%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]—In this declaration the rights of the colonists were asserted to be:

1. Life, liberty, and property. 2. To tax themselves. 3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances. 4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the colonial charters.

[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's Documents, pp. 192-198. The best account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the United States, Chaps. 5-11.]

These rights it was declared had been violated:

1. By taxing the people without their consent. 2. By dissolving assemblies. 3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace. 4. By trying men without a jury. 5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts.

Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of the petition to the King.

SUMMARY

1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did three things:

A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and the Indian country.

B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west of this line.

C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.

2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.

3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.

4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts." But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea.

5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.

6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the Intolerable Acts.

7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First Continental Congress.

/ - France Spain / / - Cape Breton. Florida Canada. Louisiana east of the Mississippi. and cuts the new territory (1763) into Province of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, Indian country, and draws proclamation line limiting colonies in the west. -/ New colonial policy necessary. / Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops. Cost of troops to be paid - Partly by crown. Partly by colonies. / Share of colonies to be raised by Enforcing acts of trade and navigation. Taxes on sugar and molasses. Stamp tax (1765). / -^ Resisted. Principle involved. Action of Virginia and Massachusetts. Stamp Act Congress. Act repealed (1766). Declaratory Act (1766). - / Glass. Red and white lead. - Painters' colors Resisted and repealed (1770) Townshend Acts Paper. (1767). Tea. / / ^ - Enforced. Resisted (1773). Resistance / punished by Five Intoler- Continental able Acts. Congress called(1774). /



CHAPTER XI

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE



%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the people, he fortified Boston Neck,—the only land approach to the city, and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation, but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number to 20,000.



%130. Concord and Lexington.%—Meantime the arming and drilling went actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18, 1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people, the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do their work.[1]

[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has become best known because of Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride. Read it. ]

The road taken by the British lay through the little village of Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse, and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight would have ended in capture had they not been reenforced by 900 men at Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British in Boston.

[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, Concord Hymn. ]

[Footnote 3: Force's American Archives, Vol. II.; Hudson's History of Lexington, Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's Battle of Lexington; Shattuck's History of Concord, Chap. 7. ]

When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775.

%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%—The first Continental Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came, Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself.

%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%—After a month's delay it did adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then the most populous of the colonies.

Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June 21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met by the news of Bunker Hill.

%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%—On a narrow peninsula to the north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills. The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible, and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.

[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]



%134. Washington takes Command.%—Two weeks after this battle Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.

%135. Montreal taken.%—Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another, under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine, and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.



%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%—After eight months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April, 1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.

%137. Independence resolved on.%—Just one year had now passed since the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any reconciliation:

1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels.

2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade with them.

3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them.

[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small German states.]

These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15, 1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments of their own and so become states.

On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from Virginia, offered this resolution:

Resolved

That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July 2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United Colonies became free and independent states.



]

[Footnote 1: From the Columbian Magazine of July, 1787. The tower faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's Independence Hall.]

%138. Independence declared.%—Independence having thus been decreed, the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4, 1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal," and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit of Venus.]



%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%—A few days later the Declaration was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Washington in going to New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving his camp fires burning, crossed with his army to New York.

Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to White Plains; carried Fort Washington, on the New York shore, by storm (November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J.

%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%—Washington, meanwhile, had gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous Lee refused to obey. This forced Washington to begin his famous retreat across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit.



%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%—Lee crossed the Hudson and went to Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines, some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join Washington. Thus reenforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and on Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware, marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000 prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.

The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks longer, and, December 30, 1776, Washington again entered Trenton.

Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January 2, 1777, Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried to Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell back to New Brunswick, while Washington marched unmolested to Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.

%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%—Late in May, 1777, Washington entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement, for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight. Washington, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to Wilmington, Del.



It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving toward Washington, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where, on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day Washington entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point farther up the stream.

[Footnote: 1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay.]

Congress, which had returned to Philadelphia from Baltimore, now fled to Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and (September 26, 1777) Howe entered Philadelphia in triumph. October 4, Washington attacked him at Germantown, but was repulsed, and went into winter quarters at Valley Forge.



%143. New York invaded.%—Though Washington had been defeated in the battles around Philadelphia, and had been forced to give that city to the British, his campaign made it possible for the Americans to win another glorious victory in the north. At the beginning of 1777 the British had planned to conquer New York and so cut the Eastern States off from the Middle States. To accomplish this, a great army under John Burgoyne was to come up to Albany by way of Lake Champlain. Another, under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario to Oswego and come down to Mohawk valley to Albany; while the third army, under Howe, was to go up the Hudson from New York and meet Burgoyne at Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Champlain, took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuyler before him, reached Fort Edward late in July. There he heard that the Americans had collected some supplies at Bennington, a little village in the southwestern corner of Vermont, whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel John Stark met and utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St. Leger, as planned, had landed at Oswego, and on August 3 laid siege to Fort Stanwix, which then stood on the site of the present city of Rome, N.Y. On the 6th the garrison sallied forth, attacked a part of St. Leger's camp, and carried off five British flags. These they hoisted upside down on their ramparts, and high above them raised a new flag which Congress had adopted in June, and which was then for the first time flung to the breeze.



%144. Our National Flag.%—It was our national flag, the stars and stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some strips of a white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.[1]

[Footnote 1: The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and 1777 were of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate showing most of them is given in Treble's Our Flag, p. 142. In 1776, in January, Washington used one at Cambridge which seems to have been suggested by the ensign of the East India Company. That of this company was a combination of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes (seven red and six white) and the red cross of St. George. That of Washington was the same, with the British Union Jack substituted for the cross of St. George. After the Declaration of Independence, the British Jack was out of place on our flag; and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of thirteen white stars in a circle, on a blue ground, in place of the British Union. After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and 1792, the stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the original number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new state, when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe.]



%145. Capture of Burgoyne.%—When Schuyler heard of the siege of Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, and St. Leger fled to Oswego. Then was the time for the expedition from New York to have hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But Howe and his army were then at sea. No help was given to Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis Heights (September 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to Saratoga, where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had just put in the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for the capture. Arnold and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve much; for, judged by its results, Saratoga was one of the great battles of the world. The results of the surrender were four fold:

1. It saved New York state. 2. It destroyed the plan for the war. 3. It induced the King to offer us peace with representation in Parliament, or anything else we wanted except independence. 4. It secured for us the aid of France.



%146. Valley Forge.%—The winter at Valley Forge marks the darkest period of the war. It was a season of discouragement, when mean spirits grew bold. Some officers of the army formed a plot, called from one of them the "Conway cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in command. The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their provisions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses description.

But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was that an able Prussian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the army, turned the camp into a school, drilled the soldiers, and made the army better than ever. Then it was that France acknowledged our independence, and joined us in the war.

%147. France acknowledges our Independence.%—In October, 1776, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain.[1] But now, when it seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6, 1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us.

[Footnote 1: For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 253-270.]

%148. The British leave Philadelphia.%—Hearing of the approach of the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York. Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in command.[2] Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on the field in time to stop it.

[Footnote 2: After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a British officer.]

After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson.

%149. Stony Point.%—In hope of drawing Washington away from New York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July, 1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history.

%150. Indian Raids.%—That nothing might be wanting to make the suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians were let loose. Led by a Tory[1] named Butler, a band of whites and Indians of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations[2] marched from Fort Niagara to Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one of the most awful massacres in history. Another party, led by a son of Butler, repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y.

[Footnote 1: Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who remained loyal to the King were called Tories.]

[Footnote 2: By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.]

%151. George Rogers Clark%.—Meantime the British commander at Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi.

%152. Sullivan's Expedition%.—In 1779 it seemed so important to punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations, in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly destroyed the Indian power in that state.

%153. The South invaded%.—For a year and more there had been a lull in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in 1775-1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful loss of life.

These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and (May 12) easily captured Charleston, with Lincoln and his army. By dint of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina, and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it, and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.

%154. The Treason of Arnold.%—The outlook was now dark enough; but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it, and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British agent in the negotiation was Major John Andre, who one day in September met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to New York, three Americans[1] stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him, and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold. News of the arrest of Andre reached Arnold in time to enable him to escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and then sought a refuge in England. Andre was tried as a spy, found guilty, and hanged.

[Footnote 1: The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart.]

%155. Victory at Kings Mountain.%—After the defeat of Gates at Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and in the course of their marauding a band of 1100 Tories marched to Kings Mountain, on the border line between the two Carolinas. There the hardy mountaineers attacked them (Oct. 7, 1780) and killed, wounded, or captured the entire band.

[Map: %CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH 1778-1781%]

%156. Victory at the Cowpens%.—Meantime a third army was raised for use in the South and placed under the command of Nathanael Greene, than whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed.

Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of 200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further, and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah.

Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some Virginian seaport.

%157. Surrender of Cornwallis.%—Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August, 1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia, and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea. Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about to attack New York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781, forced the British general to surrender.

%158. The War on the Sea.%—The first step towards the foundation of an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. Congress, hearing that two British ships laden with powder and guns were on their way from England to Quebec, ordered two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out for the purpose of capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered thirteen cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them.

Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected at Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, a fleet of eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh anchor, John Paul Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to the breeze a yellow silk flag on which were a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake, with this motto: "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever hoisted on an American man-of-war.

Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle of February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New Providence in the Bahamas, captured the town, brought off the governor, some powder and cannon, and after taking several prizes got safely back to New London.

Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the Lexington, Captain John Barry in command, while cruising off the Virginia coast, fell in with the Edward, a British vessel, and after a spirited action captured her. This was the first prize brought in by a commissioned officer of the American navy.[1]

[Footnote 1: John Barry was a native of Ireland; he came to America at thirteen, entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of a ship. At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to Congress, and in February, 1776, was put in command of the Lexington. After his victory he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate Effingham, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware) with twenty-seven men in four boats captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner and four transports. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took the Effingham up the river; but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778, in command of the thirty-two-gun frigate Raleigh, he sailed from Boston, fell in with two British frigates, and after a fight was forced to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781 carried Laurens to France in the frigate Alliance. On the way out he took a privateer, and while cruising on the way home captured the Atalanta and the Trepassey after a hard fight. As Barry brought in the first capture by a commissioned officer of the United States navy, so he fought the last action of the war in 1782; but the enemy escaped. When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry was made senior captain, with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he commanded the frigate United States in the war with France. He died in 1803.]

In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly swarmed with privateers.

In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did so; but one of them, the Lexington, was captured by the British, and the other, the Reprisal, was wrecked at sea.

%159. Paul Jones.%—Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the Surprise. She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she was seized. But another ship, the Revenge, was quickly secured, which scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner Drake, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France in safety.

For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France. Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in his ship, named Bonhomme Richard in honor of Franklin's famous Poor Richard's Almanac) fell in with the Serapis, a British frigate. The two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three hours the Serapis surrendered, but the Bonhomme Richard was a wreck, and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the Serapis.



In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the Americans lost 24—most of their navy.

%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%—It is not possible to mention all the revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should, however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy; Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose names have already been mentioned.

%161. The Treaty of Peace.%—The story is told that when Lord North, the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris.

Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon.

[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 271-280.]

%162. Bounds of the United States.%—By the treaty of 1783 the boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31 deg. north latitude; then eastward along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic.

But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of 1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St. Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it. France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country south to Spain and the United States.

[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)]



The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our western limit.

Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1] and not 31 deg. as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2]

[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.]

[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's Old Northwest, pp. 170-191; McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 280-292.]

The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844 square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace.



SUMMARY

1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became governor of Massachusetts in 1774.

2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and Concord, which opened the War for Independence.

3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made Washington commander in chief.

4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York.

5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be driven across the state and into Pennsylvania.

6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3, 1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of the winter at Morristown.

7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge.

8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were captured at Saratoga.

9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge, overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from Morristown to West Point.

10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779.

11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781.

12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender.

THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776

In New England.

1775. Concord and Lexington. Continental Army formed. Washington, commander in chief. Battle of Bunker Hill.

1775-1776. Siege of Boston.

1776. Evacuation of Boston.

In Canada.

1775. Arnold's march to Quebec. Montgomery's march to Montreal. Capture of Montreal.

1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec. Americans return to Ticonderoga.

1776. Howe sails for New York. Washington marches to New York. The Declaration of Independence. Capture of New York. Retreat across the Jerseys. Surprise at Trenton. 1777. Battle of Princeton. Washington at Morristown. Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to capture New York state and cut the colonies in two. St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix. Burgoyne captured at Saratoga. Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and moves against Philadelphia. Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia. Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. Philadelphia captured by the British. 1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge. 1778. Alliance with France. Fleet and army sent from France. Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York. Washington follows him from Valley Forge. Battle of Monmouth. Washington on the Hudson.

CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781.

1778. The South invaded. Savannah captured and Georgia overrun. 1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away from the Hudson. Wayne captures Stony Point. Lincoln attacks Savannah. 1780. Clinton captures Charleston. Campaign of Gates in South Carolina. Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain. Treason of Arnold. 1781. Greene in command in the South. Battle of the Cowpens. March of Cornwallis from Charleston. Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina. Cornwallis goes to Yorktown. Washington hurries from New York. Surrender of Cornwallis. 1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris. 1783. Evacuation of New York.



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER XII

UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

%163. How the Colonies became States.%—When the Continental Congress met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter was received from Massachusetts, where the people had penned up the governor in Boston and had taken the government into their own hands, asking what they should do. Congress replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts Regulating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to make a temporary government to last till the King should restore the old charter. Similar advice was given the same year to New Hampshire and South Carolina, for it was not then supposed that the quarrel with the mother country would end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all the governors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and Congress, seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 1776) advised all the colonies to form governments for themselves (p. 132). Thereupon they adopted constitutions, and by doing so turned themselves from British colonies into sovereign and independent states.[1]

[Footnote 1: All but two made new constitutions; but Connecticut and Rhode Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till 1842. Vermont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to the Congress (p. 243).]



%164. Articles of Confederation.%—While the colonies were thus gradually turning themselves into the states, the Continental Congress was trying to bind them into a union by means of a sort of general constitution called "Articles of Confederation." By order of Congress, Articles had been prepared and presented by a committee in July, 1776, but it was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent out to the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that six states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands. As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave four reasons:

1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and owned by France.

2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country in 1763.

3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the "proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of English ownership.

4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states.

For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781, her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a form of government the states were pledged to obey.

%165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%—The form of government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature. Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was called, "ordinance."

To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay any tax for any purpose.

%166. Origin of the Public Domain%.—In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780), and Virginia (1781).

As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was called, was given on certain conditions:

1. That it should be cut up into states.

2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states.

3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of the United States.

[Footnote 1: The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress in October, 1789, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in 1785. In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and accepted.]

Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships, and ranges, and fixed the price per acre.

%167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%—When Virginia made her cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia Revolutionary soldiers. The other (in the present state of Indiana) was given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. This, called the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of land titles she had granted.



%168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%—Hardly had Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000 acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and 3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company. The land was gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered:

1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio."

2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had 60,000 free inhabitants.

3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except in punishment for crime.

4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to Congress for approval.

Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition that it should be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery was allowed.[1]

[Footnote 1: The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her claim in 1802 (p. 246).]

%169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation.%—While Congress at New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to have serious defects.

No Taxing Power.—In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid.

No Power to regulate Trade.—In the second place, Congress had no power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states. This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods, linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse, Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber, fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in circulation.

%170. Paper Money issued.%—This left the people without any money with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, and led at once to a demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it, whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to compel people to use the paper. This merely put an end to business, for nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and, during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier, prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or loaned.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's Critical Period of American History, pp. 168-186.]

%171. Congress proposes Amendments.%—Of the many defects in the Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts. Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress. A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided that in future the share each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion to its population.

But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none of these amendments were ever made.

%172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail.%—In the meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed acts imposing heavy duties on articles unless they came in American vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no action, very little good was accomplished.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's Critical Period of American History, 134-137, 145-147.]

%173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis, 1786.%[2]—Under these conditions, the business of the whole country was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and "take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States." Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in September, 1786.

[Footnote 2: The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State, No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.]



CHAPTER XIII

MAKING THE CONSTITUTION

%174. Call for the Constitutional Convention.%—Finding that it could do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

%175. The Philadelphia Convention.%[1]—Early in 1787 Congress approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September) delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States.

[Footnote 1: All we know of the proceedings of this convention is derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV.]

]

[Footnote 2: The room where the Constitution was framed.]

%176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans%.—The story of that convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.[1] But some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the delegates were assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, met and drew up the outline of a constitution, which was presented by the chairman of the Virginia delegation, and was called the "Virginia plan." A little later, delegates from the small states met and drew up a second plan, which was the old Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman of the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New Jersey plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted to accept the Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution.

[Footnote 1: For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of the Constitution" in the Century Magazine, September, 1887, or "Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 106-149, or Thorpe's Story of the Constitution, Chautauqua Course, 1891-92, pp. 111-148.]

%177. The Three Compromises.%—This plan called, among other things, for a national legislature of two branches: a Senate and a House of Representatives. The populous states insisted that the number of representatives sent by each state to Congress should be in proportion to her population. The small states insisted that each should send the same number of representatives. For a time neither party would yield; but at length the Connecticut delegates suggested that the states be given an equal vote and an equal representation in the Senate, and an unequal representation, based on population, in the House. The contending parties agreed, and so made the first compromise.

But the decision to have representation according to population at once raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as population? This divided the convention into slave states and free (see p. 186), and led to a second compromise, by which it was agreed that three fifths of all slaves should be counted as population, for the purpose of apportioning representation.

A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests of the commercial and the planting states. The planting states wanted a provision forbidding Congress to pass navigation acts, except by a two-thirds vote, and forbidding any tax on exports; three states also wished to import slaves for use on their plantations. The free commercial states wanted Congress to pass navigation laws, and also wanted the slave trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The result was an agreement that the importation of slaves should not be forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might pass navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed.

%178. The Election of President.%—Another feature of the Virginia plan was the provision for a President whose business it should be to see that the acts of Congress were duly enforced or executed. But when the question arose, How shall he be chosen? all manner of suggestions were made. Some said by the governors of the states; some, by the United States Senate; some, by the state legislatures; some, by a body of electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it was decided to have a body of electors, the difficulty was to determine the manner of electing the electors. On this no agreement could be reached; so the convention ordered that the legislature of each state should have as many electors of the President as it had senators and representatives in Congress, and that these men should be appointed in such way as the legislatures of the states saw fit to prescribe.

%179. Sources of the Constitution.%—An examination of the Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that some were drawn from the experience of the states under the Confederation; and that others were borrowed from the various state constitutions. Among those taken from state constitutions are such names as President, Senate, House of Representatives, and such provisions as that for a census, for the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate every two years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for impeachment, and for what we call the annual message.[1]

[Footnote 1: On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century of the Constitution" in New Princeton Review, September, 1887, pp. 175-190.]

The features based directly on experience under the Articles of Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress must be uniform throughout the Union; that the President may call out the militia to repel invasion, to put down insurrection, and to maintain the laws of the Union; that Congress shall have sole power to regulate foreign trade and trade between the states. No state can now coin money or print paper money, or make anything but gold or silver legal tender. Congress now has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The Constitution divides the powers of government between the legislative department (Senate and House of Representatives); the executive department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are obeyed); and the judicial department (Supreme Court and other United States courts, which interpret the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the treaties).

The new features are the definition of treason and the limitation of its punishment; the guarantee to every state of a republican form of government; the swearing of state officials to support the Federal Constitution; and the provision for amendment.

Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United States citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limitation of the powers of the states; and the provision that the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the treaties are "the supreme law of the land."

%180. Constitution submitted to the People.%—The convention ended its work, and such members as were willing signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787. Washington, as president of the convention, then sent the Constitution to the Continental Congress sitting at New York and asked it to transmit copies to the states for ratification. This was done, and during the next few months the legislatures of most of the states called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which should accept or reject the Constitution.

%181. Ratification by the States.%—In many of these conventions great objection was made because the new plan of federal government was so unlike the Articles of Confederation, and certain changes were insisted on. The only states that accepted it just as it was framed were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland. Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.)

%182. "The New Roof."%—The Constitution provided that when nine states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof," which was going to cover the states and protect them from political storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month. Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of the Presidents begin and end.[1]

[Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire, the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the constitution was "established" between the nine.]

%183. How Presidents were elected%.—It must not be supposed that our first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen.

As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of the Senate. But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still without one, and remained so till April. Then, in the presence of the House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then required for Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two men. He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of the Constitution, "such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed," was elected President. He who received the next highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President. In 1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts.

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[Footnote 1: From an old print made in 1797.]



%184. The First Inauguration.%—As soon as Washington received the news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started for New York. His journey was one continuous triumphal march. The population of every town through which he passed turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children stood for hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, standing on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he took the oath of office in the presence of Congress and a great multitude of people that filled the streets, and crowded the windows, and sat on the roofs of the neighboring houses.[1]

[Footnote 1: Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be found in Harper's Magazine, and also in the Century Magazine, for April, 1889.]

SUMMARY

1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a committee to draft a general plan of federal government.

2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely refused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany Mountains ceded their claims to Congress.

3. New York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified in March, 1781.

4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and Connecticut; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain to be sold to pay the debt.

5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new political organism called the territory.

6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state of the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at Philadelphia framed the Constitution of the United States.

7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection.

8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the Constitution was to assemble.

9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and George Washington was made our first President.

/1776. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode The Colonies adopt Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Constitutions and Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North become States. Carolina, South Carolina. 1777. New York, Georgia. 1780. Massachusetts.

/Framed by Congress 1776-1777. Adopted by the states 1777-1781. Articles of In force March 1, 1781. Confederation Kind of government. Defects. Result of the defects. Trade convention at Annapolis. Constitutional convention called.

/Proceedings of the convention. The three compromises. Constitution of Sources of the Constitution. the United States.- Original features. Derived features. Ratification by the states. The Constitution in force.

/Land claims of seven states. Demands for the surrender of the western territory. The Territories. The cessions by the states. The Public Ordinance of 1785. Domain. Ordinance of 1787. Territorial government created./

The President. /Manner of electing. Inauguration of Washington.

The Congress. /Organization of the First under the Constitution.

/The Supreme Court The Judiciary. The Circuit Court The District Court

/Secretary of State The Secretaries. Secretary of Treasury Secretary of War The Attorney-general. Origin of the "Cabinet."



CHAPTER XIV

OUR COUNTRY IN 1790

%185. The States.%—What sort of a country, and what sort of people, was Washington thus chosen to rule over? When, he was elected, the Union was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not recognize her as a state.

[Footnote 1: The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below: 1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788 7. Maryland April 28, 1788 8. South Carolina May 23, 1788 9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788 10. Virginia June 26, 1788 11. New York July 26, 1788 12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790]



%186. Only a Part inhabited.%—Three fourths of our country was then uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine, across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea. How many people lived here was never known till 1790. The Constitution of the United States requires that the people shall be counted once in each ten years, in order that it may be determined how many representatives each state shall have in the House of Representatives; and for this purpose Congress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then appeared that, excluding Indians, there were living in the eleven United States 3,380,000 human beings, or less than half the number of people who now live in the single state of New York.

%187. How the People were scattered.%—More were in the Southern than in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most populous, contained one fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in the five states of Maryland, Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia were almost one half of the English-speaking people of the United States. These were the planting states, and, populous as they were, they had but two cities—Baltimore and Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and Richmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. Indeed, the inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Salem) taken together were but 131,000.



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[Footnote 1: From the Massachusetts Magazine, November, 1790.]

%188. The Cities.%—And how different these cities were from those of our day! What a strange world Washington would find himself in if he could come back and walk along the streets of the great city which now stands on the banks of the Potomac and bears his name! He never in his life saw a flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of glass six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle; he never saw a building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, nor an electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor entered a room warmed by steam.

In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of articles familiar enough to us, but so unknown to him that he could not even name them. He never saw a sewing machine, nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a rubber shoe, nor a steel pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an envelope, nor a postage stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a match, nor sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched an electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a rude form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an omnibus, nor a trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him boarding a street car to take a ride. He would probably pay his fare with a "nickel." But the "nickel" is a coin he never saw. Fancy him trying to understand the advertisements that would meet his eye as he took his seat! Fancy him staring from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, or at a man rushing by on a bicycle!



%189. Newspapers and Magazines.%—A boy enters the car with half a dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same city. In Washington's day there were but four daily papers in the United States! On the news counter of a hotel, one sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty monthly magazines. In his day there was no illustrated paper, no scientific periodical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated magazines as Harper's, Scribner's, the Century, St. Nicholas. All the printing done in the country was done on presses worked by hand. To-day the Hoe octuple press can print 96,000 eight-page newspapers an hour. To print this number on the hand press shown in the picture would have taken so long that when the last newspaper was printed the first would have been three months old!



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[Footnote 1: Original in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]

%190. The Fire Service.%—the ambulance, the steam fire engine, the hose cart, the hook and ladder company, the police patrol, the police officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering the mail, the district messenger boy, the express company, the delivery wagon of the stores, have all come in since Washington died. In his day the law required every householder in the city to be a fireman. His name might not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies, he might not help to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire engine, but he must have in his hall, or beneath the stairs, or hanging up behind his shop door, at least one leathern bucket inscribed with his name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church bell in the town, he seized this bucket and his bag, and, while his wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom of indicating the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the building and filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the full buckets to those who stood by the fire. Others took posts in a second line, down which the empty buckets were hastened to the pump. The house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank the water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence by the efforts of a dozen men.