A School History of the United States John Bach McMaster The Project Gutenberg EBook of A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: A School History of the United States Author: John Bach McMaster Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11313] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and PG Distributed Proofreaders A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES BY JOHN BACH McMASTER PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 1897 PREFACE It has long been the custom to begin the history of our country with the discovery of the New World by Columbus. To some extent this is both wise and necessary; but in following it in this instance the attempt has been made to treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United States; to have it bear the same relation to our later career that the account of the youth of a great man should bear to that of his maturer years, and to confine it to the narration of such events as are really necessary to a correct understanding of what has happened since 1776. The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries, explorations, and settlements within the United States by the English, French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the French by the English; to the planting of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard; to the origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with the rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent states, and to the growth of such political institutions as began in colonial times. This period once passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our present Constitution--one of the most remarkable political instruments ever framed by man--was adopted, and a nation founded. Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and then for our commercial independence, and finally in a second war with Great Britain. During this period of nearly five and twenty years, commerce and agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal resources were little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the era of industrial development commences, and this has been treated with great--though it is believed not too great--fullness of detail; for, beyond all question, _the_ event of the world's history during the nineteenth century is the growth of the United States. Nothing like it has ever before taken place. To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies would have been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in Channing and Hart's _Guide to the Study of American History_ the best digested and arranged bibliography of the subject yet published, and cannot afford to be without it. If the student has time and disposition to read one half of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this history, he is most fortunate. JOHN BACH McMASTER. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY VII. THE INDIANS VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES XXI. THE RISING WEST XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880 APPENDIX DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES STATE CONSTITUTIONS INDEX LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650 FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700 BRITISH COLONIES, 1733 EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763 THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764 BRITISH COLONIES, 1776 RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE THE UNITED STATES, 1783 THE UNITED STATES, 1789 DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790 SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790 THE UNITED STATES, 1801 THE UNITED STATES, 1810 NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824 DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820 FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820 THE UNITED STATES, 1826 TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845 THE OREGON COUNTRY ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853 RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 THE UNITED STATES IN 1851 EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860 DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850 THE UNITED STATES, 1861 WAR FOR THE UNION INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES * * * * * _DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_ CHAPTER I EUROPE FINDS AMERICA %1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession. Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is necessary, therefore, to tell 1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it. 2. How these parts passed from them to us. 3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on our history and institutions before 1776. %2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins, dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea. [Illustration: Routes to India] %3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one the great feeders of the Oriental trade, till, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453, they destroyed the commercial career of Genoa. As their power was spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice, in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade between the Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began to ask if it were not possible to find an ocean route to Asia. Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were hard at work on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly pushing their way down the western coast of Africa. But as league after league of that coast was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is there not a shorter route? and this Columbus tried to answer. [Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.] %4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes. As Portugal was then the center of nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 1470, and probably went on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In 1473 he married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of the King of Portugal's famous navigators, and had left behind him at his death a quantity of charts and notes; and it was while Columbus was studying them that the idea of seeking the Indies by sailing due westward seems to have first started in his mind. But many a year went by, and many a hardship had to be borne, and many an insult patiently endured in poverty and distress, before the Friday morning in August, 1492, when his three caravels, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the _Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Nina_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of Palos (pah'-los), in Spain.