Our patriots

Preface

This is one of a group of books designed to teach American ideals and American patriotism. The author has no intention of narrating historical events or of presenting biographical details. His leading purpose is rather to make definite and clear the meaning of patriotism and to give a true conception of our country as a land of freedom and opportunity, where the government is of the people, for the people, and by the people. To this end he has made a careful selection of the men and women whose lives give expression to these ideas, and has tried to set forth clearly their patriotic aims and the ideals which animated and inspired their words and deeds.

Two large groups of readers have been kept in mind. The first includes all those children who are certain to leave school as soon as the law for compulsory attendance will permit. Of these one-half leave school before reaching the vi PREFACE

end of the sixth year and more than a third before they have finished the fifth year. Ten milhon out of twenty milHon children will never have the advantage of much more than five years in school. The other group, and it is very large, consists of foreign-born adults. Of these there were in 1910 in this country two million five hundred thousand who were unable to speak or write English.

Both these groups should be made ready to meet the responsibilities of intelligent citizenship in a democracy like ours. They should be taught the fundamental elements of our institutions, the basal facts in our national history, and the moral idealism which has guided and controlled the lives of our leaders and heroes. Thus will our children be socialized, the foreign-born adults Americanized, and the standard of citizenship elevated throughout our land.

In carrying on this work of education and training, it is hoped "Our Patriots" may be made to play a useful part. The author has tried to present the facts in such simple language as to make the book easy to read either by young children or by adults who have not

PREFACE vii

advanced far in their ability to read English. The typographical arrangement and the suggestions to be found in "Some Things to Think About" will, it is hoped, assist in bringing vividly before the mind of the reader the events and ideals presented in the text.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my deep obligation to Miss Elizabeth P. Peck, of the Hartford Public High School, who has read the manuscript and has made many valued criticisms and suggestions, and also to my wife, whose helpful sympathy and able assistance have done much to give the book whatever merit it may possess.

Wilbur F. Gordy.

Hartford, Conn., July 1, 1918.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. What It Means to Be a Patriot . . 1

II. The Pilgrims 6

Chapter I What It Means To Be A Patriot

These are wonderful days in which you are Hving. No other children, since the world began, have grown up amid such stirring events. It is a time of great and swift change. The world of a few years hence will be very different from the world of to-day.

The thought of the awful war raging across the sea is constantly before our minds.

We are told that a fair region has been laid waste, its crops ruined, its trees cut down, and its soil torn by shells and gashed with trenches.

We see pictures of heaps of ashes and broken stones, where once stood beautiful churches, or comfortable hom-^s in which little children lived and played.

We learn that those who lived in this region have been driven forth, the little children often separated from their mothers, and all suffering as you cannot imagine.

We read that over these lands far and wide rolls the thunder of great guns; while from the battle-front streams a long line of wounded or weary soldiers, and toward it advances a great company of others who are to take their places in the trenches that face No Man's Land.

We see young men — perhaps our own fathers or brothers among them — go away to be trained for service.

We see soldiers and sailors, clad in khaki or blue, marching in our streets with the flag carried high before them. We hear the crowds cheer as they pass.

We know that the soldier boys are soon to go far away from home and country, to cross the sea with its hidden perils, and to brave the dangers and hardships of the trenches, in order that they may join in the fierce fighting of the great world war.

We see that those left at home, while they may be sad or lonely at times, are proud and glad that the one who has gone is doing his part. We see the service-flag with its star hung in the window of the soldier's home. We see churches and shops and business oflSces all

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A PATRIOT 3

proudly displaying the banner upon which the stars show how many of those who have been with them have gone "into the service."

We listen to stories of heroic and sacrificing deeds, and our hearts beat faster. We are thrilled as never before.

We ask: "What does it all mean? Why do men leave their peaceful homes and go to places of such awful suffering.'*"

The answer comes: "These young men are going to fight for that which is most dear to them, their freedom and the freedom of mankind. For that right their forefathers fought and died, and the young men of to-day are but defending their birthright. It was at their country's call that they dropped their daily tasks to give themselves in the cause of freedom and, by their loyal service, they are proving their patriotism."

PATRIOTISM AND OUR BIRTHRIGHT OF FREEDOM

And what is patriotism ? It is love for one's country — a strong desire to serve her, to protect her, and to make and keep her strong, and true, and honored among nations.

By some this service is shown in one way, by others, in another. Some are gallantly facing the guns. Some are making guns. Some are building ships or airplanes. Some are producing food. Some are making cloth for the soldiers and sailors. Some are nursing the wounded. Some are making bandages. But all, if truly patriotic, are loyally putting their country's good ahead of selfish interests.

You see, then, that patriotism is something fine and strong, calling out the Lest in human nature, and that for us Americans it means not only love of country but love of freedom.

Freedom is the very breath of our life. Our nation was born free, and upon ideas of freedom it has been nourished and has grown strong. It is our free life which has brought so many millions of people from other lands to America.

We must not, therefore, think lightly of our precious birthright of freedom. We cannot prize it too highly, for it was won for us by the sacrifice and unselfish devotion of the founders of our nation, and has been cherished and handed down by a long line of patriots.

If we read or study about the past days

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A PATRIOT 5

of our country and the wonderful growth of our nation, we see that there are some men and women who stand out as leaders in different periods. They had high hopes for this country and unselfishly worked to make those hopes real. Without their service, America would not be the fair land that it is.

These were all true patriots, each serving his country in his own way, according to the service needed, just as our patriotic men and women of to-day are doing their service in the present time of need.

By learning about the patriotic men and women of earlier days, we may see how strong and noble was their love for their country, and perhaps catch something of their spirit of service so that we too can become patriots.

1. What is a service-flag, and why should every American

boy and girl be proud to have one hung in the window of their home ?

2. What is patriotism? By what kinds of service are people

showing their patriotism to-day?

3. What has brought so many millions of people from other

lands to America? Why?

4. In what way can we learn how to become patriots?

Chapter II The Pilgrims

If we close our eyes and think far back to a long time before our great-grandfathers lived — a time about three hundred years ago — we may see, or imagine we see, a little ship tossing at anchor in a wintry harbor on our New England coast,, not far from where the city of Boston now stands.

The little sailing-vessel cannot come close to the shore, but stanch and sturdy men are carrying the women and children across the shoals to the land. There are about one hundred people in all.

The ship is the Mayflower. It has just ended a stormy voyage of sixty-four days across the Atlantic. The passengers are the Pilgrims, of whom we have heard so often.

At great sacrifice these brave people have left their comfortable homes in the Old World, and have come to an unsettled country to build up a state far away from the land whose laws

THE PILGRIMS 7

they found so hard. They have sought a place where they could worship God in their own way, and bring up their children to be God-fearing, liberty-loving men and women.

Here they are bent on beginning a New World, where they shall be free men in a free land. The people of this new world are to rule themselves. They are full of faith and courage for the future.

The Pilgrims call the place where they land Plymouth, after the town from which they sailed in England.

Let us watch them at their first task of making a settlement; and we shall see with what courage and loyalty they meet the difficulties of starting a home in a new, strange land, and how they work out their ideas of freedom and justice.

As soon as they land (December 21, 1620), all set to work. Some of the men and boys are chopping down trees, others are sawing the trunks into logs of proper length, and still others are dragging the logs to the places where they are to be used.

All the work has to be done by hand, for we must remember that the Pilgrims have brought no horses or oxen, and in fact no animals at all, except a dog or two. How cheerfully the blows of the axes and the voices of the men ring out in the wintry air !

While the men and boys are doing their part in chopping and sawing and in building huts, the women and girls are quite as busy kindling fires, washing clothes, cooking food, and doing the many other things that are needful for the family comfort. You see how loyally they work together. All are helpful; all are eager to help.

The cabins they put up are alike in form and size. The logs are laid one upon another to make the walls of the building. The cracks are filled with straw and mud, and the roof covered with reeds.

THE FIRST WINTER AT PLYMOUTH

During that first winter their food is plain, and very often there is little of it. Bread made of wheat, rye, or barley is about all they have. Only once in a while, when a hunter kills a deer or a wild fowl, can they have meat, for we must

THE PILGRIMS 9

remember that they have not even a chicken. Cold water is their only drink. There are no cows to give milk even for the children.

No doubt the thoughts of the Pilgrim boys and girls often go back to the good things they enjoyed eating and drinking in the homes they have left across the Atlantic. But they are too brave to speak about it.

Besides having little good food, the Pilgrims suffer much from cold, for they are without warm houses to live in. Until their dwellings are finished, they must go aboard the Mayflower each night to sleep.

The lack of good food and of warm clothing and shelter causes much illness. At one time only their minister, Elder Brewster, and their military leader. Captain Standish, and five others are well enough to care for the sick. Captain Standish, although a fierce warrior in time of battle, is a gentle and kind nurse in sickness. He cheerfully helps out in cooking, washing, and other household duties. He is loyal to the struggling little settlement, and gladly gives his time and strength in the service that is most needed.

The life proves too hard for the weaker ones, and at tnnes there is a death every day. At the end of that first terrible winter one-half the settlers have died. Yet, when in the spring the Mayflower sails back to England, how many do you think want to go ? Not one ! So firm are they in their determination to found a free land.

THE PILGRIMS IN THEIR MEETING-HOUSE

When the milder days of spring come, the Pilgrims join in building a meeting-house, where they hold gatherings of all kinds. On Sunday it is a place of sincere and humble worship. On week days it is the meeting-place when they wish to talk over some plan for the public good, such as the building of a road or bridge.

These week-day meetings are like the town meetings held in some places to-day. Let us see how the Pilgrims give each man a voice in the laws. We will attend a week-day meeting.

The Pilgrim men all come, wearing their broad-brimmed hats. They have no votingmachines, no printed ballots, not even a slip of paper to write upon. They use corn and

THE PILGRIMS 11

beans, a kernel of corn meaning yes, and a bean no. Simple as the method is, it makes each man one of the rulers of the little state, for his vote counts in making the laws and in le\^ing the taxes.

Slowly the little Pilgrim community grows. But it does grow and is successful. In the fall, in spite of the suffering and sorrow they have undergone, the colonists proclaim a thanksgiving to God for His goodness to them.

Although weak in numbers and poor in all that money can buy, the Pilgrims are rich in those things which are worth far more — faith in God, the desire and will to do what is right, and the willingness to endure great hardship and suffering for the sake of a great ideal. These priceless qualities of faith and goodness and courage they put into their daily living. They are implanted also in their laws and institutions, and so still live to guide and inspire us.

We can never cease to be thankful for our inheritance from these Pilgrim forefathers. Its value is beyond measure. It goes on increasing with the years.

In this little struggling community are the beginnings of our American republic, the first to proclaim liberty to the world. The Pilgrims' gift of freedom and justice is not only to this country but to all nations.

1. Why did the Pilgrims come to the New World?

2. Imagine yourself at Plymouth with them during their first

winter in New England, and tell about their sufferings.

3. What kind of man was Captain Standish, and how did he

help out m the dark days of trial ?

4. What do you admire about the Pilgrims? Why should

we be thankful to them for what they did ?

Chapter III John Winthrop

From time to time news of the free life of the Pilgrims reached a group of people in England who were suffering under the same kind of tyranny as that from which the Pilgrims had fled.

They were called Puritans, because they wished to make more simple, or pure, the forms of worship of the Church of England, of which they were members.

finally they too resolved to leave their comfortable homes in the Old World, where Kings and bishops were so powerful, and sail away across the sea to take up their fortunes in a land of freedom.

These were not simple folk like the Pilgrims. Many were rich, some belonged to families of high rank, and some had great learning.

But they were like the Pilgrims in their firm resolve to go to a place where they could live under laws of their own making and worship God as their own hearts bade them.

A small company came over in 1628 and settled at Salem. But not until 1630 — ten years after the Pilgrims reached Plymouth — did the great body of Puritans begin to come over in throngs. Nine hundred of them, led by John Winthrop, a rich lawyer and country gentleman, settled first at Charlestown, and then spread out to Boston and other towns near by.

The first part of this company arrived in eleven vessels, bringing horses, cattle, and many other things useful in settling a new country. The voyage had taken nearly nine weeks; so, although they had left England in early spring, it was about the middle of June when they reached the Massachusetts coast.

A TIME OF TRIAL AND SUFFERING

Their plans had been carefully made and a small company sent ahead to build houses and do the spring planting.

But in spite of their foresight, all did not go as they had planned. Cold weather came

An Indian welcome on Charles River

Nine hundred Puritans . . . settled first at Charlestown, and then spread out to Boston and other towns

JOHN WINTHROP 15

before they were ready for it. The crops were disappointing. For food, they had to depend on the fish, clams, and mussels that they could pick up on the wind-swept shore, the acorns and ground-nuts they could dig from under the snow, and the small amount of corn they could get from the Indians. "Bread was so very scarce," wrote one of the Puritan settlers^ "that I thought the very crusts from my father's table would have been sweet to me."

Moreover, to provide shelter for this large number was no small task. At first the poorer settlers lived in tents or booths hastily put up on the hillsides. These frail structures of course would afford little protection against storms or cold, and would have to be replaced by cabins.

Dismayed by the cheerless outlook and fearing death by famine or freezing, about one hundred sailed back to England before the winter set in.

But John Winthrop was not of the kind that turns back. Cheerfully making the best of things and sharing his goods with the less fortunate, he set to work with a will.

Shelter was the most pressing need; so.

shirking no humble task, he joined in felhng trees and building log huts. Soon rows of little cabins with stone chimneys and windows made of oiled paper showed the result of their labor.

But in spite of their brave endeavors, the severe trials of that winter — the scant, coarse food which did not agree with them, the bad drinking-water (for they had not discovered that they were in a land rich in pure springs), the poor shelter, and the hard labor to which they were not used — proved burdens too heavy for the weaker ones to bear.

Before December two hundred had died. "It may be said," wrote one of the Puritan leaders, "that there is not a house where there is not one dead."

Yet amid all this suffering and sorrow they held to their faith in God. Hope and courage did not desert them, and in the darkest hour John Winthrop wrote to his wife, who had not yet joined him: "I thank God I like so well to be here, as I do not repent my coming."

JOHN WINTHROP 17

THE BRAVE AND FEARLESS JOHN WINTHROP

It was this man of strong and beautiful character who held the colony together. His brave spirit and unselfish devotion during that distressing winter cheered and heartened the others. Brave and fearless, he had no thought of giving up. Forgetting his own trials and sufferings, he set his mind and heart on the great task of building up a community in which he and his fellow Puritans could carry out their own ideas of religion and government.

Founded upon such courage and faith, the colony prospered and grew, spreading out into the surrounding country.

In the early days, when the colony was small, all the freemen met with the governor and other high officials and helped to make the laws. But as the towns increased and the freemen became so many, it was not easy for all to gather in one place. So the voters in each town then began to elect men to represent them in a lawmaking body called the General Court. This was the beginning of representative government in New England.

John Winthrop lived to see the colony, whose charter he had brought over, grow to include many towns, and Boston, which he had founded, become a prosperous capital. During twelve years he was governor.

Little as he gave thought to his own place in the colony, he played a large part in its successful growth, and to-day we think of him as one of our country's first patriots.

1. Why did the Puritans come to New England?

2. What kind of experience did they have during their first

winter there ?

3. How did John Winthrop show his loyal spirit?

4. What kind of man was he, and what do you admire about

him?

Chapter IV Roger Williajvis

The Puritans had given up their homes in old England and faced the hardships of an unsettled country because they held their religion dearer than anything else in the world. Since freedom to worship in their own way had cost so much, they wished to be sure of not losing it.

So they made very strict laws. In these they said:

"Every one must go to the Puritan Church. No one shall vote or take any part in the government except members of that church."

But some of the Puritans did not like these laws. Among them was Roger Williams, a young minister recently come to the settlement. He was much loved for his gentle and noble qualities, but he alarmed the Boston elders by the freedom of his views. He went, therefore, to Plymouth, where they made him assistant to the pastor, and later he went as pastor to the church in Salem.

It was while he was in Salem that he said openly many things which the Puritans of Boston did not like. Imagine their dismay at hearing one of their own number say to them and to the world: "You do not own the land you live on; it belongs to the Indians." And again: "You have no right to tax people to support a church to which they do not belong. Nor have you any right to force people to go to church. Every man should be allowed to settle with his own conscience whether he will go to your church, or whether he will go to any church."

He was only speaking what he believed to be the truth, but the Puritans feared he would break up the spirit of union among them, and therefore thought him unsafe. They had suffered so much to settle a place where they could make their own laws that they could not allow any one to talk against them. Such a person as this young minister, if not of their mind, should go elsewhere, they thought, and leave them to carry out their own ideas.

ROGER WILLIAMS 21

ROGER WILLIAMS FORCED TO LEAVE THE COLONY

They held a council and decided to send him back to England. But as he was too ill to go at that time, they gave him permission to stay in the colony through the winter if he would not preach.

As soon as he grew stronger, however, his Salem friends began to visit him and spend much time in discussion. Many came around much to his way of thinking. So the Puritans, fearing his influence in the colony, determined to send him at once to England, and a ship was then in the harbor about to sail.

When Roger Williams received notice that he was to go, he bade a hasty good-by to his wife and two children — one a little girl two years old and the other a baby — and three days later, when the men who were to escort him to the ship arrived at his home, he was not there.

He had set out for the home of Massasoit, who lived near Mount Hope, seventy or eighty miles to the south. He had made friends with this Indian chief and also with other Indians while living at Plymouth.

The outlook was dark. It was midwinter, and the snow lay deep on the ground. As no road had been cut through the forest, he had to depend on his compass for a guide. To keep from freezing, he carried an axe to chop wood and a flint and steel to kindle fires.

This long journey in extremely cold weather was indeed a severe trial to the lonely traveller, still weak from his recent illness.

The Indian chief welcomed him to his cabin, and there Roger Williams passed the rest of the winter.

THE SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND

When spring came, he left Massasoit and went to seek a new place of settlement. He started out in a frail canoe for a place called Seekonk, but he tells us that Governor Winthrop wrote him to go to the land of the Narragansetts, which would be free from English claims.

Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, is said to have loved as a son this fair-minded young man who defended the Indians' claim to their land; and he made him a gift of the island lying across Narragansett Bay.

ROGER WTLLIAMS 23

The Indians told him where there was a good spring of water, and, with five or six friends who had joined him, Roger WilHams went there and made a settlement. He called it Providence, because of God's mercy to him in his time of danger. This was the beginning of Rhode Island, a colony where all men, no matter what might be their religion, were welcome.

Roger Williams believed he was right in taking the bold stand that the Puritans should not force their religion upon any one.

It took much courage to stand up against the Puritan laws in a Puritan community. He knew that in doing so he was risking the comfort of himself and his loved ones, and that he might suffer the loss of home and friends. But he believed that men should be governed in their religious faith only by their own conscience, and was willing to suffer himself if in so doing he was able to help on religious freedom for others.

He wanted to build up a community where each man might be free to act in matters of religion according to his own best motives; and in giving up his comfort and well-being to found such a state he was a true patriot.

1. Roger Williams said many things which the Puritans of

Boston did not like. Tell what some of these things were.

2. Why was he sent out of the colony ?

3. Imagine yourself with him during his mid-winter journey,

and tell what happened.

4. In what ways did Roger Williams show that he was a brave

and true-hearted man '^

Chapter V Thomas Hooker

If we could go back to the early summer of 1636, and look down from some lofty height upon the valley of the Connecticut River, we might see, one day in June, a pleasing sight. A group of about one hundred men, women, and children are travelling on foot through the leafy wilderness and approaching the banks of the river at the place we now call Hartford.

They have with them all their belongings. Their household goods are piled high in carts drawn by big, patient oxen, and before them they drive their cows and other domestic animals. One of their number, the wife of the leader, being ill, rides in a litter carried on the shoulders of two stalwart men. The children are laughing and skipping along or sedately walking beside their elders.

The sky is cloudless, the trees are in fresh, new foliage, and the air is sweet with the blossoms of wild honeysuckle already dropping its petals on the grass. When the lowing herds of cattle stop to browse on the green shoots along the w^ay, the children run to urge them on.

Who are the travellers, and from what place do they come.'^

They are a companj^ of settlers from the INIassachusetts colony, seeking new homes in the Connecticut Valley.

Thomas Hooker, the tall, majestic man you notice, is their minister and leader. They have come from Newtown, journeying forth like Roger AYilliams in quest of greater freedom than the Puritans allow.

They have been two weeks on the way. This life in the open has been a new experience to them, used as they once w^ere to much ease of living in old England.

But the preaching of their minister has kept them in good heart during their tiresome journey, and they are happy in the thought of the freedom they will have in their new homes.

As they approach the place where Hartford now stands, they are much pleased with its beauty. The rolling hills, the broad, peaceful river and its banks wooded with oaks, elms.