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[Illustration: UNITED STATES SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION and
Standard Time Divisions.]
A NEW HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
The Greater Republic
EMBRACING
THE GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR COUNTRY FROM THE
EARLIEST DAYS OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT
TO THE PRESENT EVENTFUL YEAR
SHOWING HOW FROM THIRTEEN COLONIES WITH A SCATTERED POPULATION ALONG THE
ATLANTIC COAST A GREAT REPUBLIC HAS BEEN FORMED, EMBRACING
FORTY-FIVE STATES WITH 75,000,000 INHABITANTS AND VAST
COLONIAL POSSESSIONS IN TWO HEMISPHERES
By CHARLES MORRIS, LL.D.
Author of "Decisive Events in American History," "Half Hours with the
Best American Authors," "An Historical Review of Civilization," Etc.,
Etc.
Embellished With Over 300 New Engravings
ILLUSTRATING ALL THAT IS INTERESTING AND INSPIRING IN OUR HISTORY
JOHN C. WINSTON & CO.
PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO
1899
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1899, by
W.E. SCULL.
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
* * * * *
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
[Illustration]
PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.
The late war with Spain marks a momentous epoch in the progress of our
country, whose history, stretching through the centuries of discovery,
exploration, settlement, the struggle for independence, foreign and
domestic war, lofty achievement in all departments of knowledge and
progress, is the most interesting in human annals. It is a record full
of instruction and incitement to endeavor, which must fill every
American with pride in his birthright, and with gratitude to Him who
holds the earth and the sea in the hollow of His hand.
The following pages contain a complete, accurate, and graphic history of
our country from the first visit of the Northmen, a thousand years ago,
to the opening of its new destiny, through the late struggle, resulting
in the freeing of Cuba, the wresting of the Philippines, Porto Rico, and
the Ladrones from the tyranny of the most cruel of modern nations, and
the addition of Hawaii to our domain. The Greater United States, at one
bound, assumes its place in the van of nations, and becomes the foremost
agent in civilizing and christianizing the world.
The task, long committed to England, Germany, France, Russia, and later
to Japan, must henceforth be shared with us, whose glowing future gives
promise of the crowning achievement of the ages. With a fervent trust in
a guiding Providence, and an abiding confidence in our ability, we enter
upon the new and grander career, as in obedience to the divine behest
that the Latin race must decrease and the Anglo-Saxon increase, and that
the latter, in a human sense, must be the regenerator of all who are
groping in the night of ignorance and barbarism.
It is a wonderful story that is traced in the pages that follow. A
comprehension of the present and of the promise of the future
necessitates an understanding of the past. The history of the Greater
United States, therefore, is complete, from the first glimpse, in the
early morning of October 12, 1492, of San Salvador by Columbus, through
the settlement of the colonies, their struggles for existence, the
colonial wars, the supreme contest between England and France for
mastery in the New World, the long gloom of the Revolution that brought
independence, the founding of the Republic, in 1787, the growth and
expansion of the nation, the mighty War for the Union that united the
divided house and planted it upon a rock, and the later "war for
humanity," when the perishing islands, stretching their hands to us in
helpless anguish, were gathered under the flag of freedom, there to
remain through all time to come.
There have been many leaders in this great work. Not the story of the
deeds alone, but of those who performed them is told. History,
biography, and all that is interesting and profitable to know are here
truthfully set forth, for their lesson is one whose value is beyond
measurement.
In addition to the history of that which was simply the United States, a
complete account is given of our new colonial possessions, Hawaii, Porto
Rico, the Philippines, the Ladrones, and of Cuba, the child of our
adoption. Their geography, their soil, climate, productions,
inhabitants, and capabilities are set forth with fullness and accuracy.
In conclusion, the publishers confidently claim that "The Greater
Republic" is the fullest, most interesting, reliable, and instructive
work of the kind ever offered the public.
[Illustration: "I AM READY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT I CAN GIVE MY COUNTRY"
In 1798 our Government was about to declare war against France. Congress
appointed Washington Commander-in-chief of the American Army. The
Secretary of War carried the commission in person to Mt. Vernon. The old
hero, sitting on his horse in the harvest field, accepted in the above
patriotic words.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.
The Visits of the Northmen to the New World--The Indians and Mound
Builders--Christopher Columbus--His Discovery of America--Amerigo
Vespucci--John Cabot--_Spanish Explorers_--Balboa--His Discovery of
the Pacific--Magellan--Ponce de Leon--De Narvaez--De Soto--Menendez
--_French Explorers_--Verrazzani--Cartier--Ribault--Laudonniere--Champlain
--La Salle--_English Explorers_--Sir Hugh Willoughby--Martin
Frobisher--Sir Humphrey Gilbert--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Lost
Colony--_Dutch Explorer_--Henry Hudson 33
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES.
_Virginia_,--Founding of Jamestown--Captain John
Smith--Introduction of African Slavery--Indian Wars--Bacon's
Rebellion--Forms of Government--Prosperity--Education--_New
England_,--Plymouth--Massachusetts Bay Colony--Union of the
Colonies--Religious Persecution--King Philip's War--The
Witchcraft Delusion--_New Hampshire_,--_The Connecticut
Colony_,--_The New Haven Colony_,--Union of the Colonies--Indian
Wars--The Charter Oak--_Rhode Island_,--Different Forms of
Government--_New York_,--The Dutch and English Settlers--_New
Jersey_,--_Delaware_,--_Pennsylvania_,--_Maryland_,--Mason and
Dixon's Line--_The Carolinas_,--_Georgia_ 47
CHAPTER III.
THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
King William's War--Queen Anne's War--King George's War--The
French and Indian War--England and France Rivals in the Old World
and the New--The Early French Settlements--The Disputed
Territory--France's Fatal Weakness--Washington's Journey Through
the Wilderness--The First Fight of the War--The War Wholly
American for Two Years--The Braddock Massacre--The Great Change
Wrought by William Pitt--Fall of Quebec--Momentous Consequences
of the Great English Victory--The Growth and Progress of the
Colonies and their Home Life 75
CHAPTER IV.
THE REVOLUTION--THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND.
Causes of the Revolution--The Stamp Act--The Boston Tea
Party--England's Unbearable Measures--The First Continental
Congress--The Boston Massacre--Lexington and Concord--The Second
Continental Congress--Battle of Bunker Hill--Assumption of
Command by Washington--British Evacuation of Boston--Disastrous
Invasion of Canada 89
CHAPTER V.
THE REVOLUTION (CONTINUED). THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA.
Declaration of Independence--The American Flag--Battle of Long
Island--Washington's Retreat Through the Jerseys--Trenton and
Princeton--In Winter Quarters--Lafayette--Brandywine and
Germantown--At Valley Forge--Burgoyne's Campaign--Port Schuyler
and Bennington--Bemis Heights and Stillwater--The Conway
Cabal--Aid from France--Battle of Monmouth--Molly Pitcher--Failure
of French Aid--Massacre at Wyoming--Continental Money--Stony
Point--Treason of Arnold--Paul Jones' Great Victory 103
CHAPTER VI.
THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH (CONCLUDED).
Capture of Savannah--British Conquest of Georgia--Fall of
Charleston--Bitter Warfare in South Carolina--Battle of
Camden--Of King's Mountain--Of the Cowpens--Battle of Guilford
Court-House--Movements of Cornwallis--The Final Campaign--Peace
and Independence 131
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
The Method of Government During the Revolution--Impending
Anarchy--The State Boundaries--State Cessions of Land--Shays'
Rebellion--Adoption of the Constitution--Its Leading Features--The
Ordinance of 1787--Formation of Parties--Election of the First
President and Vice-President 143
CHAPTER VIII.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF WASHINGTON, JOHN ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON--1789-1809.
Washington--His Inauguration as First President of the United
States--Alexander Hamilton--His Success at the Head of the
Treasury Department--The Obduracy of Rhode Island--Establishment
of the United States Bank--Passage of a Tariff Bill--Establishment
of a Mint--The Plan of a Federal Judiciary--Admission of Vermont,
Kentucky, and Tennessee--Benjamin Franklin--Troubles with the Western
Indians--Their Defeat by General Wayne--Removal of the National
Capital Provided for--The Whiskey Insurrection--The Course of
"Citizen Genet"--Jay's Treaty--Re-election of Washington--Resignation
of Jefferson and Hamilton--Washington's Farewell Address--Establishment
of the United States Military Academy at West Point--The Presidential
Election of 1796--John Adams--Prosperity of the Country--Population
of the Country in 1790--Invention of the Cotton Gin--Troubles with
France--War on the Ocean--Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief--Peace
Secured--The Alien and Sedition Laws--The Census of 1800--The
Presidential Election of 1800--The Twelfth Amendment to the
Constitution--Thomas Jefferson--Admission of Ohio--The Indiana
Territory--The Purchase of Louisiana--Its Immense Area--Abolishment of
the Slave Trade--War with Tripoli--The Lewis and Clark Expedition
--Alexander Hamilton Killed in a Duel by Aaron Burr--The First Steamboat
on the Hudson--The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic--England's
Oppressive Course Toward the United States--Outrage by the British Ship
_Leander_--The Affair of the _Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_--Passage of
the Embargo Act--The Presidential Election of 1808 153
CHAPTER IX.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON, 1809-1817. THE WAR OF 1812.
James Madison--The Embargo and the Non-Intercourse Acts--Revival
of the Latter Against England--The _Little Belt_ and the
_President_--Population of the United States in 1810--Battle of
Tippecanoe--Declaration of War Against England--Comparative
Strength of the Two Nations on the Ocean--Unpopularity of the War
in New England--Preparations Made by the Government--Cowardly
Surrender of Detroit--Presidential Election of 1812--Admission of
Louisiana and Indiana--New National Bank Chartered--Second
Attempt to Invade Canada--Battle of Queenstown Heights--Inefficiency
of the American Forces in 1812--Brilliant Work of the Navy--The
_Constitution_ and the _Guerriere_--The _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_--The
_United States_ and the _Macedonian_--The _Constitution_ and the
_Java_--Reorganization and Strengthening of the Army--Operations
in the West--Gallant Defense of Fort Stephenson--American Invasion
of Ohio and Victory of the Thames--Indian Massacre at Fort Mimms--Capture
of York (Toronto)--Defeat of the Enemy at Sackett's Harbor--Failure of
the American Invasion of Canada--The _Hornet_ and _Peacock_--Capture
of the _Chesapeake_--"Don't Give Up the Ship"--Captain Decatur Blockaded
at New London--Capture of the _Argus_ by the Enemy--Cruise of the
_Essex_--The Glorious Victory of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie--Success
of the American Arms in Canada--Battle of the Chippewa--Of Lundy's
Lane--Decisive Defeat of the Enemy's Attack on Plattsburg--Punishment
of the Creek Indians for the Massacre at Fort Mimms--Vigorous Action
by the National Government--Burning of Washington by the British--The
Hartford Convention 181
CHAPTER X.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JAMES MONROE AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 1817-1829.
James Monroe--The "Era of Good Feeling"--The Seminole
War--Vigorous Measures of General Jackson--Admission of
Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri--The Missouri
Compromise--The Monroe Doctrine--Visit of Lafayette--Introduction
of the Use of Gas--Completion of the Erie Canal--The First "Hard
Times"--Extinction of the West Indian Pirates--Presidential
Election of 1824--John Quincy Adams--Prosperity of the Country
--Introduction of the Railway Locomotive--Trouble with the
Cherokees in Georgia--Death of Adams and Jefferson--Congressional
Action on the Tariff--Presidential Election of 1828 205
CHAPTER XI.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JACKSON, VAN BUREN, W.H. HARRISON, AND TYLER,
1829-1845.
Andrew Jackson--"To the Victors Belong the Spoils"--The
President's Fight with the United States Bank--Presidential
Election of 1828--Distribution of the Surplus in the United
States Treasury Among the Various States--The Black Hawk War--The
Nullification Excitement--The Seminole War--Introduction of the
Steam Locomotive--Anthracite Coal, McCormick's Reaper, and
Friction Matches--Great Fire in New York--Population of the
United States in 1830--Admission of Arkansas and Michigan--Abolitionism
--France and Portugal Compelled to Pay their Debts to the United
States--The Specie Circular, John Caldwell Calhoun, Henry Clay,
and Daniel Webster--Presidential Election of 1836--Martin Van Buren
--The Panic of 1837--Rebellion in Canada--Population of the United
States in 1840--Presidential Election of 1840--William Henry Harrison
--His Death--John Tyler--His Unpopular Course--The Webster-Ashburton
Treaty--Civil War in Rhode Island--The Anti-rent War in New York--A
Shocking Accident--Admission of Florida--Revolt of Texas Against Mexican
Rule--The Alamo--San Jacinto--The Question of the Annexation of
Texas--The State Admitted--The Copper Mines of Michigan--Presidential
Election of 1844--The Electro-magnetic Telegraph--Professor Morse--His
Labors in Bringing the Invention to Perfection 215
CHAPTER XII.
FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 1840.
The Origin of the "Caucus"--The Election of 1792--The First
Stormy Election--The Constitution Amended--Improvement of the
Method of Nominating Presidential Candidates--The First
Presidential Convention--Convention in Baltimore in
1832--Exciting Scenes--The Presidential Campaign of 1820--"Old
Hickory"--Andrew Jackson's Popularity--Jackson Nominated--"Old
Hickory" Defeated--The "Log-Cabin" and "Hard-Cider" Campaign of
1840--"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"--Peculiar Feature of the
Harrison Campaign 239
CHAPTER XIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF POLK, 1845-1849.
James K. Polk--_The War with Mexico_--The First Conflict--Battle
of Resaca de la Palma--Vigorous Action of the United States
Government--General Scott's Plan of Campaign--Capture of
Monterey--An Armistice--Capture of Saltillo--Of Victoria--Of
Tampico--General Kearny's Capture of Santa Fe--Conquest of
California--Wonderful March of Colonel Doniphan--Battle of Buena
Vista--General Scott's March Toward the City of Mexico--Capture
of Vera Cruz--American Victory at Cerro Gordo--Five American
Victories in One Day--Santa Anna--Conquest of Mexico Completed--Terms
of the Treaty of Peace--The New Territory Gained--The Slavery Dispute
--The Wilmot Proviso--"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"--Adjustment of the
Oregon Boundary--Admission of Iowa and Wisconsin--The Smithsonian
Institute--Discovery of Gold in California--The Mormons--The
Presidential Election of 1848 251
CHAPTER XIV.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN, 1849-1857.
Zachary Taylor--The "Irrepressible Conflict" in Congress--The
Omnibus Bill--Death of President Taylor--Millard Fillmore--Death
of the Old Leaders and Debut of the New--The Census of 1850--Surveys
for a Railway to the Pacific--Presidential Election of 1852--Franklin
Pierce--Death of Vice-President King--A Commercial Treaty Made with
Japan--Filibustering Expeditions--The Ostend Manifesto--The "Know
Nothing" Party--The Kansas-Nebraska Bill and Repeal of the Missouri
Compromise 269
CHAPTER XV.
ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN, 1861-1865 THE WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861.
Abraham Lincoln--Major Anderson's Trying Position--Jefferson
Davis--Inauguration of President Lincoln--Bombardment of Fort
Sumter--War Preparations North and South--Attack on Union Troops
in Baltimore--Situation of the Border States--Unfriendliness of
England and France--Friendship of Russia--The States that
Composed the Southern Confederacy--Union Disaster at Big
Bethel--Success of the Union Campaign in Western Virginia--General
George B. McClellan--First Battle of Bull Run--General McClellan
Called to the Command of the Army of the Potomac--Union Disaster
at Ball's Bluff--Military Operations in Missouri--Battle of Wilson's
Creek--Defeat of Colonel Mulligan at Lexington, Mo.--Supersedure
of Fremont--Operations on the Coast--The Trent Affair--Summary
of the Year's Operations 285
CHAPTER XVI.
ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 1861-1865.
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1862.
Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson--Change in the Confederate
Line of Defense--Capture of Island No. 10--Battle of Pittsburg
Landing or Shiloh--Capture of Corinth--Narrow Escape of
Louisville--Battle of Perryville--Battle of Murfreesboro' or
Stone River--Battle of Pea Ridge--Naval Battle Between the
_Monitor_ and _Merrimac_--Fate of the Two Vessels--Capture of New
Orleans--The Advance Against Richmond--McClellan's Peninsula
Campaign--_The First Confederate Invasion of the North_--_Battle
of Antietam or Sharpsburg_--_Disastrous Union Repulse at
Fredericksburg_--_Summary of the War's Operations_--_The
Confederate Privateers_--_The Emancipation Proclamation_--_Greenbacks
and Bond Issues_ 301
CHAPTER XVII.
ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 1861-1865.
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1863.
The Military Situation in the West--Siege and Capture of
Vicksburg--The Mississippi Opened--Battle of Chickamauga--"The
Rock of Chickamauga"--The Battle Above the Clouds--Siege of
Knoxville--General Hooker Appointed to the Command of the Army of
the Potomac--His Plan of Campaign Against Richmond--Stonewall
Jackson's Stampede of the Eleventh Corps--Critical Situation of
the Union Army--Death of Jackson--Battle of Chancellorsville--Defeat
of Hooker--The Second Confederate Invasion--Battle of Gettysburg--The
Decisive Struggle of the War--Lee's Retreat--Subsequent Movements of
Lee and Meade--Confederate Privateering--Destruction of the
_Nashville_--Failure of the Attacks on Charleston--The Military
Raids--Stuart's Narrow Escape--Stoneman's Raid--Morgan's Raid in
Indiana and Ohio 333
CHAPTER XVIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONCLUDED), 1861-1865.
WAR FOR THE UNION (CONCLUDED), 1864-1865.
The Work Remaining to be Done--General Grant Placed in Command of
all the Union Armies--The Grand Campaign--Bank's Disastrous Red
River Expedition--How the Union Fleet was Saved--Capture of
Mobile by Admiral Farragut--The Confederate Cruisers--Destruction
of the _Alabama_ by the _Kearsarge_--Fate of the Other Confederate
Cruisers--Destruction of the _Albemarle_ by Lieutenant William B.
Cushing--Re-election of President Lincoln--Distress in the South and
Prosperity in the North--The Union Prisoners in the South--Admission
of Nevada--The Confederate Raids from Canada--Sherman's Advance to
Atlanta--Fall of Atlanta--Hood's Vain Attempt to Relieve Georgia--Superb
Success of General Thomas--"Marching Through Georgia"--Sherman's
Christmas Gift to President Lincoln--Opening of Grant's Final
Campaign--Battles in the Wilderness--Wounding of General
Longstreet and Death of Generals Stuart and Sedgwick--Grant's
Flanking Movements Against Lee--A Disastrous Repulse at Cold
Harbor--Defeat of Sigel and Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley--"Bottling-up"
of Butler--Explosions of the Petersburg Mine--Early's Raids--His Final
Defeat by Sheridan--Grant's Campaign--Surrender of Lee--Assassination
of President Lincoln--Death of Booth and Punishment of the
Conspirators--Surrender of Jo Johnston and Collapse of the
Southern Confederacy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--His Release and
Death--Statistics of the Civil War--A Characteristic Anecdote 367
CHAPTER XIX.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT, 1865-1877.
Andrew Johnson--Reconstruction--Quarrel Between the President and
Congress--The Fenians--Execution of Maximilian--Admission of
Nebraska--Laying of the Atlantic Cable--Purchase of Alaska--Impeachment
and Acquittal of the President--Carpet-bag Rule in the South--Presidential
Election of 1868--U.S. Grant--Settlement of the _Alabama_ Claims
--Completion of the Overland Railway--The Chicago Fire--Settlement
of the Northwestern Boundary--Presidential Election of 1872--The Modoc
Troubles--Civil War in Louisiana--Admission of Colorado--Panic of
1873--Notable Deaths--Custer's Massacre--The Centennial--The
Presidential Election of 1876 the Most Perilous in the History of
the Country 407
CHAPTER XX.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR, 1877-1885.
R.B. Hayes--The Telephone--Railway Strikes--Elevated
Railroads--War with the Nez Perce Indians--Remonetization of
Silver--Resumption of Specie Payments--A Strange Fishery
Award--The Yellow Fever Scourge--Presidential Election of
1878--James A. Garfield--Civil Service Reform--Assassination of
President Garfield--Chester A. Arthur--The Star Route Frauds--The
Brooklyn Bridge--The Chinese Question--The Mormons--Alaska
Exploration--The Yorktown Centennial--Attempts to Reach the North
Pole by Americans--History of the Greely Expedition 427
CHAPTER XXI.
ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (FIRST) AND OF HARRISON, 1885-1893.
Grover Cleveland--Completion of the Washington Monument--The
Bartholdi Statue--Death of General Grant--Death of Vice-President
Hendricks--The First Vice-President to Die in Office--George
Clinton--Elbridge Gerry--William R. King--Henry Wilson--Death of
General McClellan--Of General Hancock--His Career--The Dispute
Between Capital and Labor--Arbitration--The Anarchistic Outbreak
in Chicago--The Charleston Earthquake--Conquest of the Apaches
--Presidential Election of 1888--Benjamin Harrison--The Johnstown
Disaster--Threatened War with Chili--The Indian Uprising of 1890-91
--Admission of New States--Presidential Election of 1892 459
CHAPTER XXII.
ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (SECOND), 1893-1897.
Repeal of the Purchase Clause of the Sherman Bill--The World's
Columbian Exposition at Chicago--The Hawaiian Imbroglio--The
Great Railroad Strike of 1894--Coxey's Commonweal Army--Admission
of Utah--Harnessing of Niagara--Dispute with England Over
Venezuela's Boundary--Presidential Election of 1896 487
CHAPTER XXIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (SECOND, CONCLUDED), 1893-1897.
Settling the Northwest--The Face of the Country Transformed--Clearing
Away the Forests and its Effects--Tree-planting on the Prairies--Pioneer
Life in the Seventies--The Granary of the World--The Northwestern
Farmer--Transportation and Other Industries--Business Cities and
Centres--United Public Action and its Influence--The Indian
Question--Other Elements of Population--Society and General Culture 511
CHAPTER XXIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF MCKINLEY, 1897-1901.
William McKinley--Organization of "Greater New York"--Removal of
General Grant's Remains to Morningside Park--The Klondike Gold
Excitement--Spain's Misrule in Cuba--Preliminary Events of the
Spanish-American War 527
CHAPTER XXV.
ADMINISTRATION OF MCKINLEY (CONTINUED), 1897-1901.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
Opening Incidents--Bombardment of Matanzas--Dewey's Wonderful
Victory at Manila--Disaster to the _Winslow_ at Cardenas Bay--The
First American Loss of Life--Bombardment of San Juan, Porto
Rico--The Elusive Spanish Fleet--Bottled-up in Santiago
Harbor--Lieutenant Hobson's Daring Exploit--Second Bombardment of
Santiago and Arrival of the Army--Gallant Work of the Rough
Riders and the Regulars--Battles of San Juan and El Caney--Destruction
of Cervera's Fleet--General Shafter Reinforced in Front of Santiago
--Surrender of the City--General Miles in Porto Rico--An Easy Conquest
--Conquest of the Philippines--Peace Negotiations and Signing of the
Protocol--Its Terms--Members of the National Peace Commission--Return
of the Troops from Cuba and Porto Rico--The Peace Commission in
Paris--Conclusion of its Work--Terms of the Treaty--Ratified by
the Senate 547
CHAPTER XXVI.
ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY (CONTINUED), 1897-1901
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS
The Islands of Hawaii--Their Inhabitants and Products--City of
Honolulu--History of Cuba--The Ten Years' War--The Insurrection
of 1895-98--Geography and Productions of Cuba--Its Climate--History
of Porto Rico--Its People and Productions--San Juan and Ponce--Location,
Discovery, and History of the Philippines--Insurrections of the
Filipinos--City of Manila--Commerce--Philippine Productions--Climate
and Volcanoes--Dewey at Manila--The Ladrone Islands--Conclusion 587
[Illustration: PENN'S TREATY BELT]
[Illustration: A Settler. Ruins of Jamestown. Indian Chief.]
List of Illustrations.
PAGE
Amerigo Vespucci, 33
Meeting Between the Northmen and Natives, 34
Sebastian Cabot, 35
Columbus and the Egg, 37
An Indian Council of War, 41
"The Broiling of Fish Over the Fire," 43
Indian Village Enclosed with Palisades, 44
Sir Walter Raleigh, 45
Seal of the Virginia Company, 47
Armor Worn by the Pilgrims in 1620, 52
Landing of Myles Standish, 54
Roger Williams in Banishment, 57
Primitive Mode of Grinding Corn, 60
Friends' Meeting-House, Burlington, N.J., 64
Moravian Easter Service, Bethlehem, Pa., 68
Colonial Plow--1706, 71
Ancient Horseshoes, 72
A Colonial Flax-wheel, 72
Silk-winding, 73
A Comfortier, or Chafing Dish, 73
Early Days in New England, 74
Places of Worship in New York in 1742, 75
Attack on Rioters, Springfield, Mass., in 1786, 77
Young Washington Riding a Colt, 79
Braddock's Defeat, 81
Martello Tower on the Heights of Abraham, 82
A Dutch Household as Seen in the Early Days in New York, 83
Memorial Hall, Harvard College, 85
Bible Brought Over in the _Mayflower_, 86
American Stage-coach of 1795, 87
The Old South Church, Boston, 91
Patrick Henry, 93
The Monument on Bunker Hill, 94
Nomination of Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, 96
Faneuil Hall, Boston, 97
St. Paul's Church, New York, 101
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 104
The Liberty Bell, 105
The Statue of Liberty, 107
An Old New York Mansion, 109
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 113
"Give Them Watts, Boys," 115
Washington at Valley Forge, 117
An Old Colonial House at Germantown, 120
Virginia Currency, 1670, 123
Paul Jones, 125
The _Bon Homme Richard_ and _Serapis_, 126
British Captain Surrendering Sword, 127
Escape of Benedict Arnold, 129
Tarleton's Lieutenant and the Farmer, 134
Cornwallis, 137
A Plantation Gateway, 143
Senate Chamber, 147
House of Representatives, 149
An Old Indian Farm-house, 152
Mary Ball, the Mother of Washington, 153
George Washington, 154
Inauguration of Washington, 155
Alexander Hamilton, 157
Ben Franklin in His Father's Shop, 159
Franklin's Grave, 160
Chief Justice John Jay, 163
Washington's Bedroom in which He Died, 165
Mother of Washington Receiving Lafayette, 166
John Adams, 168
The Cotton Gin, Invented in 1793, 169
Thomas Jefferson, 171
Development of Steam Navigation, 177
Robert Fulton, 178
James Madison, 182
The Arts of Peace and the Art of War, 187
Mrs. James Madison, 191
Burning of Washington, 197
Weathersford and General Jackson, 201
First Train of Cars in America, 205
James Monroe, 205
An Indian's Declaration of War, 207
John Quincy Adams, 211
"Johnny Bull," or No. 1, 213
Andrew Jackson, 216
Samuel Houston, 218
Oseola's Indignation, 221
Western Railroad in Earlier Days, 222
John C. Calhoun, 223
Henry Clay, 224
Daniel Webster, 225
Martin Van Buren, 227
William Henry Harrison, 239
John Tyler, 231
Where the First Morse Instrument was Constructed, 235
Speedwell Iron Works, Morristown, N.J. 236
Old Gates at St. Augustine, Florida, 239
A Typical Virginia Court-House, 241
The White House at Washington, D.C., 243
Old Spanish House, New Orleans, 247
The Marigny House, New Orleans, 248
James K. Polk, 251
Robert E. Lee in the Mexican War, 253
General Winfield Scott, 257
Battle of Cerro Gordo, 259
The Smithsonian Institute, 263
Gold Washing--The Sluice, 264
Gold Washing--The Cradle, 265
Great Salt Lake City, Utah, 267
Zachary Taylor, 269
Millard Fillmore, 271
Franklin Pierce, 273
Lucretia Mott, 275
Henry Ward Beecher, 276
James Buchanan, 278
Lucretia Mott Protecting Dangerfield, 279
Harper's Ferry, 281
Abraham Lincoln, 285
From Log-Cabin to the White House, 286
Jefferson Davis, 287
Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S.C., 289
A Skirmisher, 291
General George B. McClellan, 293
Statue of McClellan, Philadelphia, Pa., 295
Fortifying Richmond, 297
Breech-loading Mortar, or Howitzer, 302
A Railroad Battery, 305
Sec. Stanton's Opinion about the _Merrimac_, 309
John Ericsson, 312
Libby Prison in 1865, 315
Libby Prison in 1884, 316
Moist Weather at the Front, 319
Antietam Bridge, 325
Model of Gatling Gun, 329
U.S. Military Telegraph Wagon, 331
Admiral Porter, 334
David G. Farragut, 335
Grant After the Battle of Belmont, 337
General George H. Thomas, 341
General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, 345
House in which Stonewall Jackson Died, 346
General Robert E. Lee, 349
General George G. Meade, 351
Cushing's Last Shot, 354
Entrance to Gettysburg Cemetery, 357
The Swamp Angel Battery, 363
Bailey's Dams on the Red River, 371
Monument of Farragut at Washington, 373
Bird's-eye View of Andersonville Prison, 383
Death of General Polk, 385
General William T. Sherman, 389
General Lee Leading the Texans' Charge, 393
General Philip H. Sheridan, 395
Lincoln Entering Richmond, 398
The Desperate Extremity of the Confederates, 403
Horace Greeley, 405
Lincoln's Grave, Springfield, Ill., 406
Andrew Johnson, 407
Log-cabin Church at Juneau, Alaska, 411
Southern Legislature Under Carpet-bag Rule, 413
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 415
Mrs. Julia Dent Grant, 415
The Burning of Chicago, 1871, 417
Section of Chicago Stock-yards, 418
Monument to General Lee, Richmond, Va., 422
General George Crook, 423
Memorial Hall of 1876, 425
Samuel J. Tilden, 426
Rutherford B. Hayes, 427
Grant at Windsor Castle, 431
Grant in Japan, 433
The Boy James Garfield and his Mother, 434
James A. Garfield, 435
The Aged Mother of President Garfield, 436
Assassination of President Garfield, 437
Memorial Tablet to President Garfield, 438
Chester Alan Arthur, 439
The Brooklyn Bridge, 440
Scene in Chinatown, San Francisco, 441
A Funeral in the Arctic Regions, 449
Grover Cleveland, 459
Tomb of General U.S. Grant, New York, 464
City Hall, Philadelphia, 467
Old Haymarket Plaza, Chicago, 471
General Crook's Apache Guide, 475
An Indian Warrior, 477
Benjamin Harrison, 479
Indian Mother and Infant, 481
Indian Agency, 484
Henry Moore Teller, 487
Model of U.S. Man-of-War, 488
Machinery Hall, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 490
Horticultural Building, World's Fair, 1893, 491
Agricultural Building, World's Fair, 1893, 491
Woman's Building, World's Fair, 1893, 492
Thomas A. Edison, 493
The Viking Ship, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 495
Art Palace, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 496
Government Building, World's Fair, 1893, 496
James G. Blaine, 499
A Scene of the Chicago Strike of 1894, 501
A Gold Prospecting Party, British Guiana, 505
The Venezuelan Commission, 507
William Jennings Bryan, 508
Albert Shaw, 511
A Dispute Over a Brand, 513
Sluice-gate, 517
Between the Mills, 518
Barrel-hoist and Tunnel, Washburn Mill, 518
Mossbrae, 520
Section of Chicago Stock-yards, 521
The Falls of St. Anthony, 1885, 523
Lake-shore Drive, Chicago, 525
Wm. McKinley, 527
The Obelisk, Central Park, New York, 529
John Sherman, 531
Thomas B. Reed, 533
Tomb of U.S. Grant, New York, 534
Review of the Navy and Merchant Marine on the Hudson, April 27, 1897, 535
Map of Alaska, 536
Ready for the Trail, 537
General Calixto Garcia, 539
General Maximo Gomez, 541
Jose Marti, 543
General Antonio Maceo, 544
The U.S. Battleship _Maine_ and her Officers, 545
Admiral George Dewey, 551
Camp Scene at Chickamauga, 555
Richmond P. Hobson, 557
Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, 559
Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, 560
Gov. Theodore Roosevelt, 561
Rear-Admiral Winfield S. Schley, 565
Rear-Admiral John C. Watson, 567
Major-General William R. Shaffer, 570
Major-General Nelson A. Miles, 571
Major-General Joseph Wheeler, 573
Major-General Wesley Merritt, 577
Major-General Elwell S. Otis, 584
Admiral Dewey's Flagship the _Olympia_, 585
Native Grass House, Hawaii, 587
Royal Palace, Hawaii, 589
Raising of the American Flag, Honolulu, 589
Hula Dancing Girls, Hawaii, 590
Church in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, 592
Sugar Cane Plantation, Hawaiian Islands, 594
Tomb of Christopher Columbus, Havana, Cuba, 595
Indian Statue in the Prado, Havana, Cuba, 597
Daring Attack of Cuban Patriots, 599
General Maximo Gomez, 602
Sunrise Executions, Havana, 603
A Volante, Cuba, 608
Entrance to the Public Grounds, Havana, 609
A Market Girl, Porto Rico, 610
The Custom House, Ponce, Porto Rico, 612
Native Belles, Porto Rico, 614
The Market Place, Ponce, Porto Rico, 615
Filipinos of the Savage Tribes 617
Native Hunters, Philippine Islands, 618
Philippine Warriors, 622
Native Residence in the Suburbs of Manila, 624
A Typical Moro Village, Philippine Islands, 626
Bridge Over the Pasig River, 628
A Popular Street Conveyance, Manila, 631
A Wedding Procession, Philippine Islands, 633
Drying Sugar, Philippine Islands, 635
The Strange Wagons of Philippine Islands, 636
Native House and Palms, Ladrone Islands, 644
[Illustration: William Penn Esq. Proprietor of Pennsylvania 1703.]
LIST OF FULL-PAGE HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
"I am ready for any service that I can give my country" _Frontispiece_
Search for the Fountain of Youth opp. 39
Pocahontas Saving the Life of John Smith opp. 49
The Marriage of Pocahontas opp. 50
Gallup's Recapture of Oldham's Boat opp. 58
William Penn, the good and wise ruler opp. 65
Notable Audience in Maryland to hear George Fox opp. 66
Hiawatha, Pounder of the Iroquois League opp. 72
Washington's First Victory opp. 80
The Battle of Bunker Hill opp. 89
The Capture of Major Andre opp. 128
Daring Desertion of John Campe opp. 136
The Surrender at Yorktown opp. 139
United States Capitol, Washington opp. 142
The Battle of Fallen Timbers opp. 160
Campaign Speechmaking in Earlier Days opp. 238
Fremont, the Great Pathfinder, addressing the Indians opp. 250
Battle of Resaca de la Palma opp. 256
The Blue and the Gray opp. 284
The First Battle of Bull Run, 1861 opp. 294
The Attack on Fort Donelson opp. 301
General Lee's Invasion of the North opp. 324
The Battle of Malvern Hill opp. 333
The Fatal Wounding of "Stonewall" Jackson opp. 346
Pickett's Return from his Famous Charge opp. 355
Attack on Charleston, August 23 to September 29, 1893 opp. 360
The Sinking of the "Alabama" opp. 375
Sherman's Three Scouts opp. 384
Surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865 opp. 397
The Civil War Peace Conference opp. 400
The Electoral Commission, 1877 opp. 427
The Farthest North Reached by Lieutenant Lockwood on the
Greely Expedition opp. 453
The Washington Monument opp. 460
Arbitration opp. 469
The Hero of the Strike, Coal Creek, Tenn opp. 486
The Viking Ship at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago,
1893 opp. 495
Congressional Library, Washington, D.C. opp. 510
Cathedral Spires in the Garden of the Gods opp. 515
Greater New York opp. 528
President McKinley and the War Cabinet opp. 547
City of Havana, Cuba opp. 549
The U.S. Battleship "Maine" opp. 550
Map of Cuba opp. 553
The Battle of Manila, May 1, 1898 opp. 554
Americans Storming San Juan Hill opp. 560
U.S. Battleship "Oregon" opp. 565
The Surrender of Santiago, July 17, 1898 opp. 570
In the War-room at Washington opp. 576
The United States Peace Commissioners of the Spanish War opp. 580
Popular Commanders in the Filipino War opp. 586
Prominent Spaniards in 1898 opp. 595
San Juan, Porto Rico opp. 610
The Escolta, City of Manila opp. 619
The Beautiful Luneta, Manila's Fashionable Promenade and Drive opp. 620
The Shipyard and Arsenal at Cavite, Philippine Islands opp. 629
Raising the Flag on Fort San Antonio de Abad, Malate opp. 630
Scenes from the Philippine Islands opp. 639
The Mouth of the Pasig River opp. 640
Author's introduction.
The annals of the world contain no more impressive example of the birth
and growth of a nation than may be seen in the case of that which has
been aptly termed the Greater Republic, whose story from its feeble
childhood to its grand maturity it is the purpose of this work to set
forth. Three hundred years is a brief interval in the long epoch of
human history, yet within that short period the United States has
developed from a handful of hardy men and women, thinly scattered along
our Atlantic coast, into a vast and mighty country, peopled by not less
than seventy-five millions of human beings, the freest, richest, most
industrious, and most enterprising of any people upon the face of the
earth. It began as a dwarf; it has grown into a giant. It was despised
by the proud nations of Europe; it has become feared and respected by
the proudest of these nations. For a long time they have claimed the
right to settle among themselves the affairs of the world; they have now
to deal with the United States in this self-imposed duty. And it is
significant of the high moral attitude occupied by this country, that
one of the first enterprises in which it is asked to join these ancient
nations has for its end to do away with the horrors of war, and
substitute for the drawn sword in the settlement of national disputes a
great Supreme Court of arbitration.
This is but one of the lessons to be drawn from the history of the great
republic of the West. It has long been claimed that this history lacks
interest, that it is devoid of the romance which we find in that of the
Eastern world, has nothing in it of the striking and dramatic, and is
too young and new to be worth men's attention when compared with that of
the ancient nations, which has come down from the mists of prehistoric
time. Yet we think that those who read the following pages will not be
ready to admit this claim. They will find in the history of the United
States an abundance of the elements of romance. It has, besides, the
merit of being a complete and fully rounded history. We can trace it
from its birth, and put upon record the entire story of the evolution of
a nation, a fact which it would be difficult to affirm of any of the
older nations of the world.
If we go back to the origin of our country, it is to find it made up of
a singular mixture of the best people of Europe. The word best is used
here in a special sense. The settlers in this country were not the rich
and titled. They came not from that proud nobility which claims to
possess bluer blood than the common herd, but from the plain people of
Europe, from the workers, not the idlers, and this rare distinction they
have kept up until the present day. But of this class of the world's
workers, they were the best and noblest. They were men who thought for
themselves, and refused to be bound in the trammels of a State religion;
men who were ready to dare the perils of the sea and the hardships of a
barren shore for the blessings of liberty and free-thought; men of
sturdy thrift, unflinching energy, daring enterprise, the true stuff out
of which alone a nation like ours could be built.
Such was the character of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, the hardy
empire-builders of New England, of the Quakers of New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, the Huguenots of the South, the
Moravians and other German Protestants, the sturdy Scotch-Irish, and the
others who sought this country as a haven of refuge for free-thought. We
cannot say the same for the Hollanders of New Amsterdam, the Swedes of
Delaware, and the English of Virginia, so far as their purpose is
concerned, yet they too proved hardy and industrious settlers, and the
Cavaliers whom the troubles in England drove to Virginia showed their
good blood by the prominent part which their descendants played in the
winning of our independence and the making of our government. While the
various peoples named took part in the settlement of the colonies, the
bulk of the settlers were of English birth, and Anglo-Saxon thrift and
energy became the foundation stones upon which our nation has been
built. Of the others, nearly the whole of them were of Teutonic origin,
while the Huguenots, whom oppression drove from France, were of the very
bone and sinew of that despot-ridden land. It may fairly be said, then,
that the founders of our nation came from the cream of the populations
of Europe, born of sturdy Teutonic stock, and comprising thrift, energy,
endurance, love of liberty, and freedom of thought to a degree never
equaled in the makers of any other nation upon the earth. They were of
solid oak in mind and frame, and the edifice they built had for its
foundation the natural rights of man, and for its super-structure that
spirit of liberty which has ever since throbbed warmly in the American
heart.
It was well for the colonies that this underlying unity of aim existed,
for aside from this they were strikingly distinct in character and
aspirations. Sparsely settled, strung at intervals along the
far-extended Atlantic coast, silhouetted against a stern background of
wilderness and mountain range, their sole bond of brotherhood was their
common aspiration for liberty, while in all other respects they were
unlike in aims and purposes. The spirit of political liberty was
strongest in the New England colonies, and these held their own against
every effort to rob them of their rights with an unflinching boldness
which is worthy of the highest praise, and which set a noble example for
the remaining colonists. Next to them in bold opposition to tyranny were
the people of the Carolinas, who sturdily resisted an effort to make
them the enslaved subjects of a land-holding nobility. In Pennsylvania
and Maryland political rights were granted by high-minded proprietors,
and in these colonies no struggle for self-government was necessary.
Only in Virginia and New York was autocratic rule established, and in
both of these it gradually yielded to the steady demand for
self-government.
On the other hand, New England, while politically the freest, was
religiously the most autocratic. The Puritans, who had crossed the ocean
in search of freedom of thought, refused to grant a similar freedom to
those who came later, and sought to found a system as intolerant as that
from which they had fled. A natural revulsion from their oppressive
measures gave rise in Rhode Island to the first government on the face
of the earth in which absolute religious liberty was established. Among
the more southern colonies, a similar freedom, so far as liberty of
Christian worship is concerned, was granted by William Penn and Lord
Baltimore. But this freedom was maintained only in Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania, religious intolerance being the rule, to a greater or less
degree, in all the other colonies; the Puritanism of New England being
replaced elsewhere by a Church of England autocracy.
The diversity in political condition, religion, and character of the
settlers tended to keep the colonies separate, while a like diversity of
commercial interests created jealousies which built up new barriers
between them. The unity that might have been looked for between these
feeble and remote communities, spread like links of a broken chain far
along an ocean coast, had these and other diverse conditions to contend
with, and they promised to develop into a series of weak and separate
nations rather than into a strong and single commonwealth.
The influences that overcame this tendency to disunion were many and
important. We can only glance at them here. They may be divided into two
classes, warlike hostility and industrial oppression. The first step
towards union was taken in 1643, when four of the New England colonies
formed a confederation for defense against the Dutch and Indians. "The
United Colonies of New England" constituted in its way a federal
republic, the prototype of that of the United States. The second step of
importance in this connection was taken in 1754, when a convention was
held at Albany to devise measures of defense against the French.
Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan of colonial union, which was accepted
by the convention. But the jealousy of the colonies prevented its
adoption. They had grown into communities of some strength and with a
degree of pride in their separate freedom, and were not ready to yield
to a central authority. The British Government also opposed it, not
wishing to see the colonies gain the strength which would have come to
them from political union. As a result, the plan fell to the ground.
The next important influence tending towards union was the oppressive
policy of Great Britain. The industries and commerce of the colonies had
long been seriously restricted by the measures of the mother-country,
and after the war with France an attempt was made to tax the colonists,
though they were sternly refused representation in Parliament, the
tax-laying body. Community in oppression produced unity in feeling; the
colonies joined hands, and in 1765 a congress of their representatives
was held in New York, which appealed to the King for their just
political rights. Nine years afterwards, in 1774, a second congress was
held, brought together by much more imminent common dangers. In the
following year a third congress was convened. This continued in session
for years, its two most important acts being the Declaration of
Independence from Great Britain and the Confederation of the States, the
first form of union which the colonies adopted. This Confederation was
in no true sense a Union. The jealousies and fears of the colonies made
themselves apparent, and the central government was given so little
power that it threatened to fall to pieces of its own weight. It could
pass laws, but could not make the people obey them. It could incur
debts, but could not raise money by taxation to pay them. The States
kept nearly all the power to themselves, and each acted almost as if it
were an independent nation, while the Congress of the Confederation was
left without money and almost without authority.
This state of affairs soon grew intolerable. "We are," said Washington,
"one nation to-day, and thirteen to-morrow." Such a union it was
impossible to maintain. It was evident that the compact must give way;
that there must be one strong government or thirteen weak ones. This
last alternative frightened the States. None of them was strong enough
to hold its own against foreign governments. They must form a strong
union or leave themselves at the mercy of ambitious foes. It was this
state of affairs that led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, by
whose wisdom the National Union which has proved so solid a bond was
organized. The Constitution made by this body gave rise to the Republic
of the United States. A subsequent act, which in 1898 added a number of
distant island possessions to our Union, and vastly widened its
interests and its importance in the world's councils, made of it a
"Greater Republic," a mighty dominion whose possessions extended half
round the globe.
While the changes here briefly outlined were taking place, the country
was growing with phenomenal rapidity. From all parts of northern and
western Europe, and above all from Great Britain, new settlers were
crowding to our shores, while the descendants of the original settlers
were increasing in numbers. How many people there were here is in doubt,
but it is thought that in 1700 there were more than 200,000, in 1750
about 1,100,000, and in 1776 about 2,500,000. The first census, taken in
1790, just after the Federal Union was formed, gave a population of
nearly 4,000,000.
A people growing at this rate could not be long confined to the narrow
ocean border of the early settlements. A rich and fertile country lay
back, extending how far no one knew, and soon there was a movement to
the West, which carried the people over the mountains and into the broad
plains beyond. A war was fought with France for the possession of the
Ohio country. Boone and other bold pioneers led hardy settlers into
Kentucky and Tennessee, and George Rogers Clark descended the Ohio and
drove the British troops from the northwest territory, gaining that vast
region for the new Union.
After the War for Independence the movement westward went on with
rapidity. The first settlement in Ohio was made at Marietta in 1788;
Cincinnati was founded in 1790; in 1803 St. Louis was a little village
of log-cabins; and in 1831 the site of Chicago was occupied by a dozen
settlers gathered round Fort Dearborn. But while the cities were thus
slow in starting, the country between them was rapidly filling up, the
Indians giving way step by step as the vanguard of the great march
pressed upon them; here down the Ohio in bullet-proof boats, there
across the mountains on foot or in wagons. A great national road
stretched westward from Cumberland, Maryland, which in time reached the
Mississippi, and over whose broad and solid surface a steady stream of
emigrant wagons poured into the great West. At the same time steamboats
were beginning to run on the Eastern waters, and soon these were
carrying the increasing multitude down the Ohio and the Mississippi into
the vast Western realm. Later came the railroad to complete this phase
of our history, and provide a means of transportation by whose aid
millions could travel with ease where a bare handful had made their way
with peril and hardship of old.
Up to 1803 our national domain was bounded on the west by the
Mississippi, but in that year the vast territory of Louisiana was
purchased from France and the United States was extended to the summit
of the Rocky Mountains, its territory being more than doubled in area.
Here was a mighty domain for future settlement, across which two daring
travelers, Lewis and Clark, journeyed through tribes of Indians never
before heard of, not ending their long route until they had passed down
the broad Columbia to the waters of the Pacific.
From time to time new domains were added to the great republic. In 1819
Florida was purchased from Spain. In 1845 Texas was added to the Union.
In 1846 the Oregon country was made part of the United States. In 1848,
as a result of the Mexican War, an immense tract extending from Texas
to the Pacific was acquired, and the land of gold became part of the
republic. In 1853 another tract was purchased from Mexico, and the
domain of the United States, as it existed at the beginning of the Civil
War, was completed. It constituted a great section of the North American
continent, extending across it from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
north and south from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a fertile,
well-watered, and prolific land, capable of becoming the nursery of one
of the greatest nations on the earth. Beginning, at the close of the
Revolution, with an area of 827,844 square miles, it now embraced
3,026,484 square miles of territory, having increased within a century
to nearly four times its original size.
In 1867 a new step was taken, in the addition to this country of a
region of land separated from its immediate domain. This was the
territory of Alaska, of more than 577,000 square miles in extent, and
whose natural wealth has made it a far more valuable acquisition than
was originally dreamed of. In 1898 the Greater Republic, as it at
present exists, was completed by the acquisition of the island of Porto
Rico in the West Indies, and the Hawaiian and Philippine Island groups
in the Pacific Ocean. These, while adding not greatly to our territory,
may prove to possess a value in their products fully justifying their
acquisition. At present, however, their value is political rather than
industrial, as bringing the United States into new and important
relations with the other great nations of the earth.
The growth of population in this country is shown strikingly in the
remarkable development of its cities. In 1790 the three largest cities
were not larger than many of our minor cities to-day. Philadelphia had
forty-two thousand population, New York thirty-three thousand, and
Boston eighteen thousand. Charleston and Baltimore were still smaller,
and Savannah was quite small. There were only five cities with over ten
thousand population. Of inland towns, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with
something over six thousand population, was the largest. In 1890, one
hundred years afterwards, New York and Philadelphia had over one million
each, and Chicago, a city not sixty years old, shared with them this
honor. As for cities surpassing those of a century before, they were
hundreds in number. A similar great growth has taken place in the
States. From the original thirteen, hugging closely the Atlantic coast,
we now possess forty-five, crossing the continent from ocean to ocean,
and have besides a vast territorial area.
The thirteen original States, sparsely peopled, poor and struggling for
existence, have expanded into a great galaxy of States, rich, powerful,
and prosperous, with grand cities, flourishing rural communities,
measureless resources, and an enterprise which no difficulty can baffle
and no hardship can check. Our territory could support hundreds of
millions of population, and still be much less crowded than some of the
countries of Europe. Its products include those of every zone; hundreds
of thousands of square miles of its soil are of virgin richness; its
mineral wealth is so great that its precious metals have affected the
monetary standards of the world, and its vast mineral and agricultural
wealth is as yet only partly developed. Vast as has been the production
of gold in California, its annual output is of less value than that of
wheat. In wheat, corn, and cotton, indeed, the product of this country
is simply stupendous; while, in addition to its gold and silver, it is a
mighty storehouse of coal, iron, copper, lead, petroleum, and many other
products of nature that are of high value to mankind.
In its progress towards its present condition, our country has been
markedly successful in two great fields of human effort, in war and in
peace. A brief preliminary statement of its success in the first of
these, and of the causes of its several wars, may be desirable here, as
introductory to their more extended consideration in the body of the
work. The early colonists had three enemies to contend with: the
original inhabitants of the land, the Spanish settlers in the South, and
the French in the North and West. Its dealings with the aborigines has
been one continuous series of conflicts, the red man being driven back
step by step until to-day he holds but a small fraction of his once
great territory. Yet the Indians are probably as numerous to-day as they
were originally, and are certainly better off in their present peaceful
and partly civilized condition than they were in their former savage and
warlike state.
The Spaniards were never numerous in this country, and were forced to
retire after a few conflicts of no special importance. Such was not the
case with the French, who were numerous and aggressive, and with whom
the colonists were at war on four successive occasions, the last being
that fierce conflict in which it was decided whether the Anglo-Saxon or
the French race should be dominant in this country. The famous battle on
the Plains of Abraham settled the question, and with the fall of Quebec
the power of France in America fell never to rise again.
A direct and almost an immediate consequence of this struggle for
dominion was the struggle for liberty between the colonists and the
mother-country. The oppressive measures of Great Britain led to a war of
seven years' duration, in which more clearly and decisively than ever
before the colonists showed their warlike spirit and political genius,
and whose outcome was the independence of this country. At its
conclusion the United States stepped into line with the nations of the
world, a free community, with a mission to fulfill and a destiny to
accomplish--a mission and a destiny which are still in process of
development, and whose final outcome no man can foresee.
The next series of events in the history of our wars arose from the
mighty struggle in Europe between France and Great Britain and the
piratical activity of the Barbary States. The latter were forced to
respect the power of the United States by several naval demonstrations
and conflicts; and a naval war with France, in which our ships were
strikingly successful, induced that country to show us greater respect.
But the wrongs which we suffered from Great Britain were not to be so
easily settled, and led to a war of three years' continuance, in which
the honors were fairly divided on land, but in which our sailors
surprised the world by their prowess in naval conflict. The proud boast
that "Britannia rules the waves" lost its pertinence after our two
striking victories on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, and our remarkable
success in a dozen conflicts at sea. Alike in this war and in the
Revolution the United States showed that skill and courage in naval
warfare which has recently been repeated in the Spanish War.
The wars of which we have spoken had a warrant for their being. They
were largely unavoidable results of existing conditions. This cannot
justly be said of the next struggle upon which the United States
entered, the Mexican War, since this was a politician's war pure and
simple, one which could easily have been avoided, and which was entered
into with the avowed purpose of acquiring territory. In this it
succeeded, the country gaining a great and highly valuable tract, whose
wealth in the precious metals is unsurpassed by any equal section of the
earth, and which is still richer in agricultural than in mineral wealth.
The next conflict that arose was the most vital and important of all our
wars, with the exception of that by which we gained our independence.
The Constitution of 1787 did not succeed in forming a perfect Union
between the States. An element of dissension was left, a "rift within
the lute," then seemingly small and unimportant, but destined to grow to
dangerous proportions. This was the slavery question, disposed of in the
Constitution by a compromise, which, like every compromise with evil,
failed in its purpose. The question continued to exist. It grew
threatening, portentous, and finally overshadowed the whole political
domain. Every effort to settle it peacefully only added to the strain;
the union between the States weakened as this mighty hammer of discord
struck down their combining links; finally the bonds yielded, the
slavery question thrust itself like a great wedge between, and a mighty
struggle began to decide whether the Union should stand or fall. With
the events of this struggle we are not here concerned. They are told at
length in their special place. All that we shall here say is this: While
the war was fought for the preservation of the Union, it was clearly
perceived that this union could never be stable while the disorganizing
element remained, and the war led inevitably to the abolition of
slavery, the apple of discord which had been thrown between the States.
The greatness of the result was adequate to the greatness of the
conflict. With the end of the Civil War, for the first time in their
history, an actual and stable Union was established between the States.
We have one more war to record, the brief but important struggle of
1898, entered into by the United States under the double impulse of
indignation against the barbarous destruction of the _Maine_ and of
sympathy for the starving and oppressed people of Cuba. It yielded
results undreamed of in its origin. Not only was Cuba wrested from the
feeble and inhuman hands of Spain, but new possessions in the oceans of
the east and west were added to the United States, and for the first
time this country took its predestined place among the nations engaged
in shaping the destiny of the world, rose to imperial dignity in the
estimation of the rulers of Europe, and fairly won that title of the
GREATER REPUBLIC which this work is written to commemorate.
Such has been the record of this country in war. Its record in peace has
been marked by as steady a career of victory, and with results
stupendous almost beyond the conception of man, when we consider that
the most of them have been achieved within little more than a century.
During the colonial period the energies of the American people were
confined largely to agriculture, Great Britain sternly prohibiting any
progress in manufacture and any important development of commerce. It
need hardly be said that the restless and active spirit of the colonists
chafed under these restrictions, and that the attempt to clip the
expanding wings of the American eagle had as much to do with bringing on
the war of the Revolution as had Great Britain's futile efforts at
taxation. The genius of a great people cannot thus be cribbed and
confined, and American enterprise was bound to find a way or carve
itself a way through the barriers raised by British avarice and tyranny.
It was after the Revolution that the progress of this country first
fairly began. The fetters which bound its hands thrown off, it entered
upon a career of prosperity which broadened with the years, and extended
until not only the whole continent but the whole world felt its
influence and was embraced by its results. Manufacture, no longer held
in check, sprang up and spread with marvelous rapidity. Commerce, now
gaining access to all seas and all lands, expanded with equal speed.
Enterprise everywhere made itself manifest, and invention began its long
and wonderful career.
In fact, freedom was barely won before our inventors were actively at
work. Before the Constitution was formed John Fitch was experimenting
with his steamboat on the Delaware, and Oliver Evans was seeking to move
wagons by steam in the streets of Philadelphia. Not many years elapsed
before both were successful, and Eli Whitney with his cotton-gin had set
free the leading industry of the South and enabled it to begin that
remarkable career which proved so momentous in American history, since
to it we owe the Civil War with all its great results.
With the opening of the nineteenth century the development of the
industries and of the inventive faculty of the Americans went on with
enhanced rapidity. The century was but a few years old when Fulton, with
his improved steamboat, solved the question of inland water
transportation. By the end of the first quarter of the century this was
solved in another way by the completion of the Erie Canal, the longest
and hitherto the most valuable of artificial water-ways. The railroad
locomotive, though invented in England, was prefigured when Oliver
Evans' steam road-wagon ran sturdily through the streets of
Philadelphia. To the same inventor we owe another triumph of American
genius, the grain elevator, which the development of agriculture has
rendered of incomparable value. The railroad, though not native here,
has had here its greatest development, and with its more than one
hundred and eighty thousand miles of length has no rival in any country
upon the earth. To it may be added the Morse system of telegraphy, the
telephone and phonograph, the electric light and electric motor, and all
that wonderful series of inventions in electrical science which has been
due to American genius.
We cannot begin to name the multitude of inventions in the mechanical
industries which have raised manufacture from an art to a science and
filled the world with the multitude of its products. It will suffice to
name among them the steam hammer, the sewing machine, the cylinder
printing-press, the type-setting machine, the rubber vulcanizer, and the
innumerable improvements in steam engines and labor-saving apparatus of
all kinds. These manufacturing expedients have been equaled in number
and importance by those applied to agriculture, including machines for
plowing, reaping, sowing the seed, threshing the grain, cutting the
grass, and a hundred other valuable processes, which have fairly
revolutionized the art of tilling the earth, and enabled our farmers to
feed not only our own population but to send millions of bushels of
grain annually abroad.
In truth, we have entered here upon an interminable field, so full of
triumphs of invention and ingenuity, and so stupendous in its results,
as to form one of the chief marvels of this wonderful century, and to
place our nation, in the field of human industry and mechanical
achievement, foremost among the nations of the world. Its triumphs have
not been confined to manufacture and agriculture; it has been as active
in commerce, and now stands first in the bulk of its exports and
imports. In every other direction of industry it has been as active, as
in fisheries, in forestry, in great works of engineering, in vast mining
operations; and from the seas, the earth, the mountain sides, our
laborers are wresting annually from nature a stupendous return in
wealth.
Our progress in the industries has been aided and inspired by an equal
progress in educational facilities, and the intellectual development of
our people has kept pace with their material advance. The United States
spends more money for the education of its youth than any other country
in the world, and among her institutions the school-house and the
college stand most prominent. While the lower education has been
abundantly attended to, the higher education has been by no means
neglected, and amply endowed colleges and universities are found in
every State and in almost every city of the land. In addition to the
school-house, libraries are multiplying with rapidity, art galleries and
museums of science are rising everywhere, temples to music and the drama
are found in all our cities, the press is turning out books and
newspapers with almost abnormal energy, and in everything calculated to
enhance the intelligence of the people the United States has no
superior, if any equal, among the nations of the earth.
It may seem unnecessary to tell the people of the United States the
story of their growth. The greatness to which this nation has attained
is too evident to need to be put in words. It has, in fact, been made
evident in two great and a multitude of smaller exhibitions in which the
marvels of American progress have been shown, either by themselves or in
contrast with those of foreign lands. The first of these, the Centennial
Exposition of 1876, had a double effect: it opened our eyes at once to
our triumphs and our deficiencies, to the particulars in which we
excelled and those in which we were inferior to foreign peoples. In the
next great exhibition, that at Chicago in 1893, we had the satisfaction
to perceive, not only that we had made great progress in our points of
superiority, but had worked nobly and heartily to overcome our defects,
and were able to show ourselves the equal of Europe in almost every
field of human thought and skill. In architecture a vision of beauty was
shown such as the world had never before seen, and in the general domain
of art the United States no longer had need to be ashamed of what it had
to show.
And now, having briefly summed up the steps of progress of the United
States, I may close with some consideration of the problem which we
confront in our new position as the Greater Republic, the lord of
islands spread widely over the seas. Down to the year 1898 this country
held a position of isolation, so far as its political interests were
concerned. Although the sails of its merchant ships whitened every sea
and its commerce extended to all lands, its boundaries were confined to
the North American continent, its political activities largely to
American interests. Jealous of any intrusion by foreign nations upon
this hemisphere, it warned them off, while still in its feeble youth, by
the stern words of the Monroe doctrine, and has since shown France and
England, by decisive measures, that this doctrine is more than an empty
form of words.
Such was our position at the beginning of 1898. At the opening of 1899
we had entered into new relations with the world. The conclusion of the
war with Spain had left in our hands the island of Porto Rico in the
West Indies and the great group of the Philippines in the waters of
Asia, while the Hawaiian Islands had became ours by peaceful annexation.
What shall we do with them? is the question that follows. We have taken
hold of them in a way in which it is impossible, without defeat and
disgrace, to let go. Whatever the ethics of the question, the Philippine
problem has assumed a shape which admits of but one solution. These
islands will inevitably become ours, to hold, to develop, to control,
and to give their people an opportunity to attain civilization,
prosperity, and political manumission which they have never yet
possessed. That they will be a material benefit to us is doubtful. That
they will give us a new position among the nations of the earth is
beyond doubt. We have entered formally into that Eastern question which
in the years to come promises to be the leading question before the
world, and which can no longer be settled by the nations of Europe as an
affair of their own, with which the United States has no concern.
This new position taken by the United States promises to be succeeded by
new alliances, a grand union of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, which will give
them a dominant position among the powers of the world. In truth, it may
not cease with the union of the Anglo-Saxons. The ambition and vast
designs of Russia are forcing the other nations to combine for
protection, and a close alliance of all the Teutonic peoples is
possible, combined to resist the Slavic outgrowth, and eventually
perhaps to place the destinies of the world in the hands of these two
great races, the Teutonic and the Slavic.
All this may be looking overfar into the future. All that can be said
now is that our new possessions have placed upon us new duties and new
responsibilities, and may effectually break that policy of political
isolation which we have so long maintained, and throw us into the
caldron of world politics to take our part in shaping the future of the
uncivilized races. For this we are surely strong enough, enterprising
enough, and moral enough; and whatever our record, it is not likely to
be one of defeat, of injustice and oppression, or of forgetfulness of
the duty of nations and the rights of man.
CHARLES MORRIS.
JULY, 1899.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.
The Visits of the Northmen to the New World--The Indians and Mound
Builders--Christopher Columbus--His Discovery of America--Amerigo
Vespucci--John Cabot--_Spanish Explorers_--Balboa--His Discovery of the
Pacific--Magellan--Ponce de Leon--De Narvaez--De Soto--Menendez--_French
Explorers_--Verrazzani--Cartier--Ribault--Laudonniere--Champlain--La
Salle--_English Explorers_--Sir Hugh Willoughby--Martin Frobisher--Sir
Humphrey Gilbert--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Lost Colony--_Dutch
Explorer_--Henry Hudson.
THE NORTHMEN.
It has been established beyond question that the first white visitors to
the New World were Northmen, as the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden
were called. They were bold and hardy sailors, who ventured further out
upon the unknown sea than any other people. It was about the year 1000
that Biorn, who was driven far from his course by a tempest, sighted the
northern part of the continent. Other adventurers followed him and
planted a few settlements, which, however, lasted but a few years.
Snorri, son of one of these settlers, was the first child born of
European parents on this side of the Atlantic. Soon all traces of these
early discoverers vanished, and the New World lay slumbering in
loneliness for nearly five hundred years.
[Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI.]
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
Nevertheless, the country was peopled with savages, who lived by hunting
and fishing and were scattered over the vast area from the Pacific to
the Atlantic and from the Arctic zone to the southernmost point of South
America. No one knows where these people came from; but it is probable
that at a remote period they crossed Bering Strait, from Asia, which was
the birthplace of man, and gradually spread over the continents to the
south. There are found scattered over many parts of our country immense
mounds of earth, which were the work of the Mound Builders. These people
were long believed to have been a race that preceded the Indians, and
were distinct from them, but the best authorities now agree that they
were the Indians themselves, who constructed these enormous
burial-places and were engaged in the work as late as the fifteenth
century. It is strange that they attained a fair degree of civilization.
They builded cities, wove cotton, labored in the fields, worked gold,
silver, and copper, and formed regular governments, only to give way in
time to the barbarism of their descendants, who, though a contrary
impression prevails, are more numerous to-day than at the time of the
discovery of America.
[Illustration: MEETING BETWEEN THE NORTHMEN AND NATIVES.]
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS.
The real discoverer of America was Christopher Columbus, an Italian,
born in Genoa, about 1435. He was trained to the sea from early boyhood,
and formed the belief, which nothing could shake, that the earth was
round, and that by sailing westward a navigator would reach the coast of
eastern Asia. The mistake of Columbus was in supposing the earth much
smaller than it is, and of never suspecting that a continent lay between
his home and Asia.
He was too poor to fit out an expedition himself, and the kings and
rulers to whom he applied for help laughed him to scorn. He persevered
for years, and finally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were
won over to his views. They and some wealthy friends of Columbus
furnished the needed funds, and on August 3, 1492, he sailed from Palos,
Spain, in command of three small vessels, the _Santa Maria_, the
_Pinta_, and the _Nina_.
As the voyage progressed, the sailors became terrified and several times
were on the point of mutiny; but Columbus by threats and promises held
them to their work, and on Friday, October 12, 1492, land was sighted.
He was rowed ashore and took possession of the new country in the name
of Ferdinand and Isabella. While it is not known with certainty where he
landed, it was probably Watling Island, one of the Bahamas. He named it
San Salvador, and, believing it to be a part of India, called the
natives _Indians_, by which name they will always be known. He afterward
visited Cuba and Haiti, and returned to Palos on the 15th of March,
1493.
Columbus was received with the highest honors, and, as the news of his
great discovery spread, it caused a profound sensation throughout
Europe. He made three other voyages, but did not add greatly to his
discoveries. He died, neglected and in poverty, May 20, 1506, without
suspecting the grandeur of his work, which marked an era in the history
of the world.
OTHER DISCOVERERS.
Another famous Italian navigator and friend of Columbus was Amerigo
Vespucci, who, fired by the success of the great navigator, made several
voyages westward. He claimed to have seen South America in May, 1497,
which, if true, made him the first man to look upon the American
continent. Late investigations tend to show that Vespucci was correct in
his claim. At any rate, his was the honor of having the country named
for him.
[Illustration: SEBASTIAN CABOT.]
John Cabot, also an Italian, but sailing under the flag of England,
discovered the continent of North America, in the spring of 1497. A year
later, Sebastian, son of John, explored the coast from Nova Scotia as
far south as Cape Hatteras. It was the work of the elder Cabot that gave
England a valid claim to the northern continent.
From what has been stated, it will be seen that Spain, now decrepit and
decayed, was one of the most powerful of all nations four hundred years
ago. Other leading powers were England, France, and Holland, and all of
them soon began a scramble for new lands on the other side of the
Atlantic. Spain, having been the first, had a great advantage, and she
was wise enough to use all the means at her command. We will first trace
the explorations made by that nation.
In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a lawless rogue, hid himself in a cask
on board of a vessel in order to escape his creditors, and was not
discovered by the angry captain until so far from land that he could not
be taken back again. As it turned out, this was a fortunate thing for
the captain and crew, for Balboa was a good sailor, and when the ship
was wrecked on the coast of Darien he led the men through many dangers
to an Indian village, where they were saved from starvation. Balboa had
been in the country before and acquired a knowledge of it, which now
proved helpful.
The story of Spain in America is one long, frightful record of massacre,
cruelty, greed, and rapine. Ferocious by nature, her explorers had not
sufficient sense to see that it was to their interest to treat the
Indians justly. These people, although armed only with bows and arrows,
at which the Spaniards laughed, still outnumbered them a thousandfold
and could crush them by the simple force of numbers. Besides, they were
always provided with food, which they were eager to give to their
pale-faced brothers, who were often unable to obtain it, but whose
vicious nature would not permit them to be manly and just.
Moreover, the Spaniards were crazy after gold, which they believed
existed in many places in prodigious quantities. The sight of the yellow
ornaments worn by the natives fired their cupidity, and they inquired
eagerly in the sign language where the precious metal could be found.
One of the Indians replied that six days' travel westward would bring
them to the shores of a great sea, where gold was as plentiful as the
pebbles on the beach.
[Illustration: CARAVELS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. (After an engraving
published in 1584.)]
DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC.
This information, as may be believed, set the Spaniards wild, and,
engaging a number of the natives as guides, they plunged into the hot,
steaming forests, and pressed on until one day they came to the base of
a mountain, from the top of which the guides said the great sea could be
seen. Balboa made his men stay where they were while he climbed to the
crest of the mountain alone. This was on the 26th of September, 1513,
and, as Balboa looked off to the westward, his eyes rested upon the
Pacific Ocean, the mightiest body of water on the globe.
He had made a grand discovery, and one which led to the conquest of
Mexico and Peru and the colonization of the western coast of our
country. Spain sent her armed expeditions thither, and in time they
overran the sections named, their footprints marked everywhere by fire
and blood. Many remains exist to-day in the Southwest of the early
visits of those rapacious adventurers, during the first half of the
sixteenth century. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a building made of adobe
or sun-dried clay which was built in 1582.
THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE.
In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan coasted South America to the strait named in
his honor, and, passing through it, entered upon the vast body of water
discovered six years before by Balboa. Magellan gave it the name of
Pacific Ocean, and, sailing westward, discovered the Philippine Islands,
which have lately acquired such importance in our history. There
Magellan died. Several of his ships were lost, but one of them succeeded
in reaching Spain after an absence of two years. This was the first
circumnavigation of the globe and demonstrated the grandeur of the
discovery made by Columbus.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS AND THE EGG.
At a dinner the Spanish courtiers, jealous of Columbus, said anyone
could discover the Indies. When, at Columbus' request, they failed to
make an egg stand on its end, he showed them how to do it by flattening
the end of it. "Anyone could do that," remarked a courtier. "So anyone
can discover the Indies, after I have shown the way."]
One of the companions of Columbus on his second voyage was Ponce de
Leon. He was well on in years, and became deeply interested in a story
told by the Indians of a wonderful land to the north of Cuba, where
there was a marvelous spring, which would bring back youth to any who
drank from its waters. De Leon set out to hunt for the land and
discovered it in Florida on Easter Sunday, in 1513. He drank to
repletion again and again from the springs he found, but without
restoring his youth, and he was killed by Indians in 1521, while trying
to form a settlement on the coast.
De Narvaez visited Florida, in 1528, in charge of a large expedition,
with the intention of marching into the interior, but the Spaniards were
so brutal to the Indians that they fought them step by step, until only
four wretched beings were left alive. They lived a long time with the
natives, but gradually worked their way across the continent to
California, where they found some of their countrymen, who took care of
them.
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
One of the best-equipped expeditions ever sent out was that of Hernando
de Soto, which landed at Tampa Bay in May, 1539. Although the intention
was to penetrate far into the interior, the Spaniards had no sooner set
foot on land than they began their outrages against the Indians, who, as
in the case of De Narvaez, turned upon them and slew large numbers. The
explorers, however, pushed on and passed over a large section of
country, though the precise course taken is not known. In the summer of
1541 they crossed the present State of Mississippi and thus discovered
the Father of Waters. Three years were spent in wandering through the
South, during which one-third of the number were killed or died and all
the property destroyed. Losing heart at last, De Soto turned about, in
May, 1542, and started for the sea with the intention of returning home.
He was worn and weakened from fever, and he expired on the 21st of the
month. Fearful that the news of his death would incite the Indians to
attack them, his survivors wrapped the body in blankets, weighted it
with stones, and at midnight rowed stealthily out into the river and let
it sink from sight. There was something fitting in the fact that the
Mississippi should prove the last resting-place of its discoverer.
Pedro Menendez was one of the most execrable miscreants that ever lived.
He arrived off the coast of Florida with a large expedition and at the
mouth of the St. John's saw a number of ships flying the flag of France.
He furiously attacked them and drove them to sea. Then he returned to a
fine harbor which he had discovered and began the town of St. Augustine.
This was in 1565, and St. Augustine is, therefore, the oldest settlement
within the present limits of the United States, excluding those founded
in some of our colonial possessions.
Let us now turn attention to the French explorations. France in those
days was a spirited rival of Spain, and, in 1524, she sent out a fleet
of four vessels under the command of Verrazzani, who, strange as it may
seem, was also an Italian. Two months later, with only a single ship
remaining, he sighted the mainland of America, it is believed near North
Carolina, from which point he coasted northward along New England. He
gave the name of New France to all the countries he visited, but his
account of his explorations is so vague that it is uncertain what lands
he saw. Verrazzani, however, seems to have been the first navigator who
formed a correct idea of the size of the globe.
[Illustration: SEARCH FOR THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH BY PONCE DE LEON.]
In 1534 Jacques Cartier, with two ships, entered the mouth of the St.
Lawrence. He was so impressed by the desolation of the shores of
Newfoundland that he declared his belief that it was the land to which
God had banished Cain. Nevertheless, he took possession of the country
in the name of France and then returned home.
Cartier visited the country the following year with a larger expedition
and sailed up the St. Lawrence to the sites of Quebec and Montreal. He
was not successful in his attempts to found colonies, but his discovery
gave France a title to the immense region which she held with a firm
grasp for more than a hundred years.
Failing to establish colonies in the North, France now directed her
efforts to the south. The Huguenots suffered so much persecution in the
Old World that they sought a home in the New. Captain John Ribault,
sailing from Havre with two ships, sighted Florida on the last day of
April, 1562. The Indians were friendly and the explorers were charmed
with the country. Ribault took possession of it in the name of France
and gave French names to various places. Finally he dropped anchor in
the harbor of Port Royal and began founding a settlement.
All were in good spirits and wished to remain, but Ribault sailed for
France, leaving thirty men behind. After a time they quarreled and
rigged up a worthless boat with which they set sail for home. All would
have perished, had they not been picked up by an English vessel, which
humanely landed the feeblest on the coast of France, while the strong
men were taken to England as prisoners of war.
It was the intention of Ribault to return to America, but civil war was
raging in France, and for a time he was prevented. In April, 1564, three
more ships set sail to repeat the attempt at colonization. They were
under the command of Captain Laudonniere, who had been a member of the
former expedition. He began a settlement at what is now known as St.
John's Bluff. The friendly Indians helped and all promised well, but
unfortunately the colonists became dissatisfied and rebelled against the
strict rule of Laudonniere. Some of the men stole two small vessels and
set sail for the West Indies on a piratical expedition. Laudonniere
hurriedly prepared two larger vessels to pursue them. When they were
ready, the malcontents stole them and followed their comrades. Three of
the buccaneers were captured by the Spanish, while the pilot of the
fourth, who had been pressed into service, steered the vessel back to
the colony before the rogues suspected what he was doing. Laudonniere
made them prisoners and hanged the ringleaders.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN COUNCIL OF WAR.]
At the time when utter ruin impended, Ribault arrived with seven ships
and plenty of supplies. It was at this juncture, when everything
promised well, that Menendez, the Spanish miscreant, as already stated,
appeared with his powerful fleet and attacked the French ships. Three
were up the river, and the four, being no match for the Spaniards,
escaped by putting to sea. Menendez landed men and supplies further
south, learning which Ribault prepared to attack them. Before he could
do so, a violent tempest scattered his ships. By a laborious march
through swamps and thickets, amid a driving storm, Menendez descended
like a cyclone upon the unprotected French and massacred them all,
including the women and children. Another force of French, under solemn
promise of protection, surrendered, but they, too, were put to death.
They were afterwards avenged by an expedition from France.
Samuel de Champlain proved himself one of the greatest of French
explorers. He left the banks of the St. Lawrence at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and discovered the lake which bears his name. His
numerous excellent maps added much to the knowledge of the country.
Joining De Monts, another explorer, he founded the colony of Port Royal
in Nova Scotia in 1605. This settlement, afterward named Annapolis, was
the first permanent French colony planted in America. Quebec was founded
by Champlain in 1608.
The greatest French explorer, however, was Sieur de la Salle, who was
hardly twenty-three years old when he first visited Canada in 1666.
Leading an expedition westward, he fell ill while in the country of the
Seneca Indians and was forced to part with his companions near the head
of Lake Ontario. When he regained his strength he pressed on to the Ohio
River, down which he descended to the falls opposite the present city of
Louisville. Returning to France, he was made a nobleman and appointed
governor of the country around Fort Frontenac, which he had planted on
the shore of Lake Ontario. He demolished the fort and erected a much
stronger one, built four small vessels, and established a thriving trade
with the Indians.
In August, 1679, La Salle launched a vessel at the port of Niagara, with
which he sailed the length of Lake Erie, across Lakes St. Clair, Huron,
and Michigan to Green Bay. He then sent back his vessel for supplies and
crossed the lake in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he
built a fort. He visited the Indian tribes in the neighborhood and made
treaties with the chiefs.
On the present site of Peoria, he erected a fort in 1680. Then, sending
Father Hennepin to explore the country to the northward, La Salle made
the entire journey of several hundred miles, alone and on foot, to Fort
Frontenac, where he learned that the vessel he had sent back for
supplies was lost.
With a new party he made his way to the fort planted on the Illinois
River, but found it had been broken up and all the white men were gone.
Thence La Salle went down the Mississippi to its mouth, where he set up
a column with the French arms and proclaimed the country the possession
of the king of France. He was welcomed back to his native land, and when
he proposed to his ruler to conquer the fine mining country in the
Southwest, the offer was promptly accepted and he was made commandant.
He set out with four ships and about 300 persons.
But the good fortune that had marked the career of La Salle up to this
point now set the other way, and disaster and ruin overtook him. His men
were mostly adventurers and vagabonds, and the officer in command of the
ships was an enemy of the explorer. The two quarreled and the vessels
had gone some distance beyond the mouth of the Mississippi before La
Salle discovered the blunder. He appealed to the captain to return, but
he refused and anchored off Matagorda Bay. Then the captain decided that
it was necessary to go home for supplies, and sailing away he left La
Salle with only one small vessel which had been presented to him by the
king.
The undaunted explorer erected a fort and began cultivating the soil.
The Indians, who had not forgotten the cruelty of the Spaniards, were
hostile and continually annoyed the settlers, several of whom were
killed. Disease carried away others until only forty were left.
Selecting a few, La Salle started for the Illinois country, but had not
gone far when he was treacherously shot by one of his men. The Spaniards
who had entered the country to drive out the French made prisoners of
those that remained.
[Illustration: (From the original drawing made by John White in 1585. By
permission of the British Museum.)]
THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS.
Next in order is an account of the English explorations. Going back to
May, 1553, we find that Sir Hugh Willoughby sailed from London in that
month with three ships. At that time, and for many years afterward, the
belief was general that by sailing to the northwest a shorter route to
India could be found, and such was the errand that led the English
navigator upon his eventful voyage.
For two years not the slightest news was heard of Sir Hugh Willoughby.
Then some Russian fishermen, who were in one of the harbors of Lapland,
observed two ships drifting helplessly in the ice. They rowed out to the
wrecks, and climbing aboard of one entered the cabin where they came
upon an impressive sight. Seated at a table was Sir Hugh Willoughby,
with his journal open and his pen in hand, as if he had just ceased
writing. He had been frozen to death months before. Here and there about
him were stretched the bodies of his crews, all of whom had succumbed to
the awful temperature of the far North.
The third ship was nowhere in sight, and it was believed that she had
been crushed in the ice and sunk, but news eventually arrived that she
had succeeded in reaching Archangel, whence the crew made their way
overland to Moscow. A result of this involuntary journey was that it
opened a new channel for profitable trade.
Still the _ignis fatuus_ of a shorter route to India tantalized the
early navigators. The belief was general that the coveted route lay
north of our continent. In 1576 Martin Frobisher started on the vain
hunt with three small vessels. He bumped helplessly about in the ice,
but repeated the effort twice, and on one of his voyages entered the
strait that bears his name. The region visited by him is valueless to
the world, and his explorations, therefore, were of no practical benefit
to anyone.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in June, 1583, sailed for America with an
important expedition which gave every promise of success. In his case,
however, disaster overtook him earlier than others. He was hardly out of
sight of land when his most important vessel deserted and went back to
port. The men were a sorry lot, and at Newfoundland he sent another ship
home with the sick and the mutineers. Of the three vessels remaining,
the largest was wrecked and all but fifteen drowned. Sir Humphrey was on
the smallest boat on his way home, when one dark night it foundered,
carrying down all on board.
[Illustration: INDIAN VILLAGE ENCLOSED WITH PALISADES. (From the
original drawing in the British Museum, made by John White in 1585.)]
The famous Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Gilbert, and a great
favorite at the court of Queen Elizabeth, was deeply interested in the
plans of his relative, and in April, 1584, sent out two well-equipped
vessels for the purpose of colonization. They brought back a glowing
report and Raleigh was knighted by the pleased queen, who gave him the
privilege of naming the new country. He called it Virginia, in honor of
the virgin Queen Elizabeth.
A large expedition sailed for the new country in the spring of 1585 and
a fort was built on Roanoke Island. But the Englishmen were as greedy
for gold as the Spaniards, and, instead of cultivating the land, they
spent their time groping for the precious metal. This was suicidal,
because the Indians were violently hostile, and would not bring forward
any food for the invaders. All must have perished miserably but for the
arrival of Sir Francis Drake, who carried the survivors back to England.
It is worth recording that this stay in America resulted in the
Englishmen learning the use of tobacco, which they introduced into their
own country. Sir Walter Raleigh became a great smoker, and the incident
is familiar of his servant, who, seeing his master smoking a pipe, was
terrified at the belief that he was on fire and dashed a mug of ale over
him to put out the flames.
Much more useful knowledge was that gained of maize or Indian corn, the
potato, and sassafras. They attracted favorable attention in England,
and were gradually introduced to other countries in Europe, where the
amount raised is very large.
THE LOST COLONY.
A strange and romantic interest attaches to the colony which Sir Walter
Raleigh sent out in 1587. It numbered 300 men and women and was in
charge of John White. While resting at Roanoke, the daughter of Governor
White, the wife of Ananias Dare, had a daughter born to her. She was
given the name of "Virginia," and was the first child of English
parentage born within the present limits of the United States.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]
These settlers were as quarrelsome as many of their predecessors and got
on ill together. Governor White sailed for England for more immigrants
and supplies, but when he reached that country he found the internal
troubles so serious that he was kept away from America for three years.
When finally he returned to Virginia, he was unable to find a member of
the colony. On one of the trees was the word "CROATAN" cut in the bark,
which seemed to indicate that the settlers had removed to a settlement
of that name; but, though long and continuous search was made and many
of the articles belonging to the settlers were recognized, not a person
could be discovered. Sir Walter Raleigh sent several expeditions with
orders to use every effort to clear up the mystery, but it was never
solved. The story of the "Lost Colony" has led to a great deal of
investigation and surmise. Two theories have supporters. The most
probable is that all the settlers were massacred by Indians. Another is
that they were adopted by the red men and intermarried among them. In
support of this supposition is the fact that a long time afterward many
members of the adjoining tribes showed unmistakable signs of mixed
blood. There were so-called Indians with blonde hair, blue eyes, and
light complexion--characteristics never seen among those belonging to
the genuine American race.
Holland's explorations in America were less important than those of any
of her rivals. The thrifty Dutchmen were more anxious to secure trade
than to find new countries, and seemed content to allow others to spend
wealth and precious lives in penetrating to the interior of the New
World and in planting settlements, which almost invariably succumbed to
disaster.
Early in the seventeenth century a company of English merchants sent out
a skillful navigator named Henry Hudson to hunt for the elusive
northwest passage. He took with him only eleven men, one of whom was his
son. He made a brave effort to succeed, ploughing his way through the
frozen regions until he passed the 80th degree of latitude, which was
the furthest point then attained by man. But, within less than ten
degrees of the pole, he was forced by the ice to turn back.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER.
Hudson's reputation as a skillful navigator led the wealthy corporation
known as the Dutch East India Company to seek his services. He was
placed in command of a small vessel called the _Half Moon_ and ordered
to sail to the northeast instead of the northwest. He did as directed,
but his experience was similar to his previous one, and, being compelled
to withdraw, he headed westward. Sighting Cape Cod, he named it New
Holland, unaware that it had already been named by Champlain. He
continued southward to Chesapeake Bay, where he learned that the English
had planted a settlement. Turning northward, he entered Delaware Bay,
but was displeased with the shallow water and sailed again northward. On
September 3, 1609, he dropped anchor opposite Sandy Hook.
Hudson now began ascending the magnificent river which bears his name.
At the end of ten days he had reached a point opposite the present site
of Albany. The Indians were friendly and curious. Many of them put out
in their canoes and were made welcome on board the little Dutch vessel,
which was a source of constant wonderment to them, for they had never
seen anything of the kind before.
Descending the stream, Hudson made his way to Dartmouth, England, from
which point he sent an account of his discovery to Holland. That country
lost no time in claiming sovereignty over the new territory, the claim
being so valid that no other nation could legitimately dispute it.
Hudson's achievement added to his fame, and he was once more sent in
search of the northwest passage. He entered the bay and strait which
bear his name, and passed a winter in that terrible region. In the
following spring his crew mutinied, and, placing the navigator, his son,
and several members in an open boat, set them adrift, and none of them
was ever heard of again.
[Illustration: Seal of The Virginia Company.]