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their
constitution,1 was borrowed from that which they had
deserted, -- and elected Jefferson Davis,2 of
Mississippi, president and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia,
vice-president.
12. The rebellious states seized the
forts, arsenals, mints, ships, and national property of whatever
description within their boundaries, and made them over to the
Confederacy. There remained in the possession of the United States
only Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, Fort Pickens, near
Pensacola, and the forts on Key West and the Tortugas.3
The first two were saved by the gallantry and patriotism of the
brave officers, Major Robert Anderson, and Lieutenant Adam J.
Slemmer, in command of small garrisons, the former at Charleston,
and the latter at Pensacola.
13. Major Anderson occupied Fort
Moultrie.4 Fearing the excited secessionists in
Charleston might surprise and overpower him, he withdrew his
command, on the night of December 26, to Fort Sumter,
situated on an island in the harbor, and supposed to be
impregnable. This step caused great indignation among the South
Carolinians, who immediately took possession of Fort Moultrie and
Castle Pinckney (a small fort near the city), began to strengthen
these posts, and to erect batteries for the reduction of Sumter.
Major Anderson was forbidden by the authorities in Washington to
interfere with these hostile proceedings. Early in January the
administration attempted to reënforce Sumter; but the Star of
the West, an unarmed steamship, bearing troops and supplies, when
within sight of the fort, was fired upon from the rebel batteries,
and obliged to turn back. No effort was made by the government to
wipe out this insult to the national flag. Lieutenant Slemmer, at
Pensacola, seeing indications that an attack was about to be made
upon him by Florida and
1 The convention at first adopted a provisional constitution, which was superseded, March 11, by a permanent one (see p. 254, ¶ 3). These constitutions were formed on the basis of the Federal Constitution, but they differed from that instrument in some important particulars.
2 See p. 213, note 1. 3 See Maps, pp. 262, 263. 4 See p. 18, ¶ 18, and note 3.
QUESTIONS. -- Who were chosen president and vice-president of the so-called Confederate States? 12. What was done by the rebellious states? What forts in these states remained in possession of the United States? How were Forts Sumter and Pickens saved to the Union? 13. What further is said of Major Anderson and Fort Sumter? Of Lieutenant Stemmer and Fort Pickens?
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Alabama troops, transferred his garrison from Fort McRae, an
untenable position, to Fort Pickens, one of the strongest
fortifications on the whole coast, where he defied the rebel force
brought against him.
14. General Twiggs
was in command of the military department of Texas, and
even before that state had completed her act of secession, he
basely surrendered his entire army, about twenty-five hundred men,
and all the posts and munitions of war in his department. The
troops could not be seduced from their allegiance, and were
permitted to return to the loyal states.
15. In Washington but
little was done to stem the tide of treason. The president was not
equal to the emergency. Some of his cabinet were disloyal, and the
public offices were full of conspirators. Most of the members of
Congress from the seceding states resigned their seats, and,
defiantly exulting in their treason, would listen to no terms of
accommodation.
General Cass, the secretary of state, resigned,
disgusted with the in. activity of the executive: the secretary of
the treasury, Howell Cobb, of Georgia; the secretary of war, John
B. Floyd, of Virginia; and the secretary of the interior, Jacob
Thompson, of Mississippi, resigned from sympathy with secession,
and were permitted, like the rebel delegations in Congress, to
leave Washington and return to their own states, to plot treason
there. The postmaster-general, Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, became
secretary of war; John A. Dix, of New York, secretary of the
treasury; 1 and Edwin M. Stanton, of Pennsylvania,
attorney-general.2 By their patriotic efforts a little
vigor was infused into the administration, but too late to remedy
the evil. Congress was disposed to make concessions. With the aid
of Republican votes, governments not excluding slavery were
arranged for the new territories -- thus placing the question at
issue in Mr. Lincoln's election3 beyond his control.
Both Houses of the national legislature adopted a resolution
proposing an amendment to the Constitution, by which Congress was
to be forever prohibited from interfering with slavery in the
states, and prominent Republicans professed a willingness to aid
in bringing about a repeal or a modification of the Personal
Liberty Laws, but all to no purpose.
16. At the
suggestion of Virginia, a convention, known as the Peace
Congress, met in Washington, February 4. This convention,
represent-
1 One of the orders of the new secretary of the treasury, given when treason was rife among the officers of the government, found a thrilling response in every loyal heart. The captain of a revenue cutter at New Orleans having revealed himself to be a rebel. Secretary Dix telegraphed an order for the lieutenant to arrest the captain, and assume command of the cutter, and added, "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot."
2 In the place of Jeremiah S. Black, who was transferred to the state department.
3 See p. 227, note 5.
QUESTIONS. -- 14. What can you tell of the baseness of General Twiggs? 15. What was done in Washington? What of the president, some of his cabinet, and the public offices? Of members of Congress from the seceding States? -- What is said of the secretary of state? What secretaries resigned from sympathy with secession? How was a little vigor infused into the administration? What concessions were made by Congress? What of prominent Republicans and the Personal Liberty Laws? Result? 16. Give an account of the Peace Congress.
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ing twenty-one states,1 with a view to avert the
threatened dangers, proposed certain amendments to the
Constitution, which, however, did not meet the approval of the
national Congress, and had no practical
result.
17. Meanwhile a plot was laid to
assassinate the president elect while passing through Baltimore,
on his way to the national capital; but the plot was foiled. Mr.
Lincoln, taking an earlier train than the one he had been expected
to take, reached Washington without molestation. It was even
feared that the new president could not be inaugurated without
bloodshed. Washington was full of secessionists, and surrounded by
a population of their sympathizers. But a military force was
collected by the timely precaution of General Scott, the public
peace was preserved, and the new administration inaugurated
without disturbance.
CHAPTER XIV.
CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE CLOSE OF THIS PERIOD.
1.
IN the seventy-two years that have passed
since the organization of the government,2 the United
States have enjoyed a degree of material prosperity without
a parallel in the history of nations.
The number of states, from thirteen, has
become thirty-four, and the area of the national domain has
been expanded by purchase, annexation, and conquest, nearly
four-fold,3 -- from about eight hundred thousand to
more than three millions of square miles. The population
has increased eight-fold,4 -- from less than four
millions at the time of the first census, in 1790, to nearly
thirty-two millions in 1860. A liberal government, cheapness of
land, and of all the means of subsistence, have drawn to America
an immense immigration from the Old World, amounting, in
one year (1854), to about four hundred thousand
souls.
2. In commerce and trade
the country has gained in a still greater ratio. The amount of
shipping is more than five and a half million tons. In less than
three quarters of a century the United States have become, in the
extent of their commerce, the successful rival of the most
powerful nations on the globe. Manufactures have increased
to such an extent
1 The states not represented were the seven states in secession (see p. 227, ¶ 10), Arkansas, which afterwards joined the Confederacy, and the loyal states Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Oregon.
2 See p. 157, ¶ 1. 3 See p. 166, ¶ 3; p. 192, ¶ 6; p. 204, ¶ 7; p. 218, ¶ 7; p. 222, ¶ 1.
4 The population of the United States, by the census of 1860, was as follows; whites, 26,957,471; free colored, 488,070; slaves, 3,953,760; civilized Indians, 44,020; -- being in the aggregate 31,443,321 persons (see Appendix, p. 24). There were also 295,400 Indians living in tribes.
QUESTIONS. -- 17. What is said of the plot to assassinate the president elect? What is said of the inauguration of President Lincoln? Chap. XIV. 1. What is said of the material prosperity of the United States during this Period? -- What has been the increase in the number of states, and in the national domain? In population? What is said of immigration? 2. What is said of commerce and trade? Of shipping? Of manufactures?
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that the United States, except as to articles of mere ornament
and luxury, are not necessarily dependent on foreign industry. The
manufactures in one year have amounted in value to near two
thousand millions of dollars. Agriculture, now, as
formerly, the leading branch of industry, has become a still more
fruitful source of national and individual wealth. The value of
real and personal property in the country has increased
about sixteen-fold during the Period, having reached an aggregate,
according to the census of 1860, of more than sixteen thousand
millions of dollars.1 By their inventions and
discoveries the people of the United States have contributed
much to increase the power, wealth, and comfort of their nation
and the world. During this Period, the railroad,2 the
steamboat, and the electro-magnetic telegraph4 have
come into common use in the United States.
3. This Period has witnessed, too, a
wonderful advance in the intellectual and moral growth of
the country.
At its close more than forty thousand
clergymen minister to the spiritual wants of fifty thousand
churches. The interests of education are especially
cherished. The common school system5 has been adopted
in most of the states, and several states and cities have
established normal schools6 for the training of
teachers. Two hundred and forty colleges supply to the young the
means of sound scholarship; and there are numerous academies and
schools for professional and special instruction. The United
States have a Military Academy at West Point,7 a Naval
Academy at Annapolis, and, at Washington, the Smithsonian
Institution,8 "for the increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men8 There are about five thousand five
hundred newspapers and periodicals published in the United
States; and in every department of science and literature, of art
and culture, the American mind is honorably represented.
4. But all
sections of the Union have not prospered to the same degree. The
constitution was formed and adopted in the hope that
slavery9 would be abolished in all the states at
no distant day; and the terms slave and slavery are
not directly named in the constitution, because the framers of
that instrument "did not choose to admit the right of property in
man." This hope has been so far realized that, of the original
thirteen states, only the six southernmost retain slavery, and of
the thirty-four states forming the Union at the close of this
Period, fifteen are slave and the rest free.10 In the
early part of the present century, the profits of slave labor in
the
1 This return is probably less than the truth by at least one third.
2 See p. 194, ¶ 4, and note 2. 3 See p. 167, ¶ 7, and note 2. 4 See p. 204, ¶ 6.
5 In 1860 there were more than five million pupils attending common schools in the U. S.
6 The oldest state institution of this kind is that now (1867) located in Framingham, Massachusetts, which we opened in Lexington in 1839. The largest is in Millersville, Pennsylvania.
7 See p. 171, ¶ 3.
8 Named for James Smithson an Englishman who gave more than half a million dollars to found it.
9 See p. 152, ¶5. 10 See Appendix, p. 24.
QUESTIONS. -- What is said of agriculture? of real and personal property? Of inventions and discoveries? 3. What is said of the intellectual and moral growth of the country during this Period? Of clergymen and churches? Of education? Of the common school system? Of normal schools? Of colleges and other institutions of learning? Of newspapers and periodicals? 4. With what hope was the constitution adopted? How far was this hope realized?
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Southern States were greatly increased1 and the
interests of slaveholders prompted them to look about for means to
strengthen and perpetuate the institution. Efforts in this
direction raised up a party at the north determined to limit its
extension.2 The census revealed that the slave states
were becoming, as compared with the free states, weaker in wealth,
population, congressional strength, and electoral
vote.3 Immigration, that was flowing into the Northern
and Western States, avoided slave soil. The sparse population of
the slave states tended to exclude schools and churches from the
rural regions of the south, white labor was degraded, and a large
class, known as poor whites, existed there, sunk in a
condition of misery, ignorance, and depravity, but little removed
from that of the slave.
5. From the origin of the
government the people had not been agreed as to the dividing line
between national and state authority.4 Gradually
opinion in this respect became sectional. The people of the free
states looked upon the Union as indissoluble, and upon the
national authority as supreme. At the south the belief was
prevalent that the state had a right at will to sever its
connection with the Union, and that the allegiance which the
citizen owed to his state was paramount to that which he owed to
the nation.
6. Secession. -- Asserting
that the institution of slavery was in danger, and accepting the
doctrine of state as opposed to national sovereignty, some of the
southern states resolved to secede from the Union, and take up
arms, if need be, in defence of slavery and state
rights.
1 Nothing was more conducive to this result than the invention of the cotton gin, by Ell Whitney, in 1792-3. By this machine the expense of separating the seed from cotton was lessened to such a degree as to vastly increase the profit of the production of cotton, and make that commodity the great staple of the south.
2 See p. 206, ¶ 12; p. 218, ¶ 1; p. 223, ¶ 5.
3 See Appendix, p. 24. 4 See p. 193, ¶ 1, and note 5.
QUESTIONS. -- What prompted slaveholders to endeavor to strengthen and perpetuate slavery? What was the effect in the north of their efforts in this direction? What did the census reveal? What is said of immigration? Of the sparse population of the slave state? Of poor whites? 5. In regard to what had the people not been agreed? How did the people of a free states look upon the Union and the national authority? What belief was prevalent at the south? 6. What did some of the southern states resolve to do, and why?
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CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW.
[The figures in and at the end of the paragraphs in the Chronological Review refer to the pages upon which the events are mentioned.]
For
the admission of the states in chronological order, see Appendix,
p. 22.
1789. Washington
became president, 157. He served two
terms.
During this
administration the government was organized, 158; party lines
(Republican and Federalist) began to be distinctly
drawn, 160; and the United States came near being involved in a
war with Great Britain, as an ally of France, 161.
1790. A war broke out
with the Indians north of the Ohio, 159.
1794. The Whiskey
Insurrection broke out in Pennsylvania, 161.
1797.
Adams became president, 163. He
served one term.
During this
administration war with France became imminent, 168.
1798. The passage of the
Alien and Sedition Laws excited great opposition and gave occasion
for the first official expression of the State-Rights heresy,
164.
1801.
Jefferson became president, 165. He
served two terms.
1803. Louisiana was
purchased of France, 166.
1805. A peace, which
concluded a war with Tripoli, was negotiated, 166.
1807. Fulton successfully
applied steam to navigation, 167.
1809.
Madison became president, 169. He
served two terms.
1811. General Harrison
gained a victory at Tippecanoe, 169.
1812. British aggressions
on American commerce, begun in Jefferson's administration (168),
continuing in this (170), led to a declaration of war with Great
Britain, 171.
The
Americans surrendered Detroit, 171; were defeated at
Queenstown, and evacuated Fort Dearborn; but they
were, almost without exception, victorious on the ocean, 174.
1813. The Americans at
Frenchtown, at first victorious, were afterwards defeated,
176; took York, 179; gained, under Perry, a decisive
victory on Lake Erie; defeated, under Harrison, the British
and Indians on the Thames, 178; undertook an unsuccessful
expedition against Montreal, 180; and before the end of the year
were driven from their posts on the Niagara, 179.
The
British held the Atlantic coast of the United States,
except of New England, in blockade, yet the career of the
Americans on the ocean was creditable, 180.
1814. The Americans,
under Jackson, broke the power of the Creeks. In the north
they took Fort Erie, were victorious at the
Chippewa, held the field after the severe battle of
Lundy's Lane (182), and closed the war in the north by the
decisive victory on Lake Champlain, and at
Plattsburg, 184.
The British
blockaded the whole Atlantic coast of the United States,
burned Washington (185), but were compelled to retire from
before Baltimore, 186. The little navy of the United States
bad become well nigh exhausted, 187.
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1815. Jackson gained a
decisive victory at New Orleans, 186.
News of a
treaty of pence, signed at Ghent the previous year, reached the
United States. After this the Americans made some captures on the
ocean, 188.
The claims
of the Barbary States to tribute were effectually resisted,
189.
1817. Monroe
became president, 190. He served two terms.
The period
of this administration is known as the Era of Good Feeling,
190.
1817. A war with the Seminole Indians
broke out, 191.
1819. The northern boundary of the United
States was established from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky
Mountains, 192.
Florida
was purchased of Spain, and the boundary between the United States
and Spanish America was settled by a treaty ratified two years
afterwards, 192.
1820. The Missouri
Compromise was adopted, 191.
1825.
John Quincy Adams became president,
193. He served one term.
A
controversy in regard to the Creek lands forced upon the people
the question of the supremacy of the nation over the state,
193.
The American
System became the policy of the government, internal
improvement was fostered, and party spirit again burst forth with
intense bitterness, 194.
1829. Jackson
became president, 195. He served two
terms.
1832. The Black Hawk war broke out, 196.
South Carolina opposed the tariff laws, and issued an Ordinance of
Nullification, 198.
1835. A war, which continued seven years,
arose with the Seminoles, 196.
The
great fire occurred in New York, 200.
1837. The original number
of states was doubled, by the admission of Michigan, 200.
The
policy of devoting the public revenue to internal improvements was
opposed by the president (195), who also inaugurated a new
financial policy by his opposition to the United States Bank, 199.
During this administration the Democratic and Whig
parties were organized, 201.
1837. Van
Buren became president, 201. He served
one term.
A
financial storm swept over tile country, 201; and the Independent
Treasury was established, 202.
1841.
Harrison became president. He died
one month after his inauguration, and Vice-President Tyler
became president for the rest of the term,
203.
1842. The north-eastern boundary was
established, 202.
The
Dorr Rebellion broke out in Rhode Island, 204.
1844. Morse's
electro-magnetic telegraph was put in operation between Baltimore
and Washington, 204.
1845. Texas was annexed to the United
States, 205.
During
Tyler's administration the Liberty Party was organized,
206.
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1845.
Polk became president, 207. He
served one term.
1846. The boundary between the United
States and British America, from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific was established, completing the northern boundary as at
present, 207. (See pp. 147, 192, 202.)
War with
Mexico broke out, 208. Taylor gained victories at Palo Alto
and Resaca de la Palma (210), and captured Monterey,
211.
Kearny,
after taking possession of New Mexico, pushed across the continent
to California, having detached Doniphan, who, early the next year,
conquered Chihuahua, 213.
1847. The battle of
San Gabriel established the authority of the United States
in California, which had been virtually conquered the year before
by Captain Frémont, of the army, and Commodores Sloat and
Stockton, of the navy, 214.
Taylor broke
the Mexican power in the north, by the signal victory at Buena
Vista, 212.
Scott
conducted his victorious campaign, taking Vera Cruz (214),
defeating the Mexicans at Cerro Gordo (215), gaining
brilliant victories at Contreras and Churubusco
(216), Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec, and entering
in triumph the city of Mexico, 217.
1848. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
ended the war, and gave the United States large accessions of
territory, 218.
During
this administration the Free Soil Party was organized, and
gold was discovered in California, 218.
1849.
Taylor became president, 219. He
died July, 1850, and Vice-President
Fillmore became president for
the rest of the term.
1850. The Compromise Measures allayed for
a time sectional strife, 220-1.
The
Mormons settled in Utah, 225.
1853. Pierce became
president, 222. He served one term.
1853. The United States purchased of
Mexico the region including the Mesilla Valley, thus completing
the southern boundary as at present, 222. (See pp. 147, 162, 166,
192, 218.)
1854. The Kansas-Nebraska
Bill passed, and in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise,
223.
During
this administration parties were reorganized, and the
Republican Party was formed, 223.
1857.
Buchanan became president, 224. He
served one term.
1857. A disastrous financial convulsion
swept over the United States, 225.
1859. John Brown made a mad attempt to
free slaves in Virginia, 226.
During
this administration the Dred Scott Decision, the Personal Liberty
Laws, and other causes, roused an intense excitement on the
subject of slavery, 227. Secession was organized, and treason
crept into places of influence, 227-9.
1860. South Carolina took
the lead in secession, 227.
1861. Before March six states followed
the lead of South Carolina, and sent delegates to Montgomery,
where a government was organized for the seceding states, under
the name of the Confederate States of America,
227.
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CONTEMPORY CHRONOLOGY
1789. The French
Revolution. Meeting of the States-General. Destruction of the
Bastile.
1793. Execution of Louis XVI. of France, and
inauguration of the Reign of Terror.
1796. Bonaparte's first Italian campaign.
1798. Battle of the Pyramids and battle of the
Nile.
1800. Parliamentary union of Great Britain and
Ireland.
1804. Bonaparte Emperor of France.
1805. Battle of Trafalgar and battle of
Austerlitz.
1806. End of the German Empire, after having
lasted 1006 years (from the beginning of the Empire of the West
under Charlemagne).
1808. Bonaparte compelled Ferdinand of Spain to
abdicate.
1812. Bonaparte's invasion of Russia, and his
disastrous retreat from Moscow.
1814. Abdication of Bonaparte. He retired to
Elba.
1815. Battle of Waterloo. Bonaparte banished to
St. Helena, where he died in 1821.
1821. Mexico declared herself independent of
Spain.
1822. Brazil independent of Portugal. Don Pedro
I. first emperor.
1827. Battle of Navarino, and the establishment
of Greek independence.
1829. The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act
repealed the laws imposing civil disabilities on Catholics in
Great Britain.
1830. A year of revolutions -- Revolution of
July in France, Revolutions in Belgium, Germany, and Poland.
1832. The Reform Bill passed the British
Parliament.
1833. Act passed by Parliament to provide for
the Abolition of Slavery in the British Colonies.
1837. Accession of Queen Victoria.
1841. Union of the Canadas.
1847. The surrender of Abd el Kader completed
the conquest of Algiers by the French.
Famine in
Ireland.
1848. A year of civil commotions in Europe. A
revolution drove Louis Philippe from the throne of France.
Insurrections in Italy, Prussia, Austria, Spain, and Ireland.
1851. The Great Exbibition in London.
Coup
d'état of Louis Napoleon.
1853-6. The Crimean War. Russia against Turkey,
France, England, and Sardinia.
1857. The Sepoy rebellion in India against the
English.
1859. The Italian War. Sardinia and France
against Austria. Battle of Solferino.
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Among the eminent persons who closed their career during this Period were,
|
Mozart , |
1792 |
Felicia Dorothea Hemans, |
1835 |
|
Gibbon , |
1794 |
Marshall, |
1835 |
|
Burns, |
1796 |
Bowditch, |
1838 |
|
Burke, |
1797 |
Win Ellery Channing, |
1842 |
|
Kant, |
1804 |
Sismondi , |
1842 |
|
Nelson, |
1805 |
Washington Allston, |
1843 |
|
Schiller, |
1805 |
Joseph Story, |
1845 |
|
Charles James Fox, |
1806 |
Thomas Chalmers, |
1847 |
|
William Pitt, |
1806 |
Kent, |
1847 |
|
Haydn, |
1809 |
Mendelssohn, |
1847 |
|
Canova, |
1822 |
Wordsworth, |
1850 |
|
Sir William Herschel, |
1822 |
Sir Robert Peet, |
1850 |
|
Byron, |
1824 |
Adoniram Judson, |
1850 |
|
Laplace, |
1827 |
J Fenimore Cooper, |
1851 |
|
Beethoven, |
1827 |
Wellington, |
1852 |
|
Pestalozzi, |
1827 |
Arago, |
1853 |
|
Sir Humphry Davy, |
1829 |
Sir William Hamilton, |
1856 |
|
Sir Walter Scott, |
1832 |
Macaulay, |
1859 |
|
Cuvier, |
1832 |
Humboldt, |
1869 |
|
Goethe, |
1832 |
Washington Irving, |
1859 |
|
Wilberforce, |
1833 |
Prescott, |
1859 |
 |
 |
 |
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© 1999, 2000, 2001 for NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller