A School History of the United States Part 27

Second on < niagara="" .="" .="">< 1814.="" battles="" of="" chippewa="" and="" lundys="" war="" for="" land="" lane,="" and="" capture="" of="" fort="">

Independence < americans="" driven="" from="">

/ 1813. Expedition against Montreal.

St. Lawrence < 1814.="" british="" come="" down="" from="">

Defeated on Lake Champlain.

/ 1812. Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island.

War on 1813. Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay.

the 1814. Entire coast blockaded.

Seaboard. < new="" england="">

Washington taken and partly burned.

Baltimore attacked.

1815. Victory at New Orleans.

War on / The ship duels.

the sea. The fleet victories on the Lakes.

CHAPTER XIX

PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815

%273.% Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to the Pacific. In 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there were eighteen states and five territories.

%274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration.%--Spa.r.s.e as was the population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky.

Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping down the valley of the Tennessee River.[1]

[Footnote 1: For an account of the movement of population westward along these routes, see _The First Century of the Republic_, pp. 211-238.]

For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. One observer saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another estimated that ten thousand emigrants floated by Marietta during 1788. As this never-ending stream of population spread over the wilderness, building cabins, felling trees, clearing the land, and driving off the game, the Indians took alarm and determined to expel them.

%275. The Indian War.%--During the summer of 1786 the tribes whose hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky took the warpath, sacked and burned a little settlement on the Holston, and spread terror along the whole frontier. But the settlers in their turn rose, and inflicted on the Indians a signal punishment. One expedition from Tennessee burned three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and laid waste hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians been left to themselves, they would, after this punishment, have remained quiet. But the British, who still held the frontier post at Detroit, roused them, and in 1790 they were again at work, ravaging the country north of the Ohio. They rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of the Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition which won some success--just enough to enrage and not enough to cow them.

%276. St. Clair; Wayne.%--Not a settlement north of the Ohio was now safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, who came to the relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians in check till the Federal government could act, every one of them would have been destroyed. The plan of the Secretary of War was to build a chain of forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set off to begin the work. But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the Wabash River, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats in our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his command, which was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after two years of careful preparation, crushed the Indian power at the falls of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. The next year, 1795, a treaty was made at Greenville, by which the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and east of a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest to the Ohio River.

%277. Kentucky and Vermont become States.%--These Indian wars almost stopped emigration to the country north of the Ohio, though not into Kentucky or Tennessee. For several years past the people of the District of Kentucky had been desirous to come into the Union, but had been unable to make terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last consent was obtained and the application made to Congress. But the Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with Southern and Western interests, and cared little for the commercial interests of the East, and as this influence could be strongly felt in the Senate, where each state had two votes, it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by admitting the Eastern state of Vermont.

What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hampshire, was settled by people from New England under town rights granted by the governor of New Hampshire, and was called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however, the governor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the possessions of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut River. Then began a controversy which was still raging bitterly when the Revolution opened, and the Green Mountain Boys asked recognition as a state and admission into the Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to grant lest by so doing they should offend New York. Thereupon the people chose delegates to a convention (in 1777), which issued a declaration of independence, declared "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and made a const.i.tution. In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an offset to Kentucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a state with governor, legislature, and const.i.tution, she came in at once.

Kentucky had to make a const.i.tution, and so was not admitted till 1792.

Four years later (1796) Congress admitted Tennessee.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES July 4, 1801.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE]

%278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State.%--The quieting of the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the Mississippi River to American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled with cheap lands and low taxes, caused another rush of population into the Ohio valley. Between 1795 and 1800 so many came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain and the new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The acceptance by Spain in 1795 of 31 north lat.i.tude as the boundary of the Floridas, gave the United States control of the greater part of old West Florida, which in 1798 was organized as the Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year now elapsed without some marked sign of Western development. In 1800 Congress, under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first delegate from the Northwest Territory, made a radical change in its land policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. After 1800 he could buy on credit, pay in four annual installments, and west of the Muskingum River could purchase as little as 320 acres. This credit system led to another rush into the Ohio valley, and so many people entered the Northwest Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it was admitted into the Union as the state of Ohio.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cincinnati in 1810[1]]

[Footnote 1: From an old print.]

In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added to the Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase there was organized in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 1805 the territory of Louisiana (see p. 247). In 1805, also, the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off from Indiana and organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory of Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Orleans became the state of Louisiana.

The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the United States was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 were in the states and territories west of the Alleghanies.

%279. Indian Troubles; Battle of Tippecanoe.%--As the settlers north of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came in, their farms and settlements touched the Indian boundary line. In Indiana, where, save a strip sixty miles wide along the Ohio River, and a few patches scattered over the territory, every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this crowding led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive.

Then, under the lead of Tec.u.mthe, or Tec.u.mseh, they founded a league or confederacy against the whites, and built a town on Tippecanoe Creek, just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, when Harrison, who was governor of Indiana Territory, bought the Indian rights to the Wabash valley, the confederacy refused to recognize the sale, and gave such signs of resistance that Harrison marched against them, and in 1811 fought the battle of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a time it was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But the Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second war with Great Britain they sided with the British.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The United States and Territories in 1813]

%280. Industrial Progress.%--In 1789 our country had no credit and no revenue, and was burdened with a great debt which very few people believed would ever be paid. But when the government called in all the old worthless Continental money and certificates and gave the people bonds in exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National Bank was established and the merchants were given bank bills that would pa.s.s at their face value all over the country, business began to revive. The money which the people had been hiding away for years was brought out and put to useful purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and companies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton cloth, to build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to cut ca.n.a.ls. Between 1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven in the United States, the first broom made from broom corn, the first cotton factory opened, the first gold and silver coins of the United States were struck at the mint, the first newspaper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio River, the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first geography of the United States was published, and daily newspapers were issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was during this period that a hunter named Guinther discovered anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney invented the cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for making cotton yarns; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks as a business; that cotton sewing thread was first manufactured in the United States at Pawtucket, R.I.; and that the first turnpike in our country was completed. This extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a distance of sixty-two miles.

%281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity.%--Just at this time came another change of great importance. Till 1793 we had scarcely any commerce with the West Indies. England would not allow our vessels to go to her islands. Neither would Spain, nor France, except to a very limited degree. It was the policy of these three countries to confine such trade as far as possible to their own merchants. But in 1793 France, you remember, made war on England and opened her West Indian ports to all neutral nations. The United States was a neutral, and our merchants at once began to trade with the islanders. What these people wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and fish.

All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for sailors, and then for provisions and lumber--to the benefit of every part of the country except the South. New England was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and commercial section. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour, lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profitable was it to raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the people stopped raising tobacco and began to make flour, and soon made Virginia the second flour-producing state in the Union. Until after 1795 the people of the Western States were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty with Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed to float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or ship it to the West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour-producing state.

As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their money into roads and ca.n.a.ls and manufactures, and put it into farming, shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 1807, therefore, our country enjoyed a period of commercial and agricultural prosperity. But with 1807 came another change. In that year the embargo was laid, and for more than fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports of the United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our people had been so much engaged in commerce and agriculture, that they had not begun to manufacture. In 1807 all the blankets, all the woolen cloth, cotton cloth, carpets, hardware, china, gla.s.s, crockery, knives, tools, and a thousand other things used every day were made for us in Great Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent to England to be made into cloth, which was then carried back to the United States to be used.

%282. "Infant Manufactures."%--As the embargo prevented our ships going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these goods could no longer be imported. The people must either go without or make them at home.

They decided, of course, to make them at home, and all patriotic citizens were called on to help, which they did in five ways.

First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and formed a "Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." Every patriotic man and woman was expected to join one of them, and in so doing to take a pledge not to buy or use or wear any article of foreign make, provided it could be made in this country.

In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of domestic manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were called, offered prizes for the best piece of homemade linen, homemade cotton cloth, or woolen cloth.

In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in the cities and large towns, to which anybody who could knit mittens or socks, or make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, or spin flax or wool, or make anything else that the people needed, could send them to be sold.

In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and formed companies to erect mills and factories for the manufacture of all sorts of things.

If you were to see the acts pa.s.sed by the legislatures of the states between 1808 and 1812, you would find that very many of them were charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories for making cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, rope.

In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states pa.s.sed resolutions asking their members to wear clothes made of material produced in the United States,[1] offered bounties for the best wool, and exempted the factories from taxation and the mill hands from militia and jury duty.

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 496-509.]

Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and became so numerous that in 1810, when the census of population was taken, Congress ordered that statistics of manufactures should be collected at the same time. It was then found that the value of the goods manufactured in the United States in 1810 was $173,000,000.

%283. Internal Improvements: Roads; Ca.n.a.ls; Steamboats.%--But there was yet another great change for the better which took place between 1790 and 1815. We have seen how during this quarter of a century our country grew in area, how the people increased in number, how new states and territories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, and how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the people improved the means of interstate commerce and communication.

You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over the great rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, that all journeys were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or in boats, and that it was not then possible to go as far in ten hours as we can now go in one. You will remember, also, that the people were moving westward in great numbers.

As the people thus year by year went further and further westward, a demand arose for good roads to connect them with the East. The merchants on the seaboard wanted to send them hardware, clothing, household goods, farming implements, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber, flour, skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things.

If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If the roads were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to the frontier would make them too costly. People living in the towns and cities along the seaboard were no longer content with the old-fashioned slow way of travel. They wanted to get their letters more often, make their journeys and have their freight carried more quickly.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States,_ Vol. III., pp. 462-465.]

About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the old idea of ca.n.a.ls, which had been abandoned in 1793, and one of these ca.n.a.l companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware Ca.n.a.l, applied to Congress for aid. This brought up the question of a system of internal improvements at national expense, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, was asked to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did.

Congress never approved it.

%284. The National Pike.%--Public sentiment, however, led to the commencement of a highway to the West known as the National Pike, or the c.u.mberland Road. When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in 1803, Congress promised that part of the money derived from the sale of land in Ohio should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio River to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted to $12,000, and with this was begun the construction of a broad pike from c.u.mberland (on the Potomac) in Maryland to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West Virginia.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 469-470.]