The Greater Republic Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: SILK-WINDING.

(Fac-simile of a picture in Edward Williams' "Virginia Truly Valued."

1650.)]

Of General Oglethorpe, it may be added that he lived to reach his ninety-eighth year. It was said of him that he was the handsomest old man in London, and people often stopped on the streets to look at and admire him. He always had a warm regard for the American colonies.

Indeed, it was this marked friendship for them which prevented his appointment as commander-in-chief of the British forces during the Revolution.

GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

It will thus be seen that, beginning with Virginia, in 1607, the American colonies had grown in a little more than a century and a quarter to thirteen. These were strung along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, and in 1750 their population was about 1,260,000. This was vigorous growth. All the colonists, although born on this side of the Atlantic, considered themselves Englishmen, and were proud of their king, three thousand miles away across the ocean. With such loyal subjects, the English crown had the best opportunity in the world to become the most powerful of all the nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COMFORTIER, OR CHAFING-DISH.

(New York State Cabinet of Natural History, Albany.)]

But Great Britain was not free from misgiving over the rapid growth of her American colonies. Nothing looked more probable than that before many years they would unite in one government of their own and declare their independence of the British crown. Then was the time for the display of wise statesmanship, but unhappily for England and happily for the colonies, such wise statesmanship proved to be lacking on the other side of the water. The colonies displayed great industry. They grew tobacco, rice, indigo, and many other products which were eagerly welcomed by the British merchants, who exported their own manufactures in exchange for them. The inevitable result was that England and the American colonies increased their wealth by this means. Not only that, but the colonies voted ships, men, and money to help the mother country in the wars in which she was often involved.

As early as 1651, Parliament pa.s.sed the first of the oppressive Navigation Acts, which forbade the colonies to trade with any other country than England, or to receive foreign ships into their ports. This act was so harsh and unjust that it was never generally enforced, until the attempt, more than a century later, when it became one of the leading causes of the American Revolution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY DAYS IN NEW ENGLAND.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLACES OF WORSHIP IN NEW YORK IN 1742.

1. Lutheran. 2. French. 3. Trinity. 4. New Dutch. 5. Old Dutch. 6.

Presbyterian. 7. Baptist. 8. Quaker. 9. Synagogue.]

CHAPTER III.

THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

King William's War--Queen Anne's War--King George's War--The French and Indian War--England and France Rivals in the Old World and the New--The Early French Settlements--The Disputed Territory--France's Fatal Weakness--Washington's Journey Through the Wilderness--The First Fight of the War--The War Wholly American for Two Years--The Braddock Ma.s.sacre--The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt--Fall of Quebec--Momentous Consequences of the Great English Victory--The Growth and Progress of the Colonies and Their Home Life.

KING WILLIAM'S WAR.

If anything were needed to prove the utter uselessness and horrible barbarity of war, it is found in a history of the strife in which the American colonies were involved through the quarrels of their rulers, thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. Men lived for years in America as neighbors, meeting and exchanging visits on the most friendly terms, and with no thought of enmity, until the arrival of some ship with news that their respective governments in Europe had gone to war. Straightway, the neighbors became enemies, and, catching up their guns, did their best to kill one another. Untold misery and hundreds of lives were lost, merely because two ambitious men had gotten into a wrangle. The result of such a dispute possessed no earthly interest to the people in the depths of the American wilderness, but loyalty to their sovereigns demanded that they should plunge into strife.

As time pa.s.sed, Spain and Holland declined in power, and England and France became formidable rivals in the New World as well as in the Old.

In 1689, when William III. was on the throne of England, war broke out between that country and France and lasted until 1697. The French, having settled in Canada, were wise enough to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, who helped them in their savage manner in desolating the English settlements. Dover, New Hampshire, was attacked by the French and Indians, who killed more than a score of persons and carried away a number of captives. In other places, settlers were surprised in the fields and shot down. Early in 1690, another party came down from Canada, and, when the snow lay deep on the ground and the people were sleeping in their beds, made a furious attack upon Schenectady. The town was burned and sixty persons tomahawked, while the survivors, half-clad, struggled through the snow to Albany, sixteen miles distant.

The Americans in retaliation attempted to invade Canada, but the result was a disastrous failure. The war continued in a desultory way, with great cruelties on both sides, until 1697, when a treaty signed at Ryswick, Holland, settled the quarrel between King William and James II., by deciding that the former was the rightful king of England. The suffering and deaths that had been inflicted on this side of the Atlantic produced not the slightest effect upon the quarrel between the two claimants to the throne.

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.

In 1702, England got into a wrangle with France and Spain. This time the Iroquois Indians took no part, because of their treaty with France, although in the previous war they fought on the side of the English. In the depth of winter in 1703-4, Deerfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, was attacked and destroyed. Forty-seven of the people were tomahawked and more than a hundred carried into captivity. Their sufferings were so dreadful on the long tramp through the snow to Canada that nearly all sank down and died. Maine and New Hampshire were devastated by the hordes, who showed no mercy to women and children. Another English invasion of Canada was attempted, but failed like its predecessor. The aimless, cruel war continued until 1713, when a treaty of peace was signed at Utrecht in Holland, by which England secured control of the fisheries of Newfoundland, while Labrador, Hudson Bay, and Acadia or Nova Scotia were ceded to Great Britain. The result in both instances would have been the same had the English and French settlers and the Indians continued on amicable terms.

KING GEORGE'S WAR.

In 1740, the War for the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe and soon involved most of the European nations. Because George II. was on the throne of England, the struggle is known in this country as King George's War.

A notable event in America was the capture of the fortress of Louisburg, one of the strongest fortifications in the world, mainly by New England troops. It was a grand achievement which thrilled this country and England, and caused consternation in France. A treaty of peace was signed in 1744 at Aix-la-Chapelle, a town in western Germany. New England was enraged to find that by the terms of this treaty Louisburg was given back to France, and all her valor, sacrifice, and suffering went for naught.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ATTACK ON RIOTERS AT SPRINGFIELD, Ma.s.s., IN 1786.]

It has already been shown that England and France, who had long been rivals in the Old World, had become equally bitter rivals on this side of the Atlantic. On the west, the thirteen English colonies were walled in by the Allegheny Mountains, beyond which none of the settlers had advanced. All the country lying between these mountains and the Mississippi was claimed by France, who was pushing southward through it, and had given it the name of New France or Louisiana. The first French settlement within the northwestern part of our country was the mission of St. Mary, near Sault Ste. Marie, now in the State of Michigan, it having been established in 1668. Several others of minor importance were planted at different points.

England did not oppose the acquirement of Canada by the French early in the seventeenth century, but no serious attempt was made by that people to colonize the territory within the United States until 1699, when D'Iberville crossed the Gulf of Mexico in quest of the mouth of the Mississippi. When he found it, he planted a settlement at Biloxi, now in Mississippi, but removed it in 1702 to Mobile. The Mississippi Company, a French organization, obtained in 1716 a grant of Louisiana, and in 1718 sent out a colony that began the settlement of New Orleans.

It will thus be seen that by 1750 the French had acquired large possessions in North America. They were, determined to hold them, and, to do so, established a chain of sixty forts reaching from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. These forts were the foundations of many important cities of to-day, such as New Orleans, Natchez, Detroit, Vincennes, Toledo, Fort Wayne, Ogdensburg, and Montreal. To the rear of the main chain of forts were others like Mackinaw, Peoria, and Kaskaskia.

Extensive as was the territory thus taken possession of by the French, they were fatally weak because of their scant population, amounting to less than 150,000 souls, while the English colonies had grown to 1,500,000. The French traders were just about strong enough to hold the Indians in check, but no more.

Thus with the French on the west and the English on the east of the Alleghanies, the two rival forces were slowly creeping toward each other, and were bound soon to meet, when the supreme struggle for possession of the North American continent would open. By-and-by, the French hunters and traders, as they climbed the western slope of the mountains, met the English trappers moving in their direction. Being the advance skirmishers of their respective armies, they often exchanged shots, and then fell back to report what they had seen and done to their countrymen.

The fertile lands of the Great West had long attracted attention, and many efforts had been made to buy them at a cheap price to sell again to settlers. In 1749, the Ohio Company was formed by a number of London merchants and several prominent Virginians. The lands they bought lay in western Pennsylvania, which Virginia claimed as part of her territory.

This company proved its earnestness by sending out surveyors, opening roads, and offering tempting inducements to settlers.

The French were equally prompt and took possession of the country between the Alleghanies and their main chain of forts. They built a fort at Presq' Isle, on the site of the present city of Erie, and began erecting a new chain of forts southward toward the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia saw the danger of permitting this encroachment, and he wrote a letter of remonstrance to the French commander, which was placed in the hands of GEORGE WASHINGTON, to be carried five hundred miles through wilderness, across mountains and dangerous rivers, to the point in western Pennsylvania where the French officer was building his forts upon disputed ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: YOUNG WASHINGTON RIDING A COLT.

One summer morning, young George, with three or four boys, was in the field looking at a colt, given him by his mother, and when the boys said that it could never be tamed, George said: "You help me get on its back, and I'll tame it."]

The journey was a long and perilous one, but Washington, who was a magnificent specimen of vigorous young manhood, performed it in safety, and brought back the reply of the French commander, which notified Governor Dinwiddie that he not only refused to vacate the territory, but would drive out every Englishman he found within it.

This meant war, and Virginia made her preparations. She raised about 400 men and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, who was more familiar with the country than anyone else. The Ohio Company at that time were putting up a fort on the present site of Pittsburg, and Washington hurried forward to protect it. The Frenchmen understood the value of a post at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, and also started on a race for it. They arrived first, captured the fort, strengthened it, and gave it the name of Fort Duquesne. That done, they set out to meet Washington, who was descending the Monongahela.

OPENING OF THE WAR.

The meeting between these forces brought on the first fight of the French and Indian War. It was the advance party of each which met, and it is said that the first musket was fired by Washington himself. The French had enlisted a number of Indians, but Washington killed or captured nearly all of them as well as the whites. The main body of the French, however, was so much more powerful than his own, that Washington moved back a few miles and built a fortification which he named Fort Necessity. There, after a brisk fight, he was compelled to surrender, July 4, 1754, on the promise that he and his men should be allowed to return to Virginia. That province was so well pleased with his work that he acted as its leading officer throughout the remainder of the war.

A peculiarity of the French and Indian War must be noted. For two years it was entirely an American war, not extending to Europe until 1756. For the first time the English colonies acted together. They saw the value of the territory in dispute and were ready to make common cause for its possession. England was inclined to let them do the best they could without help from her. She advised that they form some plan for united action. In accordance with this suggestion, a meeting was held at Albany in 1754, composed of delegates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and the New England colonies. Benjamin Franklin, the great philosopher, proposed the "Albany plan of Union," which was agreed upon.

When this was submitted to the king, he saw too much of American independence in it, and promptly rejected it, while the colonies did the same on the ground that it gave the king too much power. There was much significance in this action.

EXPULSION OF THE CANADIANS.

It was now so evident that war must soon come that England and France began sending troops to America. At the same time, the respective governments continued to profess--diplomatically--their strong friendship for each other. In June, 1755, a force consisting of British regulars and colonial troops sailed from Boston and captured the few remaining French forts in Nova Scotia. The inhabitants were gathered together in their churches, placed on ships, and then distributed southward among the English colonies. This act has been often denounced as one unworthy of the British people.