A Short History of the United States for School Use Part 27

[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. Was.h.i.+ngton 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. Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Const.i.tution 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.] "Honest friends.h.i.+p with all nations, entangling alliances with none, ... economy in the public expense, the honest payment 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JACKSON SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.]

[Sidenote: Napoleon's policy.]

[Sidenote: He offers to sell Louisiana.]

242. The Louisiana Purchase, 1803.--When Napoleon got Louisiana from Spain, he had an idea of again founding a great French colony in America. At the moment France and Great Britain were at peace. But it soon looked as if war would begin again. Napoleon knew that the British would at once seize Louisiana and he could not keep it anyway. So one day, when the Americans and the French were talking about the purchase of New Orleans, the French minister suddenly asked if the United States would not like to buy the whole of Louisiana. Monroe and Livingston, the American ministers, had no authority to buy Louisiana. But the purchase of the whole colony would be a great benefit to the United States. So they quickly agreed to pay fifteen million dollars for the whole of Louisiana.

[Sidenote: Louisiana purchased, 1803. _Higginson_, 244-245; _Eggleston_, 234; _Source-Book_, 200-202.]

[Sidenote: Importance of the purchase.]

243. The Treaty Ratified.--Jefferson found himself in a strange position. The Const.i.tution nowhere delegated to the United States power to acquire territory (p. 164). But after thinking it over Jefferson felt sure that the people would approve of the purchase. The treaty was ratified. The money was paid. This purchase turned out to be a most fortunate thing. It gave to the United States the whole western valley of the Mississippi. It also gave to Americans the opportunity to explore and settle Oregon, which lay beyond the limits of Louisiana.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1803.]

[Sidenote: Lewis and Clark, 1804-6. _Higginson_, 245-247; _McMaster_, 219-221;_Source-Book_, 206-209.]

[Sidenote: The mouth of the Oregon.]

244. Lewis and Clark's Explorations.--Jefferson soon sent out several expeditions to explore the unknown portions of the continent.

The most important of these was the expedition led by two army officers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, brother of General George Rogers Clark (p. 116). Leaving St. Louis they slowly ascended the muddy Missouri. They pa.s.sed the site of the present city of Omaha. They pa.s.sed the Council Bluffs. The current of the river now became so rapid that the explorers left their boats and traveled along the river's bank. They gained the sources of the Missouri, and came to a westward-flowing river. On, on they followed it until they came to the river's mouth. A fog hung low over the water. Suddenly it lifted. There before the explorers' eyes the river "in waves like small mountains rolled out in the ocean." They had traced the Columbia River from its upper course to the Pacific. Captain Gray in the Boston s.h.i.+p _Columbia_ had already entered the mouth of the river. But Lewis and Clark were the first white men to reach it overland.

[Sidenote: Amendment as to the election of President.]

[Sidenote: The Twelfth Amendment, 1804.]

245. The Twelfth Amendment, 1804.--Four presidential elections had now been held under the method provided by the Const.i.tution. And that method had not worked well (pp. 171, 176). It was now (1804) changed by the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment which is still in force. The old machinery of presidential electors was kept. But it was provided that in the future each elector should vote for President and for Vice-President on separate and distinct ballots. The voters had no more part in the election under the new system than they had had under the old system. The old method of apportioning electors among the states was also kept. This gives to each state as many electors as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress. No matter how small its territory, or how small its population, a state has at least two Senators and one Representative, and, therefore, three electors. The result is that each voter in a small state has more influence in choosing the President than each voter in a large state. Indeed, several Presidents have been elected by minorities of the voters of the country as a whole.

[Sidenote: Jefferson reelected, 1804.]

[Sidenote: Strength of the Republicans.]

246. Reelection of Jefferson, 1804.--Jefferson's first administration had been most successful. The Republicans had repealed many unpopular laws. By the purchase of Louisiana the area of the United States had been doubled and an end put to the dispute as to the navigation of the Mississippi. The expenses of the national government had been cut down, and a portion of the national debt had been paid. The people were prosperous and happy. Under these circ.u.mstances Jefferson was triumphantly reelected. He received one hundred and sixty-two electoral votes to only fourteen for his Federalist rival.