Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14

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pubOne.info present you this wonderfully illustrated edition. An Outline Narrative of the Great Events, xiii

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• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819926016
• Langue: English

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THE GREAT EVENTS
BY
FAMOUS HISTORIANS
A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THEWORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, ANDPRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THEMOST EMINENT HISTORIANS
NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL
ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONSGATHERED FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA ANDEUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT ANDEXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITHTHOROUGH INDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OFREADING
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
With a staff of specialists
VOLUME XIV


The National Alumni
COPYRIGHT, 1905,
By THE NATIONAL ALUMNI
[Pg vii]
VOLUME XIV
PAGE
An Outline Narrative of the Great Events ,xiii
CHARLES F. HORNE
The Battle of Lexington (a. d. 1775) , 1
RICHARD FROTHINGHAM
The Battle of Bunker Hill (a. d. 1775) ,19
JOHN BURGOYNE
JOHN HENEAGE JESSE
JAMES GRAHAME
Canada Remains Loyal to England
Montgomery's Invasion (a. d. 1775) , 30
JOHN M'MULLEN
Signing of the American Declaration ofIndependence
(a. d. 1776) , 39
THOMAS JEFFERSON
JOHN A. DOYLE
The Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga (a. d.1777) , 51
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY
The First Victory of the American Navy (a. d.1779) , 68
ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE
Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary (a. d.1780) , 85
ARMINIUS VAMBERY
Siege and Surrender of Yorktown (a. d. 1781) ,97
HENRY B. DAWSON
[Pg viii] LORD CORNWALLIS
British Defence of Gibraltar (a. d. 1782) ,116
FREDERICK SAYER
Close of the American Revolution (a. d.1782) , 137
JOHN ADAMS
JOHN JAY
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
HENRY LAURENS
JOHN M. LUDLOW
Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada (a. d.1783) , 156
SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT
The First Balloon Ascension (a. d. 1783) ,163
HATTON TURNOR
Framing of the Constitution of the United States(a. d. 1787) , 173
ANDREW W. YOUNG
JOSEPH STORY
Inauguration of Washington
His Farewell Address (a. d. 1789-1797) ,197
JAMES K. PAULDING AND GEORGE WASHINGTON
French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille (a.d. 1789) , 212
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank (a. d.1791), 230
ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND LAWRENCE LEWIS, JR.
The Negro Revolution in Haiti (a. d.1791)
Toussaint Louverture Establishes the Dominion ofhis Race , 236
[Pg ix] CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT
Republican France Defies Europe
The Battle of Valmy (a. d. 1792) , 252
ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE
The Invention of the Cotton-gin (a. d.1793)
Enormous Growth of the Cotton Industry inAmerica , 271
CHARLES W. DABNEY
R. B. HANDY
DENISON OLMSTED
The Execution of Louis XVI (a. d. 1793)
Murder of Marat: Civil War in France , 295
THOMAS CARLYLE
The Reign of Terror (a. d. 1794) , 311
FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT
The Downfall of Poland (a. d. 1794) , 330
SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON
The Rise of Napoleon
The French Conquest of Italy (a. d. 1796) ,339
SIR WALTER SCOTT
Overthrow of the Mamelukes (a. d. 1798)
The Battle of the Nile , 353
CHARLES KNIGHT
Jenner Introduces Vaccination (a. d. 1798) ,363
SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW
Universal Chronology (a. d. 1775-1799) ,377
JOHN RUDD
[Pg x]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME XIV
PAGE
Charlotte Corday, after the assassination ofMarat, apprehended by the Jacobin mob (page 305) ,
Painting by J. Weerts. Frontispiece
The Siege of Yorktown , 108
Painting by L. C. A. Couder.
[Pg xiii]
AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE
TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, ANDCONSEQUENCES OF
THE GREAT EVENTS
(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION)
CHARLES F. HORNE
“After us, the deluge! ” said Louis XV of France. Hedied in 1774, and the remaining quarter of the eighteenth centurywitnessed social changes the most radical, the most widespreadwhich had convulsed civilization since the fall of Rome. “As soonas our peasants seek education, ” said Catharine II of Russia toone of her ministers, “neither you nor I will retain our places. ”Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day, judged her ownpeople by the more advanced civilization of Western Europe. She sawthat it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual advance, whichhad made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable.
If we look back to the beginnings of TeutonicEurope, we see that the social system existing among the wildtribes that overthrew Rome, was purely republican. Each man wasequal to every other; and they merely conferred upon theirsturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead them in battle.When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found themselvesmasters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the twoopposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from whichemerged naturally enough the “feudal system, ” the rule of awarrior aristocracy. Gradually a few members of this [Pgxiv] nobility rose above the rest, became centres ofauthority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe. Thelesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute inpower and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinelyappointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much oftheir neighbors' as they could.
Secure in their undisputed rank, the monarchstolerated or even encouraged the intellectual advance of theirsubjects, until those subjects saw the selfishness of theirmasters, saw the folly of submission and the ease of revolt, sawthe world-old truth of man's equality, to which tyranny and miseryhad so long blinded them.
Of course these ideas still hung nebulous in the airin the year 1775, and Europe at first scarce noted that Britain washaving trouble with her distant colonies. Yet to America belongsthe honor of having first maintained against force the new orrather the old and now re-arisen principles. England, it is true,had repudiated her Stuart kings still earlier; but she had replacedtheir rule by that of a narrow aristocracy, and now George III, theGerman king of the third generation whom she had placed as afigure-head upon her throne, was beginning, apparently with muchsuccess, to reassert the royal power. George III was quite as mucha tyrant to England as he was to America, and Britons have longsince recognized that America was fighting their battle forindependence as well as her own.
The English Parliament was not in those days a trulyrepresentative body. The appointment of a large proportion of itsmembers rested with a few great lords; other members were electedby boards of aldermen and similar small bodies. The large majorityof Englishmen had no votes at all, though the plea was advancedthat they were “virtually represented, ” that is, they were able toargue with and influence their more fortunate brethren, and allwould probably be actuated by similar sentiments. This plea of“virtual representation” was now extended to America, where itsabsurdity as applied to a people three thousand miles away andengaged in constant protest against the course of the EnglishGovernment, became at once manifest, and the cry against “Taxationwithout representation” became the motto of the Revolution. [Pg xv]
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Parliament, finding the Americans most unexpectedlyresolute against submitting to taxation, would have drawn back fromthe dispute; but King George insisted on its continuance. He couldnot realize the difference between free-born Americans long trainedin habits of self-government, and the unfortunate peasantry ofContinental Europe, bowed by centuries of suffering and submission.He thought it only necessary to bully the feeble colonists, asLouis XIV had bullied the Huguenots by dragonnades. Soldiers weresent to America to live on the inhabitants; and in Boston, GeneralGage to complete the terror sent out a force to seize the patriotleaders and destroy their supplies.
Then came “the shot heard round the world. ” Insteadof cringing humbly, the Americans resisted. Several were shot downat Lexington, and in return the remainder attacked the soldierswith a resolution and skill which the peasantry of an open countryhad never before displayed against trained troops. These farmershad learned fighting from the Indians, they had learnedself-reliance, and each man acting for himself, seeking whatshelter he could find from tree or fence, fired upon the Britons,until the most famous soldiery of Europe fled back to Boston “theirtongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs.” [1]
The astonished Britons clamored that their opponentsdid not “fight fair, ” meaning that the peasants did not standstill like sheep to be slaughtered, or rush in bodies to bemassacred by the superior weapons and trained manœuvres of theprofessional troops. Therein the objection touched the very pointof the world's advance: the common people, the country folk of oneland at least, had ceased to be mere unthinking cattle; they actedfrom intellect, not from sheer brute despair.
Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americanswere gathered round Boston to defend their homes from furtherinvasions by these foreigners. The English tried the issue again,and attacked the Americans at Bunker Hill. [2] Thesteady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regularbattle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants fromtheir intrenchments. But the victory was won at such frightfulexpense [Pg xvi] of life to the British that it wasnot until forty years had brought forgetfulness, that they tried asimilar assault in military form against the Americans at NewOrleans. The farmers could shoot as well as think. After BunkerHill the Revolution was recognized as a serious war, not a mere maduprising of hopelessness. Washington took control of the destiniesof America. Congress proclaimed its Independence. [3]
At this period Northern America became unfortunatelyand apparently permanently divided against itself. Canada, largelyfrom its French origin and lan