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[Illustration: THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY
Painted by Edward L Henry, N.A.
Copyright by C. Klackner]
A HISTORY OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
YEAR BY YEAR
BY
EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.
Member of the American Historical Association, New York
Historical Society, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia,
Honorary Member of the Royal Philo-Historical Society
of Bavaria, etc., etc.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
GEORG GOTTFRIED GERVINUS
ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN COLORED PLATES AND
THIRTY-TWO FULL-PAGE, HALF-TONE CUTS
AND TWO MAPS
_IN THREE VOLUMES--VOLUME TWO_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
P.F. COLLIER AND SON
MCMII
COPYRIGHT, 1900
By EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME TWO
FULL PAGES IN COLOR
THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY. Painted by Edward L. Henry _Frontispiece_
BALAKLAVA. Painted by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler)
SOLFERINO. Painted by E. Meissonier
LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN. Painted by J. Paul Laurens
FULL PAGES IN BLACK AND WHITE
AMERICAN INVENTORS. Painted by C. Schussele
THE KING OF ROME. Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence
LORD BYRON. Painted by Maurin
BEETHOVEN AND HIS ADMIRERS. Painted by A. Grafle
QUEEN VICTORIA TAKING THE OATH. Painted by Sir George Hayter
LORD TENNYSON. Painted by Frederic Sandys
WASHINGTON IRVING AND HIS FRIENDS. Painted by Daniel Huntington
THE BATTLE OF INKERMANN. Painted by Gustave Dore
WAGNER AND LISZT. Painted by W. Beckmann
OPENING OF THE OPERA. Painted by Edouard Detaille
EXECUTION OF SEPOY REBELS. Painted by Verestchagin
THE EMPEROR OF CHINA RECEIVING THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS.
1816
[Sidenote: Parliamentary rule in France]
[Sidenote: Revival of French letters]
An era of peace and reconstruction had begun. After a generation of war and
turmoil France was started on her new career of parliamentary government.
The brief period of retaliation ended with the so-called amnesty act of
January, which condemned Napoleon and all his relatives to perpetual exile.
The Chambers now entered into a prolonged discussion of the propositions
for a new election law. The Ministry was headed by the Duc de Richelieu,
who had taken the place of Talleyrand and Fouche. The latter was compelled
to leave France forever. Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, who succeeded Davoust,
reorganized the army on a permanent footing of military equality which
satisfied even Napoleon's veterans. In the Chambers, the Comte d'Artois
represented the ultra-royalist right wing, while the left was brilliantly
led by Lafayette, Manuel, and Benjamin Constant. Guizot, during the same
year, for the first time ascended the tribune as spokesman of the moderate
party--the so-called Doctrinaires. Chateaubriand so offended the king by
his book "La Monarchie selon la Charte" that his name was crossed from the
list of the Council of State. Yet he remained the foremost man of letters
in France.
[Sidenote: Beranger]
Beranger was the foremost lyric poet. A typical song by him is that
rendered by Thackeray:
With pensive eyes the little room I view,
Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long;
With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two,
And a light heart still breaking into song:
Making a mock of life, and all its cares,
Rich in the glory of my rising sun,
Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs,
In the brave days when I was twenty-one.
Yes; 'tis a garret--let him know't who will--
There was my bed--full hard it was and small;
My table there--and I decipher still
Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall.
Ye joys, that Time hath swept with him away,
Come to mine eyes, ye dreams of love and fun;
For you I pawned my watch how many a day,
In the brave days when I was twenty-one.
And see my little Lizette, first of all;
She comes with pouting lips and sparkling eyes;
Behold, how roguishly she pins her shawl
Across the narrow easement, curtain-wise;
Now by the bed her petticoat glides down,
And when did woman look the worse in none?
I have heard since who paid for many a gown,
In the brave days when I was twenty-one.
One jolly evening, when my friends and I
Made happy music with our songs and cheers,
A shout of triumph mounted up thus high,
And distant cannon opened on our ears:
We rise,--we join in the triumphant strain,--
Napoleon conquers--Austerlitz is won--
Tyrants shall never tread us down again,
In the brave days when I was twenty-one.
Let us be gone--the place is sad and strange--
How far, far off, these happy times appear;
All that I have to live I'd gladly change
For one such month as I have wasted here--
To draw long dreams of beauty, love, and power,
From founts of hope that never will outrun,
And drink all life's quintessence in an hour,
Give me the days when I was twenty-one!
It was the period of a new revival for French literature.
[Sidenote: Reaction in southern Europe]
In the other Latin countries, Spain, Portugal and Italy, the restoration of
the old monarchies was not attended by like beneficent results. In Spain,
the re-establishment of the Inquisition stifled free thought and free
speech to such a degree that some of the most progressive Spaniards
emigrated to the revolted Spanish dependencies in America. The return of
Bourbon rule in Naples and Sicily was made odious by a general suppression
of Freemasons and kindred secret societies.
[Sidenote: Metternich's influence]
[Sidenote: German Confederation established]
[Sidenote: The Frankfort Diet]
In the German States, similar measures of persecution were invoked against
the student societies at the universities. The University of Erfurt was
suspended. The Duke of Hesse, who had gained early notoriety by renting his
subjects to foreign armies, now revived corporal punishment together with
the stocks and other feudal institutions. In Wurtemberg serfdom was
re-established. Throughout Germany the reactionary suggestions of Prince
Metternich were carried into effect. A good opportunity for Metternich to
assert his ascendency was presented by the first session of the new German
Diet. Late in the year the delegates from all the States of the New
Germanic Confederation met at Frankfort, Austria holding the permanent
presidency. Count Buol von Schauenstein opened the Diet with a solemn
address, which fell flat. First of all, it was settled that Hesse would
have to cede a large part of Westphalia to Prussia. Next, the title of the
Duke of Cambridge to rule as Regent in Hanover was fully recognized. In
all resolutions relating to fundamental laws, the organic regulations of
the Confederation, the _jura singulorum_ and matters of religion, unanimity
was required. All the members of the Confederation bound themselves neither
to enter into war nor into any foreign alliance against the Confederation
or any of its members. The thirteenth article declared, "Each of the
confederated States will grant a constitution to the people." The sixteenth
placed all Christian sects on an equality. The eighteenth granted freedom
of settlement within the Confederation, and promised "uniformity of
regulation concerning the liberty of the press." The fortresses of
Luxemburg, Mainz and Landau were declared common property and occupied in
common by their troops. A fourth fortress was to be raised on the Upper
Rhine with twenty millions of the French contribution money. This was never
done. For future sessions of the Diet the votes were so regulated that the
eleven States of first rank alone held a full vote, the secondary States
merely holding a half or a fourth of a vote, as, for instance, all the
Saxon duchies collectively, one vote; Brunswick and Nassau, one; the two
Mecklenburgs, one; Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwartzburg, one; the petty
princes of Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Lippe, and Waldeck, one; all
the free towns, one; forming altogether seventeen votes. In constitutional
questions the six States of the highest rank were to have each four votes;
the next five States each three; Brunswick, Schwerin, and Nassau, each two;
and all the remaining princes each, one vote. This arrangement, as it
turned out, proved fruitful of endless trouble.
[Sidenote: Unfair representation]
Austria and Prussia at that time contained forty-two million inhabitants;
the rest of Germany merely twelve million. The power of the two predominant
States, therefore, really were in proportion to that of the rest of Germany
as seven to two, whereas their votes in the Diet stood merely as two to
seventeen, and in the plenary assembly as two to fifteen.
[Sidenote: Prussia predominant]
Though Prussia had lost Hanover and East Friesland, she had received
sufficient compensation still--thanks to Hardenberg's diplomacy--to start
her on her future career as the predominant German State. Incorporated with
the Prussian provinces now were half of Saxony, the Grandduchy of Posen, a
portion of Westphalia, nearly all of the Lower Rhine region from Mainz to
Aix-la-Chapelle, and Swedish Pomerania, for which Prussia paid some eight
million thalers by way of indemnity.
[Sidenote: Restoration of the Netherlands]
In Holland, the new Stadtholder, Prince William Frederick of Orange-Nassau,
having incorporated Belgium as an integral part of the kingdom of the
Netherlands, set himself to nullify the French racial traits of his Belgian
subjects. A suggestion of future strife on this score could already be
found in Van der Palm's memorial on "The Restoration of the Netherlands,"
published during this year.
[Sidenote: England's commanding position]
[Sidenote: Industrial depression]
[Sidenote: Art and Letters]
The final settlement of Napoleon's great upheaval of Europe left England
feverish and exhausted. The prolonged financial strain of twenty years of
war had saddled Great Britain with a national debt of eight hundred million
pounds. Of material gain there was little to show but the acquisition of
Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch; of the former French
colony of Mauritius, and of a few West Indian islands. The continued
possession of the Rock of Gibraltar, and of Malta, the old stronghold of
the Knights of Malta, together with the British protectorate over the Ionic
Isles, assured to England her commanding position in the Mediterranean. At
home the pressure of the heavy taxes required to meet the financial
legacies of the war was imbittered by the general distress of the country.
The new tax on the importation of grains resulted in famine prices.
Corresponding tariff restrictions abroad kept British markets overstocked
with goods. Mills and factories had to be shut down, while at the same time
the labor market was glutted with several hundred thousand discharged
sailors and soldiers. The starving working people grew bitter in their
opposition to new labor-saving devices. Thus the appearance of the first
steamship on the Thames and of the earliest ships constructed of iron,
followed shortly by Sir Francis Reynold's invention of an electric
clock-work telegraph and by James Watt's introduction of stereo plates in
book-printing, heightened this feeling. The resentment of laboring men
found expression in riotous meetings at Manchester, Littleport and
Nottingham. The movement spread to London. A great labor meeting was held
there on the Spa fields. The favorite newspaper of the workingmen,
Cobbett's radical "Two Penny Register," rivalled the London "Times" in
power. In Parliament the leaders of the radical opposition grew ever more
importunate. Not until the end of the year did matters mend. The most
comforting sign of better times was a partial resumption of specie payments
by the Bank of England, followed shortly by the opening of the first
Savings Bank in London. Other memorable events of the year were the
acquisition of the famous Elgin marbles from the Parthenon in Athens,
celebrated in Keats's sonnet "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles," and the
publication of Shelley's long poem "Alastor," and Leigh Hunt's "Story of
Rimini." A diplomatic setback pregnant with future trouble was the
dismissal of Lord Amherst, the British Ambassador at Pekin, for refusing to
kow-tow to the Emperor of China.
[Sidenote: Depression in America]
[Sidenote: Financial relief measures]
[Sidenote: Tariff _vs._ Free Trade]
[Sidenote: Changes in New England]
In America the depression of commerce and industry resulting from the war
with England continued unabated. To relieve the situation, the Secretary of
the Treasury, A.J. Dallas, proposed as a measure of relief the chartering
of a new national bank with increased capital and enlarged powers and the
readjustment of the tariff by the imposition of higher duties. The bank was
chartered for twenty-one years with a capital of $35,000,000, a portion of
the stock to be owned by the government and the institution to have in its
management five government directors in a board of twenty-five. The tariff
policy of Madison was sustained by the Southern party and opposed by the
Federalists, especially in New England. Thus it became more a question of
sectional interests than of abstract political economy. The capital of New
England was invested in shipping, so that the exclusion of articles of
foreign production was bound to injure, by a high tariff, New England's
carrying trade. On its part, the South sought to establish a home market
for its cotton--almost the only staple of the Gulf States. Efforts were
made to encourage the domestic manufacture of those coarse fabrics which
were indispensable in a slave-holding region. The question thus grew into a
struggle between slave labor and free trade. The free-trade party was led
by Daniel Webster, and the tariff party by Calhoun. During the first year
of the new tariff the value of foreign imports fell off about thirty-two
per cent. In the adjustment of capital and trade to an enforced industrial
policy, the American people passed through a commercial crisis which
paralyzed the flourishing sea-ports of the New England coast. Newburyport,
Salem, Plymouth, New London, Newport, and intermediate places sank from
lucrative commercial centres into insignificant towns. Manchester, Lowell,
Fall River, Pawtucket, Waterbury and other New England cities on the other
hand became great manufacturing places.
The Fourteenth American Congress, under the leadership of Clay, imposed a
protective tariff of about twenty-five per cent on imported cotton and
woollen goods, with specific duties on coal and iron. The average duties on
imports amounted almost to prohibition. Late in the year Indiana was
admitted as the nineteenth State.
[Sidenote: War with Florida Indians]
The tranquillity of the end of Madison's administration was broken by new
troubles with the southern Indians. General Jackson by his impulsive
manner of dealing with the Indians of Florida nearly forced the United
States into a war with Spain and England. The Indians had reason to
complain of the injustice that had marked their treatment by the whites.
Florida had become a refuge for runaway slaves from Georgia and South
Carolina. The treaty of 1814 was repudiated by many of the Creeks, who
resented the new settlements of the whites. Those who were most
dissatisfied made common cause with the Seminoles. For a year, General
Gaines, in command at the frontier, complained to the authorities at
Washington of the conduct of the Indians and Spaniards. General Jackson, to
whom the matter was referred, wrote to Gaines that the forts standing in
Spanish territory "ought to be blown off the face of the earth, regardless
of the ground they stand on." In July, a detachment of men and gunboats
under Colonel Church advanced upon Fort Negro. A shot from one of the boats
blew up the powder magazine. The fort was laid in ruins. Of the 324 inmates
270 were killed. Most of the survivors were wounded.
[Sidenote: Death of Gouverneur Morris]
During this year, the "Washington," the first American line-of-battle ship
put to sea with seventy-four guns on her decks. The first American rolling
mill and plant for puddling iron-ore were built at Red Stone Bank in
Pennsylvania. Bishop Asbury, the founder of Methodism in the United States,
preached his last sermon at Richmond, Virginia. During the same year he
died at the age of seventy-one. Other noted Americans who died this year
were Gouverneur Morris of New York, and Spaulding, the reputed author of
the book of Mormon.
[Sidenote: Death of Miranda]
[Sidenote: Independence of Argentine]
Miranda, the South American revolutionist, expired on July 14, in a dungeon
at Cadiz. A British officer who saw him shortly before his death, described
him as "tied to a wall with a chain about his neck like a dog." Ever since
his defeat and detention in Venezuela, his last years had been spent in
captivity. He passed from prison to prison--now at San Carlos, now in Porto
Rico, and finally in Spain. Miranda's failure to obtain grants of amnesty
for Bolivar and his fellow rebels, when he came to terms with the Spanish
general Monteverde, left him discredited with the patriots of South
America. In the meanwhile, Miranda's friend, San Martin, was fighting in
Chile and Peru for South American independence, and was aided in his
struggle by Louis Beltran, an unfrocked friar. On July 9, the independence
of Argentine was proclaimed. Pueyrredon was made President of the new
republic. Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia established independent
governments.
[Sidenote: The struggle in Venezuela]
After Miranda's defeat and the fall of Porto Cabello, Bolivar had fled to
Curacoa. He enlisted a corps of refugees in Cartagena and headed an
expedition into New Granada. There he rallied more revolutionists about
him, and, capturing Madalena from the Spaniards, fought his way through to
Caracas. He was welcomed there with extravagant demonstration as the
"Savior of Venezuela." After one more victory on the field of Araure his
star declined. The Spanish general, Boves, defeated him at La Puerta, and
took a terrible vengeance on the patriots. The wounded and prisoners were
killed on the field; the homes of all reputed rebels were burned to the
ground; and the entire population of Aragua was massacred.
[Sidenote: Spanish vengeance]
[Sidenote: Bolivar's adventures]
Montalvo, the Spanish War Minister, reported officially: "General Boves
does not distinguish between the guilty and innocent--soldiers or
non-combatants. All alike are killed for the crime of being born in
America." Bolivar retired to New Granada and thence to Jamaica. An attempt
to assassinate him there failed; for the negro cut-throat who had
undertaken to murder Bolivar killed the wrong person. Bolivar crossed over
to Hayti. There he raised a new expedition. A negro leader, Petion, then
acting-governor of Hayti, helped him in this enterprise, and strongly
advised him to proclaim the freedom of all slaves as the first step on
landing in his country. "For, how can you free your country," said Petion,
"if you don't free all the people in it?" Bolivar heeded his advice. With
six ships and one hundred and fifty men, he set out to reconquer Venezuela
from Spain. He landed at Margerita, where he had the good fortune to
capture several Spanish ships. With them he returned to Santo Domingo for
more men and ammunition. Petion furnished him with funds. Thus reinforced,
Bolivar made a dash for Barcelona in Venezuela. The end of the struggle was
at hand.
1817
[Sidenote: Return of Bolivar]
[Sidenote: General Piar shot]
[Sidenote: O'Higgins]
[Sidenote: San Martin]
Bolivar landed on the north coast of Venezuela on the first day of the new
year. His landing place, Barcelona, was a small town at the foot of the
Maritime Andes, so unprotected against attack that he resolved to leave it
at once. He marched his force in the direction of Santa Fe in New Granada,
hoping to push through to Peru. Marino and Piar, two insurgent leaders
operating in the south, joined forces with Bolivar, and brought 1,200
additional men. By the time their joint column had penetrated well into
Orinoco, the three leaders were at odds with each other. Piar tried to
incite revolt among his followers. Bolivar caused Piar to be seized, and
after a drum-head trial had him shot. In the meanwhile a Spanish force had
swooped down on Barcelona, and massacred the inhabitants. Things were at
this pass when the standard of revolt was once more raised in Chile by
Bernado O'Higgins. He was a natural son of Ambrosio, and had just returned
from school in England. At the time the supreme command of the
revolutionary forces was given to him this famous South American leader was
still a young man, as was his chief lieutenant, MacKenna. By his clever
handling of the campaigns that followed he won the title of "El Primer
Soldado del Nuevo Mundo"--the first soldier of America. It was still at the
outset of his career, in 1817, that help came to the Chileans from Buenos
Ayres across the Andes. The man who brought this aid was San Martin.
At Mendoza, on January 17, San Martin reviewed his little army of 5,000,
all Gaucho horsemen, as lightly clad and provisioned as the Indians of the
Pampas. The women of Mendoza presented the force with a flag bearing the
emblem of the Sun. San Martin held the banner aloft, declaring it "the
first flag of independence which had been blest in South America." This
same flag was carried through all the wars along the Pacific Coast. And
under its tattered shreds San Martin was finally laid to rest sixty years
later.
[Sidenote: Battle of Chacabuco]
[Sidenote: Acuoncagua]
Marching from Mendoza, San Martin made a feint of crossing the Andes by way
of Planchon, thereby inducing a Spanish column under Captain-General Marco
del Ponte to concentrate at Talca. During the progress of these movements,
San Martin and his followers crossed the mountains by the steep route of
Putaendo and Cuevas. Three hundred miles of the stiffest mountain riding
were covered in less than a fortnight. Early in February, San Martin's
army, now barely 4,000 strong, descended upon Villa Nueva. On February 7,
they fought their first battle on Chilean soil with the Spanish outposts at
Chacabuco. Driving the Spaniards before him, San Martin, advanced into the
plain, and presently joined forces with O'Higgins' infantry. New mounts
were provided for the cavalry. At the strong post of Acuoncagua the
Spaniards made a stand, but they were outnumbered by the insurgents. San
Martin delivered a frontal attack, while O'Higgins outflanked the enemy
with an impetuous charge, with the result that the whole Spanish force was
routed beyond recovery. The officers fled to Valparaiso. By the middle of
February, San Martin entered Santiago de Chile. A new republican junta was
formed and complete independence of Spain was declared. O'Higgins assumed
the position of dictator.
[Sidenote: Battle of Talca]
[Sidenote: Battle of the Maypo]
[Sidenote: Liberation of Chile]
All Chile was free now except in the south. General Ordonez, commanding the
Spanish forces there, was defeated and fell back to Talcahuano. San Martin
prepared to invade Peru. Anticipating such an attack, Abascal, the Spanish
Viceroy of Peru, despatched Osorio with an expedition of 3,500 veterans,
who had just arrived from Spain, to Talcahuano. As soon as these
reinforcements came, Ordonez set out from Talcahuano with the vanguard to
march on Santiago de Chile, and met the patriot forces near Talca. The
revolutionists largely outnumbered the Spaniards, but were poorly
disciplined and ill-provisioned. While they lost time the Spanish main
column under Osorio came up. Ordonez took advantage of the clumsy
manoeuvres of the revolutionists to drive a sharp attack between their
two wings, piercing their centre. The battle was won after the first
fifteen minutes. O'Higgins was wounded and had to be carried out of the
fight. San Martin, with his right wing, fell back on San Fernando. With
great difficulty O'Higgins managed to reach Santiago, where he was
presently joined by San Martin. Steadily the Spanish column advanced on
Santiago. The two revolutionary leaders by almost superhuman efforts
succeeded in rallying and equipping a force of 5,000 defenders. On April 5,
the Spanish army appeared before Santiago de Chile. Near the Maypo, nine
miles from Santiago, the revolutionists took up a strong position. Osorio
opened the battle about noon with artillery. Soon all the troops were
engaged, the fiercest fight raging around a hacienda where San Martin and
O'Higgins had their headquarters. Several times the ranch was lost and
retaken. By sundown the Spaniards advanced all along the line. The battle
seemed lost to the patriots. At this juncture, as the famous regiment of
Burgos on the Spanish right was drawing in its deployed lines for a final
column attack, Colonel O'Brien, at the head of the insurgent cavalry
reserves, charged into the opening and overthrew the Burgos battalions.
O'Higgins immediately charged the rest of the Spanish right wing, and San
Martin simultaneously attacked in the centre. The whole Spanish army gave
away. More than 2,000 Spaniards were killed and wounded. Osorio with his
staff escaped to Peru. The victory of Santiago not only freed Chile, but
left Peru open to the revolutionists.
[Sidenote: Monroe's Presidency]
In the United States of North America, during this interval, a new
President had begun his administration. James Monroe was inaugurated as
President in his fifty-ninth year. He had been a member of the Continental
Congress, and at thirty-six a Minister to France. Under Madison he served
as Secretary of War. Crawford, Calhoun, Meigs, Wirt and Rush were members
of his Cabinet, and were all of the dominant Democratic-Republican party.
Business throughout the country began to revive almost at once when the
re-chartered National Bank went into operation in Philadelphia on the day
of Monroe's inauguration.
[Sidenote: "Era of good feeling"]
In June, President Monroe undertook a three months' personal inspection of
the military posts of the country. Passing through New York, Boston and
Portland, and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Ogdensburg, he took a
boat to Sackett's Harbor and Niagara. From there he went to Buffalo and
Detroit, and returned to Washington. Everywhere the people greeted him by
thousands. Monroe on this occasion wore the three-cornered hat,
scarlet-bordered blue coat and buff breeches of the American Revolutionary
army. The "Boston Journal" called the times the "Era of Good Feeling," and
the expression has passed into American history as a characteristic of
Monroe's entire administration.
[Sidenote: Western prairies settled]
It was an era notable for the extraordinary growth of the Western States.
Settlers were encouraged to buy government land on the instalment plan, and
the States refrained from levying taxes on these lands until years after
the settlers had received their title deeds. Endless processions of prairie
wagons passed through New York and Pennsylvania. On one turnpike alone,
16,000 vehicles paid toll during the year. Pittsburg at this time had a
population of 7,000 persons. The log cabin was the house of all, with its
rough chimney, its greased paper in a single window, its door with latch
and string, a plank floor and single room, corn husk brooms and its Dutch
oven. In the newly broken ground corn and wheat were planted, which, when
harvested, were thrashed with the flail and winnowed with a sheet. Little
settlements sprang up here and there on the rolling prairie, with
store-taverns, blacksmith shops and mills. This a thousand times repeated
was seen in western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan.
[Sidenote: Steam navigation]
[Sidenote: The Erie Canal]
[Sidenote: "Thanatopsis"]
During the same year the newly organized territory of Mississippi, formed
from a division of Alabama, was admitted as the twentieth State to the
Union. The first line of steam propelled ocean packets was organized to run
between New York and Liverpool. In the western frontier town of St. Louis
the first steamboat made its appearance. On July 4, ground was broken for
the Erie Canal, which was to connect the city of New York with the great
inland waters. On the strength of this progressive achievement De Witt
Clinton became a candidate for the governorship of New York. Among other
notable events of this year were the foundation of the New York State
Library, Gallaudet's foundation of the first school for the deaf and dumb
at Hartford, and the establishment of the earliest theological seminaries
of the Episcopal Church in America, as well as of the first Unitarian
Divinity School at Harvard. William Cullen Bryant, barely come of age,
published his master work, "Thanatopsis," in the "North American Review."
[Sidenote: Stenography]
[Sidenote: German liberalism]
[Sidenote: The Wartburg festival]
[Sidenote: European courts alarmed]
[Sidenote: Advances in scholarship]
[Sidenote: African missionary work]
In other parts of the world, likewise, the return of peace was followed by
a general advance in culture and civilization. Shortly after the
re-establishment of the American National Bank, Canada followed suit with
government banks at Montreal and Quebec. Hanka, in Bohemia, claimed to have
discovered the famous medieval lyrics of Rukopis Kralodvorsky written at
the end of the thirteenth century. Across the border in Poland the new
University of Cracow began its career. In Munich, Franz Gabelsberger
invented the first working system of shorthand, which, in a perfected form,
is still in use in Germany. During this year common school education took
an immense stride in Germany, after the establishment in Prussia of a
distinct Ministry for Public Education. Unfortunately the government soon
came into conflict with the bolder spirits at the universities. By reason
of the more liberal privileges allowed to it by the Duke of Weimar, the
University of Jena took the lead in the national Teutonic agitation
inaugurated by Fichte. On October 18, the students of Jena, aided by
delegates from all the student fraternities of Protestant Germany, held a
festival at Eisenach to celebrate the three-hundredth anniversary of the
Reformation. It was also the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig. Five
hundred ardent young men, among them scholars who had fought at Leipzig,
Ligny and Waterloo, assembled in the halls of Luther's Wartburg Castle.
They sang and drank, and fraternized with the members of the militia of
Eisenach. In the evening they had a torchlight procession and lighted a
huge bonfire on the hill opposite the castle. In imitation of Martin
Luther's burning of the Pope's Bull they consigned a number of their pet
aversions to the flames. Thus they burned a soldier's straight-jacket and
corporal's cane, as well as a recent pamphlet by one Schmalz written in
defense of the old Prussian bureaucracy. Rash words were uttered about the
broken faith of princes. They were aimed at King Frederick William of
Prussia, who had promised to give his country a constitution, but had
failed to keep his word. The Wartburg festival, childish as it was in many
of its manifestations, created singular alarm throughout Germany and
elsewhere. The King of Prussia sent his Prime Minister, Hardenberg, to
Weimar to make a thorough investigation of the affair. Richelieu, the Prime
Minister of France, wrote from Paris whether another revolution was
breaking out; and Metternich insisted that the Duke of Weimar should
curtail the liberties of his subjects. The heavy hand of reaction fell upon
all German universities. German scholars were compelled to turn their
interests from public affairs to pure science and scholarship, to the
benefit of German learning. The study of history and archeology took an
upward turn with Brentano's publication of old German ballads and
Lachmann's original version of the Nibelungen songs. At this time an
Italian archeologist, Belzoni, was adding new chapters to ancient history
by his original researches in Egypt, which resulted in the removal of the
Colossus of Memnon to Alexandria, and in the opening of the great Cephren
pyramid. In distant South Africa the first English missionaries began their
labors among the blacks. Although the Governor of Natal at first refused to
permit Robert Moffat, the first Wesleyan missionary in those parts, to
disturb the Kaffirs with his preachings, Moffat pressed on undismayed and
soon established a mission beyond the Orange River.
[Sidenote: Green Bag inquiry]
[Sidenote: Manchester Blanketers]
[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction in England]
In England, industrial depression dragged on. Early in the year riots broke
out in London on the opening of Parliament. While driving to the House of
Lords, the Prince Regent, now grown thoroughly unpopular on account of the
scandals with his wife, was hooted by a crowd in St. James's Park. The
police claimed that an air gun had been discharged at the Prince and made
an attack on the crowd. A number of persons were injured. This was followed
in February by the great Green Bag Inquiry, when Lord Sidmouth laid before
Parliament a green bag full of reports concerning seditions. Bills were
introduced to suspend the habeas corpus act and to provide for the coercion
of public meetings. Seditious publications were likewise to be suppressed.
In March occurred the rising of the so-called Blanketers in
Manchester--dissatisfied workingmen who started in a body for London
carrying blanket rolls and other necessaries. Their march was stopped by
the military. In April, seven members of the so-called society of Luddites
were hanged at Leicester for breaking labor-saving machinery. Shortly
afterward eighteen persons were hanged for forging notes on the Bank of
England. It was found that since the redemption of specie payments no less
than 17,885 forged notes had been presented. Nearly two hundred persons
were apprehended and tried in court for this offence. Shortly afterward
another insurrection which broke out in Derbyshire, and which was led by
Jeremiah Brandrett, was suppressed by soldiers.
[Sidenote: "The Revolt of Islam"]
[Sidenote: "Lalla Rookh"]
[Sidenote: John Keats]
[Sidenote: "Blackwood's"]
While the working classes of England and Ireland were thus struggling
against their miseries, English literature shone forth in new splendor.
Shelley brought out his "Revolt of Islam" and Tom Moore published his
"Lalla Rookh." John Keats at the age of barely twenty-one published his
first poems. The volume attracted little attention. The appearance of
Blackwood's new magazine in Edinburgh, on the other hand, was hailed as an
event in English letters.
[Sidenote: French letters]
[Sidenote: Beranger]
In France, likewise, the return of peace gave a new lease of life to
literature. The French Academy was reorganized to consist of forty members,
who were elected for life, and who were to be regarded as "the highest
authority on questions relating to language, grammar, rhetoric, poetry and
the publication of the French classics." Chateaubriand was the Academy's
foremost member. Beranger on the other hand, albeit his lyrics had reached
the height of their popularity, fell into official disfavor by reason of
his glorification of Napoleonic times, as exemplified in his ballads "La
Vivandiere," "La Cocarde Blanche," or "Le Juge de Charenton." The last
poem, with its veiled allusions to the Lavalette episode, was made the
subject of an interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies. While this was
still pending further offence was given by the publication of Beranger's
satirical piece on "The Holy Alliance." Beranger had to give up his
position as secretary at the University of France, and was soon afterward
arrested among his boon companions at Madame Saguet's near Le Moulin Vert.
He was placed on trial for the alleged blasphemies committed in his song
"Le Dieu des Bonnes Gens," and condemned to spend three months in prison
and to pay a heavy fine.
[Sidenote: Death of Madame de Stael]
[Sidenote: Death of Massena]
Other literary events of the year were the publication of Beyle's "Lives of
Mozart and Haydn"; the performance of Scribe's early plays, and the death
of Madame de Stael, which occurred on July 14. This gifted daughter of
Necker had not been allowed to return to France until after the fall of
Napoleon. Her last work was a treatise of the Constitutional Government,
entitled "Considerations sur les Principaux Evenements de la Revolution
Francaise," and published posthumously by her long time German companion
and adviser, Schlegel. Marshal Massena died during the same year. His
funeral was attended with imposing military honors rendered him by his old
followers and comrades-in-arms, who recalled the triumphs of Rivoli,
Essling, and a score of other victories in which this famous warrior had
borne the brunt of the fighting.
[Sidenote: Wachabite rebellion]
[Sidenote: Seminole war]
This year would have been one of peace, the first since the outbreak of the
French Revolution, but for another uprising of the Wachabites in Arabia
under the standard of Tourkee and the re-occurrence of North American
Indian troubles. A year had passed after the destruction of Fort Negro in
Florida before the whites found a pretext for another attack. King Natchez
was accused of receiving fugitive negroes, and he replied: "I have no
negroes.... I shall use force to stop any armed American from passing my
lands or my towns." The Seminoles looked with alarm on the new forts of the
United States. At Fowltown, on Flint River, the Indians, in November, put
up a war pole, and the chief warned Colonel Meigs in command at Fort Scott
not to cross the Flint River. Gaines reached the place with some regular
troops and volunteers, and Twiggs, with 250 men, moved upon the town,
killed some of the people and burned the village. The revenge of the
Seminoles was swift and bloody. Settlers were massacred and the property of
the whites within reach of the Indians was destroyed. Over 2,700 Seminoles
took the field. General Jackson assumed command on the day after Christmas.
He declared that so long as the Spaniards held Florida the trouble would
continue.
[Sidenote: Pindaree war]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Toona]
About the same time the British in India were plunged into further wars
with the natives. First the Pindarees sent out plundering bands from Malwa.
To suppress them, Lord Hastings had to collect an army of 120,000, the
largest force yet mustered in India. From Madras, four army divisions under
Sir Thomas Hislop crossed the Nerbudda, and drove the Pindarees toward
Bengal. By the great number of his remaining troops Lord Hastings overawed
the neighboring rulers, Peishwa Sindia of the Mahratta, Ameer Khan, Holkar
and Runjit Singh of the Punjab. Peishwa Baji Rao was compelled to sign a
treaty of neutrality at Toona. In October, thereupon, Lord Hastings left
Cawnpore and crossed the Jumna. The Pindarees were routed in a series of
swift-fought engagements. One of their chieftains, Khurin, gave himself up
with his whole household, while another, Chetu, was killed by a tiger while
hiding in the jungle.
[Sidenote: Mahratta war]
The Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who was biding his time until the British
forces should withdraw from his dominions, grew impatient and threatened
open war. To appease him a newly arrived British regiment was withdrawn
from Toona to Khirki, a village about four miles from the British
Residency. This concession only encouraged the Peishwa to further
resistance.
[Sidenote: Hindu Blondin]
[Sidenote: Outbreak of Poonah]
[Sidenote: Flight of Baji Rao]
The Mahratta war opened with a romantic incident. Trimbukji Dainglia, one
of the favorites of the Peishwa, was held closely confined by the English
at Thanna for his share in the murder of one of Baji Rao's enemies. Before
the outbreak of hostilities the Mahrattas managed to get word to him of
what was coming. A native groom in the service of one of the British
officers passed the window of the prisoner every day leading his master's
horses. As he did so he trolled a native song the purport of which the
British guards neither understood nor suspected. It has thus been
translated by Bishop Heber:
Behind the bush the bowmen hide
The horse beneath the tree.
Where shall I find a chief to ride
The jungle paths with me?
There are five-and-fifty horses there,
And four-and-fifty men;
When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed,
The Dekhan thrives again.
A few days after this Trimbukji Dainglia was missing. He had broken a bar
from its setting, scaled the wall, and joined a party of horsemen lying in
wait. With them he fled to the jungles of Kanderish. Just before the
outbreak of hostilities a British officer thought he recognized him at
Poonah. On November 5, the British Resident, Elphinstone, left Poonah to
inspect the forces at Khirki. On that same day the Mahrattas burned
Elphinstone's house and rich Sanskrit library. Baji Rao attacked the
military post Khirki with 26,000 men, but was repulsed with a loss of five
hundred. The British immediately despatched an army under General Smith for
Poonah. On November 15, they prepared for a general attack on the morrow,
but in the night Baji Rao fled from Poonah. Thus he surrendered his
dominions without a blow.
Appa Sahib, the Rajah of Nagpore, meanwhile had made common cause with Baji
Rao. On the evening of November 24, he brought up his forces and attacked
the British Residency at Nagpore. The resulting battle of Sitaboldi is
famous in Hindu annals. As Wheeler, the historian of British India,
describes it:
[Sidenote: Battle of Sitaboldi]
"The English had no European regiment, as they had at Khirki; they had
scarcely fourteen hundred Sepoys fit for duty, including three troops of
Bengal cavalry, and only four six-pounders. Appa Sahib had an army of
eighteen thousand men, including four thousand Arabs, the best soldiers in
the Dekhan; he had also thirty-six guns. The battle lasted from six o'clock
in the evening of the 26th of November until noon the next day. For many
hours the English were in sore peril; their fate seemed to hang upon a
thread. The Arabs were beginning to close round the Residency, when a happy
stroke of British daring changed the fortunes of the day. Captain
Fitzgerald, who commanded the Bengal cavalry, was posted in the Residency
compound and was anxious to charge the Arabs; but he was forbidden. Again
he implored permission, but was told to charge at his peril. 'On my peril
be it!' cried Fitzgerald. Clearing the inclosures, the Bengal cavalry bore
down upon the enemy's horse, captured two guns, and cut up a body of
infantry. The British Sepoys hailed the exploit with loud huzzahs, and
seeing the explosion of one of the enemy's tumbrels, rushed down the hill,
driving the Arabs before them. The victory was won, but the English had
lost a quarter of their number."
[Illustration: LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN
Painted by J. Paul Laurens
From Carbon Print by Braun, Clement & Co., N.Y.]
[Sidenote: Appa Sahib's escape]
[Sidenote: Battle of Nahidpore]
[Sidenote: Defence of Korygaun]
[Sidenote: End of Mahratta rule]
Appa Sahib surrendered himself and was placed under arrest. Presently he
made good his escape and found a refuge with the Rajah of Jodhpur. In
Holkar's State of Indore affairs ran in a similar groove. The Regent Mother
showed herself inclined to come to an agreement with the British marching
northward under Sir Thomas Hislop. But the Mahratta chiefs were bent on
war, and murdered the Regent Mother. A battle, henceforth, was unavoidable.
Already the British supply train had been plundered by the Mahrattas. The
battle was fought on December 21, at Nahidpore. On each occasion Sir John
Malcolm commanded the British troops and won a complete victory. All the
Hindu guns and swords fell into British hands. Then came the heroic defence
of Korygaun, still celebrated in British Indian annals. A detachment of
Bombay Sepoys and native cavalry, under the command of Captain Staunton and
ten English officers, in all 800 men with two guns, were caught unawares by
the Peishwa's army of 30,000 Mahratta Gosains. Captain Staunton's force
intrenched itself in the village of Korygaun and prepared for the worst.
The Mahrattas completely surrounded the place and the defenders were cut
off from all water and supplies. Then came a succession of fierce rushes by
the Mahratta horse and foot, every one of which had to be fought off in
desperate hand-to-hand encounters. Of the ten white officers eight were
killed; besides them Staunton lost one-third of his Sepoys. The Mahrattas
left 600 on the field. To the present day the exploit is celebrated in the
songs and stories of the Dekhan. The Peishwa witnessed the long fight from
a neighboring hill, and was beside himself when his discouraged troops
refused to renew the battle. After this Baji Rao could no longer hold his
army together. By the close of the year his forces were dispersed. It was
the end of Mahratta rule in the Dekhan.
1818
[Sidenote: Battle of Ashti]
[Sidenote: Baji Rao's surrender]
Peace was re-established in India shortly after New Year's day. Lord
Hastings would stop at nothing but the absolute deposition of the Peishwa.
He had long resolved to reduce Baji Rao to the condition of Napoleon at St.
Helena. Accordingly, he delivered the Rajah of Satara from the thraldom of
generations, and assigned to him sufficient territory for support. This
done he set himself to hunt down the deposed Peishwa. For several months
Baji Rao remained at large. He made a feeble stand at Ashti, but fled at
the first shot, leaving his army to be defeated by General Smith. It was on
this occasion that the Rajah of Satara fell into English hands. Later in
the year Baji Rao was surrounded by British troops, under the command of
Sir John Malcolm. No alternative was left him but to die or give up. The
terms offered by Malcolm were so liberal as to excite astonishment in
Europe. While the great Napoleon was condemned to spend his remaining days
on a mere pittance at St. Helena, this most cowardly of Indian princes was
allowed to live in luxury near Cawnpore, on a yearly grant of L80,000. His
friend Trimbukji Dainglia, however, when captured, was condemned to close
confinement in the fortress of Chunar.
[Sidenote: Lord Hastings' Indian policy]
The remains of the Holkar states were permitted to endure, nor would
Hastings sanction the proposed dethronement of the family of Jaswant Rao.
Holkar was merely required to seize certain territories, and to confirm the
grants already made to Ameer Khan. From a sovereign principality the land
was reduced to a subsidiary state under British guarantee. Otherwise the
infant Mulhar, Rao Holkar, was treated as an independent prince and his
administration was left in the hands of a native Durbar, aided by the
British Resident. The policy of Lord Hastings, although severely criticised
in England, must be pronounced a success in the light of later events. From
the suppression of the Pindarees and the extinction of the Peishwa in 1818,
down to the days of the great mutiny, no serious attempt was made to
overthrow British suzerainty by means of an armed confederation of native
states.
In some respects the administration of Lord Hastings marks a new era in the
history of India. Hastings was the first Governor-General who encouraged
the education of the native population. Early in his administration he
denounced the maxim of his predecessors, that native ignorance would insure
the security of British rule, as an utterly unworthy and futile doctrine.
Accordingly, he promoted the establishment of native schools and
publications.
[Sidenote: Death of Warren Hastings]
[Sidenote: Hastings' career]