a celebrated mathematician of Syracuse, who had protracted
the siege by his ingenious and powerful engines was killed in
the sack of the city. Soon
210—after the whole island was subdued and remained a Roman
province.
206—Asdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, general of the
Carthaginian forces in Spain, crossed the Pyrenees and the
Alps to reinforce Hannibal, but was defeated by the Romans
and slain before Hannibal knew of his march.
202—Scipio, who had conquered in Spain, led an army into
Africa, Hannibal being considered too formidable to attack,
though his forces were very small. Scipio put 40,000
Numidians, allies of Carthage, to the sword, besieged the
neighboring cities and defeated a large Carthaginian army.
Hannibal was now called home to defend the metropolis. He
fought a battle with raw
201—troops, at Zama, and was defeated—20,000 Carthaginians
being slain. The Carthaginians begged for peace, Hannibal
declaring that the war could not be protracted. The Roman
terms left them little but their city. Such was the fruit of
inflexible resolution.
5. The Romans are an example of a people, who, from first to last, had
one clearly defined end, to which everything else was subservient. They
formed their state for conquest, and that idea controlled the Kingdom,
the Republic and the Empire. They were much wiser than the Spartans,
for, devoting themselves to war, they meant to secure and enjoy all the
fruits of conquest, and they did all that was possible to promote the
prosperity of their people that they might produce warriors in abundance;
but they relied mainly on actual war for discipline. They were constantly
exercised in the art in the field and the orderly and sensible instinct
of the race made discipline a matter of course. They were sometimes
defeated when they encountered unfamiliar difficulties, or by the
mistakes of their leaders, but never abandoned a purpose once adopted and
never sued for peace.
Morally, the object they set before them was entirely unjustifiable,
according to the standard of national rights accepted in our day. But
such a conception never entered the minds of men in the ancient times. It
is the fruit of modern civilization alone. The Romans, and many a nation
after them, must work out the destructive consequences of that doctrine
that “Might makes Right” before the universal sense of mankind would
recoil from it. It was the accepted doctrine of the ancients, and has not
yet disappeared from the world.
197—Sicily, Spain and Carthage were conquered, and Roman
valor looked around for opportunities of winning fresh
laurels. Philip of Macedon, an ambitious prince, threatened
the Athenians, who implored help from Rome. An army
immediately proceeded to Greece, penetrated into Macedonia,
and completely defeated Philip at Cynocephalæ.
6. The Romans were now the mightiest people in the civilized world.
Their obstinate contests with the vigorous nations of the West had often
perilled the existence of their state, and a people of ordinary stamina
and persistence would not, at the best, have risen above the rank of
the Etruscans and Samnites, nor have made Rome greater than Syracuse or
Carthage. They, however, matured and grew into an invincible power, whose
solid and stately grandeur struck the intelligent but unpractical Greeks
with admiration, and all the old peoples of the East with awe.
The Romans were not without admiration for the ancient valor and the
graceful culture of the Greeks. When, two hundred and fifty years before,
the Romans revised their laws, under the Decemvirate, they sent to Athens
to obtain models from that republic. Athens was now treated by them with
much consideration, and finally became the University City of the Empire.
When Roman influence became paramount after the battle of Cynocephalæ
they did not at once proceed with brutal force against the land of
Beauty and Art, but took it under their protection, and proclaimed
the full liberty of the Grecian States. It filled the Greeks with
transport, and for some time Rome played the noble and dignified part of
a disinterested protector; but when the Achaians, under their excellent
and talented leader Philopœmen, sought to realize the fact of liberty,
the Romans abandoned that pretence and made Greece a Roman province.
Thus the whole of Europe that was sufficiently civilized to maintain a
settled government was ruled by the Roman Republic. The period of rude
and restless valor among the Greeks was past. The stage of cultivation
they had reached inclined them to the quiet and elegant refinements of
the scholar, and they readily received the Roman rule which suppressed
the turbulence of ambitious adventurers and suffered no oppression but
their own. The Romans represented the strength of the male element in
human nature, the Greeks the grace of the female. They now coalesced,
were married, so to speak, and the product of their union was, in the
course of ages, modern civilization, which, when mature, was to share the
eminent qualities of both.
7. The broken fragments of Alexander’s immense empire in Western Asia and
Egypt were all that now stood between Rome and the mastery of the world.
The Roman people were too well convinced that it was their grand destiny
to achieve universal dominion to hasten prematurely the conquest of the
primitive home of civilization. They watchfully waited until the course
of events should throw the dominions of the Seleucidæ and the Ptolemys
into their hands, without offending the majesty of the republic by an
undignified violence and haste.
190—Antiochus the Great, who now reigned over the empire of
the Seleucidæ, with true Grecian imprudence, became ambitious
of conquests in Europe. He invaded Greece
191—and was defeated at Thermopylæ by the Romans and driven
into Asia. The younger Scipio, brother of the conqueror of
Hannibal, followed and totally defeated
189—him at Magnesia, in Asia Minor. He purchased peace by
the loss of all the fruits of his ambition, but was left in
possession of the Syrian kingdom. The failure to destroy so
powerful an enemy appears to have brought on the two Scipios
the rebuke of the republic, the conqueror of Carthage having
aided his brother in the war. They were condemned to a heavy
fine, which Scipio Africanus refused to pay and went into
183—exile, where he died. His death occurred in the same year
that Hannibal, pursued by the vengeance of the Romans for
having aided Antiochus, committed suicide by taking poison
to avoid falling into their hands; and in this year also
Philopœmen, the last patriotic hero
170—of Greece, was slain by his enemies. Perses, king of
Macedon, revolted, and, after some successes, was finally
overthrown under the walls of Pydna and dethroned.
168—The Carthaginians could not altogether forget their
ancient greatness, and having displeased the Romans by some
independence of action, it was resolved to
148—destroy their city. With the courage of despair they
set the Romans at defiance, and defended themselves with
a resolute bravery that engaged the lively sympathies of
all after times for their painful fate. For two years they
maintained the combat against their pitiless foes, who could
pardon everything but rivalry in their
146—sweeping ambition, and then perished in the ruins of
their once glorious metropolis. A revolt of the Achaians
was punished, in the same year, by the destruction of the
splendid city of Corinth, in Greece.
140—The embers of independence in Spain broke forth in war,
which was checked by the assassination of Viriathes, a
patriotic chieftain of great ability, and
133—quenched in blood by the self-destruction of the citizens
of Numantium. About the same time the republic acquired the
kingdom of Pergamus, covering the richest parts of Asia
Minor, by the will of Attalus, its king, who, on his death,
bequeathed it to Rome. This led, in a few years, to contests
with the neighboring Asiatic sovereigns, and resulted, in
about half a century, in the conquest and reduction into the
state of Roman provinces of all Western Asia.
SECTION VIII.
DECAY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
1. But while Rome was thus steadily advancing to universal dominion,
great and unfortunate changes were taking place in its internal
constitution. The spoils of Carthage and the east, rich in accumulations
of the industry, commerce and art of two thousand years, flowed into
Rome and was gathered into the hands of those in power; the equilibrium
between the plebeans and the patricians was lost; the selling of captives
taken in war filled Italy with slaves; and the inequality of conditions
produced the most disastrous consequences.
133—The eldest son of a noble house, the Gracchi, undertook
to stem the torrent that was sweeping away the ancient
barriers of the constitution, and to raise the people from
the misery into which the increase of patrician wealth and
power and the innumerable multitudes of slaves had plunged
them. In the year in which Numantia fell and Spain was
thoroughly subdued, Tiberius Gracchus was slain in a tumult,
produced by the patricians, who determined that his project
should not succeed. He had attempted to revive the old
agrarian law, by which the landed possessions of the republic
were shared among the people as well as the patricians, which
would have rescued the plebeans from poverty and oppression;
but the patricians were too powerful and too violent. He was
removed by assassination.
2. 121—Twelve years later his brother, Caius Gracchus,
attempted the same thing and was likewise slain. This point
was vital to the internal liberties of Rome. The failure of
the Gracchi announced the overthrow of the constitution;
and, after seventy years of civil anarchy and the murderous
conflict of rival factions, the empire was found the only
refuge against the ruin of the state. Vigorous Rome, who
could govern all the world but herself, must have a master,
and became the prey of the strongest. It is a melancholy
history, a sad conclusion for a people whose strength and
grandeur of character had made them masters of the world, but
a perfectly legitimate result of the immoral principle that
lay at the foundation of the state. That principle legalized
the doctrine of force, or robbery on the grandest scale. They
carried it out with great consistency and skill, with all
the ability of a race eminently sagacious and steady in the
pursuit of an end. The conservative force that dwelt in their
organization, so instinctively and exceptionally wise, and
the power of religious faith, strong in a hardy and simple
people, however weakened by pagan ignorance and superstition,
long maintained the integrity of their institutions—but
Greek culture, too imperfect not to culminate in skepticism,
came in to confuse their moral sense at the same time that
boundless wealth flowed into their hands to corrupt their
manners, that slavery assumed gigantic proportions to
demoralize labor, and the conquest of the world relieved them
from the severe discipline that might not, otherwise, have
left them the leisure to become deeply vicious.
The sternness of even Roman character was unequal to the
heavy strain and virtue gave way. The native vigor of the
race made them as excessive in unrestrained passion as wise
in council and invincible in war. The cruelty and rapacity
that were common in the civil wars of the Republic, and
under many of the early emperors, educated giants in crime,
and only the Roman spirit in the army, and the vigorous
organization everywhere maintained through the institutions
established in the subject world by Roman law, could have
held its vast dominions together. Rome had vitality and sense
to govern others, even in the midst of civil war.
3. From the death of the Gracchi to the consulship
107—Of Marius, Rome was in a tumult of corrupt intrigue,
which rendered easy the usurpation and inhuman cruelty of
Jugurtha, king of Numidia. Marius, a plebian of the lowest
rank, became consul. He was unequaled at once as a general
and a tyrant. He conquered
106—Jugurtha, who was brought to Rome and starved in prison.
In the same year Cicero, the great Roman orator, was born.
A vast horde of Cimbri and Teutons from northern
105—Europe, invaded Gaul and defeated several Roman consuls.
100—Marius led an army against these barbarians and defeated
them, more than 100,000 being slain or made prisoners. He was
equally successful in a second engagement. During the war
200,000 barbarians were slain and 90,000 taken prisoners. A
revolt of the slaves was put down about the same time with
circumstances of extreme cruelty. More than a million of
these unfortunates were slain or thrown to wild beasts for
the amusement of the Roman populace.
4. 100—In this year Julius Cæsar, one of the greatest men of
any time, and virtual founder of the Roman Empire, was born.
His supreme ability put an end to civil dissention and saved
society from total ruin.
90—The Italian allies revolted against Rome. They claimed the
privileges of Roman citizenship, which the Senate refused.
A war of three years followed and half a million of men
perished, when, having conquered them, the Senate granted
their first request.
88—Mithridates, king of Pontus, talented and ambitious,
sought to drive the Romans out of Asia and Greece, and
warred with them for twenty-five years. Sylla procured the
banishment of his rival, Marius, and conducted the war
against Mithridates.
86—Marius regained power in the absence of Sylla and
slaughtered his enemies, the patricians, without mercy, but
soon after died.
83—Sylla, after obliging Mithridates to sue for peace,
hastened to Rome, conquered his enemies, and slew more than
6,000 Roman citizens in revenge.
81—Sylla caused himself to be made perpetual dictator
77—But after three years resigned and soon after died
from the effects of his vices. Civil war was continued for
a time in Spain and Italy, but finally put down by Pompey,
70—the greatest general of the patrician party.
The war of the gladiators—men trained to fight in the
theatres for the amusement of the populace—broke out under
an able leader, Spartacus, who, collecting an army of
120,000 gladiators, endangered Rome itself, but
70—he was conquered by Crassus. Spartacus was defeated and
killed. It was the inhuman oppression of the patricians that
produced all these dreadful conflicts.
65—Pompey and Crassus, by paying court to the people,
were made consuls. Pompey proceeded to Asia and made war
on Mithridates, who was again formidable,
63—whom he defeated and slew in battle. He subdued nearly all
western Asia, visiting Jerusalem, and treating the Jews with
kindness. He also cleared the Mediterranean of pirates, who
had always infested it.
62—A dangerous conspiracy of Cataline, a patrician of the
most corrupt morals, at the head of the depraved young
nobility of the time, would have been successful but for the
ability and eloquence of Cicero, who was consul. Cataline and
his fellow conspirators were taken and slain.
59—Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus formed the first “Triumvirate,”
and divided the rule of the world between them. Cæsar was
the head of the popular party. He
57—took Gaul as his government. Here he spent eight years
in his “Gallic wars,” showing unparalleled talents as a
general, training his army to become invincible in battle,
and completely subduing the fierce Gauls. He
55—entered Britain and laid the foundation of civilization
there, thus carrying the march of empire to its farthest
bounds in Europe.
5. 49—He was ordered to return and lay down his authority by
the Roman Senate, headed by Pompey, who was now his enemy.
They were the rival champions of the two parties in the
state, the people and the patricians, whose quarrels had so
long filled Rome with tumult and slaughter. The tribunes
in Cæsar’s interest interposed a veto, which the Roman
Constitution authorized them to do. The Senate voted to
suspend the Constitution, which really terminated the Roman
Republic, Jan. 7, B. C. 49. Cæsar at once crossed the river
Rubicon, the boundary of his government, and marched his army
on Rome. Pompey and the aristocratic party fled in haste,
leaving the public treasure behind. In sixty days Cæsar had
possession of all Italy. Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain were
next conquered from the officers of Pompey, when he returned
to Rome, and was created dictator by his party. He treated
all his enemies with clemency. Pompey had gone into Greece,
48—where he gathered a large army. Cæsar followed with
his veteran legions, and defeated him in the battle of
Pharsalia in Thessaly. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was
treacherously slain, to the great indignation of Cæsar, who
would shed no blood but in necessary battle. Thus he became
sole master of the world.
In a conflict with the Egyptians in Alexandria Cæsar set on
fire their fleet, he being attended by but few troops, and
the conflagration extended to the Alexandrian Library, filled
with inestimable treasures of ancient literature, which
were destroyed, to the great loss of future generations.
Cæsar soon subdued Egypt,
47—defeated Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and returned to Rome.
46—He soon passed into Africa, where he defeated his enemies.
The celebrated Cato, an inflexible enemy of Cæsar, committed
suicide rather than submit to him. In Spain he soon after
defeated the sons of Pompey, the last of his foes in arms.
He rebuilt Carthage and
45—Corinth. He projected many great public works and useful
reforms. The whole power of Roman sovereignty
44—was formally conferred on him by the people, when he was
suddenly assassinated by a band of senators and certain
conspirators, who imagined it possible to restore the ancient
Republic. His nephew, Augustus, succeeded him soon after.
43—The eminent Cicero, never a friend to Cæsar, was
assassinated by the connivance of Augustus.
42—The republican and aristocratic conspirators were defeated
by Augustus and Antony at Philippi, in Greece. Brutus and
Cassius, the republican leaders, and assassins of Cæsar, were
slain. The second “Triumvirate,” composed of Augustus, Antony
and Lepidus, having acquired possession of all the powers of
the state, ruthlessly murdered thousands of their political
enemies. They soon grew jealous of each other, and fought and
intrigued for eleven years, Augustus, with great prudence,
firmly settling himself in Rome, and Antony becoming the
slave of the beautiful and infamous Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.
31—At length, at the battle of Actium, Antony was defeated,
and soon after both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.
Egypt became formally a Roman province, and Augustus absolute
emperor of the world.
SECTION IX.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
1. B. C. 28—In this year Augustus, having fully consolidated his power,
was formally recognized emperor. During all the contests of factions, and
when Rome was itself in the throes of revolution, the subjection of all
the provinces to the imperial city, and whoever was in power there, was
rigorously maintained. The inhabitants were protected from invasion, and
if they were often oppressed by Roman governors, it was far less than
under their native rulers, and, in general, they were not desirous of a
change. Roman law and order, and the power of appeal from great injustice
to the Roman senate or emperor, maintained a state of generally tranquil
prosperity, only disturbed by the contests of rivals for the control of
the imperial city and its power.
A long period of almost absolute quiet followed the establishment of
the empire, which gave Rome and Italy great satisfaction, after nearly
a hundred years of civil war. It is called the “Augustan Age,” when
industry and commerce, literature and the arts, reached their highest
development.
The Roman Empire and the Christian era commenced nearly together. During
the thirty years that followed the battle of Actium, which secured to
Augustus the sole control of the civilized world, by the defeat of his
last rival, Antony, he was occupied in organizing the vast machinery of
his government, and centralizing all the parts of the administration in
his own person. For near three hundred years Western Asia and Greece had
been a scene of violent commotion. Rival adventurers were constantly
seeking to reconstruct the empire of Alexander. Some of these had the
genius and the good fortune to succeed, in part at least, and swayed a
powerful scepter over a large region during their own lives, and, in some
instances, their dominions were held together for several generations.
But there was no sufficient base for a strong and permanent government.
There was no stable element on which to rest it. The Greeks were brave,
intelligent and enterprising, and no Asiatic people could withstand a
Greek army under Greek leaders; but the Greeks were too restless, too
easily carried away by enthusiasm for a new leader or a new idea to be
capable of upholding an empire.
2. Thus, Asia and Greece had been a vast battle field, and the battles
served no general interest and founded no permanent state. The Greeks
grew tired of supporting the claims of each new aspirant, who returned
their favor by depriving them of liberty, and the whole eastern world
readily submitted to the Romans, under whom there was, at least, a
prospect of civil order. Augustus, then, had little trouble in settling
the affairs of the whole empire, and, about thirty years after the
battle of Actium, finding the entire world quietly content and the
administration everywhere in fair working order, directed the gates
of the temple of Janus to be closed, and a census to be made of all
his subjects. At this time Jesus Christ was born and the Christian era
commenced.
The Roman Empire under Augustus was the culmination of the ancient and
pagan civilization. It had great vitality, and strength enough to rule
the world four hundred years longer; but it had also fatal weaknesses. We
have seen that the existence of the empire originated in the inability
of the old society to free itself from the vices which long and great
prosperity had developed. It had no purifying element strong enough to
drive out the disease which its moral weakness had allowed to fasten on
it. It was, in fact, based on wrong and could not but perish. Its fall
was only a question of time. Its ferocious valor and contempt of the
rights of nations broke down the very virtue that was essential to the
stability of society. The Romans were robbers on a grand scale, and it
was very natural that, when there were no more foreign nations to slay
and plunder, the citizens should fall to cutting each others throats and
robbing their neighbors. As this would lead to the immediate ruin of
society and the state, the empire, which gave them an absolute master,
was a necessity.
3. But a full comprehension of the moral laws on which society,
institutions and states are founded, was the last to be gained.
Most modern nations have not yet attained it, notwithstanding that
Christianity has so long stated the principles with clearness and force.
The common mind of humanity could master them only by growth through
thousands of years and innumerable experiences. The object of all earthly
experience is to develop the value of the _individual man_; and the
object of society, of institutions and of government, is to protect the
rights and to favor the development of _each man_ of the race. When
this end is fully secured, history will have solved its problem. As the
commencement of the Christian era was the turning point of history in
some most important respects, it is proper to glance back and forward
over the state of this problem, and the relation of Christianity to it,
before proceeding with the general course of events.
At first men were like children, with everything to learn; and, like
children, they learned one thing at a time; and they also made an
addition to their common stock of knowledge at every remove of the
centre of growth. In Asia and Egypt the general lesson was industry and
obedience, while the Jews, on the western shore, more or less assisted by
the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Greeks, labored at the development
of a pure religion which culminated in Christianity. The removal of the
centre to Greece added mental and artistic culture, and the further
westward journey to Rome gave them a new class of most important ideas
concerning public organization, law and order.
4. If each of these lessons had been perfect in themselves the addition
made by Christianity, which defined the relations between men, the law of
human rights and the doctrines essential to the stability and purity of
society, would have enabled mankind to build up satisfactory institutions
and a complete civilization from the Roman period. But the elementary
lessons were very incomplete. The Asiatics became very superstitious;
the Greeks could teach men the _art_ of thinking, or exercising their
minds, but they could not find the true starting point; they did not
discover what subjects it was useful, and what it was useless, to reason
upon; and wasted a good part of the thought of their times on profitless
questions. Their failure to obtain a clear and valuable result from
philosophy made men skeptical and contributed much to the decline of
civilization in the time of the Roman empire. The Romans built their
whole structure of law and order on _force_ and a wholesale violation
of the rights of mankind, and the minds of men became greatly confused.
The doctrine of the Epicurean philosophers—“Let us eat and drink for
to-morrow we die”—a despair of working out the problem of life to a
satisfactory answer, became the most popular in the empire. The splendor
and glory of Oriental, Grecian and Roman civilization seemed to end
in degrading servility and superstition, in the endless and absurd
speculations of so-called philosophers, and in the vast brutal tyranny
of the emperors. The east failed of a pure religion that was generally
accepted. Greek philosophy did not have science to guide her thought, and
Rome could not be just as well as strong.
5. It was only in modern times that these lessons were made complete.
The discoveries in Geography, in Astronomy, in Natural Philosophy, in
Chemistry, in Geology, made men acquainted with the structure of the
universe, the properties and the laws of matter, and corrected the
extravagances of the ancient speculative philosophy. For want of science,
Greek thought wandered about in an unreal world and lost a good part of
its labor. A long experience under the control of this, corrected thought
was required to construct a science of Government that should supply what
was wanting to Roman jurisprudence, and Christianity itself could not
be rightly understood while so many false theories and wrong practices
prevailed.
But the ancient times were as essential to the building up of the modern
as the modern to the completion of the ancient. It was the renewed
study of the Greek classics, of Roman law, and of the original teachings
of Christianity, under more favorable circumstances, and after many
new experiences for a thousand years, that gave birth to all our later
improvements in religion, in government and in science. The Asiatic Jews
gave us in Christianity, a pure and simple worship, and a system of
public morality so perfect that no society has yet been able to embody it
completely in practice, although it is now recognized, very generally, as
the highest conceivable standard, to be constantly aimed at and conformed
to as far as possible; the Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, gave us the
first notions of science, and Roman law formed the base of modern legal
practice.
6. The difficulties of progress are very great. It is not easier for
nations to unlearn what they have learned amiss in their youth, than
for individuals. No nation that has matured institutions has ever yet
thoroughly reformed them. The best and most clear sighted minds discover
their defects and show what is to be remedied; but the force of habit
and the veneration men feel for what is old, offer so much resistance
to complete reforms that it has been necessary to establish and build
up institutions on new principles on fresh ground. So all the light and
power of science, of the reformed religion, of a more complete system of
law, the greater intelligence of the masses of men and the activity of
commerce and trade did not suffice to do for modern Europe what has been
done with ease in America. But Europe furnished the ideas which America
worked out; and the sight of those principles embodied in institutions
that greatly improved the condition of mankind has reacted on Europe, and
bids fair, in time, to produce a novelty in human experience—a complete
regeneration of old nations and governments. When Greece rose to power it
subjected but lightly, and only superficially transformed, the nations
of Asia; Rome absorbed them both, and Christianity gave its simple and
noble lessons to them all. But the slight influence of Greece, Rome
and Christianity on the old nations of western Asia is shown in the
rise and permanence of Mohammedanism, so inferior, in all respects, to
Christianity. After a career of more than twelve hundred years, it still
rules many more millions than were contained in all the Roman Empire in
its most prosperous days.
7. But the power of a progressive civilization constantly increases, and
will, by and by, be equal to the thorough reform of even crystalized
China. Without America, Europe would be still struggling with the
incipient stages of reform. With it, she has gone far toward correcting
the imperfections which existed one hundred years ago, and will presently
complete the process. With these general observations, we proceed to
examine the influence of Christianity on the old civilization.
SECTION X.
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
1. It was developed on the western borders of Asia, and was the
completion or perfect development of the system of religion existing
among the Jews from a very early period. Soon after Abraham, the father
and grand patriarch of the Jews, had given his descendants the outlines
of the system, they were led, by circumstances, to Egypt, and remained
there for many generations. When they left Egypt, it was under the
leadership of one of the greatest of the world’s great men, who had been
heir apparent of the Egyptian throne, and was consequently versed in all
the mysterious wisdom of the priesthood of that country. That he became
wiser than they is evident from the history of his contest with them
before the king when endeavoring to gain his consent to the migration of
his people from the country. Instructed in all the celebrated “wisdom
of the Egyptians,” together with the reflections and additions of forty
solitary years as a shepherd in Arabia, he produced a remarkable system
of mingled theology and legislation which has come down as a sacred
record to our day.
2. The Jews were, nine hundred years afterwards, transported as a nation
to Babylon, remained there for more than two generations, and received
such light as the Babylonian priests and Persian magi were able to give
them. The conquest of Asia by the Greeks and the vicinity of Judea to
commercial Tyre, furnished them all the aid these nations could give in
the line of religious suggestion. A Jew produced, in the early days of
the Roman Empire, the simple, yet sublime teachings of Christianity. It
had the comprehensiveness and directness requisite to give it authority
as a universal religion. In few, but plain and convincing words, it laid
down the principles of human rights and of divine law. It defined the
nature and stated the sanctions of virtue in the clearest terms; tore
away every covering from vice and denounced without fear the favorite
ambitions and follies of men. It seems almost incredible that such a
system should have had its origin even among a people like the Jews, and
at the time when the Roman Empire represented the highest civilization of
the world.
3. The Jews, as a nation, however, rejected and bitterly persecuted it,
and the Romans, who were, on principle, extremely tolerant of all foreign
religions, soon became extremely hostile. It was humble, unostentatious,
very simple in all its forms, carefully refrained from all interference
with established government, and presented many new and consoling truths,
with great force. It would have seemed that it had only to speak to gain
a hearing and take a leading place at once in the work of the future. The
few unprejudiced among the great, and thousands of the poor and oppressed
whom the cruel power of the Romans had deprived of nationality, property
and personal liberty, and many whose minds recoiled from the vices,
crimes and skepticism of the age, heard and embraced it with joy. But it
rebuked with most severity the ambitions, the injustice and the love of
luxury that were most prevalent in that age and that were most distinctly
Roman. It was peculiarly severe against all other systems of religion,
and that formed the strongest barrier against its immediate spread over
the pagan world at large. It was, therefore, persecuted with the greatest
rigor for three hundred years.
4. But persecution called public attention to it and won it sympathy,
and it continually spread beneath the surface of society. The brutal
features of Roman character were gradually softened; very gradually,
indeed, for Roman manners and morals were an Augean stable which it was
a more than herculean task to cleanse; but after a time, the gigantic
crimes of a Marius, a Sylla, a Nero, or Domitian became impossible, and
the horrors of the theatre, where gladiators killed each other and men
were thrown to wild beasts for the amusement of the populace, became
rare. Atrocious crimes awakened a disgust that showed a different view
and a new standard of judgment in the community. Christianity created a
purer moral atmosphere even in Rome, and while it was persecuted with the
utmost barbarity.
5. It is then no matter of surprise that Christianity did not at once
meet with general acceptance, and did not fully reconstruct Roman society
and manners. The marvel is that it could be produced at all by an age to
whose whole spirit it was so absolutely contrary. It was the doctrine of
peace proclaimed among nations who knew no occupation so glorious as war;
whose institutions all rested on conquest; whose dominant race—admired
as much as feared—was the very genius and embodiment of martial force
arrayed against the independence of all nationalities by an organization
the most complete. It proclaimed the _rights_ of _man_ and the equality
of all classes and persons before the Divine Law, to a people who had
plunged in a common ruin Carthage and Corinth, the Republics of Greece,
and the absolute rulers of monarchical Asia. It scorned equally gorgeous
ceremonies of worship, the subtleties of an imperfect philosophy and
pride of place and power.
It is not possible to imagine a greater contrast to all the modes of
habit and thought prevalent in those times. The most sensual of all
races it exhorted to spirituality, to the most cruel and insolent it
preached meekness and forbearance. It placed the slave to whom the
recognized laws of war left no rights, beside the master who gloried in
setting his foot on the neck of the prostrate; and recognized as equals
the great and the small, the ignorant and the wise, the bond and the free.
We cannot be surprised that it did not obtain immediate currency, that
it was everywhere scorned and cast out, that it aroused unheard of
persecutions, and that it could only obtain, a triumph when the old Roman
inflexibility and fierceness had died out of its degenerate children, and
the spirit of the ancient world was burned out in the hot fires of its
own passions. Character does not change in a day, and the ruling impulses
of a race can be modified only by slow degrees. Such is the supreme law
which has ruled all history.
6. From all these causes Christianity was slow in penetrating society
and moulding institutions; but it spread so extensively that a clear
sighted emperor at length found it politic to profess Christianity in
order to gain the support of so large and vigorous an element against
his rivals in power. Constantine was victorious and proceeded to make
Christianity the state religion. It had maintained its growth by its real
superiority and ever after remained the most powerful and productive
among the influences that aided the progress of mankind. It was actively
aggressive and had made the barbarians who overthrew Rome converts to
the faith before the invasion, and thus broke the force and diminished
the disastrous effects of that event. In after times, no sooner did
a barbarian tribe appear and establish itself in any part of the old
empire than Christianity commenced the work of teaching and proselyting,
which aided much in restoring order and repairing ruin. Had Christianity
preserved its purity its usefulness and power would have been much
greater.
7. But as it gained in numbers and in position it lost internal strength.
Both Oriental and Greek philosophy tainted its simple doctrines and
introduced in various forms the hurtful speculations so dear to the
ancients; and when it became the court religion the simplicity of its
ceremonies was gradually replaced by the pomp and splendor of pagan
worship. Constantine and his successors in the empire assumed the virtual
headship of the church, called councils and packed them for political
purposes, and pronounced for or against supposed heresies. The offices of
the church became the rewards of ambition and gradually a hierarchy, or
regular gradation, was established in the priesthood, and both faith and
manners came to be strangely in contrast with their original simplicity.
Yet, Christianity, aping the forms and infected with the superstitions
of paganism, and become the tool of the aspiring, was still alive with a
youthful vigor by which she eased the fall of the old civilization, and
was abundant in valuable service for the civilization yet to be.
SECTION XI.
THE SERVICES OF GREAT MEN TO MANKIND.
1. It is difficult for us to comprehend the embarrassments which a want
of diffused information presented to the progress of the ancient days.
With no books, or, at best, but very few, with little or no record of
the past, or the distant present, but what confused, distorted and
uncertain tradition and rumor could give, with almost no _instruments_
of thought and education, it would seem natural that they should fall
into a hopeless barbarism. That they raised themselves so far out of a
condition so low and so helpless, that they created so many instruments
for _us_, is a proof of the wonderful capacity for advancement that lies
in humanity, and a prophecy of stupendous things yet in store for mankind.
2. One of the most important elements of their progress lay in their
_great men_. It is indispensable that a man, to become great, or famous,
by exercising a wide influence, should represent in a large, well defined
and successful way, the general tendency and aspiration of his times. He
must unite a clear perception of these tendencies in his mind, with the
power to give them adequate expression in his words or deeds. He must be
so far ahead of his times as to be able to clearly work out what is lying
unexpressed in the general mind, but not so far ahead that it cannot come
into sympathy and co-operation with him; else he will not be recognized
as great. Great men are a summary of their times, or of the people they
dwell among; they gather its tendencies to a point and express the
undefined desire of that period. Their value for later times is that
they represent the spirit of their race at that time in a form to make a
striking impression, and those who have the good fortune to represent the
qualities of the best races, or of nations at the most important stage
of their history, become the general exemplars of mankind; teaching in a
forcible and striking way the lessons which have been wrought out in the
experience of a whole people for ages.
3. The poets are the first of these great men of whom history gives us
any account, except, perhaps, the heroes whose deeds they sung, which
are more or less uncertain, because they clothed the common tradition of
their times in an imaginative and fictitious dress. The poets Homer and
Hesiod had great influence on early Greece. They summed up its theology
and the history of its admired heroes, and gave expression to the early
thought and literary turn of that people.
Their legislators came next. They gave expression to the genius of their
people in institutions and laws. Lycurgus arranged the Spartan state into
a military school. His laws remained in force more than five hundred
years. Solon was the legislator of Athens and his laws were much admired
for their wisdom and justice. The Greeks could think more wisely than
they could act. Lycurgus organized the warlike spirit in Greece as well
as Sparta. The small Grecian states, determined to keep Sparta and each
one of the other states from destroying their individual liberties, were
trained by the necessity of combating the vigorous military organization
of Sparta to great ability in war.
Under Pericles, a republican statesman of Athens, nearly a century
later than Solon, the full glory of the Grecian genius shone forth. He
encouraged his countrymen to give the support to art and literature that
produced the famous master pieces which have made Greece illustrious and
influential to this day.
4. Socrates appeared soon after. He was the apostle of thought. His
influence in leading men to use direct and effective modes of examination
and reasoning was incalculable, and has perhaps had more effect on the
world than the victorious career of Alexander or of the Romans. He was
followed by Plato, a disciple of his, who pushed out to further results
the same principles. He is called the prince of philosophers, and has
exerted a world-wide influence. He had not the simplicity and plain
directness of Socrates, though his mind was more polished, and he was
more learned. Some scholars, however, consider his masterpieces to
indicate as powerful a mind as the world has produced. He spent twelve
years in travel, and used all the means of education, and study then
to be found. His works are still the delight of the most accomplished
scholars.
5. Aristotle began his career in the last years of Plato. He was the
tutor of Alexander the Great. He followed a different line of study,
wrote on logic, or the art of reasoning, on the natural sciences, and
introduced method in the exercise of the mind and in study. Herodotus,
Xenophon, Thucydides, and many other great writers, artists and
sculptors, lived about the same period; and thus Grecians did for the
mind what the Romans did for law and government—laid down the fundamental
principles which formed the basis of real progress.
The free government of Athens encouraged oratory and the art of
persuasion. Demosthenes was the most celebrated orator among the Greeks,
and if his state had only been more powerful he would have conquered
Philip of Macedon. He was indeed one of the greatest orators of all
times. Cicero, among the Romans, was a writer and orator of almost equal
merit. They both lived just at the downfall of the liberties of their
states, and they spoke with more effect to the times after them than to
their contemporaries. If they did not succeed in preserving the liberties
of Greece and Rome, they made a great impression, the name of Liberty
was consecrated by their noble words, and those who destroyed it made
infamous by their burning invectives. When a more favorable time came for
restoring it, they lived again in influence, and triumphed by the memory
and record of their great patriotism and powerful eloquence.
6. Great conquerors and warriors, in all times, have also been
representative men, giving expression and gratification to the warlike
spirit of their people, and producing great changes that have been
favorable to the real advancement of mankind. The energies they stirred
up, and the mingling of nations they produced generally promoted
civilization. Alexander the Great displayed the wonderful genius and
fertility in resources that was peculiarly Greek. His nation was almost
consoled for the loss of their liberties by the conquests to which he led
them. He opened to their study unknown regions, and gave their mental
genius a broader play and a fuller occupation. They, to such an extent
as change was possible with old civilizations, _Hellenized_ the East and
prepared the way for the reception of Christianity. Alexander, in three
great battles, conquered the great Persian Empire with a small army. He
never suffered defeat, and died at thirty-three years of age. Had he
lived, he might have done what Hannibal could not do—have crushed the
rising power of the Roman republic. It would have been a misfortune, for
the Romans did incalculable service to humanity. Greek learning exerted
its influence on the East for two hundred and fifty years before its
final conquest by the Romans. Alexander did great service to mankind
by his military success. Hannibal is an instance of a great man not as
fully representative of his own people, perhaps, and whose misfortune
it was to have to struggle against a people whose united genius was
greater, more inventive, and more patient than his own. The Roman Pompey
represented the aristocratic element of his people, and though a great
general, hardly deserved to succeed. Julius Cæsar possessed the merciful
character and intelligence of the Greek and the prodigious energy and
resolution of the Roman. His conquest of Gaul and Britain introduced
civilization into the lands that were, five hundred years later, to begin
a new career for mankind. His thorough subjection of the Gauls preserved
the ancient civilization from the inroads of the vigorous Germans until
all was ready for the new order of things. More than any other great man,
he may be said to have been representative of the best spirit of his
time. Perceiving that the Roman republic was dead, and could not possibly
be restored, from the strength of the vices ruling in the state, he
repressed its anarchy and set aside its forms, wisely and prudently, with
as little bloodshed or cruelty us possible. He thoroughly represented the
practical sense and immense vigor of the true Roman. He has been severely
reproached for destroying the republic, but the republic virtually
fell with the Gracchi, seventy-five years before, and he established
the only government that could possibly preserve the Roman state from
disorganization.
7. The office of all these, and multitudes of other great men,
less representative of the greater qualities of their fellows, or
representative of less striking features of their times, has been to sum
up the character of their people, and present their special features,
_condensed_, for the observation of mankind, and by their position as
leaders, to give their times an opportunity for powerful development,
as well as to show what mankind are capable of. In this last view
they stimulate individuals to aspiration and effort. Millions of men,
probably, have had the qualities of Alexander and Cæsar, millions more
those of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle,
and so of all the different classes of great men, but have wanted the
opportunities and peculiar stimulants to develop them. Whoever can
appreciate them, can, with a favorable balance of faculties to give
equally sound judgment, together with equally favorable circumstances,
imitate them. Modern times have shown multitudes of men who, their
character and talents taken as a whole, have shown themselves far greater
than any of the ancients. Culture and the mingling of races will,
perhaps, finally make _all_ men greater than the greatest of the ancients.
8. Brutus, one of the murderers of Cæsar, wished to restore the glories
of the ancient Roman republic, and thought Cæsar stood in the way. He
removed him by violence, and found the difficulties greater than ever.
A hundred years of conquest had sapped the virtues of the Roman people,
and Brutus killed himself in despair, saying: “O Virtue! thou art but a
name!” To Cæsar succeeded Augustus, by a necessity of things. Without
Cæsar’s clemency, he deluged Rome with the blood of its citizens.
Afterward, however, his rule was less sanguinary, and for thirty years he
ruled with mildness, though with despotism. The limited amount of virtue
in pagan civilizations wore out; and notwithstanding the intelligence
of Greece and the good sense of Rome, the ancient world was obliged to
close its career as it began, by absolute monarchy. It remained for the
modern world to find, among its more abundant resources, the means of
forever preserving itself from decline. Education and purity, science and
religion, freedom and fraternity among all races and nations; a knowledge
and wisdom not conceived by the ancients, a replacing of war and
violence, which are essentially demoralizing, by peaceful means, which
shall benefit all and injure none; perfectly free intercourse under the
guidance of absolute justice and benevolence; such is the way by which
the modern world will work out the problem impossible for the old world
to solve. America has gone far toward the goal. In time, all nations will
be persuaded to join her in attaining it.
9. Before we proceed with the chronology of the Christian Era we must
briefly notice the _one perfect man_, Jesus Christ. To pronounce on
the miraculous and divine claims made for his character and deeds would
carry us outside of our theme. We can only deal with him as with other
historical men, in his historical character and relations. These are
extremely remarkable.
That individual sprang, like Socrates, from the poorer classes, and,
like him without the advantages of education, produced a system which
proved a marvel of perfection, adapted to all times, but most perfectly
to the most perfect state of mankind, and consequently growing up with
the progress of nations to an ever-increasing influence. Its moral
precepts, even in our day, are as far ahead of our civilization as that
is behind a perfect condition. This man made an extraordinary impression.
In three hundred years, by merely publishing his ideas in a quiet way,
which was the only mode the hostility of the Roman rulers would permit,
his followers overthrew the prevailing religious systems which had been
established as many thousand years, and spread his influence world-wide.
His birth became the commencement of the Era of Humanity. Like Socrates,
he went about among the people with a few chosen friends, setting forth
his ideas, chiefly in conversation. He did not write; the simple record
of his life and a few of his discourses being recorded by his disciples.
Again, like Socrates, his life was ended by violence. All the records
of that life show that he was as perfect as we can conceive. In no
respect does he seem to have wanted any feature of a noble manhood, in
any degree, nor to have shared the prejudices or defects of his age. He
lived as we may conceive man to live when his mental and moral habits are
accurately adjusted and harmonized with his relations and his duties,
which he has learned perfectly to appreciate. His public career lasted
but three years and a half, and shines in history a beam of light.
He inspired his appreciative followers with rapturous admiration, a
passionate attachment to his person, and pleasure in obedience to his
teachings, stronger than death; and in those whose plans and prejudices
he crossed, and whose ambitions he rebuked, a deadly hatred which could
only be satisfied with his blood.
10. Immediately after his death his followers commenced to publish
and enforce his teachings with great success, and on the outbreak of
persecution, without making opposition, they scattered in all directions,
proclaiming them with undiminished zeal. Very soon their converts
numbered tens of thousands, in all parts of the Roman Empire. Persecution
increased their fervor and their numbers, without leading them to
revolt or resistance, until, in the course of time, an emperor found it
politic to profess Christianity. This high patronage, and the active
part the emperors took in the affairs of the church from that time,
had the effect to corrupt its simplicity of manners, as the adhesion
of Greek philosophers, who imported into its doctrines their crude
theories, adulterated its teachings, and much that was quite foreign to
its essential character continued associated with its promulgation and
institutions for fifteen hundred years, and, indeed, remnants of the same
foreign element yet linger in it.
Notwithstanding the embarrassing load which the fantastic distortion of
its original simplicity and directness laid upon it, it continued to
exert great influence, and seems destined to return, in time, to its
original form and purity, and to employ its primitive power to crown the
work of civilization.
11. Such is the historical report of the man who introduced into the
process of human progress an element of unexampled power. An impartial
estimate of the influence of Jesus Christ on history must allow that
he is the most important character that has ever appeared among men.
The unhappy association of his ideas with the vagaries of an imperfect
philosophy and the unwholesome ambitions of power, greatly curtailed
their usefulness; but the simple majesty of his character and his
discourses could not always be obscured, and the luster of both has never
shone more clearly nor exerted more influence than they do in this age.
The course of the history of Christianity will be seen to be intimately
connected with every stage of advancement from the time the Roman Empire
began to wear out; it was the nucleus which survived its fall, around
which the surging waves of invasion raged in vain, and which immediately
began the work of reconstruction.
SECTION XII.
THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
4—By some chronological confusion the new era has been made
to begin four years before the appearance of the founder of
Christianity. When Augustus had settled the whole empire he
ordered the temple of Janus to be closed and a census taken
of all its inhabitants, which numbered one hundred and twenty
millions. On this occasion Jesus Christ was born.
10—A Roman army under Varus was defeated and cut to pieces in
Germany. It was the severest defeat the Romans had suffered
since the overthrow and death of Crassus, by the Parthians,
sixty-three years before.
14—The Emperor Augustus died and was succeeded by his
step-son, Tiberius.
29—Jesus Christ was crucified by Pontius Pilate, Roman
governor of Judea, at the solicitation, and on the
accusation, of the leading Jews.
37—Tiberius died and was succeeded by Caligula. The
commencement of the reign of Tiberius was wise and moderate,
but he soon became violent and cruel. Caligula was a still
greater monster of wickedness.
40—Growing weary of his cruelty he was assassinated by one
of his officers, and his uncle, Claudius, was raised to the
throne. He was of feeble intellect and became the tool of
infamous favorites. He was poisoned by order of his wife,
Agrippina.
54—Nero, the son of Agrippina by a former husband, was
made emperor at seventeen years of age. He exceeded all
description in folly, extravagance and crime. His violence
and barbarity fell generally on the patricians and members of
his court, but he was esteemed by the common people, as were
most of the emperors, who spent vast sums on theatres and
spectacles for their amusement. The two bases of the empire
were the populace and the army. The emperor was terrible
and tyrannical chiefly to the patricians, while the army
made him formidable to the provinces and the barbarians. A
conflagration which some attributed to the orders
64—of Nero lasted nine days and destroyed the greater part of
Rome. Nero cast the blame on the Christians, who had become
numerous, and raised a horrible persecution against them.
66—The Jews rebelled and defied the Roman Empire.
68—Nero was dethroned by the Roman senate and army, and
committed suicide to avoid punishment for his crimes.
69—Three emperors, Galba, Otho and Vitellius, were placed on
the throne in succession, but rebellions were raised against
them and all were put to death. Vespasian, then besieging
Jerusalem, was proclaimed emperor by his army at the desire
of the rulers of the eastern provinces, and, in the same
year, overcame all opposition and commenced the first reign
since Augustus that was free from disgraceful profligacy and
public crime.
70—Titus, the son of Vespasian, captured and destroyed
Jerusalem. Vespasian, during a reign of ten years, restored
order and prosperity to Rome and the empire, but not without
great labor and danger.
79—Titus succeeded as emperor, and was remarkable for his
clemency and care for his subjects. During his reign occurred
the most fearful eruption of the volcano Vesuvius on record.
Herculaneum and Pompeii, two wealthy and flourishing cities,
were destroyed, being buried by the ashes. Pliny, an eminent
writer, was suffocated while observing the eruption.
81—Titus died, to the great grief and loss of mankind, and
was succeeded by his brother, Domitian, who was one of the
most infamous rulers that ever desolated the earth. He raised
a violent persecution against the Christians for refusing to
adore his statues and worship him as a god. Among the victims
was his own cousin, Clemens, who had embraced Christianity. He
96—was assassinated by his wife and officers in
self-defense, and the senate proclaimed Nerva, a native of
Crete, emperor. He was remarkable for his lenity and all
the gentle virtues. He was followed, after a reign of two
98—years, by Trajan, whom he had adopted as his colleague
and successor, who is said to have been the greatest and most
deserving person of his time. He was, by birth, a Spaniard,
was wise and successful as a warrior and statesman, and
extremely noble as a man. He bridged the Danube and the
Euphrates rivers and conquered both the Germans and Parthians
on the north and east of the empire. A stain on his memory
was the persecution of the Christians.
117—He was succeeded by Adrian, in whose reign all the Roman
laws, or annual edicts of the prætors, were compiled into one
body, and law assumed the dignity of a science. He promoted
literature, but continued the persecution of the Christians.
A rebellion of the
139—Jews was punished with merciless severity. He was
followed by Antoninus Pius, who suspended all persecution
of Christians, promoted the best interests of all parts of
the empire, and introduced, during a prosperous reign of
twenty-two years, the most important reforms into every part
of the government.
161—Marcus Aurelius, called the Philosopher, succeeded.
He carried on a successful war with the Germans, and made
the welfare of his subjects his special care, but was
seduced, by the pagan philosophers, into a persecution of
the Christians. Having discovered his error he stopped it,
toward the close of his reign. Commodus,
180—his son, inherited the purple. He also inherited a
vicious and cruel disposition, and received a demoralizing
education from his mother. He was a monster of vice and
cruelty. He was assassinated in
192—his bed by his own family and guards to save their lives.
Pertinax reigned three months, but, attempting to restrain
the license of the soldiery, he was murdered by them. The
soldiers in Rome then proclaimed that the empire was for
sale, and a rich merchant, Didius, bought it from them and
reigned in Rome two months,
193—when he was also slain by the army. Septimus Severus,
an able general, seized the purple which he secured against
many rivals, and retained for eighteen years. His vigor alone
prevented general anarchy, but he was systematically cruel.
211—Caracalla, his son, succeeded. He was a bloody and
atrocious tyrant, supported on the throne only by his
soldiers, whose aid he secured by large pay. He was
217—murdered by the commander of his guards, Macrinus,
who succeeded in acquiring his place, but was soon
218—murdered by the soldiers. They raised Heliogabalus,
a young Syrian priest of fourteen years of age, through the
assurance of his female relatives that he was the son of
Caracalla, to the purple. He is described as the most cruel
and infamous of all the Roman emperors.
222—After four years of horrible crime, he was slain in a
mutiny of his guard and his body thrown into the Tiber.
Alexander Severus succeeded. He was apparently a secret
admirer of Christianity and a model
235—prince. He was murdered by Maximin, a Thracian peasant,
who had, by his valor, risen to high command in the army, who
seized the reins of power. He was successful in war, but his
severity provoked mutiny in
238—various parts of the empire, and he was slain by his
own soldiers. Gordian succeeded, a heroic youth of a noble
family. He was successful in war, but was murdered
244—by his own prime minister, Philip, an Arabian, who became
emperor. He favored the Christians, and reigned five years.
In his reign, the thousandth year of the foundation of Rome
was celebrated by public
249—games. He was slain in a revolt by Decius, the general
of his army, who occupied the throne. He raised a most
violent storm of persecution against the Christians, who were
despoiled of their goods and driven to caves and deserts.
From this time is dated the sect of
250—anchorites, or hermits, who imagined they could acquire
superior holiness by abandoning society and devoting
themselves to meditation and prayer. The idea appears to
have been derived from the Persian Magians, who, in this
century restored the ancient dynasty and religion of the
Persians, or Parsees, in Persia. During the political and
social disorganization that soon commenced the anchorites
became numerous, and the system was extensively prevalent
for a thousand years to the great injury of active and true
Christianity.
251—Decius was slain in a battle with the Goths, who had
invaded the empire, and Gallus became emperor.
253—He was put to death by Emilianus, who attempted to seize
the reins of government, but the army elected Valerian,
governor of Gaul. The empire was invaded by the Goths on
the north and the Persians under their king, Sapor, on the
east. From this time, it had to
259—fight for its life. Valerian was defeated by Sapor
and remained nine years in captivity, Gallienus, his son,
becoming emperor. He was extremely incompetent and a
multitude of rival claimants for the supreme authority arose
in all directions. They were called the “Thirty Tyrants.” One
of them, Odenatus, king of Palmyra, in the Syrian desert,
defeated Sapor, and Gallienus proclaimed him his colleague.
On the death of Odenatus, his wife, Zenobia, assumed the
title of “Queen of the East,” conquered Egypt and ruled a
wide region with success and splendor. Both Goths
262—and Persians invaded Asia Minor. Gallienus was murdered
268—and Claudius succeeded. He defeated the Goths
270—but died in a pestilence. Aurelian succeeded. He was an
able general. He subdued the Germans and
272—Goths, and conquered Zenobia, one of the most remarkable
275—women of history. Aurelian was assassinated by some
victims of his severity, and Tacitus, a Roman senator
succeeded, but died in seven months, and was followed by
Probus. He was a vigorous general, and drove back the
barbarians on all sides, but attempting to employ his
soldiers in labor on public works, they
282—revolted and murdered him. Carus, the captain of the
283—imperial guard, was raised to the throne. Dying the
next year, his sons, Carinus and Numerianus, inherited his
authority, but Numerianus was assassinated in a
284—few months by his father-in-law, and Diocletian, said to
have been formerly a slave, was proclaimed emperor by the
army. This was called “The Era of the Martyrs,” from the long
and bloody persecutions against the Christians. This was the
tenth general attack on them, and proved to be the last. The
barbarians pressing in great force on all sides, Diocletian
appointed several colleagues, and their united ability drove
the invaders back.
305—Diocletian resigned his power to Galerius, who appointed
three associates, making a division of the empire. One of
these, Constantius, died in Britain, and was succeeded
306—by his son, Constantine. For a time, there were six
emperors, but one was killed, Galerius died, and Constantine
conquered the others.
312—Constantine changed the whole character of the empire
by embracing Christianity and relying largely on that
element for the support of his power, while he disbanded the
Pretorian, or royal Guard, which had for two hundred years
assumed to make and unmake emperors, and whose example,
imitated by the other armies, kept the world periodically
disturbed by the disputes and battles of rival claimants
to the imperial purple. By the
313—edict of Milan, Constantine abolished all laws unfriendly
to Christianity; he restored the authority of the senate
and magistrates, and removed his capital from Rome to
Constantinople.
324—The pagan element was now so worn and decrepit that no
general disorders resulted. Whatever was left rallied under
Licinus, who was conquered by Constantine. It appears to have
been the strength of the Christian element and its essential
hostility to the Roman principle of violent subjugation that
produced so many and fierce persecutions. Had it not been
for the pressure of barbarians on the empire the prevalence
of that system would have preserved society and the state
for a thousand years more, as it actually did in the Eastern
empire; but every thing that man has the management of must
be affected by his limitations, his mistakes and his follies.
Christianity needed a better ally, a fresher and purer
society, built up by the young blood and better instincts of
another and newer people.
Constantine paid great respect to the clergy of the church
and took a leading part in its general counsels—a great
mistake and a great misfortune.
325—His spiritual supremacy was virtually acknowledged at the
council of Nice which he convoked.
330—Constantine died leaving his vast dominions to his three
sons, who, in the course of ten years, were reduced to one,
Constantius. After a troubled reign of twenty
361—years more, he died, and was succeeded by his cousin
Julian, called the “Apostate,” from his renouncing
Christianity and laboring to restore the pagan religion. In
this he signally failed. He undertook to rebuild the Jewish
temple at Jerusalem, without success.
363—He was mortally wounded in an invasion of Persia, and was
succeeded by Jovian, who restored imperial favor
364—to the Christian religion. He died after one years
reign and Valentinian was elected emperor by the council
of ministers and generals. He divided the empire with his
brother, Valens, and afterward Rome and Constantinople
usually had each an emperor. Valentinian died
375—and was succeeded by his son, Gratian.
378—The Huns appeared in Europe, having wandered from
the borders of China, and defeated Valens with dreadful
slaughter. Valens himself was among the slain. This was the
commencement of the great migrations that finally overwhelmed
the Roman Empire of the west.
379—Gratian, left sole emperor, appointed Theodosius, called
The Great, his colleague, who subdued the Goths, repelled the
Huns, and restored order.
383—Gratian was murdered by the usurper Maximus.
388—Theodosius conquered and put Maximus to death and
restored Valentinian II., brother of Gratian, to the
throne of the western empire. In a few years the whole
394—empire was reunited by the death of Valentinian.
Theodosius soon died, universally lamented, leaving the two
empires to his sons, Honorius and Arcadius.
402—Alaric, the Goth, invaded Italy and, though defeated,
endangered the safety of Rome.
408—Theodosius II. succeeded to the empire of the east.
410—Alaric again invaded Italy and sacked Rome. Alaric soon
after died and his forces were persuaded, by negotiations, to
leave Italy, but they permanently established themselves in
Spain and Southern Gaul (France). Thus the empire began to
fall to pieces.
425—Honorius died and Valentinian III. became emperor.
429—The Vandals soon conquered the Roman provinces
in Africa, under their king, Genseric. They extended
440—their conquests to Sicily.
447—Attila, called the “Scourge of God,” appeared at the head
of the Huns, and Theodosius made a humiliating treaty with
him to save his dominions from desolation.
448—In the next year the Saxons and Angles were invited
into Britain by the civilized Romans, to protect them from
the Picts and Scots, and laid the foundation of the modern
Anglo-Saxon race, and the Franks invaded Gaul laying the
foundations of the modern kingdom of France. England received
its name from the Angles—France from the Franks.
451—Attila, the Hun, invaded Gaul, and was defeated at
452—Chalons, by the united Romans and Visigoths. Attila
then invaded Italy and laid it waste, but died before he
454—had completed the ruin of the empire. Valentinian
III. was murdered, and the Vandals from Sicily invaded Italy
and sacked Rome.
SECTION XIII.
THE RISE OF MODERN NATIONS.
476—After a succession of puppet emperors in Rome, Odoacer
abolished the name and took the title of king of Italy.
He was a German in command of the auxiliaries in Roman
pay. Thus ended, in disaster and disgrace, the once mighty
Roman Empire. Its ruin was gradual and the barbarians who
overthrew it had already embraced Christianity, so that the
institutions of the church did not share its fall.
486—Clovis, king of the Franks, defeated the Romans and
Gauls at the battle of Soissons. The Ostrogoths invaded
492—Italy under Theodoric the Great, deposed Odoacer, and
founded a new kingdom.
496—Clovis defeated the invading Germans and embraced
500—Christianity. Clovis next defeated the Burgundians.
507—He subdued the Visigoths and all France was united under
one rule. He was of the Merovingian line, or dynasty, of
kings, which lasted over two hundred years, during which the
remains of Roman civilization and the influence of the church
were gradually modifying and penetrating the character of a
new and energetic race.
527—Justinian became the ruler of the Eastern or Grecian
Empire.
534—His generals waged war with the Vandals in Africa and the
Ostrogoths in Italy, and after eighteen years of conflict,
succeeded in reconquering part of Italy, which the Greek
emperors continued to hold nominally for about three hundred
years; the seat of their representative being at Ravenna. He
was called an Exarch. Rome itself was left, substantially,
to the control of the Christian bishop. When the Lombards
founded a kingdom
568—in the north of Italy they were prevented, by the exarch
and bishop, from spreading over the southern part; and when
the exarch threatened to become too powerful to suit the
views of the bishop, he supported the Lombards. Thus the
temporal or political power of the popes arose, and they were
the politic authors of the “Balance of Power” theory, or
system, that has played so large a part in European history.
The result has been exceedingly favorable to progress in
all directions, since it has secured the independence of
states, and a more various and perfect civilization by the
development of the special genius of each people. Many
circumstances conspired to support this idea, in later times,
and render it very prominent and influential.
This gradual advance of the bishop of Rome in political
influence associated him with the mighty memories of the
“Eternal City,” and suggested the idea of a spiritual empire
over all Christendom, which gradually became realized and
quite changed the character of Christianity for near 800
years. Hurtful as it ultimately became, by reviving a
universal despotism over conscience and freedom of thought,
it was long powerful for good by giving a common centre
to Europe, broken into fragments as it was by the rise of
feudalism. That was disorganizing; this was centralizing,
and kept the channels of communication open and the
missionary spirit and the elements of a restored learning in
activity. Its influence in commencing and carrying forward
the crusades, which substantially broke the strength of
feudalism, was of immense importance.
622—Mahomet arose in the Arabian peninsula, and his new
religion spread with astonishing rapidity. In one hundred
732—years from the death of Mahomet the Saracens had
established a vast empire, covering two thirds of the Roman
empire, viz.: all of the old Persian empire, Egypt, and all
of northern Africa and Spain, and threatened to inundate
Europe. They poured a vast army over the Pyrenees into
France. This was defeated in a great battle at Tours, by
Charles Martel, who founded a new dynasty, replacing the
Merovingian, called the Carlovingian, and made France the
most powerful, as it became the leading, nation in Europe,
for promoting civilization during many centuries.
By this means the center of political influence, “The Star
of Empire,” took another step westward. His son, Pepin le
Bref, or the Short, caused himself to be
752—crowned king of France by the Roman Pontiff, Stephen
II., which added to his own prestige, as it also did to that
of the pope. It was a sort of league between the rising
temporal and spiritual powers in Europe, and set an example
long followed. Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, the son of
Pepin, ascended the throne in 771,
771—and by his intelligence, energy, and wise statesmanship,
by his encouragement of learning, his organizing talents
and his success in conquering and civilizing the seething
mass of nationalities in Germany, he may be said to have
really founded modern civilization during his long reign
of forty-three years. He conquered the Lombard kingdom in
Italy, and was crowned by the pope, Adrian I, “Emperor of
the Romans,” kneeling at the altar in Rome; but he virtually
confirmed the temporal authority of the popes, and associated
their influence in all his conquests. He thoroughly broke
the spirit of the pagan Saxons, in northwestern Germany, by
a war of thirty-three years, carried his conquests east over
most of the present Austrian empire, civilizing and bringing
the barbarians into the pale of Christendom by the aid of
Christian missionaries, and conquered some portions of Spain
from the Saracens.
It seemed as if the history of the western Roman Empire,
which had fallen three hundred years before, was to be
repeated. That was the hope and dream of both Charlemagne
and the Roman Pontiff, who joined hands to realize it. This
new western emperor had great abilities and the church was
very strong. The centre of Europe had so long been within
the reach of civilizing influences, and had attained such a
point of development in its various nationalities, that they
readily accepted permanent institutions, when presented by a
power so strong as that of the mighty Frank ruler.
814—But when he died, it was found that there was no other
hand strong enough to wield his sceptre. All the memories of
the old empire, all the influence of the Christian church,
the remains of the Roman organization, and the ripening vigor
of new races, which had begun to lay aside their barbarous
impulses, were united to aid the vast designs of this great
statesman. But the tendencies of the new society, in general,
were in a different direction. The Germanic civilization
was totally different from the Roman, and had there been a
succession of rulers as large minded and strong willed as
Charlemagne, they could not have repeated the history of the
ancient world. The tendency of the races that overthrew the
empire was invincibly against centralization, and instead of
a new Roman Empire in western Europe, appeared the Feudal
System.
SECTION XIV.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.
1. This system was the direct opposite of centralization. Under it all
Christendom broke up into fragments; the king exerted but a loose general
control, that continued to decrease for several centuries; and most of
the real authority was exerted by the feudal lords from their fortified
castles, which, for three hundred years, had been springing up over all
the territory conquered from the Romans. It had its true origin in the
marked _personal assertion_, the strong _individuality_ of the Teutonic
Race, which was, and is, one of its most prominent traits. While in their
native barbarous state their armies were formed for their expeditions of
foreign conquest, that proved so fatal to the Romans, on the voluntary
principle. The prowess and fame of a leader, or chief, drew to him a
multitude of warriors, longing for activity and booty. So long as he
could lead them to success, to gain their individual ends, they obeyed
him. When he failed to reward their ambition they held themselves free to
leave him.
2. It was not immense disciplined armies, but innumerable bands,
organized in this way, that, through a long course of years, gradually
overran Britain, Gaul, Spain and Italy. For four hundred years the
civilized world had been accustomed to the control and protection of
a distant ruler whose powerful armies rendered resistance vain, and
all thought of organization for self-protection against the terrible
barbarians was wanting when they were attacked. Each city or region
defended itself as well as possible, or submitted at once. The
conquerors took what they wanted and passed on to other lands, or
spread themselves out over the province. They usually settled in the
country parts, fortifying the country seats of the richer inhabitants,
or building themselves castles near the larger towns, to hold them in
awe. The leader considered himself the owner of the conquered territory,
and divided it among his followers, who settled themselves, each in his
new domain, as its owner and ruler. The conquered inhabitants were his
subjects from whom he took tribute. The conquerors were few in number in
proportion to the conquered; but there was little resistance throughout
the old Roman provinces. Organization and spirit were wanting to them,
and resistance would provoke complete ruin, since the conqueror could
easily call to his aid any number of his fellows in return for a share of
the spoils. Thus they gave what was demanded and made themselves content
with what was left.
The cities paid tribute, the cultivators gave a portion of their
harvests to the new rulers. The territory not given to his followers was
considered the property of the original leader. In return for the gift
each of the recipients of territory was held bound to aid him in his
wars, and each larger chief stood in similar relations to the king of his
tribe or nation. Out of this grew, at length, what was called the Feudal
System, feudal being derived, by some, from the old German words “fee,”
salary, and “od,” landed possessions—a payment, or salary, in land, for
services rendered, with a certain obligation to the giver.
3. The kings of the Franks—the German nation that conquered Gaul—up to
the time of Charlemagne, labored to consolidate their power and rule like
the Roman emperors. But the genius of their race and the peculiarities
of the situation were both opposed to that purpose. Charles Martel,
Pepin, his son, and Charlemagne, his grandson, were all rulers of great
vigor, and the last, apparently, succeeded for a time. But the military
strength lay only in the scattered feudal chieftains, each of whom
sought to build up his own power on his own estates. It was not possible
to maintain a strong central government for any length of time, or
under an ordinary man. For two hundred years these petty lords grew in
strength at the expense of the king. They were still held to him by the
necessity of supporting him in war, by a system of checks, which, in
time, were increased, and still more enlarged, when the people began
to make themselves felt in the twelfth century; but from the fifth to
the fifteenth century feudalism was the prevailing system in all the
civilized European nations.
4. It was a very rude and violent period, but some of the most happy
traits of modern life grew out of it. The isolation of the feudal lord
in his fortified chateau or castle, where his wife and children were
his only equals, combined with the constant influence of the church,
gradually elevated the condition of the woman, the rudeness and violence
of the time were modified by the rise of chivalry, which was, in great
part, founded on this new respect for the gentler sex, and sympathy for
her helpless condition when exposed, without a powerful protector, to
unrestrained insolence and passion; and the feudal system held all the
elements of society in suspense until the mighty forces—revived learning,
the printing press, and a new commerce and industry—were ready to take a
prominent part in making it what we now find it—far superior to the old
society.
5. Feudalism held men apart, and individually subject to the refining
influence of Christian precepts, from the fifth to the ninth century,
when the romantic practice of chivalry became popular as a relief from
the tedium of isolation, and a channel for the flow of the softer
sentiments of respect for woman, of compassion for weakness, and, at the
same time, a vent for the martial spirit which the constant conflicts
of the time cultivated. The age of chivalry indicates that Christianity
was powerfully moulding the character of the new nations. Working on
qualities as stern and rude as those of the old Roman of the Republic,
its partial control, the beginnings of its power, were manifested in
a romantic way. The isolation of feudal life, and a sense of wrong in
employing all their energies in unceasing contests of ambition produced
the chivalric outbreak and the crusades. The knights of chivalry were
feudal lords and gentlemen, trained in all the warlike arts of the period
and in all the courtesies which the new influence of female society
produced. When starting forth as knight-errants, they were exhorted
by the stern feudal warrior to valor, and by the Christian priest to
gentleness toward the weak and defenseless, and they made it the business
of life to wander about on horseback incased in armor, displaying their
warlike accomplishments and combatting petty tyranny. There was little
power in the king to right the wrongs of his subjects, and brutal
violence in the feudal lords had no other effectual punishment. Chivalry
flourished for more than five hundred years; but its most useful days
were from 1000 to 1200. It was the first, and seems to later times a
somewhat amusing indication of a more humane social state than the world
had ever known.
6. The crusades commenced about 1100, the object being to rescue the
sepulcher of the founder of Christianity from unbelievers. It first
engaged the sympathy of the people at large, then of the feudal nobility
and finally interested the ambition of kings. For two hundred years
a large part of the best blood of Europe was poured out in Palestine
in a vain effort to expel the Saracens from it. The transportation of
armaments and supplies to that country from various parts of Europe
gradually led to commerce and skill in navigation; so much of ancient
civilization and knowledge as still existed in the Eastern, or Greek
Empire at Constantinople, was introduced into modern Europe, which at the
same time was relieved of its more turbulent and adventurous elements;
and a heavy blow was given to the smaller feudal proprietors by the
expense incurred in a distant expedition where they died without issue,
reduced their families to poverty, or whence they returned penniless
to mortgaged estates. It rapidly hastened the movement, begun by other
influences, to reduce the number of feudal proprietors, and render
government more vigorous over increasingly large territories.
SECTION XV.
THE LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE.
1. Between 1000 and 1200 the independent and enterprising spirit—the
individualism—that we have seen at the base of European character, and
which first produced the Feudal System, began to move among the masses
in various ways and laid the foundation for that influence of the People
that was afterward to become the most powerful element in political life.
It first presented itself in the development of industrial arts and
commerce in cities which obtained, as corporations, the rights, or a part
of the rights, of the feudal proprietor, which they proceeded to exercise
under the form of Free Cities in Germany, privileged Communes in France
and commercial Republics in Italy.
2. A second development, highly favorable some centuries later to the
reaction of popular freedom against centralizing despotism in the
government, was the religious protest against the claims of the church
over freedom of thought. This spirit grew up in Germany, and its first
remote beginnings are to be found in the imperial title conferred by
the pope on Charlemagne. In the course of time (A. D. 963) that title
was inherited by the German rulers who, for a long time, struggled for
the control of Italy and a feudal superiority over the popes. This was
carried on for two centuries with much acrimony, in which the terms
Guelph, the general name of those who supported the side of the popes,
and Ghibellines, of those who rallied to the emperor, came to be the
watchwords of Germany and Italy. The popes triumphed in this contest,
which prevented the establishment of a vast and powerful political
despotism, and gave the church a temporal kingdom in a part of Italy,
with an immense spiritual empire highly embarrassing to free mental
growth. The reaction against this spiritual control produced the
Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, in which was wrapped up
the germ of modern Republicanism.
3. The Crusades loosened the bonds of Feudalism, taught nations and
rulers to act together to gain a common object, enlarged the experiences
of men immensely, and cultivated and organized the spirit of personal
adventure which afterwards expended itself on commerce.
It was at about the crisis of this period (1215, A. D.) that the Magna
Charta—the foundation of English constitutional liberty—was produced;
that the Hanseatic League and Free Cities began to flourish in Germany;
the commercial republics of Venice, Genoa and Florence rose in Italy; and
the communal corporations in France sprang up. They were all more or less
stimulated by influences growing out of the Crusades, and brought forward
the _people_ and their distinct and separate interests and activities
into political importance. This was the beginning of an entirely new
order of things, which required a new continent for its full development.
4. A first circumstance, above all favorable to the liberties of the
people, was the Invention of Printing, producing rapid diffusion of
information, the coincident revival of learning and the foundation of
modern science. All these, working together with various other agencies,
gradually swept away feudalism, checked the towering spiritual tyranny of
the church and corrected a crowd of minor evils that embarrassed society,
enterprise, and progress in the science of government.
The intermediate stage in this progress appeared like a return to old
principles. The dissolution of feudalism left the governments of Europe
centralized. The lords inheriting feudal rights had become intolerable
despots. For a certain period the authority of the king was the bulwark
behind which the people sheltered themselves from the oppressions
of their feudal superiors, and they united with him to reduce the
feudal nobility to the comparatively harmless condition of the modern
aristocracy, whose greatest distinction is social pre-eminence. It left
them, indeed, a high, but not overwhelming, position in the body politic,
which the growing education and wealth of the middle and lower classes
constantly tended to reduce. This change was commencing when America
was discovered. The feudal chiefs labored to extend and strengthen
their power at the expense of each other, of the king and the people.
The increasing activity and importance of commerce, trade and industry
required the support of a broad legislation that could not be obtained
while nations were broken up into petty lordships, principalities
and kingdoms almost independent of each other, and whose rulers were
often hostile to or at war with each other; while the support of so
many rulers became a heavy burden on the resources of the people. The
king represented the nation and was the rallying point of reform. To
strengthen him was to promote the larger interests of the country.
5. For these reasons, and from the resistance offered by the feudal
institutions, which had existed a thousand years, authority became
centralized in the monarch to an extravagant degree, and this at a time
when freer institutions were most required by the larger and wiser
views of the people. The great usefulness of the Roman Catholic Church
in civilizing and educating the modern nations and founding a center
or common bond between them, which produced a degree of unity in their
progress, had continually added to her power, while the disposition
to free thought was ever becoming more pronounced. Thus two despotic
forces, each claiming absolute obedience in their respective spheres,
were rising in strength to a degree extremely embarrassing to the growing
intelligence and increased activities of the commonalty. The traditional
authority of the church and the king came, in the course of a hundred
years after the discovery of America, to directly oppose the most
important interests and instincts of mankind.
6. The progress of the people, as distinct from that of their
governments, may then be described as starting in the last great service
done for Europe by the church—the organization of the Crusades. The
feudal system separated men too much for healthy progress, and this
singular display of religious zeal united the various nationalities in
a common effort, and stirred up powers that had long slumbered. It was
in this period that the adventurous and comprehensive activities of
modern life commenced. Wealth had been largely confined to the feudal
nobility. It now began to flow out through the general community. The
nobles expended vast sums in fitting out princely retinues to lead to the
Holy Land, for which their estates were security. They died, or returned
penniless, and their lands passed into the hands of the commercial
classes, whose successful diligence had made them wealthy. It was the
first heavy blow to feudal institutions, and laid the foundation of the
power of the people.
Corporations and cities which had obtained the rights of feudal
proprietors, employed them for the purposes of self-government, and
so used an instrument of despotism to shield and sustain a virtual
democracy. With this freedom of action, popular liberty, controlled in
a general way by feudal obligations to the prince, king, or emperor,
grew fast and strong protected by the growing despotisms of the church
and the state. The Hanseatic League, in the north of Germany, was, in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, perhaps as wealthy and powerful
as any king or emperor in Christendom; and in the sixteenth, the small
commercial province of the Netherlands could defy the whole power of
Spain, with the wealth of the Indies at her back.
7. The revival of learning, and the invention of the art of printing,
gave an immense impulse to this uprising of the people, commenced
near three hundred years before; about the same time the Portuguese
discovered the way to India by the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus threw
open the “Gates of the West,” and the wealth of both Indies flowed in a
full stream through the channels of commerce and trade; that is to say,
into the hands of the busy and industrious people. All events seemed
to conspire to build up a base for the power and development of the
commonalty.
This growing intelligence and strength among the masses, with the habit
of ruling themselves under feudal forms, made a conflict with the two
arrogant despotisms inevitable in the near future. Feudal institutions
were still a serious and vexatious embarrassment to freedom of movement,
and a very heavy tax on industry, and the only legal way to remove it was
by strengthening the central or kingly power, which continued to increase
for more than a hundred years; but the conflict with priestly despotism
was entered on at once. A vast rebellion against the church commenced,
called “The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,” which embraced nearly
all the most enterprising and commercial nations.
SECTION XVI.
THE SITUATION ON THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
1. We have said that great men were a kind of summary of the tendencies
of their period; an expression of a wide-spread thought or state of
mind, which their fortunate combination of faculties and more favorable
circumstances enabled them first to state, or embody, with distinctness;
that the great following they obtained, and the extensive influence
which enabled them to make great changes, were due to a coincident
development in their generation of the same thoughts and tendencies. This
explains the existence of _eras_ in all departments of life. Men grow,
or progress, silently, from one to the other; when the general progress
has reached the suitable point it breaks out in a leader more bold and
positive than the rest.
The discovery of America was such an era; and the sudden advance in
many ways at about the same time was the result of gradual growth during
many centuries. It was shown by the sudden appearance of great men in
different spheres. Columbus lived in the midst of a great era. Printing,
the use of the compass, the science of astronomy and the successful
protest against spiritual despotism all commenced their great career
just before, or just after him. The great painters, whose works are
now so much esteemed, were all living in 1500. Copernicus discovered
the true planetary system in the year Columbus died. Gunpowder, which
enabled Cortez to conquer the Mexican Empire, came into general use
about the same period. Luther commenced the Reformation, while the first
adventurers were creeping, with amazed curiosity, around the shores of
the American continent. The foundation of all the sciences was then laid.
Correct principles were enunciated for religion, government and thought;
and the laws of nature, of human relations and of religious liberty were
promulgated almost simultaneously.
2. But not all the European nations, and not _all_ of any one nation,
were prepared for this vast advance. The southern part of Germany, and
the people in general in southern Europe, resisted what they regarded
as a dangerous innovation, and the reform spread only north and west.
The close connection instituted by Constantine between church and state,
which was renewed under Charlemagne, raised at this time, a long series
of religious wars, which contributed to embarrass Protestantism in the
same way by the necessity under which it lay, (or supposed it lay,) of
seeking the protection of princes. Luther’s reorganized church became
the state religion of northern Europe, and fell under government control
in Switzerland and Holland. Henry VIII. of England, while yielding, like
a true Englishman, to the general tendency of his people, in taking the
reformed faith under his protection constituted himself its head.
In the long contest between Catholic and Protestant, it became apparent
that full religious liberty was not then possible in Europe; and the
more, that a political element was involved in the contest. Free thought
naturally led to free institutions, and the leading European governments
were, by the breaking up of feudalism, centralized and made more despotic
than ever. Thus its tendency to political revolution organized strong
governments against it, or prevented its development by the check of
governmental supremacy.
3. While this contest was working itself out in the firm establishment of
Protestantism under state patronage in northern Europe, and its entire
extinction in the stronger and more conservative southern monarchies,
the discovery and subjugation of Mexico and Peru, with their wealth of
precious metals and tropical productions, together with the trade with
the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, passage to which was discovered
before the daring venture of Columbus, had greatly enriched Europe. A
large part of this wealth passed immediately, or in process of time,
into the hands of the people as the result of personal adventure or of
the activity of commerce, trade and industry. The maritime regions of
northern Germany, Holland and England gathered much of this golden fruit;
the maritime republics of Italy fell into decay; and Spain spent its vast
treasures in war. It was led to this suicidal policy by various royal
marriages which united the German Empire, Spain and the Netherlands under
one scepter. This vast ascendancy, united with great wealth, excited the
alarm of other nations, and contributed to strengthen the Reformation.
The Protestant princes of Germany and the king of France united to reduce
this dangerous pre-eminence in order to uphold the existing nationalities
of Europe, or the Balance of Power, as it was called. Thus the emperor,
Charles V., was led to pour out the treasures of Mexico and Peru to
sustain his political aspirations, and his wars turned the wealth of the
Indies into the channels of commerce and industry.
His successor, Philip II., still uniting Spain and the Netherlands,
undertook to crush the reformed faith in the latter states, and failed
in a war of nearly half a century. This vast expense made Spain, the
richest country of Europe, the poorest, still to the profit of commerce
and the greater strength of Protestant lands. The United Netherlands
became free Protestant states and remarkably prosperous.
4. The English people advanced in laying the foundations of a free
constitution from the time of the Magna Charta in 1215. They became
strongly Protestant, and finally their commons engaged in a contest
with the king, Charles I., for the maintenance of popular rights.
He resisted to the last extremity, and the commons precipitated a
revolution that dethroned and beheaded him, and established a republic.
This was premature and expired with the great leader, Cromwell, who
had successfully headed it. Royal power was restored, but a few years
later was rearranged and so modified as to be suited to the independent
but moderate tendencies of the people. A certain part of the English
people, however, aspired to more complete liberty than a monarchy could
afford them, and passed over the sea to secure freedom of conscience and
political enfranchisement in the New World.
With the moderate and steady maintenance of their rights, characteristic
of Englishmen, they were governed under charters from the English
sovereigns who, for the sake of extending their dominions, allowed them
much freedom. European governments could not conform to the demands of
progress by loosening the bands of arbitrary rule, and the new colonies
became the refuge of such as aspired to more liberal institutions, as
well as of adventurers in search of gain. Thus the English colonies
became the escape valve of European politics and society, the Appendix of
the Reformation, and the Hope of Liberty.
SECTION XVII.
CONCLUSION.
1. We see here again the operation of the constant law that impelled men,
or moved the “Star of Empire,” westward. The form of the continents,
the character of the surface and the climate, provided a natural and
desirable opening only in that direction. The overplus of population,
the discontent of some part of the people with existing government, the
restlessness of adventurers, or the requirements of trade and commerce
produced a migration. The colony, instructed by the experience of the
parent state, was free to improve on its institutions. Colonies have
almost always prospered more than the mother country. Transplanting
seemed to improve both the stock and the institutions. Greece was
colonized from Asia, as was Rome; Miletus, Syracuse, and other Greek
colonies excelled the mother cities in wealth, and though the free
structure of Grecian government allowed a natural development at home and
made Athens the metropolis, yet its marvelous genius was nourished and
stimulated by the colonies. Carthage was greater and stronger than Tyre,
and contended with Rome for the control of the world; the most western
nations of Europe were colonized from Rome and Germany, and have taken
the lead in later progress, while America has always displayed the lusty,
fertile vigor of a young life.
Thus the conformation of the surface of the earth, and the peculiarly
fruitful character of a transplanted civilization, have always furnished
an escape from the embarrassing fixity of an old state, in the same
western direction, and the old and the new unite to establish frequent
stages of progress. In this way a continuous growth has been secured that
impresses on advancing culture the same unity, from first to last, that
we see in the growth and mental development of the individual man.
2. We have seen the aggregation and primary discipline of mankind in the
simple but extensive despotisms of western Asia, varied in Palestine
by a theocratic system which has produced the world’s great religion,
and in Egypt by the predominance of a learned priestly caste. We saw
an improvement made in Greece to meet the demands of intellectual
development. Their intelligence, however, was a spontaneous outburst, of
necessity immature. Two thousand years of training, and the addition of
many new elements were required before mind could _rule_ the world; but
Greece, by the attractiveness of her art and culture, set men at work on
the great problem of politics and life.
Rome followed to organize government and consolidate the civilizations,
to ripen their fruit and transmit the seed to a more favorable time, and
to new and better races. A complete civilization was impossible without
well digested science, which had its remote roots in Greece; and law,
which was gradually produced by the grand Roman republic; and a clear
understanding of the profound yet simple precepts of Jesus Christ.
3. Western Europe received all the wisdom and experience of the ancient
world, and labored well at the grand problem, though she did not
completely solve it. She, however, made an immense advance toward it, and
her children, rich in her experience, instructed at once by her success
and her mistakes, and aided always by her wisdom, found (let us hope) in
America the goal of their noblest aspirations. Thus we find the spirit
of progress traversing the whole course of human history, constantly
advancing through all the confusion of rising and falling states, of
battle, siege and slaughter, of victory and defeat; through the varying
fortunes and ultimate extinction of monarchy, republic and empire;
through barbaric irruption and desolation, feudal isolation, spiritual
supremacy, the heroic rush and conflict of the Cross and the Crescent;
amid the busy hum of industry, through the marts of trade and behind
the gliding keels of commerce; through the bloody conflicts of commons,
nobles, kings and kaisers to New and Free America. There the Englishman,
the German, the Frenchman, the Italian, the Scandinavian, the Asiatic and
the African all meet as equals. There they are free to speak, to think,
and to act. They bring their common contributions of character, energy
and activity to the support and enlargement of a common country, and the
spread of its influence and enlightenment through all the lands of their
origin. As America is the common ground on which all the currents and
ideas of all the civilizations meet, so also it is the point from which
return currents, hastened by lightning and by steam, seek again every
quarter of the earth with kindly greetings, to renew the relations broken
in the original separation of the races, and to cement, by exchanges
mutually profitable, a new and better unity of mankind. As the heart
in the human body receives the current of blood from all parts of the
system, and, having revitalized it, returns it with fresh elements of
strength, so America adopts the children of all lands only to return a
manhood ennobled by a sense of its own dignity through the practice of a
system of self-government which improves the condition and promotes the
interest of each while it produces harm to none.
4. America, then, will colonize Ideas, extensively, when her institutions
are thoroughly matured. The process, indeed, commenced with her birth,
and her Spirit sails with her ships in every sea and visits all lands.
All the past has contributed to the excellence of her foundation, and
modern Europe has supplied her with the most desirable building material
both of ideas and of men. Without Asia, Greece and Rome, there would have
been a very imperfect modern Europe; and without modern Europe, America
must have begun at the beginning, with all the lessons, discoveries and
discipline of thousands of years to learn. Happily, we seem authorized to
believe that, as she concludes the possible great migrations of humanity,
she has so well learned the lessons of experience as to have given due
flexibility and capacity of improvement to all her institutions, and,
when necessary can _reconstruct_ herself _within_ herself. If this be
true, she will reach the goal of all progress by furnishing to each
individual among her citizens such aid as a state can give to make the
most of himself, to reach the fullest expression of his value.
CHAPTER II.
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
1. Civilization, or the history of it, at least, commenced in the Eastern
continent. The Western was, until a comparatively recent period, quite
unknown to those who recorded the progress of mankind, and the events by
which it was marked. The science of the most learned men and nations of
ancient times did not extend to a comprehension of geography beyond the
limits of their own countries, and of the countries conquered by their
rulers, or those which, bordering on these, held some relations with them.
2. The world appeared to be a flat surface, and no one thought of
questioning that it was so _only_ in appearance. It was reserved for a
daring Genoese sea captain, about four hundred years ago, to conceive the
happy idea that this appearance was deceptive; that it was really round;
and that, by sailing westward, the distant East, or India, might be
readily reached. Columbus, having become fully satisfied that this theory
was correct, and not being rich enough to fit out an expedition himself,
endeavored to convince others, who had the means, of the truth of his
views, and to induce them to aid him to put them to the test.
3. The Genoese, living by commerce, and, at that time wealthy and
powerful, gave him no encouragement. They even regarded him as a madman.
He applied to the Governments of Portugal, England, and Spain, but gained
little attention for many years. At length Queen Isabella, of Spain,
became interested in his theories, and, with much effort, assisted
him to put them to proof. He set sail August 3, 1492, with three small
vessels, on an unknown sea. His crew were filled with fear to find
themselves so far from land, and sailing toward unknown dangers. He had
great difficulty in calming their terrors, and was in great danger of
perishing in the mutiny they contemplated. He was saved by the opportune
appearance of land on the 11th of October. He had reached the group of
islands lying between North and South America. The one first discovered
was called, by the natives whom he found inhabiting it, Guanahani. He
named it, in remembrance of his peril, San Salvador—St. Savior. Supposing
he had reached the Indies lying to the eastward of Asia, and not dreaming
of a new continent, he called the inhabitants Indians. Cuba and Hayti,
larger islands lying further south, were soon after discovered, and he
hastened to carry back the wonderful tidings of his discovery to Spain.
He reached home seven months and eleven days after his departure.
4. He and his discoveries immediately became famous. The world had never
been struck with a surprise so great, and all Europe was in a ferment
at the news. He soon returned as Viceroy of the newly discovered lands,
to establish a colony and extend his researches. Five years later, in
1498, he discovered the main land near the river Orinoco, in the northern
part of South America. He died in 1506, unaware of the magnitude of his
discoveries, still believing he had only reached India from the west, and
treated with much ingratitude by the government he had so much benefited
by his bold genius. The first published account of the new continent was
by a Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who visited the main land in 1499,
claimed the merit of the discovery, and gave it his name, America. His
claim has long been disallowed, and Columbus duly honored as the real
discoverer, though the name was never changed.
5. It is believed that North America was known to the mariners of the
North of Europe as early as the tenth century; and that settlements, that
afterwards perished, were made from Iceland and Greenland as far south
as the shores of New England. This, however, is only a dim tradition,
there being no detailed and authentic history of these events left on
record so far as is yet known.
6. An English mariner, by descent a Venitian, disputes with Columbus the
first sight of the main continent in 1498. He first touched the coast of
Labrador, and sailed as far south as Florida in the next year. It was
near a hundred years later before a permanent settlement was made within
the territory that is now the United States, by the English, though the
city of St. Augustine was founded in Florida by the Spaniards in 1565.
In 1607 a settlement was made at Jamestown, on the Potomac river, in
Virginia, and in 1620 the Puritans of England, persecuted there for their
religious views, sought liberty of worship in the new world, establishing
a colony at Plymouth, in the eastern part of New England. Others
followed in succession until many distinct colonies had been planted on
the eastern coast of the United States; all of which—except Florida,
belonging to the Spaniards, on the south, and Canada, settled by the
French, on the north—were under the control of, and received their laws
from, England.
CHAPTER III.
CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN COLONIZATION FROM 1492 TO 1763.
1493—October 12, Christopher Columbus discovered land
belonging the Western Hemisphere—one of the Bahama Islands.
He touches at Cuba and Hayti before his return.
1497—John Cabot, master of an English vessel, and his son
Sebastian, touched at Newfoundland in June, and soon after
explored the coast of Labrador.
1498—Columbus, on his third voyage, discovers the American
Continent, near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in South
America.
—Sebastian Cabot, in a second voyage, first of Europeans,
explores our Atlantic coast as far south as Maryland.
1499—Amerigo Vespucci, or Americus Vespucius, a Florentine
merchant, conducts a vessel to the coast of South America.
Returning to Europe he publishes a book, claiming to have
first discovered the continent, and it receives his name,
America.
1500—Columbus is sent to Spain in chains by a Spanish officer
whom the jealousy of Ferdinand, the Spanish King, placed
over him. Treated with injustice and neglect, he died at
Valladolid, Spain, in 1506.
1512—Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard in search of the “Fountain of
Youth,” discovers Florida, near St. Augustine.
1524—John Verrazani, a Florentine, commanding a French
vessel, touches the coast near Wilmington, North Carolina,
and explores it north to Nova Scotia. He wrote a narrative
describing the country and the Indians.
1535—James Cartier, a French navigator, discovers the St.
Lawrence.
1541—He builds a Fort at Quebec, but soon abandons it.
—De Soto, a Spaniard, discovers the Mississippi. He traveled,
with six hundred men, through Georgia and Alabama, and fought
a bloody battle with the Indians near Mobile. These Indians
had a walled town of several thousand inhabitants. Thence he
traveled west to the Mississippi and Red Rivers. He died at
the mouth of the Red river, May 21, 1542.
1553—Persecution of the English Puritans commences.
1562—French Huguenots attempt a settlement in Florida. They
gave the name Carolina to the coast on the north. The first
colony is discouraged, and returns. In the year 1564 another
Huguenot colony is founded on the River May.
1565—Melendez, a Spaniard, founds St. Augustine, September 8th,
with five hundred colonists. It was the first permanent
settlement in the United States.
—Melendez destroys the French colony.
1567—The Chevalier Gouges (French) attacks St. Augustine, and
puts to death two hundred Spaniards in retaliation.
1578—The first English settlement contemplated. Queen Elizabeth
grants a patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert “to such remote,
heathen, and barbarous lands as he should find in North
America.” He makes two attempts to plant a colony—in 1579
and in 1583—fails in each, and perishes with his vessel,
September 23, 1583.
1584—Sir Walter Raleigh receives a similar patent, and sends
two vessels to the shores of Pamlico Sound. Queen Elizabeth
names the country Virginia.
1585—Raleigh sends a colony to Roanoke Island, but it is
unfortunate, and returns home.
1587—He sends another colony, but the Spanish Armada
threatening England, he could not send it supplies for some
time, and when visited, later, no trace of it could be found.
Discouraged, he gives up his patent to a London company of
merchants, who content themselves to trade with the Indians.
1602—Bartholomew Gosnold visits New England.
1603—Henry IV., King of France, grants Acadia (Nova Scotia)
to Sieur de Monts, who founds a colony on the Bay of Fundy,
at Port Royal in 1605.
1606—James I., King of England, establishes the London and
Plymouth companies for settling North America.
1607—The Plymouth company land a colony at the mouth of the
Kennebec river. It is unfortunate, and returns to England.
—The London company send out an expedition, which,
accidentally discovering Chesapeake Bay, enter, and found a
colony on James River, at Jamestown. The romantic Captain
John Smith was one of the colonists. This was the first
permanent English settlement in North America.
1608—Smith seeking, by orders from the London company, a
passage to the Pacific ocean, up the Chickahominy, is taken
prisoner by the Indians, condemned to death, and saved by
Pocahontas.
—Quebec founded by the French under Champlain.
—The English Puritans, persecuted in England, take refuge in
Holland.
1609—Lord Delaware is appointed Governor of Virginia, which
receives a new charter, and a considerable accession of
numbers.
—Part of the expedition, however, was shipwrecked, and the
colony, embracing a large unruly and indolent element, is
near perishing. Pocahontas repeatedly saves them from the
Indians. Hudson river and Lake Champlain discovered.
1610—Lord Delaware, having been delayed, arrives (after the
discouraged colonists had embarked to return to England) with
supplies, and saves the settlement.
1613—Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, an Englishman.
—The Dutch erect a fort at New York.
1615—They build Fort Orange, near Albany.
1619—The first General Assembly elected by the people is
called in Virginia, by Governor Yeardley. Eleven boroughs, or
towns, were each represented by two Burgesses, or citizens.
It was the dawn of civil liberty in Virginia, and a germ of
the future republic.
1620—Convicts are sent to Virginia, and negro slaves
introduced.
—September 6th, the Puritans, discontented in Holland, set
sail in the Mayflower, from Plymouth, England, for America,
under the auspices of the “Plymouth Company.”
—December 21st they land on Plymouth Rock, and, amid great
hardships, found a religious colony.
—James I. grants a charter to the Grand Council of Plymouth
for governing New England.
1621—A district called Mariana granted to John Mason.
—Plymouth colony makes a treaty with Massasoit.
—Cotton first planted in Virginia.
1622—Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason obtain a charter
of Maine and New Hampshire. They plant a colony on the
Piscataqua river.
—An Indian conspiracy nearly proves fatal to the Virginia
colony. March 22d, at noon, an attack is made on all the
settlements, and in an hour nearly a fourth part of the
colony is massacred. The colonists, in a bloody war,
thoroughly chastise the Indians.
1624—Virginia becomes a royal province, but stoutly maintains
its legislative authority.
1625—Death of Robinson, the distinguished Puritan divine, in
Holland.
1629—Massachusetts colony patented, and settlement made at
Salem, by John Endicott.
—Charlestown, Mass., founded.
—The Dutch colonize the west side of Delaware river.
1630—Patent of Carolina made to Sir Robert Heath.
1631—Massachusetts General Court confines the privilege of
voting to church members.
—Clayborne plants a colony on Kent Island.
—The Dutch erect a trading fort at Hartford.
1632—Maryland granted to Lord Baltimore.
1633—Connecticut colony founded.
1636—Roger Williams founds Providence.
1637—Pequod war in Connecticut.
1638—Rhode Island settled by followers of Anne Hutchinson.
—Harvard college founded.
—Swedes and Finns settle Delaware.
—Colony of New Haven founded. Persecution in Massachusetts.
1640—Montreal, Canada, founded.
1641—New Hampshire united to Massachusetts.
1643—The germ of the American Union is planted by a
confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
New Haven. It was for mutual protection and support, and was
kept alive about forty years.
1645—Clayborne causes an insurrection in Maryland.
—The Mohawks mediate between the Dutch and Algonquins.
—Witchcraft superstition commences.
1646—John Elliott becomes a missionary to the Indians.
1649—The Mohawk war on the French settlements and Jesuits.
1650—Common School laws passed in Connecticut.
1651—English “Navigation Act” forbids colonists to trade
with any country but England, and restricts trade among the
colonies. Thus the English make all the profits. English
merchants set the price of purchases and sales.
1651—Persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.
—Proprietary government subverted in Maryland.
1657—Elliott translates the Bible into the Indian language.
1662—Winthrop obtains a liberal charter for Hartford and New
Haven.
1663—Carolina granted to a company of Noblemen.
1664—The Dutch conquer the Swedes on the Delaware.
New York granted to the Duke of York, who sends a force to
dispossess the Dutch. It is done without fighting.
New Jersey granted to Berkely and Carteret.
1665—Lake Superior discovered by Father Allouez.
1668—St. Mary’s, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the
first French settlement within the boundaries of the United
States, founded.
1670—Mr. Locke’s philosophical constitution introduced in
Carolina. It soon proved an absurd failure.
1673—The Upper Mississippi discovered by Marquette.
1675—King Philip’s war in New England. He was a warrior of
great ability and activity. Fourteen towns were destroyed by
the Indians, and six hundred inhabitants killed. Philip is
killed August 12, 1676, and the Indian tribes very nearly
destroyed.
1676—Three of the Regicides (Judges of Charles I., King of
England) came to New England.
—New Jersey divided into East and West Jersey, at the
suggestion of Wm. Penn.
Bacon’s rebellion in favor of popular rights, in Virginia.
1677—Virginia obtains a new charter.
Massachusetts purchases Maine.
1678—Sir Edmund Andross, royal governor of New York, usurps
the government of the Jerseys.
1679—New Hampshire becomes a royal province, but the people
make a successful stand for their legislative privileges.
—Massachusetts having disregarded the Navigation Act, Edward
Randolph was sent as Inspector of Customs. He failed to
enforce the act, and in 1682 the charter of Massachusetts was
annulled.
1680—Charleston, South Carolina, founded.
1681—Wm. Penn receives a grant of Pennsylvania from Charles
II.
—Penn restores the proprietary government in the Jerseys.
—He founds Philadelphia; makes a treaty with the Indians; and
governs East Jersey.
1682—La Salle visits and names Louisiana.
1686—Sir Edmund Andross being made Governor-General over New
England, proceeds in a very tyrannical manner. He endeavored
to get possession of the charter of Connecticut, but failed,
though he took possession of the government.
1688—New York and New Jersey came under the jurisdiction
of Andross; but James II., the tyrannical King of England,
being deposed, Massachusetts imprisoned Andross. Rhode
Island and Connecticut resumed their charter governments;
but Massachusetts, having given offense by resistance to the
Navigation Act, never recovered her original charter.
—France having espoused the cause of the dethroned king, a
war broke out between France and England, known as “King
William’s” war.
1689—The government of New York is seized by Jacob Leisler
for King William.
1690—May 1st, a Congress of colonial delegates meets at New
York to concert measures for the common defense.
February 18th, destruction of Schenectady, N. Y., and
massacre of the inhabitants by the Indians, sent by the
French, from Canada.
—March 18th, Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, on the Piscataqua
river, is destroyed by the French and Indians. Casco, Maine,
is also destroyed.
—Sir William Phipps, Governor of Massachusetts, invades
Canada, unsuccessfully.
—French Protestants settle in Virginia and Carolina.
1691—Slaughter becomes Governor of New York. He executes
Leisler.
1692—Massachusetts receives a new charter. Her limits are
enlarged, but her privileges restricted.
—Texas settled by the Spaniards, at Bexar.
1695—Rice brought to Carolina, from Africa.
1697—The Peace of Ryswick terminates King William’s war.
1698—Piracies of Captain Kidd. He was tried and executed in
England, in 1701.
1699—Pensacola is settled by the Spaniards.
1701—William Penn grants a new charter to Pennsylvania.
1702—The Jerseys united and joined to New York.
“Queen Anne’s war” breaks out. New England suffered much from
the ravages of the Indians.
—Governor Moore, of South Carolina, attacks St. Augustine,
but without success.
—Mobile founded by d’Iberville, with a colony of Canadian
French.
—The Massachusetts Assembly contend with the royal governor
for their former liberties. Their charter is still further
restricted.
1703—Delaware (called The Territories) is separated from
Pennsylvania.
1706—The French and Spaniards invade Carolina. They are
repulsed with loss.
1707—Detroit, Michigan, settled by the French.
1710—Many thousand Germans, from the Palatinate, settle in
the colonies, from New York to the Carolinas.
1712—A war with the Tuscaroras, in North Carolina, results in
their complete defeat. They unite with the Iroquois.
1713—Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and Niagara, are
fortified by the French.
The Peace of Utrecht closes Queen Anne’s war.
1715—In a war with the Yamassees, South Carolina loses four
hundred inhabitants, but expels the Indians.
1716—Natchez founded by the French.
1717—Father Rasles, a Jesuit Missionary at Norridgwock,
Maine, excites the Indians to drive out the English from
Maine. He is the last of the Jesuit missionaries, and is
slain in the capture of Norridgwock, in August, 1724, by New
England troops.
1718—New Orleans founded by the French.
1720—A royal government supersedes the proprietary, in
Carolina.
1723—First settlement made in Vermont.
1729—North and South Carolina erected into separate
governments.
1732—A company in England prepare to settle Georgia.
1733—General Oglethorpe, with a colony, arrives in Georgia.
1736—Many Scotch Highlanders and Germans settle in Georgia.
1738—Insurrection of the slaves in South Carolina.
1740—General Oglethorpe invades Florida. He is repulsed. The
Moravians settle in Pennsylvania.
1742—The Spanish invade Georgia, but retire with loss.
1744—“The Old French War” begins.
1745—The New England colonies raise a force and capture
Louisburg, the “Gibraltar of America,” from the French.
1748—The treaty of peace of Aix la Chapelle, restores
Louisburg to France, to the great disgust of the colonies.
1750—The French and English both claim the Mississippi and
Ohio valleys. Lawrence Washington, and others form the Ohio
Company. Parliament grants it six hundred thousand acres of
land on, or near, the Ohio river. The French dispute the
possession, and threaten summary ejectment.
1753—George Washington is sent by Governor Dinwiddie, of
Virginia, as an envoy to the French and Indians in Ohio.
1754—The French build Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburgh).
Washington defeats a French party headed by De Jumonville.
The French are reinforced by fifteen hundred men, and
Washington with four hundred men, after defending himself one
day, capitulates.
—The British government, in expectation of a speedy war
with France, recommend the colonies to form a Union for
defense. Delegates from seven colonies meet at Albany,
June 14, 1754. A plan of Union was drawn up by Benjamin
Franklin. Connecticut rejected it as giving too much power to
the English government. Parliament rejected it as giving too
much to the colonies.
1755—Braddock’s defeat in Pennsylvania.
—War with the Cherokees, in Tennessee.
—The French, under Dieskau, are defeated at Lake George.
1756—War was formally declared, two years after it actually
begun.
1757—Fort William Henry, being attacked by an overwhelming
force of French and Indians, surrenders, and the garrison are
massacred by the Indians.
1758—July 6, Louisburg captured by the English under General
Amherst.
—General Abercrombie is repulsed in an attack on Fort
Ticonderoga, and Lord Howe, much liked in the colonies, is
killed.
—August 27, Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, Canada, taken by
Col. Bradstreet.
—November 25, Fort Du Quesne taken by the English, under
General Forbes.
1759—General Wolfe, commander of the English, and General
Montcalm, of the French army, meet in battle on the Heights
of Abraham, near Quebec. Wolfe’s army conquered, but both
commanders lost their lives. Quebec capitulated.
George III. ascends the throne of England.
1760—September 8th, Canada surrendered to the English.
Massachusetts vigorously opposes “Writs of Assistance”
(search warrants for goods that had not paid the duty).
1761—The Cherokees reduced to peace by Colonel Grant.
In October, Mr. Pitt, the English Prime Minister, always a
friend of the colonies, resigns.
CHAPTER IV.
CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES, FROM 1763 TO JULY
4, 1776.
In February, 1763, The Peace of Paris, concluded between the governments
of England and France, closed the war in America that had been so painful
to the colonies from the part which the French persuaded the Indians to
take in it. But, while the colonies bore a large part of the burden,
(they had raised $16,000,000 of its expenses, and had lost, in battle
or in hospital, 30,000 men,) of a war that drove the French out of all
their possessions in Canada and east of the Mississippi river; they were,
at the same time, trained to act in concert, which paved the way for a
future confederation, and hardened them to war. Being called into battle
under celebrated English commanders, and to fight side by side with
European veterans, they had opportunity to learn the art of war, as well
as to compare themselves with the soldiers of the mother country and of
France. This comparison was favorable to them, and inspired them with
confidence in their own ability.
The fatal blunders of Gen. Braddock, and the skill and bravery of
Washington and his provincial troops which, alone, saved the British
army from entire annihilation in the Pennsylvania wilderness, was never
forgotten. They felt themselves, even as raw militia, equal to the best
European soldiers, when on their own ground.