Resource Center OLLibrary
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whole English language.1 This was Webster's.
Dictionary, by Noah Webster of Connecticut. It had cost the author
and compiler nearly twenty years of labor, and it made his name
and work known in every schoolhouse of the United States.
Following Webster came the poets Whittier,
Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, and Poe; Emerson, with his wonderful
essays on nature; Hawthorne, with his stories of New England;
Audubon, with his magnificent work on the "Birds of America";
Bancroft, with his history of the United States, followed by the
historians Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. It was the beginning of
American literature.2
About the same time (1833) the New York
Sun, the first cheap American newspaper ever published,
which sold for one cent, appeared in New York. From that time
forward the poorest man could afford to carry home in his pocket
at night a daily history of the world's doings.
273. Henry Clay and the Whigs. During
Jackson's administration a new political party called Whigs came
into existence. They vehemently opposed Jackson's measures and
favored the continuance of the United States Bank.
Henry Clay (§§ 243, 269), the leader
of the new party, had a strong desire to become President. He
hoped that the votes of the Whigs would elect him.
274. Summary. Seven important events
marked the administration of Andrew Jackson. They were: (1) the
beginning of the system of removals from government offices for
political reasons; (2) the commencement of the anti-slavery
movement by William
1 The best English
dictionary before Webster's was Dr. Samuel Johnson's, first
published in London in 1755. It had not really been revised for
seventy years, and was very unsatisfactory to Americans, since it
did not contain many familiar American words, such as "congress"
(in the sense of a national legislature), "savings bank,"
"prairie," and hundreds of others. Webster thought that America
had as good a right to coin new words as England had. He
accordingly included these words in his dictionary; in his
definitions he was generally far superior to Johnson.
2 For interesting examples of poems
connected with American history, see Whittier's "Laus Deo," "Our
State," and the "Song of the Kansas Emigrant"; Longfellow's "Paul
Revere's Ride"; Holmes, Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill";
Lowell's "Present Crisis," "Jonathan to John,"Commemoration Ode,
1865"; Emerson's "Concord Hymn"; and Bryant's "Song of Marion's
Men," and Joaquin Miller's "Columbus."
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Lloyd Garrison; (3) the overthrow of the United States Bank;
(4) the dispute over the protective tariff, and the
"nullification" of acts of Congress by South Carolina; (5) the
rise of the Whig party; (6) Indian wars in the West and South; (7)
the rise of American literature and of cheap newspapers.
275. Van Buren's Administration (Eighth
President, One Term, 1837-1841); Business Failures; Financial
Panic. In his farewell address, President Jackson had said, "I
leave this great people prosperous and happy." But Mr. Van Buren
had scarcely entered upon the duties of his office when a large
business house in New Orleans failed (1837). It was the beginning
of a panic in trade and money matters which swept over the country
like the waters of a destroying flood.
In ten days one hundred merchants in New York
City had lost everything; and within two months the total business
failures in that city reached $100,000,000. Next, the banks began
to fail; and the difficulty of getting gold or silver became so
great that even the United States government had to pay the army
and navy in paper money, which, if it chanced to be good to-day,
might be worthless to-morrow. John Quincy Adams (§ 249)
declared that, "without a dollar of national debt, we are in the
midst of national bankruptcy."
276. Stoppage of Trade; Distress among
Workmen; Failures of States; Causes of the Panic. Soon
factories and mills stopped running, and nearly all trade came to
a standstill. Thousands of workmen were suddenly thrown out of
employment, and saw no way of earning bread for themselves and
their families.
Many states had borrowed large sums of money in
Europe for the purpose of building roads, canals, and railways. In
seven
1 Martin Van Buren
was born in New York in 1782; died in 1862. He was United States
senator from 1821-1828, governor of New York later, and Secretary
of State under Jackson, 1829-1831. In 1836 he was elected
President (R. M. Johnson of Kentucky, Vice President) by the
Democratic party, over General W. H. Harrison, the Whig
candidate.
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years the total debt of this kind had risen from $13,000,000 to
nearly $200,000,000. It was exceedingly difficult, if not
impossible, for a number of these states1 to raise
money to meet the interest; and one state positively refused to
pay anything whatever, whether interest or principal. This
desperate state of things had three chief causes.
1. Jackson's successful attack on the second
United States Bank (§ 265) encouraged the establishment of a
great number of worthless state banks, especially in the West.
2. People borrowed large sums of paper money
from these state banks and bought immense tracts of government
land at high prices. Some of the land was in the backwoods of
Maine, and some of it consisted of town lots in so-called western
"cities." These "cities" often had no existence except on plans
shown by speculators, or they were perhaps six feet under
water.
3. The national government suddenly called in
the gold and silver which it had deposited in certain state banks,
nicknamed "pet banks" (§ 265), and refused to sell any more
public land except for hard cash. This condition of things made
every one anxious to get coin at a time when it was not to be
had.
The result was that property of all kinds fell
in price, men could neither collect debts nor pay them, the state
banks could not get specie to redeem their bills, and the crash
came. After a time confidence began to be restored, business
sprang up, and a new period of prosperity commenced.
277. The Government establishes an
Independent Treasury. This panic in business had at least one
good result. Up to this time the national government had never
taken entire charge of its own money, but had let one or more
banks have the care of it. The disastrous failure of these "pet
banks" (§ 276) taught Congress a lesson; and the United
States opened (1840) an independent treasury at Washington, with
branches, known as
1 Seven states --
Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and Florida, then a territory -- suspended payment
of interest. Mississippi repudiated her entire debt on the ground
that it had been incurred in violation of the state constitution.
Sydney Smith's "Letters on American Debts," Dickens' "American
Notes" and "Martin Chuzzlewit" show how sore the English creditors
felt about these failures.
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subtreasuries,1 in the chief cities. The
experiment was given up the next year, but later (1846)
this system was permanently established. In this way the
government was protected against loss. |
Mormons,
settled in Illinois. Its founder was Joseph Smith, a
native of Vermont.2 While living in New York
he declared that an angel from heaven gave him a number
of golden plates, like sheets of tin, on which a new
scripture was written called the "Book of Mormon."
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[1841- |
Shortly after this, several persons who had
belonged to the Mormons began publishing a paper in Nauvoo, in
which they accused Smith of leading an evil life. Smith broke up
the paper. For this he was arrested, and while in jail at Carthage
(1844) was shot by a mob who had no faith in him or his
religion.
279. Emigration of the Mormons to Utah; what
they have accomplished there. Brigham Young of Vermont -- a
man as keen-sighted in the things of this world as it was said
Smith had been in those of the other -- now became leader of the
Mormons; but the people around Nauvoo forced the "Saints" to
leave, and cross the Mississippi. Young started for the Far West
(1847), and, with about a hundred and fifty followers, reached
Salt Lake, in territory then belonging to Mexico, but which is now
the state of Utah. Later, he led a much larger number of Mormon
emigrants to the same place. It was a journey of 1500 miles
through the wilderness. The country bordering on the lake was a
desert.
The hunters of that desolate region predicted
that the Mormons would starve. But Young set his company to work
digging ditches to bring water from the mountains; every street in
the village had two of these ditches running through the length of
it, one on each side. The abundant supply of water soon made the
dead, dry soil green with waving crops of wheat and corn. It was
an object lesson in irrigation which has been of inestimable value
in many parts of the West (§ 430, No. 3). Industry
transformed the desert into a garden. Since then the Mormons have
prospered. Many non-Mormons, attracted by the climate, have taken
residence there. The village of Salt Lake has grown to be a
flourishing city. The Mormons finally gave up their peculiar forms
of marriage (§ 278) and Utah entered the Union (1896).
280. Emigration to the United States; Ocean
Steamships and American "Clipper Ships"; Growth of the West.
Before the Mormons had started for the Far West an immense
emigration from Europe to the United States began.
Up to that date (1840) the total number of
immigrants that had landed here since the Revolution was probably
less than a million. But in the course of the next ten years
(1840-1850) the
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terrible potato famine in Ireland and the "hard times" in
Germany drove hundreds of thousands to seek our shores. This great
stream of immigrants has never ceased, and some years it has
averaged more than 20,000 newcomers a week!
Of late years the majority of those who come are
Italians, Russians, and Polish Jews. In all, more than 33,000,000
foreigners have settled, in the United States since the government
began to keep count (1820). This enormous number includes a host
of Swedes and Norwegians, who have become western farmers; while
people coming from other parts of Europe have helped to build our
railways, develop our coal and iron mines, and work in our cotton
and woolen mills.
For many years we kept the door of America wide
open. We asked no one where he came from. We asked him nothing
about his health, his character, or his intentions. We simply took
him by the hand and said, "Come in!" But after a time we
determined (1882) to exclude the Chinese and certain classes of
white workingmen (1887), because we believed that their cheap
labor would bring down the wages of our own laboring men (§
382). Later (1907), we excluded the Japanese for the same
reason.
Now we go further than that. We still give the
heartiest of welcomes to all who can help us make our country
stronger and better. But to those who come to America to beg, to
steal, to make trouble, or who would in any way do us more harm
than good, we say, "Keep out!" -- and we mean what we
say.1
During the first part of the period we have been
describing (1840-1850) a very great change took place in ocean
navigation. The Cunard Company of Liverpool established the first
regular line of ocean steamers in the world (§ 220), and
Americans began to build superb "clipper ships" for the Atlantic
and Asiatic trade. These wonderful vessels (which, after a while,
were superseded by ships built of iron, and then by steamers built
of steel) far surpassed all others in beauty and speed.
1 Besides excluding
wholly, or partially, the Chinese, Japanese, and all alien
contract labor immigrants (§ 382), our laws shut out
lunatics, idiots, criminals, professional beggars, anarchists,
those who have dangerous diseases, those who cannot earn their
bread, and those who cannot read English or some other
language.
