INCREASING THE SIZE OF THE NEW REPUBLIC
As with reverent thought we turn from the closing days of George
Washington's life, our interest is drawn to the career of another national
hero, with whom we associate the most remarkable expansion in the area of
our country.
[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson.]
Already through the achievements of early pioneers and settlers, such as
Daniel Boone in Kentucky, John Sevier and James Robertson in Tennessee,
and George Rogers Clark in the region of the Great Lakes, the country
lying between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River had come
to be a part of the United States.
But now in a very different and much easier way the territory lying beyond
the Mississippi and stretching westward to the Rocky Mountains was added
to the national domain. This we obtained, not by exploration or
settlement, but by purchase; and the man who had most to do with our
getting it was Thomas Jefferson.
The story of the purchase is most interesting, but hardly more so than the
story of Thomas Jefferson himself.
He was born in 1743 near Charlottesville, Virginia, on a plantation of
nearly two thousand acres. As a boy he lived an out-of-door life, hunting,
fishing, swimming, or paddling his boat in the river near his home, and
sometimes riding his father's horses. He was a skilful and daring rider,
and remained to the end of his long life fond of a fine horse.
[Illustration: "Monticello," the Home of Jefferson.]
He was a most promising lad. At five he entered school, and even at that
early age began his lifelong habit of careful reading and studying. While
still but a boy he was known among his playmates for his industry and the
thorough way in which he did his work.
At seventeen he entered William and Mary College at Williamsburg,
Virginia. Here he worked hard, sometimes studying fifteen hours a day. But
for his sound body and strong health he must have broken down under such a
severe strain.
Yet this hard-working student was no mere bookworm. He was cheerful and
full of life, and was very much liked by his fellow students. Among other
friends made during his college days was the fun-loving Patrick Henry, who
with his jokes and stories kept every one about him in good humor. In time
their friendship became so intimate that when Patrick Henry came to
Williamsburg as a member of the House of Burgesses, he shared Jefferson's
rooms. Both were fond of music, and spent many a pleasant hour playing
their violins together.
We have a description of Jefferson as he appeared at this time. He was
over six feet tall, slender in body, but with large hands and feet. His
freckled face was topped by a mass of sandy hair, from beneath which
looked out keen, friendly gray eyes. He stood erect, straight as an arrow,
a fine picture of health and strong young manhood.
Thus we may imagine him as he stood one day while a law student at
Williamsburg, in the doorway of the courthouse, earnestly listening to his
friend Patrick Henry as he delivered his famous speech against the Stamp
Act. The fiery words of the eloquent speaker made a deep impression upon
young Jefferson's quick, warm nature.
Both young men were earnest patriots, but they served their country in
different ways. To Patrick Henry it was given to speak with the silver
tongue of the orator; while Jefferson, who was a poor speaker, wrote with
such grace and strength that he has rightly been called "The Pen of the
Revolution."
Before taking up his public life, it will be of interest to us to see how
he helped his countrymen in other ways. Two valuable and lasting
improvements have come down from him. The first of these was the system of
decimal currency, which replaced the clumsy system of pounds, shillings,
and pence used in colonial days. When you are called upon to work out
examples in English currency, be grateful to Thomas Jefferson that we have
instead the much simpler system of dollars and cents.
The second improvement--which was for the benefit of agriculture, in which
Jefferson always felt a deep interest--had, perhaps, even greater
importance, for it was not merely a convenience but a means of increasing
wealth. It was a new form of plough, which, sinking deeper into the soil,
vastly increased its productive power, and has been of untold value to the
people not only of our country but of the whole world.
Jefferson showed his interest in the work of the farm in another way.
While he was in France as American minister to the King he found that,
although the French ate a great deal of rice, especially during Lent, very
little of it came from the United States, because rice raised here was
thought to be of an inferior quality. The best rice came from Italy.
[Illustration: A Rice-Field in Louisiana.]
Wishing to help American rice-growers, Jefferson, therefore, went to Italy
to study the Italian method of growing it. He found that in both countries
the hulling and cleaning machine was the same. "Then," thought he, "the
seed of the Italian rice must be better."
So, doing up some small packages of the best seed rice he could find, he
sent them to Charleston. The seeds were carefully distributed among the
planters, who made good use of them, and from those seeds as a beginning
some of the finest rice in the world is now produced in our own States.
JEFFERSON'S GREATEST WORK AS A STATESMAN
But valuable as these services were to his countrymen, Jefferson's great
work in the world was that of a statesman. He first came into prominence
in the Second Continental Congress, when, you recall, the brave men
representing the several colonies decided that the time had come for the
American people to declare themselves free and independent of England.
Here Jefferson's ability as a writer did good service; for of the
committee of five appointed to draw up the Declaration of Independence
Jefferson was a member, and it fell to him to write the first draft of
that great state paper.
Congress spent a few days in going over this draft and making some slight
changes in it. In the main, however, it stands as Jefferson wrote it.
After filling many of the high offices in the country, in 1801 Jefferson
became the third President of the United States. In this lofty position
history gives us another striking picture of the man. It shows that he was
simple in his tastes, and that he liked best those plain ways of living
which are most familiar to the common people.
On the day of his inauguration he went on foot to the Capitol, dressed in
his every-day clothes and attended only by a few friends. It became his
custom later, when going up to the Capitol on official business, to go on
horseback, tying his horse with his own hands to a near-by fence before
entering the building. He declined to hold weekly receptions, as had been
the custom when Washington and Adams were Presidents, but instead he
opened his house to all on the Fourth of July, and on New Year's Day. In
these ways he was acting out his belief that the President should be
simple in dress and manner.
Many things which Jefferson did proved that he was an able statesman, but
the one act which stands out above all others as the greatest and wisest
of his administration, was the "Louisiana Purchase."
Let us see how this purchase came to be made. Before Jefferson became
President many pioneers, we know, had already settled west of the
Alleghany Mountains. Most of them lived along the Ohio and the streams
flowing into it from the north and the south. In the upland valleys of the
Kentucky and Tennessee Rivers settlers were especially numerous.
These lands were so fertile that the people living there became very
prosperous. As their harvests were abundant, they needed a market in which
to sell what they could not use.
We have seen how in the autumn it was their custom to load the furs on
pack-horses, and driving the cattle before them along the forest trail, to
make the long journey over the mountains to cities and towns along the
Atlantic coast.
[Illustration: A Flatboat on the Ohio River.]
But to send their bulky products by this route was too expensive. Water
transportation cost much less. Such produce as corn-meal, flour, pork, and
lumber had to go on rafts or flatboats down the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers to New Orleans. Here the cargo and the boat were sold, or the cargo
sold and loaded on ocean vessels, which in time reached the eastern market
by a cheaper though longer route than that by land. Thus the Mississippi
River, being the only outlet for this heavy produce, was very necessary to
the prosperity of the west.
But Spain at this time owned New Orleans and all the land about the mouth
of the Mississippi River; and as the river became more and more used for
traffic Spanish officers at New Orleans began to make trouble. They even
went so far as to threaten to prevent the sending of produce to that port.
This threat greatly troubled and angered the western farmers. They
proposed wild plans to force an outlet for their trade. But before
anything was done, news came that Napoleon, who was then at the head of
affairs in France, had compelled Spain to give up Louisiana to France.
Then the westerners grew still more alarmed about their trade. It was bad
enough to have a weak country like Spain in control of Louisiana. But it
might be far worse to have France, the greatest military power in the
world at that time, own it. All this was very plain to Jefferson, and he
knew that Napoleon was planning to establish garrisons and colonies in
Louisiana.
In view of the possible dangers, he sent James Monroe to France to aid our
minister there in securing New Orleans and a definite stretch of territory
in Louisiana lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. If he could
get that territory, the Americans would then own the entire east bank of
the river and could control their own trade.
When Monroe reached France, he found that Napoleon not only was willing to
sell what Jefferson wanted, but wished him to buy much more. For as
Napoleon was about to engage in war with England, he had great need of
money. Besides, he was afraid that the English might even invade and
capture Louisiana, and in that case he would get nothing for it. He was
satisfied, therefore, to sell the whole of the Louisiana territory for
fifteen million dollars.
This purchase was a big event in American history, for you must remember
that what was then called Louisiana was a very large stretch of country.
It included all the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains, from Canada down to what is now Texas. Look at your map and you
will see that it was larger than all the rest of the territory which up to
that time had been called the United States.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1803, AFTER THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.]
NEW ORLEANS IN 1803
The people of that day did not realize the importance of their purchase.
For the most part the territory was a wild region, uninhabited except for
scattered Indian tribes, and almost unexplored. The place most alive was
New Orleans, which would have interested you keenly had you been a pioneer
boy or girl. New Orleans has been called a Franco-Spanish-American city,
for it has belonged to all three nations in turn and been under French
control twice. You remember that the French settled it. Let us imagine
ourselves pioneers of 1803, and that we have just brought a cargo down the
river.
[Illustration: House in New Orleans Where Louis Philippe Stopped in 1798.]
We find New Orleans to be one of the chief seaports of America. We see
shipping of all sorts about the town--barges and flatboats along the river
bank, merchant vessels in the harbor, and farther down some war-ships.
There are buildings still standing which are unchanged parts of the
earlier French town--for instance, the government house, the barracks, the
hospital, and the convent of the Ursulines. We notice that the walls and
fortifications, built partly by the French and partly by the Spaniards,
are but a mere ring of grass-grown ruins about the city.
[Illustration: A Public Building in New Orleans Built in 1794.]
But the city is very picturesque with its tropical vegetation, always
green, and its quaint houses, many of them raised several feet above the
ground on pillars. The more pretentious mansions are surrounded by broad
verandas and fine gardens, and scattered here and there among the houses
of the better class are those of the poor people.
The streets are straight and fairly wide, but dirty and ill-kept. The
sidewalks are of wood, and at night we need to take our steps carefully,
for only a few dim lights break the darkness. Beyond the walls of the city
we see suburbs already springing up.
Three-fourths of the inhabitants are creoles--that is, natives of French
and Spanish descent, who speak in the French tongue. We do not understand
them any more than if we were in a really foreign city. They seem a
handsome, well-knit race. But they are idle and lacking in ambition, and
for that reason are being crowded out of business by the active, thrifty
American merchants, to whom, we observe, they are not quite friendly.
Such was the New Orleans of 1803, a human oasis in a waste of forest,
which made up the greater part of the new territory. There were, to be
sure, in this trackless wilderness a few French villages near the mouth of
the Missouri River. Traders from the British camps in the north had found
their way as far south as these villages, but the great prairies had not
been explored, and the Rocky Mountains were yet unknown.
LEWIS AND CLARK'S EXPEDITION
Before the purchase was made Jefferson had planned an expedition to
explore this region, and Congress had voted money to carry out his plan.
Two officers of the United States army, Captain Meriwether Lewis and
Captain William Clark, brother of George Rogers Clark, were put in command
of the expedition.
They were to ascend the Missouri River to its head and then find the
nearest waterway to the Pacific coast. They were directed also to draw
maps of the region and to report on the nature of the country and the
people, plants, animals, and other matters of interest in the new lands.
[Illustration: Meriwether Lewis.]
In May, 1804, the little company of forty-five men left St. Louis and
started up the Missouri River, passing the scattered settlements of French
creoles. After eleven days they reached the home of Daniel Boone, the last
settlement they passed on the Missouri. Leaving that, they found no more
white settlers and very few Indians. But the woods were alive with game,
so there was no lack of food.
[Illustration: William Clark.]
Late in October they arrived at a village of Mandan Indians situated at
the great bend of the Missouri River, in what is now known as North
Dakota. Deciding to winter here, they built huts and a stockade, calling
the camp Fort Mandan. The Mandans were used to white men, as the village
had been visited often by traders from both north and south.
Although the Indians gave them no trouble, the explorers suffered greatly
from cold and hunger, game being scarce and poor in the winter season.
When spring came the party, now numbering thirty-two, again took up the
westward journey. All before them was new country. They met few Indians
and found themselves in one of the finest hunting-grounds in the world.
Sage-fowl and prairie-fowl, ducks of all sorts, swans, and wild cranes
were plentiful, while huge, flapping geese nested in the tops of the
cottonwood-trees.
[Illustration: Buffalo Hunted by Indians.]
Big game, such as buffalo, elk, antelope, whitetail and blacktail deer,
and big-horned sheep, was also abundant. It happened more than once that
the party was detained for an hour or more while a great herd of buffalo
ploughed their way down the bank of a river in a huge column.
Many of the animals in this region were very tame, for they had not
learned to fear men. Yet among them the explorers found some dangerous
enemies. One was the grizzly bear, and another the rattlesnake. But the
greatest scourges of all were the tiny, buzzing mosquitoes, which beset
them in great swarms.
The second autumn was almost upon them when they arrived at the headwaters
of the Missouri, and their hardest task was yet to be accomplished. Before
them rose the mountains. These, they knew, must be crossed before they
could hope to find any waterway to the coast. The boats in which they had
come thus far, now being useless, were left behind, and horses were
procured from a band of wandering Indians.
Then they set out again on their journey, which presently became most
difficult. For nearly a month they painfully made their way through dense
forests, over steep mountains, and across raging torrents, whose icy water
chilled both man and beast. Sometimes storms of sleet and snow beat
pitilessly down upon them, and again they were almost overcome by
oppressive heat.
Game was so scarce that the men often went hungry, and were even driven to
kill some of their horses for food.
But brighter days were bound to come, and at last they reached a river
which flowed toward the west. They called it Lewis, and it proved to be a
branch of the Columbia, which led to the sea. With fresh courage they
built five canoes, in which the ragged, travel-worn but now triumphant men
made their way down-stream. The Indians whom they met were for the most
part friendly, welcoming them and providing them with food, though a few
tribes were troublesome.
Before the cold of the second winter had set in they had reached the
forests on the Pacific coast, and here they stayed until spring, enduring
much hunger and cold, but learning many things about the habits of the
Indians.
[Illustration: The Lewis and Clark Expedition Working Its Way Westward.]
The next March, as soon as travel was safe, they gladly turned their faces
homeward, and after a fatiguing journey of about three months, reached the
Great Plains.
Then the party separated for a time into two companies, Clark following
the course of the Yellowstone River, and Lewis the Missouri, planning to
meet where the two rivers united.
This they succeeded in doing, though both parties were troubled somewhat
by Indians. The Crow Indians stole horses from Clark's party, and eight
Blackfoot warriors attacked Lewis and three of his men. But Lewis got the
better of them and captured four of their horses.
The explorers suffered no further injury, and in September, 1806, about
two years and four months after starting out, they were back in St. Louis,
with their precious maps and notes. They had successfully carried out a
magnificent undertaking, and you may be sure they received a joyful
welcome from their friends. I wonder if any of you can tell which of our
world's fairs commemorated the leaders of this expedition.
Through the efforts of these explorers the highway across the continent
became an established fact. When you think of the great trunk lines of
railroad, over which fast trains carry hundreds of passengers daily, stop
a moment and remember that it was little more than a hundred years ago
that we first began to know much about this region!
ANDREW JACKSON
The next addition made to our expanding nation was in the extreme
southeast, and with it we associate the name of another of our Presidents,
Andrew Jackson. The story of how Florida came to be a part of the United
States will be more interesting if we know something of the career of the
picturesque hero who brought about its purchase.
Andrew Jackson was born in Union County, North Carolina, in 1767, of poor
Scotch-Irish parents, who about two years before had come from Ireland. In
a little clearing in the woods they had built a rude log hut and settled
down to hard work.
But Andrew's father soon died, and his mother went with her children to
live in her brother's home, where she spun flax to earn money. She was
very fond of little Andrew and hoped some day to make a minister of him.
[Illustration: Andrew Jackson.]
With this in view, she sent him to school, where he learned reading,
writing, and a little ciphering. But the little fellow loved nature better
than books and did not make great progress with lessons. You must
remember, however, that he was far from idle and that he did many hard and
brave tasks, worth being put into books for other boys to read.
"Mischievous Andy," as he was called, was a barefooted, freckle-faced lad,
slender in body, with bright blue eyes and reddish hair, and was full of
life and fun. Although not robust, he was wiry and energetic, and excelled
in running, jumping, and all rough-and-tumble sports. If, when wrestling,
a stronger boy threw him to the ground, he was so agile that he always
managed to regain his feet.
While he was yet a lad the Revolution broke out, and there was severe
fighting between the Americans and the British near his home. He was only
thirteen when he was made a prisoner of war.
One day, soon after his capture, a British officer gave him a pair of
muddy boots to clean. The fiery youth flashed back: "Sir, I am not your
slave. I am your prisoner, and as such I refuse to do the work of a
slave." Angered by this reply, the brutal officer struck the boy a cruel
blow with his sword, inflicting two severe wounds.
Andrew was kept in a prison pen about the Camden jail. As he was without
shelter and almost without food, the wounds refused to heal, and in his
weak and half-starved condition he fell a victim to smallpox. His mother,
hearing of her boy's wretched plight, secured his release and took him
home. He was ill for months, and before he entirely recovered his mother
died, leaving him quite alone in the world.
In time, however, these early hardships passed, and some years later we
see Andrew, a young man of twenty-one, now become a lawyer. He is over six
feet tall, slender, straight, and graceful, with a long, slim face, and
thick hair falling over his forehead and shading his piercing blue eyes.
He has crossed the mountains with an emigrant party into the backwoods
region of Tennessee.
The party arrived at Nashville, where their life was very much like that
of Daniel Boone in Kentucky.
Young Jackson passed through many dangers without harm, and by his
industry and business ability became a successful lawyer and in time a
wealthy landowner.
After his marriage he built, on a plantation of one thousand one hundred
acres, about ten miles from Nashville, a house which he called "The
Hermitage." Here he and his wife kept open house for visitors, treating
rich and poor with like hospitality. His warm heart and generous nature
were especially shown in his own household, where he was kind to all,
including his slaves.
[Illustration: "The Hermitage," the Home of Andrew Jackson.]
To the end of his life he had a childlike simplicity of nature. But we
must not think of him as a faultless man, for he was often rough in manner
and speech, and his violent temper got him into serious troubles. Among
them were some foolish duels.
[Illustration: Fighting the Seminole Indians, under Jackson.]
Yet, with all his faults, he was brave and patriotic and did splendid
service as a fighter in Indian wars. After one of his duels, with a ball
in his shoulder and his left arm in a sling, he went to lead an army of
two thousand five hundred men in an attack on the Creek Indians, who had
risen against the whites in Alabama. Although weak from a long illness,
Jackson marched with vigor against the Creeks, and after a campaign of
much hardship, badly defeated them at Horseshoe Bend, in eastern Alabama.
He thus broke for all time the power of the Indians south of the Ohio
River.
Some three years later (1817) General Jackson, as he was now called, was
sent with a body of troops down to southern Georgia, to protect the people
there from the Seminole Indians, who lived in Florida. At this time
Florida belonged to Spain. Its vast swamps and dense forests made a place
of refuge from which outlaws, runaway negroes, and Indians all made a
practice of sallying forth in bands across the border into southern
Georgia. There they would drive off cattle, burn houses, and murder men,
women, and children without mercy.
[Illustration: Jackson's Campaign.]
When Jackson pursued these thieves and murderers, they retreated to their
hiding-places beyond the boundaries of Florida. But it was more than
Jackson could endure to see his enemy escape him so easily. And, although
he was exceeding his orders, he followed them across the border, burned
some of their villages, and hanged some of the Indian chiefs. He did not
stop until he had all of Florida under his control.
This was a high-handed proceeding, for that territory belonged to Spain.
However, serious trouble was avoided by our buying Florida (1819). This
purchase added territory of fifty-nine thousand two hundred and
sixty-eight square miles to the United States. It was only six thousand
square miles less than the whole area of New England.
By studying your map you can easily see how much the area of the United
States was extended by the purchase of Louisiana and of Florida. The
adding of these two large territories made America one of the great
nations of the world in landed estate.
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
1. Tell all you can about Jefferson's boyhood. What kind of student was he
in college?
2. How did he help his countrymen before taking up his public life?
3. Why did the Westerners wish the Mississippi to be open to their trade?
4. Why was Napoleon willing to sell us the whole of Louisiana? Use your
map in making clear to yourself just what the Louisiana Purchase included.
5. Why did Jefferson send Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition? What
were the results of this expedition?
6. What kind of boy was Andrew Jackson? What kind of man?
7. What part did he take in the events leading up to the purchase of
Florida?