PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815
%273.% Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was
inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made
wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the
Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia
River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to
the Pacific. In 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less
than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were
but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there
were eighteen states and five territories.
%274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration.%--Sparse as was the
population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the
people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the
mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was
pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A
second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself
over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky.
Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and
North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping
down the valley of the Tennessee River.[1]
[Footnote 1: For an account of the movement of population westward along
these routes, see _The First Century of the Republic_, pp. 211-238.]
For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. One observer
saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another estimated that ten
thousand emigrants floated by Marietta during 1788. As this never-ending
stream of population spread over the wilderness, building cabins,
felling trees, clearing the land, and driving off the game, the Indians
took alarm and determined to expel them.
%275. The Indian War.%--During the summer of 1786 the tribes whose
hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky took the warpath,
sacked and burned a little settlement on the Holston, and spread terror
along the whole frontier. But the settlers in their turn rose, and
inflicted on the Indians a signal punishment. One expedition from
Tennessee burned three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the
Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and laid waste
hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians been left to
themselves, they would, after this punishment, have remained quiet. But
the British, who still held the frontier post at Detroit, roused them,
and in 1790 they were again at work, ravaging the country north of the
Ohio. They rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept
it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of the
Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition which won some
success--just enough to enrage and not enough to cow them.
%276. St. Clair; Wayne.%--Not a settlement north of the Ohio was now
safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, who came to the
relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians in check till the
Federal government could act, every one of them would have been
destroyed. The plan of the Secretary of War was to build a chain of
forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set
off to begin the work. But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the
Wabash River, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats in
our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his command, which
was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after two years of careful
preparation, crushed the Indian power at the falls of the Maumee River
in northwestern Ohio. The next year, 1795, a treaty was made at
Greenville, by which the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and
east of a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest to
the Ohio River.
%277. Kentucky and Vermont become States.%--These Indian wars almost
stopped emigration to the country north of the Ohio, though not into
Kentucky or Tennessee. For several years past the people of the District
of Kentucky had been desirous to come into the Union, but had been
unable to make terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last
consent was obtained and the application made to Congress. But the
Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with Southern and Western
interests, and cared little for the commercial interests of the East,
and as this influence could be strongly felt in the Senate, where each
state had two votes, it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by
admitting the Eastern state of Vermont.
What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hampshire, was settled
by people from New England under town rights granted by the governor of
New Hampshire, and was called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however,
the governor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York
jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the possessions
of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut River. Then began a
controversy which was still raging bitterly when the Revolution opened,
and the Green Mountain Boys asked recognition as a state and admission
into the Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to grant
lest by so doing they should offend New York. Thereupon the people chose
delegates to a convention (in 1777), which issued a declaration of
independence, declared "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and
made a constitution. In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an
offset to Kentucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a
state with governor, legislature, and constitution, she came in at once.
Kentucky had to make a constitution, and so was not admitted till 1792.
Four years later (1796) Congress admitted Tennessee.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES July 4, 1801.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE]
%278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State.%--The quieting of
the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the Mississippi River to
American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled with cheap lands and low
taxes, caused another rush of population into the Ohio valley. Between
1795 and 1800 so many came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain
and the new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The acceptance
by Spain in 1795 of 31° north latitude as the boundary of the Floridas,
gave the United States control of the greater part of old West Florida,
which in 1798 was organized as the Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year
now elapsed without some marked sign of Western development. In 1800
Congress, under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first
delegate from the Northwest Territory, made a radical change in its land
policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. After 1800 he could
buy on credit, pay in four annual installments, and west of the
Muskingum River could purchase as little as 320 acres. This credit
system led to another rush into the Ohio valley, and so many people
entered the Northwest Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it
was admitted into the Union as the state of Ohio.
[Illustration: Cincinnati in 1810[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old print.]
In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added to the
Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase there was organized
in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 1805 the territory of Louisiana
(see p. 247). In 1805, also, the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off
from Indiana and organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory
of Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Orleans
became the state of Louisiana.
The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the United States
was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 were in the states and
territories west of the Alleghanies.
%279. Indian Troubles; Battle of Tippecanoe.%--As the settlers north
of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came in, their farms and
settlements touched the Indian boundary line. In Indiana, where, save a
strip sixty miles wide along the Ohio River, and a few patches scattered
over the territory, every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this
crowding led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive.
Then, under the lead of Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, they founded a league or
confederacy against the whites, and built a town on Tippecanoe Creek,
just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, when Harrison, who was
governor of Indiana Territory, bought the Indian rights to the Wabash
valley, the confederacy refused to recognize the sale, and gave such
signs of resistance that Harrison marched against them, and in 1811
fought the battle of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a
time it was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But the
Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second war with Great
Britain they sided with the British.
[Illustration: The United States and Territories in 1813]
%280. Industrial Progress.%--In 1789 our country had no credit and no
revenue, and was burdened with a great debt which very few people
believed would ever be paid. But when the government called in all the
old worthless Continental money and certificates and gave the people
bonds in exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its
debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National Bank was
established and the merchants were given bank bills that would pass at
their face value all over the country, business began to revive. The
money which the people had been hiding away for years was brought out
and put to useful purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and
companies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton cloth, to
build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to cut canals. Between
1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven in the United States, the first
broom made from broom corn, the first cotton factory opened, the first
gold and silver coins of the United States were struck at the mint, the
first newspaper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio
River, the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first
geography of the United States was published, and daily newspapers were
issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was during this period that a hunter
named Guinther discovered anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney
invented the cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for
making cotton yarns; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks as
a business; that cotton sewing thread was first manufactured in the
United States at Pawtucket, R.I.; and that the first turnpike in our
country was completed. This extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a
distance of sixty-two miles.
%281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity.%--Just at
this time came another change of great importance. Till 1793 we had
scarcely any commerce with the West Indies. England would not allow our
vessels to go to her islands. Neither would Spain, nor France, except to
a very limited degree. It was the policy of these three countries to
confine such trade as far as possible to their own merchants. But in
1793 France, you remember, made war on England and opened her West
Indian ports to all neutral nations. The United States was a neutral,
and our merchants at once began to trade with the islanders. What these
people wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and fish.
All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for sailors, and then
for provisions and lumber--to the benefit of every part of the country
except the South. New England was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and
commercial section. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour,
lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profitable was it to
raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the people stopped raising
tobacco and began to make flour, and soon made Virginia the second
flour-producing state in the Union. Until after 1795 the people of the
Western States were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty
with Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed to
float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or ship it to the
West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour-producing state.
As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their money into
roads and canals and manufactures, and put it into farming,
shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 1807, therefore, our
country enjoyed a period of commercial and agricultural prosperity. But
with 1807 came another change. In that year the embargo was laid, and
for more than fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports
of the United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our people
had been so much engaged in commerce and agriculture, that they had not
begun to manufacture. In 1807 all the blankets, all the woolen cloth,
cotton cloth, carpets, hardware, china, glass, crockery, knives, tools,
and a thousand other things used every day were made for us in Great
Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent to England
to be made into cloth, which was then carried back to the United States
to be used.
%282. "Infant Manufactures."%--As the embargo prevented our ships
going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these goods could no longer
be imported. The people must either go without or make them at home.
They decided, of course, to make them at home, and all patriotic
citizens were called on to help, which they did in five ways.
First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and formed a
"Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." Every
patriotic man and woman was expected to join one of them, and in so
doing to take a pledge not to buy or use or wear any article of foreign
make, provided it could be made in this country.
In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of domestic
manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were called, offered prizes
for the best piece of homemade linen, homemade cotton cloth, or
woolen cloth.
In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in the cities
and large towns, to which anybody who could knit mittens or socks, or
make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, or spin flax or wool, or make
anything else that the people needed, could send them to be sold.
In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and formed companies
to erect mills and factories for the manufacture of all sorts of things.
If you were to see the acts passed by the legislatures of the states
between 1808 and 1812, you would find that very many of them were
charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories for making
cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, rope.
In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states passed resolutions
asking their members to wear clothes made of material produced in the
United States,[1] offered bounties for the best wool, and exempted the
factories from taxation and the mill hands from militia and jury duty.
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. III., pp. 496-509.]
Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and became so
numerous that in 1810, when the census of population was taken, Congress
ordered that statistics of manufactures should be collected at the same
time. It was then found that the value of the goods manufactured in the
United States in 1810 was $173,000,000.
%283. Internal Improvements: Roads; Canals; Steamboats.%--But there
was yet another great change for the better which took place between
1790 and 1815. We have seen how during this quarter of a century our
country grew in area, how the people increased in number, how new states
and territories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, and
how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the people improved
the means of interstate commerce and communication.
You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over the great
rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, that all journeys
were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or in boats, and that it was
not then possible to go as far in ten hours as we can now go in one. You
will remember, also, that the people were moving westward in
great numbers.
As the people thus year by year went further and further westward, a
demand arose for good roads to connect them with the East. The merchants
on the seaboard wanted to send them hardware, clothing, household goods,
farming implements, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber,
flour, skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things.
If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If the roads
were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to the frontier would
make them too costly. People living in the towns and cities along the
seaboard were no longer content with the old-fashioned slow way of
travel. They wanted to get their letters more often, make their journeys
and have their freight carried more quickly.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States,_
Vol. III., pp. 462-465.]
About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the old idea of
canals, which had been abandoned in 1793, and one of these canal
companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, applied to Congress for
aid. This brought up the question of a system of internal improvements
at national expense, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury,
was asked to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did.
Congress never approved it.
%284. The National Pike.%--Public sentiment, however, led to the
commencement of a highway to the West known as the National Pike, or the
Cumberland Road. When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in
1803, Congress promised that part of the money derived from the sale of
land in Ohio should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio
River to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted to $12,000,
and with this was begun the construction of a broad pike from Cumberland
(on the Potomac) in Maryland to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West
Virginia.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 469-470.]
[Illustration: Phoenix[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an oil painting.]
%285. Steamboats.%--This increasing demand for cheap transportation
now made it possible for Fulton to carry into successful operation an
idea he had long had in mind. For twenty years past inventors had been
exhibiting steamboats. James Rumsey had exhibited one on the Potomac.
John Fitch had shown one on the Delaware in 1787. (See p. 190.) In 1804
Robert Fulton exhibited a steamboat on the Seine at Paris in France;
Oliver Evans had a steam scow on the Delaware River at Philadelphia; and
John Stevens crossed the Hudson from Hoboken to New York in a steamboat
of his own construction. In 1806 Stevens built another, the
_Phoenix_.[1]
[Footnote 1: Preble's _History of Steam Navigation _, pp. 35-66;
Thurston's _Robert Fulton_ in Makers of America Series.]
These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the August day,
1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment on the Hudson, that the era
of the steamboat opened. His vessel, called the _Clermont_, made the
trip up the river from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours.
[Illustration: Model of the Clermont[2]]
[Footnote 2: Made from the original drawings, and now in the National
Museum.]
Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreciated, and in
1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the Hudson. In 1809
Stevens sent his _Phoenix_ by sea to Philadelphia and ran it on the
Delaware. Another steamboat was on the Raritan River, and a third on
Lake Champlain. In 1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans,
and in 1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City and
New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.[3]
[Footnote 3: On the early steamboats see McMaster's _History of the
People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 486-494.]
%286. The Currency; the Mint.%--Quite as marvelous was the change
which in five and twenty years had taken place in money matters. When
the Constitution became law in 1789, there were no United States coins
and no United States bills or notes in circulation. There was no such
thing as a national currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of
foreign nations, there was no money which would pass all over our
country. To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank
bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. In
1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But the
Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more money, and as
their bills of credit already issued would wear out by use, the time was
near when there would be no currency except foreign coins. To prevent
this, Congress in 1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia,
and in 1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever would
bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made into coins without
cost to him. This was _free coinage._ As both gold and silver were to be
coined, the currency was to be _bimetallic_, or of two metals.[1] The
ratio of silver and gold was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of
silver must be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound of
gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and quarter dollar,
dime and half dime; the gold were to be the eagle, half eagle, and
quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be struck cents and half cents. As
some years must elapse before our national coins could become abundant,
certain foreign coins were made legal tender.
[Footnote 1: The first silver coin was struck in 1794; the first gold,
in 1795; the first cent and half cent, in 1793.]
%287. "Federal Money."%--The appearance of the new money was followed
by another change for the better. In colonial days the merchants and the
people expressed the debts they owed, or the value of the goods they
sold, in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the
Revolution, and after it, this was continued, although the Continental
Congress always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in
dollars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, and
dimes bearing the words "United States of America," they knew that
there really was a national coinage, or "Federal money," as they called
it, and between 1795 and 1798, one state after another ordered its
treasurer to use Federal money instead of pounds, shillings, and pence;
and thereafter in laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any
purpose, the amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants
and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms; but they came
at last into general use.
%288. Rise of the State Banks.%--Had the people been forced to depend
on the United States mint for money wherewith to pay the butcher and the
baker and the shoemaker, they would not have been able to make their
payments, for the machinery at the mint was worked by hand, and the
number of dimes and quarters turned out each year was small. But they
were not, for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the
states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each issued
notes, the people had all the currency they wanted.
In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there were but
four state banks in the whole country: one in Philadelphia, one in New
York, one in Boston, and one in Baltimore. By 1800 there were
twenty-six, in 1805 there were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were
eighty-eight.
In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank expired, and as
Congress would not renew it, many more state banks were created, each
hoping to get a part of the business formerly done by the National Bank.
Such was the "mania," as it was called, for banks, that the number rose
from eighty-eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was
far more than the people really needed.
Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesapeake Bay and
burned Washington. Then the banks in that part of the country boxed up
all their gold and silver and sent it away, lest the British should get
it. This forced them to "suspend specie payments"; that is, refuse to
give gold or silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they
suspended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one along the
seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one in Ohio, had stopped
paying coin. The New England banks did not suspend.
%289. No Small Change.%--The consequences of the suspension were very
serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, the dimes, half
dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, and the people were
again forced to do as they had done in 1789, and use "ticket money." All
the cities and towns, great and small, printed one, two, three, six and
one fourth, twelve and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets,
and sold them to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches,
and manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers--in fact, all
business men--did the same.
In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their
notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills
except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill
of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper
money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of
things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the
states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the
seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.]
%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%--Lest this state of
affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional
"power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in
1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at
Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public
money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be
established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could
issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes,
land, and all debts.
The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a
bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland
attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case
reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a
state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that
Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank.
SUMMARY
1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west
along three highways.
2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792),
Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union.
3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to
7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000
square miles.
4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of
great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time
that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were
built, and that the steamboat was introduced.
5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National
Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its
place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had
been forced to charter a new National Bank.
PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1709 TO 1815
_Territorial Changes. 1790-1812.
_ Movement of Population into the West._
Northern Stream. Checked by Indian war.
Indians quieted by Wayne.
Population again moved westward.
New states. 1791. Vermont.
1792. Kentucky.
1796. Tennessee.
1803. Ohio.
1812. Louisiana.
New Territories. 1798. Mississippi.
1800. Indiana.
1802. Mississippi enlarged.
1804. Orleans.
1805. Michigan.
1805. Louisiana (called Missouri
after 1812).
1809. Illinois.
_Expansion of Territory._ 1795. Spain accepts 31° as the boundary.
1802. Georgia cedes her western territory.
1803. Louisiana purchased from France.
_Industrial Progress_
First carpet mill.
First brooms.
First United States gold and silver coins.
First press in Tennessee.
Daily newspapers.
Discovery of hard coal.
Cotton gin.
Manufacture of clocks.
Sewing thread.
Rise of manufactures.
Dependence of United States on Great Britain before 1807.
Effect of the embargo.
Manner of encouraging manufactures.
_Agricultural Progress_
Effect of the French war.
State of agriculture in
New England.
New York and Pennsylvania.
The South.
_Improvements in Transportation_
Demand for roads and canals.
The national pike.
Steamboats.
Early forms.
Fitch's.
Fulton's.
Stevens's.
Rapid introduction of.
_Financial Condition_
Federal money.
The United States mint established.
Free coinage.
Bimetallism.
Coins struck.
Federal money comes slowly into use.
State Banks.
What led to the chartering of state banks.
Their rapid increase.
Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the
United States.
General suspension in 1814.
Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States.