[Footnote 1: Read T. E. Taylor's Running the Blockade, pp. 16-32, 44-54.]

%457. The Commerce Destroyers.%—While the North was thus busy destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy destroying the enormous trade of the North. When the war opened, our merchant ships were to be seen in every port of the world, and against these were sent a class of armed vessels known as "commerce destroyers," whose business it was to cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the Sumter, which ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.

%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%—One of the vessels sent in pursuit of the Sumter was the San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes. While at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British mail steamer Trent; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the Trent came steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in 1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice of her demand prevented war.[1]

[Footnote 1: Harris's The Trent Affair.]

%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%—The loss of the Sumter was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the Florida, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured by the United States cruiser Wachusett in the neutral harbor of Bahia in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]

The next to get afloat was the Alabama. She was built at Liverpool with the knowledge of the English government, and became in time one of the most famous and successful of all the commerce destroyers. During two years she cruised unharmed in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, along the coast of South America, and even in the Indian Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant vessels. At last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by the Kearsarge, to which Captain Semmes of the Alabama sent a challenge to fight. Captain Winslow accepted it; and June 19, 1864, after a short and gallant engagement, the Alabama was sunk in the English Channel.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., Vol. I., pp. 225-294. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV., pp. 600-625.]

The Shenandoah, another cruiser, was purchased in England and armed at a barren island near Madeira. Thence she went to Australia, and cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering Strait, destroyed the China-bound clippers and the whaling fleet. At last, hearing of the downfall of the Confederacy, she went back to England.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, Vol. II., pp. 131-163.]

%460. The Ironclads.%—To blockade the coast and cut off trade was most important, but not all that was needed. Here and there were seaports which must be captured and forts which must be destroyed, bays and sounds, and great rivers coming down from the interior, which it was very desirable to secure control of. The Confederates were fully aware of this, and as soon as they could, placed on the waters of their rivers and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called ironclad rams. These were steamboats cut down and made suitable for naval purposes, and then covered over with iron rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of them was the Merrimac.



%461. The Merrimac or Virginia.%—When Sumter was fired on and the war began, the United States held the great navy yard and naval depot at Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven war vessels of various sorts, and immense quantities of guns and stores and ammunition. But the officer in charge, knowing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the yard would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, set fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Confederates at once took possession, raised the vessels, and out of one of them, a steamer called the Merrimac. made an ironclad ram, which they renamed the Virginia and sent forth to destroy the wooden vessels of the United States then assembled in Chesapeake Bay.

Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our war ships, the commander of the Merrimac went leisurely to work and began (March 8, 1862) by attacking the Cumberland. In her day the Cumberland had been as fine a frigate as ever went to sea; but the days of wooden ships were gone, and she was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the Merrimac like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through which the water poured. Even then the commander of the Cumberland would not surrender, but fought his ship till she filled and sank with her guns booming and her flag flying. After sinking the Cumberland, the Merrimac attacked the Congress, forced her to surrender, set her on fire, and, as darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of the Confederate batteries.



%462. The Monitor.%—Early the next day the Merrimac sailed forth to finish the work of destruction, and picking out the Minnesota, which was hard and fast in the mud, bore down to attack her. When lo! from beside the Minnesota started forth the most curious-looking craft ever seen on water. It was the famous Monitor, designed by Captain John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw propeller and the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron hull, on top of which rested a boat-shaped raft covered with sheets of iron which made the deck. On top of the deck, which was about three feet above the water, was an iron cylinder, or turret, which revolved by machinery and carried two guns. She looked, it was said, like "a cheesebox mounted on a raft."



The Monitor was built at New York, and was intended for harbor defense; but the fact that the Confederates were building a great ironclad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton Roads. The sea voyage was a dreadful one; again and again she was almost wrecked, but she weathered the storm, and early on the evening of March 8, 1862, entered Hampton Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning Congress and to hear of the sinking of the Cumberland. Taking her place beside the Minnesota, she waited for the dawn, and about eight o'clock saw the Merrimac coming toward her, and, starting out, began the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew. The Merrimac withdrew from the fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May, 1862). The Monitor sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort, N.C. (January, 1863).[1]

[Footnote 1: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 719-750.]



%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%—Operations along the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862) control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor. McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to the Gulf was in Union hands.

Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in May, 1862.

In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August, 1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land and naval force in January, 1865.

SUMMARY

1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast of the Confederate States.

2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco being sent abroad in return for materials of war.

3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent.

4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in England, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They inflicted very serious damage.

5. But the great event of the war was the battle between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac, which marked the advent of the iron-armored war ship.



CHAPTER XXIX

THE COST OF THE WAR

%464. The Cost in Money.%—When Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861 and Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national debt was $90,000,000, the annual revenue was $41,000,000, and the annual expenses of the government $68,000,000. As the expenses were vastly increased by the outbreak of war, it became necessary to get more money. To do this, Congress, when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must be described if we are to understand the later history of our country.

%465. Power to raise Money.%—The Constitution gives Congress power

1. "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises."

2. "To borrow money on the credit of the United States."

3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according to their population.

%466. Raising Money by Taxation; Internal Revenue.%—Exercising these powers, Congress in 1861 increased the duties on articles imported, laid a direct tax of $20,000,000. and imposed a tax of three per cent on all incomes over $800. The returns were large, but they fell far short of the needs of the government, and in 1862 an internal revenue system was created. Taxes were now imposed on spirits and malt liquors; on manufactured tobacco; on trades, professions, and occupations; till almost everything a man ate, drank, wore, bought, sold, or owned was taxed. The revenue collected from such sources between 1862 and 1865 was $780,000,000.

%467. Raising Money "on the Credit of the United States."%—Money raised by internal revenue and the tariff was largely used to pay current expenses and the interest on the national debt. The great war expenses were met by borrowing money in two ways:

1. By selling bonds.

2. By issuing "United States notes."

%468. The Bonded and Interest-paying Debt.%—The bonds were obligations by which the government bound itself to pay the holder the sum of money specified in the bond at the end of a certain period of years, as twenty or thirty or forty. Meantime the holder was to be paid interest at the rate of five, six, or seven per cent a year. Between July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, when our national debt was greatest, $1,109,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold to the people and the money used for war purposes.

%469. United States Notes.%—The United States notes were of two kinds: those which bore interest, and those which did not. Those bearing interest passed under various names, and by 1866 amounted to $577,000,000.

United States notes bearing no interest were the "old demand notes," the "greenbacks," the "fractional currency," and the "national bank notes."

The greenbacks (a name given them from the green color of their backs) were authorized early in 1862, were in denominations from $1 up, bore no interest, were legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. In time $450,000,000 were authorized to be issued, and in 1864, $449,000,000 were in circulation.

%470. Fractional Currency.%—The issue of the demand notes in 1861, and the fact, apparent to every one, that Congress must keep on issuing paper money, led the state banks to suspend specie payment in December, 1861. As a consequence, the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces (and of course all the gold) disappeared from circulation. This left the people without small change, and for a time they were forced to pay their car fare and buy their newspapers and make change with postage stamps and "token" pieces of brass and copper, which passed from hand to hand as cents. Indeed, one act of Congress, in July, 1862, made it lawful to receive postage stamps (in sums under $5) in payment of government dues. But in March, 1863, another step was taken, and an issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional currency was authorized.

%471. The National Banking System.%—Yet another financial measure to aid the government was the creation of national banks. In 1863 Congress established the office of "Comptroller of the Currency," and authorized him to permit the establishment of banking associations. Each must consist of not less than five persons, must have a certain capital, and must deposit with the Treasury Department at Washington government bonds equal to at least one third of its capital. The Comptroller was then to issue to each association bank notes not exceeding in value ninety per cent of the face value of the bonds. It was supposed that the state banks, which then issued $150,000,000 in 7000 kinds of bank notes, would take advantage of the law, become national banks, and use this national money, which would pass all over the country. This would enable the government to sell the banks $150,000,000 and more of bonds. But the state banks did not do so till 1865, when a tax of ten per cent was laid on the amount of paper money each state bank issued. Then, to get rid of the tax, hundreds of them bought bonds and became national banks.

%472. The National Debt and State Expenditures.%—On the 31st of August, 1865, the national debt thus created reached its highest figure, and was in round numbers $2,845,000,000.

Besides the debt incurred by the national government, there were heavy expenditures by the states, and we might say by almost every city and town, amounting to $468,000,000. But even when the war ended, the outlay on account of the war did not cease. Each year there was interest to pay on the bonded debt, and pensions to be given to disabled soldiers and sailors, and to the widows and orphans of men killed, and claims for damages of all sorts to be allowed. Between July 1, 1861, and June 30, 1879, the expenditure of the government growing out of the war amounted to $6,190,000,000.

Many men who served in the army made great personal sacrifices. They were taken away from some useful employment, from their farms, their trades, their business, or their professions. What they might have earned or accomplished during the time of service was so much loss.

%473. The Cost in Human Life.%—While the war was raging, Lincoln made twelve calls for volunteers, to serve for periods varying from 100 days to three years. The first was the famous call of April 15, 1861, for 75,000 three-months men; the last was in December, 1864. When the numbers of soldiers thus summoned from their homes are added, we find that 2,763,670 were wanted and 2,772,408 responded. This does not mean that 2,770,000 different men were called into service or were ever at any one time under arms. Some served for three months, others for six months, a year, or three years. Very often a man would enlist and when his term was out would reenlist. The largest number in service at any time was in April, 1865. It was 1,000,516, of whom 650,000 were fit for service. In 1865, 800,000 were mustered out between April and October.

Of those who gave their lives to preserve the Union, 67,000 were killed in battle, 43,000 died of wounds, and 230,000 of disease and other causes. In round numbers, 360,000 men gave up their lives in defense of the Union. How many perished in the Confederate army cannot be stated, but the loss was quite as large as on the Union side; so that it is safe to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.[1]

[Footnote 1: A table giving the size of the armies and the loss of life will be found in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV., pp. 767-768.]

%474. Suffering in the South.%—The South raised all the cotton, nearly all the rice and tobacco, and one third of the Indian corn grown in our country, and depended on Europe and the North for manufactured goods. But when the North, in 1861 and 1862, blockaded her ports and cut off these supplies, her distress began. Brass bells and brass kettles were called for to be melted and cast into cannon, and every sort of fowling piece and old musket was pressed into service and sent to the troops in the field. As money could not be had, treasury notes were issued by the million, to be redeemed "six months after the close of the war." Planters were next pledged to loan the government a share of the proceeds of their cotton, receiving bonds in return. But the blockade was so rigorous that very little cotton could get to Europe. When this failed, provisions for the army were bought with bonds and with paper money issued by the states.

This steady issue of paper money, with nothing to redeem it, led to its rapid decrease in value. In 1864 it took $40 in Confederate paper money to buy a yard of calico. A spool of thread cost $20; a ham, $150; a pound of sugar, $75; and a barrel of flour, $1200.

%475. Makeshifts.%—Thrown on their own resources, the Southern people became home manufacturers. The inner shuck of Indian corn was made into hats. Knitting became fashionable. Homespun clothing, dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark or wild indigo or swamp maple or elderberries, was worn by everybody. Barrels and boxes which had been used for packing salt fish and pork were soaked in water, which was evaporated for the sake of the salt thus extracted. Rye or wheat roasted and ground became a substitute for coffee, and dried raspberry leaves for tea.

Quite as desperate were the shifts to which the South was put for soldiers. At first every young man was eager to rush to the front. But as time passed, and the great armies of the North were formed, it became necessary to force men into the ranks, to "conscript" them; and in 1862 an act of the Confederate Congress made all males from eighteen to thirty-five subject to military duty. In September, 1862, all men from eighteen to forty-five, and later from sixteen to sixty, were subject to conscription. The slaves, of course, worked on the fortifications, drove teams, and cooked for the troops.

%476. Cost to the South%.—Thus drained of her able-bodied population, the South went rapidly to rack and ruin. Crops fell off, property fell into decay, business stopped, railroads were ruined because men could not be had to keep them in repair, and because no rails could be obtained. The loss inflicted by this general and widespread ruin can never be even estimated. Cotton, houses, property of every sort, was destroyed to prevent capture by the Union forces. On every battlefield incalculable damage was done to woods, villages, farmhouses, and crops. Bridges were burned; cities, such as Richmond, Atlanta, Columbia, Charleston, were well-nigh destroyed by fire; thousands of miles of railroad were torn up and ruined. The loss entailed by the emancipation of the slaves, supposing each negro worth $500, amounts to $2,000,000,000.

SUMMARY

1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods: A. Increasing taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money.

2. Taxation was in three forms: A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. Internal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes.

3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes (greenbacks), fractional currency.

4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, counties, cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in general; and the cost to individuals.

6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the public debt.

6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South; there was also a destruction of property and business, the money value of which cannot be estimated.



"THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES."

CHAPTER XXX

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH

%477. The Reelection of Lincoln%.—While the war was still raging, the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation was serious. On the one hand was the Democratic party, denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting that the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a convention, and dropping the name "Republicans" for the time being, took that of "National Union party," and renominated Lincoln. For Vice President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat from Tennessee.

The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated John C. Fremont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war measures; and the destruction of slavery forever.

The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation of hostilities with a view to a convention of the states," and described the sacrifice of lives and treasure in behalf of Union as "four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then peace. "No peace can be permanent without union." The platform said the war was a failure. McClellan said, "I could not look in the faces of my gallant comrades of the army and navy ... and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain."

The result was never in doubt. By September Fremont and Cochrane both withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March 4, 1865, were sworn into office.

%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.—By that time the Confederacy was doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the fort which he had so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army and navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861.

That night Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, and while he was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named John Wilkes Booth came in and shot him through the head, causing a wound from which the President died early next morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box to the stage, and shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis" (So be it always to tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in the confusion of the moment, and mounting a horse, rode away.

The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details of which were soon discovered and the criminals punished. Booth was hunted by soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. His accomplices were either hanged or imprisoned for life.[1]

[Footnote 1: The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in "Four Lincoln Conspiracies" in the Century Magazine for April, 1896.]

%479. Andrew Johnson, President.%—Lincoln had not been many hours dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution provides, took the oath of office and became President of the United States. Before him lay the most gigantic task ever given to any President.

%480. Reconstruction.%—To dispose of the Confederate soldiers and politicians was an easy matter; but to decide what to do with the Confederate states proved most difficult. Lincoln had always held that they could not secede. If they could not secede, they had never been out of the Union, and if they had never been out of the Union, they were entitled, as of old, to send senators and representatives to Congress.



But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state governments of 1861, and the relations these governments once held with the Union, were destroyed by the so-called secession, and it was necessary to define some way by which they might be reestablished, or, as it was called, "reconstructed."

Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army had acquired possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Lincoln issued his "Amnesty Proclamation" and began the work of reconstruction. He promised, in the first place, that, with certain exceptions, which he mentioned, he would pardon[1] every man who should lay down his arms and swear to support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in any state that had attempted secession, voters equal in number to one tenth of those who in 1860 voted for presidential electors, should take this oath and organize a state government, he would recognize it; that is, he would consider the state "reconstructed," loyal, and entitled to representation in Congress.

[Footnote 1: The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.]

Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which Lincoln recognized. But here Congress stepped in, refused to seat the senators from these states, and made a plan of its own, which Lincoln vetoed.

%481. Johnson's "My Policy" Plan of Reconstruction.%—So the matter stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis was captured, and the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws enacted by the Confederate Congress at once became null and void. Taxes were no longer collected; letters were no longer delivered; Confederate money had no longer any value. Even the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands of Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such governors, political leaders, and prominent men as could be found, and striking terror into others who fled to places of safety. In the midst of this confusion all civil government ended. To reestablish it under the Constitution and laws of the United States was, therefore, the first duty of the President, and he began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, and opened the ports of the South to trade; then he ordered the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes were collected, that letters were delivered, that the courts of the United States were opened, and the laws enforced in all the Southern States; finally, he placed over each of the unreconstructed states a temporary or provisional governor. These governors called conventions of delegates elected by such white men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions did four things: 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting the Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 3. They abolished slavery within their own bounds. 4. They ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery forever in the United States.

%482. The Thirteenth Amendment%.—This amendment was sent out to the states by Congress in February, 1865, and was necessary to complete the work begun by the Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation merely set free the slaves in certain parts of the country, and left the right to buy more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, and in them slavery still existed. In order, therefore, to abolish the institution of slavery in every state in the Union, an amendment to the Constitution was necessary, as many of the states could not be relied on to abolish it within their bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally proclaimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.[1]

[Footnote 1: Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the Constitution. When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.]

%483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.—Had the Southern legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But they went on, and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if not in actual slavery.

To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary. But by the men of the North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such severe laws against the negroes.

%484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.—As soon as the two houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to protect the freedmen.

One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the "Civil Rights" Bill, which gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts. This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a condition of readmittance to Congress.

Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their rights, was passed over the President's veto, just before Congress adjourned.

%485. The President abuses Congress%.—During the summer, Johnson made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; "a factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress," "a Congress violent in breaking up the Union." These attacks, coupled with the fact that some of the Southern States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the "Tenure of Office Act" and "Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867).

%486. The Reconstruction Act%.—The Reconstruction Act marked out the ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress. If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and representatives to Congress, and not before.

To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 1868, it was declared in force.

%487. "Tenure of Office Act"; Johnson impeached%—By this time the quarrel between the President and Congress had reached such a crisis that the Republican, leaders feared he would obstruct the execution of the reconstruction law by removing important officials chiefly responsible for its administration, and putting in their places men who would not enforce it. To prevent this, Congress, in 1867, passed the "Tenure of Office Act." Hitherto a President could remove almost any Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only suspend while the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the man was removed; if it disapproved, the man was reinstated. Johnson denied the right of Congress to make such a law, and very soon disobeyed it.

In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to resign, and when the Secretary refused, suspended him and made General Grant temporary Secretary. All this was legal, but when Congress met, and the Senate disapproved of the suspension, General Grant gave the office back again to Stanton. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War, and ordered him to seize the office. For this, and for his abusive speeches about Congress, the House of Representatives impeached him, and the Senate tried him "for high crimes and misdemeanors," but failed by one vote to find him guilty. Stanton then resigned his office.

SUMMARY

1. In 1864 the Republican party was split, and one part, taking the name of National Union party, renominated Lincoln. The other or radical wing, which wanted a more vigorous war policy, nominated Fremont and Cochrane. The Democrats declared the war a failure, demanded peace, and nominated McClellan and Pendleton.

2. The gradual conquest of the South brought up the question of the relation to the Federal government of a state which had seceded.

3. Lincoln marked out his own plan of reconstruction in an amnesty proclamation. Congress thought he had no right to do this, and adopted a plan which Lincoln vetoed. His death left the question for Johnson to settle.

4. Johnson adopted a plan of his own and soon came into conflict with Congress.

5. Congress began by refusing seats to congressmen from states reconstructed on Johnson's plan. It then passed, over Johnson's veto, a series of bills to protect the freedmen and give them civil rights.

6. Six states accepted the terms of reconstruction offered, and their senators and representatives were admitted to Congress (1868).

7. Johnson, in 1866, traveled about the West abusing Congress. For this, and chiefly for his disregard of the Tenure of Office Act, he was impeached by the House and tried and acquitted by the Senate.

* * * * *

RECONSTRUCTON.

Lincoln's plan ...

States cannot secede; only some of their people were in insurrection. Amnesty proclamation. Recognizes Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Thirteenth Amendment.

Johnson's plan ...

Provisional governors. Ratify Thirteenth Amendment. New state constitutions made. Congressmen chosen.

Congressional plan ...

Congress refuses them seats. Civil Rights Bill. Freedmen's Bureau Bill. Tenure of Office Act. Reconstruction Act. Fourteenth Amendment.

Johnson vs. Congress ...

Vetoes Civil Rights Bill. Freedmen's Bureau Bill.

Denounces Congress. Violates Tenure of Office Act. Impeached.



CHAPTER XXXI

THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)

%488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak.%—In the summer of 1858 news reached the Missouri that gold had been found on the eastern slope of the Rockies, and at once a wild rush set in for the foot of Pikes Peak, in what was then Kansas.



During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched a camp on Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, in the winter, they were joined by General Larimer with a party from Leavenworth, Kan., and by them the rude camp at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the governor of Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in from every point along the frontier. Some, providing themselves with great white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, joined forces for better protection against the Indians, and set out together, making long wagon trains or caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed. Such as could not afford a "prairie schooner," as the canvas-covered wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts.

By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They needed supplies, and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell put a daily line of coaches on the road from Leavenworth to Denver. This means of communication brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city of frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, and a mint for coining gold.

%489. The Pony Express; the Overland Stage.%—By that time, too, the first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. But between the Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap of 2000 miles which the settlers demanded should be spanned at once, and it was. In 1860 the same firm that sent the first stagecoach over the prairie from Leavenworth to Denver, ran a pony express from the Missouri to the Pacific. Their plan was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail on horseback across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed must be rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were therefore established every twenty-five miles, and at them fresh horses and riders were kept. Mounted on a spirited Indian pony, the mail carrier would set out from St. Joseph and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay station, swing himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in sunshine and storm, over prairie and mountain, the mail carrier pursued his journey alone. The cost in human life was immense. The first riders made the journey of 1996 miles in ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then the Butterfield Overland Stage Company.

%490. The Union Pacific Railroad; the Land Grant Roads.%—Meantime the war opened, and an idea often talked of took definite shape. California had scarcely been admitted, in 1850, when the plan to bind her firmly to the Union by a great railroad, built at national cost, was urged vigorously. By 1856 the people began to demand it, and in that year the Republican party, and in 1860 both the Republican and Democratic parties, pledged themselves to build one. The secession of the South, and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made the need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work.

Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, was to begin at Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to begin at Sacramento and build eastward till the two met. The Union Pacific was to receive from the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each mile built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across the Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of the way. It received all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. The Central Pacific, under like conditions, received for its 883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden $27,850,000. But the liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road was also given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land twenty miles wide along its entire length.

%491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals.%—Grants of land in aid of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 and 1860 Congress gave away to canals, roads, and railroads 215,000,000 acres. This magnificent expanse would make seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a half as large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries.

Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of construction was slow at first, and the last rail was not laid till May 10, 1869.

%492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories.%—What the discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and the railroad did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 some gold seekers in what was then Utah discovered the rich silver mines on Mt. Davidson. Population rushed in, Virginia City sprang into existence, the territory of Nevada was formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state. In 1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North and South Dakota and the land west of them to the Rocky Mountain divide became the territory of Dakota. Hardly was this done when gold was found in a gulch on the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Bannock City, Virginia City, and Helena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana was made a territory. In 1860 and 1862 precious metals were found in what was then eastern Washington; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old Hudson Bay Company's post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in 1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including what is now Montana and part of Wyoming. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory.

%493. Population in 1870.%—Thus in the decade from 1860 to 1870 gold, silver, and the Pacific Railroad gave value to the American Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) into the Union, and caused the organization of six new territories. More than 1,000,000 people then lived along the line of the Union Pacific. Our total population in 1870 was 38,000,000.

SUMMARY

1. What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the "Great American Desert" in 1858.

2. The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of a stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to the Pacific; the overland coach; and the Pacific Railroad.

3. Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission of Nebraska and Nevada into the Union.

4. Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota.

New States (1860-1870).

Kansas, 1861. West Virginia, 1863. Nevada, 1864. Nebraska, 1867. Total number of states in 1870, 37.

New Territories (1860-1870).

Colorado, 1861. Dakota, 1861. Idaho, 1863. Arizona, 1863. Montana, 1864. Wyoming, 1868.



THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE

CHAPTER XXXII

POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880

%494. New Issues before the People.%—Five years had now passed since the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these years the North, aroused and united by the efforts put forth to crush the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of the development of the country.

%495. Amnesty.%—In the first place, now that the war was over, the people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this, certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a "general amnesty" [1] or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of reconstructive measures by Congress.

[Footnote 1: In 1863, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons" except the leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and, though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left a great many men unpardoned.]

%496. The National Finances.%—A second issue resulting from the war was the management of the national finances. January 1, 1866, the national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of $1,620,000,000, that part made up of "greenbacks," fractional currency, treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before the people:

1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt?

2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie payment" resumed?

As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000.

As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the currency" by gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the "greenbacks." This was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to $356,000,000 in 1868.

By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks.

%497. "The Ohio Idea"; the Greenback Party.%—But there was still another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered. 1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is, bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable "in coin." 3. But nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law said they should be "lawful money and a legal tender for all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid." 5. This made it possible to pay the principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for borrowing money, provided that both principal and interest should be paid in coin.

At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a premium; that is, it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold. Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or municipality.

Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two things—taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20's in greenbacks. This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the "Ohio idea," and its supporters were called "Greenbackers."

%498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads.%—Much fault was now found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public domain. In 1862 a law known as the Homestead Act was passed. By it a farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any person twenty-one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen, provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years. Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations.

%499. The Election of 1868.%—The questions discussed above (pp. 437-439) became the political issues of 1868.

The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration.

The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; "one currency for the government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder"; the taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public improvements.

The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214 votes, and Seymour 80.

%500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan.%—Grant and Colfax began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of 1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said, "ran things." They began by persuading the negroes that their old masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where, seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as ordered, these "carpetbaggers," [1] as they were called, ruled the states in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people.

[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called "carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in their carpetbags.]

Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan." Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders, or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported the negro cause were called.

%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%—To secure the negro the right to vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or "Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or the votes, when cast, from being counted.



%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%—This legislation and the conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans," because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May, 1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles O'Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field.

%503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%—From about 1829, when the establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In 1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded

1. Lower interest on government bonds.

2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks.

3. Withdrawal of national bank notes.

4. Issue of paper money "based on the faith and resources of the nation," to be legal tender for all debts.

5. An eight-hour law.

6. Exclusion of the Chinese.

7. No land grants to corporations.

8. Formation of a "National Labor-Reform Party."

The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved, that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated David Davis and Joel Parker. When they declined, O'Conor was nominated.

%504. Anti-Chinese Movement.%—The demand in the Labor platform for the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning "Mongolian labor."

Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete with them.

The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme Court declared such taxation illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal was made to Congress. That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to the old Chinese treaty of 1858. Henceforth it was to be a penal offense to take Chinamen to the United States without their free consent. This was not enough, and in order to force Congress to act, the question was made a political issue.

%505. The Prohibition Party.%—The temperance cause in the United States dates back to 1810. But it was not till Maine passed a law forbidding the sale of liquor, in 1851, and her example was followed by Vermont and Rhode Island in 1852, by Connecticut in 1854, and by New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Iowa, in 1855, that prohibition became an issue. The war turned the thoughts of people to other things. But after the war, prohibition parties began to appear in several states, and in 1869 steps were taken to unite and found a national party. In that year, the Grand Lodges of Good Templars held a convention at Oswego, N.Y., and by these men a call was issued for a national convention of prohibitionists to form a political party. The delegates thus summoned met at Chicago in September, 1869, and there founded the "National Prohibition Reform party." The first national nominating convention was held at Columbus, O., in 1872, when James Black of Pennsylvania was nominated for President, and John Russell of Michigan for Vice President.

%506. Campaign of 1872.%—At the beginning of the campaign there were thus seven presidential candidates before the people. But some refused to run, and others had no chance, so that the contest was really between General Grant and Horace Greeley, who was caricatured unmercifully. The benevolent face of the great editor, spectacled, and fringed with a snow-white beard, appeared on fans, on posters, on showcards, where, as a setting sun, it might be seen going down behind the western hills. "Go west," his famous advice to young men, became the slang phrase of the hour. He was defeated, for Grant carried thirty-one states, and Greeley six.

In many respects this was a most interesting election. For the first time in our history the freedmen voted for presidential electors. For the first time since 1860 the people of all the states took part in the election of a President of the United States, while the number of candidates, Labor, Prohibition, Liberal Republican, Democratic, and Republican, showed that the old issues which caused the war or were caused by the war were dead or dying, and that new ones were coming forward.

%507. Panic of 1873.%—Now, all these things, the immense expansion of the railroads, and the great outlay necessary for rebuilding Chicago, much of which had been burned in 1871, and Boston, which suffered from a great fire in 1872, absorbed money and made it difficult to get. Just in the midst of the stringency a quarrel arose between the farmers and the railroads in the West, and made matters worse. It stopped the sale of railroad bonds, and crippled the enterprises that depended on such sale for funds. It impaired the credit of bankers concerned in railroad building, and in September, 1873, a run on them for deposits began till one of them, Jay Cooke & Co., failed, and at once a panic swept over the business world. Country depositors demanded their money; the country banks therefore withdrew their deposits with the city banks, which in turn called in their loans, and industry of every kind stopped. In 1873 there were 5000 failures, and in 1874 there were 5800. Hours of labor were reduced, wages were cut down, workingmen were discharged by thousands.

%508. The Inflation Bill.%—In hope of relieving this distress by making money easier to get, a demand was now made that Congress should issue more greenbacks. To this Congress, in 1874, responded by passing the "Inflation Bill," declaring that there should be $400,000,000 in greenbacks, no more, no less. As the limit fixed in 1868 was $356,000,000, the bill tended to "inflate" or add to the paper currency $44,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill.

%509. Resumption of Specie Payments.%—What shall be done with the currency? now became the question of the hour, and at the next session of Congress (1874-75) another effort was made to answer it, and "an act to provide for the resumption of specie payments" was passed.

1. Under this law, silver 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces were to be exchanged through the post offices and subtreasuries for fractional currency till it was all redeemed.

2. Surplus revenue might be used and bonds issued for the purchase of coin.

3. That part of an act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank notes to $354,000,000 was repealed.

4. The banks could now put out more bills; but for each $100 they put out the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80 of greenbacks, till but $300,000,000 of them remained.

5. After January 1,1879, he must redeem them all on demand.

%510. The Political Issues of 1876.%—The currency question, the hard times which had continued since 1873, the rise of the Labor and Prohibition parties, the reports of shameful corruption and dishonesty in every branch of the public service, the dissatisfaction of a large part of the Republican party with the way affairs were managed by the administration, combined to make the election of 1876 very doubtful. The general displeasure was so great that the Democratic party not only carried state elections in the North in 1874 and 1875, but secured a majority of the House of Representatives.

%511. Nomination of Presidential Candidates.%—When the time came to make nominations for the presidency, the Prohibition party was first to act. It selected Green Clay Smith of Kentucky and G.T. Stewart of Ohio as its candidates, and demanded that in all the territories and the District of Columbia, the importation, exportation, manufacture, and sale of alcoholic beverages should be stopped. Two other demands—the abolition of polygamy (which was practiced by the Mormons in Utah), and the closing of the mails to the advertisements of gambling and lottery schemes—have since been secured.

Next came the Greenback or Independent National party, which nominated Peter Cooper of New York and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, and called for the repeal of the Resumption of Specie Payment Act, and the issue of paper notes bearing a low rate of interest.

In June, the Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. They endorsed the financial policy of the party, demanded civil service reform, protection to American industries, no more land grants to corporations, an investigation of the effect of Chinese immigration, and "respectful consideration" of the woman's rights question.

The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and called for reforms of every kind—in the civil service, in the administration, in expenditures, in the internal revenue system, in the currency, in the tariff, in the use of public lands, in the treatment of the South.

%512. Result of the Election.%—While the campaign was going on, Colorado was admitted (in August, 1876) as a state. There were then thirty-eight states in the Union, casting 369 electoral votes. This made 185 necessary for a choice; and when the returns were all in, it appeared that, if the Republicans could secure the electoral votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, they would have exactly 185. In these states, however, a dispute was raging as to which set of electors, Republican or Democratic, was elected. Each claimed to be; and, as the result depended on them, each set met and voted. It was then for Congress to decide which should be counted.

Now, the framers of the Constitution had never thought of such a condition of affairs, and had made no provisions to meet it. Congress therefore provided for an

%513. "Electoral Commission,"% to decide which of the conflicting returns should be accepted. This commission was to be composed of five senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats; the House, three Democrats and two Republicans. Congress appointed two Democratic and two Republican justices, who chose the fifth justice, who was a Republican. The Commission thus consisted of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The decision as to each of the disputed states was in favor of the Republican electors, and as it could not be reversed unless both houses of Congress consented, and as both would not consent, Hayes was declared elected, over Tilden, by one electoral vote; namely, Hayes, 185; Tilden, 184.



%514. Financial Policy of Grant's Administration.%—The inauguration of Hayes was followed by a special session of Congress. In the House was a great Democratic majority, pledged to a new financial measure—a pledge which it soon made good.

The financial policy of Grant's eight years may be summed up briefly:

1. (1869) The "Credit Strengthening Act," declaring that 5-20 bonds of the United States should be paid "in coin."

2. (1870) The Refunding Act, by which $1,500,000,000 in bonds bearing five and six per cent interest were ordered to be replaced by other bonds at four, four and a half, and five per cent. In this refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by others whose principal was payable "in coin."

3. (1873) The act of 1873, by stopping the coinage of silver dollars, and taking away the legal tender quality of those in circulation, made the words "in coin" mean gold.

4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie on January 1, 1879.

5. To get specie, bonds might be issued.

%515. Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized.%—Against the continuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged. Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House. One repealed so much of the act of 1875 as provided for the retirement of greenbacks and the issue of bonds. The second was brought in by Mr. Bland of Missouri, and is still known by his name. It provided

1. That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the ratio of 16 to 1; that is, that the same number of dollars should be made out of sixteen pounds of silver as out of one pound of gold.

2. That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all debts, public and private.

3. That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined into dollars without cost to the bringer. This was "free coinage of silver."

The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the "free coinage" provision and substituted the "Allison" amendment. Under this, the Secretary of the Treasury was to buy not less than $2,000,000, nor more than $4,000,000, worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it into dollars.

The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes vetoed the bill Congress passed it over his veto and the "Bland-Allison Bill" became a law in 1878.

%516. Silver Certificates.%—Now this return to the coinage of the silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in silver would be troublesome because of the weight. It was therefore provided that the coins might be deposited in the Treasury, and paper "silver certificates" issued against them.

A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government returned to specie payment, and ever since has redeemed greenbacks in gold, on demand.

%517. Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico.%—The statement was made that with the exception of Russia the great powers of Europe sympathized with the South during the Civil War. Two of them, France and Great Britain, were openly hostile. The French Emperor allowed Confederate agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in French ports,[1] and sent an army into Mexico to overturn that republic and establish an empire. Mexico owed the subjects of Great Britain, France, and Spain large sums of money, and as she would not pay, these three powers in 1861 sent a combined army to hold her seaports till the debts were paid. But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs against the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew. Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable to interfere because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed the Mexican republic and made Maximilian (a brother of the Emperor of Austria) Emperor of Mexico. This was in open defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the United States protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865. Then, the Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran troops having been sent to the Rio Grande, the French soldiers were withdrawn (1867), and the Mexican republican party captured Maximilian, shot him, and reestablished the republic.

[Footnote 1: See Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe.]

%518. The Alabama Claims; Geneva Award.%—The hostility of Great Britain was more serious than that of France. As we have seen, the cruisers (Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida) built in her shipyards went to sea and inflicted great injury on our commerce. Although she was well aware of this, she for a long time refused to make good the damage done. But wiser counsel in the end prevailed, and in 1871, by the treaty of Washington, all disputed questions were submitted to arbitration.

The Alabama claims, as they were called, were sent to a board of five arbitrators who met at Geneva (1872) and awarded the United States $15,500,000 to be distributed among our citizens whose ships and property had been destroyed by the cruisers.

%519. Other International Disputes; the Alaska Purchase.%—To the Emperor of Germany was submitted the question of the true water boundary between Washington Territory and British Columbia. He decided in favor of the United States (1872).

To a board of Fish Commissioners was referred the claim of Canada that the citizens of the United States derived more benefit from the fishing in Canadian waters than did the Canadians from using the coast waters of the United States. The award made to Great Britain was $5,500,000 $5,500,000 (1877).

In 1867, we purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.

SUMMARY

Financial History, 1868-1880

1. When the war ended, the national debt consisted of two parts: the bonded, and the unbonded or floating.

2. As public sentiment demanded the reduction of the debt, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, and contract the currency by canceling the greenbacks.

3. Contraction went on till 1868, when Congress ordered it stopped.

4. The payment of the bonds brought up the question, Shall the 5-20's be paid in coin or greenbacks?

5. The Democrats in 1868 insisted that the bonds should be redeemed in greenbacks; the Republicans that they should be paid in coin,—and when they won, they passed the "Credit Strengthening Act" of 1869, and in 1870 refunded the bonds at lower rates.

6. In the process of refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by others payable "in coin." In 1873, the coinage of the silver dollar was stopped, and the legal-tender quality of silver was taken away. The words "in coin" therefore meant "in gold."

7. In 1875 it was ordered that all greenbacks should be redeemed in specie after January 1, 1879 (resumption of specie payment).

8. In 1878 silver was made legal tender, and given limited coinage.

The South and the Negro

9. In 1869, three states still refused to comply with the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and had no representatives in Congress.

10. Such states as had complied and given the negro the right to vote were under "carpetbag" rule.

11. This rule became so unbearable that the Ku Klux Klan was organized to terrify the negroes and keep them from the polls.

12. Congress in consequence sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and in 1871 enacted the Force Act.

13. These and other issues, as that of amnesty, split the Republican party and led to the appearance of the Liberal Republicans in 1872.

14. In general, however, party differences turned almost entirely on financial and industrial issues.



CHAPTER XXXIII

GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST

%520. Results of the War.%—The Civil War was fought by the North for the preservation of the Union and by the South for the destruction of the Union. But we who, after more than thirty years, look back on the results of that struggle, can see that they did not stop with the preservation of the Union. Both in the North and in the South the war produced a great industrial revolution.

%521. Effect on the South.%—In the South, in the first place, it changed the system of labor from slave to free. While the South was a slave-owning country free labor would not come in. Without free labor there could be no mills, no factories, no mechanical industries. The South raised cotton, tobacco, sugar, and left her great resources undeveloped. After slavery was abolished, the South was on the same footing as the North, and her splendid resources began at once to be developed.

It was found that her rich deposits of iron ore were second to none in the world. It was found that beneath her soil lay an unbroken coal field, 39,000 square miles in extent. It was found that cotton, instead of being raised in less quantity under a system of free labor, was more widely cultivated than ever. In 1860, 4,670,000 bales were grown; but in 1894 the number produced was 9,500,000. The result has been the rise of a New South, and the growth of such manufacturing centers as Birmingham in Alabama and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and of that center of commerce, Atlanta, in Georgia.

%522. Rise of New Industries in the North.%—Much the same industrial revolution has taken place in the North. The list of industries well known to us, but unknown in 1860, is a long one. The production of petroleum for commercial purposes began in 1859, when Mr. Drake drilled his well near Titusville, in Pennsylvania. In 1860 the daily yield of all the wells in existence was not 200 barrels. But by 1891 this industry had so developed that 54,300,000 barrels were produced in that year, or 14,900 a day.



The last thirty years have seen the rise of cheese making as a distinctive factory industry; of the manufacture of oleo-margarine, wire nails, Bessemer steel, cotton-seed oil, coke, canned goods; of the immense mills of Minneapolis, where 10,000,000 barrels of flour are made annually, and of the meat dressing and packing business for which Chicago and Kansas City are famous.

%523. The New Northwest.%—When the census was taken in 1860, so few people were living in what are now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho that they were not counted. In Dakota there were less than 5000 inhabitants. The discovery of gold and silver did for these territories what it had done for Colorado. It brought into them so many miners that in 1870 the population of these four territories amounted to 59,000. Between Lake Superior (where in the midst of a vast wilderness Duluth had just been laid out on the lake shore) and the mining camps in the mountains of Montana, there was not a town nor a hamlet. (There were indeed a few forts and Indian agencies and a few trading posts.) Northern Minnesota was a forest, into which even the lumbermen had not gone. The region from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was the hunting ground of the Sioux, and was roamed over by enormous herds of buffalo.

%524. The Northern Pacific Railroad.%—But this great wilderness was soon to be crossed by one of the civilizers of the age. After years of vain effort, the promoters of the Northern Pacific began the building of their road in 1870, and pushed it across the plains till Duluth and St. Paul were joined with Puget Sound. As it went further and further westward, emigrants followed it, towns sprang up, and cities grew with astonishing rapidity.

%525. The New States.%—Idaho, which had no white inhabitants in 1860, had 32,000 in 1880; Montana had 39,000 in 1880, as against none in 1860. Kansas in twenty years increased her population four fold, and Nebraska eight fold. This was extraordinary; but it was surpassed by Dakota, whose population increased nearly ten fold in ten years (1870-1880), and in 1889 was half a million. The time had now come to form a state government. But as most of the people lived in the south end of the territory, it was cut in two, and North and South Dakota were admitted into the Union as states on the same day (November 2, 1889); Montana followed within a fortnight, and Idaho and Wyoming within a year (July, 1890). The four territories, in which in 1860 there were but 5000 white settlers, had thus by 1890 become the five states of North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with a population of 790,000.[1]

[Footnote 1: Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, Washington in 1889 (November 11); and Utah, the forty-fifth state, in 1896, under a constitution forever prohibiting polygamy.]

%526. Wheat Farms and Cattle Ranches.%—Such a rush of people completely transformed the country. The "Great American Desert" was made productive. The buffaloes were almost exterminated, and one now is as great a curiosity in the West as in the East. More than 7,000,000 were slaughtered in 1871-1872. In lieu of them countless herds of cattle and sheep, and fields of wheat and corn, cover the plains and hills of the Northwest. In 1896 Montana contained 3,000,000 sheep, and Wyoming and Idaho each over 1,000,000. In the two Dakotas 60,000,000 bushels of wheat and 30,000,000 of corn were harvested. Many of the farms are of enormous size. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand acre farms are not unknown. One contains 75,000 acres.



Over this region, the Dakotas, Montana, Kansas, and Nebraska, wander herds of cattle, the slaughtering and packing of which have founded new branches of industry. The stockyards at Chicago make a city.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read "Dakota Wheat-Fields," Harper's Magazine, March, 1880. Also a series of papers in Harper's Magazine for 1888.]

%527. Oklahoma.%—The eagerness of the "cattle kings" to get more land for these herds to graze over had much to do with the opening of Oklahoma for settlement. Originally it was part of Indian Territory, and was sold by the Seminole Indians with the express condition that none but Indians and freedmen should settle there. But the cattle kings, in defiance of the government, went in and inclosed immense tracts. Many were driven out, only to come in again. Their expulsion, with that of small proprietors called "boomers," caused much agitation. Congress bought a release from the condition, and in 1889 opened Oklahoma to settlement.

%528. The Boom Towns.%—A proclamation that a part of Oklahoma would be opened April 22, caused a wild rush from every part of the West, till five times as many settlers as could possibly obtain land were lined up on the borders waiting for the signal to cross. Precisely at noon on April 22, a bugle sounded, a wild yell answered, a cloud of dust filled the air, and an army of men on foot, on horseback, in wagons, rushed into the promised land. That morning Guthrie was a piece of prairie land. That night it was a city of 10,000 souls. Before the end of the year 60,000 people were in Oklahoma, building towns and cities of no mean character.

Within fifteen years Oklahoma had a population of over half a million; and Congress provided (1906) for the admission, in 1907, of a new forty-sixth state, including both Oklahoma and what was left of the old Indian Territory.

SUMMARY

1. One important result of the Civil War was a great industrial revolution.

2. Mining for precious metals, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and other causes led to the admission into the Union of Colorado (1876), North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington (1889), Idaho, Wyoming (1890), Utah (1896), and Oklahoma (1907).



CHAPTER XXXIV

MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

%529. Mechanical Progress.%—The mechanical progress made by our countrymen since the war surpasses that of any previous period. In 1866 another cable was laid across the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, and worked successfully. Before 1876 the Gatling gun, dynamite, and the barbed-wire fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, the Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable-car system, the self-binding reaper and harvester, the cash carrier for stores, water gas, and the tin-can-making machine were invented, and Brush gave the world the first successful electric light.

%530. Uses of Electricity.%—Till Brush invented his arc light and dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in the field of telegraphy. But now in rapid succession came the many forms of electric lights and electric motors; the electric railway, the search light; photography by electric light; the welding of metals by electricity; the phonograph and the telephone. In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came also the hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet-iron ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger elevator, which has transformed city life and dotted our great cities with buildings fifteen and twenty stories high.

The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kinetoscope, the horseless carriage, the vestibuled train, the cash register, the perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has deeply affected the life of the people; and a great development in photography.

%531. Rise of Great Corporations.%—That mechanical progress so astonishing should powerfully affect the business and industrial world was inevitable. Trades, occupations, industries of all sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and corporations took the place of individuals and small companies. In place of the forty little telegraph companies of 1856, there was the great Western Union Company. In place of many petty railroads, there were a few trunk lines. In place of a hundred producers and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard Oil Company. These are but a few of many; for the rapid growth of corporations was a characteristic of the period.