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THE LAND WE LIVE IN
Or
The Story of Our Country
by
HENRY MANN
Author of "Handbook for American Citizens," etc.
Published by
The Christian Herald,
Louis Klopsch, Proprietor,
Bible House, New York.
Copyright, 1896,
by Louis Klopsch.
INTRODUCTION.
"The Story of Our Country" has been often told, but cannot be told too
often. I have spared no effort to make the following pages interesting as
well as truthful, and to present, in graphic language, a pen-picture of
our nation's origin and progress. It is a story of events, and not a dry
chronicle of official succession. It is an attempt to give some fresh
color to facts that are well known, while depicting also other facts of
public interest which have never appeared in any general history. Wherever
I have taken the work of another I give credit therefor; otherwise this
little book is the fruit of original research and thought. The views
expressed will doubtless not please everybody, and some may think that I
go too far in pleading the cause of the original natives of the soil.
Historic justice demands that some one should tell the truth about the
Indians, whose chief and almost only fault has been that they occupied
lands which the white man wanted. Even now covetous eyes are cast upon the
territory reserved for the use of the remaining tribes.
For such statements in regard to General Jackson at New Orleans as differ
from the ordinary narrative I am indebted to a work never published, so
far as I am aware, in this country or in the English language--Vincent
Nolte's "Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres," issued in Hamburg in 1853. As
Nolte owned the cotton which Jackson appropriated, and also served as a
volunteer in the battle of New Orleans, he ought to be good authority.
In dealing with the late war I have sought to be just to both the Union
and the Confederacy. The lapse of over thirty years has given a more
accurate perspective to the events of that mighty struggle, in which, as
a soldier-boy of sixteen, I was an obscure participant, and all true
Americans, whether they wore the blue or gray, now look back with pride
to the splendid valor and heroic endurance displayed by the combatants
on both sides. Those who belittle the constancy and courage of the South
belittle the sacrifices and successes of the North.
The slavery conflict has long been over, and the scars it left are
disappearing. Other and momentous problems have arisen for settlement,
but there is every reason for confidence that they will be settled at
the ballot-box, and without appeal to rebellion, or thought or threat of
secession. In the present generation, more than in any preceding, is the
injunction of Washington exemplified, that the name of _American_ should
always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation
derived from local discriminations. This supreme National sentiment
overpowering all considerations of local interest and attachment, is the
assurance that our country will live forever, that all difficulties,
however menacing, will yield to the challenge of popular intelligence
and patriotism, and that the glorious record of the past is but the
morning ray of our National greatness to come.
HENRY MANN.
CONTENTS.
FIRST PERIOD.
THE FOOTHOLD.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
A Land Without a History--Origin of the American Indians--Their
Semi-civilization--The Spanish Colonial System--The King Was Absolute
Master--The Council of the Indies--The Hierarchy--Servitude of the
Natives--Gold and Silver Mines--Spanish Wealth and Degeneracy--
Commercial Monopoly--Pernicious Effects of Spain's Colonial Policy
--Spaniards Destroy a Huguenot Colony, 21
CHAPTER II.
Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh--English Expedition to North
Carolina--Failure of Attempts to Settle There--Virginia Dare--The Lost
Colony--The Foundation of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--His Life Saved
by Pocahontas--Rolfe Marries the Indian Princess--A Key to Early
Colonial History--Women Imported to Virginia, 32
CHAPTER III.
The French in Canada--Champlain Attacks the Iroquois--Quebec a Military
Post--Weak Efforts at Colonization--Fur-traders and Missionaries--The
Foundation of New France--The French King Claims from the Upper Lakes to
the Sea--Slow Growth of the French Colonies--Mixing With the Savages--The
"Coureurs de Bois," 41
CHAPTER IV.
Henry Hudson's Discovery--Block Winters on Manhattan Island--The
Dutch Take Possession--The Iroquois Friendly--Immigration of the
Walloons--Charter of Privileges and Exemptions--Patroons--Manufactures
Forbidden--Slave Labor Introduced--New Sweden--New Netherlanders Want
a Voice in the Government, 46
CHAPTER V.
Landing of the Pilgrims--Their Abiding Faith in God's Goodness--The
Agreement Signed on the Mayflower--A Winter of Hardship--The Indians
Help the Settlers--Improved Conditions--The Colony Buys Its
Freedom--Priscilla and John Alden--Their Romantic Courtship and
Marriage, 52
CHAPTER VI.
The Puritan Immigration--Wealth and Learning Seek These Shores--Charter
Restrictions Dead Letters--A Stubborn Struggle for Self-government--
Methods of Election--The Early Government an Oligarchy--The Charter of
1691--New Hampshire and Maine--The New Haven Theocracy--Hartford's
Constitution--The United Colonies--The Clergy and Politics--Every
Election Sermon a Declaration of Independence, 57
CHAPTER VII.
Where Conscience Was Free--Roger Williams and His Providence Colony--
Driven by Persecution from Massachusetts--Savages Receive Him
Kindly--Coddington's Settlement in Rhode Island--Oliver Cromwell
and Charles II. Grant Charters--Peculiar Referendum in Early Rhode
Island, 64
CHAPTER VIII.
Puritans and Education--Provision for Public Schools--Puritan
Sincerity--Effect of Intolerance on the Community--Quakers Harshly
Persecuted--The Salem Witchcraft Tragedy--History of the Delusion--
Rebecca Nourse and Other Victims--The People Come to their Senses--
Cotton Mather Obdurate to the Last--Puritan Morals--Comer's Diary--
Rhode Island in Colonial Times, 68
CHAPTER IX.
New England Prospering--Outbreak of King Philip's War--Causes of the
War--White or Indian Had to Go--Philip on the War-path--Settlements
Laid in Ashes--The Attack on Hadley--The Great Swamp Fight--Philip
Renews the War More Fiercely Than Before--His Allies Desert Him--
Betrayed and Killed--The Indians Crushed in New England, 77
CHAPTER X.
Growth of New Netherland--Governor Stuyvesant's Despotic Rule--His
Comments on Popular Election--New Amsterdam Becomes New York--The
Planting of Maryland--Partial Freedom of Conscience--Civil War in
Maryland--The Carolinas--Settlement of North and South Carolina--The
Bacon Rebellion in Virginia--Governor Berkeley's Vengeance, 82
CHAPTER XI.
The Colony of New York--New Jersey Given Away to Favorites--Charter of
Liberties and Franchises--The Dongan Charter--Beginnings of New York
City Government--King James Driven From Power--Leisler Leads a Popular
Movement--The Aristocratic Element Gains the Upper Hand--Jacob Leisler
and Milborne Executed--Struggle For Liberty Continues, 90
CHAPTER XII.
William Penn's Model Colony--Sketch of the Founder of Pennsylvania--
Comparative Humanity of Quaker Laws--Modified Freedom of Religion--
An Early Liquor Law--Offences Against Morality Severely Punished--
White Servitude--Debtors Sold Into Bondage--Georgia Founded as
an Asylum for Debtors--Oglethorpe Repulses the Spaniards--Georgia a
Royal Province, 95
SECOND PERIOD.
THE STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE.
CHAPTER XIII.
Struggle for Empire in North America--The Vast Region Called Louisiana--
War Between England and France--New England Militia Besiege Quebec--
Frontenac Strikes the Iroquois--The Capture of Louisburg--The Forks
of the Ohio--George Washington's Mission to the French--Braddock's
Defeat--Washington Prevents Utter Disaster--Barbarous Treatment of
Prisoners, 103
CHAPTER XIV.
Expulsion of the Acadians--A Cruel Deportation--The Marquis De
Montcalm--The Fort William Henry Massacre--Defeat of Abercrombie--
William Pitt Prosecutes the War Vigorously--Fort Duquesne Reduced--
Louisburg Again Captured--Wolfe Attacks Quebec--Battle of the
Plains of Abraham--Wolfe and Montcalm Mortally Wounded--Quebec
Surrenders--New France a Dream of the Past--Pontiac's War, 108
THIRD PERIOD.
THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER XV.
Causes of the Revolution--The Act of Navigation--Acts of Trade--Odious
Customs Laws--English Jealousy of New England--Effect of Restrictions on
Colonial Trade--Du Chatelet Foresees Rebellion and Independence--The
Revolution a Struggle for More Than Political Freedom, 115
CHAPTER XVI.
Writs of Assistance Issued--Excitement in Boston--The Stamp Act--Protests
against Taxation Without Representation--Massachusetts Appoints a
Committee of Correspondence--Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry--Henry's
Celebrated Resolutions--His Warning to King George--Growing Agitation
in the Colonies--The Stamp Act Repealed--Parliament Levies Duties on Tea
and Other Imports to America--Lord North's Choice of Infamy--Measures of
Resistance in America--The Massachusetts Circular Letter--British Troops
in Boston--The Boston Massacre--Burning of the Gaspee--North Carolina
"Regulators"--The Boston Tea Party--The Boston Port Bill--The First
Continental Congress--A Declaration of Rights--"Give Me Liberty, or Give
Me Death!" 122
CHAPTER XVII.
The Battle of Lexington--The War of the Revolution Begun--Fort
Ticonderoga Taken--Second Continental Congress--George Washington
Appointed Commander-in-Chief--Battle of Bunker Hill--Last Appeal to King
George--The King Hires Hessian Mercenaries--The Americans Invade
Canada--General Montgomery Killed--General Howe Evacuates Boston--North
Carolina Tories Routed at Moore's Creek Bridge--The Declaration of
Independence--The British Move on New York--Battle at Brooklyn--Howe
Occupies New York City--General Charles Lee Fails to Support
Washington--Lee Captured--Washington's Victory at Trenton--The Marquis
De Lafayette Arrives, 133
CHAPTER XVIII.
Sir John Burgoyne's Campaign--His Bombastic Proclamation--The Tragic
Story of Jane McCrea--Her Name a Rallying Cry--Washington Prevents Howe
From Aiding Burgoyne--The Battle of Brandywine--Burgoyne Routed at
Saratoga--He Surrenders, With All His Army--Articles of Confederation
Submitted to the Several States--Effect of the Surrender of Burgoyne--
Franklin the Washington of Diplomacy--Attitude of France--France
Concludes to Assist the United States--Treaties of Commerce and
Alliance--King George Prepares for War with France--The Winter at
Valley Forge--Conspiracy to Depose Washington Defeated--General Howe
Superseded by Sir Henry Clinton--The Battle of Monmouth--General Charles
Lee's Treachery--Awful Massacre of Settlers in the Wyoming Valley--
General Sullivan Defeats the Six Nations--Brilliant Campaign of George
Rogers Clark--Failure of the Attempt to Drive the British from Rhode
Island, 143
CHAPTER XIX.
The British Move Upon the South--Spain Accedes to the Alliance Against
England--Secret Convention Between France and Spain--Capture of Stony
Point--John Paul Jones--The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis--A
Thrilling Naval Combat--Wretched Condition of American Finances--
Franklin's Heavy Burden--The Treason of Benedict Arnold--Capture of
André--Escape of Arnold--André Executed as a Spy--Sir Henry Clinton
Captures Charleston, General Lincoln and His Army--Lord Cornwallis
Left in Command in the South--The British Defeat Gates Near Camden,
South Carolina--General Nathanael Greene Conducts a Stubborn Campaign
Against Cornwallis--The Latter Retreats Into Virginia--Siege of
Yorktown--Cornwallis Surrenders--"Oh, God; it is All Over!" 155
FOURTH PERIOD.
UNION.
CHAPTER XX.
Condition of the United States at the Close of the Revolution--New
England Injured and New York Benefited Commercially by the Struggle--
Luxury of City Life--Americans an Agricultural People--The Farmer's
Home--Difficulty of Traveling--Contrast Between North and South--
Southern Aristocracy--Northern Great Families--White Servitude--The
Western Frontier--Early Settlers West of the Mountains--A Hardy
Population--Disappearance of the Colonial French--The Ordinance of
1787--Flood of Emigration Beyond the Ohio, 167
CHAPTER XXI.
The Spirit of Disunion--Shays' Rebellion--A National Government
Necessary--Adoption of the Constitution--Tariff and Internal
Revenue--The Whiskey Insurrection--President Washington Calls Out the
Military--Insurgents Surrender--"The Dreadful Night"--Hamilton's
Inquisition, 174
INDEPENDENCE VINDICATED.
CHAPTER XXII.
Arrogance of France--Americans and Louis XVI.--Genet Defies Washington
--The People Support the President--War With the Indians--Defeat of St.
Clair--Indians State Their Case--General Wayne Defeats the Savages--
Jay's Treaty--Retirement of Washington--His Character--His Military
Genius--Washington as a Statesman--His Views on Slavery--His Figure in
History, 180
CHAPTER XXIII.
John Adams President--Jefferson and the French Revolution--The French
Directory--Money Demanded From America--"Millions for Defence; Not One
Penny for Tribute"--Naval Warfare with France--Capture of The Insurgent
--Defeat of The Vengeance--Peace With France--Death of Washington--
Alien and Sedition Laws--Jefferson President--The Louisiana Purchase--
Burr's Alleged Treason--War with the Barbary States--England Behind the
Pirates--Heroic Naval Exploits--Carrying War Into Africa--Peace With
Honor, 191
CHAPTER XXIV.
French Decrees and British Orders in Council--Damage to American
Commerce--The Embargo--Causes of the War of 1812--The Chesapeake and The
Leopard--President and Little Belt--War Declared--Mr. Astor's Messenger
--The Two Navies Compared--American Frigate Victories--Constitution
and Guerriere--United States and Macedonian--Constitution and Java--
American Sloop Victories--The Shannon and Chesapeake--"Don't Give Up
the Ship!" 200
CHAPTER XXV.
The War on Land--Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy--Harrison at Tippecanoe--
General Hull and General Brock--A Fatal Armistice--Surrender of Detroit
--English Masters of Michigan--General Harrison Takes Command in the
Northwest--Harrison's Answer to Proctor--"He Will Never Have This Post
Surrendered"--Croghan's Brave Defence--The British Retreat--War on the
Niagara Frontier--Battle of Queenstown--Death of Brock--Colonel Winfield
Scott and the English Doctrine of Perpetual Allegiance, 209
CHAPTER XXVI.
Battle of Lake Erie--Master-Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry--Building a
Fleet--Perry on the Lake--A Duel of Long Guns--Fearful Slaughter on the
Lawrence--"Can Any of the Wounded Pull a Rope?"--At Close Quarters--
Victory in Fifteen Minutes--"We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours"--
The Father of Chicago Sees the End of the Battle--The British Evacuate
Detroit--General Harrison's Victory at the Thames--Tecumseh Slain--The
Struggle in the Southwest--Andrew Jackson in Command--Battle of Horseshoe
Bend--The Essex in the Pacific--Defeat and Victory on the Ocean--Captain
Porter's Brave Defence--Burning of Newark--Massacre at Fort Niagara--
Chippewa and Lundy's Lane--Devastation by the British Fleet--British
Vandalism at Washington--Attempt on Baltimore--"The Star Spangled
Banner" 216
CHAPTER XXVII.
British Designs on the Southwest--New Orleans as a City of Refuge--The
Baratarians--The Pirates Reject British Advances--General Jackson Storms
Pensacola--Captain Reid's Splendid Fight at Fayal--Edward Livingston
Advises Jackson--Cotton Bales for Redoubts--The British Invasion--Jackson
Attacks the British at Villere's--The Opposing Armies--General Pakenham
Attempts to Carry Jackson's Lines by Storm--The British Charge--They are
Defeated with Frightful Slaughter--Pakenham Killed--Last Naval Engagement
--The President-Endymion Fight--Peace--England Deserts the Indians as
She Had Deserted the Tories--Decatur Chastises the Algerians, 225
SOUTH AMERICA FREE.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
England and Spanish America--A Significant Declaration--The Key to
England's Policy in South America--Alexander Hamilton and the South
Americans--President Adams' Grandson a Filibuster--Origin of the
Revolutions in South America--Colonial Zeal for Spain--Colonists Driven
to Fight for Independence--A War of Extermination--Patriot Leaders--The
British Assist the Revolutionists--American Caution and Reserve--The
Monroe Doctrine--Why England Championed the Spanish-American Republics
--A Free Field Desired for British Trade--The Holy Alliance--Secretary
Canning and President Monroe--The Monroe Declaration Not British, But
American, 233
PROGRESS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The United States Taking the Lead in Civilization--Manhood Suffrage and
Freedom of Worship--Humane Criminal Laws--Progress the Genius of the
Nation--A Patriotic Report--State Builders in the Northwest--Illinois
and the Union--Immigration--British Jealousy--An English Farmer's
Opinion of America--Commerce and Manufactures--England Tries to Prevent
Skilled Artisans From Emigrating--The Beginning of Protection--The
British Turn on their Friends the Algerians--General Jackson Invades
Florida--Spain Sells Florida to the United States, 246
CHAPTER XXX.
The Missouri Compromise--Erie Canal Opened--Political Parties and Great
National Issues--President Jackson Crushes the United States Bank--South
Carolina Pronounces the Tariff Law Void--Jackson's Energetic Action--A
Compromise--Territory Reserved for the Indians--The Seminole War--
Osceola's Vengeance--His Capture and Death--The Black Hawk War--Abraham
Lincoln a Volunteer--Texas War for Independence--Massacre of the Alamo
--Mexican Defeat at San Jacinto--The Mexican President a Captive--Texas
Admitted to the Union--Oregon--American Statesmen Blinded by the Hudson
Bay Company--Marcus Whitman's Ride--Oregon Saved to the Union--The "Dorr
War," 253
CHAPTER XXXI.
War With Mexico--General Zachary Taylor Defeats the Mexicans--Buena
Vista--Mexicans Four to One--"A Little More Grape, Captain Bragg!"--
Glorious American Victory--General Scott's Splendid Campaign--A
Series of Victories--Cerro Gordo--Contreras--Churubusco--Molino del
Rey--Chapultepec--Stars and Stripes Float in the City of Mexico--
Generous Treatment of the Vanquished--Peace--Cession of Vast Territory
to the United States--The Gadsden Purchase, 264
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Union in 1850--Comparative Population of Cities and Rural Districts
--Agriculture the General Occupation--Commercial and Industrial
Development--Growth of New York and Chicago--The Southern States--
Importance of the Cotton Crop--Why the South Was Sensitive to
Anti-Slavery Agitation--Manufactures--Religion and Education--The Cloud
on the Horizon, 272
THE SLAVERY CONFLICT.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Aggressiveness of Slavery--The Cotton States and Border States--The
Fugitive Slave Law--Nullified in the North--Negroes Imported from
Africa--The Struggle in Kansas--John Brown--Abraham Lincoln Pleads for
Human Rights--Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet--Citizens Stop Guns at
Pittsburg--Conditions at the Beginning of the Struggle--Southern
Advantages--The Soldiers of Both Armies Compared--Conscription in the
Confederacy--Southern Resources Limited--The North at a Disadvantage at
First, but Its Resources Inexhaustible--Conscription in the North--
Popular Support of the War--Unfriendliness of Great Britain and
France--Why They Did Not Interfere, 277
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Confederate Government Organized--Fort Sumter--President Lincoln
Calls for 75,000 Men--Command of the Union Forces Offered to Robert E.
Lee--Lee Joins the Confederacy--Missouri Saved to the Union--Battle of
Bull Run--Union Successes in the West--General Grant Captures Fort
Donelson--"I Have No Terms But Unconditional Surrender"--The Monitor
and Merrimac Fight--Its World-wide Effect--Grant Victorious at Shiloh
--Union Naval Victory Near Memphis--That City Captured--General
McClellan's Tactics--He Retreats from Victory at Malvern Hill--Second
Bull Run Defeat--Great Battle of Antietam--Lee Repulsed, but Not
Pursued--McClellan Superseded by Burnside--Union Defeat at Fredericksburg
--Union Victories in the West--Bragg Defeated by Rosecrans at Stone
River--The Emancipation Proclamation, 287
CHAPTER XXXV.
General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the
Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville--
Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army
of the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The
First Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle
--The Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of
Chickamauga"--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant
Defeats Bragg at Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West, 295
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General--Takes Command in Virginia--Battles
of the Wilderness--The Two Armies--Battle of Cedar Creek--Sheridan's
Ride--He Turns Defeat Into Victory--Confederate Disasters on Land and
Sea--Farragut at Mobile--Last Naval Battle of the War--Sherman Enters
Atlanta--Lincoln's Re-election--Sherman's March to the Sea--Sherman
Captures Savannah--Thomas Defeats Hood at Nashville--Fort Fisher
Taken--Lee Appointed General-in-Chief--Confederate Defeat at Five
Forks--Lee's Surrender--Johnston's Surrender--End of the War--The South
Prostrate--A Resistance Unparalleled in History--The Blots on the
Confederacy--Cruel Treatment of Union Men and Prisoners--Murder of
Abraham Lincoln--The South Since the War, 301
THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Reconstruction in the South--The Congress and the President--Liberal
Republican Movement--Nomination, Defeat and Death of Greeley--Troops
Withdrawn by President Hayes--Foreign Policy of the Past Thirty
Years--French Ordered from Mexico--Last Days of Maximilian--Russian
America Bought--The Geneva Arbitration--Alabama Claims Paid--The
Northwest Boundary--The Fisheries--Spain and The Virginius--The Custer
Massacre--United States of Brazil Established--President Harrison and
Chile--Venezuela--American Prestige in South America--Hawaii--Behring
Sea--Garfield, the Martyr of Civil Service Reform--Labor Troubles--
Railway Riots of 1877 and 1894--Great Calamities--The Chicago Fire,
Boston Fire, Charleston Earthquake, Johnstown Flood, 308
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The American Republic the Most Powerful of Nations--Military and Naval
Strength--Railways and Waterways--Industry and Art--Manufactures--The
New South--Foreign and Domestic Commerce--An Age of Invention--Americans
a Nation of Readers--The Clergy--Pulpit and Press--Religion and Higher
Education--The Currency Question--Leading Candidates for the Presidency
--A Sectional Contest Deplorable--What Shall the Harvest Be? 322
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
No Classes Here--All Are Workers--Enormous Growth of Cities--Immigration
--Civic Misgovernment--The Farming Population--Individuality and
Self-reliance--Isolation Even in the Grave--The West--The South--The
Negro--Little Reason to Fear for Our Country--American Reverence for
Established Institutions, 327
The Land We Live In.
FIRST PERIOD.
The Foothold.
CHAPTER I.
A Land Without a History--Origin of the American Indians--Their
Semi-civilization--The Spanish Colonial System--The King Was Absolute
Master--The Council of the Indies--The Hierarchy--Servitude of the
Natives--Gold and Silver Mines--Spanish Wealth and Degeneracy--
Commercial Monopoly--Pernicious Effects of Spain's Colonial Policy--
Spaniards Destroy a Huguenot Colony.
America presented itself as a virgin land to the original settlers from
Europe. It had no history, no memories, no civilization that appealed to
European traditions or associations. Its inhabitants belonged evidently
to the human brotherhood, and their appearance and language, as well as
some of their customs, indicated Mongolian kinship and Asiatic origin,
but in the eyes of their conquerors they were as strange as if they had
sprung from another planet, and the invaders were equally strange and
marvelous to the natives. To the Spanish adventurer the wondrous temples
of the Aztecs and the Peruvians bore no significance, except as they
indicated wealth to be won, and rich empires waiting to be prey to the
superior prowess and arms of the Christian aggressor; while the
Englishman, the Frenchman, Hollander and Swede, who planted their colors
on more northern soil, saw only a region of primeval forests inhabited by
tribes almost as savage as the wild beasts upon whom they existed. It is
needless, therefore, in this pen picture of our country, to go into any
extended notice of its ancient inhabitants, although the writer has
devoted not a little independent study to their origin and history. That
study has confirmed him in the opinion that the American Indians came
from Asia, with such slight admixture as the winds and waves may have
brought from Europe, Africa and Polynesia. The resemblance of the
American Indians to the Tartar tribes in language is striking, and in
physical appearance still more so, while the difference in manners and
customs is no greater than that between the Englishman of the seventeenth
century and his descendant in the mountains of West Virginia or Kentucky.
It is probable--indeed what is known of the aborigines indicates, that
the immigrations were successive, and their succession would be fully
accounted for by the mighty convulsions among Asiatic nations, of which
history gives us a very dim idea. It is easy to suppose that more than
one dusky Æneas led his fugitive followers across the narrow strait which
divides Asia from America, and pushed on to the warmer regions of the
South, driving in turn before him less vigorous and warlike tribes,
seizing the lands which they had made fruitful, and adopting in part the
civilization which they had built up. Many of the conquered would prefer
emigration to submission, and in their turn push farther south, even to
the uttermost bound of the continent.
The writer is not of those who believe that the remote inhabitants of
America are unrepresented among the red men of the present age. In
European and American history the myths about exterminated races are
disappearing in the light of investigation. Our ancestors were not so
cruel as they have been painted. It is not likely that any nation was
ever cut off to a man. Men were too valuable to be destroyed beyond the
requirements of warfare or the demands of sanguinary religious customs.
Conquered nations, it is now agreed, were usually absorbed by their
conquerors, either as equals or serfs. In either event unity was the
result, as in the case of the Romans and Latins, the Scots and the Picts,
the Normans and the Saxons. The mound builders, in all probability,
survive in the Indian tribes of to-day, some of whom in the Southwest
were mound builders within the historic period, while the ruined cities
of Arizona and New Mexico were the product of a rude civilization,
admittedly inherited by the pueblos of the present generation.
* * *
There was nothing in the civilization of the most advanced American races
worth preserving, except their monuments. The destruction of the Aztec
and Peruvian empires was, on the whole, an advantage to humanity. The
darkest period of religious persecution in Europe saw nothing to compare
with the sanguinary rites of Aztec worship, and bigoted, intolerant and
oppressive as the Spaniards were they did a service to mankind in putting
an end to those barbarities. The colonial system established by Spain in
America was founded on the principle that dominion over the American
provinces was vested in the crown, not in the kingdom. The Spanish
possessions on this continent were regarded as the personal property of
the sovereign.
The viceroys were appointed by the king and removable by him at pleasure.
All grants of lands were made by the sovereign, and if they failed from
any cause they reverted to the crown. All political and civil power
centred in the king, and was executed by such persons and in such manner
as the will of the sovereign might suggest, wholly independent not only
of the colonies but of the Spanish nation. The only civil privileges
allowed to the colonists were strictly municipal, and confined to the
regulation of their interior police and commerce in cities and towns, for
which purpose they made their own local regulations or laws, and
appointed town and city magistrates. The Spanish-American governments
were not merely despotic like those of Russia and Turkey, but they were a
more dangerous kind of despotism, as the absolute power of the sovereign
was not exercised by himself, but by deputy.
At first the dominions of Spain in the new world were divided, for
purposes of administration, into two great divisions or vice-royalties:
New Spain and Peru. Afterward, as the country became more settled, the
vice-royalty of Santa Fe de Bogota was created. A deputy or vice-king was
appointed to preside over each of these governments, who was the
representative of the sovereign, and possessed all his prerogatives
within his jurisdiction. His power was as supreme as that of the king
over every department, civil and military. He appointed most of the
important officers of the vice-royalty. His court was formed on the model
of Madrid, and displayed an equal and often superior degree of
magnificence and state. He had horse and foot guards, a regular household
establishment and all the ensigns and trappings of royalty. The tribunals
which assisted in the administration were similar to those of the parent
country. The Spanish-American colonies, in brief, possessed no political
privileges; the authority of the crown was absolute, but not more so than
in the parent State, and it could hardly have been expected that
liberties denied to the people at home would have been granted to
subjects in distant America.
Over the viceroys, and acting for the sovereign, was the tribunal called
the Council of the Indies, established by King Ferdinand in 1511, and
remodeled by Charles V. in 1524. This Council possessed general
jurisdiction over Spanish-America; framed laws and regulations respecting
the colonies, and made all the appointments for America reserved to the
crown. All officers, from the viceroy to the lowest in rank, could be
called to account by the Council of the Indies. The king was supposed to
be always present in the Council, and the meetings were held wherever the
monarch was residing. All appeals from the decisions of the Courts of
Audience, the highest tribunals in America, were made to the Council of
the Indies.
The absolute power of the sovereign did not stop short at the Church.
Pope Julian II. conferred on King Ferdinand and his successors the
patronage and disposal of all ecclesiastical benefices in America, and
the administration of ecclesiastical revenues--a privilege which the
crown did not possess in Spain. The bulls of the Roman pontiff could not
be admitted into Spanish America until they had been examined and
approved by the king and Council of the Indies. The hierarchy was as
imposing as in Spain, and its dominion and influence greater. The
archbishops, bishops and other dignitaries enjoyed large revenues, and
the ecclesiastical establishment was splendid and magnificent. The
Inquisition was introduced in America in 1570 by Philip II., the
oppressor of Protestant England and of the Netherlands, and patron of the
monster Alva. The native Indians, on the ground of incapacity, were
exempted from the jurisdiction of that tribunal. No scruple was shown,
however, in converting the natives to Christianity, and multitudes were
baptized who were entirely ignorant of the doctrine they professed to
embrace. In the course of a few years after the reduction of the Mexican
empire, more than four millions of the Mexicans were nominally converted,
one missionary baptizing five thousand in one day, and stopping only when
he had become so exhausted as to be unable to lift his hands.
Conversion to Christianity did not save the Indians from being reduced to
slavery. Columbus himself, in the year 1499, to avoid the consequences of
a disaffection among his followers, granted lands and distributed a
certain number of Indians among them to cultivate the soil. This system
was afterward introduced in all the Spanish settlements, the Indians
being everywhere seized upon and compelled to work in the mines, to till
the plantations, to carry burdens and to perform all menial and laborious
services. The stated tasks of the unhappy natives were often much beyond
their abilities, and multitudes sank under the hardships to which they
were subjected. Their spirit was broken, they became humble and degraded,
and the race was rapidly wasting away. The oppressions and sufferings of
the natives at length excited the sympathies of many humane persons,
particularly among the clergy, who exerted themselves with much zeal and
perseverance to ameliorate their condition. In 1542 Charles V. abolished
the enslavement of the Indians, and restored them to the position of
freemen. This caused great indignation in the colonies and in Peru
forcible resistance was offered to the royal decree. But although
relieved in some degree from the burdens of personal slavery, the natives
were required, as vassals of the crown, to pay a personal tax or tribute
in the form of personal service. They were also put under the protection
of great landholders, who treated them as serfs, although not exacting
continuous labor, so that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
the condition of the Indians did not greatly improve.
Notwithstanding the avidity of the first Spanish adventurers for the
precious metals, and the ardor with which they pursued their researches,
their exertions were attended for a number of years with but little
success. It was not until 1545 that the rich mines of Potosi, in Peru,
were accidentally discovered by an Indian in clambering up the mountain.
This was soon followed by the discovery of other highly productive mines
of gold and silver in the various provinces, and Spanish America began to
pour a flood of wealth into the coffers of Spain. The mines were not
operated by the crown, but by individual enterprise, the crown receiving
a share of the proceeds, and alloting a certain number of Indians to the
mine-owners as laborers. These Indians did all the work of the mine
without the aid of machinery, and with very little assistance from
horse-power. Their industry enriched Spain and her colonies to a degree
unexampled in the previous experience of mankind.
* * *
Silver and gold, however, did not bring lasting prosperity. Already in
the early part of the seventeenth century Spain showed signs of decay.
Her manufactures and commerce began to decline; men could not be
recruited to keep up her fleets and armies, and even agriculture felt the
blight of national degeneracy. The great emigration to the colonies
drained off the energetic element of the population and the immense
riches which the colonies showered upon Spain intoxicated the people and
led them to desert the accustomed paths of industry. Nineteen-twentieths
of the commodities exported to the Spanish colonies were foreign fabrics,
paid for by the products of the mines, so that the gold and silver no
sooner entered Spain than they passed away into the hands of foreigners,
and the country was left without sufficient of the precious metals for a
circulating medium.
Although wholly unable to supply the wants of her colonies Spain did not
relax in the smallest degree the rigor of her colonial system, the
controlling principle of which was that the whole commerce of the
colonies should be a monopoly in the hands of the crown. The regulation
of this commerce was entrusted to the Board of Trade, established at
Seville.
This board granted a license to any vessel bound to America, and
inspected its cargo. The entire commerce with the colonies centred in
Seville, and continued there until 1720. It was carried on in a uniform
manner for more than two centuries. A fleet with a strong convoy sailed
annually for America. The fleet consisted of two divisions, one destined
for Carthagena and Porto Bello, the other for Vera Cruz. At those points
all the trade and treasure of Spanish America from California to the
Straits of Magellan, was concentrated, the products of Peru and Chili
being conveyed annually by sea to Panama, and from thence across the
isthmus to Porto Bello, part of the way on mules, and part of the way
down the Chagres river. The storehouses of Porto Bello, now a decayed and
miserable town, retaining no shadow of former greatness, were filled with
merchandise, and its streets thronged with opulent merchants drawn from
distant provinces. Upon the arrival of the fleet a fair was opened,
continuing for forty days, during which the most extensive commercial
transactions took place, and the rich cargoes of the galleons were all
marketed, and the specie and staples of the colonies received in payment
to be conveyed to Spain. The same exchange occurred at Vera Cruz, and
both squadrons having taken in their return cargoes, rendezvoused at
Havana, and sailed from thence to Europe. Such was the stinted, fettered
and restricted commerce which subsisted between Spain and her possessions
in America for more than two centuries and a half, and such were the
swaddling clothes which bound the youthful limbs of the Spanish colonies,
retarding their growth and keeping them in a condition of abject
dependence. The effect was most injurious to Spain as well as to the
colonies. The naval superiority of the English and Dutch enabled them in
time of war to cut off intercourse between Spain and America, and thereby
deprive Spanish-Americans of the necessaries as well as the luxuries for
which they depended upon Spain, and an extensive smuggling trade grew up
which no efforts on the part of the authorities could repress. Monopoly
was starved out through the very rigor exerted to make it exclusive, and
the markets were so glutted with contraband goods that the galleons could
scarcely dispose of their cargoes.
The restrictions upon the domestic intercourse and commerce of the
Spanish colonies were, if possible, more grievous and pernicious in their
consequences than those upon traffic with Europe. Inter-colonial commerce
was prohibited under the severest penalties, the crown insisting that all
trade should be carried on through Spain and made tributary to the
oppressive duties exacted by the government. While Spain received a
considerable revenue from her colonies, notwithstanding the contraband
trade, the expenses of the system were very great, and absorbed much of
the revenue. Corruption was widespread, and colonial officers looked upon
their positions chiefly with a view to their own enrichment. They had no
patriotic interest in the welfare of the colonies, and conducted
themselves like a garrison quartered upon the inhabitants. Although
salaries were high the expenses of living were great, and the salaries
were usually but a small part of the income. Viceroys who had been in
office a few years, went back to Spain with princely fortunes.
* * *
Such was the condition of affairs in Spain's vast American empire when
England, France and the United Provinces started on a career of
colonization in North America. It seems to have been providential that
the same generation which witnessed the discovery of America witnessed
the birth of Luther. In the century which followed the Theses of
Wittenberg the eyes of sufferers for conscience' sake turned eagerly and
hopefully toward the New World as a refuge from the oppression, the
scandal and the persecution of the old. The first to seek what is now the
Atlantic region of the United States with the object of making their home
here were French Huguenots, sent out by the great Admiral Coligny, who
afterward fell a victim in the massacre of Bartholomew's Day. The
Frenchmen planted a settlement first at Port Royal, which was abandoned,
and afterward built a fort about eighteen miles up the St. John's River,
Florida, and named it Fort Caroline. This was in the year 1564. In the
following year a Spanish fleet, commanded by Don Pedro Menendez de
Aviles, appeared at the mouth of the St. John's. In answer to the French
challenge as to his purpose the Spanish commander replied that he came
with orders from his king to gibbet and behead all the Protestants in
those regions. "The Frenchman, who is a Catholic," he added, "I will
spare. Every heretic shall die." The Huguenots, had they held together,
might have been able to offer a successful resistance to the Spaniards,
but Jean Ribault, the French commander, unfortunately decided to sail out
from the shelter of Fort Caroline and seek a conflict at sea with the
enemy. A storm destroyed the French fleet, but the crews succeeded in
escaping to land. Menendez marched overland with his troops to the
unprotected fort and easily captured it with its handful of defenders.
The Spaniards cruelly murdered almost the entire colony of two hundred
men, women and children, some of them being hung to trees with the
inscription: "Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans."
Ribault, ignorant of the tragedy at the fort, sought to return there from
the place where he had been shipwrecked. His men were divided in two
detachments. Menendez went in search of them, and meeting one party told
them that Fort Caroline, with its inmates, had been destroyed. The
Frenchmen were helpless, and pleaded for mercy. Menendez asked: "Are you
Catholics or Lutherans?" They answered: "We are of the reformed
religion." The pitiless Spaniard replied that he was under orders to
exterminate all of that faith. They offered him fifty thousand ducats if
he would spare their lives. Menendez demanded that the Frenchmen should
place themselves at his mercy. They consented to do so. A small stream
divided the Huguenots from the Spaniards. Menendez ordered that the
French should cross over in companies of ten. As they crossed they were
taken out of sight of their companions and bound with their arms behind
them. When all of the Frenchmen, about two hundred in number, had been
thus secured, Menendez again asked them: "Are you Catholics or
Lutherans?" Some twelve professed to be Catholics, and these with four
mechanics who could be made useful to the Spaniards, were led away. The
remainder of the two hundred were put to death. Menendez next intercepted
Ribault and the remnant of his men, and by similar treachery accomplished
their destruction, refusing an offer of one hundred thousand ducats to
spare their lives. Menendez wrote to King Phillip that the Huguenots
"were put to the sword, judging this to be expedient for the service of
God our Lord, and of your majesty."
Thus ended the first attempt of members of the reformed religion to
settle within the limits of what is now the United States. But the blood
of the victims did not cry in vain to Heaven for vengeance. A Frenchman,
himself a Roman Catholic, the Chevalier Dominic de Gourges, determined to
punish the Spaniards for their cruelty. He sold his property to obtain
money to fit out an expedition to Florida. Arriving in Florida in the
spring of 1568, he was joined by the natives in an attack on two forts
occupied by the Spaniards below Fort Caroline. The forts were captured
and their inmates put to the sword, except a few whom de Gourges hung to
trees with the inscription: "Not as Spaniards and mariners, but as
traitors, robbers and murderers."