The Land We Live In Part 16

The Southern people cannot be justly blamed for their resolute resistance to negro domination. It was too much to expect that former masters should accept political inferiority to a race emanc.i.p.ated from slavery, but not emanc.i.p.ated from deplorable ignorance and debas.e.m.e.nt, and easily misled by unscrupulous whites. On the other hand, grat.i.tude and prudence demanded, on the part of the North, that the negro should not only be a freeman, but also a citizen; that he should not only be liberated from slavery, but also protected against oppression. The negro, however ignorant, was true to the Union, and attached to the Republican party; the black soldiers had fought in the Union armies, and Abraham Lincoln himself had advised Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, in 1863, that "the very intelligent colored people, and especially those who fought gallantly in our ranks, should be admitted to the franchise," for "they would probably help in some trying time to come to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom."

Andrew Johnson, succeeding to the chair of Lincoln, and with his heart softened toward his native South, would have restored the whites to full control, with the negroes at their mercy. The Congress, however, intervened, and the ex-Confederate States were placed under military law, and only admitted to recognition as States upon conditions which gave the negro equal rights with his white fellow-citizens--and indeed superior rights to many of them, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States excluding from office all persons who, having taken an oath as public officers to support the Const.i.tution afterward joined the Confederacy. For opposing these measures of Congress President Johnson was impeached, and escaped conviction by one vote.

The Southern whites continued to struggle for white supremacy. The conflict continued throughout Johnson's term as President, and even the severe military measures adopted under power from Congress by General Grant, only suppressed organized violence in its more rampant form. It was impossible to imprison a commonwealth or to place bayonets at every threshold, and while the negro might be upheld in his right of suffrage, Federal protection could not supply him with work and bread. The intellect and the property of the South were on the side of the whites, and the blacks began to find that their choice was between submission or extinction.

In the North, even among Republicans, a feeling grew that the ex-Confederates had suffered enough, while it was impossible for an honest man to have any other sentiment than contempt for the political vultures who had descended on the wasted South. This feeling gave strength to the Liberal Republican movement in 1872, and arrayed Democrats--and not a few of the old anti-slavery leaders--in support of Horace Greeley for President.

The insanity and death of Mr. Greeley cast a gloom over the election for victors as well as vanquished. Mr. Greeley's mind was weakened by domestic affliction, and by the desertion of _Tribune_ readers, and when crus.h.i.+ng defeat at the polls gave the _coup-de-grace_ to his political prospects, his once vigorous intellect yielded under the strain. Like a dying gladiator, mortally wounded, but with courage unquenched, he seized once more the editorial blade with which he had dealt so many powerful blows in the past for justice and for truth; but nature was not equal to the task, and the weapon fell from his nerveless grasp. His last words were: "The country is gone; the _Tribune_ is gone, and I am gone."

General Grant attended the funeral of his gifted and hapless compet.i.tor, and the nation joined in honor and eulogy of the great editor whose heart was always true to humanity, and whose very failings leaned to virtue's side. Fortunately Mr. Greeley's irresponsible utterance was not prophetic either as to the country or the _Tribune_. Mr. Whitelaw Reid succeeded to the editorial chair, and has ably kept the _Tribune_ in the front rank of American journals.

Mr. Greeley's last editorial expression pleaded with the victors in behalf of justice and fair dealing for the South. General Grant himself is said to have arrived at the conclusion before the close of his second term, that the Federal troops should be withdrawn from the Southern States, and sagacious Republicans discerned in the growth of Democratic sentiment both North and South a warning that the people were becoming tired of bayonet government ten years after Appomattox. The election of 1876, when the Democrats had a popular majority, and the decision between Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat, depended on a single vote, emphasized the popular protest against military rule in time of peace, and when the Electoral Commission gave a verdict in favor of General Hayes, the new President speedily withdrew the National troops from the reconstructed States.

While the country witnessed deep agitation and difference of opinion regarding reconstruction in the South, there was no difference of public sentiment regarding the vigorous, far-sighted and thoroughly American policy of the government in dealing with foreign powers. One of the first steps of Secretary Seward after the close of the war was to demand in courteous language that the French should evacuate Mexico. Napoleon dared not challenge the United States by answering no. General Philip H.

Sheridan was on the Rio Grande with fifty thousand men, anxious to cross over and fight; a million veterans were ready to obey the summons to battle, and Generals Grant and Sherman would willingly have followed in the footsteps of Scott and Taylor. The French troops were withdrawn.

Maximilian, deceived as to the strength of his cause with the natives, refused to accompany Bazaine across the ocean, and the month of May, 1867, saw the usurping emperor shut up with a small force in Queretaro, surrounded by an army of forty thousand Mexican avengers.

In those final days of his life and reign the hapless Austrian prince exhibited a courage and n.o.bility of character which showed that the blood of Maria Theresa was not degenerate in his veins. He faced death with more than reckless daring; he shared in all the privations of his faithful adherents, and he was preparing to cut his way out through the host of besiegers, at the head of his men, when treachery betrayed him to the enemy.

Miguel Lopez was the Benedict Arnold of Queretaro; personal immunity and two thousand gold ounces the price. Lopez held the key of Queretaro--the convent of La Cruz. Maximilian had been his generous patron and friend, and had appointed him chief of the imperial guard. Lopez discerned the approaching downfall of his sovereign, and resolved to save himself by delivering up that sovereign to the enemy. On the night of May 14, the Liberal troops were admitted to La Cruz, and Queretaro was at the mercy of the besiegers.

Maximilian made a last stand on the "Hill of the Bells." Successful resistance was impossible. The bullet he prayed for did not come, and the emperor and his officers were prisoners. In vain the Princess Salm-Salm, representing one of the proudest families of Europe, bent her knees before the Indian President of Mexico, and pleaded for the life of Maximilian. "I am grieved, madam," said Juarez, "to see you thus on your knees before me; but if all the kings and queens of Europe were in your place, I could not spare that life. It is not I who take it. It is the people and the law, and if I should not do their will, the people would take it, and mine also."

"Boys, aim well--aim at my heart"--was Maximilian's request to his executioners. "Oh man!" was his last cry as he fell, the victim of his own ambition, and of Louis Napoleon's perfidy. The volley which pierced his breast was the knell of the Bonaparte dynasty. Gravelotte was but little more than three years from Queretaro.

The acquisition of Russian America for the sum of $7,200,000 was a splendid stroke of statesmans.h.i.+p, and secured to the United States the control of the North Pacific coast of the continent, besides adding about 581,107 square miles to the territory of the Republic. Alaska has immense resources, and is already looking forward to a proud and prosperous future as the north star in the flag of our Union.

When the British Government proposed, in 1871, a joint commission to settle the Canadian fisheries dispute, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish replied that the settlement of the claims for depredations by Anglo-Confederate cruisers would be "essential to the restoration of cordial and amicable relations between the two governments." In the following February five high commissioners from each country met in Was.h.i.+ngton, and a treaty was agreed upon providing for arbitration upon the issues between the American Republic and Great Britain. These issues included the "Alabama Claims"--so-called because the Alabama was the most notorious and destructive of the Anglo-Confederate sea rovers--the question of the Northwest boundary, and the Canadian fisheries.

The Tribunal of Arbitration upon the "Alabama Claims" met at Geneva, Switzerland, December 15, 1871. Charles Francis Adams, American Minister to England during the war, was member of the Tribunal for the United States, and Lord Chief Justice c.o.c.kburn acted for Great Britain. Baron Itajuba, Brazilian Minister to France; Count Sclopis, an Italian statesman, and M. Jaques Staempfii, of Switzerland, were the other members of the ill.u.s.trious and memorable court. Caleb Cus.h.i.+ng, William M. Evarts and Morrison R. Waite, counsel for the United States, presented an indictment against England which should have made British statesmen shrink from the evidence of their unsuccessful conspiracy against the life of a friendly State. The course of Great Britain during the war was reviewed in language not less forcible and convincing because it was calm, dignified and restrained. A fortress of facts was presented impregnable to British reply, and highly creditable to the forethought and skill with which the American State Department had gathered the material for its case from the very beginning of the war. So strong and unanswerable was the proof against the Alabama that the British arbitrator voted in favor of the United States on the issue of British responsibility for that vessel.

The Tribunal awarded $15,500,000 in gold for the vessels and cargoes destroyed by the Alabama, with her tender; the Florida, with her three tenders, and the Shenandoah, or Sea King, during a part of her piratical career. England promptly paid the award, and learned for the third time in her history that the rights and interests of the American people were not to be trampled on with impunity. The United States, in fulfilment of an award made by a commission appointed under the Treaty of Was.h.i.+ngton paid $2,000,000 for damages incurred by British subjects during the war for the Union, the claims presented to the commission having amounted to $96,000,000. The differences between the United States and Great Britain on account of the rebellion were thus happily removed without the shedding of a drop of blood, and the two great nations of English origin gave to mankind an admirable example of peaceful arbitration as a subst.i.tute for the ordeal of battle.

The question of the Northwest boundary was also settled to the satisfaction of the United States, by the German emperor, William I., to whom it was referred as arbitrator. The treaty of 1846 left in doubt whether the boundary line included the island of San Juan and its group within American or British territory. American and British garrisons occupied the disputed island of San Juan. When the Emperor William decided in favor of the United States the British troops were withdrawn.

Less advantageous to the United States was the attempt made to settle the long dispute over the fisheries. The Treaty of Was.h.i.+ngton provided that American fishermen should be freely admitted to the Canadian fisheries, and that Canadians should be permitted to fish on the American coast as far south as the thirty-ninth parallel, and that there should be free trade in fish-oil and salt water fish, these provisions to be abrogated on two years' notice. Through a most unfortunate blunder on the part of our government a commission was const.i.tuted virtually British in its character, which awarded to Great Britain the sum of $5,500,000 for imaginary American benefits to be derived from reciprocity. This money was paid without any real equivalent.

The reciprocity arrangement was abrogated, under notice from our government, in 1885, and the old contention was renewed. As a result of Canadian outrage and intolerance a bill was pa.s.sed by the American Congress, March 3, 1887, providing that the President, on being satisfied that American fis.h.i.+ng masters or crews were treated in Canadian ports any less favorably than masters or crews of trading vessels belonging to the most favored nations could "in his discretion by proclamation to that effect deny vessels, their masters and crews, of the British dominions of North America, any entrance into the waters, ports or places of or within the United States." Eventually the Canadians a.s.sumed a more reasonable att.i.tude, and American fishermen, on their part, learned to be independent of Canada, and to value the exclusive possession of their own markets more than Canadian fis.h.i.+ng privileges.

Spain invited a conflict with the United States by the summary execution, in November, 1873, of 110 persons, including a number of American citizens, captured on the American steams.h.i.+p Virginius, while on their way to a.s.sist the Cuban patriots. President Grant acted with firmness and deliberation, refusing to be carried away by the popular demand for war, but resolute in his demand for redress on the part of Spain. The Spanish government surrendered the survivors and the Virginius, and made reparation satisfactory to the United States. When the American schooner Compet.i.tor was captured recently, on an errand to the Cuban insurgents, the Spaniards did not dare to repeat the tragedy of the Virginius.

The American Indians made their last hostile stand against white aggression June 25, 1876, when the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, destroyed General Custer and three hundred cavalry under his command. The troops fought bravely, but the Indians were nerved to desperation by the presence of their women and children. Sitting Bull took refuge with his followers in British territory, but surrendered to United States authority in 1880, under promise of amnesty. He was treacherously killed in 1890, on suspicion of being concerned in fomenting trouble with the whites. The policy of the National Government toward the Indians has of late years been humane and liberal.

The extinction of imperialism in Brazil in 1889 effaced monarchy from the American continent, save as represented in the territories still subject to European States. Dom Pedro II., one of the most amiable and liberal of nineteenth century rulers, was driven into exile, and without an armed encounter, or the firing of a gun in anger, the empire of Brazil became the United States of Brazil. Unlike other emperors and kings who have been compelled to give up their American dominions, Dom Pedro's parting message to the land he had wisely governed was one of amity and peace. As the sh.o.r.es of his loved Brazil disappeared before his moistening eyes he released a dove to bear back his last adieu of loyal and fervent goodwill. He died in exile, his end doubtless hastened by pathetic longing to see once more the native land forever barred to him.

The path toward freedom in Brazil had not been strewn with flowers.

Brazil had its martyrs as well as its heroes. It is a remarkable fact that nearly every revolution in France had its echo in Brazil, and undoubtedly French as well as American example had much to do with the deposition of Pedro II. It is a mistake to argue, as some European writers have argued, that the change from a monarchy to a republic in Brazil was nothing more than a successful military revolt. It was the culmination of more than a century of agitation in behalf of republican principles; it was the pure flame of a sacred hearth-fire, which had never been extinguished from the day when it caught the first feeble glow from the dying breath of Filipe dos Santos.

The Brazilians have given an admirable example to other South American republics in the separation of State from Church. While providing for the maintenance of ecclesiastics now dependent on the State for support, the Brazilian Const.i.tution decrees not only entire liberty of wors.h.i.+p, but absolute equality of all before the law, without regard to their religious creed. The absence of this equality is the chief blot on some South American States.

The resolute course of President Harrison in exacting indemnity and apology from Chile for insult to the American uniform and the murder and wounding of American sailors, tended greatly to promote the influence and prestige of the United States in South America, and the Spanish-American republics are learning to esteem the United States, instead of England, as the leading power of the New World. Brazil is grateful for American countenance and friends.h.i.+p in the defence of that youngest and greatest of South American republics against rebellion plotted in Europe in the interest of the Braganzas, while Venezuela depends upon the United States with justifiable confidence for the vindication of the Monroe Doctrine, and the restoration of territory seized and occupied by the British without any t.i.tle save that of superior force. Cuba, in her heroic battle for freedom, is upheld by American public sentiment and the substantial sympathy of the American people, and Nicaragua is virtually under American protection. The American eagle, from its seat in the North, overshadows with guardian pinions the American continent.

In the case of Hawaii the American Republic seems likely to depart from its traditional policy of acquiring no territory beyond American bounds.

The Hawaiian Islands were won from barbarism by the efforts and sacrifices of American missionaries and their descendants. A republic has been established there, and intelligent Hawaiians look hopefully forward to a common future with the United States. There is hardly a doubt that this hope will be fulfilled, and that the Eden of Southern seas will become an outpost of American civilization. With the two great English speaking nations of America and Australia confronting each other across the Pacific, that ocean is certain to be in the twentieth century the theatre of grand events, perhaps of future Actiums and Trafalgars. In Hawaii we will have a Malta worthy of such a mighty arena, and the flames of Kilauea will be a beacon fire of American liberty to the teeming millions of Asia.

The Behring Sea negotiations have from the first been discreditable to diplomacy at Was.h.i.+ngton. The attempt to prove that the fur-seals are domestic animals, and the property of the United States when a hundred miles out in the Pacific Ocean was a humiliating reflection on the intelligence of both parties to the dispute, and showed abject and degrading subserviency to the corporation controlling the seal monopoly.

Added to this was the disgrace of forgery, detected, unfortunately, not at Was.h.i.+ngton, but in London, and indicating that, while Was.h.i.+ngton officials were doubtless innocent of complicity in the crime, the forger knew, or thought he knew, what was wanted. The end is that this country has to pay about $400,000 to England, while the seals are abandoned to destruction, which at least will have the happy effect of removing them as a cause of international controversy.

The a.s.sa.s.sination of President Garfield, July 2, 1881, by a disappointed seeker for office made that President the martyr of civil service reform, and gave an irresistible impulse to the movement to alleviate the evils of what is known as the "spoils system." Notwithstanding the opposition of politicians and newspapers representing the vicious and ignorant element, civil service reform has made marvelous progress, and the principle is now recognized not only in appointments to the vast majority of non-elective offices under the National Government, but also in the civil service of States and munic.i.p.alities.

An unfortunate consequence of the vast growth of individual and corporate wealth, after the war, was the widening of the division line between capital and labor. The depression consequent upon the collapse of inflated values in 1873 compelled employers to reduce expenses, and made harder the lot of labor, while the workingman who saw his wages reduced was not always willing to make intelligent allowance for the circ.u.mstances which made the reduction necessary. The spirit of discontent reached the point of eruption in 1877, when railway employees throughout a large part of the Union abandoned their work, and indulged in riot and disorder. The struggle raged most fiercely in the city of Pittsburg, which was subjected for some days to the reign of a mob, and to perils seldom surpa.s.sed save in the tragic scenes of old-world barricades and revolution. The County of Allegheny had to settle for damages to the amount of $2,772,349.53, of which $1,600,000 went to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Chicago, Baltimore and Reading were also the scenes of severe and sanguinary conflict between rioters and the militia.

It was estimated that about 100,000 workers were engaged in the strike in various parts of the country.

Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and other States have witnessed serious labor troubles since 1877, and the regular army of the United States was employed by order of President Cleveland to put down unlawful interference with interstate commerce in 1894; but the general tendency of workingmen is to obtain redress for real or imaginary grievances in a law-abiding manner by securing the election of officials favorable to their interests. This is the only method of redress that can be tolerated in a republic.

The great fires of Chicago in 1871, and of Boston in 1872, the Charleston earthquake of 1886 and the Johnstown flood of 1889, were among the most memorable of the destructive visitations which have served signally to ill.u.s.trate the energy, the generosity, and the recuperative power of the American people. Chicago, with $200,000,000 of property swept away by the flames, laid amid the ashes the foundations of that new Chicago which is the inland metropolis of the continent, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the spirit of American progress, and the blood in every vein bounding with American energy. Boston plucked profit from disaster by establis.h.i.+ng her claim as the modern Athens in architecture as well as literature, and Charleston learned, amid her ruins, that northern sympathy was not bounded by Mason and Dixon's line. The South taught a similar lesson in return when the cry from flood-stricken Johnstown touched every merciful heart.