Chapter VI: Part 6

In the summer of 1826 Jefferson was taken ill. At midnight July the third, he was heard to murmur, “This is the fourth of July.” About midday he died, fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On the same day in Massachusetts was dying John Adams who had helped in the fight for the people’s rights. During his last hours, his thoughts turned to his great associate and he said, “Thomas Jefferson still lives.”

On Jefferson’s tombstone were recorded as he had requested--not the offices he had held nor the honors he had received--but the three things by which he wished to be remembered,--that he wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for religious liberty, and founded the University of Virginia.

Alexander Hamilton

The Founder of the Federalist Party

The Democratic-Republican party which believed in the “power of the masses” and the rule of the people was founded by Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist party, which believed in a centralized government patterned on the aristocratic one of England, was founded by Alexander Hamilton. Little is known about the family and early life of Hamilton. He was born in the little West India island of Nevis in January, 1757. His father is supposed to have been a Scotch trader and his mother a Frenchwoman. His family was poor, and it was necessary for him to leave school in childhood and set to work. At the age of twelve, he became a clerk in a counting-house where he remained about three years. Every spare moment was spent in the study of mathematics, chemistry, and history. He was so faithful in his work, however, that at the age of thirteen or fourteen he was left in charge of business during his employer’s absence.

In 1772 the island of Santa Cruz was visited by a terrible hurricane; young Hamilton wrote such a vivid and eloquent account of it that his friends thought he ought to become a professional man and offered to help him continue his education. Accordingly, in October, 1772, he set sail to the colonies. Leaving the West Indies, he cut loose from his old life; of friends and relatives there, almost nothing is heard after this time. Young Hamilton attended a grammar school in New Jersey, and then entered King’s College, now Columbia University, in New York. The young West Indian came to America at a time when people were greatly excited about political matters, and he heard much about the Stamp Act and the oppressive taxes laid by Great Britain. At first he took the part of the king, but in less than two years he had become an enthusiastic patriot. It was the cause of the colonies as a whole that appealed to him. He never developed any of the feeling for the separate colonies which was so strong in most native-born Americans.

When he espoused the cause of the oppressed colonies, he did it with his whole heart. The precocious, clever boy of seventeen made patriotic addresses, and published an able pamphlet, entitled, “A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress from the Calumnies of their Enemies” (1774). In this pamphlet he stated the case of the colonies clearly and eloquently. He said, “All men have one common origin; they participate in one common nature, and consequently have one common right. No reason can be advanced why one man should exercise any power or preëminence over his fellow-creatures, unless they have voluntarily vested him with it. Since then, Americans have not by any act of their own empowered the British Parliament to make laws for them, it follows that they can have no just authority to do it.”

Hamilton believed in the enforcement of law and order. On one or two occasions, when mobs had set out to attack royalists’ houses, he persuaded them to respect private property and opinions.

The opinions that young Hamilton upheld with pen he was ready to uphold with sword. In 1776, when he was only nineteen, he was put in charge of a company of artillery which he drilled so well that he won the commendation and friendship first of General Greene and later of General Washington. During the retreat through New Jersey, he managed his company with courage and skill, and he fought bravely in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In 1777 he became one of Washington’s “official family,” being made his confidential secretary. Washington was very fond of the clever young man whom he often addressed as “my boy.” Hamilton’s ability, too, was recognized and in 1777 he was entrusted with a delicate and important mission. This was to get reinforcements for Washington’s hard-pressed army from Gates’s successful forces. As superior officer, Washington could have ordered the troops sent to his relief, but for many reasons it was best to have them sent on Gates’s own accord, if possible. Therefore, Washington gave Hamilton a sealed order of command to Gates, instructing him not to deliver it if without doing so he could persuade the general to send the troops. Hamilton brought back the troops and he also brought back the unopened letter. It was while he was in New York on this errand that he met General Schuyler’s daughter whom he married in 1780.

Hamilton did not remain in the commander-in-chief’s official family. On one occasion he failed to answer a summons promptly; General Washington, who was a strict disciplinarian, said, “Colonel Hamilton, you have kept me waiting for you these ten minutes. I must tell you, sir, that you treat me with disrespect.” The hot-tempered youth replied, “I am not conscious of it, sir, but since you have thought it necessary to tell me so, we part.”

“Very well, sir, if that is your choice,” answered the general.

Washington was willing to overlook the occurrence, but Hamilton was desirous to return to active service. At Yorktown he led a gallant attack against a British redoubt which he took in ten minutes.

After the Revolution, he read law four months and then began to practice in Albany. He put aside professional work to serve his adopted country again. This time in Congress. The colonies which had united in their war of defence now seemed drifting apart and the general government had no power to hold them together. The country was in debt and had neither money nor credit. The states, therefore, sent representatives to Philadelphia in 1787 to form a Constitution to take the place of the Articles of Confederation.

Hamilton was one of these delegates. He argued in favor of a strong central government, ruled by a president, congress, and supreme court; he thought that practically all power should be put in the hands of the general government, and that the governors of states should be appointed by it and should have veto power over state legislation. To him an American state was a mere geographical division, like an English county. Most of the people, however, clung to the independence of the separate states, and there was heated discussion as to what rights should be delegated to the general government and what should be reserved by the states. At last a constitution was drawn up, in favor of which Congress voted. It was decided that this constitution should go into effect as soon as it should be ratified by nine states. As yet the states “had given up none of their rights to the general government.”

In order to present the views in favor of this constitution and to secure its adoption, Hamilton, with some assistance from Madison and Jay, published a series of eighty-five papers called “The Federalist.” The constitution was adopted, and George Washington was elected first President. When he formed his Cabinet he made Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury. It was felt that this young man of thirty-two could do more than any one else to establish the finances of the country on a safe basis. He made a report “On the Public Credit” which “laid the corner-stone of American finance under the constitution.”

He insisted that the credit of the United States should be firmly established and the United States should assume the war debt of fifty-four million dollars; to secure the payment of this a national bank was established. Hamilton suggested ways in which money might be raised by taxing whiskey and imported articles and by the use of public lands, the Northwest Territory ceded by Virginia, and the western lands ceded by Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

After some opposition Hamilton’s plan was adopted and the finances of the country were established on a safe basis. An insurrection called the Whiskey Rebellion was raised in Pennsylvania by people who were unwilling to pay the tax on liquor, and Hamilton went with troops who suppressed it.

Jefferson and others argued that under this constitution the general government had no power to establish a national bank. Hamilton brought forward the view, which he was the first to advance, that Congress had “implied” powers as well as “delegated” ones. One of his chief motives in urging national banks was that he felt they would be a “powerful cement of union,” uniting the business interests of the country in the support of the government. It was Hamilton, then, who originated the “protective tariff” and “national banks,” over which political parties are still contending.

In 1795 after his national policies were adopted, Hamilton resigned public life and began to practice his profession in New York. He put aside his brilliant and profitable professional work, however, when war with France seemed imminent, in order to assist Washington in his plans for the organization of the army. When the war-cloud passed he resumed the practice of his profession. But his brilliant life was to come to an early and untimely end. In his political life he made many antagonists. One of these was Aaron Burr, as brilliant and hot-tempered as Hamilton, and a man of bold and dangerous ambition.

After a political quarrel, Burr challenged Hamilton to fight a duel. In theory Hamilton recognized the sin and folly of dueling, but he was not willing to refuse to fight for fear people would think he was a coward. Early one morning, July 11, 1804, the two rivals met in a quiet spot. Hamilton fired into the air, as he had said he would do; Burr with deadly skill aimed straight at his opponent who fell fatally wounded. Hamilton left his mourning country the record of a brilliant public career, the main purpose of which was to strengthen the general government and to consolidate the Union.

Daniel Boone

The Pioneer of Kentucky

During colonial days, the English settlers occupied the land east of the Alleghany Mountains. Except on expeditions of war or explorations and adventure, they did not cross the mountains to the west. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, the first pioneer went westward to settle, taking with him his wife and daughter, the first white women to make their homes in the western land. This pioneer was Daniel Boone. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1735, and so was three years younger than George Washington.

Boone’s father moved to North Carolina in 1752 and there Daniel grew to manhood. His school days were brief and his book-learning was limited. There was standing many years a tree on which was carved in rude letters, “D. Boon Cilled A Bar on this tree year 1760.” But he was expert in the homely, hardy work of the frontier, and in woodcraft; familiar with the life and habits of the wild things of the wood; a sure quick shot, a fearless and self-reliant youth. One who knew him later says he was “honest of heart and liberal--in short, one of nature’s noblemen. He abhorred a mean action and delighted in honesty and truth. He never delighted in the shedding of human blood, even that of his enemies in war. His remarkable quality was an unwavering and invincible fortitude.”

Boone was an expert hunter and trapper. Like many American frontiersmen, he wore a dress resembling that of the Indians,--a buckskin hunting shirt with fringed buckskin leggings and moccasins of deerskin or buffalo-hide. His inseparable companion was his long-barrelled rifle.

He went as a wagoner on Braddock’s ill-fated expedition and barely escaped with his life.

The country west of the mountains had been visited and explored by several men and parties. Gist, who accompanied Washington on his mission to the French forts, was one of these early explorers. Another was John Finley who traded with the Indians on the Red River of Kentucky. He told Boone about the fertile soil, the abundant game, and the “salt licks” of the western lands.

After a short hunting trip on the borders, Boone started out, in May, 1769, to explore “the far-famed but little-known land of Kentucky.” He started with five companions and he spent two years roaming over the country. The white men were attacked by Indians in the fall of 1769 and Boone and Stewart were captured. A week later they made their escape, but were unable to find their friends. Not long after, Boone’s brother and another frontiersman joined them with a welcome supply of powder and lead.

Their companions were killed by the Indians, and the Boone brothers spent some months in the wilderness in a cabin which they built of poles and bark. For some reason his brother went home, and Daniel Boone remained for months alone, the only white man in that wilderness which was the battle-ground of northern and southern Indians. Not even a dog was there to keep him company, and as food, he had only what his rifle and fishing-rod could secure.

Undaunted by loneliness or wildness, by lurking beast or hostile savages, Boone determined to bring his family to this fair and fertile land. He felt that he had a work to do, “God had appointed him an instrument for the settlement of the wilderness.” Several families set out with the Boone brothers, driving their cattle and conveying their household goods in wagons. They were attacked by Indians and the others became so discouraged that they turned back.

Boone, however, was undaunted. In 1775, as agent of a North Carolina company, he founded Boonesborough, a stockade or station near a salt lick on the Kentucky River. This was near the present site of Frankfort. Thither came his wife and daughter, the first women pioneers in Kentucky. The Indians strove to drive back the white men from their hunting-grounds, and this fort became the center of savage and relentless warfare.

At one time three little girls, one of whom was Boone’s daughter, were captured by the Indians. The settlers marched to rescue them, and did so, it is said, after a long journey and a fierce struggle in which Boone and a companion were captured.

In 1778, Boone with a small party of men left the settlement to get a supply of salt. They were surrounded by a large band of Indians and carried north. Boone was taken as far as the present site of Detroit. He remained with the savages several months without having an opportunity to let his family know his fate. Learning that the Indian warriors were preparing to attack the Kentucky settlements, he managed to escape and made his way two hundred miles southward, through the wilderness swarming with enemies, in time to warn the settlements and to help defend Boonesborough against attack. His family, thinking him dead, had returned to North Carolina. He followed them and returned with them to his chosen home a few months later.

For years there was almost constant warfare against the Indians in the “Dark and Bloody Ground,” as Kentucky was well called. It is said within seven years--from 1783 to 1790--fifteen hundred whites were killed or taken captive in Kentucky.

In 1792 Kentucky, which had been a county of Virginia, was made a state; at this time Boone’s title to his land was found defective. In his old age he was deprived of his small share of the great country he had helped to settle and open to the English.

He moved west to the country owned by Spain, and stopped near the present site of St. Louis. The Spanish governor granted him about eight thousand acres of land. When this territory was sold to the United States, his title was upset and he was deprived of this estate also.

This typical American pioneer died in 1820.

Oliver Hazard Perry and Thomas Macdonough

Two Naval Commanders in the War of 1812

The war of 1812 was brought about by the war between the French and English in Europe. France and England each issued orders forbidding trade with the other. Both claimed the right to confiscate all vessels that engaged in trade with its rival. The English claimed also the right to search American vessels for British seamen; and they seized hundreds of men, many of whom were not English seamen at all but Americans.

In order to avoid war, instead of resisting these unjust demands at once, the United States passed the Embargo Act, forbidding American vessels to sail to any foreign country; this act occasioned discontent and was soon repealed; only trade with England was forbidden. The English impressments of American seamen continued until finally America had to fight for her rights. War was declared, June 18, 1812. Most of the American victories in this war were won at sea. The most famous of the naval commanders was Perry.

Oliver Hazard Perry was the descendant of an English Quaker, who came to America about the middle of the seventeenth century to enjoy the free exercise of his religion. He went first to Plymouth where Quakers were disliked; finally he purchased a tract of land in Roger Williams’ Rhode Island colony and settled there. Here his descendants remained and here Oliver Hazard Perry was born in 1785. His father served in the American navy during the Revolution and became so fond of the sea that he continued his voyages as captain of a merchant-vessel.

Oliver was sent first to a school near his home. A few years later his parents moved from South Kingston to Newport to give their children the advantage of better schools. The war between England and France was now going on, and it seemed at this time as if America would be drawn into war against France. President Adams, therefore, resolved to establish a navy. Captain Perry was given command of a vessel called the General Greene, the business of which was to defend American merchant-vessels trading with the West Indies. Oliver, now thirteen, begged his father to let him enter the navy. Permission was granted, and Oliver became a midshipman on his father’s vessel.

After danger of war with France was over, young Perry still continued in the navy. His next service was in the Mediterranean against the Barbary States. These states,--Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, and Morocco--on the north coast of Africa, had for hundreds of years made a business of piracy. They captured vessels, and used or sold the stores and sold the crews into slavery. America, like England and other countries, for years bribed them not to molest its vessels. At last the Americans determined, instead of paying tribute, longer, to send a fleet to the Barbary coast and force the pirates to respect the American flag. Oliver Perry was on a ship sent in 1802. The fleet cruised about and did little fighting and his ship was recalled to America in 1803.

The most daring deed of the war was performed by a young American lieutenant, Stephen Decatur. An American ship, the Philadelphia, had fallen into the hands of the Barbary pirates and Lieutenant Decatur went into the harbor with a few men in a boat and set fire to the vessel to prevent its being manned by the Tripolitans. The Barbary ruler finally made a treaty of peace with the United States. In the war Perry had had no special opportunity to distinguish himself, but he had proved himself brave and efficient.

When the war against England began in 1812, it seemed that American chances for sea victory were small. England, the mistress of the seas, had a large, well-equipped navy; the American fleet was far inferior in numbers and in size. But the Americans had brave seamen who won some brilliant victories. One of the greatest of these was that of the American vessel the Constitution over the English Guerriére.

The command of the Great Lakes was very important; being on the boundary between the United States and the English colony of Canada, they controlled the entrance to each country. When the war opened, the English had a naval force on the Great Lakes, the Americans had none. A fleet could not be made ready without delay, and an American army under General Hull was sent to invade Canada. General Hull surrendered the fort at Detroit without attempting to defend it, and the English took also Fort Dearborn, on the site of Chicago.

To protect the northern coast, Lieutenant Oliver Perry was sent to build a fleet on Lake Erie and to fight the British there. This was a great undertaking. There was no railroad or canal connecting the western with the eastern part of New York. Nails, sails, guns, powder, shot, and supplies of all kinds had to be carried on ox wagons along the rough roads and on boats up the streams. Perry did not lose time bemoaning the difficulty of the task. The very day that he received his orders he started carpenters to the lake; having arranged about men and supplies, he himself set forth in the depth of winter. In the spring, followed men bringing needed stores. In a few months Perry had a little fleet built of trees which were standing in the forest the summer before. “Give me men,” he wrote, “and I will acquire both for you and for myself honor and glory on this lake, or die in the attempt.”

In September, 1813, the American ships sailed forth and the English fleet, which was about equal in men and guns, made ready to attack. Lieutenant Perry hoisted a flag bearing the words, “Don’t give up the ship,” the dying speech of brave Captain Lawrence for whom the flag-ship was named. The English attacked gallantly, and Perry’s ship was so injured that “hammered out of his own ship,” he had to go in a row-boat to the Niagara. With him he took his flag and Captain Lawrence’s brave words waved as a signal from the Niagara. The Americans raked the English decks with a deadly broadside. The British fought bravely till their ships were crippled and most of their officers and many of their men were wounded. Then the whole squadron was surrendered,--the first time that this fate ever befell the British in a naval battle.

In honor of Captain Lawrence, Perry was determined that the surrender should take place on the Lawrence, so he returned to that vessel and there received the swords of the British officers. On the back of an old letter he wrote his famous dispatch to General Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. Yours with very great respect and esteem, O. H. Perry.” This battle of Lake Erie prevented the English and French invasion of the United States and made it possible for the Americans to invade Canada. Perry was made captain, then the highest rank in the American navy. This ended his service in the war of 1812.

In 1816 Captain Perry was sent against the Algerian pirates who were again troublesome. The ruler finally signed a treaty of peace and Perry returned without having had to fight. Two years later, in 1819, he was ordered to Venezuela to protest against seizures of American vessels and to present claims for losses. He succeeded in his mission, but he did not live to return home, dying of yellow fever on his thirty-fourth birthday, August 23, 1819. His body was brought home in a war-vessel and buried with military honors at Newport, Rhode Island.

Another hero of the war of 1812 was Thomas Macdonough, “the hero of Lake Champlain,” who won a decisive victory against odds of men, guns, and ships. Thomas Macdonough was born in Delaware and entered the navy when he was sixteen.

In 1803 he sailed on the frigate Philadelphia bound for Tripoli. At Gibraltar he was left in charge of a captured Moorish ship. The Philadelphia, as you know, was taken by the Tripolitans; its crew was kept in close confinement nearly two years. Macdonough served on board the Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, and he was one of the seventy men who captured and destroyed the Philadelphia, which Admiral Nelson declared to be “the most bold and daring act of the age.” For his gallantry on this occasion, Macdonough was made lieutenant.

In 1810 he made a voyage in the merchant-service; at Liverpool he was impressed and carried on board a British vessel, but he managed to make his escape in the clothes of an English officer.

In 1812 Lieutenant Macdonough, then twenty-six years old, was put in command of the naval force on Lake Champlain. You remember the old plan of the British under Burgoyne for the invasion of New York. A similar plan was now devised by the British and eleven thousand soldiers were collected at the end of Lake Champlain to invade New York by way of the lake. The English had built a fleet to convey this army. The Americans had at the time, in 1814, only a force of about two thousand men at Plattsburg, New York, and on the lake Lieutenant Macdonough’s fleet of fourteen vessels, with eighty-six guns and eight hundred and eighty-two men.

This fleet protected Plattsburg and it was necessary to destroy it before General Prevost, the British commander, could make the land attack. The British fleet, consisting of sixteen vessels with ninety-two guns and nine hundred and thirty-seven men, advanced to the attack early on the morning of September 11, 1814. Macdonough in Plattsburg Bay awaiting the enemy. The shot of the British vessel shattered a hen-coop on board Macdonough’s vessel; a game cock, thus suddenly released, jumped on a gun, flapped his wings, and crowed. “The men laughed and cheered; and immediately afterwards Macdonough himself fired the first shot from one of the long guns.”

During the battle Macdonough worked like a common sailor at the guns and directed the movements of his fleet with a quick eye for every point of advantage. His ship was twice set on fire, and one by one his guns were disabled; the damage inflicted on the British was still more severe and some of their vessels were captured; in two and a half hours their crippled fleet had to withdraw. The American fleet was so injured that Lieutenant Macdonough was unable to pursue the retreating enemy. But General Prevost was forced to retire without attacking Plattsburg and the invasion of New York had to be given up.

From his battleship, Macdonough sent the message: “The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on Lake Champlain in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy. T. Macdonough.” For this victory he was made captain.

After the war of 1812, Captain Macdonough was sent on several cruises. In 1825 on account of ill-health he obtained permission to leave the Mediterranean where he was stationed and return to the United States. But he did not live to reach his native shores, dying at sea, November 10, 1825. His body was brought home and buried with military honors.

Marquis de Lafayette

A French Patriot

One of the notable figures of the eighteenth century was a French nobleman who aided in the struggle for freedom in two countries, America and France. This book can give only a brief sketch of his efforts in behalf of the American patriots. By the death of his father and mother, the Marquis de Lafayette in his youth became master of large estates and great wealth.

But he did not settle down to a calm and selfish enjoyment of these. He heard of the struggles of the American colonists against the oppression of the English king and his generous heart was inspired with interest and sympathy. Later, he said, “The moment I heard of America I loved her: the moment I knew she was fighting for freedom, I burned with desire of bleeding for her; and the moment I shall be able to serve her at any time or in any part of the world, will be the happiest one of my life.”

He was only eighteen, lately married to a young and beautiful lady of rank and wealth equal to his own. But he turned from the gay and luxurious court; despite the opposition of the government, he left France and made his way to America to aid the colonists in their fight for freedom.

He went to Philadelphia; there he was coldly received by Congress which hesitated to give the young foreigner the position to which he was entitled by his rank and by the promise of the American commissioner in France. A less enthusiastic patriot might have taken offence. Lafayette only wrote to Congress: “After the sacrifice I have made I have the right to exact two favors; one is, to serve at my own expense, the other is, to serve at first as a volunteer.”

His generosity was not unrewarded. Congress made him major-general; he was soon attached to the staff of Washington and between the two there grew to be the warmest friendship. Lafayette suffered many hardships in the patriot cause. He was wounded in the battle of Brandywine while leading his troops; he bore without a murmur the privations of Valley Forge, and fought gallantly in the battle of Monmouth.

In 1779 Lafayette went to France for a few months; it was largely through his influence that land and naval forces were sent to the aid of America. France formed an alliance with America and aided the patriots chiefly because she hated England and wished revenge for the loss of her northern colonies. The young French officer, however, was inspired by love for the cause of freedom.

In 1781 he was sent in command of twelve hundred New England soldiers to help the Virginians against the invading Cornwallis who had about five thousand men. “The boy cannot escape me,” said Cornwallis when he heard of Lafayette’s approach. But “the boy” managed to keep out of reach, until he was so reinforced that when he offered battle Cornwallis withdrew. It was now Lafayette’s turn to pursue and Cornwallis’s to retreat. At Yorktown the British were hemmed in by the American army under Lafayette on one side and the French fleet on the other, until Washington’s forces came up. The siege and capture of Yorktown followed, and Lafayette who had contributed largely to the success of the campaign was publicly thanked by Washington. In December, 1781, the young nobleman returned to his home in France.

A few years later the French began their struggle for liberty, the famous French Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette drew up a famous “declaration of rights,” modeled after the Declaration of Independence, and drew his sword again in the cause of the people. The great French prison, the Bastile, regarded as the stronghold of tyranny, was taken, and its key was sent by Lafayette to Washington.

Lafayette wanted freedom but not license for his countrymen, and he lost favor with the violent republican party. At last, sick of anarchy in the name of liberty, he left France, intending to come to America. He was seized by the Austrian authorities, and for five years was kept in close and cruel imprisonment.

In 1824 Lafayette, an old and broken man who had been deprived of wealth and property, came to visit the young republic for which he had fought. He was received as the nation’s guest, the people’s friend; he went from Boston to New Orleans, welcomed and honored at every turn. He made a pilgrimage to Mount Vernon to visit the tomb of his “great good friend,” Washington. In Boston he laid the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument. Congress voted him a grant of two hundred thousand dollars and an American vessel was sent to convey him home. The United States joined France in lamenting the death of this great patriot in 1834.

Some American Improvements and Inventions

Franklin, the first great typical American, was interested in science,--not so much the abstract principles as the practical application of those principles so as to increase the comfort and well-being of people. This was true, also, of Jefferson, another great typical American. From those days to the present time, this practical turn has been characteristic of American talent. Sometimes it has been said in reproach that America stands for progress in material ways, that her men of science care, not for abstract truth, but for its market value.

Let us remember, however, that whenever a great cause or principle has needed support, Americans have always risen to the occasion. Material progress and business ability are good things, if only we do not overestimate their value in comparison with others.

In so large a country as America, the question of methods of travel and means of transportation was of course important from the first. Water-ways were the natural and most convenient mode of communication. If you will look on a map of the colonies, you will see how the settlements clung to water-lines--ocean, lake, and river.

Before the Revolution, men went to and fro as they had done for hundreds even thousands of years. On the water they traveled by slow boats, propelled by oars or sails. On the land they journeyed on foot, or horseback, or in rude vehicles, over roads which were generally rough and bad and often dangerous.

It was so expensive to carry goods to and fro that their carriage within the limits of a state might cost more than the value of the goods. It cost, for instance, two dollars and a half a bushel to carry salt three hundred miles in the state of New York. People who moved from the eastern to the western part of the state could not afford to carry their household goods. They had to be carried by boat from New York to Albany, hauled to Schenectady, carried in boats up the Mohawk River and on a small canal to Utica, then hauled overland to Rome, and carried again in boats down a small canal and creek to Oneida Lake, thence by water to Lake Ontario.

During the early part of the nineteenth century, in three ways travel and hauling were made easier and cheaper. The simplest of these was by the extensive use of canals. A canal is a trench filled with water deep enough to carry well-laden boats. The boats are drawn by horses which travel along a path called a “tow path.” In most cases the boats are moved up and down inclines by means of what are called “locks” on the canal. It is usually cheaper to haul goods by canals than by natural streams as the locks make the water lift or lower loads on inclines.

The people of New York state became convinced that canals along and connecting their water-ways would be a good and cheap way to carry manufactured articles from New York city to the western settlements, and to convey wheat, corn, and other produce to the eastern markets. A canal was planned between Albany and Buffalo, to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic. But the expense of this canal would be great and many people did not believe that the traffic would repay it. The matter was made a political issue and on it DeWitt Clinton was elected governor.

It was largely through his zeal and energy that the project was carried to a successful issue, and a canal forty feet wide and three hundred and sixty-three miles long was dug. While the canal was being constructed people called it “Clinton’s Folly,” and when it was finished and successful they called it “Clinton’s Big Ditch.”

An effort was made to get the general government to help construct this canal, but the bill was vetoed. Governor Clinton secured the help of the business men of New York, and four months after the aid bill was vetoed, the canal was begun, Clinton himself throwing the first shovelful of dirt. In fact, there was dug not one canal, but two canals,--one between Lake Erie and the Hudson, and the other between the Hudson and Lake Champlain.

In the summer of 1825 the western part was opened and boats went from Buffalo to New York City. As there was no telegraph to announce the news of the starting of the first canal-boat, it was carried by cannon, placed at intervals along the route. When the boat left Buffalo, the first cannon was fired; the man at the second heard the report and fired his piece; and so from one to another the news was borne to New York in two hours. Governor Clinton was on the boat which made this first trip; he carried a keg of water dipped from Lake Erie which he poured into New York Bay, as a sign that the two were united. From the first the canal was a paying investment as well as a great convenience to the people. Freight rates decreased at once to much less than their former rates. Instead of its costing the farmer of western New York $1.10 to send a bushel of his wheat to the eastern market, it cost only forty cents.

There was another important result. So much freight was carried down the canal that vessels began to come to New York City in preference to Philadelphia and other ports, as they were sure of cargoes of grain, lumber, etc. This had much to do with the growth of New York City and the prosperity of the state. This canal is still used. Every year there travel down it great fleets of grain barges drawn by steam tugs. People overlook other things in Clinton’s political record, and, on account of this canal, remember him as the benefactor of his state.

About the time that the Erie Canal was completed, the first steam railway was built in England. Its inventor was an Englishman who was born while the American colonies were fighting for independence. George Stephenson was the son of a poor workman, and as a boy he toiled in the coal-mine where his father was employed. He made up his mind, however, to get an education. When he was eighteen, he attended a night school and learned to read and write. About this time his father’s health failed and George had to support the family. Often he had to labor by night as well as by day, but he managed to keep on with his studies.

Uncovered lights were then used by miners; carried into mines where there was gas, these often occasioned explosions in which many miners were wounded and killed. Stephenson set to work to invent a safety-lamp. Meanwhile, Sir Humphrey Davy was working on a similar invention. The two English scientists, independently of each other, arrived at success about the same time.

Stephenson now turned his attention to the subject of steam locomotion. He made a locomotive, a “traveling engine” as he called it, which in 1814 was successfully used in hauling coal-cars at a speed of four miles an hour. Stephenson saw that this locomotive had many defects, and he set to work to obtain better results. He succeeded the next year in building an engine which had “few parts and simplicity of action.”

After many years of discussion, a plan for a railroad was approved by parliament and a line was opened in 1825. People marveled at seeing Stephenson’s engine travel at a speed of fifteen miles an hour; they doubted whether the railway would ever become a practicable mode of travel. Stephenson said, “I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see the day when railways will supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country--when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highways for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot.”

After the success of the first railway, it was decided to build a line to connect Liverpool and Manchester, as the canal between these two cities was inadequate for the handling of their passengers and freight. There was held a contest between different steam engines in which Stephenson’s Rocket came out victor. A paper commenting on the success of the Rocket, said: “The experiments at Liverpool have established principles which will give a greater impulse to civilization than it has ever received from any single cause since the press first opened the gates of knowledge to the human species at large.” This proved true. The problem of cheap and speedy land-travel was now solved. During the years which followed England was covered with a network of railroads.

America with its great distances to traverse, was not slow to adopt the railroad. Only three years after Stephenson’s passenger railway was opened, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was begun. The first cars were only stage-coaches made to run on rails and the locomotive was a crude affair,--but it was a vast improvement on former methods of travel. Hundreds and thousands of miles of railroads were built in different parts of the country. Now, great lines connect the north and south, the east and west. Huge engines, very unlike Stephenson’s little Rocket, travel a mile a minute: instead of taking weeks to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, people can make the journey in five days.

Before the steam railway was invented by an Englishman, an American inventor had applied the use of steam to water-travel and had invented a steamboat. James Watt, a Scotch inventor, had prepared the way by his invention of the steam engine. After this was devised, many people thought that it would be possible and useful to make it furnish motive power for water-travel. Several American inventors attempted to make boats moved by steam power and had more or less success; but they lacked either money to carry out their plans or perseverance to bring them to public notice.

While Watts was working on the steam engine, there was born in America a boy who was to apply it successfully to water-travel. This was Robert Fulton, who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1765. He was only a schoolboy during the stirring days of the American Revolution. He was a bright boy and early showed inventive talent. One holiday he went fishing with some schoolmates, in a boat propelled by means of poles. To avoid the labor of using these poles, Robert made some paddle-wheels which he attached to the boat; he also fixed on the stern a paddle by means of which the boat could be guided.

But this was mere schoolboy sport. It did not occur to Fulton till many years later to make boat-building his profession. Even as a boy he determined that he would be an artist. He spent four years in Philadelphia working and studying; there he succeeded so well that he went abroad. In England he was welcomed by Benjamin West, a popular American painter. Through his courtesy and kindness, his young countryman met many interesting English people, men of affairs and scientists as well as artists. In England Fulton became interested in canals, which he thought would be useful to convey merchandise along the water-ways of New York, as you know was done later. In fact, he became so much interested in this subject that he gave more time to it than to painting and he invented several improvements in canals and canal-boats.

In 1797 Fulton went to France where he continued his art studies and his scientific experiments. He invented a torpedo and diving boat, but he did not succeed in getting either the French or the English government to take it up. In Paris he met a wealthy American, Mr. Robert Livingston, who was interested in science and who had tried to make a steamboat. Fulton said that he was sure he could do so if only he had money to carry on the necessary experiments. Mr. Livingston at once offered to advance the funds and to share the future profits.

Fulton gladly accepted and began his experiments. He made a little model of a steamboat with side-wheels turned by machinery. Then he made a trial boat which broke before it was used. Undiscouraged, he at once set to work on a second one. This was tried on the river Seine and to Fulton’s great satisfaction it worked well. Then he had an engine built in England and sent to America. Mr. Livingston secured the passage of an act by the New York legislature giving to him and Fulton for twenty years the sole right to use on the waters in New York state boats propelled by “fire or steam.” People laughed and said that they were welcome to the right for a hundred years. They called the steamboat on which Fulton was working “Fulton’s Folly.”

In the summer of 1807, there was completed the Clermont, a side-paddle steamboat one hundred and thirty feet in length. It was an ugly object; even Livingston confessed, “It looks like a backwoods sawmill mounted on a scow and set on fire.”

Fulton made ready for a trial trip from New York to Albany. The boat moved off from shore, and then stopped. Fulton hurried to the engine, and discovered and corrected the cause of the trouble. The boat moved off again, and this time it kept on amid the cheers of the people. The steamboat was no longer a question, it was an accomplished fact. On that trial trip the boat went a hundred and fifty miles in thirty hours, which seemed wonderful speed in those days. How different the Clermont was from the swift and powerful boats of to-day, the “ocean greyhounds,” as they are called.

In 1812 during the war with Great Britain, Fulton made a plan for a steam war-ship and he was authorized to build it, the first in the world. While attending to its construction he contracted a severe cold and died in February, 1814.

We have considered improved methods of travel,--canals, railways, and steamboats. Let us look at what invention has done for agriculture in America. We may almost say that Whitney created the cotton supremacy of to-day. Until he invented the gin, the seeds and lint had to be separated by hand. It was a tedious and costly process. The gin does the work so rapidly and well that it is possible to raise and sell cotton much cheaper than other clothing materials. Thus it has become the great agricultural staple of the South.

Whitney, the inventor of the gin, was not, as you might suppose, a southerner. He was born in 1765 on a farm in Massachusetts; he never even saw a cotton plant until about the time that he invented the gin.

From boyhood Eli Whitney showed an intelligent curiosity about machinery and a mechanical turn. One Sunday he was left at home while the other members of the family went to church. He took advantage of the opportunity to investigate his father’s big silver watch; he took the works apart, but with such care and skill that he was able to put them together properly and his father never suspected what had been done until Eli told him years afterwards.

Eli was a faithful student at the village school near his home; he longed for a better education than could be obtained there and he resolved to go to college. His father thought it would be better for the young man, now nineteen, to continue work at trade or business, but Eli was determined to have an education. For four years he worked by day on the farm and in the shop to earn money for his expenses, and studied at night to prepare himself for college. Then he went to Yale, where he spent four years, eking out his scanty funds by doing odd jobs and working during vacation.

In 1792 he was graduated from Yale. He wished to study law but his funds were now exhausted and it was necessary for him to set to work. So he went to Georgia to teach school. There were then no railroads across the country, and Whitney went by sea, which was the cheapest and most convenient way of making the journey. From New York there traveled on the same boat Mrs. Greene, the widow of the famous General Nathanael Greene. She and her children, who were on their way to their home in Georgia, soon made friends with their fellow-traveler, the bright young New Englander. When Whitney reached Savannah he was disappointed about the school which he had come to teach.

Mrs. Greene at once invited him to visit her home where he could study law until he found such a position as he wished. He proved a pleasant visitor and a helpful one, too. He was always ready to put in bolts and screws where they were needed and made many labor-saving little devices. One day Mrs. Greene complained that her embroidery frame tore the cloth on which she was working. Mr. Whitney at once made a new frame, far superior to the old one.

Not long after this, some of Mrs. Greene’s guests were talking about the unprosperous condition of the South. It could be remedied, they thought, if a way could be devised to separate the short staple cotton from the seed, which would make cotton a profitable crop. The seed and lint of the sea island cotton do not adhere so closely, and these were separated by means of a roller-gin, acting on the principle of the clothes-wringer. But the sea island cotton can be grown only in a certain section near the coast. The seeds and lint of the short staple, or upland, cotton adhere so closely that they had to be separated by hand. Mrs. Greene suggested that Mr. Whitney, who was so clever with tools, should invent a machine to do this work. Whitney was willing to try. He had never even seen cotton in the seed; he got some and examined it and tried to devise a machine to do the work of the human fingers.

His first plan was to have a cylinder on which were fastened circular saws; as the cylinder revolved the saw-teeth would catch the cotton and drag it from the seeds. On the plantation he could not get tin or metal plates to make these saws; finally he decided that teeth of wire would do as well or better. He made a model of a gin which worked well, except for the fact that the cotton lint stuck to the saw-teeth and clogged them.

“I must devise some way to get the cotton off the teeth,” he said.

“Use a brush,” suggested Mrs. Greene, picking up a brush and with it removing the cotton from the wires. Mr. Whitney accepted the suggestion and put rows of small brushes on a second cylinder to meet the teeth and take off the cotton.

In 1793 Whitney went north to secure a patent for his machine. The Secretary of State then was Jefferson who was interested in all inventions and especially in those useful in agriculture. He asked many questions about the workings of the gin which he foresaw would prove a vast benefit to the cotton-growing states.

Cotton was raised and sold now at a profit, for one man could gin a thousand pounds in the time it had taken to seed one pound by hand. Macaulay said, “What Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin has more than equaled in its relation to the power and progress of the United States.”

I wish I could tell you that Whitney won fortune by his invention which was such a great benefit to his countrymen, but this was not the case. Men infringed his patent rights and there was for a long time a foolish prejudice among buyers against ginned cotton. Whitney spent thirteen years struggling for justice and recognition, and his patent had almost expired before his legal rights were established. Friends made an effort to get the patent, which ran only fourteen years, extended, but in vain.

Whitney was destined to be more successful in another undertaking. He thought that the United States ought to make its own firearms, and he succeeded in getting money advanced by the government to aid him in starting a factory near New Haven. He invented new methods which proved successful and profitable. His factory brought him fortune and his prosperous latter years were spent in his Connecticut home.