Outlines of Universal History Part 44

PIUS VII.--Pope _Pius VII_., who, after 1809, was a virtual prisoner at _Savona_, refused to comply with Napoleon's demands. He could not be moved to invest the bishops whom the emperor had appointed. This was a princ.i.p.al point in the dispute. Napoleon called a national council of French bishops (1811). In 1812 the Pope was taken to _Fontainebleau_, and treated by him with harshness. When the pontiff refused to give a full and final sanction to the proposed agreement, until he should be free to confer with his cardinals, he was treated with still greater severity. The fall of Napoleon set him free, and he entered Rome, May 24, 1814.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.--In September, 1814, the congress of Vienna met to readjust the map of Europe after the whirlwind of change and revolution. There were present the emperors of Russia and Austria, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, and a great number of German princes. _Castlereagh_, and later _Wellington_, represented England, and _Talleyrand_ was one of the representatives of France. The conferences were far from being harmonious. In particular, the claims of Russia upon Poland, and the claims of Prussia on Germany, threatened another war. While the debates, alternating with gay festivities, were still proceeding, the partic.i.p.ants were startled by the news of the reappearance of _Napoleon_ in France.

RETURN OF NAPOLEON FROM ELBA.--The new Bourbon rule was unpopular with the French. It was felt to be the effect and sign of national humiliation. The offensive conduct of the returned emigrant n.o.bility, and measures looking towards a restoration of bygone abuses in government, fomented the disaffection. _Napoleon_, while apparently busy in laying out roads and ca.n.a.ls, and regulating the affairs of his little kingdom, which was only sixty miles in circ.u.mference, kept himself well informed as to the state of public opinion in France. With a few hundred men of the Imperial Guard, he landed at _Cannes_ (March I, 1815), and was joined by one regiment after another which were sent out to crush him. _Ney_, one of the best of his marshals, was carried away by the common feeling, and went over to the side of his old commander. _Louis XVIII_. fled from Paris; and, on March 20, _Napoleon_ was again installed in the Tuileries.

WATERLOO.--Napoleon offered to the country a more liberal const.i.tution, but the Bourbons were more hated than he was trusted. He professed to the great powers his desire for peace, but they did not listen to these a.s.surances. Each agreed to furnish an army of one hundred and eighty thousand men to serve against him. He put forth prodigious exertions to gather a force with which to meet the host of his enemies; and although he could appeal to no warm national feeling, such as had called into being the armies of the Revolution, he succeeded in bringing together a force of over one hundred thousand men. He decided not to wait for the attack, but to a.s.sail the two armies of _Blucher_ and _Wellington_ in Belgium. His plan was to attack them separately.

_Blucher_ so far fell into the trap, that, in his eagerness to meet the detested foe, he offered battle to Napoleon at _Ligny_ (June 16), and, after a desperate contest, was forced to retire from the field. On the same day, _Wellington_ so far checked _Ney_ in his attack at _Quatre Bras_, that he could not strike the Prussians on the flank, as Napoleon had designed. Napoleon thought that the Prussians would not be able, after their defeat, at once to aid Wellington. He sent _Grouchy_, however, with thirty-four thousand men, to observe them and inflict on them a final blow. On the forenoon of June 18, he himself attacked the British forces at _Waterloo_. The French got possession of _La Haye Sainte_, a farmhouse in front of Wellington's center, the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y contest; but all their charges on Wellington's main line were met and repelled by the immovable squares of the British infantry. In the afternoon Napoleon's right began to be a.s.sailed by the Prussians; and finding, at seven o'clock, that they were coming in great force, he ordered a charge of the Imperial Guard on Wellington's forces. After a fierce struggle, the Guard was compelled to recoil and retire. The Prussians, piercing the right flank of the French army, turned its defeat into a rout. _Grouchy_ was at _Wavre_, fighting the Prussian corps of _Thielmann_, which he seems to have mistaken for the entire Prussian army.

ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON: ST. HELENA.--On the 22nd of June _Napoleon_ again abdicated in favor of his son. _Carnot_ was for a dictators.h.i.+p. The French a.s.sembly, with _La Fayette_ at its head, insisted on the abdication. On July 7 _Blucher_ and _Wellington_ entered Paris. Napoleon fled to _Rochefort_, and, finding himself unable to escape to America, surrendered to the British admiral, and was taken on board the war-s.h.i.+p _Bellerophon_. _Louis XVIII_. was brought back to Paris. _Napoleon_, by the agreement of the allies, was conveyed to the island of _St. Helena_, where he remained, a fretful captive, until his death (May 5, 1821). _Ney_ escaped, but was captured, condemned, and shot (Dec. 7, 1815). France engaged to pay a war indemnity of seven hundred million francs. Its boundaries were fixed as at 1790.

CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON.--Respecting certain traits of Napoleon, there is no dispute. His military genius all allow, although his daring was sometimes over-daring; and there are critics who profess to discern, after the beginning of the Russian campaign, and especially in the last contest in Belgium, signs of a decline in his almost superhuman vigilance and energy. Yet all must admit "that transcendent geometrical faculty," as _Sainte-Beuve_ calls it, "which characterized Napoleon, and which that powerful genius applied to war with the same ease and the same apt.i.tude that Monge [a great French mathematician]

applied it to other subjects." No general ever had greater power to fascinate soldiers, and secure their devotion to him. One reason was, that he recognized and rewarded merit wherever he saw it. His intellectual movements were as much swifter than the ordinary as his marches were more rapid than those to which armies had been accustomed. For civil organization and administration he had rare talents, and in many directions enlightened views. Europe owes much to his innovations in this sphere. He was not incapable of warm personal attachments; as was manifested, for example, in his grief over _Duroc_, the favorite general, who fell at _Bautzen_. But an insatiable appet.i.te for war, and, still more, a conviction, which he sometimes confessed, that he could retain and fortify his authority only by dazzling France, and continuing to astonish mankind by brilliant achievements, drove him forward on a path of aggression and bloodshed. He had an unpitying nature: he was careless of human suffering. Early in his career, in Italy, he ordered a needless and useless attack on the outposts of the enemy, "to treat a lady to a sight of real war." He did not shrink from ordering two thousand prisoners at _Jaffa_ to be shot. He shocked all Germany by causing _Palm_, a bookseller of Nuremberg, to be shot for refusing to tell the name of the author of a publication offensive to him. He frequently displayed a petty rancor,--as, for example, in leaving a legacy in his will to the man who was accused of an attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate the _Duke of Wellington_. His violence of temper, as in the murder of the _Duke d'Enghien_, hurried him into acts that were not less impolitic than criminal. His tyrannical will would brook no contradiction, even in matters o trifling importance. He broke away from engagements when he thought it advantageous to do so. It is not an injustice to say, that he was habitually untruthful: his bulletins were disfigured by flagrant falsehoods, as well as gross exaggerations. In a letter to _Talleyrand_ from Italy (Oct. 17, 1797) he says, "This is history: what I say in my proclamations and speeches is a romance."

With his wonderful intellectual powers, inexhaustible energy, and amazing achievements, he never quite loses the characteristic spirit of an adventurer. He is haunted by a secret consciousness that this character belongs to him.

The judgment Of an adversary must be taken with allowance; but _Wellington_ spoke at least without pa.s.sion when he said, "Bonaparte's whole life--civil, political, and military--was a fraud. There was not a transaction, great or small, in which lying and fraud were not introduced." His "foreign policy was force and menace, aided by fraud and corruption."--Croker's Correspondence, etc., vol. ii. p. 86.

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.--The Congress of Vienna was dissolved in June, 1815. Its Acts were finally signed by the five great powers,--Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia,--and by Spain, Portugal, and Sweden. The Austrian and Prussian monarchies were restored. Austria received back _Venice_ with _Milan_,--forming the subject Lombardo-Venetian kingdom,--besides receiving the _Illyrian provinces_ and the _Tyrol_. The old possessions of Prussia were restored. She received the _Rhenish provinces_, a part of the duchy of Warsaw (_Posen_), and a great part of Saxony, besides other important additions. Holland and Belgium were formed into the one kingdom of the Netherlands, which had also a part of _Luxemburg_, and was ruled by the stadt-holder _William I_. The German Confederacy was inst.i.tuted, with thirty-nine sovereign states, including the four free cities,--Austria being the presiding state. The greater part of the _duchy of Warsaw_ fell to Russia, under the name of the Kingdom of Poland. Sweden retained _Norway_, which, however, kept its own free const.i.tution; and Denmark acquired _Lauenburg_. England had vastly enlarged her colonial possessions. The present Swiss Confederation, consisting of twenty-two cantons, was established; three new cantons having been added to the former nineteen. The old dynasties were restored in Spain, in Tuscany, Modena, and the Papal States, in Naples, and in Sardinia. To Sardinia, _Genoa_, against its will, was annexed.

CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENT.--The _First Coalition_ was formed in 1793, when all Europe, except Sweden, Denmark, Tuscany, Switzerland, Venice, and Genoa, and Turkey, joined against France. In 1792 France had been at war with Austria and Prussia. In 1795 the coalition was broken: Prussia and Spain made peace with France. In 1797 Austria also concluded peace with France (the Peace of _Campo'Formio_). In 1798 the Second Coalition was formed, in which Turkey was included. Prussia and Spain were not parties to it. The Peace of Amiens, made with England (1802), ended the contest following it. The Third Coalition was formed in 1805, by England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden. Peace was concluded between Austria and France (Dec. 26, 1805). War followed in 1806-7, between France on one side, and Prussia and Russia on the other. These allies, with England, made a _Fourth Coalition_. In 1807 France and Russia were allies. The rupture between Austria and France in 1809 gave rise to what is often called the _Fifth Coalition_. In 1813 the _Sixth Coalition_, made up, after the accession of Austria, of all the princ.i.p.al powers, was in arms against France. On March 25, 1815, after _Napoleon's_ return from Elba, the powers again declared war against him. As there was a fresh treaty, this may be called a _Seventh Coalition_.

CHAPTER VI. AMERICAN HISTORY IN THIS PERIOD (1789-1815).

THE TWO PARTIES.--The cabinet of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ consisted of four members. The secretary of the treasury was _Alexander Hamilton_ of New York. The secretary of state was _Thomas Jefferson_ of Virginia. The seat of government was placed at _Philadelphia_; but in 1800 it was removed to the _District of Columbia_, which was ceded for the purpose by Virginia and Maryland. Almost from the beginning, there were two political parties. The _Federalists_ were made up of those who had been most in favor of the new Const.i.tution, and desired to build up a strong central government. Accordingly they advocated a liberal construction of the Const.i.tution as regards the extent of federal authority. They cherished the traditional spirit of the English laws and English political inst.i.tutions. _Was.h.i.+ngton_ and _John Adams_ belonged to this cla.s.s, and _Hamilton_ was their most active leader. The _Anti-Federalists_, of whom _Jefferson_ was the chief, were for a careful guarding of the rights of the States, and a strict interpretation of the powers allotted to the General Government. They had more sympathy with the political ideas at that time fast coming into vogue in France. They had a warm faith in the capacity of the ma.s.s of the people for self-government and for suffrage. They were called _Republicans_, and were sometimes styled _Democrats_.

HAMILTON'S MEASURES: THE CONFLICT OF PARTIES.--_Hamilton_ proposed and carried highly important measures for the restoration of public credit and for the revival of industry and commerce. Under his leaders.h.i.+p, the debts of the old confederacy, and the debts of the separate States which they had incurred in the common defense, were a.s.sumed. To provide revenue, a protective tariff and a system of internal taxation were ordained. A national bank was incorporated (1791), and a mint was established at _Philadelphia_. These measures had a great effect at home, and made a strong impression favorable to the new government abroad; but they were opposed by the _Anti-Federalists_ as an unwarrantable a.s.sumption of power by the General Government. The excise on domestic spirits provoked an insurrection, called "the Whisky Rebellion," in _Western Pennsylvania_, which was put down by the militia. As the French Revolution advanced from step to step, the division of parties in America became more marked, and their mutual hostility more intense. At first all were in sympathy with France. _La Fayette_ sent the key of the fallen Bastille as a gift to _Was.h.i.+ngton_. But the Federalists were determined to maintain a strict neutrality in the conflict between France and England. As the Revolution proceeded, a strong antipathy was awakened in America to the radical theories, as well as to the b.l.o.o.d.y deeds, of its promoters. This was enhanced by the strenuous efforts of the French Republic, aided by the Anti-Federalists, to induce the United States to take an active part in the war, on the side of France. _Genet_, the French minister, undertook to fit out privateers in _Charleston_. Was.h.i.+ngton issued a proclamation of neutrality (1793), which was followed by a Neutrality Act of Congress (1794). When _Genet_ had the effrontery to appeal from the President to the people, at the demand of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ he was recalled.

JAY'S TREATY.--The contest of parties reached its climax in connection with Jay's Treaty with Great Britain (1794),--a treaty negotiated by _John Jay_, chief justice, whom _Was.h.i.+ngton_ had sent as envoy to London. There were mutual grounds of complaint between the two countries. The British had not surrendered the Western military posts, and were in the habit of "impressing seamen." 'This last practice was founded on the claim that a British subject can never become the subject of another country, and that, moreover, his military service may be always called for by his sovereign. When almost all Europe was at war, the carrying trade naturally fell, to a large extent, into American hands; hence, it was alleged, many English sailors deserted to get employment in American s.h.i.+ps. The British claimed and exercised the right to visit foreign vessels, and to take from their decks the sailors who were a.s.serted to be British subjects. The English, on their part, complained that the treaty stipulations as to debts due in America to British subjects had not been observed. Jay's Treaty provided for the giving-up of the Western posts, according to the previous stipulation; but said nothing respecting the right of impressment, which the British at that time would never have consented to relinquish. It was alleged, also, that in other features the treaty favored England unwarrantably, and unfairly in relation to France. It encountered violent opposition from the Republicans; but it was approved by _Was.h.i.+ngton_, and the legislative measures for carrying it out were pa.s.sed in the House of Representatives by a slender majority, obtained through the eloquence of _Fisher Ames_, a member from Ma.s.sachusetts.

NEW STATES: INVENTIONS.--According to the census of 1790, there were somewhat less than four millions of people in the United States. _Virginia_ was the most populous State; next to Virginia stood _Pennsylvania_, then _North Carolina_, and, fourth in order, _Ma.s.sachusetts_. A little more than one-fifth of the population were negro slaves. _Vermont_, the territory of which had been claimed by both New York and New Hamps.h.i.+re, was the first new State admitted to the Union (1791). A genius for mechanical invention early manifested itself in the country. _Eli Whitney_ invented the cotton-gin (1792), for separating the seed from the fiber of the cotton-plant,--a machine which indirectly lent a powerful impulse to the production of cotton. In 1788 _John Fitch_ was running a steamboat on the Delaware River; but the construction of a steamboat with side-paddles was due to the inventive talent of _Robert Fulton_ (1807). Emigration from the Atlantic border to the West took three princ.i.p.al routes,--one from New England and New York, through the valley of the Mohawk; the second, through the pa.s.ses of the Alleghanies; and the third, across the Blue Ridge to the rivers flowing from the south into the Ohio. In 1792 _Kentucky_, settled mainly by emigrants over the last-mentioned path, was made a State. The next State to be admitted was _Tennessee_ (1796). The new settlers carried into the West the spirit and inst.i.tutions of the several communities which they had left. South of the Ohio, negro slavery was introduced. A treaty with Spain (in 1795) secured the free navigation of the Mississippi.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S RETIREMENT AND DEATH.--_Was.h.i.+ngton_ himself was not exempt from bitter partisan attack in public prints. On his retirement from office, he prepared, with the a.s.sistance of _Hamilton_, a Farewell Address to the people, in which he exhorted them to maintain the Union as the only safeguard of liberty, and warned them against "entangling alliances" with European powers. The deep and universal sorrow which was felt when he died (1799) was a tribute as exalted as any nation ever paid to a fallen hero and benefactor.

ADAMS: RUPTURE OF THE FEDERAL PARTY.--_John Adams_, a Federalist, succeeded _Was.h.i.+ngton_ as president; and _Jefferson_ became vice-president (1797). The French had seized a large number of American vessels, on the pretense that they were affording aid to England. In order, if possible, to prevent war, the President sent out a special mission to France; but the commissioners--_Pinckney_, _Gerry_, and _Marshall_--were told by the Directory that they must pay money as a bribe before they could be received, and were finally ordered to quit the country (1797). The phrase of _Pinckney_, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute,"

expressed the universal feeling. The report of the insulted envoys roused the indignation of the American people, and moved Congress to prepare for war. _Was.h.i.+ngton_ was made general of all the forces to be raised, and he appointed _Hamilton_ to be second in command. Hostilities had really commenced; the Federalists were eager for a declaration of war; but President _Adams_, without the knowledge of his cabinet, suddenly nominated to the senate another amba.s.sador to France. He had previously become a.s.sured that such a messenger would be well received. _Napoleon_ having come into power, a treaty was concluded with him (1800). The course of the President, however, gave mortal offense to the adherents of _Hamilton_, and fatally divided the Federal party. Hamilton and his supporters became wholly alienated from _Adams_, so that the triumph of the Republicans was rendered certain.

"RESOLUTIONS OF '98."--The violence of the attacks upon the administration, which were made partly by foreign emissaries, had caused the Federalists (1798) to pa.s.s the _alien_ and _sedition laws_. The first authorized the President to order out of the country aliens who were conspiring against its peace. Its operation was limited to two years. The second punished seditious libels upon the government with fine and imprisonment. These acts provoked a storm of opposition. Under the auspices of _Jefferson_, and of _Madison_, who was now one of his supporters, the _Virginia_ and _Kentucky Resolutions_ of 1798-99 were pa.s.sed by the Legislatures of those States. These resolves affirmed the right of a State to judge of the const.i.tutionality and validity of an Act of Congress. They were interpreted as an a.s.sertion of the extreme doctrine of State rights.

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.--In 1800 Jefferson was elected to the presidency, and _Aaron Burr_, a scheming politician of the Republican school, was made vice-president.

At that time, and until the amendment of the Const.i.tution (1804), the electors voted for two persons, without designating either for the presidency or the vice-presidency. The candidate having the highest number of votes became president. As Jefferson and Burr had an equal number, the choice between them for the highest office was made by the House of Representatives.

The obnoxious laws of the preceding administration disappeared with it. One of the most important events under _Jefferson's_ administration was the purchase of _Louisiana_ from France, which had acquired it from Spain. _Napoleon_ knew that he could not keep it from falling into the hands of England, and readily sold it for fifteen millions of dollars. Thereby the territory of the United States was doubled in its extent. The whole region between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with New Orleans, was added to the country, together with whatever claim France had to _West Florida, Texas_, and the district west of the Rocky Mountains. _Ohio_, composed of the south-eastern portion of the northwest territory, was admitted to the Union in 1803.

In the first fifteen years after the government was organized, there are four things that affected powerfully the character and career of the United States. The first was the influence of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ in inspiring attachment to the Union. The second was the genius of _Hamilton_ in creating an efficient administration of the new civil polity. The third was the democratic political tendency fostered by _Jefferson_. The fourth was the vast expansion of the national territory by the Louisiana Purchase, insuring the extension of the _Union_, and preventing the rise of rival political communities in its neighborhood.

WAR WITH THE ALGERINES.--The pirates of _Algiers, Morocco_, and the other Barbary States, demanded tribute of American vessels on the Mediterranean. The first exploits of the navy of the United States were in combats with these marauders (1801-5). _Decatur_ performed the exploit of burning in the harbor of _Tripoli_ the American s.h.i.+p _Philadelphia_, which the Tripolitans had captured (1804). _Derne_ was captured, and _Tripoli_ bombarded. Finally a treaty put an end to the exaction of tribute (1805).

An event that deeply moved the whole country was the killing of _Hamilton_ by _Burr_ in a duel (1804). _Burr_ was afterwards charged with an intention to form a new government on the south-western borders of the United States. He was tried for treason (1807), and not convicted, although many have believed him to be guilty.

CAUSES OF THE WAR OF 18l2-15.--The great European wars brought the United States into serious difficulties, princ.i.p.ally in regard to questions relating to commerce. Attempts were made by the European nations to establish blockades by mere enactment, without actual and sufficient occupation of the ports which were declared to be closed. The tendency of the British _Orders in council_, and of Napoleon's _Berlin_ and _Milan Decrees_ (p. 528), was "to grind to pieces the few remaining neutral powers." These were in effect cut off from trade with both Continental and English ports by the ordinances of one or the other of the two belligerents, the penalty being the confiscation of the vessels employed in such traffic. Such were the restrictions upon neutrals, that a great number of American s.h.i.+ps were seized and confiscated by English and French cruisers. In addition to these grievances, the _Leander_, a British s.h.i.+p, exercised the pretended right of impressment by firing on an American trading-sloop (1806); and in like manner another British vessel, the _Leopard_, fired on the frigate Chesapeake, which was not prepared for resistance, and took four men from its crew (June 22, 1807). In retaliation, _Jefferson_ ordered all British s.h.i.+ps of war to leave the coast of the United States. Then followed the _Embargo_, embracing a succession of enactments of Congress, which forbade American vessels to leave the harbors of the United States for Europe, and forbade European vessels to land cargoes in American ports. The result of this measure was to smite American commerce with an utter paralysis. The s.h.i.+ps rotted at the wharves. The unpopularity of the Embargo, especially in the Eastern commercial States, was such that in _Jefferson's_ second term it was repealed. It was followed (1809) by the _Non-Intercourse Act_, prohibiting commerce with France and England. The British _Orders in Council_ were then, in a measure, relaxed, as was the practical enforcement against our vessels of the _Berlin Decree_. In 1812, the French rescinded their obnoxious decrees; and the English immediately took the same step, but not soon enough to prevent a war with the United States.

EVENTS OF THE WAR IN 1812 AND 1813.-_James Madison_, a wise and moderate statesman of the Republican party, became president in 1809. He was personally averse to engaging in war with Great Britain; but the exasperation of a large part of the country, and the pressure of the younger leaders of his party,--_Calhoun, Clay_, and _Lowndes_,--moved him to a reluctant consent. The war, which was declared in 1812, was bitterly opposed in the New-England States, where the strength of the Federalists chiefly lay. By them the real motive of it was considered to be partiality for France. The treasury was nearly empty; there were but few s.h.i.+ps of war, and only a small land force of about ten thousand men, made up in part of raw recruits. Before this time, the North-western Indians, under _Tec.u.mseh_, whom the British were suspected of inciting to war, had been defeated at _Tippecanoe_ (1811), by _William Henry Harrison_, governor of Indiana. The war with England opened inauspiciously with the surrender of Detroit by Gen. _William Hull_ to Gen. _Brock_ (Aug. 16, 1812), and an unsuccessful attempt to invade Canada at _Queenstown_. On the sea, however, the Americans had successes which filled them with pride and exultation. Captain _Isaac Hull_, of the frigate e_Const.i.tution_, captured the British frigate _Guerriere_, and brought his prisoners to Boston. _Decatur_, captain of the _United States_, brought the _Macedonian_ as a prize into the harbor of New York. The _Const.i.tution_ destroyed the _Java_; but the _Chesapeake_, whose captain was killed, surrendered to the _Shannon_. Privateers were fitted out, which captured several hundreds of British s.h.i.+ps and several thousands of prisoners. In 1813 _Perry_ defeated the English fleet on Lake Erie. His victory gave the Americans the command of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. _Harrison_ defeated the British and Indians,--who had been driven to abandon Michigan,--near the River _Thames_ in Canada. Except on the Lakes the navy was successful only in single s.h.i.+p actions. The Americans had taken possession of _Mobile_, which they as well as the Spanish claimed; but the _Creek Indians_ were incited by the Spaniards to engage in hostilities. Forces from Tennessee, under _Andrew Jackson_, and troops from Georgia and Mississippi, fought the Creeks with success.

THE WAR IN 1814-15.--In 1814 a third attempt of the Americans under Gen. _Brown_, to invade Canada, produced no decisive result. There was hard fighting. The British were routed at _Chippewa_; and they were repulsed at _Lundy's Lane_, opposite Niagara Falls, by Lieut. (afterwards General) _Winfield Scott_. _Napoleon_ had now been defeated; and the English sent twelve thousand troops, who had served under _Wellington_ in Spain, to Canada, to invade the United States from the north, while another army was to make an invasion by way of _New Orleans_. A fleet under Admiral _c.o.c.kburn_ sailed up the Potomac, and burned the Capitol and other public buildings at _Was.h.i.+ngton_ (Aug. 24, 1814). An attack was made on _Baltimore_ by a British fleet, but was bravely repelled. The defeat of the British fleet near _Plattsburg_, on _Lake Champlain_, by Commodore _Macdonough_ (Sept. 11, 1814), resulted in the retreat of the British army, which was besieging that place, to Canada. New Orleans was defended by General _Jackson_. The British under _Pakenham_ and _Gibbs_ attacked his works, but were defeated and withdrew (Jan. 8, 1815). The town was protected from the approach of the English fleet by the fort. Before the battle, peace had been concluded, but the news had not reached this country.

THE HARTFORD CONVENTION.--The antagonism to the war in the New England States found expression in the call of a _convention_ at _Hartford_, where their delegates met (Dec. 15, 1814). These States complained, that while their commerce and fisheries were ruined, there was no protection afforded to their sea-coast. _Stonington_ in Connecticut had been bombarded, and _Castine_ in Maine had been captured. They denied, also, that the General Government had the power over the State militia which it claimed. For these and other grievances, they sought for a remedy "not repugnant to their obligations as members of the Union." They declared that measures of the General Government which are palpable violations of the Const.i.tution are void, and that the States injuriously affected might severally protect their citizens from the operation of them, by such means as the several States should judge it wise to adopt; but they disavowed the right or intent to break up the Union. The effect of the convention was to bring great popular discredit on the Federalists, and to seal their doom as a distinct party.

TREATY OF PEACE: ALGIERS.--In the _Treaty of Ghent_ (Dec. 24, 1814), provisions were made for defining boundaries as settled by previous treaties, and an engagement was made on both sides to suppress the slave-trade; but no mention was made of maritime rights and the impressment of seamen. This last practice was, however, discontinued, although it was never renounced. The war left the disputes that caused it just where they were. Many then and since have regarded it as really undertaken by the dominant party in the United States, in order to help one of the belligerents in the great struggle then going forward between England and France. Whether this view be just, or not, it is certain that the war imparted to Americans the consciousness of power and nationality. The connection between America and Great Britain was broken off at the Revolution, because, as _Turgot_ once said, colonies are like fruits which only stay on the tree until they are ripe. But the conflict was not over at the conclusion of the Peace of 1783. _Bancroft_ has called the war of 1812-15 "the second war of independence." Nothing lent it this character so much as the naval victories won by the United States, which gave them a standing among the nations. In 1815 a squadron under _Decatur_ was sent to _Algiers_, and the Barbary States were compelled to give up by treaties all their demands.

CHAPTER VII. LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE (1789-1815).

NEW SPIRIT IN LITERATURE.--In the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, literature broke away from the artificial rules and the one-sided intellectual tone of the "cla.s.sical"

school,--that school which had prevailed through the influence of the French writers of the age of _Louis XIV._ The new era was marked by more spontaneity, and a return to nature, and by a more free rein given to imagination and feeling. "Romanticism," a general designation of the results of this new movement as contrasted with the "cla.s.sical"

period, sometimes ran out into extravagances of sentiment, and an exaggerated relish for the mediaeval spirit.

WRITERS IN ITALY AND IN FRANCE.--In Italy, there were few writers of distinction. _Monti_ (1754-1828) was a poet full of harmony and elegance, a follower, but with unequal steps, of _Alfieri_. Another of the same school is the patriotic poet, _Ugo Foscolo_ (1778-1827), a master of his native tongue. The poems of _Pindemonte_ (1753-1828) are graceful and pathetic. _Leopardi_ (1798-1837) mingles sublimity with pathos. Of the Italian historians of this period, _Botta_ (1766-1837), who published a history of the American Revolution, and histories of Italy, is a clear writer, with a talent for vivid description. In France, _Chateaubriand_ (1768-1848), who figured both in political life and as a prolific and brilliant author, by his _Genius of Christianity_ and many other productions gained great celebrity,--more, however, by charms of style and sentiment, than by weight of matter. Madame _de Stael_ (1766-1817) was the daughter of _Necker_. Between her and _Napoleon_ there was a mutual hostility. She wrote _Corinne, Delphine_,--"in which she idealizes herself,"--a work on _Germany_, and various other productions. She was versatile, vigorous in thought, and humane in her temper and spirit. In philosophy, a believing and spiritual school, in opposition to materialism, was founded by _Maine de Biran_ (1766-1824), _Royer-Collard_ (1763-1846), and _Benjamin Constant_. _De Maistre_ (1754-1821) wrote ably on the side of authority and of the Catholic Church.

ENGLISH POETRY.--Literature in England, especially in the department of poetry, casting off the trammels of the cla.s.sical school, in which _Dryden_ and _Pope_ were foremost, entered on a new and splendid era. Whether it dwelt on external nature or human pa.s.sions and experiences, it appealed to sensibility. It was no more exclusively, or in the main, an address to the understanding. _Cowper_ (1731-1800) set the example of genuine naturalness, and of interest in nature and in every-day life. _Robert Burns_, a Scottish peasant (1759-1796), by his wonderful union of tenderness, pa.s.sion, and humor, with poetic fancy and simplicity of diction, was more than the poet of a single nation. _Wordsworth_ (1770-1850) blended in his poems a delight in rural and mountain scenery, with a deep vein of pensive thought and sentiment. If he wrote dull pages, even the severest critics allow that in _The Excursion_ there are most beautiful "oases in the desert;"

while in such poems as the _Ode on the Power of Sound_, the _Intimations of Immortality from the Recollections of Childhood_, and _Laodamia_, there are pa.s.sages not excelled since Milton. A more sustained fervor of feeling and imagination belonged to _Byron_ (1788-1824), who, notwithstanding his morbid egotism and offenses against morality, combined pa.s.sion with beauty, and was never dull. _Walter Scott_ (1771-1832) exhibited in his narrative poems the spirit of the romantic school, with none of its sentimentality or extravagance. _Coleridge_ (1772-1834), the author of _Christabel_ and _The Ancient Mariner_, was a highly original poet, as well as a philosopher. _Southey_ (1774-1843), with less genius, was a man of letters, prolific both in verse and in prose. _Sh.e.l.ley_ and _Keats_ had a much higher gift of imagination. _Campbell, Rogers_, and _Moore_ are names of distinction, although less ill.u.s.trious than those of _Wordsworth_ and _Coleridge_, _Scott_ and _Byron_. _Walter Savage Landor_ (1775-1864), a poet and the author of _Imaginary Conversations_, and other prose writings, was master of a style of extraordinary power and purity.

ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS.--In novel-writing, Miss _Austen_, Miss _Porter_, and Miss _Edgeworth_ preceded _Walter Scott_. _Waverley_, the first in the series of _Scott's_ novels, appeared anonymously in 1814. In 1802 the _Edinburgh Review_, the first of the noted critical quarterlies, began its existence, under the editors.h.i.+p of _Francis Jeffrey_, and numbered among its writers _Brougham, Sydney Smith_, and _Sir James Mackintosh_. In 1809 the _Quarterly Review_, the organ of the Tories as the Edinburgh Review represented the Whigs, began, with _Gifford_ for its editor. Among the essayists of that time, in a lighter vein, were _John Wilson_ ("Christopher North"), poet and critic in one; and the genial humorist, the friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge, _Charles Lamb_. _John Foster_ (1770-1843) was an original essayist on grave themes. In philosophy, _Dugald Stewart_ (1753-1828), a clear and fluent expositor, and _Thomas Brown_ (1778-1821), kept up the reputation of the Scottish school founded by _Reid_. _Burke, Alison_, and _Jeffrey_ wrote on beauty, and on the taste for the beautiful. _Mackintosh_, a statesman of liberal opinions, wrote on ethics. _Coleridge_, inspired by the German thinkers _Kant_ and _Sch.e.l.ling_, through his philosophical fragments and theological essays did much to create a new current in English philosophical and religious thought. _Jeremy Bentham_ (1748-1832) was less eminent as a metaphysician than as a contributor, through his writings, to legislative reform.

AMERICAN WRITERS.--In America, the political writings of _Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay, Madison, Marshall_, and _Ames_, have a permanent value. Their letters and the letters of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ are written in clear and manly English. _Lindley Murray_ (1745-1826) published (1795) an _English Grammar_, which superseded all others. In theology, there were a number of vigorous thinkers and writers, such as the younger President _Edwards, Samuel Hopkins, Bellamy, Emmons, J. M. Mason_, and _Dwight_. Dwight's System of Theology was much read in England and Scotland. Belles-lettres literature in America was in its infancy. There was a triad of poets,--_Trumbull_, a humorous writer (1750-1831), _Joel Barlow_ (1755-1812), and _Dwight_ (1752-1817); all of them survivors of the school of _Pope_. Their patriotic feeling was their chief merit, but _Barlow_ and _Dwight_ each wrote one excellent hymn.

GERMAN AUTHORS.--One of the most versatile and stimulating of German writers was _Herder_ (1744-1803). Full of imagination and spirit, he made his quickening influence felt as a theologian, critic, philosopher, and philologist. His name is in some measure eclipsed by the fame of his two great a.s.sociates at Weimar, _Goethe_ (1749-1832) and _Schiller_ (1759-1805). By the universality of his genius, which was equally exalted in the sphere of criticism and of original production, Goethe is, by common consent, the foremost of German authors. His dramas, especially _Ta.s.so_, _Egmont_, and _Faust_, and his pastoral epic, _Hermann and Dorothea_, are the most celebrated of his poems; but many of his minor pieces are marked by exquisite harmony and beauty. _Schiller_, with less repose and a less profound artistic feeling, yet from his humane impulses and fire of emotion stands closer to the popular heart. _Korner_ (1791-1813), and _Arndt_ (1769-1860), the author of the song, "Where is the German's Fatherland," were patriotic lyrists of high merit. _Uhland_ (1787-1862) is a ballad-writer, not surpa.s.sed in this species of composition by any of his contemporaries. The "Romantic School," with its predilection for the Middle Ages, included _Novalis_, _Tieck_, and also the two brothers _Schlegel_, who were critics rather than poets. One of the most unique and original of the German writers was _Jean Paul Richter_ (1763-1825), essentially a philosopher and moralist, yet with a pervading element of humor and pathos.

GERMAN PHILOSOPHY.--In philosophy, the first name in the order of time and of merit is that of _Immanuel Kant_ (1724-1804). The _Critique of Pure Reason_ is the most important of his productions. He showed, against _Hume_, that the ideas of cause, substance, self, etc., are not products of imagination, or due to a mere custom of thought, but are from within, and are _necessary_ and _universal_. In the _Critique of the Practical Reason_ he found the real basis of faith in G.o.d, free-will, and immortality, in our moral nature. On all the topics which he treated, he was both earnest and profound. On the basis of a portion of his teaching, subsequent speculative philosophers reared a system of idealism and pantheism. Of these, the most celebrated are _Fichte_ (1762-1814), who held that the world external to the mind has no existence; _Sch.e.l.ling_ (1775-1854), who taught that nature and mind are at bottom one and the same substance, in different manifestations; and _Hegel_ (1770-1831), who resolved all being into a realm of ideas, a self-existent and self-developing thought-world.

Among the numerous writers in other departments in this period, the brothers _Alexander von Humboldt_ and _William von Humboldt_ were eminent,--the former in natural science and as an explorer; the latter in political sciences, criticism and philology.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.--In Italy, a great sculptor--the greatest since _Michael Angelo_--appeared in the person of _Canova_ (1757-1822); who, however, was equaled by an Englishman, _John Flaxman_ (1755-1826). An eminent follower of _Canova_ was _Thorwaldsen_ (1770-1844), a Dane. _Dannecker_, a German sculptor (1758-1844), excelled in portrait statues. Another German sculptor, the founder of a school, was _Rauch_ (1774-1857), whose statues are faithful, yet idealized, likenesses. A famous French painter in this period was _David_, whose pictures, in the cla.s.sic style, lack force and warmth. Many of his scholars attained to high proficiency in the art. _Horace Vernet_ (1789-1863) and _Paul Delaroche_ (1797-1856) chose their subjects from modern European history. The modern German school of painting was founded by _Overbeck, Von Schadow_, and _Cornelius_. The greatest English painter after _Hogarth_ was _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ (1723-1792), whose portraits have seldom, if ever, been surpa.s.sed. Almost or quite on a level with him was _Gainsborough_ (1727-1788). _Benjamin West_ (1738-1820) was by birth an American, as was _Copley_, an artist of superior talents (1739-1815). _Lawrence_ (1769-1830) was a British painter whose portraits have a high historical value. The greatest of the English landscape painters was _Turner_ (1775-1851).

_John Trumbull_ (1756-1843), an American, painted spirited battle-pieces, and miniature portraits of decided artistic merit. _Was.h.i.+ngton Allston_ (1779-1843), another American painter, produced works admired for their warmth of color, and for the refined feeling expressed in them.

MUSIC.--The great German musicians _Haydn_ and _Mozart_ were followed by an equal or greater genius in music, _Beethoven_ (1770-1827). At the head of the school of German song-writers is _Schubert_ (1797-1828). One of the most popular of the German composers was _Weber_ (1786-1826).

PHYSICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCE.--The most brilliant discoveries in astronomy were made by the French philosopher _Laplace_, whose _Mecanique Celeste_ made an epoch in that science. _Dr. Thomas Young_ (1773-1829) did much to explain the true theory of the tides, and to confirm the undulatory theory of light. Others eminent in the progress of optics are _Fresnel_ (1788-1827), _Biot_, _Arago_,--all French physicists,--and _Sir David Brewster_. _Lavoisier_ (1743-1794) infused a new spirit into chemical science. _Priestley_ (1733-1804) discovered oxygen and other gases. _Dalton_ (1766-1844) is the author of the atomic theory of the composition of matter. _Sir Humphry Davy_ added to chemical knowledge, and, simultaneously with _George Stephenson_, invented the safety-lamp for miners. _Berzelius_ (1779-1848), a Swedish chemist, and _Gay-Lussac_ (1778-1850), a Frenchman, are great names in the history of this science. _Galvani_, the discoverer of animal electricity, and _Volta_, the inventor of the galvanic pile, stimulated others to fruitful experiments in this branch of study. _Lamarck_ (1744-1829) was one of the first of the modern advocates of the origin of species by development. _Cuvier_ (1769-1832), the greatest naturalist of modern times, made most important observations in comparative anatomy, and "established many of the positive laws of geology and paleontology." Geology first a.s.sumed the place of a science through the labors of _Werner_ (1750-1817), a German mineralogist. There were two cla.s.ses of geologists,--the _Neptunians_, or _Wernerians_, who ascribed rocks to aqueous deposition exclusively; and the _Vulcanians_, or _Huttonists_,--adherents of the view of _Dr. Hutton_ (1726-1797) of Edinburgh,--who attributed many of them to the action of fire. The _Geological Society_ of _London_ was founded in 1807. Among discoveries of practical utility in science, the discovery of vaccination for the prevention of small-pox, by _Jenner_ (1749-1823), an English physician, is one of the most remarkable.

LITERATURE: See the lists on pp. 16, 359, 497; also President A. D. White's list, with critical notes, attached to Morris's _The French Revolution and First Empire_ (in "Epochs of history"), and Adams's Manual: the Histories of Alison (Tory), Louis Blanc, Carlyle, Jomini, Fyffe, Stephens, Mahan, Chuquet. Aulard, Lavisse et Rambaud, _Histoire Generale_ VIII., IX. Michelet (7 vols.), Mignet, Morris, Von Sybel (4 vols.), Thiers, Taine, L. Hausser; Madame de Remusat's _Memoirs_; Metternich's _Memoirs_ (5 vols.), Joyneville, _Life and Times of Alexander I_. (3 vols.); Seeley, _Life of Stein_; Lowell, _Eve of the French Revolution_; on Napoleon, Rose, Lanfrey, Sloane.

De Tocqueville's _L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution_; P. Janet's _Philosophie de la Revolution Francaise_; Quinet, _La Revolution_; The Essays on the Revolution, by Burke, Mackintosh, Croker; Macaulay's Essays on Mirabeau and Barere; Lamartine's _The Girondists_; A. Young's _Travels in France in 1787-88-89_ (London, 1794); Oncken, _Das Zeitalter der Revolution des Kaiserreiches_ (2 vols.); Sorel, _L'Europe et la Revolution Francaise_ (5 vols.); Debidour, _Rapports de l'eglise et de l'Etat en France_; Vandal, _Napoleon et Alexandre 1st_. Treitschke _Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Fahrhundert_ (4 vols.).