A Short History of the United States Part 35

Steamboats could carry pa.s.sengers and goods up and down the Mississippi and its branches more cheaply and more comfortably than people and goods could be carried over the Alleghanies. Many persons therefore advised the building of a good wagon road to connect the Potomac with the Ohio.

The eastern end of this great road was at c.u.mberland on the Potomac in Maryland. It is generally called, therefore, the c.u.mberland Road. It was begun at the national expense in 1811. By 1820 the road was built as far as Wheeling on the Ohio River. From that point steamboats could steam to Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis, or New Orleans. Later on, the road was built farther west, as far as Illinois. Then the coming of the railroad made further building unnecessary.

[Sidenote: The Erie Ca.n.a.l, 1825. _McMaster_, 282-284.]

[Sidenote: De Witt Clinton.]

[Sidenote: Results of the building of the Erie Ca.n.a.l.]

296. The Erie Ca.n.a.l.--The best way to connect one steamboat route with another was to dig a ca.n.a.l. The most famous of all these ca.n.a.ls was the one connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie, and called the Erie Ca.n.a.l. It was begun in 1817 and was completed so that a boat could pa.s.s through it in 1825. It was De Witt Clinton who argued that such a ca.n.a.l would benefit New York City by bringing to it the produce of the Northwest and of western New York. At the same time it would benefit the farmers of those regions by bringing their produce to tide water cheaper than it could be brought by road through Pennsylvania. It would still further benefit the farmers by enabling them to buy their goods much cheaper, as the rates of freight would be so much lower by ca.n.a.l than they were by road. People who did not see these things as clearly as De Witt Clinton saw them, spoke of the enterprise most sneeringly and called the ca.n.a.l "Clinton's big ditch." It very soon appeared that Clinton was right. In one year the cost of carrying a ton of grain from Lake Erie to the Hudson River fell from one hundred dollars to fifteen dollars. New York City soon outstripped all its rivals and became the center of trade and money in the United States. Other ca.n.a.ls, as the Chesapeake and Ohio Ca.n.a.l, were marvels of skill. But they were not so favorably situated as the Erie Ca.n.a.l and could not compete with it successfully.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONESTOGA WAGON AND TEAM.]

[Sidenote: The first railroads. _McMaster_, 285-289.]

297. Early Railroads.--The best stone and gravel roads were always rough in places. It occurred to some one that it would be better to lay down wooden rails, and then to place a rim or f.l.a.n.g.e on the wagon wheels to keep them on the rails. The first road of this kind in America was built at Boston in 1807. It was a very rude affair and was only used to carry dirt from the top of a hill to the harbor. The wooden rails soon wore out, so the next step was to nail strips of iron on top of them.

Long lines of railroads of this kind were soon built. Both pa.s.sengers and goods could be carried on them. Some of them were built by private persons or by companies. Others were built by a town or a state. Any one having horses and wagons with f.l.a.n.g.ed wheels could use the railway on the payment of a small sum of money. This was the condition of affairs when the steam locomotive was invented.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EARLY LOCOMOTIVE.]

[Sidenote: Invention of the locomotive, 1830.]

[Sidenote: Hardships of early railroad travel.]

298. The Steam Locomotive.--Steam was used to drive boats through the water. Why should not steam be used to haul wagons over a railroad?

This was a very easy question to ask, and a very hard one to answer.

Year after year inventors worked on the problem. Suddenly, about 1830, it was solved in several places and by several men at nearly the same time. It was some years, however, before the locomotive came into general use. The early railroad trains were rude affairs. The cars were hardly more than stagecoaches with f.l.a.n.g.ed wheels. They were fastened together with chains, and when the engine started or stopped, there was a terrible b.u.mping and jolting. The smoke pipe of the engine was very tall and was hinged so that it could be let down when coming to a low bridge or a tunnel. Then the smoke and cinders poured straight into the pa.s.sengers' faces. But these trains went faster than ca.n.a.l boats or steamboats. Soon the railroad began to take the first place as a means of transport.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A LOCOMOTIVE OF TO-DAY.]

[Sidenote: Use of hard coal.]

[Sidenote: Growth of the cities.]

299. Other Inventions.--The coming of the steam locomotive hastened the changes which one saw on every side in 1830. For some time men had known that there was plenty of hard coal or anthracite in Pennsylvania.

But it was so hard that it would not burn in the old-fashioned stoves and fireplaces. Now a stove was invented that would burn anthracite, and the whole matter of house warming was completely changed. Then means were found to make iron from ore with anthracite. The whole iron industry awoke to new life. Next the use of gas made from coal became common in cities. The great increase in manufacturing, and the great changes in modes of transport, led people to crowd together in cities and towns. These inventions made it possible to feed and warm large numbers of persons gathered into small areas. The cities began to grow so fast that people could no longer live near their work or the shops.

Lines of stagecoaches were established, and the coaches were soon followed by horse cars, which ran on iron tracks laid in the streets.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EARLY HORSE CAR.]

[Sidenote: Growth of the school system.]

[Sidenote: Webster's "Dictionary."]

[Sidenote: American men of letters.]

[Sidenote: American men of science.]

300. Progress in Letters.--There was also great progress in learning. The school system was constantly improved. Especially was this the case in the West, where the government devoted one thirty-sixth part of the public lands to education. High schools were founded, and soon normal schools were added to them. Even the colleges awoke from their long sleep. More students went to them, and the methods of teaching were improved. Some slight attention, too, was given to teaching the sciences. In 1828 Noah Webster published the first edition of his great dictionary. Unfortunately he tried to change the spelling of many words.

But in other ways his dictionary was a great improvement. He defined words so that they could be understood, and he gave the American meaning of many words, as "congress." American writers now began to make great reputations. Cooper, Irving, and Bryant were already well known. They were soon joined by a wonderful set of men, who speedily made America famous. These were Emerson, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Hawthorne, Prescott, Motley, Bancroft, and Sparks. In science, also, men of mark were beginning their labors, as Pierce, Gray, Silliman, and Dana. Louis Aga.s.siz before long began his wonderful lectures, which did much to make science popular. In short, Jackson's administration marks the time when American life began to take on its modern form.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOAH WEBSTER.]

CHAPTER 29

THE REIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON, 1829-1837

[Sidenote: Jackson's early career.]

[Sidenote: His "kitchen cabinet".]

301. General Jackson.--Born in the backwoods of Carolina, Jackson had early crossed the Alleghanies and settled in Tennessee. Whenever trouble came to the Western people, whenever there was need of a stout heart and an iron will, Jackson was at the front. He always did his duty. He always did his duty well. Honest and sincere, he believed in himself and he believed in the American people. As President he led the people in one of the stormiest periods in our history. Able men gathered about him. But he relied chiefly on the advice of a few friends who smoked their pipes with him and formed his "kitchen cabinet." He seldom called a regular cabinet meeting. When he did call one, it was often merely to tell the members what he had decided to do.

[Sidenote: Party machines.]

[Sidenote: The Spoils System.]

302. The Spoils System.--Among the able men who had fought the election for Jackson were Van Buren and Marcy of New York and Buchanan of Pennsylvania. They had built up strong party machines in their states. For they "saw nothing wrong in the principle that to the victors belong the spoils of victory." So they rewarded their party workers with offices--when they won. The Spoils System was now begun in the national government. Those who had worked for Jackson rushed to Washington. The hotels and boarding-houses could not hold them. Some of them camped out in the parks and public squares of the capital. Removals now went merrily on. Rotation in office was the cry. Before long Jackson removed nearly one thousand officeholders and appointed political partisans in their places.

[Sidenote: The North and the South. _McMaster_, 301-304.]

303. The North and the South.--The South was now a great cotton-producing region. This cotton was grown by negro slaves. The North was now a great manufacturing and commercial region. It was also a great agricultural region. But the labor in the mills, fields, and ships of the North was all free white labor. So the United States was really split into two sections: one devoted to slavery and to a few great staples, as cotton; the other devoted to free white labor and to industries of many kinds.

[Sidenote: The South and the tariff, 1829.]

[Sidenote: Calhoun's "Exposition."]

304. The Political Situation, 1829.--The South was growing richer all the time; but the North was growing richer a great deal faster than was the South. Calhoun and other Southern men thought that this difference in the rate of progress was due to the protective system. In 1828 Congress had pa.s.sed a tariff that was so bad that it was called the Tariff of Abominations (p. 231). The Southerners could not prevent its pa.s.sage. But Calhoun wrote an "Exposition" of the const.i.tutional doctrines in the case. This paper was adopted by the legislature of South Carolina as giving its ideas. In this paper Calhoun declared that the Const.i.tution of the United States was a compact. Each state was a sovereign state and could annul any law pa.s.sed by Congress. The protective system was unjust and unequal in operation. It would bring "poverty and utter desolation to the South." The tariff act should be annulled by South Carolina and by other Southern states.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANIEL WEBSTER, 1833.]

[Sidenote: Hayne's speech, 1830.]

[Sidenote: Webster's reply to Hayne.]

305. Webster and Hayne, 1830.--Calhoun was Vice-President and presided over the debates of the Senate. So it fell to Senator Hayne of South Carolina to state Calhoun's ideas. This he did in a very able speech. To him Daniel Webster of Ma.s.sachusetts replied in the most brilliant speeches ever delivered in Congress. The Const.i.tution, Webster declared, was "the people's const.i.tution, the people's government; made by the people and answerable to the people. The people have declared that this const.i.tution ... shall be the supreme law." The Supreme Court of the United States alone could declare a national law to be unconst.i.tutional; no state could do that. He ended this great speech with the memorable words, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable."

[Sidenote: Tariff of 1832.]

[Sidenote: "Nullified" by South Carolina, 1833.]

[Sidenote: Jackson's warning.]

[Sidenote: He prepares to enforce the law.]

[Sidenote: The Force Bill, 1833.]