A violent controversy arose in congress on the subject of slavery, when

Missouri first applied for authority to form a State government, which

arrayed the South against the North, the slaveholding against the

non-slaveholding states. Missouri, having been considered a portion of

Louisiana, had derived from her connexion with the French and the

Spaniards the custom of holding slaves, which she considered as her

right. It was proposed, however, that in “admitting the territory to the

privileges of a state, slavery, or involuntary servitude, should be

prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes of which the party

should have been duly convicted; and that all children born within the

said state after its admission into the Union should be free at the age

of twenty-five.” This clause divided congress into two parties: the

non-slaveholding states demanded the restriction; the southern and slave

states rejected it. The contest of opinion was violent in the extreme.

Two principles seemed involved in this question; not only resistance to

slavery, but resistance to the interference of congress in the internal

government of individual states; and hence many advocates of sound

liberty and friends to the emancipation and elevation of the slave

opposed the restrictive clause.

After much violent discussion, the Missouri question was settled by a

compromise, which, while it allowed slavery in Missouri, prohibited it

in all the territory of the United States north and west of the northern

limits of Arkansas; and in August, 1821, Missouri became the

twenty-fourth state in the Union.

In 1821 Monroe entered upon his second presidential term, having been

re-elected, as was also Daniel Tomkins as vice-president.

The fourth census, taken in the year 1820, showed the population of the

United States to be 9,625,734; about a million and a half of whom were

slaves.

On the 7th of March in this year, General Jackson was appointed governor

of Florida and Elijeus Fromentin chief-justice. The Spanish officers,

very unwilling to give up their posts, threw many impediments in the way

of the new government, and refused to give up the archives which had

been stipulated for; and even when they were obtained, certain documents

were kept back by Don Cavalla, the Spanish governor. But Jackson, who

very well understood how to exercise authority, sent an armed force to

bring Cavalla before him; and as he still refused, had him carried from

his bed to prison, when he took possession of the papers, after which he

was discharged. Again these summary measures were severely commented

upon; but they were only according to Jackson’s mode of action—prompt,

overbearing, and successful. Florida was divided into two counties, St.

John’s, on the east of the Suwaney river, and Escambia on the west.

Jackson’s term of office expired with the rising of congress, and he

declined a re-appointment.

In 1822 a convention of navigation and commerce was concluded on terms

of reciprocal and equal advantage between France and the United States.

In the same year the ports of the West India Islands were opened to the

American Republic by act of the British parliament.

The American commerce having for many years suffered greatly from the

depredations of pirates in the West Indies, a small naval force was sent

against them, which recaptured five American vessels in the vicinity of

Matanzas in Cuba, and destroyed upwards of twenty piratical vessels. But

depredations still continuing, a larger force was sent out the following

year, under Commodore Porter, which broke up their retreats in these

seas, and sent them to other hiding-places, whence they reappeared after

a time.

In 1823 congress recognised the independence of the South American

republics, and ministers were sent to Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and Chili.

The same year, articles of convention for the suppression of the African

slave-trade were signed in London by agents sent for that purpose from

the United States, and officers were commissioned by each nation to

capture and condemn such ships as should be concerned in this illicit

traffic.

During the summer of 1824 the venerable La Fayette, now seventy years of

age, visited America, by express invitation from congress, after the

lapse of nearly half a century. He was received at New York with every

demonstration of respect, and made a tour through all the states of the

Union, upwards of 5,000 miles, which was in fact a triumphal progress,

state vying with state as to which should show him most affection and

honour. Finally he sailed from Washington, in September, in an American

frigate prepared for his accommodation, and called the Brandywine, from

the battle in which he was wounded.

In the year 1825, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as president, and J.

C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, vice-president. The administration of the

ex-president had been marked by singular prosperity. Sixty millions of

dollars of the national debt had been paid off, and party-feeling had so

much abated that this period is signalised as “the era of good-feeling.”

The new president, taking a review of the past in his inaugural speech,

remarked: “The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union is

past, that of our Declaration of Independence is at hand. Since that

period a population of 4,000,000 has multiplied to 12,000,000. A

territory bounded by the Mississippi had been extended from sea to sea.

New states have been admitted to the Union in numbers almost equal to

those of the first confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and commerce

have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth. The

people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired not by conquest

but by compact, have been united to us in the participation of our

rights and duties, our burdens and our blessings.”

On the 4th of July, 1825—that jubilee of the Declaration of Independence

of which the president had just spoken, and which was celebrated

throughout the Union as a great national festival—died two venerable

ex-presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both members of the

early colonial congresses; the former of whom nominated Washington as

commander-in-chief of the army, the latter drew up the celebrated

Declaration of Independence.

CHAPTER XXI.

EVENTS OF TWENTY YEARS.

We must now rapidly pass over the remaining quarter of a century, and in

so doing merely pause upon such events as give a marked character to the

progress of the years.

The first which we shall notice is of a moral rather than a political

character; one calculated to produce infinite results for the happiness

of humanity. It was in the year 1826 when temperance societies took

their first organised form. At that time one of the besetting sins of

the Americans was the use of ardent spirits; and so widely-spread was

this pernicious habit of dram-drinking, that the statistics of that

period present a calculation that, out of a white population of

10,000,000, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 were habitual

spirit-drinkers, of whom 375,000 drank daily on an average three gills

of ardent spirits, while an equal number consumed more than twice the

quantity, and of course were drunkards—a disgrace to themselves and

their country, and a perpetual source of discomfort to their relatives

and friends. In this situation of things, continues Hinton, in his

History, from which we have taken the above calculations, a few

individuals in the state of Massachusetts undertook the gigantic and

seemingly impracticable task of bringing about a reformation. The means

which they proposed was the establishment of temperance societies, the

members of which bound themselves to total abstinence from spirituous

liquors. The scheme was considered as ridiculous; and even many who

beheld drunkenness with disgust smiled at the inadequate weapon with

which it seemed to them this monster vice was about to be attacked. But

God crowned their grain-of-mustard-seed-effort with gigantic success.

Societies on the plan of the parent-institution, and zealously

co-operating with it, sprang up in all parts of the Union. In September,

1832, there were in the state of New York alone, about 4,000 temperance

societies, of which one-thirtieth of the whole population were members.

And since that time the cause has progressed immensely. In 1841 there

were 2,000,000 pledged teetotallers, 15,000 whom were reformed

drunkards; and in 1846 about 5,000,000. In Maine, Massachusetts, New

York, Vermont, Maryland, Wisconsin and Michigan, legislative enactments

have first restrained, then prohibited, under pains and penalties, the

traffic in intoxicating liquors.

One other event, which occurred during the presidentship of John Quincy

Adams, and in which he took a very lively interest, must be

mentioned—the formation of the anti-masonic societies. The cause was

this: One William Morgan, a quiet, inoffensive man, a citizen of

Batavia, in Genesee County, New York, was about to publish a book,

disclosing, as was said, the secrets of Freemasonry. On the 11th of

September, 1826, it being then Sunday, this man was taken from his home,

his wife, and children, under colour of a criminal process, into Ontario

County, examined and discharged. The very same day, however, instead of

being allowed to return home, he was again arrested and thrown into jail

by the persons who brought the first charge against him. Again these

same people paid his debt, and immediately upon his issuing from prison,

which was then in the darkness of night, he was again seized, gagged,

and forced into a carriage, which was rapidly driven 150 miles, relays

of horses and carriages being prepared along the whole line of road, and

in this manner conveyed, as after inquiry showed, to the Canadian

frontier, lodged in solitary confinement within the walls of an old

fortress, and after five days was supposed to be transported, at the

dead of night, “to the wide channel of the Niagara river, by four royal

archcompanions and sunk to the bottom. Nine days were occupied in the

execution of this masonic sentence; and at least 300 worthy brethren and

companions of the order were engaged as principals or accessories in the

guilt of this cluster of crimes.”[79]

It was in vain that the legislature of New York passed an act ordering a

strict investigation of the subject. Although numerous persons were

proved to be implicated in the abduction, it was impossible to procure

any evidence of the manner in which the unfortunate man had been

destroyed. All that could be learnt was, that a body, said to be that of

Morgan, was found below Fort Niagara. It being impossible, therefore, to

bring forward testimony which would warrant a charge of murder, it was

resolved to prosecute on that of abduction. But here again insuperable

difficulties were thrown in the way by the masonic fraternity. Many

witnesses were removed out of reach, grand juries were packed,

intimidation exercised, and every art put in practice to insure impunity

to the criminals. And although in some instances convictions were

obtained, and the conspirators punished, all the chief actors managed to

set the law at defiance.

Morgan’s abduction, and the formidable influence which the masonic

fraternity was found to possess, in the attempt to convict for that

crime, excited extreme indignation and disgust against these secret and

powerful societies in the minds of the citizens of New York, who argued

that secret societies were not only dangerous, but incompatible with the

institutions of a republican government, that their oaths and mysteries

were illegal and immoral, and that the use of them must disqualify for

offices of public trust. A political party, called Anti-Masonic, soon

rose in the western part of the state, which acquired such great

influence that its leaders became members of the legislative body. The

example of New York was followed by the states of Vermont,

Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey,

Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, and the territory of Michigan. But freemasonry

existed through it all.

About the time that the anti-masonic party began to decline, the

anti-slavery party arose. It still has its work to do; to battle with

oppression and crime a thousand times greater than that of freemasonry.

May God help the right!

The presidential election of 1828 was decided in favour of General

Jackson of Tennessee, with whose arbitrary and decisive military

movements we are already acquainted; and John Calhoun, of South

Carolina, was chosen vice-president. When, on the 4th of March, 1829,

Jackson assumed the reins of government, he found the country rich and

prosperous, at perfect peace with all nations, and having in the

national treasury a surplus of more than 5,000,000 dollars.

During the year 1828, congress enacted a tariff law, laying protective

duties on such imported articles as competed with certain manufactured

goods and agricultural products of the United States, by means of which

additional duties were laid on wool and woollen goods, iron, hemp and

its fabrics, distilled spirits, silk-stuffs, window-glass and cottons.

The manufacturing states were well pleased with this law, which,

however, was highly unsatisfactory to cotton-planters of the southern

states. This tariff law was the fertile source of agitation, and almost

revolution, during the presidentship of General Jackson.

In April of 1832, the Winnebagoes, Sacs, and Foxes, Indian tribes

inhabiting the upper Mississippi, commenced hostilities under their

celebrated chief, Black Hawk, re-entering the lands which had been sold

to the United States, and which were now occupied by the citizens of

Illinois. The so-called sale of Indian lands was frequently anything but

with the free-will of the red man, and, as in this very instance, the

Sac Indians were extremely unwilling to vacate their lands; but American

generals, of the same character as the president, unscrupulous and

resolute, not troubled either with too much conscience or too much

sensibility, were ever at hand ready to pledge themselves “within

fifteen days to remove the Indians, dead or alive, over to the west side

of the Mississippi.” The conduct of Black Hawk on this occasion is

worthy to be related. Gaines, the American general, rose in the council

of the chiefs, and said that the president was displeased with the

refusal of the Sacs to go to the west of the great river. Black Hawk

replied that the Sacs, of which he was the chief, had never sold their

lands, and were determined to hold them.

“Who is this Black Hawk? Is he a chief?” inquired the general. “What

right has he in the council?”

Black Hawk rose, and gathering his blanket round him, walked out of the

assembly. The next morning he was again in the council, and rising

slowly, said, addressing the American general: “My father, you inquired

yesterday, ‘Who is this Black Hawk? Why does he sit among the chiefs?’ I

will tell you who I am. I am a Sac; my father was a Sac; I am a warrior,

and so was my father. Ask those young men who have followed me to

battle, and they will tell you who Black Hawk is; provoke our people to

war, and you will learn who Black Hawk is.”

The people _were_ provoked to war, and the Americans learned to know

Black Hawk. He and his warriors came mounted and armed into the country

which they still claimed as their own, and broke up the settlements of

the white intruders, killing whole families and destroying their

dwellings. Generals Scott and Atkinson were sent out against them. But

an enemy more formidable than the red man went with them, and thinned

their ranks more remorselessly than the hatchet of the savage. This was

the cholera. The troops embarked in steamboats at Buffalo, and the

disease made its first appearance on board. Great numbers died; great

numbers also deserted on landing, and fled to the woods, where they

perished either from the disease or starvation. Scott was not able to

reach the scene of action. Atkinson, by forced marches, came up with

Black Hawk’s party on the 2nd of August, near the mouth of the Upper

Iowa. The Indians were routed and dispersed, and Black Hawk and his two

sons and several great warriors made prisoners. Nothing in the history

of humanity is much sadder than the putting down and destroying the last

remnants of these once powerful tribes. Driven out from their fertile

lands, thousands literally died of starvation; and if, as in the case of

the Sacs, they were headed by a chief of superior intellect, who could

not patiently submit to be uprooted like a weed from the soil of his

fathers, and who clung to it with a love as intense as that of the Swiss

for his mountains, then fire and sword swept him and his followers from

the land, and they were killed as traitors. God sees these things, and

permits them; nevertheless they are great iniquities. Black Hawk and his

sons were sent to Fort Jefferson, and put in irons; they were taken to

Washington, and had an interview with President Jackson, when a treaty

was concluded, and the captives relinquished all claim to their

territory, and consented to remove west of the Mississippi. After this

they were taken through several of the eastern cities, that they might

see the power and greatness of the whites, and how hopeless it was to

contend against them. Black Hawk ended his days on the Des Moines river,

where his people had settled. He had a bark cabin, which he furnished,

in imitation of the whites, with chairs, a table, a mirror, and

mattresses. He was no longer the great warrior; in the summer he is said

to have cultivated a few acres of land, on which he grew corn, melons,

and other vegetables. His last speech was at Fort Madison, on the 4th of

July, a festival to which he had been invited, and thus he spoke: “It

has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here to-day. I have eaten with my

white friends. The earth is our mother; we are now on it, with the Great

Spirit above us. It is good. I hope we are all friends here. A few

winters ago I was fighting against you. Perhaps I did wrong—but that is

past; it is buried—let it be forgotten. Rock River was a beautiful

country; I loved my towns, my corn-fields, and the home of my people. I

fought for it. It is now yours; keep it as we did; it will produce you

beautiful crops.”

Such was the spirit of the old, exiled Indian chief; he was a Christian

in practice, though not in name.

As the last chief of a once great and powerful people, we must be

allowed to say a few more words respecting Black Hawk, which we give

from the pen of one who knew him personally. “A deep-seated melancholy,”

says he, “was apparent in his countenance and conversation, and he spoke

occasionally of his former greatness with an inexpressible sadness,

representing himself as at one time master of the country north-east and

south of us. In the autumn of 1838 he set out for the frontier, where

payment was to be made to the tribe of a portion of their annuity. The

weather was both hot and wet, and he appears to have imbibed on his

journey the seeds of the disease which terminated his life. In October

the commission was to meet the tribes at Rock Island, but Black Hawk was

then too ill to accompany them. On the 3rd of October he died, after an

illness of seven days. His only medical attendant was one of the tribe

who knew something of vegetable antidotes. His wife, who was devotedly

attached to him, mourned deeply for him during his illness. She seemed

to have a presentiment of his approaching death, and said, ‘He is

getting old—he must die; Monotah is calling him home!’

“After his death, he was dressed in the uniform presented to him at

Washington, and placed upon a rude bier with bark laid across, on which

he was carried by four of his braves to the place of interment, followed

by his family and about fifty of the tribe, the chiefs being all absent.

They seemed deeply affected and mourned in their usual way, shaking

hands and muttering in gutteral tones prayers to Monotah for his safe

passage to the land prepared for the reception of all Indians. The grave

was six feet deep and of the usual length, situated upon a little

eminence about fifty yards from his wigwam. The body was placed in the

middle of the grave in a sitting posture, upon a seat constructed for

that purpose. On his left, the cane given him by Henry Clay was placed

upright, with his right hand resting upon it. Many of his old trophies,

his favourite weapons and some Indian garments were placed in the grave.

The whole was then covered with plank, and a mound of several feet in

height thrown over, and the whole enclosed with pickets twelve feet in

height. At the head of the grave was placed the American flag, and a

post was raised at the foot, on which, in Indian characters was

inscribed his age, which was about seventy-two.”

As an instance of the rapid growth of civilization in the wilderness of

the West, we will give a few sentences from the graphic pen of Judge

Hall, when speaking of this very region in the year of Black Hawk’s

death. “The country,” says he, “over which Black Hawk, with a handful of

followers, badly mounted and destitute of stores or munitions of war,

roamed for hundreds of miles, driving off the scattered inhabitants, is

now covered with flourishing settlements, with substantial houses and

large farms—not with the cabins and clearings of border-men, but with

the comfortable dwellings and the well-tilled fields of independent

farmers. Organised counties and all the subordination of social life are

there; and there are the noisy school-house, the decent church, the

mill, the country store, the fat ox and the sleek plough-horse. The

Yankee is there with his notions and his patent-rights, and the

travelling agent with his subscription book; there are merchandise from

India and from England, and in short all the luxuries of life. And all

this within six years. Six years ago the Indian warrior ranged over that

fertile region which is now covered with an industrious population,

while the territories of Wisconsin and Iowa and vast settlements in

Missouri have since grown up, beyond the regions which was then the

frontier and the seat of war.”

Such was the state of the West in 1832. Now in twenty years from that

time the white population has advanced still farther and farther

westward, removing at every step the Indian frontier. Iowa, Missouri and

Wisconsin have now taken their position as states of the Union, and

religion and education are establishing true civilization in the former

wilderness, and may atone to heaven for the wrongs done to the Indian on

this very soil.

But we must now return to the events of our general history.

The tariff bill, which passed into operation at the close of the session

of 1832, caused, as we have said, great excitement in the southern

states. South Carolina was the head-quarters of the opposition; and the

party adverse to the bill called themselves the State-rights party,

afterwards “nullifiers,” because having in November held a convention at

Columbia, they issued an ordinance in the name of the people, declaring

that congress had exceeded its powers in laying on protective duties,

and that all such acts should from that time be utterly _null_ and

_void_. And finally they declared, that should congress attempt by force

to bring their act into operation, the people would not submit; and that

any act of congress authorising the employment of a naval or military

force against the state, should be _null_ and _void_; and that in such

case the people would hold themselves absolved from any political

connexion with the other states, and would forthwith proceed to organise

a separate government, and do all other acts and deeds which a sovereign

and independent state has a right to do.

Further still; the legislature of South Carolina met on the 27th of

November, when Governor Hamilton gave in his concurrence to the

ordinance, and recommended that the authorities of the state and of the

city of Charleston should request the withdrawal of the United States

troops, which had been stationed there to guard against a slave

insurrection; that the militia should be called out, and provision made

for obtaining heavy ordnance and other munitions of war.

This novel doctrine, says Willson, of the right of a state to declare a

law of congress unconstitutional and void, and to withdraw from the

Union, was promptly met by a proclamation of the president, in which he

seriously warned the ultra-advocates of “States-rights” of the

consequences that must ensue if they persisted in their course of

treason to the government. He declared that, as chief-magistrate of the

Union, he could not, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty;

that the laws must be executed, and that any opposition to their

execution must be repelled if necessary by force.

This proclamation was extremely popular, and was supported even in South

Carolina, where there existed a strong party called “Friends of the

Union.” Party animosities were for the moment forgotten throughout the

States, and all united in agreeing to support the president in asserting

the supremacy of the laws. Nor did the president talk only; with his

usual prompt decision he caused Castle Pinckney, a fortress which

commands the inner harbour of Charleston, as well as the town, to be put

in complete order of defence; strongly garrisoned Fort Moultrie, and

ordered several ships of war to be stationed in the bay. Every one saw

that he was in earnest, and even the most violent nullifiers shrunk back

from a contest against the whole nation with a man like General Jackson

at its head.

Fortunately for the peace of the nation, the cause of discord and

discontent was in great measure removed by a compromise bill, introduced

into congress by Henry Clay. This bill was for modifying the tariff, and

ultimately reducing the duties to a proper standard. It was strongly

opposed by the supporters of the manufacturing interests, but

nevertheless, having passed both the House of Representatives and the

Senate, received the president’s signature early in March, 1833. It was,

however, accompanied by an act which provided for the collection of

duties on imports, and was called the Enforcing Bill, which was strongly

objected to as giving the president an almost unlimited power over

commerce. On the 4th of March, 1833, General Jackson entered his second

presidential term, Martin Van Buren, of New York, being elected

vice-president. Very soon after the re-election of President Jackson, a

great excitement was occasioned on account of the removal from the Bank

of the United States of the government funds deposited there, and their

transfer to certain state banks. The opponents of the administration

censured this measure as an unauthorised and dangerous assumption of

power by the executive; and the public confidence in the moneyed

institutions of the country being shaken, the pecuniary distresses of

1836 and 1837 were charged upon the hostility of the president to the

Bank of the United States; while, on the other hand, these very

distresses were ascribed to the management of the bank, which the

president declared to have become “the scourge of the country.”[80]

Again the pent-up and out-driven Indian tribes making, as it were, a

dying effort to save themselves, rose into rebellion, and the story

again is very sad. The Chickasaws and the Choctaws had, during the last

few years, quietly emigrated west of the Mississippi, into the territory

bordering on Arkansas, which had been allotted to them instead of their

own lands, and as an inducement to remove voluntarily, the United States

had paid the expenses of their journey, and supplied them with a year’s

provisions. Other tribes there were, however, who were not so easily

managed, and it is of their struggles to maintain a footing on their own

lands that we have now to speak. The Cherokees were the most civilised

of the Indian tribes; they had an established government, a national

legislature, and written laws. Their rights had been protected during

the administration of John Quincy Adams, against the claims of Georgia.

Under the administration, however, of the unscrupulous and aggressive

General Jackson, the legislature of Georgia, which acted very much in

the spirit of the president, extended its laws over the Indian territory

comprised within their boundaries, and among other severe enactments it

was declared, that “no Indian nor the descendants of an Indian, residing

within the Creek or Cherokee nation of Indians, should be deemed a

competent witness or party to any suit, in any court where a white man

is a defendant.” It was in vain that the Supreme Court of the United

States protested against these acts as unconstitutional. Georgia

persisted in its hard enactments, and President Jackson informed the

alarmed and anxious Cherokees that “he had no power to oppose the

sovereignty of any state over all who may be within its limits.” Their

case was precisely as if a fly, caught in a spider’s web, had appealed

for deliverance to another spider, when the advice would have been that

of President Jackson to the Cherokees—“they must abide the issue,

without any hope that he would interfere.”

They did abide the issue, until, worn out by oppressions and vexations,

some of their chiefs were induced to sign a treaty of evacuation. In

vain the Cherokees as a nation protested against it; lived quietly and

inoffensively; availed themselves of the civilisation of the whites, and

wished to profit by it; they were still the red men, the aborigines of

the forest, and they must become once more dwellers in the wilderness.

There was no help for them. Their general emigration was decided upon in

1835, but it was not effected until three years later.

The same year in which the removal of the Cherokees was decided, the

Seminole Indians of Florida began to resist the settlement of the whites

in their vicinity, the immediate cause of their hostility being again an

attempt to remove them west of the Mississippi. In September, 1823, soon

after the purchase of Florida by the United States, a treaty had been

made with the Seminoles, by which they relinquished their claims to

large tracts, reserving certain portions to themselves for residence.

The terms of this treaty being disputed, a second was made at Payne’s

Landing, in Florida, in 1832, when it was stipulated that the Seminoles

should relinquish their reservation, and remove west of the Mississippi,

a delegation of their chiefs being sent out at the expense of the United

States to examine the country assigned to them, whither the Creeks were

already gone; and, according to the treaty, if it were found that they,

the Creeks, would live amicably with them, and that the country was

agreeable to them, then the treaty should be binding. The report of the

delegates was not satisfactory. The country which was assigned to them

was of a stern character, unlike that of their native Florida; it

produced no light-wood for fuel, which was easy to fell, and to which

the Seminoles were accustomed. The savage wilderness of Nebraska did not

allure them; and the Indians, they reported, were bad; they preferred to

remain in Florida, and they accordingly maintained that the treaty was

not binding. Macanopy, their king, opposed their removal, and Osceola,

their most celebrated chief, said that he “wished to rest in the land of

his fathers, and for his children to sleep by his side.”

But the wishes of Macanopy and Osceola were as nothing beside the will

of President Jackson; and General Wiley Thompson was sent as the

government agent to Florida, to arrange the removal of the Seminoles.

Thompson reported that the Seminoles were unwilling to emigrate, and

received for reply that they must go; that his military force should be

increased, and that the annuities which the Seminoles received under the

treaty of 1823 should not be paid until they consented to leave the

country. The Seminoles took council together and promised to go the

following spring; and Thomson, writing to the president, said, “I

believe that the whole nation will come into this measure, but it is

impossible not to feel a deep interest and much sympathy for this

people.”

But when the spring came, and government measures began to be put in

operation for their removal, the heart of the whole people was roused as

one man, and they declared that they “could not leave their homes and

the graves of their fathers.” This persistance in opposition was

attributed to Osceola, whose bearing was proud and gloomy, and by order

of General Thompson he was put in irons. Dissembling his wrath, Osceola

obtained his liberty, and not only gave his consent to the removal of

the whole nation, but so completely won the confidence of the government

agent as to be entrusted with various commissions in different parts of

the country, which he executed faithfully. In the meantime, however, he

was concerting with the Indians a plan of deep revenge, which in the

month of December began to take effect.

The remainder of this mournful history we will briefly relate from

Marcius Willson. “At this time General Clinch was stationed at Fort

Orange in Florida. Being supposed to be in danger from the Indians, and

also in want of supplies, Major Dade was despatched from Fort Brooke, at

the head of Tampa Bay, with upwards of 100 men, to his assistance. He

had proceeded about half that distance, when he was suddenly attacked by

the enemy, and he and all but four of his men were killed; and those

four, horribly mangled, afterwards died of their wounds. At the time of

Dade’s massacre, Osceola with a small band of warriors was prowling in

the vicinity of Fort King. While General Thompson and a few friends were

dining at a store only 250 yards from the fort, they were surprised by a

sudden discharge of musketry, and five out of nine were killed. The body

of General Thompson was found pierced with fifteen bullets. Osceola and

his party rushed in, scalped the dead, and retreated before they could

be fired upon by the garrison.

“Two days later, General Clinch engaged the Indians on the banks of the

Withlacoochee, and in February of the following year, General Gaines,

the commander of the north-western division, was attacked near the same

place. In May, several of the Creek towns and tribes joined the

Seminoles in the war. Murders and devastations were frequent; the

Indians obtained possession of many of the southern mail-routes in

Georgia and Alabama, attacked steamboats, destroyed stages, burned

several towns, and compelled thousands of the whites, who had settled in

their territory, to flee for their lives. A strong force, however,

joined by many friendly Indians, being sent against them, and several of

the hostile chiefs having being taken, the Creeks submitted; though such

was their desperation, that many Indian mothers killed their children

rather than that they should become prisoners to the pale-faces. During

this summer great numbers were transported west of the Mississippi.

“In October, Governor Call took command of the forces in Florida, and

with nearly 2,000 men marched into the interior, when several

engagements took place.”

The time for the election of president being now come, Martin Van Buren

was chosen, and Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, vice-president. The war

in Florida, though it still raged, was for the time disregarded, owing

to the monetary and mercantile distresses of the country, which reached

their crises almost immediately after the accession of Van Buren. And

yet so prosperous had the country been, only in the preceding June, that

a large amount of surplus revenue had accumulated, which was given up to

the people, and distributed in three instalments among the several

states in proportion to their respective representations in congress.

While this extraordinary prosperity lasted, there was a perfect frenzy

of speculation; hundreds made immense fortunes, and tens of thousands

were reduced to want. During the months of March and April of 1837, the

failures in the city of New York alone amounted to nearly 100,000,000

dollars. The great extent of the business operations of the country, and

their intimate connexion with each other, caused the evil to extend into

all channels of trade. It was felt from the highest to the lowest. The

third instalment of the surplus revenue, which we have already

mentioned, having not yet been paid to the different states, was now

applied to the necessities of government; but no means of relief were

attempted for the people, it being contended that the case did not call

for governmental interference, but a reformation in individual

extravagance and a return to the old neglected ways of industry. A

destructive fire in New York, which occurred at the close of 1835, and

the loss by which was estimated at 17,000,000 dollars, added to the

present distress.

Nevertheless _growth_, which is the principle of American life, went on.

In September, 1835, Wisconsin was erected into a territory, and Arkansas

into a state; and now, in the midst of the general distress, Michigan

was admitted into the Union, making the twenty-sixth state; the original

number of thirteen being doubled.

We must now resume and conclude our account of the Seminole war, which

at this critical moment added to the expenses of the nation; while the

climate of a country abounding in swamps and marshes, amid which the war

was carried on, proved more fatal to the whites than even the Indians

themselves. After several encounters early in the season, a number of

chiefs came to the camp of General Jessup, and signed a treaty, by which

hostilities were to cease, and the Seminoles engaged to remove beyond

the Mississippi. But again the war broke out, and Osceola being

suspected as the cause, was seized in the month of October, when, with

several other chiefs and about seventy warriors, he arrived under the

protection of a flag of truce at the American camp. This was the

finishing stroke to the misfortunes of the Seminoles. It was a base

action; but the treachery of Osceola was pleaded in its palliation. The

Indian chief was now in the safe custody of the pale-faces, but the

strength of the Seminoles was not yet broken. He was confined in Fort

Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island, opposite Charleston. Though a captive,

he was not treated with unkindness. He was visited by the principal

people of Charleston, and all was done for him which could render him

comfortable, but his spirit was broken. It is related by one gentleman

who visited him frequently, that the expression of his countenance was

the most melancholy that could be conceived. He, however, is said never

to have uttered any lamentation, although he often spoke with bitterness

of the manner in which he had been taken prisoner, and of the injustice

which had been done to his people. His person was handsome, his voice

melodious, and his eyes filled with a gloomy fire.

Although his bearing and his fate awoke, as we have said, a universal

interest for him, and Mr. Edin in particular, who felt an enthusiasm for

the handsome and unhappy Seminole chief, brought him presents, he was

indifferent to all; he grew more and more silent, and from the moment

when he was put in prison his health declined, though he did not appear

to be ill. He ate very little and refused all medicine. The captive

eagle could not live when deprived of the free life and air of his

forest.[81]

Osceola was a captive, but his people were not quelled. They, however,

after they lost his leadership, strove not so much to maintain a hold on

their country as to fight out the quarrel with their enemies.

Accordingly, for three years more the war went on. In 1839, General

Macomb, who had assumed the chief command of the army, induced a number

of chiefs in the southern part of the peninsula again to sign a treaty

of peace. By this treaty they were permitted to remain in the country

until they could be assured of the prosperity of their friends, who had

already emigrated. Again the treaty was broken, and in June of that year

the territorial government offered 200 dollars for every Indian, dead or

alive; and thus a war of extermination having begun, was continued till

the year 1842.

In 1837, a patent was granted to S. F. B. Morse, for the Electric

Telegraph.

The census of 1840 gave the population of the United States as

17,068,666.

The Democratic or Whig party succeeded, in the following election, in

returning William Henry Harrison, “the hero of the Thames and the

Tippacanoe,” as president, in opposition to Van Buren, and John Tyler,

of Virginia, as vice-president. On March 4th, 1841, Harrison was

inaugurated, and exactly one month afterwards, his health being feeble,

he expired; when the vice-president, according to the Constitution,

became president.

Monetary affairs were at this time engrossing public attention, and so

great were the present pecuniary difficulties, involving many mercantile

houses in ruin, that congress adopted the extraordinary expedient of

passing a bankrupt law, which operated throughout all the states. And

not only did this law become available for individuals, but was taken

advantage of by various states themselves, and a great obloquy for the

time was cast on the nation—this was called _repudiation_. With

returning prosperity, however, most of the states resumed payment, and

little, if any state repudiation of debt has remained.

In 1842, a long existing dispute between the United States and England,

regarding the north-eastern boundary, was adjusted. Lord Ashburton was

sent from England as a special envoy, and Daniel Webster and he arranged

the terms of a treaty by which this important question of north-eastern

boundary, which had even threatened war, was amicably and finally

settled.

In 1844, serious disturbances occurred in the state of New York, called

the Anti-Rent Disturbances, of which a few words must be permitted us,

and which we will give principally from Mrs. Willard.

“In the early history of the state, we have seen, that under the Dutch

government certain settlers received patents of considerable portions of

land, that of Van Renssalaer being the most extensive, comprehending the

greater part of Albany and Renssalaer counties. These lands were divided

into farms, containing from one hundred to one hundred and sixty acres,

and leased in perpetuity on the following conditions. The tenant must

each year pay to the landlord or ‘patron,’ a quantity of wheat, from

twenty-two-and-a-half bushels to ten, with four fat fowls, and a day’s

service with wagon and horses. If the tenant sold his lease, the

landlord was entitled to one-quarter of the purchase money. The landlord

was also entitled to certain privileges on all water power, and a right

to all mines. In process of time the tenants began to consider these

legal conditions as anti-republican, as a relic of feudal tyranny.

Stephen Van Renssalaer, who came into possession of his patent in 1780,

had in the kindness of his nature omitted to exact his legal right until

200,000 dollars of back rent was owing, which, on his death in 1840, was

found appropriated by will. The enforcement of these long-neglected

demands gave rise to much dissatisfaction, and finally they were

forcibly resisted, when the States’ government called out the military,

but still to no purpose.

“In the summer of 1844, the anti-rent disturbances broke out with great

violence in the eastern towns of Renssalaer, and in the Livingston Manor

in Columbia County. The anti-renters formed themselves into associations

to resist the law, and armed and trained bands, disguised as Indians,

scoured the country, compelling every person whom they met to give in

their allegiance to this revolt, by saying ‘Down with the Rent!’ Not

contented with this, they proceeded to violence, and tarring and

feathering, and other outrages of the most fearful kind took place.

Sometimes a thousand of these pretended Indians, more fearful even than

the real ones, assembled in a body. Similar disturbances occurred at the

same time in Delaware, where Steele, the deputy sheriff, was murdered in

the execution of his official duties.

“In 1846, Silas Wright was chosen governor of the state, and by his

wisdom and firmness the public order was restored. On the 27th of

August, he proclaimed the county of Delaware in a state of insurrection;

resolute men were made sheriffs, military aid was given, and the leading

anti-renters taken and brought to trial. The murderers of Steele were

condemned to death, but their punishment commuted to perpetual

imprisonment.”

March 3rd, 1845, the two former territories of Iowa and Florida were

admitted as states into the Union.

CHAPTER XXII.

WAR WITH MEXICO.—ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.—VAST INCREASE OF TERRITORY.—THE

MORMONS.

We have already related how the adventurous La Salle, when endeavouring

to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, mistook his

reckoning, and entered the bay of Matagorda instead. This gave the

French nation a claim to Texas. The fort built by the unfortunate La

Salle was soon demolished by the Indians, and the Spaniards from their

neighbouring Mexico disputed also the French right of possession, they

claiming the whole of this coast as a portion of their own territory.

The first permanent settlement of the whites in Texas was by the

Spaniards, in 1684, when, under San Antonio de Bexar, the fort of that

name was established. In 1719 also a colony settled there from the

Canary Isles. Various missionary stations and military posts were also

established at different places, so that the Spaniards became the

assured possessors of the country, with an increasing population. The

missionary stations, unlike the simple log-huts and chapels of the early

French jesuits, were massive fortresses of stone, the churches decorated

with images of saints and paintings, and surmounted by enormous towers.

The ruins of several of these vast erections still remain in various

parts of Texas, and produce a very striking effect, especially in a

country where the traces of civilised life are so scanty. The Spanish

population of Texas was, however, inconsiderable at the time of the

Mexican revolution in 1810, owing to the incursions of the savage

Comanches and other Indian tribes, and to the police regulations of the

Spanish government. As regards the relative positions and feelings of

the Mexican government and that of the United States, we will give a few

remarks from an American writer.[82] “The Mexican authorities were not

so desirous of occupying Texas as of keeping her a desolate waste; that

she might present an impassable barrier between themselves and their

Anglo-American neighbours. The cause of this is not of difficult

solution, and is derived from the old mother-country. At the time when

Mexico was first colonised, Spain was at the head of the Roman Catholic

countries, and all heretics were held in abhorrence by her, and

exterminated by the inquisition and the sword. The changes which

knowledge and general enlightenment have produced in the Protestant

world universally, and even in the Catholic when it has been forced into

closer contact with progressive opinion, have not reached Mexico, which

has been shut up as it were, and which has jealously retained all her

native aversions, prejudices and jealousies. Besides which, Mexico as a

colony belonged less to the Spanish nation than to the Spanish kings,

and was governed by their viceroys, regardless of the well-being of the

people, merely as an estate to produce a revenue. No possible rivalry

with the mother-country was permitted; meanwhile the mines were

industriously worked, no commerce was permitted to the Mexicans, nor

might they rear the silkworm or plant the olive or the vine.

“When, however, the English colonies asserted and established their own

independence, Spain, fearing a similar revolt in her own colony,

somewhat relaxed her laws regarding their trade with foreign nations,

but only under severe restrictions and enormous duties, so that the

freedom on the one hand might be nullified by the restrictions on the

other. Very little change took place in Mexico.

“At length, in 1810, when the Spanish nation fell under the arm of

Napoleon, the Mexicans revolted. But the people were not united, and

after a war of eight years the Royalist party prevailed. A second

revolution took place in 1821, under Iturbide, when the Mexicans

succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke. Iturbide proclaimed himself

king, and the people, wishing for a republic, deposed him; he was

banished, and returning was executed. A new leader arose in the person

of Santa Anna, under whose auspices Mexico was divided into States, with

each a legislature, and over the whole a general government with a

federal constitution similar to that of the United States. But Santa

Anna was not a second Washington; the constitution became subverted, and

he the military tyrant of the country.”

Having given this brief sketch of the condition and government of

Mexico, we now return to Texas. When, in 1803, the United States

purchased Louisiana from France, the disputed claim to Texas became

transferred to them, and in 1819, when Florida was granted to them by

Spain, they ceded to that country their claims to Texas as a portion of

Mexico. But although they had resigned their claim to Texas, the United

States could not resist their natural impulse at extension and

colonisation, and, in 1821, favoured by the Mexican authorities, who

hoped that the bold and determined Anglo-American settler would be a

good defence against the hostile Comanches, the first attempt at the

colonisation of Texas was successfully made. The intended leader of this

movement was Moses Austen, of Durham, in Connecticut, who obtained a

grant of land from the Mexican authorities for the settlement of a

colony between the rivers Brazas and Colorado. Death prevented Moses

Austen from carrying out his plans, which, however, were fully and most

successfully executed by his son, Steven F. Austen. The success of

Austen’s colony soon alarmed the Mexican authorities; and well it might,

for these sturdy republicans once planted there would soon take such

firm root as to displace any other possessor. Nor was it long before

evidences of their intentions were apparent. In 1827, a movement was

attempted by the settlers of Nacogdoches to throw off the Mexican yoke

and to establish a republic under the name of Fredonia. The attempt was

unsuccessful, but the Mexican authorities were alarmed, more especially

as soon after some overtures were made on the part of the United States

government to purchase Texas.

In 1833, there were about 10,000 American settlers in Texas; and at that

time dissatisfaction and discontent were prevailing largely among them.

The Spanish Mexicans of the province carried against them every measure

in the government, and when Steven Austen was sent to the city of Mexico

to petition for redress, he was first neglected, and then thrown into a

dungeon. In 1835 Austen was once more in Texas. The usurpations of Santa

Anna had in the meantime increased the public discontent, and the

Texians generally prepared to throw off the yoke of his despotism.

Adventurers from the American states hastened to take part in the

approaching contest, which sooner or later was sure to be advantageous

to their nation. A provisional government was appointed, and Samuel

Houston placed at the head of the army in Texas.

In December the Texian forces, under General Burleton, besieged the

strong fortress of Alamo and the city of Bexar, which was garrisoned by

General Cos and 1,300 Spaniards and Mexicans. In a few days the fortress

was taken, and the Mexicans obtained permission to retire; so that

within a very short time not a single Mexican soldier remained east of

the Rio Grande.

Santa Anna, who understood too well the spirit of the people, no sooner

saw the stronghold of Bezar taken by a party whose purposes were so

adverse to his own, than he entered Texas in person, and with 4,000 men

invested Goliad and Bezar, which had unfortunately been left in the

hands of a very inadequate force. The attack commenced and continued for

several days, the fortress of the Alamo in Bezar being defended by its

little band with a courage, says Samuel Goodrich, worthy of Leonidas and

his Spartans. After having held out for a considerable time they

sustained a general assault on the night of the 6th of May. They fought

until Travis, their commander, fell, and seven only of the garrison were

left when the place was taken, and the little remnant was torn to

pieces. Two human beings only were left, a woman and a negro servant.

Among those who fell on this terrible occasion was the celebrated David

Crockett of Tennessee, a man well known from the eccentricity of his

mind and the independence of his character; he was found surrounded by a

heap of dead whom he had slain.

Colonel Fanning, who commanded at Goliad, by direction of the Texian

authorities evacuated this place on the 17th of March, but had scarcely

reached the open country when they were surrounded by the Mexicans with

a troop of Indian allies. They defended themselves all day, and killed a

great number of the enemy; during the night, however, the Mexicans being

reinforced, they were obliged to surrender, on condition of being

treated as prisoners of war: good faith, however, was unknown to Santa

Anna, and no sooner were they in his power than he ordered them to be

drawn out and shot. Four hundred men were thus murdered in cold blood;

one of the soldiers saying to his fellows, when the inhuman order was

given, “They are going to shoot us; let us face about and not be shot in

the back.” This bloody tragedy, which stamped the name of Santa Anna

with infamy, took place on the 27th of March, 1836.

These direful tidings aroused, at the same time, the American hatred and

sympathy. After this they would not permit Texas to remain in the hands

of so cruel and false an enemy.

Santa Anna, encouraged by his victory and confident of success, pursued

the Texian army, now under the command of General Houston, as far as San

Jacinto, where Houston resolved to risk a battle, although his force was

less than 1,000 and the enemy double his number. This was on the 21st of

April. The Texians commenced the attack, rushing furiously forward to

within half-rifle distance, with the ominous battle-cry of “Remember the

Alamo!” The fury with which they assailed the enemy was irresistible,

and in less than half an hour they were masters of the camp, the whole

Mexican army being killed, wounded, or prisoners. The following day

Santa Anna himself was taken, without arms and in disguise.

The plausibility of this artful leader induced his captors to believe

him favourable to the independence of Texas. At his request he was sent

to the United States, and had an interview with President Jackson, whom

he succeeded also in winning, and by whom he was permitted to return to

Mexico. No sooner in Mexico than he disclaimed his late proceedings and

again commenced war on Texas. In the meantime the United States, England

and France recognised the independence of that country. But her struggle

was not at an end; and gaining strength by the contest, the Texians, in

1841, assisted by a body of American adventurers, proceeded to take

possession of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, lying on the eastern

side of the Rio Grande. This attempt was unsuccessful, but it opened, as

it were, a door into New Mexico, and the American foot being once

planted there, as elsewhere, was but the forerunner of possession.

In 1844 Texas made application to be received into the American Union.

Great discussion followed; both President Jackson and his successor, Van

Buren, opposed it, on the ground of the existing peaceful relations with

Mexico, but the great body of the American people were favourable to it.

The question of annexation was made the great test question of the

following election, and James Polk and George M. Dallas owed their

elections to its support. Accordingly, on the 4th of March, 1844, they

were inaugurated, and Texas already in February had been admitted into

the Union. The annexation of Texas was of course resented by Mexico, her

minister at Washington declaring it to be “the most unfair act ever

recorded in history.”

The conditions of annexation required from the authorities and people of

Texas were as follows: 1st. That all questions of boundary should be

settled by the United States; 2nd. That Texas should give up her

harbours, magazines, etc., but retain her funds and her debts, and,

until their discharge, her unappropriated lands; 3rd. That additional

new states, not exceeding four, might be formed _with slavery_ if south

of lat. 36½°, but if north, _without_.

The annexation of Texas led to war with Mexico. In July an armed force

under Colonel Zachery Taylor, was sent out to protect the new territory

against the threatened invasion of Mexico, besides which negotiations

were opened for the adjustment of the quarrel, the United States being

desirous of purchasing a peaceful boundary on the Rio Grande and the

cession of California.

Whilst these negotiations were pending with but little hope of a

successful termination, a difficulty arose between the United States and

England respecting the northern boundary of Oregon. The brief history of

this north-western state is as follows. In the spring of 1792, Captain

Robert Gray, of Boston, discovered a river to which he gave the name of

his vessel, the Columbia. This was the first knowledge which the

Americans had of this river. In 1804–5, Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, under

the commission of the American government, explored this river from its

mouth to its source. After the year 1808, the country was occupied by

various fur companies. These are the circumstances upon which the United

States based her claims to the territory as far as 54° 40′. But English

merchants being settled in the country, England also asserted her claim,

and a discussion of rights and claims ensued, which became so hot on

both sides as even to threaten war between the two countries.

Fortunately, however, the question was amicably adjusted by the treaty

of 1846, by which the 49th degree became the frontier of the United

States to the north, Vancouver’s Island was wholly relinquished to the

British, to whom also the right of navigation in the Columbia was

conceded.

War with Mexico continued through the whole of 1846–47, and in May of

the following year, left the Americans in quiet possession of the

northern provinces of Mexico proper, a vast and important territory

including New Mexico, Utah, and California. The incidents of the war

were of an adventurous and romantic character. The wonderfully varied

and tropical character of the country, and the wild and guerilla kind of

warfare amid scenes rendered memorable in the old chivalrous days of

Spanish glory and enterprise, gave an extraordinary charm to a war which

perhaps cannot be justified on strict principles of Christian morality.

Young adventurers flocked to the armies of Generals Wool, Kearney, and

Taylor, impatient to take part in a enterprise which was dangerous and

exciting in the highest degree. It is said that when the news of the

imminent danger of the army on the Rio Grande reached the United States,

that everywhere young men hastened westward to defend their brethren,

fight the Mexicans, and push forward for the Halls of the Montezumas;

and that Prescott’s work, the “History of the Conquest of Mexico,” being

just then published and universally read, greatly increased the

enthusiasm.

In April, 1847, Peubla, the second city in Mexico, was taken by the

Americans under General Scott, and in the following September, the grand

city of Mexico itself. “Three hours before noon,” says Mrs. Willard, who

seems to have the strongest sympathy with this war, “General Scott made

his entrance, with escort of cavalry and flourish of trumpets, into the

conquered city of the Aztecs. The troops for four-and-twenty hours now

suffered from the anarchy of Mexico more than her prowess had been able

to inflict. Two thousand convicts let loose from the prisons attacked

them from the house-tops, at the same time entering houses and

committing robberies. The Mexicans assisting, these fellows were quelled

by the morning of the 15th.

“General Scott gave to his army, on the day of their entrance into

Mexico, memorable orders concerning their discipline and behaviour.

After directing that companies and regiments be kept together, he says,

‘Let there be no disorders, no straggling, no drunkenness. Marauders

shall be punished by court-martial. All the rules so honourably observed

by the glorious army in Peubla must be observed here. The honour of our

country, the honour of our army, call for the best behaviour from all.

The valiant must, to win the approbation of God and their country, be

sober, orderly, and merciful. His noble brethren in arms will not be

deaf to this hasty appeal from their commander and friend.’

“On the 16th, he called the army to return public and private thanks to

God for victory; and on the 19th, for the better preservation of order

and suppression of crime, he proclaimed martial law. Thus protected by

the American army, the citizens of Mexico were more secure from

violence, and from the fear of robbery and murder, than they had ever

been under their own flag.”

Nor does this statement appear to be overdrawn. An English writer[83] on

Mexico, who was in the country the two years following the war, dates

the commencement of an improvement in this degraded people from the

American invasion. “Nothing,” says he, “could exceed the jealous

suspicions with which the Mexicans formerly regarded other nations, more

particularly perhaps the people of the United States. The hatred and

rancour with which the very name of American was mentioned while

hostilities were in progress, were immeasurable. But at the present time

kindly feelings are being fostered with a large proportion which will

lead to happy results for both countries.

“In respect of the broad principles of commerce, productions and

restrictions, the intercourse of Mexico with other nations has at

present led to but few salutary results. Exclusiveness and shortsighted

suspicion still remain the governing features of their commercial

policy; liberality, innovation, and improvement, being carefully guarded

against. Foreign productions of importance are excluded as ruinous, and

the country is effectually protected against honourable traffic, though

left open to the lawless proceedings of swindlers and smugglers of every

grade.

“When the Americans marched upon the interior of the country,” after

gaining every battle on the outskirts, said an intelligent Mexican, who

had been seized upon by the American army and compelled to serve as a

guide, “the most horrible ideas of their cruelty and rapacity were set

afloat. As they drew near the capital, we were given to understand that

there was no torture nor disgrace to which they would not subject the

inhabitants, if they conquered us. The priests made themselves

particularly busy in influencing the minds of the people in every part

of the city against them, and members of the secular clergy went from

house to house of the wealthier classes, to arouse their zeal against

the invaders, and to procure sums of money for the benefit of the cause.

It was generally believed that our enemies were neither more nor less

than a kind of monsters, permitted by heaven to visit us as a judgment

upon our crimes and neglect of the holy church.

“‘For my own part such a dreadful idea of our enemies had taken

possession of me, that I could neither eat nor sleep; I was like one

bereft of his senses; every avenue of my mind seemed closed but that of

fear. Sleeping or waking, I was haunted by the image of our invaders,

and I was in the act of making a precipitate retreat at the moment I was

surrounded by several hostile soldiers. But, above all, was a popular

horror associated with the American generals. The people were taught to

believe them the most atrocious impersonations of cruelty and rapacity

which it was possible to imagine. It was reported that they had sworn to

hang every Mexican who should fall into their hands, and that they had

approached the capital with the most malicious determination to wreak

their vengeance upon it.’ The Mexican prisoner related, therefore, that

when he found himself in the hands of such dreaded foes he was in

momentary expectation of being shot or hanged, and could not at first

understand why his execution was delayed. Still more was he astonished

when he beheld the American generals themselves. Instead of fierce

tyrants with bloodthirsty visages, as he had been taught to regard them,

he beheld, he said, two agreeable-looking, fair men, with paternal

countenances and amiable manners. General Scott made a good impression;

but General Taylor attracted by his unassuming dignity and awed by his

firmness.

“‘I am sure,’ continued this narrator, ‘that many of my countrymen have

a great respect for the people of the United States; they have reason

for it. Their officers were kind instead of cruel to us; they spared our

houses and our property; they were just to our storekeepers. Indeed, in

many respects, our city has had cause to regret the period when they

went away.’ The cruelties of the Mexicans in this struggle were of the

most unsparing character; every American or Texian who was captured was

killed in some ruthless manner, their dead and mangled bodies being left

to be recognised by their friends. It was their practice,” says Mr.

Mason, “to extort by the most brutal threats and unlicensed conduct, the

money and property of individuals unfortunate enough to be in their

vicinity, or failing this to outrage their families, or sacrifice them

to their mean revenge. They exhibited the utmost baseness and duplicity

in all attempts at compromise and interchange of prisoners; and they

stripped and plundered the bodies of the American dead left on the field

of battle, burning and disfiguring them in the most brutal manner.

“The generosity of the American general shines in happy contrast with

these deeds of their enemies. A large party of wounded Mexicans were

left in the hospital totally unprovided for on the retreat of Santa

Anna’s army from Buena Vista, where the Americans gained a signal

victory in February, 1847, and which in fact made them masters of the

northern provinces of Mexico Proper. In the disastrous flight which

followed this defeat, hundreds of the wounded were left by the wayside

to be drowned by the waters, even before death, and numbers who had

escaped unscathed in the battle, perished on the march in the agonies of

thirst and hunger. On General Taylor becoming acquainted with the fact,

he despatched such medical assistance as he could spare, together with

between thirty and forty mules laden with provisions, to their

assistance. This, it is said, being only one instance out of many that

might be recorded to the credit of the Americans.” And no more than what

is right; for the Americans, though chargeable with an aggressive spirit

in many cases, with a greed of territory and a lust of colonisation,

like their old Anglo-Norman ancestors, were yet Christians, and it is by

this Christianity alone, which the conqueror must never forego, that the

citizens of the United States will in process of time extend themselves

over the whole of the western hemisphere.

We have heard above the testimony of a Mexican to the character of the

American invaders. And as regards the moral state of Mexico, we will

give an average statement of the amount of crime for one year in the

city of Mexico, the population of which is but little above 130,000:

MALES. FEMALES. TOTAL.

Robbery 1,800 590 2,390

Quarrelling and Wounding 2,937 1,805 4,742

Bigamy, etc. 421 203 624

Homicide 180 42 222

Incontinence, etc. 75 37 112

Forgery 11 3 14

Throwing Vitriol 41 17 58

Lesser Crimes 734 341 1,075

—————

9,237

Besides which, about 900 dead bodies are found in the streets and

suburbs annually, the cause of which is never known and rarely inquired

into. In the above list of crimes is found vitriol throwing, which

probably is new to some of our readers, but is so common in Mexico, as

the above author assures us, that its appalling evidences are frequently

visible in the streets; and not only among the lower classes, but among

the wealthy, who have fallen victims to the demoniac vengeance of these

ignorant and brutal people.

The taking of Mexico was the crisis of the war. But though the enemy’s

capital was in the hands of the Americans, they made use of their

conquest for no other purpose than to establish peace. In vain Santa

Anna endeavoured to carry on the war; his power was gone for the

present, and in October, being abandoned by his troops, he once more

became a fugitive. In the following February a treaty was laid before

congress, and on the 29th of May, the treaty being signed between the

two nations, peace was declared to the American army in Mexico.

The stipulations of the treaty were, that Mexico should be evacuated

within three months, prisoners on each side released, and Mexican

captures made by the Indians within the limits of the United States were

to be restored. These limits, as they affect Mexico, begin at the mouth

of the Rio Grande, and proceed thence along the deepest channel of that

river to the southern boundary of New Mexico. From thence to the Pacific

they follow the river Gela and the southern boundary of Upper

California. The United States might, however, navigate the Colorado

below the entrance of its affluent the Gela. If it were found

practicable and judged expedient to construct a canal, road, or railway

along the Gela, both nations were to unite in its construction and

afterwards to participate in its advantages. The navigation of the river

to be obstructed by neither nation. Mexican citizens within the limits

of the relinquished territories of New Mexico and Upper California to be

allowed a year to make their selection whether they would continue

Mexican citizens and remove their property, for which every facility was

to be furnished, or whether they would remain and become citizens of the

United States. The United States stipulated to restrain the incursions

of all the Indian tribes within its limits against the Mexicans, and to

return all Mexican captives hereafter made by the Indians. In

consideration of territory gained, the United States government agreed

to pay to Mexico 15,000,000 dollars, and also to assume her debts to

American citizens to the amount of 3,500,000 more. Three millions were

paid down to Mexico at once, congress having the preceding winter placed

that sum in the hands of the president in anticipation of this

arrangement.

Thus was the contest ended, to the incalculable advantage of America,

and of Mexico likewise, though her benefit will lie in the nearer

proximity of a more enlightened government, free institutions, and an

advancing people.

The territory of Wisconsin was admitted into the American Union as a

state, in May, 1850.

A vast extent of country, as we have already said, fell into the hands

of the United States government, in consequence of its Mexican

conquests. An important portion of this was Utah, so called from the

tribe of Indians inhabiting it, and which was formed into a territorial

government as early as 1850. But this remarkable country, with its vast

mountain chains, its deserts, its affluent valleys, and its great Salt

Lake, together with its extraordinary people, the Mormons, deserve more

than a mere summary mention. The Rocky Mountains on the east and the

Sierra Nevada on the west, form the boundaries of Utah; besides these,

two lofty chains intersect the country from north-east to south-west.

The Great Basin, a considerable portion of which is sandy desert, is an

elevated valley, composing the western portion of Utah; it is in circuit

about 12,000 miles, and lies about 5,000 feet above the level of the

sea. The great valley of the Colorado, on the east, although not fully

explored, is said to be wonderfully fertile, abounding in wood, and

admirably fitted for the purposes of agriculture. Its northern portion,

and the whole district of the Great Salt Lake, are full of natural

beauties, and abundantly repay cultivation.

The Great Salt Lake is perhaps the most singular feature of Utah. Its

form is irregular, in extent it is about seventy miles, and contains

many islands. It is extremely salty, and so shallow as not to be

available for the purposes of navigation. Its western banks, intersected

by rivulets impregnated with salt and sulphur, are totally devoid of

vegetation, excepting such small shrubs as spring up among the

glittering saline particles, and here the mirage frequently displays its

fantastic show, as in the deserts of the East. Fresh water and green

turf are unknown through an extent of one hundred miles, while a coating

of solid salt incrusts the earth, upon which the mules pass as upon ice.

This lake never freezes. The river Utah, or the Jordan as it is called

by the Mormons, is a small river of fresh water which unites Lake Utah

to the Great Salt Lake. Lake Utah, thirty-five miles long, receives the

waters of a great number of fresh-water streams which descend from the

mountains, and keep the waters of this lesser lake fresh, although on

its southern limits a considerable vein of salt has been found imbedded

in the clay.

These lakes are about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Lake Utah, as well as the rivers which flow into it, abounds with

excellent fish, which with the chase furnish a subsistence to the

Indians of this district.[84]

Into this singular region, with its snow-capped mountains, its elevated

valleys, its sandy deserts, and salt and sulphurous waters, came, in the

year 1848, a people whose social and religious system forms as singular

an anomaly in the midst of modern civilisation as the country itself

which they chose amid the more ordinary aspects of nature. These, as is

well known, are the Mormons.

The commencement of this sect was only eighteen years previous to the

great emigration westward, and has become an historical event. Joseph

Smith, the Mormon prophet, a man of low origin, a native of Palmyra in

the state of New York, pretended to have found written plates of gold,

which he also pretended to translate by miraculous inspiration, and gave

forth as the book of Mormon, representing himself to be a great prophet

of the latter day, a new Moses or Mahomet. The character of Smith

appears from his youth upwards to have been that of a religious

enthusiast, if not impostor. When only fourteen, during one of those

periods of religious excitement called revivals, he declared that he had

been favoured with a heavenly vision, in which two angelic personages

freed him from the power of the Enemy and forbade him to join himself to

any Christian sect. As he approached manhood he pretended to a knowledge

of the occult sciences, and used the divining rod in the discovery of

gold, at which period he was known as “Joe the Money-Digger.” The

greatest treasure, however, which came into his hand, whether by occult

knowledge or by angelic revelation, was, he said, the Book of Mormon,

though no one ever saw the golden plates on which he asserted that it

was written. As regards this so-called Book of Mormon, it is now

generally supposed to have been the production of one Solomon Spalding,

a Presbyterian minister, who, after various unsuccesses, wrote a tedious

work of fiction on the History of the North American Indians, as the

descendants of the patriarch Joseph, from the reign of Zedekiah to the

fifth century of the Christian era, and which purported to have been

buried by Mormon, its original compiler. This work, which never found a

publisher, some years after its author’s death fell by some means into

the hands of Sidney Higdon, an associate of Smith’s. The Book of Mormon

was published, and Joe Smith was impudently announced by it to be a

second Prophet and Saviour of mankind, who should establish a great Zion

in America. Ill-founded and absurd as his pretensions were, he soon

obtained an immense influence over the ignorant, not only in America but

in England, and his sect increased not by hundreds but thousands. The

principles of this sect are as yet but imperfectly understood. If,

however, they are to be inferred from their bible, they will be found

based on Christianity, whatever extravagances and impurities they may

have engrafted upon it. This book is said to contain, in the first

place, the whole of the Christian Bible, to which are added the writings

of later prophets, of whom Meroni and Mormon are asserted to be the

last. These give a more definite prophecy of Christ, but still adhere to

the details of his life as related by the Evangelists, but in no

instances propound any new religious doctrines or theory. The sect

asserts, however, that Joe Smith, being directly descended from these

later prophets, not only inherited their divine gifts, but was endowed

with the spiritual privilege of divine communication, which he had the

power of imparting to others; and that by means of these divine and

miraculous gifts he and his followers are brought into closer

communication with Christ than any other body of Christians.

While we must believe that these high pretensions of Joe Smith’s are

delusions if not imposture of the most daring kind, it is still an

interesting question what was the secret of the wonderful influence

which he possessed over such thousands in the present age, and by which

he was able not only to form them into a vast organised society, but

even after his death to leave them so firmly knit together that no sign

of dissolution appears amongst them. No doubt, however, but that Joe

Smith was an extraordinary man, however unprincipled, gifted with a

measure of that far-seeing power which assumes to be prophetic, and

possessed of that subtle influence which subdues to its dominion the

minds of all who are brought within its sphere, besides which he had

great knowledge of human nature, and framed his government upon a

hierarchical basis so as to enslave the multitude to a powerful

priesthood. As regards the prophetic gifts of their first leader, the

Mormons declare that Joe Smith distinctly foretold the time and manner

of his own death, so that when it occurred the sect, instead of being

disheartened and broken up, only regarded it as the accomplishment of a

divine ordination, as a testimony to the truth of their faith, and other

men of a like spirit with Smith took his place.

The Mormons, in the year 1838, established themselves and built a temple

at Kirtland in Ohio; they then removed into Michigan, afterwards into

Missouri, whence they were expelled on the charge of an attempt to

assassinate the governor. From Missouri they removed into Illinois,

whence they were again driven out by the inhabitants. In this last

state, however, they remained long enough to found a city called Nauvoo,

in which they built, upon the fine slope of a hill, a vast and

magnificent temple in a barbaric style of architecture, according as

they asserted, to directions laid down in the book of Mormon, the

effect, however, of which was extremely imposing. Mormonism was now

flourishing. The wealth and population of the community increased

greatly. Smith was not only Prophet and High Priest but Mayor of Nauvoo,

and even, it is said, offered himself as candidate for the Presidentship

of the Union. At Nauvoo also it was that the grossest feature of

Mormonism first revealed itself—Smith pretended that he had received a

revelation allowing him to have many wives. This and other things roused

the public indignation, and Joe Smith and his brother, on the charge of

having been concerned in robbery and murder, were lodged in prison at

the town of Carthage; and while in prison were themselves murdered by a

band of a hundred men who forcibly entered in disguise for that purpose.

Although this outrage was as great as that for which the Mormon leader

was incarcerated, the public indignation continued to be so unabating

against them, that the following year they sold all their possessions in

Illinois, deserted their city and temple, and again, like the children

of Israel of old, commenced their wanderings in the wilderness, their

chosen head and prophet on the death of Smith being Brigham Young, the

son of an Eastern States’ farmer. After a long and arduous march of

3,000 miles, amid difficulties and dangers and the endurance of many

sufferings, and having crossed the Rocky Mountains they reached the

Great Salt Lake, on the fertile shores of which they settled down as in

a land of Goshen. Here a great prosperity has again commenced for them;

their numbers increase annually, and even so early as 1846 they were

able to furnish 500 volunteers for the Mexican war.

At the present time the Mormons number about 30,000. They are building a

vast city, twelve miles in circumference, the houses of which are of

brick, and their new temple, on a scale still more magnificent than the

former, is of stone, the plan it is said having been revealed to Brigham

Young in a miraculous vision. About 13,000 inhabitants reside in the

city, the remainder having established themselves on the banks of the

Jordan, which river, as we have said, connects Lake Utah with the Great

Salt Lake. They have already commenced the cultivation of the soil,

which is found to produce seventy-five bushels of wheat per acre, and

which is favourable to the growth of the potato, though the climate is

too severe for the Indian corn. Rain is rare in the country, and

irrigation is therefore indispensable. They have erected corn and

saw-mills on the streams of water which descend from the mountains, wood

being abundant for this purpose, besides which they have iron-works and

coal-mines, and various factories. They have dug canals and built

bridges. They have established regular mails with San Francisco on the

Pacific and New York on the Atlantic. Public baths, supplied from the

hot springs of that volcanic region are erected in the city, and they

have founded also a university, where lectures on the sciences,

conformable to Mormon views, are delivered. The climate is extremely

salubrious.

The Mormon government is a hierarchy; and the one great doctrine which

is impressed upon the people is submission in all things to the

priesthood; but all sects and opinions are tolerated amongst them. If

all is true which is said of their social life, morality amongst them is

at a very low ebb. Nevertheless, accounts are so contrary, that Miss

Bremer, for instance, states on what she considered good authority,

“that the habits and organisation of the community were according to the

Christian moral code, and extremely severe.” Whatever it may be however,

whether it ministers to the evil or the good in human nature, there

seems to be a very popular element in Mormonism, for it reckons about

100,000 members within its pale, both in Europe and America, and those

in Europe seem to be rapidly removing themselves to this New Jerusalem

on the banks of the Great Salt Lake. One cause of their success,

doubtless, is the wonderful system of organisation which prevails

amongst them. They do not undertake the task of establishing their

settlements according to the usually independent mode of individual and

ordinary squatters, but all is the result of organised industry, and the

result astonishes all. Captain Stansbury, in his Survey of Utah, thus

describes the mode which they adopt for the founding of a new town. “An

expedition is sent out to explore the country, with a view to the

selection of the best site. An elder of the church is then appointed to

preside over the band designated to make the first improvement. This

company is composed partly of volunteers and partly of such as are

selected by the Presidency, due regard being had to a proper

intermixture of mechanical artizans, to render the expedition

independent of all without.” And still further to illustrate this

system, we will extract a letter given by the author of a very

comprehensive article on Mormonism in the “Edinburgh Review,” and to

which we are already indebted. “In company of upwards of 100 wagons I

was sent on a mission with G. A. Smith, one of the Twelve, to Iron

County, 270 miles south of Salt Lake, in the depth of winter, to form a

settlement in the valley of Little Salt Lake, now Parowan, as a

preparatory step to the manufacturing of iron. After some difficulty in

getting through the snow, we arrived safe and sound in the valley. After

looking out a location, we formed our wagons into two parallel lines,

some seventy paces apart; we then took the boxes from the wheels and

planted them about a couple of paces from each other, so securing

ourselves that we could not easily be taken advantage of by any unknown

foe. This done, we next ran a road up the ravine, opening it to a

distance of some eight miles, bridging the creek in some five or six

places, making the timber and poles, of which there is an immense

quantity, of easy access. We next built a large meeting-house, two

stories high, of large pine-trees, all neatly joined together. We next

built a square fort with a commodious cattle-yard inside the enclosure.

The houses were some of hewn logs, others of dried bricks, all neat and

comfortable. We next inclosed a field, five by three miles square, with

a good ditch and pole-fence. We dug canals and water-ditches to the

distance of thirty or forty miles. One canal to turn the water of

another creek upon the field for irrigating purposes, was seven miles

long. We built a saw-mill and grist-mill the same season. I have not

time to tell you half the labours we performed in one season. Suffice it

to say, that when the governor came along in the spring, he pronounced

it the greatest work done in the mountains by the same amount of men.”

This system of judicious organisation, by which his proper place is

appointed to every man, has been carried throughout the Mormon

movements, and much of their success may be attributed to this cause.

The march from Missouri to the Great Salt Lake was conducted on this

system. Captain Kane, who was an eye-witness, describes 3,000 persons,

among whom were many women and children, journeying across an unknown

and wilderness country with all the discipline of a veteran army. “Every

ten of their wagons was under the care of a captain; this captain of ten

obeyed a captain of fifty; who in his turn obeyed a member of the High

Council of the Church.”

The great route to the western states of Oregon and California by the

South Pass, runs about sixty miles north of this city of the Mormons,

and one still nearer may be taken. The inhabitants supply the travellers

with fresh mules, oxen, and provisions for the journey. The road of

Independence west of the Rocky Mountains is good, and the number of

travellers which frequent it immense. The Mormons have established

ferry-boats on the Platte and Green Rivers.[85]

Such is the history and the present position of the Mormon settlement of

Utah. Already in 1850 they petitioned congress for admission into the

Union, under the designation of the State of Deseret, a name taken from

their Book of Mormon, but as yet they rank only as a territorial

government.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CALIFORNIA—STATISTICAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES.

The American state of California, a portion of the Mexican Upper

California, came, as we have already said, into the possession of the

United States through their Mexican conquests, and, as the event has

proved, has supplied an important epoch not only in the history of the

United States, but of the world itself.

The first discoverer of Upper California was Sir Francis Drake, in the

year 1579, when, having doubled Cape Horn, he coasted the Pacific shore

in the vain hope of discovering a passage to the Atlantic Ocean, and

took possession of the country, to which he gave the name of New Albion,

in the name of his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. This discovery, however,

not being followed up by colonisation, the English lost the right of

possession, which was claimed by the Spaniards as a portion of the

conquests of Cortez, which were prior to the discovery of Sir Francis

Drake.

In 1603, Philip III. of Spain sent out Sebastian Viscaino to examine the

coast of Upper California in search of suitable harbours for the Spanish

East India ships. He discovered and took possession of San Diego and

Monterey, giving on his return glowing descriptions of the beauty and

fertility of the country. The Spaniards, however, made but little

progress in colonisation, owing in part to the hostility of the natives.

Their principal, and in fact first permanent settlement was at San

Diego, but the coast, nevertheless, was frequented by their ships on

account of its valuable pearl-fisheries. Although the Spanish government

did not consider the colonisation of Upper California worth the expense,

priests of the Franciscan order established several missionary stations,

in the hope of converting the natives. Twenty-one stations were thus

formed on the most fertile lands, each occupying about fifteen square

miles. The buildings of those stations were contained in an enclosure of

adobe or sun-dried brick. To the principal missions was attached a

presidio, where was a quadrangular fort, in which was placed a company

of soldiers for the protection of the missionaries, and to assist them

also in bringing the refractory natives under their influence. The

result was, that about half the Indians in the missionary district

became nominal Christians and menial labourers at the same time. The

very constitution of these missions, however, was calculated to prevent

any effectual colonisation of the country by the whites, inasmuch as,

while the missionaries themselves were monks and nuns, the soldiers at

the presidios were not permitted to bring their wives with them; so that

_homes_ did not immediately spring up there as among the wiser

colonists, who understood by this means how to attach the settler at

once to the soil. Neither was money allowed to be in circulation, and

the _Padre_ of the mission held everything under his control. As might

be expected, therefore, these missions never took deep root in the

country, and only the few places where families were allowed to settle,

are those in which towns sprung up, of which Ciudad de Los Angeles, San

Diego and San Francisco were the principal, no one of which, in the year

1840, contained 1,000 inhabitants. Of the general population of Upper

California, Humboldt states, that in 1802 it consisted of 15,562

converted Indians and 1,300 of other classes; in 1840 it is estimated

that the number of whites was 5,000, of mistigoes or mixed 2,000, and of

natives about 18,000. From this time, when the American exploring

parties, of which we shall speak presently, had opened as it were a door

into these hitherto unknown regions, and the advancing tide of western

emigration reached its threshold, population began rapidly to increase;

so that the Hon. Butler King states, in his official report, that “in

1846 Colonel Fremont had little difficulty in calling to his standard

some 500 fighting men, and that, at the close of the war with Mexico,

from 10,000 to 15,000 Americans and Californians, exclusive of converted

Indians, were then in the territory. The immigration of American

citizens in 1849, the year following the cession of California to the

United States, was estimated at 80,000, that of foreigners at 20,000.”

We are indebted to Mrs. Willard for the greater portion of the following

rapid sketch:—

“This country during the Spanish rule constituted a part of the

viceroyalty of Mexico or New Spain. When Mexico became a federal

republic, not finding California sufficiently populous to form a state,

she established over it a territorial government. The Californians, like

the Mexicans, sometimes had their revolutions, and declared themselves

independent; but they always returned again to their allegiance, and

till the opening of the war between the republics of America and Mexico,

they were governed as a territory of the latter. Los Angeles was the

seat of the territorial government; a member of the eminent family of

Pico was at its head, and General Castro, the military chief, made

Monterey his residence.

“A few years since the country between the Rocky Mountains and the

Pacific was as little known as the centre of Africa. In the years 1803

and 1804, Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, sent out by President Jackson,

explored the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains in

latitude 47°, then struck upon the head waters of the Columbia, and

followed its source to the Pacific Ocean. Settlements succeeded these

discoveries and those subsequently of Captain Grey. The purchase of

Louisiana from France, in 1803, carried the American dominion from the

Mississippi to the heights of the Rocky Mountains. All the country

beyond those mountains and south of Oregon was, previous to the late war

with Mexico, in the possession of that country, and in 1840 its place on

the map of the world was a blank.

“The American government in 1838, sent out, chiefly for the benefit of

trade and commerce, a naval exploring expedition under Captain Charles

Wilkes, to coast the American continent to the south and west, and to

explore the islands of the Pacific. Captain Wilkes was directed to make

surveys and examinations of the coast of Oregon and the Columbia River,

and afterwards along the coast of California, with especial reference to

the Bay of San Francisco. After executing this order in August and

September, 1841, he pronounced the harbour of San Francisco to be ‘one

of the finest, if not the very best in the world.’ The town, then called

_Yerba Buono_, he said, consisted of one large frame building, occupied

by the Hudson Bay Company; the store of an American merchant, a

billiard-room and a bar; the cabin of a ship occupied as a dwelling;

besides out-houses, few and far between. The most prominent man in the

region was Captain Sutter, a Swiss by birth, and once a lieutenant in

the Swiss guards of Charles X. of France, but who had immigrated from

Missouri to California. Having obtained from Mexico a grant of land

thirty leagues square, he located his residence within it and near the

confluence of the American river with the Sacremento; here he built a

fort at the junction of the rivers and laid out a town, to which he gave

the name of New Helvetia, but which has since been called Sacremento

City. Captain Wilkes reported favourably of the soil and productions of

the country.

“In 1842, John C. Fremont, at that time a lieutenant of topographical

engineers, being ordered on an exploring tour, left the mouth of the

Kansas in the month of June with a party of about twenty. He travelled

along the fertile valley of this river; struck off upon the sterile

banks of the Platte River, followed its South Fork to St. Vrain’s Fort,

and thence northerly to Fort Laramie, on the North Fork of the same

stream. Following up, from this point, the North Fork and then its

affluent the Sweet Water River, he was conducted by a gentle ascent to

that wonderful gateway in the Rocky Mountains called the South Pass. He

had found on his lonely way a few straggling emigrants bound to Oregon,

but not one to California. Having explored the vicinity of the South

Pass, his orders were executed, and he returned.

“The next year, again under the auspices of government, and with a party

of thirty-nine, he set out earlier in the season, with special orders to

examine and report upon the country between the Rocky Mountains and the

line of Captain Wilkes’s explorations on the Pacific coast. He now

crossed the Rocky Mountains further south, and where they were 8,000

feet in height. He then examined and laid open, by his report, the

region of the Salt Lake, having reached that extraordinary expanse of

salt water by following its beautiful affluent, the Bear River.

“Fremont, now brevet captain, was, on September 19th, at Fort Hall, on

his way to Oregon. Here he met a Mr. Chiles, the only emigrant he had

yet seen to California. Having, in the manner dictated by his orders,

explored Oregon, he turned south and commenced his route to California,

by traversing in winter the terrible and dangerous snows of the Sierra

Nevada. From this seemingly interminable way, the lost and famished

wanderers emerged upon the waters of the Sacremento, and they followed

its affluent, the American Fork, to Sutter’s Fort, ignorant of the

golden treasures beneath their feet, soon to set in motion a rapidly

concentrating population from every corner of the world. After their

wants had been kindly supplied by Captain Sutter, the party travelled

south and beheld and enjoyed the vernal beauties of the flowery valley

of the San Joaquin. Turning then to the southern extremity of the Sierra

Nevada, they next passed the arid waste of the Great Desert Basin.

“They had discovered and named on their way new rivers and mountain

passes; and had laid open regions which had heretofore, except to the

hunter and the savage, been but the hidden recesses of nature. They had

explored California and made known an overland route.”

Mr. Polk entered upon the presidential office resolved to carry out the

Mexican war, as well as to make its results advantageous to his country

by putting her in possession not only of New Mexico but of California

also, the importance of which he fully estimated as opening up a great

commercial state on the Pacific, even before its almost fabulous wealth

of gold had become known.

The Mexican war went on, the American interests being advanced at every

step, and finally the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo established peace

between the two republics, and gave the United States government

possession of that vast territory which she coveted with a prescient

wisdom, and which it assuredly was the will of God that she should

people with her industrious and enterprising sons.

This treaty, which put the Americans in possession of California, was

signed in February, 1848, and by a coincidence so extraordinary, that

had it been imagined by a writer of fiction, it would have been

considered improbable, if not impossible, the discovery of the gold was

made within one month from that time. The first gold was found in the

lands of that Captain Sutter whom we have already mentioned, on the

American Fork of the Sacremento, and almost immediately afterwards in

various other localities. The possession of the vast extent of what was

so lately Mexican territory, with its framework of society so different

to that of the United States, had caused considerable anxiety in the

minds of many thoughtful men as to the result. It was feared that many

years must pass before a sufficient number of American citizens had

settled in these new lands to fuse the old elements into a congruous

mass, and that before this should take place bloodshed and disruption

might have made the acquired territory a dear purchase. But Providence,

who overrules human events for the wisest and best purposes, signally

set at rest all these doubts, by permitting the discovery of the gold,

which would act as the most tempting lure to call away, not only from

the older states, but from the very ends of the earth, a population

which would at once sweep away the old influences and begin all anew.

Gold, which in so many instances had been a dire curse, was here

converted into a blessing.

The tide of emigration set in. In the following year, 1849, 30,000 souls

from the United States alone emigrated to California. No outpouring of

people in the Middle Ages ever equalled this. We will give a little

sketch of this great movement from the graphic and elegant pen of Bayard

Taylor, who saw with his own eyes what he describes:—

“Sacremento city was the goal of the emigration by the northern routes.

From the beginning of August to the last of December, scarcely a day

passed without the arrival of some man or company of men and families,

from the mountains, to pitch their tents for a few days on the banks of

the river, and rest from their months of hardship. The vicissitudes

through which these people had passed, the perils which they had

encountered, and the toils they had endured, seem to me without

precedent in history. The story of 30,000 souls accomplishing a journey

of more than 2,000 miles through a savage and but partially explored

wilderness, crossing on their way two mountains equal to the Alps in

height and asperity, besides broad tracts of burning desert and plains

of nearly equal desolation, where a few patches of stunted shrubs and

springs of brackish water was their only stay, has in it so much

heroism, daring and sublime endurance, that we may vainly question the

records of any age for its equal. Standing as I was at the closing stage

of that grand pilgrimage, the sight of those adventurers, as they came

in day by day, and the hearing of their stories, had a more fascinating,

because more real interest, than the tales of the old travellers which

so impress us in childhood.

“It would be impossible to give, in a general description of the

emigration, viewed as one great movement, a complete idea of its

wonderful phases. The experience of any single man, which a few years

ago would have made him a hero for life, becomes mere common-place when

it is but one of thousands; yet the spectacle of a great continent,

through a region of 1,000 miles from north to south, being overrun with

these adventurous bands, cannot be pictured without the relation of many

episodes of individual bravery and suffering. Without giving an account

of the emigration generally, I will content myself with a sketch of what

was encountered by those who took the northern route, the great overland

highway of the continent, that very route which we have described

Captain Fremont as having opened.

“The great starting-point for this route was Independence, where

thousands were encamped through the month of April, waiting until the

grass should be sufficiently high for their cattle, before they ventured

on the broad ocean of the plains. From the 1st of May to the 1st of

June, company after company took its departure from the frontier of

civilisation, till the emigrant trail from Fort Leavensworth on the

Missouri, to Fort Laramie at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, was one

long line of mule-trains and wagons. The rich meadows of the Nebraske,

or Platte, were settled for the time, and a single traveller could have

journeyed for the space of 1,000 miles, as certain of his lodgings and

regular meals as if he were riding through the agricultural districts of

the middle states. The wandering tribes of Indians on the plains, the

Pawnees, Sioux, and Arapahoes, were alarmed and bewildered by this

strange apparition. They believed that they were about to be swept away

for ever from their hunting-grounds and graves. As the season advanced,

and the great body of the emigrants got under way, they gradually

withdrew from the vicinity of the trail, and betook themselves to

grounds which the former did not reach. All conflicts with them were

thus avoided.

“Another and more terrible scourge, however, was doomed to fall upon

them. The cholera, ascending the Mississippi from New Orleans, reached

St. Louis about the time of their departure from Independence, and

overtook them before they were fairly embarked on the wilderness. The

frequent rains of the early spring, added to the hardships and exposure

of their travel, prepared the way for its ravages, and the first 300 or

400 miles of the trail were marked by graves. It is estimated that about

4,000 persons perished from this cause.

“By the time the companies reached Fort Laramie the epidemic had

expended its violence, and in the pure air of the elevated region they

were safe from further attack. But then the real hardships of their

journey began. Up and down the mountains that arise in the Sweet Water

Valley; over the spurs of the Wind River chain; through the Devil’s

Gate, and past the stupendous mass of Rock Independence, they toiled

slowly up to the South Pass, descended to the tributaries of the

Colorado, and plunged into the rugged defiles of the Tampanozu

Mountains. Here the pasturage became scarce, and the companies were

obliged to take separate trails in order to find sufficient grass for

their teams. Great numbers also suffered immensely for want of food, and

were compelled to kill their horses and mules to keep themselves from

starvation. Nor was it unusual for a mess, by way of variety to the

tough mule-steaks, to kill a quantity of rattlesnakes, with which the

mountains abounded, and have a dish of them fried for supper.”

We have already spoken of the assistance rendered to these vast trains

of adventurers by the Mormons, then lately settled at their new city on

the Great Salt Lake. “Remarkable,” says Bayard Taylor, “must have been

the scene which was presented during the summer. There a community of

religious enthusiasts, having established themselves beside an inland

sea, in a grand valley shut in by snow-capped mountains, 1,000 miles

from any other civilised spot, and dreaming only of rebuilding the

Temple and creating a new Jerusalem, were aroused by the advance of

these vast pilgrim-bands. And indeed, without this resting-place in

mid-journey, the sufferings of the emigrants must have been much

aggravated. The Mormons, however, whose rich grain lands in the valley

of the Utah River had produced them abundance of supplies, were able to

spare sufficient for those whose supplies were exhausted. Two or three

thousand who arrived late in the season remained in the valley all

winter.