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                         HISTORY

                          OF THE

                       UNITED STATES


                       [Illustration]


                 NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO

                    AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

                           1891

          COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.




PREFACE.


To the American youth the history of our country is more important than
any other branch of education. A fair degree of knowledge respecting
the progress of the American people from the discovery of the New World
to the present is almost essential to that citizenship into which our
youth are soon expected to enter. In a government of the people, for
the people and by the people, a familiar acquaintance with the course
of events, with the movements of society in peace and war, is the great
prerequisite to the exercise of those rights and duties which the
American citizen must assume if he would hold his true place in the
Nation.

Fortunately, the means for studying the history of our country are
abundant and easy. American boys and girls have little cause any longer
to complain that the writers and teachers have put beyond their reach
the story of their native land. Great pains have been taken, on the
contrary, to gather out of our annals as a people and nation the most
important and romantic parts, and to recite in pleasing style, and with
the aid of happy illustrations, the lessons of the past.

The author of the present volume has tried in every particular to put
himself in the place of the student. He has endeavored to bring to the
pupils of our great Common Schools a brief and easy narrative of all
the better parts of our country's history. It has been his aim to tell
the story as a lover of his native land should recite for others that
which is dearest and best to memory and affection. He has sought to
bring the careful results of historical research into the schoolroom
without any of the superfluous rubbish and scaffolding of obtrusive
scholarship and erudition.

Another aim in the present text-book for our youth has been to consider
the events of our country's history somewhat from our own point of
view--not to despise the history of civilization in the Mississippi
Valley, or to seek wholly for examples of heroism and greatness in
the older States of the Union. Perhaps no part of our country is more
favorably situated for taking such a view of our progress as a nation
than is that magnificent region, constituting as it does the most
fertile and populous portion of the continent. In the present History
of the United States the author has not hesitated to make emphatic
those paragraphs which relate to the development and progress of this
region.

For the rest the author has followed the usual channel of narration
from the aboriginal times to the colonization of our Atlantic coast
by the peoples of Western Europe; from that event by way of the Old
Thirteen Colonies to Independence; from Independence to regeneration
by war; and from our second birth to the present epoch of greatness
and promise. He cherishes the hope that his work in the hands of the
boys and girls of our public schools may pass into their memories and
hearts; that its lessons may enter into union with their lives, and
conduce in some measure to their development into men and women worthy
of their age and country.


                              CONTENTS.


                                                                 PAGE

  PREFACE                                                         3

  CONTENTS                                                        5

  INTRODUCTION                                                    8


                               PART I.

                         PRIMITIVE AMERICA.

  CHAPTER

  I.--The Aborigines                                             11


                               PART II.

                        VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY.

  II.--The Norsemen in America                                   21

  III.--Spanish Discoveries in America                           24

  IV.--Spanish Discoveries in America.--Continued                28

  V.--The French in America                                      35

  VI.--English Discoveries and Settlements                       41

  VII.--English Discoveries and Settlements.--Continued          47

  VIII.--Voyages and Settlements of the Dutch                    53


                               PART III.

                           COLONIAL HISTORY.

  IX.--Virginia.--The First Charter                              57

  X.--Charter Government.--Continued                             65

  XI.--Virginia.--The Royal Government                           70

  XII.--Massachusetts.--Settlement and Union                     76

  XIII.--Massachusetts.--War and Witchcraft                      84

  XIV.--New York.--Settlement and Administration of Stuyvesant   94

  XV.--New York under the English                               100

  XVI.--Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire            106

  XVII.--New Jersey and Pennsylvania                            115

  XVIII.--Maryland and North Carolina                           122

  XIX.--South Carolina and Georgia                              128

  XX.--French and Indian War                                    135


                                PART IV.

                       REVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION.

  XXI.--Causes of the Revolution                                149

  XXII.--The Beginning of the Revolution.--Events of 1775       157

  XXIII.--The Events of 1776                                    163

  XXIV.--Operations of 1777                                     171

  XXV.--Events of 1778 and 1779                                 178

  XXVI.--Reverses and Treason.--Events of 1780                  187

  XXVII.--Events of 1781                                        192

  XXVIII.--Confederation and Union                              199


                                  PART V.

                            GROWTH OF THE UNION.

  XXIX.--Washington's Administration                            205

  XXX.--Adams's Administration                                  211

  XXXI.--Jefferson's Administration                             214

  XXXII.--Madison's Administration.--War of 1812                221

  XXXIII.--War of 1812.--Events of 1813                         228

  XXXIV.--The Campaigns of 1814                                 235

  XXXV.--Monroe's Administration                                244

  XXXVI.--Adams's Administration                                248

  XXXVII.--Jackson's Administration                             250

  XXXVIII.--Van Buren's Administration                          254

  XXXIX.--Administrations of Harrison and Tyler                 257

  XL.--Polk's Administration and the Mexican War                261

  XLI.--Administrations of Taylor and Fillmore                  269

  XLII.--Pierce's Administration                                273

  XLIII.--Buchanan's Administration                             275


                                   PART VI.

                                THE CIVIL WAR.

  XLIV.--Lincoln's Administration and the Civil War             281

  XLV.--Causes of the Civil War                                 284

  XLVI.--Events of 1861                                         288

  XLVII.--Campaigns of 1862                                     293

  XLVIII.--The Events of 1863                                   302

  XLIX.--The Closing Conflicts.--Events of 1864 and 1865        310


                                  PART VII.

                            THE NATION REUNITED.

  L.--Johnson's Administration                                  323

  LI.--Grant's Administration                                   328

  LII.--Hayes's Administration                                  337

  LIII.--Administrations of Garfield and Arthur                 344

  LIV.--Cleveland's Administration                              350

  LV.--Harrison's Administration                                361

  Appendix.--Constitution of the United States                  371

  Index                                                         387




                           MAPS AND PORTRAITS.


                              MAPS.

                                                               PAGE

  The New World, with Routes of Discoveries                      24

  The Colonies at the time of the French and Indian War         144

  The Colonies at the time of the Revolution                    192

  The States in America during the Civil War                    304


                              OUTLINE MAPS.

                                                               PAGE

  The First English Settlements                                  48

  Early Settlements in East Mass.                                78

  Middle Colonies                                               116

  Washington's Route to Fort Le
  Bœuf                                                          139

  Lake Champlain                                                142

  Quebec in 1759                                                145

  Vicinity of Boston                                            160

  New York and Vicinity                                         168

  Central New Jersey                                            170

  Hudson River                                                  174

  Philadelphia and Vicinity                                     176

  The Carolinas                                                 186

  Western Battlefields of the War of
  1812                                                          223

  Operations about Niagara                                      235

  Vicinity of Manassas Junction                                 288

  Vicinity of Richmond, 1862                                    298

  Vicksburg and Vicinity, 1863                                  303

  Sherman's Atlanta Campaign                                    312

  Operations in Virginia, 1864 and
  1865                                                          318


                              PORTRAITS.

                                                               PAGE

  George Washington                                              10

  Christopher Columbus                                           25

  Pedro Menendez                                                 33

  Samuel Champlain                                               39

  Sebastian Cabot                                                42

  Sir Walter Raleigh                                             44

  Captain John Smith                                             60

  Peter Stuyvesant                                               96

  William Penn                                                  119

  Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore                                 123

  James Oglethorpe                                              131

  Patrick Henry                                                 152

  Marquis de La Fayette                                         173

  Benjamin Franklin                                             179

  Paul Jones                                                    186

  General Greene                                                193

  John Adams                                                    211

  Thomas Jefferson                                              214

  James Madison                                                 221

  James Monroe                                                  244

  Henry Clay                                                    247

  John Quincy Adams                                             248

  Andrew Jackson                                                250

  Daniel Webster                                                251

  Martin Van Buren                                              254

  William Henry Harrison                                        257

  John Tyler                                                    257

  James K. Polk                                                 261

  John Charles Fremont                                          263

  Zachary Taylor                                                269

  Millard Fillmore                                              270

  Franklin Pierce                                               273

  James Buchanan                                                275

  Abraham Lincoln                                               281

  George B. McClellan                                           291

  Robert E. Lee                                                 299

  Stonewall Jackson                                             307

  William T. Sherman                                            311

  Joseph E. Johnston                                            313

  Philip H. Sheridan                                            317

  Andrew Johnson                                                323

  Ulysses S. Grant                                              328

  Horace Greeley                                                331

  Rutherford B. Hayes                                           337

  Oliver P. Morton                                              342

  James A. Garfield                                             344

  Chester A. Arthur                                             346

  Grover Cleveland                                              350

  Thomas A. Hendricks                                           356

  Benjamin Harrison                                             361




INTRODUCTION.


There are several Periods in the history of the United States. It is
important for the student to understand these at the beginning. Without
such an understanding his notion of our country's history will be
confused and his study rendered difficult.

2. First of all, there was a time when the Western continent was under
the dominion of the Red men. The savage races possessed the soil,
hunted in the forests, roamed over the prairies. This is the Primitive
Period in American history.

3. After the discovery of America, the people of Europe were for a long
time engaged in exploring the New World and in becoming familiar with
its shape and character. For more than a hundred years, curiosity was
the leading passion with the adventurers who came to our shores. Their
disposition was to go everywhere and settle nowhere. These early times
may be called the Period of Voyage and Discovery.

4. Next came the time of planting colonies. The adventurers, tired of
wandering about, became anxious to found new States in the wilderness.
Kings and queens turned their attention to the work of colonizing the
New World. Thus arose a third period--the Period of Colonial History.

5. The colonies grew strong and multiplied. There were thirteen little
seashore republics. The rulers of the mother-country began a system of
oppression and tyranny. The colonies revolted, fought side by side, and
won their freedom. Not satisfied with mere independence, they formed
a Union destined to become strong and great. This is the Period of
Revolution and Confederation.

6. Then the United States of America entered upon its career as a
nation. Emigrants flocked to the Land of the Free. New States were
formed and added to the Union in rapid succession. To protect itself
from jealous neighbors, the nation pushed her boundaries across the
continent. This Period may be called the Growth of the Union.

7. But the nation was not truly free. Human slavery existed in the
South. This institution engendered sectional hatred and desires for
disunion which finally developed into the dark and bloody Period of the
Civil War.

8. Then the reunited nation laid aside its arms and entered upon a
period of