A Short History of the United States by Channing

by Edward Channing

  [Illustration: PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, 1790. "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations."--Farewell Address.]

  QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

  CHAPTER 19

  §§ 192-194.--a. Describe the method of electing President employed at first.

  b. Describe Washington's journey to New York and the inaugural ceremonies, and compare them with the inauguration of the last President.

  §§ 195, 196.--a. In whose hands do appointments to federal offices lie?

  b. What was the great difference mentioned in § 196? Why was the difference so great?

  §§ 197, 198.--a. Why was Washington "stiff and aristocratic"?

  b. Would Washington have accepted the title of king? Give the reasons for your answer.

  §§ 199-202.--a. Give the reasons for the different views expressed in Congress as to customs duties. What are customs duties?

  b. Explain how slavery influenced the views of the Southern members.

  c. Compare the extent and population of the United States in 1791 with the extent and population to-day.

  d. What two new states were admitted in 1791-92? What was their attitude on slavery? What changes would their admission make in Congress?

  §§ 203, 204.--a. Explain carefully Hamilton's plan. What were its advantages? What is meant by the phrase "public credit"?

  b. What is meant by the phrase "assumption of the state debts"?

  §§ 205, 206.--a. What question arose concerning the site of the national capital? How was it settled? Was this a good way to settle important questions?

  b. Why did Hamilton want a Bank of the United States? Was this bank like one of the national banks of to-day?

  CHAPTER 20

  §§ 207, 208.--a. Compare carefully the principles of the Federalists and the Republicans. Which party would you have joined had you lived then? Why? Which ideas prevail to-day?

  b. Discuss Jefferson's views as to the value of newspapers.

  §§ 209-212.--a. Why did the Republicans sympathize with the French Revolution?

  b. How was the action of the Republicans regarded by Washington? By Hamilton?

  c. Why did Washington issue the Proclamation of Neutrality?

  § 213.--a. What is the difference between a tax laid by a tariff on imported goods and an internal revenue tax?

  b. How was the rebellion suppressed? Compare this with Shays's Rebellion.

  §§ 214-216.--a. State the reasons for the trouble with Great Britain.

  How was the matter settled?

  b. Explain the trouble over the traffic on the Mississippi.

  c. How was this matter settled?

  § 217.--a. Why did Washington decline a third term?

  b. What are the important points in his Farewell Address?

  c. How far has later history proved the truth of his words?

  CHAPTER 21

  § 218.--a. How did Hamilton set to work to defeat Adams? Do you think his action justifiable?

  b. What was the result of Hamilton's intrigues?

  §§ 219-221.--a. To what was the refusal to receive Pinckney equivalent? Describe the X. Y. Z. Affair.

  b. What is a bribe? How must bribery in political life affect a government?

  c. How was the news of this affair received in America? What does this show about the feeling of both parties toward the government?

  §§ 222, 223.--a. Describe the preparations for war. Why was a Navy Department necessary?

  b. Why was France wise to make peace with the United States?

  c. How was the matter finally settled?

  §§ 224, 225.--a. Describe the Naturalization Act.

  b. What power did the Alien Act give the President? What danger is there in such power?

  c. What is sedition? Compare the Sedition Act with the First Amendment.

  d. What were the theories on which the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were based?

  §§ 226, 227.--a. What position does Washington hold in our history? Why is it deserved? b. Describe the election of 1800. Why was it fought so bitterly? c. Why should disputes as to elections for President go to the House? d. How was it known that Jefferson's election was the wish of the voters?

  GENERAL QUESTIONS

  a. Write an account of life in the United States about 1790, or life in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston.

  b. Prepare a table of the two political parties mentioned, with dates and account of origin. As you go on, note upon this table changes in these parties and the rise of new ones.

  c. On an Outline Map color the thirteen original states and then fill in, with dates, new states as they are admitted. Write on each state F.

  for free or S. for slave, as the case may be.

  TOPICS FOR SPECIAL WORK

  a. Early life of Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, or Hamilton.

  b. Washington's Farewell Address.

  SUGGESTIONS

  In this period we meet two questions, which are still important, tariff legislation and political parties. In connection with the Tariff Act of 1789 (§ 200), touch upon the industries of the different sections of the country and explain how local interests affected men's actions. Show how compromise is often necessary in political action.

  It is a good plan to use Outline Maps to show the important lines of development, as the gradual drifting apart of the North and the South on the slavery question.

  Illustrate by supposed transactions the working of Hamilton's financial measures. By all means do not neglect a study of Washington's Farewell Address. Particular attention should be given to the two views of constitutional interpretation mentioned in § 207, and considerable time should be spent on a study of §§ 224 and 225.

  [Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1800.]

  VIII

  THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS,

  1801-1812

  Books for Study and Reading

  References.--Higginson's Larger History, 344-365; Scribner's Popular History, IV, 127-184; Schouler's Jefferson.

  Home Reading.--Coffin's Building the Nation; Drake's Making the Ohio Valley States; Hale's Man Without a Country and Philip Nolan's Friends.

  CHAPTER 22

  THE UNITED STATES IN 1800

  [Sidenote: Area.]

  [Sidenote: Population.]

  228. Area and Population, 1800.--The area of the United States in 1800 was the same as at the close of the Revolutionary War. But the population had begun to increase rapidly. In 1791 there were nearly four million people in the United States. By 1800 this number had risen to five and one-quarter millions. Two-thirds of the people still lived on or near tide-water. But already nearly four hundred thousand people lived west of the Alleghanies. In 1791 the centre of population had been east of Baltimore. It was now eighteen miles west of that city (p. 157).

  [Sidenote: Philadelphia.]

  [Sidenote: New York.]

  [Sidenote: The new capital.]

  229. Cities and Towns in 1800.--Philadelphia was the largest city in the United States. It had a population of seventy thousand. But New York was not far behind Philadelphia in population. Except these two, no city in the whole United States had more than thirty thousand inhabitants. The seat of government had been removed from Philadelphia to Washington. But the new capital was a city only in name. One broad long street, Pennsylvania Avenue, led from the unfinished Capitol to the unfinished White House. Congress held its sessions in a temporary wooden building. The White House could be lived in. But Mrs. Adams found the unfinished reception room very convenient for drying clothes on rainy Mondays. A few cheaply built and very uncomfortable boarding-houses completed the city.

  [Sidenote: Roads, coaches, and inns.]

  [Sidenote: Traveling by water.]

  230. Traveling in 1800.--The traveler in those days had a very hard time. On the best roads of the north, in the best coach, and with the best weather one might cover as many as forty miles a day. But the traveler had to start very early in the morning to do this. Generally
he thought himself fortunate if he made twenty-five miles in the twenty-four hours. South of the Potomac there were no public coaches, and the traveler generally rode on horseback. A few rich men like Washington rode in their own coaches. Everywhere, north and south, the inns were uncomfortable and the food was poor. Whenever it was possible the traveler went by water. But that was dangerous work. Lighthouses were far apart, there were no public buoys to guide the mariner, and almost nothing had been done to improve navigation.

  [Illustration: THE "CLERMONT," 1807.]

  [Sidenote: The first steamboat]

  [Sidenote: Fulton's steamboat, 1807. Higginson, 241-242.]

  231. The Steamboat.--The steamboat came to change all this. While Washington was still President, a queer-looking boat sailed up and down the Delaware. She was propelled by oars or paddles which were worked by steam. This boat must have been very uncomfortable, and few persons wished to go on her. Robert Fulton made the first successful steamboat.

  She was named the Clermont and was launched in 1807. She had paddle wheels and steamed against the wind and tide of the Hudson River. At first some people thought that she was bewitched. But when it was found that she ran safely and regularly, people began to travel on her. Before a great while steamboats appeared in all parts of the country.

  [Sidenote: Western pioneers.]

  [Sidenote: Settlements on the Ohio. Eggleston, 232-234; Higginson, 243.]

  232. Making of the West.--Even before the Revolutionary War explorers and settlers had crossed the Alleghany Mountains. In Washington's time pioneers, leaving Pittsburg, floated down the Ohio River in flatboats. Some of these settled Cincinnati. Others went farther down the river to Louisville, in Kentucky, and still others founded Wheeling and Marietta. In 1811 the first steamboat appeared on the Western rivers. The whole problem of living in the West rapidly changed. For the steamboat could go up stream as well as down stream.

  Communication between the new settlements, and New Orleans and Pittsburg, was now much safer and very much easier.

  [Sidenote: Cotton growing.]

  [Sidenote: Beginning of exportation, 1784.]

  233. Cotton Growing in the South.--Cotton had been grown in the South for many years. It had been made on the plantations into a rough cloth. Very little had been sent away. The reason for this was that it took a very long time to separate the cotton fiber from the seed. One slave working for a whole day could hardly clean more than a pound of cotton. Still as time went on more cotton was grown. In 1784 a few bags of cotton were sent to England. The Englishmen promptly seized it because they did not believe that so much cotton could be grown in America. In 1791 nearly two hundred thousand pounds of cotton were exported from the South. Then came Whitney's great invention, which entirely changed the whole history of the country.

  [Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. As designed by Thomas Jefferson.]

  [Sidenote: Eli Whitney.]

  [Sidenote: His cotton gin, 1793. McMaster, 195-196.]

  234. Whitney's Cotton Gin, 1793.--Eli Whitney was a Connecticut schoolmaster. He went to Georgia to teach General Greene's children. He was very ingenious, and one day Mrs. Greene suggested to him that he might make a machine which would separate the cotton fiber from the cotton seed. Whitney set to work and soon made an engine or gin, as he called it, that would do this. The first machine was a rude affair. But even with it one slave could clean one hundred pounds of cotton in a day. Mrs. Greene's neighbors promptly broke into Whitney's shop and stole his machine. Whitney's cotton gin made the growing of cotton profitable and so fastened slavery on the South. With the exception of the steam locomotive (p. 241) and the reaper (p. 260), no invention has so tremendously influenced the history of the United States.

  [Sidenote: Early manufactures.]

  235. Colonial Manufactures.--Before the Revolutionary War there were very few mills or factories in the colonies. There was no money to put into such undertakings and no operatives to work the mills if they had been built. The only colonial manufactures that amounted to much were the making of nails and shoes. These articles could be made at home on the farms, in the winter, when no work could be done out of doors.

  [Sidenote: New manufactures established.]

  [Sidenote: Invention of cotton spinning machinery.]

  236. Growth of Manufactures, 1789-1800.--As soon as the new government with its wide powers was established, manufacturing started into life. Old mills were set to work. While the Revolution had been going on in America, great improvements in the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cloth had been made in England. Parliament made laws to prevent the export from England of machinery or patterns of machinery.

  But it could not prevent Englishmen from coming to America. Among the recent immigrants to the United States was Samuel Slater. He brought no patterns with him. But he was familiar with the new methods of spinning. He soon built spinning machinery. New cotton mills were now set up in several places. But it was some time before the new weaving machinery was introduced into America.

  CHAPTER 23

  JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATIONS

  [Sidenote: Jefferson's political ideas. Higginson 239; McMaster, 216.]

  [Sidenote: Republican simplicity.]

  237. President Jefferson.--Thomas Jefferson was a Republican. He believed in the republican form of government. He believed the wisdom of the people to be the best guide. He wished the President to be simple and cordial in his relations with his fellow-citizens. Adams had ridden to his inauguration in a coach drawn by six cream-colored horses.

  Jefferson walked with a few friends from his boarding house to the Capitol. Washington and Adams had gone in state to Congress and had opened the session with a speech. Jefferson sent a written message to Congress by a messenger. Instead of bowing stiffly to those who came to see him, he shook hands with them and tried to make them feel at ease in his presence.

  [Sidenote: Proscription of Republicans by the Federalists.]

  [Sidenote: Adams's midnight appointments.]

  238. The Civil Service.--One of the first matters to take Jefferson's attention was the condition of the civil service. There was not a Republican office-holder in the government service. Washington, in the last years of his presidency, and Adams also had given office only to Federalists. Jefferson thought it was absolutely necessary to have some officials upon whom he could rely. So he removed a few Federalist officeholders and appointed Republicans to their places. Adams had even gone so far as to appoint officers up to midnight of his last day in office. Indeed, John Marshall, his Secretary of State, was busy signing commissions when Jefferson's Attorney General walked in with his watch in hand and told Marshall that it was twelve o'clock. Jefferson and Madison, the new Secretary of State, refused to deliver these commissions even when Marshall as Chief Justice ordered Madison to deliver them.

  [Sidenote: The Judiciary Act, 1801.]

  [Sidenote: Repealed by Republicans]

  [Sidenote: Jefferson and appointments.]

  239. The Judiciary Act of 1801.--One of the last laws made by the Federalists was the Judiciary Act of 1801. This law greatly enlarged the national judiciary, and Adams eagerly seized the opportunity to appoint his friends to the new offices. The Republican Congress now repealed this Judiciary Act and "legislated out of office" all the new judges.

  For it must be remembered that the Constitution makes only the members of the Supreme Court sure of their offices. Congress also got rid of many other Federalist officeholders by repealing the Internal Revenue Act (p. 167). But while all this was done, Jefferson steadily refused to appoint men to office merely because they were Republicans. One man claimed an office on the ground that he was a Republican, and that the Republicans were the saviors of the republic. Jefferson replied that Rome had been saved by geese, but he had never heard that the geese were given offices.

  [Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.] "Honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none, ... economy in the public expense, the honest p
ayment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith."--Jefferson's First Inaugural.

  [Sidenote: Expenses diminished.]

  [Sidenote: Internal taxes repealed.]

  [Sidenote: Army and navy reduced.]

  [Sidenote: Part of the debt paid. McMaster, 217-218.]

  240. Paying the National Debt.--Jefferson was especially anxious to cut down the expenses of the government and to pay as much as possible of the national debt. Madison and Gallatin worked heartily with him to carry out this policy. The repeal of the Internal Revenue Act took much revenue from the government. But it also did away with the salaries of a great many officials. The repeal of the Judiciary Act also put an end to many salaries. Now that the dispute with France was ended, Jefferson thought that the army and navy might safely be reduced. Most of the naval vessels were sold. A few good ships were kept at sea, and the rest were tied up at the wharves. The number of ministers to European states was reduced to the lowest possible limit, and the civil service at home was also cut down. The expenses of the government were in these ways greatly lessened. At the same time the revenue from the customs service increased. The result was that in the eight years of Jefferson's administrations the national debt shrank from eighty-three million dollars to forty-five million dollars. Yet in the same time the United States paid fifteen million dollars for Louisiana, and waged a series of successful and costly wars with the pirates of the northern coast of Africa.

  [Sidenote: The Spaniards in Louisiana and Florida. McMaster, 218-219.]

  [Sidenote: France secures Louisiana.]

  241. Louisiana again a French Colony.--Spanish territory now bounded the United States on the south and the west. The Spaniards were not good neighbors, because it was very hard to make them come to an agreement, and next to impossible to make them keep an agreement when it was made. But this did not matter very much, because Spain was a weak power and was growing weaker every year. Sooner or later the United States would gain its point. Suddenly, however, it was announced that France had got back Louisiana. And almost at the same moment the Spanish governor of Louisiana said that Americans could no longer deposit their goods at New Orleans (p. 170). At once there was a great outcry in the West. Jefferson determined to buy from France New Orleans and the land eastward from the mouth of the Mississippi.