

The picture given in his Autobiography of his arrival in Philadelphia is famous :

I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come by sea. I was covered with dirt ; my pockets were filled with shirts and stockings ; I was unacquainted with a single soul in the place, and knew not where to seek for alodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, and having passed the night without sleep, I was extremely hungry, and all my money consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling's worth of copper, which I gave to the boatman for my passage... . .

I walked towards the top of the street, looking eagerly on both sides, till I came to Market Street, when I met a child with a loaf of bread. Often had I made my dinner on dry bread. I inquired wh^e he had bought it, and went straight to the baker's shop, which he pointed out to me. . . .

I desired him to let me have three penny-worth of bread of some kind or other. He gave me three large rolls. I was surprised at receiving so much. I took them, however, and having no room in my pockets, I walked on with a roll under each arm, eating the third. In this manner I went through Market Street to Fourth Street, and passed the home of Mr. Read, the father of my future wife. She was standing at the door, observed me, and thought with reason, that I made a very singular and grotesque appearance.

Franklin soon found that the two printers in Philadelphia were not good workmen. He worked, however, for one of these until Sir William Keith, governor of the province, became interested in him, and urged him to set up a printing ofifice of his own, promising his patronage. Franklin went to Boston and asked for his father's assistance, but this was refused. Thereupon Mr. Keith offered to advance the money needed, since, as he said, he was resolved to have a good printer in Philadelphia.

Acting on his suggestion, Franklin sailed for London, trusting in the governor's promise that letters of introduction and funds for the voyage and for the purchase of printing material would be sent on board the vessel. Not until he arrived in the English Channel did he learn that Mr. Keith had failed to keep his promise. He landed in London with little money and no friends.

With James Ralph, who had accompanied him, he took the best lodgings he could afford. Then he secured employment from a printer with whom he remained nearly a year, spending most of his savings on Ralph, who did not seem to be able to take care of himself.

His next situation was in a large office where about fifty men were employed. These men looked on him as a curiosity. He told the reason in his Autobiography :

I drank nothing but water. The other workmen were great drinkers of beer. I carried occasionally a large form of letters in each hand, up and down stairs, while the rest employed both hands to carry one. They were surprised to see, by this and many other examples, that the American Aquatic, as they used to call me, was stronger than those who drank porter. . . . My fellow pressman drank every day a pint of beer before breakfast, a pint with bread and cheese for breakfast, one between breakfast and dinner, one again about six o'clock in the afternoon, and another after he had finished his day's work. The custom appeared to me abominable, but he had need, he said, of all this beer, in order to acquire strength to work.

Franklin failed to convince the man that there was more nourishment in a penny loaf of bread than in a quart of beer. But he made no change in his own habits, and in turn he persuaded some of his companions to adopt his diet.

After eighteen months in London he returned to America with a merchant who asked him to be his assistant, and he remained with the merchant until the latter died, the following year.

During a season of employment with his old master in the printing business he made type and ink, learned to be an engraver, and built the first copperplate press made in America. On this press he helped engrave a quantity of paper money for the Province of New Jersey.

In the intervals of work he made many friends among the young men of Philadelphia. Instead, however, of leading them into amusements that would not help them, he persuaded them to organize a debating society which he called the Junto. Out of this club grew the American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

In partnership with one of his friends, whom he had helped in time of diflficulty, he opened a printing office of his own. The work he turned out was so good that he did not lack for employment. In this office, in 1729, he began the publication of The Pennsylvania Gazette, which became the leading paper of the colony. In 1732 he issued the first number of his famous Almanac. Almanacs issued by hundreds of other printers were almost worthless, but Franklin's '^Poor Richard's Almanack" became famous because of the quaint sayings and maxims of Poor Richard.

By this time the young printer was looked on in Philadelphia as one of the first citizens, publicspirited and eager to advance the interests of his city. By economy and attention to business, and by the assistance of his careful wife, he had come to a place where he could give the time he longed lO to devote to those about him. The founding of the first pubHc Hbrary in America was but the beginning of his general activities. He was responsible for the substitution of paid constables for the inefficient " town watch " ; he led in establishing the first volunteer fire company in the city ; he aroused

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the people of Philadelphia to the necessity of forming a volunteer company for defense against possible enemies; he persisted in talking of the need for schools until, in 1749, the Philadelphia Academy, which became the University of Pennsylvania, was organized ; he urged the founding of a hospital, and in 1755 succeeded in laying the corner stone of the

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Pennsylvania Hospital ; and he led the way in the paving of the city streets with stone.

In the midst of these public activities he found time for making experiments in electricity, and for continuing his reading and other studies. In his Autobiography he told of one way he compelled himself to improve his mind :

I had begun in 1733 to study languages ; I soon made myself as much a master of the French as to be able to read the books with ease.

I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance who was also learning it, used often to tempt me to play

chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length refused to play any more, unless on the condition that the victor in every game should have a right to enforce a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translation, et cetera.

FRANKLIN'S ELECTRICAL MACHINE

Now in possession of the Library Company of Philadelphia which tasks the vanquished was to perform upon honor, before our next meeting. As we played equally, we thus beat one another into that language.

His habits of study and investigation led to the invention of the Franklin stove. When the governor of the province offered him a patent, he refused it, giving as his reason " that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours."

His interest in electricity, which had led him to make a number of minor experiments, was increased by a glass tube for the generation of electricity by rubbing which was brought from London to the library he had founded. He had similar tubes made for many of his friends. Finally he succeeded in making the first electrical battery. This he improved later by the use of the Leyden jar. •

His first great discovery was that electricity is not created by friction, but that it is " really an element diffused among, and attracted by, other matter, particularly by water and metals." This discovery opened the way for the serious development of electrical knowledge. His suggestion that electricity and lightning are the same caused a sensation, but he proved his point by drawing electricity from the clouds by means of his famous kite. The invention of the lightning rod was one result ; another result was his election as a member of famous societies of scientists in Europe.

In 1753 Franklin was made Postmaster-General for the colonies, and he succeeded in making great improvements in the method of transporting mails. During his term of office he went to western Pennsylvania to advise with General Braddock, who was conducting his campaign against the French and Indians. There he first met George Washington.

More than twenty years before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he saw signs of the comingbreak with England. In 1756 he was sent to England on a mission for the colony of Pennsylvania, and managed to secure the correction of certain just grievances. Later he was instrumental in forcing the repeal of the Stamp Act.

Sometimes his activities were misunderstood by the colonists, who felt that he was too friendly with England. But he went on with his work, undisturbed, and in time it was evident to all that he was a thorough patriot.

On his return from England, in 1775, he was received with eagerness and was made a member of the Continental Congress. He was one of those who drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers of the document.

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His most important and delicate service to the colonies was given while he was diplomatic agent in France, from 1776 to 1785. Just before leaving Philadelphia for Paris he lent Congress about twenty thousand dollars, and during the early years of his long stay abroad, he persuaded first individuals and then the government of France to follow his example in supplying funds toward the expense of the war. His success was a pleasant surprise to the friends of freedom.

Everywhere he went he received a hearty welcome, for, as John Adams said later, " his name was familiar to government and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet-de-chambre, a coachman, a footman, a lady's chambermaid, or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to human kind."

In less than three months after his arrival in Paris he succeeded in overcoming the objection of the government to the making of a secret loan to the United States, and he sent on the first installment of the two million francs promised. Other loans followed until twenty-six million francs had been forwarded.

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In May, 1777, he said good-by to the Marquis de Lafayette, who sailed for America in a vessel fitted out at his own expense. Next Franklin persuaded the government to recognize the independence of the United States and to promise to

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assist in maintaining this independence against the enemies of the country. Other envoys were associated with him in these negotiations, but their presence proved more of a hindrance than a help. Soon afterward a fleet of French war vessels sailed for America. These vessels were followed

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN I 7

by French troops who were of incalculable value in winning independence for the colonies. This timely assistance was due largely to Franklin's personality, tact, and personal charm. He had, moreover, roused an enthusiasm for personal and national liberty that was in some measure responsible not only for the expression of French sympathy but for the French Revolution itself.

From 1 78 1 to 1783 he was one of those who conducted the peace negotiations with Great Britain that led to the treaty of 1783. Two years later, when he left Paris for America, all classes united in honoring him as the most popular foreigner who had ever been the guest of the nation. Thomas Jefferson, who was appointed to follow Franklin, said that he was merely succeeding him. " No one can replace him," he insisted. And the French people agreed.

After Franklin's return to America he was president of the Pennsylvania Supreme Council (governor), serving from 1785 to 1788. Flis final service to the country was as a member of the council which drafted the Constitution.

During the closing days of his life he wrote a portion of his Autobiography, though he was never able to complete this book. In the quiet of his own home, with his children and grandchildren about him, he Hved peacefully and contentedly. To a friend he told of his feelings at this time :

Let us sit ' till the evening of life is spent. The last hours are always the most joyful. When we can stay no longer, it is time enough then to bid each other good-night, separate, and go quietly to bed.

Autobiography.

Dudley, E. Lawrence. Benjamin Franklin. The Macmillan Company, New York.

Fisher, Sydney George. The True Benjamin FrankHn. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.

I believe 1 may with great truth affirm, that no man perhaps since the first institution of armies ever commanded one under more difficult circumstances than I have done.

Chapter II George Washington, '' Father Of His Country "

(Born at Wakefield, Virginia, February 22, 1732; died at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, December 14, 1799)

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A schoolmaster named Hobby once made the claim that he was responsible for the best of George Washington's education. It is true that Hobby kept a little school near Washington's early home, and that Washington was for a time one of his pupils, but it is not likely that the boy learned more than the merest rudiments from this teacher, for Hobby was one of the many men who had been sent from England to America as a penalty for wrongdoing.

When George was eleven years old his father, Augustine Washington, died, and the boy's later education was directed by his mother and by his half brother, Major Lawrence Washington, at whose estate. Mount Vernon, he spent much of his time.

It was ckie to the advice of Lawrence Washington that George, w4ien he was fourteen, decided that he

wished to go to sea as a midshipman. He asked his mother's permission. At first she seemed willing, but later she longed to withdraw her consent.

A letter written by a friend, in September, 1746, said :

She seems to intimate a dislike to George's going to Sea and says several Persons have told her it 's a very bad Scheme. She offers several trifling objections such as a fond and unthinking Mother naturally suggests, and I find that one word against his going has more weight than ten for it.

When Mrs. W^ashington finally decided against the step, she sent her son to a clergyman in

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Fredericksburg, and by him the boy was taught for some time. At the age of sixteen George could write well, he knew enough about arithmetic for practical purposes, and he understood how to survey land, an invaluable accomplishment in those days.

In the Department of State at Washington, there is still preserved a plot made by him of the region about Mount Vernon. When he was sixteen he made a plot of Major Washington's turnip field.

A neighbor. Lord Thomas Fairfax, gave him a commission to assist in making surveys at some distance from home, and soon after his sixteenth birthday he set out to the appointed place, accompanied by

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From the original in the Department of State at Washington several old surveyors. While on this trip he kept a journal. In this may be read an account of a night's entertainment in a settler's cabin :

We got our Suppers and were Lighted into a Room and I not being so good a Woodsman as y^ rest of my Company striped myself very early and went to y^ Bed as they called it when to my surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw — matted together without Sheets or any thing else but only one thread-Bear blanket with double its weight of Vermin. ... I was glad to get up (as soon as y^ Light was carried from us). I put on my Cloths and Layd as my Companions. ... I made a promise not to sleep so from that time forward Chusing rather to sleep in y^ open Air before a fire.

George was better as a surveyor than he was as a speller.

Soon, after his return from this trip, when he was seventeen, he was asked to act as surveyor for the College of William and Mary. He had found what he thought was to be the occupation by which he was to make his living and care for his mother and his younger brothers and sisters.

Three busy years he spent as a surveyor. He did his work well ; it has been said that no one has ever found an error in it. Many land records in Virginia make mention of his surveys.

During these early days he laid the foundation for his future wealth, for as he traveled he made note of lands he thought it would be worth while to own. As he was able to do so, he bought some of these.

Before he was twenty-one, however, another plan for his future was made by Major Washington. He was interested in the Ohio Company, which had been organized to colonize the western portion of Virginia and to secure the trade of the West. It was feared that the French would lay claim to the lands in which the Company wished to operate. Major Washington resigned from the Colonial Army that he might devote himself to the project. Eager for the help of his brother, Major Washington secured for him an appointment with the Company.

The serious illness of the major interfered wath these plans. He went to Bermuda for his health, and his brother went with him. While in Bermuda the younger brother was attacked by smallpox.

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WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR

Not long after his return home Major Washington died, and George Washington was made the owner of Mount Vernon and the guardian of his niece. W^hen he added to his burdens the care of his mother's estate, his responsibihties were large.

This peaceful employment was interrupted when Governor Dinwiddie asked him to go on a dangerous errand. It had been learned that the French were building a fort somewhere in the region in which the Ohio Company was interested. Captain Trent had been sent to learn the location of this fort, but he had returned in fright because, long before reaching the vicinity of the fort, he had been told of the dreadful things the French proposed to do to any Englishman found in that section. The governor had had such good reports of Washington that he felt safe in asking him to do what the older and more experienced man had been afraid to do.

Carrying a message to the French commander on the Ohio, the young leader set out in the early winter of 1753. For a week he and his party pushed through the wilderness before they reached the Ohio, and many weeks more were required to complete the journey to the French fort. The fort was reached safely because of Washington's tactful dealings with the Indians, who promised him that they would help the English instead of the French.

Finally the letter was given to the French commander. It told him that he and his men would be treated as trespassers, that their fort would be taken, and that they would be driven from the country.

Only a brave man could have delivered such a message, and only a brave man could have endured the perils of the return journey, in the midst of enemies, in the depth of winter, over roads that were all but impassable. Some ten weeks after setting out from home, Washington handed to the governor the French commander's defiance.

Three months later, at the age of twenty-two, Washington was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, as a recognition of a task well done.

Soon he was again on the way to the Ohio country, this time in charge of one hundred and fifty men enlisted to go to the relief of Captain Trent, who had been commissioned to build a fort on the Ohio. In his first brush with the French, he was successful, but he was later forced to surrender the hastily erected Fort Necessity, in which he tried to oppose the enemy when they confronted him in far superior numbers.

But he was to have another opportunity. When General Braddock was sent out from England to drive the French from the Ohio, Washington was asked to serve as aid-de-camp with the rank of colonel. Soon the colonial adviser saw that the English officer was making serious mistakes in his advance, but pleas and protests were in vain. Braddock insisted that English regulars could

march through any country and could withstand any enemy ; but when his fifteen hundred men were surprised at the Monongahela by half as many French and Indians, and badly defeated, it was evident that Washington's advice was good. Yet Braddock could not profit by the lesson; he did not survive the destruction of his troops.

Although the campaign was a failure, Washington was given high praise for his part in it. The Reverend Samuel Davies soon after spoke of him in a sermon which he preached to a regiment of Virginia soldiers :

THE OCTAGON BARN AT MT. VERNON Designed by Washington

I may point out to the public that heroic" youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so singular a manner for some important service to his country.

In response to urgent pleas that he do what he could to atone for the failure of Braddock, Washington declared that he was always ready and willing to render his country any service of which he was capable.

To his mother, who told him she wished he would remain at home, he wrote :

If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio again, I shall ; but if the command is pressed upon me, by the general voice of the country, and offered upon such terms as cannot be objected against, it would reflect dishonor upon me to refuse ; and that, I am sure, must or ought to give you greater uneasiness than my going on an honorable command, for upon no other terms will I accept it.

The honorable command was offered to him on August 14, 1755, when he was made commander in chief of the Virginia forces. The campaign on which he entered soon after lasted four years. During this time he saw hard service, he learned to keep himself under good control when less efficient British officers insisted that they were his superiors, and he did what he could to make their blunders harmless. Finally, on

November 25, 1758, he was at the head of the troops which were in the lead when Fort Duquesne, on the site of what is now Pittsburgh, was taken from the French.

Some months later an address of thanks was made to him by the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was so overcome that he was unable to reply. The speaker, noting his confusion, said to him, warmly: '* Sit down, Mr. Washington. Your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language I possess."