Formation of the Union, 1750-1829 Part 1

Formation of the Union.

by Albert Bushnell Hart.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The second volume of the EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY aims to follow out the principles laid down for "THE COLONIES,"--the study of causes rather than of events, the development of the American nation out of scattered and inharmonious colonies. The throwing off of English control, the growth out of narrow political conditions, the struggle against foreign domination, and the extension of popular government, are all parts of the uninterrupted process of the Formation of the Union.

So mighty a development can be treated only in its elements in this small volume. Much matter is thrown into graphic form in the maps; the Suggestions for Readers and Teachers, and the bibliographies at the heads of the chapters are meant to lead to more detailed accounts, both of events and of social and economic conditions. Although the book includes three serious wars, there is no military history in it. To the soldier, the movement of troops is a professional question of great significance; the layman needs to know, rather, what were the means, the character, and the spirit of the two combatants in each case, and why one succeeded where the other was defeated.

To my colleague, Professor Edward Channing, I am indebted for many suggestions on the first four chapters.

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.

CAMBRIDGE, July 1, 1892.

PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.

During the five years since this volume of the _Epochs of American History_ was first issued, the literature of the subject has made constant advances; and hence the Suggestions for Readers and Teachers and the bibliographies at the head of each chapter have been pruned, enlarged, and rewritten. The text has undergone fewer changes. The good-will of users of the book has pointed out some errors and inaccuracies, which have been corrected from time to time; and new light has in some cases dawned upon the author. I shall always be grateful for corrections of fact or of conclusions.

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART CAMBRIDGE, July 1, 1897.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READERS AND TEACHERS.

Each of the volumes in the series is intended to be complete in itself, and to furnish an account of the period it covers sufficient for the general reader or student. Those who wish to supplement this book by additional reading or study will find useful the bibliographies at the heads of the chapters.

For the use of teachers the following method is recommended. A chapter at a time may be given out to the cla.s.s for their preliminary reading, or the paragraph numbers may be used in a.s.signing lessons. From the references at the head of the chapter a report may then be prepared by one or more members of the cla.s.s on each of the numbered sections included in that chapter; these reports may be filed, or may be read in cla.s.s when the topic is reached in the more detailed exercises. Pupils take a singular interest in such work, and the details thus obtained will add a local color to the necessarily brief statements of the text.

FORMATION OF THE UNION.

1750-1829

CHAPTER I.

THE AMERICANS IN 1750

1. REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--R. G. Thwaites, _Colonies_, ---- 39, 74, 90; notes to Joseph Story, _Commentaries_, ---- 1-197; notes to H. C. Lodge, _Colonies, pa.s.sim_; notes to Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V. chs.

ii.-vi., Channing and Hart, _Guide_, ---- 130-133.

HISTORICAL MAPS.--R. G. Thwaites, _Colonies_, Maps Nos. 1 and 4 (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 1 and 4); G. P. Fisher _Colonial Era_, Maps Nos. 1 and 3; Labberton, _Atlas_, lxiii., B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_ (republished from MacCoun's _Historical Geography_).

GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--Joseph Story _Commentaries_, ---- 146-190; W. E. H.

Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, II. 1-21, III. 267-305; T. W.

Higginson, _Larger History_, ch. ix.; Edward Channing, _The United States_, 1765-1865 ch. i.; H. E. Scudder, _Men and Manners in America_; Hannis Taylor, _English Const.i.tution_, Introduction, I.; H. C. Lodge, _Colonies_ (chapters on social life); T. Pitkin, _United States_, I.

85-138, Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V. chs. ii.-vi.; R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, chs. i., iv.; Grahame, _United States_, III. 145-176.

SPECIAL HISTORIES.--W. B. Weeden, _Economic and Social History of New England_, II. chs. xiv., xv.; G. E. Howard, _Local Const.i.tutional History_, I. chs. ii., iii., vii.-ix.; C. F. Adams, _History of Quincy_, chs. iii.-xiv.; M. C. Tyler, _History of American Literature_, II.; Edward Channing, _Town and County Government_, and _Navigation Acts_; F. B.

Dexter, _Estimates of Population_; C. F. Bishop, _Elections in the Colonies_; Wm. Hill, _First Stages of the Tariff Policy_; W. E. DuBois, _Suppression of the Slave Trade_; J. R. Brackett, _Negro in Maryland_.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--Benjamin Franklin, _Autobiography_ (1706-1771); John Woolman _Journal_ (1720-1772); George Whitefield, _Journals_ (especially 1739); Kalm, _Travels_ (1748-1749); Robert Rogers, _Concise Account of North America_ (1765); A. Burnaby, _Travels_ (1759-1760); Edmund Burke, _European Settlements in America_; William Dougla.s.s, _Summary_; the various colonial archives and doc.u.ments.--Reprints in II.

W. Preston, _Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of American History_ (charters, etc.); _New Jersey Archives_, XI., XII., XVIII. (extracts from newspapers); _American History Leaflets_, No. 16; _Library of American Literature_, III.; _American History told by Contemporaries_, II.

2. COLONIAL GEOGRAPHY.

[Sidenote: British America.]

By the end of the eighteenth century the term "Americans" was commonly applied in England, and even the colonists themselves, to the English- speaking subjects of Great Britain inhabiting the continent of North America and the adjacent islands. The region thus occupied comprised the Bahamas, the Bermudas, Jamaica, and some smaller West Indian islands, Newfoundland, the outlying dependency of Belize, the territory of the great trading corporation known as the Hudson's Bay Company, and--more important than all the rest--the broad strip of territory running along the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Altamaha River.

[Sidenote: Boundaries.]

It is in this continental strip, lying between the sea and the main chain of the Appalachian range of mountains, that the formation of the Union was accomplished. The external boundaries of this important group of colonies were undetermined; the region west of the mountains was drained by tributaries of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi rivers, and both these rivers were held in their lower course by the French. Four successive colonial wars had not yet settled the important question of the territorial rights of the two powers, and a fifth war was impending.

So far as the individual colonies were concerned, their boundaries were established for them by English grants. The old charters of Ma.s.sachusetts, Virginia, and the Carolinas had given t.i.tle to strips of territory extending from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific. Those charters had lapsed, and the only colony in 1750 of which the jurisdiction exercised under the charter reached beyond the Appalachian mountains was Pennsylvania. The Connecticut grant had long since been ignored; the Pennsylvania limits included the strategic point where the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio. Near this point began the final struggle between the English and the French colonies. The interior boundaries between colonies in 1750 were matters of frequent dispute and law-suits. Such questions were eventually brought to the decision of the English Privy Council, or remained to vex the new national government after the Revolution had begun.

[Sidenote: The frontiers.]

At this date, and indeed as late as the end of the Revolution, the continental colonies were all maritime. Each of them had sea-ports enjoying direct trade with Europe. The sea was the only national highway; the sea-front was easily defensible. Between contiguous colonies there was intercourse; but Nova Scotia, the last of the continental colonies to be established, was looked upon as a sort of outlyer, and its history has little connection with the history of the thirteen colonies farther south.

The western frontier was a source of apprehension and of danger. In northern Maine, on the frontiers of New York, on the west and southwest, lived tribes of Indians, often disaffected, and sometimes hostile. Behind them lay the French, hereditary enemies of the colonists. The natural tendency of the English was to push their frontier westward into the Indian and French belt.

3. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.

[Sidenote: Population.]

This westward movement was not occasioned by the pressure of population.

All the colonies, except, perhaps, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Delaware, had abundance of vacant and tillable land. The population in 1750 was about 1,370,000. It ranged from less than 5,000 in Georgia to 240,000 in Virginia. Several strains of non-English white races were included in these numbers. There were Dutch in New York, a few Swedes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Germans in New York and Pennsylvania, Scotch Irish and Scotch Highlanders in the mountains of Pennsylvania and South Carolina, a few Huguenots, especially in the South, and a few Irish and Jews. All the rest of the whites were English or the descendants of English. A slow stream of immigration poured into the colonies, chiefly from England.

Convicts were no longer deported to be sold as private servants; but redemptioners--persons whose services were mortgaged for their pa.s.sage-- were still abundant. Many years later, Washington writes to an agent inquiring about "buying a ship-load of Germans," that is, of redemptioners. There was another important race-element,--the negroes, perhaps 220,000 in number; in South Carolina they far out-numbered the whites. A brisk trade was carried on in their importation, and probably ten thousand a year were brought into the country. This stream poured almost entirely into the Southern colonies. North of Maryland the number of blacks was not significant in proportion to the total population. A few Indians were scattered among the white settlements, but they were an alien community, and had no share in the development of the country.

[Sidenote: Settlements.]

[Sidenote: American character.]