Historic Americans; sketches of the lives and characters of certain famous Americans held most in reverence by the boys and girls of America, from whom their stories are here told

Front matter

^V

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF

CERTAIN FAMOUS AMERICANS HELD MOST

Preface

It is not the intention of these stories of Historic Americans to go into the details of the lives and public services of each. It has, rather, been the desire of the author to touch briefly upon their careers, but to indicate, by the story or pen-picture of some pivotal event, the chief characteristic or impulse that led each man along the way of patriotism.

There are published lives, in plenty, of these Historic Americans. Cyclopedias and biographical dictionaries give all needed dates, statistics, and summaries ; but if these brief glimpses — " snapshots," as it were, at our grandest Americans — shall arouse anew an interest in our greatest fellow-countrymen, or shall lead the boys and girls of the Republic to familiarize themselves with the more extended life-stories of the noblest figures in the gallery of America's worthies, the purpose of this book will have been fully answered. It might better be called Scenes from the Lives of the Builders and Makers of the Republic.

Elbridge S. Brooks.

Boston, February, 1899.

Contents

PAGB

*^ENjAMiN Franklin 18

^ John Quincv Adams 202 viii CONTENTS.

PAGE

John Caluwell Calhoun 291

Henry Wadsw^th Longfellow 354

Ulysses S. Grant 3G9

I. The Story Of John Wit^throp, Of Boston

CALLED "THE WASHINGTON OF COLONIZATION."

Born at Groton, England, January 22, 1588. Died at Boston, Massachusetts, March 26, 1649.

" When his life shall have been adequately written he will • be recognized as one of the very noblest figures in American history." — John Fiske.

On a calm, clear April morning many years ago three higli-sterned, square-rigged ships were slipping out of the English channel, their prows headed west. Cowes and Yarmouth had long been left behind, the Needles were far astern, and the misty coa,st-line of England became less and less distinct to starboard, as one by one the little ships steered into the broader waters of the widening channel.

It was good-by to home at last; and men, women, and children hung gazing over the rail, curious, hopeful, regretful, determined, or sad, as their natures and desires varied.

Suddenly, through the startled* air, down from the masthead of the " Arbella," admiral of the fleet, came the warning cry of the watcher in the top, " Hello ! the deck ! "

" Ay, ay ! What d'ye see aloft? " went back the response to the topman's hail.

" Eight sail, sir ; well astern," the lookout reported. " Look like Dunkirkers, sir."

Up from his cabin bustled Capt. Peter Milbourne, master and part owner of the " Arbella." He had heard the report.

" Eight of 'em, eh ? " he remarked, peering under shaggy eyebrows to where, far astern, the keen eyes of the lookout in the top had marked the suspicious sail. "Must be those Cap'n Lowe told us he had seen off Dunnose last night."

He studied the weather with anxious eye. The wind came light, though fairly steady, from the north, but the practised skipper could see unmistakable signs of dropping. He turned to one of his company, a staid but pleasant-faced gentleman of two and forty, plainly though richly dressed, who, with a boy at either hand, was looking off toward the filmy, almost imperceptible outlines of the menacing masts far astern.

" Well, governor, what say you? " Captain Milbourne demanded.

" You think them to be Dunkirkers ? " queried the governor.

" Like as not, like as not, sir," the skipper replied. " The Spaniards are swarming along shore hereabouts, from Dunkirk to the Lizard. Cap'n Lowe saw a good ten of 'em off Dunnose last night, he said. Yonder rascals may be 'em. I warned you of the risk, you know, governor."

" I know, I knoAv ; and Ave took the risk, you as Avell as I," the governor replied. " But, for the end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. Therefore, Master Milbourne, we are in your hands. What you say, we do."

" Then, if needs must, it 's fight," the skipper declared stoutly. " They have the wind of us, and can show a better foot than we can heels. Mate, clear the deck for action ; unsling the hammocks, free the gun-room, have the ordnance well shotted, hoist up the powder-chests and fireworks, order out the small-arms, quarter the landsmen among the seamen, let twenty-five act as marksmen, and have every man told off for his quarter. Then let 'em come. We '11 give the Dons as good as they send, or my name is not Peter Milbourne."

"• Master of the ' Arbella ' and admiral of the fleet ! " added the governor with emphasis. " Count every landsman among us a fighter, master. 'T was hereabouts that Englishmen laid the Armada by the heels, thanks to God's mercy, the very year I was born. With the Lord's help we may do it again this day. Shall I l)id those of us who may not fight — the women and children, master — to go below ? "

" Not yet, not yet, governor," the watchful skipper replied. "The Dons are far astern yet and the wind may shift. They can't be a-foul of us for hours, even if this wind holds."

Little Adam, the younger of the two boys, looked up at the governor, his father, witli wide-open eyes.

" Don't let them come, sir, the wicked Spaniards. I am afraid," he said. "Oh, send them off, sir! You are the governor."

His brother, the twelve-year-old Stephen, regarded the smaller boy with the lofty superiority of three yeai*s' seniority.

" Be not afraid, Adam, while father and I are here," he said. " j\Iy fowling-piece is in the great cabin. Shall not Adam go below to the Lady Arbella, father? I will stay here and fight the Dons with you."

Capt. Peter Milbourne laughed the sailor's hearty laugh and clapped the governor's son on the shoulder.

" Spoken like a chip of the old block, lad," he cried. "The governor will make you general of his forces when he is come to New England. There 's spirit for you, governor."

" Pray Heaven there be no fighting, lads ! " the governor made answer. "But if th*e Spaniards come, my brave Stephen shall rather keep up the little lad's heart below the decks. There is duty everywhere, my sod," he added. But Stephen already, had scampered to fetch his fowling-piece.

CAPT. PETER MILBOURNE LAUGHED, AND CLAPPED THE GOVERNOR'S SON ON THE SHOULDER.

So through the morning the preparation for fight went on ; but, even as noon came, the light north wind dropped, as the captain liad feared, and tlie sea hiy cahn. What little wind there was held with the pursuing craft, and nearer and nearer they came.

Then the " Arbella " signalled her consorts, the " Talbot," the '• Ambrose " and the " Jewel ; " and as they drew together Captain Milbourne hailed the other masters and bade them clear for action too.

On each of the little ships the preparations for defence went quickly forward. Upon the " Arbella " the cabin houses were taken down so as to give a clear deck to the guns ; bedding and otlier inflammable stuffs were tossed overboard ; the longboats were made ready for launching, and the crew and landsmen drawn up for action. The governor was foremost in all these musterings ; and for one of them Captain ]\Iilbourne made ready a fire-ball which he shot across the water to try the marksmen at the fire-arrow. The governor went about exhorting, enlivening, and strengthening, bidding the men stand fast for God and England, and seeing that the women and children were removed to the lower deck for safety and security. And so brave were his words, so lofty Avas his spirit, so serene his faith in the issue, that something of his courage and steadfastness was communicated to all on board that threatened ship ; for, as he himself assures us, "it was nuicli to see how cheerful and comfortable all the company appeared ; not a woman or child that showed fear, though all did apprehend the danger to have been great if things proved as might be well expected." So much may one great-hearted leader do toward strengthening those who rely upon him.

All being at last read}', as lie had comforted the women in the cabin, he now inspired the men on deck ; for, when they were ready to fight, then the governor addressed them.

" They are eight against four, my brothers," he said, " and the least of them, so our captain reports, carries thirty brass pieces. But we have beaten back the Spaniards before, even as our fathei's, by God's grace, overthrew the Armada. Trust me, we shall do it again, for our trust is in the Lord of Hosts and the care and courage of our captain. Quit ye like men, my brothers, and neither Spain nor Dunkirkers shall prevail against us."

And then, the governor tells us, " We all went to prayer upon the upper deck,"

Strengthened hj the governor's brave words and stout bearing, the whole company awaited the issue in confidence, while plucky Captain Milbourne, audacious in his devices, suddenly gave order to the whole little fleet to come about and boldly sail straight against the foe.

"If we fight, we fight," he said, "and let us besrin it. I '11 have this over before nieht comes down, for delay is ever dangerous. The Englishman's to-day is better than the Don's to-morrow."

So, straight against the foe they sailed at high noon of that April day. The gunners stood at their pieces, matches in hand. Seamen, landsmen, gentlemen, and comrades ranged themselVes for fight, conscious of their danger, yet grimly resolved to defend valiantly to the last their precious freight of women and children and the cause they upheld. For the governor had put spirit into them all.

The league of distance lessened to a mile, to a half, to a quarter ; and then captains and gunners, gentlemen and seamen, echoed the glad cry that came from the watchers in the tops.

" Friends ! They are friends ! " was the cry, and Captahi INlilbourne led off his men in a ringing English cheer caught up and echoed by both the nearing fleets.

" Ship, ahoy ! " he shouted as the foremost vessels drew together. '' Where from and whither bound ? " And soon they knew them all for friends indeed — the " Little Neptune " of twenty guns, with her two consorts, bound for the Straits, a ship of Flushing, a Frenchman, and three other English ships, bound for Canada and Newfoundland.

And, as they met, each ship saluted ; the musketeers fired their pieces in air ; greetings and godspeeds were exchanged ; the " Arbella " and her consorts tacked about and headed again for the open sea, while the governor said, " God be praised ! "

and hurried belo^^- to join Ids little sons, reassure tlie Lady Arbella and the other women of his company, and write down in his journal the whole exciting story of that day's adventure and how, again, " God be praised," he wrote, " our fear and danger M-ere turned into mirth and friendly entertainment ! "

And this is our introduction to the AVorshipful John Winthrop, gentleman, late of Groton, England, but now, in this year of grace 1630, governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, of which Emigration Company those four small ships were the advance fleet, bound for that wild and scarcely known section of the western world called New England.

A faithful keeper of a journal was the AVorshipful Governor John Winthrop, and it is because of that remarkable diary that the world to-day knows so much of tlie Puritans of New England, and, reading between the lines, can so well acquaint itself with the bearing, the character, and the wisdom of that great and noble American, John Winthrop, of Boston town, — " the forerunner," so the English historian Doyle assures us, " of Washington and Hamilton."

The coming of John Winthrop and his Puritans to Boston was not like tlie arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. For they landed near the famous rock in midwinter, when

" The woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tost;"

but Governor John Winthrop's Puritan emigrants went ashore in strawberry-time, when all the fair land along Massachusetts bay looks brightest and greenest, — in beautiful June, — and when, after a few weeks at his first settlement, called Charlestown, he could write to his scarcely less famous son, still in England, that he could see but little difference between Old and New England. " Here is as good land," he wrote, " as I have seen there, but none so bad as there. Here is sweet air, fair rivers, and plenty of springs, and the water better than in England."

But sorry days were in store for the governor and his companions. Unused to the harsh New England winter that came in due season many sickened and died — pneumonia then as now being the fatal visitor. Among others his diary records the early death of the fair dame for whom had been named the ship that had brought over the governor ; in which she, too, had been a passenger when, with the governor's consent, the little vessel had come about and sailed straight in the teeth of the supposed Spaniards. Tliis was the gracious and gentle Lady Arbella Johnson, of whom Cotton Mather, the great Puritan preacher, quaintly and touchingly said, " She took New England on her way to heaven."

But times bettered as the days went by. The hermit clergyman, the Rev. William Blackstone, who had a farm across the river on what is now

Beacon hill in Boston, told the governor of an excellent spring-lot near his farm, where now stands the big granite Boston post-office, and, so says Winthrop's diary, " tlie governor, with Mr. AVilson and the greatest part of the chnrch, removed thither ; whither also the frame of the governor's honse was carried. There people began to build their houses against the winter ; and this place was called Boston."

That very summer of 1631 brought over the governor's dear wife, Margaret Winthrop, a gracious and in many respects a remarkable woman. How glad the governor was his faithful diary records. For it tells how the governor went down to Nantasket to meet his wife and children ; how they were received wiih salutes as they landed ; and how all the people welcomed Mrs. Wijithrop so heartily that, as the proud governor records, " the like joy and manifestation of love had never been seen in New England." Even Governor Bradford, of Plymouth (another remarkable man who also kept a remarkable diary), came to pay a visit of congratulation to "his much-honored and beloved friend, the governor of Massachusetts," — for in that day Plymouth of tlie Pilgrims was a distinct settlement from Boston of the Puritans.

From that time until his death, in 1649, John Winthrop, with but a few breaks, was governor of Massachusetts. With the same serene and even disposition that we see in Washington, Lincoln, and other great men, he met with patience all the worries, disasters, and troubles, and welcomed with modesty all tlie joys and triumphs, that came to the governor of a new and growing settlement, to which flocked all manner of men, and in which were all sorts of opinions. There were rivalries and disputes which onl}' he could settle ; there were differences of political opinion and religious belief which called for his wisest counsel and calmest decision ; there were troubles witliin and without the borders of the little colony that demanded sometimes stern measures, and sometimes cautious handling, by this clear-headed, large-hearted, nobleminded man.

Winthrop's reputation in England as a responsible and honorable man, as a man of business ability, firmness, justice, and wise administration, made men believe in the future of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and influenced the large emigration that came over the sea to Boston. The colony he had organized grew and prospered; and though it went til rough many experiences in bigotry, selfishness, and unwise legislation, it is well to remember that to none of these was John Winthrop a party, although, frequently and against his better judgment, he felt the wisdom of compromise, and knew that peace and prosperit}' could only come by yielding to the will of the majority. He let Roger Williams go, consented to the banishment of Anne Hutchinson, and did not agree with the methods of young Sir Harry Vane. But for every such action he had a good reason, and above even his own desires he placed the welfare and unit}^ of the colony. Under his wise administration the Massachusetts Bay Colony "grew and waxed strong;" settlements sprang up along the curving shore of the bay and pushed boldly toward the hill-country to the west; while, for all the firm footing and dawning prosperity of its early days, the Bay State may ever remember with reverence and pride the steadfast, loyal, level-headed, and great-hearted governor whom men have rightfully called " The Father of Massachusetts."

During one of the breaks in liis own service, when his bitterest rival, Thomas Dudley, was governor, certain charges were brought against Winthrop because, as magistrate, he had sent to jail certain offenders against the law. His action had been just and lawful, but he appeared in answer to the complaint and refused to sit upon the bench, to which seat of honor his rank entitled him. The place for an accused prisoner, he said, was within the bar, and there he sat " uncovered " while for weeks the trial or " impeachment," as it was termed, went on.

He was acquitted, of course, for he was in the right and his accusers were in the wrong. They were punished by fines and censure, and then only, his trial over, did Winthrop consent to take his proper seat on the bencli.

JOHN WIN THE OP. 13

But as he did so he asked permission to make " a little speech ; " and that speech has lived to this day as one of the noblest utterances of America, fit to be classed with Washington's farewell address and Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg. Wise, calm, forcible, dignified, and convincing, it is noble in its language, direct in its argument, patriotic in its motive, and almost prophetic in its statement. For in that speech, which is really a definition of true liberty, John Winthrop voiced the same high sentiment which, one hundred and thirty years later, led the patriots of the American Revolution to make their immortal stand for justice, liberty, and right.

" There are two kinds of liberty," said John Winthrop in this remarkable speech. " One is natural liberty, common to man and beast alike, which is incompatible with authority and cannot endure restraint. This liberty," he said, " if unrestrained, makes men gi'ow more evil, and it is the great enemy of truth and peace, needing the laws of God and man to restrain and subdue it." This is the fancied liberty that reckless and evil men, in our own day, falsely call liberty, and seek to break down just and proper laws in their efforts to obtain it. It is not liberty ; it is license.

" The other kind of liberty," said noble John Winthrop, " I call civil, or federal ; it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it ; and it is a liberty to do that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for with the hazard not only of your goods, but of your lives, if need be. Whatsoever crosses this is not authority, but a distemper thereof. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority ; it is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ has made us free."

Is not this a noble and righteous utterance of a great truth ? How noble, right, and true it was, and how deeply it was burned into the hearts of all true patriots and loyal Americans, you can see if you will read this verse from a notable poem, spoken in the days of the Republic's stress by a young and patriotic American, two hundred and sixteen yeare after John Winthrop had made his "little speech ; " it was spoken, too, within the walls of that very college " at Cambridge, in ]\Iassachusetts," which John Winthrop helped to found :

" Law, fair form of Liberty, God's light is on thy brow;

O Liberty, thou soul of Law, God's very self art thou !

One the clear river's sparkling flood that clothes the bank with

green, And one the line of stubborn rock that holds the Avaters in ; Friends whom we cannot think apart, seeming each other's foe, Twin flowers upon a single stalk with equal grace that grow. fair ideas ! we write your names across our banner's fold ; For you the sluggard's brain is fire, for you the coward bold ; O, daughter of the bleeding past ! 0, hope the prophets saw ! God give us Law in Liberty, and Liberty in Law ! "

And how like an echo of the great Pnritan governor's solemn words — " This liberty you are to stand for with the hazard not only of your goods, but of your lives, if need be " — sounds that brave closinof assurance of the immortal Declaration of Independence, of July 4, 1776 : " For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor " ! how like its echo too rings the closing verse of that same Commencement poem in the battle-year of 1861 :

shed, Who seein to die in such a cause, ye cannot call them dead ; They live upon the lips of men, in picture, bust, and song, An^ Nature folds them in her heart, and keeps them safe from

wrong. 0, length of days is not a boon the brave man prayeth for ; There are a thousand evils worse than death or any war : Oppression with his iron strength fed on the souls of men. And License with the hungry brood that haunts his ghastly den ; But, like bright stars, ye fill the eye, adoring hearts ye draw, O, sacred grace of Liberty ! O, majesty of Law ! "

So the centuries clasp hands, and the words of the great governor live again in the hearts of all true Americans to-day. " It is the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ has made us free," said John Winthrop in 1640. '• In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us the right and the duty to speak and act, the war in Cuba must stop,"

wrote William McKinley in 1898. Liberty is not license, for liberty is law.

Twelve times was John Winthrop elected governor of Massachusetts. As governor, magistrate, and soldier he gave to the organizing, upbuilding, and development of that struggling but successful colony the life and strength, the grace and wisdom, .of twenty busy years, and when on the twenty-sixth of March, 1649, aged only sixty-one, he died at his house on Spring lane, in Boston (where to-day stands the tall Winthrop building), all the colony mourned. " A governor," said Cotton Mather, the preacher, ^ who had been unto us as a mother, parent-like distributing his goods to bretlu-en and neighbors at his first coming, and gently bearing our infirmities without taking notice of them."

What he did for his colony has blessed all America. His hatred of- intolerance, his bold stand for freedom of speech, his wisdom and generosity in business methods, his leniency and brotherliness toward all, his devotion to duty whether it were small or great, his high respect for law, liis passionate love of liberty, his honesty in business difficulties, his silence under abuse, his modesty in victory, his courtesy toward strangers, his devotion to his family, his loyalty to his friends, his great desire for unity among all the American colonies, his firm faith in the future of the land he had made his home, his detestation of bigotry, his courage in time of danger, his serenity, his diligence, his public spirit, his self-denial, and his foresight — all unite in making him not alone a great man, but a great and historic American, worthy to stand, as one of his chroniclers declares, " as a parallel to Washington."

II. The Story Of Benjamin Franklin, Of Philadelphia

CALLED BY ALL p:UROPE " LE GRAND FRANKLIN."

Born at Boston, MaBsachusetts, January 17, 1706. Died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1790.

" No American lui.s attained to greatness in so many ways or bas made so lasting an impression on his countrymen." — John Bach McMaster.

In the very heart of the great city of Philadelphia, near where, to-day, the massive City building towers above the town, there stood, one hundred and fifty years ago, a humble cow-shed. Built as a shelter for the cattle which grazed u])on the public " commons " thereabout, that cow-shed, from a certain June day in 1752, was destined to become one of the most famous buildings in all America.

For, on that June day of 1752, a stout, middlenged gentleman of forty-six, and a fresh-looking young fellow of twenty-two, walked straight for the cow-shed on the commons. The younger man carried under his arm what looked like a bottle ; the older man bore a good-sized kite.

There was thunder in the air ; the clouds were gathering fast; there was every indication that a shower was coming up ; — rather an odd time to go kite-flying for fun ! But these two gentlemen did not look as if they were about to fly a kite for fun. Indeed, the younger man appeared just a bit foolish, for he was something of a "swell," and seemed just a trifle troubled lest some one might catch him at such childish sport. Even the older man glanced around as they neared the cow-shed, with the bottle and the kite, as if fearing that some one might recognize them and poke a little fun at him and his " toys."

But if there had been such a person about and he had looked at the kite the stout gentleman held so gingerly he would have seen that it was no common kite. It was a good-sized one, made of a big silk handkerchief, and from the end of the central upright stick there extended a piece of iron wire, sharpened at the end.

The wind was strong and the silken kite, after a few attempts at raising, caught the current and sailed flnely upward, while the young man, stepping into the cow-shed, set down the bottle and then stood watching his father's kite — for the two were father and son.

The storm came, surely enough, just as they expected, and the two slipped within the shelter of the cow-shed, and " out of the wet," anxiously watching the kite and the flying thunder-clouds.

The kite had been raised on a strong hempen string, but if you had been thQ»-e too you would have noticed that when the kite was well up the young man's father, who was flying the kite, held in his hand, attached to the hempen kite-cord, a silken string from which hung a big door-key. A liem-y cloud came sailing directly over the

kite.

"N) lightning in that, father," the young man observed critically.

" None yet, Billy," his father replied. " But wait a bit. It may come."

The rain came pouring down and the younger man looked around uneasily.

" I 'm afraid people will think we 're a couple of crazy folks, flying kites in the rain," he said.

But his father smiled serenely.

" There are crazier folks than we are, Billy," he answered, anxiously scanning the cloud. " You know what Poor Richard says, ' Let thy discontents be thy secrets.' Don't you fret, my boy, if there is no one by to fret with you. I don't fret about folks ; I 'm watching for that lightning. If it does n't come we 're beaten — for to-day."

It seemed for a while as if they were beaten, if their desires depended upon the lightning, for there appeared to be no electricity astir in that black cloud. But they waited patiently. Then, suddenly, just as the kite-flyer had given a sigh of discontent, his face brightened.

" Look, Billy ! " lie cried. " See the string ! The lil)res are rising. It 's there, my boy, it 's there sure enough, and I 've caught it ! "

Something was there certainly. One by one the fibres of the hempen string began to rise, very much as you can see the hair rise on the head of one who stands upon the insulating stool when the teacher experiments in the natural philosophy class.

" Quick, Billy I Have the jar ready ! " the experimenter cried, as he applied his knuckle to the key. " Hurrah ! See that ! Did you see that, Billy ? A spark, a spark, and a good one, too I Here, take the string and tiy it yourself. There ! Did you feel the sliock ? I 've proved it, boy ! I 've proved it ! Charge the Leyden jar ! "