The Land We Live In Part 13

General Jackson in his annual message of 1830, recommended the devotion of a large tract of land, west of the Mississippi, to the use of the Indian tribes yet remaining east of that river, and Congress, in 1834, enacted that "all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi River, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas, shall be considered the Indian country." This was the origin of the present Indian Territory, gradually reduced in area by the successive formation of States and Territories. The Seminoles of Florida naturally objected to removal from the land of their ancestors to a far-distant region, and under the leaders.h.i.+p of a brave and skillful chief named Osceola they resisted the troops sent to coerce them into obedience. The most memorable event of the war was the ma.s.sacre of Major Dade and about one hundred soldiers in an ambuscade, December 28, 1835.

On the same day Osceola with a small party of followers killed and scalped General Wiley Thomson, of the United States army and five of Thomson's friends. Before the opening of hostilities Thomson had put Osceola in irons on account of his refractory att.i.tude, and the Indian chief long planned the act of vengeance which he thus signally executed.

The war lasted almost seven years, and was attended with a distressing loss of life and property. Not less than 9000 United States troops were in the Seminole territory in the latter part of 1837, and while the Indians were more than once severely chastised when brought to an engagement, it was almost impossible to pursue them in their native everglades. Osceola was taken prisoner when in conference, under a flag of truce, with General Jesup, of the United States army, but the Seminoles maintained the struggle under other leaders, and it was not until 1842 that peace was established, and the Indians driven to surrender. Osceola did not live to see the defeat of the cause for which he had fought so resolutely. He died of fever at Fort Moultrie on the last day of 1839.

The Black Hawk War in the Northwest was, as usual with Indian wars, a struggle on the part of the red men to retain the lands of their fathers.

Black Hawk was a noted chief of the Sacs and Foxes, and he claimed that the original treaty by which his tribe sold all their lands in Illinois to the United States was made by only four chiefs, and that they were drunk when they signed it. a.s.suming this charge to be true it remains that the provisions of the first treaty were confirmed by two subsequent treaties, the last in 1830, when the princ.i.p.al chief, Keokuk, made the final cession to the United States of all the country owned by the Sacs and Foxes east of the Mississippi River. This was done without the knowledge of Black Hawk, whose indignation was greatly aroused upon hearing of the negotiation. Black Hawk was yet more enraged when he found, in April, 1831, that during the absence of himself and his people from their village on a hunting expedition a fur-trader had purchased from the government the ground on which the village stood, and was preparing to cultivate the field upon which the Indians had for many years raised their corn. This was in violation of the letter and spirit of the treaty, which provided that the Indians could occupy their lands until they were needed for settlement, and the frontier settlements were yet fifty miles distant. War soon followed between the whites and Indians, Abraham Lincoln, afterward President of the United States, being enlisted as a volunteer. Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterward President, was one of the officers in command of the United States troops. After fighting with varied fortunes for several months, Black Hawk was defeated with the loss of many warriors, and fled to a village of the Winnebagoes.

The latter escorted the fallen chieftain to the United States authorities at Prairie du Chien. "Black Hawk is an Indian," said the captive warrior, speaking in the third person. "He has done nothing an Indian need be ashamed of. He has fought the battles of his country against the white men, who come year after year to cheat them and take away their lands. He will go to the world of spirits contented." Black Hawk was well treated as a prisoner, taken to Was.h.i.+ngton to visit the President, and liberated after peace had been made.

During Jackson's second term the American settlers in Texas succeeded, after a conflict attended by signal heroism and ferocity, in securing their independence of Mexico. The ma.s.sacre of the Alamo by the Mexicans under Santa Anna, will always be remembered in American history. The Mission of the Alamo, which the Texans defended to the death against overwhelming numbers, was entirely isolated from the town of San Antonio.

It consisted of several buildings, and a convent yard, surrounded by high and thick walls, having partly, like all the old missions, the character of a fortress. Fourteen pieces of artillery were mounted for the defence, and the garrison, when it entered the Alamo, consisted of one hundred and forty-five men, untrained in arms, except in the use of the rifle. Their leader was Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis, a native of North Carolina, and second in command was Colonel James Bowie, inventor of the terrible bowie-knife. Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, was in personal command of the attacking forces, numbering between 6000 and 7000 men. He declared that he would grant no quarter. The troops ordered to the a.s.sault numbered 2500, or about twenty-five Mexicans to one American.

The deadly fire from the Alamo twice repelled the enemy, but they were driven on by the blows and shouts of their officers, and at the third attempt they scaled the wall, and carried the defences. While life lasted the Texans fought. They had agreed to blow up the buildings in the last extremity, but Major T. C. Evans, when about to fire the magazine, was struck down by a bullet. Not a defender who could be found was spared.

Five Texans who had hidden themselves were taken before Santa Anna. At a word from that monster of cruelty they were at once dispatched with bayonets.

The Alamo was not long unavenged. The ma.s.sacre took place on March 6, 1836. On April 21, the Texans, led by General Sam Houston, met the Mexicans at San Jacinto. The Texans numbered 743; the Mexicans about 1400, with Santa Anna in command. Houston, by strategy worthy of greater fame, had managed to come upon the Mexican President when the latter was separated from the larger part of his forces. Determined to win or die, Houston destroyed a bridge which afforded the only retreat for his men or escape for the enemy. The Texans delivered one volley at close range, and then clubbed their rifles or drew their bowie-knives, with the cry--"Remember the Alamo!" In fifteen minutes the Mexicans were in flight, pursued by the yelling Texans. "Me no Alamo! Me no Alamo!" cried the terrified fugitives. The Texans did not stay their hands until they had killed six hundred and thirty and wounded two hundred and eight of their cowardly foes. The remainder of the Mexicans were allowed to surrender, and were not maltreated as prisoners. Santa Anna was captured while hiding in the gra.s.s at some distance from the battlefield, and brought, a pallid and trembling captive, before Houston. The latter spared the tyrant's life, and placed a guard to protect him. The battle of San Jacinto virtually put an end to the war, and Texas remained the Lone Star Republic, until admitted to the American Union in 1845.

This period witnessed also the successful a.s.sertion of American t.i.tle to that extensive and productive region now divided into the States of Oregon, Was.h.i.+ngton and Idaho. President Jefferson had seen almost with the vision of prophecy the future of that distant portion of the Louisiana Purchase. "I looked forward with gratification," he said in his later years, "to the time when the descendants of the settlers of Oregon would spread themselves through the whole length of the coast, covering it with free, independent Americans, unconnected with us but by the ties of blood and interest, and enjoying, like us, the rights of self-government." And yet, for forty years after the treaty which transferred to the United States the possessions of France in America, the leading statesmen of our republic, Jefferson excepted, remained blind to the value of America's domain on the Pacific. In 1810, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company undertook to establish a post upon what they regarded as American soil, at a place which the founders called Astoria.

The Hudson Bay Company then claimed Oregon as part of their territory, and when the War of 1812 broke out the British attacked Astoria, took the Americans prisoners, and changed the name of the post to Fort George. The Astor attempt to found a settlement in Oregon was not without favorable bearing on American claims to that territory, especially as the enterprise had the sanction of the United States Government, and a United States naval officer commanded the leading vessel in the expedition.

Under the treaty of Ghent, Astoria was to be restored to its original owners, but it was not until 1846 that this act of justice was consummated. In 1818 it was mutually agreed that each nation should equally enjoy the privileges of all the bays and harbors on that coast for ten years, and this agreement was renewed in 1827 for an indefinite time. Practically this meant the occupation of the country by the Hudson Bay Company, which found its forests and waters a mine of fur-bearing wealth. The most eminent of America's statesmen, so far as the Pacific Northwest was concerned, seemed to be under the spell of their own ignorance and of the Hudson Bay Company's misrepresentations. The great Senator Benton said that, "The ridge of the Rocky Mountains may be named as a convenient, natural and everlasting boundary." Winthrop, of Ma.s.sachusetts, quoted and commended this statement of Benton, and McDuffie of South Carolina declared that the wealth of the Indies would be insufficient to pay the cost of a railroad to the mouth of the Columbia. While the nation was stirred up over a boundary dispute involving a comparatively small district in the Northeast--settled by the Ashburton Treaty in 1842--Oregon, with its extensive territory and magnificent natural wealth was treated as unworthy of controversy. But for the patriot missionary, Marcus Whitman, who in the winter of 1842-43 made a perilous journey from his mission post in Oregon to Was.h.i.+ngton, to stir up the American Government to a sense of its duty, and of the imminent danger of the seizure of Oregon by the British, that valuable region would in all probability have pa.s.sed under British dominion. "All I ask," said Doctor Whitman to President Tyler, "is that you won't barter away Oregon or allow English interference until I can lead a band of stalwart American settlers across the plains; for this I will try to do."

The President promised; the settlers went, and Oregon was saved.[1] For a time it seemed that war might result, but the two nations at length compromised on a boundary line at forty-nine north lat.i.tude.

[1] It is sad to know that this patriot missionary and his admirable wife were ma.s.sacred in 1847, with a number of other persons, at their mission station of Waiilatpwi by the very Indians they were educating. There is reason to believe the ma.s.sacre was indirectly the result of Whitman's service to his country in rescuing Oregon from the Hudson Bay Company. The treaty of 1846 greatly irritated that powerful corporation, and this feeling inevitably spread to the Indians who depended upon the company for supplies, and who naturally sympathized with its policy of keeping the land for fur-bearing animals and savage humanity. It is unnecessary to suspect the company or the Roman Catholic missionaries attached to the company of any plot against Whitman's life. It was sufficient for the savages to know that the company hated Whitman, and that the American Protestant missionaries sought to convert them not only to Christianity, but also to industry.

During President Tyler's administration Rhode Island was the scene of a commotion known as the "Dorr War." While the property qualification for voters had been discarded in nearly every Northern State, Rhode Island still adhered to the system of government provided in the King Charles charter of 1663, which restricted the franchise to freeholders and their eldest sons. This restriction gave occasion for many abuses, mortgagees often exercising control over the votes of their debtors, and citizens who paid taxes on mortgaged property being sometimes denied the privilege of voting on the ground that they did not possess sufficient equity in their estates. The majority of the people desired a frame of government in accord with the spirit of American inst.i.tutions, but were resisted by the minority in actual power. The party of reform, therefore, held an election in defiance of the charter, adopted a new const.i.tution arid chose Thomas W. Dorr governor, along with other general officers and a General a.s.sembly. The Dorr legislature met in a foundry and pa.s.sed various laws, which they had no power to enforce. The charter government called out the militia, the Dorrites also took arms, and for some time there was danger of a collision. The Dorrites were ultimately dispersed without a battle, and the charter government remained in power. From a sanitary standpoint it was a healthy war, as more people were probably benefited by the outing than injured by bullets and bayonets.[2] Dorr was afterward sentenced to State Prison for life, but was pardoned after a few years, and his sentence expunged by vote of the legislature, from the records of the court. A const.i.tution embodying most of the reforms for which the Dorrites had striven was legally adopted, and Rhode Island settled down to its customary calm and prosperity.

[2] The "Dorr war," however, was very real to the people of Rhode Island. About thirteen years ago the writer was present in the office of the clerk of a Rhode Island town, when an old lady entered, and told the clerk that she wanted to see the record of a deed. Upon being asked to indicate the probable date, she said it was "before the war." On inquiry by the clerk it appeared that she meant the "Dorr war."

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

War with Mexico--General Zachary Taylor Defeats the Mexicans--Buena Vista--Mexicans Four to One--"A Little More Grape, Captain Bragg!"-- Glorious American Victory--General Scott's Splendid Campaign--A Series of Victories--Cerro Gordo--Contreras--Churubusco--Molino del Rey--Chapultepec--Stars and Stripes Float in the City of Mexico-- Generous Treatment of the Vanquished--Peace--Cession of Vast Territory to the United States--The Gadsden Purchase.

The annexation of Texas by the United States was accepted by Mexico as an act of war. The American Government and people were not unprepared for a challenge from Mexico, and rather welcomed it, as, apart from the Texas issue, Mexico had, from the time of her independence treated the United States in a manner far from neighborly, and inflicted many injuries on American citizens. In the West and South especially it was deemed necessary to give Mexico a lesson; in New England the war was not popular. Hostilities began, and two sharp battles were fought, before war was actually declared. General Zachary Taylor, with a force much inferior to that of the enemy, defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and drove them out of Texas. At Resaca the American dragoons under Captain May charged straight upon a Mexican battery, killing the gunners and capturing the Mexican general La Vega just as he was about to apply a match to one of the pieces. The Mexican army was so completely scattered that their commander Arista fled unaccompanied across the Rio Grande. At Buena Vista Generals Taylor and Wool, with 5000 men, of whom only 500 were regular troops, confronted Santa Anna with 20,000, February 23, 1847. The Mexican chieftain expected an easy victory, and his army, inspired with his confidence, rushed from their mountains upon the small force of Americans drawn up in battle array on the plain of Angostura.

"Like the fierce Northern hurricane That sweeps his great plateau, Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, Came down the serried foe.

Who heard the thunder of the fray Break o'er the field beneath, Well knew the watchword of that day Was victory or death."[1]

[1] "The Bivouac of the Dead."--_O'Hara._

The battle lasted all day, the American artillery being splendidly handled, and mowing down the Mexicans at every charge. "Give 'em a little more grape, Captain Bragg!" said Taylor quietly, as he saw Santa Anna's lines wavering. The grape was given, and the Mexicans fled, leaving 500 of their number dead or dying on the field. The total Mexican loss, including wounded and prisoners was about 2000; that of the Americans in killed, wounded and missing, 746. This victory, and the successes of Fremont and Kearney in California, completed the conquest of Northern Mexico.

General Winfield Scott, who was in supreme command of all the American forces, conducted a brilliant campaign from the coast. After taking Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, General Scott advanced toward the City of Mexico with about 10,000 men. At Cerro Gordo, a difficult pa.s.s in the mountains, the American army encountered 12,000 Mexicans under command of Santa Anna, who had, by extraordinary efforts, collected this force after his defeat at Buena Vista. The battle was fought on April 18, every movement of the American troops being directed, according to a carefully prepared plan, by General Scott. Colonel Harvey led the storming party into the pa.s.s, with a deep river on one side, and batteries belching death from lofty rocks on the other side. The Americans rushed forward with irresistible courage. They knew their enemy. The Alamo had not been forgotten. Cerro Gordo fell, and the flight of the Mexicans may best be described in the language of one of their own historians: "General Santa Anna, accompanied by some of his adjutants, was pa.s.sing along the road to the left of the battery, when the enemy's column, now out of the woods, appeared on his line of retreat and fired upon him, forcing him back. The carriage in which he had left Jalapa was riddled with shot, the mules killed and taken by the enemy, as well as a wagon containing $16,000 received the day before for the pay of the soldiers. Every tie of command and obedience now being broken among our troops, safety alone being the object, and all being involved in a frightful confusion, they rushed desperately to the narrow pa.s.s of the defile that descended to the Plan del Rio, where the general-in-chief had proceeded, with the chiefs and officers accompanying him. Horrid indeed was the descent by that narrow and rocky path where thousands rushed, disputing the pa.s.sage with desperation, and leaving a track of blood upon the road. All cla.s.ses being confounded military distinction and respect were lost; and badges of rank became marks of sarcasm. The enemy, now masters of our camp, turned their guns upon the fugitives, thus augmenting the terror of the mult.i.tude that crowded through the defile and pressed forward every instant by a new impulse, which increased the confusion and disgrace of that ill-fated day." Of the 12,000 Mexicans engaged in this battle about 1200 were killed and wounded, and 3000 were made prisoners. The captives were all paroled, and the sick and wounded sent to Jalapa, where they were well cared for. The Castle of Perote, the strongest fortress in Mexico, surrendered without resistance, and the American flag was unfurled on the summit of the eastern Cordilleras.

After a rest at Puebla General Scott pushed on in the footsteps of Cortes. Santa Anna, who would have equalled Napoleon or Caesar had his ability and courage in the field been equal to his success in organizing armies, made a stand with 32,000 Mexicans at Contreras and Churubusco.

The army of General Scott numbered about 9000 effective men. Both sides knew that the battle to be fought would decide the fate of the City of Mexico. On the nineteenth of August about one-half of the American army attacked the fortified camp at Contreras, defended by nearly 7000 Mexicans, under General Valencia. Evening fell without victory for either side. In the early morning, after a night of heavy rain, General P. F.

Smith, with three brigades of infantry, but without cavalry or artillery, marched in the darkness up to the Mexican camp, discharged several volleys in quick succession, and dashed, bayonet in hand, upon the enemy.

In fifteen minutes the Americans were victors, over 3000 Mexicans were prisoners, and the rest of Valencia's troops were fugitives. The American army gave the enemy no time to recover, but moved promptly forward to more victories. The fort of San Antonio was captured, the garrison not waiting to be attacked before taking to flight, and then began the battle of Churubusco. This place is a small village, six miles south from the City of Mexico, and connected with it by a s.p.a.cious causeway. At the head of the causeway, near the village, and in front of the bridge over the Churubusco River, was a strong redoubt, mounted with batteries, and occupied by a large force of Mexicans. The convent-church of San Pablo, with its ma.s.sive stone walls, was converted into a fort. The walls were impervious to the attack of field pieces, and the building was defended by a well-constructed bastion, and guns placed in the embrasure. The church stood on an eminence, and the village which cl.u.s.tered about it was defended by stone walls and a stone building, strongly fortified.

The Americans carried the redoubt at the point of the bayonet, and then a desperate battle raged about the fortified village and church. From behind their defences the Mexicans kept up a deadly fire on the Americans, but the latter never faltered. The Mexicans made repeated sallies from the convent, but were driven back every time. In their desperation the native Mexicans desired to surrender, but some deserters from the American army, known as the San Patricio companies, hauled down the white flag whenever it was put up. At length after a three-hours'

struggle the convent and other defences were captured. In the rear of Churubusco General James s.h.i.+elds and General Franklin Pierce, afterward President of the United States, were hard pressed by an overwhelming force of Mexicans, and in some danger. Timely reinforcements sent by General Scott turned danger into victory, and the Mexicans, discomfited on every side, gave way, and retreated in utter disorder toward the city of Mexico, pursued by the triumphant Americans. It was the most glorious day since Yorktown for American arms. The Mexican loss was nearly 4000 killed and wounded, besides 300 prisoners, thirty-seven cannon and a large quant.i.ty of small arms and ammunition. The Americans lost 139 killed and 926 wounded.

Churubusco should have ended the war, and negotiations for peace were commenced, but were broken off through Mexican bad faith. Hostilities were resumed and the coup-de-grace was given to Mexico on the historic hill of Chapultepec. The storming of El Molino del Rey, of the Casa de Mata and the Castle of Chapultepec were among the boldest exploits of the war. Chapultepec had been an ancient seat of the Aztec emperors. Rising abruptly from the sh.o.r.e of Lake Tezcuco, crowned with a strongly fortified castle, supported by numerous outworks and with several ma.s.sive stone buildings, each a fortress powerfully garrisoned, at the base, the hill of Chapultepec seemed a very Gibraltar guarding the entrance to Mexico's capital. El Molino del Rey and the Casa de Mata were carried by storm on the eighth of September, the Mexicans leaving 1000 dead on the field, beside 800 prisoners, and those who escaped death or capture either flying in dismay from the scene or retreating up the hill to the Castle of Chapultepec.

General Scott determined to batter down the castle with heavy cannon.

Robert E. Lee, afterward commander of the Confederate armies, was one of the officers who placed the artillery in position. A continuous fire was kept up during the first day (September 12), the solid shot and sh.e.l.l cras.h.i.+ng through the Castle and killing many of its defenders. Among these were about one hundred young boys, from ten to sixteen years of age, cadets in the Military Academy, which was situated on the hill of Chapultepec. Several of the boys lost their lives fighting the Americans with a valor that might well have put some of their elders to shame.

About fifty general officers were also in the Castle, and the whole Mexican force engaged probably did not exceed 4000 men. It was the last stand made by Mexican troops, and it was a brave stand. The weak and the demoralized had slunk away from further conflict with an invincible foe.

The bombardment was resumed on the thirteenth, and troops moved to the a.s.sault under cover of a heavy cannonade. The Mexicans fought desperately, but they were no match for their antagonists. The Stars and Stripes soon floated over Chapultepec, hailed with a mighty cheer by the American troops, nearly all of whom had taken some part in the conflict.

On September 14 the American flag was hoisted in the City of Mexico, and from the National Palace of that Republic General Scott issued a general order in which, with justifiable pride, he declared: "Beginning with August 10 and ending the fourteenth instant, this army has gallantly fought its way through the fields and forts of Contreras, San Antonio, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec and the gates of San Cosme and Tacubaya into the capital of Mexico. When the very limited number who have performed these brilliant deeds shall have become known, the world will be astonished and our own countrymen filled with joy and admiration." The triumphs of Scott and Taylor added l.u.s.tre to American arms which time will not efface. They recalled the exploits of Cortes and Pizarro, save in the scrupulous honor and humanity which guided every step of the American invasion. No victors were ever more generous in their treatment of the conquered. "The soldiers of Vera Cruz," says a Mexican historian, "received the honor due to their valor and misfortunes. Not even a look was given them by the enemy's soldiers which could be interpreted into an insult." The Duke of Wellington, the conqueror of Napoleon, followed Scott's campaign with deep interest and caused its movements to be marked on a map daily, as information was received. Admiring its triumphs up to the basin of Mexico, Wellington then said: "Scott is lost. He has been carried away by successes. He can't take the city, and he can't fall back on his base." Wellington proved to be wrong. He had never met American troops.

The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, concluded February 2, 1848, established the Rio Grande as the boundary between the United States and Mexico, and California and New Mexico, including what is now Arizona, were ceded to the United States for $15,000,000. The United States also a.s.sumed the payment of obligations due by Mexico to American citizens to the amount of $3,250,000, and discharged Mexico from all claims of citizens of the United States against that Republic. Strict provision was made for the preservation of the rights of the inhabitants of the ceded territory. The Gadsden Purchase, in 1853--so called from General James Gadsden, who conducted the negotiations in behalf of the United States--added 45,535 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States, for which this country paid $10,000,000, Mexico at the same time relinquis.h.i.+ng claims against the United States for Indian depredations amounting to from $15,000,000 to $30,000,000. The American Republic thus received in all, as a consequence of the Mexican War, 591,398 square miles, and the Union acquired its present boundaries, exclusive of Alaska. The Mexican War gave to the United States the Pacific as well as the Atlantic seaboard, and completed the westward movement which had begun with the very birth of the Republic. It made the United States the great power of the American continent, seated between the two oceans, with a domain unequalled in natural resources by any other region of the world.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

The Union in 1850--Comparative Population of Cities and Rural Districts --Agriculture the General Occupation--Commercial and Industrial Development--Growth of New York and Chicago--The Southern States-- Importance of the Cotton Crop--Why the South Was Sensitive to Anti-Slavery Agitation--Manufactures--Religion and Education,--The Cloud on the Horizon.

Approaching that period of civil discord, followed by civil war, which has left its impress in every corner of the Union, and which was attended by radical changes in the Const.i.tution and the inst.i.tutions of our country, it may be well to review the material condition of the States when the forces of freedom and slavery began to gather for the great conflict, first in the forum and later in the field. In 1850 the United States had a population of 23,191,876, of whom 3,204,313 were slaves.

Only 4,000,000 of the people lived in cities, towns and villages, and of these but 2,860,000 resided in 140 cities and towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants each. Of the total real and personal property in the United States more than two-thirds was owned by the rural population, and the value of manufactures was insignificant, compared with the products of agriculture. One leading aim of American statesmans.h.i.+p and enterprise had been, from a very early period, to connect the great lakes and the fertile valleys of the middle and western States with the cities and ports along the Atlantic seaboard; to improve navigation of the rivers, and thus bring into cultivation the valuable tracts of country along their banks; and, as a part of this great work, to connect with each other, by railways and ca.n.a.ls, the towns and villages in the more densely-peopled and cultivated districts. To carry out the general design, vast sums were lavished and expensive works constructed, in many instances far in advance of any ascertained requirements of the country, and certainly with little prospect of an early return for the expenditure. But in the meantime the most apparently hopeless of these works conferred important benefits upon the ma.s.s of the community, by developing sources of wealth which might otherwise have been closed for years, and providing new spheres for the restless and indomitable energy of the American.

While the agricultural portion of the American people were extending the area of their location, and laying under the Const.i.tution new and vast sources of wealth, the cities and towns also grew apace under the impulse of commercial and industrial development. No country in the world, Great Britain not excepted, succeeded more signally in directing its natural advantages to the promotion of commerce. The abundance of water power was utilized for manufactures of every description. Machinery of the most perfect kind was applied to every process, economizing labor, facilitating locomotion and aiding in surmounting those difficulties which had ever impeded the progress of young nations. Nowhere was the gigantic power of steam more abundantly and usefully employed--in the mine and in the mill, on the rivers and lakes, the ca.n.a.ls and the railroads, doing the work of millions of hands and of human and animal sinews, without creating a vacuum in the market for labor, or diminis.h.i.+ng the rewards of industry. From 1830 to 1840, a period of only ten years, the increase in the population of twenty of the largest cities in the United States, from New York to St. Louis inclusive, was fifty-five per cent, and this in face of the most disastrous commercial panic that had ever visited the country, and this marvelous rate of increase was fully maintained during the subsequent decade.

It is not remarkable that the cities and States of the Union which first took steps to connect the fertile regions lying beyond the Allegheny Mountains with the Atlantic should have made the greatest progress in importance and prosperity. It was the fortune of the State of New York to take the earliest step to effect this great desideratum, although Was.h.i.+ngton had perhaps first suggested its importance, in agitating a movement for the purpose of connecting the country adjoining the Great Lakes with his native Virginia. The construction of the Erie Ca.n.a.l placed New York in the very front of American communities. Before the ca.n.a.l was opened the cost of transit from Lake Erie to tidewater was such as to prohibit the s.h.i.+pment of western produce and merchandise to New York; and it consequently came only to Baltimore and Philadelphia. "As soon as the lakes were reached," says a Federal report, "the line of navigable water was extended through them nearly one thousand miles farther from the interior. The Western States immediately commenced the construction of similar works, for the purpose of opening a communication from the more remote portions of their territories with this great water-line. All these works took their direction and character from the Erie Ca.n.a.l, which in this manner became the outlet for the greater part of the produce of the West. Without such a work the West would have had no attractions for a settler, and have probably remained a waste up to the present time; and New York itself could not have progressed as it has done." In addition, however, to the formation of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, New York originated, in advance of most other States, lines of railway throughout its territory, in connection either with the ca.n.a.l, or between its various towns and settlements. It also connected itself by railroad with Lake Champlain, and succeeded in diverting a considerable portion of the transit trade of Canada from the St. Lawrence through these communications to the port of New York. The effect of this enterprise displayed by the people and by the State may be estimated by the fact that the population, which was, in 1830, 1,918,608, had increased in 1840 to 2,428,921, and in 1850 was 3,097,394. In 1830, the value of the imports at New York was $38,656,064; in 1840 it had reached $60,064,942, and in 1851, when the network of railway communications throughout the State had come into fairly complete operation, the value of imports was $144,454,616.

Under the influence of railroad and ca.n.a.l Chicago also made swift and wonderful progress. In May, 1848, a ca.n.a.l one hundred miles in length was opened to connect Lake Michigan with the Illinois River, and the first section of a railway from Chicago to the westward was opened in March, 1849. Previously to these works being brought into operation it appears from the city census of 1847 that the population was 16,859; in 1850, it had sprung to 29,963, and in August, 1852 it was estimated at nearly, if not quite, 40,000, having thus considerably more than doubled itself in five years.

The efforts of the Southern States to attract toward their ports the produce of the West, by way of the magnificent rivers which empty themselves into the Gulf of Mexico, rivalled those made by the North. The prosperity of these States was greatly promoted by the growing demand for cotton in America and Europe. In the thirty-one years from 1821 to 1852, there had been an increase of 3,000,000 bales in the growth, which multiplied itself during that period seven-fold! The importance of this crop as an element of wealth may be estimated from the fact that the census value of it in 1849-50 was $112,000,000; that its cultivation and preparation for market employed upward of 800,000 agricultural laborers, 85 per cent of whom were slaves and the residue (120,000) white citizens; that upward of 120,000 tons of steam s.h.i.+pping, and at least 7000 persons were engaged in its transportation from the interior to the southern ports, and that after remunerating merchants, factors, underwriters and a host of other persons it furnished profitable freight for 1,100,000 tons of American s.h.i.+pping, and 55,000 seamen in the Gulf and Atlantic coasting trade, and for 800,000 tons and 40,000 seamen for its transport to Europe and elsewhere. As the Southern people generally believed that cotton could not be cultivated without the labor of slaves it is easy to understand why they were sensitive to every agitation, however slight, that seemed to threaten that source of wealth, and how their sensitiveness grew as cotton's empire extended.

Manufactures were also in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition, and it was estimated in 1852, that the capital embarked in the cotton manufactories of the United States was at least $80,000,000; that the value of the products was $70,000,000; that 100,000 male and female operatives were employed, and that quite 700,000 bales of cotton, worth at least $35,000,000, were spun and woven. America possessed, also, a number of woolen manufactories, which employed about the same period 39,252 hands.

The American people, then as now, believed in religion and education as the corner-stones of liberty's temple. The population of 23,000,000 in 1850 had 36,221 churches and chapels, with accommodation for 13,967,449 persons--a large accommodation for a new country whose population had spread so rapidly over so extensive an area. Of the youth nearly 4,000,000 were receiving instruction in the various educational inst.i.tutions. The teachers numbered 115,000, and colleges and schools nearly 100,000. America had upward of seventy theological schools; forty-four medical and surgical schools; nineteen schools of law, and ten schools of practical science and extensive libraries were attached to nearly all of these inst.i.tutions.

Never had the future of our nation seemed more promising than at the very time when the cloud of slavery began to darken the bright horizon, gradually overspreading the heavens until it burst in the storm of secession.