Chapter I: Preface

This book, like "Stories of Early American History," follows somewhat closely the course of study prepared by the Committee of Eight, the present volume covering the topics outlined for Grade V, while the earlier one includes the material suggested for Grade IV.

It was the plan of that committee to take up in these grades, largely in a biographical way, a great part of the essential facts of American history; and with this plan the author, who was a member of that committee, was in hearty accord. This method, it is believed, serves a double purpose. In the first place, it is the best possible way of laying the foundation for the later and more detailed study of United States history in the higher grammar grades by those pupils who are to continue in school; and in the second, it gives to that large number of pupils who will leave school before the end of the sixth grade--which is at least half of all the boys and girls in the schools of the country--some acquaintance with the leading men and prominent events of American history.

It is without doubt a great mistake to allow half of the pupils to go out from our public schools with almost no knowledge of the moral and material forces which have made this nation what it is to-day. It is an injustice to the young people themselves; it is also an injury to their country, the vigor of whose life will depend much upon their intelligent and patriotic support.

With this conviction, it has been the author's desire to make the story of the events concrete, dramatic, and lifelike by centring them about leaders, heroes, and other representative men, in such a way as to appeal to the imagination and to influence the ideals of the child. In so doing, he has made no attempt to write organized history--tracing out its intricate relations of cause and effect. At the same time, however, he has aimed to select his facts and events so carefully that the spirit of our national life and institutions, as well as many of the typical events of American history, may be presented.

It is confidently hoped that the fine illustrations and the attractive typographical features of the book will help to bring vividly before the mind of the child the events narrated in the text.

Another aid in making the stories vivid will, it is intended, be found in "Some Things to Think About." These and many similar questions, which the teacher can easily frame to fit the needs of her class, will help the pupil to make real the life of days gone by as well as to connect it with the present time and with his own life.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my deep obligations to Mr. Forrest Morgan, of the Watkinson Library, Hartford, and to Miss Elizabeth P. Peck, of the Hartford Public High School, both of whom have read the manuscript and have made many valuable criticisms and suggestions.

WILBUR F. GORDY.

HARTFORD, CONN., April 15, 1915.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. PATRICK HENRY
II. SAMUEL ADAMS
III. THE WAR BEGINS NEAR BOSTON
IV. GEORGE WASHINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION
V. NATHANAEL GREENE AND OTHER HEROES IN THE SOUTH
VI. JOHN PAUL JONES
VII. DANIEL BOONE
VIII. JAMES ROBERTSON
IX. JOHN SEVIER
X. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
XI. THE NEW REPUBLIC
XII. INCREASING THE SIZE OF THE NEW REPUBLIC
XIII. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
XIV. THE REPUBLIC GROWS LARGER
XV. THREE GREAT STATESMEN
XVI. THE CIVIL WAR
XVII. FOUR GREAT INDUSTRIES
INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Pioneers on the Overland Route, Westward
George III
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry Delivering His Speech in the Virginia House of
Burgesses
William Pitt
St. John's Church, Richmond
Samuel Adams
Patriots in New York Destroying Stamps Intended for Use in
Connecticut
Faneuil Hall, Boston
Old South Church, Boston
The "Boston Tea Party"
Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia
John Hancock
John Hancock's Home, Boston
A Minuteman
Old North Church
Paul Revere's Ride
Monument on Lexington Common Marking the Line of the Minutemen
Concord Bridge
President Langdon, the President of Harvard College, Praying for the
Bunker Hill Entrenching Party on Cambridge Common Just
Before Their Departure
Prescott at Bunker Hill
Bunker Hill Monument
George Washington
Washington, Henry, and Pendleton on the Way to Congress at
Philadelphia
The Washington Elm at Cambridge, under which Washington took Command
of the Army
Sir William Howe
Thomas Jefferson Looking Over the Rough Draught of the Declaration
of Independence
The Retreat from Long Island
Nathan Hale
British and Hessian Soldiers
Powder-Horn, Bullet-Flask, and Buckshot-Pouch Used in the Revolution
General Burgoyne Surrendering to General Gates
Marquis de Lafayette
Lafayette Offering His Services to Franklin
Winter at Valley Forge
Nathanael Greene
The Meeting of Greene and Gates upon Greene's Assuming Command
Daniel Morgan
Francis Marion
Marion Surprising a British Wagon-Train
John Paul Jones
Battle Between the Ranger and the Drake
The Fight Between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis
Daniel Boone
Boone's Escape from the Indians
Boonesborough
Boone Throwing Tobacco into the Eyes of the Indians Who Had Come to
Capture Him
James Robertson
Living-Room of the Early Settler
Grinding Indian Corn
A Kentucky Pioneer's Cabin
John Sevier
A Barbecue of 1780
Battle of King's Mountain
George Rogers Clark
Clark on the Way to Kaskaskia
Clark's Surprise at Kaskaskia
Wampum Peace Belt
Clark's Advance on Vincennes
George Washington
Washington's Home, Mount Vernon
Tribute Rendered to Washington at Trenton
Washington Taking the Oath of Office as First President, at Federal
Hall, New York City
Washington's Inaugural Chair
Eli Whitney
Whitney's Cotton-Gin
A Colonial Planter
A Slave Settlement
Thomas Jefferson
"Monticello," the Home of Jefferson
A Rice-Field in Louisiana
A Flatboat on the Ohio River
House in New Orleans Where Louis Philippe Stopped in 1798
A Public Building in New Orleans Built in 1794
Meriwether Lewis
William Clark
Buffalo Hunted by Indians
The Lewis and Clark Expedition Working Its Way Westward
Andrew Jackson
"The Hermitage," the Home of Andrew Jackson
Fighting the Seminole Indians, under Jackson
Robert Fulton
Fulton's First Experiment with Paddle-Wheels
The "Clermont" in Duplicate at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, 1909
The Opening of the Erie Canal in 1825
The Ceremony Called "The Marriage of the Waters"
Erie Canal on the Right and Aqueduct over the Mohawk River, New York
"Tom Thumb," Peter Cooper's Locomotive Working Model, First Used
near Baltimore in 1830
Railroad Poster of 1843
Comparison of "DeWitt Clinton" Locomotive and Train, the First Train
Operated in New York, with a Modern Locomotive of the New
York Central R.R.
S.F.B. Morse
The First Telegraph Instrument
Modern Telegraph Office
The Operation of the Modern Railroad is Dependent upon the Telegraph
Sam Houston
Flag of the Republic of Texas
David Crockett
The Fight at the Alamo
John C. Frémont
Frémont's Expedition Crossing the Rocky Mountains
Kit Carson
Sutter's Mill
Placer-Mining in the Days of the California Gold Rush
John C. Calhoun
Calhoun's Office and Library
Henry Clay
The Birthplace of Henry Clay, near Richmond
The Schoolhouse in "the Slashes"
Daniel Webster
The Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, Mass.
Henry Clay Addressing the United States Senate in 1850
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's Birthplace
Lincoln Studying by Firelight
Lincoln Splitting Rails
Lincoln as a Boatman
Lincoln Visiting Wounded Soldiers
Robert E. Lee
Lee's Home at Arlington, Virginia
Jefferson Davis
Thomas J. Jackson
A Confederate Flag
J.E.B. Stuart
Confederate Soldiers
Union Soldiers
Ulysses S. Grant
Grant's Birthplace, Point Pleasant, Ohio
General and Mrs. Grant with Their Son at City Point, Virginia
William Tecumseh Sherman
Sherman's March to the Sea
Philip H. Sheridan
Sheridan Rallying His Troops
The McLean House Where Lee Surrendered
General Lee on His Horse, Traveller
Cotton-Field in Blossom
A Wheat-Field
Grain-Elevators at Buffalo
Cattle on the Western Plains
Iron Smelters
Iron Ore Ready for Shipment

MAPS

Boston and Vicinity
The War in the Middle States
The War in the South
Early Settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee
George Rogers Clark in the Northwest
The United States in 1803, after the Louisiana Purchase (Colored)
Jackson's Campaign
Scene of Houston's Campaign
Frémont's Western Explorations
Map of the United States Showing First and Second Secession
Areas (Colored)
Route of Sherman's March to the Sea
The Country Around Washington and Richmond

STORIES OF LATER AMERICAN HISTORY