A School History of the United States

John Bach Mcmaster

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• Publié par: eslo
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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Title: A School History of the United States
Author: John Bach McMaster
Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11313]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK HISTORY OF THE U.S. ***
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A SCHOOL HISTORY
OF THE
UNITED STATES
BY
JOHN BACH McMASTER
PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
1897PREFACE
It has long been the custom to begin the history of
our country with the discovery of the New World by
Columbus. To some extent this is both wise and
necessary; but in following it in this instance the
attempt has been made to treat the colonial period
as the childhood of the United States; to have it
bear the same relation to our later career that the
account of the youth of a great man should bear to
that of his maturer years, and to confine it to the
narration of such events as are really necessary to
a correct understanding of what has happened
since 1776.
The story, therefore, has been restricted to the
discoveries, explorations, and settlements within
the United States by the English, French,
Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the
French by the English; to the planting of the
thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard; to the
origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with
the rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent
states, and to the growth of such political
institutions as began in colonial times. This period
once passed, the long struggle for a government
followed till our present Constitution—one of the
most remarkable political instruments ever framed
by man—was adopted, and a nation founded.
Scarcely was this accomplished when the French
Revolution and the rise of Napoleon involved us in
a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and then for
our commercial independence, and finally in a
second war with Great Britain. During this period of
nearly five and twenty years, commerce and
agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal
resources were little developed. With the peace of
1815, however, the era of industrial development
commences, and this has been treated with great
—though it is believed not too great—fullness of
detail; for, beyond all question, the event of the
world's history during the nineteenth century is the
growth of the United States. Nothing like it has
ever before taken place.
To have loaded down the book with extended
bibliographies would have been an easy matter,
but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in
Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study of
American History the best digested and arranged
bibliography of the subject yet published, and
cannot afford to be without it. If the student hastime and disposition to read one half of the
reference books cited in the footnotes of this
history, he is most fortunate.
JOHN BACH McMASTER.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA II. THE SPANIARDS
IN THE UNITED STATES III. ENGLISH, DUTCH,
AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD IV. THE
PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND V. THE MIDDLE
AND SOUTHERN COLONIES VI. THE FRENCH
IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY VII. THE INDIANS
VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND
LOUISIANA IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763
X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" XI.
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE XII.
UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION XIV. OUR
COUNTRY IN 1790 XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES
XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY XVII.
STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS'
RIGHTS" XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL
INDEPENDENCE XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR
COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 XX.
SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES XXI. THE
RISING WEST XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE
AND COMMERCE XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824
TO 1845 XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE
AREA XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE
SOIL XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 XXVII. WAR FOR THE
UNION, 1861-1865 XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE
COAST AND ON THE SEA XXIX. THE COST OF
THE WAR XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
SOUTH XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)
XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 XXXIII.
GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST XXXIV.
MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880
APPENDIX
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
STATE CONSTITUTIONS INDEX
LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS
DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF
AMERICA EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND
EXPLORATIONS, 1650 FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC.,
IN 1700 BRITISH COLONIES, 1733 EUROPEANPOSSESSIONS, 1763 THE BRITISH COLONIES
IN 1764 BRITISH COLONIES, 1776 RESULTS OF
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE THE UNITED
STATES, 1783 THE UNITED STATES, 1789
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790 SLAVE
AND FREE SOIL IN 1790 THE UNITED STATES,
1801 THE UNITED STATES, 1810 NORTH
AMERICA AFTER 1824 DISTRIBUTION OF
POPULATION, 1820 FREEDOM AND SLAVERY
IN 1820 THE UNITED STATES, 1826 TERRITORY
CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845 THE OREGON
COUNTRY ROUTES OF THE EARLY
EXPLORERS TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO,
1848 AND 1853 RESULTS OF THE
COMPROMISE OF 1850 THE UNITED STATES IN
1851 EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850 THE
UNITED STATES, 1861 WAR FOR THE UNION
INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE
UNITED STATESA SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES
* * * * *
DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS
CHAPTER I
EUROPE FINDS AMERICA
%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%—Before
the United States became a nation, six European
powers owned, or claimed to own, various portions
of the territory now contained within its boundary.
England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to
Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California,
and all the territory south and west of Colorado.
France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley.
Holland once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and
the valley of the Hudson in New York, and claimed
as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The
Swedes had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska
was a Russian possession.
Before attempting to narrate the history of our
country, it is necessary, therefore, to tell
1. How European nations came into possession of
parts of it.
2. How these parts passed from them to us.
3. What effect the ownership of parts of our
country by Europeans had on our history and
institutions before 1776.
%2. European Trade with the East; the Old
Routes.%—For two hundred years before North
and South America were known to exist, a splendid
trade had been going on between Europe and the
East Indies. Ships loaded with metals, woods, and
pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria
and Constantinople, and brought back silks and
cashmeres, muslins, dyewoods, spices, perfumes,
ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This trade in
course of time had come to be controlled by the
two Italian cities of Venice and Genoa. The
merchants of Genoa sent their ships to
Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea,
where they took on board the rich fabrics andspices which by boats and by caravans had come
up the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from
the Persian Gulf. The men of Venice, on the other
hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and carried
on their trade with the East through the Red Sea.
[Illustration: Routes to India]
%3. New Routes wanted.%—Splendid as this trade
was, however, it was doomed to destruction.
Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves
across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one
the great feeders of the Oriental trade, till, with the
capture of Constantinople in 1453, they destroyed
the commercial career of Genoa. As their power
was spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt,
the prosperity of Venice, in turn, was threatened.
The day seemed near when all trade between the
Indies and Europe would be ended, and men
began to ask if it were not possible to find an
ocean route to Asia.
Now, it happened that just at this time the
Portuguese were hard at work on the discovery of
such a route, and were slowly pushing their way
down the western coast of Africa. But as league
after league of that coast was discovered, it was
thought that the route to India by way of Africa was
too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then
came the question, Is there not a shorter route?
and this Columbus tried to answer.
[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese
exploration in search of a way to India, in Fiske's
Discovery of America, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.]
%4. Columbus seeks the East and finds
America.%[2]—Columbus was a native of Genoa,
in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and
in the intervals between his voyages made maps
and globes. As Portugal was then the center of
nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 147