From 8ff959a6f7a64d7369d4244995d89283caaba7a1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Chris Anderson Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 15:07:56 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] markov chain generation is pretty decent --- examples/word_count/america.txt | 24398 ++++++++++++++++ examples/word_count/markov | 34 + .../word_count/views/books/chunked-map.js | 3 + examples/word_count/views/books/united-map.js | 1 + examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-map.js | 6 + .../word_count/views/markov/chain-reduce.js | 7 + .../word_count/views/word_count/count-map.js | 6 + .../views/word_count/count-reduce.js | 3 + examples/word_count/word_count.rb | 6 +- script/push_views.rb | 60 - views/mentions/inbound-map.js | 2 + views/mentions/inbound-reduce.js | 3 + views/mentions/mp3links-map.js | 2 + views/mentions/mp3links-reduce.js | 2 + views/metadata/albums-map.js | 2 + views/metadata/track-map.js | 2 + views/metadata/track-reduce.js | 2 + views/test/maponly-map.js | 2 + views/test/reducehaving-map.js | 585 + views/test/reducehaving-reduce.js | 2 + 20 files changed, 25066 insertions(+), 62 deletions(-) create mode 100644 examples/word_count/america.txt create mode 100755 examples/word_count/markov create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/books/chunked-map.js create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/books/united-map.js create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-map.js create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-reduce.js create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-map.js create mode 100644 examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-reduce.js delete mode 100644 script/push_views.rb create mode 100644 views/mentions/inbound-map.js create mode 100644 views/mentions/inbound-reduce.js create mode 100644 views/mentions/mp3links-map.js create mode 100644 views/mentions/mp3links-reduce.js create mode 100644 views/metadata/albums-map.js create mode 100644 views/metadata/track-map.js create mode 100644 views/metadata/track-reduce.js create mode 100644 views/test/maponly-map.js create mode 100644 views/test/reducehaving-map.js create mode 100644 views/test/reducehaving-reduce.js diff --git a/examples/word_count/america.txt b/examples/word_count/america.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc38059 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/america.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24398 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the United States +by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: History of the United States + +Author: Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard + +Release Date: October 28, 2005 [EBook #16960] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, M and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +HISTORY + +OF THE + +UNITED STATES + + +BY + + +CHARLES A. BEARD + +AND + +MARY R. BEARD + + + +New York + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +1921 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1921, + +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + +Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1921. + + + + +Norwood Press + +J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. + +NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +As things now stand, the course of instruction in American history in +our public schools embraces three distinct treatments of the subject. +Three separate books are used. First, there is the primary book, which +is usually a very condensed narrative with emphasis on biographies and +anecdotes. Second, there is the advanced text for the seventh or eighth +grade, generally speaking, an expansion of the elementary book by the +addition of forty or fifty thousand words. Finally, there is the high +school manual. This, too, ordinarily follows the beaten path, giving +fuller accounts of the same events and characters. To put it bluntly, we +do not assume that our children obtain permanent possessions from their +study of history in the lower grades. If mathematicians followed the +same method, high school texts on algebra and geometry would include the +multiplication table and fractions. + +There is, of course, a ready answer to the criticism advanced above. It +is that teachers have learned from bitter experience how little history +their pupils retain as they pass along the regular route. No teacher of +history will deny this. Still it is a standing challenge to existing +methods of historical instruction. If the study of history cannot be +made truly progressive like the study of mathematics, science, and +languages, then the historians assume a grave responsibility in adding +their subject to the already overloaded curriculum. If the successive +historical texts are only enlarged editions of the first text--more +facts, more dates, more words--then history deserves most of the sharp +criticism which it is receiving from teachers of science, civics, and +economics. + +In this condition of affairs we find our justification for offering a +new high school text in American history. Our first contribution is one +of omission. The time-honored stories of exploration and the +biographies of heroes are left out. We frankly hold that, if pupils know +little or nothing about Columbus, Cortes, Magellan, or Captain John +Smith by the time they reach the high school, it is useless to tell the +same stories for perhaps the fourth time. It is worse than useless. It +is an offense against the teachers of those subjects that are +demonstrated to be progressive in character. + +In the next place we have omitted all descriptions of battles. Our +reasons for this are simple. The strategy of a campaign or of a single +battle is a highly technical, and usually a highly controversial, matter +about which experts differ widely. In the field of military and naval +operations most writers and teachers of history are mere novices. To +dispose of Gettysburg or the Wilderness in ten lines or ten pages is +equally absurd to the serious student of military affairs. Any one who +compares the ordinary textbook account of a single Civil War campaign +with the account given by Ropes, for instance, will ask for no further +comment. No youth called upon to serve our country in arms would think +of turning to a high school manual for information about the art of +warfare. The dramatic scene or episode, so useful in arousing the +interest of the immature pupil, seems out of place in a book that +deliberately appeals to boys and girls on the very threshold of life's +serious responsibilities. + +It is not upon negative features, however, that we rest our case. It is +rather upon constructive features. + +_First._ We have written a topical, not a narrative, history. We have +tried to set forth the important aspects, problems, and movements of +each period, bringing in the narrative rather by way of illustration. + +_Second._ We have emphasized those historical topics which help to +explain how our nation has come to be what it is to-day. + +_Third._ We have dwelt fully upon the social and economic aspects of our +history, especially in relation to the politics of each period. + +_Fourth._ We have treated the causes and results of wars, the problems +of financing and sustaining armed forces, rather than military strategy. +These are the subjects which belong to a history for civilians. These +are matters which civilians can understand--matters which they must +understand, if they are to play well their part in war and peace. + +_Fifth._ By omitting the period of exploration, we have been able to +enlarge the treatment of our own time. We have given special attention +to the history of those current questions which must form the subject +matter of sound instruction in citizenship. + +_Sixth._ We have borne in mind that America, with all her unique +characteristics, is a part of a general civilization. Accordingly we +have given diplomacy, foreign affairs, world relations, and the +reciprocal influences of nations their appropriate place. + +_Seventh._ We have deliberately aimed at standards of maturity. The +study of a mere narrative calls mainly for the use of the memory. We +have aimed to stimulate habits of analysis, comparison, association, +reflection, and generalization--habits calculated to enlarge as well as +inform the mind. We have been at great pains to make our text clear, +simple, and direct; but we have earnestly sought to stretch the +intellects of our readers--to put them upon their mettle. Most of them +will receive the last of their formal instruction in the high school. +The world will soon expect maturity from them. Their achievements will +depend upon the possession of other powers than memory alone. The +effectiveness of their citizenship in our republic will be measured by +the excellence of their judgment as well as the fullness of their +information. + + C.A.B. + M.R.B. + + NEW YORK CITY, + February 8, 1921. + + + + +=A SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICAN HISTORY= + + +_=SINGLE VOLUMES:=_ + +BASSETT, J.S. _A Short History of the United States_ +ELSON, H.W. _History of the United States of America_ + + +_=SERIES:=_ + +"EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY," EDITED BY A.B. HART + +HART, A.B. _Formation of the Union_ +THWAITES, R.G. _The Colonies_ +WILSON, WOODROW. _Division and Reunion_ + +"RIVERSIDE SERIES," EDITED BY W.E. DODD + +BECKER, C.L. _Beginnings of the American People_ +DODD, W.E. _Expansion and Conflict_ +JOHNSON, A. _Union and Democracy_ +PAXSON, F.L. _The New Nation_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA 1 + The Agencies of American Colonization 2 + The Colonial Peoples 6 + The Process of Colonization 12 + + II. COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 20 + The Land and the Westward Movement 20 + Industrial and Commercial Development 28 + + III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS 38 + The Leadership of the Churches 39 + Schools and Colleges 43 + The Colonial Press 46 + The Evolution in Political Institutions 48 + + IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL NATIONALISM 56 + Relations with the Indians and the French 57 + The Effects of Warfare on the Colonies 61 + Colonial Relations with the British Government 64 + Summary of Colonial Period 73 + + +PART II. CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE + + V. THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY 77 + George III and His System 77 + George III's Ministers and Their Colonial Policies 79 + Colonial Resistance Forces Repeal 83 + Resumption of British Revenue and Commercial Policies 87 + Renewed Resistance in America 90 + Retaliation by the British Government 93 + From Reform to Revolution in America 95 + + VI. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 99 + Resistance and Retaliation 99 + American Independence 101 + The Establishment of Government and the New Allegiance 108 + Military Affairs 116 + The Finances of the Revolution 125 + The Diplomacy of the Revolution 127 + Peace at Last 132 + Summary of the Revolutionary Period 135 + + +PART III. FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS + + VII. THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 139 + The Promise and the Difficulties of America 139 + The Calling of a Constitutional Convention 143 + The Framing of the Constitution 146 + The Struggle over Ratification 157 + + VIII. THE CLASH OF POLITICAL PARTIES 162 + The Men and Measures of the New Government 162 + The Rise of Political Parties 168 + Foreign Influences and Domestic Politics 171 + + IX. THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN POWER 186 + Republican Principles and Policies 186 + The Republicans and the Great West 188 + The Republican War for Commercial Independence 193 + The Republicans Nationalized 201 + The National Decisions of Chief Justice Marshall 208 + Summary of Union and National Politics 212 + + +PART IV. THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY + + X. THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS 217 + Preparation for Western Settlement 217 + The Western Migration and New States 221 + The Spirit of the Frontier 228 + The West and the East Meet 230 + + XI. JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 238 + The Democratic Movement in the East 238 + The New Democracy Enters the Arena 244 + The New Democracy at Washington 250 + The Rise of the Whigs 260 + The Interaction of American and European Opinion 265 + + XII. THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT WEST 271 + The Advance of the Middle Border 271 + On to the Pacific--Texas and the Mexican War 276 + The Pacific Coast and Utah 284 + Summary of Western Development and National Politics 292 + + +PART V. SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION + + XIII. THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM 295 + The Industrial Revolution 296 + The Industrial Revolution and National Politics 307 + + XIV. THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL POLITICS 316 + Slavery--North and South 316 + Slavery in National Politics 324 + The Drift of Events toward the Irrepressible Conflict 332 + + XV. THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 344 + The Southern Confederacy 344 + The War Measures of the Federal Government 350 + The Results of the Civil War 365 + Reconstruction in the South 370 + Summary of the Sectional Conflict 375 + + +PART VI. NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS + + XVI. THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 379 + The South at the Close of the War 379 + The Restoration of White Supremacy 382 + The Economic Advance of the South 389 + + XVII. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 401 + Railways and Industry 401 + The Supremacy of the Republican Party (1861-1885) 412 + The Growth of Opposition to Republican Rule 417 + +XVIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST 425 + The Railways as Trail Blazers 425 + The Evolution of Grazing and Agriculture 431 + Mining and Manufacturing in the West 436 + The Admission of New States 440 + The Influence of the Far West on National Life 443 + + XIX. DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY (1865-1897) 451 + The Currency Question 452 + The Protective Tariff and Taxation 459 + The Railways and Trusts 460 + The Minor Parties and Unrest 462 + The Sound Money Battle of 1896 466 + Republican Measures and Results 472 + + XX. AMERICA A WORLD POWER (1865-1900) 477 + American Foreign Relations (1865-1898) 478 + Cuba and the Spanish War 485 + American Policies in the Philippines and the Orient 497 + Summary of National Growth and World Politics 504 + + +PART VII. PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR + + XXI. THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES (1901-1913) 507 + Foreign Affairs 508 + Colonial Administration 515 + The Roosevelt Domestic Policies 519 + Legislative and Executive Activities 523 + The Administration of President Taft 527 + Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912 530 + + XXII. THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AMERICA 536 + An Age of Criticism 536 + Political Reforms 538 + Measures of Economic Reform 546 + +XXIII. THE NEW POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 554 + The Rise of the Woman Movement 555 + The National Struggle for Woman Suffrage 562 + + XXIV. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 570 + Cooeperation between Employers and Employees 571 + The Rise and Growth of Organized Labor 575 + The Wider Relations of Organized Labor 577 + Immigration and Americanization 582 + + XXV. PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD WAR 588 + Domestic Legislation 588 + Colonial and Foreign Policies 592 + The United States and the European War 596 + The United States at War 604 + The Settlement at Paris 612 + Summary of Democracy and the World War 620 + +APPENDIX 627 + +A TOPICAL SYLLABUS 645 + +INDEX 655 + + + + +MAPS + + + PAGE +The Original Grants (color map) _Facing_ 4 + +German and Scotch-Irish Settlements 8 + +Distribution of Population in 1790 27 + +English, French, and Spanish Possessions in America, 1750 + (color map) _Facing_ 59 + +The Colonies at the Time of the Declaration of Independence + (color map) _Facing_ 108 + +North America according to the Treaty of 1783 + (color map) _Facing_ 134 + +The United States in 1805 (color map) _Facing_ 193 + +Roads and Trails into Western Territory (color map) _Facing_ 224 + +The Cumberland Road 233 + +Distribution of Population in 1830 235 + +Texas and the Territory in Dispute 282 + +The Oregon Country and the Disputed Boundary 285 + +The Overland Trails 287 + +Distribution of Slaves in Southern States 323 + +The Missouri Compromise 326 + +Slave and Free Soil on the Eve of the Civil War 335 + +The United States in 1861 (color map) _Facing_ 345 + +Railroads of the United States in 1918 405 + +The United States in 1870 (color map) _Facing_ 427 + +The United States in 1912 (color map) _Facing_ 443 + +American Dominions in the Pacific (color map) _Facing_ 500 + +The Caribbean Region (color map) _Facing_ 592 + +Battle Lines of the Various Years of the World War 613 + +Europe in 1919 (color map) _Between_ 618-619 + + "THE NATIONS OF THE WEST" (popularly called "The + Pioneers"), designed by A. Stirling Calder and modeled by + Mr. Calder, F.G.R. Roth, and Leo Lentelli, topped the Arch + of the Setting Sun at the Panama-Pacific Exposition held at + San Francisco in 1915. Facing the Court of the Universe + moves a group of men and women typical of those who have + made our civilization. From left to right appear the + French-Canadian, the Alaskan, the Latin-American, the + German, the Italian, the Anglo-American, and the American + Indian, squaw and warrior. In the place of honor in the + center of the group, standing between the oxen on the tongue + of the prairie schooner, is a figure, beautiful and almost + girlish, but strong, dignified, and womanly, the Mother of + To-morrow. Above the group rides the Spirit of Enterprise, + flanked right and left by the Hopes of the Future in the + person of two boys. The group as a whole is beautifully + symbolic of the westward march of American civilization. + +[Illustration: _Photograph by Cardinell-Vincent Co., San Francisco_ + +"THE NATIONS OF THE WEST"] + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES + + + + +PART I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA + + +The tide of migration that set in toward the shores of North America +during the early years of the seventeenth century was but one phase in +the restless and eternal movement of mankind upon the surface of the +earth. The ancient Greeks flung out their colonies in every direction, +westward as far as Gaul, across the Mediterranean, and eastward into +Asia Minor, perhaps to the very confines of India. The Romans, supported +by their armies and their government, spread their dominion beyond the +narrow lands of Italy until it stretched from the heather of Scotland to +the sands of Arabia. The Teutonic tribes, from their home beyond the +Danube and the Rhine, poured into the empire of the Caesars and made the +beginnings of modern Europe. Of this great sweep of races and empires +the settlement of America was merely a part. And it was, moreover, only +one aspect of the expansion which finally carried the peoples, the +institutions, and the trade of Europe to the very ends of the earth. + +In one vital point, it must be noted, American colonization differed +from that of the ancients. The Greeks usually carried with them +affection for the government they left behind and sacred fire from the +altar of the parent city; but thousands of the immigrants who came to +America disliked the state and disowned the church of the mother +country. They established compacts of government for themselves and set +up altars of their own. They sought not only new soil to till but also +political and religious liberty for themselves and their children. + + +THE AGENCIES OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION + +It was no light matter for the English to cross three thousand miles of +water and found homes in the American wilderness at the opening of the +seventeenth century. Ships, tools, and supplies called for huge outlays +of money. Stores had to be furnished in quantities sufficient to sustain +the life of the settlers until they could gather harvests of their own. +Artisans and laborers of skill and industry had to be induced to risk +the hazards of the new world. Soldiers were required for defense and +mariners for the exploration of inland waters. Leaders of good judgment, +adept in managing men, had to be discovered. Altogether such an +enterprise demanded capital larger than the ordinary merchant or +gentleman could amass and involved risks more imminent than he dared to +assume. Though in later days, after initial tests had been made, wealthy +proprietors were able to establish colonies on their own account, it was +the corporation that furnished the capital and leadership in the +beginning. + +=The Trading Company.=--English pioneers in exploration found an +instrument for colonization in companies of merchant adventurers, which +had long been employed in carrying on commerce with foreign countries. +Such a corporation was composed of many persons of different ranks of +society--noblemen, merchants, and gentlemen--who banded together for a +particular undertaking, each contributing a sum of money and sharing in +the profits of the venture. It was organized under royal authority; it +received its charter, its grant of land, and its trading privileges from +the king and carried on its operations under his supervision and +control. The charter named all the persons originally included in the +corporation and gave them certain powers in the management of its +affairs, including the right to admit new members. The company was in +fact a little government set up by the king. When the members of the +corporation remained in England, as in the case of the Virginia Company, +they operated through agents sent to the colony. When they came over the +seas themselves and settled in America, as in the case of Massachusetts, +they became the direct government of the country they possessed. The +stockholders in that instance became the voters and the governor, the +chief magistrate. + +[Illustration: JOHN WINTHROP, GOVERNOR OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY +COMPANY] + +Four of the thirteen colonies in America owed their origins to the +trading corporation. It was the London Company, created by King James I, +in 1606, that laid during the following year the foundations of Virginia +at Jamestown. It was under the auspices of their West India Company, +chartered in 1621, that the Dutch planted the settlements of the New +Netherland in the valley of the Hudson. The founders of Massachusetts +were Puritan leaders and men of affairs whom King Charles I incorporated +in 1629 under the title: "The governor and company of the Massachusetts +Bay in New England." In this case the law did but incorporate a group +drawn together by religious ties. "We must be knit together as one man," +wrote John Winthrop, the first Puritan governor in America. Far to the +south, on the banks of the Delaware River, a Swedish commercial company +in 1638 made the beginnings of a settlement, christened New Sweden; it +was destined to pass under the rule of the Dutch, and finally under the +rule of William Penn as the proprietary colony of Delaware. + +In a certain sense, Georgia may be included among the "company +colonies." It was, however, originally conceived by the moving spirit, +James Oglethorpe, as an asylum for poor men, especially those imprisoned +for debt. To realize this humane purpose, he secured from King George +II, in 1732, a royal charter uniting several gentlemen, including +himself, into "one body politic and corporate," known as the "Trustees +for establishing the colony of Georgia in America." In the structure of +their organization and their methods of government, the trustees did not +differ materially from the regular companies created for trade and +colonization. Though their purposes were benevolent, their transactions +had to be under the forms of law and according to the rules of business. + +=The Religious Congregation.=--A second agency which figured largely in +the settlement of America was the religious brotherhood, or +congregation, of men and women brought together in the bonds of a common +religious faith. By one of the strange fortunes of history, this +institution, founded in the early days of Christianity, proved to be a +potent force in the origin and growth of self-government in a land far +away from Galilee. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one +heart and of one soul," we are told in the Acts describing the Church at +Jerusalem. "We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of +the Lord ... by virtue of which we hold ourselves strictly tied to all +care of each other's good and of the whole," wrote John Robinson, a +leader among the Pilgrims who founded their tiny colony of Plymouth in +1620. The Mayflower Compact, so famous in American history, was but a +written and signed agreement, incorporating the spirit of obedience to +the common good, which served as a guide to self-government until +Plymouth was annexed to Massachusetts in 1691. + +[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL GRANTS] + +Three other colonies, all of which retained their identity until the eve +of the American Revolution, likewise sprang directly from the +congregations of the faithful: Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New +Hampshire, mainly offshoots from Massachusetts. They were founded by +small bodies of men and women, "united in solemn covenants with the +Lord," who planted their settlements in the wilderness. Not until many a +year after Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson conducted their followers +to the Narragansett country was Rhode Island granted a charter of +incorporation (1663) by the crown. Not until long after the congregation +of Thomas Hooker from Newtown blazed the way into the Connecticut River +Valley did the king of England give Connecticut a charter of its own +(1662) and a place among the colonies. Half a century elapsed before the +towns laid out beyond the Merrimac River by emigrants from Massachusetts +were formed into the royal province of New Hampshire in 1679. + +Even when Connecticut was chartered, the parchment and sealing wax of +the royal lawyers did but confirm rights and habits of self-government +and obedience to law previously established by the congregations. The +towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield had long lived happily +under their "Fundamental Orders" drawn up by themselves in 1639; so had +the settlers dwelt peacefully at New Haven under their "Fundamental +Articles" drafted in the same year. The pioneers on the Connecticut +shore had no difficulty in agreeing that "the Scriptures do hold forth a +perfect rule for the direction and government of all men." + +=The Proprietor.=--A third and very important colonial agency was the +proprietor, or proprietary. As the name, associated with the word +"property," implies, the proprietor was a person to whom the king +granted property in lands in North America to have, hold, use, and enjoy +for his own benefit and profit, with the right to hand the estate down +to his heirs in perpetual succession. The proprietor was a rich and +powerful person, prepared to furnish or secure the capital, collect the +ships, supply the stores, and assemble the settlers necessary to found +and sustain a plantation beyond the seas. Sometimes the proprietor +worked alone. Sometimes two or more were associated like partners in the +common undertaking. + +Five colonies, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Carolinas, +owe their formal origins, though not always their first settlements, nor +in most cases their prosperity, to the proprietary system. Maryland, +established in 1634 under a Catholic nobleman, Lord Baltimore, and +blessed with religious toleration by the act of 1649, flourished under +the mild rule of proprietors until it became a state in the American +union. New Jersey, beginning its career under two proprietors, Berkeley +and Carteret, in 1664, passed under the direct government of the crown +in 1702. Pennsylvania was, in a very large measure, the product of the +generous spirit and tireless labors of its first proprietor, the leader +of the Friends, William Penn, to whom it was granted in 1681 and in +whose family it remained until 1776. The two Carolinas were first +organized as one colony in 1663 under the government and patronage of +eight proprietors, including Lord Clarendon; but after more than half a +century both became royal provinces governed by the king. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM PENN, PROPRIETOR OF PENNSYLVANIA] + + +THE COLONIAL PEOPLES + +=The English.=--In leadership and origin the thirteen colonies, except +New York and Delaware, were English. During the early days of all, save +these two, the main, if not the sole, current of immigration was from +England. The colonists came from every walk of life. They were men, +women, and children of "all sorts and conditions." The major portion +were yeomen, or small land owners, farm laborers, and artisans. With +them were merchants and gentlemen who brought their stocks of goods or +their fortunes to the New World. Scholars came from Oxford and +Cambridge to preach the gospel or to teach. Now and then the son of an +English nobleman left his baronial hall behind and cast his lot with +America. The people represented every religious faith--members of the +Established Church of England; Puritans who had labored to reform that +church; Separatists, Baptists, and Friends, who had left it altogether; +and Catholics, who clung to the religion of their fathers. + +New England was almost purely English. During the years between 1629 and +1640, the period of arbitrary Stuart government, about twenty thousand +Puritans emigrated to America, settling in the colonies of the far +North. Although minor additions were made from time to time, the greater +portion of the New England people sprang from this original stock. +Virginia, too, for a long time drew nearly all her immigrants from +England alone. Not until the eve of the Revolution did other +nationalities, mainly the Scotch-Irish and Germans, rival the English in +numbers. + +The populations of later English colonies--the Carolinas, New York, +Pennsylvania, and Georgia--while receiving a steady stream of +immigration from England, were constantly augmented by wanderers from +the older settlements. New York was invaded by Puritans from New England +in such numbers as to cause the Anglican clergymen there to lament that +"free thinking spreads almost as fast as the Church." North Carolina was +first settled toward the northern border by immigrants from Virginia. +Some of the North Carolinians, particularly the Quakers, came all the +way from New England, tarrying in Virginia only long enough to learn how +little they were wanted in that Anglican colony. + +=The Scotch-Irish.=--Next to the English in numbers and influence were +the Scotch-Irish, Presbyterians in belief, English in tongue. Both +religious and economic reasons sent them across the sea. Their Scotch +ancestors, in the days of Cromwell, had settled in the north of Ireland +whence the native Irish had been driven by the conqueror's sword. There +the Scotch nourished for many years enjoying in peace their own form of +religion and growing prosperous in the manufacture of fine linen and +woolen cloth. Then the blow fell. Toward the end of the seventeenth +century their religious worship was put under the ban and the export of +their cloth was forbidden by the English Parliament. Within two decades +twenty thousand Scotch-Irish left Ulster alone, for America; and all +during the eighteenth century the migration continued to be heavy. +Although no exact record was kept, it is reckoned that the Scotch-Irish +and the Scotch who came directly from Scotland, composed one-sixth of +the entire American population on the eve of the Revolution. + +[Illustration: SETTLEMENTS OF GERMAN AND SCOTCH-IRISH +IMMIGRANTS] + +These newcomers in America made their homes chiefly in New Jersey, +Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Coming late upon +the scene, they found much of the land immediately upon the seaboard +already taken up. For this reason most of them became frontier people +settling the interior and upland regions. There they cleared the land, +laid out their small farms, and worked as "sturdy yeomen on the soil," +hardy, industrious, and independent in spirit, sharing neither the +luxuries of the rich planters nor the easy life of the leisurely +merchants. To their agriculture they added woolen and linen +manufactures, which, flourishing in the supple fingers of their tireless +women, made heavy inroads upon the trade of the English merchants in +the colonies. Of their labors a poet has sung: + + "O, willing hands to toil; + Strong natures tuned to the harvest-song and bound to the kindly soil; + Bold pioneers for the wilderness, defenders in the field." + +=The Germans.=--Third among the colonists in order of numerical +importance were the Germans. From the very beginning, they appeared in +colonial records. A number of the artisans and carpenters in the first +Jamestown colony were of German descent. Peter Minuit, the famous +governor of New Motherland, was a German from Wesel on the Rhine, and +Jacob Leisler, leader of a popular uprising against the provincial +administration of New York, was a German from Frankfort-on-Main. The +wholesale migration of Germans began with the founding of Pennsylvania. +Penn was diligent in searching for thrifty farmers to cultivate his +lands and he made a special effort to attract peasants from the Rhine +country. A great association, known as the Frankfort Company, bought +more than twenty thousand acres from him and in 1684 established a +center at Germantown for the distribution of German immigrants. In old +New York, Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson became a similar center for +distribution. All the way from Maine to Georgia inducements were offered +to the German farmers and in nearly every colony were to be found, in +time, German settlements. In fact the migration became so large that +German princes were frightened at the loss of so many subjects and +England was alarmed by the influx of foreigners into her overseas +dominions. Yet nothing could stop the movement. By the end of the +colonial period, the number of Germans had risen to more than two +hundred thousand. + +The majority of them were Protestants from the Rhine region, and South +Germany. Wars, religious controversies, oppression, and poverty drove +them forth to America. Though most of them were farmers, there were also +among them skilled artisans who contributed to the rapid growth of +industries in Pennsylvania. Their iron, glass, paper, and woolen mills, +dotted here and there among the thickly settled regions, added to the +wealth and independence of the province. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +A GLIMPSE OF OLD GERMANTOWN] + +Unlike the Scotch-Irish, the Germans did not speak the language of the +original colonists or mingle freely with them. They kept to themselves, +built their own schools, founded their own newspapers, and published +their own books. Their clannish habits often irritated their neighbors +and led to occasional agitations against "foreigners." However, no +serious collisions seem to have occurred; and in the days of the +Revolution, German soldiers from Pennsylvania fought in the patriot +armies side by side with soldiers from the English and Scotch-Irish +sections. + +=Other Nationalities.=--Though the English, the Scotch-Irish, and the +Germans made up the bulk of the colonial population, there were other +racial strains as well, varying in numerical importance but contributing +their share to colonial life. + +From France came the Huguenots fleeing from the decree of the king which +inflicted terrible penalties upon Protestants. + +From "Old Ireland" came thousands of native Irish, Celtic in race and +Catholic in religion. Like their Scotch-Irish neighbors to the north, +they revered neither the government nor the church of England imposed +upon them by the sword. How many came we do not know, but shipping +records of the colonial period show that boatload after boatload left +the southern and eastern shores of Ireland for the New World. +Undoubtedly thousands of their passengers were Irish of the native +stock. This surmise is well sustained by the constant appearance of +Celtic names in the records of various colonies. + +[Illustration:_From an old print_ + +OLD DUTCH FORT AND ENGLISH CHURCH NEAR ALBANY] + +The Jews, then as ever engaged in their age-long battle for religious +and economic toleration, found in the American colonies, not complete +liberty, but certainly more freedom than they enjoyed in England, +France, Spain, or Portugal. The English law did not actually recognize +their right to live in any of the dominions, but owing to the easy-going +habits of the Americans they were allowed to filter into the seaboard +towns. The treatment they received there varied. On one occasion the +mayor and council of New York forbade them to sell by retail and on +another prohibited the exercise of their religious worship. Newport, +Philadelphia, and Charleston were more hospitable, and there large +Jewish colonies, consisting principally of merchants and their families, +flourished in spite of nominal prohibitions of the law. + +Though the small Swedish colony in Delaware was quickly submerged +beneath the tide of English migration, the Dutch in New York continued +to hold their own for more than a hundred years after the English +conquest in 1664. At the end of the colonial period over one-half of the +170,000 inhabitants of the province were descendants of the original +Dutch--still distinct enough to give a decided cast to the life and +manners of New York. Many of them clung as tenaciously to their mother +tongue as they did to their capacious farmhouses or their Dutch ovens; +but they were slowly losing their identity as the English pressed in +beside them to farm and trade. + +The melting pot had begun its historic mission. + + +THE PROCESS OF COLONIZATION + +Considered from one side, colonization, whatever the motives of the +emigrants, was an economic matter. It involved the use of capital to pay +for their passage, to sustain them on the voyage, and to start them on +the way of production. Under this stern economic necessity, Puritans, +Scotch-Irish, Germans, and all were alike laid. + +=Immigrants Who Paid Their Own Way.=--Many of the immigrants to America +in colonial days were capitalists themselves, in a small or a large way, +and paid their own passage. What proportion of the colonists were able +to finance their voyage across the sea is a matter of pure conjecture. +Undoubtedly a very considerable number could do so, for we can trace the +family fortunes of many early settlers. Henry Cabot Lodge is authority +for the statement that "the settlers of New England were drawn from the +country gentlemen, small farmers, and yeomanry of the mother +country.... Many of the emigrants were men of wealth, as the old lists +show, and all of them, with few exceptions, were men of property and +good standing. They did not belong to the classes from which emigration +is usually supplied, for they all had a stake in the country they left +behind." Though it would be interesting to know how accurate this +statement is or how applicable to the other colonies, no study has as +yet been made to gratify that interest. For the present it is an +unsolved problem just how many of the colonists were able to bear the +cost of their own transfer to the New World. + +=Indentured Servants.=--That at least tens of thousands of immigrants +were unable to pay for their passage is established beyond the shadow of +a doubt by the shipping records that have come down to us. The great +barrier in the way of the poor who wanted to go to America was the cost +of the sea voyage. To overcome this difficulty a plan was worked out +whereby shipowners and other persons of means furnished the passage +money to immigrants in return for their promise, or bond, to work for a +term of years to repay the sum advanced. This system was called +indentured servitude. + +It is probable that the number of bond servants exceeded the original +twenty thousand Puritans, the yeomen, the Virginia gentlemen, and the +Huguenots combined. All the way down the coast from Massachusetts to +Georgia were to be found in the fields, kitchens, and workshops, men, +women, and children serving out terms of bondage generally ranging from +five to seven years. In the proprietary colonies the proportion of bond +servants was very high. The Baltimores, Penns, Carterets, and other +promoters anxiously sought for workers of every nationality to till +their fields, for land without labor was worth no more than land in the +moon. Hence the gates of the proprietary colonies were flung wide open. +Every inducement was offered to immigrants in the form of cheap land, +and special efforts were made to increase the population by importing +servants. In Pennsylvania, it was not uncommon to find a master with +fifty bond servants on his estate. It has been estimated that two-thirds +of all the immigrants into Pennsylvania between the opening of the +eighteenth century and the outbreak of the Revolution were in bondage. +In the other Middle colonies the number was doubtless not so large; but +it formed a considerable part of the population. + +The story of this traffic in white servants is one of the most striking +things in the history of labor. Bondmen differed from the serfs of the +feudal age in that they were not bound to the soil but to the master. +They likewise differed from the negro slaves in that their servitude had +a time limit. Still they were subject to many special disabilities. It +was, for instance, a common practice to impose on them penalties far +heavier than were imposed upon freemen for the same offense. A free +citizen of Pennsylvania who indulged in horse racing and gambling was +let off with a fine; a white servant guilty of the same unlawful conduct +was whipped at the post and fined as well. + +The ordinary life of the white servant was also severely restricted. A +bondman could not marry without his master's consent; nor engage in +trade; nor refuse work assigned to him. For an attempt to escape or +indeed for any infraction of the law, the term of service was extended. +The condition of white bondmen in Virginia, according to Lodge, "was +little better than that of slaves. Loose indentures and harsh laws put +them at the mercy of their masters." It would not be unfair to add that +such was their lot in all other colonies. Their fate depended upon the +temper of their masters. + +Cruel as was the system in many ways, it gave thousands of people in the +Old World a chance to reach the New--an opportunity to wrestle with fate +for freedom and a home of their own. When their weary years of servitude +were over, if they survived, they might obtain land of their own or +settle as free mechanics in the towns. For many a bondman the gamble +proved to be a losing venture because he found himself unable to rise +out of the state of poverty and dependence into which his servitude +carried him. For thousands, on the contrary, bondage proved to be a real +avenue to freedom and prosperity. Some of the best citizens of America +have the blood of indentured servants in their veins. + +=The Transported--Involuntary Servitude.=--In their anxiety to secure +settlers, the companies and proprietors having colonies in America +either resorted to or connived at the practice of kidnapping men, women, +and children from the streets of English cities. In 1680 it was +officially estimated that "ten thousand persons were spirited away" to +America. Many of the victims of the practice were young children, for +the traffic in them was highly profitable. Orphans and dependents were +sometimes disposed of in America by relatives unwilling to support them. +In a single year, 1627, about fifteen hundred children were shipped to +Virginia. + +In this gruesome business there lurked many tragedies, and very few +romances. Parents were separated from their children and husbands from +their wives. Hundreds of skilled artisans--carpenters, smiths, and +weavers--utterly disappeared as if swallowed up by death. A few thus +dragged off to the New World to be sold into servitude for a term of +five or seven years later became prosperous and returned home with +fortunes. In one case a young man who was forcibly carried over the sea +lived to make his way back to England and establish his claim to a +peerage. + +Akin to the kidnapped, at least in economic position, were convicts +deported to the colonies for life in lieu of fines and imprisonment. The +Americans protested vigorously but ineffectually against this practice. +Indeed, they exaggerated its evils, for many of the "criminals" were +only mild offenders against unduly harsh and cruel laws. A peasant +caught shooting a rabbit on a lord's estate or a luckless servant girl +who purloined a pocket handkerchief was branded as a criminal along with +sturdy thieves and incorrigible rascals. Other transported offenders +were "political criminals"; that is, persons who criticized or opposed +the government. This class included now Irish who revolted against +British rule in Ireland; now Cavaliers who championed the king against +the Puritan revolutionists; Puritans, in turn, dispatched after the +monarchy was restored; and Scotch and English subjects in general who +joined in political uprisings against the king. + +=The African Slaves.=--Rivaling in numbers, in the course of time, the +indentured servants and whites carried to America against their will +were the African negroes brought to America and sold into slavery. When +this form of bondage was first introduced into Virginia in 1619, it was +looked upon as a temporary necessity to be discarded with the increase +of the white population. Moreover it does not appear that those planters +who first bought negroes at the auction block intended to establish a +system of permanent bondage. Only by a slow process did chattel slavery +take firm root and become recognized as the leading source of the labor +supply. In 1650, thirty years after the introduction of slavery, there +were only three hundred Africans in Virginia. + +The great increase in later years was due in no small measure to the +inordinate zeal for profits that seized slave traders both in Old and in +New England. Finding it relatively easy to secure negroes in Africa, +they crowded the Southern ports with their vessels. The English Royal +African Company sent to America annually between 1713 and 1743 from five +to ten thousand slaves. The ship owners of New England were not far +behind their English brethren in pushing this extraordinary traffic. + +As the proportion of the negroes to the free white population steadily +rose, and as whole sections were overrun with slaves and slave traders, +the Southern colonies grew alarmed. In 1710, Virginia sought to curtail +the importation by placing a duty of L5 on each slave. This effort was +futile, for the royal governor promptly vetoed it. From time to time +similar bills were passed, only to meet with royal disapproval. South +Carolina, in 1760, absolutely prohibited importation; but the measure +was killed by the British crown. As late as 1772, Virginia, not daunted +by a century of rebuffs, sent to George III a petition in this vein: +"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa +hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity and under its +present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear, will endanger +the very existence of Your Majesty's American dominions.... Deeply +impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech Your Majesty to +remove all those restraints on Your Majesty's governors of this colony +which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very +pernicious a commerce." + +All such protests were without avail. The negro population grew by leaps +and bounds, until on the eve of the Revolution it amounted to more than +half a million. In five states--Maryland, Virginia, the two Carolinas, +and Georgia--the slaves nearly equalled or actually exceeded the whites +in number. In South Carolina they formed almost two-thirds of the +population. Even in the Middle colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania +about one-fifth of the inhabitants were from Africa. To the North, the +proportion of slaves steadily diminished although chattel servitude was +on the same legal footing as in the South. In New York approximately one +in six and in New England one in fifty were negroes, including a few +freedmen. + +The climate, the soil, the commerce, and the industry of the North were +all unfavorable to the growth of a servile population. Still, slavery, +though sectional, was a part of the national system of economy. Northern +ships carried slaves to the Southern colonies and the produce of the +plantations to Europe. "If the Northern states will consult their +interest, they will not oppose the increase in slaves which will +increase the commodities of which they will become the carriers," said +John Rutledge, of South Carolina, in the convention which framed the +Constitution of the United States. "What enriches a part enriches the +whole and the states are the best judges of their particular interest," +responded Oliver Ellsworth, the distinguished spokesman of Connecticut. + +=References= + +E. Charming, _History of the United States_, Vols. I and II. + +J.A. Doyle, _The English Colonies in America_ (5 vols.). + +J. Fiske, _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_ (2 vols.). + +A.B. Faust, _The German Element in the United States_ (2 vols.). + +H.J. Ford, _The Scotch-Irish in America_. + +L. Tyler, _England in America_ (American Nation Series). + +R. Usher, _The Pilgrims and Their History_. + + +=Questions= + +1. America has been called a nation of immigrants. Explain why. + +2. Why were individuals unable to go alone to America in the beginning? +What agencies made colonization possible? Discuss each of them. + +3. Make a table of the colonies, showing the methods employed in their +settlement. + +4. Why were capital and leadership so very important in early +colonization? + +5. What is meant by the "melting pot"? What nationalities were +represented among the early colonists? + +6. Compare the way immigrants come to-day with the way they came in +colonial times. + +7. Contrast indentured servitude with slavery and serfdom. + +8. Account for the anxiety of companies and proprietors to secure +colonists. + +9. What forces favored the heavy importation of slaves? + +10. In what way did the North derive advantages from slavery? + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Chartered Company.=--Compare the first and third charters of +Virginia in Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book of American History_, +1606-1898, pp. 1-14. Analyze the first and second Massachusetts charters +in Macdonald, pp. 22-84. Special reference: W.A.S. Hewins, _English +Trading Companies_. + +=Congregations and Compacts for Self-government.=--A study of the +Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the +Fundamental Articles of New Haven in Macdonald, pp. 19, 36, 39. +Reference: Charles Borgeaud, _Rise of Modern Democracy_, and C.S. +Lobingier, _The People's Law_, Chaps. I-VII. + +=The Proprietary System.=--Analysis of Penn's charter of 1681, in +Macdonald, p. 80. Reference: Lodge, _Short History of the English +Colonies in America_, p. 211. + +=Studies of Individual Colonies.=--Review of outstanding events in +history of each colony, using Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. +55-159, as the basis. + +=Biographical Studies.=--John Smith, John Winthrop, William Penn, Lord +Baltimore, William Bradford, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Thomas +Hooker, and Peter Stuyvesant, using any good encyclopedia. + +=Indentured Servitude.=--In Virginia, Lodge, _Short History_, pp. 69-72; +in Pennsylvania, pp. 242-244. Contemporary account in Callender, +_Economic History of the United States_, pp. 44-51. Special reference: +Karl Geiser, _Redemptioners and Indentured Servants_ (Yale Review, X, +No. 2 Supplement). + +=Slavery.=--In Virginia, Lodge, _Short History_, pp. 67-69; in the +Northern colonies, pp. 241, 275, 322, 408, 442. + +=The People of the Colonies.=--Virginia, Lodge, _Short History_, pp. +67-73; New England, pp. 406-409, 441-450; Pennsylvania, pp. 227-229, +240-250; New York, pp. 312-313, 322-335. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE + +THE LAND AND THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT + + +=The Significance of Land Tenure.=--The way in which land may be +acquired, held, divided among heirs, and bought and sold exercises a +deep influence on the life and culture of a people. The feudal and +aristocratic societies of Europe were founded on a system of landlordism +which was characterized by two distinct features. In the first place, +the land was nearly all held in great estates, each owned by a single +proprietor. In the second place, every estate was kept intact under the +law of primogeniture, which at the death of a lord transferred all his +landed property to his eldest son. This prevented the subdivision of +estates and the growth of a large body of small farmers or freeholders +owning their own land. It made a form of tenantry or servitude +inevitable for the mass of those who labored on the land. It also +enabled the landlords to maintain themselves in power as a governing +class and kept the tenants and laborers subject to their economic and +political control. If land tenure was so significant in Europe, it was +equally important in the development of America, where practically all +the first immigrants were forced by circumstances to derive their +livelihood from the soil. + +=Experiments in Common Tillage.=--In the New World, with its broad +extent of land awaiting the white man's plow, it was impossible to +introduce in its entirety and over the whole area the system of lords +and tenants that existed across the sea. So it happened that almost +every kind of experiment in land tenure, from communism to feudalism, +was tried. In the early days of the Jamestown colony, the land, though +owned by the London Company, was tilled in common by the settlers. No +man had a separate plot of his own. The motto of the community was: +"Labor and share alike." All were supposed to work in the fields and +receive an equal share of the produce. At Plymouth, the Pilgrims +attempted a similar experiment, laying out the fields in common and +distributing the joint produce of their labor with rough equality among +the workers. + +In both colonies the communistic experiments were failures. Angry at the +lazy men in Jamestown who idled their time away and yet expected regular +meals, Captain John Smith issued a manifesto: "Everyone that gathereth +not every day as much as I do, the next day shall be set beyond the +river and forever banished from the fort and live there or starve." Even +this terrible threat did not bring a change in production. Not until +each man was given a plot of his own to till, not until each gathered +the fruits of his own labor, did the colony prosper. In Plymouth, where +the communal experiment lasted for five years, the results were similar +to those in Virginia, and the system was given up for one of separate +fields in which every person could "set corn for his own particular." +Some other New England towns, refusing to profit by the experience of +their Plymouth neighbor, also made excursions into common ownership and +labor, only to abandon the idea and go in for individual ownership of +the land. "By degrees it was seen that even the Lord's people could not +carry the complicated communist legislation into perfect and wholesome +practice." + +=Feudal Elements in the Colonies--Quit Rents, Manors, and +Plantations.=--At the other end of the scale were the feudal elements of +land tenure found in the proprietary colonies, in the seaboard regions +of the South, and to some extent in New York. The proprietor was in fact +a powerful feudal lord, owning land granted to him by royal charter. He +could retain any part of it for his personal use or dispose of it all in +large or small lots. While he generally kept for himself an estate of +baronial proportions, it was impossible for him to manage directly any +considerable part of the land in his dominion. Consequently he either +sold it in parcels for lump sums or granted it to individuals on +condition that they make to him an annual payment in money, known as +"quit rent." In Maryland, the proprietor sometimes collected as high as +L9000 (equal to about $500,000 to-day) in a single year from this +source. In Pennsylvania, the quit rents brought a handsome annual +tribute into the exchequer of the Penn family. In the royal provinces, +the king of England claimed all revenues collected in this form from the +land, a sum amounting to L19,000 at the time of the Revolution. The quit +rent,--"really a feudal payment from freeholders,"--was thus a material +source of income for the crown as well as for the proprietors. Wherever +it was laid, however, it proved to be a burden, a source of constant +irritation; and it became a formidable item in the long list of +grievances which led to the American Revolution. + +Something still more like the feudal system of the Old World appeared in +the numerous manors or the huge landed estates granted by the crown, the +companies, or the proprietors. In the colony of Maryland alone there +were sixty manors of three thousand acres each, owned by wealthy men and +tilled by tenants holding small plots under certain restrictions of +tenure. In New York also there were many manors of wide extent, most of +which originated in the days of the Dutch West India Company, when +extensive concessions were made to patroons to induce them to bring over +settlers. The Van Rensselaer, the Van Cortlandt, and the Livingston +manors were so large and populous that each was entitled to send a +representative to the provincial legislature. The tenants on the New +York manors were in somewhat the same position as serfs on old European +estates. They were bound to pay the owner a rent in money and kind; they +ground their grain at his mill; and they were subject to his judicial +power because he held court and meted out justice, in some instances +extending to capital punishment. + +The manors of New York or Maryland were, however, of slight consequence +as compared with the vast plantations of the Southern seaboard--huge +estates, far wider in expanse than many a European barony and tilled by +slaves more servile than any feudal tenants. It must not be forgotten +that this system of land tenure became the dominant feature of a large +section and gave a decided bent to the economic and political life of +America. + +[Illustration: SOUTHERN PLANTATION MANSION] + +=The Small Freehold.=--In the upland regions of the South, however, and +throughout most of the North, the drift was against all forms of +servitude and tenantry and in the direction of the freehold; that is, +the small farm owned outright and tilled by the possessor and his +family. This was favored by natural circumstances and the spirit of the +immigrants. For one thing, the abundance of land and the scarcity of +labor made it impossible for the companies, the proprietors, or the +crown to develop over the whole continent a network of vast estates. In +many sections, particularly in New England, the climate, the stony soil, +the hills, and the narrow valleys conspired to keep the farms within a +moderate compass. For another thing, the English, Scotch-Irish, and +German peasants, even if they had been tenants in the Old World, did not +propose to accept permanent dependency of any kind in the New. If they +could not get freeholds, they would not settle at all; thus they forced +proprietors and companies to bid for their enterprise by selling land in +small lots. So it happened that the freehold of modest proportions +became the cherished unit of American farmers. The people who tilled the +farms were drawn from every quarter of western Europe; but the freehold +system gave a uniform cast to their economic and social life in America. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +A NEW ENGLAND FARMHOUSE] + +=Social Effects of Land Tenure.=--Land tenure and the process of western +settlement thus developed two distinct types of people engaged in the +same pursuit--agriculture. They had a common tie in that they both +cultivated the soil and possessed the local interest and independence +which arise from that occupation. Their methods and their culture, +however, differed widely. + +The Southern planter, on his broad acres tilled by slaves, resembled the +English landlord on his estates more than he did the colonial farmer who +labored with his own hands in the fields and forests. He sold his rice +and tobacco in large amounts directly to English factors, who took his +entire crop in exchange for goods and cash. His fine clothes, +silverware, china, and cutlery he bought in English markets. Loving the +ripe old culture of the mother country, he often sent his sons to Oxford +or Cambridge for their education. In short, he depended very largely for +his prosperity and his enjoyment of life upon close relations with the +Old World. He did not even need market towns in which to buy native +goods, for they were made on his own plantation by his own artisans who +were usually gifted slaves. + +The economic condition of the small farmer was totally different. His +crops were not big enough to warrant direct connection with English +factors or the personal maintenance of a corps of artisans. He needed +local markets, and they sprang up to meet the need. Smiths, hatters, +weavers, wagon-makers, and potters at neighboring towns supplied him +with the rough products of their native skill. The finer goods, bought +by the rich planter in England, the small farmer ordinarily could not +buy. His wants were restricted to staples like tea and sugar, and +between him and the European market stood the merchant. His community +was therefore more self-sufficient than the seaboard line of great +plantations. It was more isolated, more provincial, more independent, +more American. The planter faced the Old East. The farmer faced the New +West. + +=The Westward Movement.=--Yeoman and planter nevertheless were alike in +one respect. Their land hunger was never appeased. Each had the eye of +an expert for new and fertile soil; and so, north and south, as soon as +a foothold was secured on the Atlantic coast, the current of migration +set in westward, creeping through forests, across rivers, and over +mountains. Many of the later immigrants, in their search for cheap +lands, were compelled to go to the border; but in a large part the path +breakers to the West were native Americans of the second and third +generations. Explorers, fired by curiosity and the lure of the +mysterious unknown, and hunters, fur traders, and squatters, following +their own sweet wills, blazed the trail, opening paths and sending back +stories of the new regions they traversed. Then came the regular +settlers with lawful titles to the lands they had purchased, sometimes +singly and sometimes in companies. + +In Massachusetts, the westward movement is recorded in the founding of +Springfield in 1636 and Great Barrington in 1725. By the opening of the +eighteenth century the pioneers of Connecticut had pushed north and west +until their outpost towns adjoined the Hudson Valley settlements. In New +York, the inland movement was directed by the Hudson River to Albany, +and from that old Dutch center it radiated in every direction, +particularly westward through the Mohawk Valley. New Jersey was early +filled to its borders, the beginnings of the present city of New +Brunswick being made in 1681 and those of Trenton in 1685. In +Pennsylvania, as in New York, the waterways determined the main lines of +advance. Pioneers, pushing up through the valley of the Schuylkill, +spread over the fertile lands of Berks and Lancaster counties, laying +out Reading in 1748. Another current of migration was directed by the +Susquehanna, and, in 1726, the first farmhouse was built on the bank +where Harrisburg was later founded. Along the southern tier of counties +a thin line of settlements stretched westward to Pittsburgh, reaching +the upper waters of the Ohio while the colony was still under the Penn +family. + +In the South the westward march was equally swift. The seaboard was +quickly occupied by large planters and their slaves engaged in the +cultivation of tobacco and rice. The Piedmont Plateau, lying back from +the coast all the way from Maryland to Georgia, was fed by two streams +of migration, one westward from the sea and the other southward from the +other colonies--Germans from Pennsylvania and Scotch-Irish furnishing +the main supply. "By 1770, tide-water Virginia was full to overflowing +and the 'back country' of the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah was fully +occupied. Even the mountain valleys ... were claimed by sturdy pioneers. +Before the Declaration of Independence, the oncoming tide of +home-seekers had reached the crest of the Alleghanies." + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790] + +Beyond the mountains pioneers had already ventured, harbingers of an +invasion that was about to break in upon Kentucky and Tennessee. As +early as 1769 that mighty Nimrod, Daniel Boone, curious to hunt +buffaloes, of which he had heard weird reports, passed through the +Cumberland Gap and brought back news of a wonderful country awaiting the +plow. A hint was sufficient. Singly, in pairs, and in groups, settlers +followed the trail he had blazed. A great land corporation, the +Transylvania Company, emulating the merchant adventurers of earlier +times, secured a huge grant of territory and sought profits in quit +rents from lands sold to farmers. By the outbreak of the Revolution +there were several hundred people in the Kentucky region. Like the older +colonists, they did not relish quit rents, and their opposition wrecked +the Transylvania Company. They even carried their protests into the +Continental Congress in 1776, for by that time they were our "embryo +fourteenth colony." + + +INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT + +Though the labor of the colonists was mainly spent in farming, there was +a steady growth in industrial and commercial pursuits. Most of the +staple industries of to-day, not omitting iron and textiles, have their +beginnings in colonial times. Manufacturing and trade soon gave rise to +towns which enjoyed an importance all out of proportion to their +numbers. The great centers of commerce and finance on the seaboard +originated in the days when the king of England was "lord of these +dominions." + +[Illustration: DOMESTIC INDUSTRY: DIPPING TALLOW CANDLES] + +=Textile Manufacture as a Domestic Industry.=--Colonial women, in +addition to sharing every hardship of pioneering, often the heavy labor +of the open field, developed in the course of time a national industry +which was almost exclusively their own. Wool and flax were raised in +abundance in the North and South. "Every farm house," says Coman, the +economic historian, "was a workshop where the women spun and wove the +serges, kerseys, and linsey-woolseys which served for the common wear." +By the close of the seventeenth century, New England manufactured cloth +in sufficient quantities to export it to the Southern colonies and to +the West Indies. As the industry developed, mills were erected for the +more difficult process of dyeing, weaving, and fulling, but carding and +spinning continued to be done in the home. The Dutch of New Netherland, +the Swedes of Delaware, and the Scotch-Irish of the interior "were not +one whit behind their Yankee neighbors." + +The importance of this enterprise to British economic life can hardly be +overestimated. For many a century the English had employed their fine +woolen cloth as the chief staple in a lucrative foreign trade, and the +government had come to look upon it as an object of special interest and +protection. When the colonies were established, both merchants and +statesmen naturally expected to maintain a monopoly of increasing value; +but before long the Americans, instead of buying cloth, especially of +the coarser varieties, were making it to sell. In the place of +customers, here were rivals. In the place of helpless reliance upon +English markets, here was the germ of economic independence. + +If British merchants had not discovered it in the ordinary course of +trade, observant officers in the provinces would have conveyed the news +to them. Even in the early years of the eighteenth century the royal +governor of New York wrote of the industrious Americans to his home +government: "The consequence will be that if they can clothe themselves +once, not only comfortably, but handsomely too, without the help of +England, they who already are not very fond of submitting to government +will soon think of putting in execution designs they have long harboured +in their breasts. This will not seem strange when you consider what sort +of people this country is inhabited by." + +=The Iron Industry.=--Almost equally widespread was the art of iron +working--one of the earliest and most picturesque of colonial +industries. Lynn, Massachusetts, had a forge and skilled artisans within +fifteen years after the founding of Boston. The smelting of iron began +at New London and New Haven about 1658; in Litchfield county, +Connecticut, a few years later; at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in +1731; and near by at Lenox some thirty years after that. New Jersey had +iron works at Shrewsbury within ten years after the founding of the +colony in 1665. Iron forges appeared in the valleys of the Delaware and +the Susquehanna early in the following century, and iron masters then +laid the foundations of fortunes in a region destined to become one of +the great iron centers of the world. Virginia began iron working in the +year that saw the introduction of slavery. Although the industry soon +lapsed, it was renewed and flourished in the eighteenth century. +Governor Spotswood was called the "Tubal Cain" of the Old Dominion +because he placed the industry on a firm foundation. Indeed it seems +that every colony, except Georgia, had its iron foundry. Nails, wire, +metallic ware, chains, anchors, bar and pig iron were made in large +quantities; and Great Britain, by an act in 1750, encouraged the +colonists to export rough iron to the British Islands. + +=Shipbuilding.=--Of all the specialized industries in the colonies, +shipbuilding was the most important. The abundance of fir for masts, oak +for timbers and boards, pitch for tar and turpentine, and hemp for rope +made the way of the shipbuilder easy. Early in the seventeenth century a +ship was built at New Amsterdam, and by the middle of that century +shipyards were scattered along the New England coast at Newburyport, +Salem, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, New London, and New Haven. +Yards at Albany and Poughkeepsie in New York built ships for the trade +of that colony with England and the Indies. Wilmington and Philadelphia +soon entered the race and outdistanced New York, though unable to equal +the pace set by New England. While Maryland, Virginia, and South +Carolina also built ships, Southern interest was mainly confined to the +lucrative business of producing ship materials: fir, cedar, hemp, and +tar. + +=Fishing.=--The greatest single economic resource of New England outside +of agriculture was the fisheries. This industry, started by hardy +sailors from Europe, long before the landing of the Pilgrims, flourished +under the indomitable seamanship of the Puritans, who labored with the +net and the harpoon in almost every quarter of the Atlantic. "Look," +exclaimed Edmund Burke, in the House of Commons, "at the manner in +which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale +fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice and +behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay +and Davis's Straits, while we are looking for them beneath the arctic +circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar +cold, that they are at the antipodes and engaged under the frozen +serpent of the south.... Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging +to them than the accumulated winter of both poles. We know that, whilst +some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of +Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along +the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No +climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of +Holland nor the activity of France nor the dexterous and firm sagacity +of English enterprise ever carried this most perilous mode of hard +industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent +people." + +The influence of the business was widespread. A large and lucrative +European trade was built upon it. The better quality of the fish caught +for food was sold in the markets of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, or +exchanged for salt, lemons, and raisins for the American market. The +lower grades of fish were carried to the West Indies for slave +consumption, and in part traded for sugar and molasses, which furnished +the raw materials for the thriving rum industry of New England. These +activities, in turn, stimulated shipbuilding, steadily enlarging the +demand for fishing and merchant craft of every kind and thus keeping the +shipwrights, calkers, rope makers, and other artisans of the seaport +towns rushed with work. They also increased trade with the mother +country for, out of the cash collected in the fish markets of Europe and +the West Indies, the colonists paid for English manufactures. So an +ever-widening circle of American enterprise centered around this single +industry, the nursery of seamanship and the maritime spirit. + +=Oceanic Commerce and American Merchants.=--All through the eighteenth +century, the commerce of the American colonies spread in every direction +until it rivaled in the number of people employed, the capital engaged, +and the profits gleaned, the commerce of European nations. A modern +historian has said: "The enterprising merchants of New England developed +a network of trade routes that covered well-nigh half the world." This +commerce, destined to be of such significance in the conflict with the +mother country, presented, broadly speaking, two aspects. + +On the one side, it involved the export of raw materials and +agricultural produce. The Southern colonies produced for shipping, +tobacco, rice, tar, pitch, and pine; the Middle colonies, grain, flour, +furs, lumber, and salt pork; New England, fish, flour, rum, furs, shoes, +and small articles of manufacture. The variety of products was in fact +astounding. A sarcastic writer, while sneering at the idea of an +American union, once remarked of colonial trade: "What sort of dish will +you make? New England will throw in fish and onions. The middle states, +flax-seed and flour. Maryland and Virginia will add tobacco. North +Carolina, pitch, tar, and turpentine. South Carolina, rice and indigo, +and Georgia will sprinkle the whole composition with sawdust. Such an +absurd jumble will you make if you attempt to form a union among such +discordant materials as the thirteen British provinces." + +On the other side, American commerce involved the import trade, +consisting principally of English and continental manufactures, tea, and +"India goods." Sugar and molasses, brought from the West Indies, +supplied the flourishing distilleries of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, +and Connecticut. The carriage of slaves from Africa to the Southern +colonies engaged hundreds of New England's sailors and thousands of +pounds of her capital. + +The disposition of imported goods in the colonies, though in part +controlled by English factors located in America, employed also a large +and important body of American merchants like the Willings and Morrises +of Philadelphia; the Amorys, Hancocks, and Faneuils of Boston; and the +Livingstons and Lows of New York. In their zeal and enterprise, they +were worthy rivals of their English competitors, so celebrated for +world-wide commercial operations. Though fully aware of the advantages +they enjoyed in British markets and under the protection of the British +navy, the American merchants were high-spirited and mettlesome, ready to +contend with royal officers in order to shield American interests +against outside interference. + +[Illustration: THE DUTCH WEST INDIA WAREHOUSE IN NEW AMSTERDAM +(NEW YORK CITY)] + +Measured against the immense business of modern times, colonial commerce +seems perhaps trivial. That, however, is not the test of its +significance. It must be considered in relation to the growth of English +colonial trade in its entirety--a relation which can be shown by a few +startling figures. The whole export trade of England, including that to +the colonies, was, in 1704, L6,509,000. On the eve of the American +Revolution, namely, in 1772, English exports to the American colonies +alone amounted to L6,024,000; in other words, almost as much as the +whole foreign business of England two generations before. At the first +date, colonial trade was but one-twelfth of the English export business; +at the second date, it was considerably more than one-third. In 1704, +Pennsylvania bought in English markets goods to the value of L11,459; in +1772 the purchases of the same colony amounted to L507,909. In short, +Pennsylvania imports increased fifty times within sixty-eight years, +amounting in 1772 to almost the entire export trade of England to the +colonies at the opening of the century. The American colonies were +indeed a great source of wealth to English merchants. + +=Intercolonial Commerce.=--Although the bad roads of colonial times made +overland transportation difficult and costly, the many rivers and +harbors along the coast favored a lively water-borne trade among the +colonies. The Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, and Susquehanna rivers in +the North and the many smaller rivers in the South made it possible for +goods to be brought from, and carried to, the interior regions in little +sailing vessels with comparative ease. Sloops laden with manufactures, +domestic and foreign, collected at some city like Providence, New York, +or Philadelphia, skirted the coasts, visited small ports, and sailed up +the navigable rivers to trade with local merchants who had for exchange +the raw materials which they had gathered in from neighboring farms. +Larger ships carried the grain, live stock, cloth, and hardware of New +England to the Southern colonies, where they were traded for tobacco, +leather, tar, and ship timber. From the harbors along the Connecticut +shores there were frequent sailings down through Long Island Sound to +Maryland, Virginia, and the distant Carolinas. + +=Growth of Towns.=--In connection with this thriving trade and industry +there grew up along the coast a number of prosperous commercial centers +which were soon reckoned among the first commercial towns of the whole +British empire, comparing favorably in numbers and wealth with such +ports as Liverpool and Bristol. The statistical records of that time are +mainly guesses; but we know that Philadelphia stood first in size among +these towns. Serving as the port of entry for Pennsylvania, Delaware, +and western Jersey, it had drawn within its borders, just before the +Revolution, about 25,000 inhabitants. Boston was second in rank, with +somewhat more than 20,000 people. New York, the "commercial capital of +Connecticut and old East Jersey," was slightly smaller than Boston, but +growing at a steady rate. The fourth town in size was Charleston, South +Carolina, with about 10,000 inhabitants. Newport in Rhode Island, a +center of rum manufacture and shipping, stood fifth, with a population +of about 7000. Baltimore and Norfolk were counted as "considerable +towns." In the interior, Hartford in Connecticut, Lancaster and York in +Pennsylvania, and Albany in New York, with growing populations and +increasing trade, gave prophecy of an urban America away from the +seaboard. The other towns were straggling villages. Williamsburg, +Virginia, for example, had about two hundred houses, in which dwelt a +dozen families of the gentry and a few score of tradesmen. Inland county +seats often consisted of nothing more than a log courthouse, a prison, +and one wretched inn to house judges, lawyers, and litigants during the +sessions of the court. + +The leading towns exercised an influence on colonial opinion all out of +proportion to their population. They were the centers of wealth, for one +thing; of the press and political activity, for another. Merchants and +artisans could readily take concerted action on public questions arising +from their commercial operations. The towns were also centers for news, +gossip, religious controversy, and political discussion. In the market +places the farmers from the countryside learned of British policies and +laws, and so, mingling with the townsmen, were drawn into the main +currents of opinion which set in toward colonial nationalism and +independence. + + +=References= + +J. Bishop, _History of American Manufactures_ (2 vols.). + +E.L. Bogart, _Economic History of the United States_. + +P.A. Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia_ (2 vols.). + +E. Semple, _American History and Its Geographical Conditions_. + +W. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_. (2 vols.). + + +=Questions= + +1. Is land in your community parceled out into small farms? Contrast the +system in your community with the feudal system of land tenure. + +2. Are any things owned and used in common in your community? Why did +common tillage fail in colonial times? + +3. Describe the elements akin to feudalism which were introduced in the +colonies. + +4. Explain the success of freehold tillage. + +5. Compare the life of the planter with that of the farmer. + +6. How far had the western frontier advanced by 1776? + +7. What colonial industry was mainly developed by women? Why was it very +important both to the Americans and to the English? + +8. What were the centers for iron working? Ship building? + +9. Explain how the fisheries affected many branches of trade and +industry. + +10. Show how American trade formed a vital part of English business. + +11. How was interstate commerce mainly carried on? + +12. What were the leading towns? Did they compare in importance with +British towns of the same period? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Land Tenure.=--Coman, _Industrial History_ (rev. ed.), pp. 32-38. +Special reference: Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia_, Vol. I, Chap. +VIII. + +=Tobacco Planting in Virginia.=--Callender, _Economic History of the +United States_, pp. 22-28. + +=Colonial Agriculture.=--Coman, pp. 48-63. Callender, pp. 69-74. +Reference: J.R.H. Moore, _Industrial History of the American People_, +pp. 131-162. + +=Colonial Manufactures.=--Coman, pp. 63-73. Callender, pp. 29-44. +Special reference: Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_. + +=Colonial Commerce.=--Coman, pp. 73-85. Callender, pp. 51-63, 78-84. +Moore, pp. 163-208. Lodge, _Short History of the English Colonies_, pp. +409-412, 229-231, 312-314. + + + + +Chapter III + +SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS + + +Colonial life, crowded as it was with hard and unremitting toil, left +scant leisure for the cultivation of the arts and sciences. There was +little money in private purses or public treasuries to be dedicated to +schools, libraries, and museums. Few there were with time to read long +and widely, and fewer still who could devote their lives to things that +delight the eye and the mind. And yet, poor and meager as the +intellectual life of the colonists may seem by way of comparison, heroic +efforts were made in every community to lift the people above the plane +of mere existence. After the first clearings were opened in the forests +those efforts were redoubled, and with lengthening years told upon the +thought and spirit of the land. The appearance, during the struggle with +England, of an extraordinary group of leaders familiar with history, +political philosophy, and the arts of war, government, and diplomacy +itself bore eloquent testimony to the high quality of the American +intellect. No one, not even the most critical, can run through the +writings of distinguished Americans scattered from Massachusetts to +Georgia--the Adamses, Ellsworth, the Morrises, the Livingstons, +Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, Madison, Marshall, Henry, the Randolphs, +and the Pinckneys--without coming to the conclusion that there was +something in American colonial life which fostered minds of depth and +power. Women surmounted even greater difficulties than the men in the +process of self-education, and their keen interest in public issues is +evident in many a record like the _Letters_ of Mrs. John Adams to her +husband during the Revolution; the writings of Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren, +the sister of James Otis, who measured her pen with the British +propagandists; and the patriot newspapers founded and managed by women. + + +THE LEADERSHIP OF THE CHURCHES + +In the intellectual life of America, the churches assumed a role of high +importance. There were abundant reasons for this. In many of the +colonies--Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New England--the religious impulse +had been one of the impelling motives in stimulating immigration. In all +the colonies, the clergy, at least in the beginning, formed the only +class with any leisure to devote to matters of the spirit. They preached +on Sundays and taught school on week days. They led in the discussion of +local problems and in the formation of political opinion, so much of +which was concerned with the relation between church and state. They +wrote books and pamphlets. They filled most of the chairs in the +colleges; under clerical guidance, intellectual and spiritual, the +Americans received their formal education. In several of the provinces +the Anglican Church was established by law. In New England the Puritans +were supreme, notwithstanding the efforts of the crown to overbear their +authority. In the Middle colonies, particularly, the multiplication of +sects made the dominance of any single denomination impossible; and in +all of them there was a growing diversity of faith, which promised in +time a separation of church and state and freedom of opinion. + +=The Church of England.=--Virginia was the stronghold of the English +system of church and state. The Anglican faith and worship were +prescribed by law, sustained by taxes imposed on all, and favored by the +governor, the provincial councilors, and the richest planters. "The +Established Church," says Lodge, "was one of the appendages of the +Virginia aristocracy. They controlled the vestries and the ministers, +and the parish church stood not infrequently on the estate of the +planter who built and managed it." As in England, Catholics and +Protestant Dissenters were at first laid under heavy disabilities. Only +slowly and on sufferance were they admitted to the province; but when +once they were even covertly tolerated, they pressed steadily in, until, +by the Revolution, they outnumbered the adherents of the established +order. + +The Church was also sanctioned by law and supported by taxes in the +Carolinas after 1704, and in Georgia after that colony passed directly +under the crown in 1754--this in spite of the fact that the majority of +the inhabitants were Dissenters. Against the protests of the Catholics +it was likewise established in Maryland. In New York, too, +notwithstanding the resistance of the Dutch, the Established Church was +fostered by the provincial officials, and the Anglicans, embracing about +one-fifteenth of the population, exerted an influence all out of +proportion to their numbers. + +Many factors helped to enhance the power of the English Church in the +colonies. It was supported by the British government and the official +class sent out to the provinces. Its bishops and archbishops in England +were appointed by the king, and its faith and service were set forth by +acts of Parliament. Having its seat of power in the English monarchy, it +could hold its clergy and missionaries loyal to the crown and so +counteract to some extent the independent spirit that was growing up in +America. The Church, always a strong bulwark of the state, therefore had +a political role to play here as in England. Able bishops and far-seeing +leaders firmly grasped this fact about the middle of the eighteenth +century and redoubled their efforts to augment the influence of the +Church in provincial affairs. Unhappily for their plans they failed to +calculate in advance the effect of their methods upon dissenting +Protestants, who still cherished memories of bitter religious conflicts +in the mother country. + +=Puritanism in New England.=--If the established faith made for imperial +unity, the same could not be said of Puritanism. The Plymouth Pilgrims +had cast off all allegiance to the Anglican Church and established a +separate and independent congregation before they came to America. The +Puritans, essaying at first the task of reformers within the Church, +soon after their arrival in Massachusetts, likewise flung off their yoke +of union with the Anglicans. In each town a separate congregation was +organized, the male members choosing the pastor, the teachers, and the +other officers. They also composed the voters in the town meeting, where +secular matters were determined. The union of church and government was +thus complete, and uniformity of faith and life prescribed by law and +enforced by civil authorities; but this worked for local autonomy +instead of imperial unity. + +The clergy became a powerful class, dominant through their learning and +their fearful denunciations of the faithless. They wrote the books for +the people to read--the famous Cotton Mather having three hundred and +eighty-three books and pamphlets to his credit. In cooeperation with the +civil officers they enforced a strict observance of the Puritan +Sabbath--a day of rest that began at six o'clock on Saturday evening and +lasted until sunset on Sunday. All work, all trading, all amusement, and +all worldly conversation were absolutely prohibited during those hours. +A thoughtless maid servant who for some earthly reason smiled in church +was in danger of being banished as a vagabond. Robert Pike, a devout +Puritan, thinking the sun had gone to rest, ventured forth on horseback +one Sunday evening and was luckless enough to have a ray of light strike +him through a rift in the clouds. The next day he was brought into court +and fined for "his ungodly conduct." With persons accused of witchcraft +the Puritans were still more ruthless. When a mania of persecution swept +over Massachusetts in 1692, eighteen people were hanged, one was pressed +to death, many suffered imprisonment, and two died in jail. + +Just about this time, however, there came a break in the uniformity of +Puritan rule. The crown and church in England had long looked upon it +with disfavor, and in 1684 King Charles II annulled the old charter of +the Massachusetts Bay Company. A new document issued seven years later +wrested from the Puritans of the colony the right to elect their own +governor and reserved the power of appointment to the king. It also +abolished the rule limiting the suffrage to church members, substituting +for it a simple property qualification. Thus a royal governor and an +official family, certain to be Episcopalian in faith and monarchist in +sympathies, were forced upon Massachusetts; and members of all religious +denominations, if they had the required amount of property, were +permitted to take part in elections. By this act in the name of the +crown, the Puritan monopoly was broken down in Massachusetts, and that +province was brought into line with Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New +Hampshire, where property, not religious faith, was the test for the +suffrage. + +=Growth of Religious Toleration.=--Though neither the Anglicans of +Virginia nor the Puritans of Massachusetts believed in toleration for +other denominations, that principle was strictly applied in Rhode +Island. There, under the leadership of Roger Williams, liberty in +matters of conscience was established in the beginning. Maryland, by +granting in 1649 freedom to those who professed to believe in Jesus +Christ, opened its gates to all Christians; and Pennsylvania, true to +the tenets of the Friends, gave freedom of conscience to those "who +confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God to be the +creator, upholder, and ruler of the World." By one circumstance or +another, the Middle colonies were thus early characterized by diversity +rather than uniformity of opinion. Dutch Protestants, Huguenots, +Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, New Lights, Moravians, Lutherans, +Catholics, and other denominations became too strongly intrenched and +too widely scattered to permit any one of them to rule, if it had +desired to do so. There were communities and indeed whole sections where +one or another church prevailed, but in no colony was a legislature +steadily controlled by a single group. Toleration encouraged diversity, +and diversity, in turn, worked for greater toleration. + +The government and faith of the dissenting denominations conspired with +economic and political tendencies to draw America away from the English +state. Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, and Puritans had no hierarchy +of bishops and archbishops to bind them to the seat of power in London. +Neither did they look to that metropolis for guidance in interpreting +articles of faith. Local self-government in matters ecclesiastical +helped to train them for local self-government in matters political. The +spirit of independence which led Dissenters to revolt in the Old World, +nourished as it was amid favorable circumstances in the New World, made +them all the more zealous in the defense of every right against +authority imposed from without. + + +SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES + +=Religion and Local Schools.=--One of the first cares of each Protestant +denomination was the education of the children in the faith. In this +work the Bible became the center of interest. The English version was +indeed the one book of the people. Farmers, shopkeepers, and artisans, +whose life had once been bounded by the daily routine of labor, found in +the Scriptures not only an inspiration to religious conduct, but also a +book of romance, travel, and history. "Legend and annal," says John +Richard Green, "war-song and psalm, state-roll and biography, the mighty +voices of prophets, the parables of Evangelists, stories of mission +journeys, of perils by sea and among the heathen, philosophic arguments, +apocalyptic visions, all were flung broadcast over minds unoccupied for +the most part by any rival learning.... As a mere literary monument, the +English version of the Bible remains the noblest example of the English +tongue." It was the King James version just from the press that the +Pilgrims brought across the sea with them. + +For the authority of the Established Church was substituted the +authority of the Scriptures. The Puritans devised a catechism based upon +their interpretation of the Bible, and, very soon after their arrival in +America, they ordered all parents and masters of servants to be diligent +in seeing that their children and wards were taught to read religious +works and give answers to the religious questions. Massachusetts was +scarcely twenty years old before education of this character was +declared to be compulsory, and provision was made for public schools +where those not taught at home could receive instruction in reading and +writing. + +[Illustration: A PAGE FROM A FAMOUS SCHOOLBOOK + + + A In ADAM'S Fall + We sinned all. + + B Heaven to find, + The Bible Mind. + + C Christ crucify'd + For sinners dy'd. + + D The Deluge drown'd + The Earth around. + + E ELIJAH hid + by Ravens fed. + + F The judgment made + FELIX afraid.] + + + +Outside of New England the idea of compulsory education was not regarded +with the same favor; but the whole land was nevertheless dotted with +little schools kept by "dames, itinerant teachers, or local parsons." +Whether we turn to the life of Franklin in the North or Washington in +the South, we read of tiny schoolhouses, where boys, and sometimes +girls, were taught to read and write. Where there were no schools, +fathers and mothers of the better kind gave their children the rudiments +of learning. Though illiteracy was widespread, there is evidence to show +that the diffusion of knowledge among the masses was making steady +progress all through the eighteenth century. + +=Religion and Higher Learning.=--Religious motives entered into the +establishment of colleges as well as local schools. Harvard, founded in +1636, and Yale, opened in 1718, were intended primarily to train +"learned and godly ministers" for the Puritan churches of New England. +To the far North, Dartmouth, chartered in 1769, was designed first as a +mission to the Indians and then as a college for the sons of New England +farmers preparing to preach, teach, or practice law. The College of New +Jersey, organized in 1746 and removed to Princeton eleven years later, +was sustained by the Presbyterians. Two colleges looked to the +Established Church as their source of inspiration and support: William +and Mary, founded in Virginia in 1693, and King's College, now Columbia +University, chartered by King George II in 1754, on an appeal from the +New York Anglicans, alarmed at the growth of religious dissent and the +"republican tendencies" of the age. Two colleges revealed a drift away +from sectarianism. Brown, established in Rhode Island in 1764, and the +Philadelphia Academy, forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania, +organized by Benjamin Franklin, reflected the spirit of toleration by +giving representation on the board of trustees to several religious +sects. It was Franklin's idea that his college should prepare young men +to serve in public office as leaders of the people and ornaments to +their country. + +=Self-education in America.=--Important as were these institutions of +learning, higher education was by no means confined within their walls. +Many well-to-do families sent their sons to Oxford or Cambridge in +England. Private tutoring in the home was common. In still more families +there were intelligent children who grew up in the great colonial school +of adversity and who trained themselves until, in every contest of mind +and wit, they could vie with the sons of Harvard or William and Mary or +any other college. Such, for example, was Benjamin Franklin, whose +charming autobiography, in addition to being an American classic, is a +fine record of self-education. His formal training in the classroom was +limited to a few years at a local school in Boston; but his +self-education continued throughout his life. He early manifested a zeal +for reading, and devoured, he tells us, his father's dry library on +theology, Bunyan's works, Defoe's writings, Plutarch's _Lives_, Locke's +_On the Human Understanding_, and innumerable volumes dealing with +secular subjects. His literary style, perhaps the best of his time, +Franklin acquired by the diligent and repeated analysis of the +_Spectator_. In a life crowded with labors, he found time to read widely +in natural science and to win single-handed recognition at the hands of +European savants for his discoveries in electricity. By his own efforts +he "attained an acquaintance" with Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, +thus unconsciously preparing himself for the day when he was to speak +for all America at the court of the king of France. + +Lesser lights than Franklin, educated by the same process, were found +all over colonial America. From this fruitful source of native ability, +self-educated, the American cause drew great strength in the trials of +the Revolution. + + +THE COLONIAL PRESS + +=The Rise of the Newspaper.=--The evolution of American democracy into a +government by public opinion, enlightened by the open discussion of +political questions, was in no small measure aided by a free press. That +too, like education, was a matter of slow growth. A printing press was +brought to Massachusetts in 1639, but it was put in charge of an +official censor and limited to the publication of religious works. Forty +years elapsed before the first newspaper appeared, bearing the curious +title, _Public Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic_, and it had not +been running very long before the government of Massachusetts suppressed +it for discussing a political question. + +Publishing, indeed, seemed to be a precarious business; but in 1704 +there came a second venture in journalism, _The Boston News-Letter_, +which proved to be a more lasting enterprise because it refrained from +criticizing the authorities. Still the public interest languished. When +Franklin's brother, James, began to issue his _New England Courant_ +about 1720, his friends sought to dissuade him, saying that one +newspaper was enough for America. Nevertheless he continued it; and his +confidence in the future was rewarded. In nearly every colony a gazette +or chronicle appeared within the next thirty years or more. Benjamin +Franklin was able to record in 1771 that America had twenty-five +newspapers. Boston led with five. Philadelphia had three: two in English +and one in German. + +=Censorship and Restraints on the Press.=--The idea of printing, +unlicensed by the government and uncontrolled by the church, was, +however, slow in taking form. The founders of the American colonies had +never known what it was to have the free and open publication of books, +pamphlets, broadsides, and newspapers. When the art of printing was +first discovered, the control of publishing was vested in clerical +authorities. After the establishment of the State Church in England in +the reign of Elizabeth, censorship of the press became a part of royal +prerogative. Printing was restricted to Oxford, Cambridge, and London; +and no one could publish anything without previous approval of the +official censor. When the Puritans were in power, the popular party, +with a zeal which rivaled that of the crown, sought, in turn, to silence +royalist and clerical writers by a vigorous censorship. After the +restoration of the monarchy, control of the press was once more placed +in royal hands, where it remained until 1695, when Parliament, by +failing to renew the licensing act, did away entirely with the official +censorship. By that time political parties were so powerful and so +active and printing presses were so numerous that official review of all +published matter became a sheer impossibility. + +In America, likewise, some troublesome questions arose in connection +with freedom of the press. The Puritans of Massachusetts were no less +anxious than King Charles or the Archbishop of London to shut out from +the prying eyes of the people all literature "not mete for them to +read"; and so they established a system of official licensing for +presses, which lasted until 1755. In the other colonies where there was +more diversity of opinion and publishers could set up in business with +impunity, they were nevertheless constantly liable to arrest for +printing anything displeasing to the colonial governments. In 1721 the +editor of the _Mercury_ in Philadelphia was called before the +proprietary council and ordered to apologize for a political article, +and for a later offense of a similar character he was thrown into jail. +A still more famous case was that of Peter Zenger, a New York publisher, +who was arrested in 1735 for criticising the administration. Lawyers who +ventured to defend the unlucky editor were deprived of their licenses to +practice, and it became necessary to bring an attorney all the way from +Philadelphia. By this time the tension of feeling was high, and the +approbation of the public was forthcoming when the lawyer for the +defense exclaimed to the jury that the very cause of liberty itself, not +that of the poor printer, was on trial! The verdict for Zenger, when it +finally came, was the signal for an outburst of popular rejoicing. +Already the people of King George's province knew how precious a thing +is the freedom of the press. + +Thanks to the schools, few and scattered as they were, and to the +vigilance of parents, a very large portion, perhaps nearly one-half, of +the colonists could read. Through the newspapers, pamphlets, and +almanacs that streamed from the types, the people could follow the +course of public events and grasp the significance of political +arguments. An American opinion was in the process of making--an +independent opinion nourished by the press and enriched by discussions +around the fireside and at the taverns. When the day of resistance to +British rule came, government by opinion was at hand. For every person +who could hear the voice of Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, there were a +thousand who could see their appeals on the printed page. Men who had +spelled out their letters while poring over Franklin's _Poor Richard's +Almanac_ lived to read Thomas Paine's thrilling call to arms. + + +THE EVOLUTION IN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS + +Two very distinct lines of development appeared in colonial politics. +The one, exalting royal rights and aristocratic privileges, was the +drift toward provincial government through royal officers appointed in +England. The other, leading toward democracy and self-government, was +the growth in the power of the popular legislative assembly. Each +movement gave impetus to the other, with increasing force during the +passing years, until at last the final collision between the two ideals +of government came in the war of independence. + +=The Royal Provinces.=--Of the thirteen English colonies eight were +royal provinces in 1776, with governors appointed by the king. Virginia +passed under the direct rule of the crown in 1624, when the charter of +the London Company was annulled. The Massachusetts Bay corporation lost +its charter in 1684, and the new instrument granted seven years later +stripped the colonists of the right to choose their chief executive. In +the early decades of the eighteenth century both the Carolinas were +given the provincial instead of the proprietary form. New Hampshire, +severed from Massachusetts in 1679, and Georgia, surrendered by the +trustees in 1752, went into the hands of the crown. New York, +transferred to the Duke of York on its capture from the Dutch in 1664, +became a province when he took the title of James II in 1685. New +Jersey, after remaining for nearly forty years under proprietors, was +brought directly under the king in 1702. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and +Delaware, although they retained their proprietary character until the +Revolution, were in some respects like the royal colonies, for their +governors were as independent of popular choice as were the appointees +of King George. Only two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, +retained full self-government on the eve of the Revolution. They alone +had governors and legislatures entirely of their own choosing. + +The chief officer of the royal province was the governor, who enjoyed +high and important powers which he naturally sought to augment at every +turn. He enforced the laws and, usually with the consent of a council, +appointed the civil and military officers. He granted pardons and +reprieves; he was head of the highest court; he was commander-in-chief +of the militia; he levied troops for defense and enforced martial law in +time of invasion, war, and rebellion. In all the provinces, except +Massachusetts, he named the councilors who composed the upper house of +the legislature and was likely to choose those who favored his claims. +He summoned, adjourned, and dissolved the popular assembly, or the lower +house; he laid before it the projects of law desired by the crown; and +he vetoed measures which he thought objectionable. Here were in America +all the elements of royal prerogative against which Hampden had +protested and Cromwell had battled in England. + +[Illustration: THE ROYAL GOVERNOR'S PALACE AT NEW BERNE] + +The colonial governors were generally surrounded by a body of +office-seekers and hunters for land grants. Some of them were noblemen +of broken estates who had come to America to improve their fortunes. The +pretensions of this circle grated on colonial nerves, and privileges +granted to them, often at the expense of colonists, did much to deepen +popular antipathy to the British government. Favors extended to +adherents of the Established Church displeased Dissenters. The +reappearance of this formidable union of church and state, from which +they had fled, stirred anew the ancient wrath against that combination. + +=The Colonial Assembly.=--Coincident with the drift toward +administration through royal governors was the second and opposite +tendency, namely, a steady growth in the practice of self-government. +The voters of England had long been accustomed to share in taxation and +law-making through representatives in Parliament, and the idea was early +introduced in America. Virginia was only twelve years old (1619) when +its first representative assembly appeared. As the towns of +Massachusetts multiplied and it became impossible for all the members of +the corporation to meet at one place, the representative idea was +adopted, in 1633. The river towns of Connecticut formed a representative +system under their "Fundamental Orders" of 1639, and the entire colony +was given a royal charter in 1662. Generosity, as well as practical +considerations, induced such proprietors as Lord Baltimore and William +Penn to invite their colonists to share in the government as soon as any +considerable settlements were made. Thus by one process or another every +one of the colonies secured a popular assembly. + +It is true that in the provision for popular elections, the suffrage was +finally restricted to property owners or taxpayers, with a leaning +toward the freehold qualification. In Virginia, the rural voter had to +be a freeholder owning at least fifty acres of land, if there was no +house on it, or twenty-five acres with a house twenty-five feet square. +In Massachusetts, the voter for member of the assembly under the charter +of 1691 had to be a freeholder of an estate worth forty shillings a year +at least or of other property to the value of forty pounds sterling. In +Pennsylvania, the suffrage was granted to freeholders owning fifty acres +or more of land well seated, twelve acres cleared, and to other persons +worth at least fifty pounds in lawful money. + +Restrictions like these undoubtedly excluded from the suffrage a very +considerable number of men, particularly the mechanics and artisans of +the towns, who were by no means content with their position. +Nevertheless, it was relatively easy for any man to acquire a small +freehold, so cheap and abundant was land; and in fact a large proportion +of the colonists were land owners. Thus the assemblies, in spite of the +limited suffrage, acquired a democratic tone. + +The popular character of the assemblies increased as they became engaged +in battles with the royal and proprietary governors. When called upon by +the executive to make provision for the support of the administration, +the legislature took advantage of the opportunity to make terms in the +interest of the taxpayers. It made annual, not permanent, grants of +money to pay official salaries and then insisted upon electing a +treasurer to dole it out. Thus the colonists learned some of the +mysteries of public finance, as well as the management of rapacious +officials. The legislature also used its power over money grants to +force the governor to sign bills which he would otherwise have vetoed. + +=Contests between Legislatures and Governors.=--As may be imagined, many +and bitter were the contests between the royal and proprietary governors +and the colonial assemblies. Franklin relates an amusing story of how +the Pennsylvania assembly held in one hand a bill for the executive to +sign and, in the other hand, the money to pay his salary. Then, with sly +humor, Franklin adds: "Do not, my courteous reader, take pet at our +proprietary constitution for these our bargain and sale proceedings in +legislation. It is a happy country where justice and what was your own +before can be had for ready money. It is another addition to the value +of money and of course another spur to industry. Every land is not so +blessed." + +It must not be thought, however, that every governor got off as easily +as Franklin's tale implies. On the contrary, the legislatures, like +Caesar, fed upon meat that made them great and steadily encroached upon +executive prerogatives as they tried out and found their strength. If +we may believe contemporary laments, the power of the crown in America +was diminishing when it was struck down altogether. In New York, the +friends of the governor complained in 1747 that "the inhabitants of +plantations are generally educated in republican principles; upon +republican principles all is conducted. Little more than a shadow of +royal authority remains in the Northern colonies." "Here," echoed the +governor of South Carolina, the following year, "levelling principles +prevail; the frame of the civil government is unhinged; a governor, if +he would be idolized, must betray his trust; the people have got their +whole administration in their hands; the election of the members of the +assembly is by ballot; not civil posts only, but all ecclesiastical +preferments, are in the disposal or election of the people." + +Though baffled by the "levelling principles" of the colonial assemblies, +the governors did not give up the case as hopeless. Instead they evolved +a system of policy and action which they thought could bring the +obstinate provincials to terms. That system, traceable in their letters +to the government in London, consisted of three parts: (1) the royal +officers in the colonies were to be made independent of the legislatures +by taxes imposed by acts of Parliament; (2) a British standing army was +to be maintained in America; (3) the remaining colonial charters were to +be revoked and government by direct royal authority was to be enlarged. + +Such a system seemed plausible enough to King George III and to many +ministers of the crown in London. With governors, courts, and an army +independent of the colonists, they imagined it would be easy to carry +out both royal orders and acts of Parliament. This reasoning seemed both +practical and logical. Nor was it founded on theory, for it came fresh +from the governors themselves. It was wanting in one respect only. It +failed to take account of the fact that the American people were growing +strong in the practice of self-government and could dispense with the +tutelage of the British ministry, no matter how excellent it might be or +how benevolent its intentions. + + +=References= + +A.M. Earle, _Home Life in Colonial Days_. + +A.L. Cross, _The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies_ (Harvard +Studies). + +E.G. Dexter, _History of Education in the United States_. + +C.A. Duniway, _Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts_. + +Benjamin Franklin, _Autobiography_. + +E.B. Greene, _The Provincial Governor_ (Harvard Studies). + +A.E. McKinley, _The Suffrage Franchise in the Thirteen English Colonies_ +(Pennsylvania University Studies). + +M.C. Tyler, _History of American Literature during the Colonial Times_ +(2 vols.). + + +=Questions= + +1. Why is leisure necessary for the production of art and literature? +How may leisure be secured? + +2. Explain the position of the church in colonial life. + +3. Contrast the political roles of Puritanism and the Established +Church. + +4. How did diversity of opinion work for toleration? + +5. Show the connection between religion and learning in colonial times. + +6. Why is a "free press" such an important thing to American democracy? + +7. Relate some of the troubles of early American publishers. + +8. Give the undemocratic features of provincial government. + +9. How did the colonial assemblies help to create an independent +American spirit, in spite of a restricted suffrage? + +10. Explain the nature of the contests between the governors and the +legislatures. + + +=Research Topics= + +=Religious and Intellectual Life.=--Lodge, _Short History of the English +Colonies_: (1) in New England, pp. 418-438, 465-475; (2) in Virginia, +pp. 54-61, 87-89; (3) in Pennsylvania, pp. 232-237, 253-257; (4) in New +York, pp. 316-321. Interesting source materials in Hart, _American +History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. II, pp. 255-275, 276-290. + +=The Government of a Royal Province, Virginia.=--Lodge, pp. 43-50. +Special Reference: E.B. Greene, _The Provincial Governor_ (Harvard +Studies). + +=The Government of a Proprietary Colony, Pennsylvania.=--Lodge, pp. +230-232. + +=Government in New England.=--Lodge, pp. 412-417. + +=The Colonial Press.=--Special Reference: G.H. Payne, _History of +Journalism in the United States_ (1920). + +=Colonial Life in General.=--John Fiske, _Old Virginia and Her +Neighbors_, Vol. II, pp. 174-269; Elson, _History of the United States_, +pp. 197-210. + +=Colonial Government in General.=--Elson, pp. 210-216. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL NATIONALISM + + +It is one of the well-known facts of history that a people loosely +united by domestic ties of a political and economic nature, even a +people torn by domestic strife, may be welded into a solid and compact +body by an attack from a foreign power. The imperative call to common +defense, the habit of sharing common burdens, the fusing force of common +service--these things, induced by the necessity of resisting outside +interference, act as an amalgam drawing together all elements, except, +perhaps, the most discordant. The presence of the enemy allays the most +virulent of quarrels, temporarily at least. "Politics," runs an old +saying, "stops at the water's edge." + +This ancient political principle, so well understood in diplomatic +circles, applied nearly as well to the original thirteen American +colonies as to the countries of Europe. The necessity for common +defense, if not equally great, was certainly always pressing. Though it +has long been the practice to speak of the early settlements as founded +in "a wilderness," this was not actually the case. From the earliest +days of Jamestown on through the years, the American people were +confronted by dangers from without. All about their tiny settlements +were Indians, growing more and more hostile as the frontier advanced and +as sharp conflicts over land aroused angry passions. To the south and +west was the power of Spain, humiliated, it is true, by the disaster to +the Armada, but still presenting an imposing front to the British +empire. To the north and west were the French, ambitious, energetic, +imperial in temper, and prepared to contest on land and water the +advance of British dominion in America. + + +RELATIONS WITH THE INDIANS AND THE FRENCH + +=Indian Affairs.=--It is difficult to make general statements about the +relations of the colonists to the Indians. The problem was presented in +different shape in different sections of America. It was not handled +according to any coherent or uniform plan by the British government, +which alone could speak for all the provinces at the same time. Neither +did the proprietors and the governors who succeeded one another, in an +irregular train, have the consistent policy or the matured experience +necessary for dealing wisely with Indian matters. As the difficulties +arose mainly on the frontiers, where the restless and pushing pioneers +were making their way with gun and ax, nearly everything that happened +was the result of chance rather than of calculation. A personal quarrel +between traders and an Indian, a jug of whisky, a keg of gunpowder, the +exchange of guns for furs, personal treachery, or a flash of bad temper +often set in motion destructive forces of the most terrible character. + +On one side of the ledger may be set innumerable generous records--of +Squanto and Samoset teaching the Pilgrims the ways of the wilds; of +Roger Williams buying his lands from the friendly natives; or of William +Penn treating with them on his arrival in America. On the other side of +the ledger must be recorded many a cruel and bloody conflict as the +frontier rolled westward with deadly precision. The Pequots on the +Connecticut border, sensing their doom, fell upon the tiny settlements +with awful fury in 1637 only to meet with equally terrible punishment. A +generation later, King Philip, son of Massasoit, the friend of the +Pilgrims, called his tribesmen to a war of extermination which brought +the strength of all New England to the field and ended in his own +destruction. In New York, the relations with the Indians, especially +with the Algonquins and the Mohawks, were marked by periodic and +desperate wars. Virginia and her Southern neighbors suffered as did New +England. In 1622 Opecacano, a brother of Powhatan, the friend of the +Jamestown settlers, launched a general massacre; and in 1644 he +attempted a war of extermination. In 1675 the whole frontier was ablaze. +Nathaniel Bacon vainly attempted to stir the colonial governor to put up +an adequate defense and, failing in that plea, himself headed a revolt +and a successful expedition against the Indians. As the Virginia +outposts advanced into the Kentucky country, the strife with the natives +was transferred to that "dark and bloody ground"; while to the +southeast, a desperate struggle with the Tuscaroras called forth the +combined forces of the two Carolinas and Virginia. + +[Illustration: _From an old print._ + +VIRGINIANS DEFENDING THEMSELVES AGAINST THE INDIANS] + +From such horrors New Jersey and Delaware were saved on account of their +geographical location. Pennsylvania, consistently following a policy of +conciliation, was likewise spared until her western vanguard came into +full conflict with the allied French and Indians. Georgia, by clever +negotiations and treaties of alliance, managed to keep on fair terms +with her belligerent Cherokees and Creeks. But neither diplomacy nor +generosity could stay the inevitable conflict as the frontier advanced, +especially after the French soldiers enlisted the Indians in their +imperial enterprises. It was then that desultory fighting became general +warfare. + +[Illustration: ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND SPANISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA, +1750] + +=Early Relations with the French.=--During the first decades of French +exploration and settlement in the St. Lawrence country, the English +colonies, engrossed with their own problems, gave little or no thought +to their distant neighbors. Quebec, founded in 1608, and Montreal, in +1642, were too far away, too small in population, and too slight in +strength to be much of a menace to Boston, Hartford, or New York. It was +the statesmen in France and England, rather than the colonists in +America, who first grasped the significance of the slowly converging +empires in North America. It was the ambition of Louis XIV of France, +rather than the labors of Jesuit missionaries and French rangers, that +sounded the first note of colonial alarm. + +Evidence of this lies in the fact that three conflicts between the +English and the French occurred before their advancing frontiers met on +the Pennsylvania border. King William's War (1689-1697), Queen Anne's +War (1701-1713), and King George's War (1744-1748) owed their origins +and their endings mainly to the intrigues and rivalries of European +powers, although they all involved the American colonies in struggles +with the French and their savage allies. + +=The Clash in the Ohio Valley.=--The second of these wars had hardly +closed, however, before the English colonists themselves began to be +seriously alarmed about the rapidly expanding French dominion in the +West. Marquette and Joliet, who opened the Lake region, and La Salle, +who in 1682 had gone down the Mississippi to the Gulf, had been followed +by the builders of forts. In 1718, the French founded New Orleans, thus +taking possession of the gateway to the Mississippi as well as the St. +Lawrence. A few years later they built Fort Niagara; in 1731 they +occupied Crown Point; in 1749 they formally announced their dominion +over all the territory drained by the Ohio River. Having asserted this +lofty claim, they set out to make it good by constructing in the years +1752-1754 Fort Le Boeuf near Lake Erie, Fort Venango on the upper +waters of the Allegheny, and Fort Duquesne at the junction of the +streams forming the Ohio. Though they were warned by George Washington, +in the name of the governor of Virginia, to keep out of territory "so +notoriously known to be property of the crown of Great Britain," the +French showed no signs of relinquishing their pretensions. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +BRADDOCK'S RETREAT] + +=The Final Phase--the French and Indian War.=--Thus it happened that the +shot which opened the Seven Years' War, known in America as the French +and Indian War, was fired in the wilds of Pennsylvania. There began the +conflict that spread to Europe and even Asia and finally involved +England and Prussia, on the one side, and France, Austria, Spain, and +minor powers on the other. On American soil, the defeat of Braddock in +1755 and Wolfe's exploit in capturing Quebec four years later were the +dramatic features. On the continent of Europe, England subsidized +Prussian arms to hold France at bay. In India, on the banks of the +Ganges, as on the banks of the St. Lawrence, British arms were +triumphant. Well could the historian write: "Conquests equaling in +rapidity and far surpassing in magnitude those of Cortes and Pizarro had +been achieved in the East." Well could the merchants of London declare +that under the administration of William Pitt, the imperial genius of +this world-wide conflict, commerce had been "united with and made to +flourish by war." + +From the point of view of the British empire, the results of the war +were momentous. By the peace of 1763, Canada and the territory east of +the Mississippi, except New Orleans, passed under the British flag. The +remainder of the Louisiana territory was transferred to Spain and French +imperial ambitions on the American continent were laid to rest. In +exchange for Havana, which the British had seized during the war, Spain +ceded to King George the colony of Florida. Not without warrant did +Macaulay write in after years that Pitt "was the first Englishman of his +time; and he had made England the first country in the world." + + +THE EFFECTS OF WARFARE ON THE COLONIES + +The various wars with the French and the Indians, trivial in detail as +they seem to-day, had a profound influence on colonial life and on the +destiny of America. Circumstances beyond the control of popular +assemblies, jealous of their individual powers, compelled cooeperation +among them, grudging and stingy no doubt, but still cooeperation. The +American people, more eager to be busy in their fields or at their +trades, were simply forced to raise and support armies, to learn the +arts of warfare, and to practice, if in a small theater, the science of +statecraft. These forces, all cumulative, drove the colonists, so +tenaciously provincial in their habits, in the direction of nationalism. + +=The New England Confederation.=--It was in their efforts to deal with +the problems presented by the Indian and French menace that the +Americans took the first steps toward union. Though there were many +common ties among the settlers of New England, it required a deadly +fear of the Indians to produce in 1643 the New England Confederation, +composed of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. The +colonies so united were bound together in "a firm and perpetual league +of friendship and amity for offense and defense, mutual service and +succor, upon all just occasions." They made provision for distributing +the burdens of wars among the members and provided for a congress of +commissioners from each colony to determine upon common policies. For +some twenty years the Confederation was active and it continued to hold +meetings until after the extinction of the Indian peril on the immediate +border. + +Virginia, no less than Massachusetts, was aware of the importance of +intercolonial cooeperation. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the +Old Dominion began treaties of commerce and amity with New York and the +colonies of New England. In 1684 delegates from Virginia met at Albany +with the agents of New York and Massachusetts to discuss problems of +mutual defense. A few years later the Old Dominion cooeperated loyally +with the Carolinas in defending their borders against Indian forays. + +=The Albany Plan of Union.=--An attempt at a general colonial union was +made in 1754. On the suggestion of the Lords of Trade in England, a +conference was held at Albany to consider Indian relations, to devise +measures of defense against the French, and to enter into "articles of +union and confederation for the general defense of his Majesty's +subjects and interests in North America as well in time of peace as of +war." New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, +Pennsylvania, and Maryland were represented. After a long discussion, a +plan of union, drafted mainly, it seems, by Benjamin Franklin, was +adopted and sent to the colonies and the crown for approval. The +colonies, jealous of their individual rights, refused to accept the +scheme and the king disapproved it for the reason, Franklin said, that +it had "too much weight in the democratic part of the constitution." +Though the Albany union failed, the document is still worthy of study +because it forecast many of the perplexing problems that were not solved +until thirty-three years afterward, when another convention of which +also Franklin was a member drafted the Constitution of the United +States. + +[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN] + +=The Military Education of the Colonists.=--The same wars that showed +the provincials the meaning of union likewise instructed them in the art +of defending their institutions. Particularly was this true of the last +French and Indian conflict, which stretched all the way from Maine to +the Carolinas and made heavy calls upon them all for troops. The answer, +it is admitted, was far from satisfactory to the British government and +the conduct of the militiamen was far from professional; but thousands +of Americans got a taste, a strong taste, of actual fighting in the +field. Men like George Washington and Daniel Morgan learned lessons that +were not forgotten in after years. They saw what American militiamen +could do under favorable circumstances and they watched British regulars +operating on American soil. "This whole transaction," shrewdly remarked +Franklin of Braddock's campaign, "gave us Americans the first suspicion +that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regular troops had not +been well founded." It was no mere accident that the Virginia colonel +who drew his sword under the elm at Cambridge and took command of the +army of the Revolution was the brave officer who had "spurned the +whistle of bullets" at the memorable battle in western Pennsylvania. + +=Financial Burdens and Commercial Disorder.=--While the provincials were +learning lessons in warfare they were also paying the bills. All the +conflicts were costly in treasure as in blood. King Philip's war left +New England weak and almost bankrupt. The French and Indian struggle was +especially expensive. The twenty-five thousand men put in the field by +the colonies were sustained only by huge outlays of money. Paper +currency streamed from the press and debts were accumulated. Commerce +was driven from its usual channels and prices were enhanced. When the +end came, both England and America were staggering under heavy +liabilities, and to make matters worse there was a fall of prices +accompanied by a commercial depression which extended over a period of +ten years. It was in the midst of this crisis that measures of taxation +had to be devised to pay the cost of the war, precipitating the quarrel +which led to American independence. + +=The Expulsion of French Power from North America.=--The effects of the +defeat administered to France, as time proved, were difficult to +estimate. Some British statesmen regarded it as a happy circumstance +that the colonists, already restive under their administration, had no +foreign power at hand to aid them in case they struck for independence. +American leaders, on the other hand, now that the soldiers of King Louis +were driven from the continent, thought that they had no other country +to fear if they cast off British sovereignty. At all events, France, +though defeated, was not out of the sphere of American influence; for, +as events proved, it was the fortunate French alliance negotiated by +Franklin that assured the triumph of American arms in the War of the +Revolution. + + +COLONIAL RELATIONS WITH THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT + +It was neither the Indian wars nor the French wars that finally brought +forth American nationality. That was the product of the long strife +with the mother country which culminated in union for the war of +independence. The forces that created this nation did not operate in the +colonies alone. The character of the English sovereigns, the course of +events in English domestic politics, and English measures of control +over the colonies--executive, legislative, and judicial--must all be +taken into account. + +=The Last of the Stuarts.=--The struggles between Charles I (1625-49) +and the parliamentary party and the turmoil of the Puritan regime +(1649-60) so engrossed the attention of Englishmen at home that they had +little time to think of colonial policies or to interfere with colonial +affairs. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660, accompanied by +internal peace and the increasing power of the mercantile classes in the +House of Commons, changed all that. In the reign of Charles II +(1660-85), himself an easy-going person, the policy of regulating trade +by act of Parliament was developed into a closely knit system and +powerful agencies to supervise the colonies were created. At the same +time a system of stricter control over the dominions was ushered in by +the annulment of the old charter of Massachusetts which conferred so +much self-government on the Puritans. + +Charles' successor, James II, a man of sterner stuff and jealous of his +authority in the colonies as well as at home, continued the policy thus +inaugurated and enlarged upon it. If he could have kept his throne, he +would have bent the Americans under a harsh rule or brought on in his +dominions a revolution like that which he precipitated at home in 1688. +He determined to unite the Northern colonies and introduce a more +efficient administration based on the pattern of the royal provinces. He +made a martinet, Sir Edmund Andros, governor of all New England, New +York, and New Jersey. The charter of Massachusetts, annulled in the last +days of his brother's reign, he continued to ignore, and that of +Connecticut would have been seized if it had not been spirited away and +hidden, according to tradition, in a hollow oak. + +For several months, Andros gave the Northern colonies a taste of +ill-tempered despotism. He wrung quit rents from land owners not +accustomed to feudal dues; he abrogated titles to land where, in his +opinion, they were unlawful; he forced the Episcopal service upon the +Old South Church in Boston; and he denied the writ of _habeas corpus_ to +a preacher who denounced taxation without representation. In the middle +of his arbitrary course, however, his hand was stayed. The news came +that King James had been dethroned by his angry subjects, and the people +of Boston, kindling a fire on Beacon Hill, summoned the countryside to +dispose of Andros. The response was prompt and hearty. The hated +governor was arrested, imprisoned, and sent back across the sea under +guard. + +The overthrow of James, followed by the accession of William and Mary +and by assured parliamentary supremacy, had an immediate effect in the +colonies. The new order was greeted with thanksgiving. Massachusetts was +given another charter which, though not so liberal as the first, +restored the spirit if not the entire letter of self-government. In the +other colonies where Andros had been operating, the old course of +affairs was resumed. + +=The Indifference of the First Two Georges.=--On the death in 1714 of +Queen Anne, the successor of King William, the throne passed to a +Hanoverian prince who, though grateful for English honors and revenues, +was more interested in Hanover than in England. George I and George II, +whose combined reigns extended from 1714 to 1760, never even learned to +speak the English language, at least without an accent. The necessity of +taking thought about colonial affairs bored both of them so that the +stoutest defender of popular privileges in Boston or Charleston had no +ground to complain of the exercise of personal prerogatives by the king. +Moreover, during a large part of this period, the direction of affairs +was in the hands of an astute leader, Sir Robert Walpole, who betrayed +his somewhat cynical view of politics by adopting as his motto: "Let +sleeping dogs lie." He revealed his appreciation of popular sentiment +by exclaiming: "I will not be the minister to enforce taxes at the +expense of blood." Such kings and such ministers were not likely to +arouse the slumbering resistance of the thirteen colonies across the +sea. + +=Control of the Crown over the Colonies.=--While no English ruler from +James II to George III ventured to interfere with colonial matters +personally, constant control over the colonies was exercised by royal +officers acting under the authority of the crown. Systematic supervision +began in 1660, when there was created by royal order a committee of the +king's council to meet on Mondays and Thursdays of each week to consider +petitions, memorials, and addresses respecting the plantations. In 1696 +a regular board was established, known as the "Lords of Trade and +Plantations," which continued, until the American Revolution, to +scrutinize closely colonial business. The chief duties of the board were +to examine acts of colonial legislatures, to recommend measures to those +assemblies for adoption, and to hear memorials and petitions from the +colonies relative to their affairs. + +The methods employed by this board were varied. All laws passed by +American legislatures came before it for review as a matter of routine. +If it found an act unsatisfactory, it recommended to the king the +exercise of his veto power, known as the royal disallowance. Any person +who believed his personal or property rights injured by a colonial law +could be heard by the board in person or by attorney; in such cases it +was the practice to hear at the same time the agent of the colony so +involved. The royal veto power over colonial legislation was not, +therefore, a formal affair, but was constantly employed on the +suggestion of a highly efficient agency of the crown. All this was in +addition to the powers exercised by the governors in the royal +provinces. + +=Judicial Control.=--Supplementing this administrative control over the +colonies was a constant supervision by the English courts of law. The +king, by virtue of his inherent authority, claimed and exercised high +appellate powers over all judicial tribunals in the empire. The right +of appeal from local courts, expressly set forth in some charters, was, +on the eve of the Revolution, maintained in every colony. Any subject in +England or America, who, in the regular legal course, was aggrieved by +any act of a colonial legislature or any decision of a colonial court, +had the right, subject to certain regulations, to carry his case to the +king in council, forcing his opponent to follow him across the sea. In +the exercise of appellate power, the king in council acting as a court +could, and frequently did, declare acts of colonial legislatures duly +enacted and approved, null and void, on the ground that they were +contrary to English law. + +=Imperial Control in Operation.=--Day after day, week after week, year +after year, the machinery for political and judicial control over +colonial affairs was in operation. At one time the British governors in +the colonies were ordered not to approve any colonial law imposing a +duty on European goods imported in English vessels. Again, when North +Carolina laid a tax on peddlers, the council objected to it as +"restrictive upon the trade and dispersion of English manufactures +throughout the continent." At other times, Indian trade was regulated in +the interests of the whole empire or grants of lands by a colonial +legislature were set aside. Virginia was forbidden to close her ports to +North Carolina lest there should be retaliation. + +In short, foreign and intercolonial trade were subjected to a control +higher than that of the colony, foreshadowing a day when the +Constitution of the United States was to commit to Congress the power to +regulate interstate and foreign commerce and commerce with the Indians. +A superior judicial power, towering above that of the colonies, as the +Supreme Court at Washington now towers above the states, kept the +colonial legislatures within the metes and bounds of established law. In +the thousands of appeals, memorials, petitions, and complaints, and the +rulings and decisions upon them, were written the real history of +British imperial control over the American colonies. + +So great was the business before the Lords of Trade that the colonies +had to keep skilled agents in London to protect their interests. As +common grievances against the operation of this machinery of control +arose, there appeared in each colony a considerable body of men, with +the merchants in the lead, who chafed at the restraints imposed on their +enterprise. Only a powerful blow was needed to weld these bodies into a +common mass nourishing the spirit of colonial nationalism. When to the +repeated minor irritations were added general and sweeping measures of +Parliament applying to every colony, the rebound came in the Revolution. + +=Parliamentary Control over Colonial Affairs.=--As soon as Parliament +gained in power at the expense of the king, it reached out to bring the +American colonies under its sway as well. Between the execution of +Charles I and the accession of George III, there was enacted an immense +body of legislation regulating the shipping, trade, and manufactures of +America. All of it, based on the "mercantile" theory then prevalent in +all countries of Europe, was designed to control the overseas +plantations in such a way as to foster the commercial and business +interests of the mother country, where merchants and men of finance had +got the upper hand. According to this theory, the colonies of the +British empire should be confined to agriculture and the production of +raw materials, and forced to buy their manufactured goods of England. + +_The Navigation Acts._--In the first rank among these measures of +British colonial policy must be placed the navigation laws framed for +the purpose of building up the British merchant marine and navy--arms so +essential in defending the colonies against the Spanish, Dutch, and +French. The beginning of this type of legislation was made in 1651 and +it was worked out into a system early in the reign of Charles II +(1660-85). + +The Navigation Acts, in effect, gave a monopoly of colonial commerce to +British ships. No trade could be carried on between Great Britain and +her dominions save in vessels built and manned by British subjects. No +European goods could be brought to America save in the ships of the +country that produced them or in English ships. These laws, which were +almost fatal to Dutch shipping in America, fell with severity upon the +colonists, compelling them to pay higher freight rates. The adverse +effect, however, was short-lived, for the measures stimulated +shipbuilding in the colonies, where the abundance of raw materials gave +the master builders of America an advantage over those of the mother +country. Thus the colonists in the end profited from the restrictive +policy written into the Navigation Acts. + +_The Acts against Manufactures._--The second group of laws was +deliberately aimed to prevent colonial industries from competing too +sharply with those of England. Among the earliest of these measures may +be counted the Woolen Act of 1699, forbidding the exportation of woolen +goods from the colonies and even the woolen trade between towns and +colonies. When Parliament learned, as the result of an inquiry, that New +England and New York were making thousands of hats a year and sending +large numbers annually to the Southern colonies and to Ireland, Spain, +and Portugal, it enacted in 1732 a law declaring that "no hats or felts, +dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished" should be "put upon any vessel +or laden upon any horse or cart with intent to export to any place +whatever." The effect of this measure upon the hat industry was almost +ruinous. A few years later a similar blow was given to the iron +industry. By an act of 1750, pig and bar iron from the colonies were +given free entry to England to encourage the production of the raw +material; but at the same time the law provided that "no mill or other +engine for slitting or rolling of iron, no plating forge to work with a +tilt hammer, and no furnace for making steel" should be built in the +colonies. As for those already built, they were declared public +nuisances and ordered closed. Thus three important economic interests of +the colonists, the woolen, hat, and iron industries, were laid under the +ban. + +_The Trade Laws._--The third group of restrictive measures passed by the +British Parliament related to the sale of colonial produce. An act of +1663 required the colonies to export certain articles to Great Britain +or to her dominions alone; while sugar, tobacco, and ginger consigned to +the continent of Europe had to pass through a British port paying custom +duties and through a British merchant's hands paying the usual +commission. At first tobacco was the only one of the "enumerated +articles" which seriously concerned the American colonies, the rest +coming mainly from the British West Indies. In the course of time, +however, other commodities were added to the list of enumerated +articles, until by 1764 it embraced rice, naval stores, copper, furs, +hides, iron, lumber, and pearl ashes. This was not all. The colonies +were compelled to bring their European purchases back through English +ports, paying duties to the government and commissions to merchants +again. + +_The Molasses Act._--Not content with laws enacted in the interest of +English merchants and manufacturers, Parliament sought to protect the +British West Indies against competition from their French and Dutch +neighbors. New England merchants had long carried on a lucrative trade +with the French islands in the West Indies and Dutch Guiana, where sugar +and molasses could be obtained in large quantities at low prices. Acting +on the protests of English planters in the Barbadoes and Jamaica, +Parliament, in 1733, passed the famous Molasses Act imposing duties on +sugar and molasses imported into the colonies from foreign +countries--rates which would have destroyed the American trade with the +French and Dutch if the law had been enforced. The duties, however, were +not collected. The molasses and sugar trade with the foreigners went on +merrily, smuggling taking the place of lawful traffic. + +=Effect of the Laws in America.=--As compared with the strict monopoly +of her colonial trade which Spain consistently sought to maintain, the +policy of England was both moderate and liberal. Furthermore, the +restrictive laws were supplemented by many measures intended to be +favorable to colonial prosperity. The Navigation Acts, for example, +redounded to the advantage of American shipbuilders and the producers +of hemp, tar, lumber, and ship stores in general. Favors in British +ports were granted to colonial producers as against foreign competitors +and in some instances bounties were paid by England to encourage +colonial enterprise. Taken all in all, there is much justification in +the argument advanced by some modern scholars to the effect that the +colonists gained more than they lost by British trade and industrial +legislation. Certainly after the establishment of independence, when +free from these old restrictions, the Americans found themselves +handicapped by being treated as foreigners rather than favored traders +and the recipients of bounties in English markets. + +Be that as it may, it appears that the colonists felt little irritation +against the mother country on account of the trade and navigation laws +enacted previous to the close of the French and Indian war. Relatively +few were engaged in the hat and iron industries as compared with those +in farming and planting, so that England's policy of restricting America +to agriculture did not conflict with the interests of the majority of +the inhabitants. The woolen industry was largely in the hands of women +and carried on in connection with their domestic duties, so that it was +not the sole support of any considerable number of people. + +As a matter of fact, moreover, the restrictive laws, especially those +relating to trade, were not rigidly enforced. Cargoes of tobacco were +boldly sent to continental ports without even so much as a bow to the +English government, to which duties should have been paid. Sugar and +molasses from the French and Dutch colonies were shipped into New +England in spite of the law. Royal officers sometimes protested against +smuggling and sometimes connived at it; but at no time did they succeed +in stopping it. Taken all in all, very little was heard of "the galling +restraints of trade" until after the French war, when the British +government suddenly entered upon a new course. + + +SUMMARY OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD + +In the period between the landing of the English at Jamestown, Virginia, +in 1607, and the close of the French and Indian war in 1763--a period of +a century and a half--a new nation was being prepared on this continent +to take its place among the powers of the earth. It was an epoch of +migration. Western Europe contributed emigrants of many races and +nationalities. The English led the way. Next to them in numerical +importance were the Scotch-Irish and the Germans. Into the melting pot +were also cast Dutch, Swedes, French, Jews, Welsh, and Irish. Thousands +of negroes were brought from Africa to till Southern fields or labor as +domestic servants in the North. + +Why did they come? The reasons are various. Some of them, the Pilgrims +and Puritans of New England, the French Huguenots, Scotch-Irish and +Irish, and the Catholics of Maryland, fled from intolerant governments +that denied them the right to worship God according to the dictates of +their consciences. Thousands came to escape the bondage of poverty in +the Old World and to find free homes in America. Thousands, like the +negroes from Africa, were dragged here against their will. The lure of +adventure appealed to the restless and the lure of profits to the +enterprising merchants. + +How did they come? In some cases religious brotherhoods banded together +and borrowed or furnished the funds necessary to pay the way. In other +cases great trading companies were organized to found colonies. Again it +was the wealthy proprietor, like Lord Baltimore or William Penn, who +undertook to plant settlements. Many immigrants were able to pay their +own way across the sea. Others bound themselves out for a term of years +in exchange for the cost of the passage. Negroes were brought on account +of the profits derived from their sale as slaves. + +Whatever the motive for their coming, however, they managed to get +across the sea. The immigrants set to work with a will. They cut down +forests, built houses, and laid out fields. They founded churches, +schools, and colleges. They set up forges and workshops. They spun and +wove. They fashioned ships and sailed the seas. They bartered and +traded. Here and there on favorable harbors they established centers of +commerce--Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and +Charleston. As soon as a firm foothold was secured on the shore line +they pressed westward until, by the close of the colonial period, they +were already on the crest of the Alleghanies. + +Though they were widely scattered along a thousand miles of seacoast, +the colonists were united in spirit by many common ties. The major +portion of them were Protestants. The language, the law, and the +literature of England furnished the basis of national unity. Most of the +colonists were engaged in the same hard task; that of conquering a +wilderness. To ties of kinship and language were added ties created by +necessity. They had to unite in defense; first, against the Indians and +later against the French. They were all subjects of the same +sovereign--the king of England. The English Parliament made laws for +them and the English government supervised their local affairs, their +trade, and their manufactures. Common forces assailed them. Common +grievances vexed them. Common hopes inspired them. + +Many of the things which tended to unite them likewise tended to throw +them into opposition to the British Crown and Parliament. Most of them +were freeholders; that is, farmers who owned their own land and tilled +it with their own hands. A free soil nourished the spirit of freedom. +The majority of them were Dissenters, critics, not friends, of the +Church of England, that stanch defender of the British monarchy. Each +colony in time developed its own legislature elected by the voters; it +grew accustomed to making laws and laying taxes for itself. Here was a +people learning self-reliance and self-government. The attempts to +strengthen the Church of England in America and the transformation of +colonies into royal provinces only fanned the spirit of independence +which they were designed to quench. + +Nevertheless, the Americans owed much of their prosperity to the +assistance of the government that irritated them. It was the protection +of the British navy that prevented Holland, Spain, and France from +wiping out their settlements. Though their manufacture and trade were +controlled in the interests of the mother country, they also enjoyed +great advantages in her markets. Free trade existed nowhere upon the +earth; but the broad empire of Britain was open to American ships and +merchandise. It could be said, with good reason, that the disadvantages +which the colonists suffered through British regulation of their +industry and trade were more than offset by the privileges they enjoyed. +Still that is somewhat beside the point, for mere economic advantage is +not necessarily the determining factor in the fate of peoples. A +thousand circumstances had helped to develop on this continent a nation, +to inspire it with a passion for independence, and to prepare it for a +destiny greater than that of a prosperous dominion of the British +empire. The economists, who tried to prove by logic unassailable that +America would be richer under the British flag, could not change the +spirit of Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, or George +Washington. + + +=References= + +G.L. Beer, _Origin of the British Colonial System_ and _The Old Colonial +System_. + +A. Bradley, _The Fight for Canada in North America_. + +C.M. Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_ (American Nation Series). + +H. Egerton, _Short History of British Colonial Policy_. + +F. Parkman, _France and England in North America_ (12 vols.). + +R. Thwaites, _France in America_ (American Nation Series). + +J. Winsor, _The Mississippi Valley_ and _Cartier to Frontenac_. + + +=Questions= + +1. How would you define "nationalism"? + +2. Can you give any illustrations of the way that war promotes +nationalism? + +3. Why was it impossible to establish and maintain a uniform policy in +dealing with the Indians? + +4. What was the outcome of the final clash with the French? + +5. Enumerate the five chief results of the wars with the French and the +Indians. Discuss each in detail. + +6. Explain why it was that the character of the English king mattered to +the colonists. + +7. Contrast England under the Stuarts with England under the +Hanoverians. + +8. Explain how the English Crown, Courts, and Parliament controlled the +colonies. + +9. Name the three important classes of English legislation affecting the +colonies. Explain each. + +10. Do you think the English legislation was beneficial or injurious to +the colonies? Why? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Rise of French Power in North America.=--Special reference: Francis +Parkman, _Struggle for a Continent_. + +=The French and Indian Wars.=--Special reference: W.M. Sloane, _French +War and the Revolution_, Chaps. VI-IX. Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_, +Vol. II, pp. 195-299. Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. +171-196. + +=English Navigation Acts.=--Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. +55, 72, 78, 90, 103. Coman, _Industrial History_, pp. 79-85. + +=British Colonial Policy.=--Callender, _Economic History of the United +States_, pp. 102-108. + +=The New England Confederation.=--Analyze the document in Macdonald, +_Source Book_, p. 45. Special reference: Fiske, _Beginnings of New +England_, pp. 140-198. + +=The Administration of Andros.=--Fiske, _Beginnings_, pp. 242-278. + +=Biographical Studies.=--William Pitt and Sir Robert Walpole. Consult +Green, _Short History of England_, on their policies, using the index. + + + + +PART II. CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY + + +On October 25, 1760, King George II died and the British crown passed to +his young grandson. The first George, the son of the Elector of Hanover +and Sophia the granddaughter of James I, was a thorough German who never +even learned to speak the language of the land over which he reigned. +The second George never saw England until he was a man. He spoke English +with an accent and until his death preferred his German home. During +their reign, the principle had become well established that the king did +not govern but acted only through ministers representing the majority in +Parliament. + + +GEORGE III AND HIS SYSTEM + +=The Character of the New King.=--The third George rudely broke the +German tradition of his family. He resented the imputation that he was a +foreigner and on all occasions made a display of his British sympathies. +To the draft of his first speech to Parliament, he added the popular +phrase: "Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of +Briton." Macaulay, the English historian, certainly of no liking for +high royal prerogative, said of George: "The young king was a born +Englishman. All his tastes and habits, good and bad, were English. No +portion of his subjects had anything to reproach him with.... His age, +his appearance, and all that was known of his character conciliated +public favor. He was in the bloom of youth; his person and address were +pleasing; scandal imputed to him no vice; and flattery might without +glaring absurdity ascribe to him many princely virtues." + +Nevertheless George III had been spoiled by his mother, his tutors, and +his courtiers. Under their influence he developed high and mighty +notions about the sacredness of royal authority and his duty to check +the pretensions of Parliament and the ministers dependent upon it. His +mother had dinned into his ears the slogan: "George, be king!" Lord +Bute, his teacher and adviser, had told him that his honor required him +to take an active part in the shaping of public policy and the making of +laws. Thus educated, he surrounded himself with courtiers who encouraged +him in the determination to rule as well as reign, to subdue all +parties, and to place himself at the head of the nation and empire. + +[Illustration: _From an old print._ + +GEORGE III] + +=Political Parties and George III.=--The state of the political parties +favored the plans of the king to restore some of the ancient luster of +the crown. The Whigs, who were composed mainly of the smaller +freeholders, merchants, inhabitants of towns, and Protestant +non-conformists, had grown haughty and overbearing through long +continuance in power and had as a consequence raised up many enemies in +their own ranks. Their opponents, the Tories, had by this time given up +all hope of restoring to the throne the direct Stuart line; but they +still cherished their old notions about divine right. With the +accession of George III the coveted opportunity came to them to rally +around the throne again. George received his Tory friends with open +arms, gave them offices, and bought them seats in the House of Commons. + +=The British Parliamentary System.=--The peculiarities of the British +Parliament at the time made smooth the way for the king and his allies +with their designs for controlling the entire government. In the first +place, the House of Lords was composed mainly of hereditary nobles whose +number the king could increase by the appointment of his favorites, as +of old. Though the members of the House of Commons were elected by +popular vote, they did not speak for the mass of English people. Great +towns like Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, for example, had no +representatives at all. While there were about eight million inhabitants +in Great Britain, there were in 1768 only about 160,000 voters; that is +to say, only about one in every ten adult males had a voice in the +government. Many boroughs returned one or more members to the Commons +although they had merely a handful of voters or in some instances no +voters at all. Furthermore, these tiny boroughs were often controlled by +lords who openly sold the right of representation to the highest bidder. +The "rotten-boroughs," as they were called by reformers, were a public +scandal, but George III readily made use of them to get his friends into +the House of Commons. + + +GEORGE III'S MINISTERS AND THEIR COLONIAL POLICIES + +=Grenville and the War Debt.=--Within a year after the accession of +George III, William Pitt was turned out of office, the king treating him +with "gross incivility" and the crowds shouting "Pitt forever!" The +direction of affairs was entrusted to men enjoying the king's +confidence. Leadership in the House of Commons fell to George Grenville, +a grave and laborious man who for years had groaned over the increasing +cost of government. + +The first task after the conclusion of peace in 1763 was the adjustment +of the disordered finances of the kingdom. The debt stood at the highest +point in the history of the country. More revenue was absolutely +necessary and Grenville began to search for it, turning his attention +finally to the American colonies. In this quest he had the aid of a +zealous colleague, Charles Townshend, who had long been in public +service and was familiar with the difficulties encountered by royal +governors in America. These two men, with the support of the entire +ministry, inaugurated in February, 1763, "a new system of colonial +government. It was announced by authority that there were to be no more +requisitions from the king to the colonial assemblies for supplies, but +that the colonies were to be taxed instead by act of Parliament. +Colonial governors and judges were to be paid by the Crown; they were to +be supported by a standing army of twenty regiments; and all the +expenses of this force were to be met by parliamentary taxation." + +=Restriction of Paper Money (1763).=--Among the many complaints filed +before the board of trade were vigorous protests against the issuance of +paper money by the colonial legislatures. The new ministry provided a +remedy in the act of 1763, which declared void all colonial laws +authorizing paper money or extending the life of outstanding bills. This +law was aimed at the "cheap money" which the Americans were fond of +making when specie was scarce--money which they tried to force on their +English creditors in return for goods and in payment of the interest and +principal of debts. Thus the first chapter was written in the long +battle over sound money on this continent. + +=Limitation on Western Land Sales.=--Later in the same year (1763) +George III issued a royal proclamation providing, among other things, +for the government of the territory recently acquired by the treaty of +Paris from the French. One of the provisions in this royal decree +touched frontiersmen to the quick. The contests between the king's +officers and the colonists over the disposition of western lands had +been long and sharp. The Americans chafed at restrictions on +settlement. The more adventurous were continually moving west and +"squatting" on land purchased from the Indians or simply seized without +authority. To put an end to this, the king forbade all further purchases +from the Indians, reserving to the crown the right to acquire such lands +and dispose of them for settlement. A second provision in the same +proclamation vested the power of licensing trade with the Indians, +including the lucrative fur business, in the hands of royal officers in +the colonies. These two limitations on American freedom and enterprise +were declared to be in the interest of the crown and for the +preservation of the rights of the Indians against fraud and abuses. + +=The Sugar Act of 1764.=--King George's ministers next turned their +attention to measures of taxation and trade. Since the heavy debt under +which England was laboring had been largely incurred in the defense of +America, nothing seemed more reasonable to them than the proposition +that the colonies should help to bear the burden which fell so heavily +upon the English taxpayer. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the result of this +reasoning. There was no doubt about the purpose of this law, for it was +set forth clearly in the title: "An act for granting certain duties in +the British colonies and plantations in America ... for applying the +produce of such duties ... towards defraying the expenses of defending, +protecting and securing the said colonies and plantations ... and for +more effectually preventing the clandestine conveyance of goods to and +from the said colonies and plantations and improving and securing the +trade between the same and Great Britain." The old Molasses Act had been +prohibitive; the Sugar Act of 1764 was clearly intended as a revenue +measure. Specified duties were laid upon sugar, indigo, calico, silks, +and many other commodities imported into the colonies. The enforcement +of the Molasses Act had been utterly neglected; but this Sugar Act had +"teeth in it." Special precautions as to bonds, security, and +registration of ship masters, accompanied by heavy penalties, promised +a vigorous execution of the new revenue law. + +The strict terms of the Sugar Act were strengthened by administrative +measures. Under a law of the previous year the commanders of armed +vessels stationed along the American coast were authorized to stop, +search, and, on suspicion, seize merchant ships approaching colonial +ports. By supplementary orders, the entire British official force in +America was instructed to be diligent in the execution of all trade and +navigation laws. Revenue collectors, officers of the army and navy, and +royal governors were curtly ordered to the front to do their full duty +in the matter of law enforcement. The ordinary motives for the discharge +of official obligations were sharpened by an appeal to avarice, for +naval officers who seized offenders against the law were rewarded by +large prizes out of the forfeitures and penalties. + +=The Stamp Act (1765).=--The Grenville-Townshend combination moved +steadily towards its goal. While the Sugar Act was under consideration +in Parliament, Grenville announced a plan for a stamp bill. The next +year it went through both Houses with a speed that must have astounded +its authors. The vote in the Commons stood 205 in favor to 49 against; +while in the Lords it was not even necessary to go through the formality +of a count. As George III was temporarily insane, the measure received +royal assent by a commission acting as a board of regency. Protests of +colonial agents in London were futile. "We might as well have hindered +the sun's progress!" exclaimed Franklin. Protests of a few opponents in +the Commons were equally vain. The ministry was firm in its course and +from all appearances the Stamp Act hardly roused as much as a languid +interest in the city of London. In fact, it is recorded that the fateful +measure attracted less notice than a bill providing for a commission to +act for the king when he was incapacitated. + +The Stamp Act, like the Sugar Act, declared the purpose of the British +government to raise revenue in America "towards defraying the expenses +of defending, protecting, and securing the British colonies and +plantations in America." It was a long measure of more than fifty +sections, carefully planned and skillfully drawn. By its provisions +duties were imposed on practically all papers used in legal +transactions,--deeds, mortgages, inventories, writs, bail bonds,--on +licenses to practice law and sell liquor, on college diplomas, playing +cards, dice, pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, calendars, and +advertisements. The drag net was closely knit, for scarcely anything +escaped. + +=The Quartering Act (1765).=--The ministers were aware that the Stamp +Act would rouse opposition in America--how great they could not +conjecture. While the measure was being debated, a friend of General +Wolfe, Colonel Barre, who knew America well, gave them an ominous +warning in the Commons. "Believe me--remember I this day told you so--" +he exclaimed, "the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at +first will accompany them still ... a people jealous of their liberties +and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated." The +answer of the ministry to a prophecy of force was a threat of force. +Preparations were accordingly made to dispatch a larger number of +soldiers than usual to the colonies, and the ink was hardly dry on the +Stamp Act when Parliament passed the Quartering Act ordering the +colonists to provide accommodations for the soldiers who were to enforce +the new laws. "We have the power to tax them," said one of the ministry, +"and we will tax them." + + +COLONIAL RESISTANCE FORCES REPEAL + +=Popular Opposition.=--The Stamp Act was greeted in America by an +outburst of denunciation. The merchants of the seaboard cities took the +lead in making a dignified but unmistakable protest, agreeing not to +import British goods while the hated law stood upon the books. Lawyers, +some of them incensed at the heavy taxes on their operations and others +intimidated by patriots who refused to permit them to use stamped +papers, joined with the merchants. Aristocratic colonial Whigs, who had +long grumbled at the administration of royal governors, protested +against taxation without their consent, as the Whigs had done in old +England. There were Tories, however, in the colonies as in England--many +of them of the official class--who denounced the merchants, lawyers, and +Whig aristocrats as "seditious, factious and republican." Yet the +opposition to the Stamp Act and its accompanying measure, the Quartering +Act, grew steadily all through the summer of 1765. + +In a little while it was taken up in the streets and along the +countryside. All through the North and in some of the Southern colonies, +there sprang up, as if by magic, committees and societies pledged to +resist the Stamp Act to the bitter end. These popular societies were +known as Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty: the former including +artisans, mechanics, and laborers; and the latter, patriotic women. Both +groups were alike in that they had as yet taken little part in public +affairs. Many artisans, as well as all the women, were excluded from the +right to vote for colonial assemblymen. + +While the merchants and Whig gentlemen confined their efforts chiefly to +drafting well-phrased protests against British measures, the Sons of +Liberty operated in the streets and chose rougher measures. They stirred +up riots in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston when attempts +were made to sell the stamps. They sacked and burned the residences of +high royal officers. They organized committees of inquisition who by +threats and intimidation curtailed the sale of British goods and the use +of stamped papers. In fact, the Sons of Liberty carried their operations +to such excesses that many mild opponents of the stamp tax were +frightened and drew back in astonishment at the forces they had +unloosed. The Daughters of Liberty in a quieter way were making a very +effective resistance to the sale of the hated goods by spurring on +domestic industries, their own particular province being the manufacture +of clothing, and devising substitutes for taxed foods. They helped to +feed and clothe their families without buying British goods. + +=Legislative Action against the Stamp Act.=--Leaders in the colonial +assemblies, accustomed to battle against British policies, supported the +popular protest. The Stamp Act was signed on March 22, 1765. On May 30, +the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a set of resolutions declaring +that the General Assembly of the colony alone had the right to lay taxes +upon the inhabitants and that attempts to impose them otherwise were +"illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust." It was in support of these +resolutions that Patrick Henry uttered the immortal challenge: "Caesar +had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and George III...." Cries of +"Treason" were calmly met by the orator who finished: "George III may +profit by their example. If that be treason, make the most of it." + +[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY] + +=The Stamp Act Congress.=--The Massachusetts Assembly answered the call +of Virginia by inviting the colonies to elect delegates to a Congress to +be held in New York to discuss the situation. Nine colonies responded +and sent representatives. The delegates, while professing the warmest +affection for the king's person and government, firmly spread on record +a series of resolutions that admitted of no double meaning. They +declared that taxes could not be imposed without their consent, given +through their respective colonial assemblies; that the Stamp Act showed +a tendency to subvert their rights and liberties; that the recent trade +acts were burdensome and grievous; and that the right to petition the +king and Parliament was their heritage. They thereupon made "humble +supplication" for the repeal of the Stamp Act. + +The Stamp Act Congress was more than an assembly of protest. It marked +the rise of a new agency of government to express the will of America. +It was the germ of a government which in time was to supersede the +government of George III in the colonies. It foreshadowed the Congress +of the United States under the Constitution. It was a successful attempt +at union. "There ought to be no New England men," declared Christopher +Gadsden, in the Stamp Act Congress, "no New Yorkers known on the +Continent, but all of us Americans." + +=The Repeal of the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act.=--The effect of American +resistance on opinion in England was telling. Commerce with the colonies +had been effectively boycotted by the Americans; ships lay idly swinging +at the wharves; bankruptcy threatened hundreds of merchants in London, +Bristol, and Liverpool. Workingmen in the manufacturing towns of England +were thrown out of employment. The government had sown folly and was +reaping, in place of the coveted revenue, rebellion. + +Perplexed by the storm they had raised, the ministers summoned to the +bar of the House of Commons, Benjamin Franklin, the agent for +Pennsylvania, who was in London. "Do you think it right," asked +Grenville, "that America should be protected by this country and pay no +part of the expenses?" The answer was brief: "That is not the case; the +colonies raised, clothed, and paid during the last war twenty-five +thousand men and spent many millions." Then came an inquiry whether the +colonists would accept a modified stamp act. "No, never," replied +Franklin, "never! They will never submit to it!" It was next suggested +that military force might compel obedience to law. Franklin had a ready +answer. "They cannot force a man to take stamps.... They may not find a +rebellion; they may, indeed, make one." + +The repeal of the Stamp Act was moved in the House of Commons a few days +later. The sponsor for the repeal spoke of commerce interrupted, debts +due British merchants placed in jeopardy, Manchester industries closed, +workingmen unemployed, oppression instituted, and the loss of the +colonies threatened. Pitt and Edmund Burke, the former near the close +of his career, the latter just beginning his, argued cogently in favor +of retracing the steps taken the year before. Grenville refused. +"America must learn," he wailed, "that prayers are not to be brought to +Caesar through riot and sedition." His protests were idle. The Commons +agreed to the repeal on February 22, 1766, amid the cheers of the +victorious majority. It was carried through the Lords in the face of +strong opposition and, on March 18, reluctantly signed by the king, now +restored to his right mind. + +In rescinding the Stamp Act, Parliament did not admit the contention of +the Americans that it was without power to tax them. On the contrary, it +accompanied the repeal with a Declaratory Act. It announced that the +colonies were subordinate to the crown and Parliament of Great Britain; +that the king and Parliament therefore had undoubted authority to make +laws binding the colonies in all cases whatsoever; and that the +resolutions and proceedings of the colonists denying such authority were +null and void. + +The repeal was greeted by the colonists with great popular +demonstrations. Bells were rung; toasts to the king were drunk; and +trade resumed its normal course. The Declaratory Act, as a mere paper +resolution, did not disturb the good humor of those who again cheered +the name of King George. Their confidence was soon strengthened by the +news that even the Sugar Act had been repealed, thus practically +restoring the condition of affairs before Grenville and Townshend +inaugurated their policy of "thoroughness." + + +RESUMPTION OF BRITISH REVENUE AND COMMERCIAL POLICIES + +=The Townshend Acts (1767).=--The triumph of the colonists was brief. +Though Pitt, the friend of America, was once more prime minister, and +seated in the House of Lords as the Earl of Chatham, his severe illness +gave to Townshend and the Tory party practical control over Parliament. +Unconvinced by the experience with the Stamp Act, Townshend brought +forward and pushed through both Houses of Parliament three measures, +which to this day are associated with his name. First among his +restrictive laws was that of June 29, 1767, which placed the enforcement +of the collection of duties and customs on colonial imports and exports +in the hands of British commissioners appointed by the king, resident in +the colonies, paid from the British treasury, and independent of all +control by the colonists. The second measure of the same date imposed a +tax on lead, glass, paint, tea, and a few other articles imported into +the colonies, the revenue derived from the duties to be applied toward +the payment of the salaries and other expenses of royal colonial +officials. A third measure was the Tea Act of July 2, 1767, aimed at the +tea trade which the Americans carried on illegally with foreigners. This +law abolished the duty which the East India Company had to pay in +England on tea exported to America, for it was thought that English tea +merchants might thus find it possible to undersell American tea +smugglers. + +=Writs of Assistance Legalized by Parliament.=--Had Parliament been +content with laying duties, just as a manifestation of power and right, +and neglected their collection, perhaps little would have been heard of +the Townshend Acts. It provided, however, for the strict, even the +harsh, enforcement of the law. It ordered customs officers to remain at +their posts and put an end to smuggling. In the revenue act of June 29, +1767, it expressly authorized the superior courts of the colonies to +issue "writs of assistance," empowering customs officers to enter "any +house, warehouse, shop, cellar, or other place in the British colonies +or plantations in America to search for and seize" prohibited or +smuggled goods. + +The writ of assistance, which was a general search warrant issued to +revenue officers, was an ancient device hateful to a people who +cherished the spirit of personal independence and who had made actual +gains in the practice of civil liberty. To allow a "minion of the law" +to enter a man's house and search his papers and premises, was too much +for the emotions of people who had fled to America in a quest for +self-government and free homes, who had braved such hardships to +establish them, and who wanted to trade without official interference. + +The writ of assistance had been used in Massachusetts in 1755 to prevent +illicit trade with Canada and had aroused a violent hostility at that +time. In 1761 it was again the subject of a bitter controversy which +arose in connection with the application of a customs officer to a +Massachusetts court for writs of assistance "as usual." This application +was vainly opposed by James Otis in a speech of five hours' duration--a +speech of such fire and eloquence that it sent every man who heard it +away "ready to take up arms against writs of assistance." Otis denounced +the practice as an exercise of arbitrary power which had cost one king +his head and another his throne, a tyrant's device which placed the +liberty of every man in jeopardy, enabling any petty officer to work +possible malice on any innocent citizen on the merest suspicion, and to +spread terror and desolation through the land. "What a scene," he +exclaimed, "does this open! Every man, prompted by revenge, ill-humor, +or wantonness to inspect the inside of his neighbor's house, may get a +writ of assistance. Others will ask it from self-defense; one arbitrary +exertion will provoke another until society is involved in tumult and +blood." He did more than attack the writ itself. He said that Parliament +could not establish it because it was against the British constitution. +This was an assertion resting on slender foundation, but it was quickly +echoed by the people. Then and there James Otis sounded the call to +America to resist the exercise of arbitrary power by royal officers. +"Then and there," wrote John Adams, "the child Independence was born." +Such was the hated writ that Townshend proposed to put into the hands of +customs officers in his grim determination to enforce the law. + +=The New York Assembly Suspended.=--In the very month that Townshend's +Acts were signed by the king, Parliament took a still more drastic step. +The assembly of New York, protesting against the "ruinous and +insupportable" expense involved, had failed to make provision for the +care of British troops in accordance with the terms of the Quartering +Act. Parliament therefore suspended the assembly until it promised to +obey the law. It was not until a third election was held that compliance +with the Quartering Act was wrung from the reluctant province. In the +meantime, all the colonies had learned on how frail a foundation their +representative bodies rested. + + +RENEWED RESISTANCE IN AMERICA + +=The Massachusetts Circular (1768).=--Massachusetts, under the +leadership of Samuel Adams, resolved to resist the policy of renewed +intervention in America. At his suggestion the assembly adopted a +Circular Letter addressed to the assemblies of the other colonies +informing them of the state of affairs in Massachusetts and roundly +condemning the whole British program. The Circular Letter declared that +Parliament had no right to lay taxes on Americans without their consent +and that the colonists could not, from the nature of the case, be +represented in Parliament. It went on shrewdly to submit to +consideration the question as to whether any people could be called free +who were subjected to governors and judges appointed by the crown and +paid out of funds raised independently. It invited the other colonies, +in the most temperate tones, to take thought about the common +predicament in which they were all placed. + +[Illustration: _From an old print._ + +SAMUEL ADAMS] + +=The Dissolution of Assemblies.=--The governor of Massachusetts, hearing +of the Circular Letter, ordered the assembly to rescind its appeal. On +meeting refusal, he promptly dissolved it. The Maryland, Georgia, and +South Carolina assemblies indorsed the Circular Letter and were also +dissolved at once. The Virginia House of Burgesses, thoroughly aroused, +passed resolutions on May 16, 1769, declaring that the sole right of +imposing taxes in Virginia was vested in its legislature, asserting anew +the right of petition to the crown, condemning the transportation of +persons accused of crimes or trial beyond the seas, and beseeching the +king for a redress of the general grievances. The immediate dissolution +of the Virginia assembly, in its turn, was the answer of the royal +governor. + +=The Boston Massacre.=--American opposition to the British authorities +kept steadily rising as assemblies were dissolved, the houses of +citizens searched, and troops distributed in increasing numbers among +the centers of discontent. Merchants again agreed not to import British +goods, the Sons of Liberty renewed their agitation, and women set about +the patronage of home products still more loyally. + +On the night of March 5, 1770, a crowd on the streets of Boston began to +jostle and tease some British regulars stationed in the town. Things +went from bad to worse until some "boys and young fellows" began to +throw snowballs and stones. Then the exasperated soldiers fired into the +crowd, killing five and wounding half a dozen more. The day after the +"massacre," a mass meeting was held in the town and Samuel Adams was +sent to demand the withdrawal of the soldiers. The governor hesitated +and tried to compromise. Finding Adams relentless, the governor yielded +and ordered the regulars away. + +The Boston Massacre stirred the country from New Hampshire to Georgia. +Popular passions ran high. The guilty soldiers were charged with murder. +Their defense was undertaken, in spite of the wrath of the populace, by +John Adams and Josiah Quincy, who as lawyers thought even the worst +offenders entitled to their full rights in law. In his speech to the +jury, however, Adams warned the British government against its course, +saying, that "from the nature of things soldiers quartered in a populous +town will always occasion two mobs where they will prevent one." Two of +the soldiers were convicted and lightly punished. + +=Resistance in the South.=--The year following the Boston Massacre some +citizens of North Carolina, goaded by the conduct of the royal governor, +openly resisted his authority. Many were killed as a result and seven +who were taken prisoners were hanged as traitors. A little later royal +troops and local militia met in a pitched battle near Alamance River, +called the "Lexington of the South." + +=The _Gaspee_ Affair and the Virginia Resolutions of 1773.=--On sea as +well as on land, friction between the royal officers and the colonists +broke out into overt acts. While patrolling Narragansett Bay looking for +smugglers one day in 1772, the armed ship, _Gaspee_, ran ashore and was +caught fast. During the night several men from Providence boarded the +vessel and, after seizing the crew, set it on fire. A royal commission, +sent to Rhode Island to discover the offenders and bring them to +account, failed because it could not find a single informer. The very +appointment of such a commission aroused the patriots of Virginia to +action; and in March, 1773, the House of Burgesses passed a resolution +creating a standing committee of correspondence to develop cooeperation +among the colonies in resistance to British measures. + +=The Boston Tea Party.=--Although the British government, finding the +Townshend revenue act a failure, repealed in 1770 all the duties except +that on tea, it in no way relaxed its resolve to enforce the other +commercial regulations it had imposed on the colonies. Moreover, +Parliament decided to relieve the British East India Company of the +financial difficulties into which it had fallen partly by reason of the +Tea Act and the colonial boycott that followed. In 1773 it agreed to +return to the Company the regular import duties, levied in England, on +all tea transshipped to America. A small impost of three pence, to be +collected in America, was left as a reminder of the principle laid down +in the Declaratory Act that Parliament had the right to tax the +colonists. + +This arrangement with the East India Company was obnoxious to the +colonists for several reasons. It was an act of favoritism for one +thing, in the interest of a great monopoly. For another thing, it +promised to dump on the American market, suddenly, an immense amount of +cheap tea and so cause heavy losses to American merchants who had large +stocks on hand. It threatened with ruin the business of all those who +were engaged in clandestine trade with the Dutch. It carried with it an +irritating tax of three pence on imports. In Charleston, Annapolis, New +York, and Boston, captains of ships who brought tea under this act were +roughly handled. One night in December, 1773, a band of Boston citizens, +disguised as Indians, boarded the hated tea ships and dumped the cargo +into the harbor. This was serious business, for it was open, flagrant, +determined violation of the law. As such the British government viewed +it. + + +RETALIATION BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT + +=Reception of the News of the Tea Riot.=--The news of the tea riot in +Boston confirmed King George in his conviction that there should be no +soft policy in dealing with his American subjects. "The die is cast," he +stated with evident satisfaction. "The colonies must either triumph or +submit.... If we take the resolute part, they will undoubtedly be very +meek." Lord George Germain characterized the tea party as "the +proceedings of a tumultuous and riotous rabble who ought, if they had +the least prudence, to follow their mercantile employments and not +trouble themselves with politics and government, which they do not +understand." This expressed, in concise form, exactly the sentiments of +Lord North, who had then for three years been the king's chief minister. +Even Pitt, Lord Chatham, was prepared to support the government in +upholding its authority. + +=The Five Intolerable Acts.=--Parliament, beginning on March 31, 1774, +passed five stringent measures, known in American history as the five +"intolerable acts." They were aimed at curing the unrest in America. The +_first_ of them was a bill absolutely shutting the port of Boston to +commerce with the outside world. The _second_, following closely, +revoked the Massachusetts charter of 1691 and provided furthermore that +the councilors should be appointed by the king, that all judges should +be named by the royal governor, and that town meetings (except to elect +certain officers) could not be held without the governor's consent. A +_third_ measure, after denouncing the "utter subversion of all lawful +government" in the provinces, authorized royal agents to transfer to +Great Britain or to other colonies the trials of officers or other +persons accused of murder in connection with the enforcement of the law. +The _fourth_ act legalized the quartering of troops in Massachusetts +towns. The _fifth_ of the measures was the Quebec Act, which granted +religious toleration to the Catholics in Canada, extended the boundaries +of Quebec southward to the Ohio River, and established, in this western +region, government by a viceroy. + +The intolerable acts went through Parliament with extraordinary +celerity. There was an opposition, alert and informed; but it was +ineffective. Burke spoke eloquently against the Boston port bill, +condemning it roundly for punishing the innocent with the guilty, and +showing how likely it was to bring grave consequences in its train. He +was heard with respect and his pleas were rejected. The bill passed both +houses without a division, the entry "unanimous" being made upon their +journals although it did not accurately represent the state of opinion. +The law destroying the charter of Massachusetts passed the Commons by a +vote of three to one; and the third intolerable act by a vote of four to +one. The triumph of the ministry was complete. "What passed in Boston," +exclaimed the great jurist, Lord Mansfield, "is the overt act of High +Treason proceeding from our over lenity and want of foresight." The +crown and Parliament were united in resorting to punitive measures. + +In the colonies the laws were received with consternation. To the +American Protestants, the Quebec Act was the most offensive. That +project they viewed not as an act of grace or of mercy but as a direct +attempt to enlist French Canadians on the side of Great Britain. The +British government did not grant religious toleration to Catholics +either at home or in Ireland and the Americans could see no good motive +in granting it in North America. The act was also offensive because +Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia had, under their charters, +large claims in the territory thus annexed to Quebec. + +To enforce these intolerable acts the military arm of the British +government was brought into play. The commander-in-chief of the armed +forces in America, General Gage, was appointed governor of +Massachusetts. Reinforcements were brought to the colonies, for now King +George was to give "the rebels," as he called them, a taste of strong +medicine. The majesty of his law was to be vindicated by force. + + +FROM REFORM TO REVOLUTION IN AMERICA + +=The Doctrine of Natural Rights.=--The dissolution of assemblies, the +destruction of charters, and the use of troops produced in the colonies +a new phase in the struggle. In the early days of the contest with the +British ministry, the Americans spoke of their "rights as Englishmen" +and condemned the acts of Parliament as unlawful, as violating the +principles of the English constitution under which they all lived. When +they saw that such arguments had no effect on Parliament, they turned +for support to their "natural rights." The latter doctrine, in the form +in which it was employed by the colonists, was as English as the +constitutional argument. John Locke had used it with good effect in +defense of the English revolution in the seventeenth century. American +leaders, familiar with the writings of Locke, also took up his thesis in +the hour of their distress. They openly declared that their rights did +not rest after all upon the English constitution or a charter from the +crown. "Old Magna Carta was not the beginning of all things," retorted +Otis when the constitutional argument failed. "A time may come when +Parliament shall declare every American charter void, but the natural, +inherent, and inseparable rights of the colonists as men and as citizens +would remain and whatever became of charters can never be abolished +until the general conflagration." Of the same opinion was the young and +impetuous Alexander Hamilton. "The sacred rights of mankind," he +exclaimed, "are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty +records. They are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human +destiny by the hand of divinity itself, and can never be erased or +obscured by mortal power." + +Firm as the American leaders were in the statement and defense of their +rights, there is every reason for believing that in the beginning they +hoped to confine the conflict to the realm of opinion. They constantly +avowed that they were loyal to the king when protesting in the strongest +language against his policies. Even Otis, regarded by the loyalists as a +firebrand, was in fact attempting to avert revolution by winning +concessions from England. "I argue this cause with the greater +pleasure," he solemnly urged in his speech against the writs of +assistance, "as it is in favor of British liberty ... and as it is in +opposition to a kind of power, the exercise of which in former periods +cost one king of England his head and another his throne." + +=Burke Offers the Doctrine of Conciliation.=--The flooding tide of +American sentiment was correctly measured by one Englishman at least, +Edmund Burke, who quickly saw that attempts to restrain the rise of +American democracy were efforts to reverse the processes of nature. He +saw how fixed and rooted in the nature of things was the American +spirit--how inevitable, how irresistible. He warned his countrymen that +there were three ways of handling the delicate situation--and only +three. One was to remove the cause of friction by changing the spirit of +the colonists--an utter impossibility because that spirit was grounded +in the essential circumstances of American life. The second was to +prosecute American leaders as criminals; of this he begged his +countrymen to beware lest the colonists declare that "a government +against which a claim of liberty is tantamount to high treason is a +government to which submission is equivalent to slavery." The third and +right way to meet the problem, Burke concluded, was to accept the +American spirit, repeal the obnoxious measures, and receive the colonies +into equal partnership. + +=Events Produce the Great Decision.=--The right way, indicated by Burke, +was equally impossible to George III and the majority in Parliament. To +their narrow minds, American opinion was contemptible and American +resistance unlawful, riotous, and treasonable. The correct way, in their +view, was to dispatch more troops to crush the "rebels"; and that very +act took the contest from the realm of opinion. As John Adams said: +"Facts are stubborn things." Opinions were unseen, but marching soldiers +were visible to the veriest street urchin. "Now," said Gouverneur +Morris, "the sheep, simple as they are, cannot be gulled as heretofore." +It was too late to talk about the excellence of the British +constitution. If any one is bewildered by the controversies of modern +historians as to why the crisis came at last, he can clarify his +understanding by reading again Edmund Burke's stately oration, _On +Conciliation with America_. + + +=References= + +G.L. Beer, _British Colonial Policy_ (1754-63). + +E. Channing, _History of the United States_, Vol. III. + +R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_. + +G.E. Howard, _Preliminaries of the Revolution_ (American Nation Series). + +J.K. Hosmer, _Samuel Adams_. + +J.T. Morse, _Benjamin Franklin_. + +M.C. Tyler, _Patrick Henry_. + +J.A. Woodburn (editor), _The American Revolution_ (Selections from the +English work by Lecky). + + +=Questions= + +1. Show how the character of George III made for trouble with the +colonies. + +2. Explain why the party and parliamentary systems of England favored +the plans of George III. + +3. How did the state of English finances affect English policy? + +4. Enumerate five important measures of the English government affecting +the colonies between 1763 and 1765. Explain each in detail. + +5. Describe American resistance to the Stamp Act. What was the outcome? + +6. Show how England renewed her policy of regulation in 1767. + +7. Summarize the events connected with American resistance. + +8. With what measures did Great Britain retaliate? + +9. Contrast "constitutional" with "natural" rights. + +10. What solution did Burke offer? Why was it rejected? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Powers Conferred on Revenue Officers by Writs of Assistance.=--See a +writ in Macdonald, _Source Book_, p. 109. + +=The Acts of Parliament Respecting America.=--Macdonald, pp. 117-146. +Assign one to each student for report and comment. + +=Source Studies on the Stamp Act.=--Hart, _American History Told by +Contemporaries_, Vol. II, pp. 394-412. + +=Source Studies of the Townshend Acts.=--Hart, Vol. II, pp. 413-433. + +=American Principles.=--Prepare a table of them from the Resolutions of +the Stamp Act Congress and the Massachusetts Circular. Macdonald, pp. +136-146. + +=An English Historian's View of the Period.=--Green, _Short History of +England_, Chap. X. + +=English Policy Not Injurious to America.=--Callender, _Economic +History_, pp. 85-121. + +=A Review of English Policy.=--Woodrow Wilson, _History of the American +People_, Vol. II, pp. 129-170. + +=The Opening of the Revolution.=--Elson, _History of the United States_, +pp. 220-235. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION + + +RESISTANCE AND RETALIATION + +=The Continental Congress.=--When the news of the "intolerable acts" +reached America, every one knew what strong medicine Parliament was +prepared to administer to all those who resisted its authority. The +cause of Massachusetts became the cause of all the colonies. Opposition +to British policy, hitherto local and spasmodic, now took on a national +character. To local committees and provincial conventions was added a +Continental Congress, appropriately called by Massachusetts on June 17, +1774, at the instigation of Samuel Adams. The response to the summons +was electric. By hurried and irregular methods delegates were elected +during the summer, and on September 5 the Congress duly assembled in +Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Many of the greatest men in America +were there--George Washington and Patrick Henry from Virginia and John +and Samuel Adams from Massachusetts. Every shade of opinion was +represented. Some were impatient with mild devices; the majority favored +moderation. + +The Congress drew up a declaration of American rights and stated in +clear and dignified language the grievances of the colonists. It +approved the resistance to British measures offered by Massachusetts and +promised the united support of all sections. It prepared an address to +King George and another to the people of England, disavowing the idea of +independence but firmly attacking the policies pursued by the British +government. + +=The Non-Importation Agreement.=--The Congress was not content, however, +with professions of faith and with petitions. It took one revolutionary +step. It agreed to stop the importation of British goods into America, +and the enforcement of this agreement it placed in the hands of local +"committees of safety and inspection," to be elected by the qualified +voters. The significance of this action is obvious. Congress threw +itself athwart British law. It made a rule to bind American citizens and +to be carried into effect by American officers. It set up a state within +the British state and laid down a test of allegiance to the new order. +The colonists, who up to this moment had been wavering, had to choose +one authority or the other. They were for the enforcement of the +non-importation agreement or they were against it. They either bought +English goods or they did not. In the spirit of the toast--"May Britain +be wise and America be free"--the first Continental Congress adjourned +in October, having appointed the tenth of May following for the meeting +of a second Congress, should necessity require. + +=Lord North's "Olive Branch."=--When the news of the action of the +American Congress reached England, Pitt and Burke warmly urged a repeal +of the obnoxious laws, but in vain. All they could wring from the prime +minister, Lord North, was a set of "conciliatory resolutions" proposing +to relieve from taxation any colony that would assume its share of +imperial defense and make provision for supporting the local officers of +the crown. This "olive branch" was accompanied by a resolution assuring +the king of support at all hazards in suppressing the rebellion and by +the restraining act of March 30, 1775, which in effect destroyed the +commerce of New England. + +=Bloodshed at Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775).=--Meanwhile the +British authorities in Massachusetts relaxed none of their efforts in +upholding British sovereignty. General Gage, hearing that military +stores had been collected at Concord, dispatched a small force to seize +them. By this act he precipitated the conflict he had sought to avoid. +At Lexington, on the road to Concord, occurred "the little thing" that +produced "the great event." An unexpected collision beyond the thought +or purpose of any man had transferred the contest from the forum to the +battle field. + +=The Second Continental Congress.=--Though blood had been shed and war +was actually at hand, the second Continental Congress, which met at +Philadelphia in May, 1775, was not yet convinced that conciliation was +beyond human power. It petitioned the king to interpose on behalf of the +colonists in order that the empire might avoid the calamities of civil +war. On the last day of July, it made a temperate but firm answer to +Lord North's offer of conciliation, stating that the proposal was +unsatisfactory because it did not renounce the right to tax or repeal +the offensive acts of Parliament. + +=Force, the British Answer.=--Just as the representatives of America +were about to present the last petition of Congress to the king on +August 23, 1775, George III issued a proclamation of rebellion. This +announcement declared that the colonists, "misled by dangerous and +ill-designing men," were in a state of insurrection; it called on the +civil and military powers to bring "the traitors to justice"; and it +threatened with "condign punishment the authors, perpetrators, and +abettors of such traitorous designs." It closed with the usual prayer: +"God, save the king." Later in the year, Parliament passed a sweeping +act destroying all trade and intercourse with America. Congress was +silent at last. Force was also America's answer. + + +AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE + +=Drifting into War.=--Although the Congress had not given up all hope of +reconciliation in the spring and summer of 1775, it had firmly resolved +to defend American rights by arms if necessary. It transformed the +militiamen who had assembled near Boston, after the battle of Lexington, +into a Continental army and selected Washington as commander-in-chief. +It assumed the powers of a government and prepared to raise money, wage +war, and carry on diplomatic relations with foreign countries. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +SPIRIT OF 1776] + +Events followed thick and fast. On June 17, the American militia, by +the stubborn defense of Bunker Hill, showed that it could make British +regulars pay dearly for all they got. On July 3, Washington took command +of the army at Cambridge. In January, 1776, after bitter disappointments +in drumming up recruits for its army in England, Scotland, and Ireland, +the British government concluded a treaty with the Landgrave of +Hesse-Cassel in Germany contracting, at a handsome figure, for thousands +of soldiers and many pieces of cannon. This was the crowning insult to +America. Such was the view of all friends of the colonies on both sides +of the water. Such was, long afterward, the judgment of the conservative +historian Lecky: "The conduct of England in hiring German mercenaries to +subdue the essentially English population beyond the Atlantic made +reconciliation hopeless and independence inevitable." The news of this +wretched transaction in German soldiers had hardly reached America +before there ran all down the coast the thrilling story that Washington +had taken Boston, on March 17, 1776, compelling Lord Howe to sail with +his entire army for Halifax. + +=The Growth of Public Sentiment in Favor of Independence.=--Events were +bearing the Americans away from their old position under the British +constitution toward a final separation. Slowly and against their +desires, prudent and honorable men, who cherished the ties that united +them to the old order and dreaded with genuine horror all thought of +revolution, were drawn into the path that led to the great decision. In +all parts of the country and among all classes, the question of the hour +was being debated. "American independence," as the historian Bancroft +says, "was not an act of sudden passion nor the work of one man or one +assembly. It had been discussed in every part of the country by farmers +and merchants, by mechanics and planters, by the fishermen along the +coast and the backwoodsmen of the West; in town meetings and from the +pulpit; at social gatherings and around the camp fires; in county +conventions and conferences or committees; in colonial congresses and +assemblies." + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +THOMAS PAINE] + +=Paine's "Commonsense."=--In the midst of this ferment of American +opinion, a bold and eloquent pamphleteer broke in upon the hesitating +public with a program for absolute independence, without fears and +without apologies. In the early days of 1776, Thomas Paine issued the +first of his famous tracts, "Commonsense," a passionate attack upon the +British monarchy and an equally passionate plea for American liberty. +Casting aside the language of petition with which Americans had hitherto +addressed George III, Paine went to the other extreme and assailed him +with many a violent epithet. He condemned monarchy itself as a system +which had laid the world "in blood and ashes." Instead of praising the +British constitution under which colonists had been claiming their +rights, he brushed it aside as ridiculous, protesting that it was "owing +to the constitution of the people, not to the constitution of the +government, that the Crown is not as oppressive in England as in +Turkey." + +Having thus summarily swept away the grounds of allegiance to the old +order, Paine proceeded relentlessly to an argument for immediate +separation from Great Britain. There was nothing in the sphere of +practical interest, he insisted, which should bind the colonies to the +mother country. Allegiance to her had been responsible for the many wars +in which they had been involved. Reasons of trade were not less weighty +in behalf of independence. "Our corn will fetch its price in any market +in Europe and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we +will." As to matters of government, "it is not in the power of Britain +to do this continent justice; the business of it will soon be too +weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolerable degree of +convenience by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant of us." + +There is accordingly no alternative to independence for America. +"Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of +the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries ''tis time to part.' ... +Arms, the last resort, must decide the contest; the appeal was the +choice of the king and the continent hath accepted the challenge.... The +sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a +city, a county, a province or a kingdom, but of a continent.... 'Tis not +the concern of a day, a year or an age; posterity is involved in the +contest and will be more or less affected to the end of time by the +proceedings now. Now is the seed-time of Continental union, faith, and +honor.... O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the +tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth.... Let names of Whig and Tory be +extinct. Let none other be heard among us than those of a good citizen, +an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the rights of +mankind and of the free and independent states of America." As more than +100,000 copies were scattered broadcast over the country, patriots +exclaimed with Washington: "Sound doctrine and unanswerable reason!" + +=The Drift of Events toward Independence.=--Official support for the +idea of independence began to come from many quarters. On the tenth of +February, 1776, Gadsden, in the provincial convention of South Carolina, +advocated a new constitution for the colony and absolute independence +for all America. The convention balked at the latter but went half way +by abolishing the system of royal administration and establishing a +complete plan of self-government. A month later, on April 12, the +neighboring state of North Carolina uttered the daring phrase from which +others shrank. It empowered its representatives in the Congress to +concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring +independence. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia quickly +responded to the challenge. The convention of the Old Dominion, on May +15, instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to propose the independence +of the United Colonies and to give the assent of Virginia to the act of +separation. When the resolution was carried the British flag on the +state house was lowered for all time. + +Meanwhile the Continental Congress was alive to the course of events +outside. The subject of independence was constantly being raised. "Are +we rebels?" exclaimed Wyeth of Virginia during a debate in February. +"No: we must declare ourselves a free people." Others hesitated and +spoke of waiting for the arrival of commissioners of conciliation. "Is +not America already independent?" asked Samuel Adams a few weeks later. +"Why not then declare it?" Still there was uncertainty and delegates +avoided the direct word. A few more weeks elapsed. At last, on May 10, +Congress declared that the authority of the British crown in America +must be suppressed and advised the colonies to set up governments of +their own. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +THOMAS JEFFERSON READING HIS DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF +INDEPENDENCE TO THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS] + +=Independence Declared.=--The way was fully prepared, therefore, when, +on June 7, the Virginia delegation in the Congress moved that "these +united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent +states." A committee was immediately appointed to draft a formal +document setting forth the reasons for the act, and on July 2 all the +states save New York went on record in favor of severing their political +connection with Great Britain. Two days later, July 4, Jefferson's draft +of the Declaration of Independence, changed in some slight particulars, +was adopted. The old bell in Independence Hall, as it is now known, rang +out the glad tidings; couriers swiftly carried the news to the uttermost +hamlet and farm. A new nation announced its will to have a place among +the powers of the world. + +To some documents is given immortality. The Declaration of Independence +is one of them. American patriotism is forever associated with it; but +patriotism alone does not make it immortal. Neither does the vigor of +its language or the severity of its indictment give it a secure place in +the records of time. The secret of its greatness lies in the simple fact +that it is one of the memorable landmarks in the history of a political +ideal which for three centuries has been taking form and spreading +throughout the earth, challenging kings and potentates, shaking down +thrones and aristocracies, breaking the armies of irresponsible power on +battle fields as far apart as Marston Moor and Chateau-Thierry. That +ideal, now so familiar, then so novel, is summed up in the simple +sentence: "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the +governed." + +Written in a "decent respect for the opinions of mankind," to set forth +the causes which impelled the American colonists to separate from +Britain, the Declaration contained a long list of "abuses and +usurpations" which had induced them to throw off the government of King +George. That section of the Declaration has passed into "ancient" +history and is seldom read. It is the part laying down a new basis for +government and giving a new dignity to the common man that has become a +household phrase in the Old World as in the New. + +In the more enduring passages there are four fundamental ideas which, +from the standpoint of the old system of government, were the essence of +revolution: (1) all men are created equal and are endowed by their +Creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness; (2) the purpose of government is to secure these +rights; (3) governments derive their just powers from the consent of the +governed; (4) whenever any form of government becomes destructive of +these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and +institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and +organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to +effect their safety and happiness. Here was the prelude to the historic +drama of democracy--a challenge to every form of government and every +privilege not founded on popular assent. + + +THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NEW ALLEGIANCE + +=The Committees of Correspondence.=--As soon as debate had passed into +armed resistance, the patriots found it necessary to consolidate their +forces by organizing civil government. This was readily effected, for +the means were at hand in town meetings, provincial legislatures, and +committees of correspondence. The working tools of the Revolution were +in fact the committees of correspondence--small, local, unofficial +groups of patriots formed to exchange views and create public sentiment. +As early as November, 1772, such a committee had been created in Boston +under the leadership of Samuel Adams. It held regular meetings, sent +emissaries to neighboring towns, and carried on a campaign of education +in the doctrines of liberty. + +[Illustration: THE COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA AT THE TIME OF THE +DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE] + +Upon local organizations similar in character to the Boston committee +were built county committees and then the larger colonial committees, +congresses, and conventions, all unofficial and representing the +revolutionary elements. Ordinarily the provincial convention was merely +the old legislative assembly freed from all royalist sympathizers and +controlled by patriots. Finally, upon these colonial assemblies was +built the Continental Congress, the precursor of union under the +Articles of Confederation and ultimately under the Constitution of the +United States. This was the revolutionary government set up within the +British empire in America. + +=State Constitutions Framed.=--With the rise of these new assemblies of +the people, the old colonial governments broke down. From the royal +provinces the governor, the judges, and the high officers fled in haste, +and it became necessary to substitute patriot authorities. The appeal to +the colonies advising them to adopt a new form of government for +themselves, issued by the Congress in May, 1776, was quickly acted upon. +Before the expiration of a year, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, and New York had drafted new constitutions +as states, not as colonies uncertain of their destinies. Connecticut and +Rhode Island, holding that their ancient charters were equal to their +needs, merely renounced their allegiance to the king and went on as +before so far as the form of government was concerned. South Carolina, +which had drafted a temporary plan early in 1776, drew up a new and more +complete constitution in 1778. Two years later Massachusetts with much +deliberation put into force its fundamental law, which in most of its +essential features remains unchanged to-day. + +The new state constitutions in their broad outlines followed colonial +models. For the royal governor was substituted a governor or president +chosen usually by the legislature; but in two instances, New York and +Massachusetts, by popular vote. For the provincial council there was +substituted, except in Georgia, a senate; while the lower house, or +assembly, was continued virtually without change. The old property +restriction on the suffrage, though lowered slightly in some states, was +continued in full force to the great discontent of the mechanics thus +deprived of the ballot. The special qualifications, laid down in several +constitutions, for governors, senators, and representatives, indicated +that the revolutionary leaders were not prepared for any radical +experiments in democracy. The protests of a few women, like Mrs. John +Adams of Massachusetts and Mrs. Henry Corbin of Virginia, against a +government which excluded them from political rights were treated as +mild curiosities of no significance, although in New Jersey women were +allowed to vote for many years on the same terms as men. + +By the new state constitutions the signs and symbols of royal power, of +authority derived from any source save "the people," were swept aside +and republican governments on an imposing scale presented for the first +time to the modern world. Copies of these remarkable documents prepared +by plain citizens were translated into French and widely circulated in +Europe. There they were destined to serve as a guide and inspiration to +a generation of constitution-makers whose mission it was to begin the +democratic revolution in the Old World. + +=The Articles of Confederation.=--The formation of state constitutions +was an easy task for the revolutionary leaders. They had only to build +on foundations already laid. The establishment of a national system of +government was another matter. There had always been, it must be +remembered, a system of central control over the colonies, but Americans +had had little experience in its operation. When the supervision of the +crown of Great Britain was suddenly broken, the patriot leaders, +accustomed merely to provincial statesmanship, were poorly trained for +action on a national stage. + +Many forces worked against those who, like Franklin, had a vision of +national destiny. There were differences in economic interest--commerce +and industry in the North and the planting system of the South. There +were contests over the apportionment of taxes and the quotas of troops +for common defense. To these practical difficulties were added local +pride, the vested rights of state and village politicians in their +provincial dignity, and the scarcity of men with a large outlook upon +the common enterprise. + +Nevertheless, necessity compelled them to consider some sort of +federation. The second Continental Congress had hardly opened its work +before the most sagacious leaders began to urge the desirability of a +permanent connection. As early as July, 1775, Congress resolved to go +into a committee of the whole on the state of the union, and Franklin, +undaunted by the fate of his Albany plan of twenty years before, again +presented a draft of a constitution. Long and desultory debates followed +and it was not until late in 1777 that Congress presented to the states +the Articles of Confederation. Provincial jealousies delayed +ratification, and it was the spring of 1781, a few months before the +surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, when Maryland, the last of the +states, approved the Articles. This plan of union, though it was all +that could be wrung from the reluctant states, provided for neither a +chief executive nor a system of federal courts. It created simply a +Congress of delegates in which each state had an equal voice and gave it +the right to call upon the state legislatures for the sinews of +government--money and soldiers. + +=The Application of Tests of Allegiance.=--As the successive steps were +taken in the direction of independent government, the patriots devised +and applied tests designed to discover who were for and who were against +the new nation in the process of making. When the first Continental +Congress agreed not to allow the importation of British goods, it +provided for the creation of local committees to enforce the rules. Such +agencies were duly formed by the choice of men favoring the scheme, all +opponents being excluded from the elections. Before these bodies those +who persisted in buying British goods were summoned and warned or +punished according to circumstances. As soon as the new state +constitutions were put into effect, local committees set to work in the +same way to ferret out all who were not outspoken in their support of +the new order of things. + +[Illustration: MOBBING THE TORIES] + +These patriot agencies, bearing different names in different sections, +were sometimes ruthless in their methods. They called upon all men to +sign the test of loyalty, frequently known as the "association test." +Those who refused were promptly branded as outlaws, while some of the +more dangerous were thrown into jail. The prison camp in Connecticut at +one time held the former governor of New Jersey and the mayor of New +York. Thousands were black-listed and subjected to espionage. The +black-list of Pennsylvania contained the names of nearly five hundred +persons of prominence who were under suspicion. Loyalists or Tories who +were bold enough to speak and write against the Revolution were +suppressed and their pamphlets burned. In many places, particularly in +the North, the property of the loyalists was confiscated and the +proceeds applied to the cause of the Revolution. + +The work of the official agencies for suppression of opposition was +sometimes supplemented by mob violence. A few Tories were hanged without +trial, and others were tarred and feathered. One was placed upon a cake +of ice and held there "until his loyalty to King George might cool." +Whole families were driven out of their homes to find their way as best +they could within the British lines or into Canada, where the British +government gave them lands. Such excesses were deplored by Washington, +but they were defended on the ground that in effect a civil war, as well +as a war for independence, was being waged. + +=The Patriots and Tories.=--Thus, by one process or another, those who +were to be citizens of the new republic were separated from those who +preferred to be subjects of King George. Just what proportion of the +Americans favored independence and what share remained loyal to the +British monarchy there is no way of knowing. The question of revolution +was not submitted to popular vote, and on the point of numbers we have +conflicting evidence. On the patriot side, there is the testimony of a +careful and informed observer, John Adams, who asserted that two-thirds +of the people were for the American cause and not more than one-third +opposed the Revolution at all stages. + +On behalf of the loyalists, or Tories as they were popularly known, +extravagant claims were made. Joseph Galloway, who had been a member of +the first Continental Congress and had fled to England when he saw its +temper, testified before a committee of Parliament in 1779 that not +one-fifth of the American people supported the insurrection and that +"many more than four-fifths of the people prefer a union with Great +Britain upon constitutional principles to independence." At the same +time General Robertson, who had lived in America twenty-four years, +declared that "more than two-thirds of the people would prefer the +king's government to the Congress' tyranny." In an address to the king +in that year a committee of American loyalists asserted that "the number +of Americans in his Majesty's army exceeded the number of troops +enlisted by Congress to oppose them." + +=The Character of the Loyalists.=--When General Howe evacuated Boston, +more than a thousand people fled with him. This great company, according +to a careful historian, "formed the aristocracy of the province by +virtue of their official rank; of their dignified callings and +professions; of their hereditary wealth and of their culture." The act +of banishment passed by Massachusetts in 1778, listing over 300 Tories, +"reads like the social register of the oldest and noblest families of +New England," more than one out of five being graduates of Harvard +College. The same was true of New York and Philadelphia; namely, that +the leading loyalists were prominent officials of the old order, +clergymen and wealthy merchants. With passion the loyalists fought +against the inevitable or with anguish of heart they left as refugees +for a life of uncertainty in Canada or the mother country. + +=Tories Assail the Patriots.=--The Tories who remained in America joined +the British army by the thousands or in other ways aided the royal +cause. Those who were skillful with the pen assailed the patriots in +editorials, rhymes, satires, and political catechisms. They declared +that the members of Congress were "obscure, pettifogging attorneys, +bankrupt shopkeepers, outlawed smugglers, etc." The people and their +leaders they characterized as "wretched banditti ... the refuse and +dregs of mankind." The generals in the army they sneered at as "men of +rank and honor nearly on a par with those of the Congress." + +=Patriot Writers Arouse the National Spirit.=--Stung by Tory taunts, +patriot writers devoted themselves to creating and sustaining a public +opinion favorable to the American cause. Moreover, they had to combat +the depression that grew out of the misfortunes in the early days of the +war. A terrible disaster befell Generals Arnold and Montgomery in the +winter of 1775 as they attempted to bring Canada into the revolution--a +disaster that cost 5000 men; repeated calamities harassed Washington in +1776 as he was defeated on Long Island, driven out of New York City, and +beaten at Harlem Heights and White Plains. These reverses were almost +too great for the stoutest patriots. + +Pamphleteers, preachers, and publicists rose, however, to meet the needs +of the hour. John Witherspoon, provost of the College of New Jersey, +forsook the classroom for the field of political controversy. The poet, +Philip Freneau, flung taunts of cowardice at the Tories and celebrated +the spirit of liberty in many a stirring poem. Songs, ballads, plays, +and satires flowed from the press in an unending stream. Fast days, +battle anniversaries, celebrations of important steps taken by Congress +afforded to patriotic clergymen abundant opportunities for sermons. +"Does Mr. Wiberd preach against oppression?" anxiously inquired John +Adams in a letter to his wife. The answer was decisive. "The clergy of +every denomination, not excepting the Episcopalian, thunder and lighten +every Sabbath. They pray for Boston and Massachusetts. They thank God +most explicitly and fervently for our remarkable successes. They pray +for the American army." + +Thomas Paine never let his pen rest. He had been with the forces of +Washington when they retreated from Fort Lee and were harried from New +Jersey into Pennsylvania. He knew the effect of such reverses on the +army as well as on the public. In December, 1776, he made a second great +appeal to his countrymen in his pamphlet, "The Crisis," the first part +of which he had written while defeat and gloom were all about him. This +tract was a cry for continued support of the Revolution. "These are the +times that try men's souls," he opened. "The summer soldier and the +sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his +country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of men +and women." Paine laid his lash fiercely on the Tories, branding every +one as a coward grounded in "servile, slavish, self-interested fear." He +deplored the inadequacy of the militia and called for a real army. He +refuted the charge that the retreat through New Jersey was a disaster +and he promised victory soon. "By perseverance and fortitude," he +concluded, "we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and +submission the sad choice of a variety of evils--a ravaged country, a +depopulated city, habitations without safety and slavery without +hope.... Look on this picture and weep over it." His ringing call to +arms was followed by another and another until the long contest was +over. + + +MILITARY AFFAIRS + +=The Two Phases of the War.=--The war which opened with the battle of +Lexington, on April 19, 1775, and closed with the surrender of +Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, passed through two distinct +phases--the first lasting until the treaty of alliance with France, in +1778, and the second until the end of the struggle. During the first +phase, the war was confined mainly to the North. The outstanding +features of the contest were the evacuation of Boston by the British, +the expulsion of American forces from New York and their retreat through +New Jersey, the battle of Trenton, the seizure of Philadelphia by the +British (September, 1777), the invasion of New York by Burgoyne and his +capture at Saratoga in October, 1777, and the encampment of American +forces at Valley Forge for the terrible winter of 1777-78. + +The final phase of the war, opening with the treaty of alliance with +France on February 6, 1778, was confined mainly to the Middle states, +the West, and the South. In the first sphere of action the chief events +were the withdrawal of the British from Philadelphia, the battle of +Monmouth, and the inclosure of the British in New York by deploying +American forces from Morristown, New Jersey, up to West Point. In the +West, George Rogers Clark, by his famous march into the Illinois +country, secured Kaskaskia and Vincennes and laid a firm grip on the +country between the Ohio and the Great Lakes. In the South, the second +period opened with successes for the British. They captured Savannah, +conquered Georgia, and restored the royal governor. In 1780 they seized +Charleston, administered a crushing defeat to the American forces under +Gates at Camden, and overran South Carolina, though meeting reverses at +Cowpens and King's Mountain. Then came the closing scenes. Cornwallis +began the last of his operations. He pursued General Greene far into +North Carolina, clashed with him at Guilford Court House, retired to the +coast, took charge of British forces engaged in plundering Virginia, and +fortified Yorktown, where he was penned up by the French fleet from the +sea and the combined French and American forces on land. + +=The Geographical Aspects of the War.=--For the British the theater of +the war offered many problems. From first to last it extended from +Massachusetts to Georgia, a distance of almost a thousand miles. It was +nearly three thousand miles from the main base of supplies and, though +the British navy kept the channel open, transports were constantly +falling prey to daring privateers and fleet American war vessels. The +sea, on the other hand, offered an easy means of transportation between +points along the coast and gave ready access to the American centers of +wealth and population. Of this the British made good use. Though early +forced to give up Boston, they seized New York and kept it until the end +of the war; they took Philadelphia and retained it until threatened by +the approach of the French fleet; and they captured and held both +Savannah and Charleston. Wars, however, are seldom won by the conquest +of cities. + +Particularly was this true in the case of the Revolution. Only a small +portion of the American people lived in towns. Countrymen back from the +coast were in no way dependent upon them for a livelihood. They lived on +the produce of the soil, not upon the profits of trade. This very fact +gave strength to them in the contest. Whenever the British ventured far +from the ports of entry, they encountered reverses. Burgoyne was forced +to surrender at Saratoga because he was surrounded and cut off from his +base of supplies. As soon as the British got away from Charleston, they +were harassed and worried by the guerrilla warriors of Marion, Sumter, +and Pickens. Cornwallis could technically defeat Greene at Guilford far +in the interior; but he could not hold the inland region he had invaded. +Sustained by their own labor, possessing the interior to which their +armies could readily retreat, supplied mainly from native resources, the +Americans could not be hemmed in, penned up, and destroyed at one fell +blow. + +=The Sea Power.=--The British made good use of their fleet in cutting +off American trade, but control of the sea did not seriously affect the +United States. As an agricultural country, the ruin of its commerce was +not such a vital matter. All the materials for a comfortable though +somewhat rude life were right at hand. It made little difference to a +nation fighting for existence, if silks, fine linens, and chinaware were +cut off. This was an evil to which submission was necessary. + +Nor did the brilliant exploits of John Paul Jones and Captain John Barry +materially change the situation. They demonstrated the skill of American +seamen and their courage as fighting men. They raised the rates of +British marine insurance, but they did not dethrone the mistress of the +seas. Less spectacular, and more distinctive, were the deeds of the +hundreds of privateers and minor captains who overhauled British supply +ships and kept British merchantmen in constant anxiety. Not until the +French fleet was thrown into the scale, were the British compelled to +reckon seriously with the enemy on the sea and make plans based upon the +possibilities of a maritime disaster. + +=Commanding Officers.=--On the score of military leadership it is +difficult to compare the contending forces in the revolutionary contest. +There is no doubt that all the British commanders were men of experience +in the art of warfare. Sir William Howe had served in America during the +French War and was accounted an excellent officer, a strict +disciplinarian, and a gallant gentleman. Nevertheless he loved ease, +society, and good living, and his expulsion from Boston, his failure to +overwhelm Washington by sallies from his comfortable bases at New York +and Philadelphia, destroyed every shred of his military reputation. John +Burgoyne, to whom was given the task of penetrating New York from +Canada, had likewise seen service in the French War both in America and +Europe. He had, however, a touch of the theatrical in his nature and +after the collapse of his plans and the surrender of his army in 1777, +he devoted his time mainly to light literature. Sir Henry Clinton, who +directed the movement which ended in the capture of Charleston in 1780, +had "learned his trade on the continent," and was regarded as a man of +discretion and understanding in military matters. Lord Cornwallis, whose +achievements at Camden and Guilford were blotted out by his surrender at +Yorktown, had seen service in the Seven Years' War and had undoubted +talents which he afterward displayed with great credit to himself in +India. Though none of them, perhaps, were men of first-rate ability, +they all had training and experience to guide them. + +[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON] + +The Americans had a host in Washington himself. He had long been +interested in military strategy and had tested his coolness under fire +during the first clashes with the French nearly twenty years before. He +had no doubts about the justice of his cause, such as plagued some of +the British generals. He was a stern but reasonable disciplinarian. He +was reserved and patient, little given to exaltation at success or +depression at reverses. In the dark hour of the Revolution, "what held +the patriot forces together?" asks Beveridge in his _Life of John +Marshall_. Then he answers: "George Washington and he alone. Had he +died or been seriously disabled, the Revolution would have ended.... +Washington was the soul of the American cause. Washington was the +government. Washington was the Revolution." The weakness of Congress in +furnishing men and supplies, the indolence of civilians, who lived at +ease while the army starved, the intrigues of army officers against him +such as the "Conway cabal," the cowardice of Lee at Monmouth, even the +treason of Benedict Arnold, while they stirred deep emotions in his +breast and aroused him to make passionate pleas to his countrymen, did +not shake his iron will or his firm determination to see the war through +to the bitter end. The weight of Washington's moral force was +immeasurable. + +Of the generals who served under him, none can really be said to have +been experienced military men when the war opened. Benedict Arnold, the +unhappy traitor but brave and daring soldier, was a druggist, book +seller, and ship owner at New Haven when the news of Lexington called +him to battle. Horatio Gates was looked upon as a "seasoned soldier" +because he had entered the British army as a youth, had been wounded at +Braddock's memorable defeat, and had served with credit during the Seven +Years' War; but he was the most conspicuous failure of the Revolution. +The triumph over Burgoyne was the work of other men; and his crushing +defeat at Camden put an end to his military pretensions. Nathanael +Greene was a Rhode Island farmer and smith without military experience +who, when convinced that war was coming, read Caesar's _Commentaries_ and +took up the sword. Francis Marion was a shy and modest planter of South +Carolina whose sole passage at arms had been a brief but desperate brush +with the Indians ten or twelve years earlier. Daniel Morgan, one of the +heroes of Cowpens, had been a teamster with Braddock's army and had seen +some fighting during the French and Indian War, but his military +knowledge, from the point of view of a trained British officer, was +negligible. John Sullivan was a successful lawyer at Durham, New +Hampshire, and a major in the local militia when duty summoned him to +lay down his briefs and take up the sword. Anthony Wayne was a +Pennsylvania farmer and land surveyor who, on hearing the clash of arms, +read a few books on war, raised a regiment, and offered himself for +service. Such is the story of the chief American military leaders, and +it is typical of them all. Some had seen fighting with the French and +Indians, but none of them had seen warfare on a large scale with regular +troops commanded according to the strategy evolved in European +experience. Courage, native ability, quickness of mind, and knowledge of +the country they had in abundance, and in battles such as were fought +during the Revolution all those qualities counted heavily in the +balance. + +=Foreign Officers in American Service.=--To native genius was added +military talent from beyond the seas. Baron Steuben, well schooled in +the iron regime of Frederick the Great, came over from Prussia, joined +Washington at Valley Forge, and day after day drilled and manoeuvered the +men, laughing and cursing as he turned raw countrymen into regular +soldiers. From France came young Lafayette and the stern De Kalb, from +Poland came Pulaski and Kosciusko;--all acquainted with the arts of war +as waged in Europe and fitted for leadership as well as teaching. +Lafayette came early, in 1776, in a ship of his own, accompanied by +several officers of wide experience, and remained loyally throughout the +war sharing the hardships of American army life. Pulaski fell at the +siege of Savannah and De Kalb at Camden. Kosciusko survived the American +war to defend in vain the independence of his native land. To these +distinguished foreigners, who freely threw in their lot with American +revolutionary fortunes, was due much of that spirit and discipline which +fitted raw recruits and temperamental militiamen to cope with a military +power of the first rank. + +=The Soldiers.=--As far as the British soldiers were concerned their +annals are short and simple. The regulars from the standing army who +were sent over at the opening of the contest, the recruits drummed up +by special efforts at home, and the thousands of Hessians bought +outright by King George presented few problems of management to the +British officers. These common soldiers were far away from home and +enlisted for the war. Nearly all of them were well disciplined and many +of them experienced in actual campaigns. The armies of King George +fought bravely, as the records of Bunker Hill, Brandywine, and Monmouth +demonstrate. Many a man and subordinate officer and, for that matter, +some of the high officers expressed a reluctance at fighting against +their own kin; but they obeyed orders. + +The Americans, on the other hand, while they fought with grim +determination, as men fighting for their homes, were lacking in +discipline and in the experience of regular troops. When the war broke +in upon them, there were no common preparations for it. There was no +continental army; there were only local bands of militiamen, many of +them experienced in fighting but few of them "regulars" in the military +sense. Moreover they were volunteers serving for a short time, +unaccustomed to severe discipline, and impatient at the restraints +imposed on them by long and arduous campaigns. They were continually +leaving the service just at the most critical moments. "The militia," +lamented Washington, "come in, you cannot tell how; go, you cannot tell +where; consume your provisions; exhaust your stores; and leave you at +last at a critical moment." + +Again and again Washington begged Congress to provide for an army of +regulars enlisted for the war, thoroughly trained and paid according to +some definite plan. At last he was able to overcome, in part at least, +the chronic fear of civilians in Congress and to wring from that +reluctant body an agreement to grant half pay to all officers and a +bonus to all privates who served until the end of the war. Even this +scheme, which Washington regarded as far short of justice to the +soldiers, did not produce quick results. It was near the close of the +conflict before he had an army of well-disciplined veterans capable of +meeting British regulars on equal terms. + +Though there were times when militiamen and frontiersmen did valiant and +effective work, it is due to historical accuracy to deny the +time-honored tradition that a few minutemen overwhelmed more numerous +forces of regulars in a seven years' war for independence. They did +nothing of the sort. For the victories of Bennington, Trenton, Saratoga, +and Yorktown there were the defeats of Bunker Hill, Long Island, White +Plains, Germantown, and Camden. Not once did an army of militiamen +overcome an equal number of British regulars in an open trial by battle. +"To bring men to be well acquainted with the duties of a soldier," wrote +Washington, "requires time.... To expect the same service from raw and +undisciplined recruits as from veteran soldiers is to expect what never +did and perhaps never will happen." + +=How the War Was Won.=--Then how did the American army win the war? For +one thing there were delays and blunders on the part of the British +generals who, in 1775 and 1776, dallied in Boston and New York with +large bodies of regular troops when they might have been dealing +paralyzing blows at the scattered bands that constituted the American +army. "Nothing but the supineness or folly of the enemy could have saved +us," solemnly averred Washington in 1780. Still it is fair to say that +this apparent supineness was not all due to the British generals. The +ministers behind them believed that a large part of the colonists were +loyal and that compromise would be promoted by inaction rather than by a +war vigorously prosecuted. Victory by masterly inactivity was obviously +better than conquest, and the slighter the wounds the quicker the +healing. Later in the conflict when the seasoned forces of France were +thrown into the scale, the Americans themselves had learned many things +about the practical conduct of campaigns. All along, the British were +embarrassed by the problem of supplies. Their troops could not forage +with the skill of militiamen, as they were in unfamiliar territory. The +long oversea voyages were uncertain at best and doubly so when the +warships of France joined the American privateers in preying on supply +boats. + +The British were in fact battered and worn down by a guerrilla war and +outdone on two important occasions by superior forces--at Saratoga and +Yorktown. Stern facts convinced them finally that an immense army, which +could be raised only by a supreme effort, would be necessary to subdue +the colonies if that hazardous enterprise could be accomplished at all. +They learned also that America would then be alienated, fretful, and the +scene of endless uprisings calling for an army of occupation. That was a +price which staggered even Lord North and George III. Moreover, there +were forces of opposition at home with which they had to reckon. + +=Women and the War.=--At no time were the women of America indifferent +to the struggle for independence. When it was confined to the realm of +opinion they did their part in creating public sentiment. Mrs. Elizabeth +Timothee, for example, founded in Charleston, in 1773, a newspaper to +espouse the cause of the province. Far to the north the sister of James +Otis, Mrs. Mercy Warren, early begged her countrymen to rest their case +upon their natural rights, and in influential circles she urged the +leaders to stand fast by their principles. While John Adams was tossing +about with uncertainty at the Continental Congress, his wife was writing +letters to him declaring her faith in "independency." + +When the war came down upon the country, women helped in every field. In +sustaining public sentiment they were active. Mrs. Warren with a +tireless pen combatted loyalist propaganda in many a drama and satire. +Almost every revolutionary leader had a wife or daughter who rendered +service in the "second line of defense." Mrs. Washington managed the +plantation while the General was at the front and went north to face the +rigors of the awful winter at Valley Forge--an inspiration to her +husband and his men. The daughter of Benjamin Franklin, Mrs. Sarah +Bache, while her father was pleading the American cause in France, set +the women of Pennsylvania to work sewing and collecting supplies. Even +near the firing line women were to be found, aiding the wounded, hauling +powder to the front, and carrying dispatches at the peril of their +lives. + +In the economic sphere, the work of women was invaluable. They harvested +crops without enjoying the picturesque title of "farmerettes" and they +canned and preserved for the wounded and the prisoners of war. Of their +labor in spinning and weaving it is recorded: "Immediately on being cut +off from the use of English manufactures, the women engaged within their +own families in manufacturing various kinds of cloth for domestic use. +They thus kept their households decently clad and the surplus of their +labors they sold to such as chose to buy rather than make for +themselves. In this way the female part of families by their industry +and strict economy frequently supported the whole domestic circle, +evincing the strength of their attachment and the value of their +service." + +For their war work, women were commended by high authorities on more +than one occasion. They were given medals and public testimonials even +as in our own day. Washington thanked them for their labors and paid +tribute to them for the inspiration and material aid which they had +given to the cause of independence. + + +THE FINANCES OF THE REVOLUTION + +When the Revolution opened, there were thirteen little treasuries in +America but no common treasury, and from first to last the Congress was +in the position of a beggar rather than a sovereign. Having no authority +to lay and collect taxes directly and knowing the hatred of the +provincials for taxation, it resorted mainly to loans and paper money to +finance the war. "Do you think," boldly inquired one of the delegates, +"that I will consent to load my constituents with taxes when we can send +to the printer and get a wagon load of money, one quire of which will +pay for the whole?" + +=Paper Money and Loans.=--Acting on this curious but appealing political +economy, Congress issued in June, 1776, two million dollars in bills of +credit to be redeemed by the states on the basis of their respective +populations. Other issues followed in quick succession. In all about +$241,000,000 of continental paper was printed, to which the several +states added nearly $210,000,000 of their own notes. Then came +interest-bearing bonds in ever increasing quantities. Several millions +were also borrowed from France and small sums from Holland and Spain. In +desperation a national lottery was held, producing meager results. The +property of Tories was confiscated and sold, bringing in about +$16,000,000. Begging letters were sent to the states asking them to +raise revenues for the continental treasury, but the states, burdened +with their own affairs, gave little heed. + +=Inflation and Depreciation.=--As paper money flowed from the press, it +rapidly declined in purchasing power until in 1779 a dollar was worth +only two or three cents in gold or silver. Attempts were made by +Congress and the states to compel people to accept the notes at face +value; but these were like attempts to make water flow uphill. +Speculators collected at once to fatten on the calamities of the +republic. Fortunes were made and lost gambling on the prices of public +securities while the patriot army, half clothed, was freezing at Valley +Forge. "Speculation, peculation, engrossing, forestalling," exclaimed +Washington, "afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public +virtue. Nothing, I am convinced, but the depreciation of our currency +... aided by stock jobbing and party dissensions has fed the hopes of +the enemy." + +=The Patriot Financiers.=--To the efforts of Congress in financing the +war were added the labors of private citizens. Hayn Solomon, a merchant +of Philadelphia, supplied members of Congress, including Madison, +Jefferson, and Monroe, and army officers, like Lee and Steuben, with +money for their daily needs. All together he contributed the huge sum of +half a million dollars to the American cause and died broken in purse, +if not in spirit, a British prisoner of war. Another Philadelphia +merchant, Robert Morris, won for himself the name of the "patriot +financier" because he labored night and day to find the money to meet +the bills which poured in upon the bankrupt government. When his own +funds were exhausted, he borrowed from his friends. Experienced in the +handling of merchandise, he created agencies at important points to +distribute supplies to the troops, thus displaying administrative as +well as financial talents. + +[Illustration: ROBERT MORRIS] + +Women organized "drives" for money, contributed their plate and their +jewels, and collected from door to door. Farmers took worthless paper in +return for their produce, and soldiers saw many a pay day pass without +yielding them a penny. Thus by the labors and sacrifices of citizens, +the issuance of paper money, lotteries, the floating of loans, +borrowings in Europe, and the impressment of supplies, the Congress +staggered through the Revolution like a pauper who knows not how his +next meal is to be secured but is continuously relieved at a crisis by a +kindly fate. + + +THE DIPLOMACY OF THE REVOLUTION + +When the full measure of honor is given to the soldiers and sailors and +their commanding officers, the civilians who managed finances and +supplies, the writers who sustained the American spirit, and the women +who did well their part, there yet remains the duty of recognizing the +achievements of diplomacy. The importance of this field of activity was +keenly appreciated by the leaders in the Continental Congress. They were +fairly well versed in European history. They knew of the balance of +power and the sympathies, interests, and prejudices of nations and their +rulers. All this information they turned to good account, in opening +relations with continental countries and seeking money, supplies, and +even military assistance. For the transaction of this delicate business, +they created a secret committee on foreign correspondence as early as +1775 and prepared to send agents abroad. + +=American Agents Sent Abroad.=--Having heard that France was inclining a +friendly ear to the American cause, the Congress, in March, 1776, sent a +commissioner to Paris, Silas Deane of Connecticut, often styled the +"first American diplomat." Later in the year a form of treaty to be +presented to foreign powers was drawn up, and Franklin, Arthur Lee, and +Deane were selected as American representatives at the court of "His +Most Christian Majesty the King of France." John Jay of New York was +chosen minister to Spain in 1779; John Adams was sent to Holland the +same year; and other agents were dispatched to Florence, Vienna, and +Berlin. The representative selected for St. Petersburg spent two +fruitless years there, "ignored by the court, living in obscurity and +experiencing nothing but humiliation and failure." Frederick the Great, +king of Prussia, expressed a desire to find in America a market for +Silesian linens and woolens, but, fearing England's command of the sea, +he refused to give direct aid to the Revolutionary cause. + +=Early French Interest.=--The great diplomatic triumph of the Revolution +was won at Paris, and Benjamin Franklin was the hero of the occasion, +although many circumstances prepared the way for his success. Louis +XVI's foreign minister, Count de Vergennes, before the arrival of any +American representative, had brought to the attention of the king the +opportunity offered by the outbreak of the war between England and her +colonies. He showed him how France could redress her grievances and +"reduce the power and greatness of England"--the empire that in 1763 had +forced upon her a humiliating peace "at the price of our possessions, +of our commerce, and our credit in the Indies, at the price of Canada, +Louisiana, Isle Royale, Acadia, and Senegal." Equally successful in +gaining the king's interest was a curious French adventurer, +Beaumarchais, a man of wealth, a lover of music, and the author of two +popular plays, "Figaro" and "The Barber of Seville." These two men had +already urged upon the king secret aid for America before Deane appeared +on the scene. Shortly after his arrival they made confidential +arrangements to furnish money, clothing, powder, and other supplies to +the struggling colonies, although official requests for them were +officially refused by the French government. + +=Franklin at Paris.=--When Franklin reached Paris, he was received only +in private by the king's minister, Vergennes. The French people, +however, made manifest their affection for the "plain republican" in +"his full dress suit of spotted Manchester velvet." He was known among +men of letters as an author, a scientist, and a philosopher of +extraordinary ability. His "Poor Richard" had thrice been translated +into French and was scattered in numerous editions throughout the +kingdom. People of all ranks--ministers, ladies at court, philosophers, +peasants, and stable boys--knew of Franklin and wished him success in +his mission. The queen, Marie Antoinette, fated to lose her head in a +revolution soon to follow, played with fire by encouraging "our dear +republican." + +For the king of France, however, this was more serious business. England +resented the presence of this "traitor" in Paris, and Louis had to be +cautious about plunging into another war that might also end +disastrously. Moreover, the early period of Franklin's sojourn in Paris +was a dark hour for the American Revolution. Washington's brilliant +exploit at Trenton on Christmas night, 1776, and the battle with +Cornwallis at Princeton had been followed by the disaster at Brandywine, +the loss of Philadelphia, the defeat at Germantown, and the retirement +to Valley Forge for the winter of 1777-78. New York City and +Philadelphia--two strategic ports--were in British hands; the Hudson +and Delaware rivers were blocked; and General Burgoyne with his British +troops was on his way down through the heart of northern New York, +cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies. No wonder the +king was cautious. Then the unexpected happened. Burgoyne, hemmed in +from all sides by the American forces, his flanks harried, his foraging +parties beaten back, his supplies cut off, surrendered on October 17, +1777, to General Gates, who had superseded General Schuyler in time to +receive the honor. + +=Treaties of Alliance and Commerce (1778).=--News of this victory, +placed by historians among the fifteen decisive battles of the world, +reached Franklin one night early in December while he and some friends +sat gloomily at dinner. Beaumarchais, who was with him, grasped at once +the meaning of the situation and set off to the court at Versailles with +such haste that he upset his coach and dislocated his arm. The king and +his ministers were at last convinced that the hour had come to aid the +Revolution. Treaties of commerce and alliance were drawn up and signed +in February, 1778. The independence of the United States was recognized +by France and an alliance was formed to guarantee that independence. +Combined military action was agreed upon and Louis then formally +declared war on England. Men who had, a few short years before, fought +one another in the wilderness of Pennsylvania or on the Plains of +Abraham, were now ranged side by side in a war on the Empire that Pitt +had erected and that George III was pulling down. + +=Spain and Holland Involved.=--Within a few months, Spain, remembering +the steady decline of her sea power since the days of the Armada and +hoping to drive the British out of Gibraltar, once more joined the +concert of nations against England. Holland, a member of a league of +armed neutrals formed in protest against British searches on the high +seas, sent her fleet to unite with the forces of Spain, France, and +America to prey upon British commerce. To all this trouble for England +was added the danger of a possible revolt in Ireland, where the spirit +of independence was flaming up. + +=The British Offer Terms to America.=--Seeing the colonists about to be +joined by France in a common war on the English empire, Lord North +proposed, in February, 1778, a renewal of negotiations. By solemn +enactment, Parliament declared its intention not to exercise the right +of imposing taxes within the colonies; at the same time it authorized +the opening of negotiations through commissioners to be sent to America. +A truce was to be established, pardons granted, objectionable laws +suspended, and the old imperial constitution, as it stood before the +opening of hostilities, restored to full vigor. It was too late. Events +had taken the affairs of America out of the hands of British +commissioners and diplomats. + +=Effects of French Aid.=--The French alliance brought ships of war, +large sums of gold and silver, loads of supplies, and a considerable +body of trained soldiers to the aid of the Americans. Timely as was this +help, it meant no sudden change in the fortunes of war. The British +evacuated Philadelphia in the summer following the alliance, and +Washington's troops were encouraged to come out of Valley Forge. They +inflicted a heavy blow on the British at Monmouth, but the treasonable +conduct of General Charles Lee prevented a triumph. The recovery of +Philadelphia was offset by the treason of Benedict Arnold, the loss of +Savannah and Charleston (1780), and the defeat of Gates at Camden. + +The full effect of the French alliance was not felt until 1781, when +Cornwallis went into Virginia and settled at Yorktown. Accompanied by +French troops Washington swept rapidly southward and penned the British +to the shore while a powerful French fleet shut off their escape by sea. +It was this movement, which certainly could not have been executed +without French aid, that put an end to all chance of restoring British +dominion in America. It was the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown that +caused Lord North to pace the floor and cry out: "It is all over! It is +all over!" What might have been done without the French alliance lies +hidden from mankind. What was accomplished with the help of French +soldiers, sailors, officers, money, and supplies, is known to all the +earth. "All the world agree," exultantly wrote Franklin from Paris to +General Washington, "that no expedition was ever better planned or +better executed. It brightens the glory that must accompany your name to +the latest posterity." Diplomacy as well as martial valor had its +reward. + + +PEACE AT LAST + +=British Opposition to the War.=--In measuring the forces that led to +the final discomfiture of King George and Lord North, it is necessary to +remember that from the beginning to the end the British ministry at home +faced a powerful, informed, and relentless opposition. There were +vigorous protests, first against the obnoxious acts which precipitated +the unhappy quarrel, then against the way in which the war was waged, +and finally against the futile struggle to retain a hold upon the +American dominions. Among the members of Parliament who thundered +against the government were the first statesmen and orators of the land. +William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, though he deplored the idea of American +independence, denounced the government as the aggressor and rejoiced in +American resistance. Edmund Burke leveled his heavy batteries against +every measure of coercion and at last strove for a peace which, while +giving independence to America, would work for reconciliation rather +than estrangement. Charles James Fox gave the colonies his generous +sympathy and warmly championed their rights. Outside of the circle of +statesmen there were stout friends of the American cause like David +Hume, the philosopher and historian, and Catherine Macaulay, an author +of wide fame and a republican bold enough to encourage Washington in +seeing it through. + +Against this powerful opposition, the government enlisted a whole army +of scribes and journalists to pour out criticism on the Americans and +their friends. Dr. Samuel Johnson, whom it employed in this business, +was so savage that even the ministers had to tone down his pamphlets +before printing them. Far more weighty was Edward Gibbon, who was in +time to win fame as the historian of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire_. He had at first opposed the government; but, on being given a +lucrative post, he used his sharp pen in its support, causing his +friends to ridicule him in these lines: + + "King George, in a fright + Lest Gibbon should write + The story of England's disgrace, + Thought no way so sure + His pen to secure + As to give the historian a place." + +=Lord North Yields.=--As time wore on, events bore heavily on the side +of the opponents of the government's measures. They had predicted that +conquest was impossible, and they had urged the advantages of a peace +which would in some measure restore the affections of the Americans. +Every day's news confirmed their predictions and lent support to their +arguments. Moreover, the war, which sprang out of an effort to relieve +English burdens, made those burdens heavier than ever. Military expenses +were daily increasing. Trade with the colonies, the greatest single +outlet for British goods and capital, was paralyzed. The heavy debts due +British merchants in America were not only unpaid but postponed into an +indefinite future. Ireland was on the verge of revolution. The French +had a dangerous fleet on the high seas. In vain did the king assert in +December, 1781, that no difficulties would ever make him consent to a +peace that meant American independence. Parliament knew better, and on +February 27, 1782, in the House of Commons was carried an address to the +throne against continuing the war. Burke, Fox, the younger Pitt, Barre, +and other friends of the colonies voted in the affirmative. Lord North +gave notice then that his ministry was at an end. The king moaned: +"Necessity made me yield." + +In April, 1782, Franklin received word from the English government that +it was prepared to enter into negotiations leading to a settlement. This +was embarrassing. In the treaty of alliance with France, the United +States had promised that peace should be a joint affair agreed to by +both nations in open conference. Finding France, however, opposed to +some of their claims respecting boundaries and fisheries, the American +commissioners conferred with the British agents at Paris without +consulting the French minister. They actually signed a preliminary peace +draft before they informed him of their operations. When Vergennes +reproached him, Franklin replied that they "had been guilty of +neglecting _bienseance_ [good manners] but hoped that the great work +would not be ruined by a single indiscretion." + +=The Terms of Peace (1783).=--The general settlement at Paris in 1783 +was a triumph for America. England recognized the independence of the +United States, naming each state specifically, and agreed to boundaries +extending from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the Great Lakes +to the Floridas. England held Canada, Newfoundland, and the West Indies +intact, made gains in India, and maintained her supremacy on the seas. +Spain won Florida and Minorca but not the coveted Gibraltar. France +gained nothing important save the satisfaction of seeing England humbled +and the colonies independent. + +The generous terms secured by the American commission at Paris called +forth surprise and gratitude in the United States and smoothed the way +for a renewal of commercial relations with the mother country. At the +same time they gave genuine anxiety to European diplomats. "This federal +republic is born a pigmy," wrote the Spanish ambassador to his royal +master. "A day will come when it will be a giant; even a colossus +formidable to these countries. Liberty of conscience and the facility +for establishing a new population on immense lands, as well as the +advantages of the new government, will draw thither farmers and artisans +from all the nations. In a few years we shall watch with grief the +tyrannical existence of the same colossus." + +[Illustration: NORTH AMERICA ACCORDING TO THE TREATY OF 1783] + + +SUMMARY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD + +The independence of the American colonies was foreseen by many European +statesmen as they watched the growth of their population, wealth, and +power; but no one could fix the hour of the great event. Until 1763 the +American colonists lived fairly happily under British dominion. There +were collisions from time to time, of course. Royal governors clashed +with stiff-necked colonial legislatures. There were protests against the +exercise of the king's veto power in specific cases. Nevertheless, on +the whole, the relations between America and the mother country were +more amicable in 1763 than at any period under the Stuart regime which +closed in 1688. + +The crash, when it came, was not deliberately willed by any one. It was +the product of a number of forces that happened to converge about 1763. +Three years before, there had come to the throne George III, a young, +proud, inexperienced, and stubborn king. For nearly fifty years his +predecessors, Germans as they were in language and interest, had allowed +things to drift in England and America. George III decided that he would +be king in fact as well as in name. About the same time England brought +to a close the long and costly French and Indian War and was staggering +under a heavy burden of debt and taxes. The war had been fought partly +in defense of the American colonies and nothing seemed more reasonable +to English statesmen than the idea that the colonies should bear part of +the cost of their own defense. At this juncture there came into +prominence, in royal councils, two men bent on taxing America and +controlling her trade, Grenville and Townshend. The king was willing, +the English taxpayers were thankful for any promise of relief, and +statesmen were found to undertake the experiment. England therefore set +out upon a new course. She imposed taxes upon the colonists, regulated +their trade and set royal officers upon them to enforce the law. This +action evoked protests from the colonists. They held a Stamp Act +Congress to declare their rights and petition for a redress of +grievances. Some of the more restless spirits rioted in the streets, +sacked the houses of the king's officers, and tore up the stamped paper. + +Frightened by uprising, the English government drew back and repealed +the Stamp Act. Then it veered again and renewed its policy of +interference. Interference again called forth American protests. +Protests aroused sharper retaliation. More British regulars were sent +over to keep order. More irritating laws were passed by Parliament. +Rioting again appeared: tea was dumped in the harbor of Boston and +seized in the harbor of Charleston. The British answer was more force. +The response of the colonists was a Continental Congress for defense. An +unexpected and unintended clash of arms at Lexington and Concord in the +spring of 1775 brought forth from the king of England a proclamation: +"The Americans are rebels!" + +The die was cast. The American Revolution had begun. Washington was made +commander-in-chief. Armies were raised, money was borrowed, a huge +volume of paper currency was issued, and foreign aid was summoned. +Franklin plied his diplomatic arts at Paris until in 1778 he induced +France to throw her sword into the balance. Three years later, +Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. In 1783, by the formal treaty of +peace, George III acknowledged the independence of the United States. +The new nation, endowed with an imperial domain stretching from the +Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, began its career among the +sovereign powers of the earth. + +In the sphere of civil government, the results of the Revolution were +equally remarkable. Royal officers and royal authorities were driven +from the former dominions. All power was declared to be in the people. +All the colonies became states, each with its own constitution or plan +of government. The thirteen states were united in common bonds under the +Articles of Confederation. A republic on a large scale was instituted. +Thus there was begun an adventure in popular government such as the +world had never seen. Could it succeed or was it destined to break down +and be supplanted by a monarchy? The fate of whole continents hung upon +the answer. + + +=References= + +J. Fiske, _The American Revolution_ (2 vols.). + +H. Lodge, _Life of Washington_ (2 vols.). + +W. Sumner, _The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution_. + +O. Trevelyan, _The American Revolution_ (4 vols.). A sympathetic account +by an English historian. + +M.C. Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_ (2 vols.). + +C.H. Van Tyne, _The American Revolution_ (American Nation Series) and +_The Loyalists in the American Revolution_. + + +=Questions= + +1. What was the non-importation agreement? By what body was it adopted? +Why was it revolutionary in character? + +2. Contrast the work of the first and second Continental Congresses. + +3. Why did efforts at conciliation fail? + +4. Trace the growth of American independence from opinion to the sphere +of action. + +5. Why is the Declaration of Independence an "immortal" document? + +6. What was the effect of the Revolution on colonial governments? On +national union? + +7. Describe the contest between "Patriots" and "Tories." + +8. What topics are considered under "military affairs"? Discuss each in +detail. + +9. Contrast the American forces with the British forces and show how the +war was won. + +10. Compare the work of women in the Revolutionary War with their labors +in the World War (1917-18). + +11. How was the Revolution financed? + +12. Why is diplomacy important in war? Describe the diplomatic triumph +of the Revolution. + +13. What was the nature of the opposition in England to the war? + +14. Give the events connected with the peace settlement; the terms of +peace. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Spirit of America.=--Woodrow Wilson, _History of the American +People_, Vol. II, pp. 98-126. + +=American Rights.=--Draw up a table showing all the principles laid down +by American leaders in (1) the Resolves of the First Continental +Congress, Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. 162-166; (2) the +Declaration of the Causes and the Necessity of Taking Up Arms, +Macdonald, pp. 176-183; and (3) the Declaration of Independence. + +=The Declaration of Independence.=--Fiske, _The American Revolution_, +Vol. I, pp. 147-197. Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. 250-254. + +=Diplomacy and the French Alliance.=--Hart, _American History Told by +Contemporaries_, Vol. II, pp. 574-590. Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 1-24. +Callender, _Economic History of the United States_, pp. 159-168; Elson, +pp. 275-280. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Washington, Franklin, Samuel Adams, Patrick +Henry, Thomas Jefferson--emphasizing the peculiar services of each. + +=The Tories.=--Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. II, pp. 470-480. + +=Valley Forge.=--Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 25-49. + +=The Battles of the Revolution.=--Elson, pp. 235-317. + +=An English View of the Revolution.=--Green, _Short History of England_, +Chap. X, Sect. 2. + +=English Opinion and the Revolution.=--Trevelyan, _The American +Revolution_, Vol. III (or Part 2, Vol. II), Chaps. XXIV-XXVII. + + + + +PART III. THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION + + +THE PROMISE AND THE DIFFICULTIES OF AMERICA + +The rise of a young republic composed of thirteen states, each governed +by officials popularly elected under constitutions drafted by "the plain +people," was the most significant feature of the eighteenth century. The +majority of the patriots whose labors and sacrifices had made this +possible naturally looked upon their work and pronounced it good. Those +Americans, however, who peered beneath the surface of things, saw that +the Declaration of Independence, even if splendidly phrased, and paper +constitutions, drawn by finest enthusiasm "uninstructed by experience," +could not alone make the republic great and prosperous or even free. All +around them they saw chaos in finance and in industry and perils for the +immediate future. + +=The Weakness of the Articles of Confederation.=--The government under +the Articles of Confederation had neither the strength nor the resources +necessary to cope with the problems of reconstruction left by the war. +The sole organ of government was a Congress composed of from two to +seven members from each state chosen as the legislature might direct and +paid by the state. In determining all questions, each state had one +vote--Delaware thus enjoying the same weight as Virginia. There was no +president to enforce the laws. Congress was given power to select a +committee of thirteen--one from each state--to act as an executive body +when it was not in session; but this device, on being tried out, proved +a failure. There was no system of national courts to which citizens and +states could appeal for the protection of their rights or through which +they could compel obedience to law. The two great powers of government, +military and financial, were withheld. Congress, it is true, could +authorize expenditures but had to rely upon the states for the payment +of contributions to meet its bills. It could also order the +establishment of an army, but it could only request the states to supply +their respective quotas of soldiers. It could not lay taxes nor bring +any pressure to bear upon a single citizen in the whole country. It +could act only through the medium of the state governments. + +=Financial and Commercial Disorders.=--In the field of public finance, +the disorders were pronounced. The huge debt incurred during the war was +still outstanding. Congress was unable to pay either the interest or the +principal. Public creditors were in despair, as the market value of +their bonds sank to twenty-five or even ten cents on the dollar. The +current bills of Congress were unpaid. As some one complained, there was +not enough money in the treasury to buy pen and ink with which to record +the transactions of the shadow legislature. The currency was in utter +chaos. Millions of dollars in notes issued by Congress had become mere +trash worth a cent or two on the dollar. There was no other expression +of contempt so forceful as the popular saying: "not worth a +Continental." To make matters worse, several of the states were pouring +new streams of paper money from the press. Almost the only good money in +circulation consisted of English, French, and Spanish coins, and the +public was even defrauded by them because money changers were busy +clipping and filing away the metal. Foreign commerce was unsettled. The +entire British system of trade discrimination was turned against the +Americans, and Congress, having no power to regulate foreign commerce, +was unable to retaliate or to negotiate treaties which it could enforce. +Domestic commerce was impeded by the jealousies of the states, which +erected tariff barriers against their neighbors. The condition of the +currency made the exchange of money and goods extremely difficult, and, +as if to increase the confusion, backward states enacted laws hindering +the prompt collection of debts within their borders--an evil which +nothing but a national system of courts could cure. + +=Congress in Disrepute.=--With treaties set at naught by the states, the +laws unenforced, the treasury empty, and the public credit gone, the +Congress of the United States fell into utter disrepute. It called upon +the states to pay their quotas of money into the treasury, only to be +treated with contempt. Even its own members looked upon it as a solemn +futility. Some of the ablest men refused to accept election to it, and +many who did take the doubtful honor failed to attend the sessions. +Again and again it was impossible to secure a quorum for the transaction +of business. + +=Troubles of the State Governments.=--The state governments, free to +pursue their own course with no interference from without, had almost as +many difficulties as the Congress. They too were loaded with +revolutionary debts calling for heavy taxes upon an already restive +population. Oppressed by their financial burdens and discouraged by the +fall in prices which followed the return of peace, the farmers of +several states joined in a concerted effort and compelled their +legislatures to issue large sums of paper money. The currency fell in +value, but nevertheless it was forced on unwilling creditors to square +old accounts. + +In every part of the country legislative action fluctuated violently. +Laws were made one year only to be repealed the next and reenacted the +third year. Lands were sold by one legislature and the sales were +canceled by its successor. Uncertainty and distrust were the natural +consequences. Men of substance longed for some power that would forbid +states to issue bills of credit, to make paper money legal tender in +payment of debts, or to impair the obligation of contracts. Men heavily +in debt, on the other hand, urged even more drastic action against +creditors. + +So great did the discontent of the farmers in New Hampshire become in +1786 that a mob surrounded the legislature, demanding a repeal of the +taxes and the issuance of paper money. It was with difficulty that an +armed rebellion was avoided. In Massachusetts the malcontents, under the +leadership of Daniel Shays, a captain in the Revolutionary army, +organized that same year open resistance to the government of the state. +Shays and his followers protested against the conduct of creditors in +foreclosing mortgages upon the debt-burdened farmers, against the +lawyers for increasing the costs of legal proceedings, against the +senate of the state the members of which were apportioned among the +towns on the basis of the amount of taxes paid, against heavy taxes, and +against the refusal of the legislature to issue paper money. They seized +the towns of Worcester and Springfield and broke up the courts of +justice. All through the western part of the state the revolt spread, +sending a shock of alarm to every center and section of the young +republic. Only by the most vigorous action was Governor Bowdoin able to +quell the uprising; and when that task was accomplished, the state +government did not dare to execute any of the prisoners because they had +so many sympathizers. Moreover, Bowdoin and several members of the +legislature who had been most zealous in their attacks on the insurgents +were defeated at the ensuing election. The need of national assistance +for state governments in times of domestic violence was everywhere +emphasized by men who were opposed to revolutionary acts. + +=Alarm over Dangers to the Republic.=--Leading American citizens, +watching the drift of affairs, were slowly driven to the conclusion that +the new ship of state so proudly launched a few years before was +careening into anarchy. "The facts of our peace and independence," wrote +a friend of Washington, "do not at present wear so promising an +appearance as I had fondly painted in my mind. The prejudices, +jealousies, and turbulence of the people at times almost stagger my +confidence in our political establishments; and almost occasion me to +think that they will show themselves unworthy of the noble prize for +which we have contended." + +Washington himself was profoundly discouraged. On hearing of Shays's +rebellion, he exclaimed: "What, gracious God, is man that there should +be such inconsistency and perfidiousness in his conduct! It is but the +other day that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitutions +under which we now live--constitutions of our own choice and making--and +now we are unsheathing our sword to overturn them." The same year he +burst out in a lament over rumors of restoring royal government. "I am +told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical government +without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking. Hence to acting is +often but a single step. But how irresistible and tremendous! What a +triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions! What a triumph for +the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing +ourselves!" + +=Congress Attempts Some Reforms.=--The Congress was not indifferent to +the events that disturbed Washington. On the contrary it put forth many +efforts to check tendencies so dangerous to finance, commerce, +industries, and the Confederation itself. In 1781, even before the +treaty of peace was signed, the Congress, having found out how futile +were its taxing powers, carried a resolution of amendment to the +Articles of Confederation, authorizing the levy of a moderate duty on +imports. Yet this mild measure was rejected by the states. Two years +later the Congress prepared another amendment sanctioning the levy of +duties on imports, to be collected this time by state officers and +applied to the payment of the public debt. This more limited proposal, +designed to save public credit, likewise failed. In 1786, the Congress +made a third appeal to the states for help, declaring that they had been +so irregular and so negligent in paying their quotas that further +reliance upon that mode of raising revenues was dishonorable and +dangerous. + + +THE CALLING OF A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION + +=Hamilton and Washington Urge Reform.=--The attempts at reform by the +Congress were accompanied by demand for, both within and without that +body, a convention to frame a new plan of government. In 1780, the +youthful Alexander Hamilton, realizing the weakness of the Articles, so +widely discussed, proposed a general convention for the purpose of +drafting a new constitution on entirely different principles. With +tireless energy he strove to bring his countrymen to his view. +Washington, agreeing with him on every point, declared, in a circular +letter to the governors, that the duration of the union would be short +unless there was lodged somewhere a supreme power "to regulate and +govern the general concerns of the confederated republic." The governor +of Massachusetts, disturbed by the growth of discontent all about him, +suggested to the state legislature in 1785 the advisability of a +national convention to enlarge the powers of the Congress. The +legislature approved the plan, but did not press it to a conclusion. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON] + +=The Annapolis Convention.=--Action finally came from the South. The +Virginia legislature, taking things into its own hands, called a +conference of delegates at Annapolis to consider matters of taxation and +commerce. When the convention assembled in 1786, it was found that only +five states had taken the trouble to send representatives. The leaders +were deeply discouraged, but the resourceful Hamilton, a delegate from +New York, turned the affair to good account. He secured the adoption of +a resolution, calling upon the Congress itself to summon another +convention, to meet at Philadelphia. + +=A National Convention Called (1787).=--The Congress, as tardy as ever, +at last decided in February, 1787, to issue the call. Fearing drastic +changes, however, it restricted the convention to "the sole and express +purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation." Jealous of its own +powers, it added that any alterations proposed should be referred to the +Congress and the states for their approval. + +Every state in the union, except Rhode Island, responded to this call. +Indeed some of the states, having the Annapolis resolution before them, +had already anticipated the Congress by selecting delegates before the +formal summons came. Thus, by the persistence of governors, +legislatures, and private citizens, there was brought about the +long-desired national convention. In May, 1787, it assembled in +Philadelphia. + +=The Eminent Men of the Convention.=--On the roll of that memorable +convention were fifty-five men, at least half of whom were acknowledged +to be among the foremost statesmen and thinkers in America. Every field +of statecraft was represented by them: war and practical management in +Washington, who was chosen president of the convention; diplomacy in +Franklin, now old and full of honor in his own land as well as abroad; +finance in Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris; law in James Wilson of +Pennsylvania; the philosophy of government in James Madison, called the +"father of the Constitution." They were not theorists but practical men, +rich in political experience and endowed with deep insight into the +springs of human action. Three of them had served in the Stamp Act +Congress: Dickinson of Delaware, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, +and John Rutledge of South Carolina. Eight had been signers of the +Declaration of Independence: Read of Delaware, Sherman of Connecticut, +Wythe of Virginia, Gerry of Massachusetts, Franklin, Robert Morris, +George Clymer, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania. All but twelve had at +some time served in the Continental Congress and eighteen were members +of that body in the spring of 1787. Washington, Hamilton, Mifflin, and +Charles Pinckney had been officers in the Revolutionary army. Seven of +the delegates had gained political experience as governors of states. +"The convention as a whole," according to the historian Hildreth, +"represented in a marked manner the talent, intelligence, and +especially the conservative sentiment of the country." + + +THE FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION + +=Problems Involved.=--The great problems before the convention were nine +in number: (1) Shall the Articles of Confederation be revised or a new +system of government constructed? (2) Shall the government be founded on +states equal in power as under the Articles or on the broader and deeper +foundation of population? (3) What direct share shall the people have in +the election of national officers? (4) What shall be the qualifications +for the suffrage? (5) How shall the conflicting interests of the +commercial and the planting states be balanced so as to safeguard the +essential rights of each? (6) What shall be the form of the new +government? (7) What powers shall be conferred on it? (8) How shall the +state legislatures be restrained from their attacks on property rights +such as the issuance of paper money? (9) Shall the approval of all the +states be necessary, as under the Articles, for the adoption and +amendment of the Constitution? + +=Revision of the Articles or a New Government?=--The moment the first +problem was raised, representatives of the small states, led by William +Paterson of New Jersey, were on their feet. They feared that, if the +Articles were overthrown, the equality and rights of the states would be +put in jeopardy. Their protest was therefore vigorous. They cited the +call issued by the Congress in summoning the convention which +specifically stated that they were assembled for "the sole and express +purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation." They cited also +their instructions from their state legislatures, which authorized them +to "revise and amend" the existing scheme of government, not to make a +revolution in it. To depart from the authorization laid down by the +Congress and the legislatures would be to exceed their powers, they +argued, and to betray the trust reposed in them by their countrymen. + +To their contentions, Randolph of Virginia replied: "When the salvation +of the republic is at stake, it would be treason to our trust not to +propose what we find necessary." Hamilton, reminding the delegates that +their work was still subject to the approval of the states, frankly said +that on the point of their powers he had no scruples. With the issue +clear, the convention cast aside the Articles as if they did not exist +and proceeded to the work of drawing up a new constitution, "laying its +foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form" +as to the delegates seemed "most likely to affect their safety and +happiness." + +=A Government Founded on States or on People?--The +Compromise.=--Defeated in their attempt to limit the convention to a +mere revision of the Articles, the spokesmen of the smaller states +redoubled their efforts to preserve the equality of the states. The +signal for a radical departure from the Articles on this point was given +early in the sessions when Randolph presented "the Virginia plan." He +proposed that the new national legislature consist of two houses, the +members of which were to be apportioned among the states according to +their wealth or free white population, as the convention might decide. +This plan was vehemently challenged. Paterson of New Jersey flatly +avowed that neither he nor his state would ever bow to such tyranny. As +an alternative, he presented "the New Jersey plan" calling for a +national legislature of one house representing states as such, not +wealth or people--a legislature in which all states, large or small, +would have equal voice. Wilson of Pennsylvania, on behalf of the more +populous states, took up the gauntlet which Paterson had thrown down. It +was absurd, he urged, for 180,000 men in one state to have the same +weight in national counsels as 750,000 men in another state. "The +gentleman from New Jersey," he said, "is candid. He declares his opinion +boldly.... I will be equally candid.... I will never confederate on his +principles." So the bitter controversy ran on through many exciting +sessions. + +Greek had met Greek. The convention was hopelessly deadlocked and on the +verge of dissolution, "scarce held together by the strength of a hair," +as one of the delegates remarked. A crash was averted only by a +compromise. Instead of a Congress of one house as provided by the +Articles, the convention agreed upon a legislature of two houses. In the +Senate, the aspirations of the small states were to be satisfied, for +each state was given two members in that body. In the formation of the +House of Representatives, the larger states were placated, for it was +agreed that the members of that chamber were to be apportioned among the +states on the basis of population, counting three-fifths of the slaves. + +=The Question of Popular Election.=--The method of selecting federal +officers and members of Congress also produced an acrimonious debate +which revealed how deep-seated was the distrust of the capacity of the +people to govern themselves. Few there were who believed that no branch +of the government should be elected directly by the voters; still fewer +were there, however, who desired to see all branches so chosen. One or +two even expressed a desire for a monarchy. The dangers of democracy +were stressed by Gerry of Massachusetts: "All the evils we experience +flow from an excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue but are +the dupes of pretended patriots.... I have been too republican +heretofore but have been taught by experience the danger of a leveling +spirit." To the "democratic licentiousness of the state legislatures," +Randolph sought to oppose a "firm senate." To check the excesses of +popular government Charles Pinckney of South Carolina declared that no +one should be elected President who was not worth $100,000 and that high +property qualifications should be placed on members of Congress and +judges. Other members of the convention were stoutly opposed to such +"high-toned notions of government." Franklin and Wilson, both from +Pennsylvania, vigorously championed popular election; while men like +Madison insisted that at least one part of the government should rest on +the broad foundation of the people. + +Out of this clash of opinion also came compromise. One branch, the House +of Representatives, it was agreed, was to be elected directly by the +voters, while the Senators were to be elected indirectly by the state +legislatures. The President was to be chosen by electors selected as the +legislatures of the states might determine, and the judges of the +federal courts, supreme and inferior, by the President and the Senate. + +=The Question of the Suffrage.=--The battle over the suffrage was sharp +but brief. Gouverneur Morris proposed that only land owners should be +permitted to vote. Madison replied that the state legislatures, which +had made so much trouble with radical laws, were elected by freeholders. +After the debate, the delegates, unable to agree on any property +limitations on the suffrage, decided that the House of Representatives +should be elected by voters having the "qualifications requisite for +electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature." Thus +they accepted the suffrage provisions of the states. + +=The Balance between the Planting and the Commercial States.=--After the +debates had gone on for a few weeks, Madison came to the conclusion that +the real division in the convention was not between the large and the +small states but between the planting section founded on slave labor and +the commercial North. Thus he anticipated by nearly three-quarters of a +century "the irrepressible conflict." The planting states had neither +the free white population nor the wealth of the North. There were, +counting Delaware, six of them as against seven commercial states. +Dependent for their prosperity mainly upon the sale of tobacco, rice, +and other staples abroad, they feared that Congress might impose +restraints upon their enterprise. Being weaker in numbers, they were +afraid that the majority might lay an unfair burden of taxes upon them. + +_Representation and Taxation._--The Southern members of the convention +were therefore very anxious to secure for their section the largest +possible representation in Congress, and at the same time to restrain +the taxing power of that body. Two devices were thought adapted to these +ends. One was to count the slaves as people when apportioning +representatives among the states according to their respective +populations; the other was to provide that direct taxes should be +apportioned among the states, in proportion not to their wealth but to +the number of their free white inhabitants. For obvious reasons the +Northern delegates objected to these proposals. Once more a compromise +proved to be the solution. It was agreed that not all the slaves but +three-fifths of them should be counted for both purposes--representation +and direct taxation. + +_Commerce and the Slave Trade._--Southern interests were also involved +in the project to confer upon Congress the power to regulate interstate +and foreign commerce. To the manufacturing and trading states this was +essential. It would prevent interstate tariffs and trade jealousies; it +would enable Congress to protect American manufactures and to break +down, by appropriate retaliations, foreign discriminations against +American commerce. To the South the proposal was menacing because +tariffs might interfere with the free exchange of the produce of +plantations in European markets, and navigation acts might confine the +carrying trade to American, that is Northern, ships. The importation of +slaves, moreover, it was feared might be heavily taxed or immediately +prohibited altogether. + +The result of this and related controversies was a debate on the merits +of slavery. Gouverneur Morris delivered his mind and heart on that +subject, denouncing slavery as a nefarious institution and the curse of +heaven on the states in which it prevailed. Mason of Virginia, a +slaveholder himself, was hardly less outspoken, saying: "Slavery +discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed +by slaves. They prevent the migration of whites who really strengthen +and enrich a country." + +The system, however, had its defenders. Representatives from South +Carolina argued that their entire economic life rested on slave labor +and that the high death rate in the rice swamps made continuous +importation necessary. Ellsworth of Connecticut took the ground that +the convention should not meddle with slavery. "The morality or wisdom +of slavery," he said, "are considerations belonging to the states. What +enriches a part enriches the whole." To the future he turned an +untroubled face: "As population increases, poor laborers will be so +plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery in time will not be a speck +in our country." Virginia and North Carolina, already overstocked with +slaves, favored prohibiting the traffic in them; but South Carolina was +adamant. She must have fresh supplies of slaves or she would not +federate. + +So it was agreed that, while Congress might regulate foreign trade by +majority vote, the importation of slaves should not be forbidden before +the lapse of twenty years, and that any import tax should not exceed $10 +a head. At the same time, in connection with the regulation of foreign +trade, it was stipulated that a two-thirds vote in the Senate should be +necessary in the ratification of treaties. A further concession to the +South was made in the provision for the return of runaway slaves--a +provision also useful in the North, where indentured servants were about +as troublesome as slaves in escaping from their masters. + +=The Form of the Government.=--As to the details of the frame of +government and the grand principles involved, the opinion of the +convention ebbed and flowed, decisions being taken in the heat of +debate, only to be revoked and taken again. + +_The Executive._--There was general agreement that there should be an +executive branch; for reliance upon Congress to enforce its own laws and +treaties had been a broken reed. On the character and functions of the +executive, however, there were many views. The New Jersey plan called +for a council selected by the Congress; the Virginia plan provided that +the executive branch should be chosen by the Congress but did not state +whether it should be composed of one or several persons. On this matter +the convention voted first one way and then another; finally it agreed +on a single executive chosen indirectly by electors selected as the +state legislatures might decide, serving for four years, subject to +impeachment, and endowed with regal powers in the command of the army +and the navy and in the enforcement of the laws. + +_The Legislative Branch--Congress._--After the convention had made the +great compromise between the large and small commonwealths by giving +representation to states in the Senate and to population in the House, +the question of methods of election had to be decided. As to the House +of Representatives it was readily agreed that the members should be +elected by direct popular vote. There was also easy agreement on the +proposition that a strong Senate was needed to check the "turbulence" of +the lower house. Four devices were finally selected to accomplish this +purpose. In the first place, the Senators were not to be chosen directly +by the voters but by the legislatures of the states, thus removing their +election one degree from the populace. In the second place, their term +was fixed at six years instead of two, as in the case of the House. In +the third place, provision was made for continuity by having only +one-third of the members go out at a time while two-thirds remained in +service. Finally, it was provided that Senators must be at least thirty +years old while Representatives need be only twenty-five. + +_The Judiciary._--The need for federal courts to carry out the law was +hardly open to debate. The feebleness of the Articles of Confederation +was, in a large measure, attributed to the want of a judiciary to hold +states and individuals in obedience to the laws and treaties of the +union. Nevertheless on this point the advocates of states' rights were +extremely sensitive. They looked with distrust upon judges appointed at +the national capital and emancipated from local interests and +traditions; they remembered with what insistence they had claimed +against Britain the right of local trial by jury and with what +consternation they had viewed the proposal to make colonial judges +independent of the assemblies in the matter of their salaries. +Reluctantly they yielded to the demand for federal courts, consenting at +first only to a supreme court to review cases heard in lower state +courts and finally to such additional inferior courts as Congress might +deem necessary. + +_The System of Checks and Balances._--It is thus apparent that the +framers of the Constitution, in shaping the form of government, arranged +for a distribution of power among three branches, executive, +legislative, and judicial. Strictly speaking we might say four branches, +for the legislature, or Congress, was composed of two houses, elected in +different ways, and one of them, the Senate, was made a check on the +President through its power of ratifying treaties and appointments. "The +accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial, in the +same hands," wrote Madison, "whether of one, a few, or many, and whether +hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the +very definition of tyranny." The devices which the convention adopted to +prevent such a centralization of authority were exceedingly ingenious +and well calculated to accomplish the purposes of the authors. + +The legislature consisted of two houses, the members of which were to be +apportioned on a different basis, elected in different ways, and to +serve for different terms. A veto on all its acts was vested in a +President elected in a manner not employed in the choice of either +branch of the legislature, serving for four years, and subject to +removal only by the difficult process of impeachment. After a law had +run the gantlet of both houses and the executive, it was subject to +interpretation and annulment by the judiciary, appointed by the +President with the consent of the Senate and serving for life. Thus it +was made almost impossible for any political party to get possession of +all branches of the government at a single popular election. As Hamilton +remarked, the friends of good government considered "every institution +calculated to restrain the excess of law making and to keep things in +the same state in which they happen to be at any given period as more +likely to do good than harm." + +=The Powers of the Federal Government.=--On the question of the powers +to be conferred upon the new government there was less occasion for a +serious dispute. Even the delegates from the small states agreed with +those from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia that new powers +should be added to those intrusted to Congress by the Articles of +Confederation. The New Jersey plan as well as the Virginia plan +recognized this fact. Some of the delegates, like Hamilton and Madison, +even proposed to give Congress a general legislative authority covering +all national matters; but others, frightened by the specter of +nationalism, insisted on specifying each power to be conferred and +finally carried the day. + +_Taxation and Commerce._--There were none bold enough to dissent from +the proposition that revenue must be provided to pay current expenses +and discharge the public debt. When once the dispute over the +apportionment of direct taxes among the slave states was settled, it was +an easy matter to decide that Congress should have power to lay and +collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. In this way the national +government was freed from dependence upon stubborn and tardy +legislatures and enabled to collect funds directly from citizens. There +were likewise none bold enough to contend that the anarchy of state +tariffs and trade discriminations should be longer endured. When the +fears of the planting states were allayed and the "bargain" over the +importation of slaves was reached, the convention vested in Congress the +power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. + +_National Defense._--The necessity for national defense was realized, +though the fear of huge military establishments was equally present. The +old practice of relying on quotas furnished by the state legislatures +was completely discredited. As in the case of taxes a direct authority +over citizens was demanded. Congress was therefore given full power to +raise and support armies and a navy. It could employ the state militia +when desirable; but it could at the same time maintain a regular army +and call directly upon all able-bodied males if the nature of a crisis +was thought to require it. + +_The "Necessary and Proper" Clause._--To the specified power vested in +Congress by the Constitution, the advocates of a strong national +government added a general clause authorizing it to make all laws +"necessary and proper" for carrying into effect any and all of the +enumerated powers. This clause, interpreted by that master mind, Chief +Justice Marshall, was later construed to confer powers as wide as the +requirements of a vast country spanning a continent and taking its place +among the mighty nations of the earth. + +=Restraints on the States.=--Framing a government and endowing it with +large powers were by no means the sole concern of the convention. Its +very existence had been due quite as much to the conduct of the state +legislatures as to the futilities of a paralyzed Continental Congress. +In every state, explains Marshall in his _Life of Washington_, there was +a party of men who had "marked out for themselves a more indulgent +course. Viewing with extreme tenderness the case of the debtor, their +efforts were unceasingly directed to his relief. To exact a faithful +compliance with contracts was, in their opinion, a harsh measure which +the people could not bear. They were uniformly in favor of relaxing the +administration of justice, of affording facilities for the payment of +debts, or of suspending their collection, and remitting taxes." + +The legislatures under the dominance of these men had enacted paper +money laws enabling debtors to discharge their obligations more easily. +The convention put an end to such practices by providing that no state +should emit bills of credit or make anything but gold or silver legal +tender in the payment of debts. The state legislatures had enacted laws +allowing men to pay their debts by turning over to creditors land or +personal property; they had repealed the charter of an endowed college +and taken the management from the hands of the lawful trustees; and they +had otherwise interfered with the enforcement of private agreements. The +convention, taking notice of such matters, inserted a clause forbidding +states "to impair the obligation of contracts." The more venturous of +the radicals had in Massachusetts raised the standard of revolt against +the authorities of the state. The convention answered by a brief +sentence to the effect that the President of the United States, to be +equipped with a regular army, would send troops to suppress domestic +insurrections whenever called upon by the legislature or, if it was not +in session, by the governor of the state. To make sure that the +restrictions on the states would not be dead letters, the federal +Constitution, laws, and treaties were made the supreme law of the land, +to be enforced whenever necessary by a national judiciary and executive +against violations on the part of any state authorities. + +=Provisions for Ratification and Amendment.=--When the frame of +government had been determined, the powers to be vested in it had been +enumerated, and the restrictions upon the states had been written into +the bond, there remained three final questions. How shall the +Constitution be ratified? What number of states shall be necessary to +put it into effect? How shall it be amended in the future? + +On the first point, the mandate under which the convention was sitting +seemed positive. The Articles of Confederation were still in effect. +They provided that amendments could be made only by unanimous adoption +in Congress and the approval of all the states. As if to give force to +this provision of law, the call for the convention had expressly stated +that all alterations and revisions should be reported to Congress for +adoption or rejection, Congress itself to transmit the document +thereafter to the states for their review. + +To have observed the strict letter of the law would have defeated the +purposes of the delegates, because Congress and the state legislatures +were openly hostile to such drastic changes as had been made. Unanimous +ratification, as events proved, would have been impossible. Therefore +the delegates decided that the Constitution should be sent to Congress +with the recommendation that it, in turn, transmit the document, not to +the state legislatures, but to conventions held in the states for the +special object of deciding upon ratification. This process was followed. +It was their belief that special conventions would be more friendly than +the state legislatures. + +The convention was equally positive in dealing with the problem of the +number of states necessary to establish the new Constitution. Attempts +to change the Articles had failed because amendment required the +approval of every state and there was always at least one recalcitrant +member of the union. The opposition to a new Constitution was +undoubtedly formidable. Rhode Island had even refused to take part in +framing it, and her hostility was deep and open. So the convention cast +aside the provision of the Articles of Confederation which required +unanimous approval for any change in the plan of government; it decreed +that the new Constitution should go into effect when ratified by nine +states. + +In providing for future changes in the Constitution itself the +convention also thrust aside the old rule of unanimous approval, and +decided that an amendment could be made on a two-thirds vote in both +houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. This +change was of profound significance. Every state agreed to be bound in +the future by amendments duly adopted even in case it did not approve +them itself. America in this way set out upon the high road that led +from a league of states to a nation. + + +THE STRUGGLE OVER RATIFICATION + +On September 17, 1787, the Constitution, having been finally drafted in +clear and simple language, a model to all makers of fundamental law, was +adopted. The convention, after nearly four months of debate in secret +session, flung open the doors and presented to the Americans the +finished plan for the new government. Then the great debate passed to +the people. + +=The Opposition.=--Storms of criticism at once descended upon the +Constitution. "Fraudulent usurpation!" exclaimed Gerry, who had refused +to sign it. "A monster" out of the "thick veil of secrecy," declaimed a +Pennsylvania newspaper. "An iron-handed despotism will be the result," +protested a third. "We, 'the low-born,'" sarcastically wrote a fourth, +"will now admit the 'six hundred well-born' immediately to establish +this most noble, most excellent, and truly divine constitution." The +President will become a king; Congress will be as tyrannical as +Parliament in the old days; the states will be swallowed up; the rights +of the people will be trampled upon; the poor man's justice will be lost +in the endless delays of the federal courts--such was the strain of the +protests against ratification. + +[Illustration: AN ADVERTISEMENT OF _The Federalist_] + +=Defense of the Constitution.=--Moved by the tempest of opposition, +Hamilton, Madison, and Jay took up their pens in defense of the +Constitution. In a series of newspaper articles they discussed and +expounded with eloquence, learning, and dignity every important clause +and provision of the proposed plan. These papers, afterwards collected +and published in a volume known as _The Federalist_, form the finest +textbook on the Constitution that has ever been printed. It takes its +place, moreover, among the wisest and weightiest treatises on government +ever written in any language in any time. Other men, not so gifted, were +no less earnest in their support of ratification. In private +correspondence, editorials, pamphlets, and letters to the newspapers, +they urged their countrymen to forget their partisanship and accept a +Constitution which, in spite of any defects great or small, was the +only guarantee against dissolution and warfare at home and dishonor and +weakness abroad. + +[Illustration: CELEBRATING THE RATIFICATION] + +=The Action of the State Conventions.=--Before the end of the year, +1787, three states had ratified the Constitution: Delaware and New +Jersey unanimously and Pennsylvania after a short, though savage, +contest. Connecticut and Georgia followed early the next year. Then came +the battle royal in Massachusetts, ending in ratification in February by +the narrow margin of 187 votes to 168. In the spring came the news that +Maryland and South Carolina were "under the new roof." On June 21, New +Hampshire, where the sentiment was at first strong enough to defeat the +Constitution, joined the new republic, influenced by the favorable +decision in Massachusetts. Swift couriers were sent to carry the news to +New York and Virginia, where the question of ratification was still +undecided. Nine states had accepted it and were united, whether more saw +fit to join or not. + +Meanwhile, however, Virginia, after a long and searching debate, had +given her approval by a narrow margin, leaving New York as the next seat +of anxiety. In that state the popular vote for the delegates to the +convention had been clearly and heavily against ratification. Events +finally demonstrated the futility of resistance, and Hamilton by good +judgment and masterly arguments was at last able to marshal a majority +of thirty to twenty-seven votes in favor of ratification. + +The great contest was over. All the states, except North Carolina and +Rhode Island, had ratified. "The sloop Anarchy," wrote an ebullient +journalist, "when last heard from was ashore on Union rocks." + +=The First Election.=--In the autumn of 1788, elections were held to +fill the places in the new government. Public opinion was overwhelmingly +in favor of Washington as the first President. Yielding to the +importunities of friends, he accepted the post in the spirit of public +service. On April 30, 1789, he took the oath of office at Federal Hall +in New York City. "Long live George Washington, President of the United +States!" cried Chancellor Livingston as soon as the General had kissed +the Bible. The cry was caught by the assembled multitude and given back. +A new experiment in popular government was launched. + + +=References= + +M. Farrand, _The Framing of the Constitution of the United States_. + +P.L. Ford, _Essays on the Constitution of the United States_. + +_The Federalist_ (in many editions). + +G. Hunt, _Life of James Madison_. + +A.C. McLaughlin, _The Confederation and the Constitution_ (American +Nation Series). + + +=Questions= + +1. Account for the failure of the Articles of Confederation. + +2. Explain the domestic difficulties of the individual states. + +3. Why did efforts at reform by the Congress come to naught? + +4. Narrate the events leading up to the constitutional convention. + +5. Who were some of the leading men in the convention? What had been +their previous training? + +6. State the great problems before the convention. + +7. In what respects were the planting and commercial states opposed? +What compromises were reached? + +8. Show how the "check and balance" system is embodied in our form of +government. + +9. How did the powers conferred upon the federal government help cure +the defects of the Articles of Confederation? + +10. In what way did the provisions for ratifying and amending the +Constitution depart from the old system? + +11. What was the nature of the conflict over ratification? + + +=Research Topics= + +=English Treatment of American Commerce.=--Callender, _Economic History +of the United States_, pp. 210-220. + +=Financial Condition of the United States.=--Fiske, _Critical Period of +American History_, pp. 163-186. + +=Disordered Commerce.=--Fiske, pp. 134-162. + +=Selfish Conduct of the States.=--Callender, pp. 185-191. + +=The Failure of the Confederation.=--Elson, _History of the United +States_, pp. 318-326. + +=Formation of the Constitution.=--(1) The plans before the convention, +Fiske, pp. 236-249; (2) the great compromise, Fiske, pp. 250-255; (3) +slavery and the convention, Fiske, pp. 256-266; and (4) the frame of +government, Fiske, pp. 275-301; Elson, pp. 328-334. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Look up the history and services of the leaders +in the convention in any good encyclopedia. + +=Ratification of the Constitution.=--Hart, _History Told by +Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 233-254; Elson, pp. 334-340. + +=Source Study.=--Compare the Constitution and Articles of Confederation +under the following heads: (1) frame of government; (2) powers of +Congress; (3) limits on states; and (4) methods of amendment. Every line +of the Constitution should be read and re-read in the light of the +historical circumstances set forth in this chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CLASH OF POLITICAL PARTIES + + +THE MEN AND MEASURES OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT + +=Friends of the Constitution in Power.=--In the first Congress that +assembled after the adoption of the Constitution, there were eleven +Senators, led by Robert Morris, the financier, who had been delegates to +the national convention. Several members of the House of +Representatives, headed by James Madison, had also been at Philadelphia +in 1787. In making his appointments, Washington strengthened the new +system of government still further by a judicious selection of +officials. He chose as Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, +who had been the most zealous for its success; General Knox, head of the +War Department, and Edmund Randolph, the Attorney-General, were likewise +conspicuous friends of the experiment. Every member of the federal +judiciary whom Washington appointed, from the Chief Justice, John Jay, +down to the justices of the district courts, had favored the +ratification of the Constitution; and a majority of them had served as +members of the national convention that framed the document or of the +state ratifying conventions. Only one man of influence in the new +government, Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, was reckoned as a +doubter in the house of the faithful. He had expressed opinions both for +and against the Constitution; but he had been out of the country acting +as the minister at Paris when the Constitution was drafted and ratified. + +=An Opposition to Conciliate.=--The inauguration of Washington amid the +plaudits of his countrymen did not set at rest all the political turmoil +which had been aroused by the angry contest over ratification. "The +interesting nature of the question," wrote John Marshall, "the equality +of the parties, the animation produced inevitably by ardent debate had a +necessary tendency to embitter the dispositions of the vanquished and to +fix more deeply in many bosoms their prejudices against a plan of +government in opposition to which all their passions were enlisted." The +leaders gathered around Washington were well aware of the excited state +of the country. They saw Rhode Island and North Carolina still outside +of the union.[1] They knew by what small margins the Constitution had +been approved in the great states of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New +York. They were equally aware that a majority of the state conventions, +in yielding reluctant approval to the Constitution, had drawn a number +of amendments for immediate submission to the states. + +=The First Amendments--a Bill of Rights.=--To meet the opposition, +Madison proposed, and the first Congress adopted, a series of amendments +to the Constitution. Ten of them were soon ratified and became in 1791 a +part of the law of the land. These amendments provided, among other +things, that Congress could make no law respecting the establishment of +religion, abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right +of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a +redress of grievances. They also guaranteed indictment by grand jury and +trial by jury for all persons charged by federal officers with serious +crimes. To reassure those who still feared that local rights might be +invaded by the federal government, the tenth amendment expressly +provided that the powers not delegated to the United States by the +Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the +states respectively or to the people. Seven years later, the eleventh +amendment was written in the same spirit as the first ten, after a +heated debate over the action of the Supreme Court in permitting a +citizen to bring a suit against "the sovereign state" of Georgia. The +new amendment was designed to protect states against the federal +judiciary by forbidding it to hear any case in which a state was sued by +a citizen. + +=Funding the National Debt.=--Paper declarations of rights, however, +paid no bills. To this task Hamilton turned all his splendid genius. At +the very outset he addressed himself to the problem of the huge public +debt, daily mounting as the unpaid interest accumulated. In a _Report on +Public Credit_ under date of January 9, 1790, one of the first and +greatest of American state papers, he laid before Congress the outlines +of his plan. He proposed that the federal government should call in all +the old bonds, certificates of indebtedness, and other promises to pay +which had been issued by the Congress since the beginning of the +Revolution. These national obligations, he urged, should be put into one +consolidated debt resting on the credit of the United States; to the +holders of the old paper should be issued new bonds drawing interest at +fixed rates. This process was called "funding the debt." Such a +provision for the support of public credit, Hamilton insisted, would +satisfy creditors, restore landed property to its former value, and +furnish new resources to agriculture and commerce in the form of credit +and capital. + +=Assumption and Funding of State Debts.=--Hamilton then turned to the +obligations incurred by the several states in support of the Revolution. +These debts he proposed to add to the national debt. They were to be +"assumed" by the United States government and placed on the same secure +foundation as the continental debt. This measure he defended not merely +on grounds of national honor. It would, as he foresaw, give strength to +the new national government by making all public creditors, men of +substance in their several communities, look to the federal, rather than +the state government, for the satisfaction of their claims. + +=Funding at Face Value.=--On the question of the terms of consolidation, +assumption, and funding, Hamilton had a firm conviction. That millions +of dollars' worth of the continental and state bonds had passed out of +the hands of those who had originally subscribed their funds to the +support of the government or had sold supplies for the Revolutionary +army was well known. It was also a matter of common knowledge that a +very large part of these bonds had been bought by speculators at ruinous +figures--ten, twenty, and thirty cents on the dollar. Accordingly, it +had been suggested, even in very respectable quarters, that a +discrimination should be made between original holders and speculative +purchasers. Some who held this opinion urged that the speculators who +had paid nominal sums for their bonds should be reimbursed for their +outlays and the original holders paid the difference; others said that +the government should "scale the debt" by redeeming, not at full value +but at a figure reasonably above the market price. Against the +proposition Hamilton set his face like flint. He maintained that the +government was honestly bound to redeem every bond at its face value, +although the difficulty of securing revenue made necessary a lower rate +of interest on a part of the bonds and the deferring of interest on +another part. + +=Funding and Assumption Carried.=--There was little difficulty in +securing the approval of both houses of Congress for the funding of the +national debt at full value. The bill for the assumption of state debts, +however, brought the sharpest division of opinions. To the Southern +members of Congress assumption was a gross violation of states' rights, +without any warrant in the Constitution and devised in the interest of +Northern speculators who, anticipating assumption and funding, had +bought up at low prices the Southern bonds and other promises to pay. +New England, on the other hand, was strongly in favor of assumption; +several representatives from that section were rash enough to threaten a +dissolution of the union if the bill was defeated. To this dispute was +added an equally bitter quarrel over the location of the national +capital, then temporarily at New York City. + +[Illustration: FIRST UNITED STATES BANK AT PHILADELPHIA] + +A deadlock, accompanied by the most surly feelings on both sides, +threatened the very existence of the young government. Washington and +Hamilton were thoroughly alarmed. Hearing of the extremity to which the +contest had been carried and acting on the appeal from the Secretary of +the Treasury, Jefferson intervened at this point. By skillful management +at a good dinner he brought the opposing leaders together; and thus once +more, as on many other occasions, peace was purchased and the union +saved by compromise. The bargain this time consisted of an exchange of +votes for assumption in return for votes for the capital. Enough +Southern members voted for assumption to pass the bill, and a majority +was mustered in favor of building the capital on the banks of the +Potomac, after locating it for a ten-year period at Philadelphia to +satisfy Pennsylvania members. + +=The United States Bank.=--Encouraged by the success of his funding and +assumption measures, Hamilton laid before Congress a project for a great +United States Bank. He proposed that a private corporation be chartered +by Congress, authorized to raise a capital stock of $10,000,000 +(three-fourths in new six per cent federal bonds and one-fourth in +specie) and empowered to issue paper currency under proper safeguards. +Many advantages, Hamilton contended, would accrue to the government from +this institution. The price of the government bonds would be increased, +thus enhancing public credit. A national currency would be created of +uniform value from one end of the land to the other. The branches of the +bank in various cities would make easy the exchange of funds so vital to +commercial transactions on a national scale. Finally, through the issue +of bank notes, the money capital available for agriculture and industry +would be increased, thus stimulating business enterprise. Jefferson +hotly attacked the bank on the ground that Congress had no power +whatever under the Constitution to charter such a private corporation. +Hamilton defended it with great cogency. Washington, after weighing all +opinions, decided in favor of the proposal. In 1791 the bill +establishing the first United States Bank for a period of twenty years +became a law. + +=The Protective Tariff.=--A third part of Hamilton's program was the +protection of American industries. The first revenue act of 1789, though +designed primarily to bring money into the empty treasury, declared in +favor of the principle. The following year Washington referred to the +subject in his address to Congress. Thereupon Hamilton was instructed to +prepare recommendations for legislative action. The result, after a +delay of more than a year, was his _Report on Manufactures_, another +state paper worthy, in closeness of reasoning and keenness of +understanding, of a place beside his report on public credit. Hamilton +based his argument on the broadest national grounds: the protective +tariff would, by encouraging the building of factories, create a home +market for the produce of farms and plantations; by making the United +States independent of other countries in times of peace, it would double +its security in time of war; by making use of the labor of women and +children, it would turn to the production of goods persons otherwise +idle or only partly employed; by increasing the trade between the North +and South it would strengthen the links of union and add to political +ties those of commerce and intercourse. The revenue measure of 1792 bore +the impress of these arguments. + + +THE RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES + +=Dissensions over Hamilton's Measures.=--Hamilton's plans, touching +deeply as they did the resources of individuals and the interests of the +states, awakened alarm and opposition. Funding at face value, said his +critics, was a government favor to speculators; the assumption of state +debts was a deep design to undermine the state governments; Congress had +no constitutional power to create a bank; the law creating the bank +merely allowed a private corporation to make paper money and lend it at +a high rate of interest; and the tariff was a tax on land and labor for +the benefit of manufacturers. + +Hamilton's reply to this bill of indictment was simple and +straightforward. Some rascally speculators had profited from the funding +of the debt at face value, but that was only an incident in the +restoration of public credit. In view of the jealousies of the states it +was a good thing to reduce their powers and pretensions. The +Constitution was not to be interpreted narrowly but in the full light of +national needs. The bank would enlarge the amount of capital so sorely +needed to start up American industries, giving markets to farmers and +planters. The tariff by creating a home market and increasing +opportunities for employment would benefit both land and labor. Out of +such wise policies firmly pursued by the government, he concluded, were +bound to come strength and prosperity for the new government at home, +credit and power abroad. This view Washington fully indorsed, adding +the weight of his great name to the inherent merits of the measures +adopted under his administration. + +=The Sharpness of the Partisan Conflict.=--As a result of the clash of +opinion, the people of the country gradually divided into two parties: +Federalists and Anti-Federalists, the former led by Hamilton, the latter +by Jefferson. The strength of the Federalists lay in the cities--Boston, +Providence, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston--among the +manufacturing, financial, and commercial groups of the population who +were eager to extend their business operations. The strength of the +Anti-Federalists lay mainly among the debt-burdened farmers who feared +the growth of what they called "a money power" and planters in all +sections who feared the dominance of commercial and manufacturing +interests. The farming and planting South, outside of the few towns, +finally presented an almost solid front against assumption, the bank, +and the tariff. The conflict between the parties grew steadily in +bitterness, despite the conciliatory and engaging manner in which +Hamilton presented his cause in his state papers and despite the +constant efforts of Washington to soften the asperity of the +contestants. + +=The Leadership and Doctrines of Jefferson.=--The party dispute had not +gone far before the opponents of the administration began to look to +Jefferson as their leader. Some of Hamilton's measures he had approved, +declaring afterward that he did not at the time understand their +significance. Others, particularly the bank, he fiercely assailed. More +than once, he and Hamilton, shaking violently with anger, attacked each +other at cabinet meetings, and nothing short of the grave and dignified +pleas of Washington prevented an early and open break between them. In +1794 it finally came. Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State and +retired to his home in Virginia to assume, through correspondence and +negotiation, the leadership of the steadily growing party of opposition. + +Shy and modest in manner, halting in speech, disliking the turmoil of +public debate, and deeply interested in science and philosophy, +Jefferson was not very well fitted for the strenuous life of political +contest. Nevertheless, he was an ambitious and shrewd negotiator. He was +also by honest opinion and matured conviction the exact opposite of +Hamilton. The latter believed in a strong, active, "high-toned" +government, vigorously compelling in all its branches. Jefferson looked +upon such government as dangerous to the liberties of citizens and +openly avowed his faith in the desirability of occasional popular +uprisings. Hamilton distrusted the people. "Your people is a great +beast," he is reported to have said. Jefferson professed his faith in +the people with an abandon that was considered reckless in his time. + +On economic matters, the opinions of the two leaders were also +hopelessly at variance. Hamilton, while cherishing agriculture, desired +to see America a great commercial and industrial nation. Jefferson was +equally set against this course for his country. He feared the +accumulation of riches and the growth of a large urban working class. +The mobs of great cities, he said, are sores on the body politic; +artisans are usually the dangerous element that make revolutions; +workshops should be kept in Europe and with them the artisans with their +insidious morals and manners. The only substantial foundation for a +republic, Jefferson believed to be agriculture. The spirit of +independence could be kept alive only by free farmers, owning the land +they tilled and looking to the sun in heaven and the labor of their +hands for their sustenance. Trusting as he did in the innate goodness of +human nature when nourished on a free soil, Jefferson advocated those +measures calculated to favor agriculture and to enlarge the rights of +persons rather than the powers of government. Thus he became the +champion of the individual against the interference of the government, +and an ardent advocate of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and +freedom of scientific inquiry. It was, accordingly, no mere factious +spirit that drove him into opposition to Hamilton. + +=The Whisky Rebellion.=--The political agitation of the Anti-Federalists +was accompanied by an armed revolt against the government in 1794. The +occasion for this uprising was another of Hamilton's measures, a law +laying an excise tax on distilled spirits, for the purpose of increasing +the revenue needed to pay the interest on the funded debt. It so +happened that a very considerable part of the whisky manufactured in the +country was made by the farmers, especially on the frontier, in their +own stills. The new revenue law meant that federal officers would now +come into the homes of the people, measure their liquor, and take the +tax out of their pockets. All the bitterness which farmers felt against +the fiscal measures of the government was redoubled. In the western +districts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, they refused to +pay the tax. In Pennsylvania, some of them sacked and burned the houses +of the tax collectors, as the Revolutionists thirty years before had +mobbed the agents of King George sent over to sell stamps. They were in +a fair way to nullify the law in whole districts when Washington called +out the troops to suppress "the Whisky Rebellion." Then the movement +collapsed; but it left behind a deep-seated resentment which flared up +in the election of several obdurate Anti-Federalist Congressmen from the +disaffected regions. + + +FOREIGN INFLUENCES AND DOMESTIC POLITICS + +=The French Revolution.=--In this exciting period, when all America was +distracted by partisan disputes, a storm broke in Europe--the +epoch-making French Revolution--which not only shook the thrones of the +Old World but stirred to its depths the young republic of the New World. +The first scene in this dramatic affair occurred in the spring of 1789, +a few days after Washington was inaugurated. The king of France, Louis +XVI, driven into bankruptcy by extravagance and costly wars, was forced +to resort to his people for financial help. Accordingly he called, for +the first time in more than one hundred fifty years, a meeting of the +national parliament, the "Estates General," composed of representatives +of the "three estates"--the clergy, nobility, and commoners. Acting +under powerful leaders, the commoners, or "third estate," swept aside +the clergy and nobility and resolved themselves into a national +assembly. This stirred the country to its depths. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +LOUIS XVI IN THE HANDS OF THE MOB] + +Great events followed in swift succession. On July 14, 1789, the +Bastille, an old royal prison, symbol of the king's absolutism, was +stormed by a Paris crowd and destroyed. On the night of August 4, the +feudal privileges of the nobility were abolished by the national +assembly amid great excitement. A few days later came the famous +Declaration of the Rights of Man, proclaiming the sovereignty of the +people and the privileges of citizens. In the autumn of 1791, Louis XVI +was forced to accept a new constitution for France vesting the +legislative power in a popular assembly. Little disorder accompanied +these startling changes. To all appearances a peaceful revolution had +stripped the French king of his royal prerogatives and based the +government of his country on the consent of the governed. + +=American Influence in France.=--In undertaking their great political +revolt the French had been encouraged by the outcome of the American +Revolution. Officers and soldiers, who had served in the American war, +reported to their French countrymen marvelous tales. At the frugal table +of General Washington, in council with the unpretentious Franklin, or at +conferences over the strategy of war, French noblemen of ancient lineage +learned to respect both the talents and the simple character of the +leaders in the great republican commonwealth beyond the seas. Travelers, +who had gone to see the experiment in republicanism with their own eyes, +carried home to the king and ruling class stories of an astounding +system of popular government. + +On the other hand the dalliance with American democracy was regarded by +French conservatives as playing with fire. "When we think of the false +ideas of government and philanthropy," wrote one of Lafayette's aides, +"which these youths acquired in America and propagated in France with so +much enthusiasm and such deplorable success--for this mania of imitation +powerfully aided the Revolution, though it was not the sole cause of +it--we are bound to confess that it would have been better, both for +themselves and for us, if these young philosophers in red-heeled shoes +had stayed at home in attendance on the court." + +=Early American Opinion of the French Revolution.=--So close were the +ties between the two nations that it is not surprising to find every +step in the first stages of the French Revolution greeted with applause +in the United States. "Liberty will have another feather in her cap," +exultantly wrote a Boston editor. "In no part of the globe," soberly +wrote John Marshall, "was this revolution hailed with more joy than in +America.... But one sentiment existed." The main key to the Bastille, +sent to Washington as a memento, was accepted as "a token of the +victory gained by liberty." Thomas Paine saw in the great event "the +first ripe fruits of American principles transplanted into Europe." +Federalists and Anti-Federalists regarded the new constitution of France +as another vindication of American ideals. + +=The Reign of Terror.=--While profuse congratulations were being +exchanged, rumors began to come that all was not well in France. Many +noblemen, enraged at the loss of their special privileges, fled into +Germany and plotted an invasion of France to overthrow the new system of +government. Louis XVI entered into negotiations with his brother +monarchs on the continent to secure their help in the same enterprise, +and he finally betrayed to the French people his true sentiments by +attempting to escape from his kingdom, only to be captured and taken +back to Paris in disgrace. + +A new phase of the revolution now opened. The working people, excluded +from all share in the government by the first French constitution, +became restless, especially in Paris. Assembling on the Champs de Mars, +a great open field, they signed a petition calling for another +constitution giving them the suffrage. When told to disperse, they +refused and were fired upon by the national guard. This "massacre," as +it was called, enraged the populace. A radical party, known as +"Jacobins," then sprang up, taking its name from a Jacobin monastery in +which it held its sessions. In a little while it became the master of +the popular convention convoked in September, 1792. The monarchy was +immediately abolished and a republic established. On January 21, 1793, +Louis was sent to the scaffold. To the war on Austria, already raging, +was added a war on England. Then came the Reign of Terror, during which +radicals in possession of the convention executed in large numbers +counter-revolutionists and those suspected of sympathy with the +monarchy. They shot down peasants who rose in insurrection against their +rule and established a relentless dictatorship. Civil war followed. +Terrible atrocities were committed on both sides in the name of liberty, +and in the name of monarchy. To Americans of conservative temper it now +seemed that the Revolution, so auspiciously begun, had degenerated into +anarchy and mere bloodthirsty strife. + +=Burke Summons the World to War on France.=--In England, Edmund Burke +led the fight against the new French principles which he feared might +spread to all Europe. In his _Reflections on the French Revolution_, +written in 1790, he attacked with terrible wrath the whole program of +popular government; he called for war, relentless war, upon the French +as monsters and outlaws; he demanded that they be reduced to order by +the restoration of the king to full power under the protection of the +arms of European nations. + +=Paine's Defense of the French Revolution.=--To counteract the campaign +of hate against the French, Thomas Paine replied to Burke in another of +his famous tracts, _The Rights of Man_, which was given to the American +public in an edition containing a letter of approval from Jefferson. +Burke, said Paine, had been mourning about the glories of the French +monarchy and aristocracy but had forgotten the starving peasants and the +oppressed people; had wept over the plumage and neglected the dying +bird. Burke had denied the right of the French people to choose their +own governors, blandly forgetting that the English government in which +he saw final perfection itself rested on two revolutions. He had boasted +that the king of England held his crown in contempt of the democratic +societies. Paine answered: "If I ask a man in America if he wants a +king, he retorts and asks me if I take him for an idiot." To the charge +that the doctrines of the rights of man were "new fangled," Paine +replied that the question was not whether they were new or old but +whether they were right or wrong. As to the French disorders and +difficulties, he bade the world wait to see what would be brought forth +in due time. + +=The Effect of the French Revolution on American Politics.=--The course +of the French Revolution and the controversies accompanying it, +exercised a profound influence on the formation of the first political +parties in America. The followers of Hamilton, now proud of the name +"Federalists," drew back in fright as they heard of the cruel deeds +committed during the Reign of Terror. They turned savagely upon the +revolutionists and their friends in America, denouncing as "Jacobin" +everybody who did not condemn loudly enough the proceedings of the +French Republic. A Massachusetts preacher roundly assailed "the +atheistical, anarchical, and in other respects immoral principles of the +French Republicans"; he then proceeded with equal passion to attack +Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists, whom he charged with spreading false +French propaganda and betraying America. "The editors, patrons, and +abettors of these vehicles of slander," he exclaimed, "ought to be +considered and treated as enemies to their country.... Of all traitors +they are the most aggravatedly criminal; of all villains, they are the +most infamous and detestable." + +The Anti-Federalists, as a matter of fact, were generally favorable to +the Revolution although they deplored many of the events associated with +it. Paine's pamphlet, indorsed by Jefferson, was widely read. Democratic +societies, after the fashion of French political clubs, arose in the +cities; the coalition of European monarchs against France was denounced +as a coalition against the very principles of republicanism; and the +execution of Louis XVI was openly celebrated at a banquet in +Philadelphia. Harmless titles, such as "Sir," "the Honorable," and "His +Excellency," were decried as aristocratic and some of the more excited +insisted on adopting the French title, "Citizen," speaking, for example, +of "Citizen Judge" and "Citizen Toastmaster." Pamphlets in defense of +the French streamed from the press, while subsidized newspapers kept the +propaganda in full swing. + +=The European War Disturbs American Commerce.=--This battle of wits, or +rather contest in calumny, might have gone on indefinitely in America +without producing any serious results, had it not been for the war +between England and France, then raging. The English, having command of +the seas, claimed the right to seize American produce bound for French +ports and to confiscate American ships engaged in carrying French goods. +Adding fuel to a fire already hot enough, they began to search American +ships and to carry off British-born sailors found on board American +vessels. + +=The French Appeal for Help.=--At the same time the French Republic +turned to the United States for aid in its war on England and sent over +as its diplomatic representative "Citizen" Genet, an ardent supporter of +the new order. On his arrival at Charleston, he was greeted with fervor +by the Anti-Federalists. As he made his way North, he was wined and +dined and given popular ovations that turned his head. He thought the +whole country was ready to join the French Republic in its contest with +England. Genet therefore attempted to use the American ports as the base +of operations for French privateers preying on British merchant ships; +and he insisted that the United States was in honor bound to help France +under the treaty of 1778. + +=The Proclamation of Neutrality and the Jay Treaty.=--Unmoved by the +rising tide of popular sympathy for France, Washington took a firm +course. He received Genet coldly. The demand that the United States aid +France under the old treaty of alliance he answered by proclaiming the +neutrality of America and warning American citizens against hostile acts +toward either France or England. When Genet continued to hold meetings, +issue manifestoes, and stir up the people against England, Washington +asked the French government to recall him. This act he followed up by +sending the Chief Justice, John Jay, on a pacific mission to England. + +The result was the celebrated Jay treaty of 1794. By its terms Great +Britain agreed to withdraw her troops from the western forts where they +had been since the war for independence and to grant certain slight +trade concessions. The chief sources of bitterness--the failure of the +British to return slaves carried off during the Revolution, the seizure +of American ships, and the impressment of sailors--were not touched, +much to the distress of everybody in America, including loyal +Federalists. Nevertheless, Washington, dreading an armed conflict with +England, urged the Senate to ratify the treaty. The weight of his +influence carried the day. + +At this, the hostility of the Anti-Federalists knew no bounds. Jefferson +declared the Jay treaty "an infamous act which is really nothing more +than an alliance between England and the Anglo-men of this country, +against the legislature and the people of the United States." Hamilton, +defending it with his usual courage, was stoned by a mob in New York and +driven from the platform with blood streaming from his face. Jay was +burned in effigy. Even Washington was not spared. The House of +Representatives was openly hostile. To display its feelings, it called +upon the President for the papers relative to the treaty negotiations, +only to be more highly incensed by his flat refusal to present them, on +the ground that the House did not share in the treaty-making power. + +=Washington Retires from Politics.=--Such angry contests confirmed the +President in his slowly maturing determination to retire at the end of +his second term in office. He did not believe that a third term was +unconstitutional or improper; but, worn out by his long and arduous +labors in war and in peace and wounded by harsh attacks from former +friends, he longed for the quiet of his beautiful estate at Mount +Vernon. + +In September, 1796, on the eve of the presidential election, Washington +issued his Farewell Address, another state paper to be treasured and +read by generations of Americans to come. In this address he directed +the attention of the people to three subjects of lasting interest. He +warned them against sectional jealousies. He remonstrated against the +spirit of partisanship, saying that in government "of the popular +character, in government purely elective, it is a spirit not to be +encouraged." He likewise cautioned the people against "the insidious +wiles of foreign influence," saying: "Europe has a set of primary +interests which to us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she +must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are +essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it would be +unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary +vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions +of her friendships or enmities.... Why forego the advantages of so +peculiar a situation?... It is our true policy to steer clear of +permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.... Taking +care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a +respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary +alliances for extraordinary emergencies." + +=The Campaign of 1796--Adams Elected.=--On hearing of the retirement of +Washington, the Anti-Federalists cast off all restraints. In honor of +France and in opposition to what they were pleased to call the +monarchical tendencies of the Federalists, they boldly assumed the name +"Republican"; the term "Democrat," then applied only to obscure and +despised radicals, had not come into general use. They selected +Jefferson as their candidate for President against John Adams, the +Federalist nominee, and carried on such a spirited campaign that they +came within four votes of electing him. + +The successful candidate, Adams, was not fitted by training or opinion +for conciliating a determined opposition. He was a reserved and studious +man. He was neither a good speaker nor a skillful negotiator. In one of +his books he had declared himself in favor of "government by an +aristocracy of talents and wealth"--an offense which the Republicans +never forgave. While John Marshall found him "a sensible, plain, candid, +good-tempered man," Jefferson could see in him nothing but a "monocrat" +and "Anglo-man." Had it not been for the conduct of the French +government, Adams would hardly have enjoyed a moment's genuine +popularity during his administration. + +=The Quarrel with France.=--The French Directory, the executive +department established under the constitution of 1795, managed, however, +to stir the anger of Republicans and Federalists alike. It regarded the +Jay treaty as a rebuke to France and a flagrant violation of obligations +solemnly registered in the treaty of 1778. Accordingly it refused to +receive the American minister, treated him in a humiliating way, and +finally told him to leave the country. Overlooking this affront in his +anxiety to maintain peace, Adams dispatched to France a commission of +eminent men with instructions to reach an understanding with the French +Republic. On their arrival, they were chagrined to find, instead of a +decent reception, an indirect demand for an apology respecting the past +conduct of the American government, a payment in cash, and an annual +tribute as the price of continued friendship. When the news of this +affair reached President Adams, he promptly laid it before Congress, +referring to the Frenchmen who had made the demands as "Mr. X, Mr. Y, +and Mr. Z." + +This insult, coupled with the fact that French privateers, like the +British, were preying upon American commerce, enraged even the +Republicans who had been loudest in the profession of their French +sympathies. They forgot their wrath over the Jay treaty and joined with +the Federalists in shouting: "Millions for defense, not a cent for +tribute!" Preparations for war were made on every hand. Washington was +once more called from Mount Vernon to take his old position at the head +of the army. Indeed, fighting actually began upon the high seas and went +on without a formal declaration of war until the year 1800. By that time +the Directory had been overthrown. A treaty was readily made with +Napoleon, the First Consul, who was beginning his remarkable career as +chief of the French Republic, soon to be turned into an empire. + +=Alien and Sedition Laws.=--Flushed with success, the Federalists +determined, if possible, to put an end to radical French influence in +America and to silence Republican opposition. They therefore passed two +drastic laws in the summer of 1798: the Alien and Sedition Acts. + +The first of these measures empowered the President to expel from the +country or to imprison any alien whom he regarded as "dangerous" or "had +reasonable grounds to suspect" of "any treasonable or secret +machinations against the government." + +The second of the measures, the Sedition Act, penalized not only those +who attempted to stir up unlawful combinations against the government +but also every one who wrote, uttered, or published "any false, +scandalous, and malicious writing ... against the government of the +United States or either House of Congress, or the President of the +United States, with intent to defame said government ... or to bring +them or either of them into contempt or disrepute." This measure was +hurried through Congress in spite of the opposition and the clear +provision in the Constitution that Congress shall make no law abridging +the freedom of speech or of the press. Even many Federalists feared the +consequences of the action. Hamilton was alarmed when he read the bill, +exclaiming: "Let us not establish a tyranny. Energy is a very different +thing from violence." John Marshall told his friends in Virginia that, +had he been in Congress, he would have opposed the two bills because he +thought them "useless" and "calculated to create unnecessary discontents +and jealousies." + +The Alien law was not enforced; but it gave great offense to the Irish +and French whose activities against the American government's policy +respecting Great Britain put them in danger of prison. The Sedition law, +on the other hand, was vigorously applied. Several editors of Republican +newspapers soon found themselves in jail or broken by ruinous fines for +their caustic criticisms of the Federalist President and his policies. +Bystanders at political meetings, who uttered sentiments which, though +ungenerous and severe, seem harmless enough now, were hurried before +Federalist judges and promptly fined and imprisoned. Although the +prosecutions were not numerous, they aroused a keen resentment. The +Republicans were convinced that their political opponents, having +saddled upon the country Hamilton's fiscal system and the British +treaty, were bent on silencing all censure. The measures therefore had +exactly the opposite effect from that which their authors intended. +Instead of helping the Federalist party, they made criticism of it more +bitter than ever. + +=The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.=--Jefferson was quick to take +advantage of the discontent. He drafted a set of resolutions declaring +the Sedition law null and void, as violating the federal Constitution. +His resolutions were passed by the Kentucky legislature late in 1798, +signed by the governor, and transmitted to the other states for their +consideration. Though receiving unfavorable replies from a number of +Northern states, Kentucky the following year reaffirmed its position and +declared that the nullification of all unconstitutional acts of Congress +was the rightful remedy to be used by the states in the redress of +grievances. It thus defied the federal government and announced a +doctrine hostile to nationality and fraught with terrible meaning for +the future. In the neighboring state of Virginia, Madison led a movement +against the Alien and Sedition laws. He induced the legislature to pass +resolutions condemning the acts as unconstitutional and calling upon the +other states to take proper means to preserve their rights and the +rights of the people. + +=The Republican Triumph in 1800.=--Thus the way was prepared for the +election of 1800. The Republicans left no stone unturned in their +efforts to place on the Federalist candidate, President Adams, all the +odium of the Alien and Sedition laws, in addition to responsibility for +approving Hamilton's measures and policies. The Federalists, divided in +councils and cold in their affection for Adams, made a poor campaign. +They tried to discredit their opponents with epithets of "Jacobins" and +"Anarchists"--terms which had been weakened by excessive use. When the +vote was counted, it was found that Adams had been defeated; while the +Republicans had carried the entire South and New York also and secured +eight of the fifteen electoral votes cast by Pennsylvania. "Our beloved +Adams will now close his bright career," lamented a Federalist +newspaper. "Sons of faction, demagogues and high priests of anarchy, now +you have cause to triumph!" + +[Illustration: _An old cartoon_ + +A QUARREL BETWEEN A FEDERALIST AND A REPUBLICAN IN THE HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES] + +Jefferson's election, however, was still uncertain. By a curious +provision in the Constitution, presidential electors were required to +vote for two persons without indicating which office each was to fill, +the one receiving the highest number of votes to be President and the +candidate standing next to be Vice President. It so happened that Aaron +Burr, the Republican candidate for Vice President, had received the same +number of votes as Jefferson; as neither had a majority the election was +thrown into the House of Representatives, where the Federalists held the +balance of power. Although it was well known that Burr was not even a +candidate for President, his friends and many Federalists began +intriguing for his election to that high office. Had it not been for the +vigorous action of Hamilton the prize might have been snatched out of +Jefferson's hands. Not until the thirty-sixth ballot on February 17, +1801, was the great issue decided in his favor.[2] + + +=References= + +J.S. Bassett, _The Federalist System_ (American Nation Series). + +C.A. Beard, _Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy_. + +H. Lodge, _Alexander Hamilton_. + +J.T. Morse, _Thomas Jefferson_. + + +=Questions= + +1. Who were the leaders in the first administration under the +Constitution? + +2. What step was taken to appease the opposition? + +3. Enumerate Hamilton's great measures and explain each in detail. + +4. Show the connection between the parts of Hamilton's system. + +5. Contrast the general political views of Hamilton and Jefferson. + +6. What were the important results of the "peaceful" French Revolution +(1789-92)? + +7. Explain the interaction of opinion between France and the United +States. + +8. How did the "Reign of Terror" change American opinion? + +9. What was the Burke-Paine controversy? + +10. Show how the war in Europe affected American commerce and involved +America with England and France. + +11. What were American policies with regard to each of those countries? + +12. What was the outcome of the Alien and Sedition Acts? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Early Federal Legislation.=--Coman, _Industrial History of the United +States_, pp. 133-156; Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. +341-348. + +=Hamilton's Report on Public Credit.=--Macdonald, _Documentary Source +Book_, pp. 233-243. + +=The French Revolution.=--Robinson and Beard, _Development of Modern +Europe_, Vol. I, pp. 224-282; Elson, pp. 351-354. + +=The Burke-Paine Controversy.=--Make an analysis of Burke's _Reflections +on the French Revolution_ and Paine's _Rights of Man_. + +=The Alien and Sedition Acts.=--Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, +pp. 259-267; Elson, pp. 367-375. + +=Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.=--Macdonald, pp. 267-278. + +=Source Studies.=--Materials in Hart, _American History Told by +Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 255-343. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas +Jefferson, and Albert Gallatin. + +=The Twelfth Amendment.=--Contrast the provision in the original +Constitution with the terms of the Amendment. _See_ Appendix. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] North Carolina ratified in November, 1789, and Rhode Island in May, +1790. + +[2] To prevent a repetition of such an unfortunate affair, the twelfth +amendment of the Constitution was adopted in 1804, changing slightly the +method of electing the President. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN POWER + + +REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES + +=Opposition to Strong Central Government.=--Cherishing especially the +agricultural interest, as Jefferson said, the Republicans were in the +beginning provincial in their concern and outlook. Their attachment to +America was, certainly, as strong as that of Hamilton; but they regarded +the state, rather than the national government, as the proper center of +power and affection. Indeed, a large part of the rank and file had been +among the opponents of the Constitution in the days of its adoption. +Jefferson had entertained doubts about it and Monroe, destined to be the +fifth President, had been one of the bitter foes of ratification. The +former went so far in the direction of local autonomy that he exalted +the state above the nation in the Kentucky resolutions of 1798, +declaring the Constitution to be a mere compact and the states competent +to interpret and nullify federal law. This was provincialism with a +vengeance. "It is jealousy, not confidence, which prescribes limited +constitutions," wrote Jefferson for the Kentucky legislature. Jealousy +of the national government, not confidence in it--this is the ideal that +reflected the provincial and agricultural interest. + +=Republican Simplicity.=--Every act of the Jeffersonian party during its +early days of power was in accord with the ideals of government which it +professed. It had opposed all pomp and ceremony, calculated to give +weight and dignity to the chief executive of the nation, as symbols of +monarchy and high prerogative. Appropriately, therefore, Jefferson's +inauguration on March 4, 1801, the first at the new capital at +Washington, was marked by extreme simplicity. In keeping with this +procedure he quit the practice, followed by Washington and Adams, of +reading presidential addresses to Congress in joint assembly and adopted +in its stead the plan of sending his messages in writing--a custom that +was continued unbroken until 1913 when President Wilson returned to the +example set by the first chief magistrate. + +=Republican Measures.=--The Republicans had complained of a great +national debt as the source of a dangerous "money power," giving +strength to the federal government; accordingly they began to pay it off +as rapidly as possible. They had held commerce in low esteem and looked +upon a large navy as a mere device to protect it; consequently they +reduced the number of warships. They had objected to excise taxes, +particularly on whisky; these they quickly abolished, to the intense +satisfaction of the farmers. They had protested against the heavy cost +of the federal government; they reduced expenses by discharging hundreds +of men from the army and abolishing many offices. + +They had savagely criticized the Sedition law and Jefferson refused to +enforce it. They had been deeply offended by the assault on freedom of +speech and press and they promptly impeached Samuel Chase, a justice of +the Supreme Court, who had been especially severe in his attacks upon +offenders under the Sedition Act. Their failure to convict Justice Chase +by a narrow margin was due to no lack of zeal on their part but to the +Federalist strength in the Senate where the trial was held. They had +regarded the appointment of a large number of federal judges during the +last hours of Adams' administration as an attempt to intrench +Federalists in the judiciary and to enlarge the sphere of the national +government. Accordingly, they at once repealed the act creating the new +judgeships, thus depriving the "midnight appointees" of their posts. +They had considered the federal offices, civil and military, as sources +of great strength to the Federalists and Jefferson, though committed to +the principle that offices should be open to all and distributed +according to merit, was careful to fill most of the vacancies as they +occurred with trusted Republicans. To his credit, however, it must be +said that he did not make wholesale removals to find room for party +workers. + +The Republicans thus hewed to the line of their general policy of +restricting the weight, dignity, and activity of the national +government. Yet there were no Republicans, as the Federalists asserted, +prepared to urge serious modifications in the Constitution. "If there be +any among us who wish to dissolve this union or to change its republican +form," wrote Jefferson in his first inaugural, "let them stand +undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may +be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." After reciting the +fortunate circumstances of climate, soil, and isolation which made the +future of America so full of promise, Jefferson concluded: "A wise and +frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, +shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of +industry and improvement and shall not take from the mouth of labour the +bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is +necessary to close the circle of our felicities." + +In all this the Republicans had not reckoned with destiny. In a few +short years that lay ahead it was their fate to double the territory of +the country, making inevitable a continental nation; to give the +Constitution a generous interpretation that shocked many a Federalist; +to wage war on behalf of American commerce; to reestablish the hated +United States Bank; to enact a high protective tariff; to see their +Federalist opponents in their turn discredited as nullifiers and +provincials; to announce high national doctrines in foreign affairs; and +to behold the Constitution exalted and defended against the pretensions +of states by a son of old Virginia, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the +Supreme Court of the United States. + + +THE REPUBLICANS AND THE GREAT WEST + +=Expansion and Land Hunger.=--The first of the great measures which +drove the Republicans out upon this new national course--the purchase +of the Louisiana territory--was the product of circumstances rather than +of their deliberate choosing. It was not the lack of land for his +cherished farmers that led Jefferson to add such an immense domain to +the original possessions of the United States. In the Northwest +territory, now embracing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, +and a portion of Minnesota, settlements were mainly confined to the +north bank of the Ohio River. To the south, in Kentucky and Tennessee, +where there were more than one hundred thousand white people who had +pushed over the mountains from Virginia and the Carolinas, there were +still wide reaches of untilled soil. The Alabama and Mississippi regions +were vast Indian frontiers of the state of Georgia, unsettled and almost +unexplored. Even to the wildest imagination there seemed to be territory +enough to satisfy the land hunger of the American people for a century +to come. + +=The Significance of the Mississippi River.=--At all events the East, +then the center of power, saw no good reason for expansion. The planters +of the Carolinas, the manufacturers of Pennsylvania, the importers of +New York, the shipbuilders of New England, looking to the seaboard and +to Europe for trade, refinements, and sometimes their ideas of +government, were slow to appreciate the place of the West in national +economy. The better educated the Easterners were, the less, it seems, +they comprehended the destiny of the nation. Sons of Federalist fathers +at Williams College, after a long debate decided by a vote of fifteen to +one that the purchase of Louisiana was undesirable. + +On the other hand, the pioneers of Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, +unlearned in books, saw with their own eyes the resources of the +wilderness. Many of them had been across the Mississippi and had beheld +the rich lands awaiting the plow of the white man. Down the great river +they floated their wheat, corn, and bacon to ocean-going ships bound for +the ports of the seaboard or for Europe. The land journeys over the +mountain barriers with bulky farm produce, they knew from experience, +were almost impossible, and costly at best. Nails, bolts of cloth, tea, +and coffee could go or come that way, but not corn and bacon. A free +outlet to the sea by the Mississippi was as essential to the pioneers of +the Kentucky region as the harbor of Boston to the merchant princes of +that metropolis. + +=Louisiana under Spanish Rule.=--For this reason they watched with deep +solicitude the fortunes of the Spanish king to whom, at the close of the +Seven Years' War, had fallen the Louisiana territory stretching from New +Orleans to the Rocky Mountains. While he controlled the mouth of the +Mississippi there was little to fear, for he had neither the army nor +the navy necessary to resist any invasion of American trade. Moreover, +Washington had been able, by the exercise of great tact, to secure from +Spain in 1795 a trading privilege through New Orleans which satisfied +the present requirements of the frontiersmen even if it did not allay +their fears for the future. So things stood when a swift succession of +events altered the whole situation. + +=Louisiana Transferred to France.=--In July, 1802, a royal order from +Spain instructed the officials at New Orleans to close the port to +American produce. About the same time a disturbing rumor, long current, +was confirmed--Napoleon had coerced Spain into returning Louisiana to +France by a secret treaty signed in 1800. "The scalers of the Alps and +conquerors of Venice" now looked across the sea for new scenes of +adventure. The West was ablaze with excitement. A call for war ran +through the frontier; expeditions were organized to prevent the landing +of the French; and petitions for instant action flooded in upon +Jefferson. + +=Jefferson Sees the Danger.=--Jefferson, the friend of France and sworn +enemy of England, compelled to choose in the interest of America, never +winced. "The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France," +he wrote to Livingston, the American minister in Paris, "works sorely on +the United States. It completely reverses all the political relations of +the United States and will form a new epoch in our political course.... +There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our +natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans through which the produce +of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market.... France, +placing herself in that door, assumes to us an attitude of defiance. +Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific +dispositions, her feeble state would induce her to increase our +facilities there.... Not so can it ever be in the hands of France.... +The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence +which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark.... It seals +the union of the two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive +possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the +British fleet and nation.... This is not a state of things we seek or +desire. It is one which this measure, if adopted by France, forces on us +as necessarily as any other cause by the laws of nature brings on its +necessary effect." + +=Louisiana Purchased.=--Acting on this belief, but apparently seeing +only the Mississippi outlet at stake, Jefferson sent his friend, James +Monroe, to France with the power to buy New Orleans and West Florida. +Before Monroe arrived, the regular minister, Livingston, had already +convinced Napoleon that it would be well to sell territory which might +be wrested from him at any moment by the British sea power, especially +as the war, temporarily stopped by the peace of Amiens, was once more +raging in Europe. Wise as he was in his day, Livingston had at first no +thought of buying the whole Louisiana country. He was simply dazed when +Napoleon offered to sell the entire domain and get rid of the business +altogether. Though staggered by the proposal, he and Monroe decided to +accept. On April 30, they signed the treaty of cession, agreeing to pay +$11,250,000 in six per cent bonds and to discharge certain debts due +French citizens, making in all approximately fifteen millions. Spain +protested, Napoleon's brother fumed, French newspapers objected; but the +deed was done. + +=Jefferson and His Constitutional Scruples.=--When the news of this +extraordinary event reached the United States, the people were filled +with astonishment, and no one was more surprised than Jefferson himself. +He had thought of buying New Orleans and West Florida for a small sum, +and now a vast domain had been dumped into the lap of the nation. He was +puzzled. On looking into the Constitution he found not a line +authorizing the purchase of more territory and so he drafted an +amendment declaring "Louisiana, as ceded by France,--a part of the +United States." He had belabored the Federalists for piling up a big +national debt and he could hardly endure the thought of issuing more +bonds himself. + +In the midst of his doubts came the news that Napoleon might withdraw +from the bargain. Thoroughly alarmed by that, Jefferson pressed the +Senate for a ratification of the treaty. He still clung to his original +idea that the Constitution did not warrant the purchase; but he lamely +concluded: "If our friends shall think differently, I shall certainly +acquiesce with satisfaction; confident that the good sense of our +country will correct the evil of construction when it shall produce ill +effects." Thus the stanch advocate of "strict interpretation" cut loose +from his own doctrine and intrusted the construction of the Constitution +to "the good sense" of his countrymen. + +=The Treaty Ratified.=--This unusual transaction, so favorable to the +West, aroused the ire of the seaboard Federalists. Some denounced it as +unconstitutional, easily forgetting Hamilton's masterly defense of the +bank, also not mentioned in the Constitution. Others urged that, if "the +howling wilderness" ever should be settled, it would turn against the +East, form new commercial connections, and escape from federal control. +Still others protested that the purchase would lead inevitably to the +dominance of a "hotch potch of wild men from the Far West." Federalists, +who thought "the broad back of America" could readily bear Hamilton's +consolidated debt, now went into agonies over a bond issue of less than +one-sixth of that amount. But in vain. Jefferson's party with a high +hand carried the day. The Senate, after hearing the Federalist protest, +ratified the treaty. In December, 1803, the French flag was hauled down +from the old government buildings in New Orleans and the Stars and +Stripes were hoisted as a sign that the land of Coronado, De Soto, +Marquette, and La Salle had passed forever to the United States. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1805] + +By a single stroke, the original territory of the United States was more +than doubled. While the boundaries of the purchase were uncertain, it is +safe to say that the Louisiana territory included what is now Arkansas, +Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and large +portions of Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Montana, and +Wyoming. The farm lands that the friends of "a little America" on the +seacoast declared a hopeless wilderness were, within a hundred years, +fully occupied and valued at nearly seven billion dollars--almost five +hundred times the price paid to Napoleon. + +=Western Explorations.=--Having taken the fateful step, Jefferson wisely +began to make the most of it. He prepared for the opening of the new +country by sending the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore it, +discover its resources, and lay out an overland route through the +Missouri Valley and across the Great Divide to the Pacific. The story of +this mighty exploit, which began in the spring of 1804 and ended in the +autumn of 1806, was set down with skill and pains in the journal of +Lewis and Clark; when published even in a short form, it invited the +forward-looking men of the East to take thought about the western +empire. At the same time Zebulon Pike, in a series of journeys, explored +the sources of the Mississippi River and penetrated the Spanish +territories of the far Southwest. Thus scouts and pioneers continued the +work of diplomats. + + +THE REPUBLICAN WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE + +=The English and French Blockades.=--In addition to bringing Louisiana +to the United States, the reopening of the European War in 1803, after a +short lull, renewed in an acute form the commercial difficulties that +had plagued the country all during the administrations of Washington and +Adams. The Republicans were now plunged into the hornets' nest. The +party whose ardent spirits had burned Jay in effigy, stoned Hamilton for +defending his treaty, jeered Washington's proclamation of neutrality, +and spoken bitterly of "timid traders," could no longer take refuge in +criticism. It had to act. + +Its troubles took a serious turn in 1806. England, in a determined +effort to bring France to her knees by starvation, declared the coast of +Europe blockaded from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe River. Napoleon +retaliated by his Berlin Decree of November, 1806, blockading the +British Isles--a measure terrifying to American ship owners whose +vessels were liable to seizure by any French rover, though Napoleon had +no navy to make good his proclamation. Great Britain countered with a +still more irritating decree--the Orders in Council of 1807. It modified +its blockade, but in so doing merely authorized American ships not +carrying munitions of war to complete their voyage to the Continent, on +condition of their stopping at a British port, securing a license, and +paying a tax. This, responded Napoleon, was the height of insolence, and +he denounced it as a gross violation of international law. He then +closed the circle of American troubles by issuing his Milan Decree of +December, 1807. This order declared that any ship which complied with +the British rules would be subject to seizure and confiscation by French +authorities. + +=The Impressment of Seamen.=--That was not all. Great Britain, in dire +need of men for her navy, adopted the practice of stopping American +ships, searching them, and carrying away British-born sailors found on +board. British sailors were so badly treated, so cruelly flogged for +trivial causes, and so meanly fed that they fled in crowds to the +American marine. In many cases it was difficult to tell whether seamen +were English or American. They spoke the same language, so that language +was no test. Rovers on the deep and stragglers in the ports of both +countries, they frequently had no papers to show their nativity. +Moreover, Great Britain held to the old rule--"Once an Englishman, +always an Englishman"--a doctrine rejected by the United States in +favor of the principle that a man could choose the nation to which he +would give allegiance. British sea captains, sometimes by mistake, and +often enough with reckless indifference, carried away into servitude in +their own navy genuine American citizens. The process itself, even when +executed with all the civilities of law, was painful enough, for it +meant that American ships were forced to "come to," and compelled to +rest submissively under British guns until the searching party had pried +into records, questioned seamen, seized and handcuffed victims. Saints +could not have done this work without raising angry passions, and only +saints could have endured it with patience and fortitude. + +Had the enactment of the scenes been confined to the high seas and +knowledge of them to rumors and newspaper stories, American resentment +might not have been so intense; but many a search and seizure was made +in sight of land. British and French vessels patrolled the coasts, +firing on one another and chasing one another in American waters within +the three-mile limit. When, in the summer of 1807, the American frigate +_Chesapeake_ refused to surrender men alleged to be deserters from King +George's navy, the British warship _Leopard_ opened fire, killing three +men and wounding eighteen more--an act which even the British ministry +could hardly excuse. If the French were less frequently the offenders, +it was not because of their tenderness about American rights but because +so few of their ships escaped the hawk-eyed British navy to operate in +American waters. + +=The Losses in American Commerce.=--This high-handed conduct on the part +of European belligerents was very injurious to American trade. By their +enterprise, American shippers had become the foremost carriers on the +Atlantic Ocean. In a decade they had doubled the tonnage of American +merchant ships under the American flag, taking the place of the French +marine when Britain swept that from the seas, and supplying Britain with +the sinews of war for the contest with the Napoleonic empire. The +American shipping engaged in foreign trade embraced 363,110 tons in +1791; 669,921 tons in 1800; and almost 1,000,000 tons in 1810. Such was +the enterprise attacked by the British and French decrees. American +ships bound for Great Britain were liable to be captured by French +privateers which, in spite of the disasters of the Nile and Trafalgar, +ranged the seas. American ships destined for the Continent, if they +failed to stop at British ports and pay tribute, were in great danger of +capture by the sleepless British navy and its swarm of auxiliaries. +American sea captains who, in fear of British vengeance, heeded the +Orders in Council and paid the tax were almost certain to fall a prey to +French vengeance, for the French were vigorous in executing the Milan +Decree. + +=Jefferson's Policy.=--The President's dilemma was distressing. Both the +belligerents in Europe were guilty of depredations on American commerce. +War on both of them was out of the question. War on France was +impossible because she had no territory on this side of the water which +could be reached by American troops and her naval forces had been +shattered at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. War on Great +Britain, a power which Jefferson's followers feared and distrusted, was +possible but not inviting. Jefferson shrank from it. A man of peace, he +disliked war's brazen clamor; a man of kindly spirit, he was startled at +the death and destruction which it brought in its train. So for the +eight years Jefferson steered an even course, suggesting measure after +measure with a view to avoiding bloodshed. He sent, it is true, +Commodore Preble in 1803 to punish Mediterranean pirates preying upon +American commerce; but a great war he evaded with passionate +earnestness, trying in its place every other expedient to protect +American rights. + +=The Embargo and Non-intercourse Acts.=--In 1806, Congress passed and +Jefferson approved a non-importation act closing American ports to +certain products from British dominions--a measure intended as a club +over the British government's head. This law, failing in its purpose, +Jefferson proposed and Congress adopted in December, 1807, the Embargo +Act forbidding all vessels to leave American harbors for foreign ports. +France and England were to be brought to terms by cutting off their +supplies. + +The result of the embargo was pathetic. England and France refused to +give up search and seizure. American ship owners who, lured by huge +profits, had formerly been willing to take the risk were now restrained +by law to their home ports. Every section suffered. The South and West +found their markets for cotton, rice, tobacco, corn, and bacon +curtailed. Thus they learned by bitter experience the national +significance of commerce. Ship masters, ship builders, longshoremen, and +sailors were thrown out of employment while the prices of foreign goods +doubled. Those who obeyed the law were ruined; violators of the law +smuggled goods into Canada and Florida for shipment abroad. + +Jefferson's friends accepted the medicine with a wry face as the only +alternative to supine submission or open war. His opponents, without +offering any solution of their own, denounced it as a contemptible plan +that brought neither relief nor honor. Beset by the clamor that arose on +all sides, Congress, in the closing days of Jefferson's administration, +repealed the Embargo law and substituted a Non-intercourse act +forbidding trade with England and France while permitting it with other +countries--a measure equally futile in staying the depredations on +American shipping. + +=Jefferson Retires in Favor of Madison.=--Jefferson, exhausted by +endless wrangling and wounded, as Washington had been, by savage +criticism, welcomed March 4, 1809. His friends urged him to "stay by the +ship" and accept a third term. He declined, saying that election for +life might result from repeated reelection. In following Washington's +course and defending it on principle, he set an example to all his +successors, making the "third term doctrine" a part of American +unwritten law. + +His intimate friend, James Madison, to whom he turned over the burdens +of his high office was, like himself, a man of peace. Madison had been a +leader since the days of the Revolution, but in legislative halls and +council chambers, not on the field of battle. Small in stature, +sensitive in feelings, studious in habits, he was no man for the rough +and tumble of practical politics. He had taken a prominent and +distinguished part in the framing and the adoption of the Constitution. +He had served in the first Congress as a friend of Hamilton's measures. +Later he attached himself to Jefferson's fortunes and served for eight +years as his first counselor, the Secretary of State. The principles of +the Constitution, which he had helped to make and interpret, he was now +as President called upon to apply in one of the most perplexing moments +in all American history. In keeping with his own traditions and +following in the footsteps of Jefferson, he vainly tried to solve the +foreign problem by negotiation. + +=The Trend of Events.=--Whatever difficulties Madison had in making up +his mind on war and peace were settled by events beyond his own control. +In the spring of 1811, a British frigate held up an American ship near +the harbor of New York and impressed a seaman alleged to be an American +citizen. Burning with resentment, the captain of the _President_, an +American warship, acting under orders, poured several broadsides into +the _Little Belt_, a British sloop, suspected of being the guilty party. +The British also encouraged the Indian chief Tecumseh, who welded +together the Indians of the Northwest under British protection and gave +signs of restlessness presaging a revolt. This sent a note of alarm +along the frontier that was not checked even when, in November, +Tecumseh's men were badly beaten at Tippecanoe by William Henry +Harrison. The Indians stood in the way of the advancing frontier, and it +seemed to the pioneers that, without support from the British in Canada, +the Red Men would soon be subdued. + +=Clay and Calhoun.=--While events were moving swiftly and rumors were +flying thick and fast, the mastery of the government passed from the +uncertain hands of Madison to a party of ardent young men in Congress, +dubbed "Young Republicans," under the leadership of two members destined +to be mighty figures in American history: Henry Clay of Kentucky and +John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. The former contended, in a flair of +folly, that "the militia of Kentucky alone are competent to place +Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet." The latter with a light heart +spoke of conquering Canada in a four weeks' campaign. "It must not be +inferred," says Channing, "that in advocating conquest, the Westerners +were actuated merely by desire for land; they welcomed war because they +thought it would be the easiest way to abate Indian troubles. The +savages were supported by the fur-trading interests that centred at +Quebec and London.... The Southerners on their part wished for Florida +and they thought that the conquest of Canada would obviate some Northern +opposition to this acquisition of slave territory." While Clay and +Calhoun, spokesmen of the West and South, were not unmindful of what +Napoleon had done to American commerce, they knew that their followers +still remembered with deep gratitude the aid of the French in the war +for independence and that the embers of the old hatred for George III, +still on the throne, could be readily blown into flame. + +=Madison Accepts War as Inevitable.=--The conduct of the British +ministers with whom Madison had to deal did little to encourage him in +adhering to the policy of "watchful waiting." One of them, a high Tory, +believed that all Americans were alike "except that a few are less +knaves than others" and his methods were colored by his belief. On the +recall of this minister the British government selected another no less +high and mighty in his principles and opinions. So Madison became +thoroughly discouraged about the outcome of pacific measures. When the +pressure from Congress upon him became too heavy, he gave way, signing +on June 18, 1812, the declaration of war on Great Britain. In +proclaiming hostilities, the administration set forth the causes which +justified the declaration; namely, the British had been encouraging the +Indians to attack American citizens on the frontier; they had ruined +American trade by blockades; they had insulted the American flag by +stopping and searching our ships; they had illegally seized American +sailors and driven them into the British navy. + +=The Course of the War.=--The war lasted for nearly three years without +bringing victory to either side. The surrender of Detroit by General +Hull to the British and the failure of the American invasion of Canada +were offset by Perry's victory on Lake Erie and a decisive blow +administered to British designs for an invasion of New York by way of +Plattsburgh. The triumph of Jackson at New Orleans helped to atone for +the humiliation suffered in the burning of the Capitol by the British. +The stirring deeds of the _Constitution_, the _United States_, and the +_Argus_ on the seas, the heroic death of Lawrence and the victories of a +hundred privateers furnished consolation for those who suffered from the +iron blockade finally established by the British government when it came +to appreciate the gravity of the situation. While men love the annals of +the sea, they will turn to the running battles, the narrow escapes, and +the reckless daring of American sailors in that naval contest with Great +Britain. + +All this was exciting but it was inconclusive. In fact, never was a +government less prepared than was that of the United States in 1812. It +had neither the disciplined troops, the ships of war, nor the supplies +required by the magnitude of the military task. It was fortune that +favored the American cause. Great Britain, harassed, worn, and +financially embarrassed by nearly twenty years of fighting in Europe, +was in no mood to gather her forces for a titanic effort in America even +after Napoleon was overthrown and sent into exile at Elba in the spring +of 1814. War clouds still hung on the European horizon and the conflict +temporarily halted did again break out. To be rid of American anxieties +and free for European eventualities, England was ready to settle with +the United States, especially as that could be done without conceding +anything or surrendering any claims. + +=The Treaty of Peace.=--Both countries were in truth sick of a war that +offered neither glory nor profit. Having indulged in the usual +diplomatic skirmishing, they sent representatives to Ghent to discuss +terms of peace. After long negotiations an agreement was reached on +Christmas eve, 1814, a few days before Jackson's victory at New Orleans. +When the treaty reached America the people were surprised to find that +it said nothing about the seizure of American sailors, the destruction +of American trade, the searching of American ships, or the support of +Indians on the frontier. Nevertheless, we are told, the people "passed +from gloom to glory" when the news of peace arrived. The bells were +rung; schools were closed; flags were displayed; and many a rousing +toast was drunk in tavern and private home. The rejoicing could +continue. With Napoleon definitely beaten at Waterloo in June, 1815, +Great Britain had no need to impress sailors, search ships, and +confiscate American goods bound to the Continent. Once more the terrible +sea power sank into the background and the ocean was again white with +the sails of merchantmen. + + +THE REPUBLICANS NATIONALIZED + +=The Federalists Discredited.=--By a strange turn of fortune's wheel, +the party of Hamilton, Washington, Adams, the party of the grand nation, +became the party of provincialism and nullification. New England, +finding its shipping interests crippled in the European conflict and +then penalized by embargoes, opposed the declaration of war on Great +Britain, which meant the completion of the ruin already begun. In the +course of the struggle, the Federalist leaders came perilously near to +treason in their efforts to hamper the government of the United States; +and in their desperation they fell back upon the doctrine of +nullification so recently condemned by them when it came from Kentucky. +The Senate of Massachusetts, while the war was in progress, resolved +that it was waged "without justifiable cause," and refused to approve +military and naval projects not connected with "the defense of our +seacoast and soil." A Boston newspaper declared that the union was +nothing but a treaty among sovereign states, that states could decide +for themselves the question of obeying federal law, and that armed +resistance under the banner of a state would not be rebellion or +treason. The general assembly of Connecticut reminded the administration +at Washington that "the state of Connecticut is a free, sovereign, and +independent state." Gouverneur Morris, a member of the convention which +had drafted the Constitution, suggested the holding of another +conference to consider whether the Northern states should remain in the +union. + +[Illustration: _From an old cartoon_ + +NEW ENGLAND JUMPING INTO THE HANDS OF GEORGE III] + +In October, 1814, a convention of delegates from Connecticut, +Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and certain counties of New Hampshire and +Vermont was held at Hartford, on the call of Massachusetts. The counsels +of the extremists were rejected but the convention solemnly went on +record to the effect that acts of Congress in violation of the +Constitution are void; that in cases of deliberate, dangerous, and +palpable infractions the state is duty bound to interpose its authority +for the protection of its citizens; and that when emergencies occur the +states must be their own judges and execute their own decisions. Thus +New England answered the challenge of Calhoun and Clay. Fortunately its +actions were not as rash as its words. The Hartford convention merely +proposed certain amendments to the Constitution and adjourned. At the +close of the war, its proposals vanished harmlessly; but the men who +made them were hopelessly discredited. + +=The Second United States Bank.=--In driving the Federalists towards +nullification and waging a national war themselves, the Republicans lost +all their old taint of provincialism. Moreover, in turning to measures +of reconstruction called forth by the war, they resorted to the national +devices of the Federalists. In 1816, they chartered for a period of +twenty years a second United States Bank--the institution which +Jefferson and Madison once had condemned as unsound and +unconstitutional. The Constitution remained unchanged; times and +circumstances had changed. Calhoun dismissed the vexed question of +constitutionality with a scant reference to an ancient dispute, while +Madison set aside his scruples and signed the bill. + +=The Protective Tariff of 1816.=--The Republicans supplemented the Bank +by another Federalist measure--a high protective tariff. Clay viewed it +as the beginning of his "American system" of protection. Calhoun +defended it on national principles. For this sudden reversal of policy +the young Republicans were taunted by some of their older party +colleagues with betraying the "agricultural interest" that Jefferson had +fostered; but Calhoun refused to listen to their criticisms. "When the +seas are open," he said, "the produce of the South may pour anywhere +into the markets of the Old World.... What are the effects of a war with +a maritime power--with England? Our commerce annihilated ... our +agriculture cut off from its accustomed markets, the surplus of the +farmer perishes on his hands.... The recent war fell with peculiar +pressure on the growers of cotton and tobacco and the other great +staples of the country; and the same state of things will recur in the +event of another war unless prevented by the foresight of this body.... +When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon +will be under the fostering care of the government, we shall no longer +experience these evils." With the Republicans nationalized, the +Federalist party, as an organization, disappeared after a crushing +defeat in the presidential campaign of 1816. + +=Monroe and the Florida Purchase.=--To the victor in that political +contest, James Monroe of Virginia, fell two tasks of national +importance, adding to the prestige of the whole country and deepening +the sense of patriotism that weaned men away from mere allegiance to +states. The first of these was the purchase of Florida from Spain. The +acquisition of Louisiana let the Mississippi flow "unvexed to the sea"; +but it left all the states east of the river cut off from the Gulf, +affording them ground for discontent akin to that which had moved the +pioneers of Kentucky to action a generation earlier. The uncertainty as +to the boundaries of Louisiana gave the United States a claim to West +Florida, setting on foot a movement for occupation. The Florida swamps +were a basis for Indian marauders who periodically swept into the +frontier settlements, and hiding places for runaway slaves. Thus the +sanction of international law was given to punitive expeditions into +alien territory. + +The pioneer leaders stood waiting for the signal. It came. President +Monroe, on the occasion of an Indian outbreak, ordered General Jackson +to seize the offenders, in the Floridas, if necessary. The high-spirited +warrior, taking this as a hint that he was to occupy the coveted region, +replied that, if possession was the object of the invasion, he could +occupy the Floridas within sixty days. Without waiting for an answer to +this letter, he launched his expedition, and in the spring of 1818 was +master of the Spanish king's domain to the south. + +There was nothing for the king to do but to make the best of the +inevitable by ceding the Floridas to the United States in return for +five million dollars to be paid to American citizens having claims +against Spain. On Washington's birthday, 1819, the treaty was signed. It +ceded the Floridas to the United States and defined the boundary between +Mexico and the United States by drawing a line from the mouth of the +Sabine River in a northwesterly direction to the Pacific. On this +occasion even Monroe, former opponent of the Constitution, forgot to +inquire whether new territory could be constitutionally acquired and +incorporated into the American union. The Republicans seemed far away +from the days of "strict construction." And Jefferson still lived! + +=The Monroe Doctrine.=--Even more effective in fashioning the national +idea was Monroe's enunciation of the famous doctrine that bears his +name. The occasion was another European crisis. During the Napoleonic +upheaval and the years of dissolution that ensued, the Spanish colonies +in America, following the example set by their English neighbors in +1776, declared their independence. Unable to conquer them alone, the +king of Spain turned for help to the friendly powers of Europe that +looked upon revolution and republics with undisguised horror. + +_The Holy Alliance._--He found them prepared to view his case with +sympathy. Three of them, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, under the +leadership of the Czar, Alexander I, in the autumn of 1815, had entered +into a Holy Alliance to sustain by reciprocal service the autocratic +principle in government. Although the effusive, almost maudlin, language +of the treaty did not express their purpose explicitly, the Alliance was +later regarded as a mere union of monarchs to prevent the rise and +growth of popular government. + +The American people thought their worst fears confirmed when, in 1822, a +conference of delegates from Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France met at +Verona to consider, among other things, revolutions that had just broken +out in Spain and Italy. The spirit of the conference is reflected in the +first article of the agreement reached by the delegates: "The high +contracting powers, being convinced that the system of representative +government is equally incompatible with the monarchical principle and +the maxim of the sovereignty of the people with the divine right, +mutually engage in the most solemn manner to use all their efforts to +put an end to the system of representative government in whatever +country it may exist in Europe and to prevent its being introduced in +those countries where it is not yet known." The Czar, who incidentally +coveted the west coast of North America, proposed to send an army to aid +the king of Spain in his troubles at home, thus preparing the way for +intervention in Spanish America. It was material weakness not want of +spirit, that prevented the grand union of monarchs from making open war +on popular government. + +_The Position of England._--Unfortunately, too, for the Holy Alliance, +England refused to cooeperate. English merchants had built up a large +trade with the independent Latin-American colonies and they protested +against the restoration of Spanish sovereignty, which meant a renewal of +Spain's former trade monopoly. Moreover, divine right doctrines had been +laid to rest in England and the representative principle thoroughly +established. Already there were signs of the coming democratic flood +which was soon to carry the first reform bill of 1832, extending the +suffrage, and sweep on to even greater achievements. British statesmen, +therefore, had to be cautious. In such circumstances, instead of +cooeperating with the autocrats of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, they +turned to the minister of the United States in London. The British prime +minister, Canning, proposed that the two countries join in declaring +their unwillingness to see the Spanish colonies transferred to any other +power. + +_Jefferson's Advice._--The proposal was rejected; but President Monroe +took up the suggestion with Madison and Jefferson as well as with his +Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. They favored the plan. Jefferson +said: "One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit [of +freedom]; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By +acceding to her proposition we detach her from the bands, bring her +mighty weight into the scale of free government and emancipate a +continent at one stroke.... With her on our side we need not fear the +whole world. With her then we should most sedulously cherish a cordial +friendship." + +_Monroe's Statement of the Doctrine._--Acting on the advice of trusted +friends, President Monroe embodied in his message to Congress, on +December 2, 1823, a statement of principles now famous throughout the +world as the Monroe Doctrine. To the autocrats of Europe he announced +that he would regard "any attempt on their part to extend their system +to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." +While he did not propose to interfere with existing colonies dependent +on European powers, he ranged himself squarely on the side of those that +had declared their independence. Any attempt by a European power to +oppress them or control their destiny in any manner he characterized as +"a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." +Referring in another part of his message to a recent claim which the +Czar had made to the Pacific coast, President Monroe warned the Old +World that "the American continents, by the free and independent +condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to +be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European +powers." The effect of this declaration was immediate and profound. Men +whose political horizon had been limited to a community or state were +led to consider their nation as a great power among the sovereignties of +the earth, taking its part in shaping their international relations. + +=The Missouri Compromise.=--Respecting one other important measure of +this period, the Republicans also took a broad view of their obligations +under the Constitution; namely, the Missouri Compromise. It is true, +they insisted on the admission of Missouri as a slave state, balanced +against the free state of Maine; but at the same time they assented to +the prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana territory north of the line +36 deg. 30'. During the debate on the subject an extreme view had been +presented, to the effect that Congress had no constitutional warrant for +abolishing slavery in the territories. The precedent of the Northwest +Ordinance, ratified by Congress in 1789, seemed a conclusive answer from +practice to this contention; but Monroe submitted the issue to his +cabinet, which included Calhoun of South Carolina, Crawford of Georgia, +and Wirt of Virginia, all presumably adherents to the Jeffersonian +principle of strict construction. He received in reply a unanimous +verdict to the effect that Congress did have the power to prohibit +slavery in the territories governed by it. Acting on this advice he +approved, on March 6, 1820, the bill establishing freedom north of the +compromise line. This generous interpretation of the powers of Congress +stood for nearly forty years, until repudiated by the Supreme Court in +the Dred Scott case. + + +THE NATIONAL DECISIONS OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL + +=John Marshall, the Nationalist.=--The Republicans in the lower ranges +of state politics, who did not catch the grand national style of their +leaders charged with responsibilities in the national field, were +assisted in their education by a Federalist from the Old Dominion, John +Marshall, who, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United +States from 1801 to 1835, lost no occasion to exalt the Constitution +above the claims of the provinces. No differences of opinion as to his +political views have ever led even his warmest opponents to deny his +superb abilities or his sincere devotion to the national idea. All will +likewise agree that for talents, native and acquired, he was an ornament +to the humble democracy that brought him forth. His whole career was +American. Born on the frontier of Virginia, reared in a log cabin, +granted only the barest rudiments of education, inured to hardship and +rough life, he rose by masterly efforts to the highest judicial honor +America can bestow. + +On him the bitter experience of the Revolution and of later days made a +lasting impression. He was no "summer patriot." He had been a soldier in +the Revolutionary army. He had suffered with Washington at Valley Forge. +He had seen his comrades in arms starving and freezing because the +Continental Congress had neither the power nor the inclination to force +the states to do their full duty. To him the Articles of Confederation +were the symbol of futility. Into the struggle for the formation of the +Constitution and its ratification in Virginia he had thrown himself with +the ardor of a soldier. Later, as a member of Congress, a representative +to France, and Secretary of State, he had aided the Federalists in +establishing the new government. When at length they were driven from +power in the executive and legislative branches of the government, he +was chosen for their last stronghold, the Supreme Court. By historic +irony he administered the oath of office to his bitterest enemy, Thomas +Jefferson; and, long after the author of the Declaration of Independence +had retired to private life, the stern Chief Justice continued to +announce the old Federalist principles from the Supreme Bench. + +[Illustration: JOHN MARSHALL] + +=Marbury _vs._ Madison--An Act of Congress Annulled.=--He had been in +his high office only two years when he laid down for the first time in +the name of the entire Court the doctrine that the judges have the power +to declare an act of Congress null and void when in their opinion it +violates the Constitution. This power was not expressly conferred on the +Court. Though many able men held that the judicial branch of the +government enjoyed it, the principle was not positively established +until 1803 when the case of Marbury _vs._ Madison was decided. In +rendering the opinion of the Court, Marshall cited no precedents. He +sought no foundations for his argument in ancient history. He rested it +on the general nature of the American system. The Constitution, ran his +reasoning, is the supreme law of the land; it limits and binds all who +act in the name of the United States; it limits the powers of Congress +and defines the rights of citizens. If Congress can ignore its +limitations and trespass upon the rights of citizens, Marshall argued, +then the Constitution disappears and Congress is supreme. Since, +however, the Constitution is supreme and superior to Congress, it is the +duty of judges, under their oath of office, to sustain it against +measures which violate it. Therefore, from the nature of the American +constitutional system the courts must declare null and void all acts +which are not authorized. "A law repugnant to the Constitution," he +closed, "is void and the courts as well as other departments are bound +by that instrument." From that day to this the practice of federal and +state courts in passing upon the constitutionality of laws has remained +unshaken. + +This doctrine was received by Jefferson and many of his followers with +consternation. If the idea was sound, he exclaimed, "then indeed is our +Constitution a complete _felo de se_ [legally, a suicide]. For, +intending to establish three departments, cooerdinate and independent +that they might check and balance one another, it has given, according +to this opinion, to one of them alone the right to prescribe rules for +the government of the others, and to that one, too, which is unelected +by and independent of the nation.... The Constitution, on this +hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which +they may twist and shape into any form they please. It should be +remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever +power in any government is independent, is absolute also.... A judiciary +independent of a king or executive alone is a good thing; but +independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a +republican government." But Marshall was mighty and his view prevailed, +though from time to time other men, clinging to Jefferson's opinion, +likewise opposed the exercise by the Courts of the high power of passing +upon the constitutionality of acts of Congress. + +=Acts of State Legislatures Declared Unconstitutional.=--Had Marshall +stopped with annulling an act of Congress, he would have heard less +criticism from Republican quarters; but, with the same firmness, he set +aside acts of state legislatures as well, whenever, in his opinion, they +violated the federal Constitution. In 1810, in the case of Fletcher +_vs._ Peck, he annulled an act of the Georgia legislature, informing the +state that it was not sovereign, but "a part of a large empire, ... a +member of the American union; and that union has a constitution ... +which imposes limits to the legislatures of the several states." In the +case of McCulloch _vs._ Maryland, decided in 1819, he declared void an +act of the Maryland legislature designed to paralyze the branches of the +United States Bank established in that state. In the same year, in the +still more memorable Dartmouth College case, he annulled an act of the +New Hampshire legislature which infringed upon the charter received by +the college from King George long before. That charter, he declared, was +a contract between the state and the college, which the legislature +under the federal Constitution could not impair. Two years later he +stirred the wrath of Virginia by summoning her to the bar of the Supreme +Court to answer in a case in which the validity of one of her laws was +involved and then justified his action in a powerful opinion rendered in +the case of Cohens _vs._ Virginia. + +All these decisions aroused the legislatures of the states. They passed +sheaves of resolutions protesting and condemning; but Marshall never +turned and never stayed. The Constitution of the United States, he +fairly thundered at them, is the supreme law of the land; the Supreme +Court is the proper tribunal to pass finally upon the validity of the +laws of the states; and "those sovereignties," far from possessing the +right of review and nullification, are irrevocably bound by the +decisions of that Court. This was strong medicine for the authors of the +Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and for the members of the Hartford +convention; but they had to take it. + +=The Doctrine of Implied Powers.=--While restraining Congress in the +Marbury case and the state legislatures in a score of cases, Marshall +also laid the judicial foundation for a broad and liberal view of the +Constitution as opposed to narrow and strict construction. In McCulloch +_vs._ Maryland, he construed generously the words "necessary and proper" +in such a way as to confer upon Congress a wide range of "implied +powers" in addition to their express powers. That case involved, among +other things, the question whether the act establishing the second +United States Bank was authorized by the Constitution. Marshall answered +in the affirmative. Congress, ran his reasoning, has large powers over +taxation and the currency; a bank is of appropriate use in the exercise +of these enumerated powers; and therefore, though not absolutely +necessary, a bank is entirely proper and constitutional. "With respect +to the means by which the powers that the Constitution confers are to be +carried into execution," he said, Congress must be allowed the +discretion which "will enable that body to perform the high duties +assigned to it, in the manner most beneficial to the people." In short, +the Constitution of the United States is not a strait jacket but a +flexible instrument vesting in Congress the powers necessary to meet +national problems as they arise. In delivering this opinion Marshall +used language almost identical with that employed by Lincoln when, +standing on the battle field of a war waged to preserve the nation, he +said that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people +shall not perish from the earth." + + +SUMMARY OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS + +During the strenuous period between the establishment of American +independence and the advent of Jacksonian democracy the great American +experiment was under the direction of the men who had launched it. All +the Presidents in that period, except John Quincy Adams, had taken part +in the Revolution. James Madison, the chief author of the Constitution, +lived until 1836. This age, therefore, was the "age of the fathers." It +saw the threatened ruin of the country under the Articles of +Confederation, the formation of the Constitution, the rise of political +parties, the growth of the West, the second war with England, and the +apparent triumph of the national spirit over sectionalism. + +The new republic had hardly been started in 1783 before its troubles +began. The government could not raise money to pay its debts or running +expenses; it could not protect American commerce and manufactures +against European competition; it could not stop the continual issues of +paper money by the states; it could not intervene to put down domestic +uprisings that threatened the existence of the state governments. +Without money, without an army, without courts of law, the union under +the Articles of Confederation was drifting into dissolution. Patriots, +who had risked their lives for independence, began to talk of monarchy +again. Washington, Hamilton, and Madison insisted that a new +constitution alone could save America from disaster. + +By dint of much labor the friends of a new form of government induced +the Congress to call a national convention to take into account the +state of America. In May, 1787, it assembled at Philadelphia and for +months it debated and wrangled over plans for a constitution. The small +states clamored for equal rights in the union. The large states vowed +that they would never grant it. A spirit of conciliation, fair play, and +compromise saved the convention from breaking up. In addition, there +were jealousies between the planting states and the commercial states. +Here, too, compromises had to be worked out. Some of the delegates +feared the growth of democracy and others cherished it. These factions +also had to be placated. At last a plan of government was drafted--the +Constitution of the United States--and submitted to the states for +approval. Only after a long and acrimonious debate did enough states +ratify the instrument to put it into effect. On April 30, 1789, George +Washington was inaugurated first President. + +The new government proceeded to fund the old debt of the nation, assume +the debts of the states, found a national bank, lay heavy taxes to pay +the bills, and enact laws protecting American industry and commerce. +Hamilton led the way, but he had not gone far before he encountered +opposition. He found a formidable antagonist in Jefferson. In time two +political parties appeared full armed upon the scene: the Federalists +and the Republicans. For ten years they filled the country with +political debate. In 1800 the Federalists were utterly vanquished by the +Republicans with Jefferson in the lead. + +By their proclamations of faith the Republicans favored the states +rather than the new national government, but in practice they added +immensely to the prestige and power of the nation. They purchased +Louisiana from France, they waged a war for commercial independence +against England, they created a second United States Bank, they enacted +the protective tariff of 1816, they declared that Congress had power to +abolish slavery north of the Missouri Compromise line, and they spread +the shield of the Monroe Doctrine between the Western Hemisphere and +Europe. + +Still America was a part of European civilization. Currents of opinion +flowed to and fro across the Atlantic. Friends of popular government in +Europe looked to America as the great exemplar of their ideals. Events +in Europe reacted upon thought in the United States. The French +Revolution exerted a profound influence on the course of political +debate. While it was in the stage of mere reform all Americans favored +it. When the king was executed and a radical democracy set up, American +opinion was divided. When France fell under the military dominion of +Napoleon and preyed upon American commerce, the United States made ready +for war. + +The conduct of England likewise affected American affairs. In 1793 war +broke out between England and France and raged with only a slight +intermission until 1815. England and France both ravaged American +commerce, but England was the more serious offender because she had +command of the seas. Though Jefferson and Madison strove for peace, the +country was swept into war by the vehemence of the "Young Republicans," +headed by Clay and Calhoun. + +When the armed conflict was closed, one in diplomacy opened. The +autocratic powers of Europe threatened to intervene on behalf of Spain +in her attempt to recover possession of her Latin-American colonies. +Their challenge to America brought forth the Monroe Doctrine. The powers +of Europe were warned not to interfere with the independence or the +republican policies of this hemisphere or to attempt any new +colonization in it. It seemed that nationalism was to have a peaceful +triumph over sectionalism. + + +=References= + +H. Adams, _History of the United States, 1800-1817_ (9 vols.). + +K.C. Babcock, _Rise of American Nationality_ (American Nation Series). + +E. Channing, _The Jeffersonian System_ (Same Series). + +D.C. Gilman, _James Monroe_. + +W. Reddaway, _The Monroe Doctrine_. + +T. Roosevelt, _Naval War of 1812_. + + +=Questions= + +1. What was the leading feature of Jefferson's political theory? + +2. Enumerate the chief measures of his administration. + +3. Were the Jeffersonians able to apply their theories? Give the +reasons. + +4. Explain the importance of the Mississippi River to Western farmers. + +5. Show how events in Europe forced the Louisiana Purchase. + +6. State the constitutional question involved in the Louisiana Purchase. + +7. Show how American trade was affected by the European war. + +8. Compare the policies of Jefferson and Madison. + +9. Why did the United States become involved with England rather than +with France? + +10. Contrast the causes of the War of 1812 with the results. + +11. Give the economic reasons for the attitude of New England. + +12. Give five "nationalist" measures of the Republicans. Discuss each in +detail. + +13. Sketch the career of John Marshall. + +14. Discuss the case of Marbury _vs._ Madison. + +15. Summarize Marshall's views on: (_a_) states' rights; and (_b_) a +liberal interpretation of the Constitution. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Louisiana Purchase.=--Text of Treaty in Macdonald, _Documentary +Source Book_, pp. 279-282. Source materials in Hart, _American History +Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 363-384. Narrative, Henry Adams, +_History of the United States_, Vol. II, pp. 25-115; Elson, _History of +the United States_, pp. 383-388. + +=The Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts.=--Macdonald, pp. 282-288; Adams, +Vol. IV, pp. 152-177; Elson, pp. 394-405. + +=Congress and the War of 1812.=--Adams, Vol. VI, pp. 113-198; Elson, pp. +408-450. + +=Proposals of the Hartford Convention.=--Macdonald, pp. 293-302. + +=Manufactures and the Tariff of 1816.=--Coman, _Industrial History of +the United States_, pp. 184-194. + +=The Second United States Bank.=--Macdonald, pp. 302-306. + +=Effect of European War on American Trade.=--Callender, _Economic +History of the United States_, pp. 240-250. + +=The Monroe Message.=--Macdonald, pp. 318-320. + +=Lewis and Clark Expedition.=--R.G. Thwaites, _Rocky Mountain +Explorations_, pp. 92-187. Schafer, _A History of the Pacific Northwest_ +(rev. ed.), pp. 29-61. + + + + +PART IV. THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS + + +The nationalism of Hamilton was undemocratic. The democracy of Jefferson +was, in the beginning, provincial. The historic mission of uniting +nationalism and democracy was in the course of time given to new leaders +from a region beyond the mountains, peopled by men and women from all +sections and free from those state traditions which ran back to the +early days of colonization. The voice of the democratic nationalism +nourished in the West was heard when Clay of Kentucky advocated his +American system of protection for industries; when Jackson of Tennessee +condemned nullification in a ringing proclamation that has taken its +place among the great American state papers; and when Lincoln of +Illinois, in a fateful hour, called upon a bewildered people to meet the +supreme test whether this was a nation destined to survive or to perish. +And it will be remembered that Lincoln's party chose for its banner that +earlier device--Republican--which Jefferson had made a sign of power. +The "rail splitter" from Illinois united the nationalism of Hamilton +with the democracy of Jefferson, and his appeal was clothed in the +simple language of the people, not in the sonorous rhetoric which +Webster learned in the schools. + + +PREPARATION FOR WESTERN SETTLEMENT + +=The West and the American Revolution.=--The excessive attention devoted +by historians to the military operations along the coast has obscured +the role played by the frontier in the American Revolution. The action +of Great Britain in closing western land to easy settlement in 1763 was +more than an incident in precipitating the war for independence. +Americans on the frontier did not forget it; when Indians were employed +by England to defend that land, zeal for the patriot cause set the +interior aflame. It was the members of the western vanguard, like Daniel +Boone, John Sevier, and George Rogers Clark, who first understood the +value of the far-away country under the guns of the English forts, where +the Red Men still wielded the tomahawk and the scalping knife. It was +they who gave the East no rest until their vision was seen by the +leaders on the seaboard who directed the course of national policy. It +was one of their number, a seasoned Indian fighter, George Rogers Clark, +who with aid from Virginia seized Kaskaskia and Vincennes and secured +the whole Northwest to the union while the fate of Washington's army was +still hanging in the balance. + +=Western Problems at the End of the Revolution.=--The treaty of peace, +signed with Great Britain in 1783, brought the definite cession of the +coveted territory west to the Mississippi River, but it left unsolved +many problems. In the first place, tribes of resentful Indians in the +Ohio region, even though British support was withdrawn at last, had to +be reckoned with; and it was not until after the establishment of the +federal Constitution that a well-equipped army could be provided to +guarantee peace on the border. In the second place, British garrisons +still occupied forts on Lake Erie pending the execution of the terms of +the treaty of 1783--terms which were not fulfilled until after the +ratification of the Jay treaty twelve years later. In the third place, +Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts had conflicting claims to the +land in the Northwest based on old English charters and Indian treaties. +It was only after a bitter contest that the states reached an agreement +to transfer their rights to the government of the United States, +Virginia executing her deed of cession on March 1, 1784. In the fourth +place, titles to lands bought by individuals remained uncertain in the +absence of official maps and records. To meet this last situation, +Congress instituted a systematic survey of the Ohio country, laying it +out into townships, sections of 640 acres each, and quarter sections. In +every township one section of land was set aside for the support of +public schools. + +=The Northwest Ordinance.=--The final problem which had to be solved +before settlement on a large scale could be begun was that of governing +the territory. Pioneers who looked with hungry eyes on the fertile +valley of the Ohio could hardly restrain their impatience. Soldiers of +the Revolution, who had been paid for their services in land warrants +entitling them to make entries in the West, called for action. + +Congress answered by passing in 1787 the famous Northwest Ordinance +providing for temporary territorial government to be followed by the +creation of a popular assembly as soon as there were five thousand free +males in any district. Eventual admission to the union on an equal +footing with the original states was promised to the new territories. +Religious freedom was guaranteed. The safeguards of trial by jury, +regular judicial procedure, and _habeas corpus_ were established, in order +that the methods of civilized life might take the place of the +rough-and-ready justice of lynch law. During the course of the debate on +the Ordinance, Congress added the sixth article forbidding slavery and +involuntary servitude. + +This Charter of the Northwest, so well planned by the Congress under the +Articles of Confederation, was continued in force by the first Congress +under the Constitution in 1789. The following year its essential +provisions, except the ban on slavery, were applied to the territory +south of the Ohio, ceded by North Carolina to the national government, +and in 1798 to the Mississippi territory, once held by Georgia. Thus it +was settled for all time that "the new colonies were not to be exploited +for the benefit of the parent states (any more than for the benefit of +England) but were to be autonomous and cooerdinate commonwealths." This +outcome, bitterly opposed by some Eastern leaders who feared the triumph +of Western states over the seaboard, completed the legal steps necessary +by way of preparation for the flood of settlers. + +=The Land Companies, Speculators, and Western Land Tenure.=--As in the +original settlement of America, so in the opening of the West, great +companies and single proprietors of large grants early figured. In 1787 +the Ohio Land Company, a New England concern, acquired a million and a +half acres on the Ohio and began operations by planting the town of +Marietta. A professional land speculator, J.C. Symmes, secured a million +acres lower down where the city of Cincinnati was founded. Other +individuals bought up soldiers' claims and so acquired enormous holdings +for speculative purposes. Indeed, there was such a rush to make fortunes +quickly through the rise in land values that Washington was moved to cry +out against the "rage for speculating in and forestalling of land on the +North West of the Ohio," protesting that "scarce a valuable spot within +any tolerable distance of it is left without a claimant." He therefore +urged Congress to fix a reasonable price for the land, not "too +exorbitant and burdensome for real occupiers, but high enough to +discourage monopolizers." + +Congress, however, was not prepared to use the public domain for the +sole purpose of developing a body of small freeholders in the West. It +still looked upon the sale of public lands as an important source of +revenue with which to pay off the public debt; consequently it thought +more of instant income than of ultimate results. It placed no limit on +the amount which could be bought when it fixed the price at $2 an acre +in 1796, and it encouraged the professional land operator by making the +first installment only twenty cents an acre in addition to the small +registration and survey fee. On such terms a speculator with a few +thousand dollars could get possession of an enormous plot of land. If he +was fortunate in disposing of it, he could meet the installments, which +were spread over a period of four years, and make a handsome profit for +himself. Even when the credit or installment feature was abolished in +1821 and the price of the land lowered to a cash price of $1.75 an acre, +the opportunity for large speculative purchases continued to attract +capital to land ventures. + +=The Development of the Small Freehold.=--The cheapness of land and the +scarcity of labor, nevertheless, made impossible the triumph of the huge +estate with its semi-servile tenantry. For about $45 a man could get a +farm of 160 acres on the installment plan; another payment of $80 was +due in forty days; but a four-year term was allowed for the discharge of +the balance. With a capital of from two to three hundred dollars a +family could embark on a land venture. If it had good crops, it could +meet the deferred payments. It was, however, a hard battle at best. Many +a man forfeited his land through failure to pay the final installment; +yet in the end, in spite of all the handicaps, the small freehold of a +few hundred acres at most became the typical unit of Western +agriculture, except in the planting states of the Gulf. Even the lands +of the great companies were generally broken up and sold in small lots. + +The tendency toward moderate holdings, so favored by Western conditions, +was also promoted by a clause in the Northwest Ordinance declaring that +the land of any person dying intestate--that is, without any will +disposing of it--should be divided equally among his descendants. +Hildreth says of this provision: "It established the important +republican principle, not then introduced into all the states, of the +equal distribution of landed as well as personal property." All these +forces combined made the wide dispersion of wealth, in the early days of +the nineteenth century, an American characteristic, in marked contrast +with the European system of family prestige and vast estates based on +the law of primogeniture. + + +THE WESTERN MIGRATION AND NEW STATES + +=The People.=--With government established, federal arms victorious over +the Indians, and the lands surveyed for sale, the way was prepared for +the immigrants. They came with a rush. Young New Englanders, weary of +tilling the stony soil of their native states, poured through New York +and Pennsylvania, some settling on the northern bank of the Ohio but +most of them in the Lake region. Sons and daughters of German farmers in +Pennsylvania and many a redemptioner who had discharged his bond of +servitude pressed out into Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, or beyond. From +the exhausted fields and the clay hills of the Southern states came +pioneers of English and Scotch-Irish descent, the latter in great +numbers. Indeed one historian of high authority has ventured to say that +"the rapid expansion of the United States from a coast strip to a +continental area is largely a Scotch-Irish achievement." While native +Americans of mixed stocks led the way into the West, it was not long +before immigrants direct from Europe, under the stimulus of company +enterprise, began to filter into the new settlements in increasing +numbers. + +The types of people were as various as the nations they represented. +Timothy Flint, who published his entertaining _Recollections_ in 1826, +found the West a strange mixture of all sorts and conditions of people. +Some of them, he relates, had been hunters in the upper world of the +Mississippi, above the falls of St. Anthony. Some had been still farther +north, in Canada. Still others had wandered from the South--the Gulf of +Mexico, the Red River, and the Spanish country. French boatmen and +trappers, Spanish traders from the Southwest, Virginia planters with +their droves of slaves mingled with English, German, and Scotch-Irish +farmers. Hunters, forest rangers, restless bordermen, and squatters, +like the foaming combers of an advancing tide, went first. Then followed +the farmers, masters of the ax and plow, with their wives who shared +every burden and hardship and introduced some of the features of +civilized life. The hunters and rangers passed on to new scenes; the +home makers built for all time. + +=The Number of Immigrants.=--There were no official stations on the +frontier to record the number of immigrants who entered the West during +the decades following the American Revolution. But travelers of the time +record that every road was "crowded" with pioneers and their families, +their wagons and cattle; and that they were seldom out of the sound of +the snapping whip of the teamster urging forward his horses or the crack +of the hunter's rifle as he brought down his evening meal. "During the +latter half of 1787," says Coman, "more than nine hundred boats floated +down the Ohio carrying eighteen thousand men, women, and children, and +twelve thousand horses, sheep, and cattle, and six hundred and fifty +wagons." Other lines of travel were also crowded and with the passing +years the flooding tide of home seekers rose higher and higher. + +=The Western Routes.=--Four main routes led into the country beyond the +Appalachians. The Genesee road, beginning at Albany, ran almost due west +to the present site of Buffalo on Lake Erie, through a level country. In +the dry season, wagons laden with goods could easily pass along it into +northern Ohio. A second route, through Pittsburgh, was fed by three +eastern branches, one starting at Philadelphia, one at Baltimore, and +another at Alexandria. A third main route wound through the mountains +from Alexandria to Boonesboro in Kentucky and then westward across the +Ohio to St. Louis. A fourth, the most famous of them all, passed through +the Cumberland Gap and by branches extended into the Cumberland valley +and the Kentucky country. + +Of these four lines of travel, the Pittsburgh route offered the most +advantages. Pioneers, no matter from what section they came, when once +they were on the headwaters of the Ohio and in possession of a flatboat, +could find a quick and easy passage into all parts of the West and +Southwest. Whether they wanted to settle in Ohio, Kentucky, or western +Tennessee they could find their way down the drifting flood to their +destination or at least to some spot near it. Many people from the South +as well as the Northern and Middle states chose this route; so it came +about that the sons and daughters of Virginia and the Carolinas mingled +with those of New York, Pennsylvania, and New England in the settlement +of the Northwest territory. + +=The Methods of Travel into the West.=--Many stories giving exact +descriptions of methods of travel into the West in the early days have +been preserved. The country was hardly opened before visitors from the +Old World and from the Eastern states, impelled by curiosity, made their +way to the very frontier of civilization and wrote books to inform or +amuse the public. One of them, Gilbert Imlay, an English traveler, has +given us an account of the Pittsburgh route as he found it in 1791. "If +a man ... " he writes, "has a family or goods of any sort to remove, his +best way, then, would be to purchase a waggon and team of horses to +carry his property to Redstone Old Fort or to Pittsburgh, according as +he may come from the Northern or Southern states. A good waggon will +cost, at Philadelphia, about L10 ... and the horses about L12 each; they +would cost something more both at Baltimore and Alexandria. The waggon +may be covered with canvass, and if it is the choice of the people, they +may sleep in it of nights with the greatest safety. But if they dislike +that, there are inns of accommodation the whole distance on the +different roads.... The provisions I would purchase in the same manner +[that is, from the farmers along the road]; and by having two or three +camp kettles and stopping every evening when the weather is fine upon +the brink of some rivulet and by kindling a fire they may soon dress +their own food.... This manner of journeying is so far from being +disagreeable that in a fine season it is extremely pleasant." The +immigrant once at Pittsburgh or Wheeling could then buy a flatboat of a +size required for his goods and stock, and drift down the current to his +journey's end. + +[Illustration: ROADS AND TRAILS INTO THE WESTERN TERRITORY] + +=The Admission of Kentucky and Tennessee.=--When the eighteenth century +drew to a close, Kentucky had a population larger than Delaware, Rhode +Island, or New Hampshire. Tennessee claimed 60,000 inhabitants. In 1792 +Kentucky took her place as a state beside her none too kindly parent, +Virginia. The Eastern Federalists resented her intrusion; but they took +some consolation in the admission of Vermont because the balance of +Eastern power was still retained. + +As if to assert their independence of old homes and conservative ideas +the makers of Kentucky's first constitution swept aside the landed +qualification on the suffrage and gave the vote to all free white males. +Four years later, Kentucky's neighbor to the south, Tennessee, followed +this step toward a wider democracy. After encountering fierce opposition +from the Federalists, Tennessee was accepted as the sixteenth state. + +=Ohio.=--The door of the union had hardly opened for Tennessee when +another appeal was made to Congress, this time from the pioneers in +Ohio. The little posts founded at Marietta and Cincinnati had grown into +flourishing centers of trade. The stream of immigrants, flowing down the +river, added daily to their numbers and the growing settlements all +around poured produce into their markets to be exchanged for "store +goods." After the Indians were disposed of in 1794 and the last British +soldier left the frontier forts under the terms of the Jay treaty of +1795, tiny settlements of families appeared on Lake Erie in the "Western +Reserve," a region that had been retained by Connecticut when she +surrendered her other rights in the Northwest. + +At the close of the century, Ohio, claiming a population of more than +50,000, grew discontented with its territorial status. Indeed, two years +before the enactment of the Northwest Ordinance, squatters in that +region had been invited by one John Emerson to hold a convention after +the fashion of the men of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield in old +Connecticut and draft a frame of government for themselves. This true +son of New England declared that men "have an undoubted right to pass +into every vacant country and there to form their constitution and that +from the confederation of the whole United States Congress is not +empowered to forbid them." This grand convention was never held because +the heavy hand of the government fell upon the leaders; but the spirit +of John Emerson did not perish. In November, 1802, a convention chosen +by voters, assembled under the authority of Congress at Chillicothe, +drew up a constitution. It went into force after a popular ratification. +The roll of the convention bore such names as Abbot, Baldwin, Cutler, +Huntington, Putnam, and Sargent, and the list of counties from which +they came included Adams, Fairfield, Hamilton, Jefferson, Trumbull, and +Washington, showing that the new America in the West was peopled and led +by the old stock. In 1803 Ohio was admitted to the union. + +=Indiana and Illinois.=--As in the neighboring state, the frontier in +Indiana advanced northward from the Ohio, mainly under the leadership, +however, of settlers from the South--restless Kentuckians hoping for +better luck in a newer country and pioneers from the far frontiers of +Virginia and North Carolina. As soon as a tier of counties swinging +upward like the horns of the moon against Ohio on the east and in the +Wabash Valley on the west was fairly settled, a clamor went up for +statehood. Under the authority of an act of Congress in 1816 the +Indianians drafted a constitution and inaugurated their government at +Corydon. "The majority of the members of the convention," we are told by +a local historian, "were frontier farmers who had a general idea of what +they wanted and had sense enough to let their more erudite colleagues +put it into shape." + +Two years later, the pioneers of Illinois, also settled upward from the +Ohio, like Indiana, elected their delegates to draft a constitution. +Leadership in the convention, quite properly, was taken by a man born in +New York and reared in Tennessee; and the constitution as finally +drafted "was in its principal provisions a copy of the then existing +constitutions of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.... Many of the articles +are exact copies in wording although differently arranged and +numbered." + +=Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.=--Across the Mississippi to the +far south, clearing and planting had gone on with much bustle and +enterprise. The cotton and sugar lands of Louisiana, opened by French +and Spanish settlers, were widened in every direction by planters with +their armies of slaves from the older states. New Orleans, a good market +and a center of culture not despised even by the pioneer, grew apace. In +1810 the population of lower Louisiana was over 75,000. The time had +come, said the leaders of the people, to fulfill the promise made to +France in the treaty of cession; namely, to grant to the inhabitants of +the territory statehood and the rights of American citizens. Federalists +from New England still having a voice in Congress, if somewhat weaker, +still protested in tones of horror. "I am compelled to declare it as my +deliberate opinion," pronounced Josiah Quincy in the House of +Representatives, "that if this bill [to admit Louisiana] passes, the +bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved ... that as it will be the +right of all, so it will be the duty of some [states] to prepare +definitely for a separation; amicably if they can, violently if they +must.... It is a death blow to the Constitution. It may afterwards +linger; but lingering, its fate will, at no very distant period, be +consummated." Federalists from New York like those from New England had +their doubts about the wisdom of admitting Western states; but the party +of Jefferson and Madison, having the necessary majority, granted the +coveted statehood to Louisiana in 1812. + +When, a few years later, Mississippi and Alabama knocked at the doors of +the union, the Federalists had so little influence, on account of their +conduct during the second war with England, that spokesmen from the +Southwest met a kindlier reception at Washington. Mississippi, in 1817, +and Alabama, in 1819, took their places among the United States of +America. Both of them, while granting white manhood suffrage, gave their +constitutions the tone of the old East by providing landed +qualifications for the governor and members of the legislature. + +=Missouri.=--Far to the north in the Louisiana purchase, a new +commonwealth was rising to power. It was peopled by immigrants who came +down the Ohio in fleets of boats or crossed the Mississippi from +Kentucky and Tennessee. Thrifty Germans from Pennsylvania, hardy farmers +from Virginia ready to work with their own hands, freemen seeking +freemen's homes, planters with their slaves moving on from worn-out +fields on the seaboard, came together in the widening settlements of the +Missouri country. Peoples from the North and South flowed together, +small farmers and big planters mingling in one community. When their +numbers had reached sixty thousand or more, they precipitated a contest +over their admission to the union, "ringing an alarm bell in the night," +as Jefferson phrased it. The favorite expedient of compromise with +slavery was brought forth in Congress once more. Maine consequently was +brought into the union without slavery and Missouri with slavery. At the +same time there was drawn westward through the rest of the Louisiana +territory a line separating servitude from slavery. + + +THE SPIRIT OF THE FRONTIER + +=Land Tenure and Liberty.=--Over an immense western area there developed +an unbroken system of freehold farms. In the Gulf states and the lower +Mississippi Valley, it is true, the planter with his many slaves even +led in the pioneer movement; but through large sections of Tennessee and +Kentucky, as well as upper Georgia and Alabama, and all throughout the +Northwest territory the small farmer reigned supreme. In this immense +dominion there sprang up a civilization without caste or class--a body +of people all having about the same amount of this world's goods and +deriving their livelihood from one source: the labor of their own hands +on the soil. The Northwest territory alone almost equaled in area all +the original thirteen states combined, except Georgia, and its system of +agricultural economy was unbroken by plantations and feudal estates. "In +the subdivision of the soil and the great equality of condition," as +Webster said on more than one occasion, "lay the true basis, most +certainly, of popular government." There was the undoubted source of +Jacksonian democracy. + +[Illustration: A LOG CABIN--LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE] + +=The Characteristics of the Western People.=--Travelers into the +Northwest during the early years of the nineteenth century were agreed +that the people of that region were almost uniformly marked by the +characteristics common to an independent yeomanry. A close observer thus +recorded his impressions: "A spirit of adventurous enterprise, a +willingness to go through any hardship to accomplish an object.... +Independence of thought and action. They have felt the influence of +these principles from their childhood. Men who can endure anything; that +have lived almost without restraint, free as the mountain air or as the +deer and the buffalo of their forests, and who know they are Americans +all.... An apparent roughness which some would deem rudeness of +manner.... Where there is perfect equality in a neighborhood of people +who know little about each other's previous history or ancestry but +where each is lord of the soil he cultivates. Where a log cabin is all +that the best of families can expect to have for years and of course can +possess few of the external decorations which have so much influence in +creating a diversity of rank in society. These circumstances have laid +the foundation for that equality of intercourse, simplicity of manners, +want of deference, want of reserve, great readiness to make +acquaintances, freedom of speech, indisposition to brook real or +imaginary insults which one witnesses among people of the West." + +This equality, this independence, this rudeness so often described by +the traveler as marking a new country, were all accentuated by the +character of the settlers themselves. Traces of the fierce, unsociable, +eagle-eyed, hard-drinking hunter remained. The settlers who followed the +hunter were, with some exceptions, soldiers of the Revolutionary army, +farmers of the "middling order," and mechanics from the towns,--English, +Scotch-Irish, Germans,--poor in possessions and thrown upon the labor of +their own hands for support. Sons and daughters from well-to-do Eastern +homes sometimes brought softer manners; but the equality of life and the +leveling force of labor in forest and field soon made them one in spirit +with their struggling neighbors. Even the preachers and teachers, who +came when the cabins were raised in the clearings and rude churches and +schoolhouses were built, preached sermons and taught lessons that +savored of the frontier, as any one may know who reads Peter +Cartwright's _A Muscular Christian_ or Eggleston's _The Hoosier +Schoolmaster_. + + +THE WEST AND THE EAST MEET + +=The East Alarmed.=--A people so independent as the Westerners and so +attached to local self-government gave the conservative East many a rude +shock, setting gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee breeches agog with +the idea that terrible things might happen in the Mississippi Valley. +Not without good grounds did Washington fear that "a touch of a feather +would turn" the Western settlers away from the seaboard to the +Spaniards; and seriously did he urge the East not to neglect them, lest +they be "drawn into the arms of, or be dependent upon foreigners." +Taking advantage of the restless spirit in the Southwest, Aaron Burr, +having disgraced himself by killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, laid +wild plans, if not to bring about a secession in that region, at least +to build a state of some kind out of the Spanish dominions adjoining +Louisiana. Frightened at such enterprises and fearing the dominance of +the West, the Federalists, with a few conspicuous exceptions, opposed +equality between the sections. Had their narrow views prevailed, the +West, with its new democracy, would have been held in perpetual tutelage +to the seaboard or perhaps been driven into independence as the thirteen +colonies had been not long before. + +=Eastern Friends of the West.=--Fortunately for the nation, there were +many Eastern leaders, particularly from the South, who understood the +West, approved its spirit, and sought to bring the two sections together +by common bonds. Washington kept alive and keen the zeal for Western +advancement which he acquired in his youth as a surveyor. He never grew +tired of urging upon his Eastern friends the importance of the lands +beyond the mountains. He pressed upon the governor of Virginia a project +for a wagon road connecting the seaboard with the Ohio country and was +active in a movement to improve the navigation of the Potomac. He +advocated strengthening the ties of commerce. "Smooth the roads," he +said, "and make easy the way for them, and then see what an influx of +articles will be poured upon us; how amazingly our exports will be +increased by them; and how amply we shall be compensated for any trouble +and expense we may encounter to effect it." Jefferson, too, was +interested in every phase of Western development--the survey of lands, +the exploration of waterways, the opening of trade, and even the +discovery of the bones of prehistoric animals. Robert Fulton, the +inventor of the steamboat, was another man of vision who for many years +pressed upon his countrymen the necessity of uniting East and West by a +canal which would cement the union, raise the value of the public lands, +and extend the principles of confederate and republican government. + +=The Difficulties of Early Transportation.=--Means of communication +played an important part in the strategy of all those who sought to +bring together the seaboard and the frontier. The produce of the +West--wheat, corn, bacon, hemp, cattle, and tobacco--was bulky and the +cost of overland transportation was prohibitive. In the Eastern market, +"a cow and her calf were given for a bushel of salt, while a suit of +'store clothes' cost as much as a farm." In such circumstances, the +inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley were forced to ship their produce +over a long route by way of New Orleans and to pay high freight rates +for everything that was brought across the mountains. Scows of from five +to fifty tons were built at the towns along the rivers and piloted down +the stream to the Crescent City. In a few cases small ocean-going +vessels were built to transport goods to the West Indies or to the +Eastern coast towns. Salt, iron, guns, powder, and the absolute +essentials which the pioneers had to buy mainly in Eastern markets were +carried over narrow wagon trails that were almost impassable in the +rainy season. + +=The National Road.=--To far-sighted men, like Albert Gallatin, "the +father of internal improvements," the solution of this problem was the +construction of roads and canals. Early in Jefferson's administration, +Congress dedicated a part of the proceeds from the sale of lands to +building highways from the headwaters of the navigable waters emptying +into the Atlantic to the Ohio River and beyond into the Northwest +territory. In 1806, after many misgivings, it authorized a great +national highway binding the East and the West. The Cumberland Road, as +it was called, began in northwestern Maryland, wound through southern +Pennsylvania, crossed the narrow neck of Virginia at Wheeling, and then +shot almost straight across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, into Missouri. +By 1817, stagecoaches were running between Washington and Wheeling; by +1833 contractors had carried their work to Columbus, Ohio, and by 1852, +to Vandalia, Illinois. Over this ballasted road mail and passenger +coaches could go at high speed, and heavy freight wagons proceed in +safety at a steady pace. + +[Illustration: THE CUMBERLAND ROAD] + +=Canals and Steamboats.=--A second epoch in the economic union of the +East and West was reached with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, +offering an all-water route from New York City to the Great Lakes and +the Mississippi Valley. Pennsylvania, alarmed by the advantages +conferred on New York by this enterprise, began her system of canals and +portages from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, completing the last link in +1834. In the South, the Chesapeake and Ohio Company, chartered in 1825, +was busy with a project to connect Georgetown and Cumberland when +railways broke in upon the undertaking before it was half finished. +About the same time, Ohio built a canal across the state, affording +water communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio River through a rich +wheat belt. Passengers could now travel by canal boat into the West with +comparative ease and comfort, if not at a rapid speed, and the bulkiest +of freight could be easily handled. Moreover, the rate charged for +carrying goods was cut by the Erie Canal from $32 a ton per hundred +miles to $1. New Orleans was destined to lose her primacy in the +Mississippi Valley. + +The diversion of traffic to Eastern markets was also stimulated by +steamboats which appeared on the Ohio about 1810, three years after +Fulton had made his famous trip on the Hudson. It took twenty men to +sail and row a five-ton scow up the river at a speed of from ten to +twenty miles a day. In 1825, Timothy Flint traveled a hundred miles a +day on the new steamer _Grecian_ "against the whole weight of the +Mississippi current." Three years later the round trip from Louisville +to New Orleans was cut to eight days. Heavy produce that once had to +float down to New Orleans could be carried upstream and sent to the East +by way of the canal systems. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +AN EARLY MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT] + +Thus the far country was brought near. The timid no longer hesitated at +the thought of the perilous journey. All routes were crowded with +Western immigrants. The forests fell before the ax like grain before the +sickle. Clearings scattered through the woods spread out into a great +mosaic of farms stretching from the Southern Appalachians to Lake +Michigan. The national census of 1830 gave 937,000 inhabitants to Ohio; +343,000 to Indiana; 157,000 to Illinois; 687,000 to Kentucky; and +681,000 to Tennessee. + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1830] + +With the increase in population and the growth of agriculture came +political influence. People who had once petitioned Congress now sent +their own representatives. Men who had hitherto accepted without +protests Presidents from the seaboard expressed a new spirit of dissent +in 1824 by giving only three electoral votes for John Quincy Adams; and +four years later they sent a son of the soil from Tennessee, Andrew +Jackson, to take Washington's chair as chief executive of the +nation--the first of a long line of Presidents from the Mississippi +basin. + + +=References= + +W.G. Brown, _The Lower South in American History_. + +B.A. Hinsdale, _The Old North West_ (2 vols.). + +A.B. Hulbert, _Great American Canals_ and _The Cumberland Road_. + +T. Roosevelt, _Thomas H. Benton_. + +P.J. Treat, _The National Land System_ (1785-1820). + +F.J. Turner, _Rise of the New West_ (American Nation Series). + +J. Winsor, _The Westward Movement_. + + +=Questions= + +1. How did the West come to play a role in the Revolution? + +2. What preparations were necessary to settlement? + +3. Give the principal provisions of the Northwest Ordinance. + +4. Explain how freehold land tenure happened to predominate in the West. + +5. Who were the early settlers in the West? What routes did they take? +How did they travel? + +6. Explain the Eastern opposition to the admission of new Western +states. Show how it was overcome. + +7. Trace a connection between the economic system of the West and the +spirit of the people. + +8. Who were among the early friends of Western development? + +9. Describe the difficulties of trade between the East and the West. + +10. Show how trade was promoted. + + +=Research Topics= + +=Northwest Ordinance.=--Analysis of text in Macdonald, _Documentary +Source Book_. Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_, Vol. V, pp. 5-57. + +=The West before the Revolution.=--Roosevelt, Vol. I. + +=The West during the Revolution.=--Roosevelt, Vols. II and III. + +=Tennessee.=--Roosevelt, Vol. V, pp. 95-119 and Vol. VI, pp. 9-87. + +=The Cumberland Road.=--A.B. Hulbert, _The Cumberland Road_. + +=Early Life in the Middle West.=--Callender, _Economic History of the +United States_, pp. 617-633; 636-641. + +=Slavery in the Southwest.=--Callender, pp. 641-652. + +=Early Land Policy.=--Callender, pp. 668-680. + +=Westward Movement of Peoples.=--Roosevelt, Vol. IV, pp. 7-39. + +Lists of books dealing with the early history of Western states are +given in Hart, Channing, and Turner, _Guide to the Study and Reading of +American History_ (rev. ed.), pp. 62-89. + +=Kentucky.=--Roosevelt, Vol. IV, pp. 176-263. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY + + +The New England Federalists, at the Hartford convention, prophesied that +in time the West would dominate the East. "At the adoption of the +Constitution," they said, "a certain balance of power among the original +states was considered to exist, and there was at that time and yet is +among those parties a strong affinity between their great and general +interests. By the admission of these [new] states that balance has been +materially affected and unless the practice be modified must ultimately +be destroyed. The Southern states will first avail themselves of their +new confederates to govern the East, and finally the Western states, +multiplied in number, and augmented in population, will control the +interests of the whole." Strangely enough the fulfillment of this +prophecy was being prepared even in Federalist strongholds by the rise +of a new urban democracy that was to make common cause with the farmers +beyond the mountains. + + +THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN THE EAST + +=The Aristocratic Features of the Old Order.=--The Revolutionary +fathers, in setting up their first state constitutions, although they +often spoke of government as founded on the consent of the governed, did +not think that consistency required giving the vote to all adult males. +On the contrary they looked upon property owners as the only safe +"depositary" of political power. They went back to the colonial +tradition that related taxation and representation. This, they argued, +was not only just but a safeguard against the "excesses of democracy." + +In carrying their theory into execution they placed taxpaying or +property qualifications on the right to vote. Broadly speaking, these +limitations fell into three classes. Three states, Pennsylvania (1776), +New Hampshire (1784), and Georgia (1798), gave the ballot to all who +paid taxes, without reference to the value of their property. Three, +Virginia, Delaware, and Rhode Island, clung firmly to the ancient +principles that only freeholders could be intrusted with electoral +rights. Still other states, while closely restricting the suffrage, +accepted the ownership of other things as well as land in fulfillment of +the requirements. In Massachusetts, for instance, the vote was granted +to all men who held land yielding an annual income of three pounds or +possessed other property worth sixty pounds. + +The electors thus enfranchised, numerous as they were, owing to the wide +distribution of land, often suffered from a very onerous disability. In +many states they were able to vote only for persons of wealth because +heavy property qualifications were imposed on public officers. In New +Hampshire, the governor had to be worth five hundred pounds, one-half in +land; in Massachusetts, one thousand pounds, all freehold; in Maryland, +five thousand pounds, one thousand of which was freehold; in North +Carolina, one thousand pounds freehold; and in South Carolina, ten +thousand pounds freehold. A state senator in Massachusetts had to be the +owner of a freehold worth three hundred pounds or personal property +worth six hundred pounds; in New Jersey, one thousand pounds' worth of +property; in North Carolina, three hundred acres of land; in South +Carolina, two thousand pounds freehold. For members of the lower house +of the legislature lower qualifications were required. + +In most of the states the suffrage or office holding or both were +further restricted by religious provisions. No single sect was powerful +enough to dominate after the Revolution, but, for the most part, +Catholics and Jews were either disfranchised or excluded from office. +North Carolina and Georgia denied the ballot to any one who was not a +Protestant. Delaware withheld it from all who did not believe in the +Trinity and the inspiration of the Scriptures. Massachusetts and +Maryland limited it to Christians. Virginia and New York, advanced for +their day, made no discrimination in government on account of religious +opinion. + +=The Defense of the Old Order.=--It must not be supposed that property +qualifications were thoughtlessly imposed at the outset or considered of +little consequence in practice. In the beginning they were viewed as +fundamental. As towns grew in size and the number of landless citizens +increased, the restrictions were defended with even more vigor. In +Massachusetts, the great Webster upheld the rights of property in +government, saying: "It is entirely just that property should have its +due weight and consideration in political arrangements.... The +disastrous revolutions which the world has witnessed, those political +thunderstorms and earthquakes which have shaken the pillars of society +to their deepest foundations, have been revolutions against property." +In Pennsylvania, a leader in local affairs cried out against a plan to +remove the taxpaying limitation on the suffrage: "What does the delegate +propose? To place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar +hordes of our large cities on the level with the virtuous and good man?" +In Virginia, Jefferson himself had first believed in property +qualifications and had feared with genuine alarm the "mobs of the great +cities." It was near the end of the eighteenth century before he +accepted the idea of manhood suffrage. Even then he was unable to +convince the constitution-makers of his own state. "It is not an idle +chimera of the brain," urged one of them, "that the possession of land +furnishes the strongest evidence of permanent, common interest with, and +attachment to, the community.... It is upon this foundation I wish to +place the right of suffrage. This is the best general standard which can +be resorted to for the purpose of determining whether the persons to be +invested with the right of suffrage are such persons as could be, +consistently with the safety and well-being of the community, intrusted +with the exercise of that right." + +=Attacks on the Restricted Suffrage.=--The changing circumstances of +American life, however, soon challenged the rule of those with property. +Prominent among the new forces were the rising mercantile and business +interests. Where the freehold qualification was applied, business men +who did not own land were deprived of the vote and excluded from office. +In New York, for example, the most illiterate farmer who had one hundred +pounds' worth of land could vote for state senator and governor, while +the landless banker or merchant could not. It is not surprising, +therefore, to find business men taking the lead in breaking down +freehold limitations on the suffrage. The professional classes also were +interested in removing the barriers which excluded many of them from +public affairs. It was a schoolmaster, Thomas Dorr, who led the popular +uprising in Rhode Island which brought the exclusive rule by freeholders +to an end. + +In addition to the business and professional classes, the mechanics of +the towns showed a growing hostility to a system of government that +generally barred them from voting or holding office. Though not +numerous, they had early begun to exercise an influence on the course of +public affairs. They had led the riots against the Stamp Act, overturned +King George's statue, and "crammed stamps down the throats of +collectors." When the state constitutions were framed they took a lively +interest, particularly in New York City and Philadelphia. In June, 1776, +the "mechanicks in union" in New York protested against putting the new +state constitution into effect without their approval, declaring that +the right to vote on the acceptance or rejection of a fundamental law +"is the birthright of every man to whatever state he may belong." Though +their petition was rejected, their spirit remained. When, a few years +later, the federal Constitution was being framed, the mechanics watched +the process with deep concern; they knew that one of its main objects +was to promote trade and commerce, affecting directly their daily bread. +During the struggle over ratification, they passed resolutions approving +its provisions and they often joined in parades organized to stir up +sentiment for the Constitution, even though they could not vote for +members of the state conventions and so express their will directly. +After the organization of trade unions they collided with the courts of +law and thus became interested in the election of judges and lawmakers. + +Those who attacked the old system of class rule found a strong moral +support in the Declaration of Independence. Was it not said that all men +are created equal? Whoever runs may read. Was it not declared that +governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed? +That doctrine was applied with effect to George III and seemed +appropriate for use against the privileged classes of Massachusetts or +Virginia. "How do the principles thus proclaimed," asked the +non-freeholders of Richmond, in petitioning for the ballot, "accord with +the existing regulation of the suffrage? A regulation which, instead of +the equality nature ordains, creates an odious distinction between +members of the same community ... and vests in a favored class, not in +consideration of their public services but of their private possessions, +the highest of all privileges." + +=Abolition of Property Qualifications.=--By many minor victories rather +than by any spectacular triumphs did the advocates of manhood suffrage +carry the day. Slight gains were made even during the Revolution or +shortly afterward. In Pennsylvania, the mechanics, by taking an active +part in the contest over the Constitution of 1776, were able to force +the qualification down to the payment of a small tax. Vermont came into +the union in 1792 without any property restrictions. In the same year +Delaware gave the vote to all men who paid taxes. Maryland, reckoned one +of the most conservative of states, embarked on the experiment of +manhood suffrage in 1809; and nine years later, Connecticut, equally +conservative, decided that all taxpayers were worthy of the ballot. + +Five states, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Rhode Island, and North +Carolina, remained obdurate while these changes were going on around +them; finally they had to yield themselves. The last struggle in +Massachusetts took place in the constitutional convention of 1820. There +Webster, in the prime of his manhood, and John Adams, in the closing +years of his old age, alike protested against such radical innovations +as manhood suffrage. Their protests were futile. The property test was +abolished and a small tax-paying qualification was substituted. New York +surrendered the next year and, after trying some minor restrictions for +five years, went completely over to white manhood suffrage in 1826. +Rhode Island clung to her freehold qualification through thirty years of +agitation. Then Dorr's Rebellion, almost culminating in bloodshed, +brought about a reform in 1843 which introduced a slight tax-paying +qualification as an alternative to the freehold. Virginia and North +Carolina were still unconvinced. The former refused to abandon ownership +of land as the test for political rights until 1850 and the latter until +1856. Although religious discriminations and property qualifications for +office holders were sometimes retained after the establishment of +manhood suffrage, they were usually abolished along with the monopoly of +government enjoyed by property owners and taxpayers. + +[Illustration: THOMAS DORR AROUSING HIS FOLLOWERS] + +At the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the white +male industrial workers and the mechanics of the Northern cities, at +least, could lay aside the petition for the ballot and enjoy with the +free farmer a voice in the government of their common country. +"Universal democracy," sighed Carlyle, who was widely read in the United +States, "whatever we may think of it has declared itself the inevitable +fact of the days in which we live; and he who has any chance to instruct +or lead in these days must begin by admitting that ... Where no +government is wanted, save that of the parish constable, as in America +with its boundless soil, every man being able to find work and +recompense for himself, democracy may subsist; not elsewhere." Amid the +grave misgivings of the first generation of statesmen, America was +committed to the great adventure, in the populous towns of the East as +well as in the forests and fields of the West. + + +THE NEW DEMOCRACY ENTERS THE ARENA + +The spirit of the new order soon had a pronounced effect on the +machinery of government and the practice of politics. The enfranchised +electors were not long in demanding for themselves a larger share in +administration. + +=The Spoils System and Rotation in Office.=--First of all they wanted +office for themselves, regardless of their fitness. They therefore +extended the system of rewarding party workers with government +positions--a system early established in several states, notably New +York and Pennsylvania. Closely connected with it was the practice of +fixing short terms for officers and making frequent changes in +personnel. "Long continuance in office," explained a champion of this +idea in Pennsylvania in 1837, "unfits a man for the discharge of its +duties, by rendering him arbitrary and aristocratic, and tends to beget, +first life office, and then hereditary office, which leads to the +destruction of free government." The solution offered was the historic +doctrine of "rotation in office." At the same time the principle of +popular election was extended to an increasing number of officials who +had once been appointed either by the governor or the legislature. Even +geologists, veterinarians, surveyors, and other technical officers were +declared elective on the theory that their appointment "smacked of +monarchy." + +=Popular Election of Presidential Electors.=--In a short time the spirit +of democracy, while playing havoc with the old order in state +government, made its way upward into the federal system. The framers of +the Constitution, bewildered by many proposals and unable to agree on +any single plan, had committed the choice of presidential electors to +the discretion of the state legislatures. The legislatures, in turn, +greedy of power, early adopted the practice of choosing the electors +themselves; but they did not enjoy it long undisturbed. Democracy, +thundering at their doors, demanded that they surrender the privilege to +the people. Reluctantly they yielded, sometimes granting popular +election and then withdrawing it. The drift was inevitable, and the +climax came with the advent of Jacksonian democracy. In 1824, Vermont, +New York, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, though some +had experimented with popular election, still left the choice of +electors with the legislature. Eight years later South Carolina alone +held to the old practice. Popular election had become the final word. +The fanciful idea of an electoral college of "good and wise men," +selected without passion or partisanship by state legislatures acting as +deliberative bodies, was exploded for all time; the election of the +nation's chief magistrate was committed to the tempestuous methods of +democracy. + +=The Nominating Convention.=--As the suffrage was widened and the +popular choice of presidential electors extended, there arose a violent +protest against the methods used by the political parties in nominating +candidates. After the retirement of Washington, both the Republicans and +the Federalists found it necessary to agree upon their favorites before +the election, and they adopted a colonial device--the pre-election +caucus. The Federalist members of Congress held a conference and +selected their candidate, and the Republicans followed the example. In +a short time the practice of nominating by a "congressional caucus" +became a recognized institution. The election still remained with the +people; but the power of picking candidates for their approval passed +into the hands of a small body of Senators and Representatives. + +A reaction against this was unavoidable. To friends of "the plain +people," like Andrew Jackson, it was intolerable, all the more so +because the caucus never favored him with the nomination. More +conservative men also found grave objections to it. They pointed out +that, whereas the Constitution intended the President to be an +independent officer, he had now fallen under the control of a caucus of +congressmen. The supremacy of the legislative branch had been obtained +by an extra-legal political device. To such objections were added +practical considerations. In 1824, when personal rivalry had taken the +place of party conflicts, the congressional caucus selected as the +candidate, William H. Crawford, of Georgia, a man of distinction but no +great popularity, passing by such an obvious hero as General Jackson. +The followers of the General were enraged and demanded nothing short of +the death of "King Caucus." Their clamor was effective. Under their +attacks, the caucus came to an ignominious end. + +In place of it there arose in 1831 a new device, the national nominating +convention, composed of delegates elected by party voters for the sole +purpose of nominating candidates. Senators and Representatives were +still prominent in the party councils, but they were swamped by hundreds +of delegates "fresh from the people," as Jackson was wont to say. In +fact, each convention was made up mainly of office holders and office +seekers, and the new institution was soon denounced as vigorously as +King Caucus had been, particularly by statesmen who failed to obtain a +nomination. Still it grew in strength and by 1840 was firmly +established. + +=The End of the Old Generation.=--In the election of 1824, the +representatives of the "aristocracy" made their last successful stand. +Until then the leadership by men of "wealth and talents" had been +undisputed. There had been five Presidents--Washington, John Adams, +Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe--all Eastern men brought up in prosperous +families with the advantages of culture which come from leisure and the +possession of life's refinements. None of them had ever been compelled +to work with his hands for a livelihood. Four of them had been +slaveholders. Jefferson was a philosopher, learned in natural science, a +master of foreign languages, a gentleman of dignity and grace of manner, +notwithstanding his studied simplicity. Madison, it was said, was armed +"with all the culture of his century." Monroe was a graduate of William +and Mary, a gentleman of the old school. Jefferson and his three +successors called themselves Republicans and professed a genuine faith +in the people but they were not "of the people" themselves; they were +not sons of the soil or the workshop. They were all men of "the grand +old order of society" who gave finish and style even to popular +government. + +Monroe was the last of the Presidents belonging to the heroic epoch of +the Revolution. He had served in the war for independence, in the +Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and in official capacity +after the adoption of the Constitution. In short, he was of the age that +had wrought American independence and set the government afloat. With +his passing, leadership went to a new generation; but his successor, +John Quincy Adams, formed a bridge between the old and the new in that +he combined a high degree of culture with democratic sympathies. +Washington had died in 1799, preceded but a few months by Patrick Henry +and followed in four years by Samuel Adams. Hamilton had been killed in +a duel with Burr in 1804. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were yet alive +in 1824 but they were soon to pass from the scene, reconciled at last, +full of years and honors. Madison was in dignified retirement, destined +to live long enough to protest against the doctrine of nullification +proclaimed by South Carolina before death carried him away at the ripe +old age of eighty-five. + +=The Election of John Quincy Adams (1824).=--The campaign of 1824 marked +the end of the "era of good feeling" inaugurated by the collapse of the +Federalist party after the election of 1816. There were four leading +candidates, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and W.H. +Crawford. The result of the election was a division of the electoral +votes into four parts and no one received a majority. Under the +Constitution, therefore, the selection of President passed to the House +of Representatives. Clay, who stood at the bottom of the poll, threw his +weight to Adams and assured his triumph, much to the chagrin of +Jackson's friends. They thought, with a certain justification, that +inasmuch as the hero of New Orleans had received the largest electoral +vote, the House was morally bound to accept the popular judgment and +make him President. Jackson shook hands cordially with Adams on the day +of the inauguration, but never forgave him for being elected. + +While Adams called himself a Republican in politics and often spoke of +"the rule of the people," he was regarded by Jackson's followers as "an +aristocrat." He was not a son of the soil. Neither was he acquainted at +first hand with the labor of farmers and mechanics. He had been educated +at Harvard and in Europe. Like his illustrious father, John Adams, he +was a stern and reserved man, little given to seeking popularity. +Moreover, he was from the East and the frontiersmen of the West regarded +him as a man "born with a silver spoon in his mouth." Jackson's +supporters especially disliked him because they thought their hero +entitled to the presidency. Their anger was deepened when Adams +appointed Clay to the office of Secretary of State; and they set up a +cry that there had been a "deal" by which Clay had helped to elect Adams +to get office for himself. + +Though Adams conducted his administration with great dignity and in a +fine spirit of public service, he was unable to overcome the opposition +which he encountered on his election to office or to win popularity in +the West and South. On the contrary, by advocating government assistance +in building roads and canals and public grants in aid of education, +arts, and sciences, he ran counter to the current which had set in +against appropriations of federal funds for internal improvements. By +signing the Tariff Bill of 1828, soon known as the "Tariff of +Abominations," he made new enemies without adding to his friends in New +York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio where he sorely needed them. Handicapped by +the false charge that he had been a party to a "corrupt bargain" with +Clay to secure his first election; attacked for his advocacy of a high +protective tariff; charged with favoring an "aristocracy of +office-holders" in Washington on account of his refusal to discharge +government clerks by the wholesale, Adams was retired from the White +House after he had served four years. + +=The Triumph of Jackson in 1828.=--Probably no candidate for the +presidency ever had such passionate popular support as Andrew Jackson +had in 1828. He was truly a man of the people. Born of poor parents in +the upland region of South Carolina, schooled in poverty and adversity, +without the advantages of education or the refinements of cultivated +leisure, he seemed the embodiment of the spirit of the new American +democracy. Early in his youth he had gone into the frontier of Tennessee +where he soon won a name as a fearless and intrepid Indian fighter. On +the march and in camp, he endeared himself to his men by sharing their +hardships, sleeping on the ground with them, and eating parched corn +when nothing better could be found for the privates. From local +prominence he sprang into national fame by his exploit at the battle of +New Orleans. His reputation as a military hero was enhanced by the +feeling that he had been a martyr to political treachery in 1824. The +farmers of the West and South claimed him as their own. The mechanics of +the Eastern cities, newly enfranchised, also looked upon him as their +friend. Though his views on the tariff, internal improvements, and other +issues before the country were either vague or unknown, he was readily +elected President. + +The returns of the electoral vote in 1828 revealed the sources of +Jackson's power. In New England, he received but one ballot, from +Maine; he had a majority of the electors in New York and all of them in +Pennsylvania; and he carried every state south of Maryland and beyond +the Appalachians. Adams did not get a single electoral vote in the South +and West. The prophecy of the Hartford convention had been fulfilled. + +[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON] + +When Jackson took the oath of office on March 4, 1829, the government of +the United States entered into a new era. Until this time the +inauguration of a President--even that of Jefferson, the apostle of +simplicity--had brought no rude shock to the course of affairs at the +capital. Hitherto the installation of a President meant that an +old-fashioned gentleman, accompanied by a few servants, had driven to +the White House in his own coach, taken the oath with quiet dignity, +appointed a few new men to the higher posts, continued in office the +long list of regular civil employees, and begun his administration with +respectable decorum. Jackson changed all this. When he was inaugurated, +men and women journeyed hundreds of miles to witness the ceremony. Great +throngs pressed into the White House, "upset the bowls of punch, broke +the glasses, and stood with their muddy boots on the satin-covered +chairs to see the people's President." If Jefferson's inauguration was, +as he called it, the "great revolution," Jackson's inauguration was a +cataclysm. + + +THE NEW DEMOCRACY AT WASHINGTON + +=The Spoils System.=--The staid and respectable society of Washington +was disturbed by this influx of farmers and frontiersmen. To speak of +politics became "bad form" among fashionable women. The clerks and +civil servants of the government who had enjoyed long and secure tenure +of office became alarmed at the clamor of new men for their positions. +Doubtless the major portion of them had opposed the election of Jackson +and looked with feelings akin to contempt upon him and his followers. +With a hunter's instinct, Jackson scented his prey. Determined to have +none but his friends in office, he made a clean sweep, expelling old +employees to make room for men "fresh from the people." This was a new +custom. Other Presidents had discharged a few officers for engaging in +opposition politics. They had been careful in making appointments not to +choose inveterate enemies; but they discharged relatively few men on +account of their political views and partisan activities. + +By wholesale removals and the frank selection of officers on party +grounds--a practice already well intrenched in New York--Jackson +established the "spoils system" at Washington. The famous slogan, "to +the victor belong the spoils of victory," became the avowed principle of +the national government. Statesmen like Calhoun denounced it; poets like +James Russell Lowell ridiculed it; faithful servants of the government +suffered under it; but it held undisturbed sway for half a century +thereafter, each succeeding generation outdoing, if possible, its +predecessor in the use of public office for political purposes. If any +one remarked that training and experience were necessary qualifications +for important public positions, he met Jackson's own profession of +faith: "The duties of any public office are so simple or admit of being +made so simple that any man can in a short time become master of them." + +=The Tariff and Nullification.=--Jackson had not been installed in power +very long before he was compelled to choose between states' rights and +nationalism. The immediate occasion of the trouble was the tariff--a +matter on which Jackson did not have any very decided views. His mind +did not run naturally to abstruse economic questions; and owing to the +divided opinion of the country it was "good politics" to be vague and +ambiguous in the controversy. Especially was this true, because the +tariff issue was threatening to split the country into parties again. + +_The Development of the Policy of "Protection."_--The war of 1812 and +the commercial policies of England which followed it had accentuated the +need for American economic independence. During that conflict, the +United States, cut off from English manufactures as during the +Revolution, built up home industries to meet the unusual call for iron, +steel, cloth, and other military and naval supplies as well as the +demands from ordinary markets. Iron foundries and textile mills sprang +up as in the night; hundreds of business men invested fortunes in +industrial enterprises so essential to the military needs of the +government; and the people at large fell into the habit of buying +American-made goods again. As the London _Times_ tersely observed of the +Americans, "their first war with England made them independent; their +second war made them formidable." + +In recognition of this state of affairs, the tariff of 1816 was +designed: _first_, to prevent England from ruining these "infant +industries" by dumping the accumulated stores of years suddenly upon +American markets; and, _secondly_, to enlarge in the manufacturing +centers the demand for American agricultural produce. It accomplished +the purposes of its framers. It kept in operation the mills and furnaces +so recently built. It multiplied the number of industrial workers and +enhanced the demand for the produce of the soil. It brought about +another very important result. It turned the capital and enterprise of +New England from shipping to manufacturing, and converted her statesmen, +once friends of low tariffs, into ardent advocates of protection. + +In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Yankees had bent their +energies toward building and operating ships to carry produce from +America to Europe and manufactures from Europe to America. For this +reason, they had opposed the tariff of 1816 calculated to increase +domestic production and cut down the carrying trade. Defeated in their +efforts, they accepted the inevitable and turned to manufacturing. Soon +they were powerful friends of protection for American enterprise. As the +money invested and the labor employed in the favored industries +increased, the demand for continued and heavier protection grew apace. +Even the farmers who furnished raw materials, like wool, flax, and hemp, +began to see eye to eye with the manufacturers. So the textile interests +of New England, the iron masters of Connecticut, New Jersey, and +Pennsylvania, the wool, hemp, and flax growers of Ohio, Kentucky, and +Tennessee, and the sugar planters of Louisiana developed into a +formidable combination in support of a high protective tariff. + +_The Planting States Oppose the Tariff._--In the meantime, the cotton +states on the seaboard had forgotten about the havoc wrought during the +Napoleonic wars when their produce rotted because there were no ships to +carry it to Europe. The seas were now open. The area devoted to cotton +had swiftly expanded as Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana were opened +up. Cotton had in fact become "king" and the planters depended for their +prosperity, as they thought, upon the sale of their staple to English +manufacturers whose spinning and weaving mills were the wonder of the +world. Manufacturing nothing and having to buy nearly everything except +farm produce and even much of that for slaves, the planters naturally +wanted to purchase manufactures in the cheapest market, England, where +they sold most of their cotton. The tariff, they contended, raised the +price of the goods they had to buy and was thus in fact a tribute laid +on them for the benefit of the Northern mill owners. + +_The Tariff of Abominations._--They were overborne, however, in 1824 and +again in 1828 when Northern manufacturers and Western farmers forced +Congress to make an upward revision of the tariff. The Act of 1828 known +as "the Tariff of Abominations," though slightly modified in 1832, was +"the straw which broke the camel's back." Southern leaders turned in +rage against the whole system. The legislatures of Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama denounced it; a general +convention of delegates held at Augusta issued a protest of defiance +against it; and South Carolina, weary of verbal battles, decided to +prevent its enforcement. + +_South Carolina Nullifies the Tariff._--The legislature of that state, +on October 26, 1832, passed a bill calling for a state convention which +duly assembled in the following month. In no mood for compromise, it +adopted the famous Ordinance of Nullification after a few days' debate. +Every line of this document was clear and firm. The tariff, it opened, +gives "bounties to classes and individuals ... at the expense and to the +injury and oppression of other classes and individuals"; it is a +violation of the Constitution of the United States and therefore null +and void; its enforcement in South Carolina is unlawful; if the federal +government attempts to coerce the state into obeying the law, "the +people of this state will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all +further obligations to maintain or preserve their political connection +with the people of the other states and will forthwith proceed to +organize a separate government and do all other acts and things which +sovereign and independent states may of right do." + +_Southern States Condemn Nullification._--The answer of the country to +this note of defiance, couched in the language used in the Kentucky +resolutions and by the New England Federalists during the war of 1812, +was quick and positive. The legislatures of the Southern states, while +condemning the tariff, repudiated the step which South Carolina had +taken. Georgia responded: "We abhor the doctrine of nullification as +neither a peaceful nor a constitutional remedy." Alabama found it +"unsound in theory and dangerous in practice." North Carolina replied +that it was "revolutionary in character, subversive of the Constitution +of the United States." Mississippi answered: "It is disunion by +force--it is civil war." Virginia spoke more softly, condemning the +tariff and sustaining the principle of the Virginia resolutions but +denying that South Carolina could find in them any sanction for her +proceedings. + +_Jackson Firmly Upholds the Union._--The eyes of the country were turned +upon Andrew Jackson. It was known that he looked with no friendly +feelings upon nullification, for, at a Jefferson dinner in the spring of +1830 while the subject was in the air, he had with laconic firmness +announced a toast: "Our federal union; it must be preserved." When two +years later the open challenge came from South Carolina, he replied that +he would enforce the law, saying with his frontier directness: "If a +single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of +the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hands on +engaged in such conduct upon the first tree that I can reach." He made +ready to keep his word by preparing for the use of military and naval +forces in sustaining the authority of the federal government. Then in a +long and impassioned proclamation to the people of South Carolina he +pointed out the national character of the union, and announced his +solemn resolve to preserve it by all constitutional means. Nullification +he branded as "incompatible with the existence of the union, +contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized +by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was +founded, and destructive of the great objects for which it was formed." + +_A Compromise._--In his messages to Congress, however, Jackson spoke the +language of conciliation. A few days before issuing his proclamation he +suggested that protection should be limited to the articles of domestic +manufacture indispensable to safety in war time, and shortly afterward +he asked for new legislation to aid him in enforcing the laws. With two +propositions before it, one to remove the chief grounds for South +Carolina's resistance and the other to apply force if it was continued, +Congress bent its efforts to avoid a crisis. On February 12, 1833, +Henry Clay laid before the Senate a compromise tariff bill providing for +the gradual reduction of the duties until by 1842 they would reach the +level of the law which Calhoun had supported in 1816. About the same +time the "force bill," designed to give the President ample authority in +executing the law in South Carolina, was taken up. After a short but +acrimonious debate, both measures were passed and signed by President +Jackson on the same day, March 2. Looking upon the reduction of the +tariff as a complete vindication of her policy and an undoubted victory, +South Carolina rescinded her ordinance and enacted another nullifying +the force bill. + +[Illustration: _From an old print._ + +DANIEL WEBSTER] + +_The Webster-Hayne Debate._--Where the actual victory lay in this +quarrel, long the subject of high dispute, need not concern us to-day. +Perhaps the chief result of the whole affair was a clarification of the +issue between the North and the South--a definite statement of the +principles for which men on both sides were years afterward to lay down +their lives. On behalf of nationalism and a perpetual union, the stanch +old Democrat from Tennessee had, in his proclamation on nullification, +spoken a language that admitted of only one meaning. On behalf of +nullification, Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, a skilled lawyer and +courtly orator, had in a great speech delivered in the Senate in +January, 1830, set forth clearly and cogently the doctrine that the +union is a compact among sovereign states from which the parties may +lawfully withdraw. It was this address that called into the arena +Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, who, spreading the mantle +of oblivion over the Hartford convention, delivered a reply to Hayne +that has been reckoned among the powerful orations of all time--a plea +for the supremacy of the Constitution and the national character of the +union. + +=The War on the United States Bank.=--If events forced the issue of +nationalism and nullification upon Jackson, the same could not be said +of his attack on the bank. That institution, once denounced by every +true Jeffersonian, had been reestablished in 1816 under the +administration of Jefferson's disciple, James Madison. It had not been +in operation very long, however, before it aroused bitter opposition, +especially in the South and the West. Its notes drove out of circulation +the paper currency of unsound banks chartered by the states, to the +great anger of local financiers. It was accused of favoritism in making +loans, of conferring special privileges upon politicians in return for +their support at Washington. To all Jackson's followers it was "an +insidious money power." One of them openly denounced it as an +institution designed "to strengthen the arm of wealth and counterpoise +the influence of extended suffrage in the disposition of public +affairs." + +This sentiment President Jackson fully shared. In his first message to +Congress he assailed the bank in vigorous language. He declared that its +constitutionality was in doubt and alleged that it had failed to +establish a sound and uniform currency. If such an institution was +necessary, he continued, it should be a public bank, owned and managed +by the government, not a private concern endowed with special privileges +by it. In his second and third messages, Jackson came back to the +subject, leaving the decision, however, to "an enlightened people and +their representatives." + +Moved by this frank hostility and anxious for the future, the bank +applied to Congress for a renewal of its charter in 1832, four years +before the expiration of its life. Clay, with his eye upon the +presidency and an issue for the campaign, warmly supported the +application. Congress, deeply impressed by his leadership, passed the +bill granting the new charter, and sent the open defiance to Jackson. +His response was an instant veto. The battle was on and it raged with +fury until the close of his second administration, ending in the +destruction of the bank, a disordered currency, and a national panic. + +In his veto message, Jackson attacked the bank as unconstitutional and +even hinted at corruption. He refused to assent to the proposition that +the Supreme Court had settled the question of constitutionality by the +decision in the McCulloch case. "Each public officer," he argued, "who +takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support +it as he understands it, not as it is understood by others." + +Not satisfied with his veto and his declaration against the bank, +Jackson ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to withdraw the government +deposits which formed a large part of the institution's funds. This +action he followed up by an open charge that the bank had used money +shamefully to secure the return of its supporters to Congress. The +Senate, stung by this charge, solemnly resolved that Jackson had +"assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the +Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." + +The effects of the destruction of the bank were widespread. When its +charter expired in 1836, banking was once more committed to the control +of the states. The state legislatures, under a decision rendered by the +Supreme Court after the death of Marshall, began to charter banks under +state ownership and control, with full power to issue paper money--this +in spite of the provision in the Constitution that states shall not +issue bills of credit or make anything but gold and silver coin legal +tender in the payment of debts. Once more the country was flooded by +paper currency of uncertain value. To make matters worse, Jackson +adopted the practice of depositing huge amounts of government funds in +these banks, not forgetting to render favors to those institutions which +supported him in politics--"pet banks," as they were styled at the +time. In 1837, partially, though by no means entirely, as a result of +the abolition of the bank, the country was plunged into one of the most +disastrous panics which it ever experienced. + +=Internal Improvements Checked.=--The bank had presented to Jackson a +very clear problem--one of destruction. Other questions were not so +simple, particularly the subject of federal appropriations in aid of +roads and other internal improvements. Jefferson had strongly favored +government assistance in such matters, but his administration was +followed by a reaction. Both Madison and Monroe vetoed acts of Congress +appropriating public funds for public roads, advancing as their reason +the argument that the Constitution authorized no such laws. Jackson, +puzzled by the clamor on both sides, followed their example without +making the constitutional bar absolute. Congress, he thought, might +lawfully build highways of a national and military value, but he +strongly deprecated attacks by local interests on the federal treasury. + +=The Triumph of the Executive Branch.=--Jackson's reelection in 1832 +served to confirm his opinion that he was the chosen leader of the +people, freed and instructed to ride rough shod over Congress and even +the courts. No President before or since ever entertained in times of +peace such lofty notions of executive prerogative. The entire body of +federal employees he transformed into obedient servants of his wishes, a +sign or a nod from him making and undoing the fortunes of the humble and +the mighty. His lawful cabinet of advisers, filling all of the high +posts in the government, he treated with scant courtesy, preferring +rather to secure his counsel and advice from an unofficial body of +friends and dependents who, owing to their secret methods and back +stairs arrangements, became known as "the kitchen cabinet." Under the +leadership of a silent, astute, and resourceful politician, Amos +Kendall, this informal gathering of the faithful both gave and carried +out decrees and orders, communicating the President's lightest wish or +strictest command to the uttermost part of the country. Resolutely and +in the face of bitter opposition Jackson had removed the deposits from +the United States Bank. When the Senate protested against this arbitrary +conduct, he did not rest until it was forced to expunge the resolution +of condemnation; in time one of his lieutenants with his own hands was +able to tear the censure from the records. When Chief Justice Marshall +issued a decree against Georgia which did not suit him, Jackson, +according to tradition, blurted out that Marshall could go ahead and +enforce his own orders. To the end he pursued his willful way, finally +even choosing his own successor. + + +THE RISE OF THE WHIGS + +=Jackson's Measures Arouse Opposition.=--Measures so decided, policies +so radical, and conduct so high-handed could not fail to arouse against +Jackson a deep and exasperated opposition. The truth is the conduct of +his entire administration profoundly disturbed the business and finances +of the country. It was accompanied by conditions similar to those which +existed under the Articles of Confederation. A paper currency, almost as +unstable and irritating as the worthless notes of revolutionary days, +flooded the country, hindering the easy transaction of business. The use +of federal funds for internal improvements, so vital to the exchange of +commodities which is the very life of industry, was blocked by executive +vetoes. The Supreme Court, which, under Marshall, had held refractory +states to their obligations under the Constitution, was flouted; states' +rights judges, deliberately selected by Jackson for the bench, began to +sap and undermine the rulings of Marshall. The protective tariff, under +which the textile industry of New England, the iron mills of +Pennsylvania, and the wool, flax, and hemp farms of the West had +flourished, had received a severe blow in the compromise of 1833 which +promised a steady reduction of duties. To cap the climax, Jackson's +party, casting aside the old and reputable name of Republican, boldly +chose for its title the term "Democrat," throwing down the gauntlet to +every conservative who doubted the omniscience of the people. All these +things worked together to evoke an opposition that was sharp and +determined. + +[Illustration: AN OLD CARTOON RIDICULING CLAY'S TARIFF AND INTERNAL +IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM] + +=Clay and the National Republicans.=--In this opposition movement, +leadership fell to Henry Clay, a son of Kentucky, rather than to Daniel +Webster of Massachusetts. Like Jackson, Clay was born in a home haunted +by poverty. Left fatherless early and thrown upon his own resources, he +went from Virginia into Kentucky where by sheer force of intellect he +rose to eminence in the profession of law. Without the martial gifts or +the martial spirit of Jackson, he slipped more easily into the social +habits of the East at the same time that he retained his hold on the +affections of the boisterous West. Farmers of Ohio, Indiana, and +Kentucky loved him; financiers of New York and Philadelphia trusted him. +He was thus a leader well fitted to gather the forces of opposition +into union against Jackson. + +Around Clay's standard assembled a motley collection, representing every +species of political opinion, united by one tie only--hatred for "Old +Hickory." Nullifiers and less strenuous advocates of states' rights were +yoked with nationalists of Webster's school; ardent protectionists were +bound together with equally ardent free traders, all fraternizing in one +grand confusion of ideas under the title of "National Republicans." Thus +the ancient and honorable term selected by Jefferson and his party, now +abandoned by Jacksonian Democracy, was adroitly adopted to cover the +supporters of Clay. The platform of the party, however, embraced all the +old Federalist principles: protection for American industry; internal +improvements; respect for the Supreme Court; resistance to executive +tyranny; and denunciation of the spoils system. Though Jackson was +easily victorious in 1832, the popular vote cast for Clay should have +given him some doubts about the faith of "the whole people" in the +wisdom of his "reign." + +=Van Buren and the Panic of 1837.=--Nothing could shake the General's +superb confidence. At the end of his second term he insisted on +selecting his own successor; at a national convention, chosen by party +voters, but packed with his office holders and friends, he nominated +Martin Van Buren of New York. Once more he proved his strength by +carrying the country for the Democrats. With a fine flourish, he +attended the inauguration of Van Buren and then retired, amid the +applause and tears of his devotees, to the Hermitage, his home in +Tennessee. + +Fortunately for him, Jackson escaped the odium of a disastrous panic +which struck the country with terrible force in the following summer. +Among the contributory causes of this crisis, no doubt, were the +destruction of the bank and the issuance of the "specie circular" of +1836 which required the purchasers of public lands to pay for them in +coin, instead of the paper notes of state banks. Whatever the dominating +cause, the ruin was widespread. Bank after bank went under; boom towns +in the West collapsed; Eastern mills shut down; and working people in +the industrial centers, starving from unemployment, begged for relief. +Van Buren braved the storm, offering no measure of reform or assistance +to the distracted people. He did seek security for government funds by +suggesting the removal of deposits from private banks and the +establishment of an independent treasury system, with government +depositaries for public funds, in several leading cities. This plan was +finally accepted by Congress in 1840. + +Had Van Buren been a captivating figure he might have lived down the +discredit of the panic unjustly laid at his door; but he was far from +being a favorite with the populace. Though a man of many talents, he +owed his position to the quiet and adept management of Jackson rather +than to his own personal qualities. The men of the frontier did not care +for him. They suspected that he ate from "gold plate" and they could not +forgive him for being an astute politician from New York. Still the +Democratic party, remembering Jackson's wishes, renominated him +unanimously in 1840 and saw him go down to utter defeat. + +=The Whigs and General Harrison.=--By this time, the National +Republicans, now known as Whigs--a title taken from the party of +opposition to the Crown in England, had learned many lessons. Taking a +leaf out of the Democratic book, they nominated, not Clay of Kentucky, +well known for his views on the bank, the tariff, and internal +improvements, but a military hero, General William Henry Harrison, a man +of uncertain political opinions. Harrison, a son of a Virginia signer of +the Declaration of Independence, sprang into public view by winning a +battle more famous than important, "Tippecanoe"--a brush with the +Indians in Indiana. He added to his laurels by rendering praiseworthy +services during the war of 1812. When days of peace returned he was +rewarded by a grateful people with a seat in Congress. Then he retired +to quiet life in a little village near Cincinnati. Like Jackson he was +held to be a son of the South and the West. Like Jackson he was a +military hero, a lesser light, but still a light. Like Old Hickory he +rode into office on a tide of popular feeling against an Eastern man +accused of being something of an aristocrat. His personal popularity was +sufficient. The Whigs who nominated him shrewdly refused to adopt a +platform or declare their belief in anything. When some Democrat +asserted that Harrison was a backwoodsman whose sole wants were a jug of +hard cider and a log cabin, the Whigs treated the remark not as an +insult but as proof positive that Harrison deserved the votes of Jackson +men. The jug and the cabin they proudly transformed into symbols of the +campaign, and won for their chieftain 234 electoral votes, while Van +Buren got only sixty. + +=Harrison and Tyler.=--The Hero of Tippecanoe was not long to enjoy the +fruits of his victory. The hungry horde of Whig office seekers descended +upon him like wolves upon the fold. If he went out they waylaid him; if +he stayed indoors, he was besieged; not even his bed chamber was spared. +He was none too strong at best and he took a deep cold on the day of his +inauguration. Between driving out Democrats and appeasing Whigs, he fell +mortally ill. Before the end of a month he lay dead at the capitol. + +Harrison's successor, John Tyler, the Vice President, whom the Whigs had +nominated to catch votes in Virginia, was more of a Democrat than +anything else, though he was not partisan enough to please anybody. The +Whigs railed at him because he would not approve the founding of another +United States Bank. The Democrats stormed at him for refusing, until +near the end of his term, to sanction the annexation of Texas, which had +declared its independence of Mexico in 1836. His entire administration, +marked by unseemly wrangling, produced only two measures of importance. +The Whigs, flushed by victory, with the aid of a few protectionist +Democrats, enacted, in 1842, a new tariff law destroying the compromise +which had brought about the truce between the North and the South, in +the days of nullification. The distinguished leader of the Whigs, Daniel +Webster, as Secretary of State, in negotiation with Lord Ashburton +representing Great Britain, settled the long-standing dispute between +the two countries over the Maine boundary. A year after closing this +chapter in American diplomacy, Webster withdrew to private life, leaving +the President to endure alone the buffets of political fortune. + +To the end, the Whigs regarded Tyler as a traitor to their cause; but +the judgment of history is that it was a case of the biter bitten. They +had nominated him for the vice presidency as a man of views acceptable +to Southern Democrats in order to catch their votes, little reckoning +with the chances of his becoming President. Tyler had not deceived them +and, thoroughly soured, he left the White House in 1845 not to appear in +public life again until the days of secession, when he espoused the +Southern confederacy. Jacksonian Democracy, with new leadership, serving +a new cause--slavery--was returned to power under James K. Polk, a +friend of the General from Tennessee. A few grains of sand were to run +through the hour glass before the Whig party was to be broken and +scattered as the Federalists had been more than a generation before. + + +THE INTERACTION OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN OPINION + +=Democracy in England and France.=--During the period of Jacksonian +Democracy, as in all epochs of ferment, there was a close relation +between the thought of the New World and the Old. In England, the +successes of the American experiment were used as arguments in favor of +overthrowing the aristocracy which George III had manipulated with such +effect against America half a century before. In the United States, on +the other hand, conservatives like Chancellor Kent, the stout opponent +of manhood suffrage in New York, cited the riots of the British working +classes as a warning against admitting the same classes to a share in +the government of the United States. Along with the agitation of opinion +went epoch-making events. In 1832, the year of Jackson's second +triumph, the British Parliament passed its first reform bill, which +conferred the ballot--not on workingmen as yet--but on mill owners and +shopkeepers whom the landlords regarded with genuine horror. The initial +step was thus taken in breaking down the privileges of the landed +aristocracy and the rich merchants of England. + +About the same time a popular revolution occurred in France. The Bourbon +family, restored to the throne of France by the allied powers after +their victory over Napoleon in 1815, had embarked upon a policy of +arbitrary government. To use the familiar phrase, they had learned +nothing and forgotten nothing. Charles X, who came to the throne in +1824, set to work with zeal to undo the results of the French +Revolution, to stifle the press, restrict the suffrage, and restore the +clergy and the nobility to their ancient rights. His policy encountered +equally zealous opposition and in 1830 he was overthrown. The popular +party, under the leadership of Lafayette, established, not a republic as +some of the radicals had hoped, but a "liberal" middle-class monarchy +under Louis Philippe. This second French Revolution made a profound +impression on Americans, convincing them that the whole world was moving +toward democracy. The mayor, aldermen, and citizens of New York City +joined in a great parade to celebrate the fall of the Bourbons. Mingled +with cheers for the new order in France were hurrahs for "the people's +own, Andrew Jackson, the Hero of New Orleans and President of the United +States!" + +=European Interest in America.=--To the older and more settled +Europeans, the democratic experiment in America was either a menace or +an inspiration. Conservatives viewed it with anxiety; liberals with +optimism. Far-sighted leaders could see that the tide of democracy was +rising all over the world and could not be stayed. Naturally the country +that had advanced furthest along the new course was the place in which +to find arguments for and against proposals that Europe should make +experiments of the same character. + +=De Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_.=--In addition to the casual +traveler there began to visit the United States the thoughtful observer +bent on finding out what manner of nation this was springing up in the +wilderness. Those who looked with sympathy upon the growing popular +forces of England and France found in the United States, in spite of +many blemishes and defects, a guarantee for the future of the people's +rule in the Old World. One of these, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French +liberal of mildly democratic sympathies, made a journey to this country +in 1831; he described in a very remarkable volume, _Democracy in +America_, the grand experiment as he saw it. On the whole he was +convinced. After examining with a critical eye the life and labor of the +American people, as well as the constitutions of the states and the +nation, he came to the conclusion that democracy with all its faults was +both inevitable and successful. Slavery he thought was a painful +contrast to the other features of American life, and he foresaw what +proved to be the irrepressible conflict over it. He believed that +through blundering the people were destined to learn the highest of all +arts, self-government on a grand scale. The absence of a leisure class, +devoted to no calling or profession, merely enjoying the refinements of +life and adding to its graces--the flaw in American culture that gave +deep distress to many a European leader--de Tocqueville thought a +necessary virtue in the republic. "Amongst a democratic people where +there is no hereditary wealth, every man works to earn a living, or has +worked, or is born of parents who have worked. A notion of labor is +therefore presented to the mind on every side as the necessary, natural, +and honest condition of human existence." It was this notion of a +government in the hands of people who labored that struck the French +publicist as the most significant fact in the modern world. + +=Harriet Martineau's Visit to America.=--This phase of American life +also profoundly impressed the brilliant English writer, Harriet +Martineau. She saw all parts of the country, the homes of the rich and +the log cabins of the frontier; she traveled in stagecoaches, canal +boats, and on horseback; and visited sessions of Congress and auctions +at slave markets. She tried to view the country impartially and the +thing that left the deepest mark on her mind was the solidarity of the +people in one great political body. "However various may be the tribes +of inhabitants in those states, whatever part of the world may have been +their birthplace, or that of their fathers, however broken may be their +language, however servile or noble their employments, however exalted or +despised their state, all are declared to be bound together by equal +political obligations.... In that self-governing country all are held to +have an equal interest in the principles of its institutions and to be +bound in equal duty to watch their workings." Miss Martineau was also +impressed with the passion of Americans for land ownership and +contrasted the United States favorably with England where the tillers of +the soil were either tenants or laborers for wages. + +=Adverse Criticism.=--By no means all observers and writers were +convinced that America was a success. The fastidious traveler, Mrs. +Trollope, who thought the English system of church and state was ideal, +saw in the United States only roughness and ignorance. She lamented the +"total and universal want of manners both in males and females," adding +that while "they appear to have clear heads and active intellects," +there was "no charm, no grace in their conversation." She found +everywhere a lack of reverence for kings, learning, and rank. Other +critics were even more savage. The editor of the _Foreign Quarterly_ +petulantly exclaimed that the United States was "a brigand +confederation." Charles Dickens declared the country to be "so maimed +and lame, so full of sores and ulcers that her best friends turn from +the loathsome creature in disgust." Sydney Smith, editor of the +_Edinburgh Review_, was never tired of trying his caustic wit at the +expense of America. "Their Franklins and Washingtons and all the other +sages and heroes of their revolution were born and bred subjects of the +king of England," he observed in 1820. "During the thirty or forty +years of their independence they have done absolutely nothing for the +sciences, for the arts, for literature, or even for the statesmanlike +studies of politics or political economy.... In the four quarters of the +globe who reads an American book? Or goes to an American play? Or looks +at an American picture or statue?" To put a sharp sting into his taunt +he added, forgetting by whose authority slavery was introduced and +fostered: "Under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is +every sixth man a slave whom his fellow creatures may buy and sell?" + +Some Americans, while resenting the hasty and often superficial +judgments of European writers, winced under their satire and took +thought about certain particulars in the indictments brought against +them. The mass of the people, however, bent on the great experiment, +gave little heed to carping critics who saw the flaws and not the +achievements of our country--critics who were in fact less interested in +America than in preventing the rise and growth of democracy in Europe. + + +=References= + +J.S. Bassett, _Life of Andrew Jackson_. + +J.W. Burgess, _The Middle Period_. + +H. Lodge, _Daniel Webster_. + +W. Macdonald, _Jacksonian Democracy_ (American Nation Series). + +Ostrogorski, _Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties_, Vol. +II. + +C.H. Peck, _The Jacksonian Epoch_. + +C. Schurz, _Henry Clay_. + + +=Questions= + +1. By what devices was democracy limited in the first days of our +Republic? + +2. On what grounds were the limitations defended? Attacked? + +3. Outline the rise of political democracy in the United States. + +4. Describe three important changes in our political system. + +5. Contrast the Presidents of the old and the new generations. + +6. Account for the unpopularity of John Adams' administration. + +7. What had been the career of Andrew Jackson before 1829? + +8. Sketch the history of the protective tariff and explain the theory +underlying it. + +9. Explain the growth of Southern opposition to the tariff. + +10. Relate the leading events connected with nullification in South +Carolina. + +11. State Jackson's views and tell the outcome of the controversy. + +12. Why was Jackson opposed to the bank? How did he finally destroy it? + +13. The Whigs complained of Jackson's "executive tyranny." What did they +mean? + +14. Give some of the leading events in Clay's career. + +15. How do you account for the triumph of Harrison in 1840? + +16. Why was Europe especially interested in America at this period? Who +were some of the European writers on American affairs? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Jackson's Criticisms of the Bank.=--Macdonald, _Documentary Source +Book_, pp. 320-329. + +=Financial Aspects of the Bank Controversy.=--Dewey, _Financial History +of the United States_, Sections 86-87; Elson, _History of the United +States_, pp. 492-496. + +=Jackson's View of the Union.=--See his proclamation on nullification in +Macdonald, pp. 333-340. + +=Nullification.=--McMaster, _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. VI, pp. 153-182; Elson, pp. 487-492. + +=The Webster-Hayne Debate.=--Analyze the arguments. Extensive extracts +are given in Macdonald's larger three-volume work, _Select Documents of +United States History, 1776-1761_, pp. 239-260. + +=The Character of Jackson's Administration.=--Woodrow Wilson, _History +of the American People_, Vol. IV, pp. 1-87; Elson, pp. 498-501. + +=The People in 1830.=--From contemporary writings in Hart, _American +History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 509-530. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Andrew Jackson, J.Q. Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel +Webster, J.C. Calhoun, and W.H. Harrison. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT WEST + + +"We shall not send an emigrant beyond the Mississippi in a hundred +years," exclaimed Livingston, the principal author of the Louisiana +purchase. When he made this astounding declaration, he doubtless had +before his mind's eye the great stretches of unoccupied lands between +the Appalachians and the Mississippi. He also had before him the history +of the English colonies, which told him of the two centuries required to +settle the seaboard region. To practical men, his prophecy did not seem +far wrong; but before the lapse of half that time there appeared beyond +the Mississippi a tier of new states, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico +to the southern boundary of Minnesota, and a new commonwealth on the +Pacific Ocean where American emigrants had raised the Bear flag of +California. + + +THE ADVANCE OF THE MIDDLE BORDER + +=Missouri.=--When the middle of the nineteenth century had been reached, +the Mississippi River, which Daniel Boone, the intrepid hunter, had +crossed during Washington's administration "to escape from civilization" +in Kentucky, had become the waterway for a vast empire. The center of +population of the United States had passed to the Ohio Valley. Missouri, +with its wide reaches of rich lands, low-lying, level, and fertile, well +adapted to hemp raising, had drawn to its borders thousands of planters +from the old Southern states--from Virginia and the Carolinas as well as +from Kentucky and Tennessee. When the great compromise of 1820-21 +admitted her to the union, wearing "every jewel of sovereignty," as a +florid orator announced, migratory slave owners were assured that their +property would be safe in Missouri. Along the western shore of the +Mississippi and on both banks of the Missouri to the uttermost limits of +the state, plantations tilled by bondmen spread out in broad expanses. +In the neighborhood of Jefferson City the slaves numbered more than a +fourth of the population. + +Into this stream of migration from the planting South flowed another +current of land-tilling farmers; some from Kentucky, Tennessee, and +Mississippi, driven out by the onrush of the planters buying and +consolidating small farms into vast estates; and still more from the +East and the Old World. To the northwest over against Iowa and to the +southwest against Arkansas, these yeomen laid out farms to be tilled by +their own labor. In those regions the number of slaves seldom rose above +five or six per cent of the population. The old French post, St. Louis, +enriched by the fur trade of the Far West and the steamboat traffic of +the river, grew into a thriving commercial city, including among its +seventy-five thousand inhabitants in 1850 nearly forty thousand +foreigners, German immigrants from Pennsylvania and Europe being the +largest single element. + +=Arkansas.=--Below Missouri lay the territory of Arkansas, which had +long been the paradise of the swarthy hunter and the restless +frontiersman fleeing from the advancing borders of farm and town. In +search of the life, wild and free, where the rifle supplied the game and +a few acres of ground the corn and potatoes, they had filtered into the +territory in an unending drift, "squatting" on the land. Without so much +as asking the leave of any government, territorial or national, they +claimed as their own the soil on which they first planted their feet. +Like the Cherokee Indians, whom they had as neighbors, whose very +customs and dress they sometimes adopted, the squatters spent their days +in the midst of rough plenty, beset by chills, fevers, and the ills of +the flesh, but for many years unvexed by political troubles or the +restrictions of civilized life. + +Unfortunately for them, however, the fertile valleys of the Mississippi +and Arkansas were well adapted to the cultivation of cotton and tobacco +and their sylvan peace was soon broken by an invasion of planters. The +newcomers, with their servile workers, spread upward in the valley +toward Missouri and along the southern border westward to the Red River. +In time the slaves in the tier of counties against Louisiana ranged from +thirty to seventy per cent of the population. This marked the doom of +the small farmer, swept Arkansas into the main current of planting +politics, and led to a powerful lobby at Washington in favor of +admission to the union, a boon granted in 1836. + +=Michigan.=--In accordance with a well-established custom, a free state +was admitted to the union to balance a slave state. In 1833, the people +of Michigan, a territory ten times the size of Connecticut, announced +that the time had come for them to enjoy the privileges of a +commonwealth. All along the southern border the land had been occupied +largely by pioneers from New England, who built prim farmhouses and +adopted the town-meeting plan of self-government after the fashion of +the old home. The famous post of Detroit was growing into a flourishing +city as the boats plying on the Great Lakes carried travelers, settlers, +and freight through the narrows. In all, according to the census, there +were more than ninety thousand inhabitants in the territory; so it was +not without warrant that they clamored for statehood. Congress, busy as +ever with politics, delayed; and the inhabitants of Michigan, unable to +restrain their impatience, called a convention, drew up a constitution, +and started a lively quarrel with Ohio over the southern boundary. The +hand of Congress was now forced. Objections were made to the new +constitution on the ground that it gave the ballot to all free white +males, including aliens not yet naturalized; but the protests were +overborne in a long debate. The boundary was fixed, and Michigan, though +shorn of some of the land she claimed, came into the union in 1837. + +=Wisconsin.=--Across Lake Michigan to the west lay the territory of +Wisconsin, which shared with Michigan the interesting history of the +Northwest, running back into the heroic days when French hunters and +missionaries were planning a French empire for the great monarch, Louis +XIV. It will not be forgotten that the French rangers of the woods, the +black-robed priests, prepared for sacrifice, even to death, the trappers +of the French agencies, and the French explorers--Marquette, Joliet, and +Menard--were the first white men to paddle their frail barks through the +northern waters. They first blazed their trails into the black forests +and left traces of their work in the names of portages and little +villages. It was from these forests that Red Men in full war paint +journeyed far to fight under the _fleur-de-lis_ of France when the +soldiers of King Louis made their last stand at Quebec and Montreal +against the imperial arms of Britain. It was here that the British flag +was planted in 1761 and that the great Pontiac conspiracy was formed two +years later to overthrow British dominion. + +When, a generation afterward, the Stars and Stripes supplanted the Union +Jack, the French were still almost the only white men in the region. +They were soon joined by hustling Yankee fur traders who did battle +royal against British interlopers. The traders cut their way through +forest trails and laid out the routes through lake and stream and over +portages for the settlers and their families from the states "back +East." It was the forest ranger who discovered the water power later +used to turn the busy mills grinding the grain from the spreading farm +lands. In the wake of the fur hunters, forest men, and farmers came +miners from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri crowding in to exploit the +lead ores of the northwest, some of them bringing slaves to work their +claims. Had it not been for the gold fever of 1849 that drew the +wielders of pick and shovel to the Far West, Wisconsin would early have +taken high rank among the mining regions of the country. + +From a favorable point of vantage on Lake Michigan, the village of +Milwaukee, a center for lumber and grain transport and a place of entry +for Eastern goods, grew into a thriving city. It claimed twenty thousand +inhabitants, when in 1848 Congress admitted Wisconsin to the union. +Already the Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians had found their way into +the territory. They joined Americans from the older states in clearing +forests, building roads, transforming trails into highways, erecting +mills, and connecting streams with canals to make a network of routes +for the traffic that poured to and from the Great Lakes. + +=Iowa and Minnesota.=--To the southwest of Wisconsin beyond the +Mississippi, where the tall grass of the prairies waved like the sea, +farmers from New England, New York, and Ohio had prepared Iowa for +statehood. A tide of immigration that might have flowed into Missouri +went northward; for freemen, unaccustomed to slavery and slave markets, +preferred the open country above the compromise line. With incredible +swiftness, they spread farms westward from the Mississippi. With Yankee +ingenuity they turned to trading on the river, building before 1836 +three prosperous centers of traffic: Dubuque, Davenport, and Burlington. +True to their old traditions, they founded colleges and academies that +religion and learning might be cherished on the frontier as in the +states from which they came. Prepared for self-government, the Iowans +laid siege to the door of Congress and were admitted to the union in +1846. + +Above Iowa, on the Mississippi, lay the territory of Minnesota--the home +of the Dakotas, the Ojibways, and the Sioux. Like Michigan and +Wisconsin, it had been explored early by the French scouts, and the +first white settlement was the little French village of Mendota. To the +people of the United States, the resources of the country were first +revealed by the historic journey of Zebulon Pike in 1805 and by American +fur traders who were quick to take advantage of the opportunity to ply +their arts of hunting and bartering in fresh fields. In 1839 an +American settlement was planted at Marina on the St. Croix, the outpost +of advancing civilization. Within twenty years, the territory, boasting +a population of 150,000, asked for admission to the union. In 1858 the +plea was granted and Minnesota showed her gratitude three years later by +being first among the states to offer troops to Lincoln in the hour of +peril. + + +ON TO THE PACIFIC--TEXAS AND THE MEXICAN WAR + +=The Uniformity of the Middle West.=--There was a certain monotony about +pioneering in the Northwest and on the middle border. As the long +stretches of land were cleared or prepared for the plow, they were laid +out like checkerboards into squares of forty, eighty, one hundred sixty, +or more acres, each the seat of a homestead. There was a striking +uniformity also about the endless succession of fertile fields spreading +far and wide under the hot summer sun. No majestic mountains relieved +the sweep of the prairie. Few monuments of other races and antiquity +were there to awaken curiosity about the region. No sonorous bells in +old missions rang out the time of day. The chaffering Red Man bartering +blankets and furs for powder and whisky had passed farther on. The +population was made up of plain farmers and their families engaged in +severe and unbroken labor, chopping down trees, draining fever-breeding +swamps, breaking new ground, and planting from year to year the same +rotation of crops. Nearly all the settlers were of native American stock +into whose frugal and industrious lives the later Irish and German +immigrants fitted, on the whole, with little friction. Even the Dutch +oven fell before the cast-iron cooking stove. Happiness and sorrow, +despair and hope were there, but all encompassed by the heavy tedium of +prosaic sameness. + +[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION] + +=A Contrast in the Far West and Southwest.=--As George Rogers Clark and +Daniel Boone had stirred the snug Americans of the seaboard to seek +their fortunes beyond the Appalachians, so now Kit Carson, James Bowie, +Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and John C. Fremont were to lead the way +into a new land, only a part of which was under the American flag. The +setting for this new scene in the westward movement was thrown out in a +wide sweep from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the banks of the +Rio Grande; from the valleys of the Sabine and Red rivers to Montana and +the Pacific slope. In comparison with the middle border, this region +presented such startling diversities that only the eye of faith could +foresee the unifying power of nationalism binding its communities with +the older sections of the country. What contrasts indeed! The blue grass +region of Kentucky or the rich, black soil of Illinois--the painted +desert, the home of the sage brush and the coyote! The level prairies of +Iowa--the mighty Rockies shouldering themselves high against the +horizon! The long bleak winters of Wisconsin--California of endless +summer! The log churches of Indiana or Illinois--the quaint missions of +San Antonio, Tucson, and Santa Barbara! The little state of +Delaware--the empire of Texas, one hundred and twenty times its area! +And scattered about through the Southwest were signs of an ancient +civilization--fragments of four-and five-story dwellings, ruined dams, +aqueducts, and broken canals, which told of once prosperous peoples +who, by art and science, had conquered the aridity of the desert and +lifted themselves in the scale of culture above the savages of the +plain. + +The settlers of this vast empire were to be as diverse in their origins +and habits as those of the colonies on the coast had been. Americans of +English, Irish, and Scotch-Irish descent came as usual from the Eastern +states. To them were added the migratory Germans as well. Now for the +first time came throngs of Scandinavians. Some were to make their homes +on quiet farms as the border advanced against the setting sun. Others +were to be Indian scouts, trappers, fur hunters, miners, cowboys, Texas +planters, keepers of lonely posts on the plain and the desert, stage +drivers, pilots of wagon trains, pony riders, fruit growers, "lumber +jacks," and smelter workers. One common bond united them--a passion for +the self-government accorded to states. As soon as a few thousand +settlers came together in a single territory, there arose a mighty shout +for a position beside the staid commonwealths of the East and the South. +Statehood meant to the pioneers self-government, dignity, and the right +to dispose of land, minerals, and timber in their own way. In the quest +for this local autonomy there arose many a wordy contest in Congress, +each of the political parties lending a helping hand in the admission of +a state when it gave promise of adding new congressmen of the "right +political persuasion," to use the current phrase. + +=Southern Planters and Texas.=--While the farmers of the North found the +broad acres of the Western prairies stretching on before them apparently +in endless expanse, it was far different with the Southern planters. +Ever active in their search for new fields as they exhausted the virgin +soil of the older states, the restless subjects of King Cotton quickly +reached the frontier of Louisiana. There they paused; but only for a +moment. The fertile land of Texas just across the boundary lured them on +and the Mexican republic to which it belonged extended to them a more +than generous welcome. Little realizing the perils lurking in a +"peaceful penetration," the authorities at Mexico City opened wide the +doors and made large grants of land to American contractors, who agreed +to bring a number of families into Texas. The omnipresent Yankee, in the +person of Moses Austin of Connecticut, hearing of this good news in the +Southwest, obtained a grant in 1820 to settle three hundred Americans +near Bexar--a commission finally carried out to the letter by his son +and celebrated in the name given to the present capital of the state of +Texas. Within a decade some twenty thousand Americans had crossed the +border. + +=Mexico Closes the Door.=--The government of Mexico, unaccustomed to +such enterprise and thoroughly frightened by its extent, drew back in +dismay. Its fears were increased as quarrels broke out between the +Americans and the natives in Texas. Fear grew into consternation when +efforts were made by President Jackson to buy the territory for the +United States. Mexico then sought to close the flood gates. It stopped +all American colonization schemes, canceled many of the land grants, put +a tariff on farming implements, and abolished slavery. These barriers +were raised too late. A call for help ran through the western border of +the United States. The sentinels of the frontier answered. Davy +Crockett, the noted frontiersman, bear hunter, and backwoods politician; +James Bowie, the dexterous wielder of the knife that to this day bears +his name; and Sam Houston, warrior and pioneer, rushed to the aid of +their countrymen in Texas. Unacquainted with the niceties of diplomacy, +impatient at the formalities of international law, they soon made it +known that in spite of Mexican sovereignty they would be their own +masters. + +=The Independence of Texas Declared.=--Numbering only about one-fourth +of the population in Texas, they raised the standard of revolt in 1836 +and summoned a convention. Following in the footsteps of their +ancestors, they issued a declaration of independence signed mainly by +Americans from the slave states. Anticipating that the government of +Mexico would not quietly accept their word of defiance as final, they +dispatched a force to repel "the invading army," as General Houston +called the troops advancing under the command of Santa Ana, the Mexican +president. A portion of the Texan soldiers took their stand in the +Alamo, an old Spanish mission in the cottonwood trees in the town of San +Antonio. Instead of obeying the order to blow up the mission and retire, +they held their ground until they were completely surrounded and cut off +from all help. Refusing to surrender, they fought to the bitter end, the +last man falling a victim to the sword. Vengeance was swift. Within +three months General Houston overwhelmed Santa Ana at the San Jacinto, +taking him prisoner of war and putting an end to all hopes for the +restoration of Mexican sovereignty over Texas. + +The Lone Star Republic, with Houston at the head, then sought admission +to the United States. This seemed at first an easy matter. All that was +required to bring it about appeared to be a treaty annexing Texas to the +union. Moreover, President Jackson, at the height of his popularity, had +a warm regard for General Houston and, with his usual sympathy for rough +and ready ways of doing things, approved the transaction. Through an +American representative in Mexico, Jackson had long and anxiously +labored, by means none too nice, to wring from the Mexican republic the +cession of the coveted territory. When the Texans took matters into +their own hands, he was more than pleased; but he could not marshal the +approval of two-thirds of the Senators required for a treaty of +annexation. Cautious as well as impetuous, Jackson did not press the +issue; he went out of office in 1837 with Texas uncertain as to her +future. + +=Northern Opposition to Annexation.=--All through the North the +opposition to annexation was clear and strong. Anti-slavery agitators +could hardly find words savage enough to express their feelings. +"Texas," exclaimed Channing in a letter to Clay, "is but the first step +of aggression. I trust indeed that Providence will beat back and humble +our cupidity and ambition. I now ask whether as a people we are +prepared to seize on a neighboring territory for the end of extending +slavery? I ask whether as a people we can stand forth in the sight of +God, in the sight of nations, and adopt this atrocious policy? Sooner +perish! Sooner be our name blotted out from the record of nations!" +William Lloyd Garrison called for the secession of the Northern states +if Texas was brought into the union with slavery. John Quincy Adams +warned his countrymen that they were treading in the path of the +imperialism that had brought the nations of antiquity to judgment and +destruction. Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President, taking into +account changing public sentiment, blew hot and cold, losing the state +of New York and the election of 1844 by giving a qualified approval of +annexation. In the same campaign, the Democrats boldly demanded the +"Reannexation of Texas," based on claims which the United States once +had to Spanish territory beyond the Sabine River. + +=Annexation.=--The politicians were disposed to walk very warily. Van +Buren, at heart opposed to slavery extension, refused to press the issue +of annexation. Tyler, a pro-slavery Democrat from Virginia, by a strange +fling of fortune carried into office as a nominal Whig, kept his mind +firmly fixed on the idea of reelection and let the troublesome matter +rest until the end of his administration was in sight. He then listened +with favor to the voice of the South. Calhoun stated what seemed to be a +convincing argument: All good Americans have their hearts set on the +Constitution; the admission of Texas is absolutely essential to the +preservation of the union; it will give a balance of power to the South +as against the North growing with incredible swiftness in wealth and +population. Tyler, impressed by the plea, appointed Calhoun to the +office of Secretary of State in 1844, authorizing him to negotiate the +treaty of annexation--a commission at once executed. This scheme was +blocked in the Senate where the necessary two-thirds vote could not be +secured. Balked but not defeated, the advocates of annexation drew up a +joint resolution which required only a majority vote in both houses, +and in February of the next year, just before Tyler gave way to Polk, +they pushed it through Congress. So Texas, amid the groans of Boston and +the hurrahs of Charleston, folded up her flag and came into the union. + +[Illustration: TEXAS AND THE TERRITORY IN DISPUTE] + +=The Mexican War.=--The inevitable war with Mexico, foretold by the +abolitionists and feared by Henry Clay, ensued, the ostensible cause +being a dispute over the boundaries of the new state. The Texans claimed +all the lands down to the Rio Grande. The Mexicans placed the border of +Texas at the Nueces River and a line drawn thence in a northerly +direction. President Polk, accepting the Texan view of the controversy, +ordered General Zachary Taylor to move beyond the Nueces in defense of +American sovereignty. This act of power, deemed by the Mexicans an +invasion of their territory, was followed by an attack on our troops. + +President Polk, not displeased with the turn of events, announced that +American blood had been "spilled on American soil" and that war existed +"by the act of Mexico." Congress, in a burst of patriotic fervor, +brushed aside the protests of those who deplored the conduct of the +government as wanton aggression on a weaker nation and granted money and +supplies to prosecute the war. The few Whigs in the House of +Representatives, who refused to vote in favor of taking up arms, +accepted the inevitable with such good grace as they could command. All +through the South and the West the war was popular. New England +grumbled, but gave loyal, if not enthusiastic, support to a conflict +precipitated by policies not of its own choosing. Only a handful of firm +objectors held out. James Russell Lowell, in his _Biglow Papers_, flung +scorn and sarcasm to the bitter end. + +=The Outcome of the War.=--The foregone conclusion was soon reached. +General Taylor might have delivered the fatal thrust from northern +Mexico if politics had not intervened. Polk, anxious to avoid raising up +another military hero for the Whigs to nominate for President, decided +to divide the honors by sending General Scott to strike a blow at the +capital, Mexico City. The deed was done with speed and pomp and two +heroes were lifted into presidential possibilities. In the Far West a +third candidate was made, John C. Fremont, who, in cooeperation with +Commodores Sloat and Stockton and General Kearney, planted the Stars and +Stripes on the Pacific slope. + +In February, 1848, the Mexicans came to terms, ceding to the victor +California, Arizona, New Mexico, and more--a domain greater in extent +than the combined areas of France and Germany. As a salve to the wound, +the vanquished received fifteen million dollars in cash and the +cancellation of many claims held by American citizens. Five years later, +through the negotiations of James Gadsden, a further cession of lands +along the southern border of Arizona and New Mexico was secured on +payment of ten million dollars. + +=General Taylor Elected President.=--The ink was hardly dry upon the +treaty that closed the war before "rough and ready" General Taylor, a +slave owner from Louisiana, "a Whig," as he said, "but not an ultra +Whig," was put forward as the Whig candidate for President. He himself +had not voted for years and he was fairly innocent in matters political. +The tariff, the currency, and internal improvements, with a magnificent +gesture he referred to the people's representatives in Congress, +offering to enforce the laws as made, if elected. Clay's followers +mourned. Polk stormed but could not win even a renomination at the hands +of the Democrats. So it came about that the hero of Buena Vista, +celebrated for his laconic order, "Give 'em a little more grape, Captain +Bragg," became President of the United States. + + +THE PACIFIC COAST AND UTAH + +=Oregon.=--Closely associated in the popular mind with the contest about +the affairs of Texas was a dispute with Great Britain over the +possession of territory in Oregon. In their presidential campaign of +1844, the Democrats had coupled with the slogan, "The Reannexation of +Texas," two other cries, "The Reoccupation of Oregon," and "Fifty-four +Forty or Fight." The last two slogans were founded on American +discoveries and explorations in the Far Northwest. Their appearance in +politics showed that the distant Oregon country, larger in area than New +England, New York, and Pennsylvania combined, was at last receiving from +the nation the attention which its importance warranted. + +_Joint Occupation and Settlement._--Both England and the United States +had long laid claim to Oregon and in 1818 they had agreed to occupy the +territory jointly--a contract which was renewed ten years later for an +indefinite period. Under this plan, citizens of both countries were free +to hunt and settle anywhere in the region. The vanguard of British fur +traders and Canadian priests was enlarged by many new recruits, with +Americans not far behind them. John Jacob Astor, the resourceful New +York merchant, sent out trappers and hunters who established a trading +post at Astoria in 1811. Some twenty years later, American +missionaries--among them two very remarkable men, Jason Lee and Marcus +Whitman--were preaching the gospel to the Indians. + +Through news from the fur traders and missionaries, Eastern farmers +heard of the fertile lands awaiting their plows on the Pacific slope; +those with the pioneering spirit made ready to take possession of the +new country. In 1839 a band went around by Cape Horn. Four years later a +great expedition went overland. The way once broken, others followed +rapidly. As soon as a few settlements were well established, the +pioneers held a mass meeting and agreed upon a plan of government. "We, +the people of Oregon territory," runs the preamble to their compact, +"for the purposes of mutual protection and to secure peace and +prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and +regulations until such time as the United States of America extend their +jurisdiction over us." Thus self-government made its way across the +Rocky Mountains. + +[Illustration: THE OREGON COUNTRY AND THE DISPUTED BOUNDARY] + +_The Boundary Dispute with England Adjusted._--By this time it was +evident that the boundaries of Oregon must be fixed. Having made the +question an issue in his campaign, Polk, after his election in 1844, +pressed it upon the attention of the country. In his inaugural address +and his first message to Congress he reiterated the claim of the +Democratic platform that "our title to the whole territory of Oregon is +clear and unquestionable." This pretension Great Britain firmly +rejected, leaving the President a choice between war and compromise. + +Polk, already having the contest with Mexico on his hands, sought and +obtained a compromise. The British government, moved by a hint from the +American minister, offered a settlement which would fix the boundary at +the forty-ninth parallel instead of "fifty-four forty," and give it +Vancouver Island. Polk speedily chose this way out of the dilemma. +Instead of making the decision himself, however, and drawing up a +treaty, he turned to the Senate for "counsel." As prearranged with party +leaders, the advice was favorable to the plan. The treaty, duly drawn in +1846, was ratified by the Senate after an acrimonious debate. "Oh! +mountain that was delivered of a mouse," exclaimed Senator Benton, "thy +name shall be fifty-four forty!" Thirteen years later, the southern part +of the territory was admitted to the union as the state of Oregon, +leaving the northern and eastern sections in the status of a territory. + +=California.=--With the growth of the northwestern empire, dedicated by +nature to freedom, the planting interests might have been content, had +fortune not wrested from them the fair country of California. Upon this +huge territory they had set their hearts. The mild climate and fertile +soil seemed well suited to slavery and the planters expected to extend +their sway to the entire domain. California was a state of more than +155,000 square miles--about seventy times the size of the state of +Delaware. It could readily be divided into five or six large states, if +that became necessary to preserve the Southern balance of power. + +_Early American Relations with California._--Time and tide, it seems, +were not on the side of the planters. Already Americans of a far +different type were invading the Pacific slope. Long before Polk ever +dreamed of California, the Yankee with his cargo of notions had been +around the Horn. Daring skippers had sailed out of New England harbors +with a variety of goods, bent their course around South America to +California, on to China and around the world, trading as they went and +leaving pots, pans, woolen cloth, guns, boots, shoes, salt fish, naval +stores, and rum in their wake. "Home from Californy!" rang the cry in +many a New England port as a good captain let go his anchor on his +return from the long trading voyage in the Pacific. + +[Illustration: THE OVERLAND TRAILS] + +_The Overland Trails._--Not to be outdone by the mariners of the deep, +western scouts searched for overland routes to the Pacific. Zebulon +Pike, explorer and pathfinder, by his expedition into the Southwest +during Jefferson's administration, had discovered the resources of New +Spain and had shown his countrymen how easy it was to reach Santa Fe +from the upper waters of the Arkansas River. Not long afterward, traders +laid open the route, making Franklin, Missouri, and later Fort +Leavenworth the starting point. Along the trail, once surveyed, poured +caravans heavily guarded by armed men against marauding Indians. Sand +storms often wiped out all signs of the route; hunger and thirst did +many a band of wagoners to death; but the lure of the game and the +profits at the end kept the business thriving. Huge stocks of cottons, +glass, hardware, and ammunition were drawn almost across the continent +to be exchanged at Santa Fe for furs, Indian blankets, silver, and +mules; and many a fortune was made out of the traffic. + +_Americans in California._--Why stop at Santa Fe? The question did not +long remain unanswered. In 1829, Ewing Young broke the path to Los +Angeles. Thirteen years later Fremont made the first of his celebrated +expeditions across plain, desert, and mountain, arousing the interest of +the entire country in the Far West. In the wake of the pathfinders went +adventurers, settlers, and artisans. By 1847, more than one-fifth of the +inhabitants in the little post of two thousand on San Francisco Bay were +from the United States. The Mexican War, therefore, was not the +beginning but the end of the American conquest of California--a conquest +initiated by Americans who went to till the soil, to trade, or to follow +some mechanical pursuit. + +_The Discovery of Gold._--As if to clinch the hold on California already +secured by the friends of free soil, there came in 1848 the sudden +discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in the Sacramento Valley. When this +exciting news reached the East, a mighty rush began to California, over +the trails, across the Isthmus of Panama, and around Cape Horn. Before +two years had passed, it is estimated that a hundred thousand people, in +search of fortunes, had arrived in California--mechanics, teachers, +doctors, lawyers, farmers, miners, and laborers from the four corners of +the earth. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849] + +_California a Free State._--With this increase in population there +naturally resulted the usual demand for admission to the union. Instead +of waiting for authority from Washington, the Californians held a +convention in 1849 and framed their constitution. With impatience, the +delegates brushed aside the plea that "the balance of power between the +North and South" required the admission of their state as a slave +commonwealth. Without a dissenting voice, they voted in favor of freedom +and boldly made their request for inclusion among the United States. +President Taylor, though a Southern man, advised Congress to admit the +applicant. Robert Toombs of Georgia vowed to God that he preferred +secession. Henry Clay, the great compromiser, came to the rescue and in +1850 California was admitted as a free state. + +=Utah.=--On the long road to California, in the midst of forbidding and +barren wastes, a religious sect, the Mormons, had planted a colony +destined to a stormy career. Founded in 1830 under the leadership of +Joseph Smith of New York, the sect had suffered from many cruel buffets +of fortune. From Ohio they had migrated into Missouri where they were +set upon and beaten. Some of them were murdered by indignant neighbors. +Harried out of Missouri, they went into Illinois only to see their +director and prophet, Smith, first imprisoned by the authorities and +then shot by a mob. Having raised up a cloud of enemies on account of +both their religious faith and their practice of allowing a man to have +more than one wife, they fell in heartily with the suggestion of a new +leader, Brigham Young, that they go into the Far West beyond the plains +of Kansas--into the forlorn desert where the wicked would cease from +troubling and the weary could be at rest, as they read in the Bible. In +1847, Young, with a company of picked men, searched far and wide until +he found a suitable spot overlooking the Salt Lake Valley. Returning to +Illinois, he gathered up his followers, now numbering several thousand, +and in one mighty wagon caravan they all went to their distant haven. + +_Brigham Young and His Economic System._--In Brigham Young the Mormons +had a leader of remarkable power who gave direction to the redemption of +the arid soil, the management of property, and the upbuilding of +industry. He promised them to make the desert blossom as the rose, and +verily he did it. He firmly shaped the enterprise of the colony along +co-operative lines, holding down the speculator and profiteer with one +hand and giving encouragement to the industrious poor with the other. +With the shrewdness befitting a good business man, he knew how to draw +the line between public and private interest. Land was given outright to +each family, but great care was exercised in the distribution so that +none should have great advantage over another. The purchase of supplies +and the sale of produce were carried on through a cooeperative store, the +profits of which went to the common good. Encountering for the first +time in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race the problem of aridity, the +Mormons surmounted the most perplexing obstacles with astounding skill. +They built irrigation works by cooeperative labor and granted water +rights to all families on equitable terms. + +_The Growth of Industries._--Though farming long remained the major +interest of the colony, the Mormons, eager to be self-supporting in +every possible way, bent their efforts also to manufacturing and later +to mining. Their missionaries, who hunted in the highways and byways of +Europe for converts, never failed to stress the economic advantages of +the sect. "We want," proclaimed President Young to all the earth, "a +company of woolen manufacturers to come with machinery and take the wool +from the sheep and convert it into the best clothes. We want a company +of potters; we need them; the clay is ready and the dishes wanted.... We +want some men to start a furnace forthwith; the iron, coal, and molders +are waiting.... We have a printing press and any one who can take good +printing and writing paper to the Valley will be a blessing to +themselves and the church." Roads and bridges were built; millions were +spent in experiments in agriculture and manufacturing; missionaries at a +huge cost were maintained in the East and in Europe; an army was kept +for defense against the Indians; and colonies were planted in the +outlying regions. A historian of Deseret, as the colony was called by +the Mormons, estimated in 1895 that by the labor of their hands the +people had produced nearly half a billion dollars in wealth since the +coming of the vanguard. + +_Polygamy Forbidden._--The hope of the Mormons that they might forever +remain undisturbed by outsiders was soon dashed to earth, for hundreds +of farmers and artisans belonging to other religious sects came to +settle among them. In 1850 the colony was so populous and prosperous +that it was organized into a territory of the United States and brought +under the supervision of the federal government. Protests against +polygamy were raised in the colony and at the seat of authority three +thousand miles away at Washington. The new Republican party in 1856 +proclaimed it "the right and duty of Congress to prohibit in the +Territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." In +due time the Mormons had to give up their marriage practices which were +condemned by the common opinion of all western civilization; but they +kept their religious faith. Monuments to their early enterprise are seen +in the Temple and the Tabernacle, the irrigation works, and the great +wealth of the Church. + + +SUMMARY OF WESTERN DEVELOPMENT AND NATIONAL POLITICS + +While the statesmen of the old generation were solving the problems of +their age, hunters, pioneers, and home seekers were preparing new +problems beyond the Alleghanies. The West was rising in population and +wealth. Between 1783 and 1829, eleven states were added to the original +thirteen. All but two were in the West. Two of them were in the +Louisiana territory beyond the Mississippi. Here the process of +colonization was repeated. Hardy frontier people cut down the forests, +built log cabins, laid out farms, and cut roads through the wilderness. +They began a new civilization just as the immigrants to Virginia or +Massachusetts had done two centuries earlier. + +Like the seaboard colonists before them, they too cherished the spirit +of independence and power. They had not gone far upon their course +before they resented the monopoly of the presidency by the East. In 1829 +they actually sent one of their own cherished leaders, Andrew Jackson, +to the White House. Again in 1840, in 1844, in 1848, and in 1860, the +Mississippi Valley could boast that one of its sons had been chosen for +the seat of power at Washington. Its democratic temper evoked a cordial +response in the towns of the East where the old aristocracy had been put +aside and artisans had been given the ballot. + +For three decades the West occupied the interest of the nation. Under +Jackson's leadership, it destroyed the second United States Bank. When +he smote nullification in South Carolina, it gave him cordial support. +It approved his policy of parceling out government offices among party +workers--"the spoils system" in all its fullness. On only one point did +it really dissent. The West heartily favored internal improvements, the +appropriation of federal funds for highways, canals, and railways. +Jackson had misgivings on this question and awakened sharp criticism by +vetoing a road improvement bill. + +From their point of vantage on the frontier, the pioneers pressed on +westward. They pushed into Texas, created a state, declared their +independence, demanded a place in the union, and precipitated a war with +Mexico. They crossed the trackless plain and desert, laying out trails +to Santa Fe, to Oregon, and to California. They were upon the scene when +the Mexican War brought California under the Stars and Stripes. They had +laid out their farms in the Willamette Valley when the slogan +"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" forced a settlement of the Oregon boundary. +California and Oregon were already in the union when there arose the +Great Civil War testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived +and so dedicated could long endure. + + +=References= + +G.P. Brown, _Westward Expansion_ (American Nation Series). + +K. Coman, _Economic Beginnings of the Far West_ (2 vols.). + +F. Parkman, _California and the Oregon Trail_. + +R.S. Ripley, _The War with Mexico_. + +W.C. Rives, _The United States and Mexico, 1821-48_ (2 vols.). + + +=Questions= + +1. Give some of the special features in the history of Missouri, +Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. + +2. Contrast the climate and soil of the Middle West and the Far West. + +3. How did Mexico at first encourage American immigration? + +4. What produced the revolution in Texas? Who led in it? + +5. Narrate some of the leading events in the struggle over annexation to +the United States. + +6. What action by President Polk precipitated war? + +7. Give the details of the peace settlement with Mexico. + +8. What is meant by the "joint occupation" of Oregon? + +9. How was the Oregon boundary dispute finally settled? + +10. Compare the American "invasion" of California with the migration +into Texas. + +11. Explain how California became a free state. + +12. Describe the early economic policy of the Mormons. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Independence of Texas.=--McMaster, _History of the People of the +United States_, Vol. VI, pp. 251-270. Woodrow Wilson, _History of the +American People_, Vol. IV, pp. 102-126. + +=The Annexation of Texas.=--McMaster, Vol. VII. The passages on +annexation are scattered through this volume and it is an exercise in +ingenuity to make a connected story of them. Source materials in Hart, +_American History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 637-655; Elson, +_History of the United States_, pp. 516-521, 526-527. + +=The War with Mexico.=--Elson, pp. 526-538. + +=The Oregon Boundary Dispute.=--Schafer, _History of the Pacific +Northwest_ (rev. ed.), pp. 88-104; 173-185. + +=The Migration to Oregon.=--Schafer, pp. 105-172. Coman, _Economic +Beginnings of the Far West_, Vol. II, pp. 113-166. + +=The Santa Fe Trail.=--Coman, _Economic Beginnings_, Vol. II, pp. 75-93. + +=The Conquest of California.=--Coman, Vol. II, pp. 297-319. + +=Gold in California.=--McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 585-614. + +=The Mormon Migration.=--Coman, Vol. II, pp. 167-206. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Fremont, Generals Scott and Taylor, Sam +Houston, and David Crockett. + +=The Romance of Western Exploration.=--J.G. Neihardt, _The Splendid +Wayfaring_. J.G. Neihardt, _The Song of Hugh Glass_. + + + + +PART V. SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM + + +If Jefferson could have lived to see the Stars and Stripes planted on +the Pacific Coast, the broad empire of Texas added to the planting +states, and the valley of the Willamette waving with wheat sown by +farmers from New England, he would have been more than fortified in his +faith that the future of America lay in agriculture. Even a stanch old +Federalist like Gouverneur Morris or Josiah Quincy would have mournfully +conceded both the prophecy and the claim. Manifest destiny never seemed +more clearly written in the stars. + +As the farmers from the Northwest and planters from the Southwest poured +in upon the floor of Congress, the party of Jefferson, christened anew +by Jackson, grew stronger year by year. Opponents there were, no doubt, +disgruntled critics and Whigs by conviction; but in 1852 Franklin +Pierce, the Democratic candidate for President, carried every state in +the union except Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This +victory, a triumph under ordinary circumstances, was all the more +significant in that Pierce was pitted against a hero of the Mexican War, +General Scott, whom the Whigs, hoping to win by rousing the martial +ardor of the voters, had nominated. On looking at the election returns, +the new President calmly assured the planters that "the general +principle of reduction of duties with a view to revenue may now be +regarded as the settled policy of the country." With equal confidence, +he waved aside those agitators who devoted themselves "to the supposed +interests of the relatively few Africans in the United States." Like a +watchman in the night he called to the country: "All's well." + +The party of Hamilton and Clay lay in the dust. + + +THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION + +As pride often goeth before a fall, so sanguine expectation is sometimes +the symbol of defeat. Jackson destroyed the bank. Polk signed the tariff +bill of 1846 striking an effective blow at the principle of protection +for manufactures. Pierce promised to silence the abolitionists. His +successor was to approve a drastic step in the direction of free trade. +Nevertheless all these things left untouched the springs of power that +were in due time to make America the greatest industrial nation on the +earth; namely, vast national resources, business enterprise, inventive +genius, and the free labor supply of Europe. Unseen by the thoughtless, +unrecorded in the diaries of wiseacres, rarely mentioned in the speeches +of statesmen, there was swiftly rising such a tide in the affairs of +America as Jefferson and Hamilton never dreamed of in their little +philosophies. + +=The Inventors.=--Watt and Boulton experimenting with steam in England, +Whitney combining wood and steel into a cotton gin, Fulton and Fitch +applying the steam engine to navigation, Stevens and Peter Cooper trying +out the "iron horse" on "iron highways," Slater building spinning mills +in Pawtucket, Howe attaching the needle to the flying wheel, Morse +spanning a continent with the telegraph, Cyrus Field linking the markets +of the new world with the old along the bed of the Atlantic, McCormick +breaking the sickle under the reaper--these men and a thousand more were +destroying in a mighty revolution of industry the world of the +stagecoach and the tallow candle which Washington and Franklin had +inherited little changed from the age of Caesar. Whitney was to make +cotton king. Watt and Fulton were to make steel and steam masters of the +world. Agriculture was to fall behind in the race for supremacy. + +=Industry Outstrips Planting.=--The story of invention, that tribute to +the triumph of mind over matter, fascinating as a romance, need not be +treated in detail here. The effects of invention on social and political +life, multitudinous and never-ending, form the very warp and woof of +American progress from the days of Andrew Jackson to the latest hour. +Neither the great civil conflict--the clash of two systems--nor the +problems of the modern age can be approached without an understanding of +the striking phases of industrialism. + +[Illustration: A NEW ENGLAND MILL BUILT IN 1793] + +First and foremost among them was the uprush of mills managed by +captains of industry and manned by labor drawn from farms, cities, and +foreign lands. For every planter who cleared a domain in the Southwest +and gathered his army of bondmen about him, there rose in the North a +magician of steam and steel who collected under his roof an army of free +workers. + +In seven league boots this new giant strode ahead of the Southern giant. +Between 1850 and 1859, to use dollars and cents as the measure of +progress, the value of domestic manufactures including mines and +fisheries rose from $1,019,106,616 to $1,900,000,000, an increase of +eighty-six per cent in ten years. In this same period the total +production of naval stores, rice, sugar, tobacco, and cotton, the +staples of the South, went only from $165,000,000, in round figures, to +$204,000,000. At the halfway point of the century, the capital invested +in industry, commerce, and cities far exceeded the value of all the farm +land between the Atlantic and the Pacific; thus the course of economy +had been reversed in fifty years. Tested by figures of production, King +Cotton had shriveled by 1860 to a petty prince in comparison, for each +year the captains of industry turned out goods worth nearly twenty times +all the bales of cotton picked on Southern plantations. Iron, boots and +shoes, and leather goods pouring from Northern mills surpassed in value +the entire cotton output. + +=The Agrarian West Turns to Industry.=--Nor was this vast enterprise +confined to the old Northeast where, as Madison had sagely remarked, +commerce was early dominant. "Cincinnati," runs an official report in +1854, "appears to be a great central depot for ready-made clothing and +its manufacture for the Western markets may be said to be one of the +great trades of that city." There, wrote another traveler, "I heard the +crack of the cattle driver's whip and the hum of the factory: the West +and the East meeting." Louisville and St. Louis were already famous for +their clothing trades and the manufacture of cotton bagging. Five +hundred of the two thousand woolen mills in the country in 1860 were in +the Western states. Of the output of flour and grist mills, which almost +reached in value the cotton crop of 1850, the Ohio Valley furnished a +rapidly growing share. The old home of Jacksonian democracy, where +Federalists had been almost as scarce as monarchists, turned slowly +backward, as the needle to the pole, toward the principle of protection +for domestic industry, espoused by Hamilton and defended by Clay. + +=The Extension of Canals and Railways.=--As necessary to mechanical +industry as steel and steam power was the great market, spread over a +wide and diversified area and knit together by efficient means of +transportation. This service was supplied to industry by the steamship, +which began its career on the Hudson in 1807; by the canals, of which +the Erie opened in 1825 was the most noteworthy; and by the railways, +which came into practical operation about 1830. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +AN EARLY RAILWAY] + +With sure instinct the Eastern manufacturer reached out for the markets +of the Northwest territory where free farmers were producing annually +staggering crops of corn, wheat, bacon, and wool. The two great canal +systems--the Erie connecting New York City with the waterways of the +Great Lakes and the Pennsylvania chain linking Philadelphia with the +headwaters of the Ohio--gradually turned the tide of trade from New +Orleans to the Eastern seaboard. The railways followed the same paths. +By 1860, New York had rail connections with Chicago and St. Louis, one +of the routes running through the Hudson and Mohawk valleys and along +the Great Lakes, the other through Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and +across the rich wheat fields of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Baltimore, +not to be outdone by her two rivals, reached out over the mountains for +the Western trade and in 1857 had trains running into St. Louis. + +In railway enterprise the South took more interest than in canals, and +the friends of that section came to its aid. To offset the magnet +drawing trade away from the Mississippi Valley, lines were built from +the Gulf to Chicago, the Illinois Central part of the project being a +monument to the zeal and industry of a Democrat, better known in +politics than in business, Stephen A. Douglas. The swift movement of +cotton and tobacco to the North or to seaports was of common concern to +planters and manufacturers. Accordingly lines were flung down along the +Southern coast, linking Richmond, Charleston, and Savannah with the +Northern markets. Other lines struck inland from the coast, giving a +rail outlet to the sea for Raleigh, Columbia, Atlanta, Chattanooga, +Nashville, and Montgomery. Nevertheless, in spite of this enterprise, +the mileage of all the Southern states in 1860 did not equal that of +Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois combined. + +=Banking and Finance.=--Out of commerce and manufactures and the +construction and operation of railways came such an accumulation of +capital in the Northern states as merchants of old never imagined. The +banks of the four industrial states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New +York, and Pennsylvania in 1860 had funds greater than the banks in all +the other states combined. New York City had become the money market of +America, the center to which industrial companies, railway promoters, +farmers, and planters turned for capital to initiate and carry on their +operations. The banks of Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and +Virginia, it is true, had capital far in excess of the banks of the +Northwest; but still they were relatively small compared with the +financial institutions of the East. + +=The Growth of the Industrial Population.=--A revolution of such +magnitude in industry, transport, and finance, overturning as it did the +agrarian civilization of the old Northwest and reaching out to the very +borders of the country, could not fail to bring in its train +consequences of a striking character. Some were immediate and obvious. +Others require a fullness of time not yet reached to reveal their +complete significance. Outstanding among them was the growth of an +industrial population, detached from the land, concentrated in cities, +and, to use Jefferson's phrase, dependent upon "the caprices and +casualties of trade" for a livelihood. This was a result, as the great +Virginian had foreseen, which flowed inevitably from public and private +efforts to stimulate industry as against agriculture. + +[Illustration: LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, IN 1838, AN EARLY INDUSTRIAL +TOWN] + +It was estimated in 1860, on the basis of the census figures, that +mechanical production gave employment to 1,100,000 men and 285,000 +women, making, if the average number of dependents upon them be +reckoned, nearly six million people or about one-sixth of the population +of the country sustained from manufactures. "This," runs the official +record, "was exclusive of the number engaged in the production of many +of the raw materials and of the food for manufacturers; in the +distribution of their products, such as merchants, clerks, draymen, +mariners, the employees of railroads, expresses, and steamboats; of +capitalists, various artistic and professional classes, as well as +carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and the members of other mechanical +trades not classed as manufactures. It is safe to assume, then, that +one-third of the whole population is supported, directly, or indirectly, +by manufacturing industry." Taking, however, the number of persons +directly supported by manufactures, namely about six millions, reveals +the astounding fact that the white laboring population, divorced from +the soil, already exceeded the number of slaves on Southern farms and +plantations. + +_Immigration._--The more carefully the rapid growth of the industrial +population is examined, the more surprising is the fact that such an +immense body of free laborers could be found, particularly when it is +recalled to what desperate straits the colonial leaders were put in +securing immigrants,--slavery, indentured servitude, and kidnapping +being the fruits of their necessities. The answer to the enigma is to be +found partly in European conditions and partly in the cheapness of +transportation after the opening of the era of steam navigation. Shrewd +observers of the course of events had long foreseen that a flood of +cheap labor was bound to come when the way was made easy. Some, among +them Chief Justice Ellsworth, went so far as to prophesy that white +labor would in time be so abundant that slavery would disappear as the +more costly of the two labor systems. The processes of nature were aided +by the policies of government in England and Germany. + +_The Coming of the Irish._--The opposition of the Irish people to the +English government, ever furious and irrepressible, was increased in the +mid forties by an almost total failure of the potato crop, the main +support of the peasants. Catholic in religion, they had been compelled +to support a Protestant church. Tillers of the soil by necessity, they +were forced to pay enormous tributes to absentee landlords in England +whose claim to their estates rested upon the title of conquest and +confiscation. Intensely loyal to their race, the Irish were subjected in +all things to the Parliament at London, in which their small minority of +representatives had little influence save in holding a balance of power +between the two contending English parties. To the constant political +irritation, the potato famine added physical distress beyond +description. In cottages and fields and along the highways the victims +of starvation lay dead by the hundreds, the relief which charity +afforded only bringing misery more sharply to the foreground. Those who +were fortunate enough to secure passage money sought escape to America. +In 1844 the total immigration into the United States was less than +eighty thousand; in 1850 it had risen by leaps and bounds to more than +three hundred thousand. Between 1820 and 1860 the immigrants from the +United Kingdom numbered 2,750,000, of whom more than one-half were +Irish. It has been said with a touch of exaggeration that the American +canals and railways of those days were built by the labor of Irishmen. + +_The German Migration._--To political discontent and economic distress, +such as was responsible for the coming of the Irish, may likewise be +traced the source of the Germanic migration. The potato blight that fell +upon Ireland visited the Rhine Valley and Southern Germany at the same +time with results as pitiful, if less extensive. The calamity inflicted +by nature was followed shortly by another inflicted by the despotic +conduct of German kings and princes. In 1848 there had occurred +throughout Europe a popular uprising in behalf of republics and +democratic government. For a time it rode on a full tide of success. +Kings were overthrown, or compelled to promise constitutional +government, and tyrannical ministers fled from their palaces. Then came +reaction. Those who had championed the popular cause were imprisoned, +shot, or driven out of the land. Men of attainments and distinction, +whose sole offense was opposition to the government of kings and +princes, sought an asylum in America, carrying with them to the land of +their adoption the spirit of liberty and democracy. In 1847 over fifty +thousand Germans came to America, the forerunners of a migration that +increased, almost steadily, for many years. The record of 1860 showed +that in the previous twenty years nearly a million and a half had found +homes in the United States. Far and wide they scattered, from the mills +and shops of the seacoast towns to the uttermost frontiers of Wisconsin +and Minnesota. + +_The Labor of Women and Children._--If the industries, canals, and +railways of the country were largely manned by foreign labor, still +important native sources must not be overlooked; above all, the women +and children of the New England textile districts. Spinning and weaving, +by a tradition that runs far beyond the written records of mankind, +belonged to women. Indeed it was the dexterous housewives, spinsters, +and boys and girls that laid the foundations of the textile industry in +America, foundations upon which the mechanical revolution was built. As +the wheel and loom were taken out of the homes to the factories operated +by water power or the steam engine, the women and, to use Hamilton's +phrase, "the children of tender years," followed as a matter of course. +"The cotton manufacture alone employs six thousand persons in Lowell," +wrote a French observer in 1836; "of this number nearly five thousand +are young women from seventeen to twenty-four years of age, the +daughters of farmers from the different New England states." It was not +until after the middle of the century that foreign lands proved to be +the chief source from which workers were recruited for the factories of +New England. It was then that the daughters of the Puritans, outdone by +the competition of foreign labor, both of men and women, left the +spinning jenny and the loom to other hands. + +=The Rise of Organized Labor.=--The changing conditions of American +life, marked by the spreading mill towns of New England, New York, and +Pennsylvania and the growth of cities like Buffalo, Cincinnati, +Louisville, St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago in the West, naturally +brought changes, as Jefferson had prophesied, in "manners and morals." A +few mechanics, smiths, carpenters, and masons, widely scattered through +farming regions and rural villages, raise no such problems as tens of +thousands of workers collected in one center in daily intercourse, +learning the power of cooeperation and union. + +Even before the coming of steam and machinery, in the "good old days" of +handicrafts, laborers in many trades--printers, shoemakers, carpenters, +for example--had begun to draw together in the towns for the advancement +of their interests in the form of higher wages, shorter days, and +milder laws. The shoemakers of Philadelphia, organized in 1794, +conducted a strike in 1799 and held together until indicted seven years +later for conspiracy. During the twenties and thirties, local labor +unions sprang up in all industrial centers and they led almost +immediately to city federations of the several crafts. + +As the thousands who were dependent upon their daily labor for their +livelihood mounted into the millions and industries spread across the +continent, the local unions of craftsmen grew into national craft +organizations bound together by the newspapers, the telegraph, and the +railways. Before 1860 there were several such national trade unions, +including the plumbers, printers, mule spinners, iron molders, and stone +cutters. All over the North labor leaders arose--men unknown to general +history but forceful and resourceful characters who forged links binding +scattered and individual workers into a common brotherhood. An attempt +was even made in 1834 to federate all the crafts into a permanent +national organization; but it perished within three years through lack +of support. Half a century had to elapse before the American Federation +of Labor was to accomplish this task. + +All the manifestations of the modern labor movement had appeared, in +germ at least, by the time the mid-century was reached: unions, labor +leaders, strikes, a labor press, a labor political program, and a labor +political party. In every great city industrial disputes were a common +occurrence. The papers recorded about four hundred in two years, +1853-54, local affairs but forecasting economic struggles in a larger +field. The labor press seems to have begun with the founding of the +_Mechanics' Free Press_ in Philadelphia in 1828 and the establishment of +the New York _Workingman's Advocate_ shortly afterward. These +semi-political papers were in later years followed by regular trade +papers designed to weld together and advance the interests of particular +crafts. Edited by able leaders, these little sheets with limited +circulation wielded an enormous influence in the ranks of the workers. + +=Labor and Politics.=--As for the political program of labor, the main +planks were clear and specific: the abolition of imprisonment for debt, +manhood suffrage in states where property qualifications still +prevailed, free and universal education, laws protecting the safety and +health of workers in mills and factories, abolition of lotteries, repeal +of laws requiring militia service, and free land in the West. + +Into the labor papers and platforms there sometimes crept a note of +hostility to the masters of industry, a sign of bitterness that excited +little alarm while cheap land in the West was open to the discontented. +The Philadelphia workmen, in issuing a call for a local convention, +invited "all those of our fellow citizens who live by their own labor +and none other." In Newcastle county, Delaware, the association of +working people complained in 1830: "The poor have no laws; the laws are +made by the rich and of course for the rich." Here and there an +extremist went to the length of advocating an equal division of wealth +among all the people--the crudest kind of communism. + +Agitation of this character produced in labor circles profound distrust +of both Whigs and Democrats who talked principally about tariffs and +banks; it resulted in attempts to found independent labor parties. In +Philadelphia, Albany, New York City, and New England, labor candidates +were put up for elections in the early thirties and in a few cases were +victorious at the polls. "The balance of power has at length got into +the hands of the working people, where it properly belongs," +triumphantly exclaimed the _Mechanics' Free Press_ of Philadelphia in +1829. But the triumph was illusory. Dissensions appeared in the labor +ranks. The old party leaders, particularly of Tammany Hall, the +Democratic party organization in New York City, offered concessions to +labor in return for votes. Newspapers unsparingly denounced "trade union +politicians" as "demagogues," "levellers," and "rag, tag, and bobtail"; +and some of them, deeming labor unrest the sour fruit of manhood +suffrage, suggested disfranchisement as a remedy. Under the influence +of concessions and attacks the political fever quickly died away, and +the end of the decade left no remnant of the labor political parties. +Labor leaders turned to a task which seemed more substantial and +practical, that of organizing workingmen into craft unions for the +definite purpose of raising wages and reducing hours. + + +THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND NATIONAL POLITICS + +=Southern Plans for Union with the West.=--It was long the design of +Southern statesmen like Calhoun to hold the West and the South together +in one political party. The theory on which they based their hope was +simple. Both sections were agricultural--the producers of raw materials +and the buyers of manufactured goods. The planters were heavy purchasers +of Western bacon, pork, mules, and grain. The Mississippi River and its +tributaries formed the natural channel for the transportation of heavy +produce southward to the plantations and outward to Europe. Therefore, +ran their political reasoning, the interests of the two sections were +one. By standing together in favor of low tariffs, they could buy their +manufactures cheaply in Europe and pay for them in cotton, tobacco, and +grain. The union of the two sections under Jackson's management seemed +perfect. + +=The East Forms Ties with the West.=--Eastern leaders were not blind to +the ambitions of Southern statesmen. On the contrary, they also +recognized the importance of forming strong ties with the agrarian West +and drawing the produce of the Ohio Valley to Philadelphia and New York. +The canals and railways were the physical signs of this economic union, +and the results, commercial and political, were soon evident. By the +middle of the century, Southern economists noted the change, one of +them, De Bow, lamenting that "the great cities of the North have +severally penetrated the interior with artificial lines until they have +taken from the open and untaxed current of the Mississippi the commerce +produced on its borders." To this writer it was an astounding thing to +behold "the number of steamers that now descend the upper Mississippi +River, loaded to the guards with produce, as far as the mouth of the +Illinois River and then turn up that stream with their cargoes to be +shipped to New York _via_ Chicago. The Illinois canal has not only swept +the whole produce along the line of the Illinois River to the East, but +it is drawing the products of the upper Mississippi through the same +channel; thus depriving New Orleans and St. Louis of a rich portion of +their former trade." + +If to any shippers the broad current of the great river sweeping down to +New Orleans offered easier means of physical communication to the sea +than the canals and railways, the difference could be overcome by the +credit which Eastern bankers were able to extend to the grain and +produce buyers, in the first instance, and through them to the farmers +on the soil. The acute Southern observer just quoted, De Bow, admitted +with evident regret, in 1852, that "last autumn, the rich regions of +Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were flooded with the local bank notes of +the Eastern States, advanced by the New York houses on produce to be +shipped by way of the canals in the spring.... These moneyed facilities +enable the packer, miller, and speculator to hold on to their produce +until the opening of navigation in the spring and they are no longer +obliged, as formerly, to hurry off their shipments during the winter by +the way of New Orleans in order to realize funds by drafts on their +shipments. The banking facilities at the East are doing as much to draw +trade from us as the canals and railways which Eastern capital is +constructing." Thus canals, railways, and financial credit were swiftly +forging bonds of union between the old home of Jacksonian Democracy in +the West and the older home of Federalism in the East. The nationalism +to which Webster paid eloquent tribute became more and more real with +the passing of time. The self-sufficiency of the pioneer was broken down +as he began to watch the produce markets of New York and Philadelphia +where the prices of corn and hogs fixed his earnings for the year. + +=The West and Manufactures.=--In addition to the commercial bonds +between the East and the West there was growing up a common interest in +manufactures. As skilled white labor increased in the Ohio Valley, the +industries springing up in the new cities made Western life more like +that of the industrial East than like that of the planting South. +Moreover, the Western states produced some important raw materials for +American factories, which called for protection against foreign +competition, notably, wool, hemp, and flax. As the South had little or +no foreign competition in cotton and tobacco, the East could not offer +protection for her raw materials in exchange for protection for +industries. With the West, however, it became possible to establish +reciprocity in tariffs; that is, for example, to trade a high rate on +wool for a high rate on textiles or iron. + +=The South Dependent on the North.=--While East and West were drawing +together, the distinctions between North and South were becoming more +marked; the latter, having few industries and producing little save raw +materials, was being forced into the position of a dependent section. As +a result of the protective tariff, Southern planters were compelled to +turn more and more to Northern mills for their cloth, shoes, hats, hoes, +plows, and machinery. Nearly all the goods which they bought in Europe +in exchange for their produce came overseas to Northern ports, whence +transshipments were made by rail and water to Southern points of +distribution. Their rice, cotton, and tobacco, in as far as they were +not carried to Europe in British bottoms, were transported by Northern +masters. In these ways, a large part of the financial operations +connected with the sale of Southern produce and the purchase of goods in +exchange passed into the hands of Northern merchants and bankers who, +naturally, made profits from their transactions. Finally, Southern +planters who wanted to buy more land and more slaves on credit borrowed +heavily in the North where huge accumulations made the rates of interest +lower than the smaller banks of the South could afford. + +=The South Reckons the Cost of Economic Dependence.=--As Southern +dependence upon Northern capital became more and more marked, Southern +leaders began to chafe at what they regarded as restraints laid upon +their enterprise. In a word, they came to look upon the planter as a +tribute-bearer to the manufacturer and financier. "The South," +expostulated De Bow, "stands in the attitude of feeding ... a vast +population of [Northern] merchants, shipowners, capitalists, and others +who, without claims on her progeny, drink up the life blood of her +trade.... Where goes the value of our labor but to those who, taking +advantage of our folly, ship for us, buy for us, sell to us, and, after +turning our own capital to their profitable account, return laden with +our money to enjoy their easily earned opulence at home." + +Southern statisticians, not satisfied with generalities, attempted to +figure out how great was this tribute in dollars and cents. They +estimated that the planters annually lent to Northern merchants the full +value of their exports, a hundred millions or more, "to be used in the +manipulation of foreign imports." They calculated that no less than +forty millions all told had been paid to shipowners in profits. They +reckoned that, if the South were to work up her own cotton, she would +realize from seventy to one hundred millions a year that otherwise went +North. Finally, to cap the climax, they regretted that planters spent +some fifteen millions a year pleasure-seeking in the alluring cities and +summer resorts of the North. + +=Southern Opposition to Northern Policies.=--Proceeding from these +premises, Southern leaders drew the logical conclusion that the entire +program of economic measures demanded in the North was without exception +adverse to Southern interests and, by a similar chain of reasoning, +injurious to the corn and wheat producers of the West. Cheap labor +afforded by free immigration, a protective tariff raising prices of +manufactures for the tiller of the soil, ship subsidies increasing the +tonnage of carrying trade in Northern hands, internal improvements +forging new economic bonds between the East and the West, a national +banking system giving strict national control over the currency as a +safeguard against paper inflation--all these devices were regarded in +the South as contrary to the planting interest. They were constantly +compared with the restrictive measures by which Great Britain more than +half a century before had sought to bind American interests. + +As oppression justified a war for independence once, statesmen argued, +so it can justify it again. "It is curious as it is melancholy and +distressing," came a broad hint from South Carolina, "to see how +striking is the analogy between the colonial vassalage to which the +manufacturing states have reduced the planting states and that which +formerly bound the Anglo-American colonies to the British empire.... +England said to her American colonies: 'You shall not trade with the +rest of the world for such manufactures as are produced in the mother +country.' The manufacturing states say to their Southern colonies: 'You +shall not trade with the rest of the world for such manufactures as we +produce.'" The conclusion was inexorable: either the South must control +the national government and its economic measures, or it must declare, +as America had done four score years before, its political and economic +independence. As Northern mills multiplied, as railways spun their +mighty web over the face of the North, and as accumulated capital rose +into the hundreds of millions, the conviction of the planters and their +statesmen deepened into desperation. + +=Efforts to Start Southern Industries Fail.=--A few of them, seeing the +predominance of the North, made determined efforts to introduce +manufactures into the South. To the leaders who were averse to secession +and nullification this seemed the only remedy for the growing disparity +in the power of the two sections. Societies for the encouragement of +mechanical industries were formed, the investment of capital was sought, +and indeed a few mills were built on Southern soil. The results were +meager. The natural resources, coal and water power, were abundant; but +the enterprise for direction and the skilled labor were wanting. The +stream of European immigration flowed North and West, not South. The +Irish or German laborer, even if he finally made his home in a city, had +before him, while in the North, the alternative of a homestead on +Western land. To him slavery was a strange, if not a repelling, +institution. He did not take to it kindly nor care to fix his home where +it flourished. While slavery lasted, the economy of the South was +inevitably agricultural. While agriculture predominated, leadership with +equal necessity fell to the planting interest. While the planting +interest ruled, political opposition to Northern economy was destined to +grow in strength. + +=The Southern Theory of Sectionalism.=--In the opinion of the statesmen +who frankly represented the planting interest, the industrial system was +its deadly enemy. Their entire philosophy of American politics was +summed up in a single paragraph by McDuffie, a spokesman for South +Carolina: "Owing to the federative character of our government, the +great geographical extent of our territory, and the diversity of the +pursuits of our citizens in different parts of the union, it has so +happened that two great interests have sprung up, standing directly +opposed to each other. One of these consists of those manufactures which +the Northern and Middle states are capable of producing but which, owing +to the high price of labor and the high profits of capital in those +states, cannot hold competition with foreign manufactures without the +aid of bounties, directly or indirectly given, either by the general +government or by the state governments. The other of these interests +consists of the great agricultural staples of the Southern states which +can find a market only in foreign countries and which can be +advantageously sold only in exchange for foreign manufactures which come +in competition with those of the Northern and Middle states.... These +interests then stand diametrically and irreconcilably opposed to each +other. The interest, the pecuniary interest of the Northern +manufacturer, is directly promoted by every increase of the taxes +imposed upon Southern commerce; and it is unnecessary to add that the +interest of the Southern planter is promoted by every diminution of +taxes imposed upon the productions of their industry. If, under these +circumstances, the manufacturers were clothed with the power of imposing +taxes, at their pleasure, upon the foreign imports of the planter, no +doubt would exist in the mind of any man that it would have all the +characteristics of an absolute and unqualified despotism." The economic +soundness of this reasoning, a subject of interesting speculation for +the economist, is of little concern to the historian. The historical +point is that this opinion was widely held in the South and with the +progress of time became the prevailing doctrine of the planting +statesmen. + +Their antagonism was deepened because they also became convinced, on +what grounds it is not necessary to inquire, that the leaders of the +industrial interest thus opposed to planting formed a consolidated +"aristocracy of wealth," bent upon the pursuit and attainment of +political power at Washington. "By the aid of various associated +interests," continued McDuffie, "the manufacturing capitalists have +obtained a complete and permanent control over the legislation of +Congress on this subject [the tariff].... Men confederated together upon +selfish and interested principles, whether in pursuit of the offices or +the bounties of the government, are ever more active and vigilant than +the great majority who act from disinterested and patriotic impulses. +Have we not witnessed it on this floor, sir? Who ever knew the tariff +men to divide on any question affecting their confederated interests?... +The watchword is, stick together, right or wrong upon every question +affecting the common cause. Such, sir, is the concert and vigilance and +such the combinations by which the manufacturing party, acting upon the +interests of some and the prejudices of others, have obtained a decided +and permanent control over public opinion in all the tariff states." +Thus, as the Southern statesman would have it, the North, in matters +affecting national policies, was ruled by a "confederated interest" +which menaced the planting interest. As the former grew in magnitude and +attached to itself the free farmers of the West through channels of +trade and credit, it followed as night the day that in time the planters +would be overshadowed and at length overborne in the struggle of giants. +Whether the theory was sound or not, Southern statesmen believed it and +acted upon it. + + +=References= + +M. Beard, _Short History of the American Labor Movement_. + +E.L. Bogart, _Economic History of the United States_. + +J.R. Commons, _History of Labour in the United States_ (2 vols.). + +E.R. Johnson, _American Railway Transportation_. + +C.D. Wright, _Industrial Evolution of the United States_. + + +=Questions= + +1. What signs pointed to a complete Democratic triumph in 1852? + +2. What is the explanation of the extraordinary industrial progress of +America? + +3. Compare the planting system with the factory system. + +4. In what sections did industry flourish before the Civil War? Why? + +5. Show why transportation is so vital to modern industry and +agriculture. + +6. Explain how it was possible to secure so many people to labor in +American industries. + +7. Trace the steps in the rise of organized labor before 1860. + +8. What political and economic reforms did labor demand? + +9. Why did the East and the South seek closer ties with the West? + +10. Describe the economic forces which were drawing the East and the +West together. + +11. In what way was the South economically dependent upon the North? + +12 State the national policies generally favored in the North and +condemned in the South. + +13. Show how economic conditions in the South were unfavorable to +industry. + +14. Give the Southern explanation of the antagonism between the North +and the South. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Inventions.=--Assign one to each student. Satisfactory accounts are +to be found in any good encyclopedia, especially the Britannica. + +=River and Lake Commerce.=--Callender, _Economic History of the United +States_, pp. 313-326. + +=Railways and Canals.=--Callender, pp. 326-344; 359-387. Coman, +_Industrial History of the United States_, pp. 216-225. + +=The Growth of Industry, 1815-1840.=--Callender, pp. 459-471. From 1850 +to 1860, Callender, pp. 471-486. + +=Early Labor Conditions.=--Callender, pp. 701-718. + +=Early Immigration.=--Callender, pp. 719-732. + +=Clay's Home Market Theory of the Tariff.=--Callender, pp. 498-503. + +=The New England View of the Tariff.=--Callender, pp. 503-514. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL POLITICS + + +James Madison, the father of the federal Constitution, after he had +watched for many days the battle royal in the national convention of +1787, exclaimed that the contest was not between the large and the small +states, but between the commercial North and the planting South. From +the inauguration of Washington to the election of Lincoln the sectional +conflict, discerned by this penetrating thinker, exercised a profound +influence on the course of American politics. It was latent during the +"era of good feeling" when the Jeffersonian Republicans adopted +Federalist policies; it flamed up in the contest between the Democrats +and Whigs. Finally it raged in the angry political quarrel which +culminated in the Civil War. + + +SLAVERY--NORTH AND SOUTH + +=The Decline of Slavery in the North.=--At the time of the adoption of +the Constitution, slavery was lawful in all the Northern states except +Massachusetts. There were almost as many bondmen in New York as in +Georgia. New Jersey had more than Delaware or Tennessee, indeed nearly +as many as both combined. All told, however, there were only about forty +thousand in the North as against nearly seven hundred thousand in the +South. Moreover, most of the Northern slaves were domestic servants, not +laborers necessary to keep mills going or fields under cultivation. + +There was, in the North, a steadily growing moral sentiment against the +system. Massachusetts abandoned it in 1780. In the same year, +Pennsylvania provided for gradual emancipation. New Hampshire, where +there had been only a handful, Connecticut with a few thousand +domestics, and New Jersey early followed these examples. New York, in +1799, declared that all children born of slaves after July 4 of that +year should be free, though held for a term as apprentices; and in 1827 +it swept away the last vestiges of slavery. So with the passing of the +generation that had framed the Constitution, chattel servitude +disappeared in the commercial states, leaving behind only such +discriminations as disfranchisement or high property qualifications on +colored voters. + +=The Growth of Northern Sentiment against Slavery.=--In both sections of +the country there early existed, among those more or less +philosophically inclined, a strong opposition to slavery on moral as +well as economic grounds. In the constitutional convention of 1787, +Gouverneur Morris had vigorously condemned it and proposed that the +whole country should bear the cost of abolishing it. About the same time +a society for promoting the abolition of slavery, under the presidency +of Benjamin Franklin, laid before Congress a petition that serious +attention be given to the emancipation of "those unhappy men who alone +in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage." When +Congress, acting on the recommendations of President Jefferson, provided +for the abolition of the foreign slave trade on January 1, 1808, several +Northern members joined with Southern members in condemning the system +as well as the trade. Later, colonization societies were formed to +encourage the emancipation of slaves and their return to Africa. James +Madison was president and Henry Clay vice president of such an +organization. + +The anti-slavery sentiment of which these were the signs was +nevertheless confined to narrow circles and bore no trace of bitterness. +"We consider slavery your calamity, not your crime," wrote a +distinguished Boston clergyman to his Southern brethren, "and we will +share with you the burden of putting an end to it. We will consent that +the public lands shall be appropriated to this object.... I deprecate +everything which sows discord and exasperating sectional animosities." + +=Uncompromising Abolition.=--In a little while the spirit of generosity +was gone. Just as Jacksonian Democracy rose to power there appeared a +new kind of anti-slavery doctrine--the dogmatism of the abolition +agitator. For mild speculation on the evils of the system was +substituted an imperious and belligerent demand for instant +emancipation. If a date must be fixed for its appearance, the year 1831 +may be taken when William Lloyd Garrison founded in Boston his +anti-slavery paper, _The Liberator_. With singleness of purpose and +utter contempt for all opposing opinions and arguments, he pursued his +course of passionate denunciation. He apologized for having ever +"assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition." +He chose for his motto: "Immediate and unconditional emancipation!" He +promised his readers that he would be "harsh as truth and uncompromising +as justice"; that he would not "think or speak or write with +moderation." Then he flung out his defiant call: "I am in earnest--I +will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single +inch--and I will be heard.... + + 'Such is the vow I take, so help me God.'" + +Though Garrison complained that "the apathy of the people is enough to +make every statue leap from its pedestal," he soon learned how alive the +masses were to the meaning of his propaganda. Abolition orators were +stoned in the street and hissed from the platform. Their meeting places +were often attacked and sometimes burned to the ground. Garrison himself +was assaulted in the streets of Boston, finding refuge from the angry +mob behind prison bars. Lovejoy, a publisher in Alton, Illinois, for his +willingness to give abolition a fair hearing, was brutally murdered; his +printing press was broken to pieces as a warning to all those who +disturbed the nation's peace of mind. The South, doubly frightened by a +slave revolt in 1831 which ended in the murder of a number of men, +women, and children, closed all discussion of slavery in that section. +"Now," exclaimed Calhoun, "it is a question which admits of neither +concession nor compromise." + +As the opposition hardened, the anti-slavery agitation gathered in force +and intensity. Whittier blew his blast from the New England hills: + + "No slave-hunt in our borders--no pirate on our strand; + No fetters in the Bay State--no slave upon our land." + +Lowell, looking upon the espousal of a great cause as the noblest aim of +his art, ridiculed and excoriated bondage in the South. Those +abolitionists, not gifted as speakers or writers, signed petitions +against slavery and poured them in upon Congress. The flood of them was +so continuous that the House of Representatives, forgetting its +traditions, adopted in 1836 a "gag rule" which prevented the reading of +appeals and consigned them to the waste basket. Not until the Whigs were +in power nearly ten years later was John Quincy Adams able, after a +relentless campaign, to carry a motion rescinding the rule. + +How deep was the impression made upon the country by this agitation for +immediate and unconditional emancipation cannot be measured. If the +popular vote for those candidates who opposed not slavery, but its +extension to the territories, be taken as a standard, it was slight +indeed. In 1844, the Free Soil candidate, Birney, polled 62,000 votes +out of over a million and a half; the Free Soil vote of the next +campaign went beyond a quarter of a million, but the increase was due to +the strength of the leader, Martin Van Buren; four years afterward it +receded to 156,000, affording all the outward signs for the belief that +the pleas of the abolitionist found no widespread response among the +people. Yet the agitation undoubtedly ran deeper than the ballot box. +Young statesmen of the North, in whose hands the destiny of frightful +years was to lie, found their indifference to slavery broken and their +consciences stirred by the unending appeal and the tireless reiteration. +Charles Sumner afterward boasted that he read the _Liberator_ two years +before Wendell Phillips, the young Boston lawyer who cast aside his +profession to take up the dangerous cause. + +=Early Southern Opposition to Slavery.=--In the South, the sentiment +against slavery was strong; it led some to believe that it would also +come to an end there in due time. Washington disliked it and directed in +his will that his own slaves should be set free after the death of his +wife. Jefferson, looking into the future, condemned the system by which +he also lived, saying: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure +when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of +the people that their liberties are the gift of God? Are they not to be +violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I +reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." Nor +did Southern men confine their sentiments to expressions of academic +opinion. They accepted in 1787 the Ordinance which excluded slavery from +the Northwest territory forever and also the Missouri Compromise, which +shut it out of a vast section of the Louisiana territory. + +=The Revolution in the Slave System.=--Among the representatives of +South Carolina and Georgia, however, the anti-slavery views of +Washington and Jefferson were by no means approved; and the drift of +Southern economy was decidedly in favor of extending and perpetuating, +rather than abolishing, the system of chattel servitude. The invention +of the cotton gin and textile machinery created a market for cotton +which the planters, with all their skill and energy, could hardly +supply. Almost every available acre was brought under cotton culture as +the small farmers were driven steadily from the seaboard into the +uplands or to the Northwest. + +The demand for slaves to till the swiftly expanding fields was enormous. +The number of bondmen rose from 700,000 in Washington's day to more than +three millions in 1850. At the same time slavery itself was transformed. +Instead of the homestead where the same family of masters kept the same +families of slaves from generation to generation, came the plantation +system of the Far South and Southwest where masters were ever moving and +ever extending their holdings of lands and slaves. This in turn reacted +on the older South where the raising of slaves for the market became a +regular and highly profitable business. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +JOHN C. CALHOUN] + +=Slavery Defended as a Positive Good.=--As the abolition agitation +increased and the planting system expanded, apologies for slavery became +fainter and fainter in the South. Then apologies were superseded by +claims that slavery was a beneficial scheme of labor control. Calhoun, +in a famous speech in the Senate in 1837, sounded the new note by +declaring slavery "instead of an evil, a good--a positive good." His +reasoning was as follows: in every civilized society one portion of the +community must live on the labor of another; learning, science, and the +arts are built upon leisure; the African slave, kindly treated by his +master and mistress and looked after in his old age, is better off than +the free laborers of Europe; and under the slave system conflicts +between capital and labor are avoided. The advantages of slavery in this +respect, he concluded, "will become more and more manifest, if left +undisturbed by interference from without, as the country advances in +wealth and numbers." + +=Slave Owners Dominate Politics.=--The new doctrine of Calhoun was +eagerly seized by the planters as they came more and more to overshadow +the small farmers of the South and as they beheld the menace of +abolition growing upon the horizon. It formed, as they viewed matters, a +moral defense for their labor system--sound, logical, invincible. It +warranted them in drawing together for the protection of an institution +so necessary, so inevitable, so beneficent. + +Though in 1850 the slave owners were only about three hundred and fifty +thousand in a national population of nearly twenty million whites, they +had an influence all out of proportion to their numbers. They were knit +together by the bonds of a common interest. They had leisure and wealth. +They could travel and attend conferences and conventions. Throughout the +South and largely in the North, they had the press, the schools, and the +pulpits on their side. They formed, as it were, a mighty union for the +protection and advancement of their common cause. Aided by those +mechanics and farmers of the North who stuck by Jacksonian Democracy +through thick and thin, the planters became a power in the federal +government. "We nominate Presidents," exultantly boasted a Richmond +newspaper; "the North elects them." + +This jubilant Southern claim was conceded by William H. Seward, a +Republican Senator from New York, in a speech describing the power of +slavery in the national government. "A party," he said, "is in one sense +a joint stock association, in which those who contribute most direct the +action and management of the concern.... The slaveholders, contributing +in an overwhelming proportion to the strength of the Democratic party, +necessarily dictate and prescribe its policy." He went on: "The +slaveholding class has become the governing power in each of the +slaveholding states and it practically chooses thirty of the sixty-two +members of the Senate, ninety of the two hundred and thirty-three +members of the House of Representatives, and one hundred and five of the +two hundred and ninety-five electors of President and Vice-President of +the United States." Then he considered the slave power in the Supreme +Court. "That tribunal," he exclaimed, "consists of a chief justice and +eight associate justices. Of these, five were called from slave states +and four from free states. The opinions and bias of each of them were +carefully considered by the President and Senate when he was appointed. +Not one of them was found wanting in soundness of politics, according to +the slaveholder's exposition of the Constitution." Such was the Northern +view of the planting interest that, from the arena of national politics, +challenged the whole country in 1860. + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES] + + +SLAVERY IN NATIONAL POLITICS + +=National Aspects of Slavery.=--It may be asked why it was that slavery, +founded originally on state law and subject to state government, was +drawn into the current of national affairs. The answer is simple. There +were, in the first place, constitutional reasons. The Congress of the +United States had to make all needful rules for the government of the +territories, the District of Columbia, the forts and other property +under national authority; so it was compelled to determine whether +slavery should exist in the places subject to its jurisdiction. Upon +Congress was also conferred the power of admitting new states; whenever +a territory asked for admission, the issue could be raised as to whether +slavery should be sanctioned or excluded. Under the Constitution, +provision was made for the return of runaway slaves; Congress had the +power to enforce this clause by appropriate legislation. Since the +control of the post office was vested in the federal government, it had +to face the problem raised by the transmission of abolition literature +through the mails. Finally citizens had the right of petition; it +inheres in all free government and it is expressly guaranteed by the +first amendment to the Constitution. It was therefore legal for +abolitionists to present to Congress their petitions, even if they asked +for something which it had no right to grant. It was thus impossible, +constitutionally, to draw a cordon around the slavery issue and confine +the discussion of it to state politics. + +There were, in the second place, economic reasons why slavery was +inevitably drawn into the national sphere. It was the basis of the +planting system which had direct commercial relations with the North and +European countries; it was affected by federal laws respecting tariffs, +bounties, ship subsidies, banking, and kindred matters. The planters of +the South, almost without exception, looked upon the protective tariff +as a tribute laid upon them for the benefit of Northern industries. As +heavy borrowers of money in the North, they were generally in favor of +"easy money," if not paper currency, as an aid in the repayment of their +debts. This threw most of them into opposition to the Whig program for a +United States Bank. All financial aids to American shipping they stoutly +resisted, preferring to rely upon the cheaper service rendered by +English shippers. Internal improvements, those substantial ties that +were binding the West to the East and turning the traffic from New +Orleans to Philadelphia and New York, they viewed with alarm. Free +homesteads from the public lands, which tended to overbalance the South +by building free states, became to them a measure dangerous to their +interests. Thus national economic policies, which could not by any twist +or turn be confined to state control, drew the slave system and its +defenders into the political conflict that centered at Washington. + +=Slavery and the Territories--the Missouri Compromise (1820).=--Though +men continually talked about "taking slavery out of politics," it could +not be done. By 1818 slavery had become so entrenched and the +anti-slavery sentiment so strong, that Missouri's quest for admission +brought both houses of Congress into a deadlock that was broken only by +compromise. The South, having half the Senators, could prevent the +admission of Missouri stripped of slavery; and the North, powerful in +the House of Representatives, could keep Missouri with slavery out of +the union indefinitely. An adjustment of pretensions was the last +resort. Maine, separated from the parent state of Massachusetts, was +brought into the union with freedom and Missouri with bondage. At the +same time it was agreed that the remainder of the vast Louisiana +territory north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30' should be, like the old +Northwest, forever free; while the southern portion was left to slavery. +In reality this was an immense gain for liberty. The area dedicated to +free farmers was many times greater than that left to the planters. The +principle was once more asserted that Congress had full power to prevent +slavery in the territories. + +[Illustration: THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE] + +=The Territorial Question Reopened by the Wilmot Proviso.=--To the +Southern leaders, the annexation of Texas and the conquest of Mexico +meant renewed security to the planting interest against the increasing +wealth and population of the North. Texas, it was said, could be divided +into four slave states. The new territories secured by the treaty of +peace with Mexico contained the promise of at least three more. Thus, as +each new free soil state knocked for admission into the union, the +South could demand as the price of its consent a new slave state. No +wonder Southern statesmen saw, in the annexation of Texas and the +conquest of Mexico, slavery and King Cotton triumphant--secure for all +time against adverse legislation. Northern leaders were equally +convinced that the Southern prophecy was true. Abolitionists and +moderate opponents of slavery alike were in despair. Texas, they +lamented, would fasten slavery upon the country forevermore. "No living +man," cried one, "will see the end of slavery in the United States!" + +It so happened, however, that the events which, it was thought, would +secure slavery let loose a storm against it. A sign appeared first on +August 6, 1846, only a few months after war was declared on Mexico. On +that day, David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, introduced into +the House of Representatives a resolution to the effect that, as an +express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory +from the republic of Mexico, slavery should be forever excluded from +every part of it. "The Wilmot Proviso," as the resolution was popularly +called, though defeated on that occasion, was a challenge to the South. + +The South answered the challenge. Speaking in the House of +Representatives, Robert Toombs of Georgia boldly declared: "In the +presence of the living God, if by your legislation you seek to drive us +from the territories of California and New Mexico ... I am for +disunion." South Carolina announced that the day for talk had passed and +the time had come to join her sister states "in resisting the +application of the Wilmot Proviso at any and all hazards." A conference, +assembled at Jackson, Mississippi, in the autumn of 1849, called a +general convention of Southern states to meet at Nashville the following +summer. The avowed purpose was to arrest "the course of aggression" and, +if that was not possible, to provide "in the last resort for their +separate welfare by the formation of a compact and union that will +afford protection to their liberties and rights." States that had +spurned South Carolina's plea for nullification in 1832 responded to +this new appeal with alacrity--an augury of the secession to come. + +[Illustration: _From an old print._ + +HENRY CLAY] + +=The Great Debate of 1850.=--The temper of the country was white hot +when Congress convened in December, 1849. It was a memorable session, +memorable for the great men who took part in the debates and memorable +for the grand Compromise of 1850 which it produced. In the Senate sat +for the last time three heroic figures: Webster from the North, Calhoun +from the South, and Clay from a border state. For nearly forty years +these three had been leaders of men. All had grown old and gray in +service. Calhoun was already broken in health and in a few months was to +be borne from the political arena forever. Clay and Webster had but two +more years in their allotted span. + +Experience, learning, statecraft--all these things they now marshaled in +a mighty effort to solve the slavery problem. On January 29, 1850, Clay +offered to the Senate a compromise granting concessions to both sides; +and a few days later, in a powerful oration, he made a passionate appeal +for a union of hearts through mutual sacrifices. Calhoun relentlessly +demanded the full measure of justice for the South: equal rights in the +territories bought by common blood; the return of runaway slaves as +required by the Constitution; the suppression of the abolitionists; and +the restoration of the balance of power between the North and the South. +Webster, in his notable "Seventh of March speech," condemned the Wilmot +Proviso, advocated a strict enforcement of the fugitive slave law, +denounced the abolitionists, and made a final plea for the Constitution, +union, and liberty. This was the address which called forth from +Whittier the poem, "Ichabod," deploring the fall of the mighty one whom +he thought lost to all sense of faith and honor. + +=The Terms of the Compromise of 1850.=--When the debates were closed, +the results were totaled in a series of compromise measures, all of +which were signed in September, 1850, by the new President, Millard +Fillmore, who had taken office two months before on the death of Zachary +Taylor. By these acts the boundaries of Texas were adjusted and the +territory of New Mexico created, subject to the provision that all or +any part of it might be admitted to the union "with or without slavery +as their constitution may provide at the time of their admission." The +Territory of Utah was similarly organized with the same conditions as to +slavery, thus repudiating the Wilmot Proviso without guaranteeing +slavery to the planters. California was admitted as a free state under a +constitution in which the people of the territory had themselves +prohibited slavery. + +The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, but slavery +itself existed as before at the capital of the nation. This concession +to anti-slavery sentiment was more than offset by a fugitive slave law, +drastic in spirit and in letter. It placed the enforcement of its terms +in the hands of federal officers appointed from Washington and so +removed it from the control of authorities locally elected. It provided +that masters or their agents, on filing claims in due form, might +summarily remove their escaped slaves without affording their "alleged +fugitives" the right of trial by jury, the right to witness, the right +to offer any testimony in evidence. Finally, to "put teeth" into the +act, heavy penalties were prescribed for all who obstructed or assisted +in obstructing the enforcement of the law. Such was the Great Compromise +of 1850. + +[Illustration: AN OLD CARTOON REPRESENTING WEBSTER "STEALING CLAY'S +THUNDER"] + +=The Pro-slavery Triumph in the Election of 1852.=--The results of the +election of 1852 seemed to show conclusively that the nation was weary +of slavery agitation and wanted peace. Both parties, Whigs and +Democrats, endorsed the fugitive slave law and approved the Great +Compromise. The Democrats, with Franklin Pierce as their leader, swept +the country against the war hero, General Winfield Scott, on whom the +Whigs had staked their hopes. Even Webster, broken with grief at his +failure to receive the nomination, advised his friends to vote for +Pierce and turned away from politics to meditate upon approaching death. +The verdict of the voters would seem to indicate that for the time +everybody, save a handful of disgruntled agitators, looked upon Clay's +settlement as the last word. "The people, especially the business men of +the country," says Elson, "were utterly weary of the agitation and they +gave their suffrages to the party that promised them rest." The Free +Soil party, condemning slavery as "a sin against God and a crime against +man," and advocating freedom for the territories, failed to carry a +single state. In fact it polled fewer votes than it had four years +earlier--156,000 as against nearly 3,000,000, the combined vote of the +Whigs and Democrats. It is not surprising, therefore, that President +Pierce, surrounded in his cabinet by strong Southern sympathizers, could +promise to put an end to slavery agitation and to crush the abolition +movement in the bud. + +=Anti-slavery Agitation Continued.=--The promise was more difficult to +fulfill than to utter. In fact, the vigorous execution of one measure +included in the Compromise--the fugitive slave law--only made matters +worse. Designed as security for the planters, it proved a powerful +instrument in their undoing. Slavery five hundred miles away on a +Louisiana plantation was so remote from the North that only the +strongest imagination could maintain a constant rage against it. "Slave +catching," "man hunting" by federal officers on the streets of +Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, or Milwaukee and in the hamlets +and villages of the wide-stretching farm lands of the North was another +matter. It brought the most odious aspects of slavery home to thousands +of men and women who would otherwise have been indifferent to the +system. Law-abiding business men, mechanics, farmers, and women, when +they saw peaceful negroes, who had resided in their neighborhoods +perhaps for years, torn away by federal officers and carried back to +bondage, were transformed into enemies of the law. They helped slaves to +escape; they snatched them away from officers who had captured them; +they broke open jails and carried fugitives off to Canada. + +Assistance to runaway slaves, always more or less common in the North, +was by this time organized into a system. Regular routes, known as +"underground railways," were laid out across the free states into +Canada, and trusted friends of freedom maintained "underground stations" +where fugitives were concealed in the daytime between their long night +journeys. Funds were raised and secret agents sent into the South to +help negroes to flee. One negro woman, Harriet Tubman, "the Moses of her +people," with headquarters at Philadelphia, is accredited with nineteen +invasions into slave territory and the emancipation of three hundred +negroes. Those who worked at this business were in constant peril. One +underground operator, Calvin Fairbank, spent nearly twenty years in +prison for aiding fugitives from justice. Yet perils and prisons did not +stay those determined men and women who, in obedience to their +consciences, set themselves to this lawless work. + +[Illustration: HARRIET BEECHER STOWE] + +From thrilling stories of adventure along the underground railways came +some of the scenes and themes of the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," published two years after the Compromise of 1850. +Her stirring tale set forth the worst features of slavery in vivid word +pictures that caught and held the attention of millions of readers. +Though the book was unfair to the South and was denounced as a hideous +distortion of the truth, it was quickly dramatized and played in every +city and town throughout the North. Topsy, Little Eva, Uncle Tom, the +fleeing slave, Eliza Harris, and the cruel slave driver, Simon Legree, +with his baying blood hounds, became living specters in many a home that +sought to bar the door to the "unpleasant and irritating business of +slavery agitation." + + +THE DRIFT OF EVENTS TOWARD THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT + +=Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.=--To practical men, after all, the +"rub-a-dub" agitation of a few abolitionists, an occasional riot over +fugitive slaves, and the vogue of a popular novel seemed of slight or +transient importance. They could point with satisfaction to the election +returns of 1852; but their very security was founded upon shifting +sands. The magnificent triumph of the pro-slavery Democrats in 1852 +brought a turn in affairs that destroyed the foundations under their +feet. Emboldened by their own strength and the weakness of their +opponents, they now dared to repeal the Missouri Compromise. The leader +in this fateful enterprise was Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from +Illinois, and the occasion for the deed was the demand for the +organization of territorial government in the regions west of Iowa and +Missouri. + +Douglas, like Clay and Webster before him, was consumed by a strong +passion for the presidency, and, to reach his goal, it was necessary to +win the support of the South. This he undoubtedly sought to do when he +introduced on January 4, 1854, a bill organizing the Nebraska territory +on the principle of the Compromise of 1850; namely, that the people in +the territory might themselves decide whether they would have slavery or +not. Unwittingly the avalanche was started. + +After a stormy debate, in which important amendments were forced on +Douglas, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill became a law on May 30, 1854. The +measure created two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and provided that +they, or territories organized out of them, could come into the union as +states "with or without slavery as their constitutions may prescribe at +the time of their admission." Not content with this, the law went on to +declare the Missouri Compromise null and void as being inconsistent with +the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the states +and territories. Thus by a single blow the very heart of the continent, +dedicated to freedom by solemn agreement, was thrown open to slavery. A +desperate struggle between slave owners and the advocates of freedom was +the outcome in Kansas. + +If Douglas fancied that the North would receive the overthrow of the +Missouri Compromise in the same temper that it greeted Clay's +settlement, he was rapidly disillusioned. A blast of rage, terrific in +its fury, swept from Maine to Iowa. Staid old Boston hanged him in +effigy with an inscription--"Stephen A. Douglas, author of the infamous +Nebraska bill: the Benedict Arnold of 1854." City after city burned him +in effigy until, as he himself said, he could travel from the Atlantic +coast to Chicago in the light of the fires. Thousands of Whigs and +Free-soil Democrats deserted their parties which had sanctioned or at +least tolerated the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, declaring that the startling +measure showed an evident resolve on the part of the planters to rule +the whole country. A gage of defiance was thrown down to the +abolitionists. An issue was set even for the moderate and timid who had +been unmoved by the agitation over slavery in the Far South. That issue +was whether slavery was to be confined within its existing boundaries or +be allowed to spread without interference, thereby placing the free +states in the minority and surrendering the federal government wholly to +the slave power. + +=The Rise of the Republican Party.=--Events of terrible significance, +swiftly following, drove the country like a ship before a gale straight +into civil war. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill rent the old parties asunder +and called into being the Republican party. While that bill was pending +in Congress, many Northern Whigs and Democrats had come to the +conclusion that a new party dedicated to freedom in the territories must +follow the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Several places claim to be +the original home of the Republican party; but historians generally +yield it to Wisconsin. At Ripon in that state, a mass meeting of Whigs +and Democrats assembled in February, 1854, and resolved to form a new +party if the Kansas-Nebraska Bill should pass. At a second meeting a +fusion committee representing Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats was +formed and the name Republican--the name of Jefferson's old party--was +selected. All over the country similar meetings were held and political +committees were organized. + +When the presidential campaign of 1856 began the Republicans entered the +contest. After a preliminary conference in Pittsburgh in February, they +held a convention in Philadelphia at which was drawn up a platform +opposing the extension of slavery to the territories. John C. Fremont, +the distinguished explorer, was named for the presidency. The results +of the election were astounding as compared with the Free-soil failure +of the preceding election. Prominent men like Longfellow, Washington +Irving, William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and George William +Curtis went over to the new party and 1,341,264 votes were rolled up for +"free labor, free speech, free men, free Kansas, and Fremont." +Nevertheless the victory of the Democrats was decisive. Their candidate, +James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, was elected by a majority of 174 to 114 +electoral votes. + +[Illustration: SLAVE AND FREE SOIL ON EVE OF CIVIL WAR] + +=The Dred Scott Decision (1857).=--In his inaugural, Buchanan vaguely +hinted that in a forthcoming decision the Supreme Court would settle one +of the vital questions of the day. This was a reference to the Dred +Scott case then pending. Scott was a slave who had been taken by his +master into the upper Louisiana territory, where freedom had been +established by the Missouri Compromise, and then carried back into his +old state of Missouri. He brought suit for his liberty on the ground +that his residence in the free territory made him free. This raised the +question whether the law of Congress prohibiting slavery north of 36 deg. +30' was authorized by the federal Constitution or not. The Court might +have avoided answering it by saying that even though Scott was free in +the territory, he became a slave again in Missouri by virtue of the law +of that state. The Court, however, faced the issue squarely. It held +that Scott had not been free anywhere and that, besides, the Missouri +Compromise violated the Constitution and was null and void. + +The decision was a triumph for the South. It meant that Congress after +all had no power to abolish slavery in the territories. Under the decree +of the highest court in the land, that could be done only by an +amendment to the Constitution which required a two-thirds vote in +Congress and the approval of three-fourths of the states. Such an +amendment was obviously impossible--the Southern states were too +numerous; but the Republicans were not daunted. "We know," said Lincoln, +"the Court that made it has often overruled its own decisions and we +shall do what we can to have it overrule this." Legislatures of Northern +states passed resolutions condemning the decision and the Republican +platform of 1860 characterized the dogma that the Constitution carried +slavery into the territories as "a dangerous political heresy at +variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself ... with +legislative and judicial precedent ... revolutionary in tendency and +subversive of the peace and harmony of the country." + +=The Panic of 1857.=--In the midst of the acrimonious dispute over the +Dred Scott decision, came one of the worst business panics which ever +afflicted the country. In the spring and summer of 1857, fourteen +railroad corporations, including the Erie, Michigan Central, and the +Illinois Central, failed to meet their obligations; banks and insurance +companies, some of them the largest and strongest institutions in the +North, closed their doors; stocks and bonds came down in a crash on the +markets; manufacturing was paralyzed; tens of thousands of working +people were thrown out of employment; "hunger meetings" of idle men were +held in the cities and banners bearing the inscription, "We want +bread," were flung out. In New York, working men threatened to invade +the Council Chamber to demand "work or bread," and the frightened mayor +called for the police and soldiers. For this distressing state of +affairs many remedies were offered; none with more zeal and persistence +than the proposal for a higher tariff to take the place of the law of +March, 1857, a Democratic measure making drastic reductions in the rates +of duty. In the manufacturing districts of the North, the panic was +ascribed to the "Democratic assault on business." So an old issue was +again vigorously advanced, preparatory to the next presidential +campaign. + +=The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.=--The following year the interest of the +whole country was drawn to a series of debates held in Illinois by +Lincoln and Douglas, both candidates for the United States Senate. In +the course of his campaign Lincoln had uttered his trenchant saying that +"a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." At the same time he +had accused Douglas, Buchanan, and the Supreme Court of acting in +concert to make slavery national. This daring statement arrested the +attention of Douglas, who was making his campaign on the doctrine of +"squatter sovereignty;" that is, the right of the people of each +territory "to vote slavery up or down." After a few long-distance shots +at each other, the candidates agreed to meet face to face and discuss +the issues of the day. Never had such crowds been seen at political +meetings in Illinois. Farmers deserted their plows, smiths their forges, +and housewives their baking to hear "Honest Abe" and "the Little Giant." + +The results of the series of debates were momentous. Lincoln clearly +defined his position. The South, he admitted, was entitled under the +Constitution to a fair, fugitive slave law. He hoped that there might be +no new slave states; but he did not see how Congress could exclude the +people of a territory from admission as a state if they saw fit to adopt +a constitution legalizing the ownership of slaves. He favored the +gradual abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and the total +exclusion of it from the territories of the United States by act of +Congress. + +Moreover, he drove Douglas into a hole by asking how he squared +"squatter sovereignty" with the Dred Scott decision; how, in other +words, the people of a territory could abolish slavery when the Court +had declared that Congress, the superior power, could not do it under +the Constitution? To this baffling question Douglas lamely replied that +the inhabitants of a territory, by "unfriendly legislation," might make +property in slaves insecure and thus destroy the institution. This +answer to Lincoln's query alienated many Southern Democrats who believed +that the Dred Scott decision settled the question of slavery in the +territories for all time. Douglas won the election to the Senate; but +Lincoln, lifted into national fame by the debates, beat him in the +campaign for President two years later. + +=John Brown's Raid.=--To the abolitionists the line of argument pursued +by Lincoln, including his proposal to leave slavery untouched in the +states where it existed, was wholly unsatisfactory. One of them, a grim +and resolute man, inflamed by a hatred for slavery in itself, turned +from agitation to violence. "These men are all talk; what is needed is +action--action!" So spoke John Brown of New York. During the sanguinary +struggle in Kansas he hurried to the frontier, gun and dagger in hand, +to help drive slave owners from the free soil of the West. There he +committed deeds of such daring and cruelty that he was outlawed and a +price put upon his head. Still he kept on the path of "action." Aided by +funds from Northern friends, he gathered a small band of his followers +around him, saying to them: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" +He went into Virginia in the autumn of 1859, hoping, as he explained, +"to effect a mighty conquest even though it be like the last victory of +Samson." He seized the government armory at Harper's Ferry, declared +free the slaves whom he found, and called upon them to take up arms in +defense of their liberty. His was a hope as forlorn as it was desperate. +Armed forces came down upon him and, after a hard battle, captured him. +Tried for treason, Brown was condemned to death. The governor of +Virginia turned a deaf ear to pleas for clemency based on the ground +that the prisoner was simply a lunatic. "This is a beautiful country," +said the stern old Brown glancing upward to the eternal hills on his way +to the gallows, as calmly as if he were returning home from a long +journey. "So perish all such enemies of Virginia. All such enemies of +the Union. All such foes of the human race," solemnly announced the +executioner as he fulfilled the judgment of the law. + +The raid and its grim ending deeply moved the country. Abolitionists +looked upon Brown as a martyr and tolled funeral bells on the day of his +execution. Longfellow wrote in his diary: "This will be a great day in +our history; the date of a new revolution as much needed as the old +one." Jefferson Davis saw in the affair "the invasion of a state by a +murderous gang of abolitionists bent on inciting slaves to murder +helpless women and children"--a crime for which the leader had met a +felon's death. Lincoln spoke of the raid as absurd, the deed of an +enthusiast who had brooded over the oppression of a people until he +fancied himself commissioned by heaven to liberate them--an attempt +which ended in "little else than his own execution." To Republican +leaders as a whole, the event was very embarrassing. They were taunted +by the Democrats with responsibility for the deed. Douglas declared his +"firm and deliberate conviction that the Harper's Ferry crime was the +natural, logical, inevitable result of the doctrines and teachings of +the Republican party." So persistent were such attacks that the +Republicans felt called upon in 1860 to denounce Brown's raid "as among +the gravest of crimes." + +=The Democrats Divided.=--When the Democratic convention met at +Charleston in the spring of 1860, a few months after Brown's execution, +it soon became clear that there was danger ahead. Between the extreme +slavery advocates of the Far South and the so-called pro-slavery +Democrats of the Douglas type, there was a chasm which no appeals to +party loyalty could bridge. As the spokesman of the West, Douglas knew +that, while the North was not abolitionist, it was passionately set +against an extension of slavery into the territories by act of Congress; +that squatter sovereignty was the mildest kind of compromise acceptable +to the farmers whose votes would determine the fate of the election. +Southern leaders would not accept his opinion. Yancey, speaking for +Alabama, refused to palter with any plan not built on the proposition +that slavery was in itself right. He taunted the Northern Democrats with +taking the view that slavery was wrong, but that they could not do +anything about it. That, he said, was the fatal error--the cause of all +discord, the source of "Black Republicanism," as well as squatter +sovereignty. The gauntlet was thus thrown down at the feet of the +Northern delegates: "You must not apologize for slavery; you must +declare it right; you must advocate its extension." The challenge, so +bluntly put, was as bluntly answered. "Gentlemen of the South," +responded a delegate from Ohio, "you mistake us. You mistake us. We will +not do it." + +For ten days the Charleston convention wrangled over the platform and +balloted for the nomination of a candidate. Douglas, though in the lead, +could not get the two-thirds vote required for victory. For more than +fifty times the roll of the convention was called without a decision. +Then in sheer desperation the convention adjourned to meet later at +Baltimore. When the delegates again assembled, their passions ran as +high as ever. The division into two irreconcilable factions was +unchanged. Uncompromising delegates from the South withdrew to Richmond, +nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and put forth +a platform asserting the rights of slave owners in the territories and +the duty of the federal government to protect them. The delegates who +remained at Baltimore nominated Douglas and endorsed his doctrine of +squatter sovereignty. + +=The Constitutional Union Party.=--While the Democratic party was being +disrupted, a fragment of the former Whig party, known as the +Constitutional Unionists, held a convention at Baltimore and selected +national candidates: John Bell from Tennessee and Edward Everett from +Massachusetts. A melancholy interest attached to this assembly. It was +mainly composed of old men whose political views were those of Clay and +Webster, cherished leaders now dead and gone. In their platform they +sought to exorcise the evil spirit of partisanship by inviting their +fellow citizens to "support the Constitution of the country, the union +of the states, and the enforcement of the laws." The party that +campaigned on this grand sentiment only drew laughter from the Democrats +and derision from the Republicans and polled less than one-fourth the +votes. + +=The Republican Convention.=--With the Whigs definitely forced into a +separate group, the Republican convention at Chicago was fated to be +sectional in character, although five slave states did send delegates. +As the Democrats were split, the party that had led a forlorn hope four +years before was on the high road to success at last. New and powerful +recruits were found. The advocates of a high protective tariff and the +friends of free homesteads for farmers and workingmen mingled with +enthusiastic foes of slavery. While still firm in their opposition to +slavery in the territories, the Republicans went on record in favor of a +homestead law granting free lands to settlers and approved customs +duties designed "to encourage the development of the industrial +interests of the whole country." The platform was greeted with cheers +which, according to the stenographic report of the convention, became +loud and prolonged as the protective tariff and homestead planks were +read. + +Having skillfully drawn a platform to unite the North in opposition to +slavery and the planting system, the Republicans were also adroit in +their selection of a candidate. The tariff plank might carry +Pennsylvania, a Democratic state; but Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were +equally essential to success at the polls. The southern counties of +these states were filled with settlers from Virginia, North Carolina, +and Kentucky who, even if they had no love for slavery, were no friends +of abolition. Moreover, remembering the old fight on the United States +Bank in Andrew Jackson's day, they were suspicious of men from the East. +Accordingly, they did not favor the candidacy of Seward, the leading +Republican statesman and "favorite son" of New York. + +After much trading and discussing, the convention came to the conclusion +that Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was the most "available" candidate. He +was of Southern origin, born in Kentucky in 1809, a fact that told +heavily in the campaign in the Ohio Valley. He was a man of the soil, +the son of poor frontier parents, a pioneer who in his youth had labored +in the fields and forests, celebrated far and wide as "honest Abe, the +rail-splitter." It was well-known that he disliked slavery, but was no +abolitionist. He had come dangerously near to Seward's radicalism in his +"house-divided-against-itself" speech but he had never committed himself +to the reckless doctrine that there was a "higher law" than the +Constitution. Slavery in the South he tolerated as a bitter fact; +slavery in the territories he opposed with all his strength. Of his +sincerity there could be no doubt. He was a speaker and writer of +singular power, commanding, by the use of simple and homely language, +the hearts and minds of those who heard him speak or read his printed +words. He had gone far enough in his opposition to slavery; but not too +far. He was the man of the hour! Amid lusty cheers from ten thousand +throats, Lincoln was nominated for the presidency by the Republicans. In +the ensuing election, he carried all the free states except New Jersey. + + +=References= + +P.E. Chadwick, _Causes of the Civil War_ (American Nation Series). + +W.E. Dodd, _Statesmen of the Old South_. + +E. Engle, _Southern Sidelights_ (Sympathetic account of the Old South). + +A.B. Hart, _Slavery and Abolition_ (American Nation Series). + +J.F. Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vols. I and II. + +T.C. Smith, _Parties and Slavery_ (American Nation Series). + + +=Questions= + +1. Trace the decline of slavery in the North and explain it. + +2. Describe the character of early opposition to slavery. + +3. What was the effect of abolition agitation? + +4. Why did anti-slavery sentiment practically disappear in the South? + +5. On what grounds did Calhoun defend slavery? + +6. Explain how slave owners became powerful in politics. + +7. Why was it impossible to keep the slavery issue out of national +politics? + +8. Give the leading steps in the long controversy over slavery in the +territories. + +9. State the terms of the Compromise of 1850 and explain its failure. + +10. What were the startling events between 1850 and 1860? + +11. Account for the rise of the Republican party. What party had used +the title before? + +12. How did the Dred Scott decision become a political issue? + +13. What were some of the points brought out in the Lincoln-Douglas +debates? + +14. Describe the party division in 1860. + +15. What were the main planks in the Republican platform? + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Extension of Cotton Planting.=--Callender, _Economic History of the +United States_, pp. 760-768. + +=Abolition Agitation.=--McMaster, _History of the People of the United +States_, Vol. VI, pp. 271-298. + +=Calhoun's Defense of Slavery.=--Harding, _Select Orations Illustrating +American History_, pp. 247-257. + +=The Compromise of 1850.=--Clay's speech in Harding, _Select Orations_, +pp. 267-289. The compromise laws in Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book +of American History_, pp. 383-394. Narrative account in McMaster, Vol. +VIII, pp. 1-55; Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. 540-548. + +=The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.=--McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. +192-231; Elson, pp. 571-582. + +=The Dred Scott Case.=--McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 278-282. Compare the +opinion of Taney and the dissent of Curtis in Macdonald, _Documentary +Source Book_, pp. 405-420; Elson, pp. 595-598. + +=The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.=--Analysis of original speeches in +Harding, _Select Orations_ pp. 309-341; Elson, pp. 598-604. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Calhoun, Clay, Webster, A.H. Stephens, Douglas, +W.H. Seward, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Harriet +Beecher Stowe. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION + + +"The irrepressible conflict is about to be visited upon us through the +Black Republican nominee and his fanatical, diabolical Republican +party," ran an appeal to the voters of South Carolina during the +campaign of 1860. If that calamity comes to pass, responded the governor +of the state, the answer should be a declaration of independence. In a +few days the suspense was over. The news of Lincoln's election came +speeding along the wires. Prepared for the event, the editor of the +Charleston _Mercury_ unfurled the flag of his state amid wild cheers +from an excited throng in the streets. Then he seized his pen and wrote: +"The tea has been thrown overboard; the revolution of 1860 has been +initiated." The issue was submitted to the voters in the choice of +delegates to a state convention called to cast off the yoke of the +Constitution. + + +THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY + +=Secession.=--As arranged, the convention of South Carolina assembled in +December and without a dissenting voice passed the ordinance of +secession withdrawing from the union. Bells were rung exultantly, the +roar of cannon carried the news to outlying counties, fireworks lighted +up the heavens, and champagne flowed. The crisis so long expected had +come at last; even the conservatives who had prayed that they might +escape the dreadful crash greeted it with a sigh of relief. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1861 + +The border states (in purple) remained loyal.] + +South Carolina now sent forth an appeal to her sister states--states +that had in Jackson's day repudiated nullification as leading to "the +dissolution of the union." The answer that came this time was in a +different vein. A month had hardly elapsed before five other +states--Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana--had +withdrawn from the union. In February, Texas followed. Virginia, +hesitating until the bombardment of Fort Sumter forced a conclusion, +seceded in April; but fifty-five of the one hundred and forty-three +delegates dissented, foreshadowing the creation of the new state of West +Virginia which Congress admitted to the union in 1863. In May, North +Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee announced their independence. + +=Secession and the Theories of the Union.=--In severing their relations +with the union, the seceding states denied every point in the Northern +theory of the Constitution. That theory, as every one knows, was +carefully formulated by Webster and elaborated by Lincoln. According to +it, the union was older than the states; it was created before the +Declaration of Independence for the purpose of common defense. The +Articles of Confederation did but strengthen this national bond and the +Constitution sealed it forever. The federal government was not a +creature of state governments. It was erected by the people and derived +its powers directly from them. "It is," said Webster, "the people's +Constitution, the people's government; made for the people; made by the +people; and answerable to the people. The people of the United States +have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law." When a +state questions the lawfulness of any act of the federal government, it +cannot nullify that act or withdraw from the union; it must abide by the +decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The union of these +states is perpetual, ran Lincoln's simple argument in the first +inaugural; the federal Constitution has no provision for its own +termination; it can be destroyed only by some action not provided for in +the instrument itself; even if it is a compact among all the states the +consent of all must be necessary to its dissolution; therefore no state +can lawfully get out of the union and acts of violence against the +United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary. This was the system +which he believed himself bound to defend by his oath of office +"registered in heaven." + +All this reasoning Southern statesmen utterly rejected. In their opinion +the thirteen original states won their independence as separate and +sovereign powers. The treaty of peace with Great Britain named them all +and acknowledged them "to be free, sovereign, and independent states." +The Articles of Confederation very explicitly declared that "each state +retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The Constitution +was a "league of nations" formed by an alliance of thirteen separate +powers, each one of which ratified the instrument before it was put into +effect. They voluntarily entered the union under the Constitution and +voluntarily they could leave it. Such was the constitutional doctrine of +Hayne, Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis. In seceding, the Southern states +had only to follow legal methods, and the transaction would be correct +in every particular. So conventions were summoned, elections were held, +and "sovereign assemblies of the people" set aside the Constitution in +the same manner as it had been ratified nearly four score years before. +Thus, said the Southern people, the moral judgment was fulfilled and the +letter of the law carried into effect. + +[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS] + +=The Formation of the Confederacy.=--Acting on the call of Mississippi, +a congress of delegates from the seceded states met at Montgomery, +Alabama, and on February 8, 1861, adopted a temporary plan of union. It +selected, as provisional president, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, a +man well fitted by experience and moderation for leadership, a graduate +of West Point, who had rendered distinguished service on the field of +battle in the Mexican War, in public office, and as a member of +Congress. + +In March, a permanent constitution of the Confederate states was +drafted. It was quickly ratified by the states; elections were held in +November; and the government under it went into effect the next year. +This new constitution, in form, was very much like the famous instrument +drafted at Philadelphia in 1787. It provided for a President, a Senate, +and a House of Representatives along almost identical lines. In the +powers conferred upon them, however, there were striking differences. +The right to appropriate money for internal improvements was expressly +withheld; bounties were not to be granted from the treasury nor import +duties so laid as to promote or foster any branch of industry. The +dignity of the state, if any might be bold enough to question it, was +safeguarded in the opening line by the declaration that each acted "in +its sovereign and independent character" in forming the Southern union. + +=Financing the Confederacy.=--No government ever set out upon its career +with more perplexing tasks in front of it. The North had a monetary +system; the South had to create one. The North had a scheme of taxation +that produced large revenues from numerous sources; the South had to +formulate and carry out a financial plan. Like the North, the +Confederacy expected to secure a large revenue from customs duties, +easily collected and little felt among the masses. To this expectation +the blockade of Southern ports inaugurated by Lincoln in April, 1861, +soon put an end. Following the precedent set by Congress under the +Articles of Confederation, the Southern Congress resorted to a direct +property tax apportioned among the states, only to meet the failure that +might have been foretold. + +The Confederacy also sold bonds, the first issue bringing into the +treasury nearly all the specie available in the Southern banks. This +specie by unhappy management was early sent abroad to pay for supplies, +sapping the foundations of a sound currency system. Large amounts of +bonds were sold overseas, commanding at first better terms than those +of the North in the markets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam, many an +English lord and statesman buying with enthusiasm and confidence to +lament within a few years the proofs of his folly. The difficulties of +bringing through the blockade any supplies purchased by foreign bond +issues, however, nullified the effect of foreign credit and forced the +Confederacy back upon the device of paper money. In all approximately +one billion dollars streamed from the printing presses, to fall in value +at an alarming rate, reaching in January, 1863, the astounding figure of +fifty dollars in paper money for one in gold. Every known device was +used to prevent its depreciation, without result. To the issues of the +Confederate Congress were added untold millions poured out by the states +and by private banks. + +=Human and Material Resources.=--When we measure strength for strength +in those signs of power--men, money, and supplies--it is difficult to +see how the South was able to embark on secession and war with such +confidence in the outcome. In the Confederacy at the final reckoning +there were eleven states in all, to be pitted against twenty-two; a +population of nine millions, nearly one-half servile, to be pitted +against twenty-two millions; a land without great industries to produce +war supplies and without vast capital to furnish war finances, joined in +battle with a nation already industrial and fortified by property worth +eleven billion dollars. Even after the Confederate Congress authorized +conscription in 1862, Southern man power, measured in numbers, was +wholly inadequate to uphold the independence which had been declared. +How, therefore, could the Confederacy hope to sustain itself against +such a combination of men, money, and materials as the North could +marshal? + +=Southern Expectations.=--The answer to this question is to be found in +the ideas that prevailed among Southern leaders. First of all, they +hoped, in vain, to carry the Confederacy up to the Ohio River; and, with +the aid of Missouri, to gain possession of the Mississippi Valley, the +granary of the nation. In the second place, they reckoned upon a large +and continuous trade with Great Britain--the exchange of cotton for war +materials. They likewise expected to receive recognition and open aid +from European powers that looked with satisfaction upon the breakup of +the great American republic. In the third place, they believed that +their control over several staples so essential to Northern industry +would enable them to bring on an industrial crisis in the manufacturing +states. "I firmly believe," wrote Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, in +1860, "that the slave-holding South is now the controlling power of the +world; that no other power would face us in hostility. Cotton, rice, +tobacco, and naval stores command the world; and we have the sense to +know it and are sufficiently Teutonic to carry it out successfully. The +North without us would be a motherless calf, bleating about, and die of +mange and starvation." + +There were other grounds for confidence. Having seized all of the +federal military and naval supplies in the South, and having left the +national government weak in armed power during their possession of the +presidency, Southern leaders looked to a swift war, if it came at all, +to put the finishing stroke to independence. "The greasy mechanics of +the North," it was repeatedly said, "will not fight." As to disparity in +numbers they drew historic parallels. "Our fathers, a mere handful, +overcame the enormous power of Great Britain," a saying of ex-President +Tyler, ran current to reassure the doubtful. Finally, and this point +cannot be too strongly emphasized, the South expected to see a weakened +and divided North. It knew that the abolitionists and the Southern +sympathizers were ready to let the Confederate states go in peace; that +Lincoln represented only a little more than one-third the voters of the +country; and that the vote for Douglas, Bell, and Breckinridge meant a +decided opposition to the Republicans and their policies. + +=Efforts at Compromise.=--Republican leaders, on reviewing the same +facts, were themselves uncertain as to the outcome of a civil war and +made many efforts to avoid a crisis. Thurlow Weed, an Albany journalist +and politician who had done much to carry New York for Lincoln, proposed +a plan for extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific. +Jefferson Davis, warning his followers that a war if it came would be +terrible, was prepared to accept the offer; but Lincoln, remembering his +campaign pledges, stood firm as a rock against it. His followers in +Congress took the same position with regard to a similar settlement +suggested by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky. + +Though unwilling to surrender his solemn promises respecting slavery in +the territories, Lincoln was prepared to give to Southern leaders a +strong guarantee that his administration would not interfere directly or +indirectly with slavery in the states. Anxious to reassure the South on +this point, the Republicans in Congress proposed to write into the +Constitution a declaration that no amendment should ever be made +authorizing the abolition of or interference with slavery in any state. +The resolution, duly passed, was sent forth on March 4, 1861, with the +approval of Lincoln; it was actually ratified by three states before the +storm of war destroyed it. By the irony of fate the thirteenth amendment +was to abolish, not guarantee, slavery. + + +THE WAR MEASURES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT + +=Raising the Armies.=--The crisis at Fort Sumter, on April 12-14, 1861, +forced the President and Congress to turn from negotiations to problems +of warfare. Little did they realize the magnitude of the task before +them. Lincoln's first call for volunteers, issued on April 15, 1861, +limited the number to 75,000, put their term of service at three months, +and prescribed their duty as the enforcement of the law against +combinations too powerful to be overcome by ordinary judicial process. +Disillusionment swiftly followed. The terrible defeat of the Federals at +Bull Run on July 21 revealed the serious character of the task before +them; and by a series of measures Congress put the entire man power of +the country at the President's command. Under these acts, he issued new +calls for volunteers. Early in August, 1862, he ordered a draft of +militiamen numbering 300,000 for nine months' service. The results were +disappointing--ominous--for only about 87,000 soldiers were added to the +army. Something more drastic was clearly necessary. + +In March, 1863, Lincoln signed the inevitable draft law; it enrolled in +the national forces liable to military duty all able-bodied male +citizens and persons of foreign birth who had declared their intention +to become citizens, between the ages of twenty and forty-five +years--with exemptions on grounds of physical weakness and dependency. +From the men enrolled were drawn by lot those destined to active +service. Unhappily the measure struck a mortal blow at the principle of +universal liability by excusing any person who found a substitute for +himself or paid into the war office a sum, not exceeding three hundred +dollars, to be fixed by general order. This provision, so crass and so +obviously favoring the well-to-do, sowed seeds of bitterness which +sprang up a hundredfold in the North. + +[Illustration: THE DRAFT RIOTS IN NEW YORK CITY] + +The beginning of the drawings under the draft act in New York City, on +Monday, July 13, 1863, was the signal for four days of rioting. In the +course of this uprising, draft headquarters were destroyed; the office +of the _Tribune_ was gutted; negroes were seized, hanged, and shot; the +homes of obnoxious Unionists were burned down; the residence of the +mayor of the city was attacked; and regular battles were fought in the +streets between the rioters and the police. Business stopped and a large +part of the city passed absolutely into the control of the mob. Not +until late the following Wednesday did enough troops arrive to restore +order and enable the residents of the city to resume their daily +activities. At least a thousand people had been killed or wounded and +more than a million dollars' worth of damage done to property. The draft +temporarily interrupted by this outbreak was then resumed and carried +out without further trouble. + +The results of the draft were in the end distinctly disappointing to the +government. The exemptions were numerous and the number who preferred +and were able to pay $300 rather than serve exceeded all expectations. +Volunteering, it is true, was stimulated, but even that resource could +hardly keep the thinning ranks of the army filled. With reluctance +Congress struck out the $300 exemption clause, but still favored the +well-to-do by allowing them to hire substitutes if they could find them. +With all this power in its hands the administration was able by January, +1865, to construct a union army that outnumbered the Confederates two to +one. + +=War Finance.=--In the financial sphere the North faced immense +difficulties. The surplus in the treasury had been dissipated by 1861 +and the tariff of 1857 had failed to produce an income sufficient to +meet the ordinary expenses of the government. Confronted by military and +naval expenditures of appalling magnitude, rising from $35,000,000 in +the first year of the war to $1,153,000,000 in the last year, the +administration had to tap every available source of income. The duties +on imports were increased, not once but many times, producing huge +revenues and also meeting the most extravagant demands of the +manufacturers for protection. Direct taxes were imposed on the states +according to their respective populations, but the returns were +meager--all out of proportion to the irritation involved. Stamp taxes +and taxes on luxuries, occupations, and the earnings of corporations +were laid with a weight that, in ordinary times, would have drawn forth +opposition of ominous strength. The whole gamut of taxation was run. +Even a tax on incomes and gains by the year, the first in the history of +the federal government, was included in the long list. + +Revenues were supplemented by bond issues, mounting in size and interest +rate, until in October, at the end of the war, the debt stood at +$2,208,000,000. The total cost of the war was many times the money value +of all the slaves in the Southern states. To the debt must be added +nearly half a billion dollars in "greenbacks"--paper money issued by +Congress in desperation as bond sales and revenues from taxes failed to +meet the rising expenditures. This currency issued at par on +questionable warrant from the Constitution, like all such paper, quickly +began to decline until in the worst fortunes of 1864 one dollar in gold +was worth nearly three in greenbacks. + +=The Blockade of Southern Ports.=--Four days after his call for +volunteers, April 19, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation +blockading the ports of the Southern Confederacy. Later the blockade was +extended to Virginia and North Carolina, as they withdrew from the +union. Vessels attempting to enter or leave these ports, if they +disregarded the warnings of a blockading ship, were to be captured and +brought as prizes to the nearest convenient port. To make the order +effective, immediate steps were taken to increase the naval forces, +depleted by neglect, until the entire coast line was patrolled with such +a number of ships that it was a rare captain who ventured to run the +gantlet. The collision between the _Merrimac_ and the _Monitor_ in +March, 1862, sealed the fate of the Confederacy. The exploits of the +union navy are recorded in the falling export of cotton: $202,000,000 in +1860; $42,000,000 in 1861; and $4,000,000 in 1862. + +The deadly effect of this paralysis of trade upon Southern war power may +be readily imagined. Foreign loans, payable in cotton, could be +negotiated but not paid off. Supplies could be purchased on credit but +not brought through the drag net. With extreme difficulty could the +Confederate government secure even paper for the issue of money and +bonds. Publishers, in despair at the loss of supplies, were finally +driven to the use of brown wrapping paper and wall paper. As the +railways and rolling stock wore out, it became impossible to renew them +from England or France. Unable to export their cotton, planters on the +seaboard burned it in what were called "fires of patriotism." In their +lurid light the fatal weakness of Southern economy stood revealed. + +[Illustration: A BLOCKADE RUNNER] + +=Diplomacy.=--The war had not advanced far before the federal government +became involved in many perplexing problems of diplomacy in Europe. The +Confederacy early turned to England and France for financial aid and for +recognition as an independent power. Davis believed that the industrial +crisis created by the cotton blockade would in time literally compel +Europe to intervene in order to get this essential staple. The crisis +came as he expected but not the result. Thousands of English textile +workers were thrown out of employment; and yet, while on the point of +starvation, they adopted resolutions favoring the North instead of +petitioning their government to aid the South by breaking the blockade. + +With the ruling classes it was far otherwise. Napoleon III, the Emperor +of the French, was eager to help in disrupting the American republic; if +he could have won England's support, he would have carried out his +designs. As it turned out he found plenty of sympathy across the Channel +but not open and official cooeperation. According to the eminent +historian, Rhodes, "four-fifths of the British House of Lords and most +members of the House of Commons were favorable to the Confederacy and +anxious for its triumph." Late in 1862 the British ministers, thus +sustained, were on the point of recognizing the independence of the +Confederacy. Had it not been for their extreme caution, for the constant +and harassing criticism by English friends of the United States--like +John Bright--and for the victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, both +England and France would have doubtless declared the Confederacy to be +one of the independent powers of the earth. + +[Illustration: JOHN BRIGHT] + +While stopping short of recognizing its independence, England and France +took several steps that were in favor of the South. In proclaiming +neutrality, they early accepted the Confederates as "belligerents" and +accorded them the rights of people at war--a measure which aroused anger +in the North at first but was later admitted to be sound. Otherwise +Confederates taken in battle would have been regarded as "rebels" or +"traitors" to be hanged or shot. Napoleon III proposed to Russia in 1861 +a coalition of powers against the North, only to meet a firm refusal. +The next year he suggested intervention to Great Britain, encountering +this time a conditional rejection of his plans. In 1863, not daunted by +rebuffs, he offered his services to Lincoln as a mediator, receiving in +reply a polite letter declining his proposal and a sharp resolution from +Congress suggesting that he attend to his own affairs. + +In both England and France the governments pursued a policy of +friendliness to the Confederate agents. The British ministry, with +indifference if not connivance, permitted rams and ships to be built in +British docks and allowed them to escape to play havoc under the +Confederate flag with American commerce. One of them, the _Alabama_, +built in Liverpool by a British firm and paid for by bonds sold in +England, ran an extraordinary career and threatened to break the +blockade. The course followed by the British government, against the +protests of the American minister in London, was later regretted. By an +award of a tribunal of arbitration at Geneva in 1872, Great Britain was +required to pay the huge sum of $15,500,000 to cover the damages wrought +by Confederate cruisers fitted out in England. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM H. SEWARD] + +In all fairness it should be said that the conduct of the North +contributed to the irritation between the two countries. Seward, the +Secretary of State, was vindictive in dealing with Great Britain; had it +not been for the moderation of Lincoln, he would have pursued a course +verging in the direction of open war. The New York and Boston papers +were severe in their attacks on England. Words were, on one occasion at +least, accompanied by an act savoring of open hostility. In November, +1861, Captain Wilkes, commanding a union vessel, overhauled the British +steamer _Trent_, and carried off by force two Confederate agents, Mason +and Slidell, sent by President Davis to represent the Confederacy at +London and Paris respectively. This was a clear violation of the right +of merchant vessels to be immune from search and impressment; and, in +answer to the demand of Great Britain for the release of the two men, +the United States conceded that it was in the wrong. It surrendered the +two Confederate agents to a British vessel for safe conduct abroad, and +made appropriate apologies. + +=Emancipation.=--Among the extreme war measures adopted by the Northern +government must be counted the emancipation of the slaves in the states +in arms against the union. This step was early and repeatedly suggested +to Lincoln by the abolitionists; but was steadily put aside. He knew +that the abolitionists were a mere handful, that emancipation might +drive the border states into secession, and that the Northern soldiers +had enlisted to save the union. Moreover, he had before him a solemn +resolution passed by Congress on July 22, 1861, declaring the sole +purpose of the war to be the salvation of the union and disavowing any +intention of interfering with slavery. + +The federal government, though pledged to the preservation of slavery, +soon found itself beaten back upon its course and out upon a new tack. +Before a year had elapsed, namely on April 10, 1862, Congress resolved +that financial aid should be given to any state that might adopt gradual +emancipation. Six days later it abolished slavery in the District of +Columbia. Two short months elapsed. On June 19, 1862, it swept slavery +forever from the territories of the United States. Chief Justice Taney +still lived, the Dred Scott decision stood as written in the book, but +the Constitution had been re-read in the light of the Civil War. The +drift of public sentiment in the North was being revealed. + +While these measures were pending in Congress, Lincoln was slowly making +up his mind. By July of that year he had come to his great decision. +Near the end of that month he read to his cabinet the draft of a +proclamation of emancipation; but he laid it aside until a military +achievement would make it something more than an idle gesture. In +September, the severe check administered to Lee at Antietam seemed to +offer the golden opportunity. On the 22d, the immortal document was +given to the world announcing that, unless the states in arms returned +to the union by January 1, 1863, the fatal blow at their "peculiar +institution" would be delivered. Southern leaders treated it with slight +regard, and so on the date set the promise was fulfilled. The +proclamation was issued as a war measure, adopted by the President as +commander-in-chief of the armed forces, on grounds of military +necessity. It did not abolish slavery. It simply emancipated slaves in +places then in arms against federal authority. Everywhere else slavery, +as far as the Proclamation was concerned, remained lawful. + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN] + +To seal forever the proclamation of emancipation, and to extend freedom +to the whole country, Congress, in January, 1865, on the urgent +recommendation of Lincoln, transmitted to the states the thirteenth +amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the United States. By the end +of 1865 the amendment was ratified. The house was not divided against +itself; it did not fall; it was all free. + +=The Restraint of Civil Liberty.=--As in all great wars, particularly +those in the nature of a civil strife, it was found necessary to use +strong measures to sustain opinion favorable to the administration's +military policies and to frustrate the designs of those who sought to +hamper its action. Within two weeks of his first call for volunteers, +Lincoln empowered General Scott to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ +along the line of march between Philadelphia and Washington and thus to +arrest and hold without interference from civil courts any one whom he +deemed a menace to the union. At a later date the area thus ruled by +military officers was extended by executive proclamation. By an act of +March 3, 1863, Congress, desiring to lay all doubts about the +President's power, authorized him to suspend the writ throughout the +United States or in any part thereof. It also freed military officers +from the necessity of surrendering to civil courts persons arrested +under their orders, or even making answers to writs issued from such +courts. In the autumn of that year the President, acting under the terms +of this law, declared this ancient and honorable instrument for the +protection of civil liberties, the _habeas corpus_, suspended throughout +the length and breadth of the land. The power of the government was also +strengthened by an act defining and punishing certain conspiracies, +passed on July 31, 1861--a measure which imposed heavy penalties on +those who by force, intimidation, or threat interfered with the +execution of the law. + +Thus doubly armed, the military authorities spared no one suspected of +active sympathy with the Southern cause. Editors were arrested and +imprisoned, their papers suspended, and their newsboys locked up. Those +who organized "peace meetings" soon found themselves in the toils of the +law. Members of the Maryland legislature, the mayor of Baltimore, and +local editors suspected of entertaining secessionist opinions, were +imprisoned on military orders although charged with no offense, and were +denied the privilege of examination before a civil magistrate. A Vermont +farmer, too outspoken in his criticism of the government, found himself +behind the bars until the government, in its good pleasure, saw fit to +release him. These measures were not confined to the theater of war nor +to the border states where the spirit of secession was strong enough to +endanger the cause of union. They were applied all through the Northern +states up to the very boundaries of Canada. Zeal for the national cause, +too often supplemented by a zeal for persecution, spread terror among +those who wavered in the singleness of their devotion to the union. + +These drastic operations on the part of military authorities, so foreign +to the normal course of civilized life, naturally aroused intense and +bitter hostility. Meetings of protest were held throughout the country. +Thirty-six members of the House of Representatives sought to put on +record their condemnation of the suspension of the _habeas corpus_ act, +only to meet a firm denial by the supporters of the act. Chief Justice +Taney, before whom the case of a man arrested under the President's +military authority was brought, emphatically declared, in a long and +learned opinion bristling with historical examples, that the President +had no power to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_. In Congress and +out, Democrats, abolitionists, and champions of civil liberty denounced +Lincoln and his Cabinet in unsparing terms. Vallandigham, a Democratic +leader of Ohio, afterward banished to the South for his opposition to +the war, constantly applied to Lincoln the epithet of "Caesar." Wendell +Phillips saw in him "a more unlimited despot than the world knows this +side of China." + +Sensitive to such stinging thrusts and no friend of wanton persecution, +Lincoln attempted to mitigate the rigors of the law by paroling many +political prisoners. The general policy, however, he defended in homely +language, very different in tone and meaning from the involved reasoning +of the lawyers. "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, +while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to +desert?" he asked in a quiet way of some spokesmen for those who +protested against arresting people for "talking against the war." This +summed up his philosophy. He was engaged in a war to save the union, and +all measures necessary and proper to accomplish that purpose were +warranted by the Constitution which he had sworn to uphold. + +=Military Strategy--North and South.=--The broad outlines of military +strategy followed by the commanders of the opposing forces are clear +even to the layman who cannot be expected to master the details of a +campaign or, for that matter, the maneuvers of a single great battle. +The problem for the South was one of defense mainly, though even for +defense swift and paralyzing strokes at the North were later deemed +imperative measures. The problem of the North was, to put it baldly, one +of invasion and conquest. Southern territory had to be invaded and +Southern armies beaten on their own ground or worn down to exhaustion +there. + +In the execution of this undertaking, geography, as usual, played a +significant part in the disposition of forces. The Appalachian ranges, +stretching through the Confederacy to Northern Alabama, divided the +campaigns into Eastern and Western enterprises. Both were of signal +importance. Victory in the East promised the capture of the Confederate +capital of Richmond, a stroke of moral worth, hardly to be +overestimated. Victory in the West meant severing the Confederacy and +opening the Mississippi Valley down to the Gulf. + +As it turned out, the Western forces accomplished their task first, +vindicating the military powers of union soldiers and shaking the +confidence of opposing commanders. In February, 1862, Grant captured +Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River, rallied wavering unionists in +Kentucky, forced the evacuation of Nashville, and opened the way for two +hundred miles into the Confederacy. At Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Vicksburg, +Chickamauga, Chattanooga, desperate fighting followed and, in spite of +varying fortunes, it resulted in the discomfiture and retirement of +Confederate forces to the Southeast into Georgia. By the middle of 1863, +the Mississippi Valley was open to the Gulf, the initiative taken out of +the hands of Southern commanders in the West, and the way prepared for +Sherman's final stroke--the march from Atlanta to the sea--a maneuver +executed with needless severity in the autumn of 1864. + +[Illustration: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT] + +[Illustration: GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE] + +For the almost unbroken succession of achievements in the West by +Generals Grant, Sherman, Thomas, and Hooker against Albert Sidney +Johnston, Bragg, Pemberton, and Hood, the union forces in the East +offered at first an almost equally unbroken series of misfortunes and +disasters. Far from capturing Richmond, they had been thrown on the +defensive. General after general--McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and +Meade--was tried and found wanting. None of them could administer a +crushing defeat to the Confederate troops and more than once the union +soldiers were beaten in a fair battle. They did succeed, however, in +delivering a severe check to advancing Confederates under General Robert +E. Lee, first at Antietam in September, 1862, and then at Gettysburg in +July, 1863--checks reckoned as victories though in each instance the +Confederates escaped without demoralization. Not until the beginning of +the next year, when General Grant, supplied with almost unlimited men +and munitions, began his irresistible hammering at Lee's army, did the +final phase of the war commence. The pitiless drive told at last. +General Lee, on April 9, 1865, seeing the futility of further conflict, +surrendered an army still capable of hard fighting, at Appomattox, not +far from the capital of the Confederacy. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +THE FEDERAL MILITARY HOSPITAL AT GETTYSBURG] + +=Abraham Lincoln.=--The services of Lincoln to the cause of union defy +description. A judicial scrutiny of the war reveals his thought and +planning in every part of the varied activity that finally crowned +Northern arms with victory. Is it in the field of diplomacy? Does +Seward, the Secretary of State, propose harsh and caustic measures +likely to draw England's sword into the scale? Lincoln counsels +moderation. He takes the irritating message and with his own hand +strikes out, erases, tones down, and interlines, exchanging for words +that sting and burn the language of prudence and caution. Is it a matter +of compromise with the South, so often proposed by men on both sides +sick of carnage? Lincoln is always ready to listen and turns away only +when he is invited to surrender principles essential to the safety of +the union. Is it high strategy of war, a question of the general best +fitted to win Gettysburg--Hooker, Sedgwick, or Meade? Lincoln goes in +person to the War Department in the dead of night to take counsel with +his Secretary and to make the fateful choice. + +Is it a complaint from a citizen, deprived, as he believes, of his civil +liberties unjustly or in violation of the Constitution? Lincoln is ready +to hear it and anxious to afford relief, if warrant can be found for it. +Is a mother begging for the life of a son sentenced to be shot as a +deserter? Lincoln hears her petition, and grants it even against the +protests made by his generals in the name of military discipline. Do +politicians sow dissensions in the army and among civilians? Lincoln +grandly waves aside their petty personalities and invites them to think +of the greater cause. Is it a question of securing votes to ratify the +thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery? Lincoln thinks it not beneath +his dignity to traffic and huckster with politicians over the trifling +jobs asked in return by the members who hold out against him. Does a New +York newspaper call him an ignorant Western boor? Lincoln's reply is a +letter to a mother who has given her all--her sons on the field of +battle--and an address at Gettysburg, both of which will live as long as +the tongue in which they were written. These are tributes not only to +his mastery of the English language but also to his mastery of all those +sentiments of sweetness and strength which are the finest flowers of +culture. + +Throughout the entire span of service, however, Lincoln was beset by +merciless critics. The fiery apostles of abolition accused him of +cowardice when he delayed the bold stroke at slavery. Anti-war Democrats +lashed out at every step he took. Even in his own party he found no +peace. Charles Sumner complained: "Our President is now dictator, +_imperator_--whichever you like; but how vain to have the power of a +god and not to use it godlike." Leaders among the Republicans sought to +put him aside in 1864 and place Chase in his chair. "I hope we may never +have a worse man," was Lincoln's quiet answer. + +Wide were the dissensions in the North during that year and the +Republicans, while selecting Lincoln as their candidate again, cast off +their old name and chose the simple title of the "Union party." +Moreover, they selected a Southern man, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, to +be associated with him as candidate for Vice President. This combination +the Northern Democrats boldly confronted with a platform declaring that +"after four years of failure to restore the union by the experiment of +war, during which, under the pretence of military necessity or war power +higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been +disregarded in every part and public liberty and private right alike +trodden down ... justice, humanity, liberty, and public welfare demand +that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, to the +end that peace may be restored on the basis of the federal union of the +states." It is true that the Democratic candidate, General McClellan, +sought to break the yoke imposed upon him by the platform, saying that +he could not look his old comrades in the face and pronounce their +efforts vain; but the party call to the nation to repudiate Lincoln and +his works had gone forth. The response came, giving Lincoln 2,200,000 +votes against 1,800,000 for his opponent. The bitter things said about +him during the campaign, he forgot and forgave. When in April, 1865, he +was struck down by the assassin's hand, he above all others in +Washington was planning measures of moderation and healing. + + +THE RESULTS OF THE CIVIL WAR + +There is a strong and natural tendency on the part of writers to stress +the dramatic and heroic aspects of war; but the long judgment of history +requires us to include all other significant phases as well. Like every +great armed conflict, the Civil War outran the purposes of those who +took part in it. Waged over the nature of the union, it made a +revolution in the union, changing public policies and constitutional +principles and giving a new direction to agriculture and industry. + +=The Supremacy of the Union.=--First and foremost, the war settled for +all time the long dispute as to the nature of the federal system. The +doctrine of state sovereignty was laid to rest. Men might still speak of +the rights of states and think of their commonwealths with affection, +but nullification and secession were destroyed. The nation was supreme. + +=The Destruction of the Slave Power.=--Next to the vindication of +national supremacy was the destruction of the planting aristocracy of +the South--that great power which had furnished leadership of undoubted +ability and had so long contested with the industrial and commercial +interests of the North. The first paralyzing blow at the planters was +struck by the abolition of slavery. The second and third came with the +fourteenth (1868) and fifteenth (1870) amendments, giving the ballot to +freedmen and excluding from public office the Confederate +leaders--driving from the work of reconstruction the finest talents of +the South. As if to add bitterness to gall and wormwood, the fourteenth +amendment forbade the United States or any state to pay any debts +incurred in aid of the Confederacy or in the emancipation of the +slaves--plunging into utter bankruptcy the Southern financiers who had +stripped their section of capital to support their cause. So the +Southern planters found themselves excluded from public office and ruled +over by their former bondmen under the tutelage of Republican leaders. +Their labor system was wrecked and their money and bonds were as +worthless as waste paper. The South was subject to the North. That which +neither the Federalists nor the Whigs had been able to accomplish in the +realm of statecraft was accomplished on the field of battle. + +=The Triumph of Industry.=--The wreck of the planting system was +accompanied by a mighty upswing of Northern industry which made the old +Whigs of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania stare in wonderment. The demands +of the federal government for manufactured goods at unrestricted prices +gave a stimulus to business which more than replaced the lost markets of +the South. Between 1860 and 1870 the number of manufacturing +establishments increased 79.6 per cent as against 14.2 for the previous +decade; while the number of persons employed almost doubled. There was +no doubt about the future of American industry. + +=The Victory for the Protective Tariff.=--Moreover, it was henceforth to +be well protected. For many years before the war the friends of +protection had been on the defensive. The tariff act of 1857 imposed +duties so low as to presage a tariff for revenue only. The war changed +all that. The extraordinary military expenditures, requiring heavy taxes +on all sources, justified tariffs so high that a follower of Clay or +Webster might well have gasped with astonishment. After the war was over +the debt remained and both interest and principal had to be paid. +Protective arguments based on economic reasoning were supported by a +plain necessity for revenue which admitted no dispute. + +=A Liberal Immigration Policy.=--Linked with industry was the labor +supply. The problem of manning industries became a pressing matter, and +Republican leaders grappled with it. In the platform of the Union party +adopted in 1864 it was declared "that foreign immigration, which in the +past has added so much to the wealth, the development of resources, and +the increase of power to this nation--the asylum of the oppressed of all +nations--should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just +policy." In that very year Congress, recognizing the importance of the +problem, passed a measure of high significance, creating a bureau of +immigration, and authorizing a modified form of indentured labor, by +making it legal for immigrants to pledge their wages in advance to pay +their passage over. Though the bill was soon repealed, the practice +authorized by it was long continued. The cheapness of the passage +shortened the term of service; but the principle was older than the +days of William Penn. + +=The Homestead Act of 1862.=--In the immigration measure guaranteeing a +continuous and adequate labor supply, the manufacturers saw an offset to +the Homestead Act of 1862 granting free lands to settlers. The Homestead +law they had resisted in a long and bitter congressional battle. +Naturally, they had not taken kindly to a scheme which lured men away +from the factories or enabled them to make unlimited demands for higher +wages as the price of remaining. Southern planters likewise had feared +free homesteads for the very good reason that they only promised to add +to the overbalancing power of the North. + +In spite of the opposition, supporters of a liberal land policy made +steady gains. Free-soil Democrats,--Jacksonian farmers and +mechanics,--labor reformers, and political leaders, like Stephen A. +Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, kept up the +agitation in season and out. More than once were they able to force a +homestead bill through the House of Representatives only to have it +blocked in the Senate where Southern interests were intrenched. Then, +after the Senate was won over, a Democratic President, James Buchanan, +vetoed the bill. Still the issue lived. The Republicans, strong among +the farmers of the Northwest, favored it from the beginning and pressed +it upon the attention of the country. Finally the manufacturers yielded; +they received their compensation in the contract labor law. In 1862 +Congress provided for the free distribution of land in 160-acre lots +among men and women of strong arms and willing hearts ready to build +their serried lines of homesteads to the Rockies and beyond. + +=Internal Improvements.=--If farmers and manufacturers were early +divided on the matter of free homesteads, the same could hardly be said +of internal improvements. The Western tiller of the soil was as eager +for some easy way of sending his produce to market as the manufacturer +was for the same means to transport his goods to the consumer on the +farm. While the Confederate leaders were writing into their +constitution a clause forbidding all appropriations for internal +improvements, the Republican leaders at Washington were planning such +expenditures from the treasury in the form of public land grants to +railways as would have dazed the authors of the national road bill half +a century earlier. + +=Sound Finance--National Banking.=--From Hamilton's day to Lincoln's, +business men in the East had contended for a sound system of national +currency. The experience of the states with paper money, painfully +impressive in the years before the framing of the Constitution, had been +convincing to those who understood the economy of business. The +Constitution, as we have seen, bore the signs of this experience. States +were forbidden to emit bills of credit: paper money, in short. This +provision stood clear in the document; but judicial ingenuity had +circumvented it in the age of Jacksonian Democracy. The states had +enacted and the Supreme Court, after the death of John Marshall, had +sustained laws chartering banking companies and authorizing them to +issue paper money. So the country was beset by the old curse, the banks +of Western and Southern states issuing reams of paper notes to help +borrowers pay their debts. + +In dealing with war finances, the Republicans attacked this ancient +evil. By act of Congress in 1864, they authorized a series of national +banks founded on the credit of government bonds and empowered to issue +notes. The next year they stopped all bank paper sent forth under the +authority of the states by means of a prohibitive tax. In this way, by +two measures Congress restored federal control over the monetary system +although it did not reestablish the United States Bank so hated by +Jacksonian Democracy. + +=Destruction of States' Rights by Fourteenth Amendment.=--These acts and +others not cited here were measures of centralization and consolidation +at the expense of the powers and dignity of the states. They were all of +high import, but the crowning act of nationalism was the fourteenth +amendment which, among other things, forbade states to "deprive any +person of life, liberty or property without due process of law." The +immediate occasion, though not the actual cause of this provision, was +the need for protecting the rights of freedmen against hostile +legislatures in the South. The result of the amendment, as was +prophesied in protests loud and long from every quarter of the +Democratic party, was the subjection of every act of state, municipal, +and county authorities to possible annulment by the Supreme Court at +Washington. The expected happened. + +Few negroes ever brought cases under the fourteenth amendment to the +attention of the courts; but thousands of state laws, municipal +ordinances, and acts of local authorities were set aside as null and +void under it. Laws of states regulating railway rates, fixing hours of +labor in bakeshops, and taxing corporations were in due time to be +annulled as conflicting with an amendment erroneously supposed to be +designed solely for the protection of negroes. As centralized power over +tariffs, railways, public lands, and other national concerns went to +Congress, so centralized power over the acts of state and local +authorities involving an infringement of personal and property rights +was conferred on the federal judiciary, the apex of which was the +Supreme Court at Washington. Thus the old federation of "independent +states," all equal in rights and dignity, each wearing the "jewel of +sovereignty" so celebrated in Southern oratory, had gone the way of all +flesh under the withering blasts of Civil War. + + +RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH + +=Theories about the Position of the Seceded States.=--On the morning of +April 9, 1865, when General Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, +eleven states stood in a peculiar relation to the union now declared +perpetual. Lawyers and political philosophers were much perturbed and +had been for some time as to what should be done with the members of the +former Confederacy. Radical Republicans held that they were "conquered +provinces" at the mercy of Congress, to be governed under such laws as +it saw fit to enact and until in its wisdom it decided to readmit any or +all of them to the union. Men of more conservative views held that, as +the war had been waged by the North on the theory that no state could +secede from the union, the Confederate states had merely attempted to +withdraw and had failed. The corollary of this latter line of argument +was simple: "The Southern states are still in the union and it is the +duty of the President, as commander-in-chief, to remove the federal +troops as soon as order is restored and the state governments ready to +function once more as usual." + +=Lincoln's Proposal.=--Some such simple and conservative form of +reconstruction had been suggested by Lincoln in a proclamation of +December 8, 1863. He proposed pardon and a restoration of property, +except in slaves, to nearly all who had "directly or by implication +participated in the existing rebellion," on condition that they take an +oath of loyalty to the union. He then announced that when, in any of the +states named, a body of voters, qualified under the law as it stood +before secession and equal in number to one-tenth the votes cast in +1860, took the oath of allegiance, they should be permitted to +reestablish a state government. Such a government, he added, should be +recognized as a lawful authority and entitled to protection under the +federal Constitution. With reference to the status of the former slaves +Lincoln made it clear that, while their freedom must be recognized, he +would not object to any legislation "which may yet be consistent as a +temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, +landless, and homeless class." + +=Andrew Johnson's Plan--His Impeachment.=--Lincoln's successor, Andrew +Johnson, the Vice President, soon after taking office, proposed to +pursue a somewhat similar course. In a number of states he appointed +military governors, instructing them at the earliest possible moment to +assemble conventions, chosen "by that portion of the people of the said +states who are loyal to the United States," and proceed to the +organization of regular civil government. Johnson, a Southern man and a +Democrat, was immediately charged by the Republicans with being too +ready to restore the Southern states. As the months went by, the +opposition to his measures and policies in Congress grew in size and +bitterness. The contest resulted in the impeachment of Johnson by the +House of Representatives in March, 1868, and his acquittal by the Senate +merely because his opponents lacked one vote of the two-thirds required +for conviction. + +=Congress Enacts "Reconstruction Laws."=--In fact, Congress was in a +strategic position. It was the law-making body, and it could, moreover, +determine the conditions under which Senators and Representatives from +the South were to be readmitted. It therefore proceeded to pass a series +of reconstruction acts--carrying all of them over Johnson's veto. These +measures, the first of which became a law on March 2, 1867, betrayed an +animus not found anywhere in Lincoln's plans or Johnson's proclamations. + +They laid off the ten states--the whole Confederacy with the exception +of Tennessee--still outside the pale, into five military districts, each +commanded by a military officer appointed by the President. They ordered +the commanding general to prepare a register of voters for the election +of delegates to conventions chosen for the purpose of drafting new +constitutions. Such voters, however, were not to be, as Lincoln had +suggested, loyal persons duly qualified under the law existing before +secession but "the male citizens of said state, twenty-one years old and +upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, ... except such +as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony +at common law." This was the death knell to the idea that the leaders of +the Confederacy and their white supporters might be permitted to share +in the establishment of the new order. Power was thus arbitrarily thrust +into the hands of the newly emancipated male negroes and the handful of +whites who could show a record of loyalty. That was not all. Each state +was, under the reconstruction acts, compelled to ratify the fourteenth +amendment to the federal Constitution as a price of restoration to the +union. + +The composition of the conventions thus authorized may be imagined. +Bondmen without the asking and without preparation found themselves the +governing power. An army of adventurers from the North, "carpet baggers" +as they were called, poured in upon the scene to aid in +"reconstruction." Undoubtedly many men of honor and fine intentions gave +unstinted service, but the results of their deliberations only +aggravated the open wound left by the war. Any number of political +doctors offered their prescriptions; but no effective remedy could be +found. Under measures admittedly open to grave objections, the Southern +states were one after another restored to the union by the grace of +Congress, the last one in 1870. Even this grudging concession of the +formalities of statehood did not mean a full restoration of honors and +privileges. The last soldier was not withdrawn from the last Southern +capital until 1877, and federal control over elections long remained as +a sign of congressional supremacy. + +=The Status of the Freedmen.=--Even more intricate than the issues +involved in restoring the seceded states to the union was the question +of what to do with the newly emancipated slaves. That problem, often put +to abolitionists before the war, had become at last a real concern. The +thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery had not touched it at all. It +declared bondmen free, but did nothing to provide them with work or +homes and did not mention the subject of political rights. All these +matters were left to the states, and the legislatures of some of them, +by their famous "black codes," restored a form of servitude under the +guise of vagrancy and apprentice laws. Such methods were in fact partly +responsible for the reaction that led Congress to abandon Lincoln's +policies and undertake its own program of reconstruction. + +Still no extensive effort was made to solve by law the economic problems +of the bondmen. Radical abolitionists had advocated that the slaves when +emancipated should be given outright the fields of their former +masters; but Congress steadily rejected the very idea of confiscation. +The necessity of immediate assistance it recognized by creating in 1865 +the Freedmen's Bureau to take care of refugees. It authorized the issue +of food and clothing to the destitute and the renting of abandoned and +certain other lands under federal control to former slaves at reasonable +rates. But the larger problem of the relation of the freedmen to the +land, it left to the slow working of time. + +Against sharp protests from conservative men, particularly among the +Democrats, Congress did insist, however, on conferring upon the freedmen +certain rights by national law. These rights fell into broad divisions, +civil and political. By an act passed in 1866, Congress gave to former +slaves the rights of white citizens in the matter of making contracts, +giving testimony in courts, and purchasing, selling, and leasing +property. As it was doubtful whether Congress had the power to enact +this law, there was passed and submitted to the states the fourteenth +amendment which gave citizenship to the freedmen, assured them of the +privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, and declared +that no state should deprive any person of his life, liberty, or +property without due process of law. Not yet satisfied, Congress +attempted to give social equality to negroes by the second civil rights +bill of 1875 which promised to them, among other things, the full and +equal enjoyment of inns, theaters, public conveyances, and places of +amusement--a law later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. + +The matter of political rights was even more hotly contested; but the +radical Republicans, like Charles Sumner, asserted that civil rights +were not secure unless supported by the suffrage. In this same +fourteenth amendment they attempted to guarantee the ballot to all negro +men, leaving the women to take care of themselves. The amendment +declared in effect that when any state deprived adult male citizens of +the right to vote, its representation in Congress should be reduced in +the proportion such persons bore to the voting population. + +This provision having failed to accomplish its purpose, the fifteenth +amendment was passed and ratified, expressly declaring that no citizen +should be deprived of the right to vote "on account of race, color, or +previous condition of servitude." To make assurance doubly secure, +Congress enacted in 1870, 1872, and 1873 three drastic laws, sometimes +known as "force bills," providing for the use of federal authorities, +civil and military, in supervising elections in all parts of the Union. +So the federal government, having destroyed chattel slavery, sought by +legal decree to sweep away all its signs and badges, civil, social, and +political. Never, save perhaps in some of the civil conflicts of Greece +or Rome, had there occurred in the affairs of a nation a social +revolution so complete, so drastic, and far-reaching in its results. + + +SUMMARY OF THE SECTIONAL CONFLICT + +Just as the United States, under the impetus of Western enterprise, +rounded out the continental domain, its very existence as a nation was +challenged by a fratricidal conflict between two sections. This storm +had been long gathering upon the horizon. From the very beginning in +colonial times there had been a marked difference between the South and +the North. The former by climate and soil was dedicated to a planting +system--the cultivation of tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar cane--and in +the course of time slave labor became the foundation of the system. The +North, on the other hand, supplemented agriculture by commerce, trade, +and manufacturing. Slavery, though lawful, did not flourish there. An +abundant supply of free labor kept the Northern wheels turning. + +This difference between the two sections, early noted by close +observers, was increased with the advent of the steam engine and the +factory system. Between 1815 and 1860 an industrial revolution took +place in the North. Its signs were gigantic factories, huge aggregations +of industrial workers, immense cities, a flourishing commerce, and +prosperous banks. Finding an unfavorable reception in the South, the new +industrial system was confined mainly to the North. By canals and +railways New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were linked with the +wheatfields of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. A steel net wove North and +Northwest together. A commercial net supplemented it. Western trade was +diverted from New Orleans to the East and Eastern credit sustained +Western enterprise. + +In time, the industrial North and the planting South evolved different +ideas of political policy. The former looked with favor on protective +tariffs, ship subsidies, a sound national banking system, and internal +improvements. The farmers of the West demanded that the public domain be +divided up into free homesteads for farmers. The South steadily swung +around to the opposite view. Its spokesmen came to regard most of these +policies as injurious to the planting interests. + +The economic questions were all involved in a moral issue. The Northern +states, in which slavery was of slight consequence, had early abolished +the institution. In the course of a few years there appeared +uncompromising advocates of universal emancipation. Far and wide the +agitation spread. The South was thoroughly frightened. It demanded +protection against the agitators, the enforcement of its rights in the +case of runaway slaves, and equal privileges for slavery in the new +territories. + +With the passing years the conflict between the two sections increased +in bitterness. It flamed up in 1820 and was allayed by the Missouri +compromise. It took on the form of a tariff controversy and +nullification in 1832. It appeared again after the Mexican war when the +question of slavery in the new territories was raised. Again +compromise--the great settlement of 1850--seemed to restore peace, only +to prove an illusion. A series of startling events swept the country +into war: the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854, the rise of the +Republican party pledged to the prohibition of slavery in the +territories, the Dred Scott decision of 1857, the Lincoln-Douglas +debates, John Brown's raid, the election of Lincoln, and secession. + +The Civil War, lasting for four years, tested the strength of both North +and South, in leadership, in finance, in diplomatic skill, in material +resources, in industry, and in armed forces. By the blockade of Southern +ports, by an overwhelming weight of men and materials, and by relentless +hammering on the field of battle, the North was victorious. + +The results of the war were revolutionary in character. Slavery was +abolished and the freedmen given the ballot. The Southern planters who +had been the leaders of their section were ruined financially and almost +to a man excluded from taking part in political affairs. The union was +declared to be perpetual and the right of a state to secede settled by +the judgment of battle. Federal control over the affairs of states, +counties, and cities was established by the fourteenth amendment. The +power and prestige of the federal government were enhanced beyond +imagination. The North was now free to pursue its economic policies: a +protective tariff, a national banking system, land grants for railways, +free lands for farmers. Planting had dominated the country for nearly a +generation. Business enterprise was to take its place. + + +=References= + +NORTHERN ACCOUNTS + +J.K. Hosmer, _The Appeal to Arms_ and _The Outcome of the Civil War_ +(American Nation Series). + +J. Ropes, _History of the Civil War_ (best account of military +campaigns). + +J.F. Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vols. III, IV, and V. + +J.T. Morse, _Abraham Lincoln_ (2 vols.). + + +SOUTHERN ACCOUNTS + +W.E. Dodd, _Jefferson Davis_. + +Jefferson Davis, _Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_. + +E. Pollard, _The Lost Cause_. + +A.H. Stephens, _The War between the States_. + + +=Questions= + +1. Contrast the reception of secession in 1860 with that given to +nullification in 1832. + +2. Compare the Northern and Southern views of the union. + +3. What were the peculiar features of the Confederate constitution? + +4. How was the Confederacy financed? + +5. Compare the resources of the two sections. + +6. On what foundations did Southern hopes rest? + +7. Describe the attempts at a peaceful settlement. + +8. Compare the raising of armies for the Civil War with the methods +employed in the World War. (See below, chapter XXV.) + +9. Compare the financial methods of the government in the two wars. + +10. Explain why the blockade was such a deadly weapon. + +11. Give the leading diplomatic events of the war. + +12. Trace the growth of anti-slavery sentiment. + +13. What measures were taken to restrain criticism of the government? + +14. What part did Lincoln play in all phases of the war? + +15. State the principal results of the war. + +16. Compare Lincoln's plan of reconstruction with that adopted by +Congress. + +17. What rights did Congress attempt to confer upon the former slaves? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Was Secession Lawful?=--The Southern view by Jefferson Davis in +Harding, _Select Orations Illustrating American History_, pp. 364-369. +Lincoln's view, Harding, pp. 371-381. + +=The Confederate Constitution.=--Compare with the federal Constitution +in Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. 424-433 and pp. 271-279. + +=Federal Legislative Measures.=--Prepare a table and brief digest of the +important laws relating to the war. Macdonald, pp. 433-482. + +=Economic Aspects of the War.=--Coman, _Industrial History of the United +States_, pp. 279-301. Dewey, _Financial History of the United States_, +Chaps. XII and XIII. Tabulate the economic measures of Congress in +Macdonald. + +=Military Campaigns.=--The great battles are fully treated in Rhodes, +_History of the Civil War_, and teachers desiring to emphasize military +affairs may assign campaigns to members of the class for study and +report. A briefer treatment in Elson, _History of the United States_, +pp. 641-785. + +=Biographical Studies.=--Lincoln, Davis, Lee, Grant, Sherman, and other +leaders in civil and military affairs, with reference to local "war +governors." + +=English and French Opinion of the War.=--Rhodes, _History of the United +States_, Vol. IV, pp. 337-394. + +=The South during the War.=--Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 343-382. + +=The North during the War.=--Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 189-342. + +=Reconstruction Measures.=--Macdonald, _Source Book_, pp. 500-511; +514-518; 529-530; Elson, pp. 786-799. + +=The Force Bills.=--Macdonald, pp. 547-551; 554-564. + + + + +PART VI. NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH + + +The outcome of the Civil War in the South was nothing short of a +revolution. The ruling class, the law, and the government of the old +order had been subverted. To political chaos was added the havoc wrought +in agriculture, business, and transportation by military operations. And +as if to fill the cup to the brim, the task of reconstruction was +committed to political leaders from another section of the country, +strangers to the life and traditions of the South. + + +THE SOUTH AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR + +=A Ruling Class Disfranchised.=--As the sovereignty of the planters had +been the striking feature of the old regime, so their ruin was the +outstanding fact of the new. The situation was extraordinary. The +American Revolution was carried out by people experienced in the arts of +self-government, and at its close they were free to follow the general +course to which they had long been accustomed. The French Revolution +witnessed the overthrow of the clergy and the nobility; but middle +classes who took their places had been steadily rising in intelligence +and wealth. + +The Southern Revolution was unlike either of these cataclysms. It was +not brought about by a social upheaval, but by an external crisis. It +did not enfranchise a class that sought and understood power, but +bondmen who had played no part in the struggle. Moreover it struck down +a class equipped to rule. The leading planters were almost to a man +excluded from state and federal offices, and the fourteenth amendment +was a bar to their return. All civil and military places under the +authority of the United States and of the states were closed to every +man who had taken an oath to support the Constitution as a member of +Congress, as a state legislator, or as a state or federal officer, and +afterward engaged in "insurrection or rebellion," or "given aid and +comfort to the enemies" of the United States. This sweeping provision, +supplemented by the reconstruction acts, laid under the ban most of the +talent, energy, and spirit of the South. + +=The Condition of the State Governments.=--The legislative, executive, +and judicial branches of the state governments thus passed into the +control of former slaves, led principally by Northern adventurers or +Southern novices, known as "Scalawags." The result was a carnival of +waste, folly, and corruption. The "reconstruction" assembly of South +Carolina bought clocks at $480 apiece and chandeliers at $650. To +purchase land for former bondmen the sum of $800,000 was appropriated; +and swamps bought at seventy-five cents an acre were sold to the state +at five times the cost. In the years between 1868 and 1873, the debt of +the state rose from about $5,800,000 to $24,000,000, and millions of the +increase could not be accounted for by the authorities responsible for +it. + +=Economic Ruin--Urban and Rural.=--No matter where Southern men turned +in 1865 they found devastation--in the towns, in the country, and along +the highways. Atlanta, the city to which Sherman applied the torch, lay +in ashes; Nashville and Chattanooga had been partially wrecked; Richmond +and Augusta had suffered severely from fires. Charleston was described +by a visitor as "a city of ruins, of desolation, of vacant houses, of +rotten wharves, of deserted warehouses, of weed gardens, of miles of +grass-grown streets.... How few young men there are, how generally the +young women are dressed in black! The flower of their proud aristocracy +is buried on scores of battle fields." + +Those who journeyed through the country about the same time reported +desolation equally widespread and equally pathetic. An English traveler +who made his way along the course of the Tennessee River in 1870 wrote: +"The trail of war is visible throughout the valley in burnt-up gin +houses, ruined bridges, mills, and factories ... and large tracts of +once cultivated land are stripped of every vestige of fencing. The +roads, long neglected, are in disorder and, having in many places become +impassable, new tracks have been made through the woods and fields +without much respect to boundaries." Many a great plantation had been +confiscated by the federal authorities while the owner was in +Confederate service. Many more lay in waste. In the wake of the armies +the homes of rich and poor alike, if spared the torch, had been +despoiled of the stock and seeds necessary to renew agriculture. + +=Railways Dilapidated.=--Transportation was still more demoralized. This +is revealed in the pages of congressional reports based upon first-hand +investigations. One eloquent passage illustrates all the rest. From +Pocahontas to Decatur, Alabama, a distance of 114 miles, we are told, +the railroad was "almost entirely destroyed, except the road bed and +iron rails, and they were in a very bad condition--every bridge and +trestle destroyed, cross-ties rotten, buildings burned, water tanks +gone, tracks grown up in weeds and bushes, not a saw mill near the line +and the labor system of the country gone. About forty miles of the track +were burned, the cross-ties entirely destroyed, and the rails bent and +twisted in such a manner as to require great labor to straighten and a +large portion of them requiring renewal." + +=Capital and Credit Destroyed.=--The fluid capital of the South, money +and credit, was in the same prostrate condition as the material capital. +The Confederate currency, inflated to the bursting point, had utterly +collapsed and was as worthless as waste paper. The bonds of the +Confederate government were equally valueless. Specie had nearly +disappeared from circulation. The fourteenth amendment to the federal +Constitution had made all "debts, obligations, and claims" incurred in +aid of the Confederate cause "illegal and void." Millions of dollars +owed to Northern creditors before the war were overdue and payment was +pressed upon the debtors. Where such debts were secured by mortgages on +land, executions against the property could be obtained in federal +courts. + + +THE RESTORATION OF WHITE SUPREMACY + +=Intimidation.=--In both politics and economics, the process of +reconstruction in the South was slow and arduous. The first battle in +the political contest for white supremacy was won outside the halls of +legislatures and the courts of law. It was waged, in the main, by secret +organizations, among which the Ku Klux Klan and the White Camelia were +the most prominent. The first of these societies appeared in Tennessee +in 1866 and held its first national convention the following year. It +was in origin a social club. According to its announcement, its objects +were "to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenceless from the +indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the +brutal; and to succor the suffering, especially the widows and orphans +of the Confederate soldiers." The whole South was called "the Empire" +and was ruled by a "Grand Wizard." Each state was a realm and each +county a province. In the secret orders there were enrolled over half a +million men. + +The methods of the Ku Klux and the White Camelia were similar. Solemn +parades of masked men on horses decked in long robes were held, +sometimes in the daytime and sometimes at the dead of night. Notices +were sent to obnoxious persons warning them to stop certain practices. +If warning failed, something more convincing was tried. Fright was the +emotion most commonly stirred. A horseman, at the witching hour of +midnight, would ride up to the house of some offender, lift his head +gear, take off a skull, and hand it to the trembling victim with the +request that he hold it for a few minutes. Frequently violence was +employed either officially or unofficially by members of the Klan. Tar +and feathers were freely applied; the whip was sometimes laid on +unmercifully, and occasionally a brutal murder was committed. Often the +members were fired upon from bushes or behind trees, and swift +retaliation followed. So alarming did the clashes become that in 1870 +Congress forbade interference with electors or going in disguise for the +purpose of obstructing the exercise of the rights enjoyed under federal +law. + +In anticipation of such a step on the part of the federal government, +the Ku Klux was officially dissolved by the "Grand Wizard" in 1869. +Nevertheless, the local societies continued their organization and +methods. The spirit survived the national association. "On the whole," +says a Southern writer, "it is not easy to see what other course was +open to the South.... Armed resistance was out of the question. And yet +there must be some control had of the situation.... If force was denied, +craft was inevitable." + +=The Struggle for the Ballot Box.=--The effects of intimidation were +soon seen at elections. The freedman, into whose inexperienced hand the +ballot had been thrust, was ordinarily loath to risk his head by the +exercise of his new rights. He had not attained them by a long and +laborious contest of his own and he saw no urgent reason why he should +battle for the privilege of using them. The mere show of force, the mere +existence of a threat, deterred thousands of ex-slaves from appearing at +the polls. Thus the whites steadily recovered their dominance. Nothing +could prevent it. Congress enacted force bills establishing federal +supervision of elections and the Northern politicians protested against +the return of former Confederates to practical, if not official, power; +but all such opposition was like resistance to the course of nature. + +=Amnesty for Southerners.=--The recovery of white supremacy in this way +was quickly felt in national councils. The Democratic party in the North +welcomed it as a sign of its return to power. The more moderate +Republicans, anxious to heal the breach in American unity, sought to +encourage rather than to repress it. So it came about that amnesty for +Confederates was widely advocated. Yet it must be said that the struggle +for the removal of disabilities was stubborn and bitter. Lincoln, with +characteristic generosity, in the midst of the war had issued a general +proclamation of amnesty to nearly all who had been in arms against the +Union, on condition that they take an oath of loyalty; but Johnson, +vindictive toward Southern leaders and determined to make "treason +infamous," had extended the list of exceptions. Congress, even more +relentless in its pursuit of Confederates, pushed through the fourteenth +amendment which worked the sweeping disabilities we have just described. + +To appeals for comprehensive clemency, Congress was at first adamant. In +vain did men like Carl Schurz exhort their colleagues to crown their +victory in battle with a noble act of universal pardon and oblivion. +Congress would not yield. It would grant amnesty in individual cases; +for the principle of proscription it stood fast. When finally in 1872, +seven years after the surrender at Appomattox, it did pass the general +amnesty bill, it insisted on certain exceptions. Confederates who had +been members of Congress just before the war, or had served in other +high posts, civil or military, under the federal government, were still +excluded from important offices. Not until the summer of 1898, when the +war with Spain produced once more a union of hearts, did Congress relent +and abolish the last of the disabilities imposed on the Confederates. + +=The Force Bills Attacked and Nullified.=--The granting of amnesty +encouraged the Democrats to redouble their efforts all along the line. +In 1874 they captured the House of Representatives and declared war on +the "force bills." As a Republican Senate blocked immediate repeal, they +resorted to an ingenious parliamentary trick. To the appropriation bill +for the support of the army they attached a "rider," or condition, to +the effect that no troops should be used to sustain the Republican +government in Louisiana. The Senate rejected the proposal. A deadlock +ensued and Congress adjourned without making provision for the army. +Satisfied with the technical victory, the Democrats let the army bill +pass the next session, but kept up their fight on the force laws until +they wrung from President Hayes a measure forbidding the use of United +States troops in supervising elections. The following year they again +had recourse to a rider on the army bill and carried it through, putting +an end to the use of money for military control of elections. The +reconstruction program was clearly going to pieces, and the Supreme +Court helped along the process of dissolution by declaring parts of the +laws invalid. In 1878 the Democrats even won a majority in the Senate +and returned to power a large number of men once prominent in the +Confederate cause. + +The passions of the war by this time were evidently cooling. A new +generation of men was coming on the scene. The supremacy of the whites +in the South, if not yet complete, was at least assured. Federal +marshals, their deputies, and supervisors of elections still possessed +authority over the polls, but their strength had been shorn by the +withdrawal of United States troops. The war on the remaining remnants of +the "force bills" lapsed into desultory skirmishing. When in 1894 the +last fragment was swept away, the country took little note of the fact. +The only task that lay before the Southern leaders was to write in the +constitutions of their respective states the provisions of law which +would clinch the gains so far secured and establish white supremacy +beyond the reach of outside intervention. + +=White Supremacy Sealed by New State Constitutions.=--The impetus to +this final step was given by the rise of the Populist movement in the +South, which sharply divided the whites and in many communities threw +the balance of power into the hands of the few colored voters who +survived the process of intimidation. Southern leaders now devised new +constitutions so constructed as to deprive negroes of the ballot by law. +Mississippi took the lead in 1890; South Carolina followed five years +later; Louisiana, in 1898; North Carolina, in 1900; Alabama and +Maryland, in 1901; and Virginia, in 1902. + +The authors of these measures made no attempt to conceal their purposes. +"The intelligent white men of the South," said Governor Tillman, "intend +to govern here." The fifteenth amendment to the federal Constitution, +however, forbade them to deprive any citizen of the right to vote on +account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This made +necessary the devices of indirection. They were few, simple, and +effective. The first and most easily administered was the ingenious +provision requiring each prospective voter to read a section of the +state constitution or "understand and explain it" when read to him by +the election officers. As an alternative, the payment of taxes or the +ownership of a small amount of property was accepted as a qualification +for voting. Southern leaders, unwilling to disfranchise any of the poor +white men who had stood side by side with them "in the dark days of +reconstruction," also resorted to a famous provision known as "the +grandfather clause." This plan admitted to the suffrage any man who did +not have either property or educational qualifications, provided he had +voted on or before 1867 or was the son or grandson of any such person. + +The devices worked effectively. Of the 147,000 negroes in Mississippi +above the age of twenty-one, only about 8600 registered under the +constitution of 1890. Louisiana had 127,000 colored voters enrolled in +1896; under the constitution drafted two years later the registration +fell to 5300. An analysis of the figures for South Carolina in 1900 +indicates that only about one negro out of every hundred adult males of +that race took part in elections. Thus was closed this chapter of +reconstruction. + +=The Supreme Court Refuses to Intervene.=--Numerous efforts were made to +prevail upon the Supreme Court of the United States to declare such laws +unconstitutional; but the Court, usually on technical grounds, avoided +coming to a direct decision on the merits of the matter. In one case +the Court remarked that it could not take charge of and operate the +election machinery of Alabama; it concluded that "relief from a great +political wrong, if done as alleged, by the people of a state and by the +state itself, must be given by them, or by the legislative and executive +departments of the government of the United States." Only one of the +several schemes employed, namely, the "grandfather clause," was held to +be a violation of the federal Constitution. This blow, effected in 1915 +by the decision in the Oklahoma and Maryland cases, left, however, the +main structure of disfranchisement unimpaired. + +=Proposals to Reduce Southern Representation in Congress.=--These +provisions excluding thousands of male citizens from the ballot did not, +in express terms, deprive any one of the vote on account of race or +color. They did not, therefore, run counter to the letter of the +fifteenth amendment; but they did unquestionably make the states which +adopted them liable to the operations of the fourteenth amendment. The +latter very explicitly provides that whenever any state deprives adult +male citizens of the right to vote (except in certain minor cases) the +representation of the state in Congress shall be reduced in the +proportion which such number of disfranchised citizens bears to the +whole number of male citizens over twenty-one years of age. + +Mindful of this provision, those who protested against disfranchisement +in the South turned to the Republican party for relief, asking for +action by the political branches of the federal government as the +Supreme Court had suggested. The Republicans responded in their platform +of 1908 by condemning all devices designed to deprive any one of the +ballot for reasons of color alone; they demanded the enforcement in +letter and spirit of the fourteenth as well as all other amendments. +Though victorious in the election, the Republicans refrained from +reopening the ancient contest; they made no attempt to reduce Southern +representation in the House. Southern leaders, while protesting against +the declarations of their opponents, were able to view them as idle +threats in no way endangering the security of the measures by which +political reconstruction had been undone. + +=The Solid South.=--Out of the thirty-year conflict against "carpet-bag +rule" there emerged what was long known as the "solid South"--a South +that, except occasionally in the border states, never gave an electoral +vote to a Republican candidate for President. Before the Civil War, the +Southern people had been divided on political questions. Take, for +example, the election of 1860. In all the fifteen slave states the +variety of opinion was marked. In nine of them--Delaware, Virginia, +Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, and +Arkansas--the combined vote against the representative of the extreme +Southern point of view, Breckinridge, constituted a safe majority. In +each of the six states which were carried by Breckinridge, there was a +large and powerful minority. In North Carolina Breckinridge's majority +over Bell and Douglas was only 849 votes. Equally astounding to those +who imagine the South united in defense of extreme views in 1860 was the +vote for Bell, the Unionist candidate, who stood firmly for the +Constitution and silence on slavery. In every Southern state Bell's vote +was large. In Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee it was greater +than that received by Breckinridge; in Georgia, it was 42,000 against +51,000; in Louisiana, 20,000 against 22,000; in Mississippi, 25,000 +against 40,000. + +The effect of the Civil War upon these divisions was immediate and +decisive, save in the border states where thousands of men continued to +adhere to the cause of Union. In the Confederacy itself nearly all +dissent was silenced by war. Men who had been bitter opponents joined +hands in defense of their homes; when the armed conflict was over they +remained side by side working against "Republican misrule and negro +domination." By 1890, after Northern supremacy was definitely broken, +they boasted that there were at least twelve Southern states in which no +Republican candidate for President could win a single electoral vote. + +=Dissent in the Solid South.=--Though every one grew accustomed to speak +of the South as "solid," it did not escape close observers that in a +number of Southern states there appeared from time to time a fairly +large body of dissenters. In 1892 the Populists made heavy inroads upon +the Democratic ranks. On other occasions, the contests between factions +within the Democratic party over the nomination of candidates revealed +sharp differences of opinion. In some places, moreover, there grew up a +Republican minority of respectable size. For example, in Georgia, Mr. +Taft in 1908 polled 41,000 votes against 72,000 for Mr. Bryan; in North +Carolina, 114,000 against 136,000; in Tennessee, 118,000 against +135,000; in Kentucky, 235,000 against 244,000. In 1920, Senator Harding, +the Republican candidate, broke the record by carrying Tennessee as well +as Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Maryland. + + +THE ECONOMIC ADVANCE OF THE SOUTH + +=The Break-up of the Great Estates.=--In the dissolution of chattel +slavery it was inevitable that the great estate should give way before +the small farm. The plantation was in fact founded on slavery. It was +continued and expanded by slavery. Before the war the prosperous +planter, either by inclination or necessity, invested his surplus in +more land to add to his original domain. As his slaves increased in +number, he was forced to increase his acreage or sell them, and he +usually preferred the former, especially in the Far South. Still another +element favored the large estate. Slave labor quickly exhausted the soil +and of its own force compelled the cutting of the forests and the +extension of the area under cultivation. Finally, the planter took a +natural pride in his great estate; it was a sign of his prowess and his +social prestige. + +In 1865 the foundations of the planting system were gone. It was +difficult to get efficient labor to till the vast plantations. The +planters themselves were burdened with debts and handicapped by lack of +capital. Negroes commonly preferred tilling plots of their own, rented +or bought under mortgage, to the more irksome wage labor under white +supervision. The land hunger of the white farmer, once checked by the +planting system, reasserted itself. Before these forces the plantation +broke up. The small farm became the unit of cultivation in the South as +in the North. Between 1870 and 1900 the number of farms doubled in every +state south of the line of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, except in +Arkansas and Louisiana. From year to year the process of breaking up +continued, with all that it implied in the creation of land-owning +farmers. + +=The Diversification of Crops.=--No less significant was the concurrent +diversification of crops. Under slavery, tobacco, rice, and sugar were +staples and "cotton was king." These were standard crops. The methods of +cultivation were simple and easily learned. They tested neither the +skill nor the ingenuity of the slaves. As the returns were quick, they +did not call for long-time investments of capital. After slavery was +abolished, they still remained the staples, but far-sighted +agriculturists saw the dangers of depending upon a few crops. The mild +climate all the way around the coast from Virginia to Texas and the +character of the alluvial soil invited the exercise of more imagination. +Peaches, oranges, peanuts, and other fruits and vegetables were found to +grow luxuriantly. Refrigeration for steamships and freight cars put the +markets of great cities at the doors of Southern fruit and vegetable +gardeners. The South, which in planting days had relied so heavily upon +the Northwest for its foodstuffs, began to battle for independence. +Between 1880 and the close of the century the value of its farm crops +increased from $660,000,000 to $1,270,000,000. + +=The Industrial and Commercial Revolution.=--On top of the radical +changes in agriculture came an industrial and commercial revolution. The +South had long been rich in natural resources, but the slave system had +been unfavorable to their development. Rivers that would have turned +millions of spindles tumbled unheeded to the seas. Coal and iron beds +lay unopened. Timber was largely sacrificed in clearing lands for +planting, or fell to earth in decay. Southern enterprise was consumed in +planting. Slavery kept out the white immigrants who might have supplied +the skilled labor for industry. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +STEEL MILLS--BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA] + +After 1865, achievement and fortune no longer lay on the land alone. As +soon as the paralysis of the war was over, the South caught the +industrial spirit that had conquered feudal Europe and the agricultural +North. In the development of mineral wealth, enormous strides were +taken. Iron ore of every quality was found, the chief beds being in +Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, +Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Five important coal basins were uncovered: +in Virginia, North Carolina, the Appalachian chain from Maryland to +Northern Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas. Oil pools were found +in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. Within two decades, 1880 to 1900, the +output of mineral wealth multiplied tenfold: from ten millions a year to +one hundred millions. The iron industries of West Virginia and Alabama +began to rival those of Pennsylvania. Birmingham became the Pittsburgh +and Atlanta the Chicago of the South. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A SOUTHERN COTTON MILL IN A COTTON FIELD] + +In other lines of industry, lumbering and cotton manufacturing took a +high rank. The development of Southern timber resources was in every +respect remarkable, particularly in Louisiana, Arkansas, and +Mississippi. At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, +primacy in lumber had passed from the Great Lakes region to the South. +In 1913 eight Southern states produced nearly four times as much lumber +as the Lake states and twice as much as the vast forests of Washington +and Oregon. + +The development of the cotton industry, in the meantime, was similarly +astounding. In 1865 cotton spinning was a negligible matter in the +Southern states. In 1880 they had one-fourth of the mills of the +country. At the end of the century they had one-half the mills, the two +Carolinas taking the lead by consuming more than one-third of their +entire cotton crop. Having both the raw materials and the power at hand, +they enjoyed many advantages over the New England rivals, and at the +opening of the new century were outstripping the latter in the +proportion of spindles annually put into operation. Moreover, the cotton +planters, finding a market at the neighboring mills, began to look +forward to a day when they would be somewhat emancipated from absolute +dependence upon the cotton exchanges of New York, New Orleans, and +Liverpool. + +Transportation kept pace with industry. In 1860, the South had about ten +thousand miles of railway. By 1880 the figure had doubled. During the +next twenty years over thirty thousand miles were added, most of the +increase being in Texas. About 1898 there opened a period of +consolidation in which scores of short lines were united, mainly under +the leadership of Northern capitalists, and new through service opened +to the North and West. Thus Southern industries were given easy outlets +to the markets of the nation and brought within the main currents of +national business enterprise. + +=The Social Effects of the Economic Changes.=--As long as the slave +system lasted and planting was the major interest, the South was bound +to be sectional in character. With slavery gone, crops diversified, +natural resources developed, and industries promoted, the social order +of the ante-bellum days inevitably dissolved; the South became more and +more assimilated to the system of the North. In this process several +lines of development are evident. + +In the first place we see the steady rise of the small farmer. Even in +the old days there had been a large class of white yeomen who owned no +slaves and tilled the soil with their own hands, but they labored under +severe handicaps. They found the fertile lands of the coast and river +valleys nearly all monopolized by planters, and they were by the force +of circumstances driven into the uplands where the soil was thin and the +crops were light. Still they increased in numbers and zealously worked +their freeholds. + +The war proved to be their opportunity. With the break-up of the +plantations, they managed to buy land more worthy of their plows. By +intelligent labor and intensive cultivation they were able to restore +much of the worn-out soil to its original fertility. In the meantime +they rose with their prosperity in the social and political scale. It +became common for the sons of white farmers to enter the professions, +while their daughters went away to college and prepared for teaching. +Thus a more democratic tone was given to the white society of the South. +Moreover the migration to the North and West, which had formerly carried +thousands of energetic sons and daughters to search for new homesteads, +was materially reduced. The energy of the agricultural population went +into rehabilitation. + +The increase in the number of independent farmers was accompanied by the +rise of small towns and villages which gave diversity to the life of the +South. Before 1860 it was possible to travel through endless stretches +of cotton and tobacco. The social affairs of the planter's family +centered in the homestead even if they were occasionally interrupted by +trips to distant cities or abroad. Carpentry, bricklaying, and +blacksmithing were usually done by slaves skilled in simple handicrafts. +Supplies were bought wholesale. In this way there was little place in +plantation economy for villages and towns with their stores and +mechanics. + +The abolition of slavery altered this. Small farms spread out where +plantations had once stood. The skilled freedmen turned to agriculture +rather than to handicrafts; white men of a business or mechanical bent +found an opportunity to serve the needs of their communities. So local +merchants and mechanics became an important element in the social +system. In the county seats, once dominated by the planters, business +and professional men assumed the leadership. + +Another vital outcome of this revolution was the transference of a large +part of planting enterprise to business. Mr. Bruce, a Southern historian +of fine scholarship, has summed up this process in a single telling +paragraph: "The higher planting class that under the old system gave so +much distinction to rural life has, so far as it has survived at all, +been concentrated in the cities. The families that in the time of +slavery would have been found only in the country are now found, with a +few exceptions, in the towns. The transplantation has been practically +universal. The talent, the energy, the ambition that formerly sought +expression in the management of great estates and the control of hosts +of slaves, now seek a field of action in trade, in manufacturing +enterprises, or in the general enterprises of development. This was for +the ruling class of the South the natural outcome of the great economic +revolution that followed the war." + +As in all other parts of the world, the mechanical revolution was +attended by the growth of a population of industrial workers dependent +not upon the soil but upon wages for their livelihood. When Jefferson +Davis was inaugurated President of the Southern Confederacy, there were +approximately only one hundred thousand persons employed in Southern +manufactures as against more than a million in Northern mills. Fifty +years later, Georgia and Alabama alone had more than one hundred and +fifty thousand wage-earners. Necessarily this meant also a material +increase in urban population, although the wide dispersion of cotton +spinning among small centers prevented the congestion that had +accompanied the rise of the textile industry in New England. In 1910, +New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, and Houston stood in the same +relation to the New South that Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, and +Detroit had stood to the New West fifty years before. The problems of +labor and capital and municipal administration, which the earlier +writers boasted would never perplex the planting South, had come in full +force. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A GLIMPSE OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE] + +=The Revolution in the Status of the Slaves.=--No part of Southern +society was so profoundly affected by the Civil War and economic +reconstruction as the former slaves. On the day of emancipation, they +stood free, but empty-handed, the owners of no tools or property, the +masters of no trade and wholly inexperienced in the arts of self-help +that characterized the whites in general. They had never been accustomed +to looking out for themselves. The plantation bell had called them to +labor and released them. Doles of food and clothing had been regularly +made in given quantities. They did not understand wages, ownership, +renting, contracts, mortgages, leases, bills, or accounts. + +When they were emancipated, four courses were open to them. They could +flee from the plantation to the nearest town or city, or to the distant +North, to seek a livelihood. Thousands of them chose this way, +overcrowding cities where disease mowed them down. They could remain +where they, were in their cabins and work for daily wages instead of +food, clothing, and shelter. This second course the major portion of +them chose; but, as few masters had cash to dispense, the new relation +was much like the old, in fact. It was still one of barter. The planter +offered food, clothing, and shelter; the former slaves gave their labor +in return. That was the best that many of them could do. + +A third course open to freedmen was that of renting from the former +master, paying him usually with a share of the produce of the land. This +way a large number of them chose. It offered them a chance to become +land owners in time and it afforded an easier life, the renter being, to +a certain extent at least, master of his own hours of labor. The final +and most difficult path was that to ownership of land. Many a master +helped his former slaves to acquire small holdings by offering easy +terms. The more enterprising and the more fortunate who started life as +renters or wage-earners made their way upward to ownership in so many +cases that by the end of the century, one-fourth of the colored laborers +on the land owned the soil they tilled. + +In the meantime, the South, though relatively poor, made relatively +large expenditures for the education of the colored population. By the +opening of the twentieth century, facilities were provided for more than +one-half of the colored children of school age. While in many respects +this progress was disappointing, its significance, to be appreciated, +must be derived from a comparison with the total illiteracy which +prevailed under slavery. + +In spite of all that happened, however, the status of the negroes in the +South continued to give a peculiar character to that section of the +country. They were almost entirely excluded from the exercise of the +suffrage, especially in the Far South. Special rooms were set aside for +them at the railway stations and special cars on the railway lines. In +the field of industry calling for technical skill, it appears, from the +census figures, that they lost ground between 1890 and 1900--a condition +which their friends ascribed to discriminations against them in law and +in labor organizations and their critics ascribed to their lack of +aptitude. Whatever may be the truth, the fact remained that at the +opening of the twentieth century neither the hopes of the emancipators +nor the fears of their opponents were realized. The marks of the +"peculiar institution" were still largely impressed upon Southern +society. + +The situation, however, was by no means unchanging. On the contrary +there was a decided drift in affairs. For one thing, the proportion of +negroes in the South had slowly declined. By 1900 they were in a +majority in only two states, South Carolina and Mississippi. In +Arkansas, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina the proportion of +the white population was steadily growing. The colored migration +northward increased while the westward movement of white farmers which +characterized pioneer days declined. At the same time a part of the +foreign immigration into the United States was diverted southward. As +the years passed these tendencies gained momentum. The already huge +colored quarters in some Northern cities were widely expanded, as whole +counties in the South were stripped of their colored laborers. The race +question, in its political and economic aspects, became less and less +sectional, more and more national. The South was drawn into the main +stream of national life. The separatist forces which produced the +cataclysm of 1861 sank irresistibly into the background. + + +=References= + +H.W. Grady, _The New South_ (1890). + +H.A. Herbert, _Why the Solid South_. + +W.G. Brown, _The Lower South_. + +E.G. Murphy, _Problems of the Present South_. + +B.T. Washington, _The Negro Problem_; _The Story of the Negro_; _The +Future of the Negro_. + +A.B. Hart, _The Southern South_ and R.S. Baker, _Following the Color +Line_ (two works by Northern writers). + +T.N. Page, _The Negro, the Southerner's Problem_. + + +=Questions= + +1. Give the three main subdivisions of the chapter. + +2. Compare the condition of the South in 1865 with that of the North. +Compare with the condition of the United States at the close of the +Revolutionary War. At the close of the World War in 1918. + +3. Contrast the enfranchisement of the slaves with the enfranchisement +of white men fifty years earlier. + +4. What was the condition of the planters as compared with that of the +Northern manufacturers? + +5. How does money capital contribute to prosperity? Describe the plight +of Southern finance. + +6. Give the chief steps in the restoration of white supremacy. + +7. Do you know of any other societies to compare with the Ku Klux Klan? + +8. Give Lincoln's plan for amnesty. What principles do you think should +govern the granting of amnesty? + +9. How were the "Force bills" overcome? + +10. Compare the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments with regard to the +suffrage provisions. + +11. Explain how they may be circumvented. + +12. Account for the Solid South. What was the situation before 1860? + +13. In what ways did Southern agriculture tend to become like that of +the North? What were the social results? + +14. Name the chief results of an "industrial revolution" in general. In +the South, in particular. + +15. What courses were open to freedmen in 1865? + +16. Give the main features in the economic and social status of the +colored population in the South. + +17. Explain why the race question is national now, rather than +sectional. + + + +=Research Topics= + +=Amnesty for Confederates.=--Study carefully the provisions of the +fourteenth amendment in the Appendix. Macdonald, _Documentary Source +Book of American History_, pp. 470 and 564. A plea for amnesty in +Harding, _Select Orations Illustrating American History_, pp. 467-488. + +=Political Conditions in the South in 1868.=--Dunning, _Reconstruction, +Political and Economic_ (American Nation Series), pp. 109-123; Hart, +_American History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 445-458, +497-500; Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. 799-805. + +=Movement for White Supremacy.=--Dunning, _Reconstruction_, pp. 266-280; +Paxson, _The New Nation_ (Riverside Series), pp. 39-58; Beard, _American +Government and Politics_, pp. 454-457. + +=The Withdrawal of Federal Troops from the South.=--Sparks, _National +Development_ (American Nation Series), pp. 84-102; Rhodes, _History of +the United States_, Vol. VIII, pp. 1-12. + +=Southern Industry.=--Paxson, _The New Nation_, pp. 192-207; T.M. Young, +_The American Cotton Industry_, pp. 54-99. + +=The Race Question.=--B.T. Washington, _Up From Slavery_ (sympathetic +presentation); A.H. Stone, _Studies in the American Race Problem_ +(coldly analytical); Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 647-649, +652-654, 663-669. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY + + +If a single phrase be chosen to characterize American life during the +generation that followed the age of Douglas and Lincoln, it must be +"business enterprise"--the tremendous, irresistible energy of a virile +people, mounting in numbers toward a hundred million and applied without +let or hindrance to the developing of natural resources of unparalleled +richness. The chief goal of this effort was high profits for the +captains of industry, on the one hand; and high wages for the workers, +on the other. Its signs, to use the language of a Republican orator in +1876, were golden harvest fields, whirling spindles, turning wheels, +open furnace doors, flaming forges, and chimneys filled with eager fire. +The device blazoned on its shield and written over its factory doors was +"prosperity." A Republican President was its "advance agent." Released +from the hampering interference of the Southern planters and the +confusing issues of the slavery controversy, business enterprise sprang +forward to the task of winning the entire country. Then it flung its +outposts to the uttermost parts of the earth--Europe, Africa, and the +Orient--where were to be found markets for American goods and natural +resources for American capital to develop. + + +RAILWAYS AND INDUSTRY + +=The Outward Signs of Enterprise.=--It is difficult to comprehend all +the multitudinous activities of American business energy or to appraise +its effects upon the life and destiny of the American people; for beyond +the horizon of the twentieth century lie consequences as yet undreamed +of in our poor philosophy. Statisticians attempt to record its +achievements in terms of miles of railways built, factories opened, men +and women employed, fortunes made, wages paid, cities founded, rivers +spanned, boxes, bales, and tons produced. Historians apply standards of +comparison with the past. Against the slow and leisurely stagecoach, +they set the swift express, rushing from New York to San Francisco in +less time than Washington consumed in his triumphal tour from Mt. Vernon +to New York for his first inaugural. Against the lazy sailing vessel +drifting before a genial breeze, they place the turbine steamer crossing +the Atlantic in five days or the still swifter airplane, in fifteen +hours. For the old workshop where a master and a dozen workmen and +apprentices wrought by hand, they offer the giant factory where ten +thousand persons attend the whirling wheels driven by steam. They write +of the "romance of invention" and the "captains of industry." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A CORNER IN THE BETHLEHEM STEEL WORKS] + +=The Service of the Railway.=--All this is fitting in its way. Figures +and contrasts cannot, however, tell the whole story. Take, for example, +the extension of railways. It is easy to relate that there were 30,000 +miles in 1860; 166,000 in 1890; and 242,000 in 1910. It is easy to show +upon the map how a few straggling lines became a perfect mesh of closely +knitted railways; or how, like the tentacles of a great monster, the few +roads ending in the Mississippi Valley in 1860 were extended and +multiplied until they tapped every wheat field, mine, and forest beyond +the valley. All this, eloquent of enterprise as it truly is, does not +reveal the significance of railways for American life. It does not +indicate how railways made a continental market for American goods; nor +how they standardized the whole country, giving to cities on the +advancing frontier the leading features of cities in the old East; nor +how they carried to the pioneer the comforts of civilization; nor yet +how in the West they were the forerunners of civilization, the makers of +homesteads, the builders of states. + +=Government Aid for Railways.=--Still the story is not ended. The +significant relation between railways and politics must not be +overlooked. The bounty of a lavish government, for example, made +possible the work of railway promoters. By the year 1872 the Federal +government had granted in aid of railways 155,000,000 acres of land--an +area estimated as almost equal to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, +Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The +Union Pacific Company alone secured from the federal government a free +right of way through the public domain, twenty sections of land with +each mile of railway, and a loan up to fifty millions of dollars secured +by a second mortgage on the company's property. More than half of the +northern tier of states lying against Canada from Lake Michigan to the +Pacific was granted to private companies in aid of railways and wagon +roads. About half of New Mexico, Arizona, and California was also given +outright to railway companies. These vast grants from the federal +government were supplemented by gifts from the states in land and by +subscriptions amounting to more than two hundred million dollars. The +history of these gifts and their relation to the political leaders that +engineered them would alone fill a large and interesting volume. + +=Railway Fortunes and Capital.=--Out of this gigantic railway promotion, +the first really immense American fortunes were made. Henry Adams, the +grandson of John Quincy Adams, related that his grandfather on his +mother's side, Peter Brooks, on his death in 1849, left a fortune of two +million dollars, "supposed to be the largest estate in Boston," then one +of the few centers of great riches. Compared with the opulence that +sprang out of the Union Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the Southern +Pacific, with their subsidiary and component lines, the estate of Peter +Brooks was a poor man's heritage. + +The capital invested in these railways was enormous beyond the +imagination of the men of the stagecoach generation. The total debt of +the United States incurred in the Revolutionary War--a debt which those +of little faith thought the country could never pay--was reckoned at a +figure well under $75,000,000. When the Union Pacific Railroad was +completed, there were outstanding against it $27,000,000 in first +mortgage bonds, $27,000,000 in second mortgage bonds held by the +government, $10,000,000 in income bonds, $10,000,000 in land grant +bonds, and, on top of that huge bonded indebtedness, $36,000,000 in +stock--making $110,000,000 in all. If the amount due the United States +government be subtracted, still there remained, in private hands, stocks +and bonds exceeding in value the whole national debt of Hamilton's +day--a debt that strained all the resources of the Federal government in +1790. Such was the financial significance of the railways. + +[Illustration: RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1918] + +=Growth and Extension of Industry.=--In the field of manufacturing, +mining, and metal working, the results of business enterprise far +outstripped, if measured in mere dollars, the results of railway +construction. By the end of the century there were about ten billion +dollars invested in factories alone and five million wage-earners +employed in them; while the total value of the output, fourteen billion +dollars, was fifteen times the figure for 1860. In the Eastern states +industries multiplied. In the Northwest territory, the old home of +Jacksonian Democracy, they overtopped agriculture. By the end of the +century, Ohio had almost reached and Illinois had surpassed +Massachusetts in the annual value of manufacturing output. + +That was not all. Untold wealth in the form of natural resources was +discovered in the South and West. Coal deposits were found in the +Appalachians stretching from Pennsylvania down to Alabama, in Michigan, +in the Mississippi Valley, and in the Western mountains from North +Dakota to New Mexico. In nearly every coal-bearing region, iron was also +discovered and the great fields of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota +soon rivaled those of the Appalachian area. Copper, lead, gold, and +silver in fabulous quantities were unearthed by the restless prospectors +who left no plain or mountain fastness unexplored. Petroleum, first +pumped from the wells of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1859, made new +fortunes equaling those of trade, railways, and land speculation. It +scattered its riches with an especially lavish hand through Oklahoma, +Texas, and California. + +=The Trust--an Instrument of Industrial Progress.=--Business enterprise, +under the direction of powerful men working single-handed, or of small +groups of men pooling their capital for one or more undertakings, had +not advanced far before there appeared upon the scene still mightier +leaders of even greater imagination. New constructive genius now brought +together and combined under one management hundreds of concerns or +thousands of miles of railways, revealing the magic strength of +cooeperation on a national scale. Price-cutting in oil, threatening ruin +to those engaged in the industry, as early as 1879, led a number of +companies in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia to unite in +price-fixing. Three years later a group of oil interests formed a close +organization, placing all their stocks in the hands of trustees, among +whom was John D. Rockefeller. The trustees, in turn, issued +certificates representing the share to which each participant was +entitled; and took over the management of the entire business. Such was +the nature of the "trust," which was to play such an unique role in the +progress of America. + +The idea of combination was applied in time to iron and steel, copper, +lead, sugar, cordage, coal, and other commodities, until in each field +there loomed a giant trust or corporation, controlling, if not most of +the output, at least enough to determine in a large measure the prices +charged to consumers. With the passing years, the railways, mills, +mines, and other business concerns were transferred from individual +owners to corporations. At the end of the nineteenth century, the whole +face of American business was changed. Three-fourths of the output from +industries came from factories under corporate management and only +one-fourth from individual and partnership undertakings. + +[Illustration: JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER] + +=The Banking Corporation.=--Very closely related to the growth of +business enterprise on a large scale was the system of banking. In the +old days before banks, a person with savings either employed them in his +own undertakings, lent them to a neighbor, or hid them away where they +set no industry in motion. Even in the early stages of modern business, +it was common for a manufacturer to rise from small beginnings by +financing extensions out of his own earnings and profits. This state of +affairs was profoundly altered by the growth of the huge corporations +requiring millions and even billions of capital. The banks, once an +adjunct to business, became the leaders in business. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +WALL STREET, NEW YORK CITY] + +It was the banks that undertook to sell the stocks and bonds issued by +new corporations and trusts and to supply them with credit to carry on +their operations. Indeed, many of the great mergers or combinations in +business were initiated by magnates in the banking world with millions +and billions under their control. Through their connections with one +another, the banks formed a perfect network of agencies gathering up the +pennies and dollars of the masses as well as the thousands of the rich +and pouring them all into the channels of business and manufacturing. +In this growth of banking on a national scale, it was inevitable that a +few great centers, like Wall Street in New York or State Street in +Boston, should rise to a position of dominance both in concentrating the +savings and profits of the nation and in financing new as well as old +corporations. + +=The Significance of the Corporation.=--The corporation, in fact, became +the striking feature of American business life, one of the most +marvelous institutions of all time, comparable in wealth and power and +the number of its servants with kingdoms and states of old. The effect +of its rise and growth cannot be summarily estimated; but some special +facts are obvious. It made possible gigantic enterprises once entirely +beyond the reach of any individual, no matter how rich. It eliminated +many of the futile and costly wastes of competition in connection with +manufacture, advertising, and selling. It studied the cheapest methods +of production and shut down mills that were poorly equipped or +disadvantageously located. It established laboratories for research in +industry, chemistry, and mechanical inventions. Through the sale of +stocks and bonds, it enabled tens of thousands of people to become +capitalists, if only in a small way. The corporation made it possible +for one person to own, for instance, a $50 share in a million dollar +business concern--a thing entirely impossible under a regime of +individual owners and partnerships. + +There was, of course, another side to the picture. Many of the +corporations sought to become monopolies and to make profits, not by +economies and good management, but by extortion from purchasers. +Sometimes they mercilessly crushed small business men, their +competitors, bribed members of legislatures to secure favorable laws, +and contributed to the campaign funds of both leading parties. Wherever +a trust approached the position of a monopoly, it acquired a dominion +over the labor market which enabled it to break even the strongest trade +unions. In short, the power of the trust in finance, in manufacturing, +in politics, and in the field of labor control can hardly be measured. + +=The Corporation and Labor.=--In the development of the corporation +there was to be observed a distinct severing of the old ties between +master and workmen, which existed in the days of small industries. For +the personal bond between the owner and the employees was substituted a +new relation. "In most parts of our country," as President Wilson once +said, "men work, not for themselves, not as partners in the old way in +which they used to work, but generally as employees--in a higher or +lower grade--of great corporations." The owner disappeared from the +factory and in his place came the manager, representing the usually +invisible stockholders and dependent for his success upon his ability to +make profits for the owners. Hence the term "soulless corporation," +which was to exert such a deep influence on American thinking about +industrial relations. + +=Cities and Immigration.=--Expressed in terms of human life, this era of +unprecedented enterprise meant huge industrial cities and an immense +labor supply, derived mainly from European immigration. Here, too, +figures tell only a part of the story. In Washington's day nine-tenths +of the American people were engaged in agriculture and lived in the +country; in 1890 more than one-third of the population dwelt in towns of +2500 and over; in 1920 more than half of the population lived in towns +of over 2500. In forty years, between 1860 and 1900, Greater New York +had grown from 1,174,000 to 3,437,000; San Francisco from 56,000 to +342,000; Chicago from 109,000 to 1,698,000. The miles of city tenements +began to rival, in the number of their residents, the farm homesteads of +the West. The time so dreaded by Jefferson had arrived. People were +"piled upon one another in great cities" and the republic of small +farmers had passed away. + +To these industrial centers flowed annually an ever-increasing tide of +immigration, reaching the half million point in 1880; rising to +three-quarters of a million three years later; and passing the million +mark in a single year at the opening of the new century. Immigration was +as old as America but new elements now entered the situation. In the +first place, there were radical changes in the nationality of the +newcomers. The migration from Northern Europe--England, Ireland, +Germany, and Scandinavia--diminished; that from Italy, Russia, and +Austria-Hungary increased, more than three-fourths of the entire number +coming from these three lands between the years 1900 and 1910. These +later immigrants were Italians, Poles, Magyars, Czechs, Slovaks, +Russians, and Jews, who came from countries far removed from the +language and the traditions of England whence came the founders of +America. + +In the second place, the reception accorded the newcomers differed from +that given to the immigrants in the early days. By 1890 all the free +land was gone. They could not, therefore, be dispersed widely among the +native Americans to assimilate quickly and unconsciously the habits and +ideas of American life. On the contrary, they were diverted mainly to +the industrial centers. There they crowded--nay, overcrowded--into +colonies of their own where they preserved their languages, their +newspapers, and their old-world customs and views. + +So eager were American business men to get an enormous labor supply that +they asked few questions about the effect of this "alien invasion" upon +the old America inherited from the fathers. They even stimulated the +invasion artificially by importing huge armies of foreigners under +contract to work in specified mines and mills. There seemed to be no +limit to the factories, forges, refineries, and railways that could be +built, to the multitudes that could be employed in conquering a +continent. As for the future, that was in the hands of Providence! + +=Business Theories of Politics.=--As the statesmen of Hamilton's school +and the planters of Calhoun's had their theories of government and +politics, so the leaders in business enterprise had theirs. It was +simple and easily stated. "It is the duty of the government," they +urged, "to protect American industry against foreign competition by +means of high tariffs on imported goods, to aid railways by generous +grants of land, to sell mineral and timber lands at low prices to +energetic men ready to develop them, and then to leave the rest to the +initiative and drive of individuals and companies." All government +interference with the management, prices, rates, charges, and conduct of +private business they held to be either wholly pernicious or intolerably +impertinent. Judging from their speeches and writings, they conceived +the nation as a great collection of individuals, companies, and labor +unions all struggling for profits or high wages and held together by a +government whose principal duty was to keep the peace among them and +protect industry against the foreign manufacturer. Such was the +political theory of business during the generation that followed the +Civil War. + + +THE SUPREMACY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (1861-85) + +=Business Men and Republican Policies.=--Most of the leaders in industry +gravitated to the Republican ranks. They worked in the North and the +Republican party was essentially Northern. It was moreover--at least so +far as the majority of its members were concerned--committed to +protective tariffs, a sound monetary and banking system, the promotion +of railways and industry by land grants, and the development of internal +improvements. It was furthermore generous in its immigration policy. It +proclaimed America to be an asylum for the oppressed of all countries +and flung wide the doors for immigrants eager to fill the factories, man +the mines, and settle upon Western lands. In a word the Republicans +stood for all those specific measures which favored the enlargement and +prosperity of business. At the same time they resisted government +interference with private enterprise. They did not regulate railway +rates, prosecute trusts for forming combinations, or prevent railway +companies from giving lower rates to some shippers than to others. To +sum it up, the political theories of the Republican party for three +decades after the Civil War were the theories of American +business--prosperous and profitable industries for the owners and "the +full dinner pail" for the workmen. Naturally a large portion of those +who flourished under its policies gave their support to it, voted for +its candidates, and subscribed to its campaign funds. + +=Sources of Republican Strength in the North.=--The Republican party was +in fact a political organization of singular power. It originated in a +wave of moral enthusiasm, having attracted to itself, if not the +abolitionists, certainly all those idealists, like James Russell Lowell +and George William Curtis, who had opposed slavery when opposition was +neither safe nor popular. To moral principles it added practical +considerations. Business men had confidence in it. Workingmen, who +longed for the independence of the farmer, owed to its indulgent land +policy the opportunity of securing free homesteads in the West. The +immigrant, landing penniless on these shores, as a result of the same +beneficent system, often found himself in a little while with an estate +as large as many a baronial domain in the Old World. Under a Republican +administration, the union had been saved. To it the veterans of the war +could turn with confidence for those rewards of service which the +government could bestow: pensions surpassing in liberality anything that +the world had ever seen. Under a Republican administration also the +great debt had been created in the defense of the union, and to the +Republican party every investor in government bonds could look for the +full and honorable discharge of the interest and principal. The spoils +system, inaugurated by Jacksonian Democracy, in turn placed all the +federal offices in Republican hands, furnishing an army of party workers +to be counted on for loyal service in every campaign. + +Of all these things Republican leaders made full and vigorous use, +sometimes ascribing to the party, in accordance with ancient political +usage, merits and achievements not wholly its own. Particularly was this +true in the case of saving the union. "When in the economy of +Providence, this land was to be purged of human slavery ... the +Republican party came into power," ran a declaration in one platform. +"The Republican party suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emancipated four +million slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and established +universal suffrage," ran another. As for the aid rendered by the +millions of Northern Democrats who stood by the union and the tens of +thousands of them who actually fought in the union army, the Republicans +in their zeal were inclined to be oblivious. They repeatedly charged the +Democratic party "with being the same in character and spirit as when it +sympathized with treason." + +=Republican Control of the South.=--To the strength enjoyed in the +North, the Republicans for a long time added the advantages that came +from control over the former Confederate states where the newly +enfranchised negroes, under white leadership, gave a grateful support to +the party responsible for their freedom. In this branch of politics, +motives were so mixed that no historian can hope to appraise them all at +their proper values. On the one side of the ledger must be set the +vigorous efforts of the honest and sincere friends of the freedmen to +win for them complete civil and political equality, wiping out not only +slavery but all its badges of misery and servitude. On the same side +must be placed the labor of those who had valiantly fought in forum and +field to save the union and who regarded continued Republican supremacy +after the war as absolutely necessary to prevent the former leaders in +secession from coming back to power. At the same time there were +undoubtedly some men of the baser sort who looked on politics as a game +and who made use of "carpet-bagging" in the South to win the spoils that +might result from it. At all events, both by laws and presidential acts, +the Republicans for many years kept a keen eye upon the maintenance of +their dominion in the South. Their declaration that neither the law nor +its administration should admit any discrimination in respect of +citizens by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servitude +appealed to idealists and brought results in elections. Even South +Carolina, where reposed the ashes of John C. Calhoun, went Republican in +1872 by a vote of three to one! + +Republican control was made easy by the force bills described in a +previous chapter--measures which vested the supervision of elections in +federal officers appointed by Republican Presidents. These drastic +measures, departing from American tradition, the Republican authors +urged, were necessary to safeguard the purity of the ballot, not merely +in the South where the timid freedman might readily be frightened from +using it; but also in the North, particularly in New York City, where it +was claimed that fraud was regularly practiced by Democratic leaders. + +The Democrats, on their side, indignantly denied the charges, replying +that the force bills were nothing but devices created by the Republicans +for the purpose of securing their continued rule through systematic +interference with elections. Even the measures of reconstruction were +deemed by Democratic leaders as thinly veiled schemes to establish +Republican power throughout the country. "Nor is there the slightest +doubt," exclaimed Samuel J. Tilden, spokesman of the Democrats in New +York and candidate for President in 1876, "that the paramount object and +motive of the Republican party is by these means to secure itself +against a reaction of opinion adverse to it in our great populous +Northern commonwealths.... When the Republican party resolved to +establish negro supremacy in the ten states in order to gain to itself +the representation of those states in Congress, it had to begin by +governing the people of those states by the sword.... The next was the +creation of new electoral bodies for those ten states, in which, by +exclusions, by disfranchisements and proscriptions, by control over +registration, by applying test oaths ... by intimidation and by every +form of influence, three million negroes are made to predominate over +four and a half million whites." + +=The War as a Campaign Issue.=--Even the repeal of force bills could not +allay the sectional feelings engendered by the war. The Republicans +could not forgive the men who had so recently been in arms against the +union and insisted on calling them "traitors" and "rebels." The +Southerners, smarting under the reconstruction acts, could regard the +Republicans only as political oppressors. The passions of the war had +been too strong; the distress too deep to be soon forgotten. The +generation that went through it all remembered it all. For twenty +years, the Republicans, in their speeches and platforms, made "a +straight appeal to the patriotism of the Northern voters." They +maintained that their party, which had saved the union and emancipated +the slaves, was alone worthy of protecting the union and uplifting the +freedmen. + +Though the Democrats, especially in the North, resented this policy and +dubbed it with the expressive but inelegant phrase, "waving the bloody +shirt," the Republicans refused to surrender a slogan which made such a +ready popular appeal. As late as 1884, a leader expressed the hope that +they might "wring one more President from the bloody shirt." They +refused to let the country forget that the Democratic candidate, Grover +Cleveland, had escaped military service by hiring a substitute; and they +made political capital out of the fact that he had "insulted the +veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic" by going fishing on +Decoration Day. + +=Three Republican Presidents.=--Fortified by all these elements of +strength, the Republicans held the presidency from 1869 to 1885. The +three Presidents elected in this period, Grant, Hayes, and Garfield, had +certain striking characteristics in common. They were all of origin +humble enough to please the most exacting Jacksonian Democrat. They had +been generals in the union army. Grant, next to Lincoln, was regarded as +the savior of the Constitution. Hayes and Garfield, though lesser lights +in the military firmament, had honorable records duly appreciated by +veterans of the war, now thoroughly organized into the Grand Army of the +Republic. It is true that Grant was not a politician and had never voted +the Republican ticket; but this was readily overlooked. Hayes and +Garfield on the other hand were loyal party men. The former had served +in Congress and for three terms as governor of his state. The latter had +long been a member of the House of Representatives and was Senator-elect +when he received the nomination for President. + +All of them possessed, moreover, another important asset, which was not +forgotten by the astute managers who led in selecting candidates. All +of them were from Ohio--though Grant had been in Illinois when the +summons to military duties came--and Ohio was a strategic state. It lay +between the manufacturing East and the agrarian country to the West. +Having growing industries and wool to sell it benefited from the +protective tariff. Yet being mainly agricultural still, it was not +without sympathy for the farmers who showed low tariff or free trade +tendencies. Whatever share the East had in shaping laws and framing +policies, it was clear that the West was to have the candidates. This +division in privileges--not uncommon in political management--was always +accompanied by a judicious selection of the candidate for Vice +President. With Garfield, for example, was associated a prominent New +York politician, Chester A. Arthur, who, as fate decreed, was destined +to more than three years' service as chief magistrate, on the +assassination of his superior in office. + +=The Disputed Election of 1876.=--While taking note of the long years of +Republican supremacy, it must be recorded that grave doubts exist in the +minds of many historians as to whether one of the three Presidents, +Hayes, was actually the victor in 1876 or not. His Democratic opponent, +Samuel J. Tilden, received a popular plurality of a quarter of a million +and had a plausible claim to a majority of the electoral vote. At all +events, four states sent in double returns, one set for Tilden and +another for Hayes; and a deadlock ensued. Both parties vehemently +claimed the election and the passions ran so high that sober men did not +shrink from speaking of civil war again. Fortunately, in the end, the +counsels of peace prevailed. Congress provided for an electoral +commission of fifteen men to review the contested returns. The +Democrats, inspired by Tilden's moderation, accepted the judgment in +favor of Hayes even though they were not convinced that he was really +entitled to the office. + + +THE GROWTH OF OPPOSITION TO REPUBLICAN RULE + +=Abuses in American Political Life.=--During their long tenure of +office, the Republicans could not escape the inevitable consequences of +power; that is, evil practices and corrupt conduct on the part of some +who found shelter within the party. For that matter neither did the +Democrats manage to avoid such difficulties in those states and cities +where they had the majority. In New York City, for instance, the local +Democratic organization, known as Tammany Hall, passed under the sway of +a group of politicians headed by "Boss" Tweed. He plundered the city +treasury until public-spirited citizens, supported by Samuel J. Tilden, +the Democratic leader of the state, rose in revolt, drove the ringleader +from power, and sent him to jail. In Philadelphia, the local Republican +bosses were guilty of offenses as odious as those committed by New York +politicians. Indeed, the decade that followed the Civil War was marred +by so many scandals in public life that one acute editor was moved to +inquire: "Are not all the great communities of the Western World growing +more corrupt as they grow in wealth?" + +In the sphere of national politics, where the opportunities were +greater, betrayals of public trust were even more flagrant. One +revelation after another showed officers, high and low, possessed with +the spirit of peculation. Members of Congress, it was found, accepted +railway stock in exchange for votes in favor of land grants and other +concessions to the companies. In the administration as well as the +legislature the disease was rife. Revenue officers permitted whisky +distillers to evade their taxes and received heavy bribes in return. A +probe into the post-office department revealed the malodorous "star +route frauds"--the deliberate overpayment of certain mail carriers whose +lines were indicated in the official record by asterisks or stars. Even +cabinet officers did not escape suspicion, for the trail of the serpent +led straight to the door of one of them. + +In the lower ranges of official life, the spoils system became more +virulent as the number of federal employees increased. The holders of +offices and the seekers after them constituted a veritable political +army. They crowded into Republican councils, for the Republicans, being +in power, could alone dispense federal favors. They filled positions in +the party ranging from the lowest township committee to the national +convention. They helped to nominate candidates and draft platforms and +elbowed to one side the busy citizen, not conversant with party +intrigues, who could only give an occasional day to political matters. +Even the Civil Service Act of 1883, wrung from a reluctant Congress two +years after the assassination of Garfield, made little change for a long +time. It took away from the spoilsmen a few thousand government +positions, but it formed no check on the practice of rewarding party +workers from the public treasury. + +On viewing this state of affairs, many a distinguished citizen became +profoundly discouraged. James Russell Lowell, for example, thought he +saw a steady decline in public morals. In 1865, hearing of Lee's +surrender, he had exclaimed: "There is something magnificent in having a +country to love!" Ten years later, when asked to write an ode for the +centennial at Philadelphia in 1876, he could think only of a biting +satire on the nation: + + "Show your state legislatures; show your Rings; + And challenge Europe to produce such things + As high officials sitting half in sight + To share the plunder and fix things right. + If that don't fetch her, why, you need only + To show your latest style in martyrs,--Tweed: + She'll find it hard to hide her spiteful tears + At such advance in one poor hundred years." + +When his critics condemned him for this "attack upon his native land," +Lowell replied in sadness: "These fellows have no notion of what love of +country means. It was in my very blood and bones. If I am not an +American who ever was?... What fills me with doubt and dismay is the +degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of democracy? +Is ours a 'government of the people, by the people, for the people,' or +a Kakistocracy [a government of the worst], rather for the benefit of +knaves at the cost of fools?" + +=The Reform Movement in Republican Ranks.=--The sentiments expressed by +Lowell, himself a Republican and for a time American ambassador to +England, were shared by many men in his party. Very soon after the close +of the Civil War some of them began to protest vigorously against the +policies and conduct of their leaders. In 1872, the dissenters, calling +themselves Liberal Republicans, broke away altogether, nominated a +candidate of their own, Horace Greeley, and put forward a platform +indicting the Republican President fiercely enough to please the most +uncompromising Democrat. They accused Grant of using "the powers and +opportunities of his high office for the promotion of personal ends." +They charged him with retaining "notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in +places of power and responsibility." They alleged that the Republican +party kept "alive the passions and resentments of the late civil war to +use them for their own advantages," and employed the "public service of +the government as a machinery of corruption and personal influence." + +It was not apparent, however, from the ensuing election that any +considerable number of Republicans accepted the views of the Liberals. +Greeley, though indorsed by the Democrats, was utterly routed and died +of a broken heart. The lesson of his discomfiture seemed to be that +independent action was futile. So, at least, it was regarded by most men +of the rising generation like Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, and +Theodore Roosevelt, of New York. Profiting by the experience of Greeley +they insisted in season and out that reformers who desired to rid the +party of abuses should remain loyal to it and do their work "on the +inside." + +=The Mugwumps and Cleveland Democracy in 1884.=--Though aided by +Republican dissensions, the Democrats were slow in making headway +against the political current. They were deprived of the energetic and +capable leadership once afforded by the planters, like Calhoun, Davis, +and Toombs; they were saddled by their opponents with responsibility for +secession; and they were stripped of the support of the prostrate +South. Not until the last Southern state was restored to the union, not +until a general amnesty was wrung from Congress, not until white +supremacy was established at the polls, and the last federal soldier +withdrawn from Southern capitals did they succeed in capturing the +presidency. + +The opportune moment for them came in 1884 when a number of +circumstances favored their aspirations. The Republicans, leaving the +Ohio Valley in their search for a candidate, nominated James G. Blaine +of Maine, a vigorous and popular leader but a man under fire from the +reformers in his own party. The Democrats on their side were able to +find at this juncture an able candidate who had no political enemies in +the sphere of national politics, Grover Cleveland, then governor of New +York and widely celebrated as a man of "sterling honesty." At the same +time a number of dissatisfied Republicans openly espoused the Democratic +cause,--among them Carl Schurz, George William Curtis, Henry Ward +Beecher, and William Everett, men of fine ideals and undoubted +integrity. Though the "regular" Republicans called them "Mugwumps" and +laughed at them as the "men milliners, the dilettanti, and carpet +knights of politics," they had a following that was not to be despised. + +The campaign which took place that year was one of the most savage in +American history. Issues were thrust into the background. The tariff, +though mentioned, was not taken seriously. Abuse of the opposition was +the favorite resource of party orators. The Democrats insisted that "the +Republican party so far as principle is concerned is a reminiscence. In +practice it is an organization for enriching those who control its +machinery." For the Republican candidate, Blaine, they could hardly find +words to express their contempt. The Republicans retaliated in kind. +They praised their own good works, as of old, in saving the union, and +denounced the "fraud and violence practiced by the Democracy in the +Southern states." Seeing little objectionable in the public record of +Cleveland as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York, they attacked +his personal character. Perhaps never in the history of political +campaigns did the discussions on the platform and in the press sink to +so low a level. Decent people were sickened. Even hot partisans shrank +from their own words when, after the election, they had time to reflect +on their heedless passions. Moreover, nothing was decided by the +balloting. Cleveland was elected, but his victory was a narrow one. A +change of a few hundred votes in New York would have sent his opponent +to the White House instead. + +=Changing Political Fortunes (1888-96).=--After the Democrats had +settled down to the enjoyment of their hard-earned victory, President +Cleveland in his message of 1887 attacked the tariff as "vicious, +inequitable, and illogical"; as a system of taxation that laid a burden +upon "every consumer in the land for the benefit of our manufacturers." +Business enterprise was thoroughly alarmed. The Republicans +characterized the tariff message as a free-trade assault upon the +industries of the country. Mainly on that issue they elected in 1888 +Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a shrewd lawyer, a reticent politician, a +descendant of the hero of Tippecanoe, and a son of the old Northwest. +Accepting the outcome of the election as a vindication of their +principles, the Republicans, under the leadership of William McKinley in +the House of Representatives, enacted in 1890 a tariff law imposing the +highest duties yet laid in our history. To their utter surprise, +however, they were instantly informed by the country that their program +was not approved. That very autumn they lost in the congressional +elections, and two years later they were decisively beaten in the +presidential campaign, Cleveland once more leading his party to victory. + + +=References= + +L.H. Haney, _Congressional History of Railways_ (2 vols.). + +J.P. Davis, _Union Pacific Railway_. + +J.M. Swank, _History of the Manufacture of Iron_. + +M.T. Copeland, _The Cotton Manufacturing Industry in the United States_ +(Harvard Studies). + +E.W. Bryce, _Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century_. + +Ida Tarbell, _History of the Standard Oil Company_ (Critical). + +G.H. Montague, _Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company_ +(Friendly). + +H.P. Fairchild, _Immigration_, and F.J. Warne, _The Immigrant Invasion_ +(Both works favor exclusion). + +I.A. Hourwich, _Immigration_ (Against exclusionist policies). + +J.F. Rhodes, _History of the United States, 1877-1896_, Vol. VIII. + +Edward Stanwood, _A History of the Presidency_, Vol. I, for the +presidential elections of the period. + + +=Questions= + +1. Contrast the state of industry and commerce at the close of the Civil +War with its condition at the close of the Revolutionary War. + +2. Enumerate the services rendered to the nation by the railways. + +3. Explain the peculiar relation of railways to government. + +4. What sections of the country have been industrialized? + +5. How do you account for the rise and growth of the trusts? Explain +some of the economic advantages of the trust. + +6. Are the people in cities more or less independent than the farmers? +What was Jefferson's view? + +7. State some of the problems raised by unrestricted immigration. + +8. What was the theory of the relation of government to business in this +period? Has it changed in recent times? + +9. State the leading economic policies sponsored by the Republican +party. + +10. Why were the Republicans especially strong immediately after the +Civil War? + +11. What illustrations can you give showing the influence of war in +American political campaigns? + +12. Account for the strength of middle-western candidates. + +13. Enumerate some of the abuses that appeared in American political +life after 1865. + +14. Sketch the rise and growth of the reform movement. + +15. How is the fluctuating state of public opinion reflected in the +elections from 1880 to 1896? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Invention, Discovery, and Transportation.=--Sparks, _National +Development_ (American Nation Series), pp. 37-67; Bogart, _Economic +History of the United States_, Chaps. XXI, XXII, and XXIII. + +=Business and Politics.=--Paxson, _The New Nation_ (Riverside Series), +pp. 92-107; Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. VII, pp. 1-29, +64-73, 175-206; Wilson, _History of the American People_, Vol. IV, pp. +78-96. + +=Immigration.=--Coman, _Industrial History of the United States_ (2d +ed.), pp. 369-374; E.L. Bogart, _Economic History of the United States_, +pp. 420-422, 434-437; Jenks and Lauck, _Immigration Problems_, Commons, +_Races and Immigrants_. + +=The Disputed Election of 1876.=--Haworth, _The United States in Our Own +Time_, pp. 82-94; Dunning, _Reconstruction, Political and Economic_ +(American Nation Series), pp. 294-341; Elson, _History of the United +States_, pp. 835-841. + +=Abuses in Political Life.=--Dunning, _Reconstruction_, pp. 281-293; see +criticisms in party platforms in Stanwood, _History of the Presidency_, +Vol. I; Bryce, _American Commonwealth_ (1910 ed.), Vol. II, pp. 379-448; +136-167. + +=Studies of Presidential Administrations.=--(_a_) Grant, (_b_) Hayes, +(_c_) Garfield-Arthur, (_d_) Cleveland, and (_e_) Harrison, in Haworth, +_The United States in Our Own Time_, or in Paxson, _The New Nation_ +(Riverside Series), or still more briefly in Elson. + +=Cleveland Democracy.=--Haworth, _The United States_, pp. 164-183; +Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. VIII, pp. 240-327; Elson, +pp. 857-887. + +=Analysis of Modern Immigration Problems.=--_Syllabus in History_ (New +York State, 1919), pp. 110-112. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST + + +At the close of the Civil War, Kansas and Texas were sentinel states on +the middle border. Beyond the Rockies, California, Oregon, and Nevada +stood guard, the last of them having been just admitted to furnish +another vote for the fifteenth amendment abolishing slavery. Between the +near and far frontiers lay a vast reach of plain, desert, plateau, and +mountain, almost wholly undeveloped. A broad domain, extending from +Canada to Mexico, and embracing the regions now included in Washington, +Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, the Dakotas, and +Oklahoma, had fewer than half a million inhabitants. It was laid out +into territories, each administered under a governor appointed by the +President and Senate and, as soon as there was the requisite number of +inhabitants, a legislature elected by the voters. No railway line +stretched across the desert. St. Joseph on the Missouri was the terminus +of the Eastern lines. It required twenty-five days for a passenger to +make the overland journey to California by the stagecoach system, +established in 1858, and more than ten days for the swift pony express, +organized in 1860, to carry a letter to San Francisco. Indians still +roamed the plain and desert and more than one powerful tribe disputed +the white man's title to the soil. + + +THE RAILWAYS AS TRAIL BLAZERS + +=Opening Railways to the Pacific.=--A decade before the Civil War the +importance of rail connection between the East and the Pacific Coast had +been recognized. Pressure had already been brought to bear on Congress +to authorize the construction of a line and to grant land and money in +its aid. Both the Democrats and Republicans approved the idea, but it +was involved in the slavery controversy. Indeed it was submerged in it. +Southern statesmen wanted connections between the Gulf and the Pacific +through Texas, while Northerners stood out for a central route. + +The North had its way during the war. Congress, by legislation initiated +in 1862, provided for the immediate organization of companies to build a +line from the Missouri River to California and made grants of land and +loans of money to aid in the enterprise. The Western end, the Central +Pacific, was laid out under the supervision of Leland Stanford. It was +heavily financed by the Mormons of Utah and also by the state +government, the ranchmen, miners, and business men of California; and it +was built principally by Chinese labor. The Eastern end, the Union +Pacific, starting at Omaha, was constructed mainly by veterans of the +Civil War and immigrants from Ireland and Germany. In 1869 the two +companies met near Ogden in Utah and the driving of the last spike, +uniting the Atlantic and the Pacific, was the occasion of a great +demonstration. + +Other lines to the Pacific were projected at the same time; but the +panic of 1873 checked railway enterprise for a while. With the revival +of prosperity at the end of that decade, construction was renewed with +vigor and the year 1883 marked a series of railway triumphs. In February +trains were running from New Orleans through Houston, San Antonio, and +Yuma to San Francisco, as a result of a union of the Texas Pacific with +the Southern Pacific and its subsidiary corporations. In September the +last spike was driven in the Northern Pacific at Helena, Montana. Lake +Superior was connected with Puget Sound. The waters explored by Joliet +and Marquette were joined to the waters plowed by Sir Francis Drake +while he was searching for a route around the world. That same year also +a third line was opened to the Pacific by way of the Atchison, Topeka +and Santa Fe, making connections through Albuquerque and Needles with +San Francisco. The fondest hopes of railway promoters seemed to be +realized. + +[Illustration: UNITED STATES IN 1870] + +=Western Railways Precede Settlement.=--In the Old World and on our +Atlantic seaboard, railways followed population and markets. In the Far +West, railways usually preceded the people. Railway builders planned +cities on paper before they laid tracks connecting them. They sent +missionaries to spread the gospel of "Western opportunity" to people in +the Middle West, in the Eastern cities, and in Southern states. Then +they carried their enthusiastic converts bag and baggage in long trains +to the distant Dakotas and still farther afield. So the development of +the Far West was not left to the tedious processes of time. It was +pushed by men of imagination--adventurers who made a romance of +money-making and who had dreams of empire unequaled by many kings of the +past. + +These empire builders bought railway lands in huge tracts; they got more +from the government; they overcame every obstacle of canon, mountain, +and stream with the aid of science; they built cities according to the +plans made by the engineers. Having the towns ready and railway and +steamboat connections formed with the rest of the world, they carried +out the people to use the railways, the steamships, the houses, and the +land. It was in this way that "the frontier speculator paved the way for +the frontier agriculturalist who had to be near a market before he could +farm." The spirit of this imaginative enterprise, which laid out +railways and towns in advance of the people, is seen in an advertisement +of that day: "This extension will run 42 miles from York, northeast +through the Island Lake country, and will have five good North Dakota +towns. The stations on the line will be well equipped with elevators and +will be constructed and ready for operation at the commencement of the +grain season. Prospective merchants have been active in securing +desirable locations at the different towns on the line. There are still +opportunities for hotels, general merchandise, hardware, furniture, and +drug stores, etc." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE] + +Among the railway promoters and builders in the West, James J. Hill, +of the Great Northern and allied lines, was one of the most forceful +figures. He knew that tracks and trains were useless without passengers +and freight; without a population of farmers and town dwellers. He +therefore organized publicity in the Virginias, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, +Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska especially. He sent out agents to tell +the story of Western opportunity in this vein: "You see your children +come out of school with no chance to get farms of their own because the +cost of land in your older part of the country is so high that you can't +afford to buy land to start your sons out in life around you. They have +to go to the cities to make a living or become laborers in the mills or +hire out as farm hands. There is no future for them there. If you are +doing well where you are and can safeguard the future of your children +and see them prosper around you, don't leave here. But if you want +independence, if you are renting your land, if the money-lender is +carrying you along and you are running behind year after year, you can +do no worse by moving.... You farmers talk of free trade and protection +and what this or that political party will do for you. Why don't you +vote a homestead for yourself? That is the only thing Uncle Sam will +ever give you. Jim Hill hasn't an acre of land to sell you. We are not +in the real estate business. We don't want you to go out West and make a +failure of it because the rates at which we haul you and your goods make +the first transaction a loss.... We must have landless men for a manless +land." + +Unlike steamship companies stimulating immigration to get the fares, +Hill was seeking permanent settlers who would produce, manufacture, and +use the railways as the means of exchange. Consequently he fixed low +rates and let his passengers take a good deal of live stock and +household furniture free. By doing this he made an appeal that was +answered by eager families. In 1894 the vanguard of home seekers left +Indiana in fourteen passenger coaches, filled with men, women, and +children, and forty-eight freight cars carrying their household goods +and live stock. In the ten years that followed, 100,000 people from the +Middle West and the South, responding to his call, went to the Western +country where they brought eight million acres of prairie land under +cultivation. + +When Hill got his people on the land, he took an interest in everything +that increased the productivity of their labor. Was the output of food +for his freight cars limited by bad drainage on the farms? Hill then +interested himself in practical ways of ditching and tiling. Were +farmers hampered in hauling their goods to his trains by bad roads? In +that case, he urged upon the states the improvement of highways. Did the +traffic slacken because the food shipped was not of the best quality? +Then live stock must be improved and scientific farming promoted. Did +the farmers need credit? Banks must be established close at hand to +advance it. In all conferences on scientific farm management, +conservation of natural resources, banking and credit in relation to +agriculture and industry, Hill was an active participant. His was the +long vision, seeing in conservation and permanent improvements the +foundation of prosperity for the railways and the people. + +Indeed, he neglected no opportunity to increase the traffic on the +lines. He wanted no empty cars running in either direction and no wheat +stored in warehouses for the lack of markets. So he looked to the Orient +as well as to Europe as an outlet for the surplus of the farms. He sent +agents to China and Japan to discover what American goods and produce +those countries would consume and what manufactures they had to offer to +Americans in exchange. To open the Pacific trade he bought two ocean +monsters, the _Minnesota_ and the _Dakota_, thus preparing for +emergencies West as well as East. When some Japanese came to the United +States on their way to Europe to buy steel rails, Hill showed them how +easy it was for them to make their purchase in this country and ship by +way of American railways and American vessels. So the railway builder +and promoter, who helped to break the virgin soil of the prairies, lived +through the pioneer epoch and into the age of great finance. Before he +died he saw the wheat fields of North Dakota linked with the spinning +jennies of Manchester and the docks of Yokohama. + + +THE EVOLUTION OF GRAZING AND AGRICULTURE + +=The Removal of the Indians.=--Unlike the frontier of New England in +colonial days or that of Kentucky later, the advancing lines of home +builders in the Far West had little difficulty with warlike natives. +Indian attacks were made on the railway construction gangs; General +Custer had his fatal battle with the Sioux in 1876 and there were minor +brushes; but they were all of relatively slight consequence. The former +practice of treating with the Indians as independent nations was +abandoned in 1871 and most of them were concentrated in reservations +where they were mainly supported by the government. The supervision of +their affairs was vested in a board of commissioners created in 1869 and +instructed to treat them as wards of the nation--a trust which +unfortunately was often betrayed. A further step in Indian policy was +taken in 1887 when provision was made for issuing lands to individual +Indians, thus permitting them to become citizens and settle down among +their white neighbors as farmers or cattle raisers. The disappearance of +the buffalo, the main food supply of the wild Indians, had made them +more tractable and more willing to surrender the freedom of the hunter +for the routine of the reservation, ranch, or wheat field. + +=The Cowboy and Cattle Ranger.=--Between the frontier of farms and the +mountains were plains and semi-arid regions in vast reaches suitable for +grazing. As soon as the railways were open into the Missouri Valley, +affording an outlet for stock, there sprang up to the westward cattle +and sheep raising on an immense scale. The far-famed American cowboy was +the hero in this scene. Great herds of cattle were bred in Texas; with +the advancing spring and summer seasons, they were driven northward +across the plains and over the buffalo trails. In a single year, 1884, +it is estimated that nearly one million head of cattle were moved out of +Texas to the North by four thousand cowboys, supplied with 30,000 +horses and ponies. + +During the two decades from 1870 to 1890 both the cattle men and the +sheep raisers had an almost free run of the plains, using public lands +without paying for the privilege and waging war on one another over the +possession of ranges. At length, however, both had to go, as the +homesteaders and land companies came and fenced in the plain and desert +with endless lines of barbed wire. Already in 1893 a writer familiar +with the frontier lamented the passing of the picturesque days: "The +unique position of the cowboys among the Americans is jeopardized in a +thousand ways. Towns are growing up on their pasture lands; irrigation +schemes of a dozen sorts threaten to turn bunch-grass scenery into +farm-land views; farmers are pre-empting valleys and the sides of +waterways; and the day is not far distant when stock-raising must be +done mainly in small herds, with winter corrals, and then the cowboy's +days will end. Even now his condition disappoints those who knew him +only half a dozen years ago. His breed seems to have deteriorated and +his ranks are filling with men who work for wages rather than for the +love of the free life and bold companionship that once tempted men into +that calling. Splendid Cheyenne saddles are less and less numerous in +the outfits; the distinctive hat that made its way up from Mexico may or +may not be worn; all the civil authorities in nearly all towns in the +grazing country forbid the wearing of side arms; nobody shoots up these +towns any more. The fact is the old simon-pure cowboy days are gone +already." + +=Settlement under the Homestead Act of 1862.=--Two factors gave a +special stimulus to the rapid settlement of Western lands which swept +away the Indians and the cattle rangers. The first was the policy of the +railway companies in selling large blocks of land received from the +government at low prices to induce immigration. The second was the +operation of the Homestead law passed in 1862. This measure practically +closed the long controversy over the disposition of the public domain +that was suitable for agriculture. It provided for granting, without any +cost save a small registration fee, public lands in lots of 160 acres +each to citizens and aliens who declared their intention of becoming +citizens. The one important condition attached was that the settler +should occupy the farm for five years before his title was finally +confirmed. Even this stipulation was waived in the case of the Civil War +veterans who were allowed to count their term of military service as a +part of the five years' occupancy required. As the soldiers of the +Revolutionary and Mexican wars had advanced in great numbers to the +frontier in earlier days, so now veterans led in the settlement of the +middle border. Along with them went thousands of German, Irish, and +Scandinavian immigrants, fresh from the Old World. Between 1867 and +1874, 27,000,000 acres were staked out in quarter-section farms. In +twenty years (1860-80), the population of Nebraska leaped from 28,000 to +almost half a million; Kansas from 100,000 to a million; Iowa from +600,000 to 1,600,000; and the Dakotas from 5000 to 140,000. + +=The Diversity of Western Agriculture.=--In soil, produce, and +management, Western agriculture presented many contrasts to that of the +East and South. In the region of arable and watered lands the typical +American unit--the small farm tilled by the owner--appeared as usual; +but by the side of it many a huge domain owned by foreign or Eastern +companies and tilled by hired labor. Sometimes the great estate took the +shape of the "bonanza farm" devoted mainly to wheat and corn and +cultivated on a large scale by machinery. Again it assumed the form of +the cattle ranch embracing tens of thousands of acres. Again it was a +vast holding of diversified interest, such as the Santa Anita ranch near +Los Angeles, a domain of 60,000 acres "cultivated in a glorious sweep of +vineyards and orange and olive orchards, rich sheep and cattle pastures +and horse ranches, their life and customs handed down from the Spanish +owners of the various ranches which were swept into one estate." + +=Irrigation.=--In one respect agriculture in the Far West was unique. In +a large area spreading through eight states, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, +Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of adjoining +states, the rainfall was so slight that the ordinary crops to which the +American farmer was accustomed could not be grown at all. The Mormons +were the first Anglo-Saxons to encounter aridity, and they were baffled +at first; but they studied it and mastered it by magnificent irrigation +systems. As other settlers poured into the West the problem of the +desert was attacked with a will, some of them replying to the +commiseration of Eastern farmers by saying that it was easier to scoop +out an irrigation ditch than to cut forests and wrestle with stumps and +stones. Private companies bought immense areas at low prices, built +irrigation works, and disposed of their lands in small plots. Some +ranchers with an instinct for water, like that of the miner for metal, +sank wells into the dry sand and were rewarded with gushers that "soused +the thirsty desert and turned its good-for-nothing sand into +good-for-anything loam." The federal government came to the aid of the +arid regions in 1894 by granting lands to the states to be used for +irrigation purposes. In this work Wyoming took the lead with a law which +induced capitalists to invest in irrigation and at the same time +provided for the sale of the redeemed lands to actual settlers. Finally +in 1902 the federal government by its liberal Reclamation Act added its +strength to that of individuals, companies, and states in conquering +"arid America." + +"Nowhere," writes Powell, a historian of the West, in his picturesque +_End of the Trail_, "has the white man fought a more courageous fight or +won a more brilliant victory than in Arizona. His weapons have been the +transit and the level, the drill and the dredge, the pick and the spade; +and the enemy which he has conquered has been the most stubborn of all +foes--the hostile forces of Nature.... The story of how the white man +within the space of less than thirty years penetrated, explored, and +mapped this almost unknown region; of how he carried law, order, and +justice into a section which had never had so much as a speaking +acquaintance with any one of the three before; of how, realizing the +necessity for means of communication, he built highways of steel across +this territory from east to west and from north to south; of how, +undismayed by the savageness of the countenance which the desert turned +upon him, he laughed and rolled up his sleeves, and spat upon his hands, +and slashed the face of the desert with canals and irrigating ditches, +and filled those ditches with water brought from deep in the earth or +high in the mountains; and of how, in the conquered and submissive soil, +he replaced the aloe with alfalfa, the mesquite with maize, the cactus +with cotton, forms one of the most inspiring chapters in our history. It +is one of the epics of civilization, this reclamation of the Southwest, +and its heroes, thank God, are Americans. + +"Other desert regions have been redeemed by irrigation--Egypt, for +example, and Mesopotamia and parts of the Sudan--but the people of all +those regions lay stretched out in the shade of a convenient palm, +metaphorically speaking, and waited for some one with more energy than +themselves to come along and do the work. But the Arizonians, mindful of +the fact that God, the government, and Carnegie help those who help +themselves, spent their days wielding the pick and shovel, and their +evenings in writing letters to Washington with toil-hardened hands. +After a time the government was prodded into action and the great dams +at Laguna and Roosevelt are the result. Then the people, organizing +themselves into cooeperative leagues and water-users' associations, took +up the work of reclamation where the government left off; it is to these +energetic, persevering men who have drilled wells, plowed fields, and +dug ditches through the length and breadth of that great region which +stretches from Yuma to Tucson, that the metamorphosis of Arizona is +due." + +The effect of irrigation wherever introduced was amazing. Stretches of +sand and sagebrush gave way to fertile fields bearing crops of wheat, +corn, fruits, vegetables, and grass. Huge ranches grazed by browsing +sheep were broken up into small plots. The cowboy and ranchman vanished. +In their place rose the prosperous community--a community unlike the +township of Iowa or the industrial center of the East. Its intensive +tillage left little room for hired labor. Its small holdings drew +families together in village life rather than dispersing them on the +lonely plain. Often the development of water power in connection with +irrigation afforded electricity for labor-saving devices and lifted many +a burden that in other days fell heavily upon the shoulders of the +farmer and his family. + + +MINING AND MANUFACTURING IN THE WEST + +=Mineral Resources.=--In another important particular the Far West +differed from the Mississippi Valley states. That was in the +predominance of mining over agriculture throughout a vast section. +Indeed it was the minerals rather than the land that attracted the +pioneers who first opened the country. The discovery of gold in +California in 1848 was the signal for the great rush of prospectors, +miners, and promoters who explored the valleys, climbed the hills, +washed the sands, and dug up the soil in their feverish search for gold, +silver, copper, coal, and other minerals. In Nevada and Montana the +development of mineral resources went on all during the Civil War. Alder +Gulch became Virginia City in 1863; Last Chance Gulch was named Helena +in 1864; and Confederate Gulch was christened Diamond City in 1865. At +Butte the miners began operations in 1864 and within five years had +washed out eight million dollars' worth of gold. Under the gold they +found silver; under silver they found copper. + +Even at the end of the nineteenth century, after agriculture was well +advanced and stock and sheep raising introduced on a large scale, +minerals continued to be the chief source of wealth in a number of +states. This was revealed by the figures for 1910. The gold, silver, +iron, and copper of Colorado were worth more than the wheat, corn, and +oats combined; the copper of Montana sold for more than all the cereals +and four times the price of the wheat. The interest of Nevada was also +mainly mining, the receipts from the mineral output being $43,000,000 or +more than one-half the national debt of Hamilton's day. The yield of the +mines of Utah was worth four or five times the wheat crop; the coal of +Wyoming brought twice as much as the great wool clip; the minerals of +Arizona were totaled at $43,000,000 as against a wool clip reckoned at +$1,200,000; while in Idaho alone of this group of states did the wheat +crop exceed in value the output of the mines. + +[Illustration: _Photograph from Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +LOGGING] + +=Timber Resources.=--The forests of the great West, unlike those of the +Ohio Valley, proved a boon to the pioneers rather than a foe to be +attacked. In Ohio and Indiana, for example, the frontier line of +homemakers had to cut, roll, and burn thousands of trees before they +could put out a crop of any size. Beyond the Mississippi, however, +there were all ready for the breaking plow great reaches of almost +treeless prairie, where every stick of timber was precious. In the other +parts, often rough and mountainous, where stood primeval forests of the +finest woods, the railroads made good use of the timber. They consumed +acres of forests themselves in making ties, bridge timbers, and +telegraph poles, and they laid a heavy tribute upon the forests for +their annual upkeep. The surplus trees, such as had burdened the +pioneers of the Northwest Territory a hundred years before, they carried +off to markets on the east and west coasts. + +=Western Industries.=--The peculiar conditions of the Far West +stimulated a rise of industries more rapid than is usual in new country. +The mining activities which in many sections preceded agriculture called +for sawmills to furnish timber for the mines and smelters to reduce and +refine ores. The ranches supplied sheep and cattle for the packing +houses of Kansas City as well as Chicago. The waters of the Northwest +afforded salmon for 4000 cases in 1866 and for 1,400,000 cases in 1916. +The fruits and vegetables of California brought into existence +innumerable canneries. The lumber industry, starting with crude sawmills +to furnish rough timbers for railways and mines, ended in specialized +factories for paper, boxes, and furniture. As the railways preceded +settlement and furnished a ready outlet for local manufactures, so they +encouraged the early establishment of varied industries, thus creating a +state of affairs quite unlike that which obtained in the Ohio Valley in +the early days before the opening of the Erie Canal. + +=Social Effects of Economic Activities.=--In many respects the social +life of the Far West also differed from that of the Ohio Valley. The +treeless prairies, though open to homesteads, favored the great estate +tilled in part by tenant labor and in part by migratory seasonal labor, +summoned from all sections of the country for the harvests. The mineral +resources created hundreds of huge fortunes which made the accumulations +of eastern mercantile families look trivial by comparison. Other +millionaires won their fortunes in the railway business and still more +from the cattle and sheep ranges. In many sections the "cattle king," as +he was called, was as dominant as the planter had been in the old South. +Everywhere in the grazing country he was a conspicuous and important +person. He "sometimes invested money in banks, in railroad stocks, or in +city property.... He had his rating in the commercial reviews and could +hobnob with bankers, railroad presidents, and metropolitan merchants.... +He attended party caucuses and conventions, ran for the state +legislature, and sometimes defeated a lawyer or metropolitan 'business +man' in the race for a seat in Congress. In proportion to their numbers, +the ranchers ... have constituted a highly impressive class." + +Although many of the early capitalists of the great West, especially +from Nevada, spent their money principally in the East, others took +leadership in promoting the sections in which they had made their +fortunes. A railroad pioneer, General Palmer, built his home at Colorado +Springs, founded the town, and encouraged local improvements. Denver +owed its first impressive buildings to the civic patriotism of Horace +Tabor, a wealthy mine owner. Leland Stanford paid his tribute to +California in the endowment of a large university. Colonel W.F. Cody, +better known as "Buffalo Bill," started his career by building a "boom +town" which collapsed, and made a large sum of money supplying buffalo +meat to construction hands (hence his popular name). By his famous Wild +West Show, he increased it to a fortune which he devoted mainly to the +promotion of a western reclamation scheme. + +While the Far West was developing this vigorous, aggressive leadership +in business, a considerable industrial population was springing up. Even +the cattle ranges and hundreds of farms were conducted like factories in +that they were managed through overseers who hired plowmen, harvesters, +and cattlemen at regular wages. At the same time there appeared other +peculiar features which made a lasting impression on western economic +life. Mining, lumbering, and fruit growing, for instance, employed +thousands of workers during the rush months and turned them out at other +times. The inevitable result was an army of migratory laborers wandering +from camp to camp, from town to town, and from ranch to ranch, without +fixed homes or established habits of life. From this extraordinary +condition there issued many a long and lawless conflict between capital +and labor, giving a distinct color to the labor movement in whole +sections of the mountain and coast states. + + +THE ADMISSION OF NEW STATES + +=The Spirit of Self-Government.=--The instinct of self-government was +strong in the western communities. In the very beginning, it led to the +organization of volunteer committees, known as "vigilantes," to suppress +crime and punish criminals. As soon as enough people were settled +permanently in a region, they took care to form a more stable kind of +government. An illustration of this process is found in the Oregon +compact made by the pioneers in 1843, the spirit of which is reflected +in an editorial in an old copy of the _Rocky Mountain News_: "We claim +that any body or community of American citizens which from any cause or +under any circumstances is cut off from or from isolation is so situated +as not to be under any active and protecting branch of the central +government, have a right, if on American soil, to frame a government and +enact such laws and regulations as may be necessary for their own +safety, protection, and happiness, always with the condition precedent, +that they shall, at the earliest moment when the central government +shall extend an effective organization and laws over them, give it their +unqualified support and obedience." + +People who turned so naturally to the organization of local +administration were equally eager for admission to the union as soon as +any shadow of a claim to statehood could be advanced. As long as a +region was merely one of the territories of the United States, the +appointment of the governor and other officers was controlled by +politics at Washington. Moreover the disposition of land, mineral +rights, forests, and water power was also in the hands of national +leaders. Thus practical considerations were united with the spirit of +independence in the quest for local autonomy. + +=Nebraska and Colorado.=--Two states, Nebraska and Colorado, had little +difficulty in securing admission to the union. The first, Nebraska, had +been organized as a territory by the famous Kansas-Nebraska bill which +did so much to precipitate the Civil War. Lying to the north of Kansas, +which had been admitted in 1861, it escaped the invasion of slave owners +from Missouri and was settled mainly by farmers from the North. Though +it claimed a population of only 67,000, it was regarded with kindly +interest by the Republican Congress at Washington and, reduced to its +present boundaries, it received the coveted statehood in 1867. + +This was hardly accomplished before the people of Colorado to the +southwest began to make known their demands. They had been organized +under territorial government in 1861 when they numbered only a handful; +but within ten years the aspect of their affairs had completely changed. +The silver and gold deposits of the Leadville and Cripple Creek regions +had attracted an army of miners and prospectors. The city of Denver, +founded in 1858 and named after the governor of Kansas whence came many +of the early settlers, had grown from a straggling camp of log huts into +a prosperous center of trade. By 1875 it was reckoned that the +population of the territory was not less than one hundred thousand; the +following year Congress, yielding to the popular appeal, made Colorado a +member of the American union. + +=Six New States (1889-1890).=--For many years there was a deadlock in +Congress over the admission of new states. The spell was broken in 1889 +under the leadership of the Dakotas. For a long time the Dakota +territory, organized in 1861, had been looked upon as the home of the +powerful Sioux Indians whose enormous reservation blocked the advance of +the frontier. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, however, marked +their doom. Even before Congress could open their lands to prospectors, +pioneers were swarming over the country. Farmers from the adjoining +Minnesota and the Eastern states, Scandinavians, Germans, and Canadians, +came in swelling waves to occupy the fertile Dakota lands, now famous +even as far away as the fjords of Norway. Seldom had the plow of man cut +through richer soil than was found in the bottoms of the Red River +Valley, and it became all the more precious when the opening of the +Northern Pacific in 1883 afforded a means of transportation east and +west. The population, which had numbered 135,000 in 1880, passed the +half million mark before ten years had elapsed. + +Remembering that Nebraska had been admitted with only 67,000 +inhabitants, the Dakotans could not see why they should be kept under +federal tutelage. At the same time Washington, far away on the Pacific +Coast, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, boasting of their populations and +their riches, put in their own eloquent pleas. But the members of +Congress were busy with politics. The Democrats saw no good reason for +admitting new Republican states until after their defeat in 1888. Near +the end of their term the next year they opened the door for North and +South Dakota, Washington, and Montana. In 1890, a Republican Congress +brought Idaho and Wyoming into the union, the latter with woman +suffrage, which had been granted twenty-one years before. + +=Utah.=--Although Utah had long presented all the elements of a +well-settled and industrious community, its admission to the union was +delayed on account of popular hostility to the practice of polygamy. The +custom, it is true, had been prohibited by act of Congress in 1862; but +the law had been systematically evaded. In 1882 Congress made another +and more effective effort to stamp out polygamy. Five years later it +even went so far as to authorize the confiscation of the property of the +Mormon Church in case the practice of plural marriages was not stopped. +Meanwhile the Gentile or non-Mormon population was steadily increasing +and the leaders in the Church became convinced that the battle +against the sentiment of the country was futile. At last in 1896 Utah +was admitted as a state under a constitution which forbade plural +marriages absolutely and forever. Horace Greeley, who visited Utah in +1859, had prophesied that the Pacific Railroad would work a revolution +in the land of Brigham Young. His prophecy had come true. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1912] + +=Rounding out the Continent.=--Three more territories now remained out +of the Union. Oklahoma, long an Indian reservation, had been opened for +settlement to white men in 1889. The rush upon the fertile lands of this +region, the last in the history of America, was marked by all the frenzy +of the final, desperate chance. At a signal from a bugle an army of men +with families in wagons, men and women on horseback and on foot, burst +into the territory. During the first night a city of tents was raised at +Guthrie and Oklahoma City. In ten days wooden houses rose on the plains. +In a single year there were schools, churches, business blocks, and +newspapers. Within fifteen years there was a population of more than +half a million. To the west, Arizona with a population of about 125,000 +and New Mexico with 200,000 inhabitants joined Oklahoma in asking for +statehood. Congress, then Republican, looked with reluctance upon the +addition of more Democratic states; but in 1907 it was literally +compelled by public sentiment and a sense of justice to admit Oklahoma. +In 1910 the House of Representatives went to the Democrats and within +two years Arizona and New Mexico were "under the roof." So the +continental domain was rounded out. + + +THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAR WEST ON NATIONAL LIFE + +=The Last of the Frontier.=--When Horace Greeley made his trip west in +1859 he thus recorded the progress of civilization in his journal: + + "May 12th, Chicago.--Chocolate and morning journals last + seen on the hotel breakfast table. + + 23rd, Leavenworth (Kansas).--Room bells and bath tubs make + their final appearance. + + 26th, Manhattan.--Potatoes and eggs last recognized among + the blessings that 'brighten as they take their flight.' + + 27th, Junction City.--Last visitation of a boot-black, with + dissolving views of a board bedroom. Beds bid us good-by." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Panama-California Exposition_ + +THE CANADIAN BUILDING AT THE PANAMA-CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL +EXPOSITION, SAN DIEGO, 1915] + +Within thirty years travelers were riding across that country in Pullman +cars and enjoying at the hotels all the comforts of a standardized +civilization. The "wild west" was gone, and with it that frontier of +pioneers and settlers who had long given such a bent and tone to +American life and had "poured in upon the floor of Congress" such a long +line of "backwoods politicians," as they were scornfully styled. + +=Free Land and Eastern Labor.=--It was not only the picturesque features +of the frontier that were gone. Of far more consequence was the +disappearance of free lands with all that meant for American labor. For +more than a hundred years, any man of even moderate means had been able +to secure a homestead of his own and an independent livelihood. For a +hundred years America had been able to supply farms to as many +immigrants as cared to till the soil. Every new pair of strong arms +meant more farms and more wealth. Workmen in Eastern factories, mines, +or mills who did not like their hours, wages, or conditions of labor, +could readily find an outlet to the land. Now all that was over. By +about 1890 most of the desirable land available under the Homestead act +had disappeared. American industrial workers confronted a new situation. + +=Grain Supplants King Cotton.=--In the meantime a revolution was taking +place in agriculture. Until 1860 the chief staples sold by America were +cotton and tobacco. With the advance of the frontier, corn and wheat +supplanted them both in agrarian economy. The West became the granary of +the East and of Western Europe. The scoop shovel once used to handle +grain was superseded by the towering elevator, loading and unloading +thousands of bushels every hour. The refrigerator car and ship made the +packing industry as stable as the production of cotton or corn, and gave +an immense impetus to cattle raising and sheep farming. So the meat of +the West took its place on the English dinner table by the side of bread +baked from Dakotan wheat. + +=Aid in American Economic Independence.=--The effects of this economic +movement were manifold and striking. Billions of dollars' worth of +American grain, dairy produce, and meat were poured into European +markets where they paid off debts due money lenders and acquired +capital to develop American resources. Thus they accelerated the +progress of American financiers toward national independence. The +country, which had timidly turned to the Old World for capital in +Hamilton's day and had borrowed at high rates of interest in London in +Lincoln's day, moved swiftly toward the time when it would be among the +world's first bankers and money lenders itself. Every grain of wheat and +corn pulled the balance down on the American side of the scale. + +=Eastern Agriculture Affected.=--In the East as well as abroad the +opening of the western granary produced momentous results. The +agricultural economy of that part of the country was changed in many +respects. Whole sections of the poorest land went almost out of +cultivation, the abandoned farms of the New England hills bearing solemn +witness to the competing power of western wheat fields. Sheep and cattle +raising, as well as wheat and corn production, suffered at least a +relative decline. Thousands of farmers cultivating land of the lower +grade were forced to go West or were driven to the margin of +subsistence. Even the herds that supplied Eastern cities with milk were +fed upon grain brought halfway across the continent. + +=The Expansion of the American Market.=--Upon industry as well as +agriculture, the opening of vast food-producing regions told in a +thousand ways. The demand for farm machinery, clothing, boots, shoes, +and other manufactures gave to American industries such a market as even +Hamilton had never foreseen. Moreover it helped to expand far into the +Mississippi Valley the industrial area once confined to the Northern +seaboard states and to transform the region of the Great Lakes into an +industrial empire. Herein lies the explanation of the growth of +mid-western cities after 1865. Chicago, with its thirty-five railways, +tapped every locality of the West and South. To the railways were added +the water routes of the Lakes, thus creating a strategic center for +industries. Long foresight carried the McCormick reaper works to +Chicago before 1860. From Troy, New York, went a large stove plant. That +was followed by a shoe factory from Massachusetts. The packing industry +rose as a matter of course at a point so advantageous for cattle raisers +and shippers and so well connected with Eastern markets. + +To the opening of the Far West also the Lake region was indebted for a +large part of that water-borne traffic which made it "the Mediterranean +basin of North America." The produce of the West and the manufactures of +the East poured through it in an endless stream. The swift growth of +shipbuilding on the Great Lakes helped to compensate for the decline of +the American marine on the high seas. In response to this stimulus +Detroit could boast that her shipwrights were able to turn out a ten +thousand ton Leviathan for ore or grain about "as quickly as carpenters +could put up an eight-room house." Thus in relation to the Far West the +old Northwest territory--the wilderness of Jefferson's time--had taken +the position formerly occupied by New England alone. It was supplying +capital and manufactures for a vast agricultural empire West and South. + +=America on the Pacific.=--It has been said that the Mediterranean Sea +was the center of ancient civilization; that modern civilization has +developed on the shores of the Atlantic; and that the future belongs to +the Pacific. At any rate, the sweep of the United States to the shores +of the Pacific quickly exercised a powerful influence on world affairs +and it undoubtedly has a still greater significance for the future. + +Very early regular traffic sprang up between the Pacific ports and the +Hawaiian Islands, China, and Japan. Two years before the adjustment of +the Oregon controversy with England, namely in 1844, the United States +had established official and trading relations with China. Ten years +later, four years after the admission of California to the union, the +barred door of Japan was forced open by Commodore Perry. The commerce +which had long before developed between the Pacific ports and Hawaii, +China, and Japan now flourished under official care. In 1865 a ship +from Honolulu carried sugar, molasses, and fruits from Hawaii to the +Oregon port of Astoria. The next year a vessel from Hongkong brought +rice, mats, and tea from China. An era of lucrative trade was opened. +The annexation of Hawaii in 1898, the addition of the Philippines at the +same time, and the participation of American troops in the suppression +of the Boxer rebellion in Peking in 1900, were but signs and symbols of +American power on the Pacific. + +[Illustration: _From an old print_ + +COMMODORE PERRY'S MEN MAKING PRESENTS TO THE JAPANESE] + +=Conservation and the Land Problem.=--The disappearance of the frontier +also brought new and serious problems to the governments of the states +and the nation. The people of the whole United States suddenly were +forced to realize that there was a limit to the rich, new land to +exploit and to the forests and minerals awaiting the ax and the pick. +Then arose in America the questions which had long perplexed the +countries of the Old World--the scientific use of the soils and +conservation of natural resources. Hitherto the government had followed +the easy path of giving away arable land and selling forest and mineral +lands at low prices. Now it had to face far more difficult and complex +problems. It also had to consider questions of land tenure again, +especially if the ideal of a nation of home-owning farmers was to be +maintained. While there was plenty of land for every man or woman who +wanted a home on the soil, it made little difference if single landlords +or companies got possession of millions of acres, if a hundred men in +one western river valley owned 17,000,000 acres; but when the good land +for small homesteads was all gone, then was raised the real issue. At +the opening of the twentieth century the nation, which a hundred years +before had land and natural resources apparently without limit, was +compelled to enact law after law conserving its forests and minerals. +Then it was that the great state of California, on the very border of +the continent, felt constrained to enact a land settlement measure +providing government assistance in an effort to break up large holdings +into small lots and to make it easy for actual settlers to acquire small +farms. America was passing into a new epoch. + + +=References= + +Henry Inman, _The Old Santa Fe Trail_. + +R.I. Dodge, _The Plains of the Great West_ (1877). + +C.H. Shinn, _The Story of the Mine_. + +Cy Warman, _The Story of the Railroad_. + +Emerson Hough, _The Story of the Cowboy_. + +H.H. Bancroft is the author of many works on the West but his writings +will be found only in the larger libraries. + +Joseph Schafer, _History of the Pacific Northwest_ (ed. 1918). + +T.H. Hittel, _History of California_ (4 vols.). + +W.H. Olin, _American Irrigation Farming_. + +W.E. Smythe, _The Conquest of Arid America_. + +H.A. Millis, _The American-Japanese Problem_. + +E.S. Meany, _History of the State of Washington_. + +H.K. Norton, _The Story of California_. + + +=Questions= + +1. Name the states west of the Mississippi in 1865. + +2. In what manner was the rest of the western region governed? + +3. How far had settlement been carried? + +4. What were the striking physical features of the West? + +5. How was settlement promoted after 1865? + +6. Why was admission to the union so eagerly sought? + +7. Explain how politics became involved in the creation of new states. + +8. Did the West rapidly become like the older sections of the country? + +9. What economic peculiarities did it retain or develop? + +10. How did the federal government aid in western agriculture? + +11. How did the development of the West affect the East? The South? + +12. What relation did the opening of the great grain areas of the West +bear to the growth of America's commercial and financial power? + +13. State some of the new problems of the West. + +14. Discuss the significance of American expansion to the Pacific Ocean. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Passing of the Wild West.=--Haworth, _The United States in Our Own +Times_, pp. 100-124. + +=The Indian Question.=--Sparks, _National Development_ (American Nation +Series), pp. 265-281. + +=The Chinese Question.=--Sparks, _National Development_, pp. 229-250; +Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. VIII, pp. 180-196. + +=The Railway Age.=--Schafer, _History of the Pacific Northwest_, pp. +230-245; E.V. Smalley, _The Northern Pacific Railroad_; Paxson, _The New +Nation_ (Riverside Series), pp. 20-26, especially the map on p. 23, and +pp. 142-148. + +=Agriculture and Business.=--Schafer, _Pacific Northwest_, pp. 246-289. + +=Ranching in the Northwest.=--Theodore Roosevelt, _Ranch Life_, and +_Autobiography_, pp. 103-143. + +=The Conquest of the Desert.=--W.E. Smythe, _The Conquest of Arid +America_. + +=Studies of Individual Western States.=--Consult any good encyclopedia. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY (1865-1897) + + +For thirty years after the Civil War the leading political parties, +although they engaged in heated presidential campaigns, were not sharply +and clearly opposed on many matters of vital significance. During none +of that time was there a clash of opinion over specific issues such as +rent the country in 1800 when Jefferson rode a popular wave to victory, +or again in 1828 when Jackson's western hordes came sweeping into power. +The Democrats, who before 1860 definitely opposed protective tariffs, +federal banking, internal improvements, and heavy taxes, now spoke +cautiously on all these points. The Republicans, conscious of the fact +that they had been a minority of the voters in 1860 and warned by the +early loss of the House of Representatives in 1874, also moved with +considerable prudence among the perplexing problems of the day. Again +and again the votes in Congress showed that no clear line separated all +the Democrats from all the Republicans. There were Republicans who +favored tariff reductions and "cheap money." There were Democrats who +looked with partiality upon high protection or with indulgence upon the +contraction of the currency. Only on matters relating to the coercion of +the South was the division between the parties fairly definite; this +could be readily accounted for on practical as well as sentimental +grounds. + +After all, the vague criticisms and proposals that found their way into +the political platforms did but reflect the confusion of mind prevailing +in the country. The fact that, out of the eighteen years between 1875 +and 1893, the Democrats held the House of Representatives for fourteen +years while the Republicans had every President but one showed that the +voters, like the politicians, were in a state of indecision. Hayes had a +Democratic House during his entire term and a Democratic Senate for two +years of the four. Cleveland was confronted by a belligerent Republican +majority in the Senate during his first administration; and at the same +time was supported by a Democratic majority in the House. Harrison was +sustained by continuous Republican successes in Senatorial elections; +but in the House he had the barest majority from 1889 to 1891 and lost +that altogether at the election held in the middle of his term. The +opinion of the country was evidently unsettled and fluctuating. It was +still distracted by memories of the dead past and uncertain as to the +trend of the future. + + +THE CURRENCY QUESTION + +Nevertheless these years of muddled politics and nebulous issues proved +to be a period in which social forces were gathering for the great +campaign of 1896. Except for three new features--the railways, the +trusts, and the trade unions--the subjects of debate among the people +were the same as those that had engaged their attention since the +foundation of the republic: the currency, the national debt, banking, +the tariff, and taxation. + +=Debtors and the Fall in Prices.=--For many reasons the currency +question occupied the center of interest. As of old, the farmers and +planters of the West and South were heavily in debt to the East for +borrowed money secured by farm mortgages; and they counted upon the sale +of cotton, corn, wheat, and hogs to meet interest and principal when +due. During the war, the Western farmers had been able to dispose of +their produce at high prices and thus discharge their debts with +comparative ease; but after the war prices declined. Wheat that sold at +two dollars a bushel in 1865 brought sixty-four cents twenty years +later. The meaning of this for the farmers in debt--and nearly +three-fourths of them were in that class--can be shown by a single +illustration. A thousand-dollar mortgage on a Western farm could be paid +off by five hundred bushels of wheat when prices were high; whereas it +took about fifteen hundred bushels to pay the same debt when wheat was +at the bottom of the scale. For the farmer, it must be remembered, wheat +was the measure of his labor, the product of his toil under the summer +sun; and in its price he found the test of his prosperity. + +=Creditors and Falling Prices.=--To the bondholders or creditors, on the +other hand, falling prices were clear gain. If a fifty-dollar coupon on +a bond bought seventy or eighty bushels of wheat instead of twenty or +thirty, the advantage to the owner of the coupon was obvious. Moreover +the advantage seemed to him entirely just. Creditors had suffered heavy +losses when the Civil War carried prices skyward while the interest +rates on their old bonds remained stationary. For example, if a man had +a $1000 bond issued before 1860 and paying interest at five per cent, he +received fifty dollars a year from it. Before the war each dollar would +buy a bushel of wheat; in 1865 it would only buy half a bushel. When +prices--that is, the cost of living--began to go down, creditors +therefore generally regarded the change with satisfaction as a return to +normal conditions. + +=The Cause of Falling Prices.=--The fall in prices was due, no doubt, to +many factors. Among them must be reckoned the discontinuance of +government buying for war purposes, labor-saving farm machinery, +immigration, and the opening of new wheat-growing regions. The currency, +too, was an element in the situation. Whatever the cause, the +discontented farmers believed that the way to raise prices was to issue +more money. They viewed it as a case of supply and demand. If there was +a small volume of currency in circulation, prices would be low; if there +was a large volume, prices would be high. Hence they looked with favor +upon all plans to increase the amount of money in circulation. First +they advocated more paper notes--greenbacks--and then they turned to +silver as the remedy. The creditors, on the other hand, naturally +approved the reduction of the volume of currency. They wished to see the +greenbacks withdrawn from circulation and gold--a metal more limited in +volume than silver--made the sole basis of the national monetary system. + +=The Battle over the Greenbacks.=--The contest between these factions +began as early as 1866. In that year, Congress enacted a law authorizing +the Treasury to withdraw the greenbacks from circulation. The paper +money party set up a shrill cry of protest, and kept up the fight until, +in 1878, it forced Congress to provide for the continuous re-issue of +the legal tender notes as they came into the Treasury in payment of +taxes and other dues. Then could the friends of easy money rejoice: + + "Thou, Greenback, 'tis of thee + Fair money of the free, + Of thee we sing." + +=Resumption of Specie Payment.=--There was, however, another side to +this victory. The opponents of the greenbacks, unable to stop the +circulation of paper, induced Congress to pass a law in 1875 providing +that on and after January 1, 1879, "the Secretary of the Treasury shall +redeem in coin the United States legal tender notes then outstanding on +their presentation at the office of the Assistant Treasurer of the +United States in the City of New York in sums of not less than fifty +dollars." "The way to resume," John Sherman had said, "is to resume." +When the hour for redemption arrived, the Treasury was prepared with a +large hoard of gold. "On the appointed day," wrote the assistant +secretary, "anxiety reigned in the office of the Treasury. Hour after +hour passed; no news from New York. Inquiry by wire showed that all was +quiet. At the close of the day this message came: '$135,000 of notes +presented for coin--$400,000 of gold for notes.' That was all. +Resumption was accomplished with no disturbance. By five o'clock the +news was all over the land, and the New York bankers were sipping their +tea in absolute safety." + +=The Specie Problem--the Parity of Gold and Silver.=--Defeated in their +efforts to stop "the present suicidal and destructive policy of +contraction," the advocates of an abundant currency demanded an increase +in the volume of silver in circulation. This precipitated one of the +sharpest political battles in American history. The issue turned on +legal as well as economic points. The Constitution gave Congress the +power to coin money and it forbade the states to make anything but gold +and silver legal tender in the payment of debts. It evidently +contemplated the use of both metals in the currency system. Such, at +least, was the view of many eminent statesmen, including no less a +personage than James G. Blaine. The difficulty, however, lay in +maintaining gold and silver coins on a level which would permit them to +circulate with equal facility. Obviously, if the gold in a gold dollar +exceeds the value of the silver in a silver dollar on the open market, +men will hoard gold money and leave silver money in circulation. When, +for example, Congress in 1792 fixed the ratio of the two metals at one +to fifteen--one ounce of gold declared worth fifteen of silver--it was +soon found that gold had been undervalued. When again in 1834 the ratio +was put at one to sixteen, it was found that silver was undervalued. +Consequently the latter metal was not brought in for coinage and silver +almost dropped out of circulation. Many a silver dollar was melted down +by silverware factories. + +=Silver Demonetized in 1873.=--So things stood in 1873. At that time, +Congress, in enacting a mintage law, discontinued the coinage of the +standard silver dollar, then practically out of circulation. This act +was denounced later by the friends of silver as "the crime of '73," a +conspiracy devised by the money power and secretly carried out. This +contention the debates in Congress do not seem to sustain. In the course +of the argument on the mint law it was distinctly said by one speaker at +least: "This bill provides for the making of changes in the legal tender +coin of the country and for substituting as legal tender, coin of only +one metal instead of two as heretofore." + +=The Decline in the Value of Silver.=--Absorbed in the greenback +controversy, the people apparently did not appreciate, at the time, the +significance of the "demonetization" of silver; but within a few years +several events united in making it the center of a political storm. +Germany, having abandoned silver in 1871, steadily increased her demand +for gold. Three years later, the countries of the Latin Union followed +this example, thus helping to enhance the price of the yellow metal. All +the while, new silver lodes, discovered in the Far West, were pouring +into the market great streams of the white metal, bearing down the +price. Then came the resumption of specie payment, which, in effect, +placed the paper money on a gold basis. Within twenty years silver was +worth in gold only about half the price of 1870. + +That there had been a real decline in silver was denied by the friends +of that metal. They alleged that gold had gone up because it had been +given a monopoly in the coinage markets of civilized governments. This +monopoly, they continued, was the fruit of a conspiracy against the +people conceived by the bankers of the world. Moreover, they went on, +the placing of the greenbacks on a gold basis had itself worked a +contraction of the currency; it lowered the prices of labor and produce +to the advantage of the holders of long-term investments bearing a fixed +rate of interest. When wheat sold at sixty-four cents a bushel, their +search for relief became desperate, and they at last concentrated their +efforts on opening the mints of the government for the free coinage of +silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. + +=Republicans and Democrats Divided.=--On this question both Republicans +and Democrats were divided, the line being drawn between the East on the +one hand and the South and West on the other, rather than between the +two leading parties. So trusted a leader as James G. Blaine avowed, in a +speech delivered in the Senate in 1878, that, as the Constitution +required Congress to make both gold and silver the money of the land, +the only question left was that of fixing the ratio between them. He +affirmed, moreover, the main contention of the silver faction that a +reopening of the government mints of the world to silver would bring it +up to its old relation with gold. He admitted also that their most +ominous warnings were well founded, saying: "I believe the struggle now +going on in this country and in other countries for a single gold +standard would, if successful, produce widespread disaster throughout +the commercial world. The destruction of silver as money and the +establishment of gold as the sole unit of value must have a ruinous +effect on all forms of property, except those investments which yield a +fixed return." + +This was exactly the concession that the silver party wanted. +"Three-fourths of the business enterprises of this country are conducted +on borrowed capital," said Senator Jones, of Nevada. "Three-fourths of +the homes and farms that stand in the names of the actual occupants have +been bought on time and a very large proportion of them are mortgaged +for the payment of some part of the purchase money. Under the operation +of a shrinkage in the volume of money, this enormous mass of borrowers, +at the maturity of their respective debts, though nominally paying no +more than the amount borrowed, with interest, are in reality, in the +amount of the principal alone, returning a percentage of value greater +than they received--more in equity than they contracted to pay.... In +all discussions of the subject the creditors attempt to brush aside the +equities involved by sneering at the debtors." + +=The Silver Purchase Act (1878).=--Even before the actual resumption of +specie payment, the advocates of free silver were a power to be reckoned +with, particularly in the Democratic party. They had a majority in the +House of Representatives in 1878 and they carried a silver bill through +that chamber. Blocked by the Republican Senate they accepted a +compromise in the Bland-Allison bill, which provided for huge monthly +purchases of silver by the government for coinage into dollars. So +strong was the sentiment that a two-thirds majority was mustered after +President Hayes vetoed the measure. + +The effect of this act, as some had anticipated, was disappointing. It +did not stay silver on its downward course. Thereupon the silver faction +pressed through Congress in 1886 a bill providing for the issue of paper +certificates based on the silver accumulated in the Treasury. Still +silver continued to fall. Then the advocates of inflation declared that +they would be content with nothing short of free coinage at the ratio of +sixteen to one. If the issue had been squarely presented in 1890, there +is good reason for believing that free silver would have received a +majority in both houses of Congress; but it was not presented. + +=The Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the Bond Sales.=--Republican +leaders, particularly from the East, stemmed the silver tide by a +diversion of forces. They passed the Sherman Act of 1890 providing for +large monthly purchases of silver and for the issue of notes redeemable +in gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. In +a clause of superb ambiguity they announced that it was "the established +policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with +each other upon the present legal ratio or such other ratio as may be +provided by law." For a while silver was buoyed up. Then it turned once +more on its downward course. In the meantime the Treasury was in a sad +plight. To maintain the gold reserve, President Cleveland felt compelled +to sell government bonds; and to his dismay he found that as soon as the +gold was brought in at the front door of the Treasury, notes were +presented for redemption and the gold was quickly carried out at the +back door. Alarmed at the vicious circle thus created, he urged upon +Congress the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. For this he was +roundly condemned by many of his own followers who branded his conduct +as "treason to the party"; but the Republicans, especially from the +East, came to his rescue and in 1893 swept the troublesome sections of +the law from the statute book. The anger of the silver faction knew no +bounds, and the leaders made ready for the approaching presidential +campaign. + + +THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF AND TAXATION + +=Fluctuation in Tariff Policy.=--As each of the old parties was divided +on the currency question, it is not surprising that there was some +confusion in their ranks over the tariff. Like the silver issue, the +tariff tended to align the manufacturing East against the agricultural +West and South rather than to cut directly between the two parties. +Still the Republicans on the whole stood firmly by the rates imposed +during the Civil War. If we except the reductions of 1872 which were +soon offset by increases, we may say that those rates were substantially +unchanged for nearly twenty years. When a revision was brought about, +however, it was initiated by Republican leaders. Seeing a huge surplus +of revenue in the Treasury in 1883, they anticipated popular clamor by +revising the tariff on the theory that it ought to be reformed by its +friends rather than by its enemies. On the other hand, it was the +Republicans also who enacted the McKinley tariff bill of 1890, which +carried protection to its highest point up to that time. + +The Democrats on their part were not all confirmed free traders or even +advocates of tariff for revenue only. In Cleveland's first +administration they did attack the protective system in the House, where +they had a majority, and in this they were vigorously supported by the +President. The assault, however, proved to be a futile gesture for it +was blocked by the Republicans in the Senate. When, after the sweeping +victory of 1892, the Democrats in the House again attempted to bring +down the tariff by the Wilson bill of 1894, they were checkmated by +their own party colleagues in the upper chamber. In the end they were +driven into a compromise that looked more like a McKinley than a Calhoun +tariff. The Republicans taunted them with being "babes in the woods." +President Cleveland was so dissatisfied with the bill that he refused to +sign it, allowing it to become a law, on the lapse of ten days, without +his approval. + +=The Income Tax of 1894.=--The advocates of tariff reduction usually +associated with their proposal a tax on incomes. The argument which +they advanced in support of their program was simple. Most of the +industries, they said, are in the East and the protective tariff which +taxes consumers for the benefit of manufacturers is, in effect, a +tribute laid upon the rest of the country. As an offset they offered a +tax on large incomes; this owing to the heavy concentration of rich +people in the East, would fall mainly upon the beneficiaries of +protection. "We propose," said one of them, "to place a part of the +burden upon the accumulated wealth of the country instead of placing it +all upon the consumption of the people." In this spirit the sponsors of +the Wilson tariff bill laid a tax upon all incomes of $4000 a year or +more. + +In taking this step, the Democrats encountered opposition in their own +party. Senator Hill, of New York, turned fiercely upon them, exclaiming: +"The professors with their books, the socialists with their schemes, the +anarchists with their bombs are all instructing the people in the ... +principles of taxation." Even the Eastern Republicans were hardly as +savage in their denunciation of the tax. But all this labor was wasted. +The next year the Supreme Court of the United States declared the income +tax to be a direct tax, and therefore null and void because it was laid +on incomes wherever found and not apportioned among the states according +to population. The fact that four of the nine judges dissented from this +decision was also an index to the diversity of opinion that divided both +parties. + + +THE RAILWAYS AND TRUSTS + +=The Grangers and State Regulation.=--The same uncertainty about the +railways and trusts pervaded the ranks of the Republicans and Democrats. +As to the railways, the first firm and consistent demand for their +regulation came from the West. There the farmers, in the early +seventies, having got control in state legislatures, particularly in +Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, enacted drastic laws prescribing the +maximum charges which companies could make for carrying freight and +passengers. The application of these measures, however, was limited +because the state could not fix the rates for transporting goods and +passengers beyond its own borders. The power of regulating interstate +commerce, under the Constitution, belonged to Congress. + +=The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.=--Within a few years, the movement +which had been so effective in western legislatures appeared at +Washington in the form of demands for the federal regulation of +interstate rates. In 1887, the pressure became so strong that Congress +created the interstate commerce commission and forbade many abuses on +the part of railways; such as discriminating in charges between one +shipper and another and granting secret rebates to favored persons. This +law was a significant beginning; but it left the main question of +rate-fixing untouched, much to the discontent of farmers and shippers. + +=The Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1890.=--As in the case of the railways, +attacks upon the trusts were first made in state legislatures, where it +became the fashion to provide severe penalties for those who formed +monopolies and "conspired to enhance prices." Republicans and Democrats +united in the promotion of measures of this kind. As in the case of the +railways also, the movement to curb the trusts soon had spokesmen at +Washington. Though Blaine had declared that "trusts were largely a +private affair with which neither the President nor any private citizen +had any particular right to interfere," it was a Republican Congress +that enacted in 1890 the first measure--the Sherman Anti-Trust +Law--directed against great combinations in business. This act declared +illegal "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, +or conspiracy in restraint of trade and commerce among the several +states or with foreign nations." + +=The Futility of the Anti-Trust Law.=--Whether the Sherman law was +directed against all combinations or merely those which placed an +"unreasonable restraint" on trade and competition was not apparent. +Senator Platt of Connecticut, a careful statesman of the old school, +averred: "The questions of whether the bill would be operative, of how +it would operate, or whether it was within the power of Congress to +enact it, have been whistled down the wind in this Senate as idle talk +and the whole effort has been to get some bill headed: 'A bill to punish +trusts,' with which to go to the country." Whatever its purpose, its +effect upon existing trusts and upon the formation of new combinations +was negligible. It was practically unenforced by President Harrison and +President Cleveland, in spite of the constant demand for harsh action +against "monopolies." It was patent that neither the Republicans nor the +Democrats were prepared for a war on the trusts to the bitter end. + + +THE MINOR PARTIES AND UNREST + +=The Demands of Dissenting Parties.=--From the election of 1872, when +Horace Greeley made his ill-fated excursion into politics, onward, there +appeared in each presidential campaign one, and sometimes two or more +parties, stressing issues that appealed mainly to wage-earners and +farmers. Whether they chose to call themselves Labor Reformers, +Greenbackers, or Anti-monopolists, their slogans and their platforms all +pointed in one direction. Even the Prohibitionists, who in 1872 started +on their career with a single issue, the abolition of the liquor +traffic, found themselves making declarations of faith on other matters +and hopelessly split over the money question in 1896. + +A composite view of the platforms put forth by the dissenting parties +from the administration of Grant to the close of Cleveland's second term +reveals certain notions common to them all. These included among many +others: the earliest possible payment of the national debt; regulation +of the rates of railways and telegraph companies; repeal of the specie +resumption act of 1875; the issue of legal tender notes by the +government convertible into interest-bearing obligations on demand; +unlimited coinage of silver as well as gold; a graduated inheritance +tax; legislation to take from "land, railroad, money, and other gigantic +corporate monopolies ... the powers they have so corruptly and unjustly +usurped"; popular or direct election of United States Senators; woman +suffrage; and a graduated income tax, "placing the burden of government +on those who can best afford to pay instead of laying it on the farmers +and producers." + +=Criticism of the Old Parties.=--To this long program of measures the +reformers added harsh and acrid criticism of the old parties and +sometimes, it must be said, of established institutions of government. +"We denounce," exclaimed the Labor party in 1888, "the Democratic and +Republican parties as hopelessly and shamelessly corrupt and by reason +of their affiliation with monopolies equally unworthy of the suffrages +of those who do not live upon public plunder." "The United States +Senate," insisted the Greenbackers, "is a body composed largely of +aristocratic millionaires who according to their own party papers +generally purchased their elections in order to protect the great +monopolies which they represent." Indeed, if their platforms are to be +accepted at face value, the Greenbackers believed that the entire +government had passed out of the hands of the people. + +=The Grangers.=--This unsparing, not to say revolutionary, criticism of +American political life, appealed, it seems, mainly to farmers in the +Middle West. Always active in politics, they had, before the Civil War, +cast their lot as a rule with one or the other of the leading parties. +In 1867, however, there grew up among them an association known as the +"Patrons of Husbandry," which was destined to play a large role in the +partisan contests of the succeeding decades. This society, which +organized local lodges or "granges" on principles of secrecy and +fraternity, was originally designed to promote in a general way the +interests of the farmers. Its political bearings were apparently not +grasped at first by its promoters. Yet, appealing as it did to the most +active and independent spirits among the farmers and gathering to itself +the strength that always comes from organization, it soon found itself +in the hands of leaders more or less involved in politics. Where a few +votes are marshaled together in a democracy, there is power. + +=The Greenback Party.=--The first extensive activity of the Grangers was +connected with the attack on the railways in the Middle West which +forced several state legislatures to reduce freight and passenger rates +by law. At the same time, some leaders in the movement, no doubt +emboldened by this success, launched in 1876 a new political party, +popularly known as the Greenbackers, favoring a continued re-issue of +the legal tenders. The beginnings were disappointing; but two years +later, in the congressional elections, the Greenbackers swept whole +sections of the country. Their candidates polled more than a million +votes and fourteen of them were returned to the House of +Representatives. To all outward signs a new and formidable party had +entered the lists. + +The sanguine hopes of the leaders proved to be illusory. The quiet +operations of the resumption act the following year, a revival of +industry from a severe panic which had set in during 1873, the Silver +Purchase Act, and the re-issue of Greenbacks cut away some of the +grounds of agitation. There was also a diversion of forces to the silver +faction which had a substantial support in the silver mine owners of the +West. At all events the Greenback vote fell to about 300,000 in the +election of 1880. A still greater drop came four years later and the +party gave up the ghost, its sponsors returning to their former +allegiance or sulking in their tents. + +=The Rise of the Populist Party.=--Those leaders of the old parties who +now looked for a happy future unvexed by new factions were doomed to +disappointment. The funeral of the Greenback party was hardly over +before there arose two other political specters in the agrarian +sections: the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, +particularly strong in the South and West; and the Farmers' Alliance, +operating in the North. By 1890 the two orders claimed over three +million members. As in the case of the Grangers many years before, the +leaders among them found an easy way into politics. In 1892 they held a +convention, nominated a candidate for President, and adopted the name of +"People's Party," from which they were known as Populists. Their +platform, in every line, breathed a spirit of radicalism. They declared +that "the newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion +silenced; business prostrate; our homes covered with mortgages; and the +land concentrating in the hands of capitalists.... The fruits of the +toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a +few." Having delivered this sweeping indictment, the Populists put +forward their remedies: the free coinage of silver, a graduated income +tax, postal savings banks, and government ownership of railways and +telegraphs. At the same time they approved the initiative, referendum, +and popular election of Senators, and condemned the use of federal +troops in labor disputes. On this platform, the Populists polled over a +million votes, captured twenty-two presidential electors, and sent a +powerful delegation to Congress. + +=Industrial Distress Augments Unrest.=--The four years intervening +between the campaign of 1892 and the next presidential election brought +forth many events which aggravated the ill-feeling expressed in the +portentous platform of Populism. Cleveland, a consistent enemy of free +silver, gave his powerful support to the gold standard and insisted on +the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act, thus alienating an increasing +number of his own party. In 1893 a grave industrial crisis fell upon the +land: banks and business houses went into bankruptcy with startling +rapidity; factories were closed; idle men thronged the streets hunting +for work; and the prices of wheat and corn dropped to a ruinous level. +Labor disputes also filled the crowded record. A strike at the Pullman +car works in Chicago spread to the railways. Disorders ensued. President +Cleveland, against the protests of the governor of Illinois, John P. +Altgeld, dispatched troops to the scene of action. The United States +district court at Chicago issued an injunction forbidding the president +of the Railway Union, Eugene V. Debs, or his assistants to interfere +with the transmission of the mails or interstate commerce in any form. +For refusing to obey the order, Debs was arrested and imprisoned. With +federal troops in possession of the field, with their leader in jail, +the strikers gave up the battle, defeated but not subdued. To cap the +climax the Supreme Court of the United States, the following year (1895) +declared null and void the income tax law just enacted by Congress, thus +fanning the flames of Populist discontent all over the West and South. + + +THE SOUND MONEY BATTLE OF 1896 + +=Conservative Men Alarmed.=--Men of conservative thought and leaning in +both parties were by this time thoroughly disturbed. They looked upon +the rise of Populism and the growth of labor disputes as the signs of a +revolutionary spirit, indeed nothing short of a menace to American +institutions and ideals. The income tax law of 1894, exclaimed the +distinguished New York advocate, Joseph H. Choate, in an impassioned +speech before the Supreme Court, "is communistic in its purposes and +tendencies and is defended here upon principles as communistic, +socialistic--what shall I call them--populistic as ever have been +addressed to any political assembly in the world." Mr. Justice Field in +the name of the Court replied: "The present assault upon capital is but +the beginning. It will be but the stepping stone to others larger and +more sweeping till our political conditions will become a war of the +poor against the rich." In declaring the income tax unconstitutional, he +believed that he was but averting greater evils lurking under its guise. +As for free silver, nearly all conservative men were united in calling +it a measure of confiscation and repudiation; an effort of the debtors +to pay their obligations with money worth fifty cents on the dollar; the +climax of villainies openly defended; a challenge to law, order, and +honor. + +=The Republicans Come Out for the Gold Standard.=--It was among the +Republicans that this opinion was most widely shared and firmly held. It +was they who picked up the gauge thrown down by the Populists, though a +host of Democrats, like Cleveland and Hill of New York, also battled +against the growing Populist defection in Democratic ranks. When the +Republican national convention assembled in 1896, the die was soon +cast; a declaration of opposition to free silver save by international +agreement was carried by a vote of eight to one. The Republican party, +to use the vigorous language of Mr. Lodge, arrayed itself against "not +only that organized failure, the Democratic party, but all the wandering +forces of political chaos and social disorder ... in these bitter times +when the forces of disorder are loose and the wreckers with their false +lights gather at the shore to lure the ship of state upon the rocks." +Yet it is due to historic truth to state that McKinley, whom the +Republicans nominated, had voted in Congress for the free coinage of +silver, was widely known as a bimetallist, and was only with difficulty +persuaded to accept the unequivocal indorsement of the gold standard +which was pressed upon him by his counselors. Having accepted it, +however, he proved to be a valiant champion, though his major interest +was undoubtedly in the protective tariff. To him nothing was more +reprehensible than attempts "to array class against class, 'the classes +against the masses,' section against section, labor against capital, +'the poor against the rich,' or interest against interest." Such was the +language of his acceptance speech. The whole program of Populism he now +viewed as a "sudden, dangerous, and revolutionary assault upon law and +order." + +=The Democratic Convention at Chicago.=--Never, save at the great +disruption on the eve of the Civil War, did a Democratic national +convention display more feeling than at Chicago in 1896. From the +opening prayer to the last motion before the house, every act, every +speech, every scene, every resolution evoked passions and sowed +dissensions. Departing from long party custom, it voted down in anger a +proposal to praise the administration of the Democratic President, +Cleveland. When the platform with its radical planks, including free +silver, was reported, a veritable storm broke. Senator Hill, trembling +with emotion, protested against the departure from old tests of +Democratic allegiance; against principles that must drive out of the +party men who had grown gray in its service; against revolutionary, +unwise, and unprecedented steps in the history of the party. Senator +Vilas of Wisconsin, in great fervor, avowed that there was no difference +in principle between the free coinage of silver--"the confiscation of +one-half of the credits of the nation for the benefit of debtors"--and +communism itself--"a universal distribution of property." In the triumph +of that cause he saw the beginning of "the overthrow of all law, all +justice, all security and repose in the social order." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +WILLIAM J. BRYAN IN 1898] + +=The Crown of Thorns Speech.=--The champions of free silver replied in +strident tones. They accused the gold advocates of being the aggressors +who had assailed the labor and the homes of the people. William Jennings +Bryan, of Nebraska, voiced their sentiments in a memorable oration. He +declared that their cause "was as holy as the cause of liberty--the +cause of humanity." He exclaimed that the contest was between the idle +holders of idle capital and the toiling millions. Then he named those +for whom he spoke--the wage-earner, the country lawyer, the small +merchant, the farmer, and the miner. "The man who is employed for wages +is as much a business man as his employer. The attorney in a country +town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel in a great +metropolis. The merchant at the cross roads store is as much a business +man as the merchant of New York. The farmer ... is as much a business +man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price +of grain. The miners who go a thousand feet into the earth or climb two +thousand feet upon the cliffs ... are as much business men as the few +financial magnates who in a back room corner the money of the world.... +It is for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. Ours is not +a war of conquest. We are fighting in defense of our homes, our +families, and our posterity. We have petitioned and our petitions have +been scorned. We have entreated and our entreaties have been +disregarded. We have begged and they have mocked when our calamity came. +We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy +them.... We shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to +them, 'You shall not press upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. +You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.'" + +=Bryan Nominated.=--In all the history of national conventions never had +an orator so completely swayed a multitude; not even Yancey in his +memorable plea in the Charleston convention of 1860 when, with grave and +moving eloquence, he espoused the Southern cause against the impending +fates. The delegates, after cheering Mr. Bryan until they could cheer no +more, tore the standards from the floor and gathered around the Nebraska +delegation to renew the deafening applause. The platform as reported was +carried by a vote of two to one and the young orator from the West, +hailed as America's Tiberius Gracchus, was nominated as the Democratic +candidate for President. The South and West had triumphed over the East. +The division was sectional, admittedly sectional--the old combination of +power which Calhoun had so anxiously labored to build up a century +earlier. The Gold Democrats were repudiated in terms which were clear to +all. A few, unable to endure the thought of voting the Republican +ticket, held a convention at Indianapolis where, with the sanction of +Cleveland, they nominated candidates of their own and endorsed the gold +standard in a forlorn hope. + +=The Democratic Platform.=--It was to the call from Chicago that the +Democrats gave heed and the Republicans made answer. The platform on +which Mr. Bryan stood, unlike most party manifestoes, was explicit in +its language and its appeal. It denounced the practice of allowing +national banks to issue notes intended to circulate as money on the +ground that it was "in derogation of the Constitution," recalling +Jackson's famous attack on the Bank in 1832. It declared that tariff +duties should be laid "for the purpose of revenue"--Calhoun's doctrine. +In demanding the free coinage of silver, it recurred to the practice +abandoned in 1873. The income tax came next on the program. The platform +alleged that the law of 1894, passed by a Democratic Congress, was "in +strict pursuance of the uniform decisions of the Supreme Court for +nearly a hundred years," and then hinted that the decision annulling the +law might be reversed by the same body "as it may hereafter be +constituted." + +The appeal to labor voiced by Mr. Bryan in his "crown of thorns" speech +was reinforced in the platform. "As labor creates the wealth of the +country," ran one plank, "we demand the passage of such laws as may be +necessary to protect it in all its rights." Referring to the recent +Pullman strike, the passions of which had not yet died away, the +platform denounced "arbitrary interference by federal authorities in +local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States +and a crime against free institutions." A special objection was lodged +against "government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of +oppression by which federal judges, in contempt of the laws of states +and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, and +executioners." The remedy advanced was a federal law assuring trial by +jury in all cases of contempt in labor disputes. Having made this +declaration of faith, the Democrats, with Mr. Bryan at the head, raised +their standard of battle. + +=The Heated Campaign.=--The campaign which ensued outrivaled in the +range of its educational activities and the bitterness of its tone all +other political conflicts in American history, not excepting the fateful +struggle of 1860. Immense sums of money were contributed to the funds of +both parties. Railway, banking, and other corporations gave generously +to the Republicans; the silver miners, less lavishly but with the same +anxiety, supported the Democrats. The country was flooded with +pamphlets, posters, and handbills. Every public forum, from the great +auditoriums of the cities to the "red schoolhouses" on the countryside, +was occupied by the opposing forces. + +Mr. Bryan took the stump himself, visiting all parts of the country in +special trains and addressing literally millions of people in the open +air. Mr. McKinley chose the older and more formal plan. He received +delegations at his home in Canton and discussed the issues of the +campaign from his front porch, leaving to an army of well-organized +orators the task of reaching the people in their home towns. Parades, +processions, and monster demonstrations filled the land with politics. +Whole states were polled in advance by the Republicans and the doubtful +voters personally visited by men equipped with arguments and literature. +Manufacturers, frightened at the possibility of disordered public +credit, announced that they would close their doors if the Democrats won +the election. Men were dismissed from public and private places on +account of their political views, one eminent college president being +forced out for advocating free silver. The language employed by +impassioned and embittered speakers on both sides roused the public to a +state of frenzy, once more showing the lengths to which men could go in +personal and political abuse. + +=The Republican Victory.=--The verdict of the nation was decisive. +McKinley received 271 of the 447 electoral votes, and 7,111,000 popular +votes as against Bryan's 6,509,000. The congressional elections were +equally positive although, on account of the composition of the Senate, +the "hold-over" Democrats and Populists still enjoyed a power out of +proportion to their strength as measured at the polls. Even as it was, +the Republicans got full control of both houses--a dominion of the +entire government which they were to hold for fourteen years--until the +second half of Mr. Taft's administration, when they lost possession of +the House of Representatives. The yoke of indecision was broken. The +party of sound finance and protective tariffs set out upon its lease of +power with untroubled assurance. + + +REPUBLICAN MEASURES AND RESULTS + +=The Gold Standard and the Tariff.=--Yet strange as it may seem, the +Republicans did not at once enact legislation making the gold dollar the +standard for the national currency. Not until 1900 did they take that +positive step. In his first inaugural President McKinley, as if still +uncertain in his own mind or fearing a revival of the contest just +closed, placed the tariff, not the money question, in the forefront. +"The people have decided," he said, "that such legislation should be had +as will give ample protection and encouragement to the industries and +development of our country." Protection for American industries, +therefore, he urged, is the task before Congress. "With adequate revenue +secured, but not until then, we can enter upon changes in our fiscal +laws." As the Republicans had only forty-six of the ninety Senators, and +at least four of them were known advocates of free silver, the +discretion exercised by the President in selecting the tariff for +congressional debate was the better part of valor. + +Congress gave heed to the warning. Under the direction of Nelson P. +Dingley, whose name was given to the bill, a tariff measure levying the +highest rates yet laid in the history of American imposts was prepared +and driven through the House of Representatives. The opposition +encountered in the Senate, especially from the West, was overcome by +concessions in favor of that section; but the duties on sugar, tin, +steel, lumber, hemp, and in fact all of the essential commodities +handled by combinations and trusts, were materially raised. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +PRESIDENT MCKINLEY AND HIS CABINET] + +=Growth of Combinations.=--The years that followed the enactment of the +Dingley law were, whatever the cause, the most prosperous the country +had witnessed for many a decade. Industries of every kind were soon +running full blast; labor was employed; commerce spread more swiftly +than ever to the markets of the world. Coincident with this progress was +the organization of the greatest combinations and trusts the world had +yet seen. In 1899 the smelters formed a trust with a capital of +$65,000,000; in the same year the Standard Oil Company with a capital of +over one hundred millions took the place of the old trust; and the +Copper Trust was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey, its par +value capital being fixed shortly afterward at $175,000,000. A year +later the National Sugar Refining Company, of New Jersey, started with a +capital of $90,000,000, adopting the policy of issuing to the +stockholders no public statement of its earnings or financial condition. +Before another twelvemonth had elapsed all previous corporate financing +was reduced to small proportions by the flotation of the United States +Steel Corporation with a capital of more than a billion dollars, an +enterprise set in motion by the famous Morgan banking house of New York. + +In nearly all these gigantic undertakings, the same great leaders in +finance were more or less intimately associated. To use the language of +an eminent authority: "They are all allied and intertwined by their +various mutual interests. For instance, the Pennsylvania Railroad +interests are on the one hand allied with the Vanderbilts and on the +other with the Rockefellers. The Vanderbilts are closely allied with the +Morgan group.... Viewed as a whole we find the dominating influences in +the trusts to be made up of a network of large and small capitalists, +many allied to one another by ties of more or less importance, but all +being appendages to or parts of the greater groups which are themselves +dependent on and allied with the two mammoth or Rockefeller and Morgan +groups. These two mammoth groups jointly ... constitute the heart of the +business and commercial life of the nation." Such was the picture of +triumphant business enterprise drawn by a financier within a few years +after the memorable campaign of 1896. + +America had become one of the first workshops of the world. It was, by +virtue of the closely knit organization of its business and finance, one +of the most powerful and energetic leaders in the struggle of the giants +for the business of the earth. The capital of the Steel Corporation +alone was more than ten times the total national debt which the apostles +of calamity in the days of Washington and Hamilton declared the nation +could never pay. American industry, filling domestic markets to +overflowing, was ready for new worlds to conquer. + + +=References= + +F.W. Taussig, _Tariff History of the United States_. + +J.L. Laughlin, _Bimetallism in the United States_. + +A.B. Hepburn, _History of Coinage and Currency in the United States_. + +E.R.A. Seligman, _The Income Tax_. + +S.J. Buck, _The Granger Movement_ (Harvard Studies). + +F.H. Dixon, _State Railroad Control_. + +H.R. Meyer, _Government Regulation of Railway Rates_. + +W.Z. Ripley (editor), _Trusts, Pools, and Corporations_. + +R.T. Ely, _Monopolies and Trusts_. + +J.B. Clark, _The Control of Trusts_. + + +=Questions= + +1. What proof have we that the political parties were not clearly +divided over issues between 1865 and 1896? + +2. Why is a fall in prices a loss to farmers and a gain to holders of +fixed investments? + +3. Explain the theory that the quantity of money determines the prices +of commodities. + +4. Why was it difficult, if not impossible, to keep gold and silver at a +parity? + +5. What special conditions favored a fall in silver between 1870 and +1896? + +6. Describe some of the measures taken to raise the value of silver. + +7. Explain the relation between the tariff and the income tax in 1894. + +8. How did it happen that the farmers led in regulating railway rates? + +9. Give the terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. What was its immediate +effect? + +10. Name some of the minor parties. Enumerate the reforms they +advocated. + +11. Describe briefly the experiments of the farmers in politics. + +12. How did industrial conditions increase unrest? + +13. Why were conservative men disturbed in the early nineties? + +14. Explain the Republican position in 1896. + +15. Give Mr. Bryan's doctrines in 1896. Enumerate the chief features of +the Democratic platform. + +16. What were the leading measures adopted by the Republicans after +their victory in 1896? + + +=Research Topics= + +=Greenbacks and Resumption.=--Dewey, _Financial History of the United +States_ (6th ed.), Sections 122-125, 154, and 378; MacDonald, +_Documentary Source Book of American History_, pp. 446, 566; Hart, +_American History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 531-533; Rhodes, +_History of the United States_, Vol. VIII, pp. 97-101. + +=Demonetization and Coinage of Silver.=--Dewey, _Financial History_, +Sections 170-173, 186, 189, 194; MacDonald, _Documentary Source Book_, +pp. 174, 573, 593, 595; Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 529-531; +Rhodes, _History_, Vol. VIII, pp. 93-97. + +=Free Silver and the Campaign of 1896.=--Dewey, _National Problems_ +(American Nation Series), pp. 220-237, 314-328; Hart, _Contemporaries_, +Vol. IV, pp. 533-538. + +=Tariff Revision.=--Dewey, _Financial History_, Sections 167, 180, 181, +187, 192, 196; Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 518-525; Rhodes, +_History_, Vol. VIII, pp. 168-179, 346-351, 418-422. + +=Federal Regulation of Railways.=--Dewey, _National Problems_, pp. +91-111; MacDonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. 581-590; Hart, +_Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 521-523; Rhodes, _History_, Vol. VIII, +pp. 288-292. + +=The Rise and Regulation of Trusts.=--Dewey, _National Problems_, pp. +188-202; MacDonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. 591-593. + +=The Grangers and Populism.=--Paxson, _The New Nation_ (Riverside +Series), pp. 20-37, 177-191, 208-223. + +=General Analysis of Domestic Problems.=--_Syllabus in History_ (New +York State, 1920), pp. 137-142. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +AMERICA A WORLD POWER (1865-1900) + + +It has now become a fashion, sanctioned by wide usage and by eminent +historians, to speak of America, triumphant over Spain and possessed of +new colonies, as entering the twentieth century in the role of "a world +power," for the first time. Perhaps at this late day, it is useless to +protest against the currency of the idea. Nevertheless, the truth is +that from the fateful moment in March, 1775, when Edmund Burke unfolded +to his colleagues in the British Parliament the resources of an +invincible America, down to the settlement at Versailles in 1919 closing +the drama of the World War, this nation has been a world power, +influencing by its example, by its institutions, by its wealth, trade, +and arms the course of international affairs. And it should be said also +that neither in the field of commercial enterprise nor in that of +diplomacy has it been wanting in spirit or ingenuity. + +When John Hay, Secretary of State, heard that an American citizen, +Perdicaris, had been seized by Raisuli, a Moroccan bandit, in 1904, he +wired his brusque message: "We want Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." +This was but an echo of Commodore Decatur's equally characteristic +answer, "Not a minute," given nearly a hundred years before to the +pirates of Algiers begging for time to consider whether they would cease +preying upon American merchantmen. Was it not as early as 1844 that the +American commissioner, Caleb Cushing, taking advantage of the British +Opium War on China, negotiated with the Celestial Empire a successful +commercial treaty? Did he not then exultantly exclaim: "The laws of the +Union follow its citizens and its banner protects them even within the +domain of the Chinese Empire"? Was it not almost half a century before +the battle of Manila Bay in 1898, that Commodore Perry with an adequate +naval force "gently coerced Japan into friendship with us," leading all +the nations of the earth in the opening of that empire to the trade of +the Occident? Nor is it inappropriate in this connection to recall the +fact that the Monroe Doctrine celebrates in 1923 its hundredth +anniversary. + + +AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS (1865-98) + +=French Intrigues in Mexico Blocked.=--Between the war for the union and +the war with Spain, the Department of State had many an occasion to +present the rights of America among the powers of the world. Only a +little while after the civil conflict came to a close, it was called +upon to deal with a dangerous situation created in Mexico by the +ambitions of Napoleon III. During the administration of Buchanan, Mexico +had fallen into disorder through the strife of the Liberal and the +Clerical parties; the President asked for authority to use American +troops to bring to a peaceful haven "a wreck upon the ocean, drifting +about as she is impelled by different factions." Our own domestic crisis +then intervened. + +Observing the United States heavily involved in its own problems, the +great powers, England, France, and Spain, decided in the autumn of 1861 +to take a hand themselves in restoring order in Mexico. They entered +into an agreement to enforce the claims of their citizens against Mexico +and to protect their subjects residing in that republic. They invited +the United States to join them, and, on meeting a polite refusal, they +prepared for a combined military and naval demonstration on their own +account. In the midst of this action England and Spain, discovering the +sinister purposes of Napoleon, withdrew their troops and left the field +to him. + +The French Emperor, it was well known, looked with jealousy upon the +growth of the United States and dreamed of establishing in the Western +hemisphere an imperial power to offset the American republic. +Intervention to collect debts was only a cloak for his deeper designs. +Throwing off that guise in due time, he made the Archduke Maximilian, a +brother of the ruler of Austria, emperor in Mexico, and surrounded his +throne by French soldiers, in spite of all protests. + +This insolent attack upon the Mexican republic, deeply resented in the +United States, was allowed to drift in its course until 1865. At that +juncture General Sheridan was dispatched to the Mexican border with a +large armed force; General Grant urged the use of the American army to +expel the French from this continent. The Secretary of State, Seward, +counseled negotiation first, and, applying the Monroe Doctrine, was able +to prevail upon Napoleon III to withdraw his troops. Without the support +of French arms, the sham empire in Mexico collapsed like a house of +cards and the unhappy Maximilian, the victim of French ambition and +intrigue, met his death at the hands of a Mexican firing squad. + +=Alaska Purchased.=--The Mexican affair had not been brought to a close +before the Department of State was busy with negotiations which resulted +in the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The treaty of cession, signed on +March 30, 1867, added to the United States a domain of nearly six +hundred thousand square miles, a territory larger than Texas and nearly +three-fourths the size of the Louisiana purchase. Though it was a +distant colony separated from our continental domain by a thousand miles +of water, no question of "imperialism" or "colonization foreign to +American doctrines" seems to have been raised at the time. The treaty +was ratified promptly by the Senate. The purchase price, $7,200,000, was +voted by the House of Representatives after the display of some +resentment against a system that compelled it to appropriate money to +fulfill an obligation which it had no part in making. Seward, who +formulated the treaty, rejoiced, as he afterwards said, that he had kept +Alaska out of the hands of England. + +=American Interest in the Caribbean.=--Having achieved this diplomatic +triumph, Seward turned to the increase of American power in another +direction. He negotiated, with Denmark, a treaty providing for the +purchase of the islands of St. John and St. Thomas in the West Indies, +strategic points in the Caribbean for sea power. This project, long +afterward brought to fruition by other men, was defeated on this +occasion by the refusal of the Senate to ratify the treaty. Evidently it +was not yet prepared to exercise colonial dominion over other races. + +Undaunted by the misadventure in Caribbean policies, President Grant +warmly advocated the acquisition of Santo Domingo. This little republic +had long been in a state of general disorder. In 1869 a treaty of +annexation was concluded with its president. The document Grant +transmitted to the Senate with his cordial approval, only to have it +rejected. Not at all changed in his opinion by the outcome of his +effort, he continued to urge the subject of annexation. Even in his last +message to Congress he referred to it, saying that time had only proved +the wisdom of his early course. The addition of Santo Domingo to the +American sphere of protection was the work of a later generation. The +State Department, temporarily checked, had to bide its time. + +=The _Alabama_ Claims Arbitrated.=--Indeed, it had in hand a far more +serious matter, a vexing issue that grew out of Civil War diplomacy. The +British government, as already pointed out in other connections, had +permitted Confederate cruisers, including the famous _Alabama_, built in +British ports, to escape and prey upon the commerce of the Northern +states. This action, denounced at the time by our government as a grave +breach of neutrality as well as a grievous injury to American citizens, +led first to remonstrances and finally to repeated claims for damages +done to American ships and goods. For a long time Great Britain was +firm. Her foreign secretary denied all obligations in the premises, +adding somewhat curtly that "he wished to say once for all that Her +Majesty's government disclaimed any responsibility for the losses and +hoped that they had made their position perfectly clear." Still +President Grant was not persuaded that the door of diplomacy, though +closed, was barred. Hamilton Fish, his Secretary of State, renewed the +demand. Finally he secured from the British government in 1871 the +treaty of Washington providing for the arbitration not merely of the +_Alabama_ and other claims but also all points of serious controversy +between the two countries. + +The tribunal of arbitration thus authorized sat at Geneva in +Switzerland, and after a long and careful review of the arguments on +both sides awarded to the United States the lump sum of $15,500,000 to +be distributed among the American claimants. The damages thus allowed +were large, unquestionably larger than strict justice required and it is +not surprising that the decision excited much adverse comment in +England. Nevertheless, the prompt payment by the British government +swept away at once a great cloud of ill-feeling in America. Moreover, +the spectacle of two powerful nations choosing the way of peaceful +arbitration to settle an angry dispute seemed a happy, if illusory, omen +of a modern method for avoiding the arbitrament of war. + +=Samoa.=--If the Senate had its doubts at first about the wisdom of +acquiring strategic points for naval power in distant seas, the same +could not be said of the State Department or naval officers. In 1872 +Commander Meade, of the United States navy, alive to the importance of +coaling stations even in mid-ocean, made a commercial agreement with the +chief of Tutuila, one of the Samoan Islands, far below the equator, in +the southern Pacific, nearer to Australia than to California. This +agreement, providing among other things for our use of the harbor of +Pago Pago as a naval base, was six years later changed into a formal +treaty ratified by the Senate. + +Such enterprise could not escape the vigilant eyes of England and +Germany, both mindful of the course of the sea power in history. The +German emperor, seizing as a pretext a quarrel between his consul in the +islands and a native king, laid claim to an interest in the Samoan +group. England, aware of the dangers arising from German outposts in the +southern seas so near to Australia, was not content to stand aside. So +it happened that all three countries sent battleships to the Samoan +waters, threatening a crisis that was fortunately averted by friendly +settlement. If, as is alleged, Germany entertained a notion of +challenging American sea power then and there, the presence of British +ships must have dispelled that dream. + +The result of the affair was a tripartite agreement by which the three +powers in 1889 undertook a protectorate over the islands. But joint +control proved unsatisfactory. There was constant friction between the +Germans and the English. The spheres of authority being vague and open +to dispute, the plan had to be abandoned at the end of ten years. +England withdrew altogether, leaving to Germany all the islands except +Tutuila, which was ceded outright to the United States. Thus one of the +finest harbors in the Pacific, to the intense delight of the American +navy, passed permanently under American dominion. Another triumph in +diplomacy was set down to the credit of the State Department. + +=Cleveland and the Venezuela Affair.=--In the relations with South +America, as well as in those with the distant Pacific, the diplomacy of +the government at Washington was put to the test. For some time it had +been watching a dispute between England and Venezuela over the western +boundary of British Guiana and, on an appeal from Venezuela, it had +taken a lively interest in the contest. In 1895 President Cleveland saw +that Great Britain would yield none of her claims. After hearing the +arguments of Venezuela, his Secretary of State, Richard T. Olney, in a +note none too conciliatory, asked the British government whether it was +willing to arbitrate the points in controversy. This inquiry he +accompanied by a warning to the effect that the United States could not +permit any European power to contest its mastery in this hemisphere. +"The United States," said the Secretary, "is practically sovereign on +this continent and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it +confines its interposition.... Its infinite resources, combined with its +isolated position, render it master of the situation and practically +invulnerable against any or all other powers." + +The reply evoked from the British government by this strong statement +was firm and clear. The Monroe Doctrine, it said, even if not so widely +stretched by interpretation, was not binding in international law; the +dispute with Venezuela was a matter of interest merely to the parties +involved; and arbitration of the question was impossible. This response +called forth President Cleveland's startling message of 1895. He asked +Congress to create a commission authorized to ascertain by researches +the true boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. He added that it +would be the duty of this country "to resist by every means in its +power, as a willful aggression upon its rights and interests, the +appropriation by Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of +governmental jurisdiction over any territory which, after investigation, +we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela." The serious character +of this statement he thoroughly understood. He declared that he was +conscious of his responsibilities, intimating that war, much as it was +to be deplored, was not comparable to "a supine submission to wrong and +injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor." + +[Illustration: GROVER CLEVELAND] + +The note of defiance which ran through this message, greeted by shrill +cries of enthusiasm in many circles, was viewed in other quarters as a +portent of war. Responsible newspapers in both countries spoke of an +armed settlement of the dispute as inevitable. Congress created the +commission and appropriated money for the investigation; a body of +learned men was appointed to determine the merits of the conflicting +boundary claims. The British government, deaf to the clamor of the +bellicose section of the London press, deplored the incident, +courteously replied in the affirmative to a request for assistance in +the search for evidence, and finally agreed to the proposition that the +issue be submitted to arbitration. The outcome of this somewhat perilous +dispute contributed not a little to Cleveland's reputation as "a +sterling representative of the true American spirit." This was not +diminished when the tribunal of arbitration found that Great Britain was +on the whole right in her territorial claims against Venezuela. + +=The Annexation of Hawaii.=--While engaged in the dangerous Venezuela +controversy, President Cleveland was compelled by a strange turn in +events to consider the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in the +mid-Pacific. For more than half a century American missionaries had been +active in converting the natives to the Christian faith and enterprising +American business men had been developing the fertile sugar plantations. +Both the Department of State and the Navy Department were fully +conscious of the strategic relation of the islands to the growth of sea +power and watched with anxiety any developments likely to bring them +under some other Dominion. + +The country at large was indifferent, however, until 1893, when a +revolution, headed by Americans, broke out, ending in the overthrow of +the native government, the abolition of the primitive monarchy, and the +retirement of Queen Liliuokalani to private life. This crisis, a +repetition of the Texas affair in a small theater, was immediately +followed by a demand from the new Hawaiian government for annexation to +the United States. President Harrison looked with favor on the proposal, +negotiated the treaty of annexation, and laid it before the Senate for +approval. There it still rested when his term of office was brought to a +close. + +Harrison's successor, Cleveland, it was well known, had doubts about the +propriety of American action in Hawaii. For the purpose of making an +inquiry into the matter, he sent a special commissioner to the islands. +On the basis of the report of his agent, Cleveland came to the +conclusion that "the revolution in the island kingdom had been +accomplished by the improper use of the armed forces of the United +States and that the wrong should be righted by a restoration of the +queen to her throne." Such being his matured conviction, though the +facts upon which he rested it were warmly controverted, he could do +nothing but withdraw the treaty from the Senate and close the incident. + +To the Republicans this sharp and cavalier disposal of their plans, +carried out in a way that impugned the motives of a Republican +President, was nothing less than "a betrayal of American interests." In +their platform of 1896 they made clear their position: "Our foreign +policy should be at all times firm, vigorous, and dignified and all our +interests in the Western hemisphere carefully watched and guarded. The +Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States and no +foreign power should be permitted to interfere with them." There was no +mistaking this view of the issue. As the vote in the election gave +popular sanction to Republican policies, Congress by a joint resolution, +passed on July 6, 1898, annexed the islands to the United States and +later conferred upon them the ordinary territorial form of government. + + +CUBA AND THE SPANISH WAR + +=Early American Relations with Cuba.=--The year that brought Hawaii +finally under the American flag likewise drew to a conclusion another +long controversy over a similar outpost in the Atlantic, one of the last +remnants of the once glorious Spanish empire--the island of Cuba. + +For a century the Department of State had kept an anxious eye upon this +base of power, knowing full well that both France and England, already +well established in the West Indies, had their attention also fixed upon +Cuba. In the administration of President Fillmore they had united in +proposing to the United States a tripartite treaty guaranteeing Spain in +her none too certain ownership. This proposal, squarely rejected, +furnished the occasion for a statement of American policy which stood +the test of all the years that followed; namely, that the affair was one +between Spain and the United States alone. + +In that long contest in the United States for the balance of power +between the North and South, leaders in the latter section often thought +of bringing Cuba into the union to offset the free states. An +opportunity to announce their purposes publicly was afforded in 1854 by +a controversy over the seizure of an American ship by Cuban authorities. +On that occasion three American ministers abroad, stationed at Madrid, +Paris, and London respectively, held a conference and issued the +celebrated "Ostend Manifesto." They united in declaring that Cuba, by +her geographical position, formed a part of the United States, that +possession by a foreign power was inimical to American interests, and +that an effort should be made to purchase the island from Spain. In case +the owner refused to sell, they concluded, with a menacing flourish, "by +every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from +Spain if we possess the power." This startling proclamation to the world +was promptly disowned by the United States government. + +[Illustration: _=An old cartoon.=_ + +A SIGHT TOO BAD + +_Struggling Cuba._ "You must be awfully near-sighted, Mr. President, not +to recognize me." _U.S.G._ "No, I am far-sighted: for I can recognize +France."] + +=Revolutions in Cuba.=--For nearly twenty years afterwards the Cuban +question rested. Then it was revived in another form during President +Grant's administrations, when the natives became engaged in a +destructive revolt against Spanish officials. For ten years--1868-78--a +guerrilla warfare raged in the island. American citizens, by virtue of +their ancient traditions of democracy, naturally sympathized with a war +for independence and self-government. Expeditions to help the insurgents +were fitted out secretly in American ports. Arms and supplies were +smuggled into Cuba. American soldiers of fortune joined their ranks. The +enforcement of neutrality against the friends of Cuban independence, no +pleasing task for a sympathetic President, the protection of American +lives and property in the revolutionary area, and similar matters kept +our government busy with Cuba for a whole decade. + +A brief lull in Cuban disorders was followed in 1895 by a renewal of the +revolutionary movement. The contest between the rebels and the Spanish +troops, marked by extreme cruelty and a total disregard for life and +property, exceeded all bounds of decency, and once more raised the old +questions that had tormented Grant's administration. Gomez, the leader +of the revolt, intent upon provoking American interference, laid waste +the land with fire and sword. By a proclamation of November 6, 1895, he +ordered the destruction of sugar plantations and railway connections and +the closure of all sugar factories. The work of ruin was completed by +the ruthless Spanish general, Weyler, who concentrated the inhabitants +from rural regions into military camps, where they died by the hundreds +of disease and starvation. Stories of the atrocities, bad enough in +simple form, became lurid when transmuted into American news and deeply +moved the sympathies of the American people. Sermons were preached about +Spanish misdeeds; orators demanded that the Cubans be sustained "in +their heroic struggle for independence"; newspapers, scouting the +ordinary forms of diplomatic negotiation, spurned mediation and demanded +intervention and war if necessary. + +[Illustration: _Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +CUBAN REVOLUTIONISTS] + +=President Cleveland's Policy.=--Cleveland chose the way of peace. He +ordered the observance of the rule of neutrality. He declined to act on +a resolution of Congress in favor of giving to the Cubans the rights of +belligerents. Anxious to bring order to the distracted island, he +tendered to Spain the good offices of the United States as mediator in +the contest--a tender rejected by the Spanish government with the broad +hint that President Cleveland might be more vigorous in putting a stop +to the unlawful aid in money, arms, and supplies, afforded to the +insurgents by American sympathizers. Thereupon the President returned to +the course he had marked out for himself, leaving "the public nuisance" +to his successor, President McKinley. + +=Republican Policies.=--The Republicans in 1897 found themselves in a +position to employ that "firm, vigorous, and dignified" foreign policy +which they had approved in their platform. They had declared: "The +government of Spain having lost control of Cuba and being unable to +protect the property or lives of resident American citizens or to comply +with its treaty obligations, we believe that the government of the +United States should actively use its influence and good offices to +restore peace and give independence to the island." The American +property in Cuba to which the Republicans referred in their platform +amounted by this time to more than fifty million dollars; the commerce +with the island reached more than one hundred millions annually; and the +claims of American citizens against Spain for property destroyed totaled +sixteen millions. To the pleas of humanity which made such an effective +appeal to the hearts of the American people, there were thus added +practical considerations of great weight. + +=President McKinley Negotiates.=--In the face of the swelling tide of +popular opinion in favor of quick, drastic, and positive action, +McKinley chose first the way of diplomacy. A short time after his +inauguration he lodged with the Spanish government a dignified protest +against its policies in Cuba, thus opening a game of thrust and parry +with the suave ministers at Madrid. The results of the exchange of +notes were the recall of the obnoxious General Weyler, the appointment +of a governor-general less bloodthirsty in his methods, a change in the +policy of concentrating civilians in military camps, and finally a +promise of "home rule" for Cuba. There is no doubt that the Spanish +government was eager to avoid a war that could have but one outcome. The +American minister at Madrid, General Woodford, was convinced that firm +and patient pressure would have resulted in the final surrender of Cuba +by the Spanish government. + +=The De Lome and the _Maine_ Incidents.=--Such a policy was defeated by +events. In February, 1898, a private letter written by Senor de Lome, +the Spanish ambassador at Washington, expressing contempt for the +President of the United States, was filched from the mails and passed +into the hands of a journalist, William R. Hearst, who published it to +the world. In the excited state of American opinion, few gave heed to +the grave breach of diplomatic courtesy committed by breaking open +private correspondence. The Spanish government was compelled to recall +De Lome, thus officially condemning his conduct. + +At this point a far more serious crisis put the pacific relations of the +two negotiating countries in dire peril. On February 15, the battleship +_Maine_, riding in the harbor of Havana, was blown up and sunk, carrying +to death two officers and two hundred and fifty-eight members of the +crew. This tragedy, ascribed by the American public to the malevolence +of Spanish officials, profoundly stirred an already furious nation. +When, on March 21, a commission of inquiry reported that the ill-fated +ship had been blown up by a submarine mine which had in turn set off +some of the ship's magazines, the worst suspicions seemed confirmed. If +any one was inclined to be indifferent to the Cuban war for +independence, he was now met by the vehement cry: "Remember the +_Maine_!" + +=Spanish Concessions.=--Still the State Department, under McKinley's +steady hand, pursued the path of negotiation, Spain proving more pliable +and more ready with promises of reform in the island. Early in April, +however, there came a decided change in the tenor of American diplomacy. +On the 4th, McKinley, evidently convinced that promises did not mean +performances, instructed our minister at Madrid to warn the Spanish +government that as no effective armistice had been offered to the +Cubans, he would lay the whole matter before Congress. This decision, +every one knew, from the temper of Congress, meant war--a prospect which +excited all the European powers. The Pope took an active interest in the +crisis. France and Germany, foreseeing from long experience in world +politics an increase of American power and prestige through war, sought +to prevent it. Spain, hopeless and conscious of her weakness, at last +dispatched to the President a note promising to suspend hostilities, to +call a Cuban parliament, and to grant all the autonomy that could be +reasonably asked. + +=President McKinley Calls for War.=--For reasons of his own--reasons +which have never yet been fully explained--McKinley ignored the final +program of concessions presented by Spain. At the very moment when his +patient negotiations seemed to bear full fruit, he veered sharply from +his course and launched the country into the war by sending to Congress +his militant message of April 11, 1898. Without making public the last +note he had received from Spain, he declared that he was brought to the +end of his effort and the cause was in the hands of Congress. Humanity, +the protection of American citizens and property, the injuries to +American commerce and business, the inability of Spain to bring about +permanent peace in the island--these were the grounds for action that +induced him to ask for authority to employ military and naval forces in +establishing a stable government in Cuba. They were sufficient for a +public already straining at the leash. + +=The Resolution of Congress.=--There was no doubt of the outcome when +the issue was withdrawn from diplomacy and placed in charge of Congress. +Resolutions were soon introduced into the House of Representatives +authorizing the President to employ armed force in securing peace and +order in the island and "establishing by the free action of the people +thereof a stable and independent government of their own." To the form +and spirit of this proposal the Democrats and Populists took exception. +In the Senate, where they were stronger, their position had to be +reckoned with by the narrow Republican majority. As the resolution +finally read, the independence of Cuba was recognized; Spain was called +upon to relinquish her authority and withdraw from the island; and the +President was empowered to use force to the extent necessary to carry +the resolutions into effect. Furthermore the United States disclaimed +"any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or +control over said island except for the pacification thereof." Final +action was taken by Congress on April 19, 1898, and approved by the +President on the following day. + +=War and Victory.=--Startling events then followed in swift succession. +The navy, as a result in no small measure of the alertness of Theodore +Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Department, was ready for the +trial by battle. On May 1, Commodore Dewey at Manila Bay shattered the +Spanish fleet, marking the doom of Spanish dominion in the Philippines. +On July 3, the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera, in attempting to +escape from Havana, was utterly destroyed by American forces under +Commodore Schley. On July 17, Santiago, invested by American troops +under General Shafter and shelled by the American ships, gave up the +struggle. On July 25 General Miles landed in Porto Rico. On August 13, +General Merritt and Admiral Dewey carried Manila by storm. The war was +over. + +=The Peace Protocol.=--Spain had already taken cognizance of stern +facts. As early as July 26, 1898, acting through the French ambassador, +M. Cambon, the Madrid government approached President McKinley for a +statement of the terms on which hostilities could be brought to a close. +After some skirmishing Spain yielded reluctantly to the ultimatum. On +August 12, the preliminary peace protocol was signed, stipulating that +Cuba should be free, Porto Rico ceded to the United States, and Manila +occupied by American troops pending the formal treaty of peace. On +October 1, the commissioners of the two countries met at Paris to bring +about the final settlement. + +=Peace Negotiations.=--When the day for the first session of the +conference arrived, the government at Washington apparently had not made +up its mind on the final disposition of the Philippines. Perhaps, before +the battle of Manila Bay, not ten thousand people in the United States +knew or cared where the Philippines were. Certainly there was in the +autumn of 1898 no decided opinion as to what should be done with the +fruits of Dewey's victory. President McKinley doubtless voiced the +sentiment of the people when he stated to the peace commissioners on the +eve of their departure that there had originally been no thought of +conquest in the Pacific. + +The march of events, he added, had imposed new duties on the country. +"Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines," he said, "is the +commercial opportunity to which American statesmanship cannot be +indifferent. It is just to use every legitimate means for the +enlargement of American trade." On this ground he directed the +commissioners to accept not less than the cession of the island of +Luzon, the chief of the Philippine group, with its harbor of Manila. It +was not until the latter part of October that he definitely instructed +them to demand the entire archipelago, on the theory that the occupation +of Luzon alone could not be justified "on political, commercial, or +humanitarian grounds." This departure from the letter of the peace +protocol was bitterly resented by the Spanish agents. It was with +heaviness of heart that they surrendered the last sign of Spain's +ancient dominion in the far Pacific. + +=The Final Terms of Peace.=--The treaty of peace, as finally agreed +upon, embraced the following terms: the independence of Cuba; the +cession of Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States; +the settlement of claims filed by the citizens of both countries; the +payment of twenty million dollars to Spain by the United States for the +Philippines; and the determination of the status of the inhabitants of +the ceded territories by Congress. The great decision had been made. Its +issue was in the hands of the Senate where the Democrats and the +Populists held the balance of power under the requirement of the +two-thirds vote for ratification. + +=The Contest in America over the Treaty of Peace.=--The publication of +the treaty committing the United States to the administration of distant +colonies directed the shifting tides of public opinion into two distinct +channels: support of the policy and opposition to it. The trend in +Republican leadership, long in the direction marked out by the treaty, +now came into the open. Perhaps a majority of the men highest in the +councils of that party had undergone the change of heart reflected in +the letters of John Hay, Secretary of State. In August of 1898 he had +hinted, in a friendly letter to Andrew Carnegie, that he sympathized +with the latter's opposition to "imperialism"; but he had added quickly: +"The only question in my mind is how far it is now possible for us to +withdraw from the Philippines." In November of the same year he wrote to +Whitelaw Reid, one of the peace commissioners at Paris: "There is a wild +and frantic attack now going on in the press against the whole +Philippine transaction. Andrew Carnegie really seems to be off his +head.... But all this confusion of tongues will go its way. The country +will applaud the resolution that has been reached and you will return in +the role of conquering heroes with your 'brows bound with oak.'" + +Senator Beveridge of Indiana and Senator Platt of Connecticut, accepting +the verdict of history as the proof of manifest destiny, called for +unquestioning support of the administration in its final step. "Every +expansion of our territory," said the latter, "has been in accordance +with the irresistible law of growth. We could no more resist the +successive expansions by which we have grown to be the strongest nation +on earth than a tree can resist its growth. The history of territorial +expansion is the history of our nation's progress and glory. It is a +matter to be proud of, not to lament. We should rejoice that Providence +has given us the opportunity to extend our influence, our institutions, +and our civilization into regions hitherto closed to us, rather than +contrive how we can thwart its designs." + +This doctrine was savagely attacked by opponents of McKinley's policy, +many a stanch Republican joining with the majority of Democrats in +denouncing the treaty as a departure from the ideals of the republic. +Senator Vest introduced in the Senate a resolution that "under the +Constitution of the United States, no power is given to the federal +Government to acquire territory to be held and governed permanently as +colonies." Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, whose long and honorable +career gave weight to his lightest words, inveighed against the whole +procedure and to the end of his days believed that the new drift into +rivalry with European nations as a colonial power was fraught with +genuine danger. "Our imperialistic friends," he said, "seem to have +forgotten the use of the vocabulary of liberty. They talk about giving +good government. 'We shall give them such a government as we think they +are fitted for.' 'We shall give them a better government than they had +before.' Why, Mr. President, that one phrase conveys to a free man and a +free people the most stinging of insults. In that little phrase, as in a +seed, is contained the germ of all despotism and of all tyranny. +Government is not a gift. Free government is not to be given by all the +blended powers of earth and heaven. It is a birthright. It belongs, as +our fathers said, and as their children said, as Jefferson said, and as +President McKinley said, to human nature itself." + +The Senate, more conservative on the question of annexation than the +House of Representatives composed of men freshly elected in the stirring +campaign of 1896, was deliberate about ratification of the treaty. The +Democrats and Populists were especially recalcitrant. Mr. Bryan hurried +to Washington and brought his personal influence to bear in favor of +speedy action. Patriotism required ratification, it was said in one +quarter. The country desires peace and the Senate ought not to delay, it +was urged in another. Finally, on February 6, 1899, the requisite +majority of two-thirds was mustered, many a Senator who voted for the +treaty, however, sharing the misgivings of Senator Hoar as to the +"dangers of imperialism." Indeed at the time, the Senators passed a +resolution declaring that the policy to be adopted in the Philippines +was still an open question, leaving to the future, in this way, the +possibility of retracing their steps. + +=The Attitude of England.=--The Spanish war, while accomplishing the +simple objects of those who launched the nation on that course, like all +other wars, produced results wholly unforeseen. In the first place, it +exercised a profound influence on the drift of opinion among European +powers. In England, sympathy with the United States was from the first +positive and outspoken. "The state of feeling here," wrote Mr. Hay, then +ambassador in London, "is the best I have ever known. From every quarter +the evidences of it come to me. The royal family by habit and tradition +are most careful not to break the rules of strict neutrality, but even +among them I find nothing but hearty kindness and--so far as is +consistent with propriety--sympathy. Among the political leaders on both +sides I find not only sympathy but a somewhat eager desire that 'the +other fellows' shall not seem more friendly." + +Joseph Chamberlain, the distinguished Liberal statesman, thinking no +doubt of the continental situation, said in a political address at the +very opening of the war that the next duty of Englishmen "is to +establish and maintain bonds of permanent unity with our kinsmen across +the Atlantic.... I even go so far as to say that, terrible as war may +be, even war would be cheaply purchased if, in a great and noble cause, +the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack should wave together over an +Anglo-Saxon alliance." To the American ambassador he added +significantly that he did not "care a hang what they say about it on the +continent," which was another way of expressing the hope that the +warning to Germany and France was sufficient. This friendly English +opinion, so useful to the United States when a combination of powers to +support Spain was more than possible, removed all fears as to the +consequences of the war. Henry Adams, recalling days of humiliation in +London during the Civil War, when his father was the American +ambassador, coolly remarked that it was "the sudden appearance of +Germany as the grizzly terror" that "frightened England into America's +arms"; but the net result in keeping the field free for an easy triumph +of American arms was none the less appreciated in Washington where, +despite outward calm, fears of European complications were never absent. + + +AMERICAN POLICIES IN THE PHILIPPINES AND THE ORIENT + +=The Filipino Revolt against American Rule.=--In the sphere of domestic +politics, as well as in the field of foreign relations, the outcome of +the Spanish war exercised a marked influence. It introduced at once +problems of colonial administration and difficulties in adjusting trade +relations with the outlying dominions. These were furthermore +complicated in the very beginning by the outbreak of an insurrection +against American sovereignty in the Philippines. The leader of the +revolt, Aguinaldo, had been invited to join the American forces in +overthrowing Spanish dominion, and he had assumed, apparently without +warrant, that independence would be the result of the joint operations. +When the news reached him that the American flag had been substituted +for the Spanish flag, his resentment was keen. In February, 1899, there +occurred a slight collision between his men and some American soldiers. +The conflict thus begun was followed by serious fighting which finally +dwindled into a vexatious guerrilla warfare lasting three years and +costing heavily in men and money. Atrocities were committed by the +native insurrectionists and, sad to relate, they were repaid in kind; +it was argued in defense of the army that the ordinary rules of warfare +were without terror to men accustomed to fighting like savages. In vain +did McKinley assure the Filipinos that the institutions and laws +established in the islands would be designed "not for our satisfaction +or for the expression of our theoretical views, but for the happiness, +peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands." Nothing +short of military pressure could bring the warring revolutionists to +terms. + +=Attacks on Republican "Imperialism."=--The Filipino insurrection, +following so quickly upon the ratification of the treaty with Spain, +moved the American opponents of McKinley's colonial policies to redouble +their denunciation of what they were pleased to call "imperialism." +Senator Hoar was more than usually caustic in his indictment of the new +course. The revolt against American rule did but convince him of the +folly hidden in the first fateful measures. Everywhere he saw a +conspiracy of silence and injustice. "I have failed to discover in the +speeches, public or private, of the advocates of this war," he contended +in the Senate, "or in the press which supports it and them, a single +expression anywhere of a desire to do justice to the people of the +Philippine Islands, or of a desire to make known to the people of the +United States the truth of the case.... The catchwords, the cries, the +pithy and pregnant phrases of which their speech is full, all mean +dominion. They mean perpetual dominion.... There is not one of these +gentlemen who will rise in his place and affirm that if he were a +Filipino he would not do exactly as the Filipinos are doing; that he +would not despise them if they were to do otherwise. So much at least +they owe of respect to the dead and buried history--the dead and buried +history so far as they can slay and bury it--of their country." In the +way of practical suggestions, the Senator offered as a solution of the +problem: the recognition of independence, assistance in establishing +self-government, and an invitation to all powers to join in a guarantee +of freedom to the islands. + +=The Republican Answer.=--To McKinley and his supporters, engaged in a +sanguinary struggle to maintain American supremacy, such talk was more +than quixotic; it was scarcely short of treasonable. They pointed out +the practical obstacles in the way of uniform self-government for a +collection of seven million people ranging in civilization from the most +ignorant hill men to the highly cultivated inhabitants of Manila. The +incidents of the revolt and its repression, they admitted, were painful +enough; but still nothing as compared with the chaos that would follow +the attempt of a people who had never had experience in such matters to +set up and sustain democratic institutions. They preferred rather the +gradual process of fitting the inhabitants of the islands for +self-government. This course, in their eyes, though less poetic, was +more in harmony with the ideals of humanity. Having set out upon it, +they pursued it steadfastly to the end. First, they applied force +without stint to the suppression of the revolt. Then they devoted such +genius for colonial administration as they could command to the +development of civil government, commerce, and industry. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A PHILIPPINE HOME] + +=The Boxer Rebellion in China.=--For a nation with a world-wide trade, +steadily growing, as the progress of home industries redoubled the zeal +for new markets, isolation was obviously impossible. Never was this +clearer than in 1900 when a native revolt against foreigners in China, +known as the Boxer uprising, compelled the United States to join with +the powers of Europe in a military expedition and a diplomatic +settlement. The Boxers, a Chinese association, had for some time carried +on a campaign of hatred against all aliens in the Celestial empire, +calling upon the natives to rise in patriotic wrath and drive out the +foreigners who, they said, "were lacerating China like tigers." In the +summer of 1900 the revolt flamed up in deeds of cruelty. Missionaries +and traders were murdered in the provinces; foreign legations were +stoned; the German ambassador, one of the most cordially despised +foreigners, was killed in the streets of Peking; and to all appearances +a frightful war of extermination had begun. In the month of June nearly +five hundred men, women, and children, representing all nations, were +besieged in the British quarters in Peking under constant fire of +Chinese guns and in peril of a terrible death. + +=Intervention in China.=--Nothing but the arrival of armed forces, made +up of Japanese, Russian, British, American, French, and German soldiers +and marines, prevented the destruction of the beleaguered aliens. When +once the foreign troops were in possession of the Chinese capital, +diplomatic questions of the most delicate character arose. For more than +half a century, the imperial powers of Europe had been carving up the +Chinese empire, taking to themselves territory, railway concessions, +mining rights, ports, and commercial privileges at the expense of the +huge but helpless victim. The United States alone among the great +nations, while as zealous as any in the pursuit of peaceful trade, had +refrained from seizing Chinese territory or ports. Moreover, the +Department of State had been urging European countries to treat China +with fairness, to respect her territorial integrity, and to give her +equal trading privileges with all nations. + +=The American Policy of the "Open Door."=--In the autumn of 1899, +Secretary Hay had addressed to London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, and +St. Petersburg his famous note on the "open door" policy in China. In +this document he proposed that existing treaty ports and vested +interests of the several foreign countries should be respected; that +the Chinese government should be permitted to extend its tariffs to all +ports held by alien powers except the few free ports; and that there +should be no discrimination in railway and port charges among the +citizens of foreign countries operating in the empire. To these +principles the governments addressed by Mr. Hay, finally acceded with +evident reluctance. + +[Illustration: AMERICAN DOMINIONS IN THE PACIFIC] + +On this basis he then proposed the settlement that had to follow the +Boxer uprising. "The policy of the Government of the United States," he +said to the great powers, in the summer of 1900, "is to seek a solution +which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve +Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights +guaranteed to friendly powers by treaty and international law, and +safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with +all parts of the Chinese empire." This was a friendly warning to the +world that the United States would not join in a scramble to punish the +Chinese by carving out more territory. "The moment we acted," said Mr. +Hay, "the rest of the world paused and finally came over to our ground; +and the German government, which is generally brutal but seldom silly, +recovered its senses, and climbed down off its perch." + +In taking this position, the Secretary of State did but reflect the +common sense of America. "We are, of course," he explained, "opposed to +the dismemberment of that empire and we do not think that the public +opinion of the United States would justify this government in taking +part in the great game of spoliation now going on." Heavy damages were +collected by the European powers from China for the injuries inflicted +upon their citizens by the Boxers; but the United States, finding the +sum awarded in excess of the legitimate claims, returned the balance in +the form of a fund to be applied to the education of Chinese students in +American universities. "I would rather be, I think," said Mr. Hay, "the +dupe of China than the chum of the Kaiser." By pursuing a liberal +policy, he strengthened the hold of the United States upon the +affections of the Chinese people and, in the long run, as he remarked +himself, safeguarded "our great commercial interests in that Empire." + +=Imperialism in the Presidential Campaign of 1900.=--It is not strange +that the policy pursued by the Republican administration in disposing of +the questions raised by the Spanish War became one of the first issues +in the presidential campaign of 1900. Anticipating attacks from every +quarter, the Republicans, in renominating McKinley, set forth their +position in clear and ringing phrases: "In accepting by the treaty of +Paris the just responsibility of our victories in the Spanish War the +President and Senate won the undoubted approval of the American people. +No other course was possible than to destroy Spain's sovereignty +throughout the West Indies and in the Philippine Islands. That course +created our responsibility, before the world and with the unorganized +population whom our intervention had freed from Spain, to provide for +the maintenance of law and order, and for the establishment of good +government and for the performance of international obligations. Our +authority could not be less than our responsibility, and wherever +sovereign rights were extended it became the high duty of the government +to maintain its authority, to put down armed insurrection, and to confer +the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all the rescued peoples. +The largest measure of self-government consistent with their welfare and +our duties shall be secured to them by law." To give more strength to +their ticket, the Republican convention, in a whirlwind of enthusiasm, +nominated for the vice presidency, against his protest, Theodore +Roosevelt, the governor of New York and the hero of the Rough Riders, so +popular on account of their Cuban campaign. + +The Democrats, as expected, picked up the gauntlet thrown down with such +defiance by the Republicans. Mr. Bryan, whom they selected as their +candidate, still clung to the currency issue; but the main emphasis, +both of the platform and the appeal for votes, was on the "imperialistic +program" of the Republican administration. The Democrats denounced the +treatment of Cuba and Porto Rico and condemned the Philippine policy in +sharp and vigorous terms. "As we are not willing," ran the platform, "to +surrender our civilization or to convert the Republic into an empire, we +favor an immediate declaration of the Nation's purpose to give to the +Filipinos, first, a stable form of government; second, independence; +third, protection from outside interference.... The greedy commercialism +which dictated the Philippine policy of the Republican administration +attempts to justify it with the plea that it will pay, but even this +sordid and unworthy plea fails when brought to the test of facts. The +war of 'criminal aggression' against the Filipinos entailing an annual +expense of many millions has already cost more than any possible profit +that could accrue from the entire Philippine trade for years to come.... +We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and +oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to +free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in +Europe. It will impose upon our peace-loving people a large standing +army, an unnecessary burden of taxation, and would be a constant menace +to their liberties." Such was the tenor of their appeal to the voters. + +With the issues clearly joined, the country rejected the Democratic +candidate even more positively than four years before. The popular vote +cast for McKinley was larger and that cast for Bryan smaller than in the +silver election. Thus vindicated at the polls, McKinley turned with +renewed confidence to the development of the policies he had so far +advanced. But fate cut short his designs. In the September following his +second inauguration, he was shot by an anarchist while attending the +Buffalo exposition. "What a strange and tragic fate it has been of +mine," wrote the Secretary of State, John Hay, on the day of the +President's death, "to stand by the bier of three of my dearest friends, +Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley, three of the gentlest of men, all risen +to the head of the state and all done to death by assassins." On +September 14, 1901, the Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, took up the +lines of power that had fallen from the hands of his distinguished +chief, promising to continue "absolutely unbroken" the policies he had +inherited. + + +SUMMARY OF NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS + +The economic aspects of the period between 1865 and 1900 may be readily +summed up: the recovery of the South from the ruin of the Civil War, the +extension of the railways, the development of the Great West, and the +triumph of industry and business enterprise. In the South many of the +great plantations were broken up and sold in small farms, crops were +diversified, the small farming class was raised in the scale of social +importance, the cotton industry was launched, and the coal, iron, +timber, and other resources were brought into use. In the West the free +arable land was practically exhausted by 1890 under the terms of the +Homestead Act; gold, silver, copper, coal and other minerals were +discovered in abundance; numerous rail connections were formed with the +Atlantic seaboard; the cowboy and the Indian were swept away before a +standardized civilization of electric lights and bathtubs. By the end of +the century the American frontier had disappeared. The wild, primitive +life so long associated with America was gone. The unity of the nation +was established. + +In the field of business enterprise, progress was most marked. The +industrial system, which had risen and flourished before the Civil War, +grew into immense proportions and the industrial area was extended from +the Northeast into all parts of the country. Small business concerns +were transformed into huge corporations. Individual plants were merged +under the management of gigantic trusts. Short railway lines were +consolidated into national systems. The industrial population of +wage-earners rose into the tens of millions. The immigration of aliens +increased by leaps and bounds. The cities overshadowed the country. The +nation that had once depended upon Europe for most of its manufactured +goods became a competitor of Europe in the markets of the earth. + +In the sphere of politics, the period witnessed the recovery of white +supremacy in the South; the continued discussion of the old questions, +such as the currency, the tariff, and national banking; and the +injection of new issues like the trusts and labor problems. As of old, +foreign affairs were kept well at the front. Alaska was purchased from +Russia; attempts were made to extend American influence in the Caribbean +region; a Samoan island was brought under the flag; and the Hawaiian +islands were annexed. The Monroe Doctrine was applied with vigor in the +dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain. + +Assistance was given to the Cubans in their revolutionary struggle +against Spain and thus there was precipitated a war which ended in the +annexation of Porto Rico and the Philippines. American influence in the +Pacific and the Orient was so enlarged as to be a factor of great weight +in world affairs. Thus questions connected with foreign and "imperial" +policies were united with domestic issues to make up the warp and woof +of politics. In the direction of affairs, the Republicans took the +leadership, for they held the presidency during all the years, except +eight, between 1865 and 1900. + + +=References= + +J.W. Foster, _A Century of American Diplomacy_; _American Diplomacy in +the Orient_. + +W.F. Reddaway, _The Monroe Doctrine_. + +J.H. Latane, _The United States and Spanish America_. + +A.C. Coolidge, _United States as a World Power_. + +A.T. Mahan, _Interest of the United States in the Sea Power_. + +F.E. Chadwick, _Spanish-American War_. + +D.C. Worcester, _The Philippine Islands and Their People_. + +M.M. Kalaw, _Self-Government in the Philippines_. + +L.S. Rowe, _The United States and Porto Rico_. + +F.E. Chadwick, _The Relations of the United States and Spain_. + +W.R. Shepherd, _Latin America_; _Central and South America_. + + +=Questions= + +1. Tell the story of the international crisis that developed soon after +the Civil War with regard to Mexico. + +2. Give the essential facts relating to the purchase of Alaska. + +3. Review the early history of our interest in the Caribbean. + +4. Amid what circumstances was the Monroe Doctrine applied in +Cleveland's administration? + +5. Give the causes that led to the war with Spain. + +6. Tell the leading events in that war. + +7. What was the outcome as far as Cuba was concerned? The outcome for +the United States? + +8. Discuss the attitude of the Filipinos toward American sovereignty in +the islands. + +9. Describe McKinley's colonial policy. + +10. How was the Spanish War viewed in England? On the Continent? + +11. Was there a unified American opinion on American expansion? + +12. Was this expansion a departure from our traditions? + +13. What events led to foreign intervention in China? + +14. Explain the policy of the "open door." + + +=Research Topics= + +=Hawaii and Venezuela.=--Dewey, _National Problems_ (American Nation +Series), pp. 279-313; Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. 600-602; +Hart, _American History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 612-616. + +=Intervention in Cuba.=--Latane, _America as a World Power_ (American +Nation Series), pp. 3-28; Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book_, pp. +597-598; Roosevelt, _Autobiography_, pp. 223-277; Haworth, _The United +States in Our Own Time_, pp. 232-256; Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, +pp. 573-578. + +=The War with Spain.=--Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. +889-896. + +=Terms of Peace with Spain.=--Latane, pp. 63-81; Macdonald, pp. 602-608; +Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 588-590. + +=The Philippine Insurrection.=--Latane, pp. 82-99. + +=Imperialism as a Campaign Issue.=--Latane, pp. 120-132; Haworth, pp. +257-277; Hart, _Contemporaries_, Vol. IV, pp. 604-611. + +=Biographical Studies.=--William McKinley, M.A. Hanna, John Hay; +Admirals, George Dewey, W.T. Sampson, and W.S. Schley; and Generals, +W.R. Shafter, Joseph Wheeler, and H.W. Lawton. + +=General Analysis of American Expansion.=--_Syllabus in History_ (New +York State, 1920), pp. 142-147. + + + + +PART VII. PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES (1901-13) + + +=The Personality and Early Career of Roosevelt.=--On September 14, 1901, +when Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office, the presidency passed +to a new generation and a leader of a new type recalling, if comparisons +must be made, Andrew Jackson rather than any Republican predecessor. +Roosevelt was brusque, hearty, restless, and fond of action--"a young +fellow of infinite dash and originality," as John Hay remarked of him; +combining the spirit of his old college, Harvard, with the breezy +freedom of the plains; interested in everything--a new species of game, +a new book, a diplomatic riddle, or a novel theory of history or +biology. Though only forty-three years old he was well versed in the art +of practical politics. Coming upon the political scene in the early +eighties, he had associated himself with the reformers in the Republican +party; but he was no Mugwump. From the first he vehemently preached the +doctrine of party loyalty; if beaten in the convention, he voted the +straight ticket in the election. For twenty years he adhered to this +rule and during a considerable portion of that period he held office as +a spokesman of his party. He served in the New York legislature, as head +of the metropolitan police force, as federal civil service commissioner +under President Harrison, as assistant secretary of the navy under +President McKinley, and as governor of the Empire state. Political +managers of the old school spoke of him as "brilliant but erratic"; they +soon found him equal to the shrewdest in negotiation and action. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +ROOSEVELT TALKING TO THE ENGINEER OF A RAILROAD TRAIN] + + +FOREIGN AFFAIRS + +=The Panama Canal.=--The most important foreign question confronting +President Roosevelt on the day of his inauguration, that of the Panama +Canal, was a heritage from his predecessor. The idea of a water route +across the isthmus, long a dream of navigators, had become a living +issue after the historic voyage of the battleship _Oregon_ around South +America during the Spanish War. But before the United States could act +it had to undo the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, made with Great Britain in +1850, providing for the construction of the canal under joint +supervision. This was finally effected by the Hay-Pauncefote treaty of +1901 authorizing the United States to proceed alone, on condition that +there should be no discriminations against other nations in the matter +of rates and charges. + +This accomplished, it was necessary to decide just where the canal +should be built. One group in Congress favored the route through +Nicaragua; in fact, two official commissions had already approved that +location. Another group favored cutting the way through Panama after +purchasing the rights of the old French company which, under the +direction of De Lesseps, the hero of the Suez Canal, had made a costly +failure some twenty years before. After a heated argument over the +merits of the two plans, preference was given to the Panama route. As +the isthmus was then a part of Colombia, President Roosevelt proceeded +to negotiate with the government at Bogota a treaty authorizing the +United States to cut a canal through its territory. The treaty was +easily framed, but it was rejected by the Colombian senate, much to the +President's exasperation. "You could no more make an agreement with the +Colombian rulers," he exclaimed, "than you could nail jelly to a wall." +He was spared the necessity by a timely revolution. On November 3, 1903, +Panama renounced its allegiance to Colombia and three days later the +United States recognized its independence. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of Panama Canal, Washington, D.C._ + +DEEPEST EXCAVATED PORTION OF PANAMA CANAL, SHOWING GOLD HILL ON +RIGHT AND CONTRACTOR'S HILL ON LEFT. JUNE, 1913] + +This amazing incident was followed shortly by the signature of a treaty +between Panama and the United States in which the latter secured the +right to construct the long-discussed canal, in return for a guarantee +of independence and certain cash payments. The rights and property of +the French concern were then bought, and the final details settled. A +lock rather than a sea-level canal was agreed upon. Construction by the +government directly instead of by private contractors was adopted. +Scientific medicine was summoned to stamp out the tropical diseases +that had made Panama a plague spot. Finally, in 1904, as the President +said, "the dirt began to fly." After surmounting formidable +difficulties--engineering, labor, and sanitary--the American forces in +1913 joined the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific. Nearly eight +thousand miles were cut off the sea voyage from New York to San +Francisco. If any were inclined to criticize President Roosevelt for +the way in which he snapped off negotiations with Colombia and +recognized the Panama revolutionists, their attention was drawn to the +magnificent outcome of the affair. Notwithstanding the treaty with Great +Britain, Congress passed a tolls bill discriminating in rates in favor +of American ships. It was only on the urgent insistence of President +Wilson that the measure was later repealed. + +=The Conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War.=--The applause which greeted +the President's next diplomatic stroke was unmarred by censure of any +kind. In the winter of 1904 there broke out between Japan and Russia a +terrible conflict over the division of spoils in Manchuria. The fortunes +of war were with the agile forces of Nippon. In this struggle, it seems, +President Roosevelt's sympathies were mainly with the Japanese, although +he observed the proprieties of neutrality. At all events, Secretary Hay +wrote in his diary on New Year's Day, 1905, that the President was +"quite firm in his view that we cannot permit Japan to be robbed a +second time of her victory," referring to the fact that Japan, ten years +before, after defeating China on the field of battle, had been forced by +Russia, Germany, and France to forego the fruits of conquest. + +Whatever the President's personal feelings may have been, he was aware +that Japan, despite her triumphs over Russia, was staggering under a +heavy burden of debt. At a suggestion from Tokyo, he invited both +belligerents in the summer of 1905 to join in a peace conference. The +celerity of their reply was aided by the pressure of European bankers, +who had already come to a substantial agreement that the war must stop. +After some delay, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was chosen as the meeting +place for the spokesmen of the two warring powers. Roosevelt presided +over the opening ceremonies with fine urbanity, thoroughly enjoying the +justly earned honor of being for the moment at the center of the world's +interest. He had the satisfaction of seeing the conference end in a +treaty of peace and amity. + +=The Monroe Doctrine Applied to Germany.=--Less spectacular than the +Russo-Japanese settlement but not less important was a diplomatic +passage-at-arms with Germany over the Monroe Doctrine. This clash grew +out of the inability or unwillingness of the Venezuelan government to +pay debts due foreign creditors. Having exhausted their patience in +negotiations, England and Germany, in December 1901, sent battleships to +establish what they characterized as "a peaceful blockade" of Venezuelan +ports. Their action was followed by the rupture of diplomatic relations; +there was a possibility that war and the occupation of Venezuelan +territory might result. + +While unwilling to stand between a Latin-American country and its +creditors, President Roosevelt was determined that debt collecting +should not be made an excuse for European countries to seize territory. +He therefore urged arbitration of the dispute, winning the assent of +England and Italy. Germany, with a somewhat haughty air, refused to take +the milder course. The President, learning of this refusal, called the +German ambassador to the White House and informed him in very precise +terms that, unless the Imperial German Government consented to +arbitrate, Admiral Dewey would be ordered to the scene with instructions +to prevent Germany from seizing any Venezuelan territory. A week passed +and no answer came from Berlin. Not baffled, the President again took +the matter up with the ambassador, this time with even more firmness; he +stated in language admitting of but one meaning that, unless within +forty-eight hours the Emperor consented to arbitration, American +battleships, already coaled and cleared, would sail for Venezuelan +waters. The hint was sufficient. The Kaiser accepted the proposal and +the President, with the fine irony of diplomacy, complimented him +publicly on "being so stanch an advocate of arbitration." In terms of +the Monroe Doctrine this action meant that the United States, while not +denying the obligations of debtors, would not permit any move on the +part of European powers that might easily lead to the temporary or +permanent occupation of Latin-American territory. + +=The Santo Domingo Affair.=--The same issue was involved in a +controversy over Santo Domingo which arose in 1904. The Dominican +republic, like Venezuela, was heavily in debt, and certain European +countries declared that, unless the United States undertook to look +after the finances of the embarrassed debtor, they would resort to armed +coercion. What was the United States to do? The danger of having some +European power strongly intrenched in Santo Domingo was too imminent to +be denied. President Roosevelt acted with characteristic speed, and +notwithstanding strong opposition in the Senate was able, in 1907, to +effect a treaty arrangement which placed Dominican finances under +American supervision. + +In the course of the debate over this settlement, a number of +interesting questions arose. It was pertinently asked whether the +American navy should be used to help creditors collect their debts +anywhere in Latin-America. It was suggested also that no sanction should +be given to the practice among European governments of using armed force +to collect private claims. Opponents of President Roosevelt's policy, +and they were neither few nor insignificant, urged that such matters +should be referred to the Hague Court or to special international +commissions for arbitration. To this the answer was made that the United +States could not surrender any question coming under the terms of the +Monroe Doctrine to the decision of an international tribunal. The +position of the administration was very clearly stated by President +Roosevelt himself. "The country," he said, "would certainly decline to +go to war to prevent a foreign government from collecting a just debt; +on the other hand, it is very inadvisable to permit any foreign power to +take possession, even temporarily, of the customs houses of an American +republic in order to enforce the payment of its obligations; for such a +temporary occupation might turn into a permanent occupation. The only +escape from these alternatives may at any time be that we must +ourselves undertake to bring about some arrangement by which so much as +possible of a just obligation shall be paid." The Monroe Doctrine was +negative. It denied to European powers a certain liberty of operation in +this hemisphere. The positive obligations resulting from its application +by the United States were points now emphasized and developed. + +=The Hague Conference.=--The controversies over Latin-American relations +and his part in bringing the Russo-Japanese War to a close naturally +made a deep impression upon Roosevelt, turning his mind in the direction +of the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The subject was +moreover in the air. As if conscious of impending calamity, the +statesmen of the Old World, to all outward signs at least, seemed +searching for a way to reduce armaments and avoid the bloody and costly +trial of international causes by the ancient process of battle. It was +the Czar, Nicholas II, fated to die in one of the terrible holocausts +which he helped to bring upon mankind, who summoned the delegates of the +nations in the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899. The conference did +nothing to reduce military burdens or avoid wars but it did recognize +the right of friendly nations to offer the services of mediation to +countries at war and did establish a Court at the Hague for the +arbitration of international disputes. + +Encouraged by this experiment, feeble as it was, President Roosevelt in +1904 proposed a second conference, yielding to the Czar the honor of +issuing the call. At this great international assembly, held at the +Hague in 1907, the representatives of the United States proposed a plan +for the compulsory arbitration of certain matters of international +dispute. This was rejected with contempt by Germany. Reduction of +armaments, likewise proposed in the conference, was again deferred. In +fact, nothing was accomplished beyond agreement upon certain rules for +the conduct of "civilized warfare," casting a somewhat lurid light upon +the "pacific" intentions of most of the powers assembled. + +=The World Tour of the Fleet.=--As if to assure the world then that the +United States placed little reliance upon the frail reed of peace +conferences, Roosevelt the following year (1908) made an imposing +display of American naval power by sending a fleet of sixteen +battleships on a tour around the globe. On his own authority, he ordered +the ships to sail out of Hampton Roads and circle the earth by way of +the Straits of Magellan, San Francisco, Australia, the Philippines, +China, Japan, and the Suez Canal. This enterprise was not, as some +critics claimed, a "mere boyish flourish." President Roosevelt knew how +deep was the influence of sea power on the fate of nations. He was aware +that no country could have a wide empire of trade and dominion without +force adequate to sustain it. The voyage around the world therefore +served a double purpose. It interested his own country in the naval +program of the government, and it reminded other powers that the +American giant, though quiet, was not sleeping in the midst of +international rivalries. + + +COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION + +=A Constitutional Question Settled.=--In colonial administration, as in +foreign policy, President Roosevelt advanced with firm step in a path +already marked out. President McKinley had defined the principles that +were to control the development of Porto Rico and the Philippines. The +Republican party had announced a program of pacification, gradual +self-government, and commercial improvement. The only remaining question +of importance, to use the popular phrase,--"Does the Constitution follow +the flag?"--had been answered by the Supreme Court of the United States. +Although it was well known that the Constitution did not contemplate the +government of dependencies, such as the Philippines and Porto Rico, the +Court, by generous and ingenious interpretations, found a way for +Congress to apply any reasonable rules required by the occasion. + +=Porto Rico.=--The government of Porto Rico was a relatively simple +matter. It was a single island with a fairly homogeneous population +apart from the Spanish upper class. For a time after military occupation +in 1898, it was administered under military rule. This was succeeded by +the establishment of civil government under the "organic act" passed by +Congress in 1900. The law assured to the Porto Ricans American +protection but withheld American citizenship--a boon finally granted in +1917. It provided for a governor and six executive secretaries appointed +by the President with the approval of the Senate; and for a legislature +of two houses--one elected by popular native vote, and an upper chamber +composed of the executive secretaries and five other persons appointed +in the same manner. Thus the United States turned back to the provincial +system maintained by England in Virginia or New York in old colonial +days. The natives were given a voice in their government and the power +of initiating laws; but the final word both in law-making and +administration was vested in officers appointed in Washington. Such was +the plan under which the affairs of Porto Rico were conducted by +President Roosevelt. It lasted until the new organic act of 1917. + +[Illustration: _Photograph from Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +A SUGAR MILL, PORTO RICO] + +=The Philippines.=--The administration of the Philippines presented far +more difficult questions. The number of islands, the variety of +languages and races, the differences in civilization all combined to +challenge the skill of the government. Moreover, there was raging in +1901 a stubborn revolt against American authority, which had to be +faced. Following the lines laid down by President McKinley, the +evolution of American policy fell into three stages. At first the +islands were governed directly by the President under his supreme +military power. In 1901 a civilian commission, headed by William Howard +Taft, was selected by the President and charged with the government of +the provinces in which order had been restored. Six years later, under +the terms of an organic act, passed by Congress in 1902, the third stage +was reached. The local government passed into the hands of a governor +and commission, appointed by the President and Senate, and a +legislature--one house elected by popular vote and an upper chamber +composed of the commission. This scheme, like that obtaining in Porto +Rico, remained intact until a Democratic Congress under President +Wilson's leadership carried the colonial administration into its fourth +phase by making both houses elective. Thus, by the steady pursuit of a +liberal policy, self-government was extended to the dependencies; but it +encouraged rather than extinguished the vigorous movement among the +Philippine natives for independence. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +MR TAFT IN THE PHILIPPINES] + +=Cuban Relations.=--Within the sphere of colonial affairs, Cuba, though +nominally independent, also presented problems to the government at +Washington. In the fine enthusiasm that accompanied the declaration of +war on Spain, Congress, unmindful of practical considerations, +recognized the independence of Cuba and disclaimed "any disposition or +intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said +island except for the pacification thereof." In the settlement that +followed the war, however, it was deemed undesirable to set the young +republic adrift upon the stormy sea of international politics without a +guiding hand. Before withdrawing American troops from the island, +Congress, in March, 1901, enacted, and required Cuba to approve, a +series of restrictions known as the Platt amendment, limiting her power +to incur indebtedness, securing the right of the United States to +intervene whenever necessary to protect life and property, and reserving +to the United States coaling stations at certain points to be agreed +upon. The Cubans made strong protests against what they deemed +"infringements of their sovereignty"; but finally with good grace +accepted their fate. Even when in 1906 President Roosevelt landed +American troops in the island to quell a domestic dissension, they +acquiesced in the action, evidently regarding it as a distinct warning +that they should learn to manage their elections in an orderly manner. + + +THE ROOSEVELT DOMESTIC POLICIES + +=Social Questions to the Front.=--From the day of his inauguration to +the close of his service in 1909, President Roosevelt, in messages, +speeches, and interviews, kept up a lively and interesting discussion of +trusts, capital, labor, poverty, riches, lawbreaking, good citizenship, +and kindred themes. Many a subject previously touched upon only by +representatives of the minor and dissenting parties, he dignified by a +careful examination. That he did this with any fixed design or policy in +mind does not seem to be the case. He admitted himself that when he +became President he did not have in hand any settled or far-reaching +plan of social betterment. He did have, however, serious convictions on +general principles. "I was bent upon making the government," he wrote, +"the most efficient possible instrument in helping the people of the +United States to better themselves in every way, politically, socially, +and industrially. I believed with all my heart in real and +thorough-going democracy and I wished to make the democracy industrial +as well as political, although I had only partially formulated the +method I believed we should follow." It is thus evident at least that he +had departed a long way from the old idea of the government as nothing +but a great policeman keeping order among the people in a struggle over +the distribution of the nation's wealth and resources. + +=Roosevelt's View of the Constitution.=--Equally significant was +Roosevelt's attitude toward the Constitution and the office of +President. He utterly repudiated the narrow construction of our national +charter. He held that the Constitution "should be treated as the +greatest document ever devised by the wit of man to aid a people in +exercising every power necessary for its own betterment, not as a +strait-jacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth." He viewed the +presidency as he did the Constitution. Strict constructionists of the +Jeffersonian school, of whom there were many on occasion even in the +Republican party, had taken a view that the President could do nothing +that he was not specifically authorized by the Constitution to do. +Roosevelt took exactly the opposite position. It was his opinion that it +was not only the President's right but his duty "to do anything that the +needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the +Constitution or the laws." He went on to say that he acted "for the +common well-being of all our people whenever and in whatever manner was +necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative +prohibition." + +=The Trusts and Railways.=--To the trust question, Roosevelt devoted +especial attention. This was unavoidable. By far the larger part of the +business of the country was done by corporations as distinguished from +partnerships and individual owners. The growth of these gigantic +aggregations of capital had been the leading feature in American +industrial development during the last two decades of the nineteenth +century. In the conquest of business by trusts and "the resulting +private fortunes of great magnitude," the Populists and the Democrats +had seen a grievous danger to the republic. "Plutocracy has taken the +place of democracy; the tariff breeds trusts; let us destroy therefore +the tariff and the trusts"--such was the battle cry which had been taken +up by Bryan and his followers. + +President Roosevelt countered vigorously. He rejected the idea that the +trusts were the product of the tariff or of governmental action of any +kind. He insisted that they were the outcome of "natural economic +forces": (1) destructive competition among business men compelling them +to avoid ruin by cooeperation in fixing prices; (2) the growth of markets +on a national scale and even international scale calling for vast +accumulations of capital to carry on such business; (3) the possibility +of immense savings by the union of many plants under one management. In +the corporation he saw a new stage in the development of American +industry. Unregulated competition he regarded as "the source of evils +which all men concede must be remedied if this civilization of ours is +to survive." The notion, therefore, that these immense business concerns +should be or could be broken up by a decree of law, Roosevelt considered +absurd. + +At the same time he proposed that "evil trusts" should be prevented from +"wrong-doing of any kind"; that is, punished for plain swindling, for +making agreements to limit output, for refusing to sell to customers who +dealt with rival firms, and for conspiracies with railways to ruin +competitors by charging high freight rates and for similar abuses. +Accordingly, he proposed, not the destruction of the trusts, but their +regulation by the government. This, he contended, would preserve the +advantages of business on a national scale while preventing the evils +that accompanied it. The railway company he declared to be a public +servant. "Its rates should be just to and open to all shippers alike." +So he answered those who thought that trusts and railway combinations +were private concerns to be managed solely by their owners without let +or hindrance and also those who thought trusts and railway combinations +could be abolished by tariff reduction or criminal prosecution. + +=The Labor Question.=--On the labor question, then pressing to the front +in public interest, President Roosevelt took advanced ground for his +time. He declared that the working-man, single-handed and empty-handed, +threatened with starvation if unemployed, was no match for the employer +who was able to bargain and wait. This led him, accordingly, to accept +the principle of the trade union; namely, that only by collective +bargaining can labor be put on a footing to measure its strength equally +with capital. While he severely arraigned labor leaders who advocated +violence and destructive doctrines, he held that "the organization of +labor into trade unions and federations is necessary, is beneficent, and +is one of the greatest possible agencies in the attainment of a true +industrial, as well as a true political, democracy in the United +States." The last resort of trade unions in labor disputes, the strike, +he approved in case negotiations failed to secure "a fair deal." + +He thought, however, that labor organizations, even if wisely managed, +could not solve all the pressing social questions of the time. The aid +of the government at many points he believed to be necessary to +eliminate undeserved poverty, industrial diseases, unemployment, and the +unfortunate consequences of industrial accidents. In his first message +of 1901, for instance, he urged that workers injured in industry should +have certain and ample compensation. From time to time he advocated +other legislation to obtain what he called "a larger measure of social +and industrial justice." + +=Great Riches and Taxation.=--Even the challenge of the radicals, such +as the Populists, who alleged that "the toil of millions is boldly +stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few"--challenges which his +predecessors did not consider worthy of notice--President Roosevelt +refused to let pass without an answer. In his first message he denied +the truth of the common saying that the rich were growing richer and the +poor were growing poorer. He asserted that, on the contrary, the average +man, wage worker, farmer, and small business man, was better off than +ever before in the history of our country. That there had been abuses in +the accumulation of wealth he did not pretend to ignore, but he believed +that even immense fortunes, on the whole, represented positive benefits +conferred upon the country. Nevertheless he felt that grave dangers to +the safety and the happiness of the people lurked in great inequalities +of wealth. In 1906 he wrote that he wished it were in his power to +prevent the heaping up of enormous fortunes. The next year, to the +astonishment of many leaders in his own party, he boldly announced in a +message to Congress that he approved both income and inheritance taxes, +then generally viewed as Populist or Democratic measures. He even took +the stand that such taxes should be laid in order to bring about a more +equitable distribution of wealth and greater equality of opportunity +among citizens. + + +LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE ACTIVITIES + +=Economic Legislation.=--When President Roosevelt turned from the field +of opinion he found himself in a different sphere. Many of his views +were too advanced for the members of his party in Congress, and where +results depended upon the making of new laws, his progress was slow. +Nevertheless, in his administrations several measures were enacted that +bore the stamp of his theories, though it could hardly be said that he +dominated Congress to the same degree as did some other Presidents. The +Hepburn Railway Act of 1906 enlarged the interstate commerce commission; +it extended the commission's power over oil pipe lines, express +companies, and other interstate carriers; it gave the commission the +right to reduce rates found to be unreasonable and discriminatory; it +forbade "midnight tariffs," that is, sudden changes in rates favoring +certain shippers; and it prohibited common carriers from transporting +goods owned by themselves, especially coal, except for their own proper +use. Two important pure food and drug laws, enacted during the same +year, were designed to protect the public against diseased meats and +deleterious foods and drugs. A significant piece of labor legislation +was an act of the same Congress making interstate railways liable to +damages for injuries sustained by their employees. When this measure was +declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court it was reenacted with the +objectionable clauses removed. A second installment of labor legislation +was offered in the law of 1908 limiting the hours of railway employees +engaged as trainmen or telegraph operators. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy United States Reclamation Service._ + +THE ROOSEVELT DAM, PHOENIX, ARIZONA] + +=Reclamation and Conservation.=--The open country--the deserts, the +forests, waterways, and the public lands--interested President Roosevelt +no less than railway and industrial questions. Indeed, in his first +message to Congress he placed the conservation of natural resources +among "the most vital internal problems" of the age, and forcibly +emphasized an issue that had been discussed in a casual way since +Cleveland's first administration. The suggestion evoked an immediate +response in Congress. Under the leadership of Senator Newlands, of +Nevada, the Reclamation Act of 1902 was passed, providing for the +redemption of the desert areas of the West. The proceeds from the sale +of public lands were dedicated to the construction of storage dams and +sluiceways to hold water and divert it as needed to the thirsty sands. +Furthermore it was stipulated that the rents paid by water users should +go into a reclamation fund to continue the good work forever. +Construction was started immediately under the terms of the law. Within +seventeen years about 1,600,000 acres had been reclaimed and more than a +million were actually irrigated. In the single year 1918, the crops of +the irrigated districts were valued at approximately $100,000,000. + +In his first message, also, President Roosevelt urged the transfer of +all control over national forests to trained men in the Bureau of +Forestry--a recommendation carried out in 1907 when the Forestry Service +was created. In every direction noteworthy advances were made in the +administration of the national domain. The science of forestry was +improved and knowledge of the subject spread among the people. Lands in +the national forest available for agriculture were opened to settlers. +Water power sites on the public domain were leased for a term of years +to private companies instead of being sold outright. The area of the +national forests was enlarged from 43 million acres to 194 million acres +by presidential proclamation--more than 43 million acres being added in +one year, 1907. The men who turned sheep and cattle to graze on the +public lands were compelled to pay a fair rental, much to their +dissatisfaction. Fire prevention work was undertaken in the forests on a +large scale, reducing the appalling, annual destruction of timber. +Millions of acres of coal land, such as the government had been +carelessly selling to mining companies at low figures, were withdrawn +from sale and held until Congress was prepared to enact laws for the +disposition of them in the public interest. Prosecutions were +instituted against men who had obtained public lands by fraud and vast +tracts were recovered for the national domain. An agitation was begun +which bore fruit under the administrations of Taft and Wilson in laws +reserving to the federal government the ownership of coal, water power, +phosphates, and other natural resources while authorizing corporations +to develop them under leases for a period of years. + +=The Prosecution of the Trusts.=--As an executive, President Roosevelt +was also a distinct "personality." His discrimination between "good" and +"bad" trusts led him to prosecute some of them with vigor. On his +initiative, the Northern Securities Company, formed to obtain control of +certain great western railways, was dissolved by order of the Supreme +Court. Proceedings were instituted against the American Tobacco Company +and the Standard Oil Company as monopolies in violation of the Sherman +Anti-Trust law. The Sugar Trust was found guilty of cheating the New +York customs house and some of the minor officers were sent to prison. +Frauds in the Post-office Department were uncovered and the offenders +brought to book. In fact hardly a week passed without stirring news of +"wrong doers" and "malefactors" haled into federal courts. + +=The Great Coal Strike.=--The Roosevelt theory that the President could +do anything for public welfare not forbidden by the Constitution and the +laws was put to a severe test in 1902. A strike of the anthracite coal +miners, which started in the summer, ran late into the autumn. +Industries were paralyzed for the want of coal; cities were threatened +with the appalling menace of a winter without heat. Governors and mayors +were powerless and appealed for aid. The mine owners rejected the +demands of the men and refused to permit the arbitration of the points +in dispute, although John Mitchell, the leader of the miners, repeatedly +urged it. After observing closely the course affairs, President +Roosevelt made up his mind that the situation was intolerable. He +arranged to have the federal troops, if necessary, take possession of +the mines and operate them until the strike could be settled. He then +invited the contestants to the White House and by dint of hard labor +induced them to accept, as a substitute or compromise, arbitration by a +commission which he appointed. Thus, by stepping outside the +Constitution and acting as the first citizen of the land, President +Roosevelt averted a crisis of great magnitude. + +=The Election of 1904.=--The views and measures which he advocated with +such vigor aroused deep hostility within as well as without his party. +There were rumors of a Republican movement to defeat his nomination in +1904 and it was said that the "financial and corporation interests" were +in arms against him. A prominent Republican paper in New York City +accused him of having "stolen Mr. Bryan's thunder," by harrying the +trusts and favoring labor unions. When the Republican convention +assembled in Chicago, however, the opposition disappeared and Roosevelt +was nominated by acclamation. + +This was the signal for a change on the part of Democratic leaders. They +denounced the President as erratic, dangerous, and radical and decided +to assume the moderate role themselves. They put aside Mr. Bryan and +selected as their candidate, Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, a man +who repudiated free silver and made a direct appeal for the conservative +vote. The outcome of the reversal was astounding. Judge Parker's vote +fell more than a million below that cast for Bryan in 1900; of the 476 +electoral votes he received only 140. Roosevelt, in addition to sweeping +the Republican sections, even invaded Democratic territory, carrying the +state of Missouri. Thus vindicated at the polls, he became more +outspoken than ever. His leadership in the party was so widely +recognized that he virtually selected his own successor. + + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT + +=The Campaign of 1908.=--Long before the end of his elective term, +President Roosevelt let it be known that he favored as his successor, +William Howard Taft, of Ohio, his Secretary of War. To attain this end +he used every shred of his powerful influence. When the Republican +convention assembled, Mr. Taft easily won the nomination. Though the +party platform was conservative in tone, he gave it a progressive tinge +by expressing his personal belief in the popular election of United +States Senators, an income tax, and other liberal measures. President +Roosevelt announced his faith in the Republican candidate and appealed +to the country for his election. + +The turn in Republican affairs now convinced Mr. Bryan that the signs +were propitious for a third attempt to win the presidency. The disaster +to Judge Parker had taught the party that victory did not lie in a +conservative policy. With little difficulty, therefore, the veteran +leader from Nebraska once more rallied the Democrats around his +standard, won the nomination, and wrote a platform vigorously attacking +the tariff, trusts, and monopolies. Supported by a loyal following, he +entered the lists, only to meet another defeat. Though he polled almost +a million and a half more votes than did Judge Parker in 1904, the palm +went to Mr. Taft. + +=The Tariff Revision and Party Dissensions.=--At the very beginning of +his term, President Taft had to face the tariff issue. He had met it in +the campaign. Moved by the Democratic demand for a drastic reduction, he +had expressed opinions which were thought to imply a "downward +revision." The Democrats made much of the implication and the +Republicans from the Middle West rejoiced in it. Pressure was coming +from all sides. More than ten years had elapsed since the enactment of +the Dingley bill and the position of many industries had been altered +with the course of time. Evidently the day for revision--at best a +thankless task--had arrived. Taft accepted the inevitable and called +Congress in a special session. Until the midsummer of 1909, Republican +Senators and Representatives wrangled over tariff schedules, the +President making little effort to influence their decisions. When on +August 5 the Payne-Aldrich bill became a law, a breach had been made in +Republican ranks. Powerful Senators from the Middle West had spoken +angrily against many of the high rates imposed by the bill. They had +even broken with their party colleagues to vote against the entire +scheme of tariff revision. + +=The Income Tax Amendment.=--The rift in party harmony was widened by +another serious difference of opinion. During the debate on the tariff +bill, there was a concerted movement to include in it an income tax +provision--this in spite of the decision of the Supreme Court in 1895 +declaring it unconstitutional. Conservative men were alarmed by the +evident willingness of some members to flout a solemn decree of that +eminent tribunal. At the same time they saw a powerful combination of +Republicans and Democrats determined upon shifting some of the burden of +taxation to large incomes. In the press of circumstances, a compromise +was reached. The income tax bill was dropped for the present; but +Congress passed the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, authorizing +taxes upon incomes from whatever source they might be derived, without +reference to any apportionment among the states on the basis of +population. The states ratified the amendment and early in 1913 it was +proclaimed. + +=President Taft's Policies.=--After the enactment of the tariff bill, +Taft continued to push forward with his legislative program. He +recommended, and Congress created, a special court of commerce with +jurisdiction, among other things, over appeals from the interstate +commerce commission, thus facilitating judicial review of the railway +rates fixed and the orders issued by that body. This measure was quickly +followed by an act establishing a system of postal savings banks in +connection with the post office--a scheme which had long been opposed by +private banks. Two years later, Congress defied the lobby of the express +companies and supplemented the savings banks with a parcels post system, +thus enabling the American postal service to catch up with that of other +progressive nations. With a view to improving the business +administration of the federal government, the President obtained from +Congress a large appropriation for an economy and efficiency commission +charged with the duty of inquiring into wasteful and obsolete methods +and recommending improved devices and practices. The chief result of +this investigation was a vigorous report in favor of a national budget +system, which soon found public backing. + +President Taft negotiated with England and France general treaties +providing for the arbitration of disputes which were "justiciable" in +character even though they might involve questions of "vital interest +and national honor." They were coldly received in the Senate and so +amended that Taft abandoned them altogether. A tariff reciprocity +agreement with Canada, however, he forced through Congress in the face +of strong opposition from his own party. After making a serious breach +in Republican ranks, he was chagrined to see the whole scheme come to +naught by the overthrow of the Liberals in the Canadian elections of +1911. + +=Prosecution of the Trusts.=--The party schism was even enlarged by what +appeared to be the successful prosecution of several great combinations. +In two important cases, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the +Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company on the ground that +they violated the Sherman Anti-Trust law. In taking this step Chief +Justice White was at some pains to state that the law did not apply to +combinations which did not "unduly" restrain trade. His remark, +construed to mean that the Court would not interfere with corporations +as such, became the subject of a popular outcry against the President +and the judges. + + +PROGRESSIVE INSURGENCY AND THE ELECTION OF 1912 + +=Growing Dissensions.=--All in all, Taft's administration from the first +day had been disturbed by party discord. High words had passed over the +tariff bill and disgruntled members of Congress could not forget them. +To differences over issues were added quarrels between youth and old +age. In the House of Representatives there developed a group of young +"insurgent" Republicans who resented the dominance of the Speaker, +Joseph G. Cannon, and other members of the "old guard," as they named +the men of long service and conservative minds. In 1910, the insurgents +went so far as to join with the Democrats in a movement to break the +Speaker's sway by ousting him from the rules committee and depriving him +of the power to appoint its members. The storm was brewing. In the +autumn of that year the Democrats won a clear majority in the House of +Representatives and began an open battle with President Taft by +demanding an immediate downward revision of the tariff. + +=The Rise of the Progressive Republicans.=--Preparatory to the campaign +of 1912, the dissenters within the Republican party added the prefix +"Progressive" to their old title and began to organize a movement to +prevent the renomination of Mr. Taft. As early as January 21, 1911, they +formed a Progressive Republican League at the home of Senator La +Follette of Wisconsin and launched an attack on the Taft measures and +policies. In October they indorsed Mr. La Follette as "the logical +Republican candidate" and appealed to the party for support. The +controversy over the tariff had grown into a formidable revolt against +the occupant of the White House. + +=Roosevelt in the Field.=--After looking on for a while, ex-President +Roosevelt took a hand in the fray. Soon after his return in 1910 from a +hunting trip in Africa and a tour in Europe, he made a series of +addresses in which he formulated a progressive program. In a speech in +Kansas, he favored regulation of the trusts, a graduated income tax +bearing heavily on great fortunes, tariff revision schedule by schedule, +conservation of natural resources, labor legislation, the direct +primary, and the recall of elective officials. In an address before the +Ohio state constitutional convention in February, 1912, he indorsed the +initiative and referendum and announced a doctrine known as the "recall +of judicial decisions." This was a new and radical note in American +politics. An ex-President of the United States proposed that the people +at the polls should have the right to reverse the decision of a judge +who set aside any act of a state legislature passed in the interests of +social welfare. The Progressive Republicans, impressed by these +addresses, turned from La Follette to Roosevelt and on February 24, +induced him to come out openly as a candidate against Taft for the +Republican nomination. + +=The Split in the Republican Party.=--The country then witnessed the +strange spectacle of two men who had once been close companions engaged +in a bitter rivalry to secure a majority of the delegates to the +Republican convention to be held at Chicago. When the convention +assembled, about one-fourth of the seats were contested, the delegates +for both candidates loudly proclaiming the regularity of their election. +In deciding between the contestants the national committee, after the +usual hearings, settled the disputes in such a way that Taft received a +safe majority. After a week of negotiation, Roosevelt and his followers +left the Republican party. Most of his supporters withdrew from the +convention and the few who remained behind refused to answer the roll +call. Undisturbed by this formidable bolt, the regular Republicans went +on with their work. They renominated Mr. Taft and put forth a platform +roundly condemning such Progressive doctrines as the recall of judges. + +=The Formation of the Progressive Party.=--The action of the Republicans +in seating the Taft delegates was vigorously denounced by Roosevelt. He +declared that the convention had no claim to represent the voters of the +Republican party; that any candidate named by it would be "the +beneficiary of a successful fraud"; and that it would be deeply +discreditable to any man to accept the convention's approval under such +circumstances. The bitterness of his followers was extreme. On July 8, a +call went forth for a "Progressive" convention to be held in Chicago on +August 5. The assembly which duly met on that day was a unique political +conference. Prominence was given to women delegates, and "politicians" +were notably absent. Roosevelt himself, who was cheered as a conquering +hero, made an impassioned speech setting forth his "confession of +faith." He was nominated by acclamation; Governor Hiram Johnson of +California was selected as his companion candidate for Vice President. +The platform endorsed such political reforms as woman suffrage, direct +primaries, the initiative, referendum, and recall, popular election of +United States Senators, and the short ballot. It favored a program of +social legislation, including the prohibition of child labor and minimum +wages for women. It approved the regulation, rather than the +dissolution, of the trusts. Like apostles in a new and lofty cause, the +Progressives entered a vigorous campaign for the election of their +distinguished leader. + +=Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1912.=--With the Republicans +divided, victory loomed up before the Democrats. Naturally, a terrific +contest over the nomination occurred at their convention in Baltimore. +Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Governor +Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, were the chief contestants. After tossing +to and fro for seven long, hot days, and taking forty-six ballots, the +delegates, powerfully influenced by Mr. Bryan, finally decided in favor +of the governor. As a professor, a writer on historical and political +subjects, and the president of Princeton University, Mr. Wilson had +become widely known in public life. As the governor of New Jersey he had +attracted the support of the progressives in both parties. With grim +determination he had "waged war on the bosses," and pushed through the +legislature measures establishing direct primaries, regulating public +utilities, and creating a system of workmen's compensation in +industries. During the presidential campaign that followed Governor +Wilson toured the country and aroused great enthusiasm by a series of +addresses later published under the title of _The New Freedom_. He +declared that "the government of the United States is at present the +foster child of the special interests." He proposed to free the country +by breaking the dominance of "the big bankers, the big manufacturers, +the big masters of commerce, the heads of railroad corporations and of +steamship corporations." + +In the election Governor Wilson easily secured a majority of the +electoral votes, and his party, while retaining possession of the House +of Representatives, captured the Senate as well. The popular verdict, +however, indicated a state of confusion in the country. The combined +Progressive and Republican vote exceeded that of the Democrats by +1,300,000. The Socialists, with Eugene V. Debs as their candidate again, +polled about 900,000 votes, more than double the number received four +years before. Thus, as the result of an extraordinary upheaval the +Republicans, after holding the office of President for sixteen years, +passed out of power, and the government of the country was intrusted to +the Democrats under the leadership of a man destined to be one of the +outstanding figures of the modern age, Woodrow Wilson. + + +=General References= + +J.B. Bishop, _Theodore Roosevelt and His Time_ (2 vols.). + +Theodore Roosevelt, _Autobiography_; _New Nationalism_; _Progressive +Principles_. + +W.H. Taft, _Popular Government_. + +Walter Weyl, _The New Democracy_. + +H. Croly, _The Promise of American Life_. + +J.B. Bishop, _The Panama Gateway_. + +J.B. Scott, _The Hague Peace Conferences_. + +W.B. Munro (ed.), _Initiative, Referendum, and Recall_. + +C.R. Van Hise, _The Conservation of Natural Resources_. + +Gifford Pinchot, _The Fight for Conservation_. + +W.F. Willoughby, _Territories and Dependencies of the United States_ +(1905). + + +=Research Topics= + +=Roosevelt and "Big Business."=--Haworth, _The United States in Our Own +Time_, pp. 281-289; F.A. Ogg, _National Progress_ (American Nation +Series), pp. 40-75; Paxson, _The New Nation_ (Riverside Series), pp. +293-307. + +=Our Insular Possessions.=--Elson, _History of the United States_, pp. +896-904. + +=Latin-American Relations.=--Haworth, pp. 294-299; Ogg, pp. 254-257. + +=The Panama Canal.=--Haworth, pp. 300-309; Ogg, pp. 266-277; Paxson, pp. +286-292; Elson, pp. 906-911. + +=Conservation.=--Haworth, pp. 331-334; Ogg, pp. 96-115; Beard, _American +Government and Politics_ (3d ed.), pp. 401-416. + +=Republican Dissensions under Taft's Administration.=--Haworth, pp. +351-360; Ogg, pp. 167-186; Paxson, pp. 324-342; Elson, pp. 916-924. + +=The Campaign of 1912.=--Haworth, pp. 360-379; Ogg, pp. 187-208. + + +=Questions= + +1. Compare the early career of Roosevelt with that of some other +President. + +2. Name the chief foreign and domestic questions of the Roosevelt-Taft +administrations. + +3. What international complications were involved in the Panama Canal +problem? + +4. Review the Monroe Doctrine. Discuss Roosevelt's applications of it. + +5. What is the strategic importance of the Caribbean to the United +States? + +6. What is meant by the sea power? Trace the voyage of the fleet around +the world and mention the significant imperial and commercial points +touched. + +7. What is meant by the question: "Does the Constitution follow the +flag?" + +8. Trace the history of self-government in Porto Rico. In the +Philippines. + +9. What is Cuba's relation to the United States? + +10. What was Roosevelt's theory of our Constitution? + +11. Give Roosevelt's views on trusts, labor, taxation. + +12. Outline the domestic phases of Roosevelt's administrations. + +13. Account for the dissensions under Taft. + +14. Trace the rise of the Progressive movement. + +15. What was Roosevelt's progressive program? + +16. Review Wilson's early career and explain the underlying theory of +_The New Freedom_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AMERICA + + +AN AGE OF CRITICISM + +=Attacks on Abuses in American Life.=--The crisis precipitated by the +Progressive uprising was not a sudden and unexpected one. It had been +long in preparation. The revolt against corruption in politics which +produced the Liberal Republican outbreak in the seventies and the +Mugwump movement of the eighties was followed by continuous criticism of +American political and economic development. From 1880 until his death +in 1892, George William Curtis, as president of the Civil Service Reform +Association, kept up a running fire upon the abuses of the spoils +system. James Bryce, an observant English scholar and man of affairs, in +his great work, _The American Commonwealth_, published in 1888, by +picturing fearlessly the political rings and machines which dominated +the cities, gave the whole country a fresh shock. Six years later Henry +D. Lloyd, in a powerful book entitled _Wealth against Commonwealth_, +attacked in scathing language certain trusts which had destroyed their +rivals and bribed public officials. In 1903 Miss Ida Tarbell, an author +of established reputation in the historical field, gave to the public an +account of the Standard Oil Company, revealing the ruthless methods of +that corporation in crushing competition. About the same time Lincoln +Steffens exposed the sordid character of politics in several +municipalities in a series of articles bearing the painful heading: _The +Shame of the Cities_. The critical spirit appeared in almost every form; +in weekly and monthly magazines, in essays and pamphlets, in editorials +and news stories, in novels like Churchill's _Coniston_ and Sinclair's +_The Jungle_. It became so savage and so wanton that the opening years +of the twentieth century were well named "the age of the muckrakers." + +=The Subjects of the Criticism.=--In this outburst of invective, nothing +was spared. It was charged that each of the political parties had fallen +into the hands of professional politicians who devoted their time to +managing conventions, making platforms, nominating candidates, and +dictating to officials; in return for their "services" they sold offices +and privileges. It was alleged that mayors and councils had bargained +away for private benefit street railway and other franchises. It was +asserted that many powerful labor unions were dominated by men who +blackmailed employers. Some critics specialized in descriptions of the +poverty, slums, and misery of great cities. Others took up "frenzied +finance" and accused financiers of selling worthless stocks and bonds to +an innocent public. Still others professed to see in the accumulations +of millionaires the downfall of our republic. + +=The Attack on "Invisible Government."=--Some even maintained that the +control of public affairs had passed from the people to a sinister +minority called "the invisible government." So eminent and conservative +a statesman as the Hon. Elihu Root lent the weight of his great name to +such an imputation. Speaking of his native state, New York, he said: +"What is the government of this state? What has it been during the forty +years of my acquaintance with it? The government of the Constitution? +Oh, no; not half the time or half way.... From the days of Fenton and +Conkling and Arthur and Cornell and Platt, from the days of David B. +Hill down to the present time, the government of the state has presented +two different lines of activity: one, of the constitutional and +statutory officers of the state and the other of the party leaders; they +call them party bosses. They call the system--I don't coin the +phrase--the system they call 'invisible government.' For I don't know +how many years Mr. Conkling was the supreme ruler in this state. The +governor did not count, the legislature did not count, comptrollers and +secretaries of state and what not did not count. It was what Mr. +Conkling said, and in a great outburst of public rage he was pulled +down. Then Mr. Platt ruled the state; for nigh upon twenty years he +ruled it. It was not the governor; it was not the legislature; it was +Mr. Platt. And the capital was not here [in Albany]; it was at 49 +Broadway; Mr. Platt and his lieutenants. It makes no difference what +name you give, whether you call it Fenton or Conkling or Cornell or +Arthur or Platt or by the names of men now living. The ruler of the +state during the greater part of the forty years of my acquaintance with +the state government has not been any man authorized by the constitution +or by law.... The party leader is elected by no one, accountable to no +one, bound by no oath of office, removable by no one." + +=The Nation Aroused.=--With the spirit of criticism came also the spirit +of reform. The charges were usually exaggerated; often wholly false; but +there was enough truth in them to warrant renewed vigilance on the part +of American democracy. President Roosevelt doubtless summed up the +sentiment of the great majority of citizens when he demanded the +punishment of wrong-doers in 1907, saying: "It makes not a particle of +difference whether these crimes are committed by a capitalist or by a +laborer, by a leading banker or manufacturer or railroad man or by a +leading representative of a labor union. Swindling in stocks, corrupting +legislatures, making fortunes by the inflation of securities, by +wrecking railroads, by destroying competitors through rebates--these +forms of wrong-doing in the capitalist are far more infamous than any +ordinary form of embezzlement or forgery." The time had come, he added, +to stop "muckraking" and proceed to the constructive work of removing +the abuses that had grown up. + + +POLITICAL REFORMS + +=The Public Service.=--It was a wise comprehension of the needs of +American democracy that led the friends of reform to launch and to +sustain for more than half a century a movement to improve the public +service. On the one side they struck at the spoils system; at the right +of the politicians to use public offices as mere rewards for partisan +work. The federal civil service act of 1883 opened the way to reform by +establishing five vital principles in law: (1) admission to office, not +on the recommendation of party workers, but on the basis of competitive +examinations; (2) promotion for meritorious service of the government +rather than of parties; (3) no assessment of office holders for campaign +funds; (4) permanent tenure during good behavior; and (5) no dismissals +for political reasons. The act itself at first applied to only 14,000 +federal offices, but under the constant pressure from the reformers it +was extended until in 1916 it covered nearly 300,000 employees out of an +executive force of approximately 414,000. While gaining steadily at +Washington, civil service reformers carried their agitation into the +states and cities. By 1920 they were able to report ten states with +civil service commissions and the merit system well intrenched in more +than three hundred municipalities. + +In excluding spoilsmen from public office, the reformers were, in a +sense, engaged in a negative work: that of "keeping the rascals out." +But there was a second and larger phase to their movement, one +constructive in character: that of getting skilled, loyal, and efficient +servants into the places of responsibility. Everywhere on land and sea, +in town and country, new burdens were laid upon public officers. They +were called upon to supervise the ships sailing to and from our ports; +to inspect the water and milk supplies of our cities; to construct and +operate great public works, such as the Panama and Erie canals; to +regulate the complicated rates of railway companies; to safeguard health +and safety in a thousand ways; to climb the mountains to fight forest +fires; and to descend into the deeps of the earth to combat the deadly +coal gases that assail the miners. In a word, those who labored to +master the secrets and the powers of nature were summoned to the aid of +the government: chemists, engineers, architects, nurses, surgeons, +foresters--the skilled in all the sciences, arts, and crafts. + +Keeping rascals out was no task at all compared with the problem of +finding competent people for all the technical offices. "Now," said the +reformers, "we must make attractive careers in the government work for +the best American talent; we must train those applying for admission and +increase the skill of those already in positions of trust; we must see +to it that those entering at the bottom have a chance to rise to the +top; in short, we must work for a government as skilled and efficient as +it is strong, one commanding all the wisdom and talent of America that +public welfare requires." + +=The Australian Ballot.=--A second line of attack on the political +machines was made in connection with the ballot. In the early days +elections were frequently held in the open air and the poll was taken by +a show of hands or by the enrollment of the voters under names of their +favorite candidates. When this ancient practice was abandoned in favor +of the printed ballot, there was still no secrecy about elections. Each +party prepared its own ballot, often of a distinctive color, containing +the names of its candidates. On election day, these papers were handed +out to the voters by party workers. Any one could tell from the color of +the ballot dropped into the box, or from some mark on the outside of the +folded ballot, just how each man voted. Those who bought votes were sure +that their purchases were "delivered." Those who intimidated voters +could know when their intimidation was effective. In this way the party +ballot strengthened the party machine. + +As a remedy for such abuses, reformers, learning from the experience of +Australia, urged the adoption of the "Australian ballot." That ballot, +though it appeared in many forms, had certain constant features. It was +official, that is, furnished by the government, not by party workers; it +contained the names of all candidates of all parties; it was given out +only in the polling places; and it was marked in secret. The first state +to introduce it was Massachusetts. The year was 1888. Before the end of +the century it had been adopted by nearly all the states in the union. +The salutary effect of the reform in reducing the amount of cheating +and bribery in elections was beyond all question. + +=The Direct Primary.=--In connection with the uprising against machine +politics, came a call for the abolition of the old method of nominating +candidates by conventions. These time-honored party assemblies, which +had come down from the days of Andrew Jackson, were, it was said, merely +conclaves of party workers, sustained by the spoils system, and +dominated by an inner circle of bosses. The remedy offered in this case +was again "more democracy," namely, the abolition of the party +convention and the adoption of the direct primary. Candidates were no +longer to be chosen by secret conferences. Any member of a party was to +be allowed to run for any office, to present his name to his party by +securing signatures to a petition, and to submit his candidacy to his +fellow partisans at a direct primary--an election within the party. In +this movement Governor La Follette of Wisconsin took the lead and his +state was the first in the union to adopt the direct primary for +state-wide purposes. The idea spread, rapidly in the West, more slowly +in the East. The public, already angered against "the bosses," grasped +eagerly at it. Governor Hughes in New York pressed it upon the unwilling +legislature. State after state accepted it until by 1918 Rhode Island, +Delaware, Connecticut, and New Mexico were the only states that had not +bowed to the storm. Still the results were disappointing and at that +very time the pendulum was beginning to swing backward. + +=Popular Election of Federal Senators.=--While the movement for direct +primaries was still advancing everywhere, a demand for the popular +election of Senators, usually associated with it, swept forward to +victory. Under the original Constitution, it had been expressly provided +that Senators should be chosen by the legislatures of the states. In +practice this rule transferred the selection of Senators to secret +caucuses of party members in the state legislatures. In connection with +these caucuses there had been many scandals, some direct proofs of +brazen bribery and corruption, and dark hints besides. The Senate was +called by its detractors "a millionaires' club" and it was looked upon +as the "citadel of conservatism." The prescription in this case was +likewise "more democracy"--direct election of Senators by popular vote. + +This reform was not a new idea. It had been proposed in Congress as +early as 1826. President Johnson, an ardent advocate, made it the +subject of a special message in 1868 Not long afterward it appeared in +Congress. At last in 1893, the year after the great Populist upheaval, +the House of Representatives by the requisite two-thirds vote +incorporated it in an amendment to the federal Constitution. Again and +again it passed the House; but the Senate itself was obdurate. Able +Senators leveled their batteries against it. Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts +declared that it would transfer the seat of power to the "great cities +and masses of population"; that it would "overthrow the whole scheme of +the Senate and in the end the whole scheme of the national Constitution +as designed and established by the framers of the Constitution and the +people who adopted it." + +Failing in the Senate, advocates of popular election made a rear assault +through the states. They induced state legislatures to enact laws +requiring the nomination of candidates for the Senate by the direct +primary, and then they bound the legislatures to abide by the popular +choice. Nevada took the lead in 1899. Shortly afterward Oregon, by the +use of the initiative and referendum, practically bound legislators to +accept the popular nominee and the country witnessed the spectacle of a +Republican legislature "electing" a Democrat to represent the state in +the Senate at Washington. By 1910 three-fourths of the states had +applied the direct primary in some form to the choice of Senators. Men +selected by that method began to pour in upon the floors of Congress; +finally in 1912 the two-thirds majority was secured for an amendment to +the federal Constitution providing for the popular election of Senators. +It was quickly ratified by the states. The following year it was +proclaimed in effect. + +=The Initiative and Referendum.=--As a corrective for the evils which +had grown up in state legislatures there arose a demand for the +introduction of a Swiss device known as the initiative and referendum. +The initiative permits any one to draw up a proposed bill; and, on +securing a certain number of signatures among the voters, to require the +submission of the measure to the people at an election. If the bill thus +initiated receives a sufficient majority, it becomes a law. The +referendum allows citizens who disapprove any act passed by the +legislature to get up a petition against it and thus bring about a +reference of the measure to the voters at the polls for approval or +rejection. These two practices constitute a form of "direct government." + +These devices were prescribed "to restore the government to the people." +The Populists favored them in their platform of 1896. Mr. Bryan, two +years later, made them a part of his program, and in the same year South +Dakota adopted them. In 1902 Oregon, after a strenuous campaign, added a +direct legislation amendment to the state constitution. Within ten years +all the Southwestern, Mountain, and Pacific states, except Texas and +Wyoming, had followed this example. To the east of the Mississippi, +however, direct legislation met a chilly reception. By 1920 only five +states in this section had accepted it: Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, +Michigan, and Maryland, the last approving the referendum only. + +=The Recall.=--Executive officers and judges, as well as legislatures, +had come in for their share of criticism, and it was proposed that they +should likewise be subjected to a closer scrutiny by the public. For +this purpose there was advanced a scheme known as the recall--which +permitted a certain percentage of the voters to compel any officer, at +any time during his term, to go before the people at a new election. +This feature of direct government, tried out first in the city of Los +Angeles, was extended to state-wide uses in Oregon in 1908. It failed, +however, to capture popular imagination to the same degree as the +initiative and referendum. At the end of ten years' agitation, only ten +states, mainly in the West, had adopted it for general purposes, and +four of them did not apply it to the judges of the courts. Still it was +extensively acclaimed in cities and incorporated into hundreds of +municipal laws and charters. + +As a general proposition, direct government in all its forms was +bitterly opposed by men of a conservative cast of mind. It was denounced +by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge as "nothing less than a complete revolution +in the fabric of our government and in the fundamental principles upon +which that government rests." In his opinion, it promised to break down +the representative principle and "undermine and overthrow the bulwarks +of ordered liberty and individual freedom." Mr. Taft shared Mr. Lodge's +views and spoke of direct government with scorn. "Votes," he exclaimed, +"are not bread ... referendums do not pay rent or furnish houses, +recalls do not furnish clothes, initiatives do not supply employment or +relieve inequalities of condition or of opportunity." + +=Commission Government for Cities.=--In the restless searching out of +evils, the management of cities early came under critical scrutiny. City +government, Mr. Bryce had remarked, was the one conspicuous failure in +America. This sharp thrust, though resented by some, was accepted as a +warning by others. Many prescriptions were offered by doctors of the +body politic. Chief among them was the idea of simplifying the city +government so that the light of public scrutiny could shine through it. +"Let us elect only a few men and make them clearly responsible for the +city government!" was the new cry in municipal reform. So, many city +councils were reduced in size; one of the two houses, which several +cities had adopted in imitation of the federal government, was +abolished; and in order that the mayor could be held to account, he was +given the power to appoint all the chief officials. This made the mayor, +in some cases, the only elective city official and gave the voters a +"short ballot" containing only a few names--an idea which some proposed +to apply also to the state government. + +A further step in the concentration of authority was taken in Galveston, +Texas, where the people, looking upon the ruin of their city wrought by +the devastating storm of 1901, and confronted by the difficult problems +of reconstruction, felt the necessity for a more businesslike management +of city affairs and instituted a new form of local administration. They +abolished the old scheme of mayor and council and vested all power in +five commissioners, one of whom, without any special prerogatives, was +assigned to the office of "mayor president." In 1908, the commission +form of government, as it was soon characterized, was adopted by Des +Moines, Iowa. The attention of all municipal reformers was drawn to it +and it was hailed as the guarantee of a better day. By 1920, more than +four hundred cities, including Memphis, Spokane, Birmingham, Newark, and +Buffalo, had adopted it. Still the larger cities like New York and +Chicago kept their boards of aldermen. + +=The City Manager Plan.=--A few years' experience with commission +government revealed certain patent defects. The division of the work +among five men was frequently found to introduce dissensions and +irresponsibility. Commissioners were often lacking in the technical +ability required to manage such difficult matters as fire and police +protection, public health, public works, and public utilities. Some one +then proposed to carry over into city government an idea from the +business world. In that sphere the stockholders of each corporation +elect the directors and the directors, in turn, choose a business +manager to conduct the affairs of the company. It was suggested that the +city commissioners, instead of attempting to supervise the details of +the city administration, should select a manager to do this. The scheme +was put into effect in Sumter, South Carolina, in 1912. Like the +commission plan, it became popular. Within eight years more than one +hundred and fifty towns and cities had adopted it. Among the larger +municipalities were Dayton, Springfield (Ohio), Akron, Kalamazoo, and +Phoenix. It promised to create a new public service profession, that of +city manager. + + +MEASURES OF ECONOMIC REFORM + +=The Spirit of American Reform.=--The purification of the ballot, the +restriction of the spoils system, the enlargement of direct popular +control over the organs of government were not the sole answers made by +the reformers to the critics of American institutions. Nor were they the +most important. In fact, they were regarded not as ends in themselves, +but as means to serve a wider purpose. That purpose was the promotion of +the "general welfare." The concrete objects covered by that broad term +were many and varied; but they included the prevention of extortion by +railway and other corporations, the protection of public health, the +extension of education, the improvement of living conditions in the +cities, the elimination of undeserved poverty, the removal of gross +inequalities in wealth, and more equality of opportunity. + +All these things involved the use of the powers of government. Although +a few clung to the ancient doctrine that the government should not +interfere with private business at all, the American people at large +rejected that theory as vigorously as they rejected the doctrines of an +extreme socialism which exalts the state above the individual. Leaders +representing every shade of opinion proclaimed the government an +instrument of common welfare to be used in the public interest. "We must +abandon definitely," said Roosevelt, "the _laissez-faire_ theory of +political economy and fearlessly champion a system of increased +governmental control, paying no attention to the cries of worthy people +who denounce this as socialistic." This view was shared by Mr. Taft, who +observed: "Undoubtedly the government can wisely do much more ... to +relieve the oppressed, to create greater equality of opportunity, to +make reasonable terms for labor in employment, and to furnish vocational +education." He was quick to add his caution that "there is a line beyond +which the government cannot go with any good practical results in +seeking to make men and society better." + +=The Regulation of Railways.=--The first attempts to use the government +in a large way to control private enterprise in the public interest were +made by the Northwestern states in the decade between 1870 and 1880. +Charges were advanced by the farmers, particularly those organized into +Granges, that the railways extorted the highest possible rates for +freight and passengers, that favoritism was shown to large shippers, +that fraudulent stocks and bonds were sold to the innocent public. It +was claimed that railways were not like other enterprises, but were +"quasi-public" concerns, like the roads and ferries, and thus subject to +government control. Accordingly laws were enacted bringing the railroads +under state supervision. In some cases the state legislature fixed the +maximum rates to be charged by common carriers, and in other cases +commissions were created with the power to establish the rates after an +investigation. This legislation was at first denounced in the East as +nothing less than the "confiscation" of the railways in the interest of +the farmers. Attempts to have the Supreme Court of the United States +declare it unconstitutional were made without avail; still a principle +was finally laid down to the effect that in fixing rates state +legislatures and commissions must permit railway companies to earn a +"fair" return on the capital invested. + +In a few years the Granger spirit appeared in Congress. An investigation +revealed a long list of abuses committed by the railways against +shippers and travelers. The result was the interstate commerce act of +1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission, forbade +discriminations in rates, and prohibited other objectionable practices +on the part of railways. This measure was loosely enforced and the +abuses against which it was directed continued almost unabated. A demand +for stricter control grew louder and louder. Congress was forced to +heed. In 1903 it enacted the Elkins law, forbidding railways to charge +rates other than those published, and laid penalties upon the officers +and agents of companies, who granted secret favors to shippers, and upon +shippers who accepted them. Three years later a still more drastic step +was taken by the passage of the Hepburn act. The Interstate Commerce +Commission was authorized, upon complaint of some party aggrieved, and +after a public hearing, to determine whether just and reasonable rates +had been charged by the companies. In effect, the right to fix freight +and passenger rates was taken out of the hands of the owners of the +railways engaged in interstate commerce and vested in the hands of the +Interstate Commerce Commission. Thus private property to the value of +$20,000,000,000 or more was declared to be a matter of public concern +and subject to government regulation in the common interest. + +=Municipal Utilities.=--Similar problems arose in connection with the +street railways, electric light plants, and other utilities in the great +cities. In the beginning the right to construct such undertakings was +freely, and often corruptly, granted to private companies by city +councils. Distressing abuses arose in connection with such practices. +Many grants or franchises were made perpetual, or perhaps for a term of +999 years. The rates charged and services rendered were left largely to +the will of the companies holding the franchises. Mergers or unions of +companies were common and the public was deluged with stocks and bonds +of doubtful value; bankruptcies were frequent. The connection between +the utility companies and the politicians was, to say the least, not +always in the public interest. + +American ingenuity was quick to devise methods for eliminating such +evils. Three lines of progress were laid out by the reformers. One group +proposed that such utilities should be subject to municipal or state +regulation, that the formation of utility companies should be under +public control, and that the issue of stocks and bonds must be approved +by public authority. In some cases state, and in other cases municipal, +commissions were created to exercise this great power over "quasi-public +corporations." Wisconsin, by laws enacted in 1907, put all heat, light, +water works, telephone, and street railway companies under the +supervision of a single railway commission. Other states followed this +example rapidly. By 1920 the principle of public control over municipal +utilities was accepted in nearly every section of the union. + +A second line of reform appeared in the "model franchise" for utility +corporations. An illustration of this tendency was afforded by the +Chicago street railway settlement of 1906. The total capital of the +company was fixed at a definite sum, its earnings were agreed upon, and +the city was given the right to buy and operate the system if it desired +to do so. In many states, about the same time, it was provided that no +franchises to utility companies could run more than twenty-five years. + +A third group of reformers were satisfied with nothing short of +municipal ownership. They proposed to drive private companies entirely +out of the field and vest the ownership and management of municipal +plants in the city itself. This idea was extensively applied to electric +light and water works plants, but to street railways in only a few +cities, including San Francisco and Seattle. In New York the subways are +owned by the city but leased for operation. + +=Tenement House Control.=--Among the other pressing problems of the +cities was the overcrowding in houses unfit for habitation. An inquiry +in New York City made under the authority of the state in 1902 revealed +poverty, misery, slums, dirt, and disease almost beyond imagination. The +immediate answer was the enactment of a tenement house law prescribing +in great detail the size of the rooms, the air space, the light and the +sanitary arrangement for all new buildings. An immense improvement +followed and the idea was quickly taken up in other states having large +industrial centers. In 1920 New York made a further invasion of the +rights of landlords by assuring to the public "reasonable rents" for +flats and apartments. + +=Workmen's Compensation.=--No small part of the poverty in cities was +due to the injury of wage-earners while at their trade. Every year the +number of men and women killed or wounded in industry mounted higher. +Under the old law, the workman or his family had to bear the loss unless +the employer had been guilty of some extraordinary negligence. Even in +that case an expensive lawsuit was usually necessary to recover +"damages." In short, although employers insured their buildings and +machinery against necessary risks from fire and storm, they allowed +their employees to assume the heavy losses due to accidents. The +injustice of this, though apparent enough now, was once not generally +recognized. It was said to be unfair to make the employer pay for +injuries for which he was not personally responsible; but the argument +was overborne. + +[Illustration: AN EAST SIDE STREET IN NEW YORK] + +About 1910 there set in a decided movement in the direction of lifting +the burden of accidents from the unfortunate victims. In the first +place, laws were enacted requiring employers to pay damages in certain +amounts according to the nature of the case, no matter how the accident +occurred, as long as the injured person was not guilty of willful +negligence. By 1914 more than one-half the states had such laws. In the +second place, there developed schemes of industrial insurance in the +form of automatic grants made by state commissions to persons injured in +industries, the funds to be provided by the employers or the state or by +both. By 1917 thirty-six states had legislation of this type. + +=Minimum Wages and Mothers' Pensions.=--Another source of poverty, +especially among women and children, was found to be the low wages paid +for their labor. Report after report showed this. In 1912 Massachusetts +took a significant step in the direction of declaring the minimum wages +which might be paid to women and children. Oregon, the following year, +created a commission with power to prescribe minimum wages in certain +industries, based on the cost of living, and to enforce the rates fixed. +Within a short time one-third of the states had legislation of this +character. To cut away some of the evils of poverty and enable widows to +keep their homes intact and bring up their children, a device known as +mothers' pensions became popular during the second decade of the +twentieth century. At the opening of 1913 two states, Colorado and +Illinois, had laws authorizing the payment from public funds of definite +sums to widows with children. Within four years, thirty-five states had +similar legislation. + +=Taxation and Great Fortunes.=--As a part of the campaign waged against +poverty by reformers there came a demand for heavy taxes upon great +fortunes, particularly taxes upon inheritances or estates passing to +heirs on the decease of the owners. Roosevelt was an ardent champion of +this type of taxation and dwelt upon it at length in his message to +Congress in 1907. "Such a tax," he said, "would help to preserve a +measurable equality of opportunity for the people of the generations +growing to manhood.... Our aim is to recognize what Lincoln pointed out: +the fact that there are some respects in which men are obviously not +equal; but also to insist that there should be equality of self-respect +and of mutual respect, an equality of rights before the law, and at +least an approximate equality in the conditions under which each man +obtains the chance to show the stuff that is in him when compared with +his fellows." + +The spirit of the new age was, therefore, one of reform, not of +revolution. It called for no evolutionary or utopian experiments, but +for the steady and progressive enactment of measures aimed at admitted +abuses and designed to accomplish tangible results in the name of public +welfare. + + +=General References= + +J. Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_. + +R.C. Brooks, _Corruption in American Life_. + +E.A. Ross, _Changing America_. + +P.L. Haworth, _America in Ferment_. + +E.R.A. Seligman, _The Income Tax_. + +W.Z. Ripley, _Railroads: Rates and Regulation_. + +E.S. Bradford, _Commission Government in American Cities_. + +H.R. Seager, _A Program of Social Reform_. + +C. Zueblin, _American Municipal Progress_. + +W.E. Walling, _Progressivism and After_. + +_The American Year Book_ (an annual publication which contains reviews +of reform legislation). + + +=Research Topics= + +="The Muckrakers."=--Paxson, _The New Nation_ (Riverside Series), pp. +309-323. + +=Civil Service Reform.=--Beard, _American Government and Politics_ (3d +ed.), pp. 222-230; Ogg, _National Progress_ (American Nation Series), +pp. 135-142. + +=Direct Government.=--Beard, _American Government_, pp. 461-473; Ogg, +pp. 160-166. + +=Popular Election of Senators.=--Beard, _American Government_, pp. +241-244; Ogg, pp. 149-150. + +=Party Methods.=--Beard, _American Government_, pp. 656-672. + +=Ballot Reform.=--Beard, _American Government_, pp. 672-705. + +=Social and Economic Legislation.=--Beard, _American Government_, pp. +721-752. + + +=Questions= + +1. Who were some of the critics of abuses in American life? + +2. What particular criticisms were advanced? + +3. How did Elihu Root define "invisible government"? + +4. Discuss the use of criticism as an aid to progress in a democracy. + +5. Explain what is meant by the "merit system" in the civil service. +Review the rise of the spoils system. + +6. Why is the public service of increasing importance? Give some of its +new problems. + +7. Describe the Australian ballot and the abuses against which it is +directed. + +8. What are the elements of direct government? Sketch their progress in +the United States. + +9. Trace the history of popular election of Senators. + +10. Explain the direct primary. Commission government. The city manager +plan. + +11. How does modern reform involve government action? On what theory is +it justified? + +12. Enumerate five lines of recent economic reform. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE NEW POLITICAL DEMOCRACY + + +=Women in Public Affairs.=--The social legislation enacted in response +to the spirit of reform vitally affected women in the home and in +industry and was promoted by their organizations. Where they did not +lead, they were affiliated with movements for social improvement. No +cause escaped their attention; no year passed without widening the range +of their interests. They served on committees that inquired into the +problems of the day; they appeared before legislative assemblies to +advocate remedies for the evils they discovered. By 1912 they were a +force to be reckoned with in national politics. In nine states complete +and equal suffrage had been established, and a widespread campaign for a +national suffrage amendment was in full swing. On every hand lay +evidences that their sphere had been broadened to include public +affairs. This was the culmination of forces that had long been +operating. + +=A New Emphasis in History.=--A movement so deeply affecting important +interests could not fail to find a place in time in the written record +of human progress. History often began as a chronicle of kings and +queens, knights and ladies, written partly to amuse and partly to +instruct the classes that appeared in its pages. With the growth of +commerce, parliaments, and international relations, politics and +diplomacy were added to such chronicles of royal and princely doings. +After the rise of democracy, industry, and organized labor, the +transactions of everyday life were deemed worthy of a place in the pages +of history. In each case history was rewritten and the past rediscovered +in the light of the new age. So it will be with the rise and growth of +women's political power. The history of their labor, their education, +their status in society, their influence on the course of events will be +explored and given its place in the general record. + +It will be a history of change. The superior position which women enjoy +in America to-day is the result of a slow evolution from an almost +rightless condition in colonial times. The founders of America brought +with them the English common law. Under that law, a married woman's +personal property--jewels, money, furniture, and the like--became her +husband's property; the management of her lands passed into his control. +Even the wages she earned, if she worked for some one else, belonged to +him. Custom, if not law, prescribed that women should not take part in +town meetings or enter into public discussions of religious questions. +Indeed it is a far cry from the banishment of Anne Hutchinson from +Massachusetts in 1637, for daring to dispute with the church fathers, to +the political conventions of 1920 in which women sat as delegates, made +nominating speeches, and served on committees. In the contrast between +these two scenes may be measured the change in the privileges of women +since the landing of the Pilgrims. The account of this progress is a +narrative of individual effort on the part of women, of organizations +among them, of generous aid from sympathetic men in the long agitation +for the removal of civil and political disabilities. It is in part also +a narrative of irresistible economic change which drew women into +industry, created a leisure class, gave women wages and incomes, and +therewith economic independence. + + +THE RISE OF THE WOMAN MOVEMENT + +=Protests of Colonial Women.=--The republican spirit which produced +American independence was of slow and steady growth. It did not spring +up full-armed in a single night. It was, on the contrary, nourished +during a long period of time by fireside discussions as well as by +debates in the public forum. Women shared that fireside sifting of +political principles and passed on the findings of that scrutiny in +letters to their friends, newspaper articles, and every form of written +word. How widespread was this potent, though not spectacular force, is +revealed in the collections of women's letters, articles, songs, dramas, +and satirical "skits" on English rule that have come down to us. In this +search into the reasons of government, some women began to take thought +about laws that excluded them from the ballot. Two women at least left +their protests on record. Abigail, the ingenious and witty wife of John +Adams, wrote to her husband, in March, 1776, that women objected "to all +arbitrary power whether of state or males" and demanded political +privileges in the new order then being created. Hannah Lee Corbin, the +sister of "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, protested to her brother against the +taxation of women without representation. + +[Illustration: ABIGAIL ADAMS] + +=The Stir among European Women.=--Ferment in America, in the case of +women as of men, was quickened by events in Europe. In 1792, Mary +Wollstonecraft published in England the _Vindication of the Rights of +Women_--a book that was destined to serve the cause of liberty among +women as the writings of Locke and Paine had served that of men. The +specific grievances which stirred English women were men's invasion of +women's industries, such as spinning and weaving; the denial of equal +educational opportunities; and political disabilities. In France also +the great Revolution raised questionings about the status of women. The +rights of "citizenesses" as well as the rights of "citizens" were +examined by the boldest thinkers. This in turn reacted upon women in the +United States. + +=Leadership in America.=--The origins of the American woman movement are +to be found in the writings of a few early intellectual leaders. During +the first decades of the nineteenth century, books, articles, and +pamphlets about women came in increasing numbers from the press. Lydia +Maria Child wrote a history of women; Margaret Fuller made a critical +examination of the status of women in her time; and Mrs. Elizabeth Ellet +supplemented the older histories by showing what an important part women +had played in the American Revolution. + +=The Struggle for Education.=--Along with criticism, there was carried +on a constructive struggle for better educational facilities for women +who had been from the beginning excluded from every college in the +country. In this long battle, Emma Willard and Mary Lyon led the way; +the former founded a seminary at Troy, New York; and the latter made the +beginnings of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Oberlin College in +Ohio, established in 1833, opened its doors to girls and from it were +graduated young students to lead in the woman movement. Sarah J. Hale, +who in 1827 became the editor of a "Ladies' Magazine," published in +Boston, conducted a campaign for equal educational opportunities which +helped to bear fruit in the founding of Vassar College shortly after the +Civil War. + +=The Desire to Effect Reforms.=--As they came to study their own history +and their own part in civilization, women naturally became deeply +interested in all the controversies going on around them. The temperance +question made a special appeal to them and they organized to demand the +right to be heard on it. In 1846 the "Daughters of Temperance" formed a +secret society favoring prohibition. They dared to criticize the +churches for their indifference and were so bold as to ask that +drunkenness be made a ground for divorce. + +The slavery issue even more than temperance called women into public +life. The Grimke sisters of South Carolina emancipated their bondmen, +and one of these sisters, exiled from Charleston for her "Appeal to the +Christian Women of the South," went North to work against the slavery +system. In 1837 the National Women's Anti-Slavery Convention met in New +York; seventy-one women delegates represented eight states. Three years +later eight American women, five of them in Quaker costume, attended the +World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, much to the horror of the men, +who promptly excluded them from the sessions on the ground that it was +not fitting for women to take part in such meetings. + +In other spheres of activity, especially social service, women steadily +enlarged their interest. Nothing human did they consider alien to them. +They inveighed against cruel criminal laws and unsanitary prisons. They +organized poor relief and led in private philanthropy. Dorothea Dix +directed the movement that induced the New York legislature to establish +in 1845 a separate asylum for the criminal insane. In the same year +Sarah G. Bagley organized the Lowell Female Reform Association for the +purpose of reducing the long hours of labor for women, safeguarding "the +constitutions of future generations." Mrs. Eliza Woodson Farnham, matron +in Sing Sing penitentiary, was known throughout the nation for her +social work, especially prison reform. Wherever there were misery and +suffering, women were preparing programs of relief. + +=Freedom of Speech for Women.=--In the advancement of their causes, of +whatever kind, women of necessity had to make public appeals and take +part in open meetings. Here they encountered difficulties. The +appearance of women on the platform was new and strange. Naturally it +was widely resented. Antoinette Brown, although she had credentials as a +delegate, was driven off the platform of a temperance convention in New +York City simply because she was a woman. James Russell Lowell, editor +of the "Atlantic Monthly," declined a poem from Julia Ward Howe on the +theory that no woman could write a poem; but he added on second thought +that he might consider an article in prose. Nathaniel Hawthorne, +another editor, even objected to something in prose because to him "all +ink-stained women were equally detestable." To the natural resentment +against their intrusion into new fields was added that aroused by their +ideas and methods. As temperance reformers, they criticized in a caustic +manner those who would not accept their opinions. As opponents of +slavery they were especially bitter. One of their conventions, held at +Philadelphia in 1833, passed a resolution calling on all women to leave +those churches that would not condemn every form of human bondage. This +stirred against them many of the clergy who, accustomed to having women +sit silent during services, were in no mood to treat such a revolt +leniently. Then came the last straw. Women decided that they would +preach--out of the pulpit first, and finally in it. + +=Women in Industry.=--The period of this ferment was also the age of the +industrial revolution in America, the rise of the factory system, and +the growth of mill towns. The labor of women was transferred from the +homes to the factories. Then arose many questions: the hours of labor, +the sanitary conditions of the mills, the pressure of foreign +immigration on native labor, the wages of women as compared with those +of men, and the right of married women to their own earnings. Labor +organizations sprang up among working women. The mill girls of Lowell, +Massachusetts, mainly the daughters of New England farmers, published a +magazine, "The Lowell Offering." So excellent were their writings that +the French statesman, Thiers, carried a copy of their paper into the +Chamber of Deputies to show what working women could achieve in a +republic. As women were now admittedly earning their own way in the +world by their own labor, they began to talk of their "economic +independence." + +=The World Shaken by Revolution.=--Such was the quickening of women's +minds in 1848 when the world was startled once more by a revolution in +France which spread to Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and Italy. +Once more the people of the earth began to explore the principles of +democracy and expound human rights. Women, now better educated and more +"advanced" in their ideas, played a role of still greater importance in +that revolution. They led in agitations and uprisings. They suffered +from reaction and persecution. From their prison in France, two of them +who had been jailed for too much insistence on women's rights exchanged +greetings with American women who were raising the same issue here. By +this time the women had more supporters among the men. Horace Greeley, +editor of the New York _Tribune_, though he afterwards recanted, used +his powerful pen in their behalf. Anti-slavery leaders welcomed their +aid and repaid them by urging the enfranchisement of women. + +=The Woman's Rights Convention of 1848.=--The forces, moral and +intellectual, which had been stirring among women, crystallized a few +months after the outbreak of the European revolution in the first +Woman's Rights Convention in the history of America. It met at Seneca +Falls, New York, in 1848, on the call of Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann McClintock, three of them Quakers. +Accustomed to take part in church meetings with men, the Quakers +naturally suggested that men as well as women be invited to attend the +convention. Indeed, a man presided over the conference, for that +position seemed too presumptuous even for such stout advocates of +woman's rights. + +The deliberations of the Seneca Falls convention resulted in a +Declaration of Rights modeled after the Declaration of Independence. For +example, the preamble began: "When in the course of human events it +becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among +the people of the earth a position different from that which they have +hitherto occupied...." So also it closed: "Such has been the patient +suffering of women under this government and such is now the necessity +which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are +entitled." Then followed the list of grievances, the same number which +had been exhibited to George III in 1776. Especially did they assail the +disabilities imposed upon them by the English common law imported into +America--the law which denied married women their property, their wages, +and their legal existence as separate persons. All these grievances they +recited to "a candid world." The remedies for the evils which they +endured were then set forth in detail. They demanded "equal rights" in +the colleges, trades, and professions; equal suffrage; the right to +share in all political offices, honors, and emoluments; the right to +complete equality in marriage, including equal guardianship of the +children; and for married women the right to own property, to keep +wages, to make contracts, to transact business, and to testify in the +courts of justice. In short, they declared women to be persons as men +are persons and entitled to all the rights and privileges of human +beings. Such was the clarion call which went forth to the world in +1848--to an amused and contemptuous world, it must be admitted--but to a +world fated to heed and obey. + +=The First Gains in Civil Liberty.=--The convention of 1848 did not make +political enfranchisement the leading issue. Rather did it emphasize the +civil disabilities of women which were most seriously under discussion +at the time. Indeed, the New York legislature of that very year, as the +result of a twelve years' agitation, passed the Married Woman's Property +Act setting aside the general principles of the English common law as +applied to women and giving them many of the "rights of man." California +and Wisconsin followed in 1850; Massachusetts in 1854; and Kansas in +1859. Other states soon fell into line. Women's earnings and +inheritances were at last their own in some states at least. In a little +while laws were passed granting women rights as equal guardians of their +children and permitting them to divorce their husbands on the grounds of +cruelty and drunkenness. + +By degrees other steps were taken. The Woman's Medical College of +Pennsylvania was founded in 1850, and the Philadelphia School of Design +for Women three years later. In 1852 the American Women's Educational +Association was formed to initiate an agitation for enlarged +educational opportunities for women. Other colleges soon emulated the +example of Oberlin: the University of Utah in 1850; Hillsdale College in +Michigan in 1855; Baker University in Kansas in 1858; and the University +of Iowa in 1860. New trades and professions were opened to women and old +prejudices against their activities and demands slowly gave way. + + +THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE + +=The Beginnings of Organization.=--As women surmounted one obstacle +after another, the agitation for equal suffrage came to the front. If +any year is to be fixed as the date of its beginning, it may very well +be 1850, when the suffragists of Ohio urged the state constitutional +convention to confer the vote upon them. With apparent spontaneity there +were held in the same year state suffrage conferences in Indiana, +Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts; and connections were formed among the +leaders of these meetings. At the same time the first national suffrage +convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the call of +eighty-nine leading men and women representing six states. Accounts of +the convention were widely circulated in this country and abroad. +English women,--for instance, Harriet Martineau,--sent words of +appreciation for the work thus inaugurated. It inspired a leading +article in the "Westminster Review," which deeply interested the +distinguished economist, John Stuart Mill. Soon he was the champion of +woman suffrage in the British Parliament and the author of a powerful +tract _The Subjection of Women_, widely read throughout the +English-speaking world. Thus do world movements grow. Strange to relate +the women of England were enfranchised before the adoption of the +federal suffrage amendment in America. + +The national suffrage convention of 1850 was followed by an +extraordinary outburst of agitation. Pamphlets streamed from the press. +Petitions to legislative bodies were drafted, signed, and presented. +There were addresses by favorite orators like Garrison, Phillips, and +Curtis, and lectures and poems by men like Emerson, Longfellow, and +Whittier. In 1853 the first suffrage paper was founded by the wife of a +member of Congress from Rhode Island. By this time the last barrier to +white manhood suffrage in the North had been swept away and the woman's +movement was gaining momentum every year. + +=The Suffrage Movement Checked by the Civil War.=--Advocates of woman +suffrage believed themselves on the high road to success when the Civil +War engaged the energies and labors of the nation. Northern women became +absorbed in the struggle to preserve the union. They held no suffrage +conventions for five years. They transformed their associations into +Loyalty Leagues. They banded together to buy only domestic goods when +foreign imports threatened to ruin American markets. They rolled up +monster petitions in favor of the emancipation of slaves. In hospitals, +in military prisons, in agriculture, and in industry they bore their +full share of responsibility. Even when the New York legislature took +advantage of their unguarded moments and repealed the law giving the +mother equal rights with the father in the guardianship of children, +they refused to lay aside war work for agitation. As in all other wars, +their devotion was unstinted and their sacrifices equal to the +necessities of the hour. + +=The Federal Suffrage Amendment.=--Their plans and activities, when the +war closed, were shaped by events beyond their control. The emancipation +of the slaves and their proposed enfranchisement made prominent the +question of a national suffrage for the first time in our history. +Friends of the colored man insisted that his civil liberties would not +be safe unless he was granted the right to vote. The woman suffragists +very pertinently asked why the same principle did not apply to women. +The answer which they received was negative. The fourteenth amendment to +the federal Constitution, adopted in 1868, definitely put women aside by +limiting the scope of its application, so far as the suffrage was +concerned, to the male sex. In making manhood suffrage national, +however, it nationalized the issue. + +This was the signal for the advocates of woman suffrage. In March, 1869, +their proposed amendment was introduced in Congress by George W. Julian +of Indiana. It provided that no citizen should be deprived of the vote +on account of sex, following the language of the fifteenth amendment +which forbade disfranchisement on account of race. Support for the +amendment, coming from many directions, led the suffragists to believe +that their case was hopeful. In their platform of 1872, for example, the +Republicans praised the women for their loyal devotion to freedom, +welcomed them to spheres of wider usefulness, and declared that the +demand of any class of citizens for additional rights deserved +"respectful consideration." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +SUSAN B. ANTHONY] + +Experience soon demonstrated, however, that praise was not the ballot. +Indeed the suffragists already had realized that a tedious contest lay +before them. They had revived in 1866 their regular national convention. +They gave the name of "The Revolution" to their paper, edited by +Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They formed a national +suffrage association and organized annual pilgrimages to Congress to +present their claims. Such activities bore some results. Many eminent +congressmen were converted to their cause and presented it ably to their +colleagues of both chambers. Still the subject was ridiculed by the +newspapers and looked upon as freakish by the masses. + +=The State Campaigns.=--Discouraged by the outcome of the national +campaign, suffragists turned to the voters of the individual states and +sought the ballot at their hands. Gains by this process were painfully +slow. Wyoming, it is true, while still a territory, granted suffrage to +women in 1869 and continued it on becoming a state twenty years later, +in spite of strong protests in Congress. In 1893 Colorado established +complete political equality. In Utah, the third suffrage state, the +cause suffered many vicissitudes. Women were enfranchised by the +territorial legislature; they were deprived of the ballot by Congress in +1887; finally in 1896 on the admission of Utah to the union they +recovered their former rights. During the same year, 1896, Idaho +conferred equal suffrage upon the women. This was the last suffrage +victory for more than a decade. + +=The Suffrage Cause in Congress.=--In the midst of the meager gains +among the states there were occasional flurries of hope for immediate +action on the federal amendment. Between 1878 and 1896 the Senate +committee reported the suffrage resolution by a favorable majority on +five different occasions. During the same period, however, there were +nine unfavorable reports and only once did the subject reach the point +of a general debate. At no time could anything like the required +two-thirds vote be obtained. + +=The Changing Status of Women.=--While the suffrage movement was +lagging, the activities of women in other directions were steadily +multiplying. College after college--Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Wellesley, +to mention a few--was founded to give them the advantages of higher +education. Other institutions, especially the state universities of the +West, opened their doors to women, and women were received into the +professions of law and medicine. By the rapid growth of public high +schools in which girls enjoyed the same rights as boys, education was +extended still more widely. The number of women teachers increased by +leaps and bounds. + +Meanwhile women were entering nearly every branch of industry and +business. How many of them worked at gainful occupations before 1870 we +do not know; but from that year forward we have the records of the +census. Between 1870 and 1900 the proportion of women in the professions +rose from less than two per cent to more than ten per cent; in trade and +transportation from 24.8 per cent to 43.2 per cent; and in manufacturing +from 13 to 19 per cent. In 1910, there were over 8,000,000 women +gainfully employed as compared with 30,000,000 men. When, during the war +on Germany, the government established the principle of equal pay for +equal work and gave official recognition to the value of their services +in industry, it was discovered how far women had traveled along the road +forecast by the leaders of 1848. + +=The Club Movement among Women.=--All over the country women's societies +and clubs were started to advance this or that reform or merely to study +literature, art, and science. In time these women's organizations of all +kinds were federated into city, state, and national associations and +drawn into the consideration of public questions. Under the leadership +of Frances Willard they made temperance reform a vital issue. They took +an interest in legislation pertaining to prisons, pure food, public +health, and municipal government, among other things. At their sessions +and conferences local, state, and national issues were discussed until +finally, it seems, everything led to the quest of the franchise. By +solemn resolution in 1914 the National Federation of Women's Clubs, +representing nearly two million club women, formally endorsed woman +suffrage. In the same year the National Education Association, speaking +for the public school teachers of the land, added its seal of approval. + +=State and National Action.=--Again the suffrage movement was in full +swing in the states. Washington in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon, +Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Nevada and Montana in 1914 by popular vote +enfranchised their women. Illinois in 1913 conferred upon them the right +to vote for President of the United States. The time had arrived for a +new movement. A number of younger suffragists sought to use the votes of +women in the equal suffrage states to compel one or both of the national +political parties to endorse and carry through Congress the federal +suffrage amendment. Pressure then came upon Congress from every +direction: from the suffragists who made a straight appeal on the +grounds of justice; and from the suffragists who besought the women of +the West to vote against candidates for President, who would not approve +the federal amendment. In 1916, for the first time, a leading +presidential candidate, Mr. Charles E. Hughes, speaking for the +Republicans, endorsed the federal amendment and a distinguished +ex-President, Roosevelt, exerted a powerful influence to keep it an +issue in the campaign. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +CONFERENCE OF MEN AND WOMEN DELEGATES AT A NATIONAL CONVENTION IN +1920] + +=National Enfranchisement.=--After that, events moved rapidly. The great +state of New York adopted equal suffrage in 1917. Oklahoma, South +Dakota, and Michigan swung into line the following year; several other +states, by legislative action, gave women the right to vote for +President. In the meantime the suffrage battle at Washington grew +intense. Appeals and petitions poured in upon Congress and the +President. Militant suffragists held daily demonstrations in Washington. +On September 30, 1918, President Wilson, who, two years before, had +opposed federal action and endorsed suffrage by state adoption only, +went before Congress and urged the passage of the suffrage amendment to +the Constitution. In June, 1919, the requisite two-thirds vote was +secured; the resolution was carried and transmitted to the states for +ratification. On August 28, 1920, the thirty-sixth state, Tennessee, +approved the amendment, making three-fourths of the states as required +by the Constitution. Thus woman suffrage became the law of the land. A +new political democracy had been created. The age of agitation was +closed and the epoch of responsible citizenship opened. + + +=General References= + +Edith Abbott, _Women in Industry_. + +C.P. Gilman, _Woman and Economics_. + +I.H. Harper, _Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony_. + +E.R. Hecker, _Short History of Woman's Rights_. + +S.B. Anthony and I.H. Harper, _History of Woman Suffrage_ (4 vols.). + +J.W. Taylor, _Before Vassar Opened_. + +A.H. Shaw, _The Story of a Pioneer_. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Rise of the Woman Suffrage Movement.=--McMaster, _History of the +People of the United States_, Vol. VIII, pp. 116-121; K. Porter, +_History of Suffrage in the United States_, pp. 135-145. + +=The Development of the Suffrage Movement.=--Porter, pp. 228-254; Ogg, +_National Progress_ (American Nation Series), pp. 151-156 and p. 382. + +=Women's Labor in the Colonial Period.=--E. Abbott, _Women in Industry_, +pp. 10-34. + +=Women and the Factory System.=--Abbott, pp. 35-62. + +=Early Occupations for Women.=--Abbott, pp. 63-85. + +=Women's Wages.=--Abbott, pp. 262-316. + + +=Questions= + +1. Why were women involved in the reform movements of the new century? + +2. What is history? What determines the topics that appear in written +history? + +3. State the position of women under the old common law. + +4. What part did women play in the intellectual movement that preceded +the American Revolution? + +5. Explain the rise of the discussion of women's rights. + +6. What were some of the early writings about women? + +7. Why was there a struggle for educational opportunities? + +8. How did reform movements draw women into public affairs and what were +the chief results? + +9. Show how the rise of the factory affected the life and labor of +women. + +10. Why is the year 1848 an important year in the woman movement? +Discuss the work of the Seneca Falls convention. + +11. Enumerate some of the early gains in civil liberty for women. + +12. Trace the rise of the suffrage movement. Show the effect of the +Civil War. + +13. Review the history of the federal suffrage amendment. + +14. Summarize the history of the suffrage in the states. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY + + +=The New Economic Age.=--The spirit of criticism and the measures of +reform designed to meet it, which characterized the opening years of the +twentieth century, were merely the signs of a new age. The nation had +definitely passed into industrialism. The number of city dwellers +employed for wages as contrasted with the farmers working on their own +land was steadily mounting. The free land, once the refuge of restless +workingmen of the East and the immigrants from Europe, was a thing of +the past. As President Roosevelt later said in speaking of the great +coal strike, "a few generations ago, the American workman could have +saved money, gone West, and taken up a homestead. Now the free lands +were gone. In earlier days, a man who began with a pick and shovel might +come to own a mine. That outlet was now closed as regards the immense +majority.... The majority of men who earned wages in the coal industry, +if they wished to progress at all, were compelled to progress not by +ceasing to be wage-earners but by improving the conditions under which +all the wage-earners of the country lived and worked." + +The disappearance of the free land, President Roosevelt went on to say, +also produced "a crass inequality in the bargaining relation of the +employer and the individual employee standing alone. The great +coal-mining and coal-carrying companies which employed their tens of +thousands could easily dispense with the services of any particular +miner. The miner, on the other hand, however expert, could not dispense +with the companies. He needed a job; his wife and children would starve +if he did not get one.... Individually the miners were impotent when +they sought to enter a wage contract with the great companies; they +could make fair terms only by uniting into trade unions to bargain +collectively." It was of this state of affairs that President Taft spoke +when he favored the modification of the common law "so as to put +employees of little power and means on a level with their employers in +adjusting and agreeing upon their mutual obligations." + +John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on the side of the great captains of industry, +recognized the same facts. He said: "In the early days of the +development of industry, the employer and capital investor were +frequently one. Daily contact was had between him and his employees, who +were his friends and neighbors.... Because of the proportions which +modern industry has attained, employers and employees are too often +strangers to each other.... Personal relations can be revived only +through adequate representation of the employees. Representation is a +principle which is fundamentally just and vital to the successful +conduct of industry.... It is not consistent for us as Americans to +demand democracy in government and practice autocracy in industry.... +With the developments what they are in industry to-day, there is sure to +come a progressive evolution from aristocratic single control, whether +by capital, labor, or the state, to democratic, cooeperative control by +all three." + + +COOePERATION BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES + +=Company Unions.=--The changed economic life described by the three +eminent men just quoted was acknowledged by several great companies and +business concerns. All over the country decided efforts were made to +bridge the gulf which industry and the corporation had created. Among +the devices adopted was that of the "company union." In one of the +Western lumber mills, for example, all the employees were invited to +join a company organization; they held monthly meetings to discuss +matters of common concern; they elected a "shop committee" to confer +with the representatives of the company; and periodically the agents of +the employers attended the conferences of the men to talk over matters +of mutual interest. The function of the shop committee was to consider +wages, hours, safety rules, sanitation, recreation and other problems. +Whenever any employee had a grievance he took it up with the foreman +and, if it was not settled to his satisfaction, he brought it before the +shop committee. If the members of the shop committee decided in favor of +the man with a grievance, they attempted to settle the matter with the +company's agents. All these things failing, the dispute was transferred +to a grand meeting of all the employees with the employers' +representatives, in common council. A deadlock, if it ensued from such a +conference, was broken by calling in impartial arbitrators selected by +both sides from among citizens outside the mill. Thus the employees were +given a voice in all decisions affecting their work and welfare; rights +and grievances were treated as matters of mutual interest rather than +individual concern. Representatives of trade unions from outside, +however, were rigidly excluded from all negotiations between employers +and the employees. + +=Profit-sharing.=--Another proposal for drawing capital and labor +together was to supplement the wage system by other ties. Sometimes lump +sums were paid to employees who remained in a company's service for a +definite period of years. Again they were given a certain percentage of +the annual profits. In other instances, employees were allowed to buy +stock on easy terms and thus become part owners in the concern. This +last plan was carried so far by a large soap manufacturing company that +the employees, besides becoming stockholders, secured the right to elect +representatives to serve on the board of directors who managed the +entire business. So extensive had profit-sharing become by 1914 that the +Federal Industrial Relations Committee, appointed by the President, +deemed it worthy of a special study. Though opposed by regular trade +unions, it was undoubtedly growing in popularity. + +=Labor Managers and Welfare Work.=--Another effort of employers to meet +the problems of the new age appeared in the appointment of specialists, +known as employment managers, whose task it was to study the relations +existing between masters and workers and discover practical methods for +dealing with each grievance as it arose. By 1918, hundreds of big +companies had recognized this modern "profession" and universities were +giving courses of instruction on the subject to young men and women. In +that year a national conference of employment managers was held at +Rochester, New York. The discussion revealed a wide range of duties +assigned to managers, including questions of wages, hours, sanitation, +rest rooms, recreational facilities, and welfare work of every kind +designed to make the conditions in mills and factories safer and more +humane. Thus it was evident that hundreds of employers had abandoned the +old idea that they were dealing merely with individual employees and +that their obligations ended with the payment of any wages they saw fit +to fix. In short, they were seeking to develop a spirit of cooeperation +to take the place of competition and enmity; and to increase the +production of commodities by promoting the efficiency and happiness of +the producers. + + +THE RISE AND GROWTH OF ORGANIZED LABOR + +=The American Federation of Labor.=--Meanwhile a powerful association of +workers representing all the leading trades and crafts, organized into +unions of their own, had been built up outside the control of employers. +This was the American Federation of Labor, a nation-wide union of +unions, founded in 1886 on the basis of beginnings made five years +before. At the time of its establishment it had approximately 150,000 +members. Its growth up to the end of the century was slow, for the total +enrollment in 1900 was only 300,000. At that point the increase became +marked. The membership reached 1,650,000 in 1904 and more than 3,000,000 +in 1919. To be counted in the ranks of organized labor were several +strong unions, friendly to the Federation, though not affiliated with +it. Such, for example, were the Railway Brotherhoods with more than half +a million members. By the opening of 1920 the total strength of +organized labor was put at about 4,000,000 members, meaning, if we +include their families, that nearly one-fifth of the people of the +United States were in some positive way dependent upon the operations of +trade unions. + +=Historical Background.=--This was the culmination of a long and +significant history. Before the end of the eighteenth century, the +skilled workmen--printers, shoemakers, tailors, and carpenters--had, as +we have seen, formed local unions in the large cities. Between 1830 and +1860, several aggressive steps were taken in the American labor +movement. For one thing, the number of local unions increased by leaps +and bounds in all the industrial towns. For another, there was +established in every large manufacturing city a central labor body +composed of delegates from the unions of the separate trades. In the +local union the printers or the cordwainers, for example, considered +only their special trade problems. In the central labor union, printers, +cordwainers, iron molders, and other craftsmen considered common +problems and learned to cooeperate with one another in enforcing the +demands of each craft. A third step was the federation of the unions of +the same craftsmen in different cities. The printers of New York, +Philadelphia, Boston, and other towns, for instance, drew together and +formed a national trade union of printers built upon the local unions of +that craft. By the eve of the Civil War there were four or five powerful +national unions of this character. The expansion of the railway made +travel and correspondence easier and national conventions possible even +for workmen of small means. About 1834 an attempt was made to federate +the unions of all the different crafts into a national organization; but +the effort was premature. + +_The National Labor Union._--The plan which failed in 1834 was tried +again in the sixties. During the war, industries and railways had +flourished as never before; prices had risen rapidly; the demand for +labor had increased; wages had mounted slowly, but steadily. Hundreds of +new local unions had been founded and eight or ten national trade unions +had sprung into being. The time was ripe, it seemed, for a national +consolidation of all labor's forces; and in 1866, the year after the +surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, the "National Labor Union" was +formed at Baltimore under the leadership of an experienced organizer, +W.H. Sylvis of the iron molders. The purpose of the National Labor Union +was not merely to secure labor's standard demands touching hours, wages, +and conditions of work or to maintain the gains already won. It leaned +toward political action and radical opinions. Above all, it sought to +eliminate the conflict between capital and labor by making workingmen +the owners of shops through the formation of cooeperative industries. For +six years the National Labor Union continued to hold conferences and +carry on its propaganda; but most of the cooeperative enterprises failed, +political dissensions arose, and by 1872 the experiment had come to an +end. + +_The Knights of Labor._--While the National Labor Union was +experimenting, there grew up in the industrial world a more radical +organization known as the "Noble Order of the Knights of Labor." It was +founded in Philadelphia in 1869, first as a secret society with rituals, +signs, and pass words; "so that no spy of the boss can find his way into +the lodge room to betray his fellows," as the Knights put it. In form +the new organization was simple. It sought to bring all laborers, +skilled and unskilled, men and women, white and colored, into a mighty +body of local and national unions without distinction of trade or craft. +By 1885, ten years after the national organization was established, it +boasted a membership of over 700,000. In philosophy, the Knights of +Labor were socialistic, for they advocated public ownership of the +railways and other utilities and the formation of cooeperative societies +to own and manage stores and factories. + +As the Knights were radical in spirit and their strikes, numerous and +prolonged, were often accompanied by violence, the organization alarmed +employers and the general public, raising up against itself a vigorous +opposition. Weaknesses within, as well as foes from without, started the +Knights on the path to dissolution. They waged more strikes than they +could carry on successfully; their cooeperative experiments failed as +those of other labor groups before them had failed; and the rank and +file could not be kept in line. The majority of the members wanted +immediate gains in wages or the reduction of hours; when their hopes +were not realized they drifted away from the order. The troubles were +increased by the appearance of the American Federation of Labor, a still +mightier organization composed mainly of skilled workers who held +strategic positions in industry. When they failed to secure the +effective support of the Federation in their efforts to organize the +unskilled, the employers closed in upon them; then the Knights declined +rapidly in power. By 1890 they were a negligible factor and in a short +time they passed into the limbo of dead experiments. + +=The Policies of the American Federation.=--Unlike the Knights of Labor, +the American Federation of Labor sought, first of all, to be very +practical in its objects and methods. It avoided all kinds of +socialistic theories and attended strictly to the business of organizing +unions for the purpose of increasing wages, shortening hours, and +improving working conditions for its members. It did not try to include +everybody in one big union but brought together the employees of each +particular craft whose interests were clearly the same. To prepare for +strikes and periods of unemployment, it raised large funds by imposing +heavy dues and created a benefit system to hold men loyally to the +union. In order to permit action on a national scale, it gave the +superior officers extensive powers over local unions. + +While declaring that employers and employees had much in common, the +Federation strongly opposed company unions. Employers, it argued, were +affiliated with the National Manufacturers' Association or with similar +employers' organizations; every important industry was now national in +scope; and wages and hours, in view of competition with other shops, +could not be determined in a single factory, no matter how amicable +might be the relations of the company and its workers in that particular +plant. For these reasons, the Federation declared company unions and +local shop committees inherently weak; it insisted that hours, wages, +and other labor standards should be fixed by general trade agreements +applicable to all the plants of a given industry, even if subject to +local modifications. + +At the same time, the Federation, far from deliberately antagonizing +employers, sought to enlist their cooeperation and support. It affiliated +with the National Civic Federation, an association of business men, +financiers, and professional men, founded in 1900 to promote friendly +relations in the industrial world. In brief, the American Federation of +Labor accepted the modern industrial system and, by organization within +it, endeavored to secure certain definite terms and conditions for trade +unionists. + + +THE WIDER RELATIONS OF ORGANIZED LABOR + +=The Socialists.=--The trade unionism "pure and simple," espoused by the +American Federation of Labor, seemed to involve at first glance nothing +but businesslike negotiations with employers. In practice it did not +work out that way. The Federation was only six years old when a new +organization, appealing directly for the labor vote--namely, the +Socialist Labor Party--nominated a candidate for President, launched +into a national campaign, and called upon trade unionists to desert the +older parties and enter its fold. + +The socialistic idea, introduced into national politics in 1892, had +been long in germination. Before the Civil War, a number of reformers, +including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Horace Greeley, and Wendell Phillips, +deeply moved by the poverty of the great industrial cities, had +earnestly sought relief in the establishment of cooeperative or +communistic colonies. They believed that people should go into the +country, secure land and tools, own them in common so that no one could +profit from exclusive ownership, and produce by common labor the food +and clothing necessary for their support. For a time this movement +attracted wide interest, but it had little vitality. Nearly all the +colonies failed. Selfishness and indolence usually disrupted the best of +them. + +In the course of time this "Utopian" idea was abandoned, and another set +of socialist doctrines, claiming to be more "scientific," appeared +instead. The new school of socialists, adopting the principles of a +German writer and agitator, Karl Marx, appealed directly to workingmen. +It urged them to unite against the capitalists, to get possession of the +machinery of government, and to introduce collective or public ownership +of railways, land, mines, mills, and other means of production. The +Marxian socialists, therefore, became political. They sought to organize +labor and to win elections. Like the other parties they put forward +candidates and platforms. The Socialist Labor party in 1892, for +example, declared in favor of government ownership of utilities, free +school books, woman suffrage, heavy income taxes, and the referendum. +The Socialist party, founded in 1900, with Eugene V. Debs, the leader of +the Pullman strike, as its candidate, called for public ownership of all +trusts, monopolies, mines, railways; and the chief means of production. +In the course of time the vote of the latter organization rose to +considerable proportions, reaching almost a million in 1912. It declined +four years later and then rose in 1920 to about the same figure. + +In their appeal for votes, the socialists of every type turned first to +labor. At the annual conventions of the American Federation of Labor +they besought the delegates to endorse socialism. The president of the +Federation, Samuel Gompers, on each occasion took the floor against +them. He repudiated socialism and the socialists, on both theoretical +and practical grounds. He opposed too much public ownership, declaring +that the government was as likely as any private employer to oppress +labor. The approval of socialism, he maintained, would split the +Federation on the rock of politics, weaken it in its fight for higher +wages and shorter hours, and prejudice the public against it. At every +turn he was able to vanquish the socialists in the Federation, although +he could not prevent it from endorsing public ownership of the railways +at the convention of 1920. + +=The Extreme Radicals.=--Some of the socialists, defeated in their +efforts to capture organized labor and seeing that the gains in +elections were very meager, broke away from both trade unionism and +politics. One faction, the Industrial Workers of the World, founded in +1905, declared themselves opposed to all capitalists, the wages system, +and craft unions. They asserted that the "working class and the +employing class have nothing in common" and that trade unions only +pitted one set of workers against another set. They repudiated all +government ownership and the government itself, boldly proclaiming their +intention to unite all employees into one big union and seize the +railways, mines, and mills of the country. This doctrine, so +revolutionary in tone, called down upon the extremists the condemnation +of the American Federation of Labor as well as of the general public. At +its convention in 1919, the Federation went on record as "opposed to +Bolshevism, I.W.W.-ism, and the irresponsible leadership that encourages +such a policy." It announced its "firm adherence to American ideals." + +=The Federation and Political Issues.=--The hostility of the Federation +to the socialists did not mean, however, that it was indifferent to +political issues or political parties. On the contrary, from time to +time, at its annual conventions, it endorsed political and social +reforms, such as the initiative, referendum, and recall, the abolition +of child labor, the exclusion of Oriental labor, old-age pensions, and +government ownership. Moreover it adopted the policy of "rewarding +friends and punishing enemies" by advising members to vote for or +against candidates according to their stand on the demands of organized +labor. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +SAMUEL GOMPERS AND OTHER LABOR LEADERS] + +This policy was pursued with especial zeal in connection with disputes +over the use of injunctions in labor controversies. An injunction is a +bill or writ issued by a judge ordering some person or corporation to do +or to refrain from doing something. For example, a judge may order a +trade union to refrain from interfering with non-union men or to +continue at work handling goods made by non-union labor; and he may fine +or imprison those who disobey his injunction, the penalty being +inflicted for "contempt of court." This ancient legal device came into +prominence in connection with nation-wide railway strikes in 1877. It +was applied with increasing frequency after its effective use against +Eugene V. Debs in the Pullman strike of 1894. + +Aroused by the extensive use of the writ, organized labor demanded that +the power of judges to issue injunctions in labor disputes be limited by +law. Representatives of the unions sought support from the Democrats and +the Republicans; they received from the former very specific and cordial +endorsement. In 1896 the Democratic platform denounced "government by +injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression." Mr. +Gompers, while refusing to commit the Federation to Democratic politics, +privately supported Mr. Bryan. In 1908, he came out openly and boasted +that eighty per cent of the votes of the Federation had been cast for +the Democratic candidate. Again in 1912 the same policy was pursued. The +reward was the enactment in 1914 of a federal law exempting trade unions +from prosecution as combinations in restraint of trade, limiting the use +of the injunction in labor disputes, and prescribing trial by jury in +case of contempt of court. This measure was hailed by Mr. Gompers as the +"Magna Carta of Labor" and a vindication of his policy. As a matter of +fact, however, it did not prevent the continued use of injunctions +against trade unions. Nevertheless Mr. Gompers was unshaken in his +conviction that organized labor should not attempt to form an +independent political party or endorse socialist or other radical +economic theories. + +=Organized Labor and the Public.=--Besides its relations to employers, +radicals within its own ranks, and political questions, the Federation +had to face responsibilities to the general public. With the passing of +time these became heavy and grave. While industries were small and +conflicts were local in character, a strike seldom affected anybody but +the employer and the employees immediately involved in it. When, +however, industries and trade unions became organized on a national +scale and a strike could paralyze a basic enterprise like coal mining or +railways, the vital interests of all citizens were put in jeopardy. +Moreover, as increases in wages and reductions in hours often added +directly to the cost of living, the action of the unions affected the +well-being of all--the food, clothing, and shelter of the whole people. + +For the purpose of meeting the issue raised by this state of affairs, it +was suggested that employers and employees should lay their disputes +before commissions of arbitration for decision and settlement. President +Cleveland, in a message of April 2, 1886, proposed such a method for +disposing of industrial controversies, and two years later Congress +enacted a voluntary arbitration law applicable to the railways. The +principle was extended in 1898 and again in 1913, and under the +authority of the federal government many contentions in the railway +world were settled by arbitration. + +The success of such legislation induced some students of industrial +questions to urge that unions and employers should be compelled to +submit all disputes to official tribunals of arbitration. Kansas +actually passed such a law in 1920. Congress in the Esch-Cummins railway +bill of the same year created a federal board of nine members to which +all railway controversies, not settled by negotiation, must be +submitted. Strikes, however, were not absolutely forbidden. Generally +speaking, both employers and employees opposed compulsory adjustments +without offering any substitute in case voluntary arbitration should not +be accepted by both parties to a dispute. + + +IMMIGRATION AND AMERICANIZATION + +=The Problems of Immigration.=--From its very inception, the American +Federation of Labor, like the Knights of Labor before it, was confronted +by numerous questions raised by the ever swelling tide of aliens coming +to our shores. In its effort to make each trade union all-inclusive, it +had to wrestle with a score or more languages. When it succeeded in +thoroughly organizing a craft, it often found its purposes defeated by +an influx of foreigners ready to work for lower wages and thus undermine +the foundations of the union. + +At the same time, persons outside the labor movement began to be +apprehensive as they contemplated the undoubted evil, as well as the +good, that seemed to be associated with the "alien invasion." They saw +whole sections of great cities occupied by people speaking foreign +tongues, reading only foreign newspapers, and looking to the Old World +alone for their ideas and their customs. They witnessed an expanding +army of total illiterates, men and women who could read and write no +language at all; while among those aliens who could read few there were +who knew anything of American history, traditions, and ideals. Official +reports revealed that over twenty per cent of the men of the draft army +during the World War could not read a newspaper or write a letter home. +Perhaps most alarming of all was the discovery that thousands of alien +men are in the United States only on a temporary sojourn, solely to make +money and return home with their savings. These men, willing to work for +low wages and live in places unfit for human beings, have no stake in +this country and do not care what becomes of it. + +=The Restriction of Immigration.=--In all this there was, strictly +speaking, no cause for surprise. Since the foundation of our republic +the policy of the government had been to encourage the coming of the +alien. For nearly one hundred years no restraining act was passed by +Congress, while two important laws positively encouraged it; namely, the +homestead act of 1862 and the contract immigration law of 1864. Not +until American workingmen came into open collision with cheap Chinese +labor on the Pacific Coast did the federal government spread the first +measure of limitation on the statute books. After the discovery of gold, +and particularly after the opening of the railway construction era, a +horde of laborers from China descended upon California. Accustomed to +starvation wages and indifferent to the conditions of living, they +threatened to cut the American standard to the point of subsistence. By +1876 the protest of American labor was loud and long and both the +Republicans and the Democrats gave heed to it. In 1882 Congress enacted +a law prohibiting the admission of Chinese laborers to the United States +for a term of ten years--later extended by legislation. In a little +while the demand arose for the exclusion of the Japanese as well. In +this case no exclusion law was passed; but an understanding was reached +by which Japan agreed not to issue passports to her laborers authorizing +them to come to the United States. By act of Congress in 1907 the +President was empowered to exclude any laborers who, having passports to +Canada, Hawaii, or Mexico, attempted to enter our country. + +These laws and agreements, however, did not remove all grounds for the +agitation of the subject. They were difficult to enforce and it was +claimed by residents of the Coast that in spite of federal authority +Oriental laborers were finding their way into American ports. Moreover, +several Western states, anxious to preserve the soil for American +ownership, enacted laws making it impossible for Chinese and Japanese to +buy land outright; and in other ways they discriminated against +Orientals. Such proceedings placed the federal government in an +embarrassing position. By treaty it had guaranteed specific rights to +Japanese citizens in the United States, and the government at Tokyo +contended that the state laws just cited violated the terms of the +international agreement. The Western states were fixed in their +determination to control Oriental residents; Japan was equally +persistent in asking that no badge of inferiority be attached to her +citizens. Subjected to pressure on both sides, the federal government +sought a way out of the deadlock. + +Having embarked upon the policy of restriction in 1882, Congress readily +extended it. In that same year it barred paupers, criminals, convicts, +and the insane. Three years later, mainly owing to the pressure of the +Knights of Labor, it forbade any person, company, or association to +import aliens under contract. By an act of 1887, the contract labor +restriction was made even more severe. In 1903, anarchists were excluded +and the bureau of immigration was transferred from the Treasury +Department to the Department of Commerce and Labor, in order to provide +for a more rigid execution of the law. In 1907 the classes of persons +denied admission were widened to embrace those suffering from physical +and mental defects and otherwise unfit for effective citizenship. When +the Department of Labor was established in 1913 the enforcement of the +law was placed in the hands of the Secretary of Labor, W.B. Wilson, who +was a former leader in the American Federation of Labor. + +=The Literacy Test.=--Still the advocates of restriction were not +satisfied. Still organized labor protested and demanded more protection +against the competition of immigrants. In 1917 it won a thirty-year +battle in the passage of a bill excluding "all aliens over sixteen years +of age, physically capable of reading, who cannot read the English +language or some other language or dialect, including Hebrew or +Yiddish." Even President Wilson could not block it, for a two-thirds +vote to overcome his veto was mustered in Congress. + +This act, while it served to exclude illiterates, made no drastic cut in +the volume of immigration. Indeed a material reduction was resolutely +opposed in many quarters. People of certain nationalities already in the +United States objected to every barrier that shut out their own kinsmen. +Some Americans of the old stock still held to the idea that the United +States should continue to be an asylum for "the oppressed of the earth." +Many employers looked upon an increased labor supply as the means of +escaping what they called "the domination of trade unions." In the babel +of countless voices, the discussion of these vital matters went on in +town and country. + +=Americanization.=--Intimately connected with the subject of immigration +was a call for the "Americanization" of the alien already within our +gates. The revelation of the illiteracy in the army raised the cry and +the demand was intensified when it was found that many of the leaders +among the extreme radicals were foreign in birth and citizenship. +Innumerable programs for assimilating the alien to American life were +drawn up, and in 1919 a national conference on the subject was held in +Washington under the auspices of the Department of the Interior. All +were agreed that the foreigner should be taught to speak and write the +language and understand the government of our country. Congress was +urged to lend aid in this vast undertaking. America, as ex-President +Roosevelt had said, was to find out "whether it was a nation or a +boarding-house." + + +=General References= + +J.R. Commons and Associates, _History of Labor in the United States_ (2 +vols.). + +Samuel Gompers, _Labor and the Common Welfare_. + +W.E. Walling, _Socialism as It Is_. + +W.E. Walling (and Others), _The Socialism of Today_. + +R.T. Ely, _The Labor Movement in America_. + +T.S. Adams and H. Sumner, _Labor Problems_. + +J.G. Brooks, _American Syndicalism_ and _Social Unrest_. + +P.F. Hall, _Immigration and Its Effects on the United States_. + + +=Research Topics= + +=The Rise of Trade Unionism.=--Mary Beard, _Short History of the +American Labor Movement_, pp. 10-18, 47-53, 62-79; Carlton, _Organized +Labor in American History_, pp. 11-44. + +=Labor and Politics.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp. 33-46, 54-61, +103-112; Carlton, pp. 169-197; Ogg, _National Progress_ (American Nation +Series), pp. 76-85. + +=The Knights of Labor.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp. 116-126; Dewey, +_National Problems_ (American Nation Series), pp. 40-49. + +=The American Federation of Labor--Organization and Policies.=--Beard, +_Short History_, pp. 86-112. + +=Organized Labor and the Socialists.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp. +126-149. + +=Labor and the Great War.=--Carlton, pp. 282-306; Beard, _Short +History_, pp. 150-170. + + +=Questions= + +1. What are the striking features of the new economic age? + +2. Give Mr. Rockefeller's view of industrial democracy. + +3. Outline the efforts made by employers to establish closer relations +with their employees. + +4. Sketch the rise and growth of the American Federation of Labor. + +5. How far back in our history does the labor movement extend? + +6. Describe the purposes and outcome of the National Labor Union and the +Knights of Labor. + +7. State the chief policies of the American Federation of Labor. + +8. How does organized labor become involved with outside forces? + +9. Outline the rise of the socialist movement. How did it come into +contact with the American Federation? + +10. What was the relation of the Federation to the extreme radicals? To +national politics? To the public? + +11. Explain the injunction. + +12. Why are labor and immigration closely related? + +13. Outline the history of restrictions on immigration. + +14. What problems arise in connection with the assimilation of the alien +to American life? + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD WAR + + +"The welfare, the happiness, the energy, and the spirit of the men and +women who do the daily work in our mines and factories, on our +railroads, in our offices and ports of trade, on our farms, and on the +sea are the underlying necessity of all prosperity." Thus spoke Woodrow +Wilson during his campaign for election. In this spirit, as President, +he gave the signal for work by summoning Congress in a special session +on April 7, 1913. He invited the cooeperation of all "forward-looking +men" and indicated that he would assume the role of leadership. As an +evidence of his resolve, he appeared before Congress in person to read +his first message, reviving the old custom of Washington and Adams. Then +he let it be known that he would not give his party any rest until it +fulfilled its pledges to the country. When Democratic Senators balked at +tariff reductions, they were sharply informed that the party had +plighted its word and that no excuses or delays would be tolerated. + + +DOMESTIC LEGISLATION + +=Financial Measures.=--Under this spirited leadership Congress went to +work, passing first the Underwood tariff act of 1913, which made a +downward revision in the rates of duty, fixing them on the average about +twenty-six per cent lower than the figures of 1907. The protective +principle was retained, but an effort was made to permit a moderate +element of foreign competition. As a part of the revenue act Congress +levied a tax on incomes as authorized by the sixteenth amendment to the +Constitution. The tax which roused such party passions twenty years +before was now accepted as a matter of course. + +Having disposed of the tariff, Congress took up the old and vexatious +currency question and offered a new solution in the form of the federal +reserve law of December, 1913. This measure, one of the most interesting +in the history of federal finance, embraced four leading features. In +the first place, it continued the prohibition on the issuance of notes +by state banks and provided for a national currency. In the second +place, it put the new banking system under the control of a federal +reserve board composed entirely of government officials. To prevent the +growth of a "central money power," it provided, in the third place, for +the creation of twelve federal reserve banks, one in each of twelve +great districts into which the country is divided. All local national +banks were required and certain other banks permitted to become members +of the new system and share in its control. Finally, with a view to +expanding the currency, a step which the Democrats had long urged upon +the country, the issuance of paper money, under definite safeguards, was +authorized. + +Mindful of the agricultural interest, ever dear to the heart of +Jefferson's followers, the Democrats supplemented the reserve law by the +Farm Loan Act of 1916, creating federal agencies to lend money on farm +mortgages at moderate rates of interest. Within a year $20,000,000 had +been lent to farmers, the heaviest borrowing being in nine Western and +Southern states, with Texas in the lead. + +=Anti-trust Legislation.=--The tariff and currency laws were followed by +three significant measures relative to trusts. Rejecting utterly the +Progressive doctrine of government regulation, President Wilson +announced that it was the purpose of the Democrats "to destroy monopoly +and maintain competition as the only effective instrument of business +liberty." The first step in this direction, the Clayton Anti-trust Act, +carried into great detail the Sherman law of 1890 forbidding and +penalizing combinations in restraint of interstate and foreign trade. In +every line it revealed a determined effort to tear apart the great +trusts and to put all business on a competitive basis. Its terms were +reinforced in the same year by a law creating a Federal Trade Commission +empowered to inquire into the methods of corporations and lodge +complaints against concerns "using any unfair method of competition." In +only one respect was the severity of the Democratic policy relaxed. An +act of 1918 provided that the Sherman law should not apply to companies +engaged in export trade, the purpose being to encourage large +corporations to enter foreign commerce. + +The effect of this whole body of anti-trust legislation, in spite of +much labor on it, remained problematical. Very few combinations were +dissolved as a result of it. Startling investigations were made into +alleged abuses on the part of trusts; but it could hardly be said that +huge business concerns had lost any of their predominance in American +industry. + +=Labor Legislation.=--By no mere coincidence, the Clayton Anti-trust law +of 1914 made many concessions to organized labor. It declared that "the +labor of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce," +and it exempted unions from prosecution as "combinations in restraint of +trade." It likewise defined and limited the uses which the federal +courts might make of injunctions in labor disputes and guaranteed trial +by jury to those guilty of disobedience (see p. 581). + +The Clayton law was followed the next year by the Seamen's Act giving +greater liberty of contract to American sailors and requiring an +improvement of living conditions on shipboard. This was such a drastic +law that shipowners declared themselves unable to meet foreign +competition under its terms, owing to the low labor standards of other +countries. + +Still more extraordinary than the Seamen's Act was the Adamson law of +1916 fixing a standard eight-hour work-day for trainmen on railroads--a +measure wrung from Congress under a threat of a great strike by the four +Railway Brotherhoods. This act, viewed by union leaders as a triumph, +called forth a bitter denunciation of "trade union domination," but it +was easier to criticize than to find another solution of the problem. + +Three other laws enacted during President Wilson's administration were +popular in the labor world. One of them provided compensation for +federal employees injured in the discharge of their duties. Another +prohibited the labor of children under a certain age in the industries +of the nation. A third prescribed for coal miners in Alaska an +eight-hour day and modern safeguards for life and health. There were +positive proofs that organized labor had obtained a large share of power +in the councils of the country. + +=Federal and State Relations.=--If the interference of the government +with business and labor represented a departure from the old idea of +"the less government the better," what can be said of a large body of +laws affecting the rights of states? The prohibition of child labor +everywhere was one indication of the new tendency. Mr. Wilson had once +declared such legislation unconstitutional; the Supreme Court declared +it unconstitutional; but Congress, undaunted, carried it into effect +under the guise of a tax on goods made by children below the age limit. +There were other indications of the drift. Large sums of money were +appropriated by Congress in 1916 to assist the states in building and +maintaining highways. The same year the Farm Loan Act projected the +federal government into the sphere of local money lending. In 1917 +millions of dollars were granted to states in aid of vocational +education, incidentally imposing uniform standards throughout the +country. Evidently the government was no longer limited to the duties of +the policeman. + +=The Prohibition Amendment.=--A still more significant form of +intervention in state affairs was the passage, in December, 1917, of an +amendment to the federal Constitution establishing national prohibition +of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as beverages. This +was the climax of a historical movement extending over half a century. +In 1872, a National Prohibition party, launched three years before, +nominated its first presidential candidate and inaugurated a campaign of +agitation. Though its vote was never large, the cause for which it +stood found increasing favor among the people. State after state by +popular referendum abolished the liquor traffic within its borders. By +1917 at least thirty-two of the forty-eight were "dry." When the federal +amendment was submitted for approval, the ratification was surprisingly +swift. In a little more than a year, namely, on January 16, 1919, it was +proclaimed. Twelve months later the amendment went into effect. + + +COLONIAL AND FOREIGN POLICIES + +=The Philippines and Porto Rico.=--Independence for the Philippines and +larger self-government for Porto Rico had been among the policies of the +Democratic party since the campaign of 1900. President Wilson in his +annual messages urged upon Congress more autonomy for the Filipinos and +a definite promise of final independence. The result was the Jones +Organic Act for the Philippines passed in 1916. This measure provided +that the upper as well as the lower house of the Philippine legislature +should be elected by popular vote, and declared it to be the intention +of the United States to grant independence "as soon as a stable +government can be established." This, said President Wilson on signing +the bill, is "a very satisfactory advance in our policy of extending to +them self-government and control of their own affairs." The following +year Congress, yielding to President Wilson's insistence, passed a new +organic act for Porto Rico, making both houses of the legislature +elective and conferring American citizenship upon the inhabitants of the +island. + +[Illustration: THE CARIBBEAN REGION] + +=American Power in the Caribbean.=--While extending more self-government +to its dominions, the United States enlarged its sphere of influence in +the Caribbean. The supervision of finances in Santo Domingo, inaugurated +in Roosevelt's administration, was transformed into a protectorate under +Wilson. In 1914 dissensions in the republic led to the landing of +American marines to "supervise" the elections. Two years later, an +officer in the American navy, with authority from Washington, placed +the entire republic "in a state of military occupation." He proceeded to +suspend the government and laws of the country, exile the president, +suppress the congress, and substitute American military authority. In +1919 a consulting board of four prominent Dominicans was appointed to +aid the American military governor; but it resigned the next year after +making a plea for the restoration of independence to the republic. For +all practical purposes, it seemed, the sovereignty of Santo Domingo had +been transferred to the United States. + +In the neighboring republic of Haiti, a similar state of affairs +existed. In the summer of 1915 a revolution broke out there--one of a +long series beginning in 1804--and our marines were landed to restore +order. Elections were held under the supervision of American officers, +and a treaty was drawn up placing the management of Haitian finances and +the local constabulary under American authority. In taking this action, +our Secretary of State was careful to announce: "The United States +government has no purpose of aggression and is entirely disinterested in +promoting this protectorate." Still it must be said that there were +vigorous protests on the part of natives and American citizens against +the conduct of our agents in the island. In 1921 President Wilson was +considering withdrawal. + +In line with American policy in the West Indian waters was the purchase +in 1917 of the Danish Islands just off the coast of Porto Rico. The +strategic position of the islands, especially in relation to Haiti and +Porto Rico, made them an object of American concern as early as 1867, +when a treaty of purchase was negotiated only to be rejected by the +Senate of the United States. In 1902 a second arrangement was made, but +this time it was defeated by the upper house of the Danish parliament. +The third treaty brought an end to fifty years of bargaining and the +Stars and Stripes were raised over St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and +numerous minor islands scattered about in the neighborhood. "It would be +suicidal," commented a New York newspaper, "for America, on the +threshold of a great commercial expansion in South America, to suffer a +Heligoland, or a Gibraltar, or an Aden to be erected by her rivals at +the mouth of her Suez." On the mainland American power was strengthened +by the establishment of a protectorate over Nicaragua in 1916. + +=Mexican Relations.=--The extension of American enterprise southward +into Latin America, of which the operations in the Caribbean regions +were merely one phase, naturally carried Americans into Mexico to +develop the natural resources of that country. Under the iron rule of +General Porfirio Diaz, established in 1876 and maintained with only a +short break until 1911, Mexico had become increasingly attractive to our +business men. On the invitation of President Diaz, they had invested +huge sums in Mexican lands, oil fields, and mines, and had laid the +foundations of a new industrial order. The severe regime instituted by +Diaz, however, stirred popular discontent. The peons, or serfs, demanded +the break-up of the great estates, some of which had come down from the +days of Cortez. Their clamor for "the restoration of the land to the +people could not be silenced." In 1911 Diaz was forced to resign and +left the country. + +Mexico now slid down the path to disorder. Revolutions and civil +commotions followed in swift succession. A liberal president, Madero, +installed as the successor to Diaz, was deposed in 1913 and brutally +murdered. Huerta, a military adventurer, hailed for a time as another +"strong man," succeeded Madero whose murder he was accused of +instigating. Although Great Britain and nearly all the powers of Europe +accepted the new government as lawful, the United States steadily +withheld recognition. In the meantime Mexico was torn by insurrections +under the leadership of Carranza, a friend of Madero, Villa, a bandit of +generous pretensions, and Zapata, a radical leader of the peons. Without +the support of the United States, Huerta was doomed. + +In the summer of 1914, the dictator resigned and fled from the capital, +leaving the field to Carranza. For six years the new president, +recognized by the United States, held a precarious position which he +vigorously strove to strengthen against various revolutionary movements. +At length in 1920, he too was deposed and murdered, and another military +chieftain, Obregon, installed in power. + +These events right at our door could not fail to involve the government +of the United States. In the disorders many American citizens lost their +lives. American property was destroyed and land owned by Americans was +confiscated. A new Mexican constitution, in effect nationalizing the +natural resources of the country, struck at the rights of foreign +investors. Moreover the Mexican border was in constant turmoil. Even in +the last days of his administration, Mr. Taft felt compelled to issue a +solemn warning to the Mexican government protesting against the +violation of American rights. + +President Wilson, soon after his inauguration, sent a commissioner to +Mexico to inquire into the situation. Although he declared a general +policy of "watchful waiting," he twice came to blows with Mexican +forces. In 1914 some American sailors at Tampico were arrested by a +Mexican officer; the Mexican government, although it immediately +released the men, refused to make the required apology for the incident. +As a result President Wilson ordered the landing of American forces at +Vera Cruz and the occupation of the city. A clash of arms followed in +which several Americans were killed. War seemed inevitable, but at this +juncture the governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile tendered their +good offices as mediators. After a few weeks of negotiation, during +which Huerta was forced out of power, American forces were withdrawn +from Vera Cruz and the incident closed. + +In 1916 a second break in amicable relations occurred. In the spring of +that year a band of Villa's men raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, +killing several citizens and committing robberies. A punitive expedition +under the command of General Pershing was quickly sent out to capture +the offenders. Against the protests of President Carranza, American +forces penetrated deeply into Mexico without effecting the object of +the undertaking. This operation lasted until January, 1917, when the +imminence of war with Germany led to the withdrawal of the American +soldiers. Friendly relations were resumed with the Mexican government +and the policy of "watchful waiting" was continued. + + +THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN WAR + +=The Outbreak of the War.=--In the opening days of August, 1914, the +age-long jealousies of European nations, sharpened by new imperial +ambitions, broke out in another general conflict such as had shaken the +world in the days of Napoleon. On June 28, the heir to the +Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated at Serajevo, the capital of +Bosnia, an Austrian province occupied mainly by Serbs. With a view to +stopping Serbian agitation for independence, Austria-Hungary laid the +blame for this incident on the government of Serbia and made humiliating +demands on that country. Germany at once proposed that the issue should +be regarded as "an affair which should be settled solely between +Austria-Hungary and Serbia"; meaning that the small nation should be +left to the tender mercies of a great power. Russia refused to take this +view. Great Britain proposed a settlement by mediation. Germany backed +up Austria to the limit. To use the language of the German authorities: +"We were perfectly aware that a possible warlike attitude of +Austria-Hungary against Serbia might bring Russia upon the field and +that it might therefore involve us in a war, in accordance with our +duties as allies. We could not, however, in these vital interests of +Austria-Hungary which were at stake, advise our ally to take a yielding +attitude not compatible with his dignity nor deny him our assistance." +That made the war inevitable. + +Every day of the fateful August, 1914, was crowded with momentous +events. On the 1st, Germany declared war on Russia. On the 2d, the +Germans invaded the little duchy of Luxemburg and notified the King of +Belgium that they were preparing to violate the neutrality of his realm +on their way to Paris. On the same day, Great Britain, anxiously +besought by the French government, promised the aid of the British navy +if German warships made hostile demonstrations in the Channel. August +3d, the German government declared war on France. The following day, +Great Britain demanded of Germany respect for Belgian neutrality and, +failing to receive the guarantee, broke off diplomatic relations. On the +5th, the British prime minister announced that war had opened between +England and Germany. The storm now broke in all its pitiless fury. + +=The State of American Opinion.=--Although President Wilson promptly +proclaimed the neutrality of the United States, the sympathies of a +large majority of the American people were without doubt on the side of +Great Britain and France. To them the invasion of the little kingdom of +Belgium and the horrors that accompanied German occupation were odious +in the extreme. Moreover, they regarded the German imperial government +as an autocratic power wielded in the interest of an ambitious military +party. The Kaiser, William II, and the Crown Prince were the symbols of +royal arrogance. On the other hand, many Americans of German descent, in +memory of their ties with the Fatherland, openly sympathized with the +Central Powers; and many Americans of Irish descent, recalling their +long and bitter struggle for home rule in Ireland, would have regarded +British defeat as a merited redress of ancient grievances. + +Extremely sensitive to American opinion, but ill informed about it, the +German government soon began systematic efforts to present its cause to +the people of the United States in the most favorable light possible. +Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, the former colonial secretary of the German +empire, was sent to America as a special agent. For months he filled the +newspapers, magazines, and periodicals with interviews, articles, and +notes on the justice of the Teutonic cause. From a press bureau in New +York flowed a stream of pamphlets, leaflets, and cartoons. A magazine, +"The Fatherland," was founded to secure "fair play for Germany and +Austria." Several professors in American universities, who had received +their training in Germany, took up the pen in defense of the Central +Empires. The German language press, without exception it seems, the +National German Alliance, minor German societies, and Lutheran churches +came to the support of the German cause. Even the English language +papers, though generally favorable to the Entente Allies, opened their +columns in the interest of equal justice to the spokesmen for all the +contending powers of Europe. + +Before two weeks had elapsed the controversy had become so intense that +President Wilson (August 18, 1914) was moved to caution his countrymen +against falling into angry disputes. "Every man," he said, "who really +loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality which +is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all +concerned.... We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must +put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that +might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before +another." + +=The Clash over American Trade.=--As in the time of the Napoleonic wars, +the conflict in Europe raised fundamental questions respecting rights of +Americans trading with countries at peace as well as those at war. On +this point there existed on August 1, 1914, a fairly definite body of +principles by which nations were bound. Among them the following were of +vital significance. In the first place, it was recognized that an enemy +merchant ship caught on the high seas was a legitimate prize of war +which might be seized and confiscated. In the second place, it was +agreed that "contraband of war" found on an enemy or neutral ship was a +lawful prize; any ship suspected of carrying it was liable to search and +if caught with forbidden goods was subject to seizure. In the third +place, international law prescribed that a peaceful merchant ship, +whether belonging to an enemy or to a neutral country, should not be +destroyed or sunk without provision for the safety of crew and +passengers. In the fourth place, it was understood that a belligerent +had the right, if it could, to blockade the ports of an enemy and +prevent the ingress and egress of all ships; but such a blockade, to be +lawful, had to be effective. + +These general principles left undetermined two important matters: "What +is an effective blockade?" and "What is contraband of war?" The task of +answering these questions fell to Great Britain as mistress of the seas. +Although the German submarines made it impossible for her battleships to +maintain a continuous patrol of the waters in front of blockaded ports, +she declared the blockade to be none the less "effective" because her +navy was supreme. As to contraband of war Great Britain put such a broad +interpretation upon the term as to include nearly every important +article of commerce. Early in 1915 she declared even cargoes of grain +and flour to be contraband, defending the action on the ground that the +German government had recently taken possession of all domestic stocks +of corn, wheat, and flour. + +A new question arose in connection with American trade with the neutral +countries surrounding Germany. Great Britain early began to intercept +ships carrying oil, gasoline, and copper--all war materials of prime +importance--on the ground that they either were destined ultimately to +Germany or would release goods for sale to Germans. On November 2, 1914, +the English government announced that the Germans wore sowing mines in +open waters and that therefore the whole of the North Sea was a military +zone. Ships bound for Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were ordered to come +by the English Channel for inspection and sailing directions. In effect, +Americans were now licensed by Great Britain to trade in certain +commodities and in certain amounts with neutral countries. + +Against these extraordinary measures, the State Department at Washington +lodged pointed objections, saying: "This government is reluctantly +forced to the conclusion that the present policy of His Majesty's +government toward neutral ships and cargoes exceeds the manifest +necessity of a belligerent and constitutes restrictions upon the rights +of American citizens on the high seas, which are not justified by the +rules of international law or required under the principle of +self-preservation." + +=Germany Begins the Submarine Campaign.=--Germany now announced that, on +and after February 18, 1915, the whole of the English Channel and the +waters around Great Britain would be deemed a war zone and that every +enemy ship found therein would be destroyed. The German decree added +that, as the British admiralty had ordered the use of neutral flags by +English ships in time of distress, neutral vessels would be in danger of +destruction if found in the forbidden area. It was clear that Germany +intended to employ submarines to destroy shipping. A new factor was thus +introduced into naval warfare, one not provided for in the accepted laws +of war. A warship overhauling a merchant vessel could easily take its +crew and passengers on board for safe keeping as prescribed by +international law; but a submarine ordinarily could do nothing of the +sort. Of necessity the lives and the ships of neutrals, as well as of +belligerents, were put in mortal peril. This amazing conduct Germany +justified on the ground that it was mere retaliation against Great +Britain for her violations of international law. + +The response of the United States to the ominous German order was swift +and direct. On February 10, 1915, it warned Germany that if her +commanders destroyed American lives and ships in obedience to that +decree, the action would "be very hard indeed to reconcile with the +friendly relations happily subsisting between the two governments." The +American note added that the German imperial government would be held to +"strict accountability" and all necessary steps would be taken to +safeguard American lives and American rights. This was firm and clear +language, but the only response which it evoked from Germany was a +suggestion that, if Great Britain would allow food supplies to pass +through the blockade, the submarine campaign would be dropped. + +=Violations of American Rights.=--Meanwhile Germany continued to ravage +shipping on the high seas. On January 28, a German raider sank the +American ship, _William P. Frye_, in the South Atlantic; on March 28, a +British ship, the _Falaba_, was sunk by a submarine and many on board, +including an American citizen, were killed; and on April 28, a German +airplane dropped bombs on the American steamer _Cushing_. On the morning +of May 1, 1915, Americans were astounded to see in the newspapers an +advertisement, signed by the German Imperial Embassy, warning travelers +of the dangers in the war zone and notifying them that any who ventured +on British ships into that area did so at their own risk. On that day, +the _Lusitania_, a British steamer, sailed from New York for Liverpool. +On May 7, without warning, the ship was struck by two torpedoes and in a +few minutes went down by the bow, carrying to death 1153 persons +including 114 American men, women, and children. A cry of horror ran +through the country. The German papers in America and a few American +people argued that American citizens had been duly warned of the danger +and had deliberately taken their lives into their own hands; but the +terrible deed was almost universally condemned by public opinion. + +=The _Lusitania_ Notes.=--On May 14, the Department of State at +Washington made public the first of three famous notes on the +_Lusitania_ case. It solemnly informed the German government that "no +warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly +be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement +of the responsibility for its commission." It called upon the German +government to disavow the act, make reparation as far as possible, and +take steps to prevent "the recurrence of anything so obviously +subversive of the principles of warfare." The note closed with a clear +caution to Germany that the government of the United States would not +"omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred +duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and +of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment." The die was cast; +but Germany in reply merely temporized. + +In a second note, made public on June 11, the position of the United +States was again affirmed. William Jennings Bryan, the Secretary of +State, had resigned because the drift of President Wilson's policy was +not toward mediation but the strict maintenance of American rights, if +need be, by force of arms. The German reply was still evasive and German +naval commanders continued their course of sinking merchant ships. In a +third and final note of July 21, 1915, President Wilson made it clear to +Germany that he meant what he said when he wrote that he would maintain +the rights of American citizens. Finally after much discussion and +shifting about, the German ambassador on September 1, 1915, sent a brief +note to the Secretary of State: "Liners will not be sunk by our +submarines without warning and without safety of the lives of +non-combatants, provided the liners do not try to escape or offer +resistance." Editorially, the New York _Times_ declared: "It is a +triumph not only of diplomacy but of reason, of humanity, of justice, +and of truth." The Secretary of State saw in it "a recognition of the +fundamental principles for which we have contended." + +=The Presidential Election of 1916.=--In the midst of this crisis came +the presidential campaign. On the Republican side everything seemed to +depend upon the action of the Progressives. If the breach created in +1912 could be closed, victory was possible; if not, defeat was certain. +A promise of unity lay in the fact that the conventions of the +Republicans and Progressives were held simultaneously in Chicago. The +friends of Roosevelt hoped that both parties would select him as their +candidate; but this hope was not realized. The Republicans chose, and +the Progressives accepted, Charles E. Hughes, an associate justice of +the federal Supreme Court who, as governor of New York, had won a +national reputation by waging war on "machine politicians." + +In the face of the clamor for expressions of sympathy with one or the +other of the contending powers of Europe, the Republicans chose a middle +course, declaring that they would uphold all American rights "at home +and abroad, by land and by sea." This sentiment Mr. Hughes echoed in his +acceptance speech. By some it was interpreted to mean a firmer policy in +dealing with Great Britain; by others, a more vigorous handling of the +submarine menace. The Democrats, on their side, renominated President +Wilson by acclamation, reviewed with pride the legislative achievements +of the party, and commended "the splendid diplomatic victories of our +great President who has preserved the vital interests of our government +and its citizens and kept us out of war." + +In the election which ensued President Wilson's popular vote exceeded +that cast for Mr. Hughes by more than half a million, while his +electoral vote stood 277 to 254. The result was regarded, and not +without warrant, as a great personal triumph for the President. He had +received the largest vote yet cast for a presidential candidate. The +Progressive party practically disappeared, and the Socialists suffered a +severe set-back, falling far behind the vote of 1912. + +=President Wilson Urges Peace upon the Warring Nations.=--Apparently +convinced that his pacific policies had been profoundly approved by his +countrymen, President Wilson, soon after the election, addressed "peace +notes" to the European belligerents. On December 16, the German Emperor +proposed to the Allied Powers that they enter into peace negotiations, a +suggestion that was treated as a mere political maneuver by the opposing +governments. Two days later President Wilson sent a note to the warring +nations asking them to avow "the terms upon which war might be +concluded." To these notes the Central Powers replied that they were +ready to meet their antagonists in a peace conference; and Allied Powers +answered by presenting certain conditions precedent to a satisfactory +settlement. On January 22, 1917, President Wilson in an address before +the Senate, declared it to be a duty of the United States to take part +in the establishment of a stable peace on the basis of certain +principles. These were, in short: "peace without victory"; the right of +nationalities to freedom and self-government; the independence of +Poland; freedom of the seas; the reduction of armaments; and the +abolition of entangling alliances. The whole world was discussing the +President's remarkable message, when it was dumbfounded to hear, on +January 31, that the German ambassador at Washington had announced the +official renewal of ruthless submarine warfare. + + +THE UNITED STATES AT WAR + +=Steps toward War.=--Three days after the receipt of the news that the +German government intended to return to its former submarine policy, +President Wilson severed diplomatic relations with the German empire. At +the same time he explained to Congress that he desired no conflict with +Germany and would await an "overt act" before taking further steps to +preserve American rights. "God grant," he concluded, "that we may not be +challenged to defend them by acts of willful injustice on the part of +the government of Germany." Yet the challenge came. Between February 26 +and April 2, six American merchant vessels were torpedoed, in most cases +without any warning and without regard to the loss of American lives. +President Wilson therefore called upon Congress to answer the German +menace. The reply of Congress on April 6 was a resolution, passed with +only a few dissenting votes, declaring the existence of a state of war +with Germany. Austria-Hungary at once severed diplomatic relations with +the United States; but it was not until December 7 that Congress, acting +on the President's advice, declared war also on that "vassal of the +German government." + +=American War Aims.=--In many addresses at the beginning and during the +course of the war, President Wilson stated the purposes which actuated +our government in taking up arms. He first made it clear that it was a +war of self-defense. "The military masters of Germany," he exclaimed, +"denied us the right to be neutral." Proof of that lay on every hand. +Agents of the German imperial government had destroyed American lives +and American property on the high seas. They had filled our communities +with spies. They had planted bombs in ships and munition works. They had +fomented divisions among American citizens. + +Though assailed in many ways and compelled to resort to war, the United +States sought no material rewards. "The world must be made safe for +democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of +political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no +conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves." + +In a very remarkable message read to Congress on January 8, 1918, +President Wilson laid down his famous "fourteen points" summarizing the +ideals for which we were fighting. They included open treaties of peace, +openly arrived at; absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas; the +removal, as far as possible, of trade barriers among nations; reduction +of armaments; adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of the +populations concerned; fair and friendly treatment of Russia; the +restoration of Belgium; righting the wrong done to France in 1871 in the +matter of Alsace-Lorraine; adjustment of Italian frontiers along the +lines of nationality; more liberty for the peoples of Austria-Hungary; +the restoration of Serbia and Rumania; the readjustment of the Turkish +Empire; an independent Poland; and an association of nations to afford +mutual guarantees to all states great and small. On a later occasion +President Wilson elaborated the last point, namely, the formation of a +league of nations to guarantee peace and establish justice among the +powers of the world. Democracy, the right of nations to determine their +own fate, a covenant of enduring peace--these were the ideals for which +the American people were to pour out their blood and treasure. + +=The Selective Draft.=--The World War became a war of nations. The +powers against which we were arrayed had every able-bodied man in +service and all their resources, human and material, thrown into the +scale. For this reason, President Wilson summoned the whole people of +the United States to make every sacrifice necessary for victory. +Congress by law decreed that the national army should be chosen from all +male citizens and males not enemy aliens who had declared their +intention of becoming citizens. By the first act of May 18, 1917, it +fixed the age limits at twenty-one to thirty-one inclusive. Later, in +August, 1918, it extended them to eighteen and forty-five. From the men +of the first group so enrolled were chosen by lot the soldiers for the +World War who, with the regular army and the national guard, formed the +American Expeditionary Force upholding the American cause on the +battlefields of Europe. "The whole nation," said the President, "must be +a team in which each man shall play the part for which he is best +fitted." + +=Liberty Loans and Taxes.=--In order that the military and naval forces +should be stinted in no respect, the nation was called upon to place its +financial resources at the service of the government. Some urged the +"conscription of wealth as well as men," meaning the support of the war +out of taxes upon great fortunes; but more conservative counsels +prevailed. Four great Liberty Loans were floated, all the agencies of +modern publicity being employed to enlist popular interest. The first +loan had four and a half million subscribers; the fourth more than +twenty million. Combined with loans were heavy taxes. A progressive tax +was laid upon incomes beginning with four per cent on incomes in the +lower ranges and rising to sixty-three per cent of that part of any +income above $2,000,000. A progressive tax was levied upon inheritances. +An excess profits tax was laid upon all corporations and partnerships, +rising in amount to sixty per cent of the net income in excess of +thirty-three per cent on the invested capital. "This," said a +distinguished economist, "is the high-water mark in the history of +taxation. Never before in the annals of civilization has an attempt been +made to take as much as two-thirds of a man's income by taxation." + +=Mobilizing Material Resources.=--No stone was left unturned to provide +the arms, munitions, supplies, and transportation required in the +gigantic undertaking. Between the declaration of war and the armistice, +Congress enacted law after law relative to food supplies, raw materials, +railways, mines, ships, forests, and industrial enterprises. No power +over the lives and property of citizens, deemed necessary to the +prosecution of the armed conflict, was withheld from the government. The +farmer's wheat, the housewife's sugar, coal at the mines, labor in the +factories, ships at the wharves, trade with friendly countries, the +railways, banks, stores, private fortunes--all were mobilized and laid +under whatever obligations the government deemed imperative. Never was a +nation more completely devoted to a single cause. + +A law of August 10, 1917, gave the President power to fix the prices of +wheat and coal and to take almost any steps necessary to prevent +monopoly and excessive prices. By a series of measures, enlarging the +principles of the shipping act of 1916, ships and shipyards were brought +under public control and the government was empowered to embark upon a +great ship-building program. In December, 1917, the government assumed +for the period of the war the operation of the railways under a +presidential proclamation which was elaborated in March, 1918, by act of +Congress. In the summer of 1918 the express, telephone, and telegraph +business of the entire country passed under government control. By war +risk insurance acts allowances were made for the families of enlisted +men, compensation for injuries was provided, death benefits were +instituted, and a system of national insurance was established in the +interest of the men in service. Never before in the history of the +country had the government taken such a wise and humane view of its +obligations to those who served on the field of battle or on the seas. + +=The Espionage and Sedition Acts.=--By the Espionage law of June 15, +1917, and the amending law, known as the Sedition act, passed in May of +the following year, the government was given a drastic power over the +expression of opinion. The first measure penalized those who conveyed +information to a foreign country to be used to the injury of the United +States; those who made false statements designed to interfere with the +military or naval forces of the United States; those who attempted to +stir up insubordination or disloyalty in the army and navy; and those +who willfully obstructed enlistment. The Sedition act was still more +severe and sweeping in its terms. It imposed heavy penalties upon any +person who used "abusive language about the government or institutions +of the country." It authorized the dismissal of any officer of the +government who committed "disloyal acts" or uttered "disloyal language," +and empowered the Postmaster General to close the mails to persons +violating the law. This measure, prepared by the Department of Justice, +encountered vigorous opposition in the Senate, where twenty-four +Republicans and two Democrats voted against it. Senator Johnson of +California denounced it as a law "to suppress the freedom of the press +in the United States and to prevent any man, no matter who he is, from +expressing legitimate criticism concerning the present government." The +constitutionality of the acts was attacked; but they were sustained by +the Supreme Court and stringently enforced. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +THE LAUNCHING OF A SHIP AT THE GREAT NAVAL YARDS, NEWARK, N.J.] + +=Labor and the War.=--In view of the restlessness of European labor +during the war and especially the proletarian revolution in Russia in +November, 1917, some anxiety was early expressed as to the stand which +organized labor might take in the United States. It was, however, soon +dispelled. Samuel Gompers, speaking for the American Federation of +Labor, declared that "this is labor's war," and pledged the united +support of all the unions. There was some dissent. The Socialist party +denounced the war as a capitalist quarrel; but all the protests combined +were too slight to have much effect. American labor leaders were sent to +Europe to strengthen the wavering ranks of trade unionists in war-worn +England, France, and Italy. Labor was given representation on the +important boards and commissions dealing with industrial questions. +Trade union standards were accepted by the government and generally +applied in industry. The Department of Labor became one of the powerful +war centers of the nation. In a memorable address to the American +Federation of Labor, President Wilson assured the trade unionists that +labor conditions should not be made unduly onerous by the war and +received in return a pledge of loyalty from the Federation. Recognition +of labor's contribution to winning the war was embodied in the treaty of +peace, which provided for a permanent international organization to +promote the world-wide effort of labor to improve social conditions. +"The league of nations has for its object the establishment of universal +peace," runs the preamble to the labor section of the treaty, "and such +a peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.... +The failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labor is an +obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the +conditions in their own countries." + +=The American Navy in the War.=--As soon as Congress declared war the +fleet was mobilized, American ports were thrown open to the warships of +the Allies, immediate provision was made for increasing the number of +men and ships, and a contingent of war vessels was sent to cooeperate +with the British and French in their life-and-death contest with +submarines. Special effort was made to stimulate the production of +"submarine chasers" and "scout cruisers" to be sent to the danger zone. +Convoys were provided to accompany the transports conveying soldiers to +France. Before the end of the war more than three hundred American +vessels and 75,000 officers and men were operating in European waters. +Though the German fleet failed to come out and challenge the sea power +of the Allies, the battleships of the United States were always ready to +do their full duty in such an event. As things turned out, the service +of the American navy was limited mainly to helping in the campaign that +wore down the submarine menace to Allied shipping. + +=The War in France.=--Owing to the peculiar character of the warfare in +France, it required a longer time for American military forces to get +into action; but there was no unnecessary delay. Soon after the +declaration of war, steps were taken to give military assistance to the +Allies. The regular army was enlarged and the troops of the national +guard were brought into national service. On June 13, General John J. +Pershing, chosen head of the American Expeditionary Forces, reached +Paris and began preparations for the arrival of our troops. In June, the +vanguard of the army reached France. A slow and steady stream followed. +As soon as the men enrolled under the draft were ready, it became a +flood. During the period of the war the army was enlarged from about +190,000 men to 3,665,000, of whom more than 2,000,000 were in France +when the armistice was signed. + +Although American troops did not take part on a large scale until the +last phase of the war in 1918, several battalions of infantry were in +the trenches by October, 1917, and had their first severe encounter with +the Germans early in November. In January, 1918, they took over a part +of the front line as an American sector. In March, General Pershing +placed our forces at the disposal of General Foch, commander-in-chief of +the Allied armies. The first division, which entered the Montdidier +salient in April, soon was engaged with the enemy, "taking with splendid +dash the town of Cantigny and all other objectives, which were organized +and held steadfastly against vicious counter attacks and galling +artillery fire." + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +TROOPS RETURNING FROM FRANCE] + +When the Germans launched their grand drives toward the Marne and Paris, +in June and July, 1918, every available man was placed at General Foch's +command. At Belleau Wood, at Chateau-Thierry, and other points along the +deep salient made by the Germans into the French lines, American +soldiers distinguished themselves by heroic action. They also played an +important role in the counter attack that "smashed" the salient and +drove the Germans back. + +In September, American troops, with French aid, "wiped out" the German +salient at St. Mihiel. By this time General Pershing was ready for the +great American drive to the northeast in the Argonne forest, while he +also cooeperated with the British in the assault on the Hindenburg line. +In the Meuse-Argonne battle, our soldiers encountered some of the most +severe fighting of the war and pressed forward steadily against the most +stubborn resistance from the enemy. On the 6th of November, reported +General Pershing, "a division of the first corps reached a point on the +Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. The +strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut the +enemy's main line of communications and nothing but a surrender or an +armistice could save his army from complete disaster." Five days later +the end came. On the morning of November 11, the order to cease firing +went into effect. The German army was in rapid retreat and +demoralization had begun. The Kaiser had abdicated and fled into +Holland. The Hohenzollern dreams of empire were shattered. In the +fifty-second month, the World War, involving nearly every civilized +nation on the globe, was brought to a close. More than 75,000 American +soldiers and sailors had given their lives. More than 250,000 had been +wounded or were missing or in German prison camps. + +[Illustration: WESTERN BATTLE LINES OF THE VARIOUS YEARS OF THE +WORLD WAR] + + +THE SETTLEMENT AT PARIS + +=The Peace Conference.=--On January 18, 1919, a conference of the Allied +and Associated Powers assembled to pronounce judgment upon the German +empire and its defeated satellites: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and +Turkey. It was a moving spectacle. Seventy-two delegates spoke for +thirty-two states. The United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and +Japan had five delegates each. Belgium, Brazil, and Serbia were each +assigned three. Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, China, Greece, +Hedjaz, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Siam, and Czechoslovakia were +allotted two apiece. The remaining states of New Zealand, Bolivia, Cuba, +Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, +and Uruguay each had one delegate. President Wilson spoke in person for +the United States. England, France, and Italy were represented by their +premiers: David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando. + +[Illustration: PREMIERS LLOYD GEORGE, ORLANDO AND CLEMENCEAU AND +PRESIDENT WILSON AT PARIS] + +=The Supreme Council.=--The real work of the settlement was first +committed to a Supreme Council of ten representing the United States, +Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. This was later reduced to five +members. Then Japan dropped out and finally Italy, leaving only +President Wilson and the Premiers, Lloyd George and Clemenceau, the +"Big Three," who assumed the burden of mighty decisions. On May 6, their +work was completed and in a secret session of the full conference the +whole treaty of peace was approved, though a few of the powers made +reservations or objections. The next day the treaty was presented to the +Germans who, after prolonged protests, signed on the last day of grace, +June 28. This German treaty was followed by agreements with Austria, +Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Collectively these great documents formed +the legal basis of the general European settlement. + +=The Terms of the Settlement.=--The combined treaties make a huge +volume. The German treaty alone embraces about 80,000 words. +Collectively they cover an immense range of subjects which may be +summarized under five heads: (1) The territorial settlement in Europe; +(2) the destruction of German military power; (3) reparations for +damages done by Germany and her allies; (4) the disposition of German +colonies and protectorates; and (5) the League of Nations. + +Germany was reduced by the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to France and the +loss of several other provinces. Austria-Hungary was dissolved and +dismembered. Russia was reduced by the creation of new states on the +west. Bulgaria was stripped of her gains in the recent Balkan wars. +Turkey was dismembered. Nine new independent states were created: +Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Esthonia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, +Armenia, and Hedjaz. Italy, Greece, Rumania, and Serbia were enlarged by +cessions of territory and Serbia was transformed into the great state of +Jugoslavia. + +The destruction of German military power was thorough. The entire navy, +with minor exceptions, was turned over to the Allied and Associated +Powers; Germany's total equipment for the future was limited to six +battleships and six light cruisers, with certain small vessels but no +submarines. The number of enlisted men and officers for the army was +fixed at not more than 100,000; the General Staff was dissolved; and the +manufacture of munitions restricted. + +Germany was compelled to accept full responsibility for all damages; to +pay five billion dollars in cash and goods, and to make certain other +payments which might be ordered from time to time by an inter-allied +reparations commission. She was also required to deliver to Belgium, +France, and Italy, millions of tons of coal every year for ten years; +while by way of additional compensation to France the rich coal basin of +the Saar was placed under inter-allied control to be exploited under +French administration for a period of at least fifteen years. Austria +and the other associates of Germany were also laid under heavy +obligations to the victors. Damages done to shipping by submarines and +other vessels were to be paid for on the basis of ton for ton. + +The disposition of the German colonies and the old Ottoman empire +presented knotty problems. It was finally agreed that the German +colonies and Turkish provinces which were in a backward stage of +development should be placed under the tutelage of certain powers acting +as "mandatories" holding them in "a sacred trust of civilization." An +exception to the mandatory principle arose in the case of German rights +in Shantung, all of which were transferred directly to Japan. It was +this arrangement that led the Chinese delegation to withhold their +signatures from the treaty. + +=The League of Nations.=--High among the purposes which he had in mind +in summoning the nation to arms, President Wilson placed the desire to +put an end to war. All through the United States the people spoke of the +"war to end war." No slogan called forth a deeper response from the +public. The President himself repeatedly declared that a general +association of nations must be formed to guard the peace and protect all +against the ambitions of the few. "As I see it," he said in his address +on opening the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign, "the constitution of the +League of Nations and the clear definition of its objects must be a +part, in a sense the most essential part, of the peace settlement +itself." + +Nothing was more natural, therefore, than Wilson's insistence at Paris +upon the formation of an international association. Indeed he had gone +to Europe in person largely to accomplish that end. Part One of the +treaty with Germany, the Covenant of the League of Nations, was due to +his labors more than to any other influence. Within the League thus +created were to be embraced all the Allied and Associated Powers and +nearly all the neutrals. By a two-thirds vote of the League Assembly the +excluded nations might be admitted. + +The agencies of the League of Nations were to be three in number: (1) a +permanent secretariat located at Geneva; (2) an Assembly consisting of +one delegate from each country, dominion, or self-governing colony +(including Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and India); (3) +and a Council consisting of representatives of the United States, Great +Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, and four other representatives +selected by the Assembly from time to time. + +The duties imposed on the League and the obligations accepted by its +members were numerous and important. The Council was to take steps to +formulate a scheme for the reduction of armaments and to submit a plan +for the establishment of a permanent Court of International Justice. The +members of the League (Article X) were to respect and preserve as +against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing +political independence of all the associated nations. They were to +submit to arbitration or inquiry by the Council all disputes which could +not be adjusted by diplomacy and in no case to resort to war until three +months after the award. Should any member disregard its covenants, its +action would be considered an act of war against the League, which would +accordingly cut off the trade and business of the hostile member and +recommend through the Council to the several associated governments the +military measures to be taken. In case the decision in any arbitration +of a dispute was unanimous, the members of the League affected by it +were to abide by it. + +Such was the settlement at Paris and such was the association of nations +formed to promote the peace of the world. They were quickly approved by +most of the powers, and the first Assembly of the League of Nations met +at Geneva late in 1920. + +=The Treaty in the United States.=--When the treaty was presented to the +United States Senate for approval, a violent opposition appeared. In +that chamber the Republicans had a slight majority and a two-thirds vote +was necessary for ratification. The sentiment for and against the treaty +ran mainly along party lines; but the Republicans were themselves +divided. The major portion, known as "reservationists," favored +ratification with certain conditions respecting American rights; while a +small though active minority rejected the League of Nations in its +entirety, announcing themselves to be "irreconcilables." The grounds of +this Republican opposition lay partly in the terms of peace imposed on +Germany and partly in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Exception +was taken to the clauses which affected the rights of American citizens +in property involved in the adjustment with Germany, but the burden of +criticism was directed against the League. Article X guaranteeing +against external aggression the political independence and territorial +integrity of the members of the League was subjected to a specially +heavy fire; while the treatment accorded to China and the sections +affecting American internal affairs were likewise attacked as "unjust +and dangerous." As an outcome of their deliberations, the Republicans +proposed a long list of reservations which touched upon many of the +vital parts of the treaty. These were rejected by President Wilson as +amounting in effect to a "nullification of the treaty." As a deadlock +ensued the treaty was definitely rejected, owing to the failure of its +sponsors to secure the requisite two-thirds vote. + +[Illustration: EUROPE] + +=The League of Nations in the Campaign of 1920.=--At this juncture the +presidential campaign of 1920 opened. The Republicans, while condemning +the terms of the proposed League, endorsed the general idea of an +international agreement to prevent war. Their candidate, Senator +Warren G. Harding of Ohio, maintained a similar position without saying +definitely whether the League devised at Paris could be recast in such a +manner as to meet his requirements. The Democrats, on the other hand, +while not opposing limitations clarifying the obligations of the United +States, demanded "the immediate ratification of the treaty without +reservations which would impair its essential integrity." The Democratic +candidate, Governor James M. Cox, of Ohio, announced his firm conviction +that the United States should "go into the League," without closing the +door to mild reservations; he appealed to the country largely on that +issue. The election of Senator Harding, in an extraordinary "landslide," +coupled with the return of a majority of Republicans to the Senate, made +uncertain American participation in the League of Nations. + +=The United States and International Entanglements.=--Whether America +entered the League or not, it could not close its doors to the world and +escape perplexing international complications. It had ever-increasing +financial and commercial connections with all other countries. Our +associates in the recent war were heavily indebted to our government. +The prosperity of American industries depended to a considerable extent +upon the recovery of the impoverished and battle-torn countries of +Europe. + +There were other complications no less specific. The United States was +compelled by force of circumstances to adopt a Russian policy. The +government of the Czar had been overthrown by a liberal revolution, +which in turn had been succeeded by an extreme, communist +"dictatorship." The Bolsheviki, or majority faction of the socialists, +had obtained control of the national council of peasants, workingmen, +and soldiers, called the soviet, and inaugurated a radical regime. They +had made peace with Germany in March, 1918. Thereupon the United States +joined England, France, and Japan in an unofficial war upon them. After +the general settlement at Paris in 1919, our government, while +withdrawing troops from Siberia and Archangel, continued in its refusal +to recognize the Bolshevists or to permit unhampered trade with them. +President Wilson repeatedly denounced them as the enemies of +civilization and undertook to lay down for all countries the principles +which should govern intercourse with Russia. + +Further international complications were created in connection with the +World War, wholly apart from the terms of peace or the League of +Nations. The United States had participated in a general European +conflict which changed the boundaries of countries, called into being +new nations, and reduced the power and territories of the vanquished. +Accordingly, it was bound to face the problem of how far it was prepared +to cooeperate with the victors in any settlement of Europe's +difficulties. By no conceivable process, therefore, could America be +disentangled from the web of world affairs. Isolation, if desirable, had +become impossible. Within three hundred years from the founding of the +tiny settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth, America, by virtue of its +institutions, its population, its wealth, and its commerce, had become +first among the nations of the earth. By moral obligations and by +practical interests its fate was thus linked with the destiny of all +mankind. + + +SUMMARY OF DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR + +The astounding industrial progress that characterized the period +following the Civil War bequeathed to the new generation many perplexing +problems connected with the growth of trusts and railways, the +accumulation of great fortunes, the increase of poverty in the +industrial cities, the exhaustion of the free land, and the acquisition +of dominions in distant seas. As long as there was an abundance of land +in the West any able-bodied man with initiative and industry could +become an independent farmer. People from the cities and immigrants from +Europe had always before them that gateway to property and prosperity. +When the land was all gone, American economic conditions inevitably +became more like those of Europe. + +Though the new economic questions had been vigorously debated in many +circles before his day, it was President Roosevelt who first discussed +them continuously from the White House. The natural resources of the +country were being exhausted; he advocated their conservation. Huge +fortunes were being made in business creating inequalities in +opportunity; he favored reducing them by income and inheritance taxes. +Industries were disturbed by strikes; he pressed arbitration upon +capital and labor. The free land was gone; he declared that labor was in +a less favorable position to bargain with capital and therefore should +organize in unions for collective bargaining. There had been wrong-doing +on the part of certain great trusts; those responsible should be +punished. + +The spirit of reform was abroad in the land. The spoils system was +attacked. It was alleged that the political parties were dominated by +"rings and bosses." The United States Senate was called "a millionaires' +club." Poverty and misery were observed in the cities. State +legislatures and city governments were accused of corruption. + +In answer to the charges, remedies were proposed and adopted. Civil +service reform was approved. The Australian ballot, popular election of +Senators, the initiative, referendum, and recall, commission and city +manager plans for cities, public regulation of railways, compensation +for those injured in industries, minimum wages for women and children, +pensions for widows, the control of housing in the cities--these and a +hundred other reforms were adopted and tried out. The national watchword +became: "America, Improve Thyself." + +The spirit of reform broke into both political parties. It appeared in +many statutes enacted by Congress under President Taft's leadership. It +disrupted the Republicans temporarily in 1912 when the Progressive party +entered the field. It led the Democratic candidate in that year, +Governor Wilson, to make a "progressive appeal" to the voters. It +inspired a considerable program of national legislation under President +Wilson's two administrations. + +In the age of change, four important amendments to the federal +constitution, the first in more than forty years, were adopted. The +sixteenth empowered Congress to lay an income tax. The seventeenth +assured popular election of Senators. The eighteenth made prohibition +national. The nineteenth, following upon the adoption of woman suffrage +in many states, enfranchised the women of the nation. + +In the sphere of industry, equally great changes took place. The major +portion of the nation's business passed into the hands of corporations. +In all the leading industries of the country labor was organized into +trade unions and federated in a national organization. The power of +organized capital and organized labor loomed upon the horizon. Their +struggles, their rights, and their place in the economy of the nation +raised problems of the first magnitude. + +While the country was engaged in a heated debate upon its domestic +issues, the World War broke out in Europe in 1914. As a hundred years +before, American rights upon the high seas became involved at once. They +were invaded on both sides; but Germany, in addition to assailing +American ships and property, ruthlessly destroyed American lives. She +set at naught the rules of civilized warfare upon the sea. Warnings from +President Wilson were without avail. Nothing could stay the hand of the +German war party. + +After long and patient negotiations, President Wilson in 1917 called +upon the nation to take up arms against an assailant that had in effect +declared war upon America. The answer was swift and firm. The national +resources, human and material, were mobilized. The navy was enlarged, a +draft army created, huge loans floated, heavy taxes laid, and the spirit +of sacrifice called forth in a titanic struggle against an autocratic +power that threatened to dominate Europe and the World. + +In the end, American financial, naval, and military assistance counted +heavily in the scale. American sailors scoured the seas searching for +the terrible submarines. American soldiers took part in the last great +drives that broke the might of Germany's army. Such was the nation's +response to the President's summons to arms in a war "for democracy" and +"to end war." + +When victory crowned the arms of the powers united against Germany, +President Wilson in person took part in the peace council. He sought to +redeem his pledge to end wars by forming a League of Nations to keep the +peace. In the treaty drawn at the close of the war the first part was a +covenant binding the nations in a permanent association for the +settlement of international disputes. This treaty, the President offered +to the United States Senate for ratification and to his country for +approval. + +Once again, as in the days of the Napoleonic wars, the people seriously +discussed the place of America among the powers of the earth. The Senate +refused to ratify the treaty. World politics then became an issue in the +campaign of 1920. Though some Americans talked as if the United States +could close its doors and windows against all mankind, the victor in the +election, Senator Harding, of Ohio, knew better. The election returns +were hardly announced before he began to ask the advice of his +countrymen on the pressing theme that would not be downed: "What part +shall America--first among the nations of the earth in wealth and +power--assume at the council table of the world?" + + +=General References= + +Woodrow Wilson, _The New Freedom_. + +C.L. Jones, _The Caribbean Interests of the United States_. + +H.P. Willis, _The Federal Reserve_. + +C.W. Barron, _The Mexican Problem_ (critical toward Mexico). + +L.J. de Bekker, _The Plot against Mexico_ (against American +intervention). + +Theodore Roosevelt, _America and the World War_. + +E.E. Robinson and V.J. West, _The Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson_. + +J.S. Bassett, _Our War with Germany_. + +Carlton J.H. Hayes, _A Brief History of the Great War_. + +J.B. McMaster, _The United States in the World War_. + + +=Research Topics= + +=President Wilson's First Term.=--Elson, _History of the United States_, +pp. 925-941. + +=The Underwood Tariff Act.=--Ogg, _National Progress_ (The American +Nation Series), pp. 209-226. + +=The Federal Reserve System.=--Ogg, pp. 228-232. + +=Trust and Labor Legislation.=--Ogg, pp. 232-236. + +=Legislation Respecting the Territories.=--Ogg, pp. 236-245. + +=American Interests in the Caribbean.=--Ogg, pp. 246-265. + +=American Interests in the Pacific.=--Ogg, pp. 304-324. + +=Mexican Affairs.=--Haworth, pp. 388-395; Ogg, pp. 284-304. + +=The First Phases of the European War.=--Haworth, pp. 395-412; Ogg, pp. +325-343. + +=The Campaign of 1916.=--Haworth, pp. 412-418; Ogg, pp. 364-383. + +=America Enters the War.=--Haworth, pp. 422-440; pp. 454-475. Ogg, pp. +384-399; Elson, pp. 951-970. + +=Mobilizing the Nation.=--Haworth, pp. 441-453. + +=The Peace Settlement.=--Haworth, pp. 475-497; Elson, pp. 971-982. + + +=Questions= + +1. Enumerate the chief financial measures of the Wilson administration. +Review the history of banks and currency and give the details of the +Federal reserve law. + +2. What was the Wilson policy toward trusts? Toward labor? + +3. Review again the theory of states' rights. How has it fared in recent +years? + +4. What steps were taken in colonial policies? In the Caribbean? + +5. Outline American-Mexican relations under Wilson. + +6. How did the World War break out in Europe? + +7. Account for the divided state of opinion in America. + +8. Review the events leading up to the War of 1812. Compare them with +the events from 1914 to 1917. + +9. State the leading principles of international law involved and show +how they were violated. + +10. What American rights were assailed in the submarine campaign? + +11. Give Wilson's position on the _Lusitania_ affair. + +12. How did the World War affect the presidential campaign of 1916? + +13. How did Germany finally drive the United States into war? + +14. State the American war aims given by the President. + +15. Enumerate the measures taken by the government to win the war. + +16. Review the part of the navy in the war. The army. + +17. How were the terms of peace formulated? + +18. Enumerate the principal results of the war. + +19. Describe the League of Nations. + +20. Trace the fate of the treaty in American politics. + +21. Can there be a policy of isolation for America? + + + + +APPENDIX + +CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES + + +We the people of the United States, in order to form a more +perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide +for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the +blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and +establish this Constitution for the United States of America. + + +ARTICLE I + +SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a +Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House +of Representatives. + + +SECTION 2. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members +chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the +electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for +electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. + +2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to +the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the +United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that +State in which he shall be chosen. + +3. Representatives and direct taxes[3] shall be apportioned among the +several States which may be included within this Union, according to +their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the +whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a +term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all +other persons.[3] The actual enumeration shall be made within three +years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and +within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall +by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for +every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one +representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of +New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, +Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York +six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, +Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia +three. + +4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the +executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such +vacancies. + +5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other +officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. + + +SECTION 3. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two +senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six +years; and each senator shall have one vote.[4] + +2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first +election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. +The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the +expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of +the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth +year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if +vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the +legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary +appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then +fill such vacancies.[5] + +3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age +of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and +who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he +shall be chosen. + +4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the +Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. + +5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President +_pro tempore_, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall +exercise the office of President of the United States. + +6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When +sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the +President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall +preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of +two-thirds of the members present. + +7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to +removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office +of honor, trust, or profit under the United States: but the party +convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, +judgment, and punishment, according to law. + + +SECTION 4. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for +senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the +legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or +alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. + +2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such +meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by +law appoint a different day. + + +SECTION 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns +and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall +constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn +from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of +absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House +may provide. + +2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its +members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of +two-thirds, expel a member. + +3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to +time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment +require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on +any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be +entered on the journal. + +4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the +consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other +place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. + + +SECTION 6. 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a +compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out +of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except +treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest +during their attendance at the sessions of their respective Houses, and +in going to and returning from the same; and, for any speech or debate +in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. + +2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was +elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the +United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof +shall have been increased during such time; and no person, holding any +office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during +his continuance in office. + + +SECTION 7. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House +of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments +as on other bills. + +2. Every bill, which shall have passed the House of Representatives; and +the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President +of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he +shall return it with his objections to that House, in which it shall +have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their +journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration +two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, +together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall +likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, +it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses +shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons +voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each +House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President +within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to +him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, +unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which +case it shall not be a law. + +3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the +Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a +question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the +United States and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved +by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of +the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and +limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. + + +SECTION 8. The Congress shall have power: 1. To lay and collect taxes, +duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the +common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, +imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; + +2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; + +3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several +States, and with the Indian tribes; + +4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on +the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; + +5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and +fix the standard of weights and measures; + +6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and +current coin of the United States; + +7. To establish post offices and post roads; + +8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for +limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their +respective writings and discoveries; + +9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; + +10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high +seas, and offences against the law of nations; + +11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules +concerning captures on land and water; + +12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that +use shall be for a longer term than two years; + +13. To provide and maintain a navy; + +14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and +naval forces; + +15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the +Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; + +16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, +and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service +of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the +appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia +according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. + +17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such +district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of +particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the +government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all +places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which +the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, +dock-yards, and other needful buildings;--and + +18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying +into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this +Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any +department or officer thereof. + + +SECTION 9. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the +States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited +by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, +but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten +dollars for each person. + +2. The privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ shall not be suspended, +unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may +require it. + +3. No bill of attainder or _ex post facto_ law shall be passed. + +4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in +proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be +taken.[6] + +5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. + +6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue +to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels bound +to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in +another. + +7. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of +appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the +receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from +time to time. + +8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no +person, holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without +the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, +or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. + + +SECTION 10. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or +confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit +bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in +payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, _ex post facto_ law, or +law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of +nobility. + +2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts +or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary +for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and +imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use +of the Treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject +to the revision and control of the Congress. + +3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of +tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any +agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or +engage in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as +will not admit of delay. + + +ARTICLE II + +SECTION 1. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the +United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of +four years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same +term, be elected, as follows: + +2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof +may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators +and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; +but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust +or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.[7] The +electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for +two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same +State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons +voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall +sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of +the United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The +President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House +of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then +be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the +President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors +appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and +have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall +immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person +have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House +shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the +President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from +each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a +member or members from two-thirds of the States and a majority of all +the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the +choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes +of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain +two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by +ballot the Vice-President.[8] + +3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the +day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same +throughout the United States. + +4. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United +States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be +eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be +eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of +thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United +States. + +5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, +resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said +office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress +may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or +inability both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what +officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act +accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be +elected. + +6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a +compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the +period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive +within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of +them. + +7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the +following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I +will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, +and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the +Constitution of the United States." + + +SECTION 2. 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and +navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, +when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require +the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the +executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their +respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and +pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of +impeachment. + +2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the +Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present +concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of +the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and +consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the +United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, +and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest +the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the +President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. + +3. The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen +during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall +expire at the end of their next session. + + +SECTION 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information +on the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such +measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on +extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in +case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of +adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; +he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take +care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the +officers of the United States. + + +SECTION 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the +United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and +conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. + + +ARTICLE III + +SECTION 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in +one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from +time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and +inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and +shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which +shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. + + +SECTION 2. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and +equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, +and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to +all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to +all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to +which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two +or more States;--between a State and citizens of another +State;[9]--between citizens of different States;--between citizens of +the same State claiming lands under grants of different States;--and +between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, +or subjects. + +2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and +consuls and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court +shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before +mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as +to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the +Congress shall make. + +3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by +jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes +shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the +trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have +directed. + + +SECTION 3. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in +levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them +aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the +testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in +open court. + +2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, +but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture +except during the life of the person attainted. + + +ARTICLE IV + +SECTION 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the +public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And +the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such +acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. + + +SECTION 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all +privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. + +2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, +who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on +demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be +delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the +crime. + +3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws +thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or +regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall +be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may +be due. + + +SECTION 3. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this +Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the +jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction +of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the +legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. + +2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful +rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property +belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall +be so construed as to prejudice any claims, of the United States, or of +any particular State. + + +SECTION 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this +Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them +against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the +executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic +violence. + + +ARTICLE V + +The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it +necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the +application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, +shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, +shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, +when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several +States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the +other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided +that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight +hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth +clauses in the ninth Section of the first article; and that no State, +without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the +Senate. + + +ARTICLE VI + +1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the +adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United +States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. + +2. This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be +made in pursuance thereof and all treaties made, or which shall be made, +under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of +the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything +in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary +notwithstanding. + +3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of +the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, +both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by +oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test +shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust +under the United States. + + +ARTICLE VII + +The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient +for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so +ratifying the same. + +Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the +seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven +hundred and eighty-seven and of the independence of the United States of +America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our +names, + + G^O. WASHINGTON-- + Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia + +[and thirty-eight members from all the States except Rhode Island.] + + * * * * * + + +Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the +United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the +legislatures of the several States pursuant to the fifth article of the +original Constitution. + + +ARTICLE I[10] + +Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or +prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of +speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to +assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. + + +ARTICLE II + +A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free +State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be +infringed. + + +ARTICLE III + +No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without +the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be +prescribed by law. + + +ARTICLE IV + +The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, +and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be +violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, +supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place +to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. + + +ARTICLE V + +No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous +crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in +cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in +actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be +subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or +limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness +against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without +due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, +without just compensation. + + +ARTICLE VI + +In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a +speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district +wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have +been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and +cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against +him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, +and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. + + +ARTICLE VII + +In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed +twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no +fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the +United States, than according to the rules of the common law. + + +ARTICLE VIII + +Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor +cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. + + +ARTICLE IX + +The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be +construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. + + +ARTICLE X + +The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor +prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, +or to the people. + + +ARTICLE XI[11] + +The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend +to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the +United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects +of any foreign State. + + +ARTICLE XII[12] + +The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot +for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall not be an +inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their +ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the +person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists +of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as +Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they +shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the +government of the United States, directed to the President of the +Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate +and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes +shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes +for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of +the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such +majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding +three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of +Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But +in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the +representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this +purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the +States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. +And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President +whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth +day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as +President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional +disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of +votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be +a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person +have a majority, then from the two highest members on the list, the +Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall +consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of +the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person +constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible +to that of Vice-President of the United States. + + +ARTICLE XIII[13] + +SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a +punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, +shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their +jurisdiction. + +SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by +appropriate legislation. + + +ARTICLE XIV[14] + +SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and +subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States +and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any +law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the +United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, +or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within +its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. + +SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States +according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of +persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right +to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and +Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the +executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the +legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such +State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, +or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other +crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the +proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the +whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. + +SECTION 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, +or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or +military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having +previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of +the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an +executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution +of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion +against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But +Congress may by two-thirds vote of each House, remove such disability. + +SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, +authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and +bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall +not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall +assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or +rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or +emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims +shall be held illegal and void. + +SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate +legislation, the provisions of this article. + + +ARTICLE XV[15] + +SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not +be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of +race, color, or previous condition of servitude. + +SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by +appropriate legislation. + + +ARTICLE XVI[16] + +The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from +whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, +and without regard to any census or enumeration. + + +ARTICLE XVII[17] + +The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from +each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each +senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the +qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the +State legislature. + +When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, +the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to +fill such vacancies: _Provided_ that the legislature of any State may +empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the +people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. + +This amendment shall not be so construed as to effect the election or +term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the +Constitution. + + +ARTICLE XVIII[18] + +SECTION 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the +manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the +importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United +States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for +beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. + +SECTION 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent +power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. + +SECTION 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been +ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the +several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from +the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. + + +ARTICLE XIX[19] + +The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied +or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex. + +The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate +legislation. + + + +POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, BY STATES: 1920, 1910, 1900 + ++---------------------+--------------------------------------------+ +| STATES | POPULATION | ++ +--------------+--------------+--------------+ +| | 1920 | 1910 | 1900 | ++---------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ +|United States | 105,708,771 | 91,972,266 | 75,994,575 | ++---------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ +|Alabama | 2,348,174 | 2,138,093 | 1,828,697 | +|Arizona | 333,903 | 204,354 | 122,931 | +|Arkansas | 1,752,204 | 1,574,449 | 1,311,564 | +|California | 3,426,861 | 2,377,549 | 1,485,053 | +|Colorado | 939,629 | 799,024 | 539,700 | +|Connecticut | 1,380,631 | 1,114,756 | 908,420 | +|Delaware | 223,003 | 202,322 | 184,735 | +|District of Columbia | 437,571 | 331,069 | 278,718 | +|Florida | 968,470 | 752,619 | 528,542 | +|Georgia | 2,895,832 | 2,609,121 | 2,216,331 | +|Idaho | 431,866 | 325,594 | 161,772 | +|Illinois | 6,485,280 | 5,638,591 | 4,821,550 | +|Indiana | 2,930,390 | 2,700,876 | 2,516,462 | +|Iowa | 2,404,021 | 2,224,771 | 2,231,853 | +|Kansas | 1,769,257 | 1,690,949 | 1,470,495 | +|Kentucky | 2,416,630 | 2,289,905 | 2,147,174 | +|Louisiana | 1,798,509 | 1,656,388 | 1,381,625 | +|Maine | 768,014 | 742,371 | 694,466 | +|Maryland | 1,449,661 | 1,295,346 | 1,188,044 | +|Massachusetts | 3,852,356 | 3,366,416 | 2,805,346 | +|Michigan | 3,668,412 | 2,810,173 | 2,420,982 | +|Minnesota | 2,387,125 | 2,075,708 | 1,751,394 | +|Mississippi | 1,790,618 | 1,797,114 | 1,551,270 | +|Missouri | 3,404,055 | 3,293,335 | 3,106,665 | +|Montana | 548,889 | 376,053 | 243,329 | +|Nebraska | 1,296,372 | 1,192,214 | 1,066,300 | +|Nevada | 77,407 | 81,875 | 42,335 | +|New Hampshire | 443,407 | 430,572 | 411,588 | +|New Jersey | 3,155,900 | 2,537,167 | 1,883,669 | +|New Mexico | 360,350 | 327,301 | 195,310 | +|New York | 10,384,829 | 9,113,614 | 7,268,894 | +|North Carolina | 2,559,123 | 2,206,287 | 1,893,810 | +|North Dakota | 645,680 | 577,056 | 319,146 | +|Ohio | 5,759,394 | 4,767,121 | 4,157,545 | +|Oklahoma | 2,028,283 | 1,657,155 | 790,391 | +|Oregon | 783,389 | 672,765 | 413,536 | +|Pennsylvania | 8,720,017 | 7,665,111 | 6,302,115 | +|Rhode Island | 604,397 | 542,610 | 428,556 | +|South Carolina | 1,683,724 | 1,515,400 | 1,340,316 | +|South Dakota | 636,547 | 583,888 | 401,570 | +|Tennessee | 2,337,885 | 2,184,789 | 2,020,616 | +|Texas | 4,663,228 | 3,896,542 | 3,048,710 | +|Utah | 449,396 | 373,351 | 276,749 | +|Vermont | 352,428 | 355,956 | 343,641 | +|Virginia | 2,309,187 | 2,061,612 | 1,854,184 | +|Washington | 1,356,621 | 1,141,990 | 518,103 | +|West Virginia | 1,463,701 | 1,221,119 | 958,800 | +|Wisconsin | 2,632,067 | 2,333,860 | 2,069,042 | +|Wyoming | 194,402 | 145,965 | 92,531 | ++---------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Partly superseded by the 14th Amendment, p. 639. + +[4] See the 17th Amendment, p. 641. + +[5] _Ibid._, p. 641. + +[6] See the 16th Amendment, p. 640. + +[7] The following paragraph was in force only from 1788 to 1803. + +[8] Superseded by the 12th Amendment, p. 638. + +[9] See the 11th Amendment, p. 638. + +[10] First ten amendments proposed by Congress, Sept. 25, 1789. +Proclaimed to be in force Dec. 15, 1791. + +[11] Proposed Sept. 5, 1794. Declared in force January 8, 1798. + +[12] Adopted in 1804. + +[13] Adopted in 1865. + +[14] Adopted in 1868. + +[15] Proposed February 27, 1869. Declared in force March 30, 1870. + +[16] Passed July, 1909; proclaimed February 25, 1913. + +[17] Passed May, 1912, in lieu of paragraph one, Section 3, Article I, +of the Constitution and so much of paragraph two of the same Section as +relates to the filling of vacancies; proclaimed May 31, 1913. + +[18] Ratified January 16, 1919. + +[19] Ratified August 26, 1920. + + + + +APPENDIX + +TABLE OF PRESIDENTS + +NAME STATE PARTY YEAR IN VICE-PRESIDENT + OFFICE +1 George Washington Va. Fed. 1789-1797 John Adams +2 John Adams Mass. Fed. 1797-1801 Thomas Jefferson +3 Thomas Jefferson Va. Rep. 1801-1809 Aaron Burr + George Clinton +4 James Madison Va. Rep. 1809-1817 George Clinton + Elbridge Gerry +5 James Monroe Va. Rep. 1817-1825 Daniel D. Tompkins +6 John Q. Adams Mass. Rep. 1825-1829 John C. Calhoun +7 Andrew Jackson Tenn. Dem. 1829-1837 John C. Calhoun + Martin Van Buren +8 Martin Van Buren N.Y. Dem. 1837-1841 Richard M. Johnson +9 Wm. H. Harrison Ohio Whig 1841-1841 John Tyler +10 John Tyler[20] Va. Whig 1841-1845 +11 James K. Polk Tenn. Dem. 1845-1849 George M. Dallas +12 Zachary Taylor La. Whig 1849-1850 Millard Fillmore +13 Millard Fillmore[20] N.Y. Whig 1850-1853 +14 Franklin Pierce N.H. Dem. 1853-1857 William R. King +15 James Buchanan Pa. Dem. 1857-1861 J.C. Breckinridge +16 Abraham Lincoln Ill. Rep. 1861-1865 Hannibal Hamlin + Andrew Johnson +17 Andrew Johnson[20] Tenn. Rep. 1865-1869 +18 Ulysses S. Grant Ill. Rep. 1869-1877 Schuyler Colfax + Henry Wilson +19 Rutherford B. Hayes Ohio Rep. 1877-1881 Wm. A. Wheeler +20 James A. Garfield Ohio Rep. 1881-1881 Chester A. Arthur +21 Chester A. Arthur[20] N.Y. Rep. 1881-1885 +22 Grover Cleveland N.Y. Dem. 1885-1889 Thomas A. Hendricks +23 Benjamin Harrison Ind. Rep. 1889-1893 Levi P. Morton +24 Grover Cleveland N.Y. Dem. 1893-1897 Adlai E. Stevenson +25 William McKinley Ohio Rep. 1897-1901 Garrett A. Hobart + Theodore Roosevelt +26 Theodore Roosevelt[20]N.Y. Rep. 1901-1909 Chas. W. Fairbanks +27 William H. Taft Ohio Rep. 1909-1913 James S. Sherman +28 Woodrow Wilson N.J. Dem. 1913-1921 Thomas R. Marshall +29 Warren G. Harding Ohio Rep. 1921- Calvin Coolidge + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] Promoted from the vice-presidency on the death of the president. + +POPULATION OF THE OUTLYING POSSESSIONS: 1920 AND 1910 + +----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------- + AREA | 1920 | 1910 +----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------- +United States with outlying possessions |117,857,509 | 101,146,530 + +--------------+--------------- +Continental United States |105,708,771 | 91,972,266 +Outlying Possessions | 12,148,738 | 9,174,264 + +--------------|--------------- + Alaska | 54,899 | 64,356 + American Samoa | 8,056 | 7,251[21] + Guam | 13,275 | 11,806 + Hawaii | 255,912 | 191,909 + Panama Canal Zone | 22,858 | 62,810[21] + Porto Rico | 1,299,809 | 1,118,012 + Military and naval, etc., service | | + abroad | 117,238 | 55,608 + Philippine Islands |10,350,640[22]| 7,635,426[23] + Virgin Islands of the United States | 26,051[24]| 27,086[25] +----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------- + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Population in 1912. + +[22] Population in 1918. + +[23] Population in 1903. + +[24] Population in 1917. + +[25] Population in 1911. + + + + +A TOPICAL SYLLABUS + +As a result of a wholesome reaction against the purely chronological +treatment of history, there is now a marked tendency in the direction of +a purely topical handling of the subject. The topical method, however, +may also be pushed too far. Each successive stage of any topic can be +understood only in relation to the forces of the time. For that reason, +the best results are reached when there is a combination of the +chronological and the topical methods. It is therefore suggested that +the teacher first follow the text closely and then review the subject +with the aid of this topical syllabus. The references are to pages. + + +=Immigration= + + I. Causes: religious (1-2, 4-11, 302), economic (12-17, 302-303), + and political (302-303). + II. Colonial immigration. + 1. Diversified character: English, Scotch-Irish, Irish, Jews, + Germans and other peoples (6-12). + 2. Assimilation to an American type; influence of the land + system (23-25, 411). + 3. Enforced immigration: indentured servitude, slavery, etc. + (13-17). + III. Immigration between 1789-1890. + 1. Nationalities: English, Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians + (278, 302-303). + 2. Relations to American life (432-433, 445). + IV. Immigration and immigration questions after 1890. + 1. Change in nationalities (410-411). + 2. Changes in economic opportunities (411). + 3. Problems of congestion and assimilation (410). + 4. Relations to labor and illiteracy (582-586). + 5. Oriental immigration (583). + 6. The restriction of immigration (583-585). + +=Expansion of the United States= + + I. Territorial growth. + 1. Territory of the United States in 1783 (134 and color map). + 2. Louisiana purchase, 1803 (188-193 and color map). + 3. Florida purchase, 1819 (204). + 4. Annexation of Texas, 1845 (278-281). + 5. Acquisition of Arizona, New Mexico, California, and other + territory at close of Mexican War, 1848 (282-283). + 6. The Gadsden purchase, 1853 (283). + 7. Settlement of the Oregon boundary question, 1846 (284-286). + 8. Purchase of Alaska from Russia, 1867 (479). + 9. Acquisition of Tutuila in Samoan group, 1899 (481-482). + 10. Annexation of Hawaii, 1898 (484). + 11. Acquisition of Porto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam at + close of Spanish War, 1898 (493-494). + 12. Acquisition of Panama Canal strip, 1904 (508-510). + 13. Purchase of Danish West Indies, 1917 (593). + 14. Extension of protectorate over Haiti, Santo Domingo, and + Nicaragua (593-594). + II. Development of colonial self-government. + 1. Hawaii (485). + 2. Philippines (516-518). + 3. Porto Rico (515-516). + III. Sea power. + 1. In American Revolution (118). + 2. In the War of 1812 (193-201). + 3. In the Civil War (353-354). + 4. In the Spanish-American War (492). + 5. In the Caribbean region (512-519). + 6. In the Pacific (447-448, 481). + 7. The role of the American navy (515). + +=The Westward Advance of the People= + + I. Beyond the Appalachians. + 1. Government and land system (217-231). + 2. The routes (222-224). + 3. The settlers (221-223, 228-230). + 4. Relations with the East (230-236). + II. Beyond the Mississippi. + 1. The lower valley (271-273). + 2. The upper valley (275-276). + III. Prairies, plains, and desert. + 1. Cattle ranges and cowboys (276-278, 431-432). + 2. The free homesteads (432-433). + 3. Irrigation (434-436, 523-525). + IV. The Far West. + 1. Peculiarities of the West (433-440). + 2. The railways (425-431). + 3. Relations to the East and Europe (443-447). + 4. American power in the Pacific (447-449). + +=The Wars of American History= + + I. Indian wars (57-59). + II. Early colonial wars: King William's, Queen Anne's, and King + George's (59). + III. French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), 1754-1763 (59-61). + IV. Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 (99-135). + V. The War of 1812, 1812-1815 (193-201). + VI. The Mexican War, 1845-1848 (276-284). + VII. The Civil War, 1861-1865 (344-375). + VIII. The Spanish War, 1898 (485-497). + IX. The World War, 1914-1918 [American participation, 1917-1918] + (596-625). + +=Government= + + I. Development of the American system of government. + 1. Origin and growth of state government. + _a._ The trading corporation (2-4), religious congregation + (4-5), and proprietary system (5-6). + _b._ Government of the colonies (48-53). + _c._ Formation of the first state constitutions (108-110). + _d._ The admission of new states (_see_ Index under each + state). + _e._ Influence of Jacksonian Democracy (238-247). + _f._ Growth of manhood suffrage (238-244). + _g._ Nullification and state sovereignty (180-182, 251-257). + _h._ The doctrine of secession (345-346). + _i._ Effects of the Civil War on position of states (366, + 369-375). + _j._ Political reform--direct government--initiative, + referendum, and recall (540-544). + 2. Origin and growth of national government. + _a._ British imperial control over the colonies (64-72). + _b._ Attempts at intercolonial union--New England + Confederation, Albany plan (61-62). + _c._ The Stamp Act Congress (85-86). + _d._ The Continental Congresses (99-101). + _e._ The Articles of Confederation (110-111, 139-143). + _f._ The formation of the federal Constitution (143-160). + _g._ Development of the federal Constitution. + (1) Amendments 1-11--rights of persons and states (163). + (2) Twelfth amendment--election of President (184, note). + (3) Amendments 13-15--Civil War settlement (358, 366, 369, + 370, 374, 375). + (4) Sixteenth amendment--income tax (528-529). + (5) Seventeenth amendment--election of Senators (541-542). + (6) Eighteenth amendment--prohibition (591-592). + (7) Nineteenth amendment--woman suffrage (563-568). + 3. Development of the suffrage. + _a._ Colonial restrictions (51-52). + _b._ Provisions of the first state constitutions + (110, 238-240). + _c._ Position under federal Constitution of 1787 (149). + _d._ Extension of manhood suffrage (241-244). + _e._ Extension and limitation of negro suffrage (373-375, + 382-387). + _f._ Woman suffrage (560-568). + II. Relation of government to economic and social welfare. + 1. Debt and currency. + _a._ Colonial paper money (80). + _b._ Revolutionary currency and debt (125-127). + _c._ Disorders under Articles of Confederation (140-141). + _d._ Powers of Congress under the Constitution to coin money + (_see_ Constitution in the Appendix). + _e._ First United States bank notes (167). + _f._ Second United States bank notes (257). + _g._ State bank notes (258). + _h._ Civil War greenbacks and specie payment (352-353, 454). + _i._ The Civil War debt (252). + _j._ Notes of National Banks under act of 1864 (369). + _k._ Demonetization of silver and silver legislation + (452-458). + _l._ The gold standard (472). + _m._ The federal reserve notes (589). + _n._ Liberty bonds (606). + 2. Banking systems. + _a._ The first United States bank (167). + _b._ The second United States bank--origin and destruction + (203, 257-259). + _c._ United States treasury system (263). + _d._ State banks (258). + _e._ The national banking system of 1864 (369). + _f._ Services of banks (407-409). + _g._ Federal reserve system (589). + 3. The tariff. + _a._ British colonial system (69-72). + _b._ Disorders under Articles of Confederation (140). + _c._ The first tariff under the Constitution (150, 167-168). + _d._ Development of the tariff, 1816-1832 (252-254). + _f._ Tariff and nullification (254-256). + _g._ Development to the Civil War--attitude of South and West + (264, 309-314, 357). + _h._ Republicans and Civil War tariffs (352, 367). + _i._ Revival of the tariff controversy under Cleveland (422). + _j._ Tariff legislation after 1890--McKinley bill (422), + Wilson bill (459), Dingley bill (472), Payne-Aldrich bill + (528), Underwood bill (588). + 4. Foreign and domestic commerce and transportation + (_see_ Tariff, Immigration, and Foreign Relations). + _a._ British imperial regulations (69-72). + _b._ Confusion under Articles of Confederation (140). + _c._ Provisions of federal Constitution (150). + _d._ Internal improvements--aid to roads, canals, etc. + (230-236). + _e._ Aid to railways (403). + _f._ Service of railways (402). + _g._ Regulation of railways (460-461, 547-548). + _h._ Control of trusts and corporations (461-462, 589-590). + 5. Land and natural resources. + _a._ British control over lands (80). + _b._ Early federal land measures (219-221). + _c._ The Homestead act (368, 432-445). + _d._ Irrigation and reclamation (434-436, 523-525). + _e._ Conservation of natural resources (523-526). + 6. Legislation advancing human rights and general welfare + (_see_ Suffrage). + _a._ Abolition of slavery: civil and political rights of + negroes (357-358, 373-375). + _b._ Extension of civil and political rights to women + (554-568). + _c._ Legislation relative to labor conditions (549-551, + 579-581, 590-591). + _d._ Control of public utilities (547-549). + _e._ Social reform and the war on poverty (549-551). + _f._ Taxation and equality of opportunity (551-552). + +=Political Parties and Political Issues= + + I. The Federalists _versus_ the Anti-Federalists [Jeffersonian + Republicans] from about 1790 to about 1816 (168-208, 201-203). + 1. Federalist leaders: Hamilton, John Adams, John Marshall, + Robert Morris. + 2. Anti-Federalist leaders: Jefferson, Madison, Monroe. + 3. Issues: funding the debt, assumption of state debts, first + United States bank, taxation, tariff, strong central + government _versus_ states' rights, and the Alien and + Sedition acts. + II. Era of "Good Feeling" from about 1816 to about 1824, a period + of no organized party opposition (248). + III. The Democrats [former Jeffersonian Republicans] _versus_ the + Whigs [or National Republicans] from about 1832 to 1856 + (238-265, 276-290, 324-334). + 1. Democratic leaders: Jackson, Van Buren, Calhoun, Benton. + 2. Whig leaders: Webster and Clay. + 3. Issues: second United States bank, tariff, nullification, + Texas, internal improvements, and disposition of Western + lands. + IV. The Democrats _versus_ the Republicans from about 1856 to the + present time (334-377, 388-389, 412-422, 451-475, 489-534, + 588-620). + 1. Democratic leaders: Jefferson Davis, Tilden, Cleveland, + Bryan, and Wilson. + 2. Republican leaders: Lincoln, Blaine, McKinley, Roosevelt. + 3. Issues: Civil War and reconstruction, currency, tariff, + taxation, trusts, railways, foreign policies, imperialism, + labor questions, and policies with regard to land and + conservation. + V. Minor political parties. + 1. Before the Civil War: Free Soil (319) and Labor Parties + (306-307). + 2. Since the Civil War: Greenback (463-464), Populist (464), + Liberal Republican (420), Socialistic (577-579), Progressive + (531-534, 602-603). + +=The Economic Development of the United States= + + I. The land and natural resources. + 1. The colonial land system: freehold, plantation, and manor + (20-25). + 2. Development of the freehold in the West (220-221, 228-230). + 3. The Homestead act and its results (368, 432-433). + 4. The cattle range and cowboy (431-432). + 5. Disappearance of free land (443-445). + 6. Irrigation and reclamation (434-436). + 7. Movement for the conservation of resources (523-526). + II. Industry. + 1. The rise of local and domestic industries (28-32). + 2. British restrictions on American enterprise (67-69, 70-72). + 3. Protective tariffs (see above, 648-649). + 4. Development of industry previous to the Civil War (295-307). + 5. Great progress of industry after the war (401-406). + 6. Rise and growth of trusts and combinations (406-412, + 472-474). + III. Commerce and transportation. + 1. Extent of colonial trade and commerce (32-35). + 2. British regulation (69-70). + 3. Effects of the Revolution and the Constitution + (139-140, 154). + 4. Growth of American shipping (195-196). + 5. Waterways and canals (230-236). + 6. Rise and extension of the railway system (298-300). + 7. Growth of American foreign trade (445-449). + IV. Rise of organized labor. + 1. Early phases before the Civil War: local unions, city + federations, and national unions in specific trades + (304-307). + 2. The National Trade Union, 1866-1872 (574-575). + 3. The Knights of Labor (575-576). + 4. The American Federation of Labor (573-574). + _a._ Policies of the Federation (576-577). + _b._ Relations to politics (579-581). + _c._ Contests with socialists and radicals (577-579). + _d._ Problems of immigration (582-585). + 5. The relations of capital and labor. + _a._ The corporation and labor (410, 570-571). + _b._ Company unions and profit-sharing (571-572). + _c._ Welfare work (573). + _d._ Strikes (465, 526, 580-581). + _e._ Arbitration (581-582). + +=American Foreign Relations= + + I. Colonial period. + 1. Indian relations (57-59). + 2. French relations (59-61). + II. Period of conflict and independence. + 1. Relations with Great Britain (77-108, 116-125, 132-135). + 2. Establishment of connections with European powers (128). + 3. The French alliance of 1778 (128-130). + 4. Assistance of Holland and Spain (130). + III. Relations with Great Britain since 1783. + 1. Commercial settlement in Jay treaty of 1794 (177-178). + 2. Questions arising out of European wars [1793-1801] + (176-177, 180). + 3. Blockade and embargo problems (193-199). + 4. War of 1812 (199-201). + 5. Monroe Doctrine and Holy Alliance (205-207). + 6. Maine boundary--Webster-Ashburton treaty (265). + 7. Oregon boundary (284-286). + 8. Attitude of Great Britain during Civil War (354-355). + 9. Arbitration of _Alabama_ claims (480-481). + 10. The Samoan question (481-482) + 11. The Venezuelan question (482-484). + 12. British policy during Spanish-American War (496-497). + 13. Controversy over blockade, 1914-1917 (598-600). + 14. The World War (603-620). + IV. Relations with France. + 1. The colonial wars (59-61). + 2. The French alliance of 1778 (128-130). + 3. Controversies over the French Revolution (128-130). + 4. Commercial questions arising out of the European wars + (176-177, 180, 193-199). + 5. Attitude of Napoleon III toward the Civil War (354-355). + 6. The Mexican entanglement (478-479). + 7. The World War (596-620). + V. Relations with Germany. + 1. Negotiations with Frederick, king of Prussia (128). + 2. The Samoan controversy (481-482). + 3. Spanish-American War (491). + 4. The Venezuelan controversy (512). + 5. The World War (596-620). + VI. Relations with the Orient. + 1. Early trading connections (486-487). + 2. The opening of China (447). + 3. The opening of Japan (448). + 4. The Boxer rebellion and the "open door" policy (499-502). + 5. Roosevelt and the close of the Russo-Japanese War (511). + 6. The Oriental immigration question (583-584). + VII. The United States and Latin America. + 1. Mexican relations. + _a._ Mexican independence and the Monroe Doctrine (205-207). + _b._ Mexico and French intervention--policy of the United + States (478-479). + _c._ The overthrow of Diaz (1911) and recent questions + (594-596). + 2. Cuban relations. + _a._ Slavery and the "Ostend Manifesto" (485-486). + _b._ The revolutionary period, 1867-1877 (487). + _c._ The revival of revolution (487-491). + _d._ American intervention and the Spanish War (491-496). + _e._ The Platt amendment and American protection (518-519). + 3. Caribbean and other relations. + _a._ Acquisition of Porto Rico (493). + _b._ The acquisition of the Panama Canal strip (508-510). + _c._ Purchase of Danish West Indies (593). + _d._ Venezuelan controversies (482-484, 512). + _e._ Extension of protectorate over Haiti, Santo Domingo, + and Nicaragua (513-514, 592-594). + + + + +INDEX + + +Abolition, 318, 331 + +Adams, Abigail, 556 + +Adams, John, 97, 128, 179ff. + +Adams, J.Q., 247, 319 + +Adams, Samuel, 90, 99, 108 + +Adamson law, 590 + +Aguinaldo, 497 + +Alabama, admission, 227 + +_Alabama_ claims, 480 + +Alamance, battle, 92 + +Alamo, 280 + +Alaska, purchase, 479 + +Albany, plan of union, 62 + +Algonquins, 57 + +Alien law, 180 + +Amendment, method of, 156 + +Amendments to federal Constitution: first eleven, 163 + twelfth, 184, note + thirteenth, 358 + fourteenth, 366, 369, 387 + fifteenth, 358 + sixteenth, 528 + seventeenth, 542 + eighteenth, 591 + nineteenth, 563ff. + +American expeditionary force, 610 + +American Federation of Labor, 573, 608 + +Americanization, 585 + +Amnesty, for Confederates, 383 + +Andros, 65 + +Annapolis, convention, 144 + +Antietam, 357 + +Anti-Federalists, 169 + +Anti-slavery. _See_ Abolition + +Anthony, Susan, 564 + +Appomattox, 363 + +Arbitration: international, 480, 514, 617 + labor disputes, 582 + +Arizona, admission, 443 + +Arkansas, admission, 272 + +Arnold, Benedict, 114, 120 + +Articles of Confederation, 110, 139ff., 146 + +Ashburton, treaty, 265 + +Assembly, colonial, 49ff., 89ff. + +Assumption, 164ff. + +Atlanta, 361 + +Australian ballot, 540 + + +Bacon, Nathaniel, 58 + +Ballot: Australian, 540 + short, 544 + +Baltimore, Lord, 6 + +Bank: first U.S., 167 + second, 203, 257ff. + +Banking system: state, 300 + U.S. national, 369 + services of, 407 + _See also_ Federal reserve + +Barry, John, 118 + +Bastille, 172 + +Bell, John, 341 + +Belleau Wood, 611 + +Berlin decree, 194 + +Blockade: by England and France, 193ff. + Southern ports, 353 + law and practice in 1914, 598ff. + +Bond servants, 13ff. + +Boone, Daniel, 28, 218 + +Boston: massacre, 91 + evacuation, 116 + port bill, 94 + +Bowdoin, Governor, 142 + +Boxer rebellion, 499 + +Brandywine, 129 + +Breckinridge, J.C., 340 + +Bright, John, 355 + +Brown, John, 338 + +Brown University, 45 + +Bryan, W.J., 468ff., 495, 502, 503, 527 + +Buchanan, James, 335, 368 + +Budget system, 529 + +Bull Run, 350 + +Bunker Hill, 102 + +Burgoyne, General, 116, 118, 130 + +Burke, Edmund, 87, 96ff., 132, 175 + +Burr, Aaron, 183, 231 + +Business. _See_ Industry + + +Calhoun, J.C., 198ff., 203, 208, 281, 321, 328 + +California, 286ff. + +Canada, 61, 114, 530 + +Canals, 233, 298, 508 + +Canning, British premier, 206 + +Cannon, J.G., 530 + +Cantigny, 611 + +Caribbean, 479 + +Carpet baggers, 373 + +Cattle ranger, 431ff. + +Caucus, 245 + +Censorship. _See_ Newspapers + +Charles I, 3 + +Charles II, 65 + +Charleston, 36, 116 + +Charters, colonial, 2ff., 41 + +Chase, Justice, 187 + +Chateau-Thierry, 611 + +Checks and balances, 153 + +_Chesapeake_, the, 195 + +Chickamauga, 361 + +Child labor law, 591 + +China, 447, 499ff. + +Chinese labor, 583 + +Churches, colonial, 39ff., 42, 43 + +Cities, 35, 36, 300ff., 395, 410, 544 + +City manager plan, 545 + +Civil liberty, 358ff., 561 + +Civil service, 419, 536, 538ff. + +Clarendon, Lord, 6 + +Clark, G.R., 116, 218 + +Clay, Henry, 198, 203, 248, 261, 328 + +Clayton anti-trust act, 489 + +Clergy. _See_ Churches + +Cleveland, Grover, 421, 465, 482, 484, 489, 582 + +Clinton, Sir Henry, 119 + +Colorado, admission, 441 + +Combination. _See_ Trusts + +Commerce, colonial, 33ff. + disorders after 1781, 140 + Constitutional provisions on, 154 + Napoleonic wars, 176, 193ff. + domestic growth of, 307 + congressional regulation of, 460ff., 547 + _See also_ Trusts and Railways + +Commission government, 544 + +Committees of correspondence, 108 + +_Commonsense_, pamphlet, 103 + +Communism, colonial, 20f. + +Company, trading, 2f. + +Compromises: of Constitution, 148, 150, 151 + Missouri, 325, 332 + of 1850, 328ff. + Crittenden, 350 + +Conciliation, with England, 131 + +Concord, battle, 100 + +Confederacy, Southern, 346ff. + +Confederation: New England, 61f. + _See also_ Articles of + +Congregation, religious, 4 + +Congress: stamp act, 85 + continental, 99ff. + under Articles, 139f. + under Constitution, 152 + powers of, 153 + +Connecticut: founded, 4ff. + self-government, 49 + _See also_ Suffrage + constitutions, state + +Conservation, 523ff. + +Constitution: formation of, 143ff. + _See also_ Amendment + +_Constitution_, the, 200 + +Constitutions, state, 109ff., 238ff., 385ff. + +Constitutional union party, 340 + +Contract labor law, 584 + +Convention: 1787, 144ff. + nominating, 405 + +Convicts, colonial, 15 + +Conway Cabal, 120 + +Cornwallis, General, 116, 119, 131 + +Corporation and labor, 571. _See also_ Trusts + +Cotton. _See_ Planting system + +Cowboy, 431ff. + +Cowpens, battle, 116 + +Cox, J.M., 619 + +_Crisis, The_, pamphlet, 115 + +Crittenden Compromise, 350 + +Cuba, 485ff., 518 + +Cumberland Gap, 223 + +Currency. _See_ Banking + + +Danish West Indies, purchased, 593 + +Dartmouth College, 45 + +Daughters of liberty, 84 + +Davis, Jefferson, 346ff. + +Deane, Silas, 128 + +Debs, E.V., 465, 534 + +Debt, national, 164ff. + +Decatur, Commodore, 477 + +Declaration of Independence, 101ff. + +Defense, national, 154 + +De Kalb, 121 + +Delaware, 3, 49 + +De Lome affair, 490 + +Democratic party, name assumed, 260 + _See also_ Anti-Federalists + +Dewey, Admiral, 492 + +Diplomacy: of the Revolution, 127ff. + Civil War, 354 + +Domestic industry, 28 + +Donelson, Fort, 361 + +Dorr Rebellion, 243 + +Douglas, Stephen A., 333, 337, 368 + +Draft: Civil War, 351 + World War, 605 + +Draft riots, 351 + +Dred Scott case, 335, 338 + +Drug act, 523 + +Duquesne, Fort, 60 + +Dutch, 3, 12 + + +East India Company, 93 + +Education, 43ff., 557, 591 + +Electors, popular election of, 245 + +Elkins law, 547 + +Emancipation, 357ff. + +Embargo acts, 186ff. + +England: Colonial policy of, 64ff. + Revolutionary War, 99ff. + Jay treaty, 177 + War of 1812, 198ff. + Monroe Doctrine, 206 + Ashburton treaty, 265 + Civil War, 354 + _Alabama_ claims, 480 + Samoa, 481 + Venezuela question, 482 + Spanish War, 496 + World War, 596ff. + +Erie Canal, 233 + +Esch-Cummins bill, 582 + +Espionage act, 607 + +Excess profits tax, 606 + +Executive, federal, plans for, 151 + +Expunging resolution, 260 + + +Farm loan act, 589 + +Federal reserve act, 589 + +Federal trade commission, 590 + +_Federalist_, the, 158 + +Federalists, 168ff., 201ff. + +Feudal elements in colonies, 21f. + +Filipino revolt. _See_ Philippines + +Fillmore, President, 485 + +Finances: colonial, 64 + revolutionary, 125ff. + disorders, 140 + Civil War, 347, 352ff. + World War, 606 + _See also_ Banking + +Fishing industry, 31 + +Fleet, world tour, 515 + +Florida, 134, 204 + +Foch, General, 611 + +Food and fuel law, 607 + +Force bills, 384 ff., 375 + +Forests, national, 525ff. + +Fourteen points, 605 + +Fox, C.J., 132 + +France: colonization, 59ff. + French and Indian War, 60ff. + American Revolution, 116, 123, 128ff. + French Revolution, 165ff. + Quarrel with, 180 + Napoleonic wars, 193ff. + Louisiana purchase, 190 + French Revolution of 1830, 266 + Civil War, 354 + Mexican affair, 478 + World War, 596ff. + +Franchises, utility, 548 + +Franklin, Benjamin, 45, 62, 82, 86, 128, 134 + +Freedmen. _See_ Negro + +Freehold. _See_ Land + +Free-soil party, 319 + +Fremont, J.C., 288, 334 + +French. _See_ France + +Friends, the, 5 + +Frontier. _See_ Land + +Fugitive slave act, 329 + +Fulton, Robert, 231, 234 + +Fundamental articles, 5 + +Fundamental orders, 5 + + +Gage, General, 95, 100 + +Garfield, President, 416 + +Garrison, William Lloyd, 318 + +_Gaspee_, the, 92 + +Gates, General, 116, 120, 131 + +Genet, 177 + +George I, 66 + +George II, 4, 66, 82 + +George III, 77ff. + +Georgia: founded, 4 + royal province, 49 + state constitution, 109 + _See also_ Secession + +Germans: colonial immigration, 9ff. + in Revolutionary War, 102ff. + later immigration, 303 + +Germany: Samoa, 481 + Venezuela affair, 512 + World War, 596f. + +Gerry, Elbridge, 148 + +Gettysburg, 362 + +Gibbon, Edward, 133 + +Gold: discovery, 288 + standard, 466, 472 + +Gompers, Samuel, 573, 608 + +Governor, royal, 49ff. + +Grandfather clause, 386f. + +Grangers, 460ff. + +Grant, General, 361, 416, 480, 487 + +Great Britain. _See_ England + +Greeley, Horace, 420 + +Greenbacks, 454ff. + +Greenbackers, 462ff. + +Greene, General, 117, 120 + +Grenville, 79ff. + +Guilford, battle, 117 + + +Habeas corpus, 358 + +Hague conferences, 514 + +Haiti, 593 + +Hamilton, Alexander, 95, 143, 158, 162, 168ff., 231 + +Harding, W.G., 389, 619 + +Harlem Heights, battle, 114 + +Harper's Ferry, 339 + +Harrison, Benjamin, 422, 484 + +Harrison, W.H., 198, 263f. + +Hartford convention, 201ff., 238 + +Harvard, 44 + +Hawaii, 484f. + +Hay, John, 477, 500ff. + +Hayne, Robert, 256 + +Hays, President, 416f. + +Henry, Patrick, 85 + +Hepburn act, 523 + +Hill, James J., 429 + +Holland, 130 + +Holy Alliance, 205 + +Homestead act, 368, 432 + +Hooker, Thomas, 5 + +Houston, Sam, 279ff. + +Howe, General, 118 + +Hughes, Charles E., 602 + +Huguenots, 10 + +Hume, David, 132 + +Hutchinson, Anne, 5 + + +Idaho, admission, 442 + +Income tax, 459, 466, 528, 588, 606 + +Inheritance tax, 606 + +Illinois, admission, 226 + +Illiteracy, 585 + +Immigration: colonial, 1-17 + before Civil War, 302, 367 + after Civil War, 410ff. + problems of, 582ff. + +Imperialism, 494ff., 498f., 502ff. + +Implied powers, 212 + +Impressment of seamen, 194 + +Indentured servants, 13f. + +Independence, Declaration of, 107 + +Indiana, admission, 226 + +Indians, 57ff., 81, 431 + +Industry: colonial, 28ff. + growth of, 296ff. + during Civil War, 366 + after 1865, 390ff., 401ff., 436ff., 559 + _See also_ Trusts + +Initiative, the, 543 + +Injunction, 465, 580 + +Internal improvements, 260, 368 + +Interstate commerce act, 461, 529 + +Intolerable acts, 93 + +Invisible government, 537 + +Iowa, admission, 275 + +Irish, 11, 302 + +Iron. _See_ Industry + +Irrigation, 434ff., 523ff. + + +Jackson, Andrew, 201, 204, 246, 280 + +Jacobins, 174 + +James I, 3 + +James II, 65 + +Jamestown, 3, 21 + +Japan, relations with, 447, 511, 583 + +Jay, John, 128, 158, 177 + +Jefferson, Thomas: Declaration of Independence, 107 + Secretary of State, 162ff. + political leader, 169 + as President, 183ff. + Monroe Doctrine, 206, 231 + +Jews, migration of, 11 + +Johnson, Andrew, 365, 368, 371f. + +Johnson, Samuel, 132 + +Joliet, 59 + +Jones, John Paul, 118 + +Judiciary: British system, 67 + federal, 152 + + +Kansas, admission, 441 + +Kansas-Nebraska bill, 333 + +Kentucky: admission, 224 + Resolutions, 182 + +King George's War, 59 + +King Philip's War, 57 + +King William's War, 59 + +King's College (Columbia), 45 + +Knights of Labor, 575ff. + +Kosciusko, 121 + +Ku Klux Klan, 382 + + +Labor: rise of organized, 304 + parties, 462ff. + question, 521 + American Federation, 573ff. + legislation, 590 + World War, 608ff. + +Lafayette, 121 + +La Follette, Senator, 531 + +Land: tenure 20ff. + sales restricted, 80 + Western survey, 219 + federal sales policy, 220 + Western tenure, 228 + disappearance of free, 445 + new problems, 449 + _See also_ Homestead act + +La Salle, 59 + +Lawrence, Captain, 200 + +League of Nations, 616ff. + +Le Boeuf, Fort, 59 + +Lee, General Charles, 131 + +Lee, R.E., 357 + +Lewis and Clark expedition, 193 + +Lexington, battle, 100 + +Liberal Republicans, 420 + +Liberty loan, 606 + +Lincoln: Mexican War, 282 + Douglas debates, 336f. + election, 341 + Civil War, 344ff. + reconstruction, 371 + +Literacy test, 585 + +Livingston, R.R., 191 + +Locke, John, 95 + +London Company, 3 + +Long Island, battle, 114 + +Lords of trade, 67ff. + +Louis XVI, 171ff. + +Louisiana: ceded to Spain, 61 + purchase, 190ff. + admission, 227 + +Loyalists. _See_ Tories + +_Lusitania_, the, 601ff. + + +McClellan, General, 362, 365 + +McCulloch _vs._ Maryland, 211 + +McKinley, William, 422, 467ff., 489ff. + +Macaulay, Catherine, 132 + +Madison, James, 158, 197ff. + +Maine, 325 + +_Maine_, the, 490 + +Manila Bay, battle, 492 + +Manors, colonial, 22 + +Manufactures. _See_ Industry + +Marbury _vs._ Madison, 209 + +Marietta, 220 + +Marion, Francis, 117, 120 + +Marquette, 59 + +Marshall, John, 208ff. + +Martineau, Harriet, 267 + +Maryland, founded, 6, 49, 109, 239, 242 + +Massachusetts: founded, 3ff. + _See also_ Immigration, Royal province, Industry, Revolutionary War, + Constitutions, state, Suffrage, Commerce, and Industry + +Massachusetts Bay Company, 3 + founded, 3ff. + _See also_ Immigration, Royal province + +_Mayflower_ compact, 4 + +Mercantile theory, 69 + +Merchants. _See_ Commerce + +_Merrimac_, the, 353 + +Meuse-Argonne, battle, 612 + +Mexico: and Texas, 278ff. + later relations, 594f. + +Michigan, admission, 273 + +Midnight appointees, 187 + +Milan Decree, 194 + +Militia, Revolutionary War, 122 + +Minimum wages, 551 + +Minnesota, admission, 275 + +Mississippi River, and West, 189f. + +Missouri Compromise, 207, 227, 271, 325, 332 + +Molasses act, 71 + +Money, paper, 80, 126, 155, 369 + +_Monitor_, the, 353 + +Monroe, James, 204ff., 191 + +Monroe Doctrine, 205, 512 + +Montana, admission, 442 + +Montgomery, General, 114 + +Morris, Robert, 127 + +Mothers' pensions, 551 + +Mohawks, 57 + +Muckraking, 536f. + +Mugwumps, 420 + +Municipal ownership, 549 + + +Napoleon I, 190 + +Napoleon III: Civil War, 354f. + Mexico, 477 + +National Labor Union, 574 + +National road, 232 + +Nationalism, colonial, 56ff. + +Natural rights, 95 + +Navigation acts, 69 + +Navy: in Revolution, 188 + War of 1812, 195 + Civil War, 353 + World War, 610. + _See also_ Sea Power + +Nebraska, admission, 441 + +Negro: Civil rights, 370ff. + in agriculture, 393ff. + status of, 396ff. + _See also_ Slavery + +New England: colonial times, 6ff., 35, 40ff. + _See also_ Industry, Suffrage, Commerce, and Wars + +New Hampshire: founded, 4ff. + _See also_ Immigration, Royal province, Suffrage, and Constitutions, + state + +New Jersey, founded, 6. + _See also_ Immigration, Royal province, Suffrage, and + Constitutions, state + +Newlands, Senator, 524 + +New Mexico, admission, 443 + +New Orleans, 59, 190 + battle, 201 + +Newspapers, colonial, 46ff. + +New York: founded by Dutch, 3 + transferred to English, 49 + _See also_ Dutch, Immigration, Royal province, Commerce, Suffrage, + and Constitutions, state + +New York City, colonial, 36 + +Niagara, Fort, 59 + +Nicaragua protectorate, 594 + +Non-intercourse act, 196ff. + +Non-importation, 84ff., 99 + +North, Lord, 100, 131, 133 + +North Carolina: founded, 6. + _See also_ Royal province, Immigration, Suffrage, and Constitutions, + state + +North Dakota, admission, 442 + +Northwest Ordinance, 219 + +Nullification, 182, 251ff. + + +Oglethorpe, James, 3 + +Ohio, admission, 225 + +Oklahoma, admission, 443 + +Open door policy, 500 + +Oregon, 284ff. + +Ostend Manifesto, 486 + +Otis, James, 88, 95f. + + +Pacific, American influence, 447 + +Paine, Thomas, 103, 115, 175 + +Panama Canal, 508ff. + +Panics: 1837, 262 + 1857, 336 + 1873, 464 + 1893, 465 + +Parcel post, 529 + +Parker, A.B., 527 + +Parties: rise of, 168ff. + Federalists, 169ff. + Anti-Federalists (Jeffersonian Republicans), 169ff. + Democrats, 260 + Whigs, 260ff. + Republicans, 334ff. + Liberal Republicans, 420 + Constitutional union, 340 + minor parties, 462ff. + +Paterson, William, 196ff. + +Penn, William, 6 + +Pennsylvania: founded, 6 + _See also_ Penn, Germans, Immigration, Industry, Revolutionary War, + Constitutions, state, Suffrage + +Pennsylvania University, 45 + +Pensions, soldiers and sailors, 413, 607 + mothers', 551 + +Pequots, 57 + +Perry, O.H., 200 + +Pershing, General, 610 + +Philadelphia, 36, 116 + +Philippines, 492ff., 516ff., 592 + +Phillips, Wendell, 320 + +Pierce, Franklin, 295, 330 + +Pike, Z., 193, 287 + +Pilgrims, 4 + +Pinckney, Charles, 148 + +Pitt, William, 61, 79, 87, 132 + +Planting system, 22f., 25, 149, 389, 393ff. + +Plymouth, 4, 21 + +Polk, J.K., 265, 285f. + +Polygamy, 290f. + +Populist party, 464 + +Porto Rico, 515, 592 + +Postal savings bank, 529 + +Preble, Commodore, 196 + +Press. _See_ Newspapers + +Primary, direct, 541 + +Princeton, battle, 129 + University, 45 + +Profit sharing, 572 + +Progressive party, 531f. + +Prohibition, 591f. + +Proprietary colonies, 3, 6 + +Provinces, royal, 49ff. + +Public service, 538ff. + +Pulaski, 121 + +Pullman strike, 465 + +Pure food act, 523 + +Puritans, 3, 7, 40ff. + + +Quakers, 6ff. + +Quartering act, 83 + +Quebec act, 94 + +Queen Anne's War, 59 + +Quit rents, 21f. + + +Radicals, 579 + +Railways, 298, 402, 425, 460ff., 547, 621 + +Randolph, Edmund, 146, 147, 162 + +Ratification, of Constitution, 156ff. + +Recall, 543 + +Reclamation, 523ff. + +Reconstruction, 370ff. + +Referendum, the, 543 + +Reign of terror, 174 + +Republicans: Jeffersonian, 179 + rise of present party, 334ff. + supremacy of, 412ff. + _See also_ McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft + +Resumption, 454 + +Revolution: American, 99ff. + French, 171ff. + Russian, 619 + +Rhode Island: founded, 4ff. + self-government, 49 + _See also_ Suffrage + +Roosevelt, Theodore, 492, 500ff., 531, 570 + +Royal province, 49ff. + +Russia, 205, 207, 355, 479, 619 + +Russo-Japanese War, 511f. + + +Saint Mihiel, 612 + +Samoa, 481 + +San Jacinto, 280 + +Santa Fe trail, 287 + +Santo Domingo, 480, 513, 592 + +Saratoga, battle, 116, 130 + +Savannah, 116, 131 + +Scandinavians, 278 + +Schools. _See_ Education + +Scott, General, 283, 330 + +Scotch-Irish, 7ff. + +Seamen's act, 590 + +Sea power: American Revolution, 118 + Napoleonic wars, 193ff. + Civil War, 353 + Caribbean, 593 + Pacific, 447 + World War, 610ff. + +Secession, 344ff. + +Sedition: act of 1798, 180ff., 187 + of 1918, 608 + +Senators, popular election, 527, 541ff. + +Seven Years' War, 60ff. + +Sevier, John, 218 + +Seward, W.H., 322, 342 + +Shafter, General, 492 + +Shays's rebellion, 142 + +Sherman, General, 361 + +Sherman: anti-trust law, 461 + silver act, 458 + +Shiloh, 361 + +Shipping. _See_ Commerce + +Shipping act, 607 + +Silver, free, 455ff. + +Slavery: colonial, 16f. + trade, 150 + in Northwest, 219 + decline in North, 316f. + growth in South, 320ff. + and the Constitution, 324 + and territories, 325ff. + compromises, 350 + abolished, 357ff. + +Smith, Joseph, 290 + +Socialism, 577ff. + +Solid South, 388 + +Solomon, Hayn, 126 + +Sons of liberty, 82 + +South: economic and political views, 309ff. + _See also_ Slavery and Planting system, and Reconstruction + +South Carolina: founded, 6 + nullification, 253ff. + _See also_ Constitutions, state, Suffrage, Slavery, and Secession + +South Dakota, 442 + +Spain: and Revolution, 130 + Louisiana, 190 + Monroe Doctrine, 205 + Spanish War, 490ff. + +Spoils system, 244, 250, 418, 536ff. + +Stamp act, 82ff. + +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 564 + +States: disorders under Articles of Confederation, 141 + constitutions, federal limits on, 155 + position after Civil War, 366ff. + _See also_ Suffrage, Nullification, and Secession + +Steamboat, 234 + +Stowe, H.B., 332 + +Strikes: of 1877, 581 + Pullman, 581 + coal, 526 + _See also_ Labor + +Submarine campaign, 600ff. + +Suffrage: colonial, 42, 51 + first state constitutions, 239 + White manhood, 242 + Negro, 374ff., 385f. + Woman, 110, 562ff. + +Sugar act, 81 + +Sumner, Charles, 319 + +Sumter, Fort, 350 + +Swedes, 3, 13 + + +Taft, W.H., 527ff. + +Tammany Hall, 306, 418 + +Taney, Chief Justice, 357 + +Tariff: first, 167 + of 1816, 203 + development of, 251ff. + abominations, 249, 253 + nullification, 251 + of 1842, 264 + Southern views of, 309ff. + of 1857, 337 + Civil War, 367 + Wilson bill, 459 + McKinley bill, 422 + Dingley bill, 472 + Payne-Aldrich, 528 + Underwood, 588 + +Taxation: and representation, 149 + and Constitution, 154 + Civil War, 353 + and wealth, 522, 551 + and World War, 606 + +Tea act, 88 + +Tea party, 92 + +Tenement house reform, 549 + +Tennessee, 28, 224 + +Territories, Northwest, 219 + South of the Ohio, 219 + _See also_ Slavery and Compromise + +Texas, 278ff. + +Tippecanoe, battle, 198 + +Tocqueville, 267 + +Toleration, religious, 42 + +Tories, colonial, 84 + in Revolution, 112 + +Townshend acts, 80, 87 + +Trade, colonial, 70 + legislation, 70. _See_ Commerce + +Transylvania company, 28 + +Treasury, independent, 263 + +Treaties, of 1763, 61 + alliance with France, 177 + of 1783 with England, 134 + Jay, 177, 218 + Louisiana purchase, 191f. + of 1815, 201 + Ashburton, 265 + of 1848 with Mexico, 283 + Washington with England, 481 + with Spain, 492 + Versailles (1919), 612ff. + +Trenton, battle, 116 + +Trollope, Mrs., 268 + +Trusts, 405ff., 461, 472ff., 521, 526, 530 + +Tweed, W.M., 418 + +Tyler, President, 264ff., 281, 349 + + +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," 332 + +Union party, 365 + +Unions. _See_ Labor + +Utah, 290ff., 329, 442 + +Utilities, municipal, 548 + + +Vallandigham, 360 + +Valley Forge, 116, 129 + +Van Buren, Martin, 262 + +Venango, Fort, 59 + +Venezuela, 482ff., 512 + +Vermont, 223 + +Vicksburg, 361 + +Virginia: founded, 3. + _See also_ Royal province, Constitutions, state, Planting system, + Slavery, Secession, and Immigration + + +Walpole, Sir Robert, 66 + +Wars: colonial, 57ff. + Revolutionary, 99ff. + of 1812, 199ff. + Mexican, 282ff. + Civil, 344ff. + Spanish, 490ff. + World, 596ff. + +Washington: warns French, 60 + in French war, 63 + commander-in-chief, 101ff. + and movement for Constitution, 142ff. + as President, 166ff. + Farewell Address, 178 + +Washington City, 166 + +Washington State, 442 + +Webster, 256, 265, 328 + +Welfare work, 573 + +Whigs: English, 78 + colonial, 83 + rise of party, 260ff., 334, 340 + +Whisky Rebellion, 171 + +White Camelia, 382 + +White Plains, battle, 114 + +Whitman, Marcus, 284 + +William and Mary College, 45 + +Williams, Roger, 5, 42 + +Wilmot Proviso, 326 + +Wilson, James, 147 + +Wilson, Woodrow, election, 533f. + administrations, 588ff. + +Winthrop, John, 3 + +Wisconsin, admission, 274 + +Witchcraft, 41 + +Wollstonecraft, Mary, 556 + +Women: colonial, 28 + Revolutionary War, 124 + labor, 305 + education and civil rights, 554ff. + suffrage, 562ff. + +Workmen's compensation, 549 + +Writs of assistance, 88 + +Wyoming, admission, 442 + + +X, Y, Z affair, 180 + + +Yale, 44 + +Young, Brigham, 290 + + +Zenger, Peter, 48 + + * * * * * + +Printed in the United States of America. + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's notes: + +Punctuation normalized in all _Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._ + +Superscripted letters are denoted with a caret. For example, G^O +WASHINGTON. + +Period added after Mass on verso page. Original read "Mass, U.S.A." + +Chapter I, page 19, period added to pp. 55-159 and pp. 242-244. + +Chapter IV, page 61 cooperation changed to cooeperation twice to match +rest of text usage. Also on page 620. + +Chapter VI, page 121 changed maneuvered to manoevered. + +Chapter VIII, page 185, period added to "Vol." Original read "Vol III," + +Chapter X, page 219, changed coordinate to cooerdinate to reflect rest of +text usage. + +Chapter X, page 234, Italicized habeus corpus to match rest of text. + +Chapter XI, page 257 changed reestablished to reestablished to conform +to rest of text usage. + +Chapter XI, page 259 changed reelection to reelection + +Chapter XII, page 269 added period after "Vol" Vol. II + +Chapter XII, page 270. Title of work reads "_Selected Documents of +United States History, 1776-1761_". Research shows the document does +have this title. + +Chapter XV, page 351. changed "bout" to "about". "for only about" + +Chapter XVI, page 385. changed "provisons" to "provisions". + +Chapter XX, page 478. changed "aniversary" to "anniversary". + +Chapter XXIV, page 579 word "on" changed to "one" "five commissioners, +one of whom," + +Topical Syllabus. Missing periods added to normalize punctuation in +entries such as on page 648 (4) Sixteenth Amendment--income tax +(528-529). + +Appendix, page 631, comma changed to semi-colon on "bills of credit;" to +match rest of list. Also on "obligation of contracts;" + +Index, page 657, changed "Freesoil" to Free-soil to match rest of text +usage. + +Index, page 660, space removed from "396 ff." changed to "status of, +396ff." + +Index, Page 662, added comma to States: disorders under Articles of +Constitution, 141] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the United States +by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/examples/word_count/markov b/examples/word_count/markov new file mode 100755 index 0000000..a6b848f --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/markov @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +#!/usr/bin/env ruby + +require '../../couchrest' + +cr = CouchRest.new("http://localhost:5984") +db = cr.database('word-count-example') + +word = ARGV[0] +words = [word] +wprobs = {} + +while word + $stdout.print ' ' if words.length > 1 + $stdout.print word + $stdout.flush + + wprobs[word] ||= db.view('markov/chain-reduce', :startkey => [word,nil], :endkey => [word,{}],:group_level => 2) + + # puts + # puts "search #{word} #{wprobs[word]['rows'].length}" + # wprobs[word]['rows'].sort_by{|r|r['value']}.each{|r|puts [r['value'],r['key']].inspect} + + rows = wprobs[word]['rows'].select{|r|(r['key'][1]!='')}.sort_by{|r|r['value']} + row = rows[(-1*[rows.length,5].min)..-1].sort_by{rand}[0] + word = row ? row['key'][1] : nil + words << word +end + +$stdout.print '.' +$stdout.flush +puts + +# `say #{words.join(' ')}` + diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/books/chunked-map.js b/examples/word_count/views/books/chunked-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24ebfd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/books/chunked-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +function(doc) { + doc.title && doc.chunk && emit([doc.title, doc.chunk],null); +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/books/united-map.js b/examples/word_count/views/books/united-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02c88c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/books/united-map.js @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +function(doc){if(doc.text && doc.text.match(/united/)) emit([doc.title, doc.chunk],null)} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-map.js b/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df3bd70 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,6 @@ +function(doc){ + var words = doc.text.split(/\W/).filter(function(w) {return w.length > 0}).map(function(w){return w.toLowerCase()}); + for (var i = 0, l = words.length; i < l; i++) { + emit(words.slice(i,4),doc.title); + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-reduce.js b/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91926d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/markov/chain-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +function(key,vs,c){ + if (c) { + return sum(vs); + } else { + return vs.length; + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-map.js b/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd67655 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,6 @@ +function(doc){ + var words = doc.text.split(/\W/).map(function(w){return w.toLowerCase()}); + words.forEach(function(word){ + if (word.length > 0) emit([word,doc.title],1); + }); +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-reduce.js b/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7454a34 --- /dev/null +++ b/examples/word_count/views/word_count/count-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +function(key,combine){ + return sum(combine); +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/examples/word_count/word_count.rb b/examples/word_count/word_count.rb index 201f8bd..5e5ba2d 100644 --- a/examples/word_count/word_count.rb +++ b/examples/word_count/word_count.rb @@ -2,16 +2,18 @@ require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../couchrest' couch = CouchRest.new("http://localhost:5984") db = couch.database('word-count-example') -# db.delete! rescue nil -# db = couch.create_db('word-count-example') +db.delete! rescue nil +db = couch.create_db('word-count-example') %w{america.txt da-vinci.txt outline-of-science.txt ulysses.txt}.each do |book| +# %w{}.each do |book| title = book.split('.')[0] puts title File.open(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__),book),'r') do |file| lines = [] chunk = 0 while line = file.gets + puts chunk lines << line if lines.length > 10 db.save({ diff --git a/script/push_views.rb b/script/push_views.rb deleted file mode 100644 index 9c2e6fd..0000000 --- a/script/push_views.rb +++ /dev/null @@ -1,60 +0,0 @@ -$: << File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__)) + '/..' -require 'lib/parse' -require 'couchrest/couchrest' -require 'vendor/jsmin/lib/jsmin' -# require 'yaml' -# connect to couchdb - -cr = CouchRest.new("http://localhost:5984") -cr.create_db('grabbit-import') rescue nil -db = cr.database('grabbit-import') - -# create views from files -views = {} -viewfiles = Dir.glob(File.join(File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__)),"..","views","**","*.js")) - -libfiles = viewfiles.select{|f|/lib\.js/.match(f)} - -all = (viewfiles-libfiles).collect do |file| - filename = /(\w.*)-(\w.*)\.js/.match file.split('/').pop - filename.to_a + [file] -end - -@libfuncs = open(libfiles[0]).read - -def readjs(file) - st = open(file).read - st.sub!(/\/\/include-lib/,@libfuncs) - JSMin.minify(st) -end - -all.group_by do |f| - f[3].split('/')[-2] -end.each do |design,ps| - views[design] ||= {} - puts "design #{design}" - ps.group_by do |f| - f[1] - end.each do |view,parts| - puts "view #{view}" - views[design]["#{view}-reduce"] ||= {} - parts.each do |p| - puts "part #{p.inspect}" - views[design]["#{view}-reduce"][p[2]] = readjs(p[3]) - end - views[design]["#{view}-map"] = {:map => views[design]["#{view}-reduce"]['map']} - views[design].delete("#{view}-reduce") unless views[design]["#{view}-reduce"]['reduce'] - end -end - -views.each do |design,viewfuncs| - begin - view = db.get("_design/#{design}") - db.delete(view) - rescue - end - db.save({ - "_id" => "_design/#{design}", - :views => viewfuncs - }) -end diff --git a/views/mentions/inbound-map.js b/views/mentions/inbound-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28a461b --- /dev/null +++ b/views/mentions/inbound-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(doc){if(doc.mp3s){for(var i=0,m;m=doc.mp3s[i];i++){emit(m.href,doc.fetch.url);}}} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/mentions/inbound-reduce.js b/views/mentions/inbound-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4455a35 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/mentions/inbound-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ + +function(hrefs,ss){log(ss) +return ss[0];} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/mentions/mp3links-map.js b/views/mentions/mp3links-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6e91eb --- /dev/null +++ b/views/mentions/mp3links-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(doc){var fetchurl=doc.fetch&&doc.fetch.url;if(!fetchurl)return;doc.entries&&doc.entries.forEach(function(e){e.mp3s&&e.mp3s.forEach(function(mp3){mp3.href&&emit(mp3.href,fetchurl);});});doc.playlist&&doc.playlist.track&&doc.playlist.track.forEach(function(t){t.location&&t.location.forEach(function(url){emit(url,fetchurl);});});doc.mp3s&&doc.mp3s.forEach(function(mp3){mp3.href&&emit(mp3.href,fetchurl);});} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/mentions/mp3links-reduce.js b/views/mentions/mp3links-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..744be58 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/mentions/mp3links-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(ks,vs){log({keys:ks});log({values:vs});return 1;}; \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/metadata/albums-map.js b/views/metadata/albums-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cbd92e --- /dev/null +++ b/views/metadata/albums-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(doc){doc.playlist&&doc.playlist.track&&doc.playlist.track.forEach(function(t){emit([t.creator||null,t.title||null],t.album||null);});}; \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/metadata/track-map.js b/views/metadata/track-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14870f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/metadata/track-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(doc){doc.playlist&&doc.playlist.track&&doc.playlist.track.forEach(function(t){if(t.creator||t.title){if(t.location){t.location.forEach(function(url){emit([t.creator||null,t.title||null],url);});}else{emit([t.creator||null,t.title||null],null);}}});}; \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/metadata/track-reduce.js b/views/metadata/track-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b2bd94 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/metadata/track-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(ks,vs,c){if(c){return null;}else{log(ks[0][0][0]);return ks[0][0][0];}}; \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/test/maponly-map.js b/views/test/maponly-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ca2839 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/test/maponly-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(doc){emit(null,doc);} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/test/reducehaving-map.js b/views/test/reducehaving-map.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f7cfe1 --- /dev/null +++ b/views/test/reducehaving-map.js @@ -0,0 +1,585 @@ +/* + + JS Beautifier +--------------- + $Date: 2008-05-26 06:34:52 +0300 (Mon, 26 May 2008) $ + $Revision: 55 $ + + + Written by Einars "elfz" Lielmanis, + http://elfz.laacz.lv/beautify/ + + Originally converted to javascript by Vital, + http://my.opera.com/Vital/blog/2007/11/21/javascript-beautify-on-javascript-translated + + + You are free to use this in any way you want, in case you find this useful or working for you. + + Usage: + js_beautify(js_source_text); + +*/ + + +function js_beautify(js_source_text, indent_size, indent_character) +{ + + var input, output, token_text, last_type, last_text, last_word, current_mode, modes, indent_level, indent_string; + var whitespace, wordchar, punct, parser_pos, line_starters, in_case; + var prefix, token_type, do_block_just_closed, var_line, var_line_tainted; + + + function trim_output() + { + while (output.length && (output[output.length - 1] === ' ' || output[output.length - 1] === indent_string)) { + output.pop(); + } + } + + function print_newline(ignore_repeated) + { + ignore_repeated = typeof ignore_repeated === 'undefined' ? true: ignore_repeated; + + trim_output(); + + if (!output.length) { + return; // no newline on start of file + } + + if (output[output.length - 1] !== "\n" || !ignore_repeated) { + output.push("\n"); + } + for (var i = 0; i < indent_level; i++) { + output.push(indent_string); + } + } + + + + function print_space() + { + var last_output = output.length ? output[output.length - 1] : ' '; + if (last_output !== ' ' && last_output !== '\n' && last_output !== indent_string) { // prevent occassional duplicate space + output.push(' '); + } + } + + + function print_token() + { + output.push(token_text); + } + + function indent() + { + indent_level++; + } + + + function unindent() + { + if (indent_level) { + indent_level--; + } + } + + + function remove_indent() + { + if (output.length && output[output.length - 1] === indent_string) { + output.pop(); + } + } + + + function set_mode(mode) + { + modes.push(current_mode); + current_mode = mode; + } + + + function restore_mode() + { + do_block_just_closed = current_mode === 'DO_BLOCK'; + current_mode = modes.pop(); + } + + + function in_array(what, arr) + { + for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) + { + if (arr[i] === what) { + return true; + } + } + return false; + } + + + + function get_next_token() + { + var n_newlines = 0; + var c = ''; + + do { + if (parser_pos >= input.length) { + return ['', 'TK_EOF']; + } + c = input.charAt(parser_pos); + + parser_pos += 1; + if (c === "\n") { + n_newlines += 1; + } + } + while (in_array(c, whitespace)); + + if (n_newlines > 1) { + for (var i = 0; i < 2; i++) { + print_newline(i === 0); + } + } + var wanted_newline = (n_newlines === 1); + + + if (in_array(c, wordchar)) { + if (parser_pos < input.length) { + while (in_array(input.charAt(parser_pos), wordchar)) { + c += input.charAt(parser_pos); + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos === input.length) { + break; + } + } + } + + // small and surprisingly unugly hack for 1E-10 representation + if (parser_pos !== input.length && c.match(/^[0-9]+[Ee]$/) && input.charAt(parser_pos) === '-') { + parser_pos += 1; + + var t = get_next_token(parser_pos); + c += '-' + t[0]; + return [c, 'TK_WORD']; + } + + if (c === 'in') { // hack for 'in' operator + return [c, 'TK_OPERATOR']; + } + return [c, 'TK_WORD']; + } + + if (c === '(' || c === '[') { + return [c, 'TK_START_EXPR']; + } + + if (c === ')' || c === ']') { + return [c, 'TK_END_EXPR']; + } + + if (c === '{') { + return [c, 'TK_START_BLOCK']; + } + + if (c === '}') { + return [c, 'TK_END_BLOCK']; + } + + if (c === ';') { + return [c, 'TK_END_COMMAND']; + } + + if (c === '/') { + var comment = ''; + // peek for comment /* ... */ + if (input.charAt(parser_pos) === '*') { + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos < input.length) { + while (! (input.charAt(parser_pos) === '*' && input.charAt(parser_pos + 1) && input.charAt(parser_pos + 1) === '/') && parser_pos < input.length) { + comment += input.charAt(parser_pos); + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos >= input.length) { + break; + } + } + } + parser_pos += 2; + return ['/*' + comment + '*/', 'TK_BLOCK_COMMENT']; + } + // peek for comment // ... + if (input.charAt(parser_pos) === '/') { + comment = c; + while (input.charAt(parser_pos) !== "\x0d" && input.charAt(parser_pos) !== "\x0a") { + comment += input.charAt(parser_pos); + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos >= input.length) { + break; + } + } + parser_pos += 1; + if (wanted_newline) { + print_newline(); + } + return [comment, 'TK_COMMENT']; + } + + } + + if (c === "'" || // string + c === '"' || // string + (c === '/' && + ((last_type === 'TK_WORD' && last_text === 'return') || (last_type === 'TK_START_EXPR' || last_type === 'TK_END_BLOCK' || last_type === 'TK_OPERATOR' || last_type === 'TK_EOF' || last_type === 'TK_END_COMMAND')))) { // regexp + var sep = c; + var esc = false; + c = ''; + + if (parser_pos < input.length) { + + while (esc || input.charAt(parser_pos) !== sep) { + c += input.charAt(parser_pos); + if (!esc) { + esc = input.charAt(parser_pos) === '\\'; + } else { + esc = false; + } + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos >= input.length) { + break; + } + } + + } + + parser_pos += 1; + if (last_type === 'TK_END_COMMAND') { + print_newline(); + } + return [sep + c + sep, 'TK_STRING']; + } + + if (in_array(c, punct)) { + while (parser_pos < input.length && in_array(c + input.charAt(parser_pos), punct)) { + c += input.charAt(parser_pos); + parser_pos += 1; + if (parser_pos >= input.length) { + break; + } + } + return [c, 'TK_OPERATOR']; + } + + return [c, 'TK_UNKNOWN']; + } + + + //---------------------------------- + + indent_character = indent_character || ' '; + indent_size = indent_size || 4; + + indent_string = ''; + while (indent_size--) { + indent_string += indent_character; + } + + input = js_source_text; + + last_word = ''; // last 'TK_WORD' passed + last_type = 'TK_START_EXPR'; // last token type + last_text = ''; // last token text + output = []; + + do_block_just_closed = false; + var_line = false; + var_line_tainted = false; + + whitespace = "\n\r\t ".split(''); + wordchar = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789_$'.split(''); + punct = '+ - * / % & ++ -- = += -= *= /= %= == === != !== > < >= <= >> << >>> >>>= >>= <<= && &= | || ! !! , : ? ^ ^= |='.split(' '); + + // words which should always start on new line. + line_starters = 'continue,try,throw,return,var,if,switch,case,default,for,while,break,function'.split(','); + + // states showing if we are currently in expression (i.e. "if" case) - 'EXPRESSION', or in usual block (like, procedure), 'BLOCK'. + // some formatting depends on that. + current_mode = 'BLOCK'; + modes = [current_mode]; + + indent_level = 0; + parser_pos = 0; // parser position + in_case = false; // flag for parser that case/default has been processed, and next colon needs special attention + while (true) { + var t = get_next_token(parser_pos); + token_text = t[0]; + token_type = t[1]; + if (token_type === 'TK_EOF') { + break; + } + + switch (token_type) { + + case 'TK_START_EXPR': + var_line = false; + set_mode('EXPRESSION'); + if (last_type === 'TK_END_EXPR' || last_type === 'TK_START_EXPR') { + // do nothing on (( and )( and ][ and ]( .. + } else if (last_type !== 'TK_WORD' && last_type !== 'TK_OPERATOR') { + print_space(); + } else if (in_array(last_word, line_starters) && last_word !== 'function') { + print_space(); + } + print_token(); + break; + + case 'TK_END_EXPR': + print_token(); + restore_mode(); + break; + + case 'TK_START_BLOCK': + + if (last_word === 'do') { + set_mode('DO_BLOCK'); + } else { + set_mode('BLOCK'); + } + if (last_type !== 'TK_OPERATOR' && last_type !== 'TK_START_EXPR') { + if (last_type === 'TK_START_BLOCK') { + print_newline(); + } else { + print_space(); + } + } + print_token(); + indent(); + break; + + case 'TK_END_BLOCK': + if (last_type === 'TK_START_BLOCK') { + // nothing + trim_output(); + unindent(); + } else { + unindent(); + print_newline(); + } + print_token(); + restore_mode(); + break; + + case 'TK_WORD': + + if (do_block_just_closed) { + print_space(); + print_token(); + print_space(); + break; + } + + if (token_text === 'case' || token_text === 'default') { + if (last_text === ':') { + // switch cases following one another + remove_indent(); + } else { + // case statement starts in the same line where switch + unindent(); + print_newline(); + indent(); + } + print_token(); + in_case = true; + break; + } + + + prefix = 'NONE'; + if (last_type === 'TK_END_BLOCK') { + if (!in_array(token_text.toLowerCase(), ['else', 'catch', 'finally'])) { + prefix = 'NEWLINE'; + } else { + prefix = 'SPACE'; + print_space(); + } + } else if (last_type === 'TK_END_COMMAND' && (current_mode === 'BLOCK' || current_mode === 'DO_BLOCK')) { + prefix = 'NEWLINE'; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_END_COMMAND' && current_mode === 'EXPRESSION') { + prefix = 'SPACE'; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_WORD') { + prefix = 'SPACE'; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_START_BLOCK') { + prefix = 'NEWLINE'; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_END_EXPR') { + print_space(); + prefix = 'NEWLINE'; + } + + if (last_type !== 'TK_END_BLOCK' && in_array(token_text.toLowerCase(), ['else', 'catch', 'finally'])) { + print_newline(); + } else if (in_array(token_text, line_starters) || prefix === 'NEWLINE') { + + if (last_text === 'else') { + // no need to force newline on else break + print_space(); + } else if ((last_type === 'TK_START_EXPR' || last_text === '=') && token_text === 'function') { + // no need to force newline on 'function': (function + // DONOTHING + } else if (last_type === 'TK_WORD' && (last_text === 'return' || last_text === 'throw')) { + // no newline between 'return nnn' + print_space(); + } else if (last_type !== 'TK_END_EXPR') { + if ((last_type !== 'TK_START_EXPR' || token_text !== 'var') && last_text !== ':') { + // no need to force newline on 'var': for (var x = 0...) + if (token_text === 'if' && last_type === 'TK_WORD' && last_word === 'else') { + // no newline for } else if { + print_space(); + } else { + print_newline(); + } + } + } + } else if (prefix === 'SPACE') { + print_space(); + } + print_token(); + last_word = token_text; + + if (token_text === 'var') { + var_line = true; + var_line_tainted = false; + } + + break; + + case 'TK_END_COMMAND': + + print_token(); + var_line = false; + break; + + case 'TK_STRING': + + if (last_type === 'TK_START_BLOCK' || last_type === 'TK_END_BLOCK') { + print_newline(); + } else if (last_type === 'TK_WORD') { + print_space(); + } + print_token(); + break; + + case 'TK_OPERATOR': + + var start_delim = true; + var end_delim = true; + if (var_line && token_text !== ',') { + var_line_tainted = true; + if (token_text === ':') { + var_line = false; + } + } + + if (token_text === ':' && in_case) { + print_token(); // colon really asks for separate treatment + print_newline(); + break; + } + + in_case = false; + + if (token_text === ',') { + if (var_line) { + if (var_line_tainted) { + print_token(); + print_newline(); + var_line_tainted = false; + } else { + print_token(); + print_space(); + } + } else if (last_type === 'TK_END_BLOCK') { + print_token(); + print_newline(); + } else { + if (current_mode === 'BLOCK') { + print_token(); + print_newline(); + } else { + // EXPR od DO_BLOCK + print_token(); + print_space(); + } + } + break; + } else if (token_text === '--' || token_text === '++') { // unary operators special case + if (last_text === ';') { + // space for (;; ++i) + start_delim = true; + end_delim = false; + } else { + start_delim = false; + end_delim = false; + } + } else if (token_text === '!' && last_type === 'TK_START_EXPR') { + // special case handling: if (!a) + start_delim = false; + end_delim = false; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_OPERATOR') { + start_delim = false; + end_delim = false; + } else if (last_type === 'TK_END_EXPR') { + start_delim = true; + end_delim = true; + } else if (token_text === '.') { + // decimal digits or object.property + start_delim = false; + end_delim = false; + + } else if (token_text === ':') { + // zz: xx + // can't differentiate ternary op, so for now it's a ? b: c; without space before colon + if (last_text.match(/^\d+$/)) { + // a little help for ternary a ? 1 : 0; + start_delim = true; + } else { + start_delim = false; + } + } + if (start_delim) { + print_space(); + } + + print_token(); + + if (end_delim) { + print_space(); + } + break; + + case 'TK_BLOCK_COMMENT': + + print_newline(); + print_token(); + print_newline(); + break; + + case 'TK_COMMENT': + + // print_newline(); + print_space(); + print_token(); + print_newline(); + break; + + case 'TK_UNKNOWN': + print_token(); + break; + } + + last_type = token_type; + last_text = token_text; + } + + return output.join(''); + +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/views/test/reducehaving-reduce.js b/views/test/reducehaving-reduce.js new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ac14e --- /dev/null +++ b/views/test/reducehaving-reduce.js @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ + +function(ks,vs){return vs.length;} \ No newline at end of file