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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Men of Action, by Burton E. Stevenson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: American Men of Action
+
+Author: Burton E. Stevenson
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2005 [EBook #16508]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN MEN OF ACTION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Gundry and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN
+MEN OF ACTION
+
+
+BY
+
+
+BURTON E. STEVENSON
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY--MEN OF MIND,"
+"A SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA," ETC.; COMPILER OF
+"DAYS AND DEEDS--POETRY," "DAYS AND
+DEEDS--PROSE," ETC.
+
+
+GARDEN CITY NEW YORK:
+
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+1913
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1909, 1910, BY
+
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: WASHINGTON]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I.--A TALK ABOUT BIOGRAPHY
+
+II.--THE BEGINNERS
+
+        Summary to Chapter II
+
+III.--WASHINGTON TO LINCOLN
+
+        Summary to Chapter III
+
+IV--LINCOLN AND HIS SUCCESSORS
+
+        Summary to Chapter IV
+
+V--STATESMEN
+
+        Summary to Chapter V
+
+VI.--PIONEERS
+
+        Summary to Chapter VI
+
+VII.--GREAT SOLDIERS
+
+        Summary to Chapter VII
+
+VIII.--GREAT SAILORS
+
+        Summary to Chapter VIII
+
+INDEX
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Washington    _Frontispiece_
+
+Columbus
+
+Jefferson
+
+Jackson
+
+Lincoln
+
+Cleveland
+
+Franklin
+
+Webster
+
+Boone
+
+Grant
+
+Lee
+
+Dewey
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN MEN OF ACTION
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A TALK ABOUT BIOGRAPHY
+
+
+No doubt most of you think biography dull reading. You would much rather
+sit down with a good story. But have you ever thought what a story is?
+It is nothing but a bit of make-believe biography.
+
+Let us see, in the first place, just what biography means. It is formed
+from two Greek words, "bios," meaning life, and "graphein," meaning to
+write: life-writing. In other words, a biography is the story of the
+life of some individual. Now what the novelist does is to write the
+biographies of the people of his story; not usually from the cradle to
+the grave, but for that crucial period of their careers which marked
+some great success or failure; and he tries to make them so life-like
+and natural that we will half-believe they are real people, and that the
+things he tells about really happened. Sometimes, to accomplish this, he
+even takes the place of one of his own characters, and tells the story
+in the first person, as Dickens does in "David Copperfield." That is
+called autobiography, which is merely a third Greek word, "autos,"
+meaning self, added to the others. An automobile, for instance, is a
+self-moving vehicle. So autobiography is the biography of oneself. The
+great aim of the novelist is, by any means within his power, to make his
+tale seem true, and the truer it is--the truer to human nature and the
+facts of life--the greater is his triumph.
+
+Now why is it that everyone likes to read these make-believe
+biographies? Because we are all interested in what other people are
+doing and thinking, and because a good story tells in an entertaining
+way about life-like people, into whom the story-teller has breathed
+something of his own personality. Then how does it come that so few of
+us care to read the biographies of real people, which ought to be all
+the more interesting because they are true instead of make-believe?
+Well, in the first place, because most of us have never tried to read
+biography in the right way, and so think it tiresome and uninteresting.
+Haven't you, more than once, made up your mind that you wouldn't like a
+thing, just from the look of it, without ever having tasted it? You know
+the old proverb, "One man's food is another man's poison." It isn't a
+true proverb--indeed, few proverbs are true--because we are all built
+alike, and no man's food will poison any other man; although the other
+man may think so, and may really show all the symptoms of poisoning,
+just because he has made up his mind to.
+
+Most of you approach biography in that way. You look through the book,
+and you see it isn't divided up into dialogue, as a story is, and there
+are no illustrations, only pictures of crabbed-looking people, and so
+you decide that you are not going to like it, and consequently you don't
+like it, no matter how likeable it is.
+
+It isn't wholly your fault that you have acquired this feeling.
+Strangely enough, most biographies give no such impression of reality as
+good fiction does. John Ridd, for instance, is more alive for most of us
+than Thomas Jefferson--the one is a flesh-and-blood personality, while
+the other is merely a name. This is because the average biographer
+apparently does not comprehend that his first duty is to make his
+subject seem alive, or lacks the art to do it; and so produces merely a
+lay-figure, draped with the clothing of the period. And usually he
+misses the point and fails miserably because he concerns himself with
+the mere doing of deeds, and not with that greatest of all things, the
+development of character.
+
+All great biographies are written with insight and imagination, as well
+as with truth; that is, the biographer tries, in the first place, to
+find out not only what his subject did, but what he thought; he tries to
+realize him thoroughly, and then, reconstructing the scenes through
+which he moved, interprets him for us. He endeavors to give us the
+rounded impression of a human being--of a man who really walked and
+talked and loved and hated--so that we may feel that we knew him. But
+most biographies are seemingly written about statues on pedestals, and
+not good statues at that.
+
+I am hoping to see the rise, some day, of a new school of biography,
+which will not hesitate to discard the inessential, which will disdain
+to glorify its subject, whose first duty it will be to strip away the
+falsehoods of tradition and to show us the real man, not hiding his
+imperfections and yet giving them no more prominence than they really
+bore in his life; which will realize that to the man nothing was of
+importance except the growth of his spirit, and that to us nothing else
+concerning him is of any moment; which will show him to us illumined, as
+it were, from within, and which will count any other sort of
+life-history as vain and worthless. What we need is biography by X-ray,
+and not by tallow candle.
+
+Until that time comes, dear reader, you yourself must supply the X-ray
+of insight. If you can learn to do that, you will find history and
+biography the most interesting of studies. Biography is, of course, the
+basis of all history, since history is merely the record of man's
+failures and successes; and, read thus, it is a wonderful and inspiring
+thing, for the successes so overtop the failures, the good so out-weighs
+the bad. By the touchstone of imagination, even badly written biography
+may be colored and vitalized. Try it--try to see the man you are reading
+about as an actual human being; make him come out of the pages of the
+book and stand before you; give him a personality. Watch for his humors,
+his mistakes, his failings--be sure he had them, however exalted he may
+have been--they will help to make him human. The spectacle of
+Washington, riding forward in a towering rage at the battle of
+Monmouth, has done more to make him real for us than any other incident
+in his life. So the picture that Franklin gives of his landing at
+Philadelphia and walking up Market street in the early morning, a loaf
+of bread under either arm, brings him right home to us; though this
+simple, kindly, and humorous philosopher is one of the realest figures
+on the pages of history. We love Andrew Jackson for his irascible
+wrong-headedness, Farragut for his burst of wrath in Mobile harbor,
+Lincoln for his homely wisdom.
+
+I have said that, read as the record of man's failures and successes,
+history is an inspiring thing. Perhaps of the history of no country is
+this so true as of that of ours. By far the larger part of our great men
+have started at the very bottom of the ladder, in poverty and obscurity,
+and have fought their way up round by round against all the forces of
+society. Nowhere else have inherited wealth and inherited position
+counted for so little as in America. Again, we have had no wars of greed
+or ambition, unless the war with Mexico could be so called. We have, at
+least, had no tyrants--instead, we have witnessed the spectacle, unique
+in history, of a great general winning his country's freedom, and then
+disbanding his army and retiring to his farm. "The Cincinnatus of the
+West," Byron called him; and John Richard Green adds, "No nobler figure
+ever stood in the forefront of a nation's life." He has emerged from the
+mists of tradition, from the sanctimonious wrappings in which the early
+biographers disguised him, has softened and broadened into the most
+human of men, and has won our love as well as our veneration.
+
+George Washington was the founder. Beside his name, two others stand
+out, serene and dominant: Christopher Columbus, the discoverer; Abraham
+Lincoln, the preserver. And yet, neither Columbus, nor Washington, nor
+Lincoln was what we call a genius--a genius, that is, in the sense in
+which Shakespeare or Napoleon or Galileo was a genius. But they combined
+in singular degree those three characteristics without which no man may
+be truly great: sincerity and courage and singleness of purpose.
+
+It is not without a certain awe that we contemplate these men--men like
+ourselves, let us always remember, but, in many ways, how different! Not
+different in that they were infallible or above temptation; not
+different in that they never made mistakes; but different in that they
+each of them possessed an inward vision of the true and the eternal,
+while most of us grope blindly amid the false and trivial. What that
+vision was, and with what high faith and complete devotion they followed
+it, we shall see in the story of their lives.
+
+This is the basic difference between great men and little ones--the
+little ones are concerned solely with to-day; the great ones think only
+of the future. They have gained that largeness of vision and of
+understanding which perceives the pettiness of everyday affairs and
+which disregards them for greater things. They live in the world,
+indeed, but in a world modified and colored by the divine ferment within
+them. There are some who claim that America has never produced a genius
+of the first order, or, at most, but two; however that may be, she has
+produced, as has no other country, men with great hearts and seeing eyes
+and devoted souls who have spent themselves for their country and their
+race.
+
+One hears, sometimes, a grumbler complaining of the defects of a
+republic; yet, certainly, in these United States, the republican form of
+government, established with no little fear and uncertainty by the
+Fathers, has, with all its defects, received triumphant vindication.
+Nowhere more triumphant than in the men it has produced, the story of
+whose lives is the story of its history.
+
+There are two kinds of greatness--greatness of deed and greatness of
+thought. The first kind is shown in the lives of such men as Columbus
+and Washington and Farragut, who translated thought into action and who
+_did_ great things. The second kind is the greatness of authors and
+artists and scientists, who write great books, or paint great pictures
+or make great discoveries, and this sort of greatness will be considered
+in a future volume; for all there has been room for in this one is the
+story of the lives of America's great "men of action." And even of them,
+only a sketch in broad outline has been possible in space so limited;
+but this little book is merely a guide-post, as it were, pointing toward
+the road leading to the city where these great men dwell--the City of
+American Biography.
+
+It is a city peopled with heroes. There are Travis and Crockett and
+Bowie, who held The Alamo until they all were slain; there is Craven,
+who stepped aside that his pilot might escape from his sinking ship;
+there is Lawrence, whose last words are still ringing down the years;
+there is Nathan Hale, immortalized by his lofty bearing beneath the
+scaffold; there is Robert Gould Shaw, who led a forlorn hope at the head
+of a despised race;--even to name them is to review those great events
+in American history which bring proud tears to the eyes of every lover
+of his country.
+
+Of all this we shall tell, as simply as may be, giving the story of our
+country's history and development in terms of its great men. So far as
+possible, the text has been kept free of dates, because great men are of
+all time, and, compared with the deeds themselves, their dates are of
+minor importance. But a summary at the end of each chapter gives, for
+purposes of convenient reference, the principal dates in the lives of
+the men whose achievements are considered in it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the preparation of these thumb-nail sketches, the present writer
+makes no pretense of original investigation. He has taken his material
+wherever he could find it, making sure only that it was accurate, and
+his sole purpose has been to give, in as few words as possible, a
+correct impression of the man and what he did. From the facts as given,
+however, he has drawn his own conclusions, with some of which, no doubt,
+many people will disagree. But he has tried to paint the men truly, in a
+few strokes, as they appeared to him, without seeking to conceal their
+weaknesses, but at the same time without magnifying them--remembering
+always that they were men, subject to mistakes and errors, to be honored
+for such true vision as they possessed; remarkable, many of them, for
+heroism and high devotion, and worthy a lasting place in the grateful
+memory of their country.
+
+The passage of years has a way of diminishing the stature of men thought
+great, and often of increasing that of men thought little. Few American
+statesmen, for example, loom as large to-day as they appeared to their
+contemporaries. Looking back at them, we perceive that, for the most
+part, they wasted their days in fighting wind-mills, or in doing things
+which had afterwards to be undone. Only through the vista of the years
+do we get a true perspective, just as only from a distance can we see
+which peaks of the mountain-range loom highest. But even the mist of
+years cannot dim essential heroism and nobility of achievement. Indeed,
+it enhances them; the voyage of Columbus seems to us a far greater thing
+than his contemporaries thought it; Washington is for us a more
+venerable figure than he was for the new-born Union; and Lincoln is just
+coming into his own as a leader among men.
+
+Every boy and girl ought to try to gain as true and clear an idea as
+possible of their country's history, and of the men who made that
+history. It is a pleasant study, and grows more and more fascinating as
+one proceeds with it. The great pleasure in reading is to understand
+every word, and so to catch the writer's thought completely. Knowledge
+always gives pleasure in just that way--by a wider understanding.
+Indeed, that is the principal aim of education: to enable the individual
+to get the most out of life by broadening his horizon, so that he sees
+more and understands more than he could do if he remained ignorant. And
+since you are an American, you will need especially to understand your
+country. You will be quite unable to grasp the meaning of the references
+to her story which are made every day in conversation, in newspapers, in
+books and magazines, unless you know that story; and you will also be
+unable properly to fulfil your duties as a citizen of this Republic
+unless you know it.
+
+For the earliest years, and, more especially, for the story of the
+deadly struggle between French and English for the possession of the
+continent, the books to read above all others are those of Francis
+Parkman. He has clothed history with romantic fascination, and no one
+who has not read him can have any adequate idea of the glowing and
+life-like way in which those Frenchmen and Spaniards and Englishmen work
+out their destinies in his pages. The story of Columbus and of the early
+explorers will be found in John Fiske's "Discovery of America," a book
+written simply and interestingly, but without Parkman's insight and
+wizardry of style--which, indeed, no other American historian can equal.
+A little book by Charles F. Lummis, called "The Spanish Pioneers," also
+gives a vivid picture of those early explorers. The story of John Smith
+and William Bradford and Peter Stuyvesant and William Penn will also be
+found in Fiske's histories dealing with Virginia and New England and the
+Dutch and Quaker colonies. Almost any boy or girl will find them
+interesting, for they are written with care, in simple language, and not
+without an engaging humor.
+
+There are so many biographies of Washington that it is difficult to
+choose among them. Perhaps the most interesting are those by Woodrow
+Wilson, Horace E. Scudder, Paul Leicester Ford, and Henry Cabot
+Lodge--all well-written and with an effort to give a true impression of
+the man. Of the other Presidents, no better biographies exist than those
+in the "American Statesmen" series, where, of course, the lives of the
+principal statesmen are also to be found. Not all of them, nor, perhaps,
+even most of them are worth reading by the average boy or girl. There is
+no especial reason why the life of any man should be studied in detail
+after he has ceased to be a factor in history. Of the Presidents,
+Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln are still vital to the life
+of to-day, and of the statesmen there are a few, like Franklin,
+Hamilton, Webster, Calhoun and Clay, whose influence is still felt in
+our national life, but the remainder are negligible, except that you
+must, of course, be familiar in a broad way with their characters and
+achievements to understand your country's story.
+
+History is the best place to learn the stories of the pioneers, soldiers
+and sailors. Archer Butler Hulburt has a little book, "Pilots of the
+Republic," which tells about some of the pioneers; John Fiske wrote a
+short history of "The War of Independence," which will tell you all you
+need know about the soldiers of the Revolution, with the exception of
+Washington; and you can learn about the battles of the Civil War from
+any good history of the United States. There is a series called the
+"Great Commanders Series," which tells the story, in detail, of the
+lives of American commanders on land and sea, but there is no reason why
+you should read any of them, with the exception of Lee, Farragut, and
+possibly Grant, though you will find the lives of Taylor and "Stonewall"
+Jackson interesting in themselves. For the sailors, with the exception
+of Farragut, Barnes's "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors" will suffice;
+though every boy will enjoy reading Maclay's "History of the American
+Navy," where the story of our great sea-fights is told better than it
+has ever been told before.
+
+These books may be found in almost any public library, and on the
+shelves there, too, you will probably find Elbert Hubbard's "Little
+Journeys," which give flashlight portraits of statesmen and soldiers and
+many other people, vivid and interesting, but sometimes distorted, as
+flashlights have a way of being.
+
+Perhaps the librarian will permit you to look over the shelves where the
+biographies and works dealing with American history are kept. Don't be
+over-awed by the number of volumes, because there are scores and scores
+which are of no importance to you. Theodore Parker had a wrong idea
+about reading, for once upon a time he undertook to read all the books
+in a library, beginning at the first one and proceeding along shelf
+after shelf. He never finished the task, of course, because he found
+out, after a while, that there are many books which are not worth
+reading, and many more which are of value only to specialists in certain
+departments of knowledge. No man can "know it all." But every man should
+know one thing well, and have a general knowledge of the rest.
+
+For instance, none but an astronomer need know the mathematics of the
+science, but all of us should know the principal facts concerning the
+universe and the solar system, and it is a pleasure to us to recognize
+the different constellations as we gaze up at the heavens on a cloudless
+night. None but a lawyer need spend his time reading law-books, but most
+of us want to know the broad principles upon which justice is
+administered. No one but an economist need bother with the abstract
+theories of political economy, but if we are to be good citizens, we
+must have a knowledge of its foundations, so that we may weigh
+intelligently the solutions of public problems which different parties
+offer.
+
+So if you are permitted to look along the shelves of the public library,
+you will have no concern with the great majority of the books you see
+there; but here and there one will catch your eye which interests you,
+and these are the ones for you to read. You have no idea how the habit
+of right reading will grow upon you, and what a delightful and valuable
+habit it will prove to be. Like any other good habit, it takes pains at
+first to establish, an effort of will and self-control. But that very
+effort helps in the forming of character, and the habit of right reading
+is perhaps the best and most far-reaching in its effects that any boy or
+girl can form. I hope that this little volume, and the other books which
+I have mentioned, will help you to form it.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BEGINNERS
+
+
+Nearly five hundred years ago, there lived, in the beautiful old Italian
+city of Genoa, a poor wool-comber named Dominico Colombo, and about
+1446, a son was born to him and to his wife, Susanna, and in due time
+christened Christoforo.
+
+The world into which the child was born was very different to the one in
+which we live. Europe was known, and northern Africa, and western Asia;
+but to the east stretched the fabulous country of the Grand Khan,
+Cathay, Cipango, and farthest Ind; while to the west rolled the Sea of
+Darkness, peopled with unimaginable terrors.
+
+Of the youth of Christopher Columbus, as we call him, little is known.
+No doubt it was much like other boyhoods, and one likes to picture him,
+in such hours of leisure as he had, strolling about the streets of
+Genoa, listening to the talk, staring in at the shop-windows, or
+watching the busy life in the harbor. That the latter had a strong
+attraction for him there can be no doubt, for though he followed his
+father's trade till early manhood, he finally found his real vocation as
+a seaman. It was on the ocean that true romance dwelt, for it led to
+strange lands and peoples, and no one knew what wonders and mysteries
+lay behind each horizon. It was there, too, high courage was developed
+and endurance, for it was there that men did battle hand to hand with
+nature's mightiest forces. It was the one career of the age which called
+to the bold and adventurous spirit. What training Columbus received or
+what voyages he made we know not; but when, at about the age of thirty,
+he steps into the light of history, it is as a man with a wide and
+thorough knowledge of both the theory and practice of seamanship; a man,
+too, of keen mind and indomitable will, and with a mighty purpose
+brooding in his heart.
+
+It was natural enough that his eyes should turn to Portugal, for
+Portugal was the greatest sea-faring nation of the age. Her sailors had
+discovered the Madeira Islands, and crept little by little down the
+coast of Africa, rounding this headland and that, searching always for a
+passage to India, which they knew lay somewhere to the east, until, at
+last, they had sailed triumphantly around the Cape of Good Hope. It is
+worth remarking that Columbus's brother, Bartholomew, of whom we hear so
+little, but who did so much for his brother's fame, was a member of that
+expedition, and Columbus himself must have gathered no little
+inspiration from it.
+
+So to Lisbon Columbus went, and his ardent spirit found a great stimulus
+in the adventurous atmosphere of that bustling city. He went to work as
+a map-maker, marrying the daughter of one of the captains of Prince
+Henry the Navigator, from whom he secured a great variety of maps,
+charts and memoranda. His business kept him in close touch with both
+mariners and astronomers, so that he was acquainted with every
+development of both discovery and theory. In more than one mind the
+conviction was growing up that the eastern shore of Asia could be
+reached by sailing westward from Europe--a conviction springing
+naturally enough from the belief that the earth was round, which was
+steadily gaining wider and wider acceptance. In fact, a Florentine
+astronomer named Toscanelli furnished Columbus with a map showing how
+this voyage could be accomplished, and Columbus afterwards used this map
+in determining his route.
+
+That the idea was not original with Columbus takes nothing from his
+fame; his greatness lies in being the first fully to grasp its meaning,
+fully to believe it, fully to devote his life to it. For the last
+measure of a man's devotion to an idea is his willingness to stake his
+life upon it, as Columbus staked his. The idea possessed him; there was
+room in him only for a dogged determination to realize it, to trample
+down such obstacles as might arise to keep him from his goal. And
+obstacles enough there were, for many years of waiting and
+disappointment lay before him--years during which, a shabby and
+melancholy figure, laughed at and scorned, mocked by the very children
+in the streets, he "begged his way from court to court, to offer to
+princes the discovery of a world." And here again was his true
+greatness--that he did not despair, that his spirit remained unbroken
+and his high heart still capable of hope.
+
+Yet let us not idealize him too much. The eagerness to reach the Indies
+was wholly because of the riches which they possessed. The spice trade
+was especially coveted, and tradition told of golden cities of fabulous
+wealth and beauty which lay in the country to the east. The great motive
+behind all the early voyages was hope of gain, and Columbus had his full
+share of it. Yet there grew up within him, in time, something more than
+this--a love of the project for its own sake--though to the very last, a
+little overbalanced, perhaps, by his great idea, he insisted upon the
+rewards and honors which must be his in case of success.
+
+With his route well-outlined and his plans carefully matured, Columbus
+turned naturally to the King of Portugal, John II., as a man interested
+in all nautical enterprise, and especially interested in finding a route
+to the Indies. That crafty monarch listened to Columbus attentively and
+was evidently impressed, for he took possession of the maps and plans
+which Columbus had prepared, under pretense of examining them while
+considering the project, placed them in the hands of one of his own
+captains and dispatched him secretly to try the route. That captain,
+whose name has been lost to history, must afterwards have been chagrined
+enough at the manner in which he missed immortal fame, for, after
+sailing a few days to the westward, he turned back and reported to his
+royal master that the thing could not be done. His was not the heart
+for such an enterprise.
+
+Columbus, learning of the king's treachery, left the court in disgust,
+and sending his brother, Bartholomew, to lay the plan before the King of
+England, himself proceeded to Spain, whose rulers, Ferdinand and
+Isabella, were perhaps the most enlightened of the age. Of Bartholomew's
+adventures in England little is known. One thing alone is
+certain--England missed the great opportunity just as Portugal had. And
+for long years it seemed that, in Spain, Columbus would have no better
+fortune. The Spanish monarchs listened to him with interest--as who
+would not?--and appointed a council of astronomers and map-makers to
+examine the project and to pass upon its feasibility. This council, not
+without the connivance of the king and queen, who were absorbed in war
+with the Moors, and who, at the same time, did not wish the plan to be
+taken elsewhere, kept Columbus waiting for six years, alternating
+between hope and despair, and finally reported that the project was
+"vain and impossible of execution."
+
+Indignant at thought of the years he had wasted, Columbus determined to
+proceed to Paris, to seek an audience of the King of France. His wife
+was dead, and he started for Palos, with his little son, Diego,
+intending to leave the boy with his wife's sister there, while he
+himself journeyed on to Paris. Trudging wearily across the country, they
+came one night to the convent of La Rabida, and Columbus stopped to ask
+for a crust of bread and cup of water for the child. The prior, Juan
+Perez de Marchena, struck by his noble bearing, entered into
+conversation with him and was soon so interested that he invited the
+travellers in.
+
+Marchena had been Isabella's confessor, and still had great influence
+with her. After carefully considering the project which Columbus laid
+before him, he went to the queen in person and implored her to
+reconsider it. His plea was successful, and Columbus was again summoned
+to appear at court, a small sum of money being sent him so that he need
+not appear in rags. The Spanish monarchs received him well, but when
+they found that he demanded the title of admiral at once, and, in case
+of success, the title of viceroy, together with a tenth part of all
+profits resulting from either trade or conquest, they abruptly broke off
+the negotiations, and Columbus, mounting a mule which had been given
+him, started a second time for Paris. He had proceeded four or five
+miles, in what sadness and turmoil of spirit may be imagined, when a
+royal messenger, riding furiously, overtook him and bade him return. His
+terms had been accepted.
+
+This is what had happened: In despair at the departure of Columbus, Luis
+de Santangel, receiver of the revenues of Aragon, and one of the few
+converts to his theories, had obtained an audience of the queen, and
+pointed out to her, with impassioned eloquence, the glory which Spain
+would win should Columbus be successful. The queen's patriotic ardor
+was enkindled, and when Ferdinand still hesitated, she cried, "I
+undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile. I will pledge my
+jewels to raise the money that is needed!" Santangel assured her that he
+himself was ready to provide the money, and advanced seventeen thousand
+florins from the coffers of Aragon, so that Ferdinand paid for the
+expedition, after all.
+
+It is in no way strange that the demands of Columbus should have been
+thought excessive; indeed, the wonderful thing is that they should,
+under any circumstances, have been agreed to. Here was a man, to all
+appearances a penniless adventurer, asking for honors, dignities and
+rewards which any grandee of Spain might have envied him. That they
+should have been granted was due to the impulsive sympathy of Isabella
+and the indifference of her royal consort, who said neither yes nor no;
+though, in the light of subsequent events, it is not improbable that the
+thought may have crossed his mind that royal favor may always be
+withdrawn, and that the hand which gives may also take away.
+
+But though Columbus had triumphed in this particular, his trials were by
+no means at an end. The little port of Palos was commanded by royal
+order to furnish the new Admiral with two small vessels known as
+caravels. This was soon done, but no sailors were willing to embark on
+such a voyage, the maddest in all history. Only by the most extreme
+measures, by impressment and the release of criminals willing to
+accompany the expedition in order to get out of jail, were crews
+finally provided. A third small vessel was secured, and on the morning
+of Friday, August 3, 1492, this tiny fleet of three boats, the Santa
+Maria, the Pinta and the Nina, whose combined crews numbered less than
+ninety men, sailed out from Palos on the grandest voyage the world has
+ever known.
+
+The shore was lined with people weeping and wringing their hands for the
+relatives and friends whom they were sure they should never see again,
+and most of the sailors were certain that they were bidding farewell
+forever to their native land. Even at the present day, few men would
+care to undertake such a voyage in such ships. The two little caravels,
+Nina and Pinta, were decked only at stern and prow. The Santa Maria was
+but little larger, her length being only about sixty feet, and all three
+of the vessels were old, leaky, and in need of frequent repairs.
+
+The map which Toscanelli had given Columbus years before showed Japan
+lying directly west of the Canaries, so to the Canaries Columbus steered
+his fleet, and then set forth westward into the unknown. By a fortunate
+chance, it was the very best route he could have chosen, for he came at
+once into the region of the trade winds, which, blowing steadily from
+the east, drove the vessels westward day after day over a smooth sea.
+But this very thing, favorable as it was, added greatly to the terror of
+the men. How were they to get back to Spain, with the wind always
+against them? What was the meaning of a sea as smooth as their own
+Guadalquiver? They implored Columbus to turn back; but to turn back was
+the last thing in his thoughts. An opportune storm helped to reassure
+his men by proving that the wind did not always blow from the east and
+that the sea was not always calm.
+
+But there were soon other causes of alarm. The compass varied strangely,
+and what hope for them was there if this, their only guide, proved
+faithless? They ran into vast meadows of floating seaweed, the Sargasso
+Sea, and it seemed certain that the ships would soon be so entangled
+that they could move neither backward nor forward. Still Columbus pushed
+steadily on, and his men's terror and angry discontent deepened until
+they were on the verge of mutiny; various plots were hatched and it was
+evident that affairs would soon reach a crisis.
+
+One can guess the Admiral's thoughts as he paced the poop of his ship on
+that last night, pausing from time to time to strain his eyes into the
+darkness. Picture him to yourself--a tall and imposing figure, clad in
+that gray habit of the Franciscan missionary he liked to wear; the face
+stern and lined with care, the eyes gray and piercing, the high nose and
+long chin telling of a mighty will, the cheeks ruddy and freckled from
+life in the open, the white hair falling about his shoulders. Picture
+him standing there, a memorable figure, whose hour of triumph was at
+hand. He knew the desperate condition of things--none better; he knew
+that his men were for the most part criminals and cowards; at any
+moment they might rise and make him prisoner or throw him overboard.
+Well, until that moment, he would hold his ship's prow to the west! For
+twenty years he had labored to get this chance; he would rather die than
+fail.
+
+And then, suddenly, far ahead, he saw a light moving low along the
+horizon. It disappeared, reappeared, and then vanished altogether. The
+lookout had also seen it, and soon after, as the moon rose, a gun from
+the Pinta, which was in the lead, announced that land had been sighted.
+It was soon plainly visible to everyone, a low beach gleaming white in
+the moonlight, and the ships hove-to until daybreak.
+
+In the early dawn of the twelfth day of October, 1492, the boats were
+lowered, and Columbus and a large part of his company went ashore, wild
+with exultation. They found themselves on a small island, and Columbus
+named it San Salvador. It was one of the Bahamas, but which one is not
+certainly known. Columbus, of course, believed himself near the coast of
+Asia, and spent two months in searching for Japan, discovering a number
+of islands, but no trace of the land of gold and spices which he sought.
+One of his ships was wrecked and the captain of the third sailed away to
+search for gold on his own account, so that it was in the little Nina
+alone that Columbus at last set sail for Spain.
+
+[Illustration: COLUMBUS]
+
+It was no longer a summer sea through which the tiny vessel ploughed her
+way, but a sea swept by savage hurricanes. More than once it seemed
+that the ship must founder, but by some miracle it kept afloat, and
+on March 15, 1493, sailed again into the port of Palos. The great
+navigator was received with triumphal honors by Ferdinand and Isabella,
+and invited to sit in their presence while he told the wonderful story
+of his discoveries.
+
+Wonderful indeed! Yet what a dizziness would have seized that audience
+could they have guessed the truth! Could they have guessed that the
+proud kingdom of Spain was but an insignificant patch compared with the
+vast continent Columbus had discovered and upon which a score of nations
+were to dwell.
+
+The life-work of the great navigator practically ended on the day he
+told his story to the court of Spain, for, though he led three other
+expeditions across the ocean, the discoveries they made were of no great
+importance. Not a trace did he find of that golden country, which he
+sought so eagerly, and at last, broken in health and fortune, in
+disfavor at court, stripped of the rewards and dignities which had been
+promised him, he died in a little house at Valladolid on the twentieth
+of May, 1506. He believed to the last that it was the Indies he had
+discovered, never dreaming that he had given a new continent to the
+world.
+
+Yet is his fame secure, for the task which he accomplished was unique,
+never to be repeated. He had robbed the Sea of Darkness of its terrors,
+and while those who followed him had need of courage and resolution, it
+was no longer into the unknown that they sailed forth. They knew that
+there was no danger of sailing over the edge and dropping off into
+space; they knew that there were no dragons, nor monsters, nor other
+blood-curdling terrors to be encountered, but that the other side of the
+world was much like the side they lived on. That was Columbus's great
+achievement. To cross the Atlantic, perilous as the voyage was, was
+after all a little thing; but actually to _start_--to surmount the wall
+of bigotry and ignorance which, for centuries, had shut the west away
+from the east, to surmount that wall and throw it down by a faith which
+rose superior to human belief and incredulity and terror of the
+unknown--there was the miracle!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many there were to follow, each contributing his mite toward the task of
+defining the new continent. Perhaps you have seen a photographic
+negative slowly take shape in the acid bath--the sharp out-lines first,
+then, bit by bit, the detail. Just so did America grow beneath the gaze
+of Europe, though two centuries and more were to elapse before it stood
+out upon the map clean-cut and definite from border to border.
+
+First to follow Columbus, and the first white men since the vikings to
+set foot on the North American continent, which Columbus himself had
+never seen, were John and Sebastian Cabot, Italians like their
+predecessor, but in the service of the King of England and with an
+English ship and an English crew prophetic of the race which was, in
+time, to wrest the supremacy of the continent from the other nations of
+Europe. They explored the coast from Newfoundland as far south, perhaps,
+as Chesapeake Bay, and upon their discoveries rested the English claim
+to North America, though they themselves are little more than faint and
+ill-defined shadows upon the page of history, so little do we know of
+them.
+
+And just as the New World was eventually to be dominated by a nation
+other than that which first took possession of it, so was it to be named
+after a man other than its discoverer: an inconsiderable adventurer
+named Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, who accompanied three or four
+Spanish expeditions as astronomer or pilot, but who had no part in any
+real discovery in the New World. He wrote a number of letters describing
+the voyages which he claimed to have made, and one of these was printed
+in a pamphlet which had a wide circulation, so that Vespucci's name came
+to be connected in the public mind with the new land in the west much
+more prominently than that of any other man. In 1502, in a little book
+dealing with the new discoveries, the suggestion was made that there was
+nothing "rightly to hinder us from calling it [the New World] Amerige or
+America, i.e., the land of Americus," and America it was
+thenceforward--one of the great injustices of history. Since it had to
+be so, let us be thankful that it was Vespucci's first name which was
+selected, and not his last one.
+
+Meanwhile, the Spaniards had pushed their way across the Caribbean and
+explored the shores of the gulf, finding at last in Mexico a land of
+gold. World-worn, disease-racked Ponce de Leon, conqueror and governor
+of Porto Rico, struggled through the everglades of Florida, seeking the
+fountain of eternal youth, and getting his death-wound there instead.
+Ferdinand Magellan, man of iron if there ever was one, seeking a western
+passage to the Moluccas, skirted the coast of South America, wintered
+amid the snows of Patagonia, worked his way through the strait which
+bears his name, and held on westward across the Pacific, making the
+first circumnavigation of the globe, a feat so startling in audacity
+that there is none in our day to compare with it, except, perhaps, a
+journey to another planet. Magellan himself never again saw Europe,
+meeting his death in a fight with the natives of the Philippines, but
+one of his ships, with eighteen men, struggled south along the coast of
+Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and so home.
+
+Half a century was to elapse before the feat was repeated--this time by
+that slave-trader, pirate, and doughty scourge of the Spaniard, Sir
+Francis Drake, who, following in Magellan's wake, and pausing only long
+enough to harry the Spanish settlements in Chili and Peru and capture a
+Spanish treasureship, held northward along the coast as far as southern
+Oregon, and then turned westward across the Pacific, around the Cape of
+Good Hope, and home again, where Elizabeth, in spite of Spanish
+protests, was waiting to reward him with a touch of sword to shoulder.
+The Muse of History smiles ironically when she records that Drake's
+principal discovery in the New World was that of the potato, which he
+introduced into England.
+
+Not until Drake's voyage was completed was the vast extent of the North
+American continent even suspected, although its interior had been
+explored in many directions. Hernando de Soto, with an experience gained
+with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and succeeding Ponce de Leon in
+the governorship of Florida, marched with a great expedition through
+what is now South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, and came out, at
+last, upon the Mississippi, only to find burial beneath its waters,
+while the tattered remnant of his force staggered back to Mexico.
+
+Francisco de Coronado, marching northward from Mexico, in search of the
+fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, found only the squalid villages of the
+Zuni Indians, after stumbling on the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and
+marching as far north as the southern line of Kansas. Jacques Cartier,
+following another will-o'-the-wisp to the north, and searching for the
+storied city of Norembega, supposed to exist somewhere in the wilderness
+south of Cape Breton, found it not, indeed, but laid the foundations for
+the great empire which France was to establish along the St. Lawrence.
+
+And Henry Hudson, in the little Half-Moon, chartered by a company of
+thrifty Dutchmen to search for the northwest passage, blundered instead
+upon the mighty river which bears his name, explored it as far north as
+the present city of Albany, and paved the way for that picturesque
+Dutch settlement which grew into the greatest city of the New World. He
+did more than that, for, persevering in the search and sailing far to
+the north, he came, at last, into the great bay also named for him,
+where tragic fate lay waiting. For there, in that icy fastness of the
+north, his mutinous crew bound him, set him adrift in a small boat, and
+sailed away and left him.
+
+So, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, the New World was
+fairly well defined upon the maps which the map-makers were always
+industriously drawing; and so were the spheres of influence where each
+nation was to be for a time paramount; the Spaniards in the Gulf of
+Mexico, the Dutch along the Hudson, the French on the St. Lawrence, and
+the English on the long coast to the south. But in all the leagues and
+leagues from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, nowhere had the white man as
+yet succeeded in gaining a permanent foothold.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Although the continent of North America had been discovered by John
+Cabot in 1497, nearly a century elapsed before England made any serious
+attempt to take possession of it. Cabot's voyages had created little
+impression, for he had returned from them empty-handed; instead of
+finding the passage to the Indies which he sought, he had discovered
+nothing but an inconvenient and apparently worthless barrier stretching
+across the way, and for many years the great continent was regarded only
+in that light, and such explorations as were made were with the one
+object of getting through it or around it. In fact, as late as 1787,
+opinion in Europe was divided as to whether the discovery of the New
+World had been a blessing or a curse.
+
+But Spain had been working industriously. The honor of giving America to
+the world was hers, and she followed that first discovery by centuries
+of such pioneering as the world had never seen. Her explorers overran
+Mexico and Peru, discovered the Mississippi, the Pacific, carved their
+way up into the interior of the continent, looked down upon the wonders
+of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, founded settlements up and down the
+land from Kansas to Chili--yes, and did more than that. They opened the
+first churches, set up the first presses, printed the first books, wrote
+the first histories, drew the first accurate maps. They established
+schools among the Indians, sent missionaries to them, translated the
+Bible into twelve Indian dialects, made thousands of converts, and
+established an Indian policy as humane and enlightened--once Spanish
+supremacy was recognized--as any in the world. The savages with whom
+Spain had to contend were the deadliest, the most cruel, that Europeans
+ever encountered--no more resembling the warriors of King Philip and the
+Powhatan than a house-cat resembles a panther. They conquered them
+without extermination, and converted them to Christianity! An amazing
+feat, and one which disposes for all time of that old, outworn legend
+that the Spain of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was a
+moribund and degenerate nation.
+
+But a change was at hand. The world moved, and Spain, chained to an
+outworn superstition, did not move with it. The treasure she drew from
+Mexico and Peru she poured out to prop the tottering pillars of church
+despotism; and the end came when, in 1588, Elizabeth's doughty captains
+wiped out the "invincible" armada, and dethroned Spain for all time from
+her position as mistress of the seas.
+
+It was then that English eyes turned toward the New World and that
+projects of colonization were set afoot in earnest; and the one great
+dominant hero of that early movement was Sir Walter Raleigh. He had
+accompanied his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on a voyage to the
+New World ten years earlier, and after Gilbert's tragic death, took over
+the patent for land in America which Gilbert held. It is worth noting
+that this patent provided in the plainest terms that such colonies as
+might be planted in America should be self-governing in the fullest
+sense--a provision also included in the patent granted to the company
+which afterwards succeeded in gaining and maintaining a foothold on the
+James.
+
+Raleigh spent nearly a million dollars in endeavoring to establish a
+colony on Roanoke Island--a colony which absolutely disappeared, and
+whose fate was never certainly discovered; and it was not until the
+Virgin Queen, after whom all that portion of the country had been named,
+was dead, and Raleigh himself, shorn of his estates, was a prisoner in
+the Tower under charge of treason, that a new charter was given to an
+association of influential men known as the Virginia Company, which was
+destined to have permanent results. On New Year's Day, 1607, an
+expedition of three ships, carrying, besides their crews, one hundred
+and five colonists, started on the voyage across the ocean, under
+command of Captain Christopher Newport. Among Newport's company was a
+scarred and weather-beaten soldier, who was soon to assume control of
+events through sheer fitness for the task, and who bore that commonest
+of all English names, John Smith.
+
+But John Smith's career had been anything but common. Born in
+Lincolnshire in 1579, and early left an orphan, he had gone to the
+Netherlands while still in his teens, and had spent three years there
+fighting against the Spaniards. A year or two later, he had embarked
+with a company of Catholic pilgrims for the Levant, intent on fighting
+against the Turk, but a storm arose which all attributed to the presence
+of the Huguenot heretic on board, and he was forthwith flung into the
+sea. Whether the storm thereupon abated, history does not state, but
+Smith managed to swim to a small island, from which he was rescued next
+day. Journeying across Europe to Styria, he entered the service of
+Emperor Rudolph II., and spent two or three years fighting against the
+Turks, accomplishing feats so surprising that one would be inclined to
+class them with those of Baron Munchausen, were they not, for the most
+part, well authenticated. He was captured, at last, but managed to
+escape, and made his way across the Styrian desert, through Russia,
+Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and finally back to England, just in time to
+meet Captain Newport, and arrange to sail with him for Virginia.
+
+It is not remarkable that a man tried by such experiences should, from
+the first, have taken a prominent part in the enterprise. An unwelcome
+part in the beginning, for scarcely had the voyage begun, when he was
+accused of plotting mutiny, arrested and kept in irons until the ships
+reached Virginia. Late in April, the fleet entered Hampton Roads, and
+proceeding up the river, which was forthwith named the James, came at
+last on May 13th, to a low peninsula which seemed suited for a
+settlement. The next day they set to work building a fort, which they
+called Fort James, but the settlement soon came to be known as
+Jamestown.
+
+Once the fort was finished, Captain Newport sailed back to England for
+supplies, and the little settlement was soon in desperate straits for
+food. Within three months, half of the colonists were in their graves,
+and bitter feuds arose among the survivors. These were for the most part
+"gentlemen adventurers," who had accompanied the expedition in the hope
+of finding gold, and who were wholly unfitted to cope with the
+conditions in which they found themselves. Of all of them, Smith was by
+far the most competent, and he did valiant service in trading with the
+Indians for corn and in conducting a number of expeditions in search of
+game.
+
+It was while on one of these, in December, 1607, that that incident of
+his career occurred which is all that a great many people know of
+Captain John Smith. With two companions, he was paddling in a canoe up
+the Chickahominy, when the party was attacked by Indians. Smith's two
+companions were killed, and he himself saved his life only by exhibiting
+his compass and doing other things to astonish and impress the savages.
+
+He was finally taken captive to the Powhatan, the ruler of the tribe,
+and, according to Smith's story, a long debate ensued among the Indians
+as to his fate. Presently two large stones were laid before the chief,
+and Smith was dragged to them and his head forced down upon them, but
+even as one of the warriors raised his club to dash out the captive's
+brains, the Powhatan's daughter, a child of thirteen named Pocahontas,
+threw herself upon him, shielding his head with hers, and claimed him
+for her own, after the Indian custom. Smith was thereupon released,
+adopted into the tribe, and sent back to Jamestown, where he arrived on
+the eighth of January, 1608.
+
+From the Indian standpoint, there was nothing especially unusual about
+this procedure, for any member of the tribe was privileged to claim a
+captive, if he wished. A century before, Ortiz, a member of De Soto's
+expedition, had been captured by the Indians and saved in precisely the
+same way, and many instances of the kind occurred in the years which
+followed. But to the captive, it partook of the very essence of
+romance; he had only the dimmest idea of what was really happening, and
+his account of it, written many years later, was of the most sentimental
+kind. Many doubts have been cast on the story, and historians seem
+hopelessly divided about it, as they are about many other incidents of
+Smith's life. Certain it is, however, that Pocahontas afterwards
+befriended the colony on more than one occasion; and was finally
+converted, married to a planter named John Rolfe, and taken to England,
+where, among the artificialities of court life, she soon sickened and
+died.
+
+On the very day that Smith reached Jamestown with his Indian escort, the
+supply ship sent out by Captain Newport also arrived, bringing 120 new
+colonists. Of the original 105, only thirty-eight were left alive. But
+Smith's enemies were yet in the ascendancy, and he spent the summer of
+1608 in exploration, leaving the colony to its own devices. When he
+returned to it in September, he found it reduced and disheartened. His
+brave and cheery presence acted as a tonic, and at last the colonists,
+appreciating him at his true value, elected him president. He put new
+life into everyone, and when, soon afterwards, Newport arrived again
+from England with fresh supplies, he found the colony in fairly good
+shape.
+
+But the members of the Virginia Company were growing impatient at the
+failure of the venture to bring any returns, and they sent out
+instructions by Newport demanding that either a lump of gold be sent
+back to England or that the way to the South Sea be discovered. Smith
+said plainly that the instructions were ridiculous, and wrote an answer
+to them in blunt soldier English. Then, turning his hand in earnest to
+the government of the disorderly rabble under him, he instituted an iron
+discipline, whipped the laggards into line, and by the end of April had
+some twenty houses built, thirty or forty acres of ground broken up and
+planted, nets and weirs arranged for fishing, a new fortress under way,
+and various small manufactures begun. A great handicap was the system,
+by which all property was held in common, so that the drones shared
+equally with the workers, but Smith took care that there should be few
+drones. There can be no doubt that his sheer will power kept the colony
+together, but his credit with the company was undermined by enemies in
+England, nor did his own blunt letter help matters. The company was
+re-organized on a larger scale, a new governor appointed, new colonists
+started on the way; and, finally, in 1609, Smith was so seriously
+wounded by the explosion of a bag of gun-powder, that he gave up the
+struggle and returned to England.
+
+Instant disaster followed. When he left the colony, it numbered five
+hundred souls; when the next supply ship reached it in May, 1610, it
+consisted of sixty scarecrows, mere wrecks of human beings. The rest had
+starved to death--or been eaten by their companions! There was a hasty
+consultation, and it was decided that Virginia must be abandoned. On
+Thursday, June 7, 1610, the cabins were stripped of such things as were
+of value, and the whole company went on shipboard and started down the
+river--only to meet, next day, in Hampton Roads, a new expedition headed
+by the new governor, Lord Delaware, himself! By this slight thread of
+coincidence was the fate of Virginia determined.
+
+The ship put about at once, and on the following Sunday morning, Lord
+Delaware stepped ashore at Jamestown, and, falling to his knees, thanked
+God that he had been in time to save Virginia. He proceeded at once to
+place the colony upon a new and sounder basis, and it was never again in
+danger of extinction, though Jamestown itself was finally abandoned as
+unsuited to a settlement on account of its malarious atmosphere. But
+Virginia itself grew apace into one of the greatest of England's
+colonies in America.
+
+John Smith himself never returned to Virginia. In 1614, he explored the
+coast south of the Penobscot, giving it the name it still bears, New
+England. A year later, while on another expedition, he was captured by
+the French and forced to serve against the Spaniards. Broken in health
+and fortune, he spent his remaining years in London, dying there in
+1631. There is a portrait of him, showing him as a handsome, bearded
+man, with nose and mouth bespeaking will and spirit--just such a man as
+one would imagine this gallant soldier of fortune to have been.
+
+While the English, under the guiding hand of John Smith, were fighting
+desperately to maintain themselves upon the James, the French were
+struggling to the same purpose and no less desperately along the St.
+Lawrence. We have seen how Jacques Cartier explored and named that
+region, but civil and religious wars in France put an end to plans of
+colonization for half a century, and it was not until 1603 that Samuel
+Champlain, the founder of New France, and one of the noblest characters
+in American history, embarked for the New World.
+
+Samuel Champlain was born at Brouage about 1567, the son of a sea-faring
+father, and his early years were spent upon the sea. He served in the
+army of the Fourth Henry, and after the peace with Spain, made a voyage
+to Mexico. Upon his return to France in 1603, he found a fleet preparing
+to sail to Canada, and at once joined it. Some explorations were made of
+the St. Lawrence, but the fleet returned to France within the year,
+without accomplishing anything in the way of colonization. Another
+expedition in the following year saw the founding of Port Royal, while
+Champlain made a careful exploration of the New England coast, but he
+found nothing that attracted him as did the mighty river to the north.
+Thither, in 1608, he went, and sailing up the river to a point where a
+mighty promontory rears its head, disembarked and erected the first rude
+huts of the city which he called by the Indian name of Quebec, or "The
+Narrows." A wooden wall was built, mounting a few small cannon and
+loopholed for musketry, and the conquest of Canada had begun. A
+magnificent cargo of furs was dispatched to France, and Champlain and
+twenty-eight men were left to winter at Quebec. When spring came, only
+nine were left alive, but reinforcements and supplies soon arrived, and
+Champlain arranged to proceed into the interior and explore the country.
+
+The resources at his disposal were small, he could not hope to assemble
+a great expedition; so he determined to make the venture with only a few
+men and little baggage, relying upon the friendship of the Indians,
+instead of seeking to conquer them, as the Spaniards had always done.
+Champlain had from the first treated the Indians well, and it was this
+necessity of gaining their friendship that determined the policy which
+France pursued--the policy of making friends of the Indians, entering
+into an alliance with them, and helping them fight their battles.
+Champlain opened operations by joining an Algonquin war-party against
+the Iroquois, and assisting at their defeat--starting, at the same time,
+a blood feud with that powerful tribe which endured as long as the
+French held Canada. In the course of this expedition, he discovered the
+beautiful lake which bears his name.
+
+He went back to France for a time, after that, and on his next return to
+Canada, in 1611, began building a town at the foot of a rock which had
+been named Mont Royal, since corrupted to Montreal. Succeeding years
+were spent in further explorations, which carried him across Lake
+Ontario, and in plans for the conversion of the Indians, to which the
+aid of the Jesuits was summoned. Missions were established, and the
+intrepid priests pushed their way farther and farther into the
+wilderness. To this work, Champlain gave more and more of his thought in
+the last years of his life, which ended on Christmas day, 1635.
+
+Among the young men whom Champlain set to work among the Indians was
+Jean Nicolet. The year before his death, Champlain sent him on an
+exploring expedition to the west, in the course of which he visited Lake
+Michigan and perhaps Lake Superior. Following in his footsteps, the
+Jesuits gradually established missions as far west as the Wisconsin
+River, and, finally, in 1670, at Sault Ste. Marie, the French formally
+took possession of the whole Northwest.
+
+It was at about this time there appeared upon the scene another of those
+picturesque and formidable figures, in which this period of American
+history so abounds--Robert Cavalier La Salle. La Salle was at that time
+only twenty years of age. He had reached Canada four years earlier and
+had devoted himself for three years to the study of the Indian
+languages, in order to fit himself for the career of western exploration
+which he contemplated. One day he was visited by a party of Senecas, who
+told him of a river, which they called the Ohio, so great that many
+months were required to traverse it. From their description, La Salle
+concluded that it must fall into the Gulf of California, and so form the
+long-sought passage to China. He determined to explore it, and after
+surmounting innumerable obstacles, actually did reach it, and descend it
+as far as the spot where the city of Louisville now stands, afterwards
+exploring the Illinois and the country south of the Great lakes, as well
+as the lakes themselves.
+
+Fired by La Salle's report of his discoveries, two other Frenchmen,
+Louis Joliet, a native of Quebec, who had already led an expedition in
+search of the copper mines of Lake Superior, and Jacques Marquette, a
+Jesuit priest and accomplished linguist, started on a still greater
+journey. With five companions and two birchbark canoes, they headed down
+the Wisconsin river, and on June 17, 1673, glided out upon the blue
+waters of the Mississippi. A fortnight later, they reached a little
+village called Peoria, where the Indians received them well, and
+continuing down the river, passed the Missouri, the Ohio, and finally,
+having gone far enough to convince themselves that the river emptied
+into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Gulf of California, they turned
+about and reached Green Bay again in September, having paddled more than
+2,500 miles. Marquette, shattered in health, remained at Green Bay,
+while Joliet pushed on to Montreal to tell of his discoveries. Marquette
+rallied sufficiently at the end of a year to attempt a mission among the
+Illinois Indians, where death found him in the spring of 1675. Joliet
+spent his last years in a vain endeavor to persuade the government of
+France to undertake on a grand scale the development of the rich lands
+along the Mississippi.
+
+But the story which Joliet took back with him to Quebec fired anew the
+ambition of La Salle. He conceived New France as a great empire in the
+wilderness, and he determined to descend the mighty river to its mouth
+and establish a city there which would hold the river for France against
+all comers. Such occupation would, according to French doctrine, give
+France an indisputable right to the whole territory which the river and
+its tributaries drained, and La Salle's plan was to establish a chain of
+forts stretching from Lake Erie to the Gulf, to build up around these
+great cities, and so to lay the foundations for the mightiest empire in
+history. We may well stand amazed before a plan so ambitious, and before
+the determination with which this great Frenchman set about its
+accomplishment.
+
+To most men, such a scheme seemed but the dream of an enthusiast; but La
+Salle was in deadly earnest, and for eight years he labored to perfect
+the details of the plan. At last, on April 9, 1682, he planted the flag
+of France at the mouth of the Mississippi, naming the country Louisiana
+in honor of his royal master, whose property it was solemnly declared to
+be. That done, the intrepid explorer hastened back to France; a fleet
+was fitted out and attempted to sail directly to the mouth of the great
+river, but missed it; the ships were wrecked on the coast of Texas, and
+La Salle was shot from ambush by two of his own followers while
+searching on foot for the river.
+
+So ended La Salle's part in the accomplishment of a plan which,
+grandiose as it was, reached a sort of realization--for a great French
+city near the mouth of the river _was_ built and a thin chain of forts
+connecting it with Canada, where the French power remained unbroken for
+three quarters of a century longer; while not until the beginning of the
+nineteenth century, when the royal line of Louis had been succeeded by a
+soldier of fortune from Corsica, did the great territory which La Salle
+had named Louisiana pass from French possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the nineteenth day of November, 1620, fourteen years after the
+settlement of Jamestown and twelve after the settlement of Quebec, a
+storm-beaten vessel of 120 tons burthen crept into the lee of Cape Cod
+and dropped anchor in that welcome refuge. The vessel was the Mayflower,
+and she had just completed the most famous voyage in American history,
+after that of Columbus. The colonists she carried, about a hundred in
+number, Separatists from the Church of England, have come down through
+history as the "Pilgrim Fathers." Among them was one destined to rule
+the fortunes of the colony for more than a quarter of a century. His
+name was William Bradford, and he was at that time thirty years of age.
+
+Bradford was born in 1590 at Austerfield, in Yorkshire, England, and at
+the age of sixteen, joined a company of Puritans or Separatists, which
+met for a time at the little town of Scrooby, but, being threatened with
+persecution, resolved to remove to Holland. Most of the congregation got
+away without interference, but Bradford and a few others were arrested
+and spent several months in prison. As soon as he was released, he
+joined the colony in Amsterdam, and afterwards, in 1609, removed with it
+to Leyden. But the newcomers found themselves out of sympathy with Dutch
+customs and habits of thought, and after long debate, determined to
+remove to America and found a colony of their own. A patent was
+obtained, the Mayflower chartered, the congregation put aboard, and the
+voyage begun on the fifth day of September, 1620.
+
+The colonists expected to settle somewhere near the mouth of the Hudson,
+but, whether by accident or design, their captain brought up off Cape
+Cod, and it was decided to land there. After some days' search, a
+suitable site for a settlement was found, work was begun on houses and
+fortifications, and the place was named New Plymouth.
+
+Jonathan Carver had been chosen the first governor and guided the colony
+through the horrors of that first winter; the story of Jamestown was
+repeated, and by the coming of spring, more than half the colonists were
+dead. Among them was Carver himself, and William Bradford was at once
+chosen to succeed him. There can be no doubt that it was to Bradford's
+wise head and strong hand the colony owed its quick rally, and its
+escape from the prolonged misery which makes horrible the early history
+of Virginia. He seems to have possessed a temper resolute, but
+magnanimous and patient to an unusual degree, together with a religion
+sincere and devoted, yet neither intolerant nor austere. What results
+can be accomplished by a combination of qualities at once so rare and so
+admirable is shown by the work which William Bradford did at Plymouth,
+over which he ruled almost continuously until his death, thirty-seven
+years later.
+
+Bradford's success lay first in his courage in doing away with the
+pernicious system by which all the property was held in common. In doing
+this, he violated the rules of his company, but he saw that utter
+failure lay the other way. He divided the colony's land among the
+several families, in proportion to their number, and compelled each
+family to shift for itself. The communal system had nearly wrecked
+Jamestown and would have wrecked Plymouth had not Bradford had the
+courage to disregard all precedent and make each family its own
+provider. Years afterwards, in commenting on the results of this
+revolutionary change, he wrote, "Any general want or suffering hath not
+been among them since to this day."
+
+And, indeed, this was true. Under Bradford's guidance, the little colony
+increased steadily in wealth and numbers, and became the sure forerunner
+of the great Puritan migration of 1630, which founded the colony of
+Massachusetts, into which the older colony of Plymouth was finally
+absorbed. Of Bradford himself, little more remains to be told. The
+establishment of Plymouth Plantation was his life work. He was a far
+bigger man than most of his contemporaries, with a broader outlook upon
+life and deeper resources within himself. One of these was a literary
+culture which fairly sets him apart as the first American man of
+letters. He wrote an entertaining history of his colony, as well as a
+number of philosophical and theological works, all marked with a style
+and finish noteworthy for their day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The government of the colony of Massachusetts presented, for over half a
+century, the most perfect union of church and state ever witnessed in
+America. The secular arm was ever ready to support the religious, and to
+compel every resident of the colony to walk in the strait and narrow way
+of Puritanism. This was a task easy enough at first, but growing more
+and more difficult as the character of the settlers became more diverse,
+until, finally, it had to be abandoned altogether.
+
+One of the first and most formidable of all those who dared array
+themselves against this bulwark of Puritanism was Roger Williams. He was
+the son of a merchant tailor of London, had developed into a precocious
+boy, had shown a leaning toward Puritan doctrines, and had ended by
+out-Puritaning the Puritans. This was principally apparent in an
+intolerance of compromise which led him to remarkable extremes. He
+refused to conform to the use of the common prayer, and so cut himself
+off from all chance of preferment; he renounced a property of some
+thousands of pounds rather than take the oath required by law; and at
+last was forced to flee the country, reaching Massachusetts in 1631.
+
+He was, of course, soon at war with the constituted authorities over
+questions of doctrine, and at last it was decided to get rid of him by
+sending him back to England. He was at Salem at the time, and hearing
+that a warrant had been despatched from Boston for him, he promptly took
+to the woods, and, making his way with a few followers to Narragansett
+Bay, broke ground for a settlement which he named Providence. It was the
+beginning of the first state in the world which took no cognizance
+whatever of religious belief, so long as it did not interfere with civil
+peace. He was soon joined by more adherents, and a few years later, he
+obtained from the king a charter for the colony of Rhode Island.
+
+Almost from the moment of his landing in America, Williams had
+interested himself greatly in the welfare of the Indians. The principal
+cause of his expulsion from Massachusetts was his contention that the
+land belonged to the Indians and not to the King of England, who
+therefore had no right to give it away, so that the colony's charter was
+invalid. His town of Providence was built on land which the Indians had
+given him, and he soon acquired considerable influence among them. He
+learned to speak their language with great facility, translated the
+Bible into their tongue, and on more than one occasion saved New England
+from the horrors of an Indian war. But, despite his lofty character, it
+is impossible at this day, to regard Williams with any degree of
+sympathy or liking, or to think of him except as a trouble-maker over
+trifles. Intolerance, happily, is fading from the world, and with it
+that useless scrupulosity of behavior, which accomplishes no good, but
+whose principal result is to make uncomfortable all who come in contact
+with it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, just to the south of Rhode Island, a prosperous little
+settlement had been established, which was soon to grow into the most
+commercially important on the continent. We have seen how Henry Hudson,
+in 1609, in a vessel chartered by the Dutch West India Company, entered
+the Hudson river and explored it for some hundred and fifty miles. The
+Dutch claimed the region as the result of that voyage, and during the
+next few years, Dutch traders visited it regularly and did a lively
+business in furs; but no attempt was made at colonization until 1624,
+although small trading-posts had existed at various points along the
+river for ten years previously.
+
+All of this country was included in the patent granted the Virginia
+Company, and it was for the mouth of the Hudson that the Pilgrims had
+sailed in the Mayflower. The charge has since been made that their
+captain had been bribed by the thrifty Dutch to land them somewhere
+else, and at any cost, to keep them away from the neighborhood of the
+Dutch trading-posts. From whatever cause, this was certainly done, and
+many years were to elapse before there came another English invasion.
+
+In 1626, Peter Minuit, director for the Dutch West India Company,
+purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians, giving for it trinkets and
+merchandise to the value of $24, and founding New Amsterdam as the
+central trading depot. From the first, the settlement was a cosmopolitan
+one, just as it is to-day, and in 1643, it was said that eighteen
+languages were spoken there.
+
+The most notable figure in this prosperous and growing colony was that
+of Peter Stuyvesant, an altogether picturesque and gallant personality.
+Born in Holland in 1602, he had entered the army at an early age, and,
+as governor of Curacao, lost a leg in battle. In 1646, he was appointed
+director-general of New Netherlands, and reached New Amsterdam in the
+spring of the following year. So much powder was burned in firing
+salutes to welcome him that there was scarcely any left. His speech of
+greeting was brief and to the point.
+
+"I shall govern you," he said, "as a father his children, for the
+advantage of the chartered West India Company, and these burghers, and
+this land."
+
+And he proceeded to do it, having in mind the old adage that to spare
+the rod is to spoil the child. There was never any doubt in Stuyvesant's
+mind that the first business of a ruler is to rule, and popular
+government seemed to him the merest idiocy. "A valiant, weather-beaten,
+mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited
+old governor"--the adjectives describe him well; a sufficiently imposing
+figure, with his slashed hose and velvet jacket and tall cane and
+silver-banded wooden leg, he ruled the colony for twenty years with a
+rod of iron, fortifying it, enlarging it, settling its boundaries,
+keeping the Indians over-awed, the veriest dictator this continent ever
+saw, until, one August day in 1664, an English fleet sailed up the bay
+and summoned the city to surrender.
+
+Stuyvesant set his men to work repairing the fortifications, and was for
+holding out, but the town was really defenseless against the frigates,
+which had only to sail up the river and bombard it from either side; his
+people were disaffected and to some extent not sorry to be delivered
+from his rule; the terms offered by the English were favorable, and
+though Stuyvesant swore he never would surrender, a white flag was
+finally run up over the ramparts of Fort Amsterdam. The city was at once
+renamed New York, in honor of the Duke of York, to whom it had been
+granted; and the hard-headed old governor spent the remaining years of
+his life very comfortably on his great farm, the Bouwerie, just outside
+the city limits.
+
+This conquest, bloodless and easy as it was, was fraught with momentous
+consequences. It brought New England into closer relations with Maryland
+and Virginia by creating a link between them, binding them together; it
+gave England command of the spot designed by nature to be the commercial
+and military centre of the Atlantic sea-board, and confirmed a
+possession of it that was never thereafter seriously disturbed, until
+the colonies themselves disputed it. Had New Amsterdam remained Dutch,
+dividing, as it did, New England from the South, there would never have
+been any question of revolution or independence. The flash of that
+little white flag on that September day, decided the fate of the
+continent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Duke of York, being of a generous disposition and having many claims
+upon him, used a portion of the great territory granted him in America
+to reward his friends, and thereby laid the foundation for another great
+commonwealth with a unique history. New Jersey was given jointly to Sir
+George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, and in 1673, Lord Berkeley sold his
+share, illy-defined as the "southwestern part," to a Quaker named Edward
+Byllinge. Byllinge soon became insolvent, and his property was taken
+over by William Penn and two others, as trustees, and the seeds sown for
+one of the most interesting experiments in history.
+
+There are few figures on the page of history more admirable,
+self-poised, and clear-sighted than this quiet man. He was born in
+London in 1644, the son of a distinguished father, and apparently
+destined for the usual career at the court of England. But while at
+Oxford, young Penn astonished everybody and scandalized his relatives by
+joining the Society of Friends, or Quakers, founded by George Fox only a
+short time before. His family at once removed him from Oxford and sent
+him to Paris, in the hope that amid the gayeties of the French capital
+he would forget his Quaker notions, but he was far from doing so. He
+returned home after a time, and his father threatened to shut him up in
+the Tower of London, but he retorted that for him the Tower was the
+worst argument in the world. We get some amusing glimpses of the
+contention in his household.
+
+"You may 'thee' and 'thou' other folk as much as you like," his angry
+father told him, "but don't you dare to 'thee' and 'thou' the King, or
+the Duke of York, or me."
+
+The Quakers insisted upon the use of "thee" and "thou," alleging that
+the use of the plural "you" was not only absurd, but a form of flattery,
+and this manner of address has been persisted in by them to this day.
+Penn, of course, continued to use them, much to his father's
+indignation, and even went so far as to wear his hat in the king's
+presence, an act of audacity which only amused that merry monarch. The
+story goes that the king, seeing young Penn covered, removed his own
+hat, remarking jestingly, "Wherever I am, it is customary for only one
+to be covered"; a neat reproof, as well as a lesson in manners which
+would have made any other young man's ears tingle, but Penn calmly
+enough replied, "Keep thy hat on, Friend Charles."
+
+After his father's death, in 1670, Penn found himself heir to a great
+estate, and began to devote himself entirely to the defense and
+explanation of Quakerism. Again and again, he was thrown into prison and
+kept there for months on end, but gradually he began to win for the
+Friends a certain degree of respect and consideration, perhaps as much
+because of his high social station, gallant bearing and magnetic
+personality, as because of any of his arguments. In 1677, he made a sort
+of missionary tour of Europe, returning to England to set actively
+afloat the project for Quaker colonization in America which he had long
+been turning over in his mind.
+
+Three years, however, passed before he could secure from the Duke of
+York a release of all his powers of sovereignty over West Jersey, but
+this was finally accomplished, and soon afterwards he secured from the
+crown a charter for a great strip of country in that region. Penn named
+this region "Sylvania," or "Woodland," but when the King came to approve
+the charter, he wrote the name "Penn" before "Sylvania," and when Penn
+protested, assured him laughingly that the name was given the country
+not in his honor but in that of his father, and so it stood.
+
+Penn had been allowed a free hand in shaping the policy of his colony,
+and forthwith proclaimed such a government as existed nowhere else on
+earth. Absolute freedom of conscience was guaranteed to everyone; it was
+declared that governments exist for the sake of the governed, that to
+reform a criminal is more important than to punish him, that the death
+penalty should be inflicted only for murder or high treason, and that
+every man had a right to vote and to hold office. All of which are such
+matters of course to-day that we can scarcely realize how revolutionary
+they were two centuries ago.
+
+To all who should come to his colony, Penn offered land at the rate of
+forty shillings for a hundred acres, and the experiment, denounced at
+first as visionary and certain of failure, was so successful that within
+a year, more than three thousand persons had sailed to settle along the
+Delaware. In the summer of 1682, Penn himself sailed for the New World,
+and late in the following autumn, at a spot just above the junction of
+the Schuylkill and Delaware, laid out a city as square and level as a
+checker-board, and named it Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.
+Before taking possession of the land, he concluded a treaty with the
+Delaware Indians, to whom it belonged, "the only treaty," as Voltaire
+says, "between savages and Christians that was never sworn to and never
+broken." Penn's stately and distinguished bearing, his affability and
+kindness of heart, made a deep impression upon the Indians; they always
+remembered him with trust and affection; and seventy years elapsed
+before Pennsylvania tasted the horrors of Indian warfare.
+
+The growth of the new city was phenomenal. Settlers came so fast that
+cabins could not be built for them, and many of them lived for a time in
+caves along the river. The remainder of Penn's life was spent for the
+most part in England, where his interests demanded his presence, but he
+built a handsome residence in the city which he had founded and lived
+there at intervals until his death.
+
+No consideration, however brief, of his life and work can be complete
+without some reference to the remarkable effect the establishment of his
+colony had on emigration to America. Pennsylvania gave a refuge and home
+to the most intelligent and progressive peoples of Europe, chafing under
+the religious restrictions which, at home, they could not escape. The
+Mennonites, the Dunkers, and the Palatines were among these, but by far
+the most important were the so-called Scotch-Irish--Scotchmen who, a
+century before, had been sent to Ireland by the English government, in
+the hope of establishing there a Protestant population which would, in
+time, come to outnumber and control the native Irish. The Scotch were
+Presbyterians, of course, and finding the Irish environment distasteful,
+began, about 1720, to come to America in such numbers that, fifty years
+later, they formed a sixth part of our entire population. Nearly all of
+them settled in Western Pennsylvania, from which a steady stream flowed
+ever southward and westward, furnishing the hardy pioneers of Kentucky
+and Tennessee, and forming the main strength of American democracy. We
+shall see, in the chapters which follow, how many of the men eminent in
+the country's history, traced their descent from this stock.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One more interesting experiment in colonization, conceived and carried
+out by a man of unusual personality, remains to be recorded. James
+Oglethorpe, born in 1689, for forty years led the usual life of the
+wealthy English gentleman--first the army, then a period of quiet
+country life, and finally parliament. There, however, he took a place
+apart, almost at once, by his interest in prison reform. The condition
+of the English prisons of the day was indescribably foul and loathsome,
+and as horror after horror was unearthed by his investigations, a great
+project began to take shape in his mind. This was nothing less than the
+founding in America of a colony where prisoners for debt should be
+encouraged to settle, and where they should be given means to make a new
+start in life. For in those days, a man who could not pay his debts was
+cast into prison and kept there, frequently in the greatest misery, as
+though that helped matters any.
+
+In 1732, Oglethorpe succeeded in securing a charter for such a colony,
+which he named Georgia, in honor of the King. Trustees were appointed,
+the support of influential men secured, and on November 16, 1732, the
+first shipload of emigrants left England. Oglethorpe himself accompanied
+them. He had undertaken to establish the colony on the condition that he
+receive no recompense, and was authorized to act as colonial governor.
+
+Charleston, South Carolina, was reached about the middle of January,
+and, after some exploration, Oglethorpe selected as the site of the
+first settlement a bluff on the rich delta lands of the Savannah.
+Thither the emigrants proceeded, and at once began to build the town,
+which was named Savannah after the river flowing at its feet. Oglethorpe
+himself was indefatigable. He concluded a treaty with the Indians,
+provided for the defense of the colony against the Spaniards, who held
+Florida, and, most important of all, welcomed a colony of Jews, who had
+come from London at their own expense, and who soon became as valuable
+as any of Savannah's citizens. Probably never before in history had a
+Christian community welcomed a party of this unfortunate race, which had
+been despised and persecuted from one end of Europe to the other, which
+could call no country home, nor invoke the protection of any government.
+
+A year later, another strange band of pilgrims was welcomed--Protestants
+driven out of the Tyrolese valleys of Austria. A ship had been sent for
+them, and Oglethorpe gave them permission to select a home in any part
+of the province, and sent his carpenters to assist them in building
+their houses. Georgia owes much of her greatness to these sturdy people,
+whose love of independence was to find another vent in the Revolution.
+
+As soon as these new arrivals were comfortably settled and provided for,
+Oglethorpe proceeded to London, where he secured the passage of laws
+prohibiting slavery and the importation of liquor into the colony, and
+not until his connection with it ended were slaves brought in. When he
+returned to Georgia, it was with two vessels, and over three hundred
+colonists--Scotchmen, Salzburgers and Moravians, the sturdiest people of
+the Old World. Oglethorpe welcomed them all, and it was this mixture of
+races which served to give Georgia her curious cosmopolitan population.
+Another important arrival was Charles Wesley, who came out as a
+missionary, and who acted for a time as the Governor's secretary. He was
+succeeded by the famous George Whitfield, who labored there until his
+death in 1770.
+
+Oglethorpe's public career ended in 1754, when, having returned to
+England, he failed of election to parliament. His remaining years were
+spent in retirement. That he was an extraordinary man cannot be
+gainsaid, and the plan, so far in advance of his age, which he conceived
+and carried through to success, forms one of the most interesting
+experiments in colonization ever attempted anywhere.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This, then, is the story in briefest outline of the men who discovered
+America and who fought for a foothold on her borders. Most of them, it
+will be noted, undertook the struggle not for commercial ends nor from
+the love of adventure, but in order to establish for themselves a home
+where they would be free in matters of the spirit. The traces of that
+purpose may be found on almost every page of American history and do
+much to render it the inspiring thing it is. We shall see how many of
+the great men who loom large in these pages traced their descent from
+those hardy pioneers for whom no sacrifice seemed too great provided it
+secured for them
+
+    "Freedom to worship God."
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER. Born at Genoa, Italy, probably in 1446; removed
+to Portugal about 1473; laid plan to reach the Indies before John II.
+of Portugal, 1484; appeared at court of Ferdinand and Isabella, 1485;
+Spanish monarchs agreed to his demands, April 17, 1492; sailed from
+Palos, August 3, 1492; discovered West Indies, October 12, 1492;
+returned to Palos, March 15, 1493; embarked on second voyage with 17
+vessels and 1,500 men, September 25, 1493; discovered Dominica, Porto
+Rico, Jamaica, and returned to Spain, March, 1496; started on third
+voyage, May 30, 1498; discovered Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco;
+recalled to Santo Domingo by disorders and finally arrested and sent
+back to Spain in chains, October, 1500; released and started on fourth
+voyage in March, 1502; discovered Honduras, but was wrecked on Jamaica,
+and reached Spain again after terrible sufferings, November 7, 1504;
+passed his remaining days in poverty and died at Valladolid, May 20,
+1506.
+
+CABOT, JOHN. Born at Genoa, date unknown; became citizen of Venice,
+1476; removed to Bristol, England, and in 1495 secured from Henry VII. a
+patent for the discovery, at his own expense, of unknown lands in the
+eastern, western, or northern seas; sailed from Bristol, May, 1497;
+discovered coast of Newfoundland and returned to England in August,
+1497; date of death unknown.
+
+CABOT, SEBASTIAN. Son of John Cabot, born probably at Venice, 1477;
+accompanied his father's expedition, 1497; commanded an English
+expedition in search of a northwest passage, 1517; removed to Spain and
+made grand pilot of Castile, 1518; sailed in command of a Spanish
+expedition, April 3, 1526; skirted coast of South America, discovered
+the Uruguay and Parana, and reached Spain again in 1530; returned to
+England, 1546; died at London, 1557.
+
+VESPUCCI, AMERIGO. Born at Florence, Italy, March 9, 1451; removed to
+Spain, 1495; claimed to have accompanied four expeditions as astronomer
+in 1497, 1499, 1501 and 1503, during which some explorations were made
+of the coasts of both North and South America; died at Seville, February
+22, 1512.
+
+PONCE DE LEON, JUAN. Born in Aragon about 1460; accompanied the second
+voyage of Columbus, 1493; conquered Porto Rico and appointed governor,
+1510; heard story from Indians of an island to the north named Bimini,
+on which was a fountain giving eternal youth to all who drank of its
+waters, and sailed in search of it, March, 1513; discovered the mainland
+and landed on April 8, Pascua Florida, or Easter Sunday, taking
+possession of the country for the King of Spain and calling it Florida,
+in honor of the day; returned to Porto Rico, September, 1513; sailed
+with a large number of colonists to settle Florida, March, 1521;
+attacked by Indians and forced to retreat, he himself being wounded by
+an Indian arrow and dying from the effects of the wound a short time
+later.
+
+MAGALHAES, FERNAO DE; generally known as Ferdinand Magellan. Born in
+Portugal about 1480; sailed from Spain to find a western passage to the
+Moluccas, September 20, 1519; reached the Brazilian coast, explored Rio
+de la Plata, wintered on Patagonian coast, passed through Strait of
+Magellan and reached the Pacific, November 28, 1520; crossed the Pacific
+and discovered the Philippines, March 16, 1521; killed in a fight with
+the natives, April 27, 1521.
+
+DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS. Born in Devonshire, England, about 1540; fitted out
+a freebooting expedition and attacked the Spanish settlements in the
+West Indies, 1572, capturing Porto Bello, Cartagena, and other towns and
+taking an immense treasure; sailed again from England, December, 1577,
+circumnavigating the globe and reaching home again September, 1580,
+where he was met by Queen Elizabeth and knighted on his ship; ravaged
+the West Indies and Spanish Main, 1585, and the coast of Spain, 1587;
+commanded a division of the fleet defeating the Spanish Armada, July,
+1588; died off Porto Bello, 1596.
+
+SOTO, HERNANDO DE. Born in Spain, 1500; took prominent part in conquest
+of Peru, 1532-1536; appointed governor of Porto Rico and Florida, 1537;
+landed at Tampa Bay, May 25, 1539; discovered the Mississippi, May,
+1541; died of malarial fever and buried in the Mississippi, June, 1542.
+
+CORONADO, FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE. Born at Salamanca about 1500; reached
+Mexico in 1539, and in 1540, headed an expedition in search of Cibola
+and the Seven Cities supposed to have been founded seven centuries
+before by some Spanish bishops fleeing from the Moors; penetrated to
+what is now New Mexico and perhaps to Kansas, reaching Mexico again with
+only a remnant of his force; date of death unknown.
+
+CARTIER, JACQUES. Born at St. Malo, France, December 31, 1494; made
+three voyages to Canada, 1534-1542; exploring the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
+and sailing up the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal; died after 1552.
+
+HUDSON, HENRY. Date and place of birth unknown; sailed in service of
+Dutch East India Company to find a northwest passage, March 25, 1609;
+sighted Nova Scotia and explored coast as far south as Chesapeake Bay;
+explored Hudson river, September, 1609; sailed again to find a northwest
+passage, 1610; entered Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait, where he wintered;
+set adrift in open boat, with eight companions, by mutinous crew, June
+23, 1611; never seen again.
+
+SMITH, CAPTAIN JOHN. Born in Lincolnshire, England, in January, 1579;
+served in Netherlands and against Turks, sailed for Virginia with
+Christopher Newport, December 19, 1606; chosen president of colony,
+September 10, 1608; returned to London in autumn of 1609; explored New
+England coast, 1614; created admiral of New England, 1617; spent
+remainder of life in vain endeavor to secure financial support for a
+colony in New England; died at London, June 21, 1632.
+
+CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE. Born at Brouage, France, 1567; explored Canada and
+New England, 1603-1607; founded Quebec, 1608; discovered Lake Champlain,
+1609; died at Quebec, December 25, 1635.
+
+NICOLET, JEAN. Place and date of both birth and death unknown.
+
+LA SALLE, ROBERT CAVALIER, SIEUR DE. Born at Rouen, November 22, 1643;
+came to Canada, 1666; set out on tour of western exploration,
+discovering Ohio river, 1669; descended the Mississippi to its mouth,
+1681; led a band of colonists from France, 1685; missed mouth of river,
+and murdered by his own men while seeking it, March 20, 1687.
+
+JOLIET, LOUIS. Born at Quebec, September 21, 1645; commissioned to
+explore Mississippi river, by Frontenac, governor of New France, 1672;
+explored Fox, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Illinois rivers, 1673; died
+May, 1700.
+
+MARQUETTE, JACQUES. Born at Laon, France, 1637; accompanied Joliet in
+1673; died near Lake Michigan, May 18, 1675.
+
+BRADFORD, WILLIAM. Born at Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, 1590;
+governor of Plymouth colony, 1621-1657 (except in 1633-1634, 1636, 1638,
+1644); died at Plymouth, Massachusetts, May 9, 1657.
+
+WILLIAMS, ROGER. Born in Wales about 1600; reached Massachusetts, 1631;
+pastor at Plymouth and Salem, 1631-1635; ordered to leave colony and
+fled from Salem, January, 1636; founded Providence, June, 1636; went to
+England and obtained charter for Rhode Island colony, 1644; president of
+colony until death, April, 1684.
+
+STUYVESANT, PETER. Born in Holland, 1602; served in West Indies, for a
+time governor of Curacao, and returned to Holland in 1644; appointed
+director-general of New Netherlands, 1646; reached New Amsterdam, 1647;
+surrendered colony to the English, September, 1664; died at New York,
+August, 1682.
+
+PENN, WILLIAM. Born at London, October 14, 1644; became preacher of
+Friends, 1668; part proprietor of West Jersey, 1675; received grant of
+Pennsylvania, 1681; founded Philadelphia, 1682; returned to England,
+1684; deprived of government of colony on charge of treason, 1692, but
+restored to it in 1694; visited Pennsylvania, 1699-1701; died at
+Ruscombe, Berks, England, July 30, 1718.
+
+OGLETHORPE, JAMES EDWARD. Born at London, December 21, 1696; projected
+colony of Georgia for insolvent debtors and persecuted Protestants, and
+conducted expedition for its settlement, 1733; returned to England,
+1743; died at Cranham Hall, Essex, England, 1785.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WASHINGTON TO LINCOLN
+
+
+Near the left bank of the Potomac river, in the northwestern
+part of Westmoreland county, Virginia, there stood, in the year 1732, a
+little cabin, where lived a planter by the name of Augustine Washington.
+It was a lonely spot, for the nearest neighbor was miles away, but the
+little family, consisting of father, mother, and two boys, Lawrence and
+Augustine, were kept busy enough wresting a living from the soil. Here,
+on the twenty-second day of February, a third son was born, and in due
+time christened George.
+
+Just a century had elapsed since John Smith had died in London, but in
+that time the colony which he had founded and which had been more than
+once so near extinction, had grown to be the greatest in America. Half a
+million people were settled along her bays and rivers, engaged, for the
+most part, in the culture of tobacco, for which the colony had long been
+famous and which was the basis of her wealth. Her boundaries were still
+indefinite, for though, by, the king's charter, the colony was supposed
+to stretch clear across the continent to the Pacific, the country beyond
+the Blue Ridge mountains was still a wilderness where the Indian and the
+wild beast held undisputed sway. Even in Virginia proper, there were few
+towns and no cities, Williamsburg, the capital, having less than two
+hundred houses; but each planter lived on his own estate, very much
+after the fashion of the feudal lords of the Middle Ages, generous,
+hospitable, and kind-hearted, fond of the creature-comforts, proud of
+his women and of his horses, and satisfied with himself.
+
+It was into this world that George Washington was born. While he was
+still a baby, his father moved to a place he purchased on the banks of
+the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and here the boy's childhood
+was spent. His father died when he was only eleven years old, but his
+mother was a vigorous and capable woman, from whom her son inherited not
+a little of his sturdy character. He developed into a tall, strong,
+athletic youth, and many stories are told of his prowess. He could jump
+twenty feet; on one occasion he threw a stone across the Rappahannock,
+and on another, standing beneath the famous Natural Bridge, threw a
+stone against its great arch, two hundred feet above his head. He grew
+to be over six feet in height and finely proportioned--altogether a
+handsome and capable fellow, who soon commanded respect.
+
+At that time, surveying was a very important occupation, since so much
+of the colony remained to be laid out, and George began to study to be a
+surveyor, an occupation which appealed to him especially because it was
+of the open air. He was soon to get a very important commission.
+
+When Augustine Washington died, he bequeathed to his elder son,
+Lawrence, an estate on the Potomac called Hunting Creek. Near by lay the
+magnificent estate of Belvoir, owned by the wealthy William Fairfax, and
+Lawrence Washington had the good fortune to win the heart and hand of
+Fairfax's daughter. With the money his bride brought him, he was able to
+build for himself a very handsome dwelling on his estate, whose name he
+changed to Mount Vernon, in honor of the English admiral with whom he
+had seen some service. George, of course, was a frequent visitor at
+Belvoir, meeting other members of the Fairfax family, among them Thomas,
+sixth Lord Fairfax, who finally engaged him to survey a great estate
+which had been granted him by the king on the slope of the Blue Ridge
+mountains.
+
+George Washington was only sixteen years of age when he started out on
+this errand into what was then the wilderness. It was a tremendous task
+which he had undertaken, for the estate comprised nearly a fifth of the
+present state, but he did it so well that, on Lord Fairfax's
+recommendation, he was at once appointed a public surveyor, and may
+fairly be said to have commenced his public career. His brother soon
+afterwards secured for him the appointment as adjutant-general for the
+district in which he lived, so that it became his duty to attend to the
+organization and equipment of the district militia. This was the
+beginning of his military service and of his study of military
+science. He was at that time eighteen years of age.
+
+That was the end of his boyhood. You will notice that I have said
+nothing about his being a marvel of goodness or of wisdom--nothing, for
+instance, about a cherry tree. That fable, and a hundred others like it,
+were the invention of a man who wrote a life of Washington half a
+century after his death, and who managed so to enwrap him with
+disguises, that it is only recently we have been able to strip them all
+away and see the man as he really was. Washington's boyhood was much
+like any other. He was a strong, vigorous, manly fellow; he got into
+scrapes, just as any healthy boy does; he grew up straight and handsome,
+ready to play his part in the world, and he was called upon to play it
+much earlier than most boys are. We shall see what account he gave of
+himself.
+
+When George was twenty years old, his brother Lawrence died and made him
+his executor. From that time forward, Mount Vernon was his home, and in
+the end passed into his possession. But he was not long to enjoy the
+pleasant life there, for a year later, he was called upon to perform an
+important and hazardous mission.
+
+We have seen how La Salle dreamed of a great French empire, stretching
+from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi. This was already
+becoming a reality, for the governor of Canada had sent troops to occupy
+the Ohio valley, and to build such forts as might be needed to hold it.
+This was bringing the French altogether too close for comfort.
+As long as they were content to remain in the Illinois country, nothing
+much was thought of it, for that was far away; but here they were now
+right at Virginia's back door, and there was no telling when they would
+try to force it open and enter. So Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia,
+determined to dispatch a commissioner to the officer-in-command of the
+French, to summon him to leave English territory. The commissioner was
+also to try to kill two birds with one stone and form an alliance with
+the Indians, so that, if it came to fighting, the Indians would be with
+the English. No more delicate and dangerous mission could well be
+conceived, and after careful consideration, the governor selected George
+Washington to undertake it.
+
+On October 30, 1753, Washington left Williamsburg, with a journey of
+more than a thousand miles before him. How that journey was
+accomplished, what perils he faced, what difficulties he overcame, how,
+on more than one occasion his life hung by a thread--all this he has
+told, briefly and modestly, in the journal which he kept of the
+expedition. Three months from the time he started, he was back again in
+Williamsburg, having faced his first great responsibility, and done his
+work absolutely well. He had shown a cool courage that nothing could
+shake, a fine patience, and a penetration and perception which nothing
+could escape. He was the hero of the hour in the little Virginia
+capital; the whole colony perceived that here was a man to be depended
+upon.
+
+He had found the French very active along the Ohio, preparing
+to build forts and hold the country, and laughing at Dinwiddie's summons
+to vacate it. This news caused Virginia to put a military force in the
+field at once, and dispatch it to the west, with Washington in virtual
+command. It was hoped to build a strong fort at the junction of the
+Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which would prevent the French getting
+to the Ohio, since all travel in that wilderness must be by water. On
+May 28, 1754, while hastening forward to secure this position,
+Washington's little force encountered a party of French, and the first
+shots were exchanged of the great contest which, twelve years later, was
+to result in the expulsion of the French from the continent. It was
+Washington who gave the word to fire, little foreseeing what history he
+was making.
+
+"I heard the bullets whistle," he wrote home to his mother, "and believe
+me, there is something charming in the sound"--a bit of bravado which
+shows that Washington had not yet quite outgrown his boyhood. No doubt
+the bullets sounded much less charmingly five weeks later when he and
+his men, brought to bay in a rude fortification which he named Fort
+Necessity, were surrounded by a superior force of French and Indians,
+and, after an all-day fight, compelled to surrender. It is worth
+remarking that this bitter defeat--the first reverse which Washington
+suffered--occurred on the third day of July, 1754. Twenty-one years from
+that day, he was to draw his sword at the head of an American army.
+
+Washington made his way back to Virginia with the news of his
+failure. The French had occupied the vantage ground he was aiming at and
+at once proceeded to erect a fort there, which they named Duquesne. Aid
+was asked from England to repel these invaders, and early in 1755, a
+great force under Major-General Edward Braddock advanced against the
+enemy. Washington served as aide-de-camp to the general, whose ideas of
+warfare had been gained on the battlefields of Europe, and who could not
+understand that these ideas did not apply to warfare in a wilderness. In
+consequence, when only a few miles from the fort, he was attacked by a
+force of French and Indians, his army all but annihilated and he himself
+wounded so severely that he died a few days later. During that fierce
+battle, Washington seemed to bear a charmed life. Four bullets tore
+through his coat and two horses were shot under him, but he received not
+a scratch, and did effective work in rallying the Virginia militia to
+cover the retreat. Three years later, he had the satisfaction of
+marching into Fort Duquesne with an English force, which banished the
+French for all time from the valley of the Ohio.
+
+That victory ended the war for a time, and Washington returned to
+Virginia to marry a charming and wealthy widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, and
+to take the seat in the House of Burgesses to which he had just been
+elected. He served there for fifteen years, living the life of the
+typical Virginia planter on his estate of Mount Vernon, which had passed
+into his possession through the death of his brother's only
+child. He had become one of the most important men of the colony, whose
+opinion was respected and whose influence was very great.
+
+During all this period, the feeling against England was growing more and
+more bitter. Let us be candid about it. The expulsion of the French from
+the continent had freed the colonies from the danger of French
+aggression and from the feeling that they needed the aid of the mother
+country. That they should have been taxed to help defray the great
+expense of this war against the French seems reasonable enough, but
+there happened to be in power in England, at the time, a few obstinate
+and bull-headed statesmen, serving under an obstinate and ignorant king,
+and they handled the question of taxation with so little tact and
+delicacy that, among them, they managed to rouse the anger of the
+colonies to the boiling point.
+
+For the colonists, let us remember, were of the same obstinate and
+bull-headed stock, and it was soon evident that the only way to settle
+the difference was to fight it out. But the impartial historian must
+write it down that the colonies had much more to thank England for than
+to complain about, and that at first, the idea of a war for independence
+was not a popular one. As it went on, and the Tories were run out of the
+country or won over, as battle and bloodshed aroused men's passions,
+then it gradually gained ground; but throughout, the members of the
+Continental Congress, led by John and Samuel Adams, were ahead
+of public opinion.
+
+As we have said, it soon became apparent that there was going to be a
+fight, and independent companies were formed all over Virginia, and
+started industriously to drilling. Washington, by this time the most
+conspicuous man in the colony, was chosen commander-in-chief; and when,
+at the gathering of the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia,
+came news of the fight at Lexington and Concord, the army before Boston
+was formally adopted by the Congress as an American army, and Washington
+was unanimously chosen to command it. I wonder if any one foresaw that
+day, even in the dimmest fashion, what immortality of fame was to come
+to that tall, quiet, dignified man?
+
+That was on the 15th day of June, 1775, and Washington left immediately
+for Boston to take command of the American forces. All along the route,
+the people turned out to welcome him and bid him Godspeed. Delegations
+escorted him from one town to the next, and at last, on the afternoon of
+July 2d, he rode into Cambridge, where, the next day, in the shadow of a
+great elm on Cambridge Common, he took command of his army, and began
+the six years' struggle which resulted in the establishment of the
+independence of the United States of America.
+
+His first task was to drive the British from Boston, and he had
+accomplished it by the following March. Then came a long period of
+reverses and disappointments, during which his little army,
+outnumbered, but not outgeneraled, was driven from Long
+Island, from New York, and finally across New Jersey, taking refuge on
+the south bank of the Delaware. There he gathered it together, and on
+Christmas night, 1776, while the enemy were feasting and celebrating in
+their quarters at Trenton, he ferried his army back across the
+ice-blocked river, fell upon the British, administered a stinging
+defeat, and never paused until he had driven them from New Jersey. That
+brilliant campaign effectually stifled the opposition which he had had
+to fight in the Congress, and resulted in his being given full power
+over the army, and over all parts of the country which the army
+occupied.
+
+One more terrible ordeal awaited him--the winter of 1777-1778 spent at
+Valley Forge, where the army, without the merest necessities of life,
+melted away from desertion and disease, until, at one time, it consisted
+of less than two thousand effective men. The next spring saw the
+turning-point, for France allied herself with the United States; the
+British were forced to evacuate Philadelphia and were driven back across
+New Jersey to New York; and, finally, by one of the most brilliant
+marches in history, Washington transferred his whole army from the
+Hudson to the Potomac, and trapped Cornwallis and his army of seven
+thousand men at Yorktown. Cornwallis tried desperately to free himself,
+but to no avail, and on October 19, 1781, he surrendered his entire
+force.
+
+There is a pretty legend that, as Cornwallis delivered up his sword, a
+cheer started through the American lines, but that Washington
+stilled it on the instant, remarking, "Let posterity cheer for us."
+Whether the legend be true or not, posterity _has_ cheered, for that
+brilliant victory really ended the war, although two years passed before
+peace was declared and the independence of the United States
+acknowledged by the King of England.
+
+Long before this, everybody knew what the end would be, and there was
+much discussion as to how the new country should be governed. A great
+many people were dissatisfied with the Congress, and it was suggested to
+Washington that there would be a more stable government if he would
+consent himself to be King or Dictator, or whatever title he might wish,
+and that the army, which had won the independence of the country, would
+support him. Washington's response was prompt and decisive.
+
+"Let me conjure you," he wrote, "if you have any regard for your
+country, concern for yourself, or respect for me, to banish these
+thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself or any
+one else, a sentiment of like nature."
+
+It was perhaps the first time in the history of the world that men had
+witnessed the like. Soon afterwards, the army was disbanded, and
+Washington, proceeding to Annapolis, where the Congress was in session,
+resigned his commission as commander-in-chief. There are some who
+consider that the greatest scene in history--the hero sheathing his
+sword "after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage
+indomitable, and a consummate victory."
+
+A private citizen again, Washington returned quietly to his
+estate at Mount Vernon. But he could not remain there--the country
+needed him too badly, and his great work was yet to do. For let us
+remember that his great work was not the leading of the American army to
+victory, not the securing of independence, but the establishment of this
+Republic. More than of any other man was this the work of Washington. He
+saw the feeble Confederation breaking to pieces, now that the stress of
+danger was removed; he beheld the warring interests and petty jealousies
+of statesmen who yet remained colonial; but he was determined that out
+of these thirteen jarring colonies should come a nation; and when the
+convention to form a constitution met at Philadelphia, he presided over
+it, and it was his commanding will which brought a constitution out of a
+turmoil of selfish interests, through difficulties and past obstacles
+which would have discouraged any other man.
+
+And, the Constitution once adopted, all men turned to Washington to
+start the new Nation on her great voyage. Remember, there was no
+government, only some written pages saying that a government was to be;
+it was Washington who converted that idea into a reality, who brought
+that government into existence. It was a venture new to history; a
+Republic founded upon principles which, however admirable in the
+abstract, had been declared impossible to embody in the life of a
+nation. And yet, eight years later, when Washington retired from the
+presidency, he left behind him an effective government, with an
+established revenue, a high credit, a strong judiciary, a vigorous
+foreign policy, and an army which had repressed insurrections, and which
+already showed the beginnings of a truly national spirit.
+
+At the end of his second term as President, the country demanded that he
+accept a third; the country, without Washington at the head of it,
+seemed to many people like a ship on a dangerous sea without a pilot.
+But he had guided her past the greatest dangers, and he refused a third
+term, setting a precedent which no man in the country's history has been
+strong enough to disregard. In March, 1797, he was back again at Mount
+Vernon, a private citizen.
+
+He looked forward to and hoped for long years of quiet, but it was not
+to be. On December 12, 1799, he was caught by a rain and sleet storm,
+while riding over his farm, and returned to the house chilled through.
+An illness followed, which developed into pneumonia, and three days
+later he was dead.
+
+He was buried at Mount Vernon, which has become one of the great shrines
+of America, and rightly so. For no man, at once so august and so
+lovable, has graced American history. Indeed, he stands among the
+greatest men of all history. There are few men with such a record of
+achievement, and fewer still who, at the end of a life so crowded and
+cast in such troubled places, can show a fame so free from spot, a
+character so unselfish and so pure.
+
+We know Washington to-day as well as it is possible to know any man. We
+know him far better than the people of his own household knew
+him. Behind the silent and reserved man, of courteous and serious
+manner, which his world knew, we perceive the great nature, the warm
+heart and the mighty will. We have his letters, his journals, his
+account-books, and there remains no corner of his life hidden from us.
+There is none that needs to be. Think what that means--not a single
+corner of his life that needs to be shadowed or passed over in silence!
+And the more we study it, the more we are impressed by it, and the
+greater grows our love and veneration for the man of whom were uttered
+the immortal words, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the
+hearts of his countrymen"--words whose truth grows more apparent with
+every passing year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is one of the maxims of history that great events produce great men,
+and the struggle for independence abundantly proved this. Never again in
+the country's history did it possess such a group of statesmen as during
+its first years, the only other period at all comparable with it being
+that which culminated in the Civil War. It was inevitable that these men
+should assume the guidance of the newly-launched ship of state, and
+Washington had, in every way possible, availed himself of their
+assistance. Alexander Hamilton had been his secretary of the treasury,
+Thomas Jefferson his secretary of state, and James Monroe his minister
+to France. The first man to succeed him in the presidency, however, was
+none of these, but John Adams of Massachusetts. His election
+was not uncontested, as Washington's had been; in fact, he was elected
+by a majority of only three, Jefferson receiving 68 electoral votes to
+his 71.
+
+Let us pause for a moment to see how this contest originated, for it was
+the beginning of the party government which has endured to the present
+day, and which is considered by many people to be essential to the
+administration of the Republic. When Washington was elected there were,
+strictly speaking, no parties; but there was a body of men who had
+favored the adoption of the Constitution, and another, scarcely less
+influential, who had opposed it. The former were called Federals, as
+favoring a federation of the several states, and the latter were called
+Anti-Federals, as opposing it.
+
+One point of difference always leads to others, wider and wider apart,
+as the rain-drop, shattered on the summit of the Great Divide, flows one
+half to the Atlantic the other half to the Pacific. So, after the
+adoption of the Constitution, there was never any serious question of
+abrogating it, but two views arose as to its interpretation. The
+Federals, in their endeavor to strengthen the national government,
+favored the liberal view, which was that anything the Constitution did
+not expressly forbid was permitted; while the Anti-Federals, anxious to
+preserve all the power possible to the several states, favored the
+strict view, which was that unless the Constitution expressly permitted
+a thing, it could not be done. As there were many, many points upon
+which the Constitution was silent--its framers being mere human beings
+and not all-wise intelligences--it will be seen that these
+interpretations were as different as black and white. It was this
+divergence, combined with another as to whether, in joining the Union,
+the several states had surrendered their sovereignty, which has
+persisted as the fundamental difference between the Republican and
+Democratic parties to the present day.
+
+Adams was a Federalist, and his choice as the candidate of that party
+was due to the fact that Hamilton, its leader, was too unpopular with
+the people at large to stand any chance of election, more especially
+against such a man as Jefferson, who would be his opponent. With
+Hamilton out of the way, the place plainly belonged to Adams by right of
+succession, and he was nominated. He was aided by the fact that he had
+served as Vice-President during both of Washington's administrations,
+and it was felt that he would be much more likely to carry out the
+policies of his distinguished predecessor than Jefferson, who had been
+opposed to Washington on many public questions. Even at that, as has
+been said, he won by a majority of only three votes.
+
+In a general way Adams did continue Washington's policies, even
+retaining his cabinet. But, while his attitude on national questions
+was, in the main, a wise one, he was so unwise and undignified in minor
+things, so consumed by petty jealousies, envies and contentions, that he
+made enemies instead of friends, and when, four years later, he was
+again the Federal candidate, he was easily beaten by Jefferson, and
+retired from the White House a soured and disappointed man,
+fleeing from the capital by night in order that he might not have to
+witness the inauguration of his successor. To such depths had he been
+brought by colossal egotism. In his earlier years, he had done
+distinguished service as a member of the Continental Congress, but his
+prestige never recovered from the effect of his conduct during his term
+as President, and his last years were passed in retirement. By a
+singular coincidence, he and Jefferson died upon the same day, July 4,
+1826.
+
+Thomas Jefferson, whose influence is perhaps more generally acknowledged
+in the life of the Republic of to-day than that of any other man of his
+time, and whose name, Washington's apart, is oftenest on men's lips, was
+born in Virginia in 1743, graduated from William and Mary College,
+studied law, and took a prominent part in the agitation preceding the
+Revolution. Early in his life, owing to various influences, he began
+forming those ideas of simplicity and equality which had such an
+influence over his later life, and over the great party of which he was
+the founder. His temperament was what we call "artistic"; that is, he
+loved books and music and architecture, and the things which make for
+what we call culture. And yet, with all that, he soon grew wise and
+skillful in the world's affairs, possessing an industry and insight
+which assured his speedy success as a lawyer, despite an impediment of
+speech which prevented him from being an effective orator.
+
+He had the good fortune to marry happily, finding a comrade and
+helpmate, as well as a wife, in beautiful Martha Skelton, with
+whom he rode away to his estate at Monticello when he was twenty-seven.
+She saw him write the Declaration of Independence, saw him war-governor
+of Virginia, and second only to Washington in the respect and affection
+of the people of that great commonwealth; and then she died. The shock
+of her death left Jefferson a stricken man; he secluded himself from the
+public, and declared that his life was at an end.
+
+Washington, however, eight years later, persuaded him to accept a place
+in his cabinet as secretary of state. Within a year he had definitely
+taken his place as the head of the Anti-Federalist, or Republican party,
+and laid the foundations of what afterwards became known as the
+Democratic party. His trust in the people had grown and deepened, his
+heart had grown more tender with the coming of affliction, and it was
+his theory that in a democracy, the people should control public policy
+by imposing their wishes upon their rulers, who were answerable to
+them--a theory which is now accepted, in appearance, at least, by all
+political parties, but which the Federalist leaders of that time
+thoroughly detested. Jefferson seems to have felt, too, that the
+tendency of those early years was too greatly toward an aristocracy,
+which the landed gentry of Virginia were only too willing to provide,
+and when, at last, he was chosen for the presidency, he set the country
+such an example of simplicity and moderation that there was never again
+any chance of its running into that danger.
+
+Everyone has read the story of how, on the day of his
+inauguration, he rode on horseback to the capitol, clad in studiously
+plain clothes and without attendants, tied his horse to the fence, and
+walked unannounced into the Senate chamber. This careful avoidance of
+display marked his whole official career, running sometimes, indeed,
+into an ostentation of simplicity whose good taste might be questioned.
+But of Jefferson's entire sincerity there can be no doubt. Inconsistent
+as he sometimes was--as every man is--his purposes and policies all
+tended steadily toward the betterment of humanity; and the great mass of
+the people who to this day revere his memory, "pay a just debt of
+gratitude to a friend who not only served them, as many have done, but
+who honored and respected them, as very few have done."
+
+Perhaps the greatest single act of his administration was the purchase
+from France of the vast territory known as Louisiana, which included the
+state now bearing that name, and the wide, untrodden, wilderness west of
+the Mississippi, paying for it the sum of fifteen million dollars--a
+rate of a fraction of a cent an acre. The purchase aroused the bitterest
+opposition, but Jefferson seems to have had a clearer vision than most
+men of what the future of America was to be. He served for two terms,
+refusing a third nomination which he was besought to accept, and
+retiring to private life on March 4, 1809, after a nearly continuous
+public service of forty-four years. The remainder of his life was spent
+quietly at his home at Monticello, where men flocked for a
+guidance which never failed them. The cause to which his last years were
+devoted was characteristic of the man--the establishment of a common
+school system in Virginia, and the founding of the University of
+Virginia, which still bears the imprint of his mind.
+
+[Illustration: JEFFERSON]
+
+Jefferson is one of the few men whose portrait, as preserved for us,
+shows us the man as we imagine him to be. No one can look at that lofty
+and noble countenance, with its calm and wide-set eyes, its firm yet
+tender mouth, its expression of complete serenity, without realizing
+that here was a man placed above the weakness and pettiness and meanness
+of the world, on a pinnacle of his own, strong in spirit, wise in
+judgment, and almost prophetic in vision.
+
+The presidency descended, by an overwhelming majority, to one of
+Jefferson's stanch friends and supporters, for whom he had paved the
+way--James Madison, also a Virginian, who had been his secretary of
+state for eight years, and who was himself to serve two terms, during
+which the influence of the "Sage of Monticello" was paramount. The great
+crisis which Madison had to face was the second war with England, a war
+brought on by British aggression on the high seas, and bitterly opposed,
+especially in New England. The war, characterized by blunders on land
+and brilliant successes on the ocean, really resulted without victory to
+either side, and, indeed, was very nearly a defeat for America; but in
+the end, it enabled us to regain possession of the posts which
+England had persisted in occupying along the western boundary, and
+banished forever any fear that she might, at any time in the future,
+attempt to reassert her sovereignty over the United States.
+
+Madison was also fortunate in his wife, the beautiful and brilliant
+Dolly Payne Todd, who played so prominent a part in the social life of
+the time, and who, when the British were marching into Washington to
+sack that city, managed to save some of the treasures of the White House
+from the invaders. It is difficult for us to realize, at this distant
+day, that our beautiful capital was once in the enemy's hands, given
+over to the flames; that was one of the great disgraces of the War of
+1812; for the only force which rallied to the defense of the city was a
+few regiments of untrained militia, which could not stand for a minute
+before the British regulars, but ran away at the first fire.
+
+Madison and his wife, however, soon came back to the White House from
+which they had been driven, and remained there four years longer, until
+the close of his second term, in 1817. For nearly a score of years
+thereafter, they lived a happy and tranquil life on their estate,
+Montpelier.
+
+It is somewhat difficult to estimate Madison. He stood on a sort of
+middle ground between Jefferson and Hamilton. Earlier in his career,
+Hamilton influenced him deeply in regard to the adoption of the
+Constitution, of which he has been called the father. But, at a later
+date, Jefferson's influence became uppermost, and Madison
+swung over to the extreme of the state rights view, and drew the
+resolutions of the Virginia legislature declaring the Alien and Sedition
+laws "utterly null and void and of no effect," so that he has also been
+called the "Father of Nullification." However unstable his opinions may
+have been, there is no questioning his patriotism or the purity of his
+motives.
+
+Again the presidential tradition was to remain unbroken, for Madison's
+successor was James Monroe, his secretary of state, a Virginian and a
+Democrat. The preponderance of the Democratic party was never more in
+evidence, for while he received 183 electoral votes, Rufus King, the
+Federalist candidate, received only 34. This, however, was as nothing to
+the great personal triumph he achieved four years later, when, as a
+candidate for re-election, only one vote was cast against him, and that
+by a man who voted as he did because he did not wish to see a second
+President chosen with the unanimity which had honored Washington.
+
+Monroe is principally remembered to-day from a "doctrine" enunciated by
+him and known by his name, which remains a vital portion of American
+policy. It was in 1823 that he declared that the United States would
+consider any attempt of a European power to establish itself in this
+hemisphere as dangerous to her peace and safety, and as the
+manifestation of an unfriendly disposition. The language is cautious and
+diplomatic, but what it means in plain English is that the United States
+will resist by force any attempt of a European power to
+conquer and colonize any portion of the three Americas--in other words,
+that this country will safeguard the independence of all her neighbors.
+This principle has come to be regarded as a basic one in the foreign
+relations of the United States, and while no European power has formally
+acknowledged it, more than one have had to bow before it. It is
+interesting to know that the enunciation of such a "doctrine" was
+recommended by Thomas Jefferson, and that Jefferson was Monroe's
+constant adviser throughout his career.
+
+Monroe retired from the presidency in 1825, and the seven remaining
+years of his life were passed principally on his estate in Virginia.
+Jefferson said of him, "He is a man whose soul might be turned wrong
+side outwards, without discovering a blemish to the world,"--an estimate
+which was, of course, colored by a warm personal friendship, but which
+was echoed by many others of his contemporaries. Certain it is that few
+men have ever so won the affection and esteem of the nation, and his
+administration was known as the "era of good feeling." He is scarcely
+appreciated to-day at his true worth, principally because he does not
+measure up in genius to the great men who preceded him.
+
+At striking variance with the practical unanimity of Monroe's election
+was that of John Quincy Adams, his successor. Over a quarter of a
+century had elapsed since a northern man had been chosen to the
+presidency. That man, strangely enough, was the father of the
+present candidate, but had retired from office after one acrimonious
+term, discredited and disappointed. Since then, the government of the
+country had been in the hands of Virginians. Now came John Quincy Adams,
+calling himself a Democrat, but really inheriting the principles of his
+father, and the contest which ensued for the presidency was
+unprecedented in the history of the country.
+
+Adams's principal opponent was Andrew Jackson, a mighty man of whom we
+shall soon have occasion to speak, and so close was the contest that the
+electoral college was not able to make a choice. So, as provided by the
+Constitution, it was carried to the House of Representatives, and there,
+through the influence of Henry Clay, who was unfriendly to Jackson,
+Adams was chosen by a small majority. An administration which began in
+bitterness, continued bitter and turbulent. Men's passions were aroused,
+and four years later Adams repeated the fate of his father, in being
+overwhelmingly defeated.
+
+But the most remarkable portion of his story is yet to come. Before that
+time, it had been the custom, as we have seen, for the ex-President to
+spend the remaining years of his life in dignified retirement; but the
+year after Adams left the White House, he was elected to the House of
+Representatives, and was returned regularly every two years until his
+death, which occurred upon its floor. He did much excellent work there,
+and was conspicuous in more than one memorable scene, but he is chiefly
+remembered for his battle for the right of petition. No more
+persistent fight was ever made by a man in a parliamentary body and some
+reference must be made to it here.
+
+Soon after he took his seat in Congress, the movement against slavery
+was begun, and one fruit of it was the appearance of petitions for the
+abolition of slavery in the House of Representatives. A few were
+presented by Mr. Adams, and then more and more, as they were sent in to
+him, and finally the southern representatives became so aroused, that
+they succeeded in passing what was known as the "gag rule," which
+prevented the reception of these petitions by the House. Adams protested
+against this rule as an invasion of his constitutional rights, and from
+that time forward, amid the bitterest opposition, addressed his whole
+force toward the vindication of the right of petition. On every petition
+day, he would offer, in constantly increasing numbers, petitions which
+came to him from all parts of the country for the abolition of slavery.
+The southern representatives were driven almost to madness, but Adams
+kept doggedly on his way, and every year renewed his motion to strike
+out the gag rule. As constant dripping will wear away a stone, so his
+persistence wore away opposition, or, rather, the sentiment of the
+country was gradually changing, and at last, on December 3, 1844, his
+motion prevailed, and the great battle which he had fought practically
+alone was won. Four years later he fell, stricken with paralysis, at his
+place in the House.
+
+It is worth pausing to remark that, of the six men who, up to
+this time, had held the presidency, four were from Virginia and two from
+Massachusetts; that, in every instance, the Virginians had been
+re-elected and had administered the affairs of the country to the
+satisfaction of the people, while both the Massachusetts men had been
+retired from office at the end of a single term, and after turbulent and
+violent administrations. All of them were what may fairly be called
+patricians, men of birth and breeding; they were the possessors of a
+certain culture and refinement, were descended from well-known families,
+and there seemed every reason to believe that the administration of the
+country would be continued in the hands of such men. For what other
+class of men was fitted to direct it? Then, suddenly, the people spoke,
+and selected for their ruler a man from among themselves, a man whose
+college was the backwoods, whose opinions were prejudices rather than
+convictions, and yet who was, withal, perhaps the greatest popular idol
+this country will ever see; whose very blunders endeared him to the
+people, because they knew his heart was right.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the fifteenth day of March, 1767, in a little log cabin on the upper
+Catawba river, almost on the border-line between North and South
+Carolina--so near it, in fact, that no one knows certainly in which
+state it stood--a boy was born and christened Andrew Jackson. His father
+had died a few days before--one of those sturdy Scotch-Irish whom we
+have seen emigrating to America in such numbers in search of
+a land of freedom. The boy grew up in the rude backwoods settlement,
+rough, boisterous, unlettered; at the age of fourteen, riding with
+Sumter in the guerrilla warfare waged throughout the state against the
+British, and then, captured and wounded on head and hand by a
+sabre-stroke whose mark he bore till his dying day, a prisoner in the
+filthy Camden prison-pen, sick of the small-pox, and coming out of it,
+at last, more dead than alive.
+
+His mother nursed him back to life, and then started for Charleston to
+see what could be done for the prisoners rotting in the British
+prison-ships in the harbor, only herself to catch the prison-fever, and
+to be buried in a grave which her son was never able to discover.
+
+Young Jackson, sobered by this and other experiences, applied himself
+with some diligence to his books, taught school for a time, studied law,
+and at the age of twenty was admitted to the bar, for which the standard
+was by no means high. To the west, the new state of Tennessee was in
+process of organization--an unpeopled wilderness for the most part--and
+early in the year 1788, Jackson secured the appointment as public
+prosecutor in the new state. It is not probable he had much competition,
+for the position was one calling for desperate courage, as well as for
+endurance to withstand the privations of back-woods life, and the
+pecuniary reward was small. In the fall of 1788, he proceeded to
+Nashville with a wagon train which came within an ace of being
+annihilated by Indians before it reached its destination.
+
+Jackson found his new position exactly suited to his peculiar genius.
+His personal recklessness made him the terror of criminals; he possessed
+the precise qualifications for success before backwoods juries and for
+personal popularity among the rough people who were his clients, with
+whom usually might was right. At the end of three or four years, he
+practically monopolized the law business of the district; and he soon
+became by far the most popular man in it, despite a hot-headed
+disposition which made him many enemies, which involved him in
+numberless quarrels, and which resulted in his fighting at least one
+duel, in which he killed his opponent and was himself dangerously
+wounded.
+
+It was inevitable, of course, that he should enter politics, and equally
+inevitable that he should be successful there. Eight years after his
+arrival from Carolina, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected to
+represent his state in Congress, and covered the eight hundred miles to
+Philadelphia on horseback. From the House, he was appointed to serve in
+the Senate, resigned from it to accept an election as Judge of the
+Supreme Court of Tennessee, was chosen major-general of the Tennessee
+militia, and so began that military career which was to have a
+remarkable culmination.
+
+On the 25th of June, 1812, apprised of the outbreak of the second war
+with England, Jackson offered to the President his own services and
+those of the twenty-five hundred militia men of his district.
+The offer was at once accepted, and Jackson, getting his troops
+together, proceeded down the river to New Orleans. But jealousies at
+headquarters intervened, he was informed that New Orleans was in no
+present danger, his force was disbanded and left to get back home as
+best it could. Jackson, wild with rage, pledged his own resources to
+furnish this transportation, but was afterwards reimbursed by the
+government.
+
+It was while he was getting his men back home again that Jackson
+received the nickname of "Old Hickory," which clung to him all the rest
+of his life, and which was really a good description of him. The story
+also illustrates how it was that his men came to idolize him, and why it
+was that he appealed so strongly to the common people. Jackson had three
+good horses, on that weary journey, but instead of riding one of them
+himself, he loaned all three to sick men who were unable to walk, and
+himself trudged along at the head of his men.
+
+"The general is tough, isn't he?" one of them remarked, glancing at the
+tall, sturdy figure.
+
+"Tough!" echoed another. "I should say he is--as tough as hickory!"
+
+Jackson was lying in bed with a bullet in his shoulder, which he had
+received in an affray with Jesse Benton, and also, no doubt, nursing his
+chagrin over his treatment by the War Department, when news came of a
+great Indian uprising in Alabama. The Creeks had gone on the warpath and
+had opened proceedings by capturing Fort Mims, at the junction of the
+Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on August 30, 1813, and massacring over
+five hundred people who had taken refuge there. Alabama was almost
+abandoned by the whites, and Georgia and Tennessee at once rushed to her
+relief by voting men and money to put down the Indians.
+
+Jackson forgot wound and chagrin and took the field as soon as he was
+able to stir. He at once quarrelled with the other officers; but his men
+believed in him, though lack of food and the expiring of the short term
+of enlistment created so much insubordination that, on one occasion, he
+had to use half his army to prevent the other half from marching home.
+His energy was remarkable; he pushed forward into the Creek country, cut
+the Indians to pieces at Horseshoe Bend, and drove the survivors into
+Florida. At the end of seven months, the war was over, and the Creeks
+had been so punished that there was never any further need to fear them.
+
+The campaign had another result--it established Jackson's reputation as
+a fighter, and soon afterwards he was appointed a major-general in the
+army of the United States, and was given command of the Department of
+the South. The pendulum had swung the other way, with a vengeance! But
+Jackson rose magnificently to this increased responsibility. He
+discovered that the English were in force at Pensacola, which was in
+Florida and therefore on Spanish territory; but he did not hesitate. He
+marched against the place with an army of three thousand, stormed the
+town, captured it, blew up the forts, which the Spaniards hastily
+surrendered, and so made it untenable as an English base. Perhaps no
+other exploit of his career was so audacious, or so well carried out.
+Pensacola subdued, he hastened to New Orleans, which was in the gravest
+danger.
+
+The overthrow of Napoleon and his banishment to Elba had given England a
+breathing-space, and the veteran troops which had been with Wellington
+in Spain were left free for use against the Americans. A great
+expedition was at once organized to attack and capture New Orleans, and
+at its head was placed General Pakenham, the brilliant commander of the
+column which had delivered the fatal blow at Salamanca. A fleet of fifty
+vessels, manned by the best sailors of England, was got ready, ten
+thousand men put aboard, and in December, a week after Jackson's arrival
+at New Orleans, this great fleet anchored off the broad lagoons of the
+Mississippi delta. Seventeen thousand men, in all, counting the sailors,
+who could, of course, be employed in land operations; and a mighty
+equipment of artillery, for which the guns of the fleet could also be
+used. The few American gunboats were overpowered, and Pakenham proceeded
+leisurely to land his force for the advance against the city, which it
+seemed that nothing could save. On December 23d, his advance-guard of
+two thousand men was but ten miles below New Orleans.
+
+On the afternoon of that very day, the vanguard of Jackson's
+Tennesseans marched into New Orleans, clad in hunting-shirts of
+buckskin or homespun, wearing coonskin caps, and carrying on their
+shoulders the long rifles they knew how to use so well. They had made
+one of the most remarkable marches in history, in their eagerness to
+meet the enemy, and Jackson at once hurried them forward for a night
+attack. It was delivered with the greatest fury, and the British were so
+roughly handled that they were forced to halt until the main body of the
+army came up.
+
+When they did advance, they found that Jackson had made good use of the
+delay. With the first light of the dawn which followed the battle, he
+had commenced throwing up a rude breastwork, one end resting on the
+river, the other on a swamp, and by nightfall, it was nearly done. Mud
+and logs had been used, and bales of cotton, until it formed a fairly
+strong position. The British were hurrying forward reinforcements, and
+little did either side suspect that on that very day, at Ghent,
+thousands of miles away, a treaty of peace had been signed between the
+United States and England, and that the blood they were about to spill
+would be spilled uselessly.
+
+In a day or two, the British had got up their artillery, and tried to
+batter down the breastworks, but without success; then, Pakenham,
+forgetting Bunker Hill, determined to try a frontal assault. He had no
+doubt of victory, for he had three times as many men as Jackson; troops,
+too, seasoned by victories won over the most renowned marshals of
+Napoleon. At Toulouse they had driven Marshal Soult from a position
+infinitely stronger than this rude breastworks; time after time
+they had charged and carried fortifications, manned by the best
+soldiers in Europe. What chance, then, had this little force of
+backwoodsmen, commanded by an ignorant and untrained general? So
+Pakenham ordered that the assault should take place on the morning of
+January 8th.
+
+From the bustle and stir in the British camp, the Americans knew that
+something unusual was afoot, and long before dawn, the riflemen were
+awake, had their breakfast, and then took their places behind the mud
+walls, their rifles ready. At last the sun rose, the fog lifted, and
+disclosed the splendid and gleaming lines of the British infantry, ready
+for the advance. As soon as the air was clear, Pakenham gave the word,
+and the columns moved steadily forward. From the American breastworks
+not a rifle cracked. Half the distance was covered, three-fourths; and
+then, as one man, those sturdy riflemen rose and fired, line upon line.
+Under that terrible fire, the British column broke and paused, then
+surged forward again, almost to the foot of the breastworks. But not a
+man lived to mount them. No column could stand under such a fire, and
+the British broke and ran.
+
+Mad with rage, Pakenham rallied his men and placed himself at their
+head. Again came the word to charge, and again that gleaming column
+rushed forward, only to be again met by that deadly hail of lead.
+Pakenham, mortally wounded, reeled and fell from his saddle, officer
+after officer was picked off by those unequalled marksmen, the field was
+covered with dead and dying. Even the British saw, at last, the folly of
+the movement, and retired sullenly to their lines. For a week they lay
+there; then, abandoning their heavy artillery, they marched back to
+their ships and sailed for England. The men who had conquered the
+conquerors of Europe had themselves met defeat.
+
+The battle had lasted less than half an hour, but the British left
+behind them no less than twenty-six hundred men--seven hundred killed,
+fourteen hundred wounded, five hundred prisoners. The American loss was
+eight killed and thirteen wounded.
+
+News of this brilliant victory brought sudden joy to a depressed people,
+for elsewhere on land the war had been waged disgracefully enough, and
+Jackson's name was on everyone's lips. His journey to Washington was a
+kind of triumphal march, and his popularity grew by leaps and bounds.
+People journeyed scores of miles to see him, for there was a strange
+fascination about the rugged old fighter which few could resist, and
+already his friends were urging him as a candidate for the presidency.
+There could be no doubt that he was the people's choice, and at last, in
+the campaign of 1823, he was formally placed in nomination, his chief
+opponent being John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. The result of that
+contest has already been told. Jackson received more electoral votes
+than any other candidate, but not enough to elect, and the contest was
+decided by the House of Representatives. On that occasion, Henry Clay
+came nearer committing political suicide than ever again in his life,
+for he threw his influence against Jackson, and lost a portion of
+his popularity which he never recovered.
+
+Jackson bided his time, and spent the four years following in careful
+preparation for the next contest. So well did he build his fences that,
+when the electoral vote was cast, he received the overwhelming majority
+of 178 votes to 83 for Adams.
+
+Never before had the city of Washington seen such an inauguration as
+took place on the fourth of March following. It seemed as though the
+whole population of the country had assembled there to see the old
+fighter take the oath of office. Daniel Webster wrote of it, "I never
+saw such a crowd here before. Persons came five hundred miles to see
+General Jackson and really seem to think that our country is rescued
+from some dreadful danger." As, perhaps, it was.
+
+Jackson began his administration with characteristic vigor. It was he
+who first put into practice the principle, "To the victors belong the
+spoils." There was about him no academic courtesy, and he proceeded at
+once to displace many Federal officeholders and to replace them with his
+own adherents. The Senate tried for a time to stem the tide, but was
+forced to give it up. There was no withstanding that fierce and dominant
+personality. Jackson was more nearly a dictator than any President had
+ever been before him, or than any will ever be again. His great
+popularity seemed rather to increase than to diminish, and in 1832, he
+received no less than 219 electoral votes.
+
+[Illustration: JACKSON]
+
+Let us do him justice. Prejudiced and ignorant and
+wrong-headed as he was, he was a pure patriot, laboring for his
+country's good. Nothing proves this more strongly than his attitude on
+the nullification question, in other words, the right of a state to
+refuse to obey a law of the United States, and to withdraw from the
+Union, should it so desire. This is not the place to go into the
+constitutional argument on this question. It is, of course, all but
+certain that the original thirteen states had no idea, when they
+ratified the Constitution, that they were entering an alliance from
+which they would forever be powerless to withdraw; and the right of
+withdrawal had been asserted in New England more than once. South
+Carolina was the hot-bed of nullification sentiment, arising partly from
+the growing anti-slavery feeling at the North, and partly because of the
+enactment of a tariff law which was felt to be unjust, and on October
+25, 1832, the South Carolina legislature passed an ordinance asserting
+that, since the state had entered the Union of its free will, it could
+withdraw from it at any time and resume the sovereign and independent
+position which it had held at the close of the Revolution, and that it
+would do so should there be any attempt to enforce the tariff laws
+within the state.
+
+Jackson's attitude on this question was already well known. At a banquet
+celebrating Jefferson's birthday, two years before, at which Calhoun and
+others had given toasts and made addresses in favor of nullification,
+Jackson had startled his audience by rising, glass in hand,
+and giving the toast, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved!" That
+toast had fallen like a bombshell among the ranks of the nullifiers, and
+had electrified the whole Nation. Since then, he had become a stronger
+nationalist than ever; besides, he was always ready for a fight, and
+whenever he saw a head had the true Irishman's impulse to hit it. So he
+responded to the South Carolina nullification ordinance by sending two
+men-of-war to Charleston harbor and collecting a force of United States
+troops along the Carolina border. "I consider the power to annul a law
+of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the
+existence of the Union," he wrote; and when a South Carolina
+congressman, about to go home, asked the President if he had any
+commands for his friends in that state, Jackson retorted:
+
+"Yes, I have; please give my compliments to my friends in your state,
+and say to them that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in
+opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I
+can lay my hands on, engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first
+tree I can reach."
+
+Whether or not this message was delivered history does not say, but the
+whole Nation arose in wrath behind its President, state after state
+denounced nullification and disunion, and the South Carolina ordinance
+was finally repealed. So the storm passed for the moment. It left
+Jackson more of a popular hero than ever; it was as though he had won
+another battle of New Orleans. One cannot but wonder what would have
+happened had he been acting as President, instead of Buchanan, in those
+trying years after 1856.
+
+He retired from the presidency broken in health and fortune, for however
+well he took care of the interests of his friends, he was always
+careless about his own. The last eight years of his life were spent at
+his Tennessee estate, The Hermitage. The end came in 1845, but his name
+has remained as a kind of watchword among the common people--a synonym
+for rugged honesty, and bluff sincerity. His career is, all in all, by
+far the most remarkable of any man who ever held the high office of
+President--with one possible exception, that of Abraham Lincoln.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jackson was one of the most perfect political manipulators and
+machine-builders this country ever saw, and he had so perfected his
+machine at the close of his second term that he was able to name as his
+successor and the heir of his policies, Martin Van Buren, of New York, a
+man who had been one of Jackson's most valued lieutenants from the
+first, an astute politician, but not remarkable in any way, nor able to
+impress himself upon the country. He announced at his inauguration that
+it was his intention, to tread in the footsteps of his "illustrious
+predecessor," but none for a moment imagined that he was big enough to
+fill Jackson's shoes. Indeed, Jackson, was by far the most important
+figure at the inauguration.
+
+Van Buren's term as President witnessed nothing more
+momentous than the great panic of 1837, which he faced with a calmness
+and clear-sightedness surprising even to his friends, but which
+nevertheless assisted a collection of malcontents, under the leadership
+of Henry Clay, calling themselves National Republicans or Whigs, to
+defeat him for re-election. There was really no valid reason why he
+should have been re-elected; he had little claim, upon the country, but
+was for the most part, merely a clever politician, the first to attain
+the presidency. His life had been marked by an orderly advance from
+local to state, and then to national offices--an advance obtained not
+because he stood for any great principle, but because he knew how to
+make friends and build his political fences.
+
+His nomination and election to the presidency was in no sense an
+accident, as was Taylor's, Pierce's, Hayes's and Garfield's, but was
+carefully prearranged and thoroughly understood. Yet let us do him the
+justice to add that his public services were, in some respects, of a
+high order, and that he was not wholly unworthy of the last great honor
+paid him. He was a candidate for the nomination in 1844, but was
+defeated by James K. Polk; and four years later, secured the nomination,
+but was defeated at the polls by Zachary Taylor. That ended his
+political career.
+
+In the campaign against him of 1840, the Whigs were fortunate in having
+for their candidate William Henry Harrison, a man of immense personal
+popularity, resembling Jackson in that his reputation had been made as
+an Indian fighter in the West, where he had defeated Tecumseh at the
+battle of Tippecanoe, and by a successful campaign in the war of 1812.
+Since then, he had been living quietly on his farm in Ohio, with no
+expectation of anything but passing his remaining years in quiet, for he
+was nearly seventy years of age. But Clay, with a sort of prophetic
+insight, picked him out as the Whig leader, and "Tippecanoe and Tyler
+Too" became the rallying cry of a remarkable campaign, which swept the
+country from end to end and effectually swamped Van Buren. It was too
+strenuous for a man as old as Harrison, and he died at the White House
+within a month of taking the oath of office.
+
+The "Tyler Too" was John Tyler, who had been elected Vice-President, and
+who assumed the office of President upon Harrison's death. His accession
+was little less than a bomb-shell to the party which had nominated him
+and secured his election. For he was a Virginian, a follower of Calhoun
+and an ardent pro-slavery man, while the Whigs were first, last and all
+the time anti-slavery. He had been placed on the ticket with Harrison,
+who was strongly anti-slavery, in the hope of securing the votes of some
+disaffected Democrats, but to see him President was the last thing the
+Whigs desired. The result was that he soon became involved in a bitter
+quarrel with Clay and the other leaders of the party, which effectually;
+killed any chance of renomination he may have had. He became the mark
+for perhaps the most unrestrained abuse ever aimed at a
+holder of the presidency.
+
+It was largely unmerited, for Tyler was a capable man, had seen service
+in Congress and as governor of his state; but he was dry and
+uninspiring, and not big enough for the presidency, into which he could
+never have come except by accident. His administration was marked by few
+important events except the annexation of Texas, which will be dealt
+with more particularly when we come to consider the lives of Sam Houston
+and the other men who brought the annexation about. He retired to
+private life at the close of his term, appearing briefly twenty years
+later as a member of a "congress" which endeavored to prevent the war
+between the states, and afterwards as a member of the Confederate
+Congress, in which he served until his death.
+
+Clay secured the Whig nomination for himself, in the campaign of 1844,
+and his opponent on the Democratic ticket was James Knox Polk, a native
+of North Carolina, but afterwards removing to Tennessee. He had been a
+member of Congress for fourteen years, and governor of Tennessee for
+three, and was a consistent exponent of Democratic principles. Two great
+questions were before the country: the annexation of Texas and the right
+to Oregon. Polk was for the immediate annexation of Texas and for the
+acquisition of Oregon up to 54 deg. 40" north latitude, regardless of Great
+Britain's claims, and "Fifty-four forty or fight!" became one of the
+battle-cries of the campaign. Clay, inveterate trimmer and
+compromiser that he was, professed to be for the annexation of Texas,
+provided it could be accomplished without war with Mexico, which was
+arrant nonsense, since Mexico had given notice that she would consider
+annexation an act of war. The result of Clay's attitude, and of a
+widespread distrust of his policies, was that Polk was elected by a
+large majority.
+
+His administration was destined to be a brilliant one, for Texas was at
+once annexed, and the brief war with Mexico which followed, one of the
+most successful ever waged by any country, carried the southwestern
+boundary of the United States to the Rio Grande, and added New Mexico
+and California to the national domain, while a treaty with England
+secured for the country the present great state of Oregon, although here
+Polk receded from his position and accepted a compromise which confined
+Oregon below the forty-ninth parallel. But even this was something of a
+triumph. With that triumph, the name of Marcus Whitman is most closely
+associated, through a brilliant but rather useless feat of his, of which
+we shall speak later on. Polk seems to have been an able and
+conscientious man, without any pretensions to genius--just a good,
+average man, like any one of ten thousand other Americans. He refused a
+renomination because of ill-health, and died soon after retiring from
+office.
+
+The Democratic party had by this time become hopelessly disrupted over
+the slavery question, which had become more and more acute. The great
+strength of the state rights party had always been in the
+South, and southern statesmen had always opposed any aggression on the
+part of the national government. The North, on the other hand, had
+always leaned more or less toward a strong centralization of power. So
+it followed that while the Democratic party was paramount in the South,
+its opponents, by whatever name known, found their main strength in the
+North.
+
+Yet, even in the North, there was a strong Democratic element, and, but
+for the intrusion of the slavery question, the party would have
+controlled the government for many years to come. But the North was
+gradually coming to feel that the slavery question was more important
+than the more abstract one of national aggression; the more so since, by
+insisting upon the enforcement of such measures as the Fugitive Slave
+Law, the South was, as it were, keeping open and bleeding a wound which
+might to some extent have healed. In 1848 the split came, and the
+Democratic party put two candidates in the field, Lewis Cass for the
+South, and Martin Van Buren for the North.
+
+The Whig Party, taking advantage of the knowledge gained in previous
+campaigns, looked around for a famous general, and managed to agree upon
+Zachary Taylor, who had made an exceedingly brilliant record in the war
+with Mexico. He was sixty-five years old at the time, a sturdy giant of
+a man, reared on the frontier, hardened by years of Indian warfare,
+whose nickname of "Old Rough and Ready" was not a bad description. He
+caught the popular fancy, for he possessed those qualities
+which appeal to the plain people, and this, assisted by the division in
+the ranks of his opponents, won him a majority of the electoral votes.
+He took the oath of office on March 4, 1849, but, after sixteen months
+of troubled administration, died suddenly on July 9, 1850.
+
+Millard Fillmore, who had been elected Vice-President, at once took the
+oath of office as chief executive. He was a New York man, a lawyer, had
+been a member of Congress, and, as Vice-President, had presided over the
+bitter slavery debates in the Senate. His sympathies were supposed to be
+anti-slavery, yet he signed the Fugitive Slave Law, when it was placed
+before him, much to the chagrin of many people who had voted for him. He
+signed his own political death-warrant at the same time, for, at the
+Whig National Convention in 1852, he was defeated for the nomination for
+President, after a long struggle, by General Winfield Scott, another
+veteran of the Mexican war. Four years later, Fillmore, having managed
+to regain, the confidence of his party, secured the Whig nomination
+unanimously, but was defeated at the polls, and spent the remaining
+years of his life quietly at his home in Buffalo.
+
+Against General Scott, the Democrats nominated Franklin Scott Pierce,
+the nomination being in the nature of an accident, though Pierce was in
+every way a worthy candidate. His family record begins with his father,
+Benjamin Pierce, who, as a lad of seventeen, stirred by the tidings of
+the fight at Lexington, left his home in Chelmsford, musket
+on shoulder, to join the patriot army before Boston. He settled in New
+Hampshire after the Revolution, and his son Franklin was born there in
+1804. He followed the usual course of lawyer, congressman and senator,
+and served throughout the war with Mexico, rising to the rank of
+brigadier-general, and securing a reputation second only to that of
+Scott and Taylor.
+
+At the Democratic convention of 1852, Pierce was not a candidate for the
+nomination, and did not know that any one intended to mention his name,
+or even thought of him in that connection. But the convention was unable
+to agree on a candidate, and on the fourth day and thirty-third ballot,
+some delegate cast his vote for General Franklin Pierce, of New
+Hampshire. The name attracted attention, Pierce's career had been
+distinguished and above reproach, other delegates voted for him, until,
+on the forty-ninth ballot, he was declared the unanimous choice of the
+convention. His election was overwhelming, as he carried twenty-seven
+states out of thirty-one.
+
+Once in the presidential chair, however, this popularity gradually
+slipped away from him. He found himself in an impossible position,
+between two fires, for the slavery question was dividing the country
+more and more and there seemed no possible way to reconcile the warring
+sections. Pierce, perhaps, made the mistake of trying to placate both,
+instead of taking his stand firmly with one or the other; and the
+consequence was that at the convention of 1856, he received a few votes
+from courtesy, but was never seriously in the running, which resulted in
+the nomination of James Buchanan. Pierce returned to his home in New
+Hampshire, to find his friends and neighbors estranged from him by his
+supposed pro-slavery views, which had yet not been radical enough to win
+him the friendship of the South; but time changed all that, and his last
+years were spent in honored and opulent retirement.
+
+James Buchanan was, like Andrew Jackson, of Scotch-Irish descent, but
+there the resemblance between the two ended, for Buchanan had little of
+Jackson's tremendous positiveness and strength of character. His
+disposition was always to compromise, while Jackson's was to fight. Now
+compromise is often a very admirable thing, but where it shows itself to
+be impossible and leaves fighting the only resource, the wise man puts
+all thought of it behind him and prepares for battle. Which is precisely
+what Buchanan did not do. He had been a lawyer and congressman, minister
+to Russia, senator, secretary of state and minister to England, and so
+had the widest possible political acquaintanceship; he was a man of
+somewhat unusual culture; but, alas! he found that something more than
+culture was needed to guide him in the troublous times amid which he
+fell. I have often thought that Buchanan's greatest handicap was his
+wide friendship, which often made it almost impossible to say no,
+however much he may have wished to do so. An unknown backwoodsman, like
+Andrew Jackson, with no favors to return and no friendships to be
+remembered, could have acted far more effectively.
+
+Buchanan's opponent for the presidency was John C. Fremont, and there
+was a great stir and bustle among the people who were supposed to
+support him, but Buchanan won easily, and at once found himself in the
+midst of the most perplexing difficulties. Kansas was in a state of
+civil war; two days after his inauguration the Supreme Court handed down
+the famous Dred Scott decision, declaring the right of any slave-holder
+to take his slaves as property into any territory; while the young
+Republican party was siding openly with the abolitionists, and, a very
+firebrand in a powder-house, in 1859, John Brown seized Harper's Ferry,
+Virginia, and attempted to start a slave insurrection. Now a slave
+insurrection was the one thing which the South feared more than any
+other--it was the terror which was ever present. And so John Brown's mad
+attempt excited a degree of hysteria almost unbelievable.
+
+Small wonder that Buchanan was soon at his wits' ends. His sympathies
+were with the slave-holders; he doubted his right to coerce a seceding
+state; his friendships were largely with southern statesmen--and yet, to
+his credit be it stated, on January 8, 1860, after secession had become
+a thing assured, he seems suddenly to have seen his duty clearly, and in
+a special message, declared his intention to collect the revenues and
+protect public property in all the states, and to use force
+if necessary. Taken all in all, his attitude in those trying days was a
+creditable one--as creditable as could be expected from any average man.
+What the time needed was a genius, and fortunately one rose to the
+occasion. Buchanan, harried and despondent, must have breathed a deep
+sigh of relief when he surrendered the helm to the man who had been
+chosen to succeed him--the man, by some extraordinary chance, in all the
+land best fitted to steer the ship of state to safety--the man who was
+to be the dominant figure of the century in American history.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+WASHINGTON, GEORGE. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22
+(old style, February 11), 1732; sent on a mission to the French beyond
+the Alleghenies, 1753-54; appointed lieutenant-colonel, 1754; defeated
+by the French at Fort Necessity, July 3, 1754; aide-de-camp to Braddock,
+1755; commanded on the frontier, 1755-57; led the advance-guard for the
+reduction of Fort Duquesne, 1758; married Martha Custis, January 9,
+1759; delegate to Continental Congress, 1774-75; appointed
+commander-in-chief of the continental forces, June 15, 1775; assumed
+command of the army, July 3, 1775; compelled evacuation of Boston, March
+17, 1776; defeated at battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776; defeated
+at White Plains, October 28, 1776; surprised the British at Trenton,
+December 26, 1776; won the battle of Princeton, January, 1777; defeated
+at Brandywine and Germantown in 1777; at Valley Forge, during the winter
+of 1777-78; won the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778; captured
+Yorktown and the army of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781; resigned his
+commission as commander-in-chief, December 23, 1783; president of the
+Constitutional Convention, 1787; unanimously elected President of the
+United States, January, 1789; inaugurated at New York, April 30, 1789;
+unanimously re-elected, 1793; issued farewell address to the people,
+September, 1796; retired to Mount Vernon, March, 1797; died there,
+December 14, 1799.
+
+ADAMS, JOHN. Born at Braintree, now Quincy, Massachusetts, October 30,
+1735; graduated at Harvard, 1755; studied law, took a leading part in
+opposing Stamp Act, was counsel for the British soldiers charged with
+murder in connection with the "Boston massacre" in 1770, and became a
+leader of the patriot party; member of Revolutionary Congress of
+Massachusetts, 1774; delegate to first and second Continental Congress,
+1774-75; commissioner to France, 1777; negotiated treaties with the
+Netherlands, Great Britain and Prussia, 1782-83; minister to London,
+1785-88; Federal Vice-President, 1789-97; President, 1797-1801; defeated
+for re-election and retired to Quincy, 1801; died there, July 4, 1886.
+
+JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, April
+2, 1743; member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769-75, and
+1776-78, and of the Continental Congress, 1775-76; drafted Declaration
+of Independence, 1776; governor of Virginia, 1779-81; member of
+Congress, 1783-84; minister to France, 1784-89; secretary of state,
+1789-93; Vice-President, 1797-1801; President, 1801-09; died at
+Monticello, Albemarle County, Virginia, July 4, 1826.
+
+MADISON, JAMES. Born at Port Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751;
+graduated at Princeton, 1771; delegate to Congress, 1780-83, and to the
+Constitutional Convention, 1787; member of Congress, 1789-97; secretary
+of state, 1801-09; President, 1809-1817; died at Montpelier, Orange
+County, Virginia, June 28, 1836.
+
+MONROE, JAMES. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, April 28, 1758;
+member of Virginia assembly, 1782; member of Congress, 1783-86; United
+States senator, 1790-94; minister to France, 1794-96; governor of
+Virginia, 1799-1802; minister to Great Britain, 1803-07; secretary of
+state, 1811-17; President, 1817-25, an administration, known as "the era
+of good feeling"; died at New York City, July 4, 1831.
+
+ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY. Born at Braintree, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767;
+graduated at Harvard, 1788; admitted to the bar, 1791; minister to the
+Netherlands, 1794-97; and to Prussia, 1797-1801; United States senator,
+1803-08; minister to Russia, 1809-14; minister to England, 1815-17;
+secretary of state, 1817-25; President, 1825-29; member of Congress,
+1831-48; died at Washington, February 23, 1848.
+
+JACKSON, ANDREW. Born at the Waxham settlement, North Carolina (?),
+March 15, 1767; member of Congress, 1796-97; United States senator,
+1797-98; justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, 1798-1804; defeated
+the Creeks at Talladega, 1813, and at Horseshoe Bend, 1814; captured
+Pensacola from the English, 1814; won the battle of New Orleans, January
+8, 1815; commanded against the Seminoles, 1817-18; governor of Florida,
+1821; United States senator, 1823-25; defeated for President by J.Q.
+Adams, 1824; President, 1829-37; died at the Hermitage, near
+Nashville, Tennessee, June 8, 1845.
+
+VAN BUREN, MARTIN. Born at Kinderhook, New York, December 5, 1782;
+admitted to the bar, 1803; entered New York State Senate, 1812; United
+States senator, 1821-28; governor of New York, 1828-29; secretary of
+state, 1829-31; Vice-President, 1833-37; President, 1837-41; defeated
+for President, 1840, 1844, 1848; died at Kinderhook, July 24, 1862.
+
+HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY. Born at Berkeley, Charles City County,
+Virginia, February 9, 1773; governor of Indiana Territory, 1801-13; won
+victory of Tippecanoe, 1811, and of the Thames, 1813; member of
+Congress, 1816-19; United States senator, 1825-28; minister to Colombia,
+1828-29; defeated for Presidency, 1836; elected President in the
+"log-cabin and hard-cider" campaign, 1840; inaugurated, March 4, 1841;
+died at Washington, April 4, 1841.
+
+TYLER, JOHN. Born at Greenway, Charles City County, Virginia, March 29,
+1790; admitted to the bar, 1809; member of Virginia legislature,
+1811-16; member of Congress, 1816-21; governor of Virginia, 1825-27;
+United States senator, 1827-36; elected Vice-President, 1840, and
+succeeded to Presidency on the death of General Harrison, April 4, 1841;
+president of the peace convention of 1861, favored secession and served
+as member of the Confederate provisional Congress; died at Richmond,
+Virginia, January 18, 1862.
+
+POLK, JAMES KNOX. Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, November
+2, 1795; admitted to the bar, 1820; member of Congress,
+1825-39; speaker of the House of Representatives, 1835-39; governor of
+Tennessee, 1839-41; President, 1845-49; died at Nashville, Tennessee,
+June 15, 1849.
+
+TAYLOR, ZACHARY. Born in Orange County, Virginia, September 24, 1784;
+entered the army as first lieutenant, 1808; served in War of 1812,
+attaining rank of major; served in Black Hawk's war, 1832, with rank of
+colonel; defeated Seminole Indians, 1837; commander-in-chief of Florida,
+1838; took command of the army in Texas, 1845; won battle of Palo Alto,
+May 8, 1846, and that of Reseca de la Palma, May 9, 1846; captured
+Matamoras, May 18, and Monterey, September 24, 1846; defeated Santa Anna
+at Buena Vista, February 22-23, 1847; appointed major-general, June 29,
+1846; elected President, 1848; inaugurated, March 4, 1849; died at
+Washington, July 9, 1850.
+
+FILLMORE, MILLARD. Born at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York, January
+7, 1800; admitted to the bar, 1823; member of New York State
+legislature, 1829-31; member of Congress, 1833-35, 1837-43; elected
+Vice-President, 1848, and succeeded to presidency on the death of
+Taylor, July 9, 1850; died at Buffalo, New York, March 8, 1874.
+
+PIERCE, FRANKLIN. Born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, November 23,
+1804; member of Congress, 1833-37; United States senator, 1837-42;
+served with distinction in Mexican war; President, 1853-57; died at
+Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 1869.
+
+BUCHANAN, JAMES. Born at Stony Batter, Franklin County, Pennsylvania,
+April 22, 1791; member of Congress, 1821-31; minister to
+Russia, 1831-33; United States senator, 1833-45; secretary of state,
+1845-49; minister to Great Britain, 1853-56; President, 1857-61; died at
+Wheatland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1868.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LINCOLN AND HIS SUCCESSORS
+
+
+And so we have come down through the years to Abraham Lincoln--that
+patient and gentle man whose memory ranks with Washington's as America's
+priceless heritage. A blessing and an inspiration--a mystery, too; an
+enigma among men, lonely and impressive; not fully understood nor
+understandable to the depths of that great heart of his; not fully
+explainable, for what strange power was it lifted that ignorant,
+ill-bred, uncouth, backwoods boy to a station among the stars?
+
+Seldom has any man who started so low mounted so high. Abraham Lincoln's
+early life was of the most miserable description. His father, Thomas
+Lincoln, was a worthless rover; his mother, Nancy Hanks, was of a "poor
+white" Virginia family with an unenviable record. His birthplace was a
+squalid log cabin in Washington County, Kentucky. His surroundings were
+such as are commonly encountered in a coarse, low, ignorant,
+poverty-stricken family. His father was at the very bottom of the social
+scale, so ignorant he could scarcely write his name. His mother
+inherited the shiftlessness and carelessness which is part and parcel of
+"poor white." These things are incontestable, they must be looked in
+the face. And yet, in spite of them, in spite of such a handicap as few
+other great men even approximated, Abraham Lincoln emerged to be the
+leader of a race.
+
+In 1816, Thomas Lincoln decided he would remove to Indiana. Abraham was
+at that time seven years old, and for a year after the removal, the
+family lived in what was called a "half-faced camp," fourteen feet
+square--that is to say, a covered shed of three sides, the fourth side
+being open to the weather. Then the family achieved the luxury of a
+cabin, but a cabin without floor or door or window. Amid this
+wretchedness, Lincoln's mother died, and was laid away in a rough coffin
+of slabs at the edge of the little clearing. Three months later, a
+passing preacher read the funeral service above the grave.
+
+Thomas Lincoln soon married again and, strangely enough, made a wise
+choice, for his new wife not only possessed furniture enough to fill a
+four-horse wagon, but, what was of more importance, was endowed with a
+thrifty and industrious temperament. That she should have consented to
+marry the ne'er-do-well is a mystery; perhaps he was not without his
+redeeming virtues, after all. She made him put a floor and windows in
+his cabin, and she was a better mother to his children than their real
+one had ever been. For the first time, young Abraham got some idea of
+the comforts and decencies of life, and, as his step-mother put it,
+"began to look a little human." He was not an attractive object, even at
+best, for he was lanky and clumsy, with great hands and feet, and a
+skin prematurely wrinkled and shrivelled. By the time he was seventeen,
+he was six feet tall, and he soon added two more inches to his stature.
+Needless to say, his clothes never caught up with him, but were always
+too small.
+
+His schooling was of the most meagre description; in fact, in his whole
+life, he went to school less than one year. Yet there soon awakened
+within the boy a trace of unusual spirit. He actually liked to read. He
+saw few books, but such as he could lay his hands on, he read over and
+over. That one fact alone set him apart at once from the other boys of
+his class. To them reading was an irksome labor.
+
+All this reading had its effect. He acquired a vocabulary. That is to
+say, instead of the few hundred words which were all the other boys knew
+by which to express their thoughts, he soon had twice as many; besides
+that, he soon got a reputation as a wit and story-teller, and his
+command of words made him fond of speechmaking. He resembled most boys
+in liking to "show off." He had learned, too, that there were comforts
+in the world which he need never look for in his father's house, and so,
+as soon as he was of age, he left that unattractive dwelling-place and
+struck out for himself, making a livelihood in various ways--by
+splitting rails, running a river boat, managing a store, enlisting for
+the Black Hawk war--doing anything, in a word, that came to hand and
+would serve to put a little money in his pocket. He came to know a great
+many people and so, in 1832, he proclaimed himself a candidate for the
+state legislature for Sangamon County, Illinois, where he had made his
+home for some years. No doubt to most people, his candidacy must have
+seemed in the nature of a joke, and though he stumped the county
+thoroughly and entertained the crowds with his stories and flashes of
+wit, he was defeated at the polls.
+
+That episode ended, he returned to store-keeping; but he had come to see
+that the law was the surest road to political preferment, and so he
+spent such leisure as he had in study, and in 1836 was admitted to the
+bar. As has been remarked before, the requirements for admission were
+anything but prohibitory, most lawyers sharing the oft-quoted opinion of
+Patrick Henry that the only way to learn law was to practise it. Lincoln
+decided to establish himself at Springfield, opened an office there, and
+for the next twenty years, practised law with considerable success,
+riding from one court to another, and gradually extending his circle of
+acquaintances. He even became prosperous enough to marry, and in 1842,
+after a courtship of the most peculiar description, married a Miss Mary
+Todd--a young woman somewhat above him in social station, and possessed
+of a sharp tongue and uncertain temper which often tried him severely.
+
+It was inevitable, of course, that he should become interested again in
+politics, and he threw in his fortunes with the Whig Party, serving two
+or three terms in the state legislature and one in Congress. All of this
+did much to temper and chasten his native coarseness and uncouthness,
+but he was still just an average lawyer and politician, with no evidence
+of greatness about him, and many evidences of commonness. Then,
+suddenly, in 1858, he stood forth as a national figure, in a contest
+with one of the most noteworthy men in public life, Stephen A. Douglas.
+
+Douglas was an aggressive, tireless and brilliant political leader, the
+acknowledged head of the Democratic party, and had represented Illinois
+in the Senate for many years. He had a great ambition to be President,
+had missed the nomination in 1852 and 1856, but was determined to secure
+it in 1860, and was carefully building to that end. His term as senator
+expired in 1858, and his re-election seemed essential to his success. Of
+his re-election he had no doubt, for Illinois had always been a
+Democratic state, though it was becoming somewhat divided in opinion.
+The southern part was largely pro-slavery, but the northern part,
+including the rapidly-growing city of Chicago, was inclined the other
+way. This division of opinion made Douglas's part an increasingly
+difficult one, for pro-slave and anti-slave sentiment were as
+irreconcilable as fire and water.
+
+Lincoln, meanwhile, had been active in the formation of the new
+Republican party in the state, had made a number of strong speeches,
+and, on June 16, 1858, the Republican convention resolved that: "Hon.
+Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States senator
+to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr.
+Douglas's term of office." A month later, Lincoln challenged Douglas to
+a series of joint debates. Douglas at once accepted, never doubting his
+ability to overwhelm his obscure opponent, and the famous duel began
+which was to rivet national attention and give Lincoln a national
+prominence.
+
+The challenge on Lincoln's part was a piece of superb generalship. In
+such a contest, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Whatever
+the result, the fact that he had crossed swords with so renowned a man
+as Stephen A. Douglas would give him a kind of reflected glory. But in
+addition to that, he had the better side of the question. His course was
+simple; he was seeking the support of anti-slavery people; Douglas's
+task was much more complex, for he wished to offend neither northern nor
+southern Democrats, and he soon found himself offending both. To carry
+water on both shoulders is always a risky thing to attempt, and Douglas
+soon found himself fettered by the awkward position he was forced to
+maintain; while Lincoln, free from any such handicap, could strike with
+all his strength.
+
+His stand from the first was a bold one--so bold that many of his
+followers regarded it with consternation and disapproval. In his speech
+accepting the nomination, he had said, "I believe this government cannot
+endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one
+thing or all the other," and he pursued this line of argument in the
+debates alleging that the purpose of the pro-slavery men was to make
+slavery perpetual and universal, and pointing to recent history in
+proof of the assertion. When asked by Douglas whether he considered the
+negro his equal, he answered: "In the right to eat the bread which his
+own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the
+equal of every living man." He was not an abolitionist, and declared
+more than once that he had "no purpose, directly or indirectly, to
+interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it
+exists," that he had "no lawful right to do so," but only to prohibit it
+in "any new country which is not already cursed with the actual presence
+of the evil."
+
+Even so skillful a debater as Douglas soon found himself hard put to it
+to answer Lincoln's arguments, without offending one or the other of the
+powerful factions whose support he must have to reach the presidency. At
+the beginning, his experience and adroitness gave him an advantage,
+which, however, Lincoln's earnestness and directness soon overcame. Tens
+of thousands of people gathered to hear the debates, they were printed
+from end to end of the country, and Lincoln loomed larger than ever
+before the nation; but so far as the immediate result was concerned,
+Douglas was the victor, for the election gave him a majority of the
+legislature, and he was chosen to succeed himself in the Senate.
+
+Yet more than once he must have regretted that he had consented to cross
+swords with his lank opponent, for he had been forced into many an
+awkward corner. There is a popular tradition that the presidential
+nomination came to Lincoln unsought; but this is anything but true. On
+the contrary, in those debates with Douglas, he was consciously laying
+the foundation for his candidacy two years later. He used every effort
+to drive Douglas to admissions and statements which would tell against
+him in a presidential campaign, while he himself took a position which
+would insure his popularity with the Republican party. So his defeat at
+the time was of no great moment to him.
+
+He had gained an entrance to the national arena, and he took care to
+remain before the public. He made speeches in Ohio, in Kansas, and even
+in New York and throughout New England, everywhere making a powerful
+impression. To disunion and secession he referred only once or twice,
+for he perceived a truth which, even yet, some of us are reluctant to
+admit: that every nation has a right to maintain by force, if it can,
+its own integrity, and that a portion of a nation may sometimes be
+justified in struggling for independent national existence. The whole
+justification of such a struggle lies in whether its cause and basis is
+right or wrong. So, beneath the question of disunion, was the question
+as to whether slavery was right or wrong. On this question, of course,
+northern opinion was practically all one way, while even in the South
+there were many enemies of the institution. The world was outgrowing
+what was really a survival of the dark ages.
+
+When the campaign for the presidential nomination opened in the winter
+of 1859-1860, Lincoln was early in the field and did everything possible
+to win support. He secured the Illinois delegates without difficulty,
+and when the national convention met at Chicago, in May, the contest
+soon narrowed down to one between Lincoln and William H. Seward. Let it
+be said, at once, that Seward deserved the nomination, if high service
+and party loyalty and distinguished ability counted for anything, and it
+looked for a time as though he were going to get it, for on the first
+ballot he received 71 more votes than Lincoln. But in the course of his
+public career he had made enemies who were anxious for his defeat, his
+campaign managers were too confident or too clumsy to take advantage of
+opportunity; Lincoln's friends were busy, and by some expert trading, of
+which, be it said in justice to Lincoln, he himself was ignorant,
+succeeded in securing for him a majority of the votes on the third
+ballot.
+
+So, blindly and almost by chance, was the nomination secured of the one
+man fitted to meet the crisis. The only other event in American history
+to be compared with it in sheer wisdom was the selection of Washington
+to head the Revolutionary army--a selection made primarily, not because
+of Washington's fitness for the task, but to heal sectional differences
+and win the support of the South to a war waged largely in the North.
+
+The nomination, so curiously made, was received with anything but
+enthusiasm by the country at large. "Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter,"
+might appeal to some, but there was a general doubt whether, after all,
+rail-splitting, however honorable in itself, was the best training for
+a President. However, the anti-slavery feeling was a tie that bound
+together people of the most diverse opinions about other things, and a
+spirited canvass was made, greatly assisted by the final and suicidal
+split in the ranks of the Democracy, which placed in nomination two men,
+Lincoln's old antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas, representing the northern
+or moderate element of the party, and John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky,
+representing the southern, or extreme pro-slavery element. And this was
+just the corner into which Lincoln had hoped, all along, to drive his
+opponents. Had the party been united, he would have been hopelessly
+defeated, for in the election which followed, he received only a little
+more than one third of the popular vote; but this was sufficient to give
+him the northern states, with 180 electoral votes. But let us remember
+that, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was the choice for President of very much
+less than half the people of the country.
+
+The succeeding four months witnessed the peculiar spectacle of the South
+leisurely completing its arrangements for secession, and perfecting its
+civil and military organization, while the North, under a discredited
+ruler of whom it could not rid itself until March 4th, was unable to
+make any counter-preparation or to do anything to prevent the diversion
+of a large portion of the arms and munitions of the country into the
+southern states. It gave the southern leaders, too, opportunity to work
+upon the feelings of their people, more than half of whom, in the fall
+of 1860, were opposed to disunion. It should not be forgotten that,
+however fully the South came afterwards to acquiesce in the policy of
+secession, it was, in its inception, a plan of the politicians,
+undertaken, to a great extent, for purposes of self-aggrandizement. They
+controlled the conventions which, in every case except that of Texas,
+decided whether or not the state should secede. "We can make better
+terms out of the Union than in it," was a favorite argument, and many of
+them dreamed of the establishment of a great slave empire, in which they
+would play the leading parts.
+
+To the southern leaders, then, the election of Lincoln was the striking
+of the appointed hour for rebellion. South Carolina led the way,
+declaring, on December 17, 1860, that the "Union now subsisting between
+South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of
+America, is hereby dissolved." Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
+Louisiana and Texas followed. Opinion at the North was divided as to the
+proper course to follow. Horace Greeley, in the New York _Tribune_,
+said that the South had as good a right to secede from the Union as the
+colonies had to secede from Great Britain, and, as Greeley afterwards
+observed, the _Tribune_ had plenty of company in these sentiments.
+Meanwhile the Southern Confederacy had been formed, Jefferson Davis
+elected President, and steps taken at once for the organization of an
+army.
+
+Everyone was waiting anxiously for the inauguration of the new
+President--waiting to see what his course would be. They were not left
+long in doubt. His inaugural address was earnest and direct. He said,
+"The union of these States is perpetual. No State upon its own mere
+motion can lawfully get out of the Union. I shall take care that the
+laws of the Union are faithfully executed in all the States." It was, in
+effect, a declaration of war, and was so received by the South. Whether
+or not it was the constitutional attitude need not concern us now.
+
+The story of Lincoln's life for the next five years is the story of the
+Civil War. How Lincoln grew and broadened in those fateful years, how he
+won men by his deep humanity, his complete understanding, his ready
+sympathy; how, once having undertaken the task of conquering rebellion,
+he never faltered nor turned back despite the awful sacrifices which the
+conflict demanded; all this has passed into the commonplaces of history.
+No man ever had a harder task, and no other man could have accomplished
+it so well.
+
+[Illustration: LINCOLN]
+
+The emancipation of the slaves, which has loomed so large in history,
+was in reality, merely an incident, a war measure, taken to weaken the
+enemy and justifiable, perhaps, only on that ground; the preliminary
+proclamation, indeed, proposed to liberate the slaves only in such
+states as were in rebellion on the following first of January. Nor did
+emancipation create any great popular enthusiasm. The congressional
+elections which followed it showed a great reaction against
+anti-slavery. The Democrats carried Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
+Illinois. For a time the administration was fighting for its life,
+and won by an alarmingly small margin.
+
+Before the year had elapsed, however, there was a great reversal in
+public opinion, and at the succeeding election, Lincoln received 212 out
+of 233 electoral votes. The end of the Confederacy was by this time in
+sight. A month after his second inauguration, Richmond fell, and five
+days later, Lee surrendered his army to General Grant. Lincoln at once
+paid a visit to Richmond and then returned to Washington for the last
+act of the drama.
+
+The fourteenth of April was Good Friday, and the President arranged to
+take a small party to Ford's theatre to witness a performance of a farce
+comedy called "Our American Cousin." The President entered his box about
+nine o'clock and was given a tumultuous reception. Then the play went
+forward quietly, until suddenly the audience was startled by a pistol
+shot, followed by a woman's scream. At the same instant, a man was seen
+to leap from the President's box to the stage. Pausing only to wave a
+dagger which he carried in his hand and to shout, "Sic semper tyrannis!"
+the man disappeared behind the scenes. Amid the confusion, no efficient
+pursuit was made. The President had been shot through the head, the
+bullet passing through the brain. Unconsciousness, of course, came
+instantly, and death followed in a few hours.
+
+Eleven days later, the murderer, an actor by the name of John Wilkes
+Booth, was surrounded in a barn where he had taken refuge; he refused to
+come out, and the barn was set on fire. Soon afterwards, the assassin
+was brought forth with a bullet at the base of his brain, whether fired
+by himself or one of the besieging soldiers was never certainly known.
+
+It is startling to contemplate the fearful responsibility which Booth
+assumed when he fired that shot. So far from benefiting the South, he
+did it incalculable harm, for the North was thoroughly aroused by the
+deed. Thousands and thousands flocked to see the dead President as he
+lay in state at the Capitol, and in the larger cities in which his
+funeral procession paused on its way to his home in Springfield. The
+whole country was in mourning, as for its father; business was
+practically suspended, and the people seemed stunned by the great
+calamity. That so gentle a man should have been murdered wakened, deep
+down in the heart of the North, a fierce resentment; the feelings of
+kindliness for a vanquished foe were, for the moment, swept away in
+anger; and the North turned upon the South with stern face and shining
+eyes. The wild and foolish assassin brought down upon the heads of his
+own people such a wrath as the great conflict had not awakened. We shall
+see how bitter was the retribution.
+
+Not then so fully as now was Lincoln's greatness understood. He has come
+to personify for us the triumphs and glories, the sadness and the
+pathos, of the great struggle which he guided. His final martyrdom seems
+almost a fitting crown for his achievements. It has, without doubt, done
+much to secure him the exalted niche which he occupies in the hearts of
+the American people, whom, in a way, he died to save. Had he lived
+through the troubled period of Reconstruction which followed, he might
+have emerged with a fame less clear and shining; and yet the hand which
+guided the country through four years of Civil War, was without doubt
+the one best fitted to save it from the misery and disgrace which lay in
+store for it. But speculations as to what might have been are vain and
+idle. What was, we know; and above the clouds of conflict, Lincoln's
+figure looms, serene and venerable. Two of his own utterances reveal him
+as the words of no other man can--his address on the battlefield of
+Gettysburg, and his address at his second inauguration--but two months
+after he was laid to rest, James Russell Lowell, at the services in
+commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of Harvard College,
+paid him one of the most eloquent tributes ever paid any man, concluding
+with the words:
+
+"Great captains, with their guns and drums;
+  Disturb our judgment for the hour,
+But at last silence comes;
+  These all are gone, and, standing like a tower,
+Our children shall behold his fame,
+  The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man;
+Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame;
+  New birth of our new soil, the first American."
+
+On the ticket with Lincoln, the Republicans had placed, as a sop to such
+pro-slavery sentiment as still existed at the North, a southerner and
+state rights Democrat named Andrew Johnson. By one of those singular
+chances of history, Johnson's origin and early years had been very much
+like Lincoln's. He, too, was born of a "poor white" family; first seeing
+the light in North Carolina about six weeks before Abraham Lincoln
+opened his eyes in that rude log cabin in Kentucky. His condition was,
+if anything, even more hopeless and degraded than Lincoln's, and if any
+one had prophesied that these two ignorant and poverty-stricken children
+would one day rise, side by side, to the greatest position in the
+Republic, he would have been regarded, and justly, as a hopeless madman.
+But not even to a madman did any such wild idea occur. "Poor whites"
+were despised throughout the South, even by the slaves; if there was, in
+the whole United States, any law of caste, it was against these ignorant
+and shiftless people; and Andrew Johnson, at the age of fifteen, was
+little better than a young savage. He had never gone to school, he had
+never seen a book. But one day, he heard a man reading aloud, and the
+wonder of it quickened a new purpose within him. He induced a friend to
+teach him the alphabet, and then, borrowing the book, he laboriously
+taught himself to read. So there was something more than "poor white" in
+him, after all.
+
+By the time he was eighteen, he had had enough of his shiftless
+surroundings, and struck out for himself, journeyed across the mountains
+to Greenville, Tennessee, met there a girl of sixteen named Eliza
+McCardle, and, with youth's sublime improvidence, married her! As it
+happened, he did well, for his wife had a fair education, and night
+after night taught him patiently, until he could read fairly well and
+write a little. I like to think of that family group, so different from
+most, and to admire that girl-wife teaching her husband the rudiments of
+education.
+
+Already, as a result of his lowly birth and the class prejudice he
+everywhere encountered, young Johnson had conceived that hatred of the
+ruling class at the South which was to influence his after life so
+deeply. He had a certain rude eloquence which appealed to the lower
+classes of the people, and, in 1835, succeeded in gaining an election to
+the state legislature. He nursed his political prospects carefully, and
+eight years later, was sent to Congress. He was afterwards twice
+governor of Tennessee.
+
+It has been said that secession was, in the beginning, a policy of the
+ruling class in the South and not of the people. It is not surprising,
+then, that Johnson should have arrayed himself against it, and fought it
+with all his might. This position made him so prominent, that on March
+4, 1862, Lincoln appointed him military-governor of Tennessee--a
+position which was exactly to Johnson's taste and which he filled well.
+In this position, he seemed the embodiment of the Union element of the
+South, and at their national convention in 1864, the Republicans decided
+that the President's policy of reconstruction for the South would be
+greatly aided by the presence of a southern man on the ticket, and
+Johnson was thereupon chosen for the office of Vice-President. On the
+same day that Lincoln was inaugurated for the second time, Johnson took
+the oath of office in the Senate chamber, and delivered a speech which
+created a sensation. He declared, in effect, that Tennessee had never
+been out of the Union, that she was electing representatives who would
+soon mingle with their brothers from the North at Washington, and that
+she was entitled to every privilege which the northern states enjoyed.
+
+Three hours after the death of the President, Andrew Johnson took the
+oath of office as his successor, but he was regarded with suspicion at
+both North and South--at the North, because he was believed to be at
+heart pro-slavery; at the South because of his well-known animosity
+toward the aristocratic and ruling class. He was also known to be
+stubborn, high-tempered and intemperate, and he and Congress were soon
+at sword's point. Johnson was of the opinion that the question of
+suffrage for the negroes should be left to the several states; a
+majority of Congress were determined to exact this for their own
+protection. This was embodied in the so-called Civil Rights Bill,
+conferring citizenship upon colored men. It was promptly vetoed by the
+President, and was passed over his veto; soon afterwards the fourteenth
+amendment was passed, conferring the suffrage upon all citizens of the
+United States without regard to color or previous condition of
+servitude. It also was vetoed, and passed over the veto. Johnson was
+hailed as a traitor by Republicans, and the campaign against him
+culminated in his impeachment by Congress early in 1868. The trial
+which followed was the most bitter in the history of the Senate, but
+Andrew Johnson was acquitted by the failure of the prosecution to secure
+the two-thirds vote necessary for conviction by a single vote,
+thirty-five senators voting for conviction and nineteen for acquittal.
+
+Johnson's friends were jubilant, but his power had vanished. The seceded
+states one by one came back into the Union in accordance with the
+Reconstruction act which Johnson had vetoed. He failed of the nomination
+on the Democratic ticket, and after the inauguration of his successor,
+at once returned to his old home in Tennessee. There he attempted to
+secure the nomination for United States senator, but his influence was
+gone and he was defeated. So ended his public life.
+
+It has been rather the fashion to picture Johnson, as an intemperate and
+bull-headed ignoramus, but such a characterization is far from fair. But
+for Lincoln's assassination, some such policy of reconstruction as
+Johnson advocated would probably have been carried out, instead of the
+policy of fanatics like Thaddeus Stevens, which left the South a prey to
+the carpet-bagger and the ignorant negro for over a decade. Johnson
+himself might have accomplished more if he had been of a less violent
+disposition; but he was ignorant of diplomacy, incapable of compromise,
+and so was worsted in the fight. However we may disagree with his policy
+and dislike his character, let us at least not forget that picture of
+the "poor white" boy teaching himself to read; and that other of the
+girl-wife patiently instructing him in the rudiments of writing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A successful war inevitably gives to its commanders a tremendous popular
+prestige. We have seen how the battle of New Orleans made Andrew Jackson
+a national hero, how William Henry Harrison loomed large after the
+battle of Tippecanoe, and how Zachary Taylor was chosen President as a
+result of his victories in Mexico. The country was now to undergo
+another period of military domination, longer lived than those others,
+as the Civil War was greater than them--a period from which it has even
+yet not fully recovered.
+
+In 1868, the Republican party nominated unanimously for President the
+general who had pushed the war to a successful finish, and who had
+received Lee's surrender, Ulysses Simpson Grant, and he was elected by
+an overwhelming majority. For the first time in the history of the
+country, a man had been elected President without regard to his
+qualifications for the office, for even Jackson had had many years'
+experience in public affairs. Of such qualifications, Grant had very
+few. He was egotistical, a poor judge of men, without experience in
+statesmanship, and unwilling to submit to guidance. As a result, his
+administration was marked by inefficiency and extravagance, and ended in
+a swirl of scandal.
+
+Born in Ohio in 1822, and graduated at West Point, he had served through
+the war with Mexico, resigned from the army, remained in obscurity for
+six years, during which he made an unsuccessful attempt to support
+himself in civil life, and entered the army again at the outbreak of the
+Civil War. From the first he was successful more than any other of the
+Union generals, not so much because of military genius as from a certain
+tenacity of purpose with which he fairly wore out the enemy. But a
+people discouraged by reverses were not disposed to inquire too closely
+into the reason of his victories, and early in 1864, after a brilliant
+campaign along the Mississippi, he had been appointed commander-in-chief
+of the Union army, and began that series of operations against Richmond
+which cost the North so dear, but which resulted in the fall of the
+capital of the Confederacy and in Lee's surrender.
+
+A bearded, square-jawed, silent man, he caught the public fancy by two
+messages, the one of "Unconditional surrender," with which he had
+answered the demand for terms on the part of the Confederates whom he
+had entrapped in Fort Donelson; the other, the famous: "I propose to
+fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer," with which he
+started his campaign in the Wilderness. Both were characteristic, and if
+Grant had retired from public life at the close of the Civil War, or had
+been content to remain commander-in-chief of the army of the United
+States, his fame would probably have been brighter than it is to-day.
+
+His training, such as it was, had been wholly military and his inaugural
+address showed his profound ignorance of the work which lay before
+him--an ignorance all the more profound and unreachable because of his
+serene unconsciousness of it. He fell at once an easy prey to political
+demagogues, and before the close of his first administration,
+demoralization was widespread throughout the government. A large portion
+of the Republican party, realizing his unfitness for the office, opposed
+his renomination, and when they saw his nomination was inevitable, broke
+away and named a ticket of their own, but Grant's victory was a sweeping
+one.
+
+With this stamp of public approval, the boodlers became bolder and great
+scandals followed, involving many members of Congress and even some
+members of the cabinet, but not the President himself, of whose personal
+honesty there was never any doubt, and in 1873, came the worst panic the
+country had ever experienced. A political reaction followed, and in 1874
+the Democrats carried the country, gaining the House of Representatives
+by a majority of nearly a hundred.
+
+Following his retirement from office in 1877, Grant made a tour of the
+world, returning in 1879, to be again a candidate for the presidency,
+and coming very near to getting the nomination. It was characteristic of
+the man's egotism that, even yet, he did not realize his unfitness for
+the office, but thought himself great enough to disregard the precedent
+which Washington had established. He lived five years longer, the last
+years of his life rendered miserable by cancer of the throat, which
+finally killed him.
+
+In the summer of 1876, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes,
+at that time Governor of Ohio, as their candidate for President--a
+nomination which was a surprise to the country, which had confidently
+expected that of James G. Blaine. Hayes was by no means a national
+figure, although he had served in the Union army, had been in Congress,
+and, as has been said, was governor of Ohio at the time of his
+nomination. Nor was he a man of more than very ordinary ability,
+upright, honest, and mediocre. The Democratic candidate was Samuel J.
+Tilden, a political star of the first magnitude, and the contest which
+followed was unprecedented in American history.
+
+Tilden received a popular majority of half a million votes, and 184
+electoral votes, out of the 185 necessary to elect, without counting the
+votes from Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana, all of which he had
+carried on the face of the returns. The Republicans disputed the vote in
+these states, however, and by the inexorable use of party machinery and
+carpet-bag government, declared Hayes elected. For a time, so manifest
+was the partisan bias of this decision, the country seemed on the verge
+of another Civil War, but Tilden led in wiser council, and Hayes was
+permitted to take his seat. It is the only instance in a national
+election where the will of the people at the polls has been defied and
+overridden.
+
+Hayes was a sincere and honest man, and he felt keenly the cloud which
+the manner of his election cast over his administration. He was never
+popular with his party, and no doubt he felt that the debt he owed it
+for getting him his seat was a doubtful one. His administration was
+noteworthy principally because he destroyed the last vestiges of
+carpet-bag government in the South, and left the southern states to work
+out their own destiny unhampered. He was not even considered for a
+renomination, and spent the remainder of his life quietly in his Ohio
+home.
+
+Hayes's successor was another so-called "dark horse," that is, a man of
+minor importance, whose nomination, was due to the fact that the party
+leaders could not agree upon any of the more prominent candidates. They
+were Grant, Blaine and John Sherman, and after thirty-five ballots, it
+was evident that a "dark horse" must be found. The choice fell upon
+James Abram Garfield, who was not prominent enough to have made any
+enemies, and who was as astonished as was the country at large when it
+heard the news.
+
+Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831, in a little log cabin and to a
+position in the world not greatly different to Lincoln's. While laboring
+at various rough trades, he succeeded in preparing himself for college,
+worked his way through, got into politics, served through the Civil War,
+and later for eighteen years in Congress, where he made a creditable but
+by no means brilliant record. He was elected President by a small
+majority, and enraged the many enemies of James G. Blaine by selecting
+that astute politician as his secretary of state. One of these, a
+rattle-brained New Yorker named Charles J. Guiteau, approached the
+President on July 2, 1881, as he was waiting at a railroad station in
+Washington, about to start on a journey, and shot him through the body.
+Death followed, after a painful struggle, two months later.
+
+Obscure, in a sense, as Garfield had been, the man who succeeded him was
+immeasurably more so. Chester Alan Arthur was a successful New York
+lawyer, who had dabbled in politics and held some minor appointive
+offices, his selection as Vice-President being due to the desire of the
+Republican managers to throw a sop to the Empire State. His
+administration, however, while marked by no great or stirring event, was
+for the most part wise and conservative, but James G. Blaine had by this
+time secured complete control of the party, and Arthur had no chance for
+the nomination for President. He died of apoplexy within two years of
+his retirement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Republican party had been supreme in the national government for a
+quarter of a century, and there seemed no reason to doubt that Blaine,
+its candidate in the campaign of 1884, would at last realize his
+consuming ambition to be elected President. He had an immense personal
+prestige, he had outlived the taint of corruption attached to him during
+the administration of Grant, and he had for years been preparing and
+strengthening himself for this contest. So he entered it confidently.
+
+But a new issue had arisen--that of the protective tariff, which,
+originally a war revenue measure, had been formally adopted as a
+principle of Republicanism, which was hailed by its adherents as a new
+and brilliant economic device for enriching everybody at nobody's
+expense, and which had really enriched a few at the expense of the many.
+The Democrats, with considerable hesitation and ambiguity, pronounced
+against it, arraigned the Republican party for corruption, and named as
+their nominee Grover Cleveland, of New York.
+
+Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837, the son of a clergyman whose
+early death threw him upon his own resources. He started west in search
+of employment, stopped at Buffalo, and afterwards made it his home. He
+studied law while working as a clerk and copyist, was admitted to the
+bar in 1859, and in the late seventies was elected mayor of Buffalo on a
+reform ticket. Almost at once, the country's eyes were fastened upon
+him. Elected as a reform mayor, he continued to be one after his
+induction into office. He actually seemed to think that the promises and
+pledges made by him during his campaign were still binding upon him, and
+astounded the politicians by proceeding to carry those promises out. So
+scathing were the veto messages he sent in, one after another, to a
+corrupt council, that they awakened admiration and respect even among
+his opponents. The messages, written in the plainest of plain English,
+aroused the people of the city to the way in which they had been robbed
+by dishonest officials, they rallied behind him, and his reputation was
+made. In 1882, his party wanted a reform candidate for governor, and
+they naturally turned to Cleveland, and he was elected by a plurality of
+two hundred thousand.
+
+He found the same condition of things on a larger scale at Albany as at
+Buffalo--a corrupt machine paying political debts with public money--and
+here, again, he showed the same astonishing regard for pre-election
+pledges, the same belief in his famous declaration that "a public office
+is a public trust," and bill after bill was vetoed, while the people
+applauded. And with every veto came a message stating its reasons in
+language which did not mince words and which all could understand. He
+showed himself not only to be entirely beyond the control of the
+political machine of his own party, but also to possess remarkable moral
+courage, and he became naturally and inevitably the Democratic candidate
+for President, since the Democratic platform was in the main an
+arraignment of Republican corruption and moral decay. The campaign which
+followed was a bitter one; but Blaine had estranged a large portion of
+his party, he made a number of bad blunders, and Cleveland was elected.
+The old party founded by Jefferson, which, beginning with Jefferson's
+administration, had ruled the country uninterruptedly for forty years,
+was returned to power, and on an issue which would have delighted
+Jefferson's heart.
+
+Much to the dismay and disappointment of the politicians, the new
+President made no clean sweep of Republican officeholders. He took the
+unheard-of ground that, in the public service, as in any other, good
+work merited advancement, no matter what the politics of the individual
+might be. He made some changes, as a matter of course, but he was from
+the first sturdily in favor of civil service reform. It is worth
+remarking that a Democratic President was the first to take a decided
+stand against the principle of "to the victors belong the spoils," first
+put into practice by another Democratic President, Andrew Jackson, over
+fifty years before.
+
+His stand, too, on the pension question was startling in its audacity.
+The shadow of the Civil War still hung over the country; the soldiers
+who had served in that war had formed themselves into a great,
+semi-political organization, known as the Grand Army of the Republic,
+and worked unceasingly for increased pensions, which Congress had found
+itself unable to refuse. More than that, the members of Congress were in
+the habit of passing hundreds of special bills, giving pensions to men
+whose claims had been rejected by the pension department, as not coming
+within the law. Cleveland took the stand that, unless the soldier had
+been disabled by the war, he had no just claim to government support,
+and he vetoed scores of private pension bills, many of which were shown
+to be fraudulent.
+
+In other ways, his remarkable strength of personality soon became
+apparent, and his determination to do what he thought his duty,
+regardless of consequences. His message of December, 1887, fairly
+startled the country. It was devoted entirely to a denunciation of the
+high tariff laws, a subject on which the Democratic leaders had deemed
+it prudent to maintain a discreet silence since the preceding election,
+and which many of them hoped would be forgotten by the public. But
+Cleveland's message brought the question squarely to the front, and made
+it the one issue of the campaign which followed. Cleveland would have
+been elected but for the traitorous conduct of the leaders in New York,
+who had never forgiven him for the way in which, as governor, he had
+scourged them. New York State was lost to him, and his opponent,
+Benjamin Harrison, was elected, although his popular vote fell below
+that of Cleveland by over a hundred thousand.
+
+But Cleveland had his revenge four years later, when, in spite of the
+protests of the leaders from his own state of New York, he was again
+nominated on a platform denouncing the tariff, and defeated Harrison by
+an overwhelming majority. And now came one of those strange instances of
+party perfidy and party suicide, of which the country has just witnessed
+a second example. In accordance with the platform pledges, a bill to
+lower the tariff was at once framed in the House and adopted; but the
+Senate, although Democratic in complexion, so altered it that it fell
+far short of carrying out the party pledges. The leader in the Senate
+was Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland, and to him chiefly was due this act
+of treachery. The President refused to sign the bill, and it became a
+law without his signature. There can be little question that it was the
+failure of the Democratic party to fulfil its pledges at that critical
+time which led to its subsequent disruption and defeat.
+
+Twice more did Cleveland startle the country with his extraordinary
+decision of character. In the summer of 1894, a great railroad strike,
+centering at Chicago, occasioned an outbreak of violence, which the
+governor of Illinois did nothing to quell. The President, therefore,
+declaring that the rioters had no right to interfere with the United
+States mails, ordered national troops to the scene to maintain order. A
+year later, when the British Government, involved in a boundary dispute
+with Venezuela, declared that it did not accept the Monroe Doctrine and
+would not submit the dispute to arbitration, the President sent a
+message to Congress, declaring that the Monroe Doctrine must be upheld
+at whatever cost. The country was thrilled from end to end, the
+President's course approved, and Great Britain at last consented to
+arbitration.
+
+[Illustration: CLEVELAND]
+
+And yet, when Cleveland left the presidential chair for the second time,
+he had entirely lost control of and sympathy with his own party. He had
+shown little tact in his dealings with the party leaders. He seemed to
+forget that, after all, these leaders had certain rights and privileges
+which should be respected; he sometimes blundered through very anxiety
+to be right. You have heard some men called so upright that they leaned
+over backward--well, that, occasionally, was Cleveland's fault. He
+was subjected to such a storm of abuse as no other ex-President ever had
+to endure. That he felt it keenly there can be no question; but in the
+years which followed, his sturdy and unassailable character came to be
+recognized and appreciated, and his death, in the summer of 1908, was
+the occasion of deep and widespread sorrow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have told how, in 1888, Cleveland was defeated for the presidency by
+Benjamin Harrison. Harrison was a grandson of the old warrior of
+Tippecanoe, William Henry Harrison, the successful candidate of the Whig
+party forty-eight years before. He was an able but not brilliant man,
+had served through the Civil War, and was afterwards elected senator
+from Indiana, to which state he had removed from Ohio at an early age.
+The platform on which he was elected pledged the party to the protective
+tariff principle, and a high tariff measure, known as the McKinley Bill,
+was passed, raising duties to a point higher than had ever before been
+known in the history of the United States.
+
+The Dependent Pension Bill, which Cleveland had vetoed, and which gave a
+pension to every Union soldier who was from any cause unable to earn a
+living, was also passed. But these policies did not appeal to the
+public; besides which, Harrison, although a man of integrity and
+ability, was popular with neither the rank nor file of his party,
+through a total lack of personal magnetism, and though he received the
+nomination, Cleveland easily defeated him. The remainder of his life
+was passed quietly at his Indiana home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have seen how Cleveland's independence and want of tact estranged him
+from his party, and the party itself was soon to run upon virtual
+shipwreck, under the guidance of strange leaders. A word must be said,
+in this place, of the extraordinary man who led it three times to
+defeat.
+
+When the Democratic national convention met in Chicago in 1896, one of
+the delegates from Nebraska was a brilliant and eloquent lawyer named
+William Jennings Bryan. He had gained some prominence in his state, and
+had served in Congress for four years, but he was practically unknown
+when he arose before the convention and made a free-silver speech which
+fairly carried the delegates off their feet. Good oratory is rare at any
+time; its power can hardly be overestimated, especially in swaying a
+crowd; and Bryan was one of the greatest orators that ever addressed a
+convention.
+
+His nomination for the Presidency followed, and the result was the
+practical dismemberment of the Democratic party. For Bryan was a
+Populist, as far as possible removed from the fundamental principles of
+Democracy, advocating strange socialistic measures; and the conservative
+element of the party regarded him and his theories with such distrust
+that it put another ticket in the field, and he was badly beaten. Twice
+more he led the party in presidential campaigns, each time being
+defeated more decisively than the last. His engaging personality, his
+ready oratory, and his supreme gifts as a politician won for him a vast
+number of devoted friends, who believed, and who still believe, in him
+absolutely; but the country at large, apparently, will have none of him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Republican nominee in 1896 was William McKinley, of Ohio, best known
+as the framer of the McKinley tariff bill. Born in Ohio in 1843, he had
+served through the Civil War, had been a member of Congress and twice
+governor of Ohio. He was a thorough party man, and modified his former
+views on the silver question to conform with the platform on which he
+was nominated; his campaign manager, Mark Hanna, was one of the most
+astute politicians the country had ever produced, and raised a campaign
+fund of unprecedented magnitude; all of which, combined with the
+disintegration of the Democratic party, gave McKinley a notable victory.
+
+The great event of his first administration was the war with Spain,
+undertaken to free Cuba, into which McKinley, be it said to his credit,
+was driven unwillingly by public clamor, cunningly fostered by a portion
+of the press. Its close saw the purchase of the Philippines, and the
+entrance of the United States upon a colonial policy believed by many to
+be wholly contrary to the spirit of its founders.
+
+There was never any question of McKinley's renomination, for his
+prestige and personal popularity were immense, and his victory was
+again decisive. He had broadened rapidly, had gained in statesmanship,
+had acquired a truer insight into the country's needs, and was now
+freed, to a great extent, from party obligations. Great hopes were built
+upon his second administration, and they would no doubt have been
+fulfilled, in part at least; but a few months after his inauguration, he
+was shot through the body by an irresponsible anarchist while holding a
+public reception at Buffalo, and died within the week. The years which
+have elapsed since his death enable us to view him more calmly than was
+possible while he lived, and the country has come to recognize in him an
+honest and well-meaning man, of more than ordinary ability, who might
+have risen to true statesmanship and won for himself a high place in the
+country's history had he been spared.
+
+On the ticket with McKinley, a young New Yorker named Theodore Roosevelt
+had been elected Vice-President. Roosevelt had long been prominent in
+his native state as an enthusiastic reformer, had made a sensational
+record in the war with Spain, and, on his return home, had been elected
+governor by popular clamor, rather than by the will of the politicians,
+to whom his rough-and-ready methods were extremely repugnant. So when
+the national convention was about to be held, they conceived the great
+idea of removing him from state politics and putting him on the shelf,
+so to speak, by electing him Vice-President, and the plan was carried
+out in spite of Roosevelt's protests. Alas for the politicians! It was
+with a sort of poetic justice that he took the oath as President on the
+day of McKinley's death, September 14, 1901, while they were still
+rubbing their eyes and wondering what had happened.
+
+His evident honesty of purpose, combined with an impulsive and energetic
+temperament, which led him into various indiscretions, soon made him a
+popular hero. He was a sort of Andrew Jackson over again, and in 1904,
+he was sent back to the presidency by an overwhelming majority. For a
+time he was, indeed, the central figure of the republic. His energy was
+remarkable; he had a hand in everything; but many people, after a time,
+grew weary of so tumultuous and strenuous a life, and drew away from
+him, while still more were estranged by the undignified and violent
+controversies in which he became entangled. It is too soon, however, to
+attempt to give a true estimate of him. Indeed, he is as yet only in
+mid-career; and what his years to come will accomplish cannot be even
+guessed.
+
+Despite his controversies with the leaders of his party, he retained
+sufficient power to dictate the nomination of his successor, William
+Howard Taft, an experienced jurist and administrator, who is but just
+entering upon his work as these lines are written, but to whom the
+American people are looking hopefully for a wise and moderate
+administration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So stands the history of the rulers of the nation. As one looks back at
+them, one perceives a certain rhythmical rise and fall of merit and
+attainment, which may roughly be represented thus:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Washington freed us from the power of England; Lincoln freed us from the
+power of slavery; the third man in this great trio will be he who will
+solve the vast economic problems which are the overshadowing issues of
+our day. Will he be a Democrat or Republican--or of some new party yet
+to be born? In any event, let us hope that Fate will not long withhold
+him!
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. Born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809;
+served in Black Hawk war, 1832; admitted to the bar, 1836; began
+practice of law at Springfield, Illinois, 1837; Whig member Illinois
+legislature, 1834-42; member of Congress, 1847-49; Republican candidate
+for United States senator and held series of debates with Stephen A.
+Douglas, 1858; elected President, 1860; inaugurated, March 4, 1861;
+re-elected President, 1864; began second term, March 4, 1865; entered
+Richmond with Federal army, April 4, 1865; shot by John Wilkes Booth, at
+Ford's Theatre, Washington, April 14, 1865, and died the following day.
+
+JOHNSON, ANDREW. Born at Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808;
+member of Congress from Tennessee, 1843-53; governor of Tennessee,
+1853-57; United States senator, 1857-62; military governor of Tennessee,
+1862-64; inaugurated Vice-President, March 4, 1865; succeeded Lincoln as
+President, April 15, 1865; impeached by Congress for high crimes and
+misdemeanors, but acquitted after a trial lasting from March 23 to May
+26, 1868; United States senator from Tennessee, 1875; died in Carter
+County, Tennessee, July 31, 1875.
+
+GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON. Born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio,
+April 27, 1822; graduated at West Point, 1843; served through Mexican
+war, 1846-48; left the army in 1854, and settled in St. Louis; removed
+to Galena, Illinois, 1860; appointed colonel, June 17, 1861;
+brigadier-general, August 7, 1861; captured Fort Donelson, February 16,
+1862; promoted to major-general of volunteers and made commander of the
+Army of the District of West Tennessee, March, 1862; gained battle of
+Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862; captured Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, and made
+major-general in the regular army; won battle of Chattanooga, November
+23-25, 1863; made lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of American
+armies, March, 1864; took up his headquarters with the Army of the
+Potomac, fought battles of Wilderness, and received Lee's surrender at
+Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865; made general, July 25, 1866;
+elected President, 1868, and re-elected, 1872; made tour of the world,
+1877-79; unsuccessful candidate for nomination for presidency, 1880;
+made general on the retired list, March 4, 1885; died at Mount McGregor,
+New York, July 23, 1885.
+
+HAYES, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD. Born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822;
+served in the Union army during the Civil War, being brevetted
+major-general of volunteers in 1864; member of Congress from Ohio,
+1865-67; governor of Ohio, 1868-72 and 1876; Republican candidate for
+President, 1876; declared elected by the Electoral Commission, March 2,
+1877, and served, 1877-81; died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.
+
+GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM. Born at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November
+19, 1831; instructor in and later president of Hiram College, Ohio,
+1856-61; joined the Union army as lieutenant-colonel of volunteers,
+1861; defeated General Humphrey Marshall at the battle of Middle Creek,
+January 10, 1862; promoted brigadier-general, 1862; promoted
+major-general, 1863; member of Congress, 1863-80; elected United States
+senator, 1880; elected President, 1880; inaugurated, March 4, 1881; shot
+in Washington by Guiteau, July 2, 1881; died at Elberon, New Jersey,
+September 19, 1881.
+
+ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN. Born at Fairfield, Vermont, October 5, 1830;
+graduated at Union College, 1848; taught school and practiced law in New
+York City; inspector-general of New York troops, 1862; collector of the
+port of New York, 1871-78; elected Vice-President, 1880; succeeded
+Garfield as President, September 20, 1881, serving to March 4, 1885;
+defeated for Republican nomination, 1884; died at New York, November
+18, 1886.
+
+CLEVELAND, GROVER. Born at Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey, March 18,
+1837; studied law at Buffalo, New York, and admitted to the bar, 1859;
+assistant district attorney of Erie County, 1863-66; sheriff of Erie
+County, 1871-74; Democratic mayor of Buffalo, 1882; governor of New
+York, 1883-84; elected President, 1884; served as President, 1885-89;
+advocated a reduction of the tariff in his message to Congress in
+December, 1887; defeated for re-election, 1888; re-elected President,
+1892; served, 1893-97; died at Princeton, New Jersey, June 24, 1908.
+
+HARRISON, BENJAMIN. Born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833; graduated
+at Miami University, 1852; studied law and practiced at Indianapolis;
+served in Civil War and was brevetted brigadier-general; United States
+senator, 1881-87; elected President, 1888; defeated for re-election,
+1892; died at Indianapolis, March 13, 1901.
+
+MCKINLEY, WILLIAM. Born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29,
+1844; served in the Civil War, attaining the rank of major; member of
+Congress, 1877-91; elected governor of Ohio, 1891; re-elected, 1893;
+elected President, 1896; re-elected, 1900; shot by an assassin at
+Buffalo, New York, and died there, September 14, 1901.
+
+ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. Born at New York City, October 27, 1858; graduated
+at Harvard, 1880; New York state assemblyman, 1882-84; resided on North
+Dakota ranch, 1884-86; national Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-95;
+president New York Police Board, 1895-97; assistant secretary of the
+navy, 1897-98; resigned to organize regiment of Rough Riders and served
+through war with Spain; governor of New York, 1899-1900; elected
+Vice-President, 1900; succeeded to presidency on death of McKinley,
+September 14, 1901; elected President, 1904; retired from presidency,
+March 4, 1909.
+
+TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD. Born at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 15, 1857;
+graduated at Yale, 1878; admitted to bar, 1880; judge Superior Court,
+1887-90; solicitor-general of the United States, 1890-92; United States
+circuit judge, 1892-1900; President Philippine Commission, 1900-04;
+secretary of war, 1904-08; elected President, 1908; inaugurated, March
+4, 1909.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+STATESMEN
+
+
+If one were asked to name the most remarkable all-around genius this
+country has produced, the answer would be Benjamin Franklin--whose life
+was perhaps the fullest, happiest and most useful ever lived in America.
+There are half a dozen chapters of this series in which he might
+rightfully find a place, and in which, indeed, it will be necessary to
+refer to him, for he was an inventor, a scientist, a man of letters, a
+philanthropist, a man of affairs, a reformer, and a great many other
+things besides. But first and greatest of all, he was a benign,
+humorous, kind-hearted philosopher, who devoted the greater portion of
+his life to the service of his country and of humanity.
+
+Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in 1706, the fifteenth of a family
+of seventeen children. His father was a soap-boiler, and was kept pretty
+busy providing for his family, none of whom, with the exception of
+Benjamin, ever attained any especial distinction; this being one of
+those mysteries of nature, which no one has ever been able to explain,
+and yet which happens so often--the production of an eagle in a brood of
+common barnyard fowls--a miracle, however, which never happens except
+when the barnyard fowls are of the human species. Benjamin himself, at
+first, was only an ugly duckling in no way remarkable.
+
+At the age of ten, he was apprenticed to his brother, who was a printer,
+and needed a boy to do the dirty work around the office, and thought
+there was no need of paying good money to an outsider, when it might
+just as well be kept in the family. So Benjamin went to work sweeping
+out, and washing up the dirty presses, and making himself generally
+useful during the day; but--and here is the first gleam of the eagle's
+feather--instead of going to bed with the sun as most boys did, he sat
+up most of the night reading such books and papers as he was able to get
+hold of at the office, or himself writing short articles for the paper
+which his brother published. These he slipped unsigned under the front
+door of the office, so that his brother would not suspect they came from
+him; for no man is a prophet to his own family, and these contributions
+would have promptly gone into the waste basket had his brother suspected
+their source. As it was, however, they were printed, and not until
+Benjamin revealed their authorship did his brother discover how bad they
+were.
+
+After he had served in the printing office for seven years, Benjamin
+came to the conclusion that his family would never appreciate him at his
+real worth. He was like most boys in this, differing from them only in
+being right. So he sold some of his books, and without saying anything
+to his father or brother, who would probably have reasoned him out of
+his purpose with a cowhide whip, he hid himself on board a boat bound
+for New York. Arrived there, he soon discovered that printers and
+budding geniuses were in no great demand, and so proceeded on to
+Philadelphia, partly on foot and partly by water.
+
+Everyone knows the story of how he landed there, with only a few pennies
+in his pocket, but with a sublime confidence in his ability to make
+more; how he proceeded to the nearest bakeshop, asked for three pennies'
+worth of bread, and when he was given three loaves, took them rather
+than reveal his ignorance by confessing that he really wanted only one
+loaf, and walked up Market street, with a loaf under each arm, and
+eating the third. He has told the story in his inimitable way in his
+autobiography, a work which gives him high place among American men of
+letters. Small wonder that red-cheeked Deborah Reed smiled at him from
+the door of her father's house--but Franklin saw the smile and
+remembered it, and though it brought them both distress enough at first,
+he asked Deborah to be his wife, six years later, and she consented, and
+a good wife she made him. Years afterward, when he was Ambassador to
+France and the pet of the French court, the centre of perhaps the most
+brilliant and witty circle in Europe, the talk, one day, chanced to turn
+upon tailors, of whom the company expressed the utmost detestation.
+Franklin listened with a quiet smile, which some one at last observed.
+
+"Don't you agree," he was asked, "that tailors are a conscienceless and
+extortionate class?"
+
+"No," he answered, still smiling; "how could I? You see, I'm in love
+with mine."
+
+And he told proudly and with shining eyes how the clothes he wore had
+been spun into thread and woven into cloth and cut out and fitted and
+sewed together by his wife's own hands; and it was no doubt Deborah he
+had in mind when he said: "God bless all good women who help men to do
+their work."
+
+The young adventurer had no difficulty in finding employment as a
+printer, for printers were in demand in that Quaker city. He prospered
+from the first, and at the age of twenty-four, had a little business of
+his own, and was editing the _Pennsylvania Gazette_. Two years later, he
+began the publication of an almanac purporting to be written by one
+Richard Saunders, and which soon won an immense reputation as "Poor
+Richard's Almanac." As an almanac, it did not differ much from others,
+but, in addition to the usual information about the tides and changes of
+the moon and seasons of the year, it contained a wealth of wise and
+witty sayings, many of which have passed into proverbs and are in common
+use to-day. Here are a few of them:
+
+    Virtue and a trade are a child's best portions.
+
+    Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
+
+    The way to be safe is never to be secure.
+
+    When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.
+
+    Well done is better than well said.
+
+    God helps them that help themselves.
+
+    Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
+
+    He that won't be counselled can't be helped.
+
+That he was a philosopher in deed as well as in word was soon to be
+proved, for, at the age of forty-two, he did the wisest thing a man can
+do, but for which very few have courage. He had won an established
+position in the world and as much wealth as he felt he needed, so he
+sold his business, intending to devote the remainder of his life to
+science, of which he had always been passionately fond. Already he had
+founded the Philadelphia Library and the American Philosophical Society,
+had invented the Franklin stove, and served as postmaster of
+Philadelphia, and a few years later, he established the institution
+which is now the University of Pennsylvania. It was at about this time
+that, by experimenting with a kite, he proved lightning to be a
+discharge of electricity, and suggested the use of lightning rods.
+
+[Illustration: FRANKLIN]
+
+But his scientific studies were destined to be interrupted, for his
+country called him, and the remainder of his life was passed in her
+service, first as agent in London for Pennsylvania, where he did
+everything possible to avert the Revolution; then as a member of the
+Continental Congress, and one of the committee of five which drew up the
+Declaration of Independence; then as ambassador to France, where,
+practically unaided, he succeeded in effecting the alliance between the
+two countries which secured the independence of the colonies; and
+finally as President of Pennsylvania and a member of the Constitutional
+Convention. His last public act was to petition Congress to abolish
+slavery in the United States. If one were asked to name the three men
+who did most to secure the independence of their country, they would be
+George Washington, who fought her battles, Robert Morris, who financed
+them, and Benjamin Franklin, who secured the aid of France. When Thomas
+Jefferson, who had been selected as minister to France, appeared at the
+court of Louis XVI, he presented his papers to the Comte de Vergennes.
+
+"You replace Mr. Franklin?" inquired the nobleman, glancing at the
+papers.
+
+"No, monsieur," Jefferson replied, "I succeed him. No one could replace
+him."
+
+And that answer had more truth than wit.
+
+Honors came to Franklin such as no other American has ever received, but
+he remained from first to last the same quiet, deep-hearted, and
+unselfish man, whose chief motive was the promotion of human welfare. He
+had his faults and made his mistakes; but time has sloughed them all
+away, and there are few sources of inspiration which can compare with
+the study of his life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No family has loomed larger in American affairs than the Adams family of
+Massachusetts. John Adams, President himself and living to see his own
+son President--an experience which, probably no other man will ever
+enjoy--had a second cousin who played a much more important part than he
+did in securing the independence of the United States. His name was
+Samuel Adams, and when he graduated from Harvard in 1740, at the age of
+eighteen, his thesis discussed the question, "Whether it be lawful to
+resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be
+preserved," and answered it in the affirmative.
+
+Samuel Adams was a silent, stern and deeply religious man, something of
+a dreamer, a bad manager and constantly in debt; but he was perhaps the
+first in America to conceive the idea of absolute independence from
+Great Britain, and he worked for this end unceasingly and to good
+purpose. The wealthy John Hancock was one of his converts, and it was
+partly to warn these two of the troops sent out to capture them that
+Paul Revere took that famous ride to Lexington on the night of April 18,
+1775. A month later, when General Gage offered amnesty to all the
+rebels, Hancock and Adams were especially excepted.
+
+It was Samuel Adams who, perceiving that Virginia was apt to be lukewarm
+in aiding a war which was to be fought mostly in the North, suggested
+the appointment of Virginia's favorite son, George Washington, as
+commander-in-chief of the American army, and who seconded the motion to
+that effect made by John Adams. He lived to see his dream of
+independence realized, and his grave in the old Granary burying ground
+at Boston is one of the pilgrimage places of America.
+
+With his name that of John Hancock is, as we have seen, closely
+associated. The worldly circumstances of the two were very different,
+for Samuel Adams was always poor, while John Hancock had fallen heir to
+one of the greatest fortunes in New England. He was only twenty-seven at
+the time, and his fortune made a fool of him, as sudden wealth has a way
+of doing. It was at this time, being young and impressionable, he met
+Samuel Adams, a silent and reserved man, fifteen years his senior and
+regarded by his neighbors as a harmless crank. But there was something
+about him which touched Hancock's imagination--and touched his
+pocketbook, too, for about the first thing Adams did was to borrow money
+from him.
+
+Hancock was no doubt glad to lend the money, for he had more than he
+knew what to do with, and spent it in such a lavish manner that he was
+soon one of the most popular men in Boston. So when one of his ships was
+seized for smuggling in a cargo of wine, all his friends and employees
+got together and paraded the streets, and a lot of boys and loafers
+joined them, for drink was flowing freely, and pretty soon there was a
+riot, and the troops were called out and fired a volley and killed five
+men, and the rest of the mob decided that it was time to go home, and
+went. And that was the Boston massacre about which you have heard so
+much that it would almost seem to rank with that of St. Bartholomew.
+But, as the Irishman remarked, the man who gets his finger pinched makes
+a lot more racket than the one who gets his head cut off; and the Boston
+massacre, for all the hullabaloo that was raised about it, was merely
+an insignificant street riot. No doubt Samuel Adams did his full share
+in fanning that little spark into a conflagration!
+
+For Adams had acquired great influence over Hancock, and that vapid
+young man was fond of being seen in the company of the older one. Adams
+was anxious to secure Hancock for the revolutionary cause, and soon had
+him so hopelessly entangled that there was no escape for him. On the
+anniversary of the Boston massacre, he persuaded Hancock to deliver a
+revolutionary speech, which he had himself prepared, and after that
+there was a British order out for Hancock's arrest; Adams contrived that
+Hancock should be one of the three delegates from Massachusetts to the
+Continental Congress--John and Samuel Adams were the other two--and
+Hancock was deeply impressed by the honor; at the second Congress, Adams
+saw to it that his friend was chosen President. In consequence, Hancock
+was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, the incident
+which is the best known in his career. He signed the document in great
+sprawly letters, remarking grandiloquently, as he did so, "I guess King
+George can read that without spectacles," and for many years, "John
+Hancock" was the synonym for a bold signature. He was afterwards
+governor of Massachusetts for more than a decade, and on one occasion
+attempted to snub Washington, with very poor success. His body lies in
+the old Granary burying-ground, only a step from that of Samuel Adams.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One day, while Thomas Jefferson was a student at William and Mary
+College, at Williamsburg, a young friend named Patrick Henry dropped in
+to see him, and announced that he had come to Williamsburg to be
+admitted to the bar.
+
+"How long have you studied law?" Jefferson inquired.
+
+"Oh, for over six weeks," Henry answered.
+
+The story goes that Jefferson advised his friend to go home and study
+for at least a fortnight longer; but Henry declared that the only way to
+learn law was to practice it, and went ahead and took the examination,
+such as it was, and passed!
+
+That was in 1760, and Patrick Henry was twenty-four years old at the
+time. He had been a wild boy, cared little for books, and had failed as
+a farmer and as a merchant before turning to law as a last resort. Nor
+as a lawyer was he a great success, the truth being that he lacked the
+industry and diligence which are essential to success in any profession;
+but he had one supreme gift, that of lofty and impassioned oratory. In
+1765, as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he made the
+rafters ring and his auditors turn pale by his famous speech against the
+stamp act; as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774, he made
+the only real speech of the Congress, arousing the delegates from an
+attitude of mutual suspicion to one of patriotic ardor for a common
+cause.
+
+"Government," said he, "is dissolved. Where are your landmarks, your
+boundaries of colonies? The distinctions between Virginians,
+Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a
+Virginian, but an American."
+
+Samuel Adams said afterwards that, but for that speech, which drew the
+delegates together and made them forget their differences, the Congress
+would probably have ended in a wrangle. And a year later, again in
+Virginia, in defense of his resolution to arm the militia, he gave
+utterance to the most famous speech of all, starting quietly with the
+sentence, "Mr. President, it is natural for man to indulge in the
+illusions of hope," and ending with the tremendous cry: "I know not what
+course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
+death!"
+
+That was the supreme moment of Patrick Henry's life. He did a great work
+after that, as member of the Continental Congress, as commander-in-chief
+of the Virginia forces, and as governor of the Commonwealth, but never
+again did he come so near the stars--as, indeed, few men ever do.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You have all heard the story of Damon and Pythias, true type of devoted
+friendship, and history abounds in such examples; but sometimes it shows
+a darker side, and the controlling force in two men's lives will be hate
+instead of love, and the end will be shipwreck and tragedy. Such a story
+we are to tell briefly here of the lives of Alexander Hamilton and
+Aaron Burr.
+
+They were born a year apart. Burr in 1756, at Newark, New Jersey;
+Hamilton, in 1757, on the little West Indian island of Nevis. Burr was
+of a distinguished ancestry, his grandfather being the famous Jonathan
+Edwards; Hamilton's father was an obscure planter whose first name has
+been lost to history. Burr graduated at Princeton, entered the army,
+rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and resigned in 1777 to study
+law, being admitted to the New York bar five years later. Hamilton was
+sent to New York, entered King's, now Columbia, College, got caught in
+the rising tide of Revolution, proved himself uncommonly ready with
+tongue and pen, enlisted, saw the battles of Long Island, Trenton, and
+Princeton, was appointed aide-de-camp to Washington and acted as his
+secretary, filling the post admirably, but resigned in a fit of pique
+over a fancied slight, and repaired to New York to study law. Such, in
+outline, is the history of these two men until Fate threw them in each
+other's way.
+
+New York City was the arena where the battle was fought. Within a few
+years, Hamilton and Burr were the most famous men in the town. They
+resembled each other strongly in temperament and disposition; each was
+"passionate, brooking no rivalry; ambitious, faltering at no obstacle;
+proud with a fiery and aggressive pride; eloquent with the quick wit,
+the natural vivacity, and the lofty certainty of the true orator." They
+were too nearly alike to be friends; they became instinctive enemies.
+Each felt that the other was in the way.
+
+For sixteen years, Burr practiced law in New York, growing steadily in
+influence. For five of those years, Hamilton did the same. They were the
+foremost lawyers in the city. No man could stand before them, and when
+they met on opposite sides of a case, it was, indeed, a meeting of
+giants. But in 1789, Washington appointed Hamilton his secretary of the
+treasury, and leaving New York, Hamilton applied himself to the great
+task of establishing the public credit, laying the basis for the
+financial system of the nation, which endures until this day. It was a
+splendid task, splendidly performed, and Hamilton emerged from it the
+leader of the powerful Federal party.
+
+In 1800, two men were candidates for the presidency. One was Thomas
+Jefferson and the other was Aaron Burr. Instead of being overwhelmed by
+the great Virginian, Burr received an equal number of electoral votes,
+and the contest was referred to Congress for decision. As a Federalist,
+Burr felt that he should have Hamilton's support, but Hamilton used his
+great influence against him, stigmatizing him as "a dangerous man," and
+Jefferson was elected. Four years later, Burr was a candidate for
+governor of New York, and again Hamilton openly, bitterly, and
+successfully opposed him, again speaking of him as "a dangerous man."
+
+Smarting under the sting of this second defeat, Burr sent a note to
+Hamilton asking if the expression, "a dangerous man," referred to him
+politically or personally. Hamilton sent a sneering reply, and expressed
+himself as willing to abide by the consequences. It was "fighting
+language between fighting men"--a quarrel which Hamilton had been
+seeking for five years and which he had done everything in his power to
+provoke--and Burr promptly sent a challenge. Hamilton as promptly
+accepted it, named pistols at ten paces as the weapons, and at seven
+o'clock on the morning of July 11, 1804, the two men faced each other on
+the heights of Weehawken, overlooking New York bay. Both fired at the
+word; Burr's bullet passed through Hamilton's body; Hamilton's cut a
+twig above Burr's head. Hamilton died next day, and Burr, his political
+career at an end, buried himself in the West.
+
+Three years later, he was arrested, charged with treason, for attempting
+to found an independent state within the borders of the Union. He had a
+wild dream of establishing a great empire to the west of the
+Mississippi, and had collected arms and men for the expedition, and was
+on his way down the Mississippi when he was arrested and taken back to
+Richmond for trial. But his plan could not be proved to be treasonable;
+indeed, his arrest was due more to the animosity which Jefferson felt
+toward him, than from any other cause, and, brought to trial a year
+later, he was acquitted. But his reputation was ruined, there was no
+hope for him in public life, and his remaining years were spent quietly
+in the practice of his profession, partly abroad and partly in New
+York.
+
+It has been too much the habit to picture Burr as a thoroughgoing
+scoundrel who murdered an innocent man and conspired against his
+country. As a matter of fact, he did neither. Of the charge of treason
+he was acquitted, even at a time when public feeling ran high against
+him, and in the quarrel with Hamilton, it was Hamilton who was at all
+times the aggressor. Both were brilliant, accomplished and courtly
+men--even, perhaps, men of genius--but Fate spread a net for their feet,
+blindly they stumbled into it, and, too proud to retrace their steps,
+pushed on to the tragic end.
+
+The presiding judge at Burr's trial, not the least of whose achievements
+was the holding level of the scales of justice on that memorable
+occasion, was the last of that great school of statesmen who had fought
+for their country's independence, and who had seen the states united
+under a common Constitution. John Marshall lived well into the
+nineteenth century, and his great work was to interpret that
+Constitution to the country, to give it the meaning which it has for us
+to-day. Marshall was a Virginian, was just of age at the outbreak of the
+Revolution, and served in the American army for five years, enlisting as
+a private and rising to the rank of captain. At the close of the war, he
+studied law, gained a prominent place in the politics of his state, drew
+the attention of Washington by his unusual ability, and in 1800 was
+appointed by him secretary of state. A year later he was made chief
+justice of the Supreme Court--an appointment little less than inspired
+in its wisdom.
+
+For thirty-four years, John Marshall occupied that exalted position,
+interpreting to the new country its organic law, and the decisions
+handed down by him remain the standard authority on constitutional
+questions. In clearness of thought, breadth of view, and strength of
+logic they have never been surpassed. His service to his country was of
+incalculable value, for he built for the national government a firm,
+foundation which has stood unshaken through the years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So we come to a new era in American history--an era marked by unexampled
+bitterness of feeling and culminating in the great struggle for the
+preservation of the Union. Across this era, three mighty giants cast
+their shadows--Henry Clay and Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.
+
+Closely and curiously intertwined were the destinies of these three men,
+Clay was born in 1777; Webster and Calhoun five years later. Calhoun and
+Clay were Irishmen and hated England; Webster was a Scotchman, and
+Scotchmen were usually Tories. Calhoun and Clay were southerners, but
+with a difference, for Calhoun was born in the very sanctum sanctorum of
+the South, South Carolina, while Clay's life was spent in the border
+state of Kentucky, so removed from the South that it did not secede from
+the Union. Webster was a product of Massachusetts. Calhoun and Webster
+were, in temperament and belief, as far apart as the poles; Clay stood
+between them, "the great compromiser." Calhoun and Webster were greater
+than Clay, for they possessed a larger genius and a broader culture; and
+Webster was a greater man than Calhoun, because he possessed the truer
+vision. Calhoun died in 1850; Clay and Webster in 1852. For the forty
+years previous to that, these three men were in every way the most
+famous and conspicuous in America. Others flashed, meteor-like, into a
+brief brilliance; but these three burned steady as the stars. They had
+no real rivals. And yet, though each of them was consumed by an ambition
+to be President, not one was able to realize that ambition, and their
+last years were embittered by defeat.
+
+As has been said, Clay was the smallest man of the three. His reputation
+rests, not upon constructive statesmanship, but upon his ability as a
+party leader, in which respect he has had few equals in American
+history, and upon his success in proposing compromises. Born in
+Virginia, and admitted to the bar in 1797, he moved the same year to
+Lexington, Kentucky, where his practice brought him rapid and brilliant
+success. His personality, too, won him many friends, and it was so all
+his life. "To come within reach of the snare of his speech was to love
+him," and even to this day Kentucky believes that no statesman ever
+lived who equalled this adopted son of hers, nor doubts the entire
+sincerity of his famous boast that he would rather be right than
+President.
+
+Of course he got into politics. That was his natural and inevitable
+field. As early as 1806 he was sent to the Senate, and afterwards to the
+House, of which he was speaker for thirteen years. Three times was he a
+candidate for the presidency, defeated once by John Quincy Adams, once
+by Andrew Jackson, and once, when victory seemed almost his, by William
+Henry Harrison. That other great party leader, James G. Blaine, was to
+meet a similar fate years later. Henry Clay lacked the deep foresight,
+the prophetic intuition necessary to statesmanship of the first rank,
+and some of the achievements which he considered the greatest of his
+life were in reality blunders which had afterwards to be corrected. But
+as a compromiser, as a rider of troubled waters, and a pilot at a time
+when shipwreck seemed imminent and unavoidable, he proved his consummate
+ability, and merits the gratitude of his country.
+
+Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were leaders in the same great party, and
+were, for the most part, personal friends as well as political allies.
+But Webster overshadowed Clay in intellect, however he may have been
+outdistanced by him in political astuteness. If Clay were the fox,
+Webster was the lion. As a constitutional lawyer, he has never been
+excelled; as an orator, no other American has ever equalled him. He had
+in supreme degree the orator's equipment of a dominant and impressive
+personality, a moving voice, an eloquent countenance, and a command of
+words little less than inspired. The last sentences of his reply to
+Hayne have come ringing down the years, and stand unequalled as sheer
+eloquence:
+
+    "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun
+    in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored
+    fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered,
+    discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds or
+    drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and
+    lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic,
+    now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high
+    advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre,
+    not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured,
+    bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is
+    all this worth'? nor those other words of delusion and folly,
+    'Liberty first and Union afterwards'; but everywhere, spread all
+    over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds,
+    as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind
+    under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true
+    American heart--Liberty _and_ Union, now and forever, one and
+    inseparable!"
+
+The great audience that listened spellbound to that oration, arose and
+left the Capitol like persons in a dream. Never were they to forget the
+effect of that tremendous speech.
+
+But the last years of his life were ruined by his ambition to be
+President. In spite of his commanding talents, or, perhaps, because of
+them, he never at any time had a chance of receiving the nomination of
+his party, and his final defeat in 1852, by Winfield Scott, practically
+killed him.
+
+[Illustration: WEBSTER]
+
+Webster was the son of a New Hampshire farmer, who managed to send him
+to Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1801. Four years later
+he was admitted to the bar at Boston, and in 1812 he was elected to
+Congress. We find him at once violently opposing the second war with
+England, for which Clay was working so aggressively. For ten years after
+that, he devoted himself to the practice of his profession, and soon
+became the foremost lawyer of New England, especially on constitutional
+questions. In 1823, he was again sent to Congress; entered the Senate in
+1828, and remained in public life practically until his death.
+
+It was in 1830 that he delivered the speech already referred to--perhaps
+the most remarkable ever heard within the walls of the Capitol. Senator
+Hayne, of South Carolina, had made a remarkable address, lasting two
+days, advocating the right of a state to render null and void an
+unconstitutional law of Congress--in other words, the right of secession
+from the Union. Two days later, Webster rose to reply. His appearance,
+always impressive, was unusually so that day; his argument, always
+close-knit and logical, was the very summation of these qualities; his
+words seemed edged with fire as he argued that the Constitution is
+supreme, the Union indissoluble, and that no state has, or can have the
+right to resist or nullify a national law. It was the greatest oration
+of America's greatest orator.
+
+Of its effect upon the people who heard it we have spoken; throughout
+the country it produced a profound impression. The North felt that a new
+prophet had arisen; the South, a new foeman. The great advocate of
+nullification, however, was not Hayne, who would be scarcely remembered
+to-day but for the fact that it was to him Webster addressed his reply,
+but that formidable giant of a man, John C. Calhoun--the man whom the
+South felt to be her peculiar representative on the question of state
+rights, of nullification, and, at last, of slavery. His fate was one of
+the saddest in American history, for the cause he fought for was a
+doomed cause, and as he sank into his grave, he saw tottering down upon
+him the great structure which he had devoted his whole life to
+upholding.
+
+Not much is known of Calhoun's youth. He was the grandson of an Irish
+immigrant who had settled in South Carolina, graduated from Yale in
+1804, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, returning to his native
+state, was, in 1811, elected a member of Congress. That was the
+beginning of a public career which was to last until his death.
+
+Almost from the first, he was consumed with an ambition to be President,
+and perhaps would have been, but for an incident so trivial that, under
+ordinary circumstances, it would have had no consequences. In 1818, as
+Monroe's secretary of war, Calhoun had occasion at a cabinet meeting to
+express some censure of Andrew Jackson's conduct of the Seminole war--a
+censure which was deserved, since Jackson had violated the law of
+nations in pursuing his enemy into a foreign country. Twelve years
+later, when Jackson was President and Calhoun, as Vice-President, was in
+direct line of succession, so to speak, Jackson heard of Calhoun's
+remarks, flew into a violent rage, came out as Calhoun's declared enemy,
+and dealt the death-blow to his presidential aspirations.
+
+Smarting from this injustice, Calhoun turned his attention to the
+question of state sovereignty, and in February, 1833, South Carolina
+passed the nullification ordinance to which we have already referred.
+Calhoun at once resigned the vice-presidency and took his seat in the
+Senate, prepared to defend the attitude of his state. But Jackson did
+not wait for that. Seeing that here was an opportunity to strike his
+enemy, he ordered troops to South Carolina, and threatened to hang
+Calhoun as high as Haman--a threat which he very possibly would have
+attempted to carry out had not hostilities been averted by the genius
+for compromise of Henry Clay. From that time forward, Calhoun became the
+high priest of the doctrine of state rights and the great defender of
+slavery. He fought inch by inch the growing sentiment against it; he
+knew it was a losing fight, and almost the last words uttered by his
+dying lips were, "The South! The poor South! God knows what will become
+of her!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The great triumvirate left no successors to compare with them in
+prestige or power. Two survivals from the war of 1812 were still on the
+scene, Thomas Hart Benton and Lewis Cass. Benton was a North Carolina
+man who had removed to Nashville, and at the outbreak of the war,
+enlisted under Andrew Jackson, and got into a disgraceful street fight
+with him, in the course of which Jackson was nearly killed. Strange to
+say, that doughty old hero chose to forget the matter long years
+afterwards, when Benton was in the Senate--a Union senator from the
+slave state of Missouri.
+
+Cass also served through the war, but at the North; was involved in
+Hull's surrender of Detroit and broke his sword in rage at the disgrace
+of it; and was afterwards governor of Michigan and Jackson's secretary
+of war; then, in 1848, Democratic nominee for President and defeated
+because of Martin Van Buren's disaffection; finally, in 1857, Buchanan's
+secretary of state, resigning, in 1860, because that shilly-shally
+President could not make up his mind to send reinforcements to Bob
+Anderson at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. A man who played many
+parts, filled many positions, and filled them well, Cass's name deserves
+to be more widely remembered than it is.
+
+In those days, a strange, pompous and ineffective figure was flitting
+across the stage, impressing men with a respect and significance which
+it did not possess, its name, Stephen A. Douglas, nicknamed "The Little
+Giant," but giant in little else than power to create disturbance.
+Perhaps no other man ever possessed that power in quite the same degree;
+nor possessed in a greater degree that fascination of personality which
+makes friends and gains adherents.
+
+Consumed by a gnawing desire of the presidency, beaten for the
+nomination in 1852, destroying the serenity of the land two years later
+by contending that Congress had no right to limit slavery in the
+territories, in the vain hope of winning southern support, but finding
+himself instead dubbed traitor and Judas Iscariot, receiving thirty
+pieces of silver from a club of Ohio women, travelling from Boston to
+Chicago "by the light of his own effigies," which yelling crowds were
+burning at the stake, and finally hooted off the stage in his own city,
+certainly it would seem that Douglas's public career was over forever.
+
+But he managed to live down his blunder and to regain much of his old
+strength by reason of his winning personality; yet made another blunder
+when he agreed to meet Abraham Lincoln in debate--and one which cost him
+the presidency. For his opponent drove him into corners from which he
+could find no way out except at the risk of offending the South. In
+those days, one had to be either for or against slavery; there was no
+middle course, and the man who attempted to find one, fell between two
+stools, as Douglas himself soon learned.
+
+Last scene of all, pitted against that same Abraham Lincoln who had
+greased the plank for him and shorn him of his southern support, in the
+presidential contest of 1860, defeated and wounded to death by it, for
+he knew that never again would he be within sight of that long-sought
+prize; yet rising nobly at the last to a height of purest patriotism,
+declaring for the Union, pledging his support to Lincoln, pointing the
+way of duty to his million followers, and destroying at a blow the
+South's hope of a divided North--let us do Stephen A. Douglas, that
+justice, and render him that meed of praise; for whatever the mistakes
+and turnings and evasions of his career, that last great work of his
+outweighed them all.
+
+A man who had a great reputation in his own day as an orator and
+statesman, but whose polished periods appeal less and less to succeeding
+generations was Edward Everett--an evidence, perhaps, that the head
+alone can never win lasting fame. Everett was a New Englander; a Harvard
+man, graduating with the highest honors; and two years later, pastor of
+a Unitarian church in Boston. There his eloquence soon attracted
+attention, and won him a wide reputation. At the age of twenty-one, he
+was appointed professor of Greek at Harvard; and in 1824, at the age of
+thirty, he was chosen to represent the Boston district in Congress. He
+remained there for ten years, served four terms as governor of
+Massachusetts, was ambassador to England, and then, president of Harvard
+from 1846-1849; was appointed secretary of state on the death of Daniel
+Webster in 1852; and finally, in the following year, was elected to the
+Senate, but was soon forced to resign on account of ill-health.
+
+Soon afterwards, he threw himself into the project to purchase Mount
+Vernon by private subscription, delivered his oration on Washington 122
+times, netting more than $58,000 toward the project; obtained another
+$10,000 from the _Public Ledger_ by writing for it a weekly article for
+the period of a year, and added $3,000 more, secured from the readers of
+that paper. From that time on, he delivered various lectures for
+philanthropic causes, the receipts aggregating nearly a hundred thousand
+dollars. They are little read to-day because, in spite of his erudition,
+polish and high attainments, Everett really had no new message to
+deliver.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the coming of the Civil War, another triumvirate emerges to control
+the destinies of the nation--Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and
+William Henry Seward. Stevens and Seward had been introduced to politics
+by the ineffectual and absurd anti-Masonic party, which flitted across
+the stage in the early thirties. In 1851, Massachusetts rebuked Daniel
+Webster for his supposed surrender to the slavery party, made in hope of
+attaining the presidency, by placing Sumner in his seat in the Senate,
+and retiring him to private life, where he still remained the most
+commanding figure in the country.
+
+Seward was already in the Senate, had spoken in reply to Webster, and
+assumed the leadership which Webster forfeited. In the House, too, was
+Stevens, who soon gained prominence by a certain vitriolic force which
+was in him, and these three men labored unceasingly for the defeat of
+the South--indeed, for more than its defeat--for payment, to the last
+drop, for the sins it had committed. They were bound together by party
+ties and in other ways, but most closely of all by a hatred of slavery,
+which, with Stevens and Sumner, mounted at times to fanaticism and led
+them into the errors always awaiting the fanatic.
+
+Thaddeus Stevens, the oldest of the three, had been born in Vermont, but
+removed to Pennsylvania at the age of twenty-two, and began to practice
+law there. In 1831, he was one of the moving spirits in the formation of
+the anti-Masonic party, which fancied it saw, in the spread of Masonry,
+a grave danger to the republic. Two years later, Stevens was chosen a
+member of the Pennsylvania legislature, but his career did not really
+begin until, in 1848, at the age of fifty-seven, he was elected a member
+of the national House of Representatives, where he soon took his place
+as the leader of the anti-slavery faction. From that time forward, he
+was unceasing in his warfare against slavery, frequently going to
+lengths where few cared to follow, and which would seem to indicate that
+there was a trace of madness in the man. He developed an exaggerated and
+sentimental regard for the negro, and grew radical and relentless toward
+the South.
+
+At the close of the war, he regarded the southern states as conquered
+territory, to be treated as such, and his ideas of treatment seem to
+have been founded upon those of the Middle Ages. He wished to confiscate
+the property of all Confederates; endeavored to impeach President
+Johnson, who was trying to enforce a system of reconstruction which was
+at least better than that which Stevens advocated. For a time he seemed
+to suffer from a very vertigo of hatred, which ate into his soul and
+destroyed him. The plan of reconstruction adopted by Congress was an
+embodiment of his ideas; but Johnson was acquitted of the charges
+Stevens brought against him, and Stevens's poison, as it were, turned in
+upon himself and killed him. His last request, that his body be buried
+in an obscure private cemetery, because public cemeteries excluded
+negroes, shows the man's unbalanced condition, the length to which his
+ideas had led him.
+
+Charles Sumner, who was to the Senate much what Stevens was to the
+House, although a larger and better-balanced man, was a typical
+Bostonian and inheritor of the New England conscience, which, of course,
+meant that he was opposed through and through to slavery. He was a
+successful lawyer, and as his sentiments were well known, he was chosen
+to succeed Webster when the latter wavered on the anti-slavery question,
+and threw some pledges of assistance to the South. There was never any
+doubt about Sumner's position, no sign of wavering or coquetting with
+the enemy, and in 1856, he was assaulted by a southern senator and so
+severely injured that three years passed before he could resume his
+seat.
+
+He did so in time to oppose any compromise with slavery or the slave
+power, which the threatening attitude of the South had almost scared the
+North into considering, and urged the immediate emancipation of the
+slaves. When this had been accomplished, his first thought was to make
+sure that the slaves would remain free, and he began the contest for
+negro suffrage, as the only guarantee of negro freedom, which he finally
+won. In the reconstruction period following the war, he was inevitably
+an ally of Thaddeus Stevens, though the latter far surpassed him in
+vindictiveness toward the South.
+
+Let us not forget that the South had shown itself blind to its own
+interests when, as soon as reconstructed by Andrew Johnson, it had,
+state by state, adopted laws virtually enslaving the black man again.
+But for this fatuity, there would probably have been no such feeling of
+vindictiveness at the North as soon developed there; certainly there
+would have been no excuse for such severity as was afterwards exhibited.
+So it is true in a sense that the South has itself to blame for the
+horrors of the reconstruction period, and for the suspicion with which
+its good faith toward the negro was for many years regarded. Sumner was
+not a vindictive man, and in his last years, incurred a vote of censure
+from his own State for offering a bill to remove the names of battles of
+the Civil War from the Army Register and from the regimental colors of
+the United States. He practically died in harness in 1874. Looking back
+at him, one sees how much larger he looms than Stevens; one cannot but
+admire his courage and honesty of purpose; his public life was a
+continual struggle for the right, as he saw it, and, remembering that,
+his faults need not trouble us.
+
+When Sumner arrived in the Senate, he found William H. Seward, of New
+York, already there. Seward, who had been admitted to the bar in 1822,
+at the age of twenty-one, was carried into the New York legislature by
+the anti-Masonic wave of 1830. Eight years later, he was the Whig
+governor of the state, and in 1849 was sent to the Senate. There he soon
+rivetted attention by his rebuke of Webster for condoning the Fugitive
+Slave Law, and caught the reins of party leadership as they fell from
+Webster's hands. It was then that he made his famous statement that the
+war against slavery was waged under a "higher law than the
+Constitution," and that the fall of slavery was inevitable.
+
+In 1856, when the newly-formed anti-slavery party, known as the
+Republican, met to name a national ticket, Seward was the logical
+candidate, but refused to allow his name to be considered, and the
+choice fell upon that brilliant adventurer, John C. Fremont. Fremont
+was, of course, defeated, and Seward continued to be the leader of
+Republican thought, and the chief originator of Republican doctrine.
+Indeed, he was, in a sense, the Republican party, so that, four years
+later, he seemed not only the logical but the inevitable choice of the
+party for President. His most formidable opponent was Abraham Lincoln,
+of Illinois, who had been carefully working for the nomination, and who
+was blessed with the shrewdest of campaign managers. Seward led on the
+first ballot, and would have won but for the expert trading already
+referred to in the story of Lincoln's nomination.
+
+It was natural that Lincoln should offer him the state portfolio, and
+Seward accepted it. From first to last, he held true to the President,
+and the services he rendered the country were second only to those of
+Lincoln himself. When Lincoln was killed, an attempt was also made to
+murder Seward, and was very nearly successful--so nearly that for days
+Seward lingered between life and death. He recovered, however, to resume
+his place in Johnson's cabinet. Over the new President he had great
+influence; he had long been an advocate of mercy toward the South, and
+he did much to persuade the President to the course he followed in
+restoring the southern states to the Union, without reference to the
+wishes of Congress. Even John Sherman pronounced the plan "wise and
+judicious," but Stevens, Sumner, and their powerful coterie in Congress
+violently opposed it, and Seward came in for his share of the
+vituperation and bitter accusation which the plan called forth.
+Johnson's defeat closed his political career, and the last years of his
+life were spent in travel.
+
+The very cause of his downfall marks him as the greatest of the three,
+for he placed justice above expediency, and not even the attempt upon
+his life changed his feeling toward the South. Perhaps the wisdom of his
+judgment was never better exemplified than in his purchase from Russia
+of the great territory known as Alaska, for the sum of $7,200,000.
+Alaska was regarded at the time as an icy desert of no economic value,
+but time has changed that estimate, and the discovery of gold there made
+it one of the richest of the country's possessions.
+
+Outside of Seward, Sumner and Stevens, the most prominent public man of
+the time was Salmon P. Chase, an Ohioan who had for many years taken an
+important part in the anti-slavery controversy. Although sent to the
+Senate in 1849 as a Democrat, he left the party on the nomination of
+Pierce in 1852, when it stood committed to the support and extension of
+slavery. Three years later, he was elected governor of Ohio by the
+Republicans. He was Lincoln's secretary of the treasury, and financed
+the country during its most trying period in a way that compelled the
+admiration even of his enemies. He served afterwards as Chief Justice of
+the Supreme Court, dying in 1873. He was another man whose life was
+embittered by failure to attain the prize of the presidency. Three times
+he tried for it, in 1860, in 1864, and in 1868, but he never came within
+measurable distance of it. For he lacked the capacity for making
+friends, and repelled rather than attracted by a studiously impressive
+demeanor, a painful decorousness, and an unbending dignity, which was,
+of course, no true dignity at all, but merely a bad imitation of it. In
+a word, he lacked the saving sense of humor--the quality which endeared
+Abraham Lincoln to the whole nation.
+
+Another Ohioan who loomed large in the history of the time was John
+Sherman, a lawyer like all the rest, a member of Congress since 1855,
+not at first a great opponent of slavery, but drawn into the battle by
+his allegiance to the Republican party, forming an alliance with
+Thaddeus Stevens, and collaborating with him in the production of the
+reconstruction act. He was appointed secretary of the treasury by
+President Hayes, in 1876, and his great work for the country was done in
+that office, in re-establishing the credit which the Civil War had
+shaken. He, also, was bitten by the presidential bacillus, and was a
+candidate for the nomination at three conventions, but each time fell
+short of the goal--once when he had it seemingly within his grasp. A
+stern, forceful, capable man, he left his impress upon the times.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of the men who guided the fortunes of the Confederacy, only two need be
+mentioned here--Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens; for, rich as
+the Confederacy was in generals, it was undeniably poor in statesmen.
+The golden age of the South had departed; with John C. Calhoun passed
+away the last really commanding figure among Dixie's statesmen, and from
+him to Jefferson Davis is a long step downward.
+
+Davis's early life was romantic enough. Born in 1808 in Kentucky, of a
+father who had served in the Revolution, appointed to the National
+Military Academy by President Monroe; graduating there in 1828 and
+serving through the Black Hawk war; then abruptly resigning from the
+army to elope with the daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor, and settling
+near Vicksburg, Mississippi, to embark in cotton planting; drawn
+irresistibly into politics and sent to Congress, but resigning to accept
+command of the First Mississippi Rifles and serving with great
+distinction through the war with Mexico; and, finally, in 1847, sent to
+the Senate--such was Davis's history up to the time he became involved
+in the maelstrom of the slavery question.
+
+From the first, he was an ardent advocate of the state-rights theory of
+government, and the right of secession, and for thirteen years he
+defended these theories in the Senate, gradually emerging as the most
+capable advocate the South possessed. That fiery and impulsive people,
+looking always for a hero to worship, found one in Jefferson Davis, and
+he soon gained an immense prestige among them. On January 9, 1861, his
+state seceded from the Union, and he withdrew from the Senate. Before he
+reached home, he was elected commander-in-chief of the Army of the
+Mississippi, and a few days later, he was chosen President of the
+Confederate States.
+
+From the first, his task was a difficult one, and it grew increasingly
+so as the war went on. That he performed it well, there can be no
+question. He was the government, was practically dictator, for he
+dominated the Confederate Congress absolutely, and its principal
+business was to pass the laws which he prepared. Only toward the close
+of the war did it, in a measure, free itself from this control, and,
+finally, in 1865, it passed a resolution attributing Confederate
+disaster to Davis's incompetency as commander-in-chief, a position which
+he had insisted on occupying; removing him from that position and
+conferring it upon General Lee, giving the latter, at the same time,
+unlimited powers in disposing of the army.
+
+But it was too late. Even Lee himself could not ward off the inevitable.
+On the morning of Sunday, April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis sat in his pew
+at church in the city of Richmond, when an officer handed him a
+telegram. It was from Lee, and read, "Richmond must be evacuated this
+evening," Lee had fought and lost the battle of Petersburg, and was in
+full retreat. Davis left the church quietly, called his cabinet
+together, packed up the government archives, and boarded a train for the
+South. For over a month, he moved from place to place endeavoring to
+escape capture, his party melting away until it comprised only his
+family and a few servants; and finally, on May 9th, he was surprised and
+taken by a company of Union cavalry near Irwinsville, in southern
+Georgia. Davis was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe for two years--a
+thoroughly senseless procedure which only served to keep open a painful
+wound--and on Christmas Day, 1868, was pardoned by President Johnson.
+
+Davis's imprisonment had added immensely to his prestige. The South
+forgot his blunders and short-comings, seeing in him only the martyr who
+had suffered for his people, and welcomed him with a kind of hysterical
+adoration, which lasted until his death. The last years of his life were
+passed quietly on his estate in Mississippi.
+
+When Davis was chosen President of the Confederacy, Alexander H.
+Stephens was chosen Vice-President. Stephens had also had a picturesque
+career. Left an orphan, without means, at the age of fifteen he had
+nevertheless secured an education, and, in 1834, after two months'
+study, was admitted to the Georgia bar. He at once began to win a more
+than local reputation, for he was a man of unusual ability, and in 1836,
+he was elected to the Legislature, though an avowed opponent of
+nullification.
+
+Seven years later, he was sent to Congress, and continued to oppose the
+secession movement; but he saw whither things were trending, and in 1859
+he resigned from Congress, remarking that he knew there was going to be
+a smash-up and thought he would better get off while there was time. In
+1860 he made a great Union speech; and it is a remarkable proof of the
+hold he had upon the people of the South, that, in spite of this, and of
+his well-known convictions, he was chosen Vice-President of the
+Confederacy a year later. He accepted, but within a year he had
+quarrelled with Jefferson Davis on the question of state rights, and in
+1864, organized the Georgia Peace party. From that time on to the close
+of the war, he labored to bring about a treaty of peace, but in vain.
+
+He was imprisoned for a few months after the downfall of the
+Confederacy, but was soon released and was prominent in the political
+life of Georgia for fifteen years thereafter, being governor of the
+state at the time of his death in 1883. A more contradictory, obstinate,
+prickly-conscienced man never appeared in American politics.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So passed the era of the Civil War. Have we had any great statesmen
+since? Some near-great ones, perhaps, but none of the very first rank.
+Great men are moulded by great events, or, at least, require great
+events to prove their greatness. Let us pause a moment, however, to pay
+tribute to one of the most accomplished party leaders in American
+history--a man almost to rank with Henry Clay--James G. Blaine.
+
+As a young editor from Maine, he had entered Congress in 1863. There he
+had encountered another fiery youngster in Roscoe Conkling, and an
+intense rivalry sprang up between them. They were very different in
+temperament, Blaine being the more popular, Conkling the more brilliant.
+Blaine had a genius for making friends and keeping them; Conkling's
+quick temper and hasty tongue frequently cost him his most powerful
+adherents. Three years later, this rivalry came to an open clash, in
+which each denounced the other on the floor of the House in words as
+stinging as parliamentary law permitted. Blaine's tirade was so bitter
+that Conkling became an implacable enemy and never again spoke to him.
+It was almost the story of Hamilton and Burr over again, except that the
+age of duelling had passed.
+
+That quarrel on the floor of the House was to have momentous
+consequences. Blaine became speaker of the House and the most popular
+and powerful man in his party, so that it seemed that nothing could
+stand between him and the desire for the presidency which gnawed at his
+heart, just as it had at Henry Clay's. But always in the way stood
+Conkling.
+
+In 1876, at Cincinnati, Blaine was nominated by Robert G. Ingersoll in
+one of the most eloquent addresses ever delivered on the floor of a
+national convention, and on the first ballot fell only a few votes short
+of a majority. But his enemies were at work, and on the seventh ballot,
+succeeded in stampeding the convention to Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes,
+however, was pledged to a single term, and Blaine was hailed as the
+nominee in 1880; but when the convention assembled, there was Conkling
+with a solid phalanx of over three hundred delegates for Grant. The
+result was that neither Blaine nor Grant could get a majority of the
+votes, and the nomination fell to Garfield. Finally, by tireless work,
+Blaine laid his plans so well that he secured the nomination four years
+later, only to have New York State thrown against him by Conkling and to
+go down to defeat. Conkling had his revenge, and Blaine's career was
+practically at an end, for he was an old and broken man.
+
+Let us add frankly that there were many within his own party who
+mistrusted him--who believed him insincere, if not actually dishonest,
+and refused to support him. For a fourth time, in 1892, he attempted to
+get the nomination, but his name had lost its wizardry, and he was
+defeated by Benjamin Harrison. There are few more pitiful stories in
+American politics than that of this brilliant and able man, consumed by
+the desire for a great prize which seemed always within his grasp and
+yet which always eluded him. For a quarter of a century, he chased this
+will-o'-the-wisp, only to be led by it into a bog and left to perish
+there.
+
+There are a few names on the later pages of American statesmanship which
+stand for notable achievement, more especially in the line of diplomacy,
+the two greatest of which are those of John Hay and Elihu Root. Both of
+these men, as secretary of state, did memorable work; not the sort of
+work which appeals to popular imagination, for there was nothing
+spectacular about it; but quiet and effective work in the forming of
+informal alliances and treaties with foreign nations, maintaining
+America's position as a world power, and making her the friend of all
+the world. That is the position she should occupy, since she has no
+quarrel with any one; and it is with its maintenance that the
+statesmanship of the present day is principally concerned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So we close this chapter on American Statesmen. It is a tragic
+chapter--tragic because of thwarted ambitions, and unfulfilled desires.
+Of them all, Benjamin Franklin was the only one whose life was from
+first to last happy and contented, who realized his ideals and who died
+in peace; and this, I think, because he asked nothing for himself,
+hungered for no preferment, was consumed by no ambition, sacrificed
+nothing to expediency, but accepted life with large philosophy and
+never-failing humor, realizing that in serving others he was best
+serving himself, and whose inward peace was manifest in his placid and
+smiling countenance. Upon the rocks of ambition the greatest of those
+who followed him dashed themselves to pieces.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. Born at Boston, January 17, 1706; established the
+_Pennsylvania Gazette_, 1729; founded Philadelphia library, 1731; began
+publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac," 1732; postmaster of
+Philadelphia, 1737; founded American Philosophical Society and
+University of Pennsylvania, 1743; demonstrated by means of a kite that
+lightning is a discharge of electricity, 1752; deputy postmaster-general
+for British colonies in America, 1753-74; colonial agent for
+Pennsylvania in England, 1757-75; elected to second Continental
+Congress, 1775; ambassador to France, 1776-85; negotiated treaty with
+France, February 6, 1778; concluded treaty of peace with England, in
+conjunction with Jay and Adams, September 3, 1783; returned to America,
+1785; President of Pennsylvania, 1785-88; delegate to Constitutional
+Convention, 1787; died at Philadelphia, April 17, 1790.
+
+ADAMS, SAMUEL. Born at Boston, September 27, 1722; delegate to first and
+second Continental Congress, 1775-76; lieutenant-governor of
+Massachusetts, 1789-94; governor of Massachusetts, 1794-97; died at
+Boston, October 2, 1803.
+
+HANCOCK, JOHN. Born at Quincy, Massachusetts, January 12, 1837;
+President of the Provincial Congress, 1774-75; President of Continental
+Congress, 1775-77; governor of Massachusetts, 1780-85 and 1787-93; died
+at Quincy, October 8, 1793.
+
+HENRY, PATRICK. Born at Studley, Hanover County, Virginia, May 20, 1736;
+admitted to the bar, 1760; entered Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765;
+member of Continental Congress, 1774; of Virginia Convention, 1775;
+governor of Virginia, 1776-79 and 1784-86; died at Red Hill, Charlotte
+County, Virginia, June 6, 1799.
+
+HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. Born in the island of Nevis, West Indies, January
+11, 1757; settled in New York, 1772; entered Continental service as
+captain of artillery, 1776; on Washington's staff, 1777-81; member of
+Continental Congress, 1782-83; of the Constitutional Convention, 1787;
+secretary of the treasury, 1789-95; appointed commander-in-chief of the
+army, 1799; mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr, July 11, 1804,
+and died the following day.
+
+BURR, AARON. Born at Newark, New Jersey, February 6, 1756; served with
+distinction in the Canada expedition in 1775 and at Monmouth in 1778;
+began practice of law in New York, 1783; United States senator, 1791-97;
+Vice-President, 1801-05; killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, July 11,
+1804; in 1805, conceived plan of conquering Texas and perhaps Mexico and
+establishing a great empire in the South-west; arrested in Mississippi
+Territory, January 14, 1807; indicted for treason at Richmond,
+Virginia, May 22, and acquitted, September 1, 1807; died at Port
+Richmond, Staten Island, September 14, 1836.
+
+MARSHALL, JOHN. Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, September 24, 1755;
+served in the Revolution; United States envoy to France, 1797-98; member
+of Congress, 1799-1800; secretary of state, 1800-01; chief justice of
+the United States Supreme Court, 1801-35; died at Philadelphia, July 6,
+1835.
+
+CLAY, HENRY. Born in Hanover County, near Richmond, Virginia, April 12,
+1777; United States senator from Kentucky, 1806-07 and 1809-11; member
+of Congress, 1811-21 and 1823-25; peace commissioner at Ghent, 1814;
+candidate for President, 1824; secretary of state, 1825-29; senator,
+1832-42 and 1849-52; Whig candidate for President, 1832 and 1844; chief
+designer of the "Missouri Compromise" of 1820, of the compromise of
+1850, and of the compromise tariff of 1832-33; died at Washington, June
+29, 1852.
+
+WEBSTER, DANIEL. Born at Salisbury, now Franklin, New Hampshire, January
+18, 1782; graduated at Dartmouth College, 1801; admitted to the bar at
+Boston, 1805; Federalist member of Congress from New Hampshire, 1813-17;
+removed to Boston, 1816; member of Congress from Massachusetts, 1823-27;
+Whig United States senator, 1827-41; received several electoral votes
+for President, 1836, and unsuccessful candidate for Whig nomination
+until death; secretary of state, 1841-43; senator, 1845-50; secretary of
+state, 1850-52; died at Marshfield, Massachusetts, October 24, 1852.
+
+CALHOUN, JOHN CALDWELL. Born in Abbeville District, South Carolina,
+March 18, 1782; graduated at Yale, 1804; admitted to the bar, 1807;
+member of the South Carolina general assembly, 1808-09; member of
+Congress, 1811-17; secretary of war in Monroe's cabinet, 1817-24;
+Vice-President, 1825-32; United States senator, 1832-43; secretary of
+state under Tyler, 1844-45; re-elected to the Senate of which he
+remained a member until his death, at Washington, March 31, 1850.
+
+BENTON, THOMAS HART. Born at Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14,
+1782; United States senator from Missouri, 1821-51; member of Congress,
+1853-55; died at Washington, April 10, 1858.
+
+CASS, LEWIS. Born at Exeter, New Hampshire, October 9, 1782; served in
+the second war with England; governor of Michigan Territory, 1813-31;
+secretary of war, 1831-36; minister to France, 1836-42; United States
+senator, 1845-48; Democratic candidate for President, 1848; senator,
+1849-57; secretary of state, 1857-60; died at Detroit, Michigan, June
+17, 1866.
+
+DOUGLAS, STEPHEN ARNOLD. Born at Brandon, Vermont, April 23, 1813; judge
+of the Supreme Court of Illinois, 1841; member of Congress, 1843-47;
+United States senator, 1847-61; Democratic candidate for President,
+1860; died at Chicago, June 3, 1861.
+
+EVERETT, EDWARD. Born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, April 11, 1794;
+professor of Greek at Harvard, 1819-25; editor the _North American
+Review_, 1819-24; member of Congress, 1825-35; governor of
+Massachusetts, 1836-40; minister to England, 1841-45; president of
+Harvard College, 1846-49; secretary of state, 1852-53; senator, 1853-54;
+candidate of Constitutional Union party for Vice-President, 1860; died
+at Boston, January 15, 1865.
+
+STEVENS, THADDEUS. Born in Caledonia County, Vermont, April 4, 1792;
+graduated at Dartmouth College, 1814; removed to Gettysburg,
+Pennsylvania, and admitted to the bar, 1816; Whig member of Congress,
+1849-53; Republican member of Congress, 1859-68; proposed impeachment of
+President Johnson, 1868; died at Washington, April 11, 1868.
+
+SUMNER, CHARLES. Born at Boston, January 6, 1811; graduated at Harvard,
+1830; admitted to the bar, 1834; United States senator, 1851-74;
+assaulted in Senate chamber by Preston Brooks, May 22, 1856; chairman of
+committee on foreign affairs, 1861-71; died at Washington, March 11,
+1874.
+
+SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY. Born at Florida, Orange County, New York, May 16,
+1801; graduated at Union College, 1820; admitted to the bar, 1822;
+member State Senate, 1830-34; Whig governor of New York, 1838-43; United
+States senator, 1849-61; candidate for Republican nomination for
+President, 1860; secretary of state, 1861-69; died at Auburn, New York,
+October 10, 1872.
+
+CHASE, SALMON PORTLAND. Born at Cornish, New Hampshire, January 13,
+1808; United States senator from Ohio, 1849-55; governor of Ohio,
+1856-60; secretary of the treasury, 1861-64; chief justice of the
+Supreme Court, 1864-73; died at New York City, May 7, 1873.
+
+SHERMAN, JOHN. Born at Lancaster, Ohio, May 10, 1823; admitted to the
+bar, 1844; Republican member of Congress from Ohio, 1855-61; senator,
+1861-77; secretary of the treasury, 1877-81; senator, 1881-97;
+secretary of state, 1897-98; candidate for presidential nomination in
+1884 and 1888; died at Washington, October 22, 1900.
+
+DAVIS, JEFFERSON. Born in Christian County, Kentucky, June 3, 1808;
+graduated at West Point, 1828; Democratic member of Congress from
+Mississippi, 1845-46; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; United States
+senator, 1847-51; secretary of war, 1853-57; senator, 1857-61; resigned
+his seat, January 21, 1861; inaugurated President of the Confederacy,
+February 22, 1862; arrested near Irwinsville, Georgia, May 10, 1865;
+imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 1865-67; amnestied, 1868; died
+at New Orleans, December 6, 1889.
+
+STEPHENS, ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Born near Crawfordville, Georgia, February
+11, 1812; graduated at University of Georgia, 1832; member of State
+legislature, 1836; member of Congress, 1843-59; Vice-President of the
+Confederacy, 1861-65; imprisoned in Fort Warren, Boston harbor,
+May-October, 1865; member of Congress, 1873-82; governor of Georgia,
+1883; died at Atlanta, Georgia, March 4, 1883.
+
+BLAINE, JAMES GILLESPIE. Born at West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, January
+31, 1830; member of Congress from Maine, 1862-76; senator, 1876-81;
+secretary of state, 1881 and 1889-92; unsuccessful candidate of
+Republican party for President, 1884; died at Washington, January 27,
+1893.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PIONEERS
+
+
+The settlers in America did not find an unoccupied country of which they
+were free to take possession, but a land in which dwelt a savage and
+warlike people, who had been named Indians, because the first voyagers
+supposed that it was the Indies they had discovered. The name has clung,
+in spite of the attempts of scientists to fasten upon them the name
+Amerinds, to distinguish them from the inhabitants of India. Indians
+they will probably always remain, a standing evidence of the confusion
+of thought of the early voyagers.
+
+That the Indians owned the country there can be no question; but
+civilization has never stopped to consider the claims of savage peoples,
+and it did not in this case. Might made right; besides, the Indians,
+consisting of scattered, semi-nomadic tribes, seemed to have no use for
+the great territory they occupied. Indeed, they themselves, at first,
+welcomed the white-skinned newcomers; but they soon grew jealous of
+encroachments which never ceased, and at last fought step by step for
+their country. They were driven back, defeated, exterminated. But in the
+early years, no settlement was safe, and every man was, in a sense, a
+pioneer.
+
+The French, in their eagerness for empire, allied themselves with the
+Indians, supplied them with arms, and offered a bounty for scalps; and
+for nearly three quarters of a century, a bitter and bloody contest was
+waged, which ended only with the expulsion of the French from the
+continent. Deprived of their ally, the Indians retreated beyond the
+mountains, where their war parties gathered to drive back the white
+invader. Those years on the frontier developed a race of men accustomed
+to danger and ready for any chance; and towering head and shoulders
+above them all stands the mighty figure of Daniel Boone, the most famous
+of American pioneers. About him cluster legends and tales innumerable,
+some true, many false; but one thing is certain; for boldness, cunning
+and knowledge of woodcraft and Indian warfare he had no equal.
+
+Born in Pennsylvania, but moving at an early age to the little frontier
+settlement of Holman's Ford, in North Carolina, the boy had barely
+enough schooling to enable him to read and write. His real books were
+the woods, and he studied them until they held no secrets from him. He
+was a born hunter, a lover of the wild life of the forest, impatient of
+civilization, and truly at home only in the wilderness. The cry of the
+panther, the war-whoop of the Indian, were music to him; that was his
+nature--to love adventure, to court danger, to welcome the thrill of the
+pulse which peril brings. Understand him: he was not the man to incur
+foolish risks; but he incurred necessary ones without a second thought.
+He was near death no doubt a hundred times, yet lived to die in his
+bed. But he was at his best, he really lived, only when the wilderness
+held him and when his life depended upon his care and watchfulness.
+
+[Illustration: Boone]
+
+In 1755, Boone married and built a log cabin far up the Yadkin, where he
+had no neighbors; but as the years passed, other families settled near;
+the smoke of other cabins rose above the woods; his fields were bounded
+by rude fences; he could scarcely stir out without encountering some
+neighbor. It was too crowded for Daniel Boone; he felt the same
+sensation that your nature lover feels to-day in the midst of a teeming
+city--a sense of suffocation and disgust--and he finally determined to
+move still further westward, and to cross the mountains into Kentucky,
+concerning whose richness many stories had reached his ears. He
+persuaded six men to accompany him, and on the first day of May, 1769,
+set forth on the perilous journey which was to mark the beginning of his
+life-work.
+
+Up to that time, the Alleghany Mountains had marked a boundary beyond
+which white settlers dared not go, for to the west lay great reaches of
+forest, uninhabited except for wild beasts and still wilder bands of
+roving Indians. Into this forest, Boone and his companions plunged, and
+after some weeks of wandering, emerged into the beautiful and fertile
+country of Kentucky--a country not owned by any Indian tribe, but
+visited only by wandering war- and hunting-parties from the nations
+living north of the Ohio or south of the Tennessee. The party found
+game in abundance, especially great droves of buffalo, and spent some
+months in hunting and exploring. A roving war-party stumbled upon one of
+Boone's companions, and forthwith killed him; a second soon met the same
+fate, and Boone himself had more than one narrow escape. The danger grew
+so great, that the other members of the party returned over the
+mountains, and Boone was, for a time, left alone, as he himself put it,
+"without company of any fellow-creature, or even a horse or dog."
+
+His brother joined him after a time, and the two spent the winter
+together. Game furnished abundant food, and the only danger was from the
+Indians, but that was an ever-present one. Sometimes they slept in
+hollow trees, at other times, they changed their resting-place every
+night, and after making a fire, would go off for a mile or two in the
+woods to sleep. Unceasing vigilance was the price of safety. When spring
+came, Boone's brother returned over the mountains, and again he was left
+alone. Three months later the brother came back, bringing a party of
+hunters, but no one was inclined to settle in so dangerous a locality,
+the struggle to possess which was so fierce that it became known as "the
+dark and bloody ground."
+
+In 1773, Boone himself started to lead a band of settlers over the
+mountains, but while passing through the frowning defiles of the
+Cumberland Gap, they were attacked by Indians and driven back, two of
+Boone's sons being among the slain. Hunting parties crossed the
+mountains from time to time after that, and made great inroads on the
+vast herds of game, but the Indians were in arms everywhere, and not
+until they had been defeated at the battle of Point Pleasant, the
+bloodiest in the history of Virginia with its Indian foe, did they sue
+for peace.
+
+The coming of peace marked a new era in the development of the western
+country. Some years before, a company of men headed by Richard
+Henderson, had conceived the grandiose project of founding in the west a
+great colony, and had purchased from the Cherokee Indians a vast tract
+of land, which they named Transylvania. It included all the land between
+the Cumberland and Kentucky rivers, and Daniel Boone was selected to
+blaze a way into the wilderness, to mark out a road, and start the first
+settlement. He got a party together, crossed the mountains, and on April
+1, 1775, began to build a fort on the left bank of the Kentucky river,
+calling it Fort Boone, afterwards Boonesborough. Some settlers moved in,
+but the outbreak of the Revolution and the consequent renewal of Indian
+hostilities under encouragement from the British put a stop to
+immigration.
+
+The fort, alone and unprotected in the wilderness, was soon attacked by
+a great war-party, but managed to beat off the assailants. Shortly
+afterwards, while leading an expedition to the Blue Licks, on the
+Licking river, to secure a supply of salt, Boone became separated from
+his men, and was surprised and captured by an Indian war-party. The joy
+of the savages at this capture may be imagined, for they had in their
+hands their most intrepid foe. After being exhibited to the British at
+Detroit, he was brought back to the Indian settlements north of the
+Ohio, and formally adopted into an Indian family, for the savages
+desired, if possible, to make this mighty hunter and warrior one of
+themselves. And Boone might have really adopted Indian life, which
+appealed to him in many ways, but one day he found that preparations
+were on foot for another great expedition against Boonesborough.
+Watching his opportunity, he managed to escape, and reached the fort in
+time to warn it of the impending attack. He covered the distance, 160
+miles, in four days, eating but a single meal upon the road--a turkey
+which he managed to shoot.
+
+He came to Boonesborough like one risen from the dead. The fort was at
+once put into a state of defense, and endured the most savage assault
+ever directed against it, the Indians numbering nearly five hundred,
+while the garrison mustered but sixty-five. The siege lasted for nine
+days, when the Indians, despairing of overcoming a resistance so
+desperate, retired.
+
+The succeeding years were full of adventure and hair-breadth escapes,
+which cannot even be mentioned here. On one occasion, Boone and his
+brother, Squire, were surprised by Indians; the latter was killed and
+scalped and Boone escaped with the greatest difficulty. At the battle of
+Blue Licks, two years later, two sons fought at his side, one of whom
+was killed and the other severely wounded. But Boone seemed to bear a
+charmed life. His years in the wilderness had developed in him an
+almost supernatural keenness of sight and hearing; and constant peril
+from the Indians had made him very careful. Whenever he went into the
+woods after game or Indians, he had perpetually to keep watch to make
+sure that he was not being hunted in turn. Every turkey-call might mean
+a lurking savage, every cracking twig might mean an approaching foe.
+
+On one occasion, his daughter and two other girls were carried off by
+Indians, and Boone, raising a small company, followed the trail of the
+fugitives without resting for two days and a night; then came to where
+the Indians had killed a buffalo calf and were camped around it, never
+dreaming of danger. So Boone and his men crept up on them, shot down the
+Indians and rescued the girls. On still another occasion, he was pursued
+by Indians, who used a tracking dog to follow his trail. Boone turned,
+shot the dog, and then made good his escape. Such incidents might be
+related by the dozen. No wonder Boone was considered one of the most
+valuable men on the frontier, and was a very tower of strength in
+defending it against the Indians.
+
+The end, however, was sad enough. When Kentucky was admitted to the
+Union, Boone's titles to the land he had laid out for himself were
+declared to be defective; it was all taken from him, and he moved first
+to Ohio, and then to Missouri, where he spent his last years. He was
+hale and hearty almost to the end, leading a hunting-party to the mouth
+of the Kansas when he was eighty-two years old, and completely tiring
+out its younger members. Nearly at the end of his life, Congress
+recognized his services to his country by granting him eight hundred and
+fifty acres of land in Missouri, and on this grant, the last years of
+his life were spent. Chester Harding visited him just before the end and
+painted a portrait of him which remains the best delineation of the
+redoubtable old pioneer, whose striking face tells of the resolute will,
+and unshrinking courage which made the settlement of Kentucky possible.
+
+Scarcely less prominent than Boone on the Kentucky frontier, and with a
+career in many ways even more adventurous, was Simon Kenton. Born in
+Virginia in 1755, he had grown to young manhood, rough and uncultivated,
+and with little evidence of having been raised in a civilized community.
+At the age of sixteen, he had a desperate affray with a neighbor named
+William Veach, during which he caught Veach around the body, whirled him
+into the air, and dashed him to the ground with such violence, that he
+thought he had broken his neck. Not daring to return home or to linger
+in the neighborhood, for fear his crime would be discovered and he
+himself arrested and hanged, he plunged into the wilderness and made his
+way westward over the mountains, changing his name to Simon Butler.
+
+The two or three years following were spent by him in roaming along the
+Ohio valley, sometimes alone, sometimes with two or three companions,
+and always surrounded by danger. On one occasion, his camp was surprised
+by Indians, and he and his companion were forced to flee for their
+lives without weapons of any kind, and with no clothing but their
+shirts. For six days and nights, they wandered without fire or food,
+suffering from the cold, for it was the dead of winter, and so torn and
+lacerated that on the last two days they covered only six miles, most of
+it on hands and knees. Staggering and crawling forward, they came out at
+last upon the Ohio river, and by good fortune fell in with a
+hunting-party and were saved.
+
+Kenton's life was full of just such incidents. Daniel Boone found in him
+a most valuable ally, incapable of fear and with a knowledge of
+woodcraft surpassed only by Boone himself. Kenton was inside Boone's
+fort whenever it was in danger, and on one occasion saved Boone's life.
+Let us tell the story, for it is typical of the border warfare in which
+both Boone and Kenton were so expert.
+
+One morning, having loaded their guns for a hunt, Kenton and two
+companions were standing in the gate of Fort Boone, when two men, who
+were driving in some horses from a near-by field, were fired upon by
+Indians. They fled toward the fort, the Indians after them, and one of
+them was overtaken and killed and was being scalped, when Kenton and his
+companions ran up, killed one of the Indians and pursued the others to
+the edge of the clearing. Boone, meanwhile, had heard the firing, and
+came hurrying out with reinforcements, only, a moment later, to be cut
+off from the fort by a strong body of savages. There was nothing to do
+but to cut their way back through them, and in the charge, Boone
+received a ball through the leg, breaking the bone. As he fell, the
+Indian leader raised his tomahawk to kill him, but Kenton, seeing his
+comrade's peril, shot the Indian through the heart, and succeeded in
+dragging Boone inside the fort.
+
+During the Dunmore war, Kenton ranged the Indian country as a spy,
+carrying his life in his hand, and accompanied George Rogers Clark on
+his famous Illinois campaign. A short time later, with one or two
+others, he started on an expedition to run off some horses from the
+Miami villages, and had nearly succeeded, when he was captured. The
+Indians hated him more bitterly than they hated Boone himself, and they
+prepared to enjoy themselves at his expense. They bound him to a wild
+horse and chased the horse through the forest until their captive's face
+was torn and bleeding from the lashing of the branches; they staked him
+down at night so that he could not move hand or foot, and when they
+reached their town, the whole population turned out to make him run the
+gauntlet. The Indians formed in a double line, about six feet apart,
+each armed with a heavy club, and Kenton was forced to run between them.
+He had not gone far when he saw ahead of him an Indian with drawn knife,
+prepared to plunge it into him as he passed. By a mighty effort, he
+broke through the line, but was soon recaptured, lashed with whips,
+pelted with stones, branded with red-hot irons, and condemned to be
+burnt at the stake.
+
+But before killing him, the Indians concluded to lend him to other towns
+to have some sport with, so he was taken from town to town, compelled to
+run the gauntlet at each one, and subjected to a variegated list of
+tortures. Three or four times, he was tied to a stake for the final
+execution, but each time the Indians decided to wait a while longer.
+Finally, an Englishman got the Indians to consent to send Kenton for a
+visit to Detroit, and he spent the winter there. Then, with two other
+captives, and with the help of a kind-hearted Irish woman, he managed to
+escape, and made his way back to Kentucky--over four hundred miles
+through the Indian country, narrowly escaping death a hundred times--in
+thirty-three days.
+
+There he learned that he need not have fled from Pennsylvania, that the
+man with whom he had fought years before was not dead, but had
+recovered. For the first time since his appearance in the west, he
+assumed his real name, and was known thereafter as Simon Kenton. Soon
+afterwards he returned to his old home, and brought the whole family
+back with him to Kentucky. One would have thought he had had enough of
+fighting, but he was with Wayne at the Fallen timbers and with William
+Henry Harrison at the battle of the Thames. Sadly enough, the last years
+of this old hero were passed in want. His land in Kentucky was taken
+from him by speculators because he had failed to have it properly
+registered, and he was imprisoned for debt on the spot where he had
+reared the first cabin in northern Kentucky.
+
+In the spring of 1824, an old, tattered, weather-beaten figure appeared
+on the streets of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky. So strange and
+wild it was that a gang of street boys gathered and ran hooting after
+it. Men laughed--till suddenly, one of them, looking again, recognized
+Simon Kenton. In a moment a guard of honor was formed, and the tattered
+figure was conducted to the Capitol, placed in the speaker's chair, and
+for the first and only time in his life, Simon Kenton received some
+portion of the respect and homage to which his deeds entitled him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Boone and Kenton, with a handful of hardy and fearless pioneers, laid
+the foundations of Kentucky; but in the history of the "Old Northwest,"
+the country north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, one name
+stands out transcendent; the name of a man as daring, as brave, as
+resourceful as any on the border--George Rogers Clark. He was greater
+than Boone or Kenton in that he had a wider vision; they saw only the
+duties of the present; he saw the possibilities of the future, and his
+exploits form one of the most thrilling chapters of American history.
+
+Clark, a Virginian by birth, started out in life as a surveyor, and
+early in 1775, removed to Kentucky to follow his profession. There was,
+no doubt, plenty of surveying to be done there, since the whole country
+was an uncharted wilderness, but the beginning of the Revolution was
+accompanied by an immediate outbreak of Indian hostilities, so serious
+that the very existence of the Kentucky settlements was threatened.
+Soon all but two of them, Boonesborough and Harrodsburg, had to be
+abandoned. Boone was, of course, in command at his fort, and Clark, who
+had seen some service in Dunmore's war, became the natural leader at
+Harrod's. His influence rapidly increased, and he was chosen as a
+delegate to journey to Williamsburg and urge upon Virginia the needs of
+the western colony, which lay within her chartered limits.
+
+Clark set off without delay on the long and dangerous journey, reached
+Williamsburg, gained an audience of Patrick Henry, the governor of
+Virginia, and painted the needs of Kentucky in such colors that he soon
+gained the sympathy of the impulsive and warm-hearted governor, and
+together they secured from the Assembly a large gift of lead and powder
+for the protection of the frontier. More than that, they succeeded in
+making Virginia acknowledge her responsibility for the new colony by
+constituting it the county of Kentucky. This, it may be added, put an
+end forever to Henderson's dream of the independent colony of
+Transylvania.
+
+Clark got his powder and ball safe to Harrodsburg just in time to repel
+a desperate Indian assault; but it was evident that there would be no
+safety for the Kentucky settlements so long as England controlled the
+country north of the Ohio. All that region formed a part of what was
+known as the Province of Quebec. Here and there dotted through it were
+quaint little towns of French Creoles, the most important being
+Detroit, Vincennes on the Wabash, and Kaskaskia and Kahokia on the
+Illinois. These French villages were ruled by British officers
+commanding small bodies of regular soldiers, and keeping the Indians in
+a constant state of war against their Kentucky neighbors, furnishing
+them with arms and ammunition, and rewarding them for every expedition
+they undertook against the Americans. They had no idea that any band of
+Americans which could be mustered west of the mountains would dare to
+attack them, and so were careless in their guard, and maintained only
+small garrisons at the various forts.
+
+All this Clark found out by means of spies which he sent through the
+country, and finally, having his plan matured, he went again to Virginia
+in December, 1777, and laid before Governor Henry his whole idea,
+explaining in detail why he thought it could be carried out
+successfully. Henry was at once enthused with it, so daring and full of
+promise he thought it, and he enlisted the aid of Thomas Jefferson. The
+result was that when Clark set out on his return journey, it was with
+orders not only to defend Kentucky, but to attack Kaskaskia and the
+other British posts, and he carried with him L1,200 in paper money, and
+an order on the commander of Fort Pitt for such boats and ammunition as
+he might need.
+
+With great difficulty, Clark got together a force of about a hundred and
+fifty men, one of whom was Simon Kenton. He could not get many
+volunteers from Kentucky because the settlers there thought they had
+all they could do to defend their own forts without going out to attack
+the enemy's and only a few men could be spared. In May, 1778, this
+little force started down the Ohio in flat boats, and landing just
+before they reached the Mississippi, marched northward against
+Kaskaskia, where the British commander of the entire district had his
+headquarters. Clark knew that his force was outnumbered by the garrison
+and that it would be necessary to surprise the town. After a six days'
+march across country, he came to the outskirts of the village on the
+evening of July 4th, and found a great dance in progress in the fort.
+Waiting until the revelry was at its height, Clark advanced silently,
+surprised the sentries, and surrounded the fort without causing any
+alarm. Then with his men posted, Clark walked forward through the open
+door, and leaning against the wall, watched the dancers, as they whirled
+around by the light of the flaring torches.
+
+Suddenly an Indian, after looking at him for a moment, raised the
+war-whoop; the dancing ceased, but Clark, shouting at the top of his
+voice to still the confusion, bade the dancers continue, asking them
+only to remember that thereafter they were dancing under the flag of the
+United States, instead of that of Great Britain. A few moments later,
+the commandant was captured in his bed, and the investment was complete.
+The other settlements in the neighborhood surrendered at once, so that
+the Illinois country was captured without the firing of a gun.
+
+But when the news reached the British governor, Hamilton, at Detroit, he
+at once prepared to recapture the country. He had a much larger force at
+his command than Clark could possibly muster, and in the fall of the
+year he advanced against Vincennes at the head of over five hundred men.
+The little American garrison was unable to oppose such a force and was
+compelled to surrender. Instead of pushing on against Clark at
+Kaskaskia, Hamilton disbanded his Indians and sent some of his troops
+back to Detroit, and prepared to spend the winter at Vincennes. He
+repaired the fort, strengthened the defenses, and then sat down for the
+winter, confident that when spring came, he would again be master of the
+whole Illinois country.
+
+Clark, at Kaskaskia, realized that it was a question of his taking the
+British or the British taking him, and that, if he waited for spring, he
+would have no chance at all; so he gathered together the pick of his
+men, one hundred and seventy all told, and early in February, 1779, set
+out for Vincennes. The task before him was to capture a force nearly
+equal to his own, protected by a strong fort well supplied for a siege.
+
+At first the journey was easy enough, for they passed across the snowy
+Illinois prairies, broken occasionally by great stretches of woodland,
+but when they reached the drowned lands of the Wabash, the march became
+almost incredibly difficult. The ice had just broken up and everything
+was flooded; heavy rains set in, and when the men were not wading
+through icy water, they were struggling through mud nearly knee-deep.
+After twelve days of this, they came to the bank of the Embarass river,
+only to find the country all under water, save one little hillock, where
+they spent the night without food or fire. For four days they waited
+there for the flood to retire, with practically nothing to eat; but the
+rain continued and the flood increased, and Clark, finally, in
+desperation, plunged into the water and called to his men to follow. All
+day they waded, and toward evening reached a small patch of dry ground,
+where they spent a miserable night. At sunrise Clark started on again,
+through icy water waist-deep, this time with the stern command to shoot
+the first laggard. Some of the men failed and sank beneath the waves, to
+be rescued by the stronger ones, and by the middle of the afternoon they
+had all got safe to land. By good fortune, they captured some Indian
+squaws with a canoe-load of food, and had their first meal in two days.
+Soon afterwards the sun came out, and they saw before them the walls of
+the fort they had come to capture.
+
+The British had no suspicion of their danger, and they thought the first
+patter of bullets against the palisades the usual friendly salute from
+an Indian hunting party. But they were soon undeceived, and answered the
+rifles with ineffective fire from their two small cannon. All night the
+fight continued, and at dawn an Indian war-party, which had been
+ravaging the Kentucky settlements, entered the town, ignorant that the
+Americans had captured it. Marching up to the fort, they suddenly found
+themselves surrounded and seized. In their belts they carried the scalps
+of the settlers--men, women and children--they had slain, and,
+infuriated at the sight, the Americans tomahawked the savages, one after
+another, before the eyes of the British.
+
+Then Clark sent to the fort a peremptory summons to surrender, adding,
+that "his men were eager to avenge the murder of their relatives and
+friends and would welcome an excuse to storm the fort." To the British,
+it seemed a choice between surrender and massacre. They had seen the
+bloody vengeance wreaked upon their Indian allies, and they had every
+reason to believe that they would be dealt with in the same manner,
+since it was they who had set the Indians on. Clark was himself, of
+course, in desperate straits, without means for carrying on a successful
+siege, but the British were far from suspecting this, and at ten o'clock
+on the morning of February 25, 1779, marched out and stacked arms, while
+Clark fired a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the colonies, from
+whose possession the Northwest was never again to pass.
+
+For eight years longer, Clark devoted his life to protecting the border
+from British and Indian invasion. The war over, he returned to Kentucky,
+and took up his abode in a little log cabin on the Ohio near Louisville.
+He was without means, and a horrible accident marred his last years,
+for, while alone in his cabin, he was stricken with paralysis, and fell
+with one of his legs in the old-fashioned fire-place. There was no one
+to draw him out of danger, and before the pain brought him partially to
+his senses, his leg was so badly burned that it had to be amputated.
+There were no anaesthetics in those days, but while the leg was being
+removed, a fife and drum corps played its hardest at the bedside, and
+the doughty old warrior kept time to the music with his fingers.
+
+He lived for ten years thereafter, though his paralysis never left him.
+He felt keenly the ingratitude of the Republic which he had served so
+well, and which yet, in his old age, abandoned him to want, and the
+story is told that, when the state of Virginia sent him a sword of
+honor, he thrust it into the ground and broke it with his crutch.
+
+"I gave Virginia a sword when she needed one," he said; "but now, when I
+need bread, she sends me a toy!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the settlement of the country north of the Ohio, one man, a veteran
+of the Revolution, was foremost. His name was Rufus Putnam, and he was a
+cousin of that Israel Putnam, some of whose exploits we will soon
+relate. He has been well called the "Father of Ohio," for he was the
+founder of the first permanent white settlement made within the borders
+of the state. He was born in 1738, at Sutton, Massachusetts, and his
+early life was a hard and rough one. Left an orphan while still a child,
+he was put to work as soon as he was big enough to be of any use, and
+received practically no education, although he managed to teach himself
+to read and write. He earned a few pennies by watering horses for
+travelers, and with this money purchased a spelling-book and arithmetic.
+
+He served through the French war and the Revolution, rendering
+distinguished service and retiring with the rank of brigadier-general;
+and at its close, finding that Congress would be unable for a long time
+to pay many of the soldiers for their services, he became interested in
+the suggestion that payment be made in land along the Ohio river, and
+offered to lead a band of settlers to their new homes. In March, 1786,
+in Boston, he and some others formed the Ohio Company, and one of their
+directors, Manasseh Cutler, a preacher of more than usual ability, was
+selected to lay the company's plan before Congress. The result was the
+famous ordinance of 1787, providing for the establishment and government
+of the Northwest Territory, of which Arthur St. Clair was named
+governor. Cutler also secured a large land grant for the new company,
+and in the following year, Putnam started across the mountains with the
+first band of emigrants.
+
+They reached the vicinity of Pittsburg after a weary journey, and there
+built a boat which they named the Mayflower, and in it floated down the
+river, until they reached the mouth of the Muskingum. On April 17, 1788,
+they began the erection of a blockhouse, which was to be the nucleus of
+the new settlement, and a place of defense in case of Indian attack. The
+settlement was named Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, the Queen
+of France; it prospered from the first, and in a few years was a lively
+little village. There were Indian alarms at first, but General Wayne's
+victory secured a lasting peace. Putnam served as a brigadier-general in
+Wayne's campaign, and was one of the commissioners who negotiated the
+peace treaty.
+
+He lived for many years thereafter, and remained to the last the leading
+man of the settlement. He was interested in every project for the
+betterment of the new Commonwealth, helped to found the Ohio University
+at Athens, was one of the drafters of the state constitution, and
+founded the first Bible school west of the mountains. A venerable
+figure, he died in 1824, having lived to see the valley which he had
+entered a wilderness settled by hundreds of thousands, and the state
+which he had helped to found become one of the greatest in the Union.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By the end of the eighteenth century, the country between the
+Alleghanies and the Mississippi was fairly well known, first through the
+explorations of such pioneers as Boone and Clark and Kenton, and, later
+on, through the steady advance of civilization, forever throwing new
+outposts westward. But beyond the great river stretched a mighty
+wilderness whose character and extent were only guessed at. The United
+States, of course, had little interest in it, since it belonged to
+France, and since, east of the river, there were millions of acres as
+yet unsettled; but when, in 1803, President Jefferson purchased it of
+Napoleon Bonaparte for the sum of fifteen million dollars, all that was
+changed. By that purchase, the area of the United States was more than
+doubled; but there were many people at the time who opposed the purchase
+on the ground that the country east of the river would never be
+thoroughly settled and that there would be no use whatever for the great
+territory west of it. So mistaken, sometimes, is human foresight!
+
+The President determined that this great addition to the Nation should
+be explored without delay, and, securing from Congress the necessary
+powers, he appointed his private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to
+head an expedition to the Pacific.
+
+Lewis was at that time twenty-nine years of age. He seems to have been
+of an adventurous disposition for, despite the fact that he inherited a
+fortune, he enlisted in the army as a private as soon as he was of age.
+Five years later, he had risen to the rank of captain, and, attracting
+the attention of President Jefferson, he was appointed his secretary. He
+proved to be so capable and enterprising that the President selected him
+for this dangerous and arduous task of exploration. With him was
+associated Lieutenant William Clark, a brother of that hardy adventurer,
+George Rogers Clark.
+
+William Clark, who was eighteen years younger than his famous brother,
+had joined him in Kentucky in 1784, at the age of fourteen, and soon
+became acquainted with the perils of Indian warfare. He was appointed
+ensign in the army four years later, and rose to the rank of adjutant,
+but was compelled to resign, from the service in 1796, on account of
+ill-health. He settled at the half-Spanish town of St. Louis, and in
+March, 1804, was appointed by President Jefferson a second lieutenant of
+artillery, with orders to join Captain Lewis in his journey to the
+Pacific. Clark was really the military director of the expedition, and
+his knowledge of Indian life and character had much to do with its
+success.
+
+The party consisted of twenty-eight men, and in the spring of 1804,
+started up the Missouri, following it until late in October, when they
+camped for the winter near the present site of Bismarck, North. Dakota.
+They resumed the journey early in the spring, and in May, caught their
+first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. Reaching the headwaters of the
+Columbia, at last, they floated down its current, and on the morning of
+November 7, 1806, after a journey of a year and a half, full of every
+sort of hardship and adventure, they saw ahead of them the blue expanse
+of the Pacific. They spent the winter on the coast, and reached St.
+Louis again in September, 1807, having traversed over nine thousand
+miles of unbroken wilderness where no white man had ever before set
+foot. It was largely because of this expedition that our government was
+able, forty years later, to claim and maintain a title to the state of
+Oregon.
+
+Congress rewarded the members of the expedition with grants of land,
+and Lewis was appointed governor of Missouri. But the strain of the
+expedition to the Pacific had undermined his health; he became subject
+to fits of depression, and on October 8, 1809, he put an end to his life
+in a lonely cabin near Nashville, Tennessee, where he had stopped for a
+night's lodging. Clark lived thirty years longer, serving as Indian
+agent, governor of Missouri, and superintendent of Indian affairs.
+
+While Lewis and Clark were struggling across the continent, another
+young adventurer was conducting some explorations farther to the east.
+Zebulon Pike, aged twenty-seven, a captain in the regular army, was, in
+1805, appointed to lead an expedition to the source of the Mississippi.
+He accomplished this, after a hard journey lasting nine months; and, a
+year later, leading another expedition to the southwest, discovered a
+great mountain which he named Pike's Peak, and, continuing southward,
+came out on the Rio Grande. He was in Spanish territory, and was held
+prisoner for a time, but was finally released upon representations from
+the government at Washington. He rose steadily in the service, and in
+1813, during the second war with England, led an assault upon Little
+York, now Toronto. The town was captured, but the fleeing British
+exploded a powder magazine, and General Pike was crushed and killed
+beneath the flying fragments. He died with his head on the British flag,
+which had been hauled down and brought to him.
+
+The next step to be recorded in the growth of the United States is a
+step variously regarded as infamous or glorious--but it was marked by
+one of the most heroic incidents in history, and dominated by the
+picturesque and remarkable personality of Sam Houston.
+
+The purchase of Louisiana from the French brought the United States in
+direct contact with Mexico, which claimed a great territory in the
+southwest, and, finally, in 1819, a line between the possessions of the
+two countries was agreed upon. It left Mexico in possession of the wide
+stretch of country now included in the states of California, Nevada,
+Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Most of this
+country was practically unknown to Americans, and the great stretches of
+arid land which comprised large portions of it were considered worthless
+and uninhabitable. But a good many Americans had drifted across the
+border into the fertile plains of Texas, and settled there. As time went
+on, the stream of immigration increased, until there were in the country
+enough American settlers to take a prominent part in the revolt of
+Mexico against Spain in 1824. The revolt was successful, and the country
+which had discovered the New World lost her last foothold there.
+
+The settlers in Texas, coming as they did largely from the southern
+states, were naturally slave-holders, but in 1829, Mexico abolished
+slavery, an action which greatly enraged them. It is startling to
+reflect that a country which we consider so inferior to ourselves should
+have preceded us by over thirty years in this great step forward in
+civilization. In other ways, the Mexican yoke was not a pleasant one to
+the Texans, and within a few years, the whole country was in a state of
+seething insurrection. President Jackson was eager to annex Texas, whose
+value to the Union he fully recognized, and offered Mexico five million
+dollars for the province, but the offer was refused. Such was the
+condition of affairs when, in 1833, Sam Houston appeared upon the scene.
+
+The story of the life of this extraordinary man reads like a fable. Born
+in Virginia in 1793, he was taken to Tennessee at the age of thirteen,
+and promptly began his career by running away from home and joining the
+Cherokee Indians. When his family found him, he refused to return home,
+and the next seven years were spent largely in the wilderness with his
+savage friends. The wild life was congenial to him, and he grew up rough
+and head-strong and healthy. Then the Creek war broke out, and Houston
+enlisted with Andrew Jackson. One incident of that war gives a better
+insight into Houston's character than volumes of description. At the
+battle of the Horseshoe, where the Creeks made a desperate stand, a
+barbed arrow struck Houston in the thigh and sank deep into the flesh.
+He tried to pull it out and failed.
+
+"Here," he called to a comrade, "pull out this arrow."
+
+The other took hold of the shaft of the arrow and pulled with all his
+might, but could not dislodge it.
+
+"I can't get it out," he said, at last.
+
+"Oh, yes, you can!" cried Houston, and raised his sword. "Pull it out,
+or it'll be worse for you!"
+
+The soldier saw he was in earnest, and, taking hold of the arrow again,
+gave it a mighty wrench. It came out, but the barbs of the arrow tore
+the flesh badly. Houston, however, paused only to tie up the wound
+roughly, and hurried back into the fight, though Jackson ordered him to
+the rear. Before long, two bullets struck him down, and he lay between
+life and death for many days.
+
+Such desperate valor was exactly after "Old Hickory's" heart, and from
+that time forward, Jackson was Houston's friend and patron. In 1818, he
+managed to gain admittance to the bar, and his rise was so rapid that
+within five years he had been elected to Congress, and four years later
+governor of Tennessee. Then came the strange catastrophe which nearly
+wrecked his life.
+
+Houston was, after Andrew Jackson, the most popular man in the state. He
+resembled the hero of New Orleans in many ways, being rough, rude,
+hot-headed and honest--just the sort of man to appeal to the people
+among whom his lot was cast. When, therefore, in January, 1829, while
+governor of the state, he married Miss Eliza Allen, a member of one of
+the most prominent families in it, everybody wished him well, and the
+wedding was a great affair. But scarcely was the honeymoon over, when he
+sent his bride back to her parents, resigned the governorship, and,
+refusing to give any explanation of his conduct, plunged into the
+wilderness to the west.
+
+Perhaps the most characteristic feature of frontier society is its
+chivalry toward women, and Houston's conduct brought about his head a
+perfect storm of indignation. No doubt he had many enemies who welcomed
+the opportunity to wreck his fame, and who gladly added their voices to
+the uproar. From the most popular man, he became the most hated, and it
+would have been dangerous for him to venture back within the state's
+borders. Not until after his death, did his wife give any explanation of
+his conduct. She stated that he had discovered that she loved another,
+and that he had deserted her so that she could secure a divorce on the
+ground of abandonment. That explanation, lame as it is, is the only one
+ever offered by either of the principals.
+
+Meanwhile, Houston had joined his old friends, the Cherokees, now living
+in Arkansas Territory, and asked to be admitted to the tribe. The
+Indians expressed the opinion that he should have beaten his wife
+instead of abandoning her, but nevertheless adopted him, and for three
+years he lived their life, dressing, fighting, hunting and drinking
+precisely like any Indian. The papers, meanwhile, were filled with
+surmises concerning him. No one understood why he should have exiled
+himself, and it was reported that he intended to lead the Cherokees into
+Texas, conquer the country and set up a government of his own. President
+Jackson wrote to him, protesting against "any such chimerical, visionary
+scheme," which, needless to say, Houston had never entertained. These
+rumors grew so annoying, that he issued a proclamation offering a prize
+"To the Author of the Most Elegant, Refined, and Ingenious Lie or
+Calumny" about him.
+
+The trouble culminated when Houston, having gone to Washington to plead
+for his friends, the Indians, caned a member of Congress who had
+slandered him on the floor of the House. He was arrested, and arraigned
+before the bar of the House for "breach of privilege," and was
+reprimanded by the Speaker and fined five hundred dollars--a fine which
+President Jackson promptly remitted, remarking that a few more examples
+of the same kind would teach Congressmen to keep civil tongues in their
+heads. Houston's comment on the affair was, "I was dying out once, and,
+had they taken me before a justice of the peace and fined me ten dollars
+for assault and battery, it would have killed me; but they gave me a
+national tribunal for a theatre and it set me up again."
+
+It did "set him up" in earnest. The President, who always had a warm
+place in his heart for him, helped by sending him--not, perhaps, without
+some insight into the future--to Texas, to examine into the value of
+that country, in case the United States should decide to buy it. What
+Jackson's private instructions were can only be surmised, but,
+certainly, Houston showed no hesitation or uncertainty after he reached
+the scene.
+
+On December 10, 1832, he crossed into Mexican territory, and was soon at
+the head of the Texas insurrectionists, who had determined to establish
+a government of their own, and who found in Houston a leader after their
+own hearts. Armed collisions between Texans and Mexican troops became
+of common occurrence, and the spirit of revolt spread so rapidly that
+Santa Anna, dictator of Mexico, sent an army under General Cos to pacify
+the country and drive the Americans out.
+
+It was the spark in the magazine. All Texas sprang to arms under such
+leaders as Houston, Austin, Travis, Bonham, Fannin, "Deaf" Smith, and
+"Ben" Milam; took Goliad, where Milam lost his life heading a desperate
+assault; captured Concepcion and San Antonio, until, by the middle of
+December, 1836, not a Mexican soldier was left north of the Rio Grande.
+But Houston, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Texan
+forces, knew they would return, and bent every effort to organize a
+disciplined army. It was a difficult thing to do with the high-tempered
+and lawless elements at hand; everything was disorder and confusion, and
+meanwhile came word that Santa Anna himself, at the head of an army of
+six thousand men, was entering Texas.
+
+No effective opposition could be offered such an army; the San Antonio
+garrison was entrapped in the old mission called The Alamo and killed to
+the last man; Fannin and his force, three hundred and fifty strong, were
+cornered at Goliad and brutally shot down in detachments after they had
+surrendered; and Santa Anna, certain that Texas had been conquered,
+divided his army into columns to occupy the country. Houston only was
+left, and the fate of Texas hung on his little force; he knew he could
+strike but once; if he were defeated, the war for independence would
+end then and there; so he watched and waited, gathering together the
+stragglers, keeping them in heart, laboring like a very Hercules.
+Hundreds of miles away, in Washington, old Andrew Jackson, a map of
+Texas before him, followed with his finger the retreat as far as he knew
+it, and paused with in on San Jacinto.
+
+"Here's the place," he said. "If Sam Houston's worth one bawbee, he'll
+stand here and give 'em a fight."
+
+And so it was. It makes the pulses thrill, even yet, the story of that
+twenty-first of April, 1836; how Houston destroyed the bridge behind
+them, so that there could be no retreat, and then, on his great gray
+horse, tried to address his men, but could only cry: "Remember The
+Alamo"; how old Rusk could say not even that, but choked with a sob at
+the first word, and waved his hand toward the enemy; how the solitary
+fife struck up, "Will you come to the bower I have shaded for you?"
+while those seven hundred gaunt, starved, ragged phantoms, burning with
+rage at the thought of their comrades foully slain, deployed on the open
+prairie and charged the unsuspecting Mexican army. It was over in half
+an hour--the enemy annihilated, 630 killed, 200 wounded, 700
+prisoners--among the prisoners Santa Anna himself, begging for mercy.
+And Aaron Burr, dying in New York with the vision of his Texan empire
+still before him, reading, weeks later, the news of the victory, cried
+out, "I was thirty years too soon!"
+
+There was never any question, after that, of Texan independence; Santa
+Anna, to save a life forfeited a hundred times over, was ready to agree
+to any terms. Houston was a popular hero; Texas was his child, and he
+was unanimously chosen President of the new Republic. From the first,
+Houston, recalling the wishes of his old leader, Andrew Jackson, sought
+annexation to the United States, and the debates over the question in
+Congress nearly disrupted the Union. For the North feared the effects of
+such a tremendous addition to slave territory, from which three or four
+states might be carved, and so destroy the balance of power between
+North and South. Again, Mexico, which still dreamed of reconquering
+Texas, notified the United States that annexation would be considered a
+declaration of war; but Houston pressed the question with great
+adroitness, it was evident that Texas really belonged in the Union, and
+on March 1, 1845, Congress passed the resolution of annexation, and
+Houston and Husk, the heroes of San Jacinto, were at once elected
+senators.
+
+In the brief but brilliant war with Mexico which followed, which is
+considered more in detail in connection with the life of Winfield Scott,
+and which resulted in the securing of the great Southwest for the United
+States, Houston played no part, except as a member of the Senate, where
+he remained until 1859, being defeated finally by a secessionist. For,
+true to the precepts of Jackson, he was from the first bitterly opposed
+to nullification and secession. The same year, he was elected governor
+of Texas, turning a Union minority into a triumphant majority by the
+wizardry of his personality. He could not prevent secession, however,
+but he refused to take the oath to the Confederate government required
+by the legislature and was deposed. Martial law being established, an
+officer one day demanded Houston's pass.
+
+"San Jacinto," he answered, and went on his way, nor did any dare molest
+him. But he was worn out and aging fast, and the end came toward the
+close of July, 1863.
+
+Reference has been made to the capture of the old mission at San Antonio
+known as "The Alamo," and a brief account must be given of the
+remarkable group of men who lost their lives there--David Crockett,
+James Bowie, and William Barrett Travis. Crockett was perhaps the most
+famous of the three, and his name is still more or less of a household
+word throughout the middle West, while some of his stories have passed
+into proverbs. He was the most famous rifle shot in the whole country
+and the most successful hunter. Born in Tennessee soon after the
+Revolutionary war, of an Irish father, he ran away from home after a few
+days' schooling, knocked about the country, served through the Creek war
+under Andrew Jackson, and gained so much popularity by his hunting
+stories, with which he held great audiences spellbound, that he was
+elected to the State legislature and then to Congress, though he had
+never read a newspaper. In Congress, he managed to antagonize Andrew
+Jackson, not a difficult task by any means, with the result that
+Jackson, who carried Tennessee in his vest pocket, effectively ended
+Crockett's political career. Crockett left the state in disgust, seeking
+new worlds to conquer, and hearing of the struggle in Texas, decided to
+join the revolutionists.
+
+By boat and on horseback, he made his way toward the distant plains
+where the Texans were waging their life and death struggle against the
+Mexicans. More than one hairbreadth escape did the old hunter have from
+Indians, desperadoes and wild beasts, but he finally got to the
+neighborhood of San Antonio, and fell in with another adventurer, a
+bee-hunter, also on his way to join the Texans. They soon learned that a
+great Mexican army was marching on San Antonio, and that the defenders
+of the place had gathered in the old mission called "The Alamo." There
+were only a hundred and fifty of them, while the Mexican army numbered
+four thousand; but they had made up their minds to hold the place, a
+mere shell, utterly unable to withstand artillery, or even a regular and
+well-directed assault. It was plain enough that to attempt to defend the
+place against such an overwhelming force was desperate in the extreme,
+but Crockett and his companion kept straight on, and were soon inside
+The Alamo. A few days later, Santa Anna's great army camped around it.
+
+In command of The Alamo garrison was Colonel Travis, a young man of
+twenty-five; an Alabaman, admitted to the bar there, but driven out of
+his native state by financial troubles, and casting in his lot with the
+Texas revolutionists, among whom he soon acquired considerable
+influence. The third of the trio, Colonel Bowie, was a native of
+Georgia, but had settled in Louisiana, where, nine years before, he had
+been a participant in a celebrated affray. Two gentlemen, becoming
+involved in a quarrel, decided to settle it in approved fashion by a
+duel, and, accompanied by their friends, among whom was Bowie, adjourned
+to a convenient place and took a shot at each other without doing any
+damage. They were about to declare honor satisfied and to shake hands,
+when a dispute arose among their friends, and before it was over,
+fifteen were killed and six were badly injured. Bowie distinguished
+himself by stabbing a man to death with a knife made from a large file.
+The weapon was afterwards sent to Philadelphia and there fashioned into
+the deadly knife which has ever since been known by his name. The
+prospect of trouble in Texas naturally attracted him, he was made
+colonel of militia there, and dispatched to The Alamo with a small force
+by General Houston early in 1836.
+
+Here, then, in this old and crumbling Spanish mission, toward the end of
+February, were gathered a hundred and fifty Texans, a wild and
+undisciplined band, impatient of restraint or control, but men of iron
+courage and the best shots on the border, with Travis in command; while
+without was the army of Santa Anna. On February 24th, Travis, in a
+letter asking for reinforcements, announced the siege and added that he
+would never surrender or retreat. Early in March, thirty-two men from
+Gonzales, knowing they were going to well-nigh certain death, made their
+way into the fort, raising its garrison to 180.
+
+Santa Anna demanded unconditional surrender, and Travis answered with a
+cannon-shot; whereat, on the morning of the sixth of March, the Mexican
+army stormed the fort from all sides, swarmed in through breaches and
+over the walls, which the Texans were too few to man, and a desperate
+hand-to-hand conflict followed. To and fro between the shattered walls
+the fight reeled, each tall Texan the centre of a group of foes,
+fighting with a wild and desperate courage; but the odds were too great,
+and one by one they fell, thrust through with bayonets or riddled by
+bullets. Colonel Travis fell, and so did Bowie, sick and weak from a
+wasting disease, but rising from his bed, and dying fighting with his
+great knife red with the blood of his foes. At last a single man stood
+at bay. It was Davy Crockett.
+
+Wounded in a dozen places, ringed about by the bodies of the men he had
+slain, he stood facing his foes, his back against a wall, knife in hand,
+daring them to come on. No one dared to run in upon that old lion. So
+they held him there with their lances, while, the musketeers loaded
+their carbines and shot him down. Not a man of the garrison was left
+alive, but each of them had avenged himself four times over, for the
+Mexican loss was over five hundred. So ended one of the most heroic
+events in American history. "Thermopylae had its messengers of death; The
+Alamo had none."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One more era remains to be recorded, that in which the United States
+confirmed its hold upon the Pacific coast, and here again the story is
+that of the lives of three men--Marcus Whitman, John Augustus Sutter,
+and John Charles Fremont. It was Whitman who brought home to the Nation
+the value of Oregon by a spectacular ride from ocean to ocean; it was
+Sutter who led the way for an American invasion of California, and who
+gave impetus to that invasion by the discovery of gold; and it was
+Fremont who led the revolution there against the Mexicans, and who
+secured the country's independence.
+
+The explorations of Lewis and Clark, early in the century, had made the
+country along the Columbia river known to the East in a dim way, but it
+was so distant and so inaccessible that it excited little interest. Just
+before the second war with England, John Jacob Astor had attempted to
+carry out a far-reaching plan for the development of the country and the
+securing of its great fur trade, but the outbreak of the war had stopped
+all efforts in that direction, and Astor never took them up again.
+Meanwhile through Canada, the Hudson Bay Company, a great English
+concern engaged in the fur trade, had extended its stations to the
+Pacific coast, and was quietly taking possession of the country.
+
+In 1834, the American board of missions, learning of the need for a
+missionary among the Oregon Indians, appointed Marcus Whitman to the
+work. Whitman was at that time thirty-two years of age and was just
+about to be married. His betrothed agreed to accompany him on his
+perilous mission, and, after great difficulty, he secured an associate
+in the person of Rev. H.H. Spalding, also just married. What a bridal
+trip that was! At Pittsburg, George Catlin, who knew the western Indians
+better than any living man, having spent years among them, warned them
+of the folly of attempting to take women across the plains; at
+Cincinnati, they were greeted by William Moody, only forty-five years of
+age and yet the first white man born there; at the frontier town of St.
+Louis, they joined a hunting expedition up the Missouri, and by June 6,
+1836, were at Laramie.
+
+A month later, they crossed the Great Divide by the South Pass,
+"discovered," six years later, by Fremont; and toward the end of July,
+they came to the great mountain rendezvous of traders and trappers high
+in the mountains near Fort Hall. Some of those men had not seen a white
+woman for a quarter of a century. You can imagine, then, what a
+sensation the arrival of Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding occasioned, and
+with what warmth they were welcomed. Ten days they tarried there, then
+pressed on westward, and on September 2, 1836, after a journey of
+thirty-five hundred miles, the gates of Fort Walla-Walla, on the lower
+Columbia, opened to receive them, and the conquest of Oregon began.
+
+Fort Walla-Walla belonged to the Hudson Bay Company, which had
+undisputed control of the rich Oregon fur trade, and which was
+determined to retain it at any cost. So the difficulties of the Oregon
+trail were invariably exaggerated, and immigration from the states
+systematically discouraged. Nevertheless, in the years following
+Whitman's arrival, other parties of missionaries and settlers worked
+their way into the country, until, in 1842, their number reached about a
+hundred and fifty. The Hudson Bay Company realized that neither England
+nor America had a clear title to the region, and that its population
+must, in the end, determine its nationality. Consequently it bent every
+effort to hurry English settlers into the country. In October, 1842,
+Whitman was dining with a company of Englishmen at Walla-Walla, when a
+messenger arrived with news of the approach of a large body of settlers
+from Canada. A shout arose: "Hurrah for Oregon! America is too late!
+We've got the country!" And Whitman, at a glance, saw through the plan.
+
+Twenty-four hours later, he had started to ride across the continent to
+carry the news to Washington. He had caught the import of the news, had
+grasped its consequences, and he was determined that Oregon, with its
+great forests and broad prairies, its mighty rivers, and its
+unparalleled richness, should be saved for the Union. If the Nation only
+knew the value of the prize, England would never be permitted to carry
+it off. His wife and friends protested against the desperate
+venture--four thousand miles on horseback--for it would soon be the dead
+of winter, with snow hiding the trail and filling the passes, with
+streams ice-blocked and winter-swollen, and last but not least, with the
+Blackfoot Indians on the warpath. But he would listen to none of this:
+his duty, as he conceived it, lay clear before him; he was determined to
+set out at once. Amos Lovejoy volunteered to accompany him, a busy night
+was spent in preparation, and the next day they were off.
+
+No diary of that remarkable journey was kept by Dr. Whitman, but most of
+its incidents are known. Terribly severe weather was encountered almost
+at the start, for ten days they were snowed up in the mountains, and
+long before the journey ended, were reduced to rations of dog and mule
+meat. But they struggled on, more than once losing the way and giving
+themselves up for lost, and on March 3, 1843, just five months from
+Walla-Walla, Whitman entered Washington.
+
+His spectacular ride rivetted public attention upon the far western
+country, and the information which he gave concerning it opened the
+Nation's eyes to its value. When he returned, later in the year, to the
+banks of the Columbia, he took back with him a train of two hundred
+wagons and a thousand settlers--a veritable army of occupation which the
+British could not match. Three years later, so steadily did the tide
+continue which Whitman had started, the American population had risen
+to over ten thousand, there was never any further real uncertainty as to
+whom Oregon belonged, and the treaty of 1846 settled the question for
+all time.
+
+The new territory was soon to be the scene of a terrible tragedy. The
+white man had brought new diseases into it, measles, fevers, and even,
+smallpox; they spread rapidly among the Indians, aggravated by their
+imprudence and ignorance of proper treatment, and many died. The Indians
+became convinced that the missionaries were to blame, and it is claimed,
+too, that the emissaries of the Hudson Bay Company urged them on.
+However that may have been, on the twenty-ninth of November, 1847, the
+Indians fell upon the missionaries and killed fifteen, of them, among
+the dead being Marcus Whitman and his wife. So ended the life of the man
+who saved Oregon, and of the woman who was the first of her sex to cross
+the continent.
+
+Meanwhile, far to the south, a drama scarcely less thrilling was
+enacting, its chief personage being John Augustus Sutter. Sutter was a
+Swiss and had received a military education and served in the Swiss
+Guard before coming to America in 1834. He settled first at St. Louis
+and then at Santa Fe, where he gained considerable experience as a
+trader. Finally, in 1838, he decided to cross the Rockies, and after
+trading for a time in a little schooner up and down the coast, was
+wrecked in San Francisco Bay. He made his way inland, and founded the
+first white settlement in the country on the site of what is now
+Sacramento. Here, in 1841, he built a fort, having secured a large grant
+of land from the Mexican Government, and set up what was really a little
+empire in the wilderness, over which he reigned supreme. And here, three
+years later, down from the snow-filled and tempest-swept passes of the
+Rockies, came a party of starving and frost-bitten scarecrows, the
+exploring expedition headed by John Charles Fremont, of whom we shall
+speak presently.
+
+The rest of Sutter's history is soon told. In 1848, when Mexico ceded
+California to the United States, he was the owner of a vast domain, over
+which thousands of head of cattle wandered. A few years later, he was
+practically a ruined man--ruined by gold. On the eighteenth day of
+January, 1848, one of his men named Marshall, brought to Sutter a lump
+of yellow metal which he had uncovered while digging a mill-race. There
+could be no doubt of it--it was gold! News of the great discovery soon
+got about; there was a great rush for this new Eldorado; Sutter's land
+was overrun with gold-seekers, who cared nothing for his rights, and
+when he attempted to defend his titles in the courts, they were declared
+invalid, and his land was taken from him. To crown his disasters, his
+homestead was destroyed by fire; finding himself ruined, without land
+and without money, he gave up the struggle in despair and returned east,
+passing his last years in poverty in a little town in Pennsylvania.
+
+Fremont, meantime, had done a great work for California. The son of a
+Frenchman, showing an early aptitude for mathematics, he had secured an
+appointment to the United States engineering corps, and, after various
+minor expeditions in which he had acquitted himself well, was put in
+charge of an expedition for the exploration of the Rocky Mountains. He
+was fortunate at the start in securing the services as guide and
+interpreter of that famous hunter and plainsman, Kit Carson, whose life
+had been passed on the prairies, who knew more Indians and Indian
+dialects than any other white man, and who was, to his generation, what
+Davy Crockett was to an earlier one. To Carson a great share of the
+expedition's success was no doubt due, and it was so successful that in
+the following year, Fremont was leading another over the country between
+the Rockies and the Pacific. This one was almost lost in the mountains,
+and came near perishing of cold and hunger, but, finally, in March,
+1844, managed to struggle through to Sutter's Fort.
+
+Fremont found California in a state of unrest amounting almost to
+insurrection against Mexican rule, and as the number of white settlers
+increased, this feeling grew, until Mexico, becoming alarmed, sent an
+armed force to occupy the country. The show of force was the one thing
+needed to fire the magazine; the settlers sprang to arms as one man,
+and, under Fremont's leadership, defeated the Mexicans and drove them
+southward across the border. Soon afterwards, General Kearny marched in
+from the east, from his remarkable and bloodless conquest of New Mexico,
+with a force sufficient to render it certain that California would
+never again be taken by the Mexicans.
+
+On the fourth of July, 1849, Fremont was chosen governor of the new
+territory, and in the following year, arranged the treaty by which
+California passed permanently to the United States. The new state was
+quick to reward him and sent him to the Senate, where he gained
+sufficient prominence to receive the nomination of the anti-slavery
+party for the presidency in 1856. He never had any chance of election,
+for the reform party had not yet sufficient strength, and was defeated
+by Buchanan. He served with some distinction in the Civil War, gaining
+considerable notoriety, while in charge of the Western Department in
+1861, by issuing a proclamation freeing the slaves of secessionists in
+Missouri. The proclamation drew forth some laudatory verses from John G.
+Whittier, but was promptly countermanded by President Lincoln. Soon
+afterwards, Fremont became involved in personal disputes with his
+superior officers, was relieved from active service, and the remainder
+of his life was spent in private enterprises.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fremont's "pathfinding" virtually completed the exploration of the
+country. A few secluded nooks and corners became known only as the tide
+of immigration crept into them; but in its general features, the great
+continent, on whose eastern shore the white man was fighting for a
+foothold two centuries before, was known from ocean to ocean. It had
+been conquered and occupied by a dominant race, and won for
+civilization.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+BOONE, DANIEL. Born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1735;
+settled at Holman's Ford, North Carolina, 1748; explored Kentucky,
+1769-70; founded Boonesborough, 1775; moved to Missouri, 1795; died at
+Charette, Missouri, September 26, 1820.
+
+KENTON, SIMON, Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, April 3, 1755; fled to
+the West, 1771; ranged western country as a spy, 1776-78; with George
+Rogers Clark's expedition, 1778; commanded a battalion of Kentucky
+volunteers under Wayne, 1793-94; brigadier-general of Ohio militia,
+1805; at battle of the Thames, 1813; died in Logan County, Ohio, April
+29, 1836.
+
+CLARK, GEORGE ROGERS. Born in Albemarle County, Virginia, November 19,
+1752; settled in Kentucky, 1775; major of militia, 1776; sent as
+delegate to Virginia, 1776; second journey to Virginia, 1777; started on
+Illinois expedition, June 24, 1778; captured Kaskaskia, July 4, 1778;
+captured Vincennes, February 24, 1779; defeated Miami Indians and
+destroyed villages, 1782; died near Louisville, Kentucky, February 18,
+1818.
+
+PUTNAM, RUFUS. Born in Sutton, Massachusetts, April 9, 1738; served in
+campaigns against the French, 1757-60; superintended defenses of New
+York City, 1776; superintended construction of fortifications at West
+Point, 1778; promoted to brigadier-general, January 7, 1783; founded
+Marietta, Ohio, April 7, 1788; judge of Supreme Court of Northwest
+Territory, 1789; served as brigadier-general under Wayne, 1792-93;
+member of Ohio Constitutional Convention, 1803; formed first Bible
+society west of the Alleghanies, 1812; died at Marietta, Ohio, May 1,
+1824.
+
+LEWIS, MERIWETHER. Born near Charlottesville, Virginia, August 18, 1774;
+entered United States army, 1795; promoted captain, 1800; private
+secretary to President Jefferson, 1801-03; explored country west of
+Mississippi, 1804-06; governor of Missouri Territory, 1808; killed
+himself near Nashville, Tennessee, October 8, 1809.
+
+CLARK, WILLIAM. Born in Virginia, August 1, 1770; removed to Kentucky,
+1774; lieutenant of infantry, March 7, 1792; resigned from service,
+July, 1796; removed to St. Louis, 1796; accompanied Meriwether Lewis on
+western explorations, 1804-06; governor of Missouri Territory, 1813-21;
+superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1822-38; died at St. Louis, September
+1, 1838.
+
+PIKE, ZEBULON MONTGOMERY. Born at Lamberton, New Jersey, January 5,
+1779; entered United States army, 1799; captain, 1806; conducted
+exploring expeditions in Louisiana Territory, 1805-07; major, 1808;
+colonel, 1812; brigadier-general, March 12, 1813; died in assault on
+York (now Toronto), Canada, April 27, 1813.
+
+HOUSTON, SAMUEL. Born near Lexington, Virginia, March 2, 1793; served in
+war of 1812; member of Congress from Tennessee, 1823-27; governor of
+Tennessee, 1827-29; defeated Mexicans at San Jacinto, April, 1836;
+President of Texas, 1836-38 and 1841-44; United States senator from
+Texas, 1845-59; governor of Texas, 1859-61; died at Huntersville, Texas,
+July 25, 1863.
+
+CROCKETT, DAVID. Born at Limestone, Tennessee, August 17, 1786; member
+of Congress, 1827-33; served in Texan war, 1835-36; killed at The Alamo,
+San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, March 6, 1836.
+
+BOWIE, JAMES. Born in Burke County, Georgia, about 1790; notorious in
+duel of 1827; went to Texas, 1835; made colonel of Texan army, 1835;
+killed at the Alamo, March 6, 1836.
+
+TRAVIS, WILLIAM BARRETT. Born in Conecuh County, Alabama, 1811; admitted
+to the bar, 1830; went to Texas, 1832; killed at the Alamo, March 6,
+1836.
+
+WHITMAN, MARCUS. Born in Rushville, Ontario County, New York, September
+4, 1802; appointed missionary to Oregon, 1834; reached Fort Walla Walla,
+September 2, 1836; started on ride across continent, October 3, 1842;
+reached Washington, March 3, 1843; took great train of emigrants back to
+Oregon, 1843; killed by Indians at Wauelatpu, Oregon, November 29, 1847.
+
+SUTTER, JOHN AUGUSTUS. Born in Kandern, Baden, February 15, 1803;
+graduated at military college at Berne, Switzerland, 1823; served in
+Swiss Guard through Spanish campaign, 1823-24; emigrated to America and
+settled at St. Louis, 1834; crossed Rocky Mountains, 1838; settled in
+California, 1839; built fort on present site of Sacramento, 1841; gold
+discovered on his ranch, January 18, 1848; homestead burned, 1864;
+removed to Litiz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1873; died at
+Washington, D.C., June 17, 1880.
+
+FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. Born at Savannah, Georgia, January 21, 1813;
+explored South Pass, Rocky Mountains, 1842; Pacific Slope, 1843-45;
+took part in conquest of California, 1846-47; United States senator from
+California, 1850-51; Republican candidate for presidency, 1856; Federal
+Commander of Department of the West, 1861; governor of Arizona, 1878-82;
+died at New York City, July 13, 1890.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GREAT SOLDIERS
+
+
+We have seen how the great crises in our country's history have produced
+great men to deal with them. We shall see now how great wars produce
+great soldiers. The Revolution produced them; the Civil War produced
+them. The second war with England, and the war with Spain failed to
+produce them because they were too quickly ended, and without desperate
+need. They served, however, to pierce certain gold-laced bubbles which
+had been strutting about the stage pretending to be great and impressing
+many people with their greatness; but which were, in reality, great only
+in self-conceit, and in that colossal! So did the Revolution and the
+Civil War, at first, and costly work it was until the last of them had
+vanished, to be replaced by men who knew how to fight; for it seems one
+of the axioms of history that the fiercer your soldier is in peace, the
+more useless he is on a battlefield. The war with Mexico, by a fortunate
+chance, found a few good fighters ready at hand, and so was pushed
+through in the most brilliant way. One trembles to think how the
+Revolution might have begun--and ended!--but for the fact that
+Washington, experienced in warfare and disdaining gold lace and empty
+boasts, was, by a fortunate chance, chosen commander-in-chief. That
+choice is our greatest debt to John and Samuel Adams.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in the eighteenth century, there lived in the old historic town of
+Salem, Massachusetts, Joseph Putnam and his wife, Elizabeth. They
+already had nine children, and, in 1718, a tenth was born to them and
+they named him Israel, which means a soldier of God. His career was
+destined to be one of the most romantic and adventurous in American
+history, but none of his brothers or sisters managed to get into the
+lime-light of fame.
+
+Israel himself started in tamely enough as a farmer, having bought a
+tract of five hundred acres down in Connecticut. Wild animals had been
+pretty well exterminated by that time, but one old she-wolf still had
+her den not far from Putnam's farm, and one night she came out and
+amused herself by killing sixty or seventy of his fine sheep. When
+Putnam found them stretched upon the ground next morning, a great rage
+seized him; he swore that that wolf should never have the chance to do
+such another night's work; he tracked her to her cave, and descending
+without hesitation into the dark and narrow entrance, shot straight
+between the eyes he saw gleaming at him through the darkness, and
+dragged the carcass out into the daylight. That incident gives some idea
+of Israel Putnam's temper, and what desperate things he was capable of
+doing when his blood was up.
+
+That was in 1735, and twenty years elapsed before he again appeared upon
+the page of history. But in 1755 began the great war with France, and
+for the next ten years, Putnam's life was fairly crowded with incident.
+Connecticut furnished a thousand men to resist the expected French
+invasion, and Putnam was put in command of a company with the rank of
+captain. His company acted as rangers, and for two years did remarkable
+service in harassing the enemy and in warning the settlers against
+lurking bands of Indians, set on by the French. On more than one
+occasion, he saved his life by the closest margin. He was absolutely
+fearless, and this, together with a clear head and quick eye, carried
+him safely through peril after peril, any one of which would have proved
+the death of a man less resolute.
+
+He saved a party of soldiers from the Indians by steering them in a
+bateau safely down the dangerous rapids of the Hudson; he saved Fort
+Edward from destruction by fire at the imminent risk of his life,
+working undaunted although the flames were threatening, every moment, to
+explode the magazine; a year later, captured by the Indians, who feared
+and hated him, he was bound to a stake, after some preliminary tortures,
+and a pile of fagots heaped about him and set on fire. The flames were
+searing his flesh, when a French officer happened to come up and rescued
+him. These are but three incidents out of a dozen such. He seemed to
+bear a charmed life, and any of his men would willingly have died for
+him. In 1765, when he returned home after ten years of continuous
+campaigning, it was with the rank of colonel, and a reputation for
+daring and resourcefulness second to none in New England.
+
+Ten years of quiet followed, and Israel Putnam was fifty-seven years of
+age--an age when most men consider their life work done. On the
+afternoon of April 20, 1775, he was engaged in hauling some stones from
+a field with a team of oxen, when he heard galloping hoofbeats down the
+road, and looking up, saw a courier riding up full speed. The courier
+paused only long enough to shout the tidings of the fight at Concord,
+and then spurred on again. Putnam, leaving his oxen where they stood,
+threw himself upon horseback, without waiting to don his uniform, and at
+sunrise next day, galloped into Cambridge, having travelled nearly a
+hundred miles! Verily there were giants in those days!
+
+He was placed in command of the Connecticut forces with the rank of
+brigadier-general, and soon afterwards was one of four major-generals
+appointed by the Congress for the Continental army. For four years
+thereafter he took a conspicuous part in the war, bearing himself always
+with characteristic gallantry. But the machine had been worn out by
+excessive exertion; in 1779 he was stricken with paralysis, and the last
+years of his life were passed quietly at home. For sheer, extravagant
+daring, which paused at no obstacle and trembled at no peril, he has,
+perhaps, never had his equal among American soldiers.
+
+Not far from West Greenwich, Connecticut, there is a steep and rocky
+bluff, the scene of one of Putnam's most extraordinary feats, performed
+only a short time before he was stricken down. An expedition, fifteen
+hundred strong, had been sent by the British against West Greenwich, and
+Putnam rallied a company to oppose the invaders, but his little force
+was soon routed and dispersed, and sought to escape across country with
+the British in hot pursuit. Putnam, prominent as the leader of the
+Americans, was hard pressed, and his horse, weary from a long march, was
+failing; his capture seemed certain, for the enemy gained upon him
+rapidly; when suddenly, he turned his horse down the steep bluff at his
+side, reached the bottom in safety by some miracle, and rode away in
+triumph, leaving his astonished and baffled pursuers at the top, for not
+one dared follow him!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have spoken of how the test of war winnows the wheat from the chaff.
+This was so in those days as in these, and, as an amusing proof of it,
+one has only to glance over the names of the generals appointed by the
+Congress at the same time as Putnam. Artemas Ward, Seth Pomeroy, William
+Heath, Joseph Spencer, David Wooster, John Thomas, John Sullivan--what
+cursory student of American history knows anything of them? Four others
+are better remembered--Richard Montgomery, for the gallant and hopeless
+assault upon Quebec in which he lost his life; Charles Lee for
+disobeying Washington's orders at the battle of Monmouth and provoking
+the great Virginian to an historic outburst of rage; Nathanael Greene
+for his masterly conduct of the war in the South; Horatio Gates, first
+for a victory over Burgoyne which he did very little to bring about, and
+second for his ill-starred attempt to supplant Washington as
+commander-in-chief.
+
+Let us pause for a glance at Gates. Born in England, he had seen service
+in the British army, and had been badly wounded at Braddock's defeat,
+but managed to escape from the field. He resigned from the army, after
+that, and settled in Virginia, where his supposed military prowess won
+him the appointment of brigadier-general at the outbreak of the
+Revolution. He secured command of the Northern army, which had gathered
+to resist the great force which was marching south from Canada under
+John Burgoyne. He found the field already prepared by General Schuyler,
+a much more able officer. Stark had defeated and captured a strong
+detachment at Bennington, and Herkimer had won the bloody battle of
+Oriskany; the British army was hemmed in by a constantly-increasing
+force of Americans, and was able to drag along only a mile a day;
+Burgoyne and his men were disheartened and apprehensive of the future,
+while the Americans were exultant and confident of victory. In such
+circumstances, on September 19, 1777, was fought the first battle of
+Bemis Heights, a bloody and inconclusive struggle, supported wholly by
+the division of Benedict Arnold, who behaved so gallantly that Gates,
+who had not even ridden on the field of battle, was consumed with
+jealousy, took Arnold's division away from him, and did not mention him
+in the dispatches describing the battle.
+
+The eve of the second battle found the most successful and popular
+general in the American army without a command. Gates, deeming victory
+certain, thought it safe to insult Arnold, and banished him to his tent;
+but on October 7th, when the second struggle was in progress, Arnold,
+seeing the tide of battle going against his men, threw himself upon his
+horse and dashed into the conflict. In a frenzy of rage, he dressed the
+lines, rallied his men, who cheered like mad when they saw him again at
+their head, and led a charge which sent the British reeling back. He
+pursued the fleeing enemy to their entrenchments, and dashed forward to
+storm them, but, in the very sally-port, horse and rider fell
+together--the horse dead, the rider with a shattered leg. That ended the
+battle which he had virtually conducted in the most gallant manner
+imaginable. Had he died then, he would have been a national hero--but
+another fate awaited him!
+
+Gates had not been on the field. He had remained in his tent, ready to
+ride away in case of defeat. He had ordered all the baggage wagons
+loaded, ready to retreat, for he was by no means the kind of general who
+burns his bridges behind him. His jealousy of Arnold mounted to fever
+heat, but that hero, lying grievously wounded in his tent, was for the
+moment beyond reach of his envy.
+
+Burgoyne attempted to retreat, but found it was too late. Surrounded
+and hemmed in on every side, he turned and turned for six days seeking
+vainly for some way out; but there was no escaping, the American army
+was growing in numbers and confidence daily, and his own supplies were
+running short. Pride and ambition yielded at last to stern necessity and
+he surrendered.
+
+Gates, believing himself a second Alexander, became so inflated with
+conceit that he did not even send a report of the surrender to
+Washington, but communicated it direct to the Congress, over the head of
+his commander-in-chief. Weak and envious, he entered heart and soul into
+the plot to supplant Washington in supreme command; but his real
+incompetency was soon apparent, for, at the battle of Camden, making
+blunder after blunder, he sent his army to disastrous defeat, and was
+recalled by the Congress, his northern laurels, as had been predicted,
+changed to southern willows. So blundering had been his conduct of the
+only campaign that he had managed that his military career ended then
+and there, and the remainder of his life was spent upon his estate in
+Virginia.
+
+No doubt his petty and ignoble spirit rejoiced at the downfall of the
+brilliant man who had won for him his victories over Burgoyne. Let us
+speak of him for a moment. In remembering Arnold the traitor, we are apt
+to forget Arnold the general. There is, of course, no excuse for
+treason, and yet Arnold had without doubt suffered grave injustice. He
+was by nature rash to recklessness, at home on the battlefield and
+delighting in danger, with a real genius for the management of a battle
+and a personality whose charm won him the absolute devotion of his men.
+But he was also proud and selfish, and these qualities caused his ruin.
+
+Let us do him justice. Two days after the battle of Concord, he had
+marched into Cambridge at the head of a company of militia which he had
+collected at New Haven; it was he who suggested the expedition against
+Ticonderoga and who marched into the fortress side by side with Ethan
+Allen; it was he who led an expedition against Quebec, accomplishing one
+of the most remarkable marches in history, and, after a brilliant
+campaign, retreated only before overwhelming numbers; on Lake Champlain
+he engaged in a naval battle, one of the most desperate ever fought by
+an American fleet, which turned back a British invasion and delayed
+Burgoyne's advance for a year; while visiting his home at New Haven, a
+British force invaded Connecticut, and Arnold, raising a force of
+volunteers, drove them back to their ships and nearly captured them;
+then, rejoining the northern army, he rendered the most gallant service,
+turned Saint Leger back from Oriskany and won virtually unaided the two
+battles of Saratoga, which resulted in Burgoyne's surrender.
+
+It will be seen from this that, to the end of 1777, no man in the
+American army had rendered his country more signal service. Indeed,
+there was none who even remotely approached Arnold in glory of
+achievement. But from the first he had been the victim of petty
+persecution, and of circumstances which kept from him the credit rightly
+due him; and a cabal against him in the Congress prevented his receiving
+his proper rank in the service. We have seen how Gates made no reference
+to him in reporting the brilliant victory at Saratoga; and the same
+thing had happened to him again and again. His close friendship with
+Washington caused the latter's enemies to do him all the harm they
+could, and Arnold, disgusted at his country's ingratitude, gradually
+drifted into Tory sentiments. He married the daughter of a Tory,
+associated largely with Tories during a winter at Philadelphia, and at
+last resolved to end the war, as he thought, in favor of England by
+delivering the line of the Hudson to the British. The result of this
+would be to divide the colonies in two and to render effective
+co-operation almost impossible.
+
+So he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to carry out
+this purpose, began his preparations, and had all his plans laid, when
+the merest accident revealed the plot to Washington. Arnold escaped by
+fleeing to a British man-of-war in the river, and after a short service
+against his country, marked by a raid along the Virginia shore, he
+sailed for England, where his last years were spent in poverty and
+embittered by remorse. His last great act of treachery blotted out the
+brilliant achievements which had gone before, and his name lives only as
+that of the most infamous traitor in American history.
+
+Of the great names which come down to us from the Revolution, the one
+which seems most admirable after that of Washington himself is that of
+Nathanael Greene, not so much because of his military skill, although
+that was of the highest order, as because of his pure patriotism, his
+lack of selfishness, and his utter devotion to the cause for which he
+fought. He was with Washington at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth, and
+did much to save the army of the battle of the Brandywine. After Gates's
+terrible defeat at Camden, he was put in command of the army of the
+South, and conducted the most brilliant campaign of the war, defeating
+the notorious Sir Guy Tarleton, and forcing Cornwallis north into
+Virginia, where he was to be entrapped at Yorktown, and ending the war
+which had devastated the South by capturing Charleston. After
+Washington, he was perhaps the greatest general the war produced;
+certainly he was the purest patriot, and his name should never be
+forgotten by a grateful country.
+
+Linked forever with Greene in the annals of southern warfare, are three
+men--Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, and "Light Horse Harry" Lee--three
+true knights and Christian gentlemen, worthy of all honor. The first of
+these, indeed, may fairly be called the Bayard of American history, the
+cavalier without fear and without reproach. Born in South Carolina in
+1732, he had seen some service in the Cherokee war, and at once, upon
+news of the fight at Lexington, raised a regiment and played an
+important part in driving the British from Charleston in 1776--a
+victory so decisive that the southern states were freed from attack for
+over two years.
+
+After the crushing defeat of Gates at Camden Marion's little band was
+the only patriot force in South Carolina, but he harassed the British so
+effectively that he soon became genuinely feared. No one ever knew where
+he would attack, for the swiftness of his movements seemed almost
+superhuman. No hardship disturbed him; he endured heat and cold with
+indifference; his food was of the simplest. Every school-boy knows the
+story of how, inviting a British officer to dinner, he sat down
+tranquilly before a log on which were a few baked potatoes, which formed
+the whole meal, and how the Englishman went away with the conviction
+that such a foe as that could never be conquered. No instance of
+rapacity or cruelty was ever charged against him, nor did he ever injure
+any woman or child.
+
+As a partisan leader, Sumter was second only to Marion, and for two
+years the patriot fortunes in the South were in their hands. Together
+they joined Greene when he took charge of the southern army, and proved
+invaluable allies. Sumter lived to the great age of ninety-eight, and
+was the last surviving general officer of the Revolution. He was, too,
+the last survivor of the Braddock expedition, which he had accompanied
+at the age of twenty-one, and which had been cut to pieces on the
+Monongahela twenty years before the battle of Lexington was fought.
+
+"Light Horse Harry" Lee, whose "Legion" won such fame in the early
+years of the Revolution and whose services with Greene in the South were
+of the most brilliant character, also lived well into the nineteenth
+century. It was he who, in 1799, appointed by Congress to deliver an
+address in commemoration of Washington, uttered the famous phrase,
+"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen."
+His son, Robert Edward Lee, was destined to become perhaps the greatest
+general in our history.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So passed the era of the Revolution, and for thirty years the new
+country was called upon to face no foreign foe; but pressing upon her
+frontier was an enemy strong and cruel, who knew not the meaning of the
+word "peace." Set on by the British during the Revolution, the Indians
+continued their warfare long after peace had been declared. In the
+wilderness north of the Ohio they had their villages, from which they
+issued time after time to attack the white settlements to the south and
+east. No one knew when or where they would strike, and every village and
+hamlet along the frontier was liable to attack at any time. The farmer
+tilling his fields was shot from ambush; the hunter found himself
+hunted; children were carried away to captivity, and women, looking up
+from their household work, found an Indian on the threshold.
+
+The land which the Indians held was so beautiful and fertile that
+settlers ventured into it, despite the deadly peril, and in 1787, the
+Northwest Territory was formed by Congress, and General Arthur St.
+Clair appointed its governor. A Scotchman, brave but impulsive, with a
+good military training, St. Clair had made an unfortunate record in the
+Revolution. Put in command of the defenses of Ticonderoga in the summer
+of 1777, to hold it against the advancing British army under Burgoyne,
+he had permitted the enemy to secure possession of a position which
+commanded the fort, and he was forced to abandon it. The British started
+in hot pursuit, and several actions took place in which the Americans
+lost their baggage and a number of men. St. Clair had really been placed
+in an impossible position, but his forced abandonment of the fort
+impressed the public very unfavorably. He still had the confidence of
+Washington, who assigned him to the important task of governing the new
+Northwest Territory, and subduing the Indians who overran it. With
+Braddock's bitter experience still vividly before him, Washington warned
+St. Clair to beware of a surprise in any expedition he might lead
+against the Indians, and the events which followed showed how badly that
+warning was needed.
+
+In the fall of 1791, St. Clair collected a large force at Fort
+Washington, on the site of the present city of Cincinnati, and prepared
+to advance against the Miami Indians. He had fourteen hundred men, but
+he himself was suffering with gout and had to be conveyed most of the
+way in a hammock. By the beginning of November, the army had reached the
+neighborhood of the Miami villages, and there, on the morning of the
+fourth, was surprised, routed and cut to pieces. Less than five hundred
+escaped from the field, the Indians spreading along the road and
+shooting down the crazed fugitives at leisure. St. Clair's military
+reputation had received its death blow, but Washington, with wonderful
+forbearance, permitted him to retain the governorship of the Territory,
+from which he was removed by Jefferson in 1802. He lived sixteen years
+longer, poor and destitute, having used his own fortune to defray the
+expenses of his troops in the Revolution--a debt which, to the lasting
+disgrace of the government, it neglected to cancel. He grew old and
+feeble, and was thrown from a wagon, one day, and killed. Upon the
+little stone which marks his grave is this inscription: "The earthly
+remains of Major-General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this
+humble monument, which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one
+due from his country."
+
+The task which proved St. Clair's ruin was to be accomplished by another
+survivor of the Revolution--"Mad" Anthony Wayne; "Mad" because of his
+fury in battle, the fierceness of his charge, and his recklessness of
+danger--attributes which he shared with Benedict Arnold. He was thirty
+years of age at the opening of the Revolution, handsome, full of fire,
+and hungering for glory. He was to win his full share of it, and to
+prove himself, next to Washington and Greene, the best general in the
+army.
+
+His favorite weapon was the bayonet, and he drilled his troops in the
+use of it until they were able to withstand the shock of the renowned
+British infantry, who have always prided themselves on their prowess
+with cold steel. His first service was with Arnold in Canada; he was
+with Washington at the Brandywine; and at Germantown, hurling his troops
+upon the Hessians, he drove them back at the point of the bayonet, and
+retreated only under orders when the general attack failed. At Monmouth,
+it was he and his men who, standing firm as a rock, repulsed the first
+fierce bayonet charge of the British guards and grenadiers.
+
+So it is not remarkable that, when Washington found an unusually
+hazardous piece of work in hand, he should have selected Wayne to carry
+it through. The British held a strong fort called Stony Point, which
+commanded the Hudson and which Washington was anxious to capture. It was
+impossible to besiege it, since British frigates held the river, and it
+was so strong that an open assault could never carry it. It stood on a
+rocky promontory, surrounded on three sides by water and connected with
+the land only by a narrow, swampy neck. The only chance to take the
+place was by a night attack, and Wayne eagerly welcomed the opportunity
+to try it.
+
+On the afternoon of July 15, 1779, Wayne, at the head of about thirteen
+hundred men, started for the fort. He arrived near it after nightfall,
+and dividing his force into three columns, moved forward to the attack.
+He relied wholly upon the bayonet, and not a musket was loaded. The
+advance was soon discovered by the British sentries, and a heavy fire
+opened upon the Americans, but they pressed forward, swarmed up the
+long, sloping embankment of the fort, and in a moment were over the
+walls.
+
+A bullet struck Wayne in the head, and he staggered and fell. Two of his
+officers caught him up and started to take him to the rear, but he
+struggled to his feet.
+
+"No, no," he cried, "I'm going in at the head of my men! Take me in at
+the head of my men!"
+
+And at the head of his men he was carried into the fort.
+
+For a few moments, the bayonets flashed and played, then the British
+broke and ran, and the fort was won. No night attack was ever delivered
+with greater skill and boldness.
+
+Wayne soon recovered from his wound, and took an active part in driving
+Cornwallis into the trap at Yorktown. Then he had retired from the army,
+expecting to spend the remainder of his life in peace; but Washington,
+remembering the man, knew that he was the one above all others to teach
+the Ohio Indians a lesson, and called him to the work. Wayne accepted
+the task, and five thousand men were placed under his command and
+started westward over the mountains.
+
+He spent the winter in organizing and drilling his forces on the bank of
+the Ohio where Cincinnati now stands, but which was then merely a fort
+and huddle of houses. He made the most careful preparations for the
+expedition, and early in the spring, he commenced his march northward
+into the Indian country. The savages gathered to repulse him at a spot
+on the Maumee where, years before, a tornado had cut a wide swath
+through the forest, rendering it all but impenetrable. Here, on the
+twentieth of August, 1794, he advanced against the enemy, and, throwing
+his troops into the "Fallen Timbers," in which the Indians were
+ambushed, routed them out, cut them down, and administered a defeat so
+crushing that they could not rally from it, and their whole country was
+laid waste with fire and sword. Wayne did his work well, burning their
+villages, and destroying their crops, so that they would have no means
+of sustenance during the coming winter. Thoroughly cowed by this
+treatment, the Indians sued for peace, and at Greenville, nearly a year
+later, Wayne made a treaty in which twelve tribes took part. It marked
+the beginning of a lasting peace, which opened the "Old Northwest" to
+the white settler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No soldier of the Revolution, with the exception of Washington, was
+elevated to the presidency, nor did any of them attain an exalted place
+in the councils of the Nation. Statecraft and military genius rarely go
+hand in hand, and it was not until 1828 that a man whose reputation had
+been made chiefly on the battlefield was sent to the White House. Andrew
+Jackson was the only soldier, with one exception, who came out of the
+War of 1812 with any great reputation, and it is only fair to add that
+his victory at New Orleans was due more to the rashness of the British
+in advancing to a frontal attack against a force of entrenched
+sharpshooters than to any remarkable generalship on the American side.
+
+The war with Mexico found two able generals ready to hand, and laid the
+foundations of the reputations of many more. "Old Rough and Ready"
+Zachary Taylor, who commanded during the campaign which ended with the
+brilliant victory at Buena Vista, had been tested in the fire of
+frontier warfare, and won the presidency in 1848; and Franklin Pierce,
+who commanded one of the divisions which captured the City of Mexico,
+won the same prize four years later. It was in this war that Grant, Lee,
+Johnston, Davis, Meade, Hooker, Thomas, Sherman, and a score of others
+who were to win fame fifteen years later, got their baptism of fire.
+Their history belongs to the period of the Civil War and will be told
+there; but the chief military glory of the war with Mexico centres about
+a man who divided the honors of the War of 1812 with Andrew Jackson but
+who failed to achieve the presidency, and whose usefulness had ended
+before the Civil War began--Winfield Scott.
+
+A Virginian, born in 1786, Scott entered the army at an early age, and
+had reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel at the opening of the second
+war with England. Two years later, he was made a brigadier-general, and
+commanded at the fierce and successful battles of Chippewa and Lundy's
+Lane. At the close of the war, he was made a major-general, and received
+the thanks of Congress for his services. In 1841, he became
+commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States; but, at the
+opening of the war with Mexico, President Polk, actuated by partisan
+jealousy, kept Scott in Washington and assigned Zachary Taylor to the
+command of the armies in the field. Scott had already an enviable
+reputation, and had been an aspirant for the presidency, and Polk feared
+that a few victories would make him an invincible candidate. Perhaps he
+was afraid that Scott would develop into another Andrew Jackson.
+
+However, it was impossible to keep the commander-in-chief of the army
+inactive while a great war was in progress, and early in 1847, he was
+sent to the front, and on March 9 began one of the most successful and
+brilliant military campaigns in history. Landing before Vera Cruz, he
+captured that city after a bombardment of twenty days, and, gathering
+his army together, started on an overland march for the capital of
+Mexico. Santa Anna, with a great force, awaited him in a strong position
+at Cerro Gordo, but Scott seized the key of it in a lofty height
+commanding the Mexican position, and soon won a decisive victory. The
+American army swept on like a tidal wave, and city after city fell
+before it, until, on the twentieth of August, it reached the city of the
+Montezumas. An armistice delayed the advance until September 7, but on
+that day offensive operations were begun. Great fortifications strongly
+manned guarded the town, but they were carried one after another by
+assault, and on September 14, General Scott marched at the head of his
+army through the city gates. The war was ended--a war in which the
+Americans had not lost a single battle, and had gained a vast empire.
+
+General Scott came out of the war with a tremendous reputation; but he
+lacked personal magnetism. A certain stateliness and dignity kept people
+at a distance, and, together with an exacting discipline, won him the
+sobriquet of "Old Fuss and Feathers." In 1852, he was the candidate of
+the Whig party for President; but the party was falling to pieces, he
+himself had no great personal following, and he was defeated by the
+Democratic candidate, one of his own generals, Franklin Pierce. He
+remained in command of the army until the outbreak of the Civil War. Age
+and infirmities prevented his taking the field, and after the disastrous
+defeat at Bull Run, he resigned the command. General Scott was renowned
+for his striking physique, more majestic, perhaps, even than that of
+Washington. He has, indeed, been called the most imposing general in
+history.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With General Scott ends another era of our history, and we come to a
+consideration of the soldiers made famous by the greatest war of the
+nineteenth century--the civil conflict which threatened, for a time, to
+disrupt the Union. It was a war waged on both sides with desperate
+courage and tenacity, and it developed a number of commanders not,
+perhaps, of the very first rank, but standing high in the second.
+
+The first real success of the war was won by George B. McClellan. A
+graduate of West Point, veteran of the war with Mexico, and military
+observer of the war in the Crimea, he had resigned from the army in 1857
+to engage in the railroad business, with headquarters at Cincinnati. At
+the opening of the war, he was commissioned major-general, and put in
+command of the Department of Ohio. His first work was to clear western
+Virginia of Confederates, which he did in a series of successful
+skirmishes, lasting but a few weeks. He lost only eight men, while the
+Confederates lost sixteen hundred, besides over a thousand taken
+prisoners. The achievement was of the first importance, since it saved
+for the Union the western section of Virginia which, a year later, was
+admitted as a separate state. It is worth remembering that in this
+campaign, McClellan's opponent was no less a personage than Robert E.
+Lee.
+
+The success was the greater as contrasted with the disaster at Bull Run,
+and in August, 1861, McClellan was placed in command of the Army of the
+Potomac, gathered about Washington and still discouraged and
+disorganized from that defeat and rout. His military training had been
+of the most thorough description, especially upon the technical side,
+and no better man could have been found for the task of whipping that
+great army into shape. He soon proved his fitness for the work, and four
+months later, he had under him a trained and disciplined force, the
+equal of any that ever trod American soil. He forged the instrument
+which, in the end, a stronger man than he was to use. Let that always
+be remembered to his credit.
+
+He had become a sort of popular hero, idolized by his soldiers, for he
+possessed in greater degree than any other commander at the North that
+personal magnetism which wins men. But it was soon evident that he
+lacked those qualities of aggressiveness, energy, and initiative
+essential to a great commander; that he was unduly cautious. He seems to
+have habitually over-estimated the strength of the enemy and
+under-estimated his own. With this habit of mind, it was certain that he
+would never suffer a great defeat; but it was also probable that he
+would never win a great victory, and a great victory was just what the
+North hungered for to wipe out the disgrace of Bull Run. Not for eight
+months was he ready to begin the campaign against Richmond, and it ended
+in heavy loss and final retreat, partly because of McClellan's
+incapacity and partly because of ignorant interference with his plans on
+the part of politicians at Washington. For it must be remembered that
+McClellan was a Democrat, and soon became the natural leader of that
+party at the North--a fact which seemed little less than treason to many
+of the political managers at the Capital.
+
+One great and successful battle he fought, however, at Antietam,
+checking Lee's attempt to invade the North and sending him in full
+retreat back to Virginia, but his failure to pursue the retreating army
+exasperated the President, and he was removed from command of the army
+on November 7, 1862. This closed his career as a soldier. In the light
+of succeeding events, it cannot be doubted that his removal was a
+serious mistake. All in all, he was the ablest commander the Army of the
+Potomac ever had; he was a growing man; a little more experience in the
+field would probably have cured him of over-timidity, and made him a
+great soldier. General Grant summed the matter up admirably when he
+said, "The test applied to him would be terrible to any man, being made
+a major-general at the beginning of the war. If he did not succeed, it
+was because the conditions of success were so trying. If he had fought
+his way along and up, I have no reason to suppose that he would not have
+won as high distinction as any of us." In 1864, McClellan was the
+nominee of the Democratic party for the presidency, but received only
+twenty-one electoral votes.
+
+The command of the Army of the Potomac passed to Ambrose E. Burnside,
+who had won some successes early in the war, but who had protested his
+unfitness for a great command, and who was soon to prove it. He led the
+army after Lee, found him entrenched on the heights back of
+Fredericksburg, and hurled division after division against an
+impregnable position, until twelve thousand men lay dead and wounded on
+the field. Burnside, half-crazed with anguish at his fatal mistake,
+offered his resignation, which was at once accepted.
+
+"Fighting Joe" Hooker succeeded him, and was soon to demonstrate that
+he, too, was unfitted for the great task. Early in May, believing Lee's
+army to be in retreat, he attacked it at Chancellorsville, only to be
+defeated with a loss of seventeen thousand men. At the beginning of the
+battle, Hooker had enjoyed every advantage of position, and his army
+outnumbered Lee's; but he sacrificed his position, with unaccountable
+stupidity, moving from a high position to a lower one, provoking the
+protest from Meade that, if the army could not hold the top of a hill,
+it certainly could not hold the bottom of it; and he seemed unable to
+use his men to advantage, holding one division in idleness while another
+was being cut to pieces.
+
+It is, perhaps, sufficient comment upon the folly of dismissing
+McClellan to point out that within seven months of his retirement, the
+Army of the Potomac, which had been the finest fighting-machine in
+existence on the continent, had lost thirty thousand men on the field
+and thousands more by desertion, and had been converted from a confident
+and well-disciplined force into a discouraged and disorganized rabble.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile a new star had arisen in the West in the person of U.S.
+Grant--"Unconditional Surrender" Grant, as he was called, after his
+capture of Fort Donelson--the event which riveted the eyes of the Nation
+upon him and which marked the beginning of his meteor-like advancement.
+We have already spoken of Grant as President, and of his unfitness
+for that high office. There are also many who dispute his ability as
+a commander, who point out that his army always outnumbered that opposed
+to him, and who claim that his victories were won by brute force and not
+by military skill. That there is some truth in this nobody can deny, and
+yet his campaign against Vicksburg was one of the most brilliant in this
+or any other war. It might be added, too, that it takes something more
+than preponderance of numbers to win a battle--as Hooker showed at
+Chancellorsville--and that Grant did win a great many.
+
+[Illustration: GRANT]
+
+The truth about Grant is that he was utterly lacking in that personal
+magnetism which made McClellan, Sheridan and "Stonewall" Jackson
+idolized by their men, and which is essential to a great commander. He
+was cold, reserved, and silent, repelled rather than attracted. He
+succeeded mainly because he was determined to succeed, and hung on with
+bull-dog tenacity until he had worn his opponent out. Not till then did
+he stop to take stock of his own injuries. "I propose to fight it out on
+this line, if it takes all summer," was a characteristic utterance.
+
+The honors of Union victories were fairly divided with Grant by William
+Tecumseh Sherman, a man who, as a general, was greater in some respects
+than his chief. Sherman was an Ohioan, and, after graduating from West
+Point and serving in California during the war with Mexico, resigned
+from the army to seek more lucrative employment. He was given a
+regiment when the war opened, and his advance was rapid. He first showed
+his real worth at the battle of Shiloh, where he commanded a division
+and by superb fighting, saved Grant's reputation.
+
+Grant had collected an army of forty thousand men at Pittsburg Landing,
+an obscure stopping-place in southern Tennessee for Mississippi boats,
+and though he knew that the Confederates were gathering at Corinth,
+twenty miles away, he left his army entirely exposed, throwing up not a
+single breastwork, never dreaming that the enemy would dare attack him.
+Nevertheless, they did attack, while Grant himself was miles away from
+his army, and by the end of the first day's fighting, had succeeded in
+pushing the Union forces back upon the river, in a cramped and dangerous
+position. The action was resumed next day, and the Confederates forced
+to retire, which they did in good order. That the Union army was not
+disastrously defeated was due largely to the superb leadership of
+Sherman, who had three horses shot under him and was twice wounded, but
+whose demeanor was so cool and inspiring that his raw troops, not
+realizing their peril, were filled with confidence and fought like
+veterans.
+
+Sherman's fame increased rapidly after that. When Grant departed for the
+East to take command of the Army of the Potomac, he planned for Sherman
+a campaign against Atlanta, Georgia--a campaign which Sherman carried
+out in the most masterly manner, marching into Atlanta in triumph on
+September 2, 1864. The campaign had cost him thirty-two thousand men,
+but the Confederate loss had been much heavier, and in Atlanta the
+Confederacy lost one of its citadels. It was especially valuable because
+of the great machine shops located there, and these Sherman proceeded to
+destroy before starting on his famous "march to the sea."
+
+This, the most spectacular movement of the whole war, was planned by
+Sherman, who secured Grant's permission to carry it out, and the start
+was made on the fifteenth of November. The army marched by four roads,
+as nearly parallel as could be found, starting at seven o'clock every
+morning and covering fifteen miles every day. All railroads and other
+property that might aid the Confederates were destroyed, the soldiers
+were allowed to forage freely, and in consequence a swath of destruction
+sixty miles wide and three hundred miles long was cut right across the
+Confederacy. A locust would have had difficulty in finding anything to
+eat after the army had passed. It encountered no effective resistance,
+and by the middle of December, came within sight of the sea.
+
+On December 21, Sherman entered Savannah, and wired Lincoln that he
+presented him the city as a Christmas gift. Then he turned northward to
+join Grant, taking Columbia, Fayetteville, Goldsboro and Raleigh, and
+destroying Confederate arsenals, foundries, railroads and public works
+of all descriptions. Lee had surrendered four days before Sherman
+marched into Raleigh, and the next day a flag of truce from General
+Joseph E. Johnston opened negotiations for the surrender of his army.
+
+This, the virtual close of the Civil War, ended Sherman's career in the
+field. In 1866, he was made lieutenant-general, and three years later
+succeeded Grant as commander-in-chief of the army, retiring from the
+service in 1884, at the age of sixty-four.
+
+Whatever may have been the relative merits of Grant and Sherman as
+commanders, there can be no question as to the greatest cavalry leader
+in the Union armies, and one of the greatest in any army, Philip Henry
+Sheridan. Above any cavalry leader, North or South, except "Stonewall"
+Jackson, Sheridan possessed the power of rousing his men to the utmost
+pitch of enthusiastic devotion; young, dashing and intrepid himself, his
+men were ready to follow him anywhere--and it was usually to victory
+that he led them.
+
+Sheridan was a West Pointer, graduating in 1853, and was appointed
+captain at the outbreak of the war. It was not until May of 1862 that he
+found his real place as colonel of cavalry, and not until the first days
+of the following year that he had the opportunity to distinguish
+himself. Then, at the battle of Murfreesboro, he broke through the
+advancing Confederate line which was crumpling up the right of the Union
+army, and turned the tide of battle from defeat to victory. As a reward,
+he was appointed major-general of volunteers. In April, 1864, he became
+commander of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, and three
+months later made his famous raid along the valley of the Shenandoah.
+
+Entering the valley with an army of forty thousand men, Sheridan swept
+Early and a Confederate force out of it, and then, to render impossible
+any Confederate raids thereafter with the valley as a base, rode from
+end to end of it, destroying everything that would support an army.
+Early, meanwhile, had been reinforced, and, one misty morning, fell upon
+the Federals while they lay encamped at Cedar Creek. The surprise was
+complete, and in a short time the Union army was in full flight.
+Sheridan had been called to Washington, and on the morning of the battle
+was at Winchester, some twenty miles away. In the early dawn, he heard
+the rumble of the cannonade, and, springing to horse, galloped to the
+battlefield, to meet his men retreating.
+
+"Face about, boys! face about!" he shouted, riding up and down the
+lines; and his men saw him, and burst into a cheer, and reformed their
+lines, and, catching his spirit of victory, led by their loved
+commander, fell upon Early, routed him and practically destroyed his
+army. Perhaps nowhere else in history is there an instance such as
+this--of a general meeting his army in full retreat, stopping the panic,
+facing them about, and leading them to victory.
+
+In the last campaign against Richmond, Sheridan's services were of
+inestimable value; it was he who defeated a great Confederate force at
+the brilliant battle of Five Forks; it was he who got in front of Lee's
+retreating army and cornered it at Appomattox. He had his full share of
+honors, succeeding Sherman as general-in-chief of the army in 1883, and
+receiving the rank of general from Congress, just before his death five
+years later. Grant, Sherman and Sheridan are the only men in the
+country's history who have held this highest of military titles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After these three men, George H. Thomas was the most prominent commander
+on the Union side; notable, too, from the fact that he was a Virginian,
+and was considered a traitor by his native state for his adherence to
+the Union cause, just as poor old Winfield Scott had been. He had made
+something of a name for himself before the Civil War opened,
+distinguishing himself in the war with Mexico and winning brevets for
+gallantry at the battles of Monterey and Buena Vista. He won a decisive
+victory at Mill Springs early in 1862, and saved the army from rout at
+Murfreesboro by his heroic holding of the centre. But his most famous
+exploit was the defence of Horseshoe ridge, against overwhelming odds,
+at the battle of Chickamauga.
+
+The Union right wing had been routed, and the Confederates, certain of a
+great victory, turned against the left wing, twenty-five thousand
+strong, under command of Thomas. They swarmed up the slope on which
+Thomas had taken his position, only to be hurled back with heavy loss.
+Again and again they charged, sixty thousand of them, but Thomas stood
+like a rock against which the Confederates dashed themselves in vain.
+For six hours that terrific fighting continued, until nearly half of
+Thomas's men lay dead or wounded, but night found him still master of
+the position, saving the Union army from destruction. Ever afterwards
+Thomas was known as "The Rock of Chickamauga."
+
+In the following year, he again distinguished himself by defeating Hood
+at Nashville, in one of the most brilliant battles of the war. The
+defeat was the most decisive by either side in a general engagement, the
+Confederate army losing half its numbers, and being so routed and
+demoralized that it could not rally and was practically destroyed.
+Thomas's plan of battle is studied to this day in the military schools
+of Europe, and has been compared with that of Napoleon at Austerlitz.
+
+After Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas, there is a wide gap. No other
+commanders on the Union side measured up to them, although there were
+many of great ability. McPherson, Buell, Sumner, Hancock, Meade,
+Rosecrans, Kilpatrick, Pope--all had their hours of triumph, but none of
+them developed into what could be called a great commander. Whether from
+inherent weakness, or from lack of opportunity for development, all
+stopped short of greatness. It is worth noting that every famous
+general, Union or Confederate, and most of the merely prominent ones,
+were graduates of West Point and had received their baptism of fire in
+Mexico, the only exception being Sheridan, who did not graduate from
+West Point until after the war with Mexico was over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Turning now to the Confederate side, we find here, too, four supremely
+able commanders, the first of whom, Robert E. Lee, is believed by many
+to be the greatest in our country's history. No doubt some of the renown
+which attaches to Lee's name is due to his desperate championship of a
+lost cause, and to the love which the people of the South bore, and
+still bear, him because of his singularly sweet and unselfish character.
+But, sentiment aside, and looking at him only as a soldier, he must be
+given a place in the front rank of our greatest captains. There are not
+more than two or three to rank with him--certainly there is none to rank
+ahead of him.
+
+Robert Edward Lee was a son of that famous "Light Horse Harry" Lee to
+whose exploits during the Revolution we have already referred. He was
+born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1807, entered West Point at
+the age of eighteen, and graduated four years later, second in his
+class. His father had died ten years before, and his mother lived only
+long enough to welcome him home from the Academy. He was at once
+assigned to the engineer corps of the army, distinguished himself in the
+war with Mexico and served as superintendent of West Point from 1852 to
+1855.
+
+Meanwhile, at the age of twenty-four, he had married Mary Randolph,
+daughter of Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington, and
+great-grand-daughter of George Washington's wife. Miss Custis was a
+great heiress, and in time the estate of Arlington, situated on the
+heights across the Potomac from Washington, became hers and her
+husband's, but he nevertheless continued in the service. The marriage
+was a happy and fortunate one in every way, and Lee's home life was
+throughout a source of help and inspiration to him.
+
+In the autumn of 1859, while home on leave, he was ordered to assist in
+capturing John Brown, who had taken Harper's Ferry. At the head of a
+company of marines, he took Brown prisoner and, protecting him from a
+mob which would have lynched him, handed him over to the authorities.
+Two years later came the great trial of his life, when he was called
+upon to decide between North and South, between Virginia and the Union.
+
+Lee was not a believer in slavery; he had never owned slaves, and when
+Custis died in 1859, Lee had carried out the dead man's desire that all
+the slaves at Arlington should be freed. Neither was he a believer in
+secession; but, on the other hand, he questioned the North's right to
+invade and coerce the seceding states, and when Virginia joined them,
+and made him commander-in-chief of her army, he accepted the trust.
+Shortly before, at the instance of his fellow-Virginian, General Scott,
+he had been offered command of the Union army, but declined it, stating
+that, though opposed to secession and deprecating war, he could take no
+part in an invasion of the southern states.
+
+Curiously enough, the southern press, which was to end by idolizing him,
+began by abusing him. His first campaign was in western Virginia and was
+a woeful failure, due partly to the splendid way in which McClellan, on
+the Union side, managed it, and partly to blunders on the Confederate
+side for which Lee was in no way responsible; but the result was that
+that section of the state was lost to the Confederacy forever, and Lee
+got the blame. Even his friends feared that he had been over-rated, and
+he was sent away from the field of active hostilities to the far South,
+where he was assigned to command Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. He
+accepted the assignment without comment, and went to work immediately
+fortifying the coast, to such good purpose that his reputation was soon
+again firmly established. Early in 1862, he was recalled to Richmond to
+assist in its defense. He found his beautiful estate on the heights
+opposite Washington confiscated, his family exiled, his fortune gone.
+
+General Joseph E. Johnston was in command of the forces at Richmond, and
+was preparing to meet McClellan, who was slowly advancing up the
+peninsula. But Johnston was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, on May
+31, and on the following day, Lee assumed command of the army. He got it
+well in hand at once, sent Stuart on a raid around McClellan's lines,
+and gradually forced the Union army away from Richmond, until the
+capital of the Confederacy was no longer in danger. Flushed with
+success, Lee threw his army to the northeast against Pope, routed him,
+crossed the Potomac into Maryland, threatened Washington, and carried
+the war with a vengeance into the enemy's country. A more complete
+reversal of conditions could not be imagined; a month before, he had
+been engaged in a seemingly desperate effort to save Richmond; now he
+had started upon an invasion of the North which promised serious
+results.
+
+But things did not turn out as he expected. The inhabitants of Maryland
+did not rally to him, McClellan was soon after him with a great army,
+and on September 17, overtook him at Antietam, and fought a desperate
+battle; from which Lee, overwhelmed by an army half again as large as
+his own, was forced to withdraw defeated, though in good order, and
+recross the Potomac into Virginia. Three months later, he got his
+revenge in full measure at Fredericksburg, routing Burnside with fearful
+loss, and early in May of the following year scored heavily again by
+defeating Hooker at Chancellorsville. The last victory was a
+dearly-bought one, for it cost the life of that most famous of all
+American cavalry leaders, "Stonewall" Jackson, of whom we shall speak
+hereafter.
+
+That was the culmination of Lee's career, for two months after
+Chancellorsville, having started on another great invasion of the North,
+on the fourth day of July, 1863, he was forced to retire from the fierce
+battle of Gettysburg with his army seriously crippled and with all hope
+of invading the North at an end. He was on the defensive, after that,
+with Grant's great army gradually closing in upon him and drawing nearer
+and nearer to Richmond. That he was able to prolong this struggle for
+nearly two years, especially considering the exhausted state of the
+South, was remarkable to the last degree, eloquent testimony to the high
+order of his leadership. Toward the last, his men were in rags and
+practically starving, but there was no murmuring so long as their
+beloved "Marse Robert" was with them.
+
+On the ninth day of April, 1865, six days after the fall of Richmond,
+Lee found himself surrounded at Appomattox Courthouse by a vastly
+superior force under General Grant. To have fought would have meant a
+useless waste of human life. Lee chose the braver and harder course, and
+surrendered. He knew that there could be but one end to the struggle,
+and he was brave enough to admit defeat. On that occasion, Grant rose to
+the full stature of a hero. He treated his conquered foe with every
+courtesy; granted terms whose liberality was afterwards sharply
+criticised by the clique in control of Congress, but which Grant
+insisted should be carried out to the letter; sent the rations of his
+own army to the starving Confederates, and permitted them to retain
+their horses in order that they might get home, and have some means of
+earning a livelihood.
+
+[Illustration: LEE]
+
+When Lee rode back to his army, it was to be surrounded by his ragged
+soldiers, who could not believe that the end had come, who were ready to
+keep on fighting, and who broke down and sobbed like children when
+they learned the truth. The next day, he issued an address to his army,
+a dignified and worthy composition, which is still treasured in many a
+southern home; and then, mounting his faithful horse, Traveller, which
+had carried him through the war, he rode slowly away to Richmond. He was
+greeted everywhere with the wildest enthusiasm, and found himself then,
+as he has ever since remained, the idol and chosen hero of the southern
+people, who saw in him a unique and splendid embodiment of valor and
+virtue, second only to the first and greatest of all Virginians, and
+even surpassing him in the subtle qualities of the heart.
+
+As has been said, his fortune was gone, and it was necessary for him to
+earn a living. The opportunity soon came in the offer of the presidency
+of Washington College, at Lexington, where the remainder of his days
+were spent in honored quiet. Those five years of warfare, with their
+hardships and exposures, had brought on rheumatism of the heart, and the
+end came on October 12, 1870. He died dreaming of battle, and his last
+words were, "Tell Hill he _must_ come up!"
+
+Next to Lee in the hearts of the Southern soldiers was Thomas Jonathan
+Jackson, better known by the sobriquet of "Stonewall," which General Bee
+gave him during the first battle of Bull Run. Driven back by the Union
+onset, the Confederate left had retreated a mile or more, when it
+reached the plateau where Jackson and his brigade were stationed. The
+brigade never wavered, but stood fast and held the position.
+
+"See there!" shouted General Bee, "Jackson is standing like a stone
+wall. Rally on the Virginians!"
+
+Rally they did, and Jackson was ever thereafter known as "Stonewall."
+
+It was a good name, as representing not only his qualities of physical
+courage, but also his qualities of moral courage. There was something
+rock-like and immovable about him, even in his everyday affairs, and so
+"Stonewall" he remained.
+
+In some respects Stonewall Jackson was the most remarkable man whom the
+war made famous. A graduate of West Point, he had served through the
+Mexican war, and then, finding the army not to his liking, had resigned
+from the service to accept a professorship at the Virginia Military
+Institute. He made few friends, for he was of a silent and reserved
+disposition, and besides, he conducted a Sunday school for colored
+children. It is a fact worth noting that neither of the two great
+leaders of the Confederate armies believed in slavery, the one thing
+which they were fighting to defend. So Jackson's neighbors merely
+thought him queer, and left him to himself; certainly, none suspected
+that he was a genius.
+
+Yet a genius he was, and proved it. Enlisting as soon as the war began,
+and distinguishing himself, as we have seen, by holding back the Union
+charge at Bull Run, he was made a major-general after that battle, and
+a year later probably saved Richmond from capture by preventing the
+armies of Banks and McDowell from operating with McClellan, making one
+of the most brilliant campaigns of the war, overwhelming both his
+antagonists, and, leaving them stunned behind him, hastening to Richmond
+to assist Lee, arriving just in time to turn the tide of battle at
+Gaines Mills.
+
+As soon as McClellan had been beaten back from Richmond, Jackson
+returned to the Shenandoah valley, defeated Banks at Cedar Run, seized
+Pope's depot at Manassas, and held him on the ground until Lee came up,
+when Pope was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run. Two weeks
+later, Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, with thirteen thousand
+prisoners, seventy cannon, and a great quantity of stores; commanded the
+left wing of the Confederate army at Antietam, against which the corps
+of Hooker, Mansfield and Sumner hurled themselves in vain; and at
+Fredericksburg commanded the right wing, which repelled the attack of
+Franklin's division.
+
+These remarkable successes had established Jackson's reputation as a
+commander of unusual merit; he was promoted to lieutenant-general, and
+Lee came to rely upon him more and more. He had, too, by a certain high
+courage and charm of character, won the complete devotion of his men; to
+say that they loved him, that any one of them would have laid down his
+life for him, is but the simple truth. No other leader in the whole war,
+with the exception of Lee, who dwelt in a region high and apart, was
+idolized as he was. But his career was nearly ended, and, by the bitter
+irony of fate, he was to be killed by the very men who loved him.
+
+On the second day of May, 1863, Lee sent him on a long flanking movement
+around Hooker's army at Chancellorsville. Emerging from the woods
+towards evening, he surprised and routed Howard's corps, and between
+eight and nine o'clock rode forward with a small party beyond his own
+lines to reconnoitre the enemy's position. As he turned to ride back,
+his party was mistaken for Federal cavalrymen and a volley poured into
+it by a Confederate outpost. Several of the party were killed, and
+Jackson received three wounds. They were not in themselves fatal, but
+pneumonia followed, and death came eight days later.
+
+There was none to fill his place--it was as though Lee had lost his
+right arm. The result of the war would have been in no way different had
+he lived, but his death was an incalculable loss to the Confederacy. It
+was Lee's opinion that he would have won the battle of Gettysburg had he
+had Jackson with him, and this is more than probable, so evenly did
+victory and defeat hang in the balance there. But, even then, the North
+would have been far from conquered, and its superior resources and
+larger armies must have won in the end. Perhaps, after all, Jackson's
+death was, in a way, a blessing, since it shortened a struggle which, in
+any event, could have had but one result.
+
+Another heavy loss which the Confederacy suffered even earlier in the
+war was that of Albert Sidney Johnston, killed at the battle of Shiloh.
+Jefferson Davis said the cause of the South was lost when Johnston fell,
+but this was, of course, only a manner of speaking, for Johnston could
+not have saved it. Johnston had an adventurous career and saw a great
+deal of fighting before the Civil War began. Graduating at West Point in
+1826, he served as chief of staff to General Atkinson during the Black
+Hawk war, and then, joining the Texan revolutionists, served first as a
+private and then as commander of the Texan army. He commanded a regiment
+in the war with Mexico, and in 1857, led a successful expedition against
+the rebellious Mormons in Utah.
+
+His training, then, and an experience greater than any other commander
+in the Civil War started out with, fitted him for brilliant work from
+the very first. At the outbreak of the war, he was put by the
+Confederate government in command of the departments of Kentucky and
+Tennessee, and on April 6, 1862, swept down upon Grant's unprotected
+army at Shiloh. That battle might have ended in a disastrous defeat for
+the North but for the accident which deprived the Confederates of their
+commander. About the middle of the afternoon, while leading his men
+forward to the attack which was pressing the Federals back upon the
+river, he was struck by a bullet which severed an artery in the thigh.
+The wound was not a fatal, nor even a very serious one, and his life
+could have been saved had it been given immediate attention. But
+Johnston, carried away by the prospect of impending victory and the
+excitement of the fight, continued in the saddle cheering on his men,
+his life-blood pulsing away unheeded, until he sank unconscious into the
+arms of one of his officers. He was lifted to the ground and a surgeon
+hastily summoned. But it was too late.
+
+Johnston's death left the command of the army to General Pierre
+Beauregard, who had had the somewhat dubious honor of firing the first
+shot of the war against Fort Sumter and of capturing the little garrison
+which defended it. Beauregard was a West Point man, standing high in his
+class, and his work, previous to the war, was largely in the engineer
+corps. When the war began, he was superintendent of the academy at West
+Point, but resigned at once to join the South. After the capture of
+Sumter, he was ordered to Virginia and was in practical command at the
+first battle of Bull Run, which resulted in the rout of the Union
+forces. After that, he was sent to Tennessee, as second in command to
+Albert Sidney Johnston, and he succeeded to the command of the army on
+Johnston's death at Shiloh.
+
+The first day's fighting at Shiloh had resulted in a Confederate
+victory, but Beauregard was not able to maintain this advantage on the
+second day, and was finally compelled to draw off his forces. Grant
+pursued him, and Beauregard was forced to retreat far to the south
+before he was safe from capture. Two years later, he attempted to stop
+Sherman on his march to the sea, but was unable to do so, and, joining
+forces with Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered, to Sherman a few days after
+Appomattox.
+
+Joseph E. Johnston had been a classmate of Lee at West Point, and had
+seen much service before the Civil War began. He was aide-de-camp to
+General Scott in the Black Hawk war; and in the war with the Florida
+Indians, was brevetted for gallantry in rescuing the force he commanded
+from an ambush into which it had been lured, the fight being so
+desperate that, besides being wounded, no less than thirty bullets
+penetrated his clothes. In the war with Mexico he was thrice brevetted
+for gallantry, and was seriously wounded at Cerro Gordo and again at
+Chapultepec. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was
+quartermaster-general of the United States army, resigning that position
+to take service with the South.
+
+When McDowell advanced against Beauregard at Bull Run, Johnston, who was
+at Winchester, hastened with his army to the scene of battle, and this
+reinforcement, which McDowell had endeavored vainly to prevent, won the
+day for the Confederates. He remained in command at Richmond, opposing
+McClellan's advance up the peninsula, but was badly wounded at the
+battle of Seven Pines, and was incapacitated for duty for several
+months, Lee succeeding him in command of the army.
+
+Johnston was never again to gain any great victories, for he had in some
+way incurred the ill-will of Jefferson Davis, and was placed in one
+impossible position after another, sent to meet an enemy which always
+outnumbered him, and refused the assistance which he should have had.
+The last of these tasks was that of stopping Sherman's march to the sea,
+but Sherman had sixty thousand men to his seventeen thousand, and a
+battle was out of the question.
+
+After Lee's surrender, Davis fled south to Greensboro, where Johnston
+found him and advised that, since the war had been decided against them,
+it was their duty to end it without delay, as its further continuance
+could accomplish nothing and would be mere murder. To this Davis
+reluctantly agreed, and Johnston thereupon sought Sherman and made terms
+of surrender for his army and Beauregard's. The terms which Sherman
+granted were rejected by Congress as too liberal, and another agreement
+was drawn up, similar to the one which had been signed between Grant and
+Lee. It is worth remarking that the Union generals in the field were
+disposed to treat their fallen foes with greater charity and kindness
+than the politicians in Congress, who had never seen a battlefield, and
+who were concerned, not with succoring a needy brother, but with
+wringing every possible advantage from the situation.
+
+To two other southern commanders we must give passing mention before
+turning from this period of our history. First of these is James
+Longstreet, who had the reputation of being the hardest fighter in the
+Confederate service, whose men were devoted to him, and called him
+affectionately "Old Pete." The army always felt secure when "Old Pete"
+was with it; and, indeed, he did not seem to know how to retreat. He
+held the Confederate right at Bull Run, and the left at Fredericksburg;
+he saved Jackson from defeat by Pope, at the second battle of Bull Run;
+he was on the right at Gettysburg, and tried to dissuade Lee from the
+disastrous charge of the third day which resulted in Confederate defeat;
+he held the left at Chickamauga, did brilliant service in the
+Wilderness, and was included in the surrender at Appomattox. A sturdy
+and indomitable man, the Confederacy had good reason to be proud of him.
+
+The second is J.E.B. Stuart, as a cavalry leader second only to
+Jackson, and Sheridan, but with his reputation shadowed by a fatal
+mistake. He was a past master of the sudden and daring raid, and on more
+than one occasion carried consternation into the enemy's camp by a
+brilliant dash through it. One of his most successful raids was made
+around McClellan's army on the peninsula, shaking its sense of security
+and threatening its communications. On another occasion, he dashed into
+Pope's camp, captured his official correspondence and personal effects
+and made prisoners of several officers of his staff, Pope himself
+escaping only because he happened to be away from headquarters. The one
+shadow upon his military career, referred to above, was his absence from
+the field of Gettysburg.
+
+He was directed to take a position on the right of the Confederate army,
+but started away on a raid in the rear of the Federals, not expecting a
+battle to be fought at once, and he did not get back to the main army
+until the battle of Gettysburg had been lost. The absence of cavalry
+was a severe handicap to the Confederate army, and Lee always attributed
+his defeat to Stuart's absence; but Stuart maintained that he had acted
+under orders, and that the mistake was not his. He was killed in a fight
+with Sheridan's cavalry at Yellow Tavern, Virginia, a short time later.
+
+And here we must end the story of the great soldiers of the Confederacy.
+There were many others who fought well and bravely--Bragg, A.P. Hill,
+Magruder, Pemberton--but none of them attained the dimensions of a
+national figure. Weighing the merits of the leaders of the two armies,
+they would seem to be pretty evenly balanced. This was natural enough,
+since all of them had had practically the same training and experience,
+and, during the war, the same opportunities. Lee, Jackson and Johnston
+were fairly matched by Grant, Sheridan and Sherman.
+
+The Southern leaders, perhaps, showed more dash and vim than the
+Northern ones, for they waged a more desperate fight; but both sides
+fought with the highest valor, and if the war did not have for the North
+the poignant meaning it had for the South, it was because practically
+all of its battles were fought on southern soil, and the southern people
+saw their fair land devastated. In no instance did the North suffer any
+such burning humiliation as that inflicted on the South by Sherman in
+his march to the sea; at the close of the war, despite its sacrifice of
+blood and treasure, the North was more prosperous than it had been at
+the beginning, while the South lay prostrate and ruined. So to the North
+the war has receded into the vista of memory, while to the South it is a
+wound not yet wholly healed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There have been no great American soldiers since the Civil War--at
+least, there has been no chance for them to prove their greatness, for
+there is only one test of a soldier and that is the battlefield. When
+George A. Custer was ambushed and his command wiped out by the Sioux in
+1876, a wave of sorrow went over the land for the dashing, fair-haired
+leader and his devoted men; yet the very fact that he had led his men
+into a trap clouded such military reputation as he had gained during the
+last years of the war.
+
+The war with Spain was too brief to make any reputations, though it was
+long enough to ruin several. The man who gained most glory in that
+conflict was "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, veteran of Shiloh, of Murfreesboro,
+of Chickamauga, dashing like a gnat against Sherman's flanks, and
+annoying him mightily on that march to the sea; a southerner of the
+southerners, and yet with a great patriotism which sent him to the front
+in 1898, and a hard experience which enabled him to save the day at
+Santiago, when the general in command lay in a hammock far to the rear.
+
+Let us pause, too, for mention of Nelson A. Miles, who had volunteered
+at the opening of the Civil War, fought in every battle of the Army of
+the Potomac up to the surrender at Appomattox, been thrice wounded and
+as many times brevetted for gallantry; the conqueror of the Cheyenne,
+Comanche and Sioux Indians in the years following the war; and finally
+attaining the rank of commander-in-chief of the army of the United
+States; to find himself, as Winfield Scott had done, at odds politically
+with the head of the War Department and with the President, and kept at
+home when a war was raging. For the same reason as Scott had been,
+perhaps, since some of his admirers had talked of him for the
+presidency. He was released, at last, to command the expedition against
+Porto Rico, which resulted in the complete and speedy subjugation of
+that island. A careful and intelligent, if not a brilliant soldier, he
+is, perhaps, the most eminent figure which the years since the great
+rebellion have developed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Looking back over the military history of the country since its
+beginning, it is evident that America has produced no soldier of
+commanding genius--no soldier, for instance, to rank with Napoleon, who,
+at his prime, seemed able to compel victory; or with Frederick the
+Great, that past master of the art of war. Yet it should be remembered
+that both these men were soldiers all their lives, and that they stand
+practically unmatched in modern history. Of the next rank--the rank of
+Wellington and Von Moltke--we have, at least, three, Washington, Lee,
+and Grant; while to match such impetuous and fiery leaders as Ney, and
+Lannes, and Soult, we have Harry Lee, Marion, Sheridan, Jackson, and
+Albert Sidney Johnston. So America has no reason to blush for her
+military achievements--more especially since her history has been one of
+peace, save for fifteen years out of the one hundred and thirty-three of
+her existence.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+PUTNAM ISRAEL. Born at Salem, Massachusetts, January 7, 1718; served in
+French and Indian war, 1755-62; in Pontiac's war, 1764; one of the
+commanding officers at battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775;
+major-general in Continental army, 1775; took part in siege of Boston,
+1775-76; commanded at defeat on Long Island, August 27, 1776; commanded
+in high-lands of the Hudson, 1777; served in Connecticut, 1778-79;
+disabled by a stroke of paralysis, 1779; died at Brooklyn, Connecticut,
+May 19, 1790.
+
+GATES, HORATIO. Born at Maldon, England, in. 1728; served as captain
+under Braddock, 1755; settled in Berkeley County, Virginia;
+adjutant-general in Continental army, 1775; succeeded Schuyler as
+commander in the North, 1777; received Burgoyne's surrender, October 17,
+1777; President of the Board of War and Ordnance, November, 1777;
+appointed to command in the South, 1780; totally defeated by Cornwallis
+at Camden, South Carolina, August 16, 1780; succeeded by General Greene;
+died at New York City, April 10, 1806.
+
+ARNOLD, BENEDICT. Born at Norwich, Connecticut, January 14, 1741;
+commissioned colonel, 1775; took part in capture of Ticonderoga, 1775;
+commanded expedition against Quebec, 1775; made brigadier-general and
+commanded at a naval battle on Lake Champlain, 1776; decided the second
+battle of Saratoga, 1777; appointed commander of Philadelphia, 1778;
+tried by court-martial and reprimanded by Washington, 1780; appointed
+commander of West Point, 1780; treason discovered by Washington,
+September 23, 1780; conducted British expeditions against Virginia and
+Connecticut, 1781; died at London, June 14, 1801.
+
+GREENE, NATHANAEL. Born at Warwick, Rhode Island, May 24, 1742;
+distinguished himself at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown,
+and succeeded Gates in command of the southern army, 1780; conducted
+retreat from the Catawba to the Dan, 1781; won victories of Guildford
+Court House and Eutaw Springs, 1781; died near Savannah, Georgia, June
+19, 1786.
+
+MARION, FRANCIS. Born at Winyaw, South Carolina, 1732; a partisan leader
+in South Carolina, 1780-82; served at Eutaw Springs, 1781; died near
+Eutaw, South Carolina, February 27, 1795.
+
+SUMTER, THOMAS. Born in Virginia in 1734; in Braddock campaign, 1755;
+lieutenant-colonel of regiment of South Carolina riflemen, 1776;
+defeated Tories at Hanging Rock, August 6, 1780; defeated by Tarleton at
+Fishing Creek, August 18, 1780; defeated Tarleton at Blackstock Hill,
+November 20, 1780; member of Congress from South Carolina, 1789-93;
+senator, 1801-09; minister to Brazil, 1809-11; died near Camden, South
+Carolina, June 1, 1832.
+
+LEE, HENRY. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 29, 1756;
+distinguished in Revolution as commander of "Lee's Legion"; governor of
+Virginia, 1792-95; member of Congress, 1799-1801; died at Cumberland
+Island, Georgia, March 25, 1818.
+
+ST. CLAIR, ARTHUR. Born at Thurso, Scotland, 1734; served at Louisburg
+and at Quebec, 1758; resigned from British army and settled in Ligonier
+valley, Pennsylvania, 1764; appointed colonel, January 3, 1776;
+brigadier-general, August 9, 1776; organized New Jersey militia and
+participated in battles of Trenton and Princeton; major-general,
+February 19, 1777; succeeded Gates in command at Ticonderoga, and
+abandoned fort at approach of Burgoyne's army, July, 1777;
+court-martialed in consequence, 1778, and acquitted "with the highest
+honor"; succeeded Arnold in command of West Point, 1780; before Yorktown
+at surrender of Cornwallis, and in South till close of war; delegate to
+Continental Congress, 1785-87; governor of Northwest Territory,
+1789-1802; defeated by Indians near Miami villages, November 4, 1791;
+died at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1818.
+
+WAYNE, ANTHONY. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1745;
+member of Pennsylvania legislature, 1774; colonel of Pennsylvania troops
+in Canada, 1776; brigadier-general, 1777; served at Brandywine,
+Germantown, and Monmouth; stormed Stony Point, July 15, 1779; commanded
+at Green Spring, 1781; served at Yorktown; member of Congress from
+Georgia, 1791-92; appointed major-general and commander-in-chief of the
+army, 1792; won the battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794; negotiated treaty
+of Greenville, 1795; died at Erie, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1796.
+
+SCOTT, WINFIELD. Born near Petersburg, Virginia, June 13, 1786; admitted
+to the bar, 1806; entered United States army as captain, 1808; served in
+war of 1812, distinguishing himself at Queenstown Heights, Chippewa and
+Lundy's Lane; brigadier-general and brevet major-general, 1814; served
+against Seminoles and Creeks, 1835-37; major-general and
+commander-in-chief of the army, 1841; appointed to chief command in
+Mexico, 1847; took Vera Cruz, won battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras,
+Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec and entered City of Mexico,
+September 14, 1847; unsuccessful Whig candidate for President, 1852;
+retired from active service, 1861; died at West Point, New York, May 29,
+1866.
+
+MCLELLAN, GEORGE BRINTON. Born at Philadelphia, December 3, 1826;
+graduated at West Point, 1846; served in Mexican war, 1846-47; sent to
+Europe to observe Crimean war, 1855-56; in railroad business, 1857-61;
+major-general of volunteers, April, 1861; cleared West Virginia of
+Confederates, June and July, 1861; commander Department of the Potomac,
+August, 1861; organized Army of the Potomac and conducted Peninsula
+campaign, 1861-62; superseded by Burnside, November 7, 1862; Democratic
+candidate for President, 1864; governor of New Jersey, 1878-81; died at
+Orange, New Jersey, October 29, 1885.
+
+BURNSIDE, AMBROSE EVERETT. Born at Liberty, Indiana, May 23, 1824;
+captured Roanoke Island and Newbern, February-March, 1862; fought at
+Antietam, September 17, 1862; commanded Army of the Potomac, November
+7, 1862-January 26, 1863; defeated at Fredericksburg, December, 1862;
+governor of Rhode Island, 1867-69; senator, 1875-81; died at Bristol,
+Rhode Island, September 13, 1881.
+
+HOOKER, JOSEPH. Born at Hadley, Massachusetts, November 13, 1814;
+graduated at West Point, 1837; served as captain in Mexican war;
+brigadier-general, 1861; corps commander at South Mountain, Antietam,
+and Fredericksburg; commander of Army of the Potomac, January 25, 1863;
+defeated by Lee at Chancellorsville, May 2-3, 1863; relieved of command,
+June 27, 1863; served in Chattanooga campaign and with Sherman; died at
+Garden City, New York, October 31, 1879.
+
+SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH. Born at Lancaster, Ohio, February 8, 1820;
+graduated at West Point, 1840; served in California during Mexican war;
+colonel in Union army, 1861; brigadier-general, 1861; was at Bull Run
+and Shiloh, and made major-general of volunteers, May 1, 1862; served at
+Chattanooga and Vicksburg, won battles of Dalton, Resaca, Kenesaw
+Mountain, and Peachtree Creek; made major-general in regular army,
+August 12, 1864; occupied Atlanta, September 2, 1864; started on march
+to the sea, November 12, 1864; entered Savannah, December 21, 1864;
+received surrender of Johnston's army, April 26, 1865;
+lieutenant-general, 1866; general and commander of the army, 1869;
+retired, 1884; died at New York City, February 14, 1891.
+
+SHERIDAN, PHILIP HENRY. Born at Albany, New York, March 6, 1831;
+graduated at West Point, 1853; captain, 1861; colonel of cavalry, 1862;
+at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge; commander
+of cavalry corps of Army of the Potomac, April, 1864; at Wilderness,
+Hawe's Shop and Trevellian; won victories of Winchester, Fisher's Hill,
+Cedar Creek, and devastated Shenandoah Valley, 1864; major-general,
+November 8, 1864; commanded at Five Forks, March 31, April 1, 1865; took
+leading part in pursuit of Lee; lieutenant-general, 1867; succeeded
+Sherman as Commander-in-chief, 1883; general, 1888; died at Nonquith,
+Massachusetts, August 5, 1888.
+
+THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY. Born in Southampton County, Virginia, July 31,
+1816; graduated at West Point, 1840; served in Seminole and Mexican
+wars; brigadier-general of volunteers, August, 1861; at Mill Springs,
+Perryville and Murfreesboro; became famous for his defense of Union
+position at Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863; with Sherman in Georgia,
+1864; defeated Hood at Nashville, December 15-16, 1864; died at San
+Francisco, March 28, 1870.
+
+LEE, ROBERT EDWARD. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 19,
+1807; graduated at West Point, 1829; served with distinction in Mexican
+war; superintendent of West Point Academy, 1852-55; commanded forces
+which captured John Brown, 1859; resigned commission in United States
+Army, April, 1861; appointed major-general of Virginia forces, April,
+1861; commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, June 3, 1862;
+commanded in Seven Days' Battles, Manassas campaign, at Antietam and
+Fredericksburg, 1862; Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 1863; against
+Grant at Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, 1864-65;
+surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, April 9, 1865; president of
+Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, 1865-70; died at Lexington,
+Virginia, October 12, 1870.
+
+JACKSON, THOMAS JONATHAN. Born at Clarksburg, West Virginia, January 21,
+1824; graduated at West Point, 1846; served through Mexican war and
+resigned from army, 1851; professor of philosophy and artillery tactics
+Virginia Military Institute, 1851-61; joined Confederate army at opening
+of Civil War; brigadier-general at Bull Run, July 21, 1861;
+major-general, November, 1861; at Winchester, Cross Keys, Gaines's Mill,
+Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Harper's Ferry, Antietam and
+Fredericksburg, 1862; mortally wounded by his own men at
+Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863; died at Chancellorsville, Virginia, May
+10, 1863.
+
+JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY. Born at Washington, Mason County, Kentucky,
+February 3, 1803; graduated at West Point, 1826; served in Black Hawk
+war, 1832; resigned from army, 1834; enlisted as private in Texan army,
+1836; succeeded Felix Houston as commander of Texan army, 1837;
+secretary of war for Republic of Texas, 1838-40; served in Mexican war,
+1846-47; commanded successful expedition against revolted Mormons in
+Utah, 1857; appointed commander of Department of Kentucky and Tennessee
+in Confederate service, 1861; attacked Grant's army at Shiloh, April 6,
+1862, and killed there while leading his men.
+
+BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT. Born near New Orleans, May 23, 1818;
+graduated at West Point, 1838; served with distinction in Mexican war;
+superintendent of West Point Academy, 1860-61; resigned to accept
+appointment as brigadier-general in Confederate army, 1861; bombarded
+and captured Fort Sumter, April 12-14, 1861; commanded at battle of Bull
+Bun, July 21, 1861; general, 1861; assumed command of army at Shiloh on
+death of Johnston, April 6, 1862; surrendered to Sherman, 1865;
+president of New Orleans and Jackson Railroad Company, 1865-70;
+adjutant-general of Louisiana, 1878; died at New Orleans, February 20,
+1893.
+
+JOHNSTON, JOSEPH ECCLESTON. Born near Farmville, Virginia, February 3,
+1807; graduated at West Point, 1829; served in Mexican war, 1846-47;
+entered Confederate service as brigadier-general, 1861; took part in
+battle of Bull Run, opposed McClellan in Peninsular campaign, fought
+battles of Resaca and Dallas against Sherman, and surrendered to Sherman
+at Durham Station, North Carolina, April 26, 1865; member of Congress,
+1876-78; United States Commissioner of Railways, 1885-89; died at
+Washington, D.C., March 21, 1891.
+
+LONGSTREET, JAMES. Born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, January
+8, 1821; graduated at West Point, 1842; served in Mexican war, 1846-47;
+entered Confederate service as brigadier-general, 1861; promoted
+major-general, 1861; was present at second battle of Bull Run, Antietam,
+Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville and the Wilderness; United States
+minister to Turkey, 1880-81; United States Commissioner of Pacific
+Railroads, 1897; died January 2, 1904.
+
+STUART, JAMES EWELL BROWN. Born in Patrick County, Virginia, February 6,
+1833; graduated at West Point, 1854; entered Confederate service, 1861,
+and became leading cavalry officer in Army of Northern Virginia; at Bull
+Run, Peninsula, Manassas Junction, Antietam, Fredericksburg and
+Chancellorsville; mortally wounded at battle of Yellow Tavern, and died
+at Richmond, May 12, 1864.
+
+WHEELER, JOSEPH. Born in Augusta, Georgia, September 10, 1836; graduated
+at West Point, 1859; entered Confederate army as colonel; at Shiloh,
+Green River, Perryville; brigadier-general, 1862; major-general, 1863;
+at Murfreesboro, commanded cavalry at Chickamauga, fought Sherman almost
+daily on the march to the sea; included in Johnston's surrender, April
+26, 1865; member of Congress, from Alabama, 1881-99; appointed
+major-general of volunteers, U.S.A., May 4, 1898; in command of cavalry
+at Las Guasimas and before Santiago; in Philippine Islands, 1899-1900;
+died at Brooklyn, New York, January 25, 1906.
+
+MILES, NELSON APPLETON. Born at Westminster, Massachusetts, August 8,
+1839; entered Union army as volunteer, 1861, attaining rank of
+major-general of volunteers; enlisted in regular army at close of war,
+rising grade by grade to major-general, and commander-in-chief,
+1895-1903; conducted campaigns against Geronimo and Natchez, 1886; in
+command of United States troops at Chicago strike, 1884;
+lieutenant-general, June 6, 1900; retired, August 8, 1903.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GREAT SAILORS
+
+
+We have said that America has produced no soldier of commanding genius,
+but her sailors outrank the world. Even Great Britain, mighty seafaring
+nation as she has been, cannot, in the last hundred and fifty years,
+show any brighter galaxy of stars. Just why it would be difficult to
+say. Perhaps America inherited from England the traditions of that race
+of heroes who made the age of Elizabeth, so memorable on the ocean, and
+who started their country on her career as mistress of the
+seas--Raleigh, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, Gilbert, and Howard of
+Effingham.
+
+Surely in direct descent from these daring adventurers was that earliest
+of America's naval commanders, John Paul Jones, well called the "Founder
+of the American Navy." He it was who first carried the Stars and Stripes
+into foreign waters, and who made Europe to see that a new nation had
+arisen, in the west. He it was who first scouted the tradition of
+England's invincibility on the sea, and carried the war into her very
+ports. He it was who proved that American valor yielded no whit to
+British valor--who, when Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, asked if he
+had struck his colors, shouted back that he had not yet begun to fight,
+although his ship had been shot to pieces and was sinking; but who
+thereupon did begin, and to such good purpose that he captured his
+adversary and got his crew aboard her as his own ship sank. Truly a
+remarkable man and one worth looking at closely.
+
+In the middle of the eighteenth century, there lived in the county of
+Kirkcudbright, Scotland, a poor gardener named John Paul. He had a large
+family, and finding it no small task to feed so many mouths, accepted
+the offer of a distant relative named William Jones to adopt his oldest
+son, William, named in honor of that same relative. Jones owned a
+plantation in Virginia, and thither the boy accompanied him, being known
+thereafter as William Paul Jones. None of John Paul's numerous children,
+however, would have figured on the pages of history but for the youngest
+son, born in 1747, and named after his father, John Paul.
+
+Little John Paul had a short childhood, for as soon as he could handle a
+line, he was put to work with the fishermen on Solway Firth to help earn
+a living for the family. By the time that he was twelve years old, he
+was a first-class sailor, and had developed a love for the sea and a
+disregard of its perils which never left him. Securing his father's
+consent, he shipped as apprentice for a voyage to Virginia, and visited
+his brother, who was managing his adopted father's estate near
+Fredericksburg. The old planter took a great fancy to the boy, and
+offered to adopt him also, but young John Paul preferred the
+adventurous life of the ocean to humdrum existence on a Virginia
+plantation. For the next fifteen years, he followed the sea, studying
+navigation and naval history, French and Spanish, and fitting himself in
+every way for high rank in his profession.
+
+On the seventeenth of April, 1773, John Paul anchored his brig, the Two
+Friends, in the Rappahannock just below his brother's plantation, and
+rowed to shore to pay him a visit. He found him breathing his last. He
+died childless, and John Paul found himself heir to the estate, which
+was a considerable one. Resigning command of his vessel, he settled down
+to the life of a Virginia planter, adding to his name the last name of
+his family's benefactor, and being known thereafter as John Paul Jones.
+
+Events were at this time hurrying forward toward war with Great Britain;
+Virginia was in a ferment, and Paul Jones was soon caught up by this
+tide of patriotism. When, in 1775, the Congress decided to "equip a navy
+for the defence of American liberty," Jones at once offered his
+services, and was made a senior first lieutenant. It is amusing to run
+over the names of those first officers of the American navy. As was the
+case with the first generals, out of the whole list only two names live
+with any lustre--Paul Jones and Nicholas Biddle.
+
+Paul Jones was the first of these officers to receive his commission,
+John Hancock handing it to him in Independence Hall, Philadelphia,
+shortly after noon on December 22, 1775. Immediately afterwards, the
+new lieutenant, accompanied by a distinguished party, including Hancock
+and Thomas Jefferson, proceeded to the Chestnut street wharf, where the
+Alfred, the first American man-of-war was lying moored. Captain
+Saltonstall, who was to command the ship, had not yet arrived from
+Boston, and at Hancock's direction, Lieutenant Jones took command, and
+ran up the first American flag ever shown from the masthead of a
+man-of-war. It was not the Stars and Stripes, which had not yet been
+adopted as the flag of the United States, but a flag showing a
+rattlesnake coiled at the foot of a pine-tree, with the words, "Don't
+tread on me."
+
+Three other small vessels were soon placed in commission, and the
+squadron started out on its first cruise on February 17, 1776. Through
+the inexperience and incompetency of the officers, the cruise was a
+complete failure, and resulted in the dismissal of "Commander-in-Chief"
+Ezekial Hopkins, and the retirement of Jones's immediate superior,
+Captain Dudley Saltonstall. It was a striking example of how the first
+blast of battle winnows the wheat from the chaff, and its best result
+was to give Paul Jones a command of his own. Never thereafter was he
+forced to serve under an imbecile superior, but was always, to the end
+of his career, the ranking officer on his station.
+
+His first command was a small one, the sloop-of-war Providence, with
+fourteen guns and 107 men, but in six weeks he had captured sixteen
+prizes, of which eight were manned and sent to port, and eight
+destroyed at sea; was twice chased by frigates, escaping capture only by
+the most brilliant manoeuvring; and made two descents on the coast of
+Nova Scotia, releasing some American prisoners, capturing arms and
+ammunition, dispersing a force of Tories, and destroying a number of
+fishing smacks; and finally reached port again with a crew of
+forty-seven, all the rest having been told off to man his prizes.
+
+Work of so brilliant a description won instant recognition, especially
+as contrasted with the failure of the first cruise, and Jones was
+promoted to a captaincy, and the Alfred, a ship mounting twenty-eight
+guns, added to his command. A cruise of thirty-three days in these two
+vessels resulted in seven prizes, two of them armed transports loaded
+with supplies for the British army.
+
+Fired by these successes, Jones's great ambition was for a cruise along
+the coast of England. He argued that the time had come when the American
+flag should be shown in European waters, and that the moral effect of a
+descent upon the English coast would be tremendous. It would have this
+further advantage, that England was expecting no such attack, that her
+ports would be found unprepared for it, and that great damage to her
+shipping could probably be done. Lafayette, who had become a warm friend
+of the daring captain, heartily approved the plan, and on June 14, 1777,
+the Congress passed the following resolution:
+
+    _Resolved_, That the Flag of the Thirteen United States of America
+    be Thirteen Stripes, Alternate Red and White; that the Union be
+    Thirteen Stars in a Blue Field, Representing a New Constellation.
+
+    _Resolved_, That Captain John Paul Jones be Appointed to Command
+    the Ship Ranger.
+
+That these two acts should have been joined in one resolution seems a
+remarkable coincidence. "The flag and I are twins," Jones used to say;
+"we cannot be parted in life or death"; and it was this flag he carried
+with him when he sailed from Portsmouth in the dawn of the first day of
+November, 1777. Something else he carried, too--dispatches which had
+been placed in his hands only a few hours before, telling of Burgoyne's
+surrender. "I will spread the news in France in thirty days," Jones
+promised, as his ship cast loose, and he actually did land at Nantes
+thirty-one days later. The news he brought decided France in favor of an
+alliance with the United States, and the Treaty of Alliance was signed
+two months later.
+
+Jones, meanwhile, had overhauled and refitted his ship, and on the tenth
+of April, set sail from Brest, intending to make a complete circuit of
+the British Isles. Entering the Irish Sea, he spread terror along its
+shores, where his coming was like a bolt from the blue, engaged and
+captured the British ship-of-war Drake, took a number of prizes, and
+sailed into Brest again after an absence of twenty-eight days.
+
+It has been the fashion in some quarters to call Jones a pirate, but it
+is difficult to see any argument for such a characterization of him. He
+sailed under the flag of the United States, held a commission from the
+United States, and attacked an enemy with whom the United States was at
+war. There is no hint of piracy about that; but Jones came to be a sort
+of bogeyman to the coast towns of the British Isles, who never knew when
+to expect an attack from him, and no name was too hard for their
+frightened inhabitants to apply to him.
+
+But it was some time before Jones was able to strike another blow. He
+realized that he must have a more effective squadron for his second
+cruise, and more than a year was spent in getting it together. Finally,
+on August 14, 1779, he got to sea again with a squadron of four
+vessels--not a very effective one, but the best that could be had. The
+flagship was an unwieldy old Indiaman which Jones had named the Bon
+Homme Richard, in honor of his good friend, Benjamin Franklin, whose
+Poor Richard was almost as famous in France as in America. The other
+three ships were commanded by Frenchmen, and all the crews were of the
+most motley description. On September 23, the squadron sighted a great
+fleet of English merchantmen, under convoy of the Serapis, a powerful
+frigate mounting forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough,
+mounting twenty-eight. Jones signalled his squadron to give chase and
+himself closed with the Serapis.
+
+Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, was very willing for the contest, since
+his ship was greatly superior to Jones's old boat in fighting
+qualities; but Jones succeeded in depriving the Serapis of some of this
+advantage by running his vessel into her and lashing fast. So close did
+they lie that their yardarms interlocked, and their rigging was soon so
+fouled that Jones could not have got away, even had he wished to do so.
+For three hours the ships lay there, side by side, pouring broadsides
+into each other; their decks were soon covered with dead and wounded;
+two of the Richard's guns burst and her main battery was silenced, but
+Jones kept fighting on, for a time with so few guns that the captain of
+the Serapis thought he had surrendered.
+
+"Have you struck?" he shouted, through his trumpet.
+
+"No," Jones shouted back, "I have not yet begun to fight!"
+
+The Serapis was on fire and the Richard was sinking, but at this
+juncture, one of the men of the Richard crept out along a yardarm, and
+dropped a hand grenade down a hatchway of the Serapis. It wrought
+fearful havoc, and Pearson struck his flag.
+
+It was time, for the Richard was on fire in two places, all her
+main-deck guns were dismounted, and she was sinking fast. She was kept
+afloat with great difficulty until morning, giving Jones time to place
+his wounded on the Serapis, and to save such of her fittings as could be
+removed. The Pallas, another of Jones's ships, had captured the
+Scarborough, and with these prizes, Jones put back to France. He was
+welcomed with great enthusiasm there, received the thanks of the
+Congress, and was designated to command the ship-of-the-line then
+building. But he fought no more battles under the Stars and Stripes.
+After a brief service with Russia, he returned to Paris, broken in
+health, and died there in 1792. His body was only recently brought to
+this country and interred with national honors at Annapolis.
+
+We have said that there was only one other naval commander of the
+Revolution whose name shines with any lustre to-day--Nicholas Biddle.
+His career was a brief and brilliant one. Born in Philadelphia, he had
+gone to sea at the age of thirteen, was cast away on a desert island,
+was rescued, and enlisted in the English navy, but returned to America
+as soon as revolution threatened. He was given command of a little brig
+called the Andrea Doria, took a number of prizes, and made so good a
+record that in 1776 he was appointed to command the new frigate,
+Randolph. Using Charleston, South Carolina, as his base, he captured
+four prizes within a few days, but on his second cruise, fell in with a
+British sixty-four, the Yarmouth. After a sharp action of twenty
+minutes, fire got into the magazine of the Randolph, in some way, and
+she blew up, only four of her crew of 310 escaping. The blow was a heavy
+one to the American navy, for Biddle was its best commander, next to
+Jones, and the Randolph was its best ship. Luckily the French alliance
+placed the French fleet at the disposal of the colonies--or Cornwallis
+would never have been captured at Yorktown.
+
+It is one of our polite fictions that the United States has always been
+victorious in war; but, as a matter of fact, we were not victorious in
+the second war with England, and, when the treaty of peace came to be
+signed, abandoned practically all the contentions which war had been
+declared to maintain. On land, the war was, for the most part, a series
+of costly blunders, beginning with the surrender of Detroit, and closing
+with the sack of Washington, and had England had her hands free of
+Napoleon, the result for us might have been very serious. The only
+considerable and decisive victory won by American arms was that of
+Andrew Jackson at New Orleans--a battle fought after the treaty of peace
+had been signed.
+
+But on the ocean there was a different story--a series of brilliant
+victories which, while they did not seriously cripple the great English
+navy, caused Canning to declare in Parliament that "the sacred spell of
+the invincibility of the British navy is broken." The heaviest blow was
+struck to British commerce, no less than sixteen hundred English
+merchantmen falling victims to privateers and ships-of-war.
+
+The group of men who commanded the American vessels was a most
+remarkable one, and their fighting qualities were worthy in every way of
+John Paul Jones. First blood was drawn by David Porter, illustrious
+scion of a family which gave five generations to brilliant service in
+the navy. On August 13, 1812, Porter, with the Essex, engaged in a
+sharp battle with the British ship Alert, which, after an action of
+eight minutes, surrendered in a sinking condition. He had seen hard
+service before that, had been twice impressed by British vessels and
+twice escaped, had fought French and pirates, and spent some time in a
+prison in Tripoli.
+
+After his capture of the Alert, he went on a cruise in the Pacific,
+destroying the English whale fisheries there, capturing booty valued at
+two and a half million dollars, and taking four hundred prisoners. So
+great was the damage he inflicted, that a British squadron was fitted
+out and sent to the Pacific to capture him, found him in a partially
+disabled condition in the harbor of Valparaiso, and, disregarding the
+neutrality of the port, sailed in and attacked him. The engagement
+lasted two hours and a half, the Essex finally surrendering when reduced
+to a helpless wreck. On the Essex at the time was a midshipman aged
+twelve years, who got his first taste of fighting there, and whose name
+was destined to become, after that of Paul Jones, the most famous in
+American naval history--David Glasgow Farragut.
+
+Less than a week after Porter's victory over the Alert, another and much
+more important one was won by Captain Isaac Hull in the frigate
+Constitution--"Old Ironsides"--the most famous ship-of-war the navy has
+ever possessed. Isaac Hull was a nephew of General William Hull, who, on
+August 16, 1812, surrendered Detroit and his entire army to the British
+without striking a blow. Three days later, Isaac Hull, having sailed
+from Boston without orders, in his anxiety to meet the enemy and for
+fear the command of the Constitution would be given to some one else--a
+breach of discipline for which he would probably have been
+court-martialled and shot, had the cruise ended disastrously--fell in
+with the powerful British frigate Guerriere. Inscribed across the
+Guerriere's mainsail in huge red letters were the words:
+
+    All who meet me have a care,
+    I am England's Guerriere.
+
+She was a powerful vessel, but neither the vessel nor the menace
+frightened Hull, and he sailed straight for her, holding his fire until
+he was within fifty yards, when he let fly a broadside and then another,
+which sent two of her masts by the board, and the third soon followed,
+leaving her unmanageable. Within a very few minutes, under Hull's raking
+fire, she was reduced to a "perfect wreck"--so perfect, in fact, that
+she had to be blown up and sunk, as there was no chance of getting her
+back to port. The Constitution was practically uninjured, and Hull
+sailed back to Boston, with his ship crowded with British prisoners. He
+was welcomed with the wildest enthusiasm, banquets were given in his
+honor, swords voted him by state legislatures, New York ordered a
+portrait painted of him, and Congress gave him a gold medal. The War
+Department discreetly permitted his disobedience of orders to drop out
+of sight.
+
+Hull's victory was not the result of accident, but of long and careful
+training. He had begun his sea career in the merchant service at the age
+of fourteen, was a captain at the age of twenty, and entered the navy in
+1798. He soon gained a high reputation for seamanship, and his genius
+for handling a ship under all conditions was one of the most important
+factors in his success. He saved his ship on one occasion, when she was
+becalmed and practically surrounded by a powerful British fleet, by
+"kedging"--in other words, sending a row-boat out with an anchor, which
+was dropped as far ahead as the boat could take it, and the ship pulled
+up to it by means of the windlass. As soon as the British saw him doing
+this, they tried it too, but Hull managed to get away from them by
+almost superhuman exertions. He served in the navy for many years after
+his memorable victory over the Guerriere, but never achieved another so
+notable.
+
+The second capture of a British frigate in the war of 1812 was made by
+Stephen Decatur, who had distinguished himself years before by an
+exploit which Lord Nelson called "the most daring act of the age."
+Decatur, who possessed in unusual degree the dash and brilliance so
+valuable in a naval commander, came naturally by his love of the sea,
+for his grandfather had been an officer in the French navy, and his
+father was a captain in the navy of the United States.
+
+Entering the service at the age of eighteen, his first cruise was in the
+frigate, United States, which he was afterwards to command. He rose
+steadily in the service and got his first command six years later, being
+given the sixteen-gun brig Argus, and sent with Commodore Preble to
+assist in subduing the Barbary corsairs.
+
+It is difficult to-day to realize that there was a time when the United
+States paid tribute to anybody, more especially to a power so
+insignificant as the Barbary States. Yet such was the fact. Lying along
+the north coast of Africa were the half-civilized states of Morocco,
+Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, and most of their income was from piracy.
+All merchantmen were their prey; they divided the loot and sold the
+crews into slavery. Many nations, to secure immunity from these
+outrages, paid a stated sum yearly to these powers, and the United
+States was one of them.
+
+Why the nations did not join together and wipe the pirates out of
+existence is difficult to understand, but so it was. On one occasion,
+Congress actually revoked an order for some new ships for the navy, and
+used the appropriation to buy off the Barbary powers. The fund was known
+as the "Mediterranean Fund," and was intrusted to the secretary of state
+to expend as might be necessary. But after a while, the Barbary powers
+became so outrageous in their demands, that it occurred to the State
+Department that there might be another way of dealing with them, and a
+squadron under Commodore Preble was sent to the Mediterranean for the
+purpose.
+
+Shortly before he reached there, the U.S. frigate Philadelphia,
+commanded by Captain Bainbridge, had gone upon a reef just outside the
+harbor of Tripoli and had been surrounded and captured, with all her
+crew, by the Tripolitan gunboats. The Tripolitans got her off the rocks,
+towed her into the harbor, and anchored her close under the guns of
+their forts. They also strengthened her batteries, and prepared her for
+a cruise, which could not but have been disastrous to our shipping. It
+was evident that she must be destroyed before she got out of the harbor,
+and Stephen Decatur volunteered to lead a party into the harbor on this
+desperate mission. Commodore Preble hesitated to accept Decatur's offer,
+for he knew how greatly against success the odds were, but finally, in
+January, 1804, he told him to go ahead.
+
+A small vessel known as a ketch had recently been captured from the
+Tripolitans, and Decatur selected this in which to make the venture. He
+took seventy men from his own vessel, and, on the night of February 15,
+sailed boldly into the harbor of Tripoli. Let us pause for a minute to
+consider the odds against him. First there was the Philadelphia with her
+forty guns double-shotted and ready to fire; half a gunshot away was the
+Bashaw's castle, the mole and crown batteries, while within range were
+ten other batteries, mounting, all told, a hundred and fifteen guns.
+Between the Philadelphia and the shore lay a number of Tripolitan
+cruisers, galleys and gunboats. Into this hornet's nest, Decatur steered
+his little vessel of sixty tons, carrying four small guns, and having a
+crew of only seventy men.
+
+The Tripolitans saw the vessel entering the harbor, but supposed it to
+be one of their own until it was alongside the Philadelphia. Then there
+was a cry of "Americanos!" and a rush to quarters, but it was too late,
+for Decatur and his men swarmed up the side and over the rail of the
+Philadelphia, and charged the dismayed and panic-stricken Tripolitans.
+There was a short and desperate struggle, and five minutes later, the
+ship was cleared of the enemy.
+
+It was manifestly impossible to get the Philadelphia out of the harbor,
+so Decatur gave the order to burn her. Combustibles had been prepared in
+advance, and in a moment, flames began to break out in all parts of the
+ship. Then the order was given to return to the ketch, the cable was
+cut, the sweeps got out, and the ketch drew rapidly away from the
+burning vessel. The sounds of the melee had awakened the troops on
+shore, and, as the harbor was lighted by the flames from the
+Philadelphia, the shore batteries opened upon the little vessel, but
+without doing her any serious damage, and Decatur got safely out of the
+harbor and back to the fleet without losing a man.
+
+Shortly afterwards his life was saved by one of those acts of heroism
+which stir the blood. In a general attack upon the Tripolitan gunboats,
+Decatur laid his ship alongside one of the enemy, grappled with her and
+boarded. Decatur was the first over the side and a desperate
+hand-to-hand combat followed. The pirate captain, a gigantic fellow,
+soon met Decatur face to face, and stood on tiptoe to deal him a
+tremendous blow with his scimitar. Decatur rushed in under the swinging
+sword, grappled with him, and they fell to the deck together, when
+another Tripolitan raised his scimitar to deal the American a fatal
+blow. A young sailor named Reuben James, himself with both arms disabled
+from sword cuts, seeing his beloved captain's peril, interposed his own
+head beneath the descending sword and received a wound which marked him
+for life. An instant later, Decatur's crew rallied to him, killed the
+pirate captain and drove the remainder of his crew over the side into
+the sea.
+
+At the outbreak of the war of 1812, Decatur was given command of the
+United States, and on the morning of October 25, overhauled the British
+frigate Macedonian near the Canary Islands. Seventeen minutes later, the
+Macedonian, with a third of her crew dead, hauled down her colors.
+Decatur had lost only twelve men killed and wounded, and placing a crew
+aboard his prize, got her safely to New York. This victory was soon
+followed by disaster, for, securing command of the President, a frigate
+mounting forty-four guns, he attempted to get past the British blockade
+of New York harbor, but ran into a squadron of the enemy, and, after a
+running fight lasting thirty hours, was overhauled by a superior force
+and compelled to surrender. Decatur was taken captive to Bermuda, but
+was soon parolled, and, after commanding a squadron in the
+Mediterranean, built himself a house at Washington, expecting to spend
+the remainder of his days there in honorable retirement.
+
+But it was not to be. In 1816, Decatur, while a member of the board of
+navy commissioners, had occasion to censure Commodore James Barron.
+Barron considered himself insulted, and a long correspondence followed,
+which finally resulted in Barron challenging Decatur to fight a duel.
+Under the code of honor then in vogue, Decatur could do nothing but
+accept, and the meeting took place at Bladensburg, Maryland, March 22,
+1820. At the word "fire," Barron fell wounded in the hip, where Decatur
+had said he would shoot him, while Decatur himself received a wound in
+the abdomen from which he died that night. He was, all in all, one of
+the most brilliant and efficient men the navy ever boasted; and he will
+be remembered, too, for his immortal toast: "My country: may she be
+always right; but, right or wrong, my country!"
+
+Closely associated with Decatur in some of his exploits was William
+Bainbridge, as handsome, impetuous and daring a sailor as ever trod a
+deck. Bainbridge, who was five years younger than Decatur, began his
+seafaring career at the age of sixteen, and three years later was in
+command of a merchantman. He entered the navy at its reorganization in
+1798, and two years later was appointed to command the George
+Washington, a ship of twenty-eight guns.
+
+Bainbridge's first duty was to carry a tribute of half a million
+dollars to the Dey of Algiers, according to the arrangement made by the
+Secretary of State which we have already mentioned. The errand was a
+hateful one to Bainbridge, as it would have been to any American
+sailorman; but he was in the navy to obey orders, and in September,
+1800, he reached Algiers and anchored in the harbor and delivered the
+tribute. But when he had done this, the Dey sent word that he had a
+cargo of slaves and wild beasts for the Sultan of Turkey at
+Constantinople, and that Bainbridge must take them, or his ship would be
+taken from him and he and his crew sold into slavery.
+
+There was nothing to do but consent, since the ship was wholly in the
+Dey's power, so to Constantinople Bainbridge sailed her. When a boat was
+sent ashore there to announce her arrival, the Turks were greatly
+astonished, for they had never heard of a nation called the United
+States, and did not know that there was a great continent on the other
+side of the world. It makes us feel less self-important, sometimes, when
+we stop to consider that about one half the human race, even at the
+present day, have no idea of our existence.
+
+Well, Bainbridge delivered his cargo, and then sailed back to Algiers
+with orders from the Sultan to the Dey. He delivered these to the Dey,
+and in accordance with them, the Dey immediately declared war on France,
+and notified all the French in Algiers that if they had not left his
+dominions within forty-eight hours, they would be sold into slavery.
+There was no French ship in the harbor, and it looked, for a time, as
+though, the French would not be able to get away, but as soon as he
+learned of their predicament, Bainbridge gathered them together and took
+them over to Spain--an act for which he received the personal thanks of
+Napoleon Bonaparte.
+
+Bainbridge was, of course, glad to get away from Algiers, but he had by
+no means seen the last of the Barbary pirates. Returning to the United
+States, he was given command of the Philadelphia, and sent back to the
+Mediterranean with Commodore Preble's squadron to give the pirates a
+lesson. The Philadelphia went on ahead to Tripoli and began a vigorous
+blockade of that port, but, in chasing a Tripolitan vessel which was
+trying to enter the harbor, ran hard and fast on an uncharted reef, and
+keeled over so far that her guns were useless. The Tripolitans were not
+long in discovering her predicament, swarmed out of the harbor in their
+gunboats, and soon had the American vessel at their mercy.
+
+With what bitterness of spirit Bainbridge hauled down his flag may be
+imagined. He and his men were taken ashore and imprisoned and their
+vessel was got off the reef and towed into the harbor. From the window
+of their prison, the Americans could see her riding at anchor, flying
+the flag of Tripoli, and the sight did not render their imprisonment
+more pleasant. But one night, they heard shots in the harbor, and,
+looking out, beheld the Philadelphia in flames, and the little ketch
+bearing Decatur and his men fading rapidly away through the darkness
+toward the harbor mouth. Six months later, they watched the American
+assault upon the harbor, but their hearts fell when the American
+squadron finally gave up the attempt and withdrew. It was not until the
+following year that peace was made, and Bainbridge and his men released,
+after a captivity of nineteen months. Never since that time has the
+United States paid tribute to any nation.
+
+When the second war with England began, President Madison and his
+advisers thought it foolhardy to attempt to oppose Great Britain on the
+ocean, for she had the strongest fleet of any nation in the world, and
+so decided to confine the war entirely to land. It was Bainbridge who
+brought about a change of this unwise policy by impassioned pleading, to
+the everlasting glory of the American navy. Hull resigned the
+Constitution to him, after his victory over the Guerriere--it was really
+for fear that Bainbridge would get command of the ship that Hull had
+sailed from Boston without orders--and Bainbridge sailed for the South
+Atlantic, and captured the British frigate Java, after a terrific fight,
+in which he was himself seriously wounded. This was his last fight,
+though the years which followed saw him in many important commands. For
+sheer romance and adventure, his career has seldom been excelled.
+
+Another hero of the war of 1812, whose name is associated with a deed of
+imperishable gallantry, was James Lawrence. He had entered the navy as
+midshipman in 1798, at the age of eighteen, and served in the war
+against Tripoli, first under Hull and then under Decatur, and
+accompanied the latter on the expedition which destroyed the
+Philadelphia. But the deed by which he is best remembered is his fight
+with the British frigate Shannon. In the spring of 1813, he was assigned
+to the command of the frigate Chesapeake, a vessel hated by the whole
+navy because of the bad luck which seemed to pursue her. Lawrence
+accepted the command reluctantly, and proceeded to Boston, where she was
+lying, to prepare her for a voyage.
+
+A crew was secured with great difficulty, most of them being foreigners,
+and his officers were all young and inexperienced. What the crew and
+officers alike needed was a practice cruise to put them in shape to meet
+the enemy, and Lawrence knew this better than anybody, but when the
+British frigate Shannon appeared outside the harbor with a challenge for
+a battle, Lawrence, feeling that to refuse would be dishonorable,
+hoisted anchor and sailed out to meet her.
+
+The Shannon was one of the finest frigates in the English navy, manned
+by an experienced crew, and commanded by Philip Broke, one of the best
+officers serving under the Union Jack. The ships ranged up together and
+broadsides were delivered with terrible effect. Lawrence was wounded in
+the leg, but kept the deck. Then the ships fouled, and Lawrence called
+for boarders, but his crew, frightened at the desperate nature of the
+conflict, did not respond, and a moment later he fell, shot through the
+body. As he was borne below, he kept shouting, "Don't give up the ship!
+Fight her till she strikes or sinks! Don't give up the ship!" his voice
+growing weaker and weaker as his life ebbed away.
+
+The battle was soon over, after that, for the British boarded, the
+Chesapeake's foreign crew threw down their arms, and the triumphant
+enemy hauled down the Chesapeake's flag. A few days later, the two ships
+sailed into the harbor of Halifax, Lawrence's body, wrapped in his
+ship's flag, lying in state on the quarter-deck. He was buried with
+military honors, first at Halifax, and then at New York, where Hull,
+Stewart and Bainbridge were among those who carried the pall. His cry,
+"Don't give up the ship!" was to be the motto of another battle, far to
+the west, where Great Britain experienced the greatest defeat of the
+war.
+
+Before describing it, however, let us speak briefly of four other
+valiant men, whose deeds redounded to the honor of their country--Edward
+Preble, Charles Stewart, Johnston Blakeley, and Thomas Macdonough. It
+was said of Preble that he had the worst temper and the best heart in
+the world. At sixteen years of age he ran away to sea, and two years
+later, he actually saw a sea-serpent, a hundred and fifty feet in length
+and as big around as a barrel, and got close enough to fire at it. He
+saw service in the Revolution, and in 1803, was appointed to command the
+expedition against the Barbary corsairs, of which we have already
+spoken, and which resulted in bringing those pirates to their knees.
+The trials of that expedition ruined his health, and he survived it but
+a few years.
+
+To Charles Stewart belongs the remarkable exploit of engaging and
+capturing two British ships at the same time. Enlisting in 1798, he was
+with Preble at Tripoli, and was given command of the Constitution, after
+Bainbridge's successful cruise in her, and started out in search of
+adventure on December 17, 1814. Two months later, off the Madeira
+Islands he sighted two British ships-of-war and at once gave chase. He
+overhauled them at nightfall, and, running between them, gave them
+broadside after broadside, until both struck their colors. They were the
+Cyane and the Levant. Stewart got back to New York the middle of May to
+find out that peace had been declared over a month before his encounter
+with the British ships.
+
+He was received with enthusiasm, and "Old Ironsides" got the reputation
+of being invincible. Her career had, indeed, been remarkable. She had
+done splendid work before Tripoli, escaped twice from British squadrons
+and seven times run the blockade through strong British fleets; she had
+captured three frigates and a sloop-of-war, besides many merchantmen,
+and had taken more than eleven hundred prisoners. From all of these
+engagements she had emerged practically unscathed, and in none of them
+had she lost more than nine men. Stewart was the last survivor of the
+great captains of 1812, living until 1869, having been carried on the
+navy list for seventy-one years.
+
+Johnston Blakeley was a South Carolinian, and won renown by a remarkable
+cruise in the Wasp. The Wasp was a stout and speedy sloop, carrying
+twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and seventy men, and in 1814
+she sailed from the United States, and headed for the English Channel,
+to carry the war into the enemy's country, after the fashion of Paul
+Jones. The Channel, of course, was traversed constantly by English
+fleets and squadrons and single ships-of-war, and here the Wasp sailed
+up and down, capturing and destroying merchantmen, and, by the skill and
+vigilance of her crew and commander, escaping an encounter with any
+frigate or ship-of-the-line.
+
+But one June morning, while chasing two merchantmen, she sighted the
+British brig Reindeer, and at once prepared for action. The Reindeer
+accepted the challenge, and after some broadsides had been exchanged,
+the ships fouled and the British boarded. A desperate struggle followed,
+in which the English commander was killed. Then the boarders were driven
+back, and the Americans boarded in their turn, and in a minute had the
+Reindeer in their possession. Her colors were hauled down, she was set
+afire, and the Wasp continued her cruise.
+
+Late one September afternoon, British ships of war appeared all around
+her, and selecting one which seemed isolated from the others, Captain
+Blakeley decided to try to run alongside and sink her after nightfall.
+She was the eighteen-gun brig Avon, a bigger ship than the Wasp, but
+Blakeley ran alongside, discharged his broadsides, and soon had the
+Avon in a sinking condition. She struck her flag, but before Blakeley
+could secure his prize, two other British ships came up and he was
+forced to flee.
+
+Soon afterwards, he encountered a convoy of ships bearing arms and
+munitions to Wellington's army, under the care of a great three-decker.
+Blakeley sailed boldly in, and, evading the three-decker's movements,
+actually cut out and captured one of the transports and made his escape.
+Then she sailed for home, and that was the last ever heard of the Wasp.
+She never again appeared, and her fate has never been determined. But
+when she sank, if sink she did, there went to the bottom one of the
+gallantest ships and bravest captains in the American navy.
+
+All of the battles which we have thus far described were fought on salt
+water, but two great victories were won on inland waters, and of one of
+these Thomas Macdonough was the hero. He had entered the navy in 1800,
+at the age of seventeen, served before Tripoli, and accompanied Decatur
+on the expedition which burned the Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the
+second war with England, he was sent to Lake Champlain, and set about
+the building of a fleet to repel the expected British invasion from
+Canada. The British were also busy at the other end of the lake, and on
+September 9, 1814, Macdonough sailed his fleet of fourteen boats, ten of
+which were small gunboats, and the largest of which, the Saratoga, was
+merely a corvette, into Plattsburg Bay, and anchored there.
+
+The abdication of Napoleon had enabled England to turn her undivided
+attention to America, and one great force was sent against New Orleans,
+while another was concentrated in Canada, for the purpose of invading
+New York by way of Lake Champlain. On this latter enterprise, a force of
+twelve thousand regulars started from Montreal early in August, while
+the British naval force on the lake was augmented to nineteen vessels.
+On September 11, this fleet got under way, and, certain of victory,
+sailed into Plattsburg Bay and attacked Macdonough. A terrific battle
+followed, in which the Saratoga had every gun on one side disabled and
+had to wear around under fire in order to use those on the other side.
+But three hours later, every British flag had been struck, and the land
+force, seeing their navy defeated, retreated hastily to Canada. So
+riddled were both squadrons that in neither of them did a mast remain
+upon which sail could be made.
+
+But the greatest victory of the war, the one which had the most
+important and far-reaching consequences, had been won a year before, far
+to the west, on the blue waters of Lake Erie, by Oliver Hazard Perry, at
+that time only twenty-eight years of age. Perry came of a seafaring
+stock, for his father was a captain in the navy, and the boy's first
+voyage was made with him in 1799. At the outbreak of the war of 1812, he
+was in command of a division of gunboats at Newport, but finding that,
+owing to the British blockade, there was little chance of his seeing
+active service in that position, he asked to be sent to the Great
+Lakes, whose possession we were preparing to dispute with England.
+
+The importance of this mission can hardly be overestimated. By the
+capture of Detroit, earlier in the war, the English had obtained
+undisputed control of Lake Erie, and were in position to carry out their
+plan of extending the Dominion of Canada along the Ohio and Mississippi
+rivers down to the Gulf, and so shutting in the United States upon the
+West. To Perry was assigned the task of stopping this project, and of
+regaining control of the lake.
+
+He arrived at Lake Erie in the spring of 1813, and proceeded at once to
+build the fleet which was to sail under the Stars and Stripes. He showed
+the utmost skill and energy in doing this, and by the middle of July, in
+spite of many difficulties, had nine vessels ready to meet the
+enemy--two brigs and two gunboats which he had built, and five small
+boats which were brought up from the Niagara river. On the third of
+August, he sailed out to meet the British, his ships being manned by a
+motley crew of "blacks, soldiers, and boys."
+
+The flagship had been named the Lawrence, after the heroic commander of
+the Chesapeake. Luckily the English were not ready for battle, and Perry
+had a month in which to drill his men before the enemy sailed out to
+meet him. At last, on the morning of Saturday, September 10, 1813, the
+British fleet was seen approaching, and Perry formed his ships in line
+of battle.
+
+The British squadron consisted of six vessels, mounting 63 guns, and
+manned by 502 men. The American ships mounted 54 guns, with 490 men.
+Although of smaller total weight than the American guns, the British
+guns were longer and would carry farther, and so were much more
+effective. The British crews, too, were better disciplined, a large
+number of the men being from the royal navy, and the squadron was
+commanded by Robert Heriot, a man of much experience, who had fought
+under Nelson at Trafalgar.
+
+The American shore was lined with an anxious crowd, who appreciated the
+great issues which hung upon the battle. Perry, calling his men aft,
+produced a blue banner bearing in white letters the last words of the
+man after whom the Lawrence was named: "Don't give up the ship!"
+
+"Shall I hoist it, boys?" he asked.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" they shouted, and the bunting was run up to the
+main-royal masthead. Then a hush fell upon the water as the two fleets
+drew together. A few minutes before noon the engagement began, Perry
+heading straight for the flagship of the enemy, and drawing the fire of
+practically the whole British squadron by running ahead of the other
+ships, which, owing to the light breeze, could not get within range. For
+two hours, he fought against these hopeless odds, and almost without
+support, until his ship was reduced to a wreck and only one of her guns
+could be worked, while of her crew of 103, only twenty were left on
+their feet. Every nook and corner of the brig was occupied by some
+wounded and dying wretch seeking vainly to find shelter from the British
+fire. Even the cockpit, where the wounded were carried for treatment,
+was not safe, for some of the men were killed while under the surgeon's
+hands. No fewer than six cannon balls passed through the cockpit, while
+two went through the magazine, which, by some miracle, did not explode.
+The ship was so disabled, at last, that it drifted out of action, and
+Perry, taking his pennant and the blue flag bearing the words "Don't
+give up the ship!" under his arm, got into a boat with four seamen, and
+started for the Niagara, his other brig.
+
+The British saw the little boat dancing over the waves, and after a
+moment of dazed astonishment at a manoeuvre unheard of in naval warfare
+and daring almost to madness, concentrated their fire on it. One cannon
+ball penetrated the boat, but Perry, stripping off his coat, stuffed it
+into the hole and so kept the boat afloat until the Niagara was reached.
+Clambering on board, Perry ran up his flags, reformed his line, closed
+with the enemy, raked them, engaged them at close quarters, where their
+long guns gave them no advantage, and conducted an onslaught so terrific
+that, twenty minutes later, the entire British squadron had hauled down
+their flags.
+
+Perry at once rowed back to the Lawrence, and upon her splintered and
+bloodstained deck, received the surrender of the British officers. Then,
+using his cap for a desk, he wrote with a pencil on the back of an old
+letter the famous message announcing the victory: "We have met the enemy
+and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, two schooners and one sloop."
+More than that was ours, for the victory, and the prompt advance of
+General Harrison which followed it, compelled the British to evacuate
+Detroit and Michigan, and to abandon forever the attempt to annex the
+West to Canada. Half a century later, when the great Erie canal was
+opened, the guns of Perry's fleet, placed at ten-mile intervals along
+its banks, announced the departure of the first fleet of boats from
+Buffalo, carrying the news to New York City, a distance of 360 miles, in
+an hour and twenty minutes.
+
+Perry lived only six years longer, dying while still a young man, in the
+saddest possible manner. In June, 1819, he was given command of a
+squadron designed to protect American trade in South American waters,
+and while ascending the Orinoco, contracted the yellow fever, and died a
+few days later. He was buried at Trinidad, but some years afterwards, a
+ship-of-war brought him home, and he sleeps at Newport, Rhode Island,
+near the spot where he was born.
+
+So ends the story of that group of naval commanders, who dealt so
+surprising and terrific a blow at the tradition of English supremacy on
+the ocean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The brother of the victor of Lake Erie, Matthew Calbraith Perry, must
+also be mentioned here, for his was a unique achievement--the peaceful
+conquest of a great Eastern empire. Born in 1794, and educated in the
+best traditions of the navy, he was selected to command the expedition
+which, in 1853, was ordered to visit Japan, that strange nation of the
+Orient which, up to that time, had kept her ports closed to foreign
+commerce. Perry's conduct of this delicate mission was notable in the
+extreme, and its result was the signing of a treaty between Japan and
+the United States which has long been regarded as one of the greatest
+diplomatic triumphs of the age.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the spring of 1861, a captain of the United States navy was living at
+Norfolk, Va., his home, the home of his wife's family, and the home of
+his closest friends. Excitement ran high, for it was as yet an open
+question whether or not the great state of Virginia would join her
+sisters farther south and renounce her allegiance to the Union. It was a
+time of searching of hearts, and this man of sixty years was brought
+face to face with the bitterest moment of his life. He must choose
+between his country and his state; between his flag and the love and
+respect of his relatives and friends.
+
+In the end, the flag won. It was the flag he had taken his boyish oath
+to honor; on more than one occasion, he had seen the haughtiest colors
+on the ocean bow with respect before it; he had seen men, writhing in
+the agony of death, expend their last breath to defend it. It had
+wrapped itself about his heart, and meant more to him than home or
+friends or kindred. So the flag won.
+
+On the seventeenth day of April, 1861, Virginia seceded from the Union.
+The day following, our gray-haired captain, expressing the opinion that
+secession was not the will of the majority of the people, but that the
+state had been dragooned out of the Union by a coterie of politicians,
+was told that he could no longer live in Norfolk.
+
+"Very well," he answered, "I can live somewhere else."
+
+He went home and told his wife that the time had come when she must
+choose whether she would remain with her own kinsfolk or follow him. Her
+choice was made on the instant, and within two hours, David Glasgow
+Farragut, his wife and their only son, were on a steamer headed for the
+North. A few days later, he offered his services to the Union.
+
+Before going forward with him upon his great career, let us cast a
+glance over his boyhood--such a boyhood as falls to the lot of not one
+in a million. Born in 1801, of a father who had served in the Revolution
+and who was afterwards to become a friend and companion of Andrew
+Jackson, his childhood was passed amid the dangers and alarms of the
+Tennessee frontier. In 1808 occurred the incident which paved the way
+for his entrance into the navy. While fishing on Lake Pontchartrain, his
+father fell in with a boat in which was lying an old man prostrated by
+the heat of the sun. Farragut took him at once to his own home, where he
+was tenderly cared for, but he died a few days later. The sufferer was
+David Porter, father of Captain Porter of the Essex, at that time in
+charge of the naval station at New Orleans.
+
+Captain Porter was informed of the accident to his father, and hastened
+to the home of the Farraguts. He felt deeply their kindness, and as some
+slight return, offered to adopt one of the Farragut children, take him
+North with him, and do what he could for his advancement. Young David
+promptly said that he would go, the arrangements were concluded, and the
+boy of seven accompanied his new protector to Washington. He spent two
+years at school there, and then, on December 17, 1810, at the age of
+nine, received an appointment as midshipman in the United States navy.
+Two years later, he accompanied Porter in the Essex on that memorable
+trip around Cape Horn.
+
+Porter took so many prizes in the South Pacific that his supply of older
+officers ran out, and twelve-year old David Farragut was appointed
+prize-master of one of them, with orders to take her to Valparaiso. When
+Farragut gave his first order, her skipper, a hot-tempered old sea-dog,
+flew into a rage, and declaring that he had "no idea of trusting himself
+with a blamed nutshell," rushed below for his pistols. The
+twelve-year-old commander shouted after him that, if he came on deck
+again, he would be thrown overboard, and thenceforth was master of the
+ship. He was back on the Essex again when she was attacked in Valparaiso
+harbor by a British squadron, and got his baptism of fire in one of the
+hardest-fought naval battles in history.
+
+From that time until the outbreak of the Civil War, his life was spent
+in the most active service, and he rose to the rank of captain. As has
+been seen, he cast in his lot with the North, and asked for active duty
+at once, but it was not until eight months later that the summons came.
+When it did come, it was of a nature to fill him with the most unbounded
+enthusiasm. The national government had determined to attempt to send a
+fleet past the formidable forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, for the
+purpose of capturing New Orleans. Farragut was sent for, shown the list
+of vessels which were preparing for the expedition, and asked if he
+thought it could succeed. He answered that he would undertake to do it
+with two-thirds the number, and when he was told that he was to command
+the expedition, his delight knew no bounds. He felt that his chance had
+come. On the second of February, 1862, he sailed out of Hampton Roads
+with a squadron of seventeen vessels, and turned his prow to the south.
+
+The task which had been set him was one to give the stoutest heart
+pause. Twenty miles above the mouth of the Mississippi were two
+formidable forts and a number of water batteries, with combined
+armaments greatly superior to those of Farragut's fleet. A great barrier
+of logs stretched across the river, while farther up lay a Confederate
+fleet of fifteen vessels, one of which was an ironclad ram. A strong
+force of Confederate sharpshooters was stationed along either bank, and
+a number of fire-rafts were ready to be lighted and sent down against
+the Union fleet. It was against these obstacles that Farragut, after a
+week of preliminary attack, started up the river in his wooden vessels
+at three o'clock in the morning of April 24, 1862.
+
+As soon as the Confederates descried the advancing fleet, they lighted
+great fires along the banks and opened a terrific cannonade. Blazing
+fire-rafts threw a lurid glare against the sky. The fleet, pausing a few
+minutes to discharge their broadsides into the forts, steamed on up the
+river; Farragut's flagship grounded under the guns of Fort St. Philip,
+and a fireship, blazing a hundred feet in the air, floated against her
+and set her on fire, but the flames were extinguished, the flagship
+backed off, and headed again up the stream. Before the coming of dawn,
+the entire fleet, with the exception of three small boats, had passed
+the forts and were grappling with the Confederate squadron above. Of
+this, short work was made. Some of the enemy's vessels were driven
+ashore, some were run down, others were riddled with shot--and the
+proudest city of the South lay at Farragut's mercy.
+
+On the first day of May, the United States troops under General Butler,
+marched into the city, and Farragut, glad to be relieved of an
+unpleasant task, proceeded up the river, ran by the batteries at
+Vicksburg, assisted at the reduction of Port Hudson, and finally sailed
+for New York in his flagship, the Hartford, arriving there in August,
+1863. He had already been commissioned rear-admiral, and he was given a
+most enthusiastic reception, for his passage of the Mississippi was
+recognized as an extraordinary feat. An examination of his ship showed
+that she had been struck 240 times by shot and shell in her nineteen
+months of service.
+
+Immediately after the surrender of New Orleans, Farragut had desired to
+proceed against the port of Mobile, Alabama, which was so strongly
+fortified that all attempts to close it had been in vain, and which was
+the only important port left open to the Confederates. But the
+government decided that Mobile could wait a while, and sent him,
+instead, to open the Mississippi. That task accomplished, the time had
+come for him to attempt the greatest of his career--greater, even, than
+his capture of New Orleans, and much more hazardous. In the spring of
+1864, he was in the Gulf, preparing for the great enterprise.
+
+Mobile harbor was defended by works so strong and well-placed that it
+was considered well-nigh impregnable. The Confederates had realized the
+importance of keeping this, their last port, open, so that they could
+communicate with the outer world, and had spared no pains to render it
+so strong that they believed no attack could subdue it. Two great forts,
+armed with heavy and effective artillery, guarded the entrance; the
+winding channel was filled with torpedoes, and in the inner harbor was a
+fleet of gunboats, and, most powerful of all, the big, ironclad ram,
+Tennessee. In charge of the Tennessee was the same man who had guided
+the Merrimac on her fatal visit to Hampton Roads, Franklin Buchanan, but
+the Tennessee was a much more powerful vessel than the Merrimac had ever
+been, and it was thought that nothing afloat could stand against her.
+
+It was this position, then, which, at daybreak of August 5, 1864,
+Farragut sailed in to assault. His fleet consisted of four ironclad
+monitors, and fourteen wooden vessels, and his preparations were made
+most carefully, for he fully realized the gravity of the task before
+him. He himself was in his old flagship, the Hartford, and mounting into
+the rigging to be above the smoke, he was lashed fast there, so that he
+would not fall to the deck, in case a bullet struck him. The thought of
+that brave old leader taking that exposed position so that he might
+handle his fleet more ably will always be a thrilling one--and the event
+proved how wise he was in choosing it.
+
+The word was given, and, at half past six in the morning, the monitors
+took their stations, while the wooden ships formed in column, the plan
+being for the monitors, with their iron sides, to steam in between the
+wooden ships and the forts, and so protect them as much as possible. The
+light vessels were lashed each to the left of one of the heavier ones,
+so that each pair of ships was given a double chance to escape, should
+one be rendered helpless by a shot in the boiler, or in some other vital
+portion of her machinery. The Brooklyn was at the head of the column,
+while the Hartford came second, and the others followed. In this order,
+the fleet advanced to the attack.
+
+There was an unwonted stillness on the ships as they swung in towards
+the harbor mouth, for every man felt within him a vague unrest caused by
+one awful and mysterious peril, the torpedoes. For the forts, the
+gunboats, even the great ironclad, the men cared nothing--they had met
+such perils before--but lurking beneath the water was a horror not to be
+guarded against. They knew that these deadly mines were scattered along
+the channel through which they must make their way, and that any moment
+might be the end of some proud vessel.
+
+The ships were all in fighting trim, with spars housed and canvas
+furled, and decks spread with sawdust so that they would not grow
+slippery with the blood which was soon to flow. As the fleet came within
+range of the forts, a terrific cannonade began, in which the Confederate
+ships, stationed just inside the harbor, soon joined. One of them was
+the great ram, Tennessee, and the commander of the leading monitor, the
+Tecumseh, noted her and determined to give her battle. So he swung his
+ship toward her and ordered full steam ahead; but an instant later,
+there came a sudden dull roar, an uplifting of the water, the boat
+quivered from stem to stern, and then plunged, bow first, beneath the
+waves.
+
+Farragut, from his lofty station, saw the Tecumseh disappear, and then
+saw the Brooklyn, the ship ahead of him in the battle line, stop and
+begin to back. It was an awful moment--the crisis of the fight and of
+Farragut's career as well. The ships were halted in a narrow channel,
+right beneath the forts; a few moments' delay meant that they would be
+blown out of the water.
+
+"What's the matter there?" he roared.
+
+"Torpedoes!" came the cry from the Brooklyn's deck, for her captain had
+perceived a line of little buoys stretching right across her path.
+
+"Damn the torpedoes!" shouted the admiral. "Go ahead, Captain Drayton,"
+he continued, addressing his own captain. "Four bells!" and the
+Hartford, swinging aside, cleared the Brooklyn and took the lead.
+
+On went the flagship across the line of torpedoes, which could be heard
+knocking against her bottom as she passed, but not one of them exploded,
+and a moment later, one of the most daring feats in naval history had
+been accomplished. Farragut had seen, instantly, that the risk must be
+taken, and so he took it.
+
+The remainder of the fleet followed the flagship, the forts were passed,
+and the battle virtually won. The Confederate fleet, and especially the
+great ram, was still to be reckoned with, but before proceeding to that
+portion of the task, Farragut steamed up the harbor and served breakfast
+to his men. Just as this was finished, the Tennessee attacked, and put
+up a desperate fight, but finally became unmanageable and was forced to
+surrender.
+
+So ended the battle of Mobile Bay. It left Farragut's fame secure as one
+of the greatest sea-captains of all time; great in daring, in skill, in
+foresight, and with a coolness and presence of mind which no peril
+could shake. Congress created for him the grade of admiral, before
+unknown in the United States navy, and the whole country joined in
+honoring him.
+
+Swinging to and fro with the ebb and flow of the tide at the entrance of
+Mobile Bay, is a buoy which marks the spot of a deed of purest heroism.
+A few fathoms below that buoy lies the monitor Tecumseh, sunk by a
+torpedo at the beginning of the battle, as we have seen, and the buoy
+commemorates, not the sinking of the ship, but the self-sacrifice of her
+commander, Tunis Augustus Craven.
+
+Craven had entered the navy at the age of sixteen and had seen much
+service and distinguished himself in many ways before he was given
+command of the Tecumseh and ordered to join Farragut's squadron. On the
+morning of the attack, he was given the post of honor at the head of the
+column, and determined to come to close quarters with the Tennessee, if
+he could. But fate intervened, when his quarry was almost within reach.
+Craven had stationed himself in the little pilot-house beside the pilot,
+the better to direct the movements of his ship, and when he and the
+pilot felt that sudden shock and saw the Tecumseh sinking, both of them
+sprang for the narrow opening leading from the pilot-house to the turret
+chamber below. They reached the opening at the same instant; it was so
+small that only one could pass at a time, and Craven, with a greatness
+of soul found only in heroes, drew back, saying quietly, "After you,
+pilot."
+
+"There was nothing after me," said the pilot afterwards, "for when I
+reached the last round of the ladder, the vessel seemed to drop from
+under me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the outbreak of the Civil War, the commerce of the United States was
+the next to the largest in the world. The North destroyed southern
+commerce by capturing or blockading southern ports, while the South
+retaliated by fitting out a large number of commerce-destroyers, to
+range the seas and take what prizes they could--a plan which had been
+adopted by America in both wars with England, and which is the only
+resource of a power whose navy is greatly inferior to that of its
+antagonist.
+
+The bright particular star of the Confederate service was Raphael
+Semmes, who had been trained in the United States navy, and who, first
+in the Sumter and afterwards in the Alabama, captured a total of
+seventy-seven prizes, nearly all of which he destroyed. To his capture,
+the United States devoted some of its best ships, but it was not until
+the summer of 1864, that he was finally cornered.
+
+On Sunday, June 12, 1864, the United States sloop-of-war Kearsarge lay
+at anchor off the sleepy town of Flushing, Holland. Her commander, John
+Ancrum Winslow, had served in the navy of the United States for
+thirty-seven years, and had done good work off Vera Cruz in the war with
+Mexico, but the crowning achievement of his life was at hand. As his
+ship lay swinging idly at her anchor, a boat put off to her, a messenger
+jumped aboard, and three minutes later a gun was fired, recalling
+instantly every member of the ship's company ashore. The message was
+from our minister to France and stated that the long-sought Alabama had
+arrived at Cherbourg. For nearly two years, Winslow had been searching
+for that scourge of American shipping, but Semmes had always eluded him,
+so it may well be believed that Winslow lost no time in getting under
+way. On Tuesday morning, he reached Cherbourg, and breathed a great sigh
+of relief as he saw, beyond the breakwater, the flag of the Alabama. He
+took his station off the port, and kept a close lookout for fear his
+enemy would again elude him. But the precaution was unnecessary, for
+Semmes had decided to offer battle.
+
+Four days passed, however, with the Kearsarge keeping grim guard. Then,
+on Sunday morning, June 19, as the crew of the Kearsarge was at divine
+service, the officer of the deck reported a steamer at the harbor-mouth.
+A moment later, the lookout shouted, "She's coming, and heading straight
+for us!" Captain Winslow, putting aside his prayer-book, seized the
+trumpet, ordered the decks cleared for action, and put his ship about
+and bore down on the Alabama.
+
+The two vessels were remarkably well-matched, but the engagement was
+decisive evidence of the superior qualities of northern marksmanship. It
+was, in fact, an exhibition of that magnificent gunnery which was so
+evident in the war of 1812, and which was to be shown again in the war
+with Spain. Nearly all of the 173 shots fired by the Kearsarge took
+effect, while of the 370 fired by the Alabama, only 28 reached their
+target. As a result, at the end of an hour and a half, the Alabama was
+sinking, while the Kearsarge was practically uninjured and had lost only
+three men. Hauling down her flag, the Alabama tried to run in shore, but
+suddenly, settling by the stern, lifted her bow high in the air and
+plunged to the bottom of the sea. So ended the career of the Alabama.
+Winslow received the usual rewards of promotion and the thanks of
+Congress, and passed the remainder of his life unadventurously in the
+navy service.
+
+One other battle remains to be recorded--in some respects the most
+important in history, because it revolutionized the construction of
+battleships, and suddenly rendered all the existing navies of the world
+practically useless.
+
+On the eighth day of March, 1862, a powerful squadron of Union vessels
+lay at anchor in Hampton Roads, consisting of the Congress, the
+Cumberland, the St. Lawrence, the Roanoke, and the Minnesota. It was a
+beautiful spring morning, and the tall ships rocked lazily at their
+anchors, while their crews occupied themselves with routine duties.
+Shortly before noon, a strange object was seen approaching down the
+Elizabeth river. To the Union officers, it looked like the roof of a
+large barn belching forth smoke. In reality, it was the Confederate
+ironclad, Merrimac, under command of Captain Franklin Buchanan.
+
+Buchanan had, in his day, been one of the most distinguished officers in
+the United States navy. He had entered the service in 1815, as
+midshipman, and won rapid promotion. In 1845, he was selected by the
+secretary of the navy to organize the naval academy at Annapolis, and
+was its first commandant. He commanded the Germantown at the capture of
+Vera Cruz, and the Susquehanna, the flagship of Commodore Perry's famous
+expedition to Japan. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commandant
+of the Washington navy-yard, and, being himself a Baltimore man,
+resigned from the service after the attack made in Baltimore on the
+Massachusetts troops passing through there. Finding that his state did
+not secede, he withdrew his resignation and asked to be restored, but
+for some reason, the secretary of the navy, Gideon Welles, refused this
+request, and Buchanan was fairly driven into the enemy's service.
+
+The Confederacy was glad to get him, gave him the rank of captain and
+put him in charge of the work at the Norfolk, Virginia, navy-yard. The
+most important business going forward there was the reconstruction of
+the United States frigate, Merrimac. This consisted in building above
+her berth-deck sloping bulwarks seven feet high, covered with four
+inches of iron, and pierced for ten guns. To her bow, about two feet
+under water, a cast-iron ram was attached, and on the eighth of March,
+she cast loose from her moorings and started down the river. She was
+scarcely complete, her crew had never been drilled, she had never fired
+a gun, nor had her engines made a single revolution, while the ship
+itself was merely a bold experiment, which had never made a trial trip.
+Yet Buchanan, on reaching Hampton Roads, headed straight for the Union
+fleet.
+
+There, as soon as the identity of the stranger was discovered, hurried
+preparations for battle were made. Decks were cleared, magazines opened,
+and guns loaded, and as soon as the Merrimac was in range, the Union
+ships and shore batteries opened upon her, but such projectiles as
+struck her, glanced harmlessly from her iron mail. Not until she was
+quite near the Cumberland did the Merrimac return the fire. Then she
+opened her bow-port and sent a seven-inch shell through the Cumberland's
+quarter. The Cumberland answered with a broadside which would have blown
+any wooden vessel out of the water, but which affected the Merrimac not
+at all. Buchanan had determined to test the power of his ram, and
+keeping on at full speed, crashed into the Cumberland's side. Then he
+backed out, leaving a yawning chasm, through which the water poured into
+the doomed ship. She settled rapidly and sank with a roar, her crew
+firing her guns to the last moment.
+
+The Merrimac then turned her attention to the Congress, with such deadly
+effect that that vessel was forced to surrender after an hour's
+fighting, in which she was repeatedly hulled and set on fire. Most of
+her crew escaped to the shore, and the Confederates completed her
+destruction by firing hot shot into her. Evening was at hand by this
+time, and the Merrimac withdrew, intending to destroy the other ships in
+the harbor next morning.
+
+So ended the most disastrous day in the history of the United States
+navy. Two ships were lost, and over three hundred men killed or wounded.
+On the Merrimac, two had been killed and eight wounded, but the vessel
+herself, though she had been the target for more than a hundred heavy
+guns, was practically uninjured and as dangerous as ever.
+
+Among the wounded was Captain Buchanan, who was forced to relinquish the
+command of the Merrimac. For his gallantry, he was thanked by the
+Confederate Congress, and promoted to full admiral and senior officer of
+the Confederate navy. As soon as he recovered from his wound, he was
+placed in charge of the naval defenses of Mobile, Alabama, and there
+superintended the construction of the ram Tennessee, which he commanded
+during the action with Farragut two years later. His handling of the
+vessel was daring almost to madness, but she became disabled and was
+forced to surrender. Buchanan was taken prisoner, and never again took
+part in any naval action.
+
+Let us return to Hampton Roads.
+
+The news of the disaster to the Union fleet spread gloom and
+consternation throughout the North, and corresponding rejoicing
+throughout the South. The remaining ships in Hampton Roads plainly lay
+at the Merrimac's mercy, and after they had been destroyed, there was
+nothing to prevent her steaming up the Potomac and attacking
+Washington. It seemed as if nothing but a miracle could save the country
+from awful disaster.
+
+And that miracle was at hand.
+
+Among the coincidences of history, none is more remarkable than the
+arrival at Hampton Roads on the night of March 8, 1862, of the strange
+and freakish-looking craft known as the Monitor. Proposed to the Navy
+Department in the preceding fall by John Ericsson, in spite of sneers
+and doubts, a contract was given him in October to construct a vessel
+after his design. The form of the Monitor is too well known to need
+description--"a cheese-box on a raft," the name given her in derision,
+describes her as well as anything. She was launched on the last day of
+January, and three weeks later was handed over to the Government, but it
+was not until the fourth of March that her guns were mounted, two
+powerful rifled cannon. At the request of Ericsson, she was named the
+Monitor, and this name came afterwards to be adopted to describe the
+class of ships of which she was the first. So dangerous was service in
+her considered, that volunteers were called for, and Lieutenant John
+Lorimer Worden was given command of her.
+
+Worden had entered the navy twenty-seven years before, and at the
+opening of the Civil War, had delivered the orders from the secretary of
+the navy which saved Fort Pickens, in the harbor of Pensacola, to the
+Union. Attempting to return North overland, he was arrested and held as
+a prisoner seven months, being exchanged just in time to enable him to
+procure command of the Monitor. Rumors of the construction of the
+Merrimac had reached the North, and two days after her guns were aboard,
+the Monitor left New York harbor for Hampton Roads. Just after she
+passed Sandy Hook, orders recalling her were received there, fortunately
+too late to be delivered. By such slight threads do the events of
+history depend.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Worden was making such progress southward as he could
+with his unwieldy and dangerous craft, which had been designed only for
+the smooth waters of rivers and harbors and which was wholly unable to
+cope with the boisterous Atlantic. There was a brisk wind, and the
+vessel was soon in imminent danger of foundering. The waves broke over
+her smoke-stack and poured down into her fires, so that steam could not
+be kept up; the blowers which ventilated the ship would not work, and
+she became filled with gas which rendered some of her crew unconscious.
+Undoubtedly she would have gone to the bottom very shortly had not the
+wind moderated. Even then, it was almost a miracle that she should win
+through, but win through she did, and at four o'clock on the afternoon
+of Saturday, March 8, as she was passing Cape Henry, Captain Worden
+heard the distant booming of guns. As darkness came, he saw far ahead
+the glare of the burning Congress.
+
+About midnight, the little vessel crept up beside the Minnesota and
+anchored. Her crew were completely exhausted. For fifty hours, they had
+fought to keep their ship afloat, and on the morrow they must be
+prepared to meet a formidable foe. All that night they worked with their
+vessel, making such repairs as they could. At eight o'clock next
+morning, the Merrimac appeared, and the Monitor started to meet her.
+
+Amazed at sight of what appeared to be an iron turret sliding over the
+water toward him, the commander of the Merrimac swung toward this tiny
+antagonist, intending to destroy her before proceeding to the work in
+hand. Captain Worden had taken his station in the pilot-house, and
+reserved his fire until within short range. Then, slowly circling about
+his unwieldy foe, he fired shot after shot, which, while they did not
+disable her, prevented her from destroying the Union ships in the
+harbor. Finding the Monitor apparently invulnerable, and with her
+machinery giving trouble, the Merrimac at last withdrew to Norfolk.
+
+That the battle was a victory for the Monitor cannot be questioned; she
+had prevented the destruction of the Union ships, and this she continued
+to do, until, in the following May, the Confederates, finding themselves
+compelled to abandon Norfolk, set the Merrimac on fire and blew her up.
+Six months later, the Monitor met a tragic fate, foundering in a storm
+off Cape Hatteras, a portion of her crew going down with her.
+
+Honors were showered upon Worden for his gallant work. He was given
+command of the monitor Montauk, and later on destroyed the Confederate
+privateer Nashville. After the war, he was promoted to rear-admiral, and
+remained in the service until 1886.
+
+There were others in the war whose deeds brought glory to themselves and
+to the navy--Lieutenant William B. Cushing, who destroyed the
+Confederate ram Albemarle in Plymouth harbor, a deed comparable with the
+burning of the Philadelphia early in the century; David Dixon Porter,
+whose work on the Mississippi was second only to Farragut's, who four
+times received the thanks of Congress, and who, in the end, became
+admiral of the navy; Charles Stuart Boggs, who, in the sloop-of-war
+Varuna, sank five Confederate vessels in the river below New Orleans,
+before he was himself sunk--but none of them, and, indeed, none of those
+whose exploits we have given, measured up to the stature of Farragut,
+one of the greatest commanders of all time, and, all things considered,
+the very greatest in the history of America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thirty years and more passed after that epoch-making contest between the
+Monitor and the Merrimac before the world witnessed another battle to
+the death between ironclads. Theoretically, wood had long since been
+displaced by iron, iron by steel, and steel by specially-forged
+armor-plate, battleship designers struggling always to build a vessel
+which could withstand modern projectiles. But as to the actual results
+in warfare, there was nothing but theory to go upon until that first
+day of May, 1898, when George Dewey steamed into the harbor of Manila,
+at the head of his squadron, and opened fire upon the Spanish fleet.
+
+Dewey had received his training under the best of masters, Farragut.
+Graduating from Annapolis in 1858, he served as lieutenant on the
+Mississippi, when that vessel, as part of Farragut's fleet, ran past the
+forts below New Orleans. A short time later, in trying to pass the
+Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, the Mississippi ran hard and fast
+aground. Half an hour was spent, under a terrific fire, in trying to get
+her off; then Dewey, after spiking her guns, assisted in scuttling her
+and escaped with her captain in a small boat. He saw other active
+service, and got his first command in 1870. He was commissioned
+commodore in 1896, and on January 1, 1898, took command of the Asiatic
+squadron.
+
+Few people in the world beside himself suspected, even in the dimmest
+manner, the task which lay before him; but with a rare sagacity, he had
+foreseen that, in the event of war with Spain, the far East would be the
+scene of operations of the first importance. He thereupon applied for
+the command of the Asiatic squadron, and his application was granted.
+Dewey proceeded immediately to Hong Kong, and began to concentrate his
+forces there and to get them into first-class condition. He spent much
+of his time studying the charts of the Pacific, and his officers noticed
+that the maps of the Philippine Islands soon became worn and marked. On
+Tuesday, April 26, came the explanation of all this in a cablegram
+stating that war had been declared between the United States and Spain,
+and ordering Dewey to proceed at once to the Philippine Islands and
+capture or destroy the Spanish fleet which was stationed there.
+
+Early the next afternoon, the squadron started on its six hundred mile
+journey. What lay at the end of it, no one on the fleet knew. Of the
+Spanish force, Dewey knew only that twenty-three Spanish war vessels
+were somewhere in the Philippines; he knew, too, that they were probably
+at Manila, and that the defenses of the harbor were of the strongest
+description. But he remembered one of Farragut's sayings, "The closer
+you get to your enemy, the harder you can strike," and he lost no time
+in getting under way.
+
+[Illustration: DEWEY]
+
+Dewey's squadron consisted of seven vessels, of which one was a revenue
+cutter, and two colliers. He was many thousands of miles from the
+nearest base of supplies and to fail would mean that he would have to
+surrender. So, on that momentous voyage, he drilled and drilled his men,
+until their discipline was perfect. On April 30, land was sighted, and
+precautions were redoubled, since the enemy might be encountered at any
+moment. Careful search failed to reveal the Spaniards in Subig Bay, and
+at six o'clock in the evening, Dewey announced to his officers that he
+had determined to force Manila Bay that night. At nine o'clock the fleet
+was off the bay, all lights were extinguished save one at the stern of
+each ship to serve as a guide for the one following, and even that
+light was carefully screened on both sides so that it could not be seen
+from the shore. Then the fleet headed for the harbor mouth.
+
+What the defenses of the channel were, no one knew. It was reported to
+be full of torpedoes. But perhaps Dewey remembered Farragut at Mobile
+Bay. At any rate, he did not hesitate, but kept straight on, and the
+fleet had almost passed the harbor mouth, before its presence was
+discovered. Then the shore batteries opened, but without effect, and the
+entire squadron passed safely into the harbor. Then followed long hours
+of waiting for the dawn, and at five o'clock came the signal, "Prepare
+for action," for the Spanish fleet had been sighted at anchor far down
+the harbor.
+
+Fifteen minutes later, the Spaniards opened fire, but Dewey went
+silently on toward his goal. Suddenly, a short distance away, there was
+a dull explosion, and a great mass of water and mud sprang into the air.
+A mine had been exploded; the fleet had entered the mine fields. Now, if
+ever, it would be blown into eternity, but there was no pause in the
+progress of that silent line of battle. From the bridge of the Olympia,
+the most exposed position in the squadron, Dewey watched the progress of
+his ships. In the conning tower, eagerly awaiting the word to fire, was
+Captain Gridley. At last, with a final glance at the shore, Dewey bent
+over the rail.
+
+"You may fire when ready, Gridley," he said, quietly.
+
+Ready! Surely that was satire on Dewey's part, for just one second later
+the bridge under his feet leaped like a springboard as the great gun
+beneath it gave the signal. Scarcely had the shell left the muzzle when
+an answering roar came from the other ships. The battle had begun, the
+Spanish ships were riddled with a shower of bursting shells, their crews
+cut to pieces, and the ships themselves set on fire. The guns of the
+American squadron roared with clocklike regularity, while the firing
+from the Spanish ships steadily decreased. Two hours of this work, and
+the smoke hung so heavy over the water that it was difficult to
+distinguish the enemy's ships.
+
+"What time is it, Rees?" asked Dewey, of his executive officer.
+
+"Seven forty-five, sir."
+
+"Breakfast time," said Dewey, with a queer smile. "Run up the signals,
+'Cease firing,' and 'Follow me.'"
+
+Again it was a lesson from Farragut, and Dewey, steaming back down the
+harbor, signalled "Let the men go to breakfast." His captains, coming
+aboard the Olympia, gave a series of reports unique in naval history.
+Not a man had been killed, not a gun disabled, not a ship seriously
+injured. Three hours were devoted to cooling off and cleaning the guns,
+getting up more ammunition, and breakfast was leisurely eaten.
+
+Meanwhile, across the bay, on the riddled and sinking Spanish ships the
+wildest confusion reigned. At eleven o'clock, the American fleet was
+seen again approaching, and a few minutes later, that terrible storm of
+fire recommenced. There was practically no reply. Three of the Spanish
+ships were on fire, and their magazines exploded one after another with
+a mighty roar; a broadside from the Baltimore sank a fourth; a shell
+from the Raleigh exploded the magazine of a fifth, and so, one by one,
+the Spanish ships were blown to pieces, until not one remained. An hour
+later, the shore batteries had been silenced, and Dewey hoisted the
+signal, "Cease firing."
+
+So ended the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar--a battle which
+riveted the attention of the world, and brought home to Europe a
+realization of the fact that here was a new world-power to be reckoned
+with. With six ships, carrying 1,668 men and fifty-three guns, Dewey had
+destroyed the Spanish squadron of nine ships, carrying 1,875 men and
+forty-two guns; not an American had been killed, and only six wounded,
+while the Spanish loss was 618 killed and wounded; and not an American
+vessel had been injured. And, in addition to destroying the Spanish
+fleet, a series of powerful shore batteries had been silenced, and the
+way prepared for the American occupation of the Philippines. Dewey's
+place as one of the great commanders of history was secure.
+
+News of the victory created the wildest excitement and enthusiasm in the
+United States. Dewey became a popular hero, and when he returned from
+the Philippines, was welcomed with triumphal honors, which recalled the
+great days of the Roman empire. He was commissioned admiral of the
+navy, a rank which had been created for Farragut, and which has been
+held by only two men besides him.
+
+Another great American naval victory marked the brief war with
+Spain--the destruction of Admiral Cervera's powerful fleet as it tried
+to escape from the harbor of Santiago, Cuba, on the third day of July,
+1898--a victory which made the Independence Day which followed one long
+to be remembered in the United States. There, as at Manila, the entire
+Spanish fleet was destroyed, without a single American vessel being
+seriously injured, and with a loss of only one killed and one wounded on
+the American side. But the victory at Santiago was the victory of no one
+man. The ranking officer, William Thomas Sampson, was miles away when
+the engagement began. The next in rank, Winfield Scott Schley, so
+conducted himself that he was brought before a court of inquiry. The
+battle was really fought and won by the commanders of the various
+ships--Robley D. Evans, John W. Philip, Charles E. Clark, Henry C.
+Taylor, Richard Wainwright--by the very simple procedure of getting as
+close to the enemy as they could, and hammering him as hard as their
+guns would let them. One and all, they behaved with the utmost
+gallantry. But most remarkable of all in the history of the navy from
+first to last has been the superb work of the "men behind the guns,"
+whose marksmanship has been the despair and envy of the world.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY
+
+
+JONES, JOHN PAUL. Born at Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, July
+6, 1747; settled in Virginia, 1773; appointed first lieutenant in
+American navy, 1775; commanded Ranger and cruised in the Irish sea,
+1777-78; sailed from France in Bon Homme Richard, August 14, 1779;
+fought Serapis, September 23, 1779; resigned from American service,
+entered the French and later the Russian navy, served under Potemkin in
+the Black Sea with rank of rear-admiral; returned to Paris, 1790; died
+there, July 18, 1792.
+
+BIDDLE, NICHOLAS. Born at Philadelphia, September 10, 1750; captain in
+American navy, 1775; appointed to command the Randolph, June 6, 1776;
+killed when ship blew up in fight with Yarmouth, March 7, 1778.
+
+PORTER, DAVID. Born at Boston, February 1, 1780; entered navy, 1798;
+served in Tripolitan war, 1801-03; commander of the Essex in war of
+1812; defeated and taken prisoner in Valparaiso harbor, March 28, 1814;
+resigned, 1826; commander of Mexican naval forces, 1826-29; United
+States minister to Turkey, 1831-43; died at Pera, Constantinople, March
+3, 1843.
+
+HULL, ISAAC. Born at Derby, Connecticut, March 9, 1773; entered navy,
+1798; served in war with Tripoli, 1801-03; sailed from Boston in command
+of the Constitution, August 2, 1812; defeated Guerriere, August 19,
+1812; remained in navy till end of life; died at Philadelphia, February
+13, 1843.
+
+DECATUR, STEPHEN. Born at Sinnepuxent, Maryland, January 5, 1779;
+entered navy, 1798; burned frigate Philadelphia in harbor of Tripoli,
+February 16, 1804; commanded frigate United States in war of 1812;
+captured British frigate, Macedonian, October 25, 1812; captured by
+British fleet, January 15, 1815; killed in a duel with James Barron,
+near Bladensburg, Maryland, March 22, 1820.
+
+BAINBRIDGE, WILLIAM. Born at Princeton, New Jersey, May 7, 1774;
+lieutenant-commandant in quasi-naval-war with France, 1798; commanded
+Philadelphia in Tripolitan war; captured by Tripolitans, November 1,
+1804; commander of Constitution in war of 1812; captured British frigate
+Java, December 29, 1812; served in navy till death at Philadelphia, July
+28, 1833.
+
+LAWRENCE, JAMES. Born at Burlington, New Jersey, October 1, 1781;
+entered navy, 1798; served in Tripolitan war, 1801-03; sailed from
+Boston in the Chesapeake, and defeated by British frigate Shannon, June
+1, 1813; died at sea from wound received in battle, June 6, 1813.
+
+PREBLE, EDWARD. Born at Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, August 15, 1761;
+served as midshipman during Revolution; commissioned lieutenant,
+February 9, 1798; captain, May 15, 1799; commanded squadron operating
+against Barbary States, 18O3-O4; died at Portland, Maine, August 25,
+1807.
+
+STEWART, CHARLES. Born at Philadelphia, July 28, 1778; lieutenant in
+United States navy, March 9, 1798; served in war with Tripoli; captain,
+April 22, 1806; commanded Constitution, 1813-14, capturing many prizes;
+remained in navy till death, rising to rank of rear-admiral; died at
+Bordentown, New Jersey, November 6, 1869.
+
+BLAKELEY, JOHNSTON. Born near Seaford, County Down, Ireland, October,
+1781; brought to America, 1783; entered navy as midshipman, February 5,
+1800; lieutenant, February 10, 1807; master commander, July 24, 1813;
+sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the Wasp, May 1, 1814;
+captured Reindeer, sunk Avon, captured Atalanta; the Wasp was spoken by
+a Swedish ship, October 9, 1814, and never seen again.
+
+MACDONOUGH, THOMAS. Born in Newcastle County, Delaware, December 23,
+1783; entered the navy as midshipman, 1800; served in war against
+Tripoli; lieutenant, 1807; master commander, 1813; defeated British
+squadron under Downie on Lake Champlain, September 11, 1814; died at
+sea, November 16, 1825.
+
+PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD. Born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, August 23,
+1785; entered navy as midshipman, April 7, 1799; served in war with
+Tripoli; lieutenant, 1807; ordered to Lake Erie, February 17, 1813;
+reached Erie, March 27, 1813; defeated British fleet, September 10,
+1813; assisted in defense of Baltimore, 1814; commanded Java and John
+Adams; died at Port Spain, Island of Trinidad, August 23, 1819.
+
+PERRY, MATTHEW CALBRAITH. Born at Newport, Rhode Island, April 10, 1794;
+entered navy as midshipman, 1809; lieutenant, February 27, 1813; saw
+distinguished service in many ships and many waters; master-commandant,
+January 7, 1833; captain, March 15, 1837; commodore, June 12, 1841;
+commanded fleet at capture of Vera Cruz, 1844; organized and commanded
+expedition to Japan, delivering President's letter to the Mikado, July
+14, 1853, and signing treaty, March 31, 1854; died in New York City,
+March 4, 1858.
+
+FARRAGUT, DAVID GLASGOW. Born at Campbell's Station, Tennessee, July 5,
+1801; adopted by David Porter and given commission as midshipman, 1810;
+served under Porter in the Essex, 1813-14; lieutenant, 1821; commander,
+1841; captain, 1855; appointed commander of squadron to reduce New
+Orleans, January, 1862; passed the forts below New Orleans on the night
+of April 23-24, 1862; compelled surrender of city, April 25, 1862;
+passed batteries at Vicksburg, June 28, 1862; rear-admiral, July 16,
+1862; fought battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864; vice-admiral, 1864;
+admiral, 1866; died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 14, 1870.
+
+CRAVEN, TUNIS AUGUSTUS MACDONOUGH. Born at Portsmouth, Hew Hampshire,
+January 11, 1813; entered navy as midshipman, 1829; served in various
+ships and in coast survey; commander, April, 1861; given command of
+monitor Tecumseh, with post of honor in battle of Mobile Bay, August 5,
+1864; struck torpedo and sank almost instantly, carrying down Craven and
+almost everyone else on board.
+
+SEMMES, RAPHAEL. Born in Charles County, Maryland, September 27, 1809;
+midshipman in navy, 1826; lieutenant, 1837; at siege of Vera Cruz, 1847;
+commander in Confederate navy, April 4, 1861; took command of Alabama,
+August, 1863; Alabama destroyed by Kearsarge, June 19, 1864; guarded
+water approaches to Richmond, 1865; after war, engaged in practice of
+law until his death at Mobile, Alabama, August 30, 1877.
+
+WINSLOW, JOHN ANCRUM. Born at Wilmington, North Carolina, November 19,
+1811; entered navy as midshipman, 1827; lieutenant, 1839; commander,
+1855; captain, 1862; commanded Kearsarge on special service in pursuit
+of Alabama, 1863-64; sank Alabama, June 19, 1864; rear-admiral, 1870;
+died at Boston, Massachusetts, September 29, 1873.
+
+BUCHANAN, FRANKLIN. Born at Baltimore, Maryland, September 17, 1800;
+entered navy as midshipman, 1815; lieutenant, 1825; master-commandant,
+1841; organized naval academy at Annapolis, 1845; at siege of Vera Cruz,
+1847; commanded flagship in Perry's Japan expedition, 1852; captain,
+1855; commandant Washington navy yard, 1859; entered Confederate
+service, September, 1861; commanded Merrimac in Hampton Roads and
+Tennessee in Mobile Bay; died in Talbot County, Maryland, May 11, 1874.
+
+WORDEN, JOHN LORIMER. Born in Westchester County, New York, March 12,
+1818; entered navy, 1840; lieutenant, 1846; taken prisoner while
+returning North from Fort Pickens, 1861; released after seven months'
+captivity, and appointed to the Monitor; met Merrimac in Hampton Roads,
+March 9, 1862; received thanks of Congress and commissioned commander,
+July, 1862; captain, February, 1863; commodore, 1868; superintendent of
+naval academy, 1870-74; rear-admiral, 1872; retired, 1886; died at
+Washington, October 18, 1897.
+
+DEWEY, GEORGE. Born at Montpelier, Vermont, December 26, 1837; entered
+naval academy, 1854; graduated, 1858; with Farragut on Mississippi,
+1862; commander, 1872; captain, 1884; commodore, 1896; fought battle of
+Manila Bay, May 1, 1898; thanked by Congress and promoted rear-admiral,
+1898; admiral, 1899.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Adams, John, 84, 89-92, 124, 174, 175, 177, 208, 263.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, 98-100, 109, 110, 125, 186.
+
+Adams, Samuel, 84, 175-178, 179, 208-209, 263.
+
+Allen, Eliza, 240-241.
+
+Allen, Ethan, 270.
+
+Anderson, Robert, 191.
+
+Arnold, Benedict, 267-271, 276, 277, 311-312, 313.
+
+Arthur, Chester Alan, 153, 166-167.
+
+Astor, John Jacob, 250.
+
+Atkinson, Henry, 303.
+
+Austin, Moses, 243.
+
+
+Bainbridge, William, 334, 337-340, 342, 343, 378.
+
+Banks, Nathaniel P., 301.
+
+Barnes, James, 22.
+
+Barron, James, 337.
+
+Beauregard, Pierre, 304-305, 306, 317-318.
+
+Bee, Bernard E., 299, 300.
+
+Benton, Jesse, 104.
+
+Benton, Thomas Hart, 191, 211.
+
+Berkeley, Lord, 62.
+
+Biddle, Nicholas, 322, 328, 377.
+
+Blaine, James G., 151, 152, 153, 155, 186, 205-207, 213.
+
+Blakeley, Johnston, 342, 344-345, 379.
+
+Boggs, Charles Stuart, 370.
+
+Boone, Daniel, 215-221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 234, 258.
+
+Boone, Squire, 219.
+
+Booth, John Wilkes, 141-142, 164.
+
+Bowie, James, 18, 246-250, 260.
+
+Braddock, Edward, 82, 123, 267, 273, 275, 311.
+
+Bradford, William, 21, 54-57, 74.
+
+Bragg, Braxton, 308.
+
+Breckenridge, John C., 138.
+
+Broke, Philip, 341.
+
+Brooks, Preston, 212.
+
+Brown, John, 122, 295, 316.
+
+Bryan, William Jennings, 160-161.
+
+Buchanan, Franklin, 356, 363-366, 381.
+
+Buchanan, James, 113, 121-123, 127-128, 191, 257.
+
+Buell, Don Carlos, 293.
+
+Burgoyne, John, 267-269, 270, 275, 311, 313, 325.
+
+Burnside, Ambrose E., 285, 297, 314-315.
+
+Burr, Aaron, 179-183, 205, 209-210, 245.
+
+Butler, Benjamin, 355.
+
+Butler, Simon; see Kenton, Simon.
+
+Byllinge, Edward, 62.
+
+
+Cabot, John, 36-37, 40, 70.
+
+Cabot, Sebastian, 36-37, 70.
+
+Calhoun, John Caldwell, 21, 111, 115, 184-190, 201, 211.
+
+Carson, Kit, 265.
+
+Carteret, Sir George, 62.
+
+Cartier, Jacques, 39, 49, 72.
+
+Carver, Jonathan, 55.
+
+Cass, Lewis, 118, 191, 211.
+
+Catlin, George, 251.
+
+Champlain, Samuel, 49-51, 73.
+
+Chase, Salmon Portland, 200, 212.
+
+Clark, Charles E., 376.
+
+Clark, George Rogers, 223, 225-232, 234, 235, 258.
+
+Clark, William, 235-237, 250, 259.
+
+Clay, Henry, 22, 99, 109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 184-190, 205, 206,
+   210.
+
+Cleveland, Grover, 154-159, 160, 164, 167.
+
+Columbus, Bartholomew, 26, 29.
+
+Columbus, Christopher, 16, 17, 19, 20, 25-36, 54, 69-70.
+
+Columbus, Diego, 29.
+
+Conkling, Roscoe, 205-206.
+
+Cornwallis, Charles, 85, 124, 272, 278, 311, 313, 328.
+
+Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 39, 72.
+
+Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough, 18, 360-361, 380.
+
+Crockett, David, 18, 246-250, 256, 260.
+
+Cushing, William B., 370.
+
+Custer, George A., 309.
+
+Custis, Mrs. Martha, 82, 123.
+
+Custis, Mary Randolph, 295.
+
+Custis, Washington Parke, 295.
+
+Cutler, Manasseh, 233.
+
+
+Davis, Jefferson, 139, 201-204, 213, 280, 303, 305, 306.
+
+Decatur, Stephen, 332-337, 339, 341, 377-378.
+
+Delaware, Thomas West, Lord, 48.
+
+De Leon, Juan Ponce, 38, 39, 71.
+
+Dewey, George, 370-376, 381.
+
+Dinwiddie, Robert, 80, 81.
+
+Douglas, Stephen A., 133-136, 138, 164, 191-193, 211.
+
+Drake, Sir Francis, 38-39, 72.
+
+
+Early, Jubal Anderson, 291.
+
+Edwards, Jonathan, 180.
+
+Ericsson, John, 367.
+
+Evans, Robley D., 376.
+
+Everett, Edward, 193-194, 211-212.
+
+
+Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, 78.
+
+Fairfax, William, 78.
+
+Fannin, James W., 243.
+
+Farragut, David Glasgow, 15, 17, 22, 330, 351-360, 366, 370,
+   371-372, 373, 374, 376, 380, 381.
+
+Ferdinand of Aragon, 29, 31, 35.
+
+Fillmore, Millard, 119, 127.
+
+Fiske, John, 21, 22.
+
+Ford, Paul Leicester, 21.
+
+Franklin, Benjamin, 15, 21, 169-174, 207, 208, 325.
+
+Franklin, William Buel, 301.
+
+Fremont, John C., 122, 198, 250, 251, 255-257, 261.
+
+
+Gage, Thomas, 175.
+
+Garfield, James Abram, 114, 152-153, 166, 206.
+
+Gates, Horatio, 267-269, 271, 272, 311, 312, 313.
+
+Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 42.
+
+Gorman, Arthur P., 157.
+
+Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 22, 141, 148-150, 152, 153, 165-166, 206,
+   280, 285, 286-288, 289, 290, 292, 293, 298, 303, 304, 306, 308,
+   310, 316, 317.
+
+Greeley, Horace, 139.
+
+Greene, Nathanael, 267, 272, 273, 276, 311, 312.
+
+Gridley, Charles Vernon, 373.
+
+Guiteau, Charles J., 152-153, 166.
+
+
+Hale, Nathan, 18.
+
+Hamilton, Alexander, 21, 89, 91, 96, 179-183, 205, 209.
+
+Hamilton, Henry, 229.
+
+Hancock, John, 175-178, 209, 322, 323.
+
+Hancock, Winfield Scott, 293.
+
+Hanks, Nancy, 129-130.
+
+Hanna, Mark, 161.
+
+Harding, Chester, 221.
+
+Harrison, Benjamin, 157, 159-160, 167, 207.
+
+Harrison, William Henry, 114-115, 126, 148, 159, 186, 224, 350.
+
+Hay, John, 207.
+
+Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 114, 151-152, 166, 201, 206.
+
+Hayne, Robert Young, 187, 188, 189.
+
+Heath, William, 266.
+
+Henderson, Richard, 218, 226.
+
+Henry, Patrick, 132, 178-179, 209, 226, 227.
+
+Heriot, Robert, 348.
+
+Herkimer, Nicholas, 267.
+
+Hill, A.P., 299, 308.
+
+Hood, John Bell, 293, 316.
+
+Hooker, Joseph, 280, 285-286, 287, 297, 301, 315.
+
+Hopkins, Ezekial, 323.
+
+Houston, Felix, 317.
+
+Houston, Sam, 116, 238-246, 248, 259-260.
+
+Howard, Oliver Otis, 302.
+
+Hubbard, Elbert, 22.
+
+Hudson, Henry, 39-40, 59, 72-73.
+
+Hulburt, Archer Butler, 22.
+
+Hull, Isaac, 330-332, 340, 341, 377.
+
+Hull, William, 191, 330.
+
+
+Ingersoll, Robert G., 206.
+
+Isabella of Castile, 29, 30, 31, 35.
+
+
+Jackson, Andrew, 15, 21, 99, 101-113, 114, 121, 122, 125-126, 148,
+   156, 163, 164, 186, 189, 190, 191, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244,
+   245, 246, 247, 279, 280, 281, 329, 352.
+
+Jackson, Thomas Jonathan, 22, 287, 290, 297, 299-302, 307, 308,
+   311, 317.
+
+James, Reuben, 335-336.
+
+Jay, John, 208.
+
+Jefferson, Thomas, 13, 21, 89, 90, 91, 92-95, 96, 98, 124, 155,
+   174, 178, 181, 227, 235, 236, 259, 276, 323.
+
+John II., King of Portugal, 28.
+
+Johnson, Andrew, 143-148, 165, 196, 197, 199, 203, 212.
+
+Johnston, Albert Sidney, 280, 302-304, 311, 317, 318.
+
+Johnston, Joseph E., 289-290, 296, 305-306, 308, 315, 318, 319.
+
+Joliet, Louis, 52, 73-74.
+
+Jones, John Paul, 320-328, 329, 344, 377.
+
+Jones, William, 321.
+
+Jones, William Paul, 321.
+
+
+Kearny, Stephen Watts, 257.
+
+Kenton, Simon, 221-225, 228, 234, 258.
+
+Kilpatrick, Hugh Judson, 293.
+
+King, Rufus, 97.
+
+
+La Salle, Robert Cavalier, 51-54, 73, 79.
+
+Lawrence, James, 18, 340-342, 347, 378.
+
+Lee, Charles, 266.
+
+Lee, "Light Horse Harry," 272-274, 294, 311, 313.
+
+Lee, Robert Edward, 22, 141, 148, 149, 203, 274, 280, 283, 284,
+   285, 286, 289, 292, 294-299, 301, 302, 305, 306, 307, 308,
+   310, 315, 316-317.
+
+Lewis, Meriwether, 235-237, 250, 259.
+
+Lincoln, Abraham, 15, 16, 19, 21, 113, 129-143, 144, 145, 146,
+   147, 152, 164-165, 192, 193, 198-199, 200, 257, 289.
+
+Lincoln, Thomas, 129-131.
+
+Lodge, Henry Cabot, 21.
+
+Longstreet, James, 306-307, 318.
+
+Lovejoy, Amos, 253.
+
+Lowell, James Russell, 143.
+
+Lummis, Charles F., 21.
+
+
+McCardle, Eliza, 144-145.
+
+Maclay, Edward Stanton, 22.
+
+McClellan, George B., 282-286, 287, 296, 297, 301, 305, 307,
+   314, 318.
+
+Macdonough, Thomas, 342, 345-346, 379.
+
+McDowell, Irwin, 301, 305.
+
+McKinley, William, 159, 161-163, 167, 168.
+
+McPherson, James Birdseye, 293.
+
+Madison, James, 95-97, 125, 340.
+
+Magellan, Ferdinand, 38, 71.
+
+Magruder, John Bankhead, 308.
+
+Mansfield, Joseph King Fenno, 301.
+
+Marchena, Juan Perez de, 30.
+
+Marion, Francis, 272-273, 311, 312.
+
+Marquette, Jacques, 52, 74.
+
+Marshall, Humphrey, 166.
+
+Marshall, James Wilson, 255.
+
+Marshall, John, 183-184, 210.
+
+Meade, George G., 280, 286, 293.
+
+Milam, Benjamin R., 243.
+
+Miles, Nelson A., 309-310, 319.
+
+Minuit, Peter, 59.
+
+Monroe, James, 89, 97-98, 125, 158, 189, 201, 211.
+
+Montgomery, Richard, 266.
+
+Moody, William, 251.
+
+Morris, Robert, 174.
+
+
+Newport, Christopher, 43, 44, 46.
+
+Nicolet, Jean, 51, 73.
+
+
+Oglethorpe, James, 66-69, 75.
+
+Ortiz, Juan, 45.
+
+
+Pakenham, Edward Michael, 106, 107, 108.
+
+Parker, Theodore, 23.
+
+Parkman, Francis, 20, 21.
+
+Paul, John, 321.
+
+Paul, John; see Jones, John Paul.
+
+Paul, William, 321.
+
+Pearson, Richard, 320, 326, 327.
+
+Pemberton, John Clifford, 308.
+
+Penn, William, 21, 62-66, 74.
+
+Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 350-351, 364, 379, 381.
+
+Perry, Oliver Hazard, 346-350, 379.
+
+Philip, John W., 376.
+
+Philip, King, 41.
+
+Pierce, Benjamin, 119.
+
+Pierce, Franklin Scott, 114, 119-121, 127, 200, 280, 282.
+
+Pike, Zebulon, 237, 259.
+
+Pocahontas, 45, 46.
+
+Polk, James Knox, 114, 116-117, 126-127, 281.
+
+Pomeroy, Seth, 266.
+
+Pope, John, 293, 297, 301, 307.
+
+Porter, David, 352.
+
+Porter, David, jr., 329-330, 345, 352-353, 377, 380.
+
+Porter, David Dixon, 370.
+
+Powhatan, The, 41, 45.
+
+Preble, Edward, 333, 334, 339, 342-343, 378.
+
+Putnam, Elizabeth, 263.
+
+Putnam, Israel, 232, 263-266, 311.
+
+Putnam, Joseph, 263.
+
+Putnam, Rufus, 232-234, 258-259.
+
+
+Raleigh, Sir Walter, 42-43.
+
+Reed, Deborah, 171-172.
+
+Revere, Paul, 175.
+
+Rolfe, John, 46.
+
+Roosevelt, Theodore, 162-163, 167-168.
+
+Root, Elihu, 207.
+
+Rosecrans, William Starke, 293.
+
+Rusk, Thomas Jefferson, 244, 245.
+
+
+St. Clair, Arthur, 233, 274-276, 313.
+
+St. Leger, Barry, 270.
+
+Saltonstall, Dudley, 323.
+
+Sampson, William Thomas, 376.
+
+Santa Anna, 127, 243, 244, 245, 248, 249, 281.
+
+Santangel, Luis de, 30, 31.
+
+Schley, Winfield Scott, 376.
+
+Schuyler, Philip John, 267, 311.
+
+Scott, Winfield, 119, 120, 188, 245, 280-282, 292, 295, 305,
+   310, 314.
+
+Scudder, Horace E., 21.
+
+Semmes, Raphael, 361-363, 380.
+
+Seward, William H., 137, 194-200, 212.
+
+Shaw, Robert Gould, 18.
+
+Sheridan, Philip Henry, 287, 290-292, 293, 294, 307, 308, 311,
+   315-316.
+
+Sherman, John, 152, 199, 200-201, 212-213.
+
+Sherman, William Tecumseh, 280, 287-290, 292, 293, 304, 305,
+   306, 308, 309, 315, 316, 318, 319.
+
+Skelton, Martha, 93.
+
+Smith, John, 21, 43-49, 73, 76.
+
+Soto, Hernando de, 39, 45, 72.
+
+Spalding, H.H., 251.
+
+Spencer, Joseph, 266.
+
+Stark, John, 267.
+
+Stephens, Alexander H., 201-205, 213.
+
+Stevens, Thaddeus, 147, 194-200, 201, 212.
+
+Stewart, Charles, 342, 343, 378.
+
+Stuart, J.E.B., 296, 307-308, 318-319.
+
+Stuyvesant, Peter, 21, 60-62, 74.
+
+Sullivan, John, 266.
+
+Sumner, Charles, 194-200, 212.
+
+Sumner, Edwin Vose, 293, 301.
+
+Sumter, Thomas, 102, 272-273, 312.
+
+Sutter, John Augustus, 250, 254-256, 260-261.
+
+
+Taft, William Howard, 163, 168.
+
+Tarleton, Guy, 272, 312.
+
+Taylor, Henry C., 376.
+
+Taylor, Zachary, 22, 114, 118-119, 120, 127, 148, 202, 280, 281.
+
+Tecumseh, 115.
+
+Thomas, George H., 280, 292-293, 316.
+
+Thomas, John, 266.
+
+Tilden, Samuel J., 151.
+
+Todd, Dolly Payne, 96.
+
+Todd, Mary, 132.
+
+Toscanelli, Paolo del Pozzo, 27, 32.
+
+Travis, William Barrett, 18, 243, 246-250, 260.
+
+Tyler, John, 115-116, 126, 211.
+
+
+Van Buren, Martin, 113-114, 115, 118, 126, 191.
+
+Veach, William, 221.
+
+Vespucci, Amerigo, 37, 71.
+
+
+Wainwright, Richard, 376.
+
+Ward, Artemus, 266.
+
+Washington, Augustine, 76, 77, 78.
+
+Washington, George, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 76-89, 90, 92, 93,
+   97, 123-124, 129, 137, 150, 164, 174, 175, 177, 180, 181, 183,
+   194, 209, 262, 266, 269, 271, 272, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279,
+   282, 295, 310, 312.
+
+Washington, Lawrence, 76, 78, 79, 83.
+
+Wayne, Anthony, 224, 234, 258, 259, 276-279, 313-314.
+
+Webster, Daniel, 21, 110, 184-190, 193, 194, 198, 210.
+
+Welles, Gideon, 364.
+
+Wesley, Charles, 68.
+
+Wheeler, Joseph, 309, 319.
+
+Whitfield, George, 69.
+
+Whitman, Marcus, 117, 250-254, 260.
+
+Whittier, John G., 257.
+
+Williams, Roger, 57-59, 74.
+
+Wilson, Woodrow, 21.
+
+Winslow, John Ancrum, 361-363, 380-381.
+
+Wooster, David, 266.
+
+Worden, John Lorimer, 367-370, 381.
+
+
+York, Duke of, 61, 62, 63, 64.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's American Men of Action, by Burton E. Stevenson
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