The Project Gutenberg ebook of a brief History of the United States

India rubber for shoes, coats, caps, and wagon covers failed because in

warm weather the rubber softened and emitted an offensive smell. To

overcome this Goodyear labored year after year to discover a method of

hardening or, as it is called, vulcanizing rubber. Even when the discovery

was made and patented, several years passed before he was sure of the

process. In 1844 he succeeded and gave to the world a most useful

invention.

exposing to sunlight a copper plate treated with certain chemicals. The

exposure for each picture was some twenty minutes. An American, Dr. John

W. Draper, so improved the method that pictures were taken of persons in a

much shorter time, and photography was fairly started.
Greater yet was the discovery that by breathing sulphuric ether a person

can become insensible to pain and then recover consciousness. The glory of

the discovery has been claimed for Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson, who used it

in 1846. Laughing gas (nitrous oxide) was used as an ansesthetic before

this time by Dr. Wells of Hartford.
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVED.--In the country east of the Mississippi some

thirty thousand miles of railroad had been built, and direct communication

opened from the North and East to Chicago (1853) and New Orleans (1859).

For the growth of railroads between 1850 and 1861 study the maps on pp.

331, 353. [11] At first the lines between distant cities were composed of

many connecting but independent roads. Thus between Albany and Buffalo

there were ten such little roads; but in 1853 they were consolidated and

became the New York Central, and the era of the great trunk lines was

fairly opened.
On the ocean, steamship service between the Old World and the New was so

improved that steamships passed from Liverpool to New York in less than

twelve days.
Better means of transportation were of benefit, not merely to the traveler

and the merchant, but to the people generally. Letters could be carried

faster and more cheaply, so the rate of postage on a single letter was

reduced (1851) from five or ten cents to three cents, [12] and before 1860

express service covered every important line of transportation.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.--The success of the telegraph on land suggested a bold

attempt to lay wires across the bed of the ocean, and in 1854 Cyrus W.

Field of New York was asked to aid in the laying of a cable from St. Johns

to Cape Ray, Newfoundland. But Field went further and formed a company to

join Newfoundland and Ireland by cable, and after two failures succeeded

(1858). During three weeks all went well and some four hundred messages

were sent; then the cable ceased to work, and eight years passed before

another was laid. Since then many telegraph cables have been laid across

the Atlantic; but it was not till 1903 that the first was laid across the

Pacific.
FOREIGN RELATIONS.--We have seen how during this period our country was

expanded by the annexation of Texas (1845) and by two cessions of

territory from Mexico (1848 and 1853). But this was not enough to satisfy

the South, and attempts were made to buy Cuba. Polk (1848) offered Spain

$100,000,000 for it. Filibusters tried to capture it (in 1851), and Pierce

(1853) urged its annexation. With this end in view our ministers to Great

Britain, France, and Spain met at Ostend in Belgium in 1854 and issued

what was called the Ostend Manifesto. This set forth that Cuba must be

annexed to protect slavery, and if Spain would not sell for a fair price,

"then by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it

from Spain if we possess the power." Buchanan also (1858) urged the

purchase of Cuba; but in vain.
CHINA AND JAPAN.--More pleasing to recall are our relations with China and

Japan. Our flag was first seen in China in 1784, when the trading vessel

_Empress of China_ reached Canton. Washington (1790) appointed a consul to

reside in that city, the only one in China, then open to foreign trade;

but no minister from the United States was sent to China till Caleb

Gushing went in 1844. By him our first treaty was negotiated with China,

under which five ports were opened to American trade and two very

important concessions secured: (1) American citizens charged with any

criminal act were to be tried and punished only by the American consul.

(2) All privileges which China might give to any other nation were

likewise to be given to the United States.
At that time Japan was a "hermit nation." In 1853, however, Commodore M.

C. Perry went to that country with a fleet, and sent to the emperor a

message expressing the wish of the United States to enter into trade

relations with Japan. Then he sailed away; but returned in 1854 and made a

treaty (the first entered into by Japan) which resulted in opening that

country to the United States. Other nations followed, and Japan was thus

opened to trade with the civilized world.

SUMMARY
1. Between 1840 and 1860 the population increased from 17,000,000 to

31,000,000.
2. During this period millions of immigrants had come.
3. As population continued to move westward new states and territories

were formed.

driven from Illinois.

a railroad across the plains, and surveys were ordered.

the East, the West, and the far South were connected.

including the telegraph, the sewing machine, and the reaper.

Japan.
[Illustration: MODERN HARVESTER.]

FOOTNOTES
[1] All the large cities were so poorly governed, however, that they were

often the scenes of serious riots, political, labor, race, and even

religious.
[2] An unfriendly picture of the United States in 1842 is Dickens's

_American Notes_, a book well worth reading.

allowed to exercise any authority, and were driven out. The Mormons formed

the state of Deseret and applied for admission into the Union. Congress

paid no attention to the appeal, and (1857) Buchanan appointed a new

governor and sent troops to Utah to uphold the Federal authority. Young

forbade them to enter the territory, and dispatched an armed force that

captured some of their supplies. In the spring of 1858 the President

offered pardon "to all who will submit themselves to the just authority of

the Federal Government," and Young and his followers did so.
[4] An interesting account of the buffalo is given in A. C. Laut's The

Story of the Trapper_, pp. 65-80. Herds of a hundred thousand were common.

As many as a million buffalo robes were sent east each year in the

thirties and forties.

was Lieutenant of Engineers, United States Army. In 1842 he went up the

Platte River and through the South Pass. The next year he passed southward

to Great Salt Lake, then northwestward to the Columbia, then southward

through Oregon to California, and back by Great Salt Lake to South Pass in

1844. In 1845 he crossed what is now Nebraska and Utah, and reached the

vicinity of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him

away; but he remained in California and helped to win the country during

the war with Mexico. Later, he was senator from California, Republican

candidate for President in 1856, and an army general during the Civil War.

not needed for railroad purposes was to be sold and the money used to

build the road. During 1847-49 his plan was approved by the legislatures

of seventeen states, and by mass meetings of citizens or Boards of Trade

in seventeen cities.
[7] One from the west border of Texas to California; another from the west

border of Missouri to California; and a third from the west border of

Wisconsin to the Pacific in Oregon or Washington.
[8] In 1842 Morse laid the first submarine telegraph in the world, from

Governors Island in New York harbor to New York city. It consisted of a

wire wound with string and coated with tar, pitch, and india rubber, to

prevent the electric current running off into the water. It was laid on

October 18, and the next morning, while messages were being received, the

anchor of a vessel caught and destroyed the wire.

in the earth. This failed; so the wire was strung on poles. One end was in

the Pratt St. Depot, Baltimore, and the other in the Supreme Court Chamber

at Washington. The first words sent, after the completion of the line,

were "What hath God wrought." Two days later the Democratic convention

(which nominated Polk for President) met at Baltimore, and its proceedings

were reported hourly to Washington by telegraph.
[10] Morse offered to sell his patent to the government, but the

Postmaster General reported that the telegraph was merely an interesting

experiment and could never have a practical value, so the offer was not

accepted.

with overtrading and reckless speculation, brought on a business panic in

1857. Factories were closed, banks failed, thousands of men and women were

thrown out of employment, and for two years the country suffered from hard

times.
[12] It was not till 1883 that the rate was reduced to two cents. Before

the introduction of the postage stamp, letters were sent to the post

offices, and when the postage had been paid, they were marked "Paid" by

the officials. When the mails increased in volume in the large cities,

this way of doing business consumed so much time that the postmasters at

St. Louis and New York sold stamps to be affixed to letters as evidence

that the postage had been paid. The convenience was so great that public

opinion forced Congress to authorize the post office department to furnish

stamps and require the people to use them (1847).
[Illustration: MAP OF EASTERN UNITED STATES IN 1861.]

CHAPTER XXVIII

[Illustration: NEWSPAPER BULLETIN POSTED IN THE STREETS OF CHARLESTON.]

states, one by one, passed ordinances declaring that they left the Union.

First to go was South Carolina (December 20, 1860), and by February 1,

1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had

followed. On February 4 delegates from six of these seven states met at

Montgomery, Alabama, framed, a constitution, [1] established the

"Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson Davis [2] and

Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice President. Later they

were elected by the people.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Photograph of 1856.]
[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS.]
LINCOLN'S POLICY.--President Buchanan did nothing to prevent all this, and

such was the political situation when Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4,

1861). His views and his policy were clearly stated in his inaugural

address: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the

institution of slavery in the states where it exists.... No state on its

own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.... The Union is

unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care that the laws

of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states.... In doing this

there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it

be forced upon the national authority.... The power confided in me will be

used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the

government."

the United States government in the seven seceding states had been seized

by the Confederates. [3] But Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was still in

Union hands, and to this, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina,

supplies would be sent. Thereupon the Confederate army already gathered in

Charleston bombarded the fort till Major Anderson surrendered it (April

14, 1861). [4]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BATTERIES THAT BOMBARDED FORT SUMTER.]
THE WAR OPENS.--With the capture of Fort Sumter the war for the Union

opened in earnest. On April 15 Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand

militia to serve for three months. [5] Thereupon Virginia, North Carolina,

Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. The capital of

the Confederacy was soon moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia.
In the slave-holding states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri

the Union men outnumbered the secessionists and held these states in the

Union. When Virginia seceded, the western counties refused to leave the

Union, and in 1863 were admitted into the Union as the state of West

Virginia.
THE DIVIDING LINE.--The first call for troops was soon followed by a

second. The responses to both were so prompt that by July 1, 1861, more

than one hundred and eighty thousand Union soldiers were under arms. They

were stationed at various points along a line that stretched from Norfolk

in Virginia up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River to Harpers Ferry, and

then across western Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. South of this

dividing line were the Confederate armies. [6]
Geographically this line was cut into three sections: that in Virginia,

that in Kentucky, and that in Missouri,

men.]
BULL RUN.--General Winfield Scott was in command of the Union army. Under

him and in command of the troops about Washington was General McDowell,

who in July, 1861, was sent to drive back the Confederate line in

Virginia. Marching a few miles southwest, McDowell met General Beauregard

near Manassas, and on the field of Bull Run was beaten and his army put to

flight. [7] The battle taught the North that the war would not end in

three months; that an army of raw troops was no better than a mob; that

discipline was as necessary as patriotism. Thereafter men were enlisted

for three years or for the war.

of the Potomac, and spent the rest of 1861, and the early months of 1862,

in drilling his raw volunteers.
[Illustration: DRIVING BACK THE CONFEDERATE LINE IN THE WEST.]
CONFEDERATE LINE IN KENTUCKY DRIVEN BACK, 1862.--In Kentucky the

Confederate line stretched across the southern part of the state as shown

on the map. Against this General Thomas was sent in January, 1862. He

defeated the Confederates at Mill Springs near the eastern end. In

February General U. S. Grant and Flag-Officer Foote were sent to attack,

by land and water, Forts Donelson and Henry near the western end of the

line. Foote arrived first at Fort Henry on the Tennessee and captured it.

Thereupon Grant marched across country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland,

and after three days' sharp fighting forced General Buckner to surrender.

[9]
[Illustration: ULYSSES S. GRANT.]

abandoning Nashville and Columbus, the Confederates fell back toward

Corinth in Mississippi. The Union army followed in three parts.
1. One under General Curtis moved to southwestern Missouri and won a

battle at Pea Ridge (Arkansas).

Officer Foote in the capture of Island No. 10. [10] The fleet then passed

down the river and took Fort Pillow.
3. The third part under Grant took position very near Pittsburg Landing,

at Shiloh, [11] where it was attacked and driven back. But the next day,

being strongly reënforced, General Grant beat the Confederates, who

retreated to Corinth. General Halleck now took command, and having united

the second and third parts of the army, took Corinth and cut off Memphis,

which then surrendered to the fleet in the river.

General Bragg, starting from Chattanooga, rushed across Tennessee and

Kentucky toward Louisville, but after a hot fight with General Buell's

army at Perryville was forced to turn back, and went into winter quarters

at Murfreesboro. [12]
[Illustration: NORTHERN CAVALRYMAN. A war-time drawing published in 1869.]
There Bragg was attacked by the Union forces, now under General Rosecrans,

was beaten in one of the most bloody battles of the war (December 31,

1862, and January 2, 1863), and was forced to retreat further south.
NEW ORLEANS, 1862.--Both banks of the Mississippi as far south as the

Arkansas were by this time in Union hands. [13] South of that river on the

east bank of the Mississippi the Confederates still held Vicksburg and

Port Hudson (maps, pp. 353, 368). But New Orleans had been captured in

April, 1862, by a naval expedition under Farragut; [14] and the city was

occupied by a Union army under General Butler. [15]

preparation for the capture of Richmond, the Confederate capital.

an attack on Washington from the west.

Richmond, when the proper time came.

Monroe, and then march up the peninsula formed by the York and James

rivers to the neighborhood of Richmond, where McDowell was to join him.
Landing at the lower end of the peninsula early in April, McClellan moved

northward to Yorktown, and captured it after a long siege. McClellan then

hurried up the peninsula after the retreating enemy, and on the way fought

and won a battle at Williamsburg. [16]

been guarding Washington, would join McClellan, but General T. J. Jackson

[17] (Stonewall Jackson), who commanded the Confederate forces in the

Shenandoah, rushed down the valley and drove Banks across the Potomac into

Maryland. This success alarmed the authorities at Washington, and McDowell

was held in northern Virginia to protect the capital. Part of his troops,

with those of Banks and Fremont, were dispatched against Jackson; but

Jackson won several battles and made good his escape.

General McClellan moved westward to within eight or ten miles of Richmond;

but the Confederate General J. E. Johnston now attacked him at Fair Oaks.

A few weeks later General R. E. Lee, [18] who had succeeded Johnston in

command, was joined by Jackson; the Confederates then attacked McClellan

at Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill and forced him to retreat, fighting as

he went (June 26 to July 1), to Harrisons Landing on the James River.

There the Union army remained till August, when it went back by water to

the Potomac.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. LEE.]
LEE'S RAID; BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, 1862.--The departure of the Union army

from Harrisons Landing left General Lee free to do as he chose, and

seizing the opportunity he turned against the Union forces under General

Pope, whose army was drawn up between Cedar Mountain and Fredericksburg,

on the Rappahannock River. Stonewall Jackson first attacked General Banks

at the western end of the line at Cedar Mountain, and beat him. Jackson

and Lee then fell upon General Pope on the old field of Bull Run, beat

him, and forced him to fall back to Washington, where his army was united

with that of McClellan. [19] This done, Lee crossed the Potomac and

entered Maryland. McClellan attacked him at Antietam Creek (September,

1862), where a bloody battle was fought (sometimes called the battle of

Sharpsburg). Lee was beaten; but McClellan did not prevent his recrossing

the Potomac into Virginia. [20]
FREDERICKSBURG, 1862.--McClellan was now removed, and General A. E.

Burnside put in command. The Confederates meantime had taken position on

Marye's Heights on the south side of the Rappahannock, behind

Fredericksburg. The position was impregnable; but in December Burnside

attacked it and was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. The two armies then

went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock between them.

the question of slavery in the loyal states and in the territories had

been constantly before Congress. In April Congress abolished slavery in

the District of Columbia and set free the slaves there with compensation

to the owners. In June it abolished slavery in the territories and freed

the slaves there without compensation to the owners, and in July

authorized the seizure of slaves of persons then in rebellion.
In March Lincoln had asked Congress to help pay for the slaves in the

loyal slave states, if these states would abolish slavery; but neither

Congress nor the states adopted the plan. [21] Lincoln now determined, as

an act of war, to free the slaves in the Confederate states, and when the

armies of Lee and McClellan stood face to face at Antietam, he decided, if

Lee was beaten, to issue an emancipation proclamation. Lee was beaten, and

on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring that on

January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves" in any state or part of a

state then "in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,

thenceforth, and forever free." The Confederate states did not return to

their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was

issued, declaring the slaves within the Confederate lines to be free men.