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

that could raise revenue, pay its debts, regulate trade with foreign

nations and between the states, enforce its laws, and provide a uniform

currency, confidence returned. Men felt safe to engage in business, and as

a consequence trade and commerce revived, and money long unused was

brought out and invested. Banks were incorporated and their stock quickly

purchased. Manufacturing companies were organized and mills and factories

started; a score of canals were planned and the building of several was

begun; [2] turnpike companies were chartered; lotteries [3] were

authorized to raise money for all sorts of public improvements,--schools,

churches, wharves, factories, and bridges; and speculation in stock and

Western land became a rage.

first mill for working cotton yarn; [4] that Eli Terry began the

manufacture of clocks as a business; that sewing thread was first made in

our country (at Pawtucket, R.I.); that Jacob Perkins began to make nails

by machine; that the first broom was made from broom corn; that the first

carpet mill and the first cotton mill were started; that Eli Whitney

invented the cotton gin; and that the first steamboat went up and down the

Delaware.

were tar, pitch, lumber, rice, and indigo. But the destruction of the

indigo plants by insects year after year suggested the cultivation of some

other crop, and cotton was tried. To clean it of its seeds by hand was

slow and costly, and to remove the difficulty Eli Whitney of

Massachusetts, then a young man living in Georgia, invented a machine

called the cotton gin. [5] Then the cultivation of cotton became most

profitable, and the new industry spread rapidly in the South.

Washington.]

by steam was an old one. Several men had made such experiments in our

country before 1790. [6] But in that year John Fitch put a steamboat on

the Delaware and during four months ran it regularly from Philadelphia to

Trenton. He was ahead of his time and for lack of support was forced to

give up the enterprise.

Washington.]

change. Good times in the commercial states and the Indian war in the West

had done much to keep population out of the Northwest Territory from 1790

to 1795. But from the South population had moved steadily over the

mountains into the region south of the Ohio River. The new state of

Kentucky (admitted in 1792) grew rapidly in population.

territory, and out of this and the narrow strip ceded by South Carolina,

Congress (1790) made the "Territory of the United States south of the

river Ohio." But population came in such numbers that in 1796 the North

Carolina cession was admitted as the state of Tennessee.
In the far South, after Spain accepted the boundary of 31°, Congress

established the territory of Mississippi (1798), consisting of most of the

southern half of the present states of Mississippi and Alabama. Four years

later Georgia accepted her present boundaries, and the territory of

Mississippi was then enlarged, so as to include all the Western lands

ceded by South Carolina and Georgia (map, p. 242).

along the Great Lakes, opened that region to settlement, and in 1796 Moses

Cleveland led a New England colony across New York and on the shore of

Lake Erie laid out the town which now bears his name. Others followed, and

by 1800 there were thirty-two settlements in the Connecticut Reserve.
DETROIT.--The chief town of the Northwest was Detroit. Wayne, who saw it

in 1796, described it as a crowded mass of one- and two-story buildings

separated by streets so narrow that two wagons could scarcely pass. Around

the town was a stockade of high pickets with bastions and cannon at proper

distances, and within the stockade "a kind of citadel." The only entrances

were through two gates defended by blockhouses at either end of a street

along the river. Every night from sunset to sunrise the gates were shut,

and during this time no Indian was allowed to remain in the town.

brought so many people into the Northwest Territory that in 1800 the

western part was cut off and made the separate territory of Indiana. [7]

Not 6,000 white people then lived in all its vast area.

our country; of these, nearly 400,000 were in the five Western states and

territories--Kentucky, Tennessee, Northwest, Indiana, Mississippi.
PUBLIC LAND ON CREDIT.--The same year (1800) in which Congress created the

territory of Indiana, it changed the manner of selling the public lands.

Hitherto the buyer had been obliged to pay cash. After 1800 he might buy

on credit, paying one quarter annually. The effect of this was to bring

settlers into the West in such numbers that the state of Ohio was admitted

in 1803, and the territory of Michigan formed in 1805. [8]

memorable one in our history. When the French Minister of Foreign Affairs

heard that Spain (in 1795) had agreed that 31° north latitude should be

the dividing line between us and West Florida, he became alarmed. He

feared that our next step would be to acquire West Florida, and perhaps

the country west of the Mississippi. To prevent this he asked Spain to

give Louisiana back to France as France had given it to Spain in 1762 (see

page 143); France would then occupy and hold it forever. Spain refused;

but soon after Napoleon came into power the request was renewed in so

tempting a form that Spain yielded, and by a secret treaty returned

Louisiana to France in 1800.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES, 1805.]
THE MISSISSIPPI CLOSED TO OUR COMMERCE.--The treaty for a while was kept

secret; but when it became known that Napoleon was about to send an army

to take possession of Louisiana, a Spanish official at New Orleans took

away the "right of deposit" at that city and so prevented our citizens

from sending their produce out of the Mississippi River. This was a

violation of the treaty with Spain, and the settlers in the valley from

Pittsburg to Natchez demanded the instant seizure of New Orleans. Indeed,

an attempt was made in Congress to authorize the formation of an army of

fifty thousand men for this very purpose.
[Illustration: THE CABILDO, CITY HALL OF NEW ORLEANS.]
LOUISIANA PURCHASED, 1803.--But President Jefferson did not want war;

instead, he obtained the consent of Congress to offer $2,000,000 for West

Florida and New Orleans. Monroe was then sent to Paris to aid Livingston,

our minister, in making the purchase, and much to their surprise Napoleon

offered to sell all Louisiana. [9] After some hesitation the offer was

accepted. The price was $15,000,000, of which $11,250,000 was paid to

France and $3,750,000 to citizens of our country who had claims against

France. [10]

never been given definite bounds. But resting on the discoveries and

explorations of Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle, Louisiana was understood

to extend westward to the Rio Grande and the Rocky Mountains, and

northward to the sources of the rivers that flowed into the Mississippi.

Whether the purchase included West Florida was doubtful, but we claimed

it, so that our claim extended eastward to the Perdido River.
THE TERRITORY OF ORLEANS.--The country having been acquired, it had to be

governed. So much of it as lay west of the Mississippi and south of 33°

north latitude, with the city of New Orleans and the region round about

it, was made the new territory of Orleans. The rest of the purchase west

of the Mississippi was called the territory of Louisiana (map, p. 242).
LOUISIANA EXPLORED.--When the Louisiana purchase was made in 1803, most of

the country was an unknown land. But in 1804 an exploring party under

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark [11] went up the Missouri River from

St. Louis, spent the winter of 1804-5 in what is now North Dakota, crossed

the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1805, and went down the Columbia to

the Pacific. After passing a winter (1805-6) near the coast, the party

started eastward in the spring, recrossed the mountains, and in the autumn

reached St. Louis.

all sorts--French, Spanish, American, negro slaves, and Indians. The

houses were built on a bottom or terrace at the foot of a limestone cliff

and arranged along a few streets with French names. The chief occupation

of the people was the fur trade, and to them the reports brought back by

Lewis and Clark were so exciting that the St. Louis Fur Company was

organized to hunt and trap on the upper Missouri.
[Illustration: BRANDING IRON USED BY LEWIS.]
REFORMS IN THE STATES.--During the years which had passed since the

adoption of the Federal Constitution, great political reforms had been

made. The doctrine that all men are born politically equal was being put

into practice, and the states had begun to reform their old constitutions

or to adopt new ones, abolishing religious qualifications for

officeholders or voters, [12] and doing away with the property

qualifications formerly required of voters. [13] Some states had reformed

their laws for punishing crime, had reduced the number of crimes

punishable with death from fifteen or twenty to one or two, and had

abolished whipping, branding, cutting off the ears, and other cruel

punishments of colonial times. The right of man to life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness was more fully recognized than ever before.

power in 1801, it was pledged to make reforms "to put the ship of state,"

as Jefferson said, "on the Republican tack." About a third of the

important Federalist office-holders were accordingly removed from office,

the annual speech at the opening of Congress was abolished, and the

written message introduced--a custom followed ever since by our

Presidents. Internal taxes were repealed, the army was reduced, [14] the

cost of government lessened, and millions of dollars set aside annually

for the payment of the national debt.
That there might never again be such a contested election as that of 1800,

Congress submitted to the states an amendment to the Constitution

providing that the electors should vote for President and Vice President

on separate ballots, and not as theretofore on the same ballot. The states

promptly ratified, and as the Twelfth Amendment it went into force in 1804

in time for the election of that year.

President in 1804 were Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King; but the

Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and George Clinton, [15] were

elected by a very large majority.

candidate for the presidency in 1801 (p. 235) against Jefferson, had never

been forgiven by his party, and had ever since been a political outcast.

His friends in New York, however, nominated him for governor and tried to

get the support of the Federalists, but Hamilton sought to prevent this.

After Burr was defeated he challenged Hamilton to a duel (July, 1804) and

killed him.
BURR'S CONSPIRACY.--Fearing arrest for murder, Burr fled to Philadelphia

and applied to the British minister for British help in effecting "a

separation of the western part of the United States from that which lies

between the Atlantic and the mountains"; for he believed the people in

Orleans territory were eager to throw off American rule. After the end of

his term as Vice President (March 4, 1805) Burr went west and came back

with a scheme for conquering a region in the southwest, enlisted a few men

in his enterprise, assembled them at Blennerhassets Island in the Ohio

River (a few miles below Marietta), and (in December, 1806) started for

New Orleans. The boats with men and arms floated down the Ohio, entered

the Mississippi, and were going down that river when General James

Wilkinson, a fellow-conspirator, betrayed the scheme to Jefferson. Burr

was arrested and sent to Virginia, charged with levying war against the

United States, which was treason, and with setting on foot a military

expedition against the dominions of the king of Spain, which was a "high

misdemeanor." Of the charge of treason Burr was acquitted; that of high

misdemeanor was sent to a court in Ohio for trial, and came to naught.

[16]
[Illustration: BURR'S GRAVE AT PRINCETON, N. J.]

SUMMARY
1. With the establishment of government under the Constitution, confidence

was restored and prosperity began.

constructed, and money was gathered by lotteries for all sorts of public

improvements.
3. New industries were started, and the cotton gin and other machines were

invented.

our Western country, and the sale of public land on credit encouraged a

stream of emigrants into the West.
5. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio entered the Union, and the territories of

Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan were organized.

Mississippi River to Americans, led to the purchase of Louisiana in 1803.

Louisiana; and the width of the continent from St. Louis to the mouth of

the Columbia was explored by Lewis and Clark.
8. Many reforms were made in the state and national governments tending to

make them more democratic.

chosen Vice President. Having engaged in a plan for conquering a region in

the southwest (1806), Burr was arrested for treason, but was not

condemned.

FOOTNOTES

_History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II.

Santee in South Carolina.

The Continental Congress and many state legislatures used them to raise

revenue. Congress authorized one to secure money with which to improve

Washington city. Faneuil Hall in Boston and Independence Hall in

Philadelphia were aided by lotteries. Private lotteries had been forbidden

by many of the colonies. But the states continued to authorize lotteries

for public purposes till after 1830, when one by one they forbade all

lotteries.

drawing or model of any machine used in the manufacture of cotton goods.

No such machines were allowed in our country in colonial times. In 1787,

however, the Massachusetts legislature voted six tickets in the State Land

Lottery to two Scotchmen named Burr to help them build a spinning jenny.

About the same time £200 was given to a man named Somers to help him

construct a machine. The models thus built were put in the Statehouse at

Boston for anybody to copy who wished, and mills were soon started at

Worcester, Beverly, and Providence. But it was not till 1790, when Samuel

Slater came to America, that the great English machines were introduced.

Slater was familiar with them and made his from memory.
[5] Eli Whitney was born in 1765, and while still a lad showed great skill

in making and handling tools. After graduating from Yale College, he went

to reside in the family of General Greene, who had been given a plantation

by Georgia. While he was making the first cotton gin, planters came long

distances to see it, and before it was finished and patented some one

broke into the building where it was and stole it. In 1794 he received a

patent, but he was unable to enforce his rights. After a few years, South

Carolina bought his right for that state, and North Carolina levied a tax

on cotton gins for his benefit. But the sum he received was very small.
[6] James Rumsey, as early as 1785, had experimented with a steamboat on

the Potomac, and about the same time John Fitch built one in Pennsylvania,

and succeeded so well that in 1786 and in 1787 one of his boats made trial

trips on the Delaware. Later in 1787 Rumsey ran a steamboat on the Potomac

at the rate of four miles an hour.
[7] Not the Indiana of to-day, but the great region including what is now

Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and half of Michigan and Minnesota. The

settlements were Mackinaw, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Cahokia, Belle

Fontaine, L'Aigle, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Fort Massac, and

Vincennes. Notice that most of these names are of French origin. The

governor was William H. Harrison, afterward a President.

Indiana territory. When the census was taken in 1810, nearly 1,000,000

people were living west of the Appalachians.
[9] Read the scene between Napoleon and his brothers over the sale of

Louisiana, as told in Adams's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 33-39.

and the delivery to us on December 20. Our commissioners William C. C.

Claiborne and James Wilkinson met the French commissioner Laussat (lo-

sah') in the hall of the Cabildo (a building still in existence, p. 243),

presented their credentials, received the keys of the city, and listened

to Laussat as he proclaimed Louisiana the property of the United States.

This ceremony over, the commissioners stepped out on a balcony to witness

the transfer of flags. The tricolor which floated from the top of a staff

in the Place d'Armes (now Jackson Square) was drawn slowly down and the

stars and stripes as slowly raised till the two met midway, when both were

saluted by cannon. Our flag was then raised to the top of the pole, and

that of France lowered and placed in the hands of Laussat. One hundred

years later the anniversary was celebrated by repeating the same ceremony.

The Federalists bitterly opposed the purchase of Louisiana. Read

McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 629-631. For

descriptions of life in Louisiana, read Cable's _Creoles of Louisiana_,

_The Grandissimes_, and _Strange True Stories of Louisiana_.
[11] Both Lewis and Clark were Virginians and experienced Indian fighters.

On their return Lewis was made governor of the upper Louisiana territory,

later called Missouri territory; and died near Nashville in 1809. Clark

was likewise a governor of Missouri territory and later a Superintendent

of Indian Affairs; he died at St. Louis in 1838. He was a younger brother

of George Rogers Clark.

Delaware gave the suffrage to all free white male taxpayers. In Vermont

and Kentucky there had never been a property qualification.
[14] In 1802, however, there was founded the United States Military

Academy at West Point.

affairs, was chosen governor of New York in 1777, and was reflected every

election for eighteen years. He was the leader of the popular party in

that state, was twice chosen Vice President of the United States, and died

in that office in 1812.
[16] Burr's trial was conducted (in a circuit court) with rigid

impartiality by Chief-Justice John Marshall, one of the greatest judges

our country has known. As head of the Supreme Court for thirty-four years

(1801-35), he rendered many decisions of lasting influence.

CHAPTER XX
THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE

WAR WITH TRIPOLI.--In his first inaugural Jefferson announced a policy of

peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations; but unhappily he was not

able to carry it out. Under treaties with Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, we

had paid tribute or made presents to these powers, to prevent them from

attacking our ships. In 1800, however, when Adams sent the yearly tribute

to Algiers, the ruler of Tripoli demanded a large present, and when it did

not come, declared war. Expecting trouble with this nest of pirates,

Jefferson in 1801 sent over a fleet which was to blockade the coast of

Tripoli and that of any other Barbary power that might be at war with us.

But four years passed, and Tripoli was five times bombarded before terms

of peace were dictated by Captain Rodgers under the muzzles of his guns

(1805). [1]
GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE.--While our contest with Tripoli was dragging

along, France and Great Britain again went to war (1803), and our neutral

rights were again attacked. British cruisers captured many American ships

on the ground that they were carrying on trade between the ports of France

and her colonies.
Napoleon attacked British commerce by decrees which closed the ports of

Europe to British goods, declared a blockade of the British Isles, and

made subject to capture any neutral vessels that touched at a British

port. Great Britain replied with orders in council, blockading the ports

of France and her allies, and requiring all neutral vessels going to a

closed port to stop at some British port and pay tribute. [2]

decrees and orders meant the ruin of our commerce. Against such rules of

war our government protested, claiming the right of "free trade," or the