fallsTHE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY, 1885.
THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY, 1885.
UNITED PUBLIC ACTION AND ITS INFLUENCE.
The tendency to rely upon united public action is illustrated in the growth of Northwestern educational systems. The universities of these commonwealths are State universities. Professional education is under the State auspices and control. The normal schools and the agricultural schools belong to the State. The public high school provides intermediate instruction. The common district school, supported jointly by local taxation and State subvention, gives elementary education to the children of all classes. As the towns grow the tendency to graft manual and technical courses upon the ordinary public school curriculum is unmistakably strong. The Northwest, more than any other part of the country, is disposed to make every kind of education a public function.
Radicalism has flourished in the homogeneous agricultural society of the Northwest. In the anti-monopoly conflict there seemed to have survived some of the intensity of feeling that characterized the anti-slavery movement; and a tinge of this fanatical quality has always been apparent in the Western and Northwestern monetary heresies. But it is in the temperance movement that this sweep of radical impulse has been most irresistible. It was natural that the movement should become political and take the form of an agitation for prohibition. The history of prohibition in Iowa, Kansas, and the Dakotas, and of temperance legislation in Minnesota and Nebraska, reveals—even better perhaps than the history of the anti-monopoly movement—the radicalism, homogeneity, and powerful socializing tendencies of the Northwestern people. Between these different agitations there has been in reality no slight degree of relationship; at least their origin is to be traced to the same general conditions of society.
The extent to which a modern community resorts to State action depends in no small measure upon the accumulation of private resources. Public or organized initiative will be relatively strongest where the impulse to progress is positive but the ability of individuals is small. There are few rich men in the Northwest. Iowa, great as is the Hawkeye State, has no large city and no large fortunes. Of Kansas the same thing may be said. The Dakotas have no rich men and no cities. Minnesota has Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Nebraska has Omaha; but otherwise these two States are farming communities, without large cities or concentrated private capital. Accordingly the recourse to public action is comparatively easy. South Dakota farmers desire to guard against drought by opening artesian wells for irrigation. They resort to State legislation and the sale of county bonds. North Dakota wheat-growers are unfortunate in the failure of crops. They secure seed-wheat through State action and their county governments. A similarity of condition fosters associated action and facilitates the progress of popular movements.
In such a society the spirit of action is intense. If there are few philosophers, there is remarkable diffusion of popular knowledge and elementary education. The dry atmosphere and the cold winters are nerve-stimulants, and life seems to have a higher tension and velocity than in other parts of the country.
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
The Northwest presents a series of very interesting race problems. The first one, chronologically at least, is the problem that the American Indian presents. It is not so long ago since the Indian was in possession of a very large portion of the region we are now considering. A number of tribes were gradually removed further West, or were assigned to districts in the Indian Territory. But most of them were concentrated in large reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. The past few years have witnessed the rapid reduction of these reservations, and the adoption of a policy which, if carried to its logical conclusion with energy and good faith, will at an early date result in the universal education of the children, in the abolition of the system of reservations, and in the settlement of the Indian families upon farms of their own, as fully enfranchised American citizens.
OTHER ELEMENTS OF POPULATION.
chicagoLAKE-SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO.
LAKE-SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO.
The most potent single element of population in the Northwest is of New England origin, although more than half of it has found its way into Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas, by filtration through the intermediate States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. But there has also been a vast direct immigration from abroad; and this element has come more largely, by far, from the northern than from the central and southern races of Europe. The Scandinavian peninsula and the countries about the Baltic and North Seas have supplied the Northwest with a population that already numbers millions. From Chicago to Montana there is now a population of full Scandinavian origin, which, perhaps, may be regarded as about equal in numbers to the population that remains in Sweden and Norway. In Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as in northern Iowa and in some parts of Nebraska, there are whole counties where the population is almost entirely Scandinavian. Upon all this portion of the country for centuries to come the Scandinavian patronymics will be as firmly fixed as they have been upon the Scotch and English coasts, where the Northmen intrenched themselves so numerously and firmly about nine hundred or a thousand years ago. The Scandinavians in the Northwest become Americans with a rapidity unequaled by any other non-English-speaking element. Their political ambition is as insatiate as that of the Irish, and they already secure offices in numbers. Their devotion to the American school system, their political aptitude and ambition, and their enthusiastic pride in American citizenship are thoroughly hopeful traits, and it is generally believed that they will contribute much of strength and sturdiness to the splendid race of Northwestern Americans that is to be developed in the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys. The Northwestern Germans evince a tendency to mass in towns, as in Milwaukee, and to preserve intact their language and national traits.
SOCIETY AND GENERAL CULTURE.
The large towns of the Northwest are notable for the great numbers of the brightest and most energetic of the young business and professional men of the East that they contain. While they lack the leisure class and the traditions of culture that belong to older communities, they may justly claim a far higher percentage of college-bred men and of families of cultivated tastes than belong to Eastern towns of like population. The intense pressure of business and absorption of private pursuits are, for the present, seeming obstacles to the progress of Western communities in the highest things; but already the zeal for public improvements and for social progress in all that pertains to true culture is very great. Two decades hence no man will question the quality of Northwestern civilization. If the East is losing something of its distinctive Americanism through the influx of foreign elements and the decay of its old-time farming communities, the growth of the Northwest, largely upon the basis of New England blood and New England ideas, will make full compensation.
Every nation of the world confronts its own racial or climatic or industrial problems, and nowhere is there to be found an ideal state of happiness or virtue or prosperity; but, all things considered, it may well be doubted whether there exists any other extensive portion, either of America or of the world, in which there is so little of pauperism, of crime, of social inequality, of ignorance, and of chafing discontent, as in the agricultural Northwest that lies between Chicago and the Rocky Mountains. Schools and churches are almost everywhere flourishing in this region, and the necessities of life are not beyond the reach of any element or class. There is a pleasantness, a hospitality, and a friendliness in the social life of the Western communities that is certainly not surpassed.
William McKinley—Organization of "Greater New York"—Removal of General Grant's Remains to Morningside Park—The Klondike Gold Excitement—Spain's Misrule in Cuba—Preliminary Events of the Spanish-American War.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH PRESIDENT.
William McKinley was born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29, 1843, of Scotch ancestry, his father, David, being one of the pioneers of the iron business in Eastern Ohio.
The parents were in moderate circumstances, and the son, having prepared for college, was matriculated at Alleghany College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, but his poor health soon obliged him to return to his home. He became a schoolteacher at the salary of $25 per month, and, as was the custom in many of the country districts, he "boarded round;" that is, he made his home by turns with the different patrons of his school. He used rigid economy, his ambition being to save enough money to pay his way through college.
mckinleyWILLIAM McKINLEY. (1843- .)One term, 1897-1901.
WILLIAM McKINLEY. (1843- .)One term, 1897-1901.
Destiny, however, had another career, awaiting him. The great Civil War was impending, and when the news of the firing on Fort Sumter was flashed through the land, his patriotic impulses were roused, and, like thousands of others, he hurried to the defense of his country. He enlisted in Company E, as a private. It was attached to the Twenty-third Ohio regiment, of which W.S. Rosecrans was colonel and Rutherford B. Hayes major. Of no other regiment can it be said that it furnished two Presidents to the United States.
For more than a year Private McKinley carried a musket, and on the 15th of April, 1862, was promoted to a sergeancy. Looking back to those stirring days of his young manhood, President McKinley has said:
"I always recall them with pleasure. Those fourteen months that I served in the ranks taught me a great deal. I was but a schoolboy when I went into the army, and that first year was a formative period of my life, during which I learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad that I entered the service as a private and served those months in that capacity."
McKinley made a good soldier and saw plenty of fighting. Six weeks after leaving Columbus, his regiment was in the battle of Carnifex Ferry, Western Virginia, where the only victories of the early days of the war were won. It was the hardest kind of work, hurrying back and forth through the mountains, drenched by rains, and on short rations most of the time. The boy did his work well and was soon ordered to Washington, where he became one of the units in the splendid Army of the Potomac under General McClellan.
At Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war, McKinley's gallantry was so conspicuous that he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He was sent to West Virginia again, where he was fighting continually. As an evidence of the kind of work he did, it may be said that one morning his regiment breakfasted in Pennsylvania, ate dinner in Maryland, and took supper in Virginia.
Winning promotion by his fine conduct, he became captain, July 25, 1864, and was brevetted major, on the recommendation of General Sheridan, for conspicuous bravery at Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill. The title, "Major McKinley," therefore, is the military one by which the President is remembered.
With the coming of peace, the young man found himself a veteran of the war at the age of twenty-two, and compelled to decide upon the means of earning his living. He took up the study of law, and was graduated from the Albany, N.Y., law school, and admitted to the bar in 1867. He began practice in Canton, Ohio, and, by his ability and conscientious devotion, soon achieved success. He early showed an interest in politics, and was often called upon to make public addresses. He identified himself with the Republican party, and was elected district attorney in Stark County, which almost invariably went Democratic. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, against a normal Democratic majority, for five successive terms, being defeated when he ran the sixth time through the gerrymandering of his district by his political opponents.
new yorkGREATER NEW YORK.On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was created by the union of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Staten Island, into one municipality. The city now covers nearly 318 square miles, contains over three and one-half millions inhabitants, and, next to London, is the largest city in the world.
GREATER NEW YORK.On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was created by the union of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Staten Island, into one municipality. The city now covers nearly 318 square miles, contains over three and one-half millions inhabitants, and, next to London, is the largest city in the world.
During his seven terms in Congress, Mr. McKinley was noted for his clear grasp of national questions and his interest in tariff legislation. It was in 1890 that he brought about the passage of the tariff measure which is always associated with his name. In the same year he was defeated, but, being nominated for governor, he was elected by 80,000 majority. As in the case of Mr. Cleveland, this triumph attracted national attention, and his administration was so satisfactory that he could have received the nomination for the presidency twice before he accepted it.
The presidential administration of McKinley has proven one of the most eventful in our history, for, as set forth in the following chapters, it marked our entrance among the leading nations of the world, in the field of territorial expansion beyond the limits of our own continent and hemisphere. Before entering upon the history of this phase of our national existence, attention must be given to important happenings of a different nature. One of these was the organization of what is popularly known as "Greater New York."
obeliskTHE OBELISK IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK.
THE OBELISK IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK.
"GREATER NEW YORK."
For a number of years, a prominent question among the inhabitants of the metropolis and outlying cities was that of their union under one government. The New York Legislature in 1890 appointed a committee to inquire into and report upon the subject. After several years of discussion, the Legislature provided for a referendum, the result of which showed a large majority in favor of uniting the cities referred to. A bill was carefully framed, passed both branches of the law-making body by a strong vote in February, 1897, and was signed by the mayors of Brooklyn and of Long Island City. Mayor Strong, of New York, however, vetoed the bill, but the Legislature immediately repassed it, and it was signed by Governor Black.
The expanded metropolis began its official existence January 1, 1898, the government being vested in a mayor and a municipal assembly, which consists of two branches elected by the people. The population at the time named was about 3,400,000, the daily increase being 400. Should this rate continue, the total population at the middle of the twentieth century will be 20,000,000, which will make it the most populous in the world, unless London wakes up and grows faster than at present.
The area of Greater New York is 317.77 square miles. Its greatest width from the Hudson River to the boundary line across Long Island beyond Creedmoor is sixteen miles, and the extreme length, from the southern end of Staten Island to the northern limits of Yonkers, is thirty-two miles. Within these bounds are the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Jamaica, all of Staten Island, the western end of Long Island, Coney Island, Rockaway, Valley Stream, Flushing, Whitestone, College Point, Willets' Point, Fort Schuyler, Throggs' Neck, Westchester, Baychester, Pelham Manor, Van Cortlandt, Riverdale, and Spuyten Devil.
REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT'S REMAINS TO MORNINGSIDE PARK.
The removal of the remains of General Grant to their final resting-place in the magnificent tomb on Morningside Heights, on the banks of the Hudson, took place during the first year of McKinley's administration, and was marked by ceremonies among the most impressive ever witnessed in the metropolis of the country. The final tributes to the foremost defender of the country were made by eloquent tongues, and pens, and by the reverent affection of the nation itself.
shermanJOHN SHERMAN.Secretary of State underPresident McKinley; resigned 1898.
JOHN SHERMAN.Secretary of State underPresident McKinley; resigned 1898.
There have been many attempts made to analyze the character of this remarkable man. Some of his most intimate friends failed to understand him. Among the best of these analyses is that of Lieutenant-General John M. Schofield. In this our last reference to General Grant, the words of his trusted confidant deserve record:
"General Sherman wrote that he could not understand Grant, and doubted if Grant understood himself. A very distinguished statesman, whose name I need not mention, said to me that, in his opinion, there was nothing special in Grant to understand. Others have varied widely in their estimates of that extraordinary character. Yet I believe its most extraordinary quality was its extreme simplicity, so extreme that many have entirely overlooked it in their search for some deeply hidden secret to account for so great a character, unmindful of the general fact that simplicity is one of the most prominent attributes of greatness."The greatest of all the traits of Grant's character was that which lay always on the surface, visible to all who had eyes to see it. That was his moral and intellectual honesty, integrity, sincerity, veracity, and justice. He was incapable of any attempt to deceive anybody, except for a legitimate purpose, as in military strategy; and, above all, he was incapable of deceiving himself. He possessed that rarest of all human faculties, the power of a perfectly accurate estimate of himself, uninfluenced by vanity, pride, ambition, flattery, or self-interest. Grant was very far from being a modest man, as the word is generally understood. His just self-esteem was as far above it as it was above flattery. The highest enconiums were accepted for what he believed them to be worth. They did not disturb his equilibrium in the slightest degree. Confiding, just, and generous to everybody else, he treated with silent contempt any suggestion that he had been unfaithful to any obligation. He was too proud to explain where his honor had been questioned."While Grant knew his own merits as well as anybody did, he also knew his own imperfections and estimated them at their real value. For example, his inability to speak in public, which produced the impression of extreme modesty or diffidence, he accepted simply as a fact in his nature which was of little or no consequence, and which he did not even care to conceal. He would not, for many years, even take the trouble to jot down a few words in advance, so as to be able to say something when called upon. Indeed, I believe he would have regarded it as an unworthy attempt to appear in a false light if he had made preparations in advance for an 'extemporaneous' speech. Even when he did in later years write some notes on the back of a dinner-card, he would take care to let everybody see that he had done so by holding the card in plain view while he read his little speech. After telling a story, in which the facts had been modified somewhat to give the greater effect, which no one could enjoy more than he did, Grant would take care to explain exactly in what respects he had altered the facts for the purpose of increasing the interest in his story, so that he might not leave any wrong impression."When Grant's attention was called to any mistake he had committed, he would see and admit it as quickly and unreservedly as if it had been made by anybody else, and with a smile which expressed the exact opposite of that feeling which most men are apt to show under like circumstances. His love of truth and justice was so far above all personal considerations that he showed unmistakable evidence of gratification when any error into which he might have fallen was corrected. The fact that he had made a mistake and that it was plainly pointed out to him did not produce the slightest unpleasant impression; while the further fact, that no harm had resulted from his mistake, gave him real pleasure. In Grant's judgment, no case in which any wrong had been done could possibly be regarded as finally settled until that wrong was righted, and if he himself had been, in any sense, a party to that wrong, he was the more earnest in his desire to see justice done. While he thus showed a total absence of any false pride of opinion or of knowledge, no man could be firmer than he in adherence to his mature judgment, nor more earnest in his determination, on proper occasions, to make it understood that his opinion was his own and not borrowed from anybody else. His pride in his own mature opinion was very great; in that he was as far as possible from being a modest man. This absolute confidence in his own judgment upon any subject which he had mastered, and the moral courage to take upon himself alone the highest responsibility, and to demand full authority and freedom to act according to his own judgment, without interference from anybody, added to his accurate estimate of his own ability and clear perception of the necessity for undivided authority and responsibility in the conduct of military operations, and in all that concerns the efficiency of armies in time of war, constituted the foundation of that very great character."When summoned to Washington to take command of all the armies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, he determined, before he reached the capital, that he would not accept the command under any conditions than those above stated. His sense of honor and of loyalty to the country would not permit him to consent to be placed in a false position, one in which he could not perform the service which the country had been led to expect from him, and he had the courage to say so in unqualified terms."These traits of Grant's character must now be perfectly familiar to all who have studied his history, as well as to those who enjoyed familiar intercourse with him during his life. They are the traits of character which made him, as it seems to me, a very great man, the only man of our time, so far as we know, who possessed both the character and the military ability which were, under the circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which were to suppress the great rebellion."It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American, and for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people. That is true of the statesman and the soldier, as well as of the people, if it is meant that they were the highest type, that ideal which commands the respect and admiration of the highest and best in a man's nature, however far he may know it to be above himself. The soldiers and the people saw in Grant or in Lincoln, not one of themselves, not a plain man of the people, nor yet some superior being whom they could not understand, but the personification of their highest ideal of a citizen, soldier, or statesman, a man whose greatness they could see and understand as plainly as they could anything else under the sun. And there was no more mystery about it all, in fact, than there was in the popular mind."
"General Sherman wrote that he could not understand Grant, and doubted if Grant understood himself. A very distinguished statesman, whose name I need not mention, said to me that, in his opinion, there was nothing special in Grant to understand. Others have varied widely in their estimates of that extraordinary character. Yet I believe its most extraordinary quality was its extreme simplicity, so extreme that many have entirely overlooked it in their search for some deeply hidden secret to account for so great a character, unmindful of the general fact that simplicity is one of the most prominent attributes of greatness.
"The greatest of all the traits of Grant's character was that which lay always on the surface, visible to all who had eyes to see it. That was his moral and intellectual honesty, integrity, sincerity, veracity, and justice. He was incapable of any attempt to deceive anybody, except for a legitimate purpose, as in military strategy; and, above all, he was incapable of deceiving himself. He possessed that rarest of all human faculties, the power of a perfectly accurate estimate of himself, uninfluenced by vanity, pride, ambition, flattery, or self-interest. Grant was very far from being a modest man, as the word is generally understood. His just self-esteem was as far above it as it was above flattery. The highest enconiums were accepted for what he believed them to be worth. They did not disturb his equilibrium in the slightest degree. Confiding, just, and generous to everybody else, he treated with silent contempt any suggestion that he had been unfaithful to any obligation. He was too proud to explain where his honor had been questioned.
"While Grant knew his own merits as well as anybody did, he also knew his own imperfections and estimated them at their real value. For example, his inability to speak in public, which produced the impression of extreme modesty or diffidence, he accepted simply as a fact in his nature which was of little or no consequence, and which he did not even care to conceal. He would not, for many years, even take the trouble to jot down a few words in advance, so as to be able to say something when called upon. Indeed, I believe he would have regarded it as an unworthy attempt to appear in a false light if he had made preparations in advance for an 'extemporaneous' speech. Even when he did in later years write some notes on the back of a dinner-card, he would take care to let everybody see that he had done so by holding the card in plain view while he read his little speech. After telling a story, in which the facts had been modified somewhat to give the greater effect, which no one could enjoy more than he did, Grant would take care to explain exactly in what respects he had altered the facts for the purpose of increasing the interest in his story, so that he might not leave any wrong impression.
"When Grant's attention was called to any mistake he had committed, he would see and admit it as quickly and unreservedly as if it had been made by anybody else, and with a smile which expressed the exact opposite of that feeling which most men are apt to show under like circumstances. His love of truth and justice was so far above all personal considerations that he showed unmistakable evidence of gratification when any error into which he might have fallen was corrected. The fact that he had made a mistake and that it was plainly pointed out to him did not produce the slightest unpleasant impression; while the further fact, that no harm had resulted from his mistake, gave him real pleasure. In Grant's judgment, no case in which any wrong had been done could possibly be regarded as finally settled until that wrong was righted, and if he himself had been, in any sense, a party to that wrong, he was the more earnest in his desire to see justice done. While he thus showed a total absence of any false pride of opinion or of knowledge, no man could be firmer than he in adherence to his mature judgment, nor more earnest in his determination, on proper occasions, to make it understood that his opinion was his own and not borrowed from anybody else. His pride in his own mature opinion was very great; in that he was as far as possible from being a modest man. This absolute confidence in his own judgment upon any subject which he had mastered, and the moral courage to take upon himself alone the highest responsibility, and to demand full authority and freedom to act according to his own judgment, without interference from anybody, added to his accurate estimate of his own ability and clear perception of the necessity for undivided authority and responsibility in the conduct of military operations, and in all that concerns the efficiency of armies in time of war, constituted the foundation of that very great character.
"When summoned to Washington to take command of all the armies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, he determined, before he reached the capital, that he would not accept the command under any conditions than those above stated. His sense of honor and of loyalty to the country would not permit him to consent to be placed in a false position, one in which he could not perform the service which the country had been led to expect from him, and he had the courage to say so in unqualified terms.
"These traits of Grant's character must now be perfectly familiar to all who have studied his history, as well as to those who enjoyed familiar intercourse with him during his life. They are the traits of character which made him, as it seems to me, a very great man, the only man of our time, so far as we know, who possessed both the character and the military ability which were, under the circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which were to suppress the great rebellion.
"It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American, and for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people. That is true of the statesman and the soldier, as well as of the people, if it is meant that they were the highest type, that ideal which commands the respect and admiration of the highest and best in a man's nature, however far he may know it to be above himself. The soldiers and the people saw in Grant or in Lincoln, not one of themselves, not a plain man of the people, nor yet some superior being whom they could not understand, but the personification of their highest ideal of a citizen, soldier, or statesman, a man whose greatness they could see and understand as plainly as they could anything else under the sun. And there was no more mystery about it all, in fact, than there was in the popular mind."
reedSPEAKER THOMAS B. REED.Resigned as Speaker in 1899.
SPEAKER THOMAS B. REED.Resigned as Speaker in 1899.
To the widow of General Grant was given the right to select the spot for the last resting-place of his remains, she to repose after death beside her husband. She decided upon Riverside. It then became the privilege of his friends to provide a suitable tomb for the illustrious soldier. The funds needed, amounting to nearly half a million dollars, were raised by subscription, ground was broken on the anniversary of Grant's birthday, April 27, 1891, and a year later the corner-stone was laid by President Harrison.
The tomb of General Grant, standing on the banks of the Hudson, is an imposing structure, square in shape, ninety feet on each side, and of the Grecian-Doric order. The entrance on the south side is guarded by a portico in double lines of columns, approached by steps seventy feet in width. The tomb is surmounted at a height of seventy-two feet with a cornice and parapet, above which is a circular cupola, seventy feet in diameter, terminating in a top the shape of a pyramid, which is 280 feet above the river.
The interior of the structure is of cruciform form, seventy-six feet at its greatest length, the piers of masonry at the corners being connected by arches which form recesses. The arches are fifty feet in height, and are surmounted by an open circular gallery, capped with a panneled dome, 105 feet above the floor. Scenes in General Grant's career are depicted with sculpture on the plane and relieved surfaces inalto rilievo. The granite of the structure is light in color, and the sarcophagus of brilliant reddish porphyry. The crypt rests directly under the centre of the dome, stairways connecting with the passage surrounding the sarcophagus, where the remains of the widow of General Grant are eventually to repose.
grant's tombTOMB OF U.S. GRANT, NEW YORK.
TOMB OF U.S. GRANT, NEW YORK.
The ceremonies attending the removal of the remains on April 27, 1897, included three impressive displays, the ceremony at the tomb, the parade of the army—the National Guard and civic bodies—and the review of the navy and merchant marine on the Hudson. Those who gathered to take part in the final tribute to the great soldier included the President, Vice-President of the United States, the Cabinet, many State governors, prominent American citizens, and representatives of foreign nations. From 129th Street to the Battery, and from Whitehall up East River to the Bridge, thousands of American and foreign flags were displayed, while the parade of men on foot included 60,000 persons.
Bishop Newman opened the exercises with prayer, and President McKinley made one of the finest speeches of his life, the opening words of which were:
"A great life, dedicated to the welfare of the nation, here finds its earthly coronation. Even if this day lacked the impressiveness of ceremony and was devoid of pageantry, it would still be memorable, because it is the anniversary of the birth of the most famous and best beloved of American soldiers."
"A great life, dedicated to the welfare of the nation, here finds its earthly coronation. Even if this day lacked the impressiveness of ceremony and was devoid of pageantry, it would still be memorable, because it is the anniversary of the birth of the most famous and best beloved of American soldiers."
reviewREVIEW OF THE NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE ON THE HUDSON, APRIL 27, 1897.
REVIEW OF THE NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE ON THE HUDSON, APRIL 27, 1897.
The President concluded with the words:
"With Washington and Lincoln, Grant had an exalted place in the history and the affections of the people. To-day his memory is held in equal esteem by those whom he led to victory, and by those who accepted his generous terms of peace. The veteran leaders of the Blue and Gray here meet not only to honor the name of Grant, but to testify to the living reality of a fraternal national spirit which has triumphed over the differences of the past and transcends the limitations of sectional lines. Its completion—which we pray God to speed—will be the nation's greatest glory."It is right that General Grant should have a memorial commensurate with his greatness, and that his last resting-place should be in the city of his choice, to which he was so attached, and of whose ties he was not forgetful even in death. Fitting, too, is it that the great soldier should sleep beside the noble river on whose banks he first learned the art of war, and of which he became master and leader without a rival."But let us not forget the glorious distinction with which the metropolis among the fair sisterhood of American cities has honored his life and memory. With all that riches and sculpture can do to render the edifice worthy of the man, upon a site unsurpassed for magnificence, has this monument been reared by New York as a perpetual record of his illustrious deeds, in the certainty that, as time passes, around it will assemble, with gratitude and reverence and veneration, men of all climes, races, and nationalities."New York holds in its keeping the precious dust of the silent soldier, but his achievements—what he and his brave comrades wrought for mankind—are in the keeping of seventy millions of American citizens, who will guard the sacred heritage forever and forevermore."
"With Washington and Lincoln, Grant had an exalted place in the history and the affections of the people. To-day his memory is held in equal esteem by those whom he led to victory, and by those who accepted his generous terms of peace. The veteran leaders of the Blue and Gray here meet not only to honor the name of Grant, but to testify to the living reality of a fraternal national spirit which has triumphed over the differences of the past and transcends the limitations of sectional lines. Its completion—which we pray God to speed—will be the nation's greatest glory.
"It is right that General Grant should have a memorial commensurate with his greatness, and that his last resting-place should be in the city of his choice, to which he was so attached, and of whose ties he was not forgetful even in death. Fitting, too, is it that the great soldier should sleep beside the noble river on whose banks he first learned the art of war, and of which he became master and leader without a rival.
"But let us not forget the glorious distinction with which the metropolis among the fair sisterhood of American cities has honored his life and memory. With all that riches and sculpture can do to render the edifice worthy of the man, upon a site unsurpassed for magnificence, has this monument been reared by New York as a perpetual record of his illustrious deeds, in the certainty that, as time passes, around it will assemble, with gratitude and reverence and veneration, men of all climes, races, and nationalities.
"New York holds in its keeping the precious dust of the silent soldier, but his achievements—what he and his brave comrades wrought for mankind—are in the keeping of seventy millions of American citizens, who will guard the sacred heritage forever and forevermore."
alaska
General Horace Porter, president of the Grant Memorial Association, made an address, giving the history of the crowning work of the association, rendering acknowledgment to those who had given valuable help, and closing with a masterly and eloquent tribute to the great citizen whom all had gathered to honor.
THE KLONDIKE GOLD EXCITEMENT.
There was much excitement throughout the country in 1897 over the reported discoveries of rich deposits of gold in the Klondike, as the region along the Yukon River in Alaska is called. These reports were discredited at first, but they were repeated, and proof soon appeared that they were based upon truth. In the autumn of 1896, about fifty miners visited the section, led thither by the rumors that had come to them. None of the men carried more than his outfit and a few hundred dollars, but when they returned they brought gold to the value of from $5,000 to $100,000 apiece, besides leaving claims behind them that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In July, 1897, a party of miners arrived at Seattle from the Klondike, bringing with them nuggets and gold-dust weighing more than a ton and worth a million and a half of dollars. Besides this, other men continually came back with such quantities of the precious metal that it was apparent that not only were the reports justified, but, what is the exception in such cases, the whole truth had not been told.
trailREADY FOR THE TRAIL.
READY FOR THE TRAIL.
The natural consequence was that a rush set in for the Klondike, which is the name of a tributary of the Yukon, and flows through the richest gold fields, where the mining days of early California were repeated. Dawson City was founded at the mouth of the Klondike, and in a short time had a population of 5,000. Before the year closed, 500 claims were located, with more taken up daily. As was inevitable, there was much suffering, for the Yukon is closed by ice during the greater part of the year, and the winter climate is of Arctic severity. The most productive fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in the British provinces known as the Northwest Territories. While many gathered fortunes in the Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and suffering, returned to their homes poorer than when they left them.
SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA.
The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account is given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to set forth some historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a proper understanding of the story of the war itself.
Spain may best illustrate the certain decline of the Latin race and the rise of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the leading maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious, ferocious, and totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term "common sense." So lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that she alienated, when it was just as easy to attract, the weaker nations and colonies with which she came in contact. It has been shown in the earlier chapters of this work that when her exploring expeditions into the interior of America were obliged to depend for their own existence upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could readily gain and retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simple-minded natives by their frightful cruelties. The chief amusement of the early Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of their nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and kindness.
The treatment of those poor people was precisely what on a larger scale has been shown to her colonies. England wins and holds her dependencies through her liberality and justice; Spain repels hers through her treachery, falsehoods, and injustice. As a consequence, England has become one of the mightiest nations in the world, while Spain has steadily declined to a fourth-rate power. With the example of the results of her idiocy, to say nothing of its dishonor, ever before her, she has persisted in that idiocy, never learning from experience, but always selfish, short-sighted, cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
The steadiness with which Cuba clung to the mother country won for her the title of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Had she received any consideration at all, she still would have held fast. She poured princely revenues into the lap of Spain; when other colonies revolted, she refused to be moved. It required long years of outrage, robbery, and injustice to turn her affection into hate, but Spain persisted until the time came when human nature could stand no more. The crushed worm turned at last.
When Napoleon Bonaparte deposed the Bourbon King, Ferdinand VII., in 1808, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, Cuba declared her loyalty to the old dynasty, and the king made many promises of what he would do to prove his gratitude when he should come to his own. This took place five years later, whereupon the king violated every pledge he had made.
The truth gradually worked its way into the Cuban mind that the only thing a Spaniard could be depended upon to do is to violate his most solemn promises. Secret societies began assuming form in the island, whose plotting and aim were to wrest their country from Spain, on the ground of the non-fulfillment of the pledges made by Ferdinand VII. of what he would do when he came to the throne.
Preparations were made for a revolt, whose avowed object was the establishment of a Cuban republic. A certain night in 1823 was fixed upon for a general uprising, but there were traitors in the councils, who notified the authorities, and, before the date named, the leaders were arrested and the revolt quenched ere a blow could be struck.
These severe measures could not quell the spirit of liberty that was abroad. It was not long before the Black Eagle Society was formed. It included many hundred members, had its headquarters in Mexico, and boldly secured recruits in the United States. But again the cause was betrayed by its members, the leaders were arrested and imprisoned, and Spain was secure for a time in the control of the island.
As an illustration of that country's course against suspected citizens, it may be said that in 1844 a rumor spread that large numbers of the slaves on the plantations near Matanzas were making secret preparations to rise and slay their masters. Investigation failed to establish the truth of these charges, but many were put to the torture to compel them to confess, and nearly a hundred were condemned and shot in cold blood.
garciaGENERAL CALIXTO GARCIA.Hero of three wars for Cuba's freedom.Died of pneumonia in Washington,D.C., December, 1898.
GENERAL CALIXTO GARCIA.Hero of three wars for Cuba's freedom.Died of pneumonia in Washington,D.C., December, 1898.
Naturally the affairs of Cuba from its proximity were always of great interest to the United States, and a number of filibustering expeditions landed on the island and aided the Cubans in their futile revolts against Spain. These attempts at their best could only keep the island in a turmoil, and give Spain the pretext for using the most brutal measures of repression.
In 1868 a revolution occurred in Spain itself, and Queen Isabella, one of the worst rulers that sorely accursed country ever had, was driven into exile. Cuba had not forgotten the lesson of the opening of the century, and, instead of proclaiming her loyalty to the deposed dynasty, she seized what promised to be a favorable opportunity for gaining her own independence.
One of the fairest and most impartial publications anywhere is theEdinburgh Review, which used the following language in giving the reasons for the Cuban revolt of 1868:
"Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood-stained hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and religious liberties. Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally prosecuted and sent into exile, or executed by military commissions, in times of peace; hence their being kept from public meetings, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of State; hence their remonstrances against the evils that afflicted them being looked upon as the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are obliged to keep silence and obey; hence the never-ending plague of hungry officials from Spain to devour the product of their industry and labor; hence their exclusion from the art of government; hence the restrictions to which public instruction with them is subjected in order to keep them so ignorant as not to be able to know and enforce their rights in any shape or form whatever; hence the navy and the standing army, which are kept in their country at an enormous expenditure from their own wealth to make them bend their knees and submit their necks to the iron yoke that disgraces them; hence the grinding taxation under which they labor, and which would make all perish in misery but for the marvelous fertility of their soil."
"Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood-stained hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and religious liberties. Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally prosecuted and sent into exile, or executed by military commissions, in times of peace; hence their being kept from public meetings, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of State; hence their remonstrances against the evils that afflicted them being looked upon as the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are obliged to keep silence and obey; hence the never-ending plague of hungry officials from Spain to devour the product of their industry and labor; hence their exclusion from the art of government; hence the restrictions to which public instruction with them is subjected in order to keep them so ignorant as not to be able to know and enforce their rights in any shape or form whatever; hence the navy and the standing army, which are kept in their country at an enormous expenditure from their own wealth to make them bend their knees and submit their necks to the iron yoke that disgraces them; hence the grinding taxation under which they labor, and which would make all perish in misery but for the marvelous fertility of their soil."
The opportunity was a golden one for Spain to win back the affection of Cuba by generosity and justice. What steps did she take to do so?
Although the Cubans were ground to the very dust by taxation, levied in all cases by Spaniards, and not by their own officials, Spain proposed, in 1868, to add to the burden. In October of that year Carlos M. de Cespedes, a lawyer of Bayamo, raised the standard of revolt, placed himself at the head of a handful of patriots, which were soon joined by thousands, and in April, 1869, a republican constitution was adopted, slavery declared abolished, Cespedes was elected president, Francisco Aguilero vice-president, and a legislature was called together.
There never was hope of this insurrection securing the independence of Cuba. The patriots were too few in number, too badly armed and equipped, and not handled so as to be effective. But they caused great suffering and ruin throughout the island. They instituted a guerrilla system of warfare, and cost Spain many valuable lives. The wet and rainy seasons came and went, and still the savage fighting continued, until at last the rebels as well as the Spaniards were ready to welcome peace.
Martinez Campos was the Spanish commander, and he promised General Maximo Gomez, leader of the insurgents, that the reforms for which he and his comrades were contending should be granted on condition that they laid down their arms. The pledge was a sacred one, and no doubt Campos meant honestly to keep it. Unfortunately, however, there were higher powers than he behind him. Gomez accepted the promises of a brother soldier, and on February 10, 1878, the treaty of El Zanjon was signed.
This treaty guaranteed representation to the Cubans in the Spanish Cortes, and all who took part in the insurrection were pardoned.
Now the lesson of all this was so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, had no excuse for erring. Spain had bitterly learned the temper of the Cubans. She could not fail to see that but one possible way existed for her to retain control of them, and, of course, that was the very way she avoided. The Madrid authorities thought they did a wise thing when they secured control of the polls, and made sure that the delegates elected were their own. Schools, sewerage, roads, everything that could help the island were neglected and taxation increased. The reforms promised to the insurgents upon condition of laying down their arms proved a delusion and a snare. Thus the "captain-general" had his name changed to "governor-general," but his tyrannical powers remained the same as before. The right of banishment was formally repealed, but the outrages continued under another law that was equally effective, and so on to the end of the chapter. Once again the Cubans had been fooled by trusting to Spanish honor. They resolved that as soon as arrangements could be effected, they would set another insurrection on foot, which would be fought out to the death or until independence was secured.
gomezGENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ.The Washington of Cubais the title appliedto this hero, who, asCommander-in-Chief of the patriot army,made Cuban liberty possible.
GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ.The Washington of Cubais the title appliedto this hero, who, asCommander-in-Chief of the patriot army,made Cuban liberty possible.
Several important ends were accomplished by the Ten Years' War. Slavery was abolished in 1886, and the island was divided into the present six provinces. As in previous instances the United States was counted upon for the greatest material assistance in prosecuting the revolution. The spirit of adventure is always strong among Americans, and the filibustering enterprises appealed strongly to them. The spice of danger by which they were attended was their chief attraction. Our government was bound by treaty to prevent them, so far as she could, and it went to great expense in doing so. A number of expeditions were unable to get away from New York, but others escaped the vigilance of officials, and landed guns, ammunition, and men at different points on the island. One of the greatest helps in this unlawful business was the dishonesty of the officials employed by Spain to prevent the landing of supplies and men. There was never any difficulty in bribing these officers, who stumbled over one another in their eagerness to be bribed.
THE LAST CUBAN REVOLUTION LAUNCHED.
Meanwhile, the leaders in the former late revolt were consulting upon the best steps to launch the new revolution. Maximo Gomez was living in San Domingo, and, when he was offered the command of the revolutionary forces, he promptly accepted the responsibility. The offer came to him through José Marti, the head of the organization.
The grim veterans were resolute in their purpose. After studying the situation, they agreed that a general uprising should be set on foot in all the provinces on February 24, 1895. It was impossible to do this, but the standard of revolt was raised on the date named in three of the provinces.
One Spanish official read truly the meaning of the signs. He was Calleja, the captain-general. Though the revolt in the province of Santiago de Cuba looked trifling, he knew it was like a tiny blaze kindled in the dry prairie grass. He wished to act liberally toward the insurgents, but the blind government at Madrid blocked his every step. Since it had played the fool from the beginning, it kept up the farce to the end. They ordered Calleja to stamp out the rebellion, and he did his utmost to obey orders.
Could the royal and insurgent forces be brought to meet in fair combat, the latter would have been crushed out of existence at the first meeting. But the insurgent leaders were too shrewd to risk anything of that nature. They resumed their guerrilla tactics, striking hard blows, here, there, anywhere that the chance offered, and then fled into the woods and mountains before the regulars could be brought against them.
Such a style of warfare is always cruel and accompanied by outrages of a shocking character. The Cubans were as savage in their methods as the Spaniards. They blew up bridges and railroad trains with dynamite, regardless of the fact that, in so doing, it was the innocent instead of the guilty who suffered. They burned the sugar cane, destroyed the tobacco and coffee plantations, and impoverished the planters in order to shut off the revenues of Spain and deprive her forces of their needed supplies; they spread desolation and ruin everywhere, in the vain hope that the mother country could thus be brought to a realizing sense of the true situation.
But Spain was deaf and blind. She sent thousands of soldiers across the Atlantic, including the members of the best families in the kingdom, to die in the pestilential lowlands of Cuba, while trying to stamp out the fires of revolution that continually grew and spread.
The island was cursed by three political parties, each of which was strenuous in the maintenance of its views. The dominant party of course was the loyalists, who held all the offices and opposed any compromise with the insurgents. They were quite willing to make promises, with no intention of fulfilling them, but knew the Cubans could no longer be deceived.
The second party was the insurgents, who, as has been shown, had "enlisted for the war," and were determined not to lay down their arms until independence was achieved. The autonomists stood between these extremes, favoring home rule instead of independence, while admitting the misgovernment of Cuba.
martiJOSÉ MARTI.President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.Led into ambush and killed by the Spaniards,May 19, 1895.
JOSÉ MARTI.President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.Led into ambush and killed by the Spaniards,May 19, 1895.
The Spaniards were determined to prevent the coming of Antonio Maceo, a veteran of the Ten Years' War, possessed of great courage and resources, who was living in Costa Rica. They knew he had been communicated with and his presence would prove a tower of strength to the insurgents. Bodies of Spanish cavalry galloped along the coasts, on the alert to catch or shoot the rebel leader, while the officials closely watched all arrivals at the seaports for the feared rebel.
Despite these precautions, Maceo and twenty-two comrades of the previous war effected a landing on the eastern end of the island. They were almost immediately discovered by the Spanish cavalry, and a fierce fight followed, in which several Cubans were killed. Maceo fought furiously, seemingly inspired by the knowledge that he was again striking for the freedom of his country, and he came within a hair of being killed. He eluded his enemies, however, and, plunging into the thickets, started for the interior to meet the other insurgent leaders. The abundance of tropical fruits saved him from starving, and it was not long before he met with straggling bodies of his countrymen, who hailed his coming with enthusiasm. Recruits rapidly gathered around him, and he placed himself at the head of the ardent patriots.
It was just ten days after the landing of Maceo that Gomez and José Marti, coming from Santo Domingo, landed on the southern coast of Cuba. They had a lively time in avoiding the Spanish patrol, but succeeded in reaching a strong force of insurgents, and Gomez assumed his duties as commander-in-chief. Recruits were gathered to the number of several thousand, and Gomez and Marti started for the central provinces with the purpose of formally establishing the government. Marti was led astray on the road by a treacherous guide and killed.
Fully alive to the serious work before him, Captain-General Calleja called upon Spain for help in quelling the rebellion. She sent 25,000 troops to Cuba and Calleja was relieved by Field-Marshal Campos. This was a popular move, for it was Campos who brought the Ten Years' War to a close, and it was generally believed he would repeat his success.
The first important act of Campos was to divide Cuba into zones, by means of a number of strongly guarded military lines, extending north and south across the narrower part of the island. They were called "trochas," and were expected to offer an impassable check to the insurgents, who, thus confined within definite limits, could be crushed or driven into the sea with little difficulty.