FOREFATHERS’ ROCK, PLYMOUTH, MASS.Plymouth is of abiding interest as the landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers (December 21st, 1620) and the site of the first settlement in New England. Pilgrim Hall contains numerous interesting relics of the Pilgrims, paintings of their embarkation and landing, old portraits, etc. North Street leads to the so-called Plymouth Rock, a granite boulder enclosed by a railing and covered with a canopy. This, however, is only a fragment (broken off in 1774) of the flat rock where the Pilgrims landed, which lies nearer the sea and is now covered by a wharf. Cole’s Hill, opposite the rock, was the burial-place of the early settlers (1620-1621). Leyden Street was the site of the first house. From the Town Square a path ascends to the right to the ancient Burial Hill, with the graves of many of the early settlers, including Governor Bradford. A fortified church was erected here in 1622. To the south is Watson’s Hill, where the Pilgrims made a treaty with Massasoit in 1621. The National Monument to the Pilgrims, consisting of a granite pedestal forty-five feet high, surmounted by a figure of Faith, thirty-six feet high, and surrounded by seated figures twenty feet high, representing Law, Morality, Freedom and Education is about one-fourth mile from the railway station, on Allerton Street. The three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims will be elaborately celebrated here in 1920.
FOREFATHERS’ ROCK, PLYMOUTH, MASS.
Plymouth is of abiding interest as the landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers (December 21st, 1620) and the site of the first settlement in New England. Pilgrim Hall contains numerous interesting relics of the Pilgrims, paintings of their embarkation and landing, old portraits, etc. North Street leads to the so-called Plymouth Rock, a granite boulder enclosed by a railing and covered with a canopy. This, however, is only a fragment (broken off in 1774) of the flat rock where the Pilgrims landed, which lies nearer the sea and is now covered by a wharf. Cole’s Hill, opposite the rock, was the burial-place of the early settlers (1620-1621). Leyden Street was the site of the first house. From the Town Square a path ascends to the right to the ancient Burial Hill, with the graves of many of the early settlers, including Governor Bradford. A fortified church was erected here in 1622. To the south is Watson’s Hill, where the Pilgrims made a treaty with Massasoit in 1621. The National Monument to the Pilgrims, consisting of a granite pedestal forty-five feet high, surmounted by a figure of Faith, thirty-six feet high, and surrounded by seated figures twenty feet high, representing Law, Morality, Freedom and Education is about one-fourth mile from the railway station, on Allerton Street. The three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims will be elaborately celebrated here in 1920.
Period of Settlement.—In 1565 the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement in the United States. In 1585 an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh made a settlement on Roanoke Island, N. C., which failed. In 1607 the English founded Jamestown on James River, Virginia, their first permanent settlement.[11]The master spirit of this enterprise was Captain John Smith. Plymouth, Mass., was founded in 1620 by the “Pilgrim Fathers,” a body of Puritans led by John Carver and others, who sailed from England in the Mayflower. Salem was settled by John Endicott in 1628. In 1630 John Winthrop settled Boston. In 1692 Plymouth colony was united to Massachusetts. Portsmouth and Dover, in New Hampshire, were settled in 1623. The first permanent English settlements in Maine were made about the same time. These settlements ultimately fell under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Connecticut was colonized in 1635-1636 by emigrants from Massachusetts, who settled at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. Rhode Island was first settled at Providence in 1636 by Roger Williams. In 1623 permanent settlements were made by the Dutch at Fort[635]Orange (now Albany) and at New Amsterdam on the present site of New York. The Swedes settled on the Delaware in 1638, and were expelled in 1655 by the Dutch army. The English seized New Amsterdam in 1664, and with it the whole of New Netherland, which they named New York from the Duke of York, to whom it had been granted by Charles II. New Jersey at this time acquired its distinctive name. In 1681 the territory west of the Delaware was granted to William Penn, who colonized it chiefly with Friends or Quakers, and founded Philadelphia in 1682. Maryland was settled in 1634 by Roman Catholics sent out by Lord Baltimore. The first permanent settlement in North Carolina appears to have been made about 1663, on Albemarle Sound, by emigrants from Virginia. The first permanent settlement in South Carolina was made in 1670 by colonists from England on the Ashley River, near the site of Charleston, which began to be settled about the same time. Georgia was settled by General James Oglethorpe, who in 1733 founded Savannah.
[11]Jamestown is seven miles from Williamsburg, formerly the ancient capital of Virginia and seat of the colonial governor. The only remains of the ancient town are the tower of the church (in which Pocahontas was married in 1614; church itself rebuilt in 1907) and a few tombstones.
[11]Jamestown is seven miles from Williamsburg, formerly the ancient capital of Virginia and seat of the colonial governor. The only remains of the ancient town are the tower of the church (in which Pocahontas was married in 1614; church itself rebuilt in 1907) and a few tombstones.
How Europe First Divided the American Colonies.—It will thus be seen that what is now the territory of the United States has been derived from six European nations. Resting on the discovery by Columbus and the bulls of the popes, Spain claimed the whole continent, but has been in actual possession only of the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas, and of the interior from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The Swedes once had settlements on the Delaware. The Dutch, following up the voyage of Hudson to the river bearing his name, claimed and held the country from the Delaware to the Connecticut. The French discovered the St. Lawrence and explored and held military possession of the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio and the Great Lakes. The English, by virtue of the voyages of the Cabots, claimed the Atlantic coast, and there founded the colonies which grew into the thirteen United States.
In the course of the struggle, sometimes peaceful, often bloody, by which the rule of these nations has been thrown off, the Dutch conquered the Swedes; the English conquered the Dutch and the French; the United States expelled the English, and in time, by purchase or conquest, drove out the Spaniards and the Mexicans.
Struggle of England and France for America.—The first serious struggle for possession occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the English, moving westward, met the French moving eastward at the source of the river Ohio. In that struggle, which has come down to us as the “French and Indian war,” France was worsted, and, retiring from this continent, divided her possessions between England and Spain. To England she gave Canada and the islands and shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and, entering what is now the United States, drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River, and gave all to the east of that line (save the island on which is the city of New Orleans) to Great Britain, and all to the west of it to Spain; Spain at the same time gave Florida to England as the price of Cuba.
Oppression of the Colonies under British Rule.—Having thus come into possession of all the country to the east of the Great River, King George determined to send out an army of ten thousand men to defend the colonies, and have the latter bear a part of the expense. This part he attempted to collect by duties on goods imported, and by a Stamp Tax (1765) on legal documents and printed matter. No tax for revenue had before been laid on America by act of Parliament. The colonists, therefore, resisted this first attempt, and raising the cry, “No taxation without representation,” they forced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Tax in 1766. The right to tax was at the same time distinctly asserted, and in 1767 was again used, and duties laid on paints, oils, lead, glass, and tea. Once more the colonists resisted, and, by refusing to import any goods, wares, or merchandise of English make, so distressed the manufacturers of England that Parliament repealed every tax save that on tea. All the tea needed in America was now smuggled in from Holland. The East India Company, deprived of the American market, became embarrassed, and, calling on Parliament for aid, was suffered to export tea, a privilege never before enjoyed.
Selecting commissioners in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, cargoes of tea were duly consigned to them by the East India Company; but the people agreed not to buy any of this tea or allow it to be sold. At Boston men disguised as Indians boarded the tea ships, overcame the guards, and destroyed the tea by throwing the boxes into the harbor. This has gone down in history as the “Boston Tea Party.”
The Continental Congress and the Revolution.—As a punishment for this, Parliament shut the port of Boston and deprived the people of Massachusetts of many functions of local government. The Assembly of Massachusetts thereupon called for a General Congress to meet at Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. The colonies gladly responded and this congress, having issued a Declaration of Rights and Addresses to the king, to Parliament, and to the people of England, adjourned to await the result.
The day for the reassembling of Congress was May 10, 1775; but, before that day came, the attempt of General Gage to seize military stores brought on a fight at Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fight at Lexington was followed by the siege of the British in Boston, by the formation of the “Continental Army,” by the appointment of George Washington to command it, by the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and by an expedition against Quebec, which came to naught, on the last day of the year.
General William Howe meantime had succeeded Gage in command of the British at Boston, and, finding himself hard pressed by Washington, evacuated the city and sailed for Halifax. Believing New York was to be attacked, Washington now hurried to Long Island, where, August 27, 1776, Howe defeated him, took possession of New York, and drove him first up the Hudson and then southward across New Jersey.
American Independence Declared.—Congress, which, July 4, 1776, at Philadelphia, had declared the colonies to be free and independent states, now fled from that city to Baltimore. But Washington, turning in his retreat, surprised and captured the British outpost at Trenton. Cornwallis instantly hurried toward that town, but Washington, passing around the British rear, attacked and captured at Princeton, January 3, 1777, a detachment on its march to Trenton, and then went into winter quarters at Morristown.
With the return of spring Howe, finding that he could not reach Philadelphia by land without passing in front of the Continental army stretched out on a strongly intrenched line across New Jersey, went by sea. Washington met him at Chadd’s Ford on the Brandywine, was defeated, and on September 25, 1777, Howe entered Philadelphia. In the attempt to dislodge him Washington fought and lost the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777; the loss of Philadelphia was more than made good by the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, while on his way from Canada to New York City.
The fruits of this victory were the recognition of the independence of the United States by France, the treaty of alliance with France, February 8, 1778, and the evacuation of Philadelphia by General Clinton, who had succeeded Howe. Washington, who had spent the winter at Valley Forge, instantly followed, and overtaking Clinton at Monmouth fought and won the battle at that place, June 29, 1778. Clinton escaped to New York, and Washington, drawing his army in a circle about the city from Morristown on the south to West Point on the north, awaited further movements.
PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONThe leading battles are indicated inbold-face; successful commanders initalics
Treason of Arnold and Execution of André.—Turning towards the Southern states, the British commander now dispatched an expedition which took Savannah and overran the State of Georgia. The year which followed (1779) is memorable for the capture of Stony Point by Anthony Wayne; for the treason of Benedict Arnold; for the execution of Major John André; for the capture of the “Serapis” by Paul Jones after one of the most desperate naval battles on record, and by the failure of an attempt by the Americans to retake Savannah. In 1780 Clinton led an expedition from New York to Charleston, took the city, swept over South Carolina, and, leaving Cornwallis in command, hurried back to New York. Gates, who now attempted to dislodge the British, was beaten. Greene now succeeded Gates, and Morgan, the commander of his light troops, won the battle of the Cowpens, January 17, 1781. This victory brought up Cornwallis, who chased Greene across the State of North Carolina to Guilford Court House, where Greene was beaten and Cornwallis forced to retreat to Wilmington. Moving southward, Greene was again beaten in two pitched battles, but forced the British to withdraw within their lines at Charleston and Savannah.
Cornwallis meantime moved from Wilmington into Virginia and took possession of Yorktown. And now Washington, who had long been watching New York, again took the offensive, hurried across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, while a French fleet closed the Chesapeake Bay, he besieged Cornwallis by land, till, October 19, 1781, the British general surrendered. This practically ended the war.
The treaty of peace, at Paris, in 1783, actually ended it, secured the independence of the United States, and fixed her boundaries, roughly speaking, as the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Mississippi on the west, New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence, and the Great Lakes on the north, and the parallel of thirty-one degrees on the south.
Articles of Confederation and their Weakness.—While the war was still raging Congress had framed an instrument of government, which the states ratified and put in force on March 1, 1781. This instrument of government which bound the thirteen states in perpetual union was known as the Articles of Confederation, and established a government as bad as any yet devised by man. There was no executive, no judiciary, and only the semblance of a legislature. The Congress consisted of not more than seven nor less than two delegates from each state; sat in secret session; was presided over by a president elected from its own members; and could not pass any law unless the delegates of nine states assented. It could wage war, make treaties, and borrow money; but it could not lay a tax of any kind whatsoever; nor regulate commerce between the states, or with foreign powers; and was dependent entirely on the liberality of the states for revenues. This defect proved fatal. Inability to regulate foreign commerce by duties stripped the country of its specie. Lack of specie forced the states to issue paper money. Paper money was followed by tender acts and force acts, and in some places by a violent stoppage of justice to the debtor class. A commercial and financial crisis followed and the people of the states, reduced to desperation, gladly acceded to a call for a national trade convention, which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787. The instructions of the delegates bade them suggest amendments to the Articles of Confederation. But the convention, considering the Articles too bad to be mended, framed the Constitution, which the people, acting through conventions in the various states, ratified during 1787 and 1788.
Adoption of the Constitution and Organization of Parties.—On March 4, 1789, the Constitution became the supreme law of the land. In the first Congress no trace of party lines is visible. But the work of establishing government had not gone far when differences of opinion sprang up; when the cry of partial legislation was raised, and the people all over the country began to divide into two great parties—those who favored and those who opposed a liberal construction of the language of the Constitution and the establishment of a strong national government.
The friends of national government took the name of Federalists, and under the lead of Alexander Hamilton, who as Secretary of the Treasury marked out the financial policy of the administration, they funded the foreign and domestic debt occasioned by the war for independence, assumed the debts incurred by the states in that struggle, set up a national bank with branches, and laid a tax on distilled liquors.
Each one of these acts was met with violent opposition, as designed to benefit a class, as unconstitutional, and as highly detrimental to the interests of the South. Against the Federalists were now brought charges of a leaning towards monarchy and aristocracy. Great Britain, it was said, has a funded debt, a bank, and an excise. These things are, therefore, monarchial institutions. But the Federalists have introduced them into the United States. The Federalists, therefore, are aristocrats, monarchists, and monopolists.
Of all who believed these charges, none believed them more sincerely than Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. Seeing in these acts a wide departure from the true principles of democracy, he set himself to work to organize a party of opposition, and was soon looked up to as the recognized leader of the Federal Republicans.
Hardly had the two parties thus been called into existence by difference of opinion on questions of home affairs, when they were parted yet more widely, and the dispute between them intensely embittered by questions of foreign affairs.
Effect of the French and English Affairs Upon the New Nation.—In 1793 the French Republic declared war against England, and sent a minister to the United States. As the[638]United States was bound to France by the treaty of alliance and by a treaty of amity and commerce, and was not bound to Great Britain by any commercial treaty whatever, it seemed not unlikely that she would be dragged unwillingly into the war. But Washington, with the advice of his secretaries, proclaimed neutrality, and from that time every Republican was the firm friend of France and every Federalist the ally of England. Then began a seven years’ struggle for neutrality. France threw open her colonial ports to neutral commerce; Great Britain asserting the “Rule of the War of 1756,” a rule prescribing that no neutral should have in time of war a trade it did not have in peace, declared this trade was contraband, and seized the ships of the United States engaged in it. The Republicans denounced neutrality and attempted to force a war. The Federalists in alarm dispatched John Jay, the Chief Justice, to London, with offers of a commercial treaty. England responded and on February 29, 1796, the first treaty of amity and commerce between her and the United States became law. At this France took offense, rejected the new minister (C. C. Pinckney) from the United States, and drove him from her soil, suspended the treaties, insulted a special commission (sent out in the interest of peace), with demands for bribes and tribute, and almost brought on war.
Never since the days of Bunker Hill had the country been so stirred as this act of the French Directory stirred it in the summer of 1798. Then was written our national song, “Hail Columbia.” Then was established the department of the navy. Then, under the cry, “Millions for defense; not a cent for tribute,” went forth that gallant little fleet which humbled the tri-color in the West Indies and brought France to her senses.
Causes and Events of the War of 1812.—With the elevation of Napoleon to the First Consulship came peace in 1800. In that same year the Federalists fell from power, never to return. Once in power, the Republicans began to carry out the principles they had so long preached. They reduced the national debt; they repealed the internal taxes. They sold the navy; boldly assaulted the Supreme Court; and in 1811, when the charter of the National Bank expired, refused to renew it. Their doctrine of strict construction, however, was ruined, when, in 1803, they bought the Province of Louisiana from France and added to the public domain that splendid region which lies between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.
At that moment it seemed as if the people were about to enter on a career of unwonted prosperity. But Napoleon suddenly made war on England, and by 1806 the United States was involved in a desperate struggle of nine years, both with France and England, for commercial independence. Great Britain searched our ships, impressed our sailors, violated the neutrality of our ports, and by the decisions of her admiralty courts and by orders in council sought to ruin our neutral commerce with Europe, unless carried on through her ports and under her license. Napoleon attacked us with his decrees of Berlin and Milan, and sought to ruin our neutral commerce with England. The United States retaliated by means of the embargo and non-intercourse, and, in 1812, declared war.
CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES OF THE WAR OF 1812-1815
Principal Land Battles
1812.—August 16, the surrender of Detroit by Hull to Brock.
October 13, defeat of Van Rensselaer by Brock at Queenstown.
1813.—January 18-22, the Americans were defeated at Frenchtown by General Proctor, whose Indians massacred the wounded Americans.
April 27, York (Toronto) was captured by the Americans under General Pike.
October 5, General Harrison forced General Proctor to retreat into Canada, and October 5 at the battle of the Thames routed the British and their Indian allies. Tecumseh was killed, the territory lost by Hull regained, and Upper Canada was retained to the end of the war.
November 11, the Americans moved on Montreal, but were defeated at Chryslers Field, and retreated.
1814.—July 25, Winfield Scott again invaded Canada and gained victories at Chippewa (July 5) and at Lundy’s Lane.
August 24, capture of Washington and burning of the Capitol, the White House, and other buildings.
1815.—January 8, a large body of English veterans were landed in Louisiana, and attacked New Orleans; in this battle, which took place before the news of the treaty of peace reached the combatants, Jackson won a decisive victory.
Principal Naval Battles
1812.—August 19, theConstitutiondestroys the BritishGuerriere, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
October 18, the AmericanWaspcaptures theFrolic.
October 25, Captain Decatur in theUnited Statestook theMacedonian.
December 29, theConstitutioncaptures theJava.
1813.—February 24, the AmericanHornetcaptures thePeacock.
June 1, theChesapeakeis captured by the BritishShannon.
September 10, Commodore Perry with a fleet of nine vessels destroys the British squadron of six vessels on Lake Erie.
1814.—September 3, naval attack on Fort McHenry by the British fails.
September 11, Captain Macdonough, on Lake Champlain, completely defeated a British fleet stronger than his own; this checked a serious invasion of the enemy.
Treaty and Results of the War
December 24, 1814, a treaty of peace was made at Ghent, the end of the Napoleonic wars having removed the cause for England’s offensive policy at sea.
The provisions included:
(1) A return of captured territory.
(2) Nothing was said about impressment.
(3) No compensation was secured by the Americans for ships captured previous to 1812.
The results of the war were:
(1) An increase of debt.
(2) An outburst of national patriotism.
(3) The removal of America from participation in European politics.
(4) The development of manufacturing.
(5) The establishment of the protective tariff policy.
With the Cessation of Hostilities Another Epoch in Our History Begins.—From the day when Washington proclaimed neutrality in 1793, to the day when the people celebrated, with bonfires and with fireworks, and with public dinners, the return of peace, in 1815, the political and industrial history of the United States is deeply affected by the political history of Europe. It was questions of foreign policy, not of domestic policy, that divided the two parties, that took up the time of Congress, that raised up and pulled down politicians. But after 1815 foreign affairs sank into insignificance, and for the next thirty years the history of the United States is the history of political and economic development of the country to the east of the Mississippi River.
Fall of the Federalists, or Pro-British Party.—The opposition which the Federalists made to the war completed their ruin. In 1816 for the last time they put forward a presidential candidate, carried three states out of nineteen, and expired in the effort. During the eight years of Monroe’s administration (1817-1825) but one great and harmonious party ruled the political destinies of the country. This remarkable period has come down to us in history as the “era of good feelings.” It was indeed such an era, and so good were the feelings that in 1820 when Monroe was re-elected no competitor was named to run against him. Every state, every electoral vote save one was his. Even that one was his. But the elector who controlled it threw it away on John Quincy Adams lest Monroe should have the unanimous vote of the presidential electors, an honor which has been bestowed on no man save Washington.
Rise of the Protective Tariff Policy.—In the midst of this harmony, however, events were fast ripening for a great schism. Under the protection offered by the commercial restrictions which began with the embargo and ended with the peace, manufactures had sprung up and flourished. If they were to continue to flourish they must continue to be protected, and the question of free trade and protection rose for the first time into really national importance.
The rush of population into the West led to the admission of Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), and Missouri (1820) into the Union, and brought up for serious discussion the uses to be made of public lands lying within them.
The steamboat, which had been adopted far and wide, had produced a demand for some improved means of communication by land to join the greater water highways of the country and opened the era of internal improvements.
The application of Missouri for admission into the Union brought up the question of the admission of slavery to the west of the Mississippi. A series of decisions of the Supreme Court, setting aside acts of the state legislatures, gave new prominence to the question of state rights.
A Decade of Great Political Contests.—The Missouri question was settled by the famous Compromise of 1820 (the first great political compromise), which drew the line thirty-six degrees thirty minutes from the Mississippi to the hundredth meridian, and pledged all to the north of it, save Missouri, to freedom. But the others were not to be settled by compromise, and in the campaign of 1824 the once harmonious Republican party was rent in pieces. Each of the four quarters of the Republic put a candidate in the field and “the scrub-race for the presidency” began.
The new manufacturing interests of the East put forward John Quincy Adams. The West, demanding internal improvements at public expense, had for its candidate Henry Clay. William H. Crawford of Georgia (nominated by a caucus of Congressmen) represented the old Republican party of the South. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee stood for the new Democracy, for the people, with all their hatred of monopolies and class control, their prejudices, their half formed notions, their violent outbursts of feeling.
Behind none of them was there an organized party. But taking the name of “Adams men” and “Clay men,” “Crawford men” and “Jackson men,” the friends of each entered the campaign and lost it. No candidate secured a majority of the electoral college, and the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams.
The Triumph of Democracy and Industrial Expansion.—Under the administration of Adams (1825-1829) the men who wished for protection and the men who wished for internal improvements at government expense united, took the name first of National Republicans, and then of Whigs, and, led on by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, carried through the high protection tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The friends of Jackson and Crawford took the name of Democrats, won the election of 1829, and during twelve years governed the country.
In the course of these years the population of the United States rose to seventeen million, and the number of states to twenty-six. Steam navigation began on the ocean; two thousand miles of railroad were built in the land; new inventions came into use; and the social and industrial life of the people was completely revolutionized. The national debt was paid; a surplus accumulated in the Treasury; the sale of public lands rose from three million dollars in 1831 to twenty-five million dollars in 1836; and the rage for internal improvements burned more fiercely than ever. A great financial panic spread over the country; the charter of the National Bank expired, a hundred “wild-cat banks” sprang up to take its place, and the question of the abolition of slavery became troublesome.
Early Troubles in Our System of Public Finance.—On the great questions which grew out of this condition of affairs the position of the two parties was well defined. The Democrats demanded a strict construction of the Constitution; no internal improvements at public expense; a surrender of the public lands to the state in which they lay; no tariff for protection; no National Bank; no agitation of the question of the abolition of slavery; the establishment of subtreasuries for the safe[640]keeping of the public funds, and the distribution of the surplus revenue. The Whigs demanded a recharter of the National Bank; a tariff for protection; the expenditure of the surplus on internal improvements; the distribution of the money derived from the sale of public lands; a limitation of the veto power of the President; and no removals from office for political reasons.
The Democrats, true to their principles, and having the power, carried them out. They destroyed the Bank; they defeated bill after bill for the construction of roads and canals; they distributed thirty-eight million dollars of the surplus revenue among the states, and by the cartage of immense sums of money from the East to the far distant West, hastened that inevitable financial crisis known as the “panic of 1837.”
Andrew Jackson had just been succeeded in the presidency by Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) and on him the storm burst in all its fury. But he stood it bravely, held to a strict construction of the Constitution, insisted that the panic would right itself without interference by the Government, and stoutly refused to meddle. Since the refusal of Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States, whose charter expired in 1836, the revenue of the Government had been deposited in certain “pet banks” designated by the Secretary of the Treasury. Every one of them failed in the panic of 1837. Van Buren therefore recommended “the divorce of Bank and State,” and after a struggle of three years his friends carried the “subtreasury” scheme in 1840. This law cast off all connection between the state banks and the Government, put the collectors of the revenue under heavy bonds to keep the money safely till called for by the Secretary of the Treasury, and limited payments to or by the United States to specie.
National Conventions and Rise of Slavery Issue.—The year 1840 was presidential year, and is memorable for the introduction of new political methods; for the rise of a new and vigorous party; and for the appearance of a new political issue. The new machinery consisted in the permanent introduction of the national convention for the nomination of a president, now used by the Democrats for the second time, and by the Whigs for the first; in the promulgation of a party platform by the convention, now used by the Democrats for the first time; and in the use of mass meetings, processions, songs, and all the paraphernalia of a modern campaign by the Whigs.
The new party was the Liberty Party, and the new issue the “absolute and unqualified divorce of the general Government from slavery, and the restoration of equality of rights among men.” The principles of that party were: slavery is against natural right, is strictly local, is a state institution, and derives no support from the authority of Congress, which has no power to set up or continue slavery anywhere; every treaty, every act, establishing, favoring, or continuing slavery in the District of Columbia, in the territories, on the high seas, is, therefore, unconstitutional.
The Short-lived Era of the Whigs.—The candidate of this party was James Gillespie Birney. The Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren. The Whigs put forward William Henry Harrison and elected him. Harrison died one month after his inauguration, and John Tyler, the Vice-President and a Democrat of the Calhoun wing, became President.
The Whig policy as sketched by Clay was the repeal of the Subtreasury Act; the charter of a National Bank; tariff for protection; and the distribution of the sales of public lands. To the repeal of the Subtreasury Act Tyler gladly assented. To the establishment of a bank even when called “Fiscal Corporation,” he would not assent, and, having twice vetoed such bills, was read out of the party by a formal manifesto issued by Whig congressmen.
It mattered little, however, for the question of the hour was not the bank, nor the tariff, nor the distribution of the sales of lands, but the annexation of the republic Texas. Joined to the demand for the reoccupation of Oregon, it became the chief plank in the Democratic platform of 1844. The Whig platform said not a word on the subject, and the Liberty Party, turning with loathing from the cowardice of Clay, voted again for Birney, gave the State of New York to the Democrats, and with it the presidency.
The Annexation of Texas, and Wilmot Proviso.—Accepting the result of the election as “instruction from the people,” Congress passed the needed act and Tyler in the last hours of his administration declared Texas annexed.
The boundary of the new state was ill-defined. Texas claimed to the Rio Grande. Mexico would probably have acknowledged the Nueces River. The United States attempted to enforce the claim of Texas, sent troops to the Rio Grande, and so brought on the Mexican war.
At the close of the Mexican war the boundary of the United States was carried south from forty-two degrees to the Gila River, and what is now California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and more than half of Wyoming and Colorado were added to the public domain. While the war was still raging, Polk, who had succeeded Tyler, asked for two million dollars to aid him in negotiating peace. Well knowing that the money was to be used to buy land from Mexico, David Wilmot moved in the House of Representatives that from all territory bought with the money slavery should be excluded. This was the famous Wilmot proviso. It failed of adoption and the territory was acquired in 1848, with its character as to slavery or freedom wholly undetermined.
The Preliminary Struggle over the Slave Problem.—And now the old parties began to break up. Democrats who believed in the Wilmot proviso, and Whigs who detested the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the extension of slavery went over in a body to the Liberty Party, formed with it the Freesoil Party, nominated Martin Van Buren, and gave him three hundred thousand votes. In their platform they declared that Congress had no more power to make a slave than to make a king; that they accepted the issue thrust on them by the South; that to the demand for more slave states and more slave territories they answered, no more slave states, no more slave territories; and that on their banner was inscribed “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.” As the defection of Whigs to the Liberty Party in 1844 gave New York state to the Democrats and elected Polk, so the defection of Democrats to the Free Soilers in 1848 gave New York to the Whigs and elected Taylor. As Harrison, the first Whig president, died one month after taking office, so Taylor, the second Whig president, died suddenly when a little over one year in office, just as the great Whig compromise of 1850 was closing. The imperative need of civil government in the new territory, the discovery of gold in California, the rush of men from all parts of the earth to the Pacific Coast forced Congress to establish organized territories. The question was: shall they be opened or closed to slavery? But, as the soil had been free when acquired from Mexico, the question really was: shall the United States establish slavery?
THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848
Causes of the War
(1) Long-standing irritation over claims of American citizens upon Mexico, which the latter refused to pay.
(2) The annexation by the United States of Texas, which Mexico claimed as still a part of her territory.
(3) Disputes as to whether the Rio Grande or Nueces River was the boundary of Texas.
Results of the War
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, closed the war. Its chief provisions were:
(1) The Rio Grande was made the boundary between Texas and Mexico.
(2) California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States.
(3) The United States paid Mexico $15,000,000, and assumed $3,500,000 due American citizens.
The slavery question was intensified in American politics.
PRINCIPAL BATTLESNOTE: The Americans were victorious in every conflict.
The Democrats, holding that slaves were property, claimed the right to take them into any territory, and asserting the principle of “squatter sovereignty,” claimed the right of the people living in any territory to settle for themselves whether it should be slave or free. The Free Soilers demanded that the soil having been free when a part of Mexico, should be free as a part of the United States. Between these two Clay now stepped in to act as pacificator. Taking up the grievances of each side, he framed and carried through the measure known as the Compromise of 1850, the third great political compromise in our history. The fruit of this was the admission of California as a free state; the passage of a more stringent law for the recovery of fugitive slaves; the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; and the organization of Utah and New Mexico on the basis of “squatter sovereignty.”
This done, senators and representatives of all parties joined in a manifesto declaring that the issues resting on slavery were dead issues, and that they would neither vote for, nor work for any man who thought otherwise. But thousands did think otherwise. The action of Clay pleased none. Anti-slavery men deserted him in the North; pro-slavery men deserted him in the South; and in 1852 the Whig party carried but four states out of thirty-one and perished. Even its two great leaders, Clay and Webster, were, by that time, in their graves.
Excited by such success, the Democrats, led on by Stephen A. Douglas, now broke through the compromise of 1820 and in 1854 applied “squatter sovereignty” to the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Against this violation state legislatures, the people, the pulpit, and the press protested vigorously, for every acre of Kansas and Nebraska lay to the north of 36° 30′ and was solemnly pledged to freedom. But the Democratic leaders would not listen and drove from their ranks another detachment of voters. The effect was soon manifest. The little parties began to unite and when, in 1856, the time came to elect another president, the Republican Party of to-day was fully organized and ready. Once more and for the last time for twenty-eight years the Democrats won.
Buchanan’s Administration the Prelude to the Civil War.—The administration of James Buchanan (1857-1861) marks an epoch. The question before the country was that of the extension of slavery into the new territories. Hardly had he been inaugurated when the Supreme Court handed down a decision on the case of Dred Scott, which denied the right of Congress to legislate on slavery, set aside the compromises of 1820 and 1850 as unconstitutional, and opened all the territories to slavery.
Rise of the Republican Party and Election of Lincoln.—From that moment the Whig and Democratic parties began to break up rapidly till, when 1860 came, four parties and four presidential candidates were in the field. The Democratic party, having finally split at the national convention for nominating a president and vice-president, the southern wing put forward Breckenridge and Lane and demanded that Congress should protect slavery in the territories. The northern wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas and declared for squatter sovereignty and the compromise of 1850. A third party, taking the name of “Constitutional Union,” declared for the Constitution and the Union at any price and no agitation of slavery, nominated Bell and Everett, and drew the support of the old Whigs of the Clay and Webster school. The Republicans, declaring that Congress should prohibit slavery in the territories, nominated Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin and won the election.
Secession, and the Formation of the Confederacy.—The State of South Carolina immediately seceded and before the end of February, 1861, was followed by Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Taking the name of the Confederate States of America, they formed first a temporary and then a permanent government, elected Jefferson Davis president, raised an army, and besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The attempt to relieve the fort brought on the bombardment and surrender (April 19, 1861). The Confederate States were now joined by Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Richmond was made the capital, and the Civil war opened.
Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy.—The line of separation between the states then became the Potomac River, the Ohio River, and a line across southern Missouri and Indian Territory to New Mexico. Along this line the troops of the Union were drawn up in many places under many commanders. Yet there were in the main but three great armies. That of the East or Potomac under General McClellan, that of the Center or the Ohio under General Buell, that of the West or Missouri under General Halleck. In command of all as Lieutenant-General was Winfield Scott. Confronting them were the troops of the Confederacy, drawn up in three corresponding armies: that of North Virginia under Johnston and Lee, that of the Cumberland under Albert Sidney Johnston, and that of the trans-Mississippi under McCulloch and Price.
Yielding to the demand of the North for the capture of Richmond before the Confederate Congress could meet there (July 20, 1861), McDowell went forth with thirty-eight thousand three-months volunteers to the ever memorable field of Bull Run.
The Union Successes in the Southwest.—But the serious campaigning did not begin until January, 1862. Then the whole line west of the Alleghanies (made up of the armies of Ohio and Missouri), turning on Pittsburgh as a center, swept southward, captured Forts Henry and Donelson, defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, captured Corinth, took Island Number 10, and drove them from Fort Pillow. Meantime Farragut entered the Mississippi from the Gulf, passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip, captured New Orleans, and sent Commodore Davis up the river to take Memphis. Memphis fell June 6, 1862, and, save for Vicksburg, the Mississippi was open for navigation. When the year closed the Confederates had been driven to the east into the mountains of Tennessee, where, December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863, was fought the desperate and bloody battle of Murfreesboro. The Union troops won, and the Confederate army fell back to Chattanooga.
The Peninsular Campaign Favors Confederate Arms.—With the Army of the Potomac meantime all had gone ill. The affair at Bull Run in July, 1861, had been followed by the transfer of the army to McClellan. But McClellan wasted time, wore out the patience of the North, and forced Lincoln to issue General Order Number One for the forward movement of all armies on February 22, 1862. Obedient to this McClellan began his Peninsular Campaign against Richmond, was out-generaled by Lee, and in the second battle of Bull Run suffered so crushing a defeat that Lee ventured to cross the Potomac and enter Maryland, and encountered McClellan, on the field of Antietam. In that battle Lee was beaten and fled across the Potomac. But McClellan failed to follow up the victory and was removed, the command of the Army of the Potomac passing to Burnside. Burnside led it across the Potomac and the Rappahannock and on December 13, 1862, lost the battle of Fredericksburg. For this he was replaced by Hooker, who, May 1-4, 1863, fought and lost the battle of Chancellorsville.
The Turning Point of the War.—Lee now again took the offensive, crossed the Potomac, entered Pennsylvania, and at Gettysburg met the Army of the Potomac under Meade. On that field was fought the decisive battle of the war. Then (July 1-4, 1863) the backbone of the Confederacy was broken, and the two armies returned to their old positions in Virginia.
While Meade was beating Lee at Gettysburg, Grant captured Vicksburg, July 1-3, 1863. For this he was sent to command the army of Rosecrans, then besieged by Bragg at Chattanooga. Again success attended him, and in November he stormed Lookout Mountain, defeated Bragg in the famous “Battle above the Clouds,” and drove him in disorder through the mountains. For these signal victories he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant General in 1864, and placed in command of the armies of the United States.
That year is memorable for the great march[643]of Sherman to the east from Chattanooga to the sea, for the victories of Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, for the Wilderness Campaign of Grant, the shutting up of Lee in Richmond, and by the re-election of Lincoln. His competitor was General McClellan, whom the northern Democrats put forward on the platform that the war was a failure, and that peace should be made with the South. In the spring of 1865 came the retreat of Lee from Richmond, and, on April 9, his surrender at Appomattox Court House.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLESNaval engagements are printed initalics; names of victorious commanders inbold-facetype.
LAND AND SEA ENGAGEMENTS